Lyr Add: Libera nos Domine (A litany)

Subject: Lyr Add: Libera nos Domine (A litany)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 02:05 PM

The first verse of this litany echoes my feelings toward much of the material posted below the line.

Lyr. Add: LIBERA NOS DOMINE
A Litany

From Mahomet, and Paganisme,
From Hereticks, and Sects ans Schisme
From highway-rascals, and Cutpurses;
From carted Bawds, Scolds, and dry Nurses,
From Glister-pipes, and Doctors Whistles,
From begging Schollars stale Epistles,
From turn-stile Boots and Long lane Beavers,
From Agues, and from drunken Feavers,
Libera nos Domine.

From all several kind of Itches,
From Pantaloons, and Cloak-bag Breeches,
From Carbinadoed Sutes on Serges,
From a Bastard that is the Clergies,
From threadden points, and Cap of Cruel,
From the danger of a Duel,
From a Tally full of Notches
And from privy Seals of Botches,
Libera nos Domine.

From a Whore that's never pleasant,
But in lusty Wine is Pheasant,
From the Watch at twelve a'clock,
And from Bess Broughtons button'd Smock,
From Hackney Coaches, and from Panders,
That do boast themselves Commanders,
From a Taylors tedious Bill, and Pilgrimage up Wolburn Hill,
Libera nos Domine.

From damages and restitutions,
From accursed Executions,
From all new-found waies of Sinning,
From the scurf, and sables Linnen,
From the Pox, and the Physitian,
And from the Spanish Inquisition,
From a wife that's wan and meager,
And from Lice and Winters Leaguer,
Libera nos Domine.

From a griping slavish Cullion,
From the gout, and the Strangullion,
From a Mountibanks Potion,
From his scarrings and his Lotion,
From the Buttocks of Prisilla,
That diers so with Sarsapherilla,
From a Lecture to the Zealous,
And ffrom the Tub of old Cornelius,
Libera nos Domine.

From bawdy Courts and Civil Doctors,
From drunken Sumners and their Proctors,
From occasions for to revel
With a Lawyer at the Divel,
From Serjeants, Yeomen, and their Maces,
And from false Friends with double faces,
From an Enemy More mighty
Than Usquebaugh or Aqua Vitae,
Libera nos Domine.


1694, "Merry drollery compleat, being jovial poems, merry songs, &c."
Found by Google.

I am still looking up some of the terms and their meanings, more entertaining than a crossword puzzle. I hope some of you will gather enjoyment from it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Libera nos Domine (A litany)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 10:51 PM

Thanks, Q. It's interesting to note that in the 17th C people were complaining about different things than we do, but the spirit of complaint remains the same.

People are complaining that they will not wish to listen to other passengers' cell phone calls on airlines. I don't blame them a bit, but instead of complaining, I plan to invent an invisible cell-phone jammer. I'll be a billionaire!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Libera nos Domine (A litany)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 01:54 PM

A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine!

From the fury of the Northmen, deliver us, O Lord!

Supposed to have been said in churches during the period of Scandinavian raids, but no evidence of that has been found. The phrase is apocryphal.

The closest is an antiphony for churches dedicated to St. Vaast or St. Menard: "Summa pia gratia nostra conservando corpora et cutodita, de gente fera Normannica nos libera, quae nostra vastat, Deus, regna."
Our supreme and holy grace, protecting us and ours, deliver us, God, from the savage race of Northmen which lays waste our realms.

"A sagittis hungarorum libera nos Domine." Modena, 924 A. D. From the arrows of the Hungarians, God deliver us.

Many usages in literature.
The Protestants Petition against Popery, 1681, begins,
"From sawing the Crown twixt Phanaticks and Fryers,
From Whitehall scaffolds, and Smithfield fires,
From the Jesuits Morals, outdone by the Tryers,
Libera nos Domine."
A long poetic broadside printed in London, online from the University of California Santa Barbara English Broadside Ballads Archive.