ginning of December, 1623, there was a great
number in London, haunting taverns and other debauched places, who swore
themselves in a brotherhood and named themselves _Tityre Tues_. The oath
they gave in this manner: he that was to be sworn did put his dagger
into a pottle of wine, and held his hand upon the pommel thereof, and
then was to make oath that he would aid and assist all other of his
fellowship and not disclose their council. There were divers knights,
some young noblemen and gentlemen of this brotherhood, and they were to
know one the other by a black bugle which they wore, and their followers
to be known by a blue ribbond. There are discovered of them about 80 or
100 persons, and have been examined by the Privy Council, but nothing
discovered of any intent they had. It is said that the king hath given
commandment that they shall be re-examined." In Mennis's _Musarum
Deliciae_ the brotherhood is celebrated in a poem headed "The Tytre Tues;
or, a Mocke Song. To the tune of Chive Chase. By Mr. George Chambers."
The second verse runs:--

"They call themselves the Tytere-tues,
And wore a blue rib-bin;
And when a-drie would not refuse
To drink. O fearful sin!

"The council, which is thought most wise,
Did sit so long upon it,
That they grew weary and did rise,
And could make nothing on it."

According to a letter of Chamberlain to Carleton, indexed among the
_State Papers_, the Tityres were a secret society first formed in Lord
Vaux's regiment in the Low Countries, and their "prince" was called
Ottoman. Another entry shows that the "Bugle" mentioned by Yonge was the
badge of a society originally distinct from the Tityres, which
afterwards joined with it. The date of Herrick's poem is thus fixed as
December, 1623/4, and this is confirmed by another sentence in the same
passage in _Yonge's Diary_, in which he says: "The Jesuits and Papists
do wonderfully swarm in the city, and rumours lately have been given out
for firing the Navy and House of Munition, on which are set a double
guard". The Parliament to which Herrick alludes was actually summoned in
January, 1624, to meet on February 12. Sir Simeon Steward, to whom the
poem is addressed, was of the family of the Stewards of Stantney, in the
Isle of Ely. He was knighted with his father, Mark Steward, in 1603, and
afterwards became a fellow-commoner of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was
at different times Sheriff and Deputy-