It was written, or at least republished, on the earl of Tyrconnel's going a second time to Ireland in October, 1688. Perhaps it is unnecessary to mention, that General Richard Talbot, newly created earl of Tyrconnel, had been nominated by K. James II. to the lieutenancy of Ireland in 1686, on account of his being a furious papist, who had recommended himself to his bigotted master by his arbitrary treatment of the protestants in the preceding year, when only lieutenant general, and whose subsequent conduct fully justified his expectations and their fears. The violences of his administration may be seen in any of the histories of those times: particularly in bishop King's State of the Protestants in Ireland, 1691, 4to.
This song is attributed to Lord Wharton in a small pamphlet, intitled, A true relation of the several facts and circumstances of the intended riot and tumult on Q. Elizabeth's birth-day, &c. 3d. ed. Lond. 1712, pr. 2d.—See p. [5], viz.—"A late Viceroy (of Ireland,) who has so often boasted himself upon his talent for mischief invention, lying, and for making a certain Lilliburlero Song; with which, if you will believe himself, he sung a deluded Prince out of Three Kingdoms."
Lilliburlero and Bullen-a-lah are said to have been the words of distinction used among the Irish Papists in their massacre of the Protestants in 1641.
[To no song could be better attributed Fletcher of Saltoun's dictum than to this poor specimen of verse, which caught the fancy of the people and drove James from his throne. Macaulay wrote of it as follows:—"From one end of England to the other all classes were constantly singing this idle rhyme. It was especially the delight of the English army. More than seventy years after the Revolution, Sterne delineated with exquisite skill a veteran who had fought at the Boyne and at Namur. One of the characteristics of the good old soldier is his trick of whistling Lilliburlero." The air is attributed to Purcell, but it is supposed that he only arranged an earlier tune. Hume thought that the popularity of the song was rather due to the composer of the air than to the author of the words.
Mr. Markland, in a note to Boswell's Life of Johnson, says, that "according to Lord Dartmouth there was a particular expression in it, which the king remembered that he had made use of to the Earl of Dorset, from whence it was concluded that he was the author." Upon this Mr. Chappell remarks, 1. that "the Earl of Dorset laid no claim to it, and it is scarcely to be believed that the author of To all you ladies now on land could have penned such thorough doggrel." 2. That "the ballad contains no expression that the King would have used, which might not equally have been employed by any other person."[872] There can now be little doubt that the author was Thomas Marquis of Wharton, father of the mad Duke Philip of Wharton. He discerned the indications of the political horizon and espoused the winning side. He was well rewarded for his wisdom. Mr. S. Redmond (Notes and Queries, third series, viii. 13) writes that he has often heard the girls in the south and south-east of Ireland, while engaged in binding the corn into sheaves after the reapers, sing the following chorus, which always had reference to one of the gang who was not so quick at her work as the others, and who consequently was left behind:
"Lully by lero,
Lully by lero,
Lully by lero,
Help her along.">[
Ho! broder Teague, dost hear de decree?
Lilli burlero, bullen a-la.
Dat we shall have a new deputie,
Lilli burlero burlen a-la.
Lero lero, lilli burlero, lero lero, bullen a-la, 5
Lero lero, lilli burlero, lero lero, bullen a-la.