A Ballad upon the Popish Plot and region (“From Pulpit to Pot / They talk’d of a Plot” [1.5-6]), as well as the fear invoked in the general population (“frighted with Fire-balls, their heads turned round” [1.4]), but then proposes a rational and just correction of these effects. The majority of the rest of the ballad then lists the occupational types, personal characteristics, and machinations of the participants in the plot. The first is a politician “of Body unsound,” who intends to slander the Pope and the current King, Charles II, until both are forced out of power (2.1, 8). The narrator then describes the personal
A Ballad upon the Popish Plot circumstances that brought him to instigate the plot: financial difficulty, lack of public approval, and ultimately a bribe (“Some Whisperers fix’d him / Upon this design” [3.5-6]). The other participants include a vicious, imprisoned “Knave” (4.1) complicit with another plotter who will “[Relieve] his Invention, and [quicken] his Pace” (4.9); an imprisoned thief and murderer; a perjurer who twice lied about the occurrences of the plot, bribed with money the second time; a professional in the Court who encouraged rumors of the plot with a fellow guilty court-member; and a dull-witted, ill-dressed merchant who supports the plot by writing about