[1] "Langue" means Order of Knights of Malta, of the particular "nation" expressed.
"Ils alléguaient la resistance de la population maltaise à toute destruction de ses belles forteresses, et proposaient la reconstitution de l'Ordre sur des bases nouvelles et plus solides. Ils voulaient y laisser une langue française, moyennant qu'on y institût une langue anglaise et une langue maltaise, celle-ci accordée à la population de l'îsle, pour lui donner part à son gouvernement; ils voulaient que ce nouvel établissement fût placé sur la garantie d'une grande puissance, la Russie par exemple. Les Anglais espéraient qu'avec les langues anglaise et maltaise qui leur seraient dévotée, ils auraient un pied dans l'isle, et empêcheraient les Français d'y rentrer."
C. REDDING.
BALLAD OF LORD DELAMERE.
(Vol. ii., p. 104.)
A correspondent gives the first two lines of a ballad called Lord Delamere, and inquires to what political event it refers. DR. RIMBAULT (Vol. ii., p. 158.) suggests that this song may be another version of one published in Mr. Thomas Lyte's Ancient Ballads and Songs, which begins differently, and which Mr. Lyte fancies may refer to some corn-law debate in parliament about the years 1621 and 1622. I have a song which I took down from recitation in Derbyshire, entitled The Long-armed Duke, but which is no doubt identical with Mr. Lyte's, the first verse being nearly the same. That it refers to some transaction much later than 1622 is evident from the mention of Lord Delamere, that title having been first conferred by Charles II. upon Sir George Warrington. Henry, second Earl of Delamere, and William, Earl of Devonshire, are the heroes of the ballad, which I believe to be founded upon some obscure report of the quarrel which took place between the latter and Colonel Colepepper, of which an account will be found in the Works of Lord Delamere, London, 1694, p. 563. (reprinted in Howell's State Trials, vol. ii. p. 510.), and also in Collins's Peerage, vol. i. p. 343.; and see also Colley Cibber's Apology, chap. iii.
The Earl of Devonshire struck Colonel Colepepper in the anteroom at Whitehall, having previously received an affront from the Colonel in the king's palace. He was summoned to appear at the King's Bench, and gave bail to the amount of 30,000l.; Lord Delamere being one of his sureties. A fine to that amount was inflicted on him, but he appealed from the judgment to the House of Lords, where one of his warmest advocates was Lord Delamere. Vague reports of these proceedings would find their way into the North, where the matter would be handled by the balladmongers in a style congenial to the manners and ideas of their rustic auditory. Lord Delamere is described by a cotemporary versifier as
"Fit to assist to pull a tyrant down,
But not to please a prince that mounts the throne."
These lines are given, without a reference, in a note to Burton's Diary. Query, Where do they come from?
My version of the ballad was printed about nine years ago in a periodical called The Storyteller, which came to an abrupt conclusion in the second volume, and is probably now in the hands of few. Mr. Lyte's volume also appears to be a rarity. I therefore append a copy, which you can add to this note if you do not think it too long. Perhaps your correspondent would send the remainder of his fragment, which it might be interesting to compare.