William Grismond's Downfal- 1650 Broadside Child A
[I've called this text Child A since it is the earliest extant text. The title Child gives to this broadside in his narrative to 57 is "William Grismond's Downfal" (sic). The text titled, The Downfall of William Grismond, along with extensive notes for the broadside was reprinted in The Roxburghe Ballads, Volume 8 by William Chappell, Ballad Society 1897. ]
The Downfall Of William Grismond
Hesperus.—" Dead art thou, Floribel? . . . All cold and still.
Her very tresses stiffen in the air.
Look, what a face: had our first mother worn
But half such beauty, when the Serpent came,
His heart, all malice, would have turned to love.
No hand but this, which I do think was once
Cain the arch-murderer's, could have acted it.
And I must hide these sweets, not in my bosom,
In the foul earth. She shudders at my grasp;
Just so she laid her head across my bosom
When first—oh, villain! Which way lies the grave?"
— The Bride's Tragedy, act iii. sc. 3.
HISTORY repeats itself, we are told. It is not strange that this narrative of a murder done by a heartless seducer on the humble victim of his sensual passion, when he had become weary of her and was tempted towards a richer marriage with the consent of his parents, should so closely resemble the modern repetition of it, in real life, which afforded subject-matter for the beautiful poetic drama entitled 'The Bride's Tragedy? wherewith Thomas Lovell Beddoes, a minor, and undergraduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1822, made a reputation for himself, securing without effort a just laudation in vol. xxxviii. of the Edinburgh Review (No. 75, in .February, 1823, the critique written by Bryan Waller Proctor, better known to the outside world as 1 Barry Cornwall' the songster). Beddoes wrote 'Death's Jest-Book; or, The FooVs Tragedy,' before 1850. He relates the foundation of his earlier drama (not intended for the stage) in the Dedication, signed :—Tuomas Lovell Beddoes.
"The following scenes were founded upon facts which occurred at Oxford, and are well detailed and illustrated by an interesting ballad in a little volume of Poems, lately published at Oxford, entitled The Midland Minstrel, by Mr. Gillet, and may thus be succinctly narrated: [Thomas Gillet, Oxford, 1822 ]
"The Manciple of one of the Colleges early in the last century had a very beautiful daughter, who was privately married to a student without the knowledge of the parents on either side.
During the Long Vacation subsequent to this union tho husband was introduced to a voung lady, who was at the same time proposed as his bride: absence, the fear of his father's displeasure, the presence of a lovely object, and, most likely, a natural fickleness of disposition, overcame any regard he may have cherished for his ill-fated wife, and finally he became deeply enamoured of her unconscious rival. In the contest of duties and desires, which was the consequence of this passion, the worst part of man prevailed, and he formed and executed a design almost unparalleled in the annals of crime.
"His second nuptials were at hand when he returned to Oxford, and to her who was now an obstacle to his happiness. Late at night he prevailed upon his victim to accompany him to a lone spot in the Divinity Walk, and there murdered and buried her. The wretch escaped detection, and the horrid deed remained unknown till he confessed it on his death-bed. The remains of the unfortunate frirl were dug up in the place described, and the Divinity Walk was deserted and demolished as haunted ground. Such are the outlines of a Minor's Tragedy."
Of the haunting beauty of this poem, rich in the charm of the earlier drama which held unchallenged the highest place in our English literature during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., we may not linger. A glowing promise of excellence was given by this youth, Beddoes; one never fully redeemed, the failure being caused by no degeneracy or lack of power, but by some untoward events having early saddened his life and thwarted his best hopes, so that in an erratic pursuit of science in Continental travel lie well-nigh forsook the more imaginative studies he had loved, and only by fragmentary or scattered verses, at long intervals, revealed to a few friends of what his genius was still capable. It was almost as though in him his own Hesperus had survived, full of remorse and sorrow, a blighted life, too quickly ending, 1849, not without suspicion of death having been hastened by his own impatience.
"And where poor Lucy's corse was laid,
'Tis said a ghost is known to stalk;
Till College beau and city maid
Have flown their wonted favourite walk."
—Lucy, in Thomas Gillet's Midland Minstrel, 1822.
***Probably suggested by the same event is the long narrative entitled 'The Oxfordshire Tragedy; or, the Virgin'I Advice,' an Aldermary Church-yard Garland (Hoxburghe Collection, III. 750), in Two Parts. It begins thus:—
"Young Virgins fair, of beauty bright, and you that are of Cupid's fold,
TJnto my tragedy give ear, for 'tis as true as e'er was told:
In Oxfordshire a lady fair, the daughter of a worthy Knight,
A gentleman that lived near was euamour'd of this beauty bright.
Mosanna was this maiden's name, the flower of fair Oxfordshire;
This gentleman a-courting came, begging of her to be his dear.
Her kind heart to love iuclin'd, young Cupid bending of his bow,
And left a fatal dart behind, that prov'd her fatal overthrow.
Within a pleasant grove they walk'd, and valleys where the lamhs did play;
Sweet pleasaut tales of love they talk'd, for to pass the long Summer's day."
Finding her unwilling to yield, he draws his sword and threatens to kill himself. She is terrified and swoons at his feet.
"This Innocent he did betray to shame, full sore against her chaste desire;
True love is a celestial flame, but flames of lust a raging fire.
But when her senses did revive, he many vows and oaths did make,
That he'd for ever true remain, and her"company not forsake."
He betrays her doubly, for be speedily deserts her, and insults her when she claims his help to shelter her from coming exposure. He fears that punishment may come on him, when her parents learn the truth. He watches her until he finds that she habitually retires to a private bower; he there digs her grave, waiting near the place in hiding until she comes and sees it. She reads her doom, and is willing to be slain, but denounces his cruelty and foretells that" the heavens bring to light this crime." He murders her, and buries the body. She is believed to have been stolen away, but as time wears on a rose-bush grows from her grave, and excites curiosity and wonder. He, too, comes to view the marvel, and is betrayed by his own incautious words (like the murderers in Schiller's 'Cranes of lbycus, and Kichard Houseman in the true story of Eugene Aram).
"The leaves faded from off the bush, the rose within his hand did die;
He said, 'Eosanna's blood, [it is !] which springs up from her fair body.'
Many people that were there took notice of what he did say,
And said he had a murder done; and the tiuth he told without delay.
They dug, and found the body there, the first of June, it is well known;
Before a Magistrate he went, and in a prison he doth moan,
'Till he punishment receives: no doubt but he will have his due.
Young men, by this a warning take: keep your vows whate'er you do.
For God doth find out many ways such heinous crimes to bring to light;
For murder it is a crying sin, and hateful in His blessed sight."
Finis.
Printed in Aldermary Cburch-yard, London.
There is another ' Oxfordshire Tragedy,' with sub-title of, 'The Death of Four Lovers.' Printed and sold in Sow Church-yard, London. 'I o the tune of, As our King lay mining on his bed (given ill Willm. Chappell's National English Airs, p. 123, music in vol. ii. p. 78); in Lindesiana Collection, No. 865, and elsewhere. It begins, " Near Woodstock town in Oxfordshire, As I walked forth to take the air, To view the fields and meadows round, Methought I heard a mournful sound." In Four Parts, being more of Garland verse than ballad proper. See Popular Music, p. 191, where two Parts are given. It is quite distinct in subject from our Roxburghe 'Oxfordshire Tragedy.' Similar, in the chief incident is the 'Story of a Criminal: Martin Faber.' Wo read it, fifty-tour years ago, in 'The Somancist and Novelists' Library, No. 26, 1839. It was written by the author of ' The Yamassee' and of * Palaye the Goth,' and displayed considerable power and skill. It resembled the story of the Oxford student, which had been already revived by Thomas Lovell Beddoes in 1822; but it made the murderer betray himself by an excess of cunning, after being goaded to half reveal his secret to a friend, and ultimately perish miserably in prison. There were elements of poetry in this ' Story of a Criminal,' as also in Gerard Griffin's Irish talo of 'The Collegians,' said to be a true tale, dramatized later by Dion Boucicault as 'The Colleen Bawn.' But the Koxb. ballad of the Downfall of William Grismond shows nothing of poetry or pathos, beyond the darkness of brutal sin, as in the ordinary depravity of " The Newgate Calendar' of crime and retribulion It was a fit record of an incident, the outcome of the first year after the murder and ' martyrdom' of King Charles I. Grismond had been a Cromwellian.
His futile attempt to escape by 6ea, and his arousing suspicion that a murderer is on the board ship (stanzas 12, 13, p. 72), find re-embodiment in 'The Gosport Tragedy ' of our final Nautical Group. (Itoxb. Coll., III. 510.)
Another lover, "Sir William, a knight of six thousand a year," betrays "fair Susan of Somersetshire," without directly murdering her afterwards, although he no less causes her death. The ballad of this wronged Lady belongs to 1676, and is given a little later in the samo Group.
Additional Note on this ballad of William Grismond, belonging to p. 71. [In Black-letter. Three woodcuts: 1st, the murder of a little Girl in a Wood; 2nd, a man, hanging; 3rd, the Ship, vol. vii. p. 524. The second exemplar, Roxb. Coll., III. 606, is a modern reprint, bearing the colophon ' Newcastle, Printed and sold by John White, at his House at the Head of the Painter, Heugh.' Euing's bears the name of W. Gilberlson before that of Wright; after those of Coles and Vert. Bagford, p. for W. Onlty. Original date, 165?.]
[Roxburghe Coll., III. 33, and 606; Bagford, II. 47, 70; Rawlinson, 180; Euing, 61; Wood, 401; Douce, I. 57 vo.; Jersey, II. 186 = Lindes., 914.]
The Downfall Of William Grismond;
Or,
A Lamentable Murther by Him committed at Lainterdine, in the Couty of Hereford, the 12th of March, 1650, with his woful Lamentation.
The Tune Is, Where is my Love? etc.
O Come, you wilful young men, and hear what I shall tell;
My name is William Grismond, at Lainterdine did dwell:
0 there I did a Murther, as it is known full well,
And for mine offence must I dye.
There was a Neighbour's daughter that lived there hard by,
Whom I had promis'd marriage, and with her I did lye.
I did dissemble with her, my lust to satisfie,
And for [mine offence I must dye. sic, passim.} 8
I had my pleasure on her, I had my lewd desire,
The using of her body was that I did require;
I was ore-come and snared, by him that was a Lyar.
And for, etc.
She claimed of me marriage, and said she was with child,
Saying, "Marry me, sweet William, now you have me defil'd:
If you do now forsake me, I utterly am spoyl'd." 16
"When she had us'd these speeches, my anger did arise,
And then to work her overthrow I quickly did devise;
"What though her words were honest, yet I did them despise.
O mark how it did happen, this H[o]uswife being poor,
And I who was my Father's heir, her words did urge me sore:
For I could have another, with gold and silver store. 24
My Father and my Mother I knew would not consent;
If I had married with her I knew I should be shent: [shamed.
Then unto wicked Murther my heart was fully bent.
In flattering sort I brought her into a field of Broom;
And when we both together into the field was come,
I had my pleasure with her, and then I was her doom:
And for mine offence I must dye. 32
Then in the Broom I kill'd her, with my accursed knife;
There hatefully I kill'd her, who lov'd me as her life:
I cut her throat, I kill'd her, who should have been my wife:
And for mine offence I must die].
Three days she lay there, murdered, before that she was found;
But when the neighbours searching, within that brooray ground,
[They] did find her there, uncovered, and with a bloody wound. 40
The neighbours having found her, where I did do this deed,
There in the Broom they found her, where I her blood did shed;
But when I did perceive that, I ran away with speed.
No sooner had they found her, but away I did go;
And thought to go to Ireland, the very truth is so:
But God He would not suffer me to run my Country through: 48
Yet I was got on Ship-board, as you may understand;
But when the Ship was troubled, I must go buck to Land;
I could not pass away so, with guilty heart and hand.
"There is some wicked person," the Shipmen they did say,
"Within the Ship, we know it, that cannot pass away:
"We must return to Land here, and make no more delay." 56
Then near unto Westchester, I taken was at last,
And then in Chester Prison, I suddenly was cast:
Prom thence brought unto Hereford, to answer what is past,
And [for mine offence I must die.]
But then my loving Father his gold he did not spare,
To save me from the Gallows; he had of me great care:
But it would not be granted, the Gallows was my share. 64
My fault it was so hanious, it would not granted be; [ = heinous.
I must for an example hang on the Gallows tree:
God grant that I a warning for all young men may be.
O my dear loving Father, he was to me most kind;
He brought me up most costly, so was his tender mind;
But I indeed to lewdness was too too much inclin'd. 72
He brought me up in learning, his love was to me still;
He thought it all too little he did bestow on Will;
But when he lookt for comfort, his heart I then did kill.
I might have had a Marriage, my Father to content,
And that my loving mother would give her heart's consent;
But I have took such courses, duth make us all repent. 80
Now young men, take warning, you see my fault is great;
0 call to God for mercy, God's grace do you intreat:
I might have lived bruvely and had a gallant seat.
0 Lord, I now crave pardon, with a relenting heart,
I know my sins are hanious, I'm very sorry for't:
Alas! I have deserved a very hard report,
And for mine offence must I dye. Finis. 88
Printed for F. Coles, T. Fere, and J. Wright. [B.-L. See Note, p. 69. J Roxb. Coll., III. 28 and 31; Pepys, II. 197; Euing, 320; Wood, 401, fol. 143.]