Friday, March 29, AD 2024 4:22am

Lilliburlero

Something for the weekend.   The lilting strains of Lilliburlero from the classic movie Barry Lyndon (1975). 

The song originated during the Not So Glorious Revolution of 1688, after the usurper William of Holland, with the help of English traitors, chased James II, the rightful King of England, from his throne due to James’ Catholicism.  Like most of the Stuart monarchs, the bad points of James tended to outweigh his good points, but the obloquy heaped upon his reign in most of the histories of this period is largely a function of partisan distortion and outright religious bigotry.  On the other hand, Jacobite views of this period of British history, which goes to 1746 and the smashing of the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the grandson of James II at Culloden, tend greatly to exaggerate the virtues of the “Kings across the waters” who, Old Pretender (James II), Young Pretender (James III) and Bonnie Prince Charlie, were basically selfish blockheads who probably would have been disasters as monarchs if they had succeeded in regaining the throne.  History, alas, often gives us unpalatable alternatives.

Lilliburlero’s original lyrics are as follows:

Ho, brother Teague, dost hear the decree?
Lilliburlero bullen a la
We are to have a new deputy
Lilliburlero bullen a la
Refrain:
Lero Lero Lillibullero
Lilliburlero bullen a la
Lero Lero Lero Lero
Lilliburlero bullen a la
Oh by my soul it is a Talbot
Lilliburlero bullen a la
And he will cut every Englishman’s throat
Lilliburlero bullen a la
Refrain
Now Tyrconnell is come ashore
Lilliburlero bullen a la
And we shall have commissions galore
Lilliburlero bullen a la
Refrain
And everyone that won’t go to Mass
Lilliburlero bullen a la
He will be turned out to look like an ass
Lilliburlero bullen a la
Refrain
Now the heretics all go down
Lilliburlero bullen a la
By Christ and St Patrick’s the nation’s our own
Lilliburlero bullen a la
Refrain
There was an old prophecy found in a bog
Lilliburlero bullen a la
The country’d be ruled by an ass and a dog
Lilliburlero bullen a la
Refrain
Now this prophecy is all come to pass
Lilliburlero bullen a la
For James is the dog and Tyrconnell’s the ass
Lillibulrero bullen a la

This all seems quite cryptic to us now, but these are all satirical comments placed by the song in the mouths of James’ Irish supporters.  Go here to read an explanation of the lyrics.

Another scene from Barry Lyndon, to the strains of The British Grenadiers.

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T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Saturday, April 9, AD 2011 6:24am

Here are the first stanza and chorus for a Highland song regarding Bonnie Prince Charlie:

Bonnie Charlie’s noo awa
Safely o’er the friendly main
Mony a heart will break in twa
Should he ne’er come back again.

Chorus
Will ye no’ come back again?
Will ye no’ come back again?
Better lo’ed ye canna be
Will ye no’ come back again?

This is the song the Scots troops sing route marching up to save India from Thugee and Victory MacLaglen , et al in the Gunga Din movie.

Joe Green
Joe Green
Saturday, April 9, AD 2011 7:11am

Thanks for the link, Don. Kubrick’s best film and one of my all-time favorites. Perhaps Thackeray’s best novel, notwithstanding Vanity Fair, which did not have one likable character. Here’s the opening sentence of the novel:

‘Since the days of Adam, there has been hardly a mischief done in this
world but a woman has been at the bottom of it.’

Joe Green
Joe Green
Saturday, April 9, AD 2011 7:41am

TS opener:

“I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me…”

Elaine Krewer
Admin
Saturday, April 9, AD 2011 11:39am

“History, alas, often gives us unpalatable alternatives.”

As does the present day, and quite possibly the near future (e.g. an Obama vs. Trump or Obama vs. Gingrich presidential election)

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Saturday, April 9, AD 2011 1:00pm

Ms. K: Anyone will be more palatable compaared to four more years the liberal/progressive job destruction.

Mac,

The saxon already had subverted the lowlanders and several Highland clans fought with the saxon against their traditional enemies.

Then, it was alchemy of which Hitler would have approved. It was the harrowing of the glens. They destrpyed the clan system and the economy. What else could the few that survived than be mercenaries and fight for the hated foe. “Scotland the Brave”: Gallant in the winning of the wars of others.

After Culloden, the Brits killed the wounded and murdered any clansman they thought was Jacobite. It was called the harrowing of the glens. The US treated the Indian better. Many were transported to the Americas or West Indies.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Saturday, April 9, AD 2011 2:58pm

Trump could pose a bit of a problem for the GOP if he runs third party, but probably only a serious problem if the GOP nominee is so weak that victory appears unlikely in any case.

Dunno, Sir. Mr. Perot proved quite troublesome for an incumbent president who had some irritating aspects to him but generally left public business in better condition than when he found it. The Republican base is smaller than the Democratic base but the Republican Party generally does a great deal better at persuading voters without strong antecedent commitments. This makes a Republican candidate more vulnerable to the effects of 3d party challengers.

Jay Anderson
Saturday, April 9, AD 2011 6:55pm

This one’s more like it:

Jay Anderson
Saturday, April 9, AD 2011 7:00pm

And this one:

Art Deco
Art Deco
Sunday, April 10, AD 2011 3:45am

I do not think Mr. Perot is ‘crazed’. He is a very capable businessman, somewhat eccentric. He also assembled the most persuasive 3d party candidacy (bar one) in the last 150 years. Absent some serious opinion research, I would not attribute his balance of support to a discrete factor, much less to postures assumed in the previous presidential campaign. (For starters, Mr. Perot’s primary issue was public sector borrowing, about which the Laffer-bots in the GOP tend to be insouciant).

Elaine Krewer
Admin
Sunday, April 10, AD 2011 1:35pm

“He (Perot) became convinced that Charles Harrelson… had been hired to kill him by drug dealers.”

If I remember correctly, Charles Harrelson is also a favorite figure among JFK conspiracy theorists since he was allegedly on the “grassy knoll” in Dallas at the time, or something.

Which makes Woody Harrelson’s role in “2012” as a crazed conspiracy theorist (who just happens to be right about the supervolcano lurking under Yellowstone National Park) rather ironic.

Margot Sheehan
Margot Sheehan
Sunday, April 10, AD 2011 4:44pm

Random notes about the opening topic:

1) “Lillibullero” (or ~burlero) did not originate in 1688. Most accounts I’ve run across say it was adapted from an earlier Irish tune, possibly in parody. The refrain is supposed to be cod-Gaelic.
2) The song appears in a famously unproduced screenplay called ‘Harrow Alley’ (by Walter Newman), set in London during the plague and Great Fire years of 1665-1666. It is sung by a crowd of lowlifes.
3) In modern times the melody is best known as the signature theme of the BBC World Service, which used it from the 1940s till the 1990s. In Wikipedia I find this nice link to an mp3 archive recording:
http://www.ominous-valve.com/sounds/bbc0.mp3

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