The Ballads & Songs of Derbyshire / With Illustrative Notes, and Examples of the Original Music, etc. :: A Strange Banquet; Or the Devil's Entertainment by Cook Laurel,

A Strange Banquet; Or the Devil's Entertainment by Cook Laurel,

A Strange Banquet; Or the Devil's Entertainment by Cook Laurel, at the Peak in Derby-shire; with an Account of the several Dishes served to Table.

To the tune of Cook Laurel, &c.

Cook Laurel, or Cock Lorel, as he is variously called, was a notorious rogue in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and is not unfrequently alluded to by the old writers. Lorel, or Laurel, was a word signifying a rascal,—a bad, low, worthless fellow; and Cock Lorel would therefore denote an arch-rogue, a very prince of rascals! Lorel's den was a place of resort, no doubt, for thieves and sharpers, and "lazy lorel," which is an expression even now not unfrequently heard, means an idle, worthless fellow. A curious little tract, entitled "Cocke Lorrell's Bote," was printed by Wynken de Worde; and this "Cock Lorel's Boat" is mentioned in a MS. poem of Doctor Double Ale, in the Bodleian Library, and in other writings. In it persons of various classes, including the minstrels, are summoned to go on board his ship of Fools. In Rowland's "Martin Markhall, his Defence and Answer to the Bellman of London" (1610), Cock Lorrell stands second only in the list of rogues there given, and is thus described: "After him succeded, by the generall council, one Cock Lorrell, the most notorious knave that ever lived. By trade he was a tinker, often carrying a pan and hammer for show; but when he came to a good booty he would cast his profession in a ditch, and play the padder."[33]

The ballad of Cock Lorrell is introduced in Ben Jonson's masque of the "Gipsies Metamorphosed," and in "Pills to purge Melancholy." The copy I here give I have copied from the original broad-sheet in the Roxburghe Collection in the British Museum. It is in some parts exceedingly coarse in its wording, and is therefore unfit to be given entire. It will be seen that Cock Lorrell, the prince of rogues, invites his Satanic Majesty to Castleton, in the High Peak of Derbyshire, to dinner, and the dishes served up for the occasion are people of various disreputable callings and hypocritical habits, against whom the shafts of the writer are levelled.

The broad-sheet from which the ballad is here copied, is printed in black letter, and has an engraving of the banquet at the head. It is "Licensed and entered according to order. London: Printed by and for W. O. and A. M. ...to be sold by J. Deacon, at the Angel in Guiltspur Street." It begins:—

Cook Lawrel would have the Devil his guest,
and bid him home to Peak to dinner,
Where fiend never had such a feast,
prepared at the charge of a sinner.
With a hey down, down adown, down.

His stomach was quesie, he came thither coached,
the joggings had caused his cruets to rise,
To help which he call'd for a Puritan poach'd,
that used to turn up the white of his eyes.
With a hey down, &c.

And so he recovered unto his wish;
he sat him down and began to eat:
A Promooter[34] in plumb broth was the first dish,
his own privy-kitchen had no such meat.
With a hey down, &c.

Yet though with (it) he much was taken,
upon a sudden he shifted his trencher
As soon as he spied the Bawd[35] and bacon,
by which you may know the Devil's a wencher.
With a hey down, &c.

Six pickled Taylors sliced and cut
with Semsters[36] and Tire-woman,[37] fit for his pallet,
With Feather-men and Perfumers, put
some twelve in a charger, to make a grand sallet.[38]
With a hey down, &c.

A rich fat Usurer stewed in his marrow,
with him a Lawyer's head and green sawce

were the next dishes; usurers and lawyers, in those days, being common subjects for satire.

Then carbanado'd[39] and cook'd with pains
was brought up a Serjent's cloven face,
The sawce was made of a Yeoman's brains
that had been beaten out with his mace.
With a hey down, &c.

Two roasted Sheriffs came whole to the Board,
the feast had nothing been without them,
Both living and dead were foxed and fur'd,
and their chains like Sassages hung about them.
With a hey down, &c.

The next dish was the Mayor of the Town,
with pudding of maintenance[40] put in his belly,
Like a goose in her feathers, in his gown
with a couple of Hinch boys[41] boyl'd to jelly.
With a hey down, &c.

Then came the over-worn Justice of Peace,
with Clerks like gizzards stuck under each arm,
And warrants like Sippets,[42] lay in his own grease,
set over a chafing dish to be kept warm.
With a hey down, &c.

In the next four verses, other "dainty dishes" were served up. Then followed—

The jewel of a time-server for a fish,
a Constable sowced, with vinegar by
Two Alderman-lobsters laid in a dish
a Deputy-tart and Church-warden pye.[43]
With a hey down, &c.

All which devoured, then for a close
he did for a draught of Derby[44] call,
He heaved the vessel up to his nose,
and never left till he'd drank up all.
With a hey down, &c.

Then from the table he gave a start
where banquet and whine was not to seek—

And thus the banquet ended. The ballad closes with the assertion that from this feast the common name of the cavern at Castleton, where it is said to have taken place, is derived.

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