Songs of the Dutch Wars
H. E. Piggott
In his first talk in this series, on August 23, H. E. Piggott dealt with Elizabethan sea-songs and forebitters. In this discussion of the songs produced by the Dutch Wars of the seventeenth century, he will show how a song of the time of Charles I (probably a thinly-disguised fore-bitter), Matthew Parker 's ballad, ' Saylors for my money', became transformed under the Commonwealth into ' Ye gentlemen of England ', and a century and a half later supplied the basis of Campbell's poem, ' Ye mariners of England.'
Mr. Piggott will also talk about two songs connected with the terrible battle off Lowestoft on June 2 and 3, 1665: Lord Dorset's famous 'To all you ladies now on land ' written on the eve of the battle, and ' The Royal Victory', written after it.