[SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON'S ADVANCEMENT.]
This ballad is taken from The Crowne-Garland of Golden Roses, p. 20, Percy Society, vol. vi. Another copy is in A Collection of Old Ballads, i. 130. A play called The History of Whittington was entered on the Stationers' books in Feb. 1604, and the "famous fable of Whittington and his puss" is mentioned in Eastward Hoe, 1605. (Weber and Halliwell.)
"There is something so fabulous," (says the editor of Old Ballads, following Grafton and Stow,) "or at least, that has such a romantic appearance, in the history of Whittington, that I shall not choose to relate it; but refer my credulous readers to common tradition, or to the penny histories. Certain it is that there was such a man; a citizen of London, by trade a mercer, and one who has left public edifices and charitable works enow behind him, to transmit his name to posterity. Amongst others, he founded a house of prayer; with an allowance for a master, fellows, choristers, clerks, &c., and an almshouse for thirteen poor men, called Whittington College. He entirely rebuilt the loathsome prison, which then was standing at the west gate of the city, and called it Newgate. He built the better half of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in West-Smithfield, and the fine library in Grey-Fryars, now called Christ's Hospital: as also great part of the east end of Guildhall, with a chapel, and a library in which the records of the city might be kept.... 'Tis said of him, that he advanced a very considerable sum of money towards carrying on the war in France, under this last monarch. He married Alice, the daughter of Hugh and Molde Fitzwarren: at whose house, traditions say, Whittington lived a servant, when he got his immense riches by venturing his cat in one of his master's ships. However, if we may give credit to his own will, he was a knight's son; and more obliged to an English king and prince, than to any African monarch, for his riches. For when he founded Whittington College, and left a maintenance for so many people, as above related, they were, as Stow records it, for this maintenance bound to pray for the good estate of Richard Whittington, and Alice his wife, their founders; and for Sir William Whittington, and Dame Joan his wife; and for Hugh Fitzwarren, and Dame Molde his wife; the fathers and mothers of the said Richard Whittington and Alice his wife; for King Richard the Second, and Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, special lords and promoters of the said Richard Whittington, &c."
Richard Whittington was Sheriff of London in the 18th year of Richard the Second, 1394, was then knighted, and chosen Mayor in the 22d year of the same reign, 1398. He was again Mayor in the 9th year of Henry the Fourth, 1407, and the 8th of Henry the Fifth, 1420.
Keightley has devoted a chapter of his Tales and Popular Fictions (the seventh) to the legend of Whittington and his Cat. He cites two similar stories from Thiele's Danish Popular Traditions, another from the letters of Count Magalotti, a Florentine of the latter half of the 17th century, another from the Facezie of Arlotto, a Tuscan humorist of the 15th century, another, of Venetian origin, from a German chronicle of the 13th century, and finally one from the Persian Tarikh al Wasaf, a work said to have been composed at the end of the 13th or the beginning of the 14th century. Mr. Halliwell adds one more of a Portuguese wrecked on the coast of Guinea, from the Description of Guinea, 1665.
Here must I tell the praise
Of worthy Whittington,
Known to be in his dayes
Thrice Maior of London.
But of poor parentage, 5
Borne was he, as we heare,
And in his tender age
Bred up in Lancashire.
Poorely to London than
Came up this simple lad, 10
Where, with a marchant-man,
Soone he a dwelling had;
And in a kitchen plast,
A scullion for to be,
Whereas long time he past 15
In labour drudgingly.
His daily service was
Turning spitts at the fire;
And to scour pots of brasse,
For a poore scullions hire. 20
Meat and drinke all his pay,
Of coyne he had no store;
Therefore to run away,
In secret thought he bore.
So from this marchant-man, 25
Whittington secretly
Towards his country ran,
To purchase liberty.
But as he went along,
In a fair summer's morne, 30
Londons bells sweetly rung,
"Whittington, back return!"
Evermore sounding so,
"Turn againe, Whittington;
For thou in time shall grow 35
Lord-Maior of London."
Whereupon back againe
Whittington came with speed,
A prentise to remaine,
As the Lord had decreed. 40