117  The Protestant Court of England:/ OR, THE/ Joyful Coronation of K. William III. and Q. Mary II [Pepys 2.275]

To the Tune of ‘The pudding’ (standard name: With a fading)

The purpose of this section is to provide brief notes on the melody followed by detailed evidence relating to  its career, paying particular attention to the ‘echoes’ (inter-song associations and connections) that may have been set up if it was nominated for the singing of more than one ballad. In the list presented in the ‘Songs and Summaries’ section below, we have endeavoured to include as many of the black-letter ballads that used the tune as possible, under any of its variant names. Titles from our chart of best-sellers are presented in bold type (these are also in colour when there is a link to the relevant ballad page on the website). It should be noted that it is extremely difficult to date many ballads precisely and the chronological order in which the songs are listed is therefore very approximate (we have drawn on previous attempts to date the ballads, making adjustments when additional evidence can be brought into play).  In most cases, we list the earliest surviving edition of a ballad, though in many instances there may have been earlier versions, now lost.

Versions and variations

This tune was known variously as ‘With a fading/fadding’, ‘[The vertue of] the pudding’ and ‘The/An Orange’. Notation can be found on an engraved song-sheet entitled A New Song of an Orange, published in 1688 (EBBA 34873) see Publishing History. The text of this song is closely related to that of THE Rare Vertue of an Orange, featured on this website, and we have used this version of the tune for our recording of The Protestant Court. Other versions of the tune are in eighteenth-century editions of Wit and Mirth. These are similar but not identical to the tune from the song-sheet.

Echoes (an overview)

This lively tune was connected by ballad-makers and hence by audiences to two principal themes, and the relationships between them are interesting. From the 1630s, and perhaps before, the melody was known as either ‘With a fading’ or ‘With a pudding’ (with variations in both cases). At this stage, it was attached primarily to songs about romance and/or sex (see, for example, The Passionate Damsel). Both tune-titles had bawdy connotations; puddings and penises were clearly conflated, for example, in the song that generated the second name (see ‘Postscript', below).

Ballads of this sort continued to appear throughout the century, and the tune’s sexual overtones also made it suitable for several songs that featured gender-jests of one sort or another (maidens dressing up as men and ‘pressing’ cowardly tailors into the navy; auctions of unmarried women or eligible men; and fights between fish-selling women who lusted after the same man).

This was all unsurprising, but the tune took a sudden and sharp turn when, in 1688-89, several ballads appeared that nominated it for songs welcoming William of Orange as the saviour of Protestant England. The decision to use this particular melody, with its bawdy associations, must have been deliberate, and it seems possible that the bold move was part of an effort to render the somewhat cold Dutch invader hot and sexy. The choice of tune may also have enabled those who regarded William with suspicion to hum along with a knowing smirk. Of course, we cannot be sure, but something significant was clearly going on, and the songs were very successful (particularly THE Rare Vertue of an Orange and The Protestant Court of England). This is suggested particularly by the fact that a new title for the tune, ‘The Orange’, rapidly replaced the older names almost completely.

In contemplating all these songs from a perspective in the twenty-first century, we perhaps sense the existence of some big joke that we do not quite get. It may even be relevant that the musical phrase with which this tune begins is almost identical to the corresponding line in another melody, ‘88’, which was itself strongly associated with memories of the Spanish Armada exactly one hundred years before.

Most of the ballads that named the tune were in one or other of these categories - titilating or Williamite - though it was also used on several late-seventeenth ballads that either criticised or defended the exponents of various trades (colliers, brewers and so on). The texts of these were more serious than most of those listed below, and it seems possible that the ballad-makers were primarily attempting to cash in on the suddenly enhanced popularity of the tune.

Ballads to this tune are rich in intertextual echoes, and there is space to mention only a few of these here. In musical terms, the most distinctive feature of the tune is its open-ended final phrase, and this was used for a whole series of short textual refrains, each with the potential to spark automatic memories of others: ‘with kisses’, ‘For a husband’, ‘by an orange’, ‘of a Jesuit’, ‘ye bold Strumpet’, and so on.

Some songs were essentially re-workings of earlier productions, and the young women who longed desperately ‘For a husband’ made two appearances: The Passionate Damsel and THE Handsome Maid of Milkstreet share not only their refrain, but they both kick off with ‘I am a young maid’ and they both rhyme ‘Dick’ with ‘sick’.

An ANSWER to the MAIDENS Frollick is so clearly related to the second part of The Maidens Frolicksome Undertaking that there can be no doubt that one writer drew heavily on the efforts of another, merely moving the phrases around in order to deflect suspicion (the two ballads were issued by rival groups of publishers).

Other echoes were more modest. In the first verse of The Country-Mans Kalendar, for example, the line, ‘Which I'de have ye buy, good People, for why,’ seems to recall the opening of THE Rare Vertue of an Orange, one of our hit songs: ‘Good People come buy/ The fruit that I cry’. As ever, it is difficult to draw the lines between copying, cross-referencing and coincidence.

[See 'Postscript', below, for additional notes on this melody].

Songs and Summaries

The merry Forrester... It goes unto the tune of: With a fadding (H. Gosson, 1635?).  Pepys 1.224-25; EBBA 20101.  Gender – femininity, masculinity, sex; History – romance, ancient/mythological; Humour – bawdry; Society – rich/poor. This song celebrates the value of kissing in all epochs and on all social levels.

The Passionate Damsel: OR, THE True Miss of a MAN... To the Tune of, The Vertue of the Pudding (P. Brooksby, 1685-88). Crawford 561; EBBA 32995. Gender – courtship, femininity, sex, singles; Emotions – longing, frustration, anxiety, sorrow; Bodies – looks/physique; Recreation – food; Employment – female; Family – pregnancy/childbirth. A young woman desperately craves a husband, observing the happiness of other young couples and regretting that her relationships so far have broken down.

THE Rare Vertue of an Orange; OR, Popery purged and expelled out of the Nation... To the Tune of, The Pudding (A. B., 1688). Pepys 2.259; EBBA 20872. Politics – celebration, controversy, domestic, Royalist, satire,obedience, foreign affairs; Humour – satire, verbal; Royalty – praise; Religion – Catholic/Protestant; Recreation - food; Bodies – health/sickness, nourishment; Environment – flowers/trees; Emotions – joy, suspicion. An anti-Catholic ballad that praises William III by advertising the health-benefits associated with oranges, in the style of a fruit-seller.

THE FAMOUS ORANGE: Or, an Excellent Antidote against Romish Poison... Tune of the Pudding (A. Milbourn, 1689).  Pepys 2.260; EBBA 20873.  Politics – celebration, domestic, foreign affairs, Royalist; Royalty – criticism, praise; Religion – Catholicism/Protestantism; Emotions – joy; Humour – mockery.  This rejoices at the arrival of William of Orange and presents him as a glorious saviour of all that is good.

The Protestant Court of England: OR, THE Joyful Coronation of K. William III. and Q. Mary II... The Tune of, The Pudding (A. Milbourn, 1689). Pepys 2.275; EBBA 20889. Politics – celebration, domestic, foreign affairs, Royalist, plots; Royalty – praise; Religion – Catholic/Protestant, clergy; Humour – mockery, verbal; Places – nationalities, European; Emotions – scorn, joy, patriotism. This blames the Jesuits for leading King James astray and celebrates the defeat of all their schemes by the new Anglo-Dutch alliance led by William and Mary.

The Maidens Frolicksome Undertaking To Press Fourteen Taylors... To the Tune of, An Orange (W. Thackeray, J. Millet, and A. Milbourn, 1689-92). Pepys 4.277; EBBA 21938. Gender – femininity, cross-dressing, masculinity; Violence – interpersonal; Employment – crafts/trades, sailors/soldiers; Humour – deceit/disguise, extreme situations/surprises, mockery; Politics – domestic, foreign affairs; Crime – robbery/theft; Morality – social/economic, romantic/sexual; Emotions – excitement, fear; Bodies – clothing; Places – English, nationalities; Recreation – alcohol; News – sensational. In the first part, a group of young women dress as sailors and round up London’s tailors for the navy; in the second, the feeble tailors plot their revenge, but all they can think of is to steal even more cloth from their female customers.

A New-Years-GIFT FOR Covetous COLLIERS. To the Tune of, The Orange (J. Millet, 1689-92?). Pepys 4.323; EBBA 21986. Employment – crafts/trades; Morality – social/economic; Economy – prices/wages, hardship/prosperity; Politics – parliament, controversy, domestic; Society – rich/poor; Emotions – anger, greed; Recreation – music, public festivity. A fierce critique of colliers for jacking up their prices, and of Parliament for passing legislation that has made this possible.

THE Bloody Battle at Billingsgate, Beginning with a Scolding between two young Fish-women, Doll and Kate. To the Tune of, The ORANGE (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1689-96?). Pepys 4.289; EBBA 21951.  Emotions – anger, suspicion, jealousy; Gender – adultery/cuckoldry, sex, marriage, femininity; Morality – romantic/sexual; Violence – interpersonal. Places – English; Bodies – clothing; Recreation – alcohol; Society – neighbours. Dolly accuses Kate of sleeping with her husband and a fierce altercation ensues before onlookers effect an improbable reconciliation in the last verse.

The Distressed Damsels: OR, A dolefull Ditty of a sorrowfull Assembly of young Maidens that were met together near Thames-street... To the Tune of an Orange (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1689-96?).  Pepys 4.64; EBBA 21730.  Gender – courtship; Emotion – anxiety, sorrow; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Politics – foreign affairs. The maidens of London lament the pressing of many young men into military service, and they complain that the marriage market has been severely compromised by a sudden shift in the gender balance.

THE Handsome Maid of Milkstreet... To the Tune of an Orange (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1689-96?).  Pepys 3.289; EBBA 21304.  Gender – courtship, femininity; Emotions – longing, anxiety, frustration; Bodies – clothing, physique/looks; Recreation – fashions; Employment – apprenticeship/service. A young woman is desperate for a husband and advertises her charms and her wealth in an effort to find one.

The Jolly PORTERS: OR, The Merry Lads of LONDON... To the Tune of an Orange (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1689-96?).  Pepys 4.292; EBBA 21954.  Employment – crafts/trades; Recreation – alcohol, good fellowship; Gender – masculinity; Economy – prices/wages; Emotions – joy; Politics – general. One porter advises the rest that their vocation properly involves drinking strong beer, spending their money freely, socialising and ignoring all thoughts of tomorrow.

The Maidens Frollick: OR, / A brief Relation how Six Lusty Lasses has Prest full Fourteen Taylors on the backside of St. Clements, and the other adjacent Places... To the Tune of an Orange (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1689-96).  Roxburghe 2.331; EBBA 30779. Employment – crafts/trades, sailors/soldiers; Gender – cross-dressing, femininity, masculinity; Humour – deceit/disguise, extreme situations/surprises, mockery; Violence – interpersonal; Politics – foreign affairs, domestic, Royalism; Emotions –fear, patriotism; Bodies – clothing; Places – English, nationalities; Society – urban life. Just for fun, a group of young women dress up as sailors and wander around London, ‘pressing’ all the cowardly tailors they can find into military service.

An ANSWER to the MAIDENS Frollick: OR, THE Taylors Resolution to be Reveng’d of these Petticoat Press-Masters... To the Tune of, An Orange (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Black [Back], 1689-96). Pepys 4.66; EBBA 21732. Gender – masculinity, femininity, cross-dressing; Humour – deceit/disguise, mockery, extreme situations/surprises; Employment – crafts/trades, sailors/soldiers; Emotions – anger, shame; Politics – domestic, foreign affairs; Bodies – clothing; Crime – robbery/theft; Recreation – alcohol; Places – English, nationalities Violence – interpersonal. In this song, the London tailors – humiliated in The Maidens Frollic ­– plan their revenge, but the best that they can come up with is to be even more dishonest in their business practices.

The Brewers Benefit, Who to pay the New Excise, pinches the poor of their Measure; making others pay for what was laid upon themselves... To the Tune of, An Orange (J. Millet, 1690).  Pepys 4.338; EBBA 22001.  Employment – crafts/trades, female/male; Economy – hardship/ prosperity, money; Emotions – anger; Morality – social/economic; Recreation – alcohol.  An attack upon brewers for cutting their measures in order to transfer the costs of the excise onto their poor customers.

The Bountifull Brewers: Who pay the King’s Taxes out of the Poor Mens Purses... To the Tune of An Orange (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1690). Pepys 4.335; EBBA 21998. Employment – crafts/trades, female/male; Economy – hardship/ prosperity, money; Emotions – anger; Morality – social/economic; Politics – parliament, foreign affairs; Recreation – alcohol. This criticises London’s brewers for transferring the costs of Parliament’s well-intentioned taxation – necessary to finance war – from themselves to the poor.

The Brewers Answer; Or, Their Vindication, against those Aspersions that hath been put upon them concerning the Double Excise...To the Tune of, The Orange (J. Millet, 1690?).  Pepys 4.337; EBBA 22000.  Employment – crafts/trades; Economy – taxation, hardship, prices/wages; Morality – social/economic; Politics – controversy, foreign affairs; Recreation – alcohol; Emotions – anxiety. The brewers explain why they are not to blame for the price of ale, appealing to people to bear in mind the costs that attend their business.

Poor TEAGUE in Distress: OR, The French and Irish Army Routed... To the Tune of, The ORANGE (Charles Bates, 1690). Pepys 2.304; EBBA 20921. Politics – celebration, foreign affairs; Emotions – anger, fear; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Gender – masculinity; Humour – verbal, mockery; Places – Irish, nationalities; Violence – between states. An Irishman blames the French and his own leaders for the recent military humiliation at the hands of the English, and he decides that submitting to King William is the best policy.

The Country-Mans Kalendar, Or, His Astrological-Predictions for the ensuing Year 1692... the Tune of An Orange (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1691-92). Pepys 4.357; EBBA 22021. Bodies – clothing; Gender – courtship, marriage, sex; Humour – satire; Environment –birds, seasons,weather, animals; Recreation – food, fairs/festivals. A spoof almanac that predicts a range of happenings that are all entirely predictable (‘And Christmas will be in December this Year’).

A Market for young Men: OR, A Publick Sale in sundry Places in and about London... To the Tune of, An Orange, &c (E. Tracy, 1695-1703?). Pepys 4.234; EBBA 21894. Bodies – looks/physique; Humour – bawdry, satire; Economy – trade, money, prices; Gender – femininity, masculinity, courtship; Places – English. This advertises a forthcoming sale of single women of various shapes, ages and types, and the ballad urges young men to gather their ‘Clip’d money’ (coins that have been trimmed by criminals).

Postscript

This melody was also called for repeatedly on white-letter ballads of the period, most of which follow one or other of the main thematic trends sketched above. See, for example, THE COMPLAINT OF All She-Traders (1689-1700?) and ENGLANDS Scorne; OR The Sham INVASION (1692).

Similarly, the melody was called for in song-books of the period. Musical notation is provided with ‘Ballad of the Courtier and the Country Clown’ in Wit and Mirth (1719-20), for example, and this song had also appeared much earlier in Sportive Wit (1656), though without a nominated tune. In both cases, the refrain ‘With a fadding’ establishes a strong link with the melody.

And tune titles involving the term ‘pudding’ seem to derive from a bawdy song about youthful female lust that appears in the 1682 edition of Wit and mirth (1682) and then later, with the music, in the edition of 1719-20 (this song includes the memorable lines, ‘How kindly and sweetly the Marrow flew out/ Of his Pudding‘).

Interestingly, a precedent for the attachment of the tune to ballads expressing political loyalism had been set in 1671 when Thomas Jordan’s pageant for the Lord Mayor of London included a dinner-time song, set to ‘With a Fadding’. This reviewed the horrors of the Civil War and celebrated the return of the House of Stuart. According to Jordan’s published version, the song was well-received by the diners, having been performed by ‘a person with a good Voice, in good Humour, and audible utterance (the better to provoke digestion)’.

Christopher Marsh

References

Thomas Jordan, London Triumphant (1672), pp. 13-15.

Claude M. Simpson, The British broadside ballad and its music (New Brunswick, 1966), pp. 792-95.

Sportive Wit (1656), pp. 58-59.

Wit and mirth (1682), pp. 18-20.

Wit and mirth (1719-20), vol. 3, p. 72-74, and vol. 4, pp. 99-100.

Standard woodcut name: William and Mary

The purpose of this section is to provide evidence relating to the career of the image under discussion, paying particular attention to the ‘reflections’ (inter-song associations and connections) that may have been set up if it was chosen to illustrate more than one ballad. The list given below includes all ballads from the Pepys and Roxburghe collections that feature this woodcut or a close variant (these are the two largest collections, including approximately 3300 sheets, in total). References to ballads from other collections occur only when the featured edition of the song under consideration here (or the featured edition of another song from our list) comes from such a source. Ballads from our chart of best-sellers are presented in bold type, and they also appear in colour where there is a link to another song in the database. Please note, however, that the editions of hit songs listed below are not necessarily those for which digital images are presented on this website. Cross-references to other examples of our featured woodcuts are also presented in bold. It is extremely difficult to date many ballads precisely and the chronological order in which the songs are listed is therefore very approximate (we have drawn on previous attempts to date the ballads, making adjustments when additional evidence can be brought into play).

Reflections (an overview)

This woodcut appears to have been specially commissioned in 1689 for ballads marking the flight of King James and the arrival of William and Mary. The new monarchs, labelled clearly as ‘QM’ and ‘KW’, are appropriately prominent on The Protestant Court but they also appeared on a several other ballads, all of which celebrated the defeat of tyranny and of ‘popery’. All surviving versions appear to have been produced from the same woodblock.

Perhaps the reassuringly English Yeomen of the Guard who stand beside the monarchs on The Protestant Court were supposed to ease concerns over William’s foreign roots. The manner in which William and Mary turn slightly towards one another was similarly intended, for Mary was at least English by birth and, like the Yeomen, she provided a sense of continuity. It is unclear whether any of this worked, but we should note that the woodcut, produced at considerable expense, does not seem to have been regularly re-used on ballads issued in subsequent years.

Songs and summaries:

The Protestant Court of England: OR, THE Joyful Coronation of K. William III. and Q. Mary II (A. Milbourn, 1689). Pepys 2.275; EBBA 20889. Politics – celebration, domestic, foreign affairs, Royalist, plots; Royalty – praise; Religion – Catholic/Protestant, clergy; Humour – mockery, verbal; Places – nationalities, European; Emotions – scorn, joy, patriotism. This blames the Jesuits for leading King James astray and celebrates the defeat of all their schemes by the new Anglo-Dutch alliance led by William and Mary (picture placement: they stand beneath the title, and there are no other woodcuts).

ENGLANDS Extasie: OR, The Nations Joy for the Happy Coronation of King William, and His Royal Consort Queen Mary (J. Bissel, 1689).  Pepys 2.254; EBBA 20867.  Politics – celebration, domestic, Royalist; Religion – Catholic/Protestant, Christ/God, heroism, church, clergy, prayer; Royalty – praise; Emotions – joy, patriotism.  This celebrates the coronation of the new monarchs, highlighting in particular their role in freeing the nation from ‘tyranny’ and defeating ‘popery’ (picture placement: it appears beneath the title and there are no other woodcuts).

ENGLANDS Happiness In the Crowning of WILLIAM and MARY, King and Queen of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland (A. Milbourn, 1689).  Pepys 2.267; EBBA 20880.  Politics – celebration, domestic, Royalist; Religion – Catholic/Protestant, God/Christ, heroism, church, clergy, prayer; Royalty – praise; Emotion – joy, patriotism; Recreation – public festitivity.  This celebrates the coronation of William and Mary, saviours of England and Protestantism (picture placement: it appears beneath the title).

Englands Holiday, OR, The Nations Joy for the happy Coronation of, King WILLIAM, and his Royal Consort Queen MARY (J. Conyers, 1689).  Pepys 5.35; EBBA 22252.  Politics – celebration, domestic, Royalist, court; Recreation – public celebration; Religion – Catholic/Protestant, Christ/God, prayer; Royalty – praise; Emotions – joy, patriotism. This calls for public celebration of the coronation, and praises William and Mary for their excellence on all fronts (picture placement: it appears beneath the title, and there are no other woodcuts).

Christopher Marsh