I
THE LOVING BALLAD OF LORD BATEMAN
-&-J
J .N
Dat scheppende kunstenaars niet altijd bezig zijn werk van de bovenste plank te
produceren, zeker niet als ze met elkaar "aan het dollen zijn" blijkt wel uit de
onderstaande ballade. De twee hiervoor besproken artistieke vrienden en Dickens zijn
verantwoordelijk voor dit werkje dat vrij van rechten op het internet te vinden is.
By Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray
Illustrated by George Cruikshank
London 1839
Warning to the Public
CONCERNING
THE LOVING BALLAD OF LORD BATEMAN.
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK?
The Loving Ballad Of Lord Bateman.
v
'jlj s s
1
Winter 2005 no. 55
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In some collection of old English Ballads there is an
ancient ditty which I am told bears some remote and
distant resemblance to the following Epic Poem. I beg
to quote the emphatic language of my estimable
friend (if he will allow me to call him so), the Black
Bear in Piccadilly, and to assure all to whom these
presents may come, thatam the original." This
affecting legend is given in the following pages
precisely as I have frequently heard it sung on
Saturday nights, outside a house of general
refreshment (familiarly termed a wine vaults) at
Battle-bridge. The singer is a young gentleman who
can scarcely have numbered nineteen summers, and
who before his last visit to the treadmill, where he
was erroneously incarcerated for six months as a
vagrant (being unfortunately mistaken for another
gentleman), had a very melodious and plaintive tone
of voice, which, though it is now somewhat impaired
by gruel and such a getting up stairs for so long a
period, I hope shortly to find restored. I have taken
down the words from his own mouth at different
periods, and have been careful to preserve his
pronunciation, together with the air to which he
does so much justice. Of his execution of it, however,
and the intense melancholy which he communicates
to such passages of the song as are most susceptible
of such an expression, I am unfortunately unable to
convey to the reader an adequate idea, though I may
hint that the effect seems to me to be in part
produced by the long and mournful drawl on the last
two or three words of each verse.
I had intended to have dedicated my imperfect
illustrations of this beautiful Romance to the young
gentleman in question. As I cannot find, however,
that he is known among his friends by any other
name than "The Tripe-skewer," which I cannot but
consider as a _soubriquetor nick-name; and as I
feel that it would be neither respectful nor proper to
address him publicly by that title, I have been
compelled to forego the pleasure. If this should meet
his eye, will he pardon my humble attempt to
embellish with the pencil the sweet ideas to which he
gives such feeling utterance? And will he believe me
to remain his devoted admirer,
RS.-The above is not my writing, nor the notes
either, nor am I on familiar terms (but quite the
contrary) with the Black Bear. Nevertheless I admit
the accuracy of the statement relative to the public
singer whose name is unknown, and concur
generally in the sentiments above expressed
relative to him.
(signature: George Cruikshank)
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6
The Dutch Dickensian Volume XXV
