Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, Vol. 6 of 6 — Themes and Context

Tune and Text as Paired Structures

The volume's organization foregrounds the relationship between music and words. Each entry lists a tune page and a lyric page, implying that the same melody could carry different verses. For instance, the tune for "The Saint turn'd Sinner" is marked "To the foregoing Tune," linking it directly to the preceding song. This pairing suggests that readers or performers were expected to know the melodies or have access to a separate musical score. The repetition of tunes across multiple songs creates a network of intertextual echoes, where a familiar tune could lend irony or emphasis to new lyrics.

Recurring Images of Flight and Pursuit

Several songs in the excerpts employ images of flight, pursuit, or escape. In "The Battle-Royal," Religion "took her flight" after the disputing clergymen fail to agree. In "The Saint turn'd Sinner," the Quaker woman is "forc'd to call the Watch in" to stop the parson's advances, while the parson himself is described as "more eager / Than lustful Turk or Neger." The Windsor wives assert their independence by declaring they will "sing and laugh" despite being mocked. These recurring motifs of movement—whether literal flight, pursuit, or defiant stasis—give the collection a kinetic quality, as characters shift between roles of aggressor and victim.

Satirical Dialogues and Disputes

Many songs are structured as debates or confrontations. "The Battle-Royal" features a Dean and a Prebendary arguing over who has more grace, with a third figure, the Master of the Charter, denying the existence of God entirely. The song ends with Religion fleeing, leaving the disputants as "Fools a Prating." Similarly, "The Saint turn'd Sinner" presents a dialogue between a Dissenting parson and a Quaker woman, where the parson uses biblical precedent to justify his advances. These dialogues use direct speech and rhetorical questions to dramatize conflicts, often undercutting authority figures by exposing their hypocrisy or absurdity.

Social Geography and Local Identity

The songs frequently reference specific locations and social types. "The Merry Wives of Windsor" contrasts the honesty of Windsor women with the perceived corruption of London's "City Dames" and "Bankside" wenches. Other songs mention "Islington," "London Town," and "Windsor Horn," grounding the lyrics in recognizable places. The collection also includes songs about tradespeople, such as "A Jolly young Grocer of London Town" and "A Taylor good Lord," suggesting a broad social canvas. This attention to local identity and occupational stereotypes gives the volume a documentary quality, reflecting the urban and suburban milieu of early 18th-century England.

Readers approaching this volume should attend to the interplay between tune and text, as the same melody can transform the meaning of different lyrics. The songs reward attention to their dialogic structure and the recurring imagery of flight, pursuit, and social performance. Rather than a unified narrative, the collection offers a mosaic of voices, each vying for attention in a crowded tavern of wit and mirth.

I’ve spent long afternoons with D’Urfey’s volume, chuckling at its bawdy bluster, yet it always left a quiet ache—the way laughter hides a longing for plainness. That ache found its echo in Ye book of Copperheads — Story, Setting & Ideas, whose dry pages hold a similar patience with human folly, though its humor runs darker, closer to embers than sparks.