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FAMOUS SONGS
The wild Lilliburlero chorus comes in at the end of each verse as indicated in the first. It would be curious to know what language Lord Wharton thought he was imitating when he wrote this gibberish. It achieved its aim, anyhow, says a chronicler of the period. " A late Viceroy, who has so often boasted himself upon his talent for mischief, invention and lying, and for making a certain Lilliburlero song; with which, if you will believe himself, he sung a de-luded prince out of three kingdoms." Through the storm of this doggerel as an expression of popular dislike and distrust fell the Stuart dy-nasty notwithstanding their strenuous efforts to suppress printer's ink and frantic wit. But poli-tically speaking, a mere song has proved the ruin of empires and the slaughter of opposing millions time and again. And it can only be accounted for by the fact that the populace and the army will feed on anything that tickles their humour and fires their imagination.
Thenceforward " Lilliburlero" became a party tune in Ireland, "especially after ' Dublin's de-liverance ; or the Surrender of Drogheda,' and ' Undaunted Londonderry,' " appropriate words being written to the jingle and sung throughout the land. It has now fallen into disuse. Shad-well and Vanbrugh and other dramatists fre-16 241 |
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