Literature, Principally Belletristic - University of Tennessee, Knoxville

• INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN THE COLONIAL SOUTH'
Though this burlesque is only barely possibly southern colonial in origin,
another written in 1704, when the Nicholson"Blair quarrel was at its
height, is surely Virginian. Laymen, especially vestries, on the whole were
now supporting Blair (and he them ), and it was probably one of them
who penned the mocking A Ballad Addres'd to the Reverend Members of
the Convocation Held at Man's Ordinary at Williamsburg . .. To Defend
G--r N--n, And Form an Accusation Against C-- B--.
Published in London, the printed verses give only the first and last letters
of the surnames of the clergy lampooned, though someone has written in
the remaining letters of each name in the copy in the Public Record Office.
Later printings, presumably derived from this copy, simply give the full
names without comment, somewhat misleading if one knows the satirical
conventions-and perhaps laws regarding libel-of the period. All together
a large group of Nicholson's friends, obviously those who had signed
petitions to home authorities against Blair, are alluded to in the stanzas
beginning
Bless us! What Dismal Times are these!
What Stars are in Conjunction!
When Priests mrn Sycophants to please,
And Hair"brain'd Passion to appease;
Dare prostitute their Function.
Sure all the Furies must combine
To sway the Convocation,
That Seventeen Clergy-men should joyn
Without one word of Proof, to Sign
So false an Accusation.
The list begins with the then actual rector of Bruton Parish Church in
Williamsburg, who may be the one referred to in the preceding poem.
First W[heatlyJ heads the Reverend Tribe
Amongst the Chiefest Actors;
A Tool no Pencil can Describe,
Who sells his Conscience for a Bribe,
And slights his Benefactors.
A note suggests that Solomon Whately had been supported by Mr. B.H.
and Mr. R.B. after having been deprived of a previous parish by the governor
he was now supporting. The author goes on to assault five of the
clergymen in personal terms : one is a wife-oppressor, another a «Bawling
Pulpit Hector" who was also a sot and lecher, another a knave and congenitally
factious person. This is better verse and more effective satire than
the 1702 piece just noted. Blair's recent biographer suggests that it was
probably composed by Robert Beverley the historian, who despised Gov-
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