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 THE GLEN COLLECTION
OF SCOTTISH MUSIC
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action in France in 1914.
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28(/< Jcmiani 1927.

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-x

POPULAR MUSIC
OP THE

OLDEN TIME;
A COLLKCTION OF

ANCIENT SONGS, BALLADS,

AND

DANCE TUNES,
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE

NATIONAL MUSIC OF ENGLAND.

WITH SHORT INTRODUCTIONS TO THE DIFFERENT REIGNS,
AND NOTICES OF THE AIRS FROM WRITERS OF THE
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

ALSO

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE MINSTRELS.

BY

W. CHAPPELL, F.S.A.

THE WHOLE OF TEE AIRS HARMONIZED BY G. A. MACFARREN.

VOL. I.

"Front sunt illi Anglicani concentus suavissimi quidera, ac eleganteB."

Thesaurus Harmniiicus Laurencini, Jiomani, 1003.

LONDON:
CRAMER, BEALE, 5: CHAPPELL, 201. RECENT STREET.

OF SCOTLAND
 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
National Library of Scotland

http://www.archive.org/details/popularmusicofolOOchap
 EXPLANATION OF THE FACSIMILES. XV.

" sonnet concerning this work," signed " Fr. Tregian," shewing the connection of
the family with Holland, and in the virginal book one piece (No. 105, p. 196) has
only three letters of the author's name, " Fre." No. 60, p. Ill, is "Treg. Ground;"
No. 80, p. 152, is " Favana dolorosa, Treg.;" but No. 213, p. 315, is " Pavana
Chromatica, Mrs. Katherin Tregian'a Paven, by William Tisdall." In the margin of
p. 312, is written, in a later hand, " R. Rj'sd silas."
English music was so much in request in Holland in the early part of the seven-
teenth century, that this collection of two hundred and ninety-six pieces of virginal
music may, not improbably, have been made for, or by, an English resident there,
and possibly designed as a present.

Plate 5.— "The Hunt's up," horxx 3Iusick's Delight on the Cithreii, 1666, and
" Parthenia," from a flageolet book, printed in 16S2.
These are only given as specimens of musical notation. The curious will find exact
translations in National English Airs, i. 118.
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

General Introduction.
PAGE

Minstrelsy from the Saxon period to the reign of Edward I. . . .1

Music of the middle ages, and Music in England to the end of the thirteenth century 11

English Minstrelsy from 1270 to 1480, and the gradual extinction of the old MinstreU 28

Introduction to the reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Queen Mary 48

Songs and ballads of

Songs and ballads of

ditto

ditto
.

....
.....
Introduction to the reign of Queen Elizabeth
. . , . 56

110
to

to
97

98

243

Introduction to the reign of James I. . . . . , 244

Songs and ballads of the reigns of James I. and Charles I. . . 254 to 384
 INTRODUCTION.

It ia now nearly twenty years since the publication of my collection of

National English Airs (the first of the kind), and about fourteen since the edition
was exhausted. In the interval, I found such numerous notices of music and
ballads in old English books, that nearly every volume supplied some fresh
illustration of my subject. If " Sternhold and Hopkins" was at hand
the title-page told that the psalms were penned for the " laying apart of all

ungodly songs and ballads," and the translation furnished a list of musical
instruments in use at the time it was made if Myles Coverdale's Ghostly
:

Psalms —in the preface he alludes to the ballads of our courtiers, to the
whistling of our carters and ploughmen, and recommends young women at the
distaff and spinning-wheel to forsake their " hey, nonny, nonny — hey, trolly, lolly,

and such like fantasies;" thus shewing what were the usual burdens of their
songs. Even in the twelfth century. Abbot Ailred's, or Ethelred's, reprehension
of the singers gives so lively a picture of their airs and graces, as to resemble an
exaggerated description of opera-singing at the present day and, if still receding ;

in point of date, in the life of St. Aldhelm, or Oldham, we find that, in order to
ingratiate himself with the lower orders, and induce them to listen to serious
subjects, he adopted the expedient of dressing himself like a minstrel, and first

sang to them their popular songs.

If something was to be gleaned from works of this order, how much more from
the comedies and other pictures of English life in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries ! I resolved, therefore, to defer the re-publication for a few years, and
then found the increase of materials so great, that it became easier to re-write than
to make additions. Hence the change of title to the woi'k.
Since my former publication, also, I have been favoured with access to the
by Pepys, the well-known diarist ; and the nearly equally cele-
ballads collected
brated " Roxhurghe Collection" (formed by Robert, Earl of Oxford, and increased
by subsequent possessors) has been added to the library of the British Museum.
These and other advantages, such as the permission to examine and make extracts
from the registers of the Stationers' Company (through the liberality of the
governing body) , have induced me to attempt a chronological arrangement of the
airs. Such an arrangement is necessarily imperfect, on account of the impossi'^
bility of tracing the exact dates of tunes by unknown authors but in every case ;

the reader has before him the evidence upon which the classification has been
founded.
Vi. INTRODUCTION.

might be supposed that the registers of the Company of Stationers would

It
furnish a completelist of ballads and ballad-printers, but, h aving seen all the

entries from 1577 to 1799, I should say that not more than one out of every
hundi-ed ballads was registered. The names of some of the printers are not to
be found in the registers.
from an entry referring to the "white book" of the Company
It appears
(which is not now existing), that seven hundred and ninety-six ballads were left
in the council-chamber of the Company at the end of the year 1660, to be handed
over to the new Wardens, and at the same time but forty-four books.
Webbe, 1586, speaks of " the
in a Discourse of English Foetrie, printed in
un-coimtaUe rabble of ryming ballet-makers and compylers of senseless sonnets,"
and adds, " there is not anie tune or stroke which may be sung or plaide on
Instruments, which hath not some poetical ditties framed according to the numbers
thereof : some to Rogero, some to Trenchmore, to Downright Squire, to galliardes,
to pavines, to jygges, to brawles, to manner of tunes which every fidler knows
all ;

better than myself, and therefore I will let them passe." Here the class of music
is named with which old English ditties were usually coupled dance and ballad —
tunes. The great musicians of Elizabeth's reign did not often compose airs of
the short and rhythmical character required for ballads. These were chiefly the
productions of older musicians, or of those of lower grade, and some of ordinary
fiddlers and pipers. The Frog Galliard is the only instance I know of a popular
ballad-tune to be traced to a celebrated composer of the latter half of the sixteenth
century. The scholastic music then in vogue was of a wholly different character.
iPoint and counterpoint, fugue and the ingenious working of parts, were the great
objects of study, and rhythmical melody was but lightly esteemed.
In the reigns of .James I. and Charles I., we find a few " new court tunes"
employed for ballads, but it was not until Charles 11. ascended the throne that
composers of high repute commenced, or re-commenced, the writing of simple
airs, and then but sparingly. Matthew Locke's " Tlie delights of the bottle" is
perhaps the first song composed for the stage, that supplied a tune to ballads.

My former publication contained two hundred and forty-five airs ; the present
number exceeds four hundred. Of these, two hundred are contained in the first

volume, which extends no further than the reign of Charles I. This portion of
the work may be considered as a collection ; but the number of airs extant of later
date is so much larger than of the earlier period, that the second volume can be
viewed only in the light of a selection. To have made it upon the same scale as the

first would have occupied at least three volumes instead of one. My endeavour
has therefore been, to give as much variety of character as possible, but especially
to include those airs which were popular as ballad-tunes. Some of those contained
in the old collection havenow given place to others of more general interest, but
more than two hundred arej.-etained. Every air has been re-harmonized, upon a
simple and consistent plan, —
the introductions to the various reigns have been
added, —
and nearly every line in the book has been re-written.
I have been at some ti-ouble to trace to its origin the assertion that the English
 INTRODUCTION. vii.

have no national music. It is extraordinary that such a report should have

obtained credence, for England may safely challenge any nation not only to pro-
duce as much, but also to give the same satisfactory proofs of antiquity. The
report seems to have gained ground from the unsatisfactory selection of English
airs in Dr. Crotch's Specimens of various Styles of Music ; but the national music
in that work was supplied by Malchair, a Spanish violin-player at Oxford, whose
authority Crotch therein quotes. It is perhaps not generally known that at the
time of the publication Dr. Crotch was but nineteen years of age. No collection
of English airs had at that time been made to guide Malchair, and he followed
the dictum of Dr. Burney in such passages as the following :

"It is related by Giovanni Battista Donado that the Turks have a limited
number of tunes, to which the poets of their country have continued to write for
ages and the vocal music of our own country seems long to have been equally
;

circumscribed for, till the last century, it seems as if the number of our secular
:

and popular melodies did not greatly exceed that of the Turks." In a note, he
adds, that the tunes of the Turks were in all twenty- four, which were to depict
melancholy, joy, or fury, — to be mellifluous or amorous. {History, ii. 653.)
Again, in Shakespeare's Midsummer NighCs Bream, when Bottom has been
turned into an ass, and says " I have a reasonable good ear in music let me have ;

tongs and bones," the stage direction " Musick tongs, Kural Music." Burney
is

inverts the stage direction, and adds " Poker and tongs, marrowbones and cleavers,
salt-box, hurdy-gurdy, &c., are the old national instruments of our island."
(iii. 335.)
Jean Jacques Kousseau published a letter on French music, which he summed
up by telling his countrymen that " their harmony was abominable their airs ;

were not airs ; their recitative was not recitative that they had no music, and
;

could not have any." (Rousseau, Ecrits sur la Musique, Paris, edit. 1823,
p. 312.) Dr. Burney seems to have improved upon this model, for Rousseau did
not resort to misquotation to prove his case, but Dr. Burney's History is one
continuous misrepresentation of English music and musicians, only rendered
plausible by misquotation of every kind.
The effect of the is that he has been believed
misquotation and passages as ;

absurd as the following have been copied by writers who have relied upon his
authority :

" The low state of our regal music in the time of Henry VIII., 1530, may be
gathered from the accounts given in Hall's and Hollinshed's Chronicles, of a masque
at Cardinal Wolsey's palace, Whitehall, where the King was entertained with
' a concert of drums and fifes.' But this was soft music compared with that of
his heroic daughter Elizabeth, who, according to Hentzner, used to be regaled
during dinner 'Avith twelve trumpets and two kettle-drums; which, together with

fifes, cornets, and side-drums, made the hall ring for half an hour together.' "
{History, iii. 143.)
There is nothing of the kind in the books Dr. Burney pretends to quote. The
account of the chroniclers is of Henry the Eighth's landing at Wolsey's palace.
vm. INTRODUCTION.

where, by a preconcerted arrangement, " divers chambers" (short cannon that

made a loud report) were let off, and he was conducted into the hall with " such
a noise of drums and flutes as seldom had been heard the like," for the purpose
oi surprising the Cardinal and the masquers. Not a word of the music of the
masque.
As Queen Elizabeth, Hentzner describes only the military music to give notice
to

in the palace that dinner was being carried in. Music then answered the purpose
of the dinner-bell. He says " the queen dines and sups alone."
Bui-ney carries his depreciation of English authors systematically throughout
his work. It might be supposed that he would have allowed an author of so early
a date as John Cotton, who flourished soon after Guido, to pass unchallenged, but
he first misrepresents, and then contradicts him. Burney tells us that Cotton
ascribes the invention of neumse erroneously to Guido (ii. 144). Now Cotton
speaks of various modes of writing music by the musical signs called neumse, and
attributes the last only to Guido. It is certain that Burney read no more of the
treatise than the heading of a chapter (Quid utilitatis afferant netmim a Guidone

inventm), for he proves by a note upon neumas, that he only half understood what
they were. To any reader of Cotton's treatise, such misapprehension would have
been impossible. (See Gerbert's Scriptores Ucclesiastici de Mnsicd, ii. 257.)
It is not always easy to prove that a writer reviewed works without reading
them, but I doubt if any musician can now be found who believes that Burney
had examined " all the works he could find " of Henry Lawes, with the " care
and candour" that he professes ; while in the case of Morley's Concert-Lessons,
it is certain that he passed his facetious judgment upon them after scoring only

a portion of two parts, the work being in six. This is proved by his own manu-
script (Addit. MSS. 11,687, Brit. Mus.), and there was no perfect copy of the
work extant at the time.
When Burney tells us that the Catch Club sang old compositions " better than
the authors intended" (iii. 123), — that " our secular vocal music, dm-ing the first
years of Elizabeth's reign, seems to have been much
inferior to that of the Church,"

and has no better proof of it than a book of songs composed by an amateur mu-
sician, " Thomas Wythorne, Gent.," in 1571 (iii. 119), when he says that, in —
the same reign, " the violin was hardly known to the English in shape or in

name !" (iii. 143), —and that Playford was the Jirst who published music in the
seventeenth centm-y, yet commenced in 1653 ! (iii. —
417 and 418), he shews not
only a desire to underrate, but also a deficiency of knowledge, that must weaken
all confidence in him as an historian.
In his review of the music in Elizabeth's reign, he tells us that " the art of
singing, further than was necessary to keep a performer in tune and time, must
have been unknown . . . solo songs, anthems, and cantatas, being productions of
later times" (iii. 114). A more strange misconception could scarcely have been
penned. No songs to the lute ? No ballads ? If so. Miles Coverdale might have
spared himself the trouble of telling the courtier " not to rejoice in his ballads,"
and Chaucer should have represented at least three persons as serenading the
 INTRODUCTION. IX.

carpenter's wife, and not one. As to the art of singing, Dr. Burney has himself
quoted the description of John of Salisbury, written four hundred years before
Queen Elizabeth's reign, and that is quite enough to refute the opinion above
expressed ; but, if more be requked, the reader will find it here in the long note
at p. 404.
There was a proverb, of French origin, current both in Latin and English in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, respecting the manner of singing by dif-
ferent nations. The Latin version was " Galli cantant, Angli jubilant, Hispani
plangunt, Germani ulutant, Itali caprizant "
:
the English was " The French
sing," or "The French pipe, the English carol [rejoice, or sing merrily], the
Spaniards wail, the Germans howl, the Italians caper." (The allusion to the
Italians is rather as to their unsteady holding of notes than to their facility in
florid singing; caper signifying "a goat.") Burney, without any authority,
renders it "the English shout" (iii.Now, although we have no modern
182).
English verb that is an exact translation of " jubilare," the Italian " giubilare"
has precisely the same signification ; and Pasqualigo, the Venetian ambassador
to Henry VIII., describing the singing of the English choristers in the King's
chapel, says " their voices are really rather divine than human non cantavano —
ma jubilavano," which can be understood only in a highly complimentary sense.
It is sufficient for my present purpose to say that Dr. Burney's History is

written throughout in this strain. What with mistake, and what with misrepre-
sentation, it can but mislead the reader as to English music or musicians ; and
from the slight search I have made into his early Italian authorities, I doubt
whether even that portion is very reliable. The public hasnow forgotten
the contention between the rival histories of music of Hawkins and Burney, and
a few words should be placed upon record. Hawkins's entire work was published
in 1776, and Burney's first volume in the same year, his second in 1782, and his
third and fourth in 1789. Bui-ney obtained a great reputation by his first volume,
which is upon the music of the ancients. In that he was assisted by the researches
of the Rev. Thomas Twining, the translator of Aristotle's Poetics, who relin-
quished his own projected, and partly-written history, in Burney's favour.
Hawkins's work is of great original research, and he isa far more reliable
authority for fact than Burney : still the history is by no means so well digested.
It is an analysis of book after book and life after life, fitted rather for supplying
materials to those who will dig them out, than to be read as a whole.
Burney's
is a very agreeably written book, but he made history pleasant by such lively
sallies as those I have quoted he took his authorities at second hand, when the
:

originals were accessible

; and copied
especially from Hawkins, without acknowledg-
ment, and disguised the plagiarism by altering the language. Many of his appro-
priations are to be traced by errors which it is impossible that two men reading
independently could commit. Burney had but one love, and —the Italian school, —
he thought the most minute particulars of the Italian opera of his day worthy
of being chronicled. The madrigal with him was a " many-headed monster"
(iii. 385) French music was " displeasing to all ears but those of France," and
:
X. INTKODUCTIOH.

Rousseau's letter upon it " an excellent piece of musical criticism," combining

" good sense, taste, and reason" (iv. 615) he dismisses Sebastian Bach in half:

a dozen lines ; and, although he devotes much space to Handel's operas, his
oratorios are often dismissed with the barest record of their existence by a line in

a note. Israel in Egypt, Ads and Gralaiea, &c., are unnoticed.

The present collection will sufficiently prove that " the number of our secular
and popular melodies" was not quite as " cii'cumscribed " as Dr. Burn ey has
represented but, indeed, he had a book in his library which alone gave a com-
;

plete refutation to his limited estimate. I have now before me one of the editions
of The Dancing Master, a collection of Country Dances, published by Playford,
which was formerly in Burney's possession. It contains more than two hundred
tunes, the names of which must convince an ordinary reader that at least a con-
siderable number among them are song and ballad tunes, while a musician will as
readily perceive many others to be of the same class, from the construction of
the melody. If a doubt should remain as to the character of the airs in collections
of this kind, further evidence is by no means wanting. Sir Thomas Elyot, writing
in 1531, and describing many ancient modes of dancing, says (in The Qovernour)
" As for the special names [of the dances], they were taken as they he now, either
of the names of the first inventour, or of the measure and number they do con-
teine, or of i}iQ first tvords of the ditties which the song comprehendeth, whereoff
the daunce was made ;" and, to approach nearer to the time of the publication in
question, Charles Butler, in 1636, speaks of " the infinite multitude of ballads
set to sundi'y pleasant and delightful tunes by cunning and witty composers, with
country dances j^^ie^ unto them.'''' See his Principles of Musick.
The eighteen Dancing Master are of great assistance in the
editions of Hie
chronological arrangement of our popular tunes from 1650 to 1728 ;^ for, although
some airs run through every edition, we may tell by the omission of others, when
they fell into desuetude, as well as the airs by which their places were supplied.

"»
The first edition of this collection is entitled "The Dancing Master.) The date of the fourth edition is

English Dancing Master: or Plaine and easie rules for 1670 (155 pages of music). Fifth edition, 1675, and 160
the da,ncing of Country Dances, with the tune to each pages of music. (The contents of the sixth edition are
dance (104 pages of music). Printed by Thomas Harper, ascertained to be almost identical -with the fifth, by the

and are to be sold by John Playford, at his shop in the newtunes added to the seventh being marked with *, but
Inner Temple, neere the Church doore." The date is 1651, I have not seen a copy. From advertisements in Play-
but it was entered at Stationers* Hall on 7lh Nov., 1650. ford's other publications, it appears to have been printed
This edition is onlarger paper than any of the subsequent. in 1680.) The seventh edition bears date 1686 (208 pages),
The next is "The Dancing Master with the tune to but to this " an additional sheet," containing 32 tunes,
each dance, to be play'don the treble Viulin the second
: was first added, then *' a new additional sheet" of 12
edilion, enlarged and corrected from many giosse errors pages," and lastly "a new addition" of 6 more. The
which were in the former edition." This was "Printed eighth edition was "Printed by E. Jones for H. Playford,"
for John Playford," in 1652 (112 pages of music). The and great changes made in the airs. It has 220 pages,
two next editions, those of 1657 and 1665, each contain date, 1690. The nintli edition, 196 pages,— date, 1695.
132 country dances, and are counted by Playford as one *'
The second part of the Dancing Master," 24 p.iges,
edition. To both were added "the tunes of the most date, 1696. The tenth edition, 215 pages, — date, 1698 ;

usual French dances, and also other new and pleasant also the second edition of the second part, ending on p. 48
English tunes for the treble Violin." That of 1665 was (irregularlypaged), 1698. The eleventh is the first edition
" Printed by W. G., and sold by J. Playford and Z. Wat- in tlfe new tied note, 312 pages,— date, 1701. The twelfth
kins, at their shop in the Temple." It has 88 tunes for edition goes back to the old note, 354 pages, — date, 1703.
the violin at the end. (The tunes for the violin The later editions are well known, but the above are
were afterwards printed separately as Apollo's Banquet, scarce.
and are not included in any other edilion of The
 INTRODUCTION. xi.

Many of our ballad- tunes were not fitted for dancing, and therefore were not
included in The Dancing Master ; but a considerable number of these is supplied
by the ballad-operas which were printed after the extraordinary success of The
Beggars' Opera in 1728.
I might name many other books which have contributed their quota, especially
Wit and Mirth, or Pills to purge Melancholy, with its numerous editions from 1699
to 1720, —
but all are indicated in the work. I cannot, however, refrain from
some notice of the numerous foreign publications in which our national airs are
included. Sometimes they are in the form of country dances, — at others, as
songs, or as tunes for the lute. I have before me three sets of country dances
printed in Paris during the last century, and as one of these is the " 5^™^Recueil
d'Anglaises telle qu'elles se dansent che la Reine," there must have been at least
four more of that series. Many of my readers may notknow that the " Quad-
rille de Contredanses " in which they join under the name of " a set of Quad-
rilles," is but our old " Square Country Dance" come back to us again. The
new designation commenced no longer ago than 1815, — just after the war.
Horace Walpole tells us in his letters, that our country dances were all the rage
in Italy at the time he wrote, and, as collections were printed at
Manheim, Munich,
in various towns of the Netherlands, and even as far North as Denmark, it is
clear that they travelled over the greater part of Europe. The Danish collection
now before me consists of 296 pages, with a volume of nearly equal thickness to
describe the figures.
Some of the works printed in Holland during the seventeenth century, which
contain English airs, have materially assisted in the chronological arrangement.
Of these, Vallet's Tahlature de Luth, entituU Le Secret des Muses, was published
at Amsterdam in 1615. Bellerophon, of Lust tot Wysheit, in 1620, and other
editions at later dates. Valerius's Nederlandtsche Gedenck-Olanck, at Haerlem,
in 1626. Starter's Friesche Licst-JSbf, and his Boertigheden, in 1634, and other
editions without dates. Camphuysen's Stichtelyche Rymen, 1647, 1652, and
without date. Pers's Gresangh der Zeeden, 1662, and without date. Urania,
1648, and without date.
It is only necessary to remark upon the chronological arrangement, that, in
order to ascertain what airs or ballads were popular in any particular reign, the
reader will have occasion to refer also to those which precede it. Without endless
repetition, it could not have been otherwise.
Facsimiles of a few of the manuscripts will be found in the following pages.
I have now the pleasing duty of returning thanks to those who have assisted
me in this collection ;
and first to Edward F. Rimbault, LL.D., and Mr. G. A.
Macfarren. Dr. Rimbault has been the largest contributor to my work, and a
contributor in every form. To him I am indebted for pointing out many airs
which would have escaped me, and for adding largely to my collection of notices
of others ; for the loan of rare books ; and for assisting throughout with his ex-
tensive musical and bibliographical knowledge. To Mr. G. A. Macfarren for
having volunteered to re-arrange the airs which were to be taken from my former
Xll. INTRODUCTION.

collection, as well as to harmonize the new upon a simple and consistent plan
throughout. In my former work, some had too much harmony, and others even
too little, or such as was not in accordance with the spirit of the words. The
musician will best understand the amount of thought required to find character-
istic harmonies to melodies of irregular construction, and how much a simple air
will sometimes gain by being well fitted.

To the Right Hon. the Earl of Abergavenny I am indebted for the loan of
" Lady Nevell's Virginal Book," a manuscript collection of music for the vir-
ginals, transcribed in 1591. To the late Lord Braybrooke I owe the means of
access to Pepys's collection of ballads, which was indispensable for the due
prosecution of the work.
To Mr. J. Payne Collier, F.S.A., I am indebted for the loan of a valuable
manuscript of poetry, transcribed in the reign of James I., containing much of
still earlier date ; and for free access to his collection of ballads and of rare books
to Mr. George Daniel, of Canonbury, for copies of several Elizabethan ballads,
which are to be found only in his unique collection ; and to Mr. David Laing,
F.S.A. Scot., for the loan of several rare books.

To Sir Frederick Madden, K.H., Keeper of the Manuscripts in the British

Museum, I am indebted for much information about manuscripts, readily given,
and with such uniform courtesy, that it becomes an especial pleasure to

acknowledge it.

W. C.
3, Harley Place {N. W.),
or 201, Regent Street. (
W.)
 EXPLANATION OF THE FACSIMILES.

Plate 1 (facing the title-page).

— " Sumer is icumen in," from one of the Harleian
Manuscripts in the British Museum, No. 978. It is literally a " six men's song,"
such as is alluded to in the burlesque romance of The Turnament of Tottenham,
and, being of the middle of the thirteenth century, is perhaps the greatest musical
curiosity extant. The directions for singing it are in Latin :
" Hanc rotam cantare
possunt quatuor socii. A paucioribus autem quam a tribus aut saltern duobus non
debet dici, preter eos qui dicunt pedem.Canitur autem sic. Taeentibus ceteris, unus
inchoat cum hiis Et cum venerit ad primam notam post crucem,
qui tenent pedem.
inchoat alius, et sic de ceteris. Singuli vero repausent ad pausaciones scriptas, et non
alibi, spacio unius longsB notse." [Four companions can sing this Round. It should
not, however, be sung by less than three, or at least two, besides those who sing the
burden. It is to be sung thus : —
One begins with those who sing the burden, the
others remaining silent ; but when he arrives at the first note after the cross, another
begins. The rest follow in the same order. Each singer must j)au3e at the written

pauses for the time of one long note, but not elsewhere.] The directions for singing
the " Pes," or Burden, are, to the first voice, " Hoc repetit unus quociens opus est,
faciens pausacionem in fine" [One voice repeats this as often as necessary, pausing at
the end] ; and, to the second, " Hoc dicit alius, pausans in medio, et non in fine, sed
immediate repetens principium." [Another sings this, pausing in the middle, and
not at the end, but immediately re-commencing.]
The melody of this Round is printed in modern notation at p. 24, and in the pages
which precede it (21 to 24) the reader will find some account of the manuscript from
which it is taken. It only remains to add that the composition is in what was called
" perfect time," and therefore every long note must be treated as dotted, unless it is
immediately followed by a short note (here of diamond shape) to fill the time of the
dot. The music is on six lines, and if the lowest line were taken away, the remaining
would be the five now employed in part-music where the clef is used on the third
line for a counter-tenor voice.
The composition will be seen in score in Hawkins's and Burney's Histories of
Music. The Round has been recently sung in public, and gave so much satisfaction,

even to modern hearers, that a repetition was demanded. It is published in a detached

form for four voices.

Plate 2. — " An,

the syghes that come fro' my heart," from a manuscript of
the time ofHenry VIII,, in the British Musenm (MSS. Reg., Append., 58). For
the melody in modern notation, see p. 57.
XIV. EXPLANATION OF THE FACSIMILES.

In transcribing old music without bars, it is necessary to know that the ends of
phrases and of lines of poetry are commonly expressed by notes of longer duration
than their relative value. Much of the music in Stafford Smith's Musica Antiqua is
wrongly barred, and the rhythm destroyed by the non-observance of this rule. As
one of many instances, see " Tell me, dearest, what is love," taken from a manuscript
of James the First's time {3his. Antiq., i. 55). By carrying half the semibreve at
the end of the second bar into the third, he begins the second line of poetry (" 'Tis
a lightning from above") on the half- bar instead of at the commencement, and thus
falsifies the accent of that line and of all that follows. The antiquarian way would have

been, either to print the semibreve within the bar, or, which is far better, a minim with
a pause over it. In modernizing the notation, even the pause is unnecessary. Webbe
also bars incorrectly in the Convito Armonico. For instance, in " We be three poor
mariners," the tune is right the first time, but at the recurrence (on " Shall we go

dance the Round, the Round, the Round?") he commences on the half-bar, because
he has given too much time to the word " ease" in the bar immediately preceding.

Plate 3.
— " Green Sleeves," a tune mentioned by Shakespeare, from " William
Ballet's Lute Book," described in note ''
at p. 86. This is the version I have printed
at p. 230, but an exact translation of the copy will be found in my " National English
Airs," i. 118. It is only necessary to remark that, in lute-music of the sixteenth
century, bars are placed rather to guide the eye than to divide the tune equally. The
time marked over the lines is the only sure guide for modern barring.

Plate 4. —
" Sellenoer's Round," from a manuscript in the Fitzwilliam Museum,
at Cambridge, commonly known as " Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book." See also
p. 71.
Dr. Burney speaks of this manuscript first as " going under the name of Queen

Elizabeth's Virginal Book," and afterwards quotes it as if it had really been so.
I am surprised that he should not have discovered the error, considering that he had it
long enough in his possession to extract one of the pieces, and to give a full descrip-
tion of the contents, (iii. 86, et seq.) It is now so generallj' known by that name,
that, for brevity's sake, I have employed it throughout the work. Nevertheless, it
can never have been the property of Queen Elizabeth. It is written throughout in
one handwriting, and in that writing are dates of 1603, 1605, and 1612.
It is a small-sized folio volume, in red morocco binding of the time of James I.,
elaborately tooled and ornamented with fleurs de lis, &c., gilt edges, and the pages
are numbered to 419, of which 418 are written.
The manuscript was purchased at the sale of Dr. Pepusch's collection, in 1762, by
R. Bremner, the music-publisher, at the pi-ice of ten guineas, and by him given to
Lord Fitzwilliam.
Ward gives an account of Dr. Bull's pieces included in this virginal book, in his
Zives of the Gresliam Professors, fol., 1740, p. 203, but does not say a word of the
volume having belonged to Queen Elizabeth. We
first hear of it in Dr. Pepusch's

possession, and, ashe purchased many of his manuscripts in Holland (especially those
including Dr. Bull's compositions), it is by no means improbable that this English
manuscript may also have been obtained there. I am led to the conjecture by finding
the only composer's name invariably abbreviated is that of " Tregian." At the com-
mencement of Verstegan's Restitution of decayed Intelligence, Antwerp, 1605, is a
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 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.

Ashe, J. W. L., Esq., Exeter. Broadwood, Henry F., Esq.

Allen, G. P., Esq., Organist of St. Broadwood, Walter, Esq.
George's, Wolverhampton; Bros, Thomas, Esq.
Allen, G. B., Esq., Armagh. Brown, Graham, Esq.
Alston, The Rev. E. 0., Dennington Brown, T. P., Esq., Jersej'.
Rectory. Brdoe, Lord Charles.
Amott, J., Esq., Organist of the Cathedral, BucHER, M., Edinburgh.
Gloucester. BussELL, H., Esq., Dublin.
Atkins, R. A., Esq., Organist of the Buck, Dr., Norwich.
Cathedral, St. Asaph's. BuNNETT, E., Esq., Norwieli.
Arcedeckne, Andrew, Esq. Burohett, J. R., Esq.
AsHBURNHAM, The Right Hon. the Benson, G., Esq.
Countess of. Birkenhead, Miss.
AsHPiTEL, Arthur, F.S.A. Begrez, J., Esq.
Butterworth, Mr., Sheffield.

Bartholomew, Mrs. Mounsey.

Bacon, G. P., Esq., Lewes. Cawdor, The Right Hon. the Earl of.
Bagnold, Mrs. Calthorp, Thomas, D., Esq.
Barnett, Mr. John Francis. Oawood, Martin, Esq., Leeds.
Barlow, Mr. W., Manchester. Callcott, W. H., Esq., Kensington.
Beevor, C, Esq. Chaplin, Captain, Hastings.
Benedict, Jules, Esq. Chater, George, Esq.
Best, T. W., Esq., Organist of St. George's Chisholm, H. W., Esq.
Hall, Liverpool. Close, Thomas, Esq., Nottingham.
Binfield, Miss, Reading. 2 copies. Clarke, Mr., Preston.
Blake, Thomas, Esq. Cocks, Robert Lincoln, Esq.
Blockley, John, Esq. Cohen, Albert, Esq.
Bloxsome, Charles, Esq., Sheffield. Cooper, G. Armytage, Esq., Lecturer on
Bishop, John, Esq., Cheltenham. Music.
Barnett, John, Esq., Cheltenham. Compton, Henry, Esq., Melbourne, Aus-
Blumenthal, J., Esq. tralia.

Black, Dr. Copeland, W. R., Esq., Liverpool.

Bowers, Miss, Clifton. Cox, Captain C. J., Fordwich House,
BosANQUET, Mrs. Godfrey Kent.
Bourne, Dr., Ashted House, Birmingham. Crotch, Rev. R. W., Uphill House, near
Braine, W. R., Esq., Kensington. Weston-super-Mare.
 XVllI. LIST OP SUBSCRIBERS.

Crossley, G. J., Esq., Bowdeii, near Man- Goss, John, Esq., Organist and Composer
chester. to Her Majesty's Chapels Royal.
OUMMINGS, — Esq. Godfrey, Charles, Esq.
Curtis, W., Es(1., Nottingham.
Hdtton, Maxwell, Esq., Dublin.
Harrison, J., Esq., Deal.
Davis, Miss.
Hacking, Richard, Esq., Mus. Bac, Bury,
Davidson, W., Esq., Aberdeen.
Lancashire,
Davekport, John, Esq.
Harrison, W., Esq., F.G.S., F.Z.S., Galli-
De Capell Broke, Lady.
greaves House.
De la Rub, William, Esq. 2 copies.
Hale, Mr. C, Cheltenham.
Delavante and Co., Manchester.
Hawkins, The Rev. W. B.
De JIonti, Mr. J. H., Glasgow. 2 copies.
Hayes, Mrs., St. Catharine's.
Db Vos, Polydoke, Esq., Jersey.
Harris, Mr., Northampton.
Dixon, Eobert VV., Esq., Seaton Carew.
Harvey, The Rev. G. H., Wimbledon.
Done, W., Esq., Organist of the Cathedral,
Hammond, Mr.
Worcester.
Hayward, Henry, Esq., Wolverhampton.
Doneraile, The Right Hon. Viscountess.
Dock, Mr. W., Bath. Halle, Charles, Esq.
DuERDiN, John, Esq. Hatton, J. L., Esq.
2 copies.
DuNRAVEN, The Right Hon. the Earl Hendrie, Robert, Esq.
of.

DuGQAN, Joseph, Esq. Hennell, G. R., Esq.

Dyce, The Rev. Alexander. Hemery, Mr.
Hills, William, Esq.
Higham, F., Esq., Wolverhampton.
Eborall, Miss, Lichfield.
Hime, Mr. B., Manchester.
Edgar, Mrs. George.
HoLL, William, Esq.
Ella, John, Esq. 2 copies.
HoLL, Henry, Esq.
Engel, Carl, Esq.
HoLL, Francis, Esq.
EuiNG, William, F.S.A., Scot., Glasgow.
Hopkins, E. J., Esq., Organist of the
Temple Church.
Favarger, Re'ne', Esq. Holmes, W. H., Esq.
Fagg, Mr., Hull. Hopkins, J. L., Mus. Doc, Cambridge.
Parren, William, Esq. Howe, H., Esq., Isleworth.
Farrer, T. H., Esq. Hopkinson, Messrs., Leeds.
Fellowes, Lady. HoRNE, F. Lennox, Esq.
Ferrari, Signor Adolfo. Holland, W., Esq.
Fitzwilliam, Mrs. Edward. HULLAH, J. P., Esq.
Foster, John, Esq., Gent, of Her Majesty's Hdtton, The Rev. Hugh.
Chapels Royal.
Fowler, Charles, Esq., Torquay. Isaac, B. R., Esq., Liverpool.

Geattan, IL W., Esq. Jackson, Mr., Bradford.

GiRAUD, Frank, Esq., Faversham. Jewson, J. P., Esq., Stockton-on-Tees.
GiBBS, Walter S., Esq., Bath.
GitEEN, John, Esq. Knapton, Miss, Ripon.
Green, Miss, Ashby do la Zouche. Kerslake, Mr., Bristol. 2 copies.
Goss, The Rev. John, Hereford. Kreeft, S. C, Esq., Consul-General.
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Kendall, J. F., Esq. Newman, The Rev. W. A., D.D., Wolver-

Kbrky, John, Esq. hampton.
Keene, Charles, Efsq. NioHOL, — Esq.
Ketelle, S. W., Esq., Newcastle. Nicholls, W. H., Esq.
Kirk, J. M., Esq., Halifax. Nicholson, Alfred, Esq.
King, H. Stavely, Esq., M.D. Norbury, The Right Hon. the Earl of.
Knight, Mr., Chichester. Norman, Rev. R. VV., St. Peter's College,
King, Donald, Esq. near Abingdon.
Norwood, Jasper, Esq., Preston.
Lablache, Signor F. Norman, Mrs., The Rookery, Bromley.
Land, Edward, Esq.
Lambert, D., Esq., York. Ollivier, Mr. Robert.
Lambeth, Henry A., Esq., Glasgow. Osborne, G. A., Esq.
Lewis, Miss, Putney. Odseley, The Rev. Sir Frederick Arthur
LiNwooD, Miss. Gore, Bart., Professor of Music in the
LoHR, G. A., Esq., Leicester. University of Oxford.
Lover, Samdel, Esq. OuLD, Edwin, Esq.
LovETT, Mr.
LocKEY, Charles, Esq.
Paget, R., Esq.
Parker, John "William, Esq.
Mason, Joseph Edward, Esq.
Paterson, Mr. R. Roy, Edinburgh.
Mason, Thomas, jiin., Esq., Newcastle-
Pole, S. Chandos, Esq.
under-Lyme.
Pdedie, Mr. John, Edinburgh.
Marshall, J. W., Esq., Richmond, York-
Pye, Kellow, Esq., Wimbledon.
shire.
Masson, Miss.
Martineau, Philip, Esq. Rawlings, —
Esq., Shrewsbury.

Mackenzie, J. Whitefoord, Ravey, Mr.

Esq., Edin-
burgh.
Reed, T. German, Esq.
Martin, G. W., Esq. Richards, Mr. T.
,

Mackway, Mr. Richardson, —

Esq., Swindon.

Mercer, The Kev. W., M.A., Romee, Frank, Esq.

Sheffield.
Mills, R., Robinson, Joseph, Esq., Dublin.
jun., Esq.
Morant, The Lady Henrietta. RowE, Mrs., Plymouth.
MoRANT, John, Esq., Brockenhurst House, Rhodes, Jeremiah, Esq,, Pontefract.
Lymington. RoBB, Mrs.
,'MoNK, Edwin George, Mus. Doc, Organist RoBECK, The Baron de, Swordlestown.

of the Cathedral, York.

RuDALL, Rose, and Carte, Messrs.
Monk, W. H., Esq., Organist of King's
College, London. Stanford, John, Esq., Dublin.
Morris, Val., Esq. Salaman, Charles, Esq.
Mdrby, Thomas, Esq. Sandys, W., Esq., F.S.A.
Mario, Signor. Salt, George, M., Esq., Shrewsbury.
Maclure, Andrew, Esq. Sacred Harmonic Society (The)
MoRiER, G. J., Esq. Spark, W., Esq., Organist, Leeds.
Moore, The Hon. Mrs. Montgomery, Smith, G. Townshend, Esq., Organist of the
Dublin. Cathedral, Herefonl.
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Spencer, The Rev. Peter, Temple Ewell, Thomson, James, Esq., Glasgow.
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Smith, Samuel, Esq., Bradford. Vantini, Townsend, Esq.
Smith, W. H., Esq., Sheffield.
Smith, Mr. John, Leeds.
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Ward, The Right Hon. Lord. 2 copies.
Singleton, Rev. R. C, Kingstown, Dublin. Walker, George, Esq., Aberdeen.
Signet Library, (The) Edinburgh.
Wallerstein, F. G., Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Silver, William, Esq. Walsh, E., Esq.

Swift, Joseph, Esq. Warren, E., Esq., Organist of Christ

Skelton, G. J., Esq., Hull.

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Shea, Alexander, Esq. Wallace, W. Vincent, Esq.

Ward, The Rev. Arthur R., St. John's
Shelmerdine, W., Esq., Nottingham.
College, Cambridge.
Shoreham College.
Stanyon, John, Esq., Leicester.
Warren. Mr. John, Royston.
Stanley, E. H., Esq.
Weiss, W. H., Esq.

Stephenson, W. F., Esq., Organist, Bishop-

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ton.
Williams, T., Esq., Fairlight, Tunbridge
Sloper, Lindsay, Esq.
Wells.
Sutton and Potter, Messrs., Dover.
Stocqueler, J. H., Esq. Wighton, Mr. A. J., Dundee.
Wilson, M, C, Esq.
Sykes, Luke, R., Esq.
Spalding, S., Esq.
WiNSLow, Forbes, Esq., M.D., D.C.L.
Squire, F., Esq.
Winn, W., Esq.
Winstanley, j. B., Esq., Bramston House,
Stokes, Dr., Dublin.
near Leicester.
TKAVERSjMias M.T., Hartsbourne, Bushey, WooLcoMBE, The Rev. W. Walker, Man-
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Thaoker, a. C, Esq., Peterborough. Wood, Messrs. J. M., and Co., Glasgow.

Taylor, Hussey, Esq. 2 copies.
Taylor, Bianchi, Esq., Bath. Wood, Messrs., Edinburgh. 2 copiies.
Thackeray, W., Esq. Woodman, W., Esq., Hobhill, Morpeth.
Tait, W., Esq., Melrose. Wylde, Henry, Esq., Mus. Doc.
 ON ENGLISH MINSTRELSY,
SONGS AND BALLADS.

CHAPTER I.

Minstrelsy from the Saxon Period to the Reign of Edward I.

Music and Poetry are, in every country, so closely connected, during the
infancy of their cultivation, that it is scarcely possible to speak of the one without
the other. The industry and learning that have been devoted to the subject of
English Minstrelsy, and more especially in relation to its Poetry, by Percy,
Warton, and Ritson, have left an almost exhausted field to their successors.

But, while endeavouring to combine in a compressed form the various curious

and interesting notices that have been collected by their researches, or which
the labours of more recent writers have placed within my reach, I hope I may
not prove altogether unsuccessful in my endeavour to throw a few additional rays
when contemplated, chiefly, in a musical point of view.
of light upon the subject,
" The Minstrels," says Percy, " were the successors of the ancient Bards, who
under dilFerent names were admired and revered, from the earliest ages, among
the people of Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and the North and indeed by almost all
;

the first inhabitants of Europe, whether of Celtic or Gothic race but by none ;

more than by our own Teutonic ancestors, particularly by all the Danish tribes.
Among these, they were distinguished by the name of Scalds, a word which
denotes ' smoothers and polishers of language.' The origin of their art was
attributed to Odin or Wodin, the father of their Gods ; and the professors of it

were held in the highest estimation. Their skill was considered as something
divine ; their persons were their attendance was solicited by kings
deemed sacred ;

and they were everywhere loaded with honours and rewards As these
honours were paid to Poetry and Song, from the earliest times, in those countries
which our Anglo-Saxon ancestors inhabited before their removal into Britain, we
may reasonably conclude that they would not lay aside all their regard for men
of this sort, immediately on quitting their German forests. At least, so long as
they retained their ancient manners and opinions, they would still hold them in
high estimation. But as the Saxons, soon after their establishment in this
island, were converted to Christianity, in proportion as literature prevailed among
them, this rude admiration would begin to abate, and poetry would no longer be a
B
2 , ENGLISH MINSTRELSY,

peculiar profession. Thus the poet and the minstrel early with us became two
persons. Poetry was cultivated by men of letters indiscriminately and many of ;

the most popular rhymes were composed amidst the leisure and retirement of
monasteries. But the Minstrels continued a distinct order of men for many ages
after the Norman conquest; and got their livelihood by singing verses to the
harp, principally at the houses of the great. There they were still hospitably
and respectfully received, and retained many of the honours shown to their pre-
decessors, the bards and scalds. And though, as their art declined, many of
them only recited the compositions of others, some of them still composed songs
themselves, and all of them could probably invent a few stanzas on occasion.
I have no doubt but most of the old heroic ballads .... were composed by this

order of men."
The term Minstrel, however, comprehended eventually not merely those who
sang to the harp or other instrument, romances and ballads, but also such as
were distinguished by their skill in instrumental music only. Of this abundant
proof will be given in the following pages. Warton says, "As literature, the

certain attendant, as it is the parent, of true religion and civility, gained ground
among the Saxons, poetry no longer remained a separate science, and the profes-
sion of bard seems gradually to have declined among them: I mean the bard
under those appropriated characteristics, and that peculiar appointment, which he
sustained among the Scandinavian pagans. Yet their natural love of verse and
music still so strongly predominated, that in the place of their old Scalders, a new
rank of poets arose, called Gleemen, or Harpers." These probably gave rise to
the order of English Minstrels, who floarished till the sixteenth century."
Ritson, in his Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy (prefixed to his Col-
Ancient English Metrical Romances) denies the resemblance between
lection of ,

the Scalds and the Minstrels, and attacks Percy with great acrimony for as-
cribing with too great liberality, the composition of our ancient heroic songs
and metrical legends, to those by whom they were generally recited. Percy,
in the earlier editions of his Reliques of Ancient Poetry, said :
" The Minstrels
seem have been the genuine successors of the ancient Bards, who united the
to
arts of poetryand music, and sung verses to the harp, of their own composing,^^
which he afterwards modified into " composed ly themselves or others." With this
qualification there appears to be no essential difference between their systems, as
the following quotation from Ritson will show " That the difierent professors of
:

minstrelsy were, in ancient times, distinguished by names appropriated to their

respective pursuits, cannot reasonably be disputed, though it may be difficult to
prove. The Trouveur, Trouverre, or Eijmour, was he who composed romans,

" GiEEMEN, or Harpers. Fabyan, speaking of Blage- strongest internal proof that this profession was extremely
bride, an ancient British king, famous for his skill in common and popular here before the Korman conquest.
poetry and music, calls him "aconynge musicyan, called The Anglo-Saxon harpers and gleemen were the
of the Britons god of Gleemen." The learned Percy says immediate successors and imitators of the Scandinavian
"This word i^teeis derived from the Anglo-Saxon SliJS Scalds." We have also the authority of Bade for the
(gligg), mmica, music, minstrelsy (Somner). This is, practice of social and domestic singing to the harp, in
the common radix, whence arises such a variety of terms the Saxon language, upon this island, at the beginning of
and phrases relating to the minstrel ai-t, as atfords the the eighth century.
 GLEEMEN, SCALDS, BARDS. . 3

conies, fabliaux, chansons and lais ; and those who confined themselves to the
composition of contes diad. fabliaux obtained the appellation of contours, conieours, or
fabliers.The Menetrier, Menestrel, or Minstrel, was he who accompanied his song
by a musical instrument, both the words and the melody being occasionally fur-
nished by himself, and occasionally by others."
Le Grand says " This profession which misery, libertinism, and the vagabond
:

life of this sort of people, have much decried, required, however, a multiplicity of
attainments, and of talents, which one would, at this day, have some difiiculty to
find reunited, and we have more reason to be astonished at them in those days of
ignorance ; for besides all the songs, old and new, — besides the current anec-
dotes, the tales and
which they piqued themselves on knowing, besides
fabliaux, —
the romances of the time which it behoved them to know and to possess in part, they
could declaim, sing, compose music, play on several instruments, and accompany
them. Frequently even were they authors, and made themselves the pieces
they uttered." Ritson''s Dissertation, p. clxiii.
The spirit of chivalry which pervades the early metrical romances could not
have been imparted to this country by the Romans. As Warton observes,
" There is no peculiarity which more strongly discriminates the manners of the
Greeks and Romans from those of modern times, than that small degree of atten-
tion and respect with which those nations treated the fair sex, and the incon-
siderable share which they were permitted to take in conversation, and the general
commerce of life. For the truth of this observation, we need only appeal to the
classic writings : from which it appears that their women were devoted to a state
of seclusion and obscurity. One is surprised that barbarians should be greater
masters of complaisance than the most polished people that ever existed. No
sooner was the Roman empire overthrown, and the Goths had overpowered
Europe, than we find the female character assuming an unusual importance and
authority, and distinguished with new privileges, in all the European govern-
ments established by the northern conquerors. Even amidst the confusions of
savage war, and among the almost incredible enormities committed by the Goths
any violence to the women."
at their invasion of the empire, they forbore to offer
That the people of England have in all ages delighted in secular or social
music, can be proved by numerous testimonies. The Scalds and Minstrels were
held in great repute for many ages, and it is but fair to infer that the reverence
shown to them arose from the love and esteem in which their art was held. The
Romans, on their first invasion of this island, found three orders of priesthood
established here from a period long anterior. The first and most influential were
the Druids ; the second the Bards, whose business it was to celebrate the praises
of their heroes in verses and songs, which they sang to their harps ; and the third
were the Eubates, or those who applied themselves to the study of philosophy.
The Northern annals abovmd with pompous accounts of the honors conferred
on music by princes who were themselves proficients in the art for music had ;

become a regal accomplishment, as we find by all the ancient metrical romances

and heroic narrations, —and to sing to the harp was the necessary accomplishment
4 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.-

of a perfect prince, or a complete hero. The harp seems to have been, for many
ages, the favorite instrument of the inhabitants of this island, whether under
British, Saxon, Danish, or Norman kings. Even so early as the first invasion of
Britain by the Saxons, we have an incident which records the use of it, and which

shows that the Minstrel or Bard was well-known among this people ; and that their
princes themselves could, upon occasion, assume that character. Colgrin, son of that
Ella who was elected king or leader of the Saxons, in the room of Hengist, was
shut up in York, and closely besieged by Arthur and his Britons. Baldulph,
brother of Colgrin, wanted to gain access to him, and to apprize him of a rein-
forcement which was coming from Germany. He had no other to accom- way
plish his design, but by assuming the character of a Minstrel. He therefore
shaved his head and beard, and dressing himself in the habit of that profession,
took his harp in his hand. In this disguise he walked up and down the trenches
without suspicion, playing all the while upon his instrument as a harper. By
little and little he advanced near to the walls of the city, and making himself

known to the sentinels, was in the night drawn up by a rope. Rapin places the
incident here related under the year 495. The story of King Alfred entering
and exploring the Danish camp under the disguise of a Minstrel, is related by
Ingulph, Henry of Huntingdon, Speed, William of Malmesbury, and almost all
the best modern historians ; but we are also told that before he was twelve years
old, he could repeat a variety of Saxon songs, which he had learned from hearing

them sung by others, who had themselves, perhaps, only acquired them by tradition,
and that his genius was first roused by this species of erudition.
Bale asserts that Alfred's knowledge of music was perfect and it is evident ;

that he was an enthusiast in the art, from his paraphrase of Bede's description of
the sacred poet Csedmon's embarrassment when the harp was presented to him in
turn, that he might sing to it, " be hearpan singan ;" Bede's words are simply
" Surgebat a media csena, et egressus, ad suum domum repedabat :" but Alfred
adds, that he arose for shame (aras he for sceome) implying that it was a dis-
;

grace to be found ignorant of the art.

We may also judge of the Anglo-Saxon love for song, from the course pursued
by St. Aldhelme, Abbot of Malmesbury, who died in 709. Being desirous of
instructing his then semi-barbarous countrymen, he was in the daily habit of
taking his station on the bridges and high roads, as if a Gleeman or Minstrel
by profession, and of enticing them to listen to him, by intermixing more serious
subjects with minstrel ballads. Grul. Malms, cle JPontificalibus. Lib. 5. And
in the ancient life of St.Dunstan (whose feat of taking the evil one by the nose
with a pair of red-hot pincers, was so favorite a sign for inns and taverns) he is
said, not only to have learnt " the vain songs of his nation," but also " to have

constructed an organ with brass pipes, and filled with air from bellows."
The Saint was a monk of Glastonbury, and born about 925.
That the harp was the common musical instrument of the Anglo-Saxons, may
also be inferred from the word itself, which is not derived from the British, or
any other Celtic language, but of genuine Gothic original, and current among
 ANGLO-SAXONS, CAMBRO-BEITONS, AND DANES. 5

every branch of that people,

viz. Ang. Sax. hearpe and hearpa ; Iceland, Jiarpa
:

and haurpa ; Dan. and Belg. harpe ; German, harpffe and harpffa ; Gal. harpe
;

Span, harpa ; The Welsh, or Gambro-Britons, call

Ital. arpa. their harp teijlin,

a word for which no etymon is to be found in their language.

In the Erse its
name is That it was also the favorite musical instrument of the Britons
crwth.
and other Northern nations in the middle ages, is evident from their laws,
and various passages in their history. By the laws of Wales (Leges Wallicse) a ,

harp was one of the three things that were necessary to constitute a gentleman,
or a freeman and none could pretend to that character who had not one of these
;

favorite instruments, or could not play upon it. To prevent slaves from pre-
tending to be gentlemen, it was expressly forbidden them to teach, or to permit,
to play upon the harp and none but the king, the king's musicians, and
;

gentlemen, were allowed to have harps in their possession. A gentleman's harp

was not liable to be seized for debt because the want of it would have degraded
;

him from his rank, and reduced him to that of a slave.

Alfred entered the Danish camp A.D. 878 ; and about sixty years after, a
Danish king made use of the same disguise to explore the camp of our king
Athelstan. With his harp in his hand, and dressed like a minstrel, Aulaff, king
of the Danes, went among the Saxon tents ; and taking his stand by the king's
pavilion, began to play, and was immediately admitted. There he entertained
Athelstan and his lords with his singing and his music, and was at length dis-
missed with an honorable reward, though his songs might have disclosed the fact
that he was a Dane. Athelstan was saved from the consequences of this stratagem
by a soldier, who had observed AulafF bury the money which had been given him,
either from some scruple of honor or superstitious feeling. This occasioned
a discovery.
Now if the Saxons had not been accustomed to have Minstrels of their own,
Alfred's assuming so new and unusual a character would have excited suspicions
among the Danes. On the other hand, had not been customary with the
if it

Saxons to show favor and respect to the Danish Scalds, Aulaif would not have
ventured himself among them, especially on the eve of a battle. From the
uniform procedure of both these kings, we may fairly conclude that the same
mode of entertainment prevailed among both people, and that the Minstrel was
a privileged character with each.
May it not be further said, —what a devotion to the art of music must have
existed in those rude times, when the vigilance of war was lulled into sleep and
false security, and the enmities of two detesting nations were forgotten for

awhile, in the enjoyment of sweet sounds !

That the Gleeman or Minstrel held a stated and continued office in the court
of our Anglo-Saxon kings, can be proved satisfactorily. We have but to turn to
the Doomsday Book, and find under the head : Glowecesterscire, fol. 162, col. 1.

—" Berdic, Joculator Regis, habet iii villas," &c. That the word Joculator (at
meant Harper or Minstrel, is sufficiently evident from Geoffrey
this early period)
of Monmouth, of whom Dr. Percy observes very justly, " that whatever credit is
6 ENGLISH MIlJSTRELSY.

due to him as a relator of facts, he is certainly as good authority as any for the

signification of words."
The musical instruments principally in use among the Anglo-Saxons, were the
Harp, the Psaltry, the Fi^ele, and a sort of Hoi-n called in Saxon " Pip " or
Pipe. The Harp, however, was the national instrument. In the Anglo-Saxon
Poem of Beowulf it is repeatedly mentioned.
" There was the noise of the harp, the clear song of the poet." " There . . . .

was song and sound altogether, before Healfdene's Chieftains the wood of joy ;

(harp) was touched, the song was often sung." " The beast of war- (warrior)

touched the joy of the harp, the wood of pleasure," &c.

The FiSele (from which our words fiddler and fiddle are derived) was a sort of
viol, played on by a bow. The Psaltry, or Sawtrie, was strung with wire."
The Normans were a colony from Norway and Denmark, where the Scalds
had arrived at high renown before Eollo's expedition into France. Many
of those men no doubt accompanied him to the duchy of Normandy, and left

behind them successors in their art so that when his descendant

;
William
invaded this kingdom, a.d. 1066, he and his followers were sure to favor the
establishment of the minstrel profession here, rather than suppress it ; indeed,
we read that at the battle of Hastings, there was in William's army a valiant
warrior, named Taillefer, distinguished no less for the minstrel arts, than for his
courage and intrepidity. This man, who performed the oflBce of Herald-minstrel
(Menestrier huchier) , advanced at the head of the army, and with a loud voice
animated his countrymen, singing a war-song of Roland, i. e., "Hrolfr or Rollo,"
says our Anglo-Saxon historian, Sharon Tm-ner ;
—then rushing among the
thickest of the English, and valiantly fighting, lost his life.

The success of his ancestor RoUo, was one of the topics of the speech in which
William addressed his army before the battle, to excite in them the emulation of
establishing themselves in England as he had done in Normandy. A " Chanson
de Roland " continued in favor with the French soldiers as late as the battle of
Poictiers, in the time of their king John, for, upon his reproaching one of them with
singing it at a time when there were no Rolands left, he was answered that
Rolands would still be found if they had a Charlemagne at their head. This was
in 1356.
Dr. Burney conjectured that the song, " L'homme armee," which was so popular
in the fifteenth century, was the Chanson de Roland but M. Bottee de Toulmon
;

has quoted the first foui- lines of " L'homme armee" from the Proportionales
Musices of John Tinctor, and proved it to be only a love-song. He has also
printed the tune, which he extracted from one of the many- Masses in which it

was used as a, subject to make Descant on.''

" Representations of Anglo-Saxon harps and pipes will elegant in shape than those in Sir John Hawkins's His-
be found in Harl. MSS. 603, which also contains a toiy, copiedfrom Kircher's Musurgia. A representation
psaltry, in shape like the lyre of Apollo, but with more of the Fithele will be found in the Cotton Collection,
strings, and having a concave back. It agrees with that Tiberius, c. vi., and in Strult's Sports and Pastimes,
which Augustine describes as carried in the band of the Both the manuscripts cited are of the tenth century,
player, which had a shell or concave piece of wood on it, •>
Annuaire Historique pour I'ann^e, 1837. Public par
that caused the strings to resound, and is much more la Societe de VHistoire de France.
 NORMANS. —BATTLE OP HASTINGS.

Robert Wace, in the Roman de Rou, says that Taillefer sang with a loud voice
(chanta a haute voix) tlie songs of Charlemagne, Roland, &c., and M. de
Toulmon considers the song of Roland to have been a Chanson de Geste, or
metrical romance and that Taillefer merely declaimed parts of such poems, hold-
;

ing up those heroes as models to the assembled soldiers. The Chanson de Roland,
that was printed in Paris in 1837-8 (edited by M. Michel) from a copy in the
Bodleian Library, is a metrical romance in praise of the French hero, the Orlando
Innamorato, and Furioso of Boiardo, Berni, and Ariosto, but apparently of no such
antiquity,'' and it seems improbable that he should have been the subject of the

Norman minstrel's song. All metrical romances, however, were originally recited
or chanted with an accompaniment ; and Dr. Crotch has printed a tune in the
third edition of his Specimens of Various Styles of Music, vol. 1. p. 133, as the
" Chanson Roland sung by the Normans as they advanced to the battle of
Hastings, 1066," which I give as a curiosity, but without vouching for its
authenticity.
CHANSON ROLAND.
^
^EE
1 n
^
f
•
C
^^^ "'cr 1^^
32
^ -2=?"
^ ^ 3=

t i 3
rt-j 1-^- TPf i "sr-

^ ^^ ^-^^
id
^^-t^
^
-»

^
^
^^^^
"^=5"

5
Dr. Crotcli does not name the source from which he obtained this air, nor
have I been successful in tracing it.^ The story of Taillefer may, however, be
altogether apochryphal, as it is not mentioned by any contemporanj historian.
The English, according to Fordun, spent the night preceding the battle in

" It contains, also, about 4,000 verses

; and it seems still cently, edited by Sir Henry Bishop, is a Composition by
more improbable that so lengthy a composition should the Marquis de Paulmy, taken from Barney's History of
have been generally and popularly known. It is more Music, vol ii. p. 276, but Dr. Burney does not give it as
likely to have originated in the favorwith which an earlier an ancient song or tune. The tune, indeed, is not even
song was received. in imitation of antiquity.
^ The Chanson de Roland that has been printed re-
8 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.

singing and drinking. " Ulam noctem Angli totam in cantibus et potibus
insomnem duxerunt." — c. 13.
Ingulphus, a contemporary of William the Conqueror, speaks of the popular
ballads of the English in praise of theu' heroes ; and William of Malmesbury,
in the twelfth centui*y, mentions them also. Three parishes in Gloucestershire
were appropriated by William to the support of his minstrel ; and although his
Norman followers would incline only to such of their own countrymen as excelled
in the art, no other songs but those composed in their own
and would listen to
Norman-French, yet as the great mass of the original inhabitants were not ex-
tirpated, these could only understand their own native Gleemen or Minstrels and ;

accordingly, they fostered their compatriot Minsti-els with a spirit of emulation

that served to maintain and encourage them and their productions for a consider-
able period after the invasion. That they continued devoted to their Anglo-
Saxon tongue,'^ notwithstanding the opposition of their tyrannical conquerors, is
sufficiently plain.
" Of this," says Percy, " we have proof positive in the old metrical romance
of Horn-Child, which, although from the mention of Sarazens, &c., must have
been written at least after the first crusade in 1096, yet, from its Anglo-Saxon
language, or idiom, can scarcely be dated later than within a century after the
Conquest. This, as appears fi'om its very exordium, was intended to be sung to a
popular audience, whether it was composed by or for a Gleeman, or Minstrel. But
it carries all the internal marks of bemg the work of such a composer. It appears
of genuine Miglish growth ; for, after a careful examination, I cannot discover any
allusion to French or Norman customs, manners, composition, or phraseology no :

not a name or local reference, which was

:
quotation, '
as the romance sayeth '

likely to occur to a French rimeur. The proper names are all of northern
extraction. Child Horn is the son of Allof {i.e., Olaf or Olave), king of Sudenne
(I suppose Sweden), by his queen Godylde, or Godylt. Athulf and Fykenyld are
the names of subjects. Eylmer, or Aylmere, is king of Westnesse (a part of
Ii-eland) ; Rymenyld is his daughter ; as Erminyld is of another king, Thurstan
whose sons are Athyld and Beryld. Athelbrus is steward of king Aylmer, &c. &c.
All these savour only of a northern origin, and the whole piece
is exactly such a

performance as one would expect from a Gleeman or Minsti-el of the north of

England, who had derived his art and his ideas from his Scaldic predecessors
there."
Although Ritson disputed the English origin of this romance. Sir Frederick
Madden, in a note to the last edition of Warton's English Poetry, has proved
Percy to be right, and that the French Romance, Dan Horn (on the same subject
as Child Horn), is a translation from the English. In the Prologue to another
Romance, King Atla, it is expressly stated that the stories of Aelof (Allof),
Tristan, and others, had been translated into French from the English.

« "The dialect ofour Alfred, of the ninth century, in his in a regular and from the dialect now in
intelligible series,
Saxon translation of Boethius and Bede, is more clear use to the ninth century: that from pure English to
is,
and intelligible than the vulgar language, f5KB%a7!deB(, pure Saxon, such as was spoken and written by King
of any other country in Europe. For I am acquainted Alfred, unmixed with Latin, Welch, or Norman."—
with no other language, which, like our own, can mount Burney's History of Music, vol. ii. p. 209.
 WILLIAM I. TO RICHARD I. 9

After the Conquest, the first notice we have relating to the Minstrels is the
founduig of the Priory and Hospital of St. Bartholomew,'' in Smithfield, by
Royer, or Raherus, the King's Mmstrel, in the the third year of King Henry I.,

A.D. 1102. Hem-y's conduct to a luckless Norman mmstrel who fell into his power,
tells how keenly the minstrel's sarcasms were felt, as well as the ferocity of Henry's
revenge. " Luke de Ban-e," said the king, " has never done me homage, but he has
fought against me. He has composed facetiously indecent songs upon me ; he has
sung them openly to my prejudice, and often raised the horse-laughs of my malig-
nant enemies against me." Henry then ordered his eyes to be pulled out. The
wretched minstrel rushed from his tormentors, and dashed his braias against
the wall.''

In the reign of King Henry H., Galfiid or Jeffrey, a harper, received in 1180
an annuity from the Abbey of Hide, near Winchester ; and as every harper was
expected to sing," we cannot doubt that this reward was bestowed for his music
and his songs, which, as Percy says, if they were for the solace of the monks there,
we may conclude would be in the English language. The more rigid monks,
however, both here and abroad, were greatly offended at the honours and rewards
lavished on Minstrels. John of Salisbury, who lived in this reign, thus declaims
against the extravagant favour shown to them " For you do not, like the fools of :

this age, pour out rewards to Minstrels (Histriones et Mimos ^) and monsters of
that sort, for the ransom of your fame, and the enlargement of your name."
—{Epist. 247.)
" Minstrels and Poets abounded under Henry's patronage they spread the love :

of poetry and literature among his barons and people, and the influence of the
royal taste soon became visible in the improved education of the great, in the
increasing number of the studious, and in the multiplicity of authors, who wrote
during his reign and the next." Sharon Turner's Hist. Encj.
In the reign of Richard I. (1189.) minstrelsy flourished with pecuUar splendour.
His romantic temper, and moreover his own proficiency in the art, led him to be
not only the patron of chivalry, but also of those who celebrated its exploits.
Some of his poems are still extant. The romantic release of this king from the
castle of Durrenstein, on the Danube, by the stratagem and fidelity of his Min-
strel Blondel, is a story so well known, that it is needless to repeat it here.''

Another circumstance which proves how easily Minstrels could always gain
admittance even into enemies' camps and prisons, occurred in this reign. The
young heiress of D'Evreux, Earl of Salisbury, " was carried abroad, and secreted

"^
Vide the Monasticorit torn. ii. pp. 166 67, for a curious Lord Howard's agreement with William Wastell, Harper
history of this priory and its founder. Also Stowe's Sur- of London, to teach a boy named Colet" to harp and to sing."
vey, lathe Pteasaunt Hislori/ of Thomas of Reading, 4to. "^
Histrio, Mimus, Joculator, and Ministrallus, are all
1662, he is likewise mentioned. His monument, in good nearly equivalent terms for Minstrels in Mediaeval Latin,
preservation, may yet be seen in the parish church of " Incepit more Histrionico, fabulas dicere, et plerumque
St. Bartholomew, in Smithfield, London. cantare." " Super quo Histriones caniabant, sicut mode
''Quoted from Ordericus Vitalis. Hist. Eccles. in Sharon cantatur de Rolando et Oliverio." " Dat sex Mimis
Turner's Hist. England. Domini Clynton, caniantibus, ciiharisantibus, luden-
" So in Horn-Child, K. Allof orders his steward, tibus," &c. 4 s. Geoffrey of Monmouth uses Joculator as
Althebrus to "teche him of harpe and song." And equivalent to Citharista, in one place, and to Con /or in
Chaucer, in his description of the Limitour or Mendicant another. See Notes to Percy's Essay.
Friar, speaks of harping as inseparable from singing '* in— ' The best authority for this story, which has frequently
his harping, when that he had sung." Also in 1481, see been doubted, is the Chronique de Rains, written in the
10 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.

by her French relations in Normandy. To discover the place of her concealment,

a knight of the Talbot family spent two years in-exploring that province, at first
under the disguise of a pilgrim ; till having found -where she was confined, in
order to gain admittance he assumed the di-ess and character of a harper, and
being ?k jocose person, exceedingly skilled in '
the Gests of the Ancients,' — they so
called the romances and stories which were the delight of that age, —he was gladly
received into the family, whence he took an opportunity to carry off the young
lady, whom he presented to the king and he bestowed her on his natural brother,
;

William Longespee (son of fair Eosamond), who became, in her right, Earl of
Salisbury.
In the reign of king John
(a.d. 1212) the English Minstrels did good service
to Kanulph, or Randal, Earl of Chester. He, being beseiged in his Castle of
Rothelan (or Rhuydland) sent for help to De Lacy, Constable of Chester, who,
,

" making use of the Minstrels of all sorts, then met at Chester fair, by the allure-
ments of their music, assembled such a vast number of people, who went forth
under the conduct of a gallant youth, named Button (his steward and son-in-law)
that he intimidated the Welsh, who supposed them to be a regular body of armed
and disciplined soldiers, so that they instantly raised the siege and retired."
For this deed of service to Ranulph, both De Lacy and Dutton had, by
respective charters, patronage and authority over the Minstrels and others, who,
under the descendants of the latter, enjoyed certain privileges and protection for
many ages.
Even so late as the reign of Elizabeth, when this profession had fallen into such
discredit that it was considered in law a nuisance, the Minstrels under the juris-
diction of the family of Dutton are expressly excepted out of aU acts of Parlia-
ment made for their suppression; and have continued to be so excepted ever since. "^

"We have innumerable particulars of the good cheer and great rewards given to
the Minstrels in many of the convents, which are collected by Warton and others.
But one instance, quoted from Wood's Hist. Antiq. Ox., vol. i. p. 67, during the reign
of king Henry HI. (sub. an. 1224), deserves particular mention. Two itinerant
priests, on the supposition of their being Minstrels, gained admittance. But the
cellarer, sacrist, and others of the brethren, who had hoped to have been entertamed

by their diverting arts, &c., when they found them to be only two indigent ecclesi-
astics, and were consequently disappointed of their mu-th, beat them, and turned

them out of the monastery."

In the same reign (a.d. 1252) we have mention of Master Richard, the king's
Harper, to whom that monarch gave not only forty shillings and a pipe of wine,
but also a pipe of wine to Beatrice, his ^vife. Percy remarks, that the title of
Magister, or Master, given to this Minstrel, deserves notice, and shows his
respectable situation.
"The learned and pious Grosteste, bishop of Lincoln, who died in 1253, is said,

13th Century. — See WrighVs Biograph.Brit., Anglo Norman newal of the same clauses in the last act on this subject,
Period, p. 325. passed in the reign of George III. The ceremonies
a See the statute of Eliz. anno. 39. cap. iv. entitled an attending the exercise of this jurisdiction are described
Act for punishment of rogues, vagabonds, &c.; also a re- by Dugdale (Bar i.. p. 101), and from him, by Percy.
 KING JOHN TO EDWARD I. H
in some verses of Robert de Brunne, who flourislied about tbe beginning of
the
next century, to have been very fond of the metre and music of the Minstrels.
The good prelate had written a poem in the Romanse language, called Manuel
Peche, the translation of which into English, Robert de Brunne commenced in
1302, with a design, as he tells us himself, that it should be sung to the harp at
public entertainments."
For lewde [unlearned] men I undertoke That talys and rymys wyl blithly here,
In Englysshe tunge to make thys boke, Yn gamys and featys, and at the ale
For many ben of swyche mauere Love men to listene trotevale. [triviality]
The following anecdote concerning the love which his author, bishop
Grosteste, had for music, seems to merit a place here, though related in rude
rhymes.
I shallyow telle as I have herde " The vertu of the Harpe, thurgh
. Of the bysshope Seynt Roberde, [through] skylle and ryght,
Hys toiiame [surname] is Grostest " Wyll destrye the fendys [fiends] myght;
Of Lynkolne, so seyth tbe gest, " And to the Cros by gode skylle
He loved moehe to here the Harpe, " Is the Harpe ylykened weyl.
For mannes wytte it makyth sharpe. " Tharefore, gode men, ye shall lere, [learn]
Next hys chanmbre, besyde hia study, " Wlian ye any Gleman here,
Hys Harper's chaumbre was fast therby. " To wurschep God at your powere,
Many tymes, by nightes and dayes, " As Davyd seyth in the Sautere. [Psalter]
He had solace of notes and layes, " In harpe and tabour and symphan" gle

One askede hym the resun why " Wurschep God in trumpes and sautre,
:

He hadde delyte in Mynstralsy ? " In cordes, in organes, and bells ringyng :

He answerde hym on thys manere " In all these wurschepe the heveue
Why he helde the Harpe so dere Kyng, &c."
Before entering on the reign of Edward I., I quit the Minstrels for awhile, to
endeavour to trace the progress of music up to that period. It will be necessary
to begin with the old Church Scales, it having been asserted that all national
—
music is constructed upon them an assertion that I shall presently endeavour
to confute and by avoiding, as far as possible, all obsolete technical, as well
;

as Greek terms, which render the old treatises on Music so troublesome a study,
I hope to convey such a knowledge of those scales as will answer the purpose of
such general readers as possess only a slight knowledge of music.

CHAPTER n.

—
Music OF THE Middle Ages. Music in England to the end of
THE Thirteenth Century.
During the middle ages Music was always ranked, as now, among the seven
liberal arts, these forming the Trivium and Qiiadrivium, and studied by all

those in Europe who aspked at reputation for learning. The Trivium com-
prised Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic the Quadrivium comprehended Music,
;

* Either part-singing, or the instrument called the symphony.

12 MUSIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy. Sharon Turner remarks, that these

comprised not only all that the Romans knew, cultivated, or taught, but
embodied " the whole encyclopiedia of ancient knowledge." If we may trust
the following jargon hexameters, which he quotes as " defining the subjects
they comprised," Music was treated as an art rather than as a science, and
a practical knowledge of it was all that was required :

Gramm. loquitur ; Dia. vera docet ; Rhet. verba colorat

3Ius. canit ; Ar. numerat; Geo. ponderat; Ast. colit astra.

But the methods of teaching both the theory and the practice of music were so
dark, difficult, and tedious, before its notation, measure, and harmonial laws were
settled, that we cannot wonder when we hear of youth having spent nine or ten

years in the study of scholastic music, and apparently to very little purpose.
In the latter part of the fourth century (a.d. 374 to 397), Ambrose, bishop of
Milan, introduced a model of Church melody, in which he chose four series
or successions of notes, and called them simply the first, second, third, and fourth
tones, laying aside, as inapplicable, the Greek names of Doric, Phrygian, Lydian,
^olic, Ionic, &c. These successions distinguished themselves only by the posi-
tion of the semitones in the degrees of the scale, and are said to be as follows

Ist tone, defgabcd

2nd tone, —
—
efgabode
3rd tone, f g a b c d e f

4:th tone, gabcdefg

These, Pope Gregory the Great (whose pontificate extended from 590 to 604)
increased to eight. He retained the four above-mentioned of Ambrose, adding to
them four others, which were produced by transposing those of Ambrose a fourth
lower ; so that the principal note (or key-note, as it may be called) which for-
merly appeared as the first in that scale, now appeared in the middle, or strictly
speaking, as the fourth note of the succession, the four additional scales being
called the plagal, to distinguish them from the four more ancient, which received
the name of authentic.
In this manner their order would of course be disarranged, and, instead of being
the first, second, third, and fourth tones, they became the first, third, fifth, and
seventh.
The following are the eight ecclesiastical tones (or scales) which still exist as such
in the music of the Romish church, and are called Gregorian, after their founder
1st tone Authentic, D e^f g A K^c D
2d do. Plagal, A b-^c D e""f g A
3d do. Authentic, E'^f k
g a B'^^c
B'-^c d E
4th do. Plagal, — B~c d E~f g a B
5th do. Authentic, g a b-C d
6th do. Plagal, C d e~F g a b-^c
7th do. Authentic, Gab'^cDefG
G a b-c D
8th do. Plagal, D e~f G a b"c D

It will be perceived at the first glance, that these Gregorian tones have only
 GREGORIAN TONES. 13

the intervals of the diatonic scale of 0, such as are the white keys of the pianoforte,
without any sharps or flats. The only allowable accidental note in the Canto
fermo or plain song of the Romish church is B flat, the date of the introduction
of which has not been correctly ascertained.'' No sharp occurs in genuine chants
of high antiquity. In some modern books the flat is placed at the clef upon h, for
the and sixth modes, but the strict adherents to antiquity do not admit this
fifth

innovation. These tones only difi"er from one another in the position of the half
notes or semitones, as from h to c, and from e to/. In the four plagal modes, the
final or key note remains the same as in the relative authentic thus, although in the ;

sixth mode we have the notes of the scale of C, we have not in reality the key of
C, for the fundamental or key note is/; and although the first and eighth tones
contain exactly the same notes and in the same position, the fundamental note of
the first is d, and of the eighth g. There is no other difference than that the
melodies in the four authentic or principal modes are generally (and should
strictly speaking be) confined within the compass of the eight notes above the key
note, while the four plagal go down to a fourth below the key note, and only
extend to a fifth above it.

No scale or ecclesiastical modes is to us complete.

key of the eight The first
and second of these modes being regarded, according to the modern rules of
modulation, as in the key of D minor, want a flat upon h ; the third and fourth
modes having their termination in E, want a sharp upon/; the fifth and sixth
modes being in F, want a flat upon h ; and the seventh and eighth, generally
beginning and ending in G major, want an /sharp.
The names of Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, &c., have been applied to
them with equal impropriety (more particularly since Glareanus, who floiu'ished
in the sixteenth century) they bear no more resemblance to the Greek scales than
;

to themodern keys above cited.

Pope Gregory made an important improvement by discarding the thoroughly
groundless system of the tetrachord, adopted by the ancient Greeks,'' and by
founding in its place that of the octave, the only one which nature indicates. And
another improvement no less important, in connexion with his system of the
octave, was the introduction of a most simple nomenclature of the seven sounds of
the scale, by means of the first seven letters of the alphabet. Burney says that the
Roman letters were first used as musical characters between the time of Boethius,"
who died in 526, and St. Gregory ; but Kiesewetter'^ attributes this improvement
in notation entirely to Gregory, in whose time the scale consisted only of two
octaves, the notes of the lower octave being expressed by capital letters, and the

" It was probably derived from the tetrachords of the reference in the divisions of the monochord, not as
Greek scale, which admitted both b flat and b natural, but musical notes or characters,
which it is not necessary to discuss here. ^ " History of the Modern Music of Western Europe,
^ In the old Greek notation there were 1620 tone charac- from the first century of the Christian era, to the present
ters, with which Musicians were compelled to burthen day," &c., by K. G. Kiesewetter, translated by Robert
their memories, and 990 marks actually different from Miiller, 8vo., 1848. It is a very clearly and concisely
each other. written history, and contains in an appendix within the
^ It appears from Burney, that Boethius used the first compass of a few pages, as much of the Greek music as
fifteen letters of the alphabet, but only as marks of any modem can require to know.
14 MUSIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

higher by small letters. Eventually a third octave was added to the scale, four

notes of which are attributed to Guido, and one to his pupils ; the two remaining
notes still later. The highest octave was then expressed by double letters; as, aa,
hh, &c. These three octaves in modern notes would constitute the following scale

a b c d e f g aa bb cc dd ee ff gg
A B D E F G

First octave. Second octave. Third octave.

This is the alphabetical system of names for the notes which we, in England,
still retain for every purpose but that of exercising the voice, for which solfaing
on vowels is preferred.
Gregory's alphabetical system of notation was, however, only partially adopted.
Some wrote on lines varying from seven to fifteen in number, placing dots, like
modern crotchet-heads, upon them, but making no use of the spaces. Others used
spaces only, and instead of the dots wrote the words themselves in the spaces, dis-
jointing each syllable to place it in the position the note should occupy. A third

system was by points, accents, hooks, and strokes, wi'itten over the words, and they
were intended to represent to the singer, by their position, the height of the note,
and by upward or downward tendency, the rising or falling of the voice. It
their

was, however, scarcely possible for the witer to put do-wn a mark so correctly,
that the singer could tell exactly which note to take. It might be one or two

higher or lower. To remedy this, a red line was drawn over, and parallel to the
words of the text, and the marks were written above and below it. A fm-ther
improvement was the use of two lines, one red and the other yellow, the red for F,
the yellow for 0, as it only left three notes (G, A, and B) to be inserted between
them.^
Such was the notation before the time of Guido, a monk of Arezzo, in Tuscany,
who flourished about 1020. He extended the number of lines by drawing one
line under F, and another between F and C, and thus obtained four lines and
spaces, a number, which in the Rituals of the Romish Church has never been
exceeded.
The clefs were originally the letters F and C, used as substitutes for those red
and yellow lines. The Base clef still marks the position of F, and the Tenor
clef of C, although the forms have been changed.
Guido, in his Antiphonarium, gives the hymn Tit queant laxis'^ (from the

»Specimens of this notation, with red and yellow lines, FAmuli tuorum :

will he found in Martini's Storia delta Musica, vol. i. SOLve poUuti,

p. 184; in Bumey's History, vol. ii. p. 37 in Hawkins's
;
LAbii reatum,
History, p. 947 (8vo. edition) and in Kiesewetter's
; Sancte Johannes.
p. 280. Also of other systems mentioned above. gj y;^^ not the settled name for B end
until nearly the
t Hymn for St. John the Baptist's day, written by
of the seventeenth century; and, although was proposed
it

Paul the Deacon, about 774. in 1547, Butler in his Principles of Musick, 1636, gives
UT queant laxis the names of the notes as Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, pha. In
REsonare fibris, 1673, Gio. Maria Bononcini, father of Handel's pseudo rival,

Mlra gestorum used Do in place of Ut, but the French still retain Ut.
 SCALES, NOTATION, CLEFS, AND DESCANT. 15

initial lines of wMch the names of the notes, Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, were taken), in
old ecclesiastical notation, and in the Chronicle of Tours, under the year 1033, he
is mentioned as the first who applied those names to the notes. He did not add
the Greek gamma (our G) at the bottom of the scale," as was long supposed,
for Odo, Abbot of Cluny, in Burgundy, had used it as the lowest note, in his
Enchiridion, a century before.
To Franco, of Cologne (who, by the testimony of Sigebert, his cotemporary,
had acquired great reputation for his learning in 1047, and Uved at least till 1083,
when he filled the office of Preceptor of the Cathedral of Liege), is to be ascribed
the invention of characters for timey By this he conferred the most important
benefit on music, for, till then, written melody was entirely subservient to syllabic
laws, and music in parts must have consisted of simple counterpoint, such, says
Bui-ney, as is still practised in our parochial psalmody, consisting of note against
note, or sounds of equal length.
The first ecclesiastical harmony was called Descant, and by the Italians, Mental
Counterpoint (Contrappunto alia mente). It consisted of extemporaneous singing
in foui-ths, fifths, and octaves, above and below the plain song of the Church
and ;

although in its original sense, it had made

implied only singing in two parts, it

considerable advances in the ninth century, towards the end of which we find
specimens, still existing, of harmony in three and four parts. When Descant was
reduced to wi'iting, it was called Counterpoint, from punctum contra punctum,
point against point, or written notes placed one against the other.
Hubald, Hucbald, or Hugbald, as he is variously named, and who died in 930,
at nearly ninety years of age, has left us a treatise, called Musica Enchiriadis,
which has been printed by the Abbe Gerbert, in his Scriptores Ecclesiastici. In
chapters X. to XIV., De Symphoniis, he says: "There are three kinds of
symphony (harmony) , in the fourth, fifth, and octave, and as the combination of
some letters and syllables is more pleasing to the ear than others, so is it with
sounds in music. All mixtures are not equally sweet." In the fifteenth chapter
he uses a transient second andthird, both major and minor and in the eighteenth ;

he employs four thirds in succession. Burney says " Hubald' s idea that one :

voice might wander at pleasure through the scale, while the other remains fixed,
shows him to have been a man of genius and enlarged views, who, disregarding
rules, could penetrate beyond the miserable practice of his time, into our Points
d'Orgue, Pedale, and multifarious harmony upon a holding note, or single base,
and suggests the principal, at least, of the boldest modern harmony." It is in

this last sense of amplifying a point, that we still retain the verb to descant in
common use. Guide describes the Descant existing in his time, as consisting of

^ To distinguish G on the lowest line of the Base from scale, for the raoiiochord, and placed notes upon lines and
the G in the fifth space, the former was marked with the spaces ; after whom came Magister Franco, who invented
Greek r, and hence the word garamut, applied to the the figures, or notes, of the Cantus mensurabilis (qui
whole scale. invenit in cantu mensuram figurarum). Marchetto da
John de Muris, who flourished in 1330, in giving a list
* Padova, who wrote in 1274, calls Franco the inventor of the
of anterior musicians, who had merited tlie title of four first musical characters: and Franchinus Gafl^urius
inventors, names Guido, who construf ted the gammut, or twice quotes him as the author of the time-table.
16 MUSIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

fourths, fifths, and octaves under the plain-song or chant, and of octaves (either
to the plain song or to this base) above it. He suggests what he terms a smoother
and more pleasing method of under-singing a plain-song, in admitting, besides the
fourth and the tone, the major and minor thirds rejecting the semitone and the
;

fifth. " No advances or attempts at variety seem to have been made in counterpoint,
from the time of Hubald, to that of Guido, a period of more than a hundred
years for with all its faults and crudities, the counterpoint of Hubald is at least
;

equal to the best combinations of Guido ;" but the monk, Engelbert, who wrote in
the latter end of the thirteenth century, tells us that all " regular descant " con-
sists of the union of fourths, fifths, and octaves, so that these uncouth and bar-
barous hai-monies, in that regular succession which has been since prohibited,
continued in the Church for four centuries.
Before the use of lines, there were no characters or signs for more than two
kinds of notes in the Church ; nor since ecclesiastical chants have been wiitten
upon four lines and four spaces, have any but the square and lozenge characters,
commonly called Gregorian notes, been used in Canto fermo and, although the
:

invention of the time-table extended the limits of ingenuity and contrivance to

the utmost verge of imagination, and became all-important to secular music,
the Church made no use whatever of this discovery.
That melody received no great improvement from the monks, need excite
no wonder, as change and addition were alike forbidden; but not to have
improved harmony more than they did for many centuries after its use was
allowed, is a matter of just surprise, especially since the cultivation of music
was a necessary part of their profession.
We have occasional glimpses of secular music through then* writings ; for
who gives a fair definition of harmony in the sense it is now
instance, Guido,
understood (Armenia est diversarum vocum apta coadunatio), says that he
merely writes for the Church, where the pure Diatonic genus was first used, but
he was aware of the deficiency as regards other music. " Sunt prceterea et alia
musicorum genera aliis mensuris aptata." Franco (about 1050) just mentions
Discantum in Cantilenis Rondellis— " Descant to Rounds or Roundelays," but —
no more.
When Franco writes in four parts, he sometimes gives five lines to each part,
the five lowest for the Tenor or plain song, the next five for the Medius, five for
the Triplum Discantus, and the highest for the Quadruplum. Each has a clef

allotted to it. Although many changes in the form of musical notes have been
made since his time, the lines and spaces have remained without augmentation or
diminution, four for the plain song of the Romish Church, and five for secular
music.
He devotes one chapter to characters for measuring silence, and therein gives
examples of rests for Longs, Breves, Semibreves, and final pauses. He also

suggests dots, or points of augmentation. Bars are placed in the musical examples,
as pauses for the singers to take breath at the end of a sentence, verse, or phrase
of melody. And this is the only use made of bars in Canto fei'mo.
 ANGLO-SAXON MUSIC. 17

Turning to England, Milton Saxon annals, that in 668,

tells us, from tlie

Pope Vitalian sent singei-s into Kent, and in 680, according to the Venerable
Bede," Pope Agatho sent John, the Praecentor of St. Peter's at Rome, to
instruct the monks of Weremouth in the manner of performing the ritual, and he
opened schools for teaching music in other parts of the kingdom of Northumber-
land. Bede was also an able musician, and is the reputed author of a short
musical tract in two parts, de Musica theorica, and de Musica pradica, seu men-
surata ; but Burney says, although the first may have been written by him, the
second is manifestly the work of a much more modern author, and he considers it
to have been produced about the twelfth century, i. e., between the time of Guido
and the English John de Muris. There must always be a difficulty in identifying
the works of an author who lived at so remote a period, without the aid of
contemporary authority, or of allusions to them of an approximate date; and when
he has written largely, such difficulties must be proportionably increased. But,
rejecting both the treatises on music, if he be the author of the Commentary on
the Psalms, which is included in the collected editions of his works of 1563
and 1688, sufficient evidence will remain to prove, not only his knowledge of
music, but of all that constituted the " regular" descant of the church from the
ninth to the thu'teenth century. I select one passage from his Commentary on
the 52nd Psalm. " As a skilful harper in drawing up the cords of his instrument,
tunes them to such pitches, that the higher may agree in harmony with the lower,
some differing by a semitone, a tone, or two tones, others yielding the consonance
of the fourth, fifth, or octave ; so the omnipotent God, holding all men predestined
to the harmony of heavenly life in His hand like a well-strung harp, raises some
to the high pitch of a contemplative life, and lowers others to the gravity of active
life." And he thus continues :
—" Giving the consonance of the octave, which
consists of eight strings ;" . . . .
" the consonance of the fifth, consisting of five
strings ;
and then of the smaller vocal
of the fourth, consisting of four strings,
intervals, consisting of two tones, one tone, or a semitone, and of there being
semitones in the high as well as the low strings."^ Our great king, Alfred,
according to Sir John Spelman, " provided himself of musitians, not common, or
such as knew but the practick part, but men skilful in the art itself;" and in 866,
according to the annals of the Chui-ch of Winchester, and the testimony of many

» As a proof of the veneration in which Bede was held, harmoniam prEedestinatos in manu sua, quasi citharam
and the absurd legends relating to him, I quote from quandam, chordis convenientibus ordinatani, habens,
a song of the fifteenth century; quosdam quidem ad acutum contemplativae vitae sonum
' When Bede had dry intendit, alios verb ad activaj vita: gravitatem temperando
prechd to the stonys
The my[gh]t of God made [t]hem to cry
remittit."-" ut ad alios comparati quasi diapason con-

Amen :-certys this no ly[e] !

" sonantiam, qua octo chordis constat, reddant Suos
autem ad diapente 'consonantiam, quinque chordis con-
^ and Carols. Percy Soc. No.
Songs 73, p. 31. .... .,,. ^ ,,.. „ ,.„.,..„ ,.„„
-

eligit, illi possunt intelhgere qui tantae jam per-

.
.

^ .,
.

-^ stantem,
t " Sicut peritus citharseda chordas plures tendons in fectionis sunt Diatesseron quatuor chordis constans,
cithara, temperat eas acumine et gravitate tali, ut .... Per minora vero vocum intervalla quEe duos tones
superiores inferioribus conveniant in melodia, quBedam aut unum, vel semitonium sonant .... Sed quia tani in
semitonii, quajdam unius toni, qusedamduorumtonorum altisonis quam in grandisonis chordis habetur serai-
differentiam gerentes, aliae vero diatesseron, aliae autem touium," &c.—Beda: Preshytcri Opera, vol. 8, p. 1070, fol.
diapente, vel etiam diapason consonantiam reddentes ita : Busilca;, 1563, OE Colonice Agrippina:^ vol. 8, p. 908,
et Dens omnipotens omnes homines ad coslestis vitje fol. 1688,
18 MUSIC IN ENGLAND, TIME OF HENKY II.

ancient writers, he founded a Professorship at Oxford,* for the cultivation of music

as a science. The first who filled the chair was Friar John, of St. David's, who
read not only lectures on Music, but also on Logic and Arithmetic. Academical
honors in the faculty of music have only been traced back to the year 1463, when
Henry Habington was admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Music, at Cambridge,
and Thomas Saintwix, Doctor of Music, was made Master of King's College, in
the same university remarkable that music was the only one of the
; but it is

seven sciences that conferred degrees upon its students, and England the only
country in which those degrees were, and are still conferred.
About 1159, when Thomas a Becket conducted the negociations for the
marriage of Henry the Second's eldest son with the daughter of Louis VH., and
went to Paris, as chancellor of the English Monarch, he entered the French towns,
his retinue beuig displayed with the most solicitous ostentation, "preceded by two
hundred and fifty boys on foot, in groups of sis, ten, or more together, singing
English songs, accordmg to the custom of their country." " This singing in groups
resembled the " turba canentium," of which Giraldus afterwards speaks and the ;

following passage from John of Salisbury, about 1170, shows at least the delight

the people had in listening to part-singing, or descant. " The rites of religion

are now profaned by music and it seems as if no other use were made of it than
;

to corrupt the mind by wanton modulations, effeminate inflexions, and frittered

notes and periods, even in the Penetralia, or sanctuary, itself. The senseless
crowd, delighted with all these vagaries, imagine they hear a concert of su-ens,
in which the performers strive to imitate the notes of nightingales and parrots,
not those of men, sometimes descending to the bottom of the scale, sometimes
mounting to the summit ; now softening, and now enforcing the tones, repeating
passages, mixing in such a manner the grave sounds with the more grave, and
the acute with the most acute, that the astonished and bewildered ear is unable
to distinguish one voice from another." "=
It was probably this abuse of descant

that excited John's opposition to music, and his censures on the minstrels, as
shown in the passage before quoted. It proves also, that descant in England did
not then consist merely of singing in two parts, but included the licenses and
ornaments of florid song. Even singing in canon seems to be comprised in the
words, " pi'secinentium et succinentium, canentium et decinentium."
About 1185, Gerald Barry, or Giraldus Cambrensis, archdeacon, and after-

^ The earliest express mention of the University of spectum Domini, in ipsis penetralibus sanctuarii, las-
Oxford, after the foundation of the schools there by civientis vocis luxu, quadam ostentatione sui, mulie-
Alfred, is from the historian Ingulphus, whose youtii bribusmodisnotularumarticuloriimque CEesuris,stupentes
coincided with the early part of the reign of Edward the animulas emollire nituutur. Cum pra?cinentium, et suc-
Confessor. He tells us that, having been born in the City cinentium, canentium, et decinentium, intercinentium,
of London, he was first sent to school at Westminster, et occinentium, praamolles modulationes audieris, Siren-
and that from Westminster he proceeded to Oxford, arum concentus credas esse, non hominum et de vocuni
where he studied the Aristotelian Philosophy, and the facilitate miraberis, quibus philomela vel psittacus, aut
rhetoriticai writings of Cicero. si quid sonorius est,modes suos nequeunt coa^quare. Ea
''"In ingressu Gallicanarura villarura et castrorum, siquidem est, ascendendi descendendique faeilitas; ea
primi veniebant garciones pedites quasi ducenti quin- notularum, ea replicatio articulorum,
sectio vel geminatio
quaginta, gregatim euntes sex vel deni, vel plures simul, singulorumque consolidatio sic acuta vel acutissima,
;

aliquid lingua sua pro more patriee suae cantantes." gravibus et subgravibus temperantur, Ut auribus sui
Stephattides, Vita S. Tttomcs Cantuar, pp. 20, 21. indicii fere subtrahetur autoritas. Poticraticus, sive de
• Musica cultum religionis innestat, quod ante con- Nugis Curialium, lib. i., c. G.
 GIEALDUS CAMBBENSIS' ACCOUNT. 19

wards bishop, of St. David's, gave the following description of the peculiar man-
ner of singing of the Welsh, and the inhabitants of the North of England " The :

Britons do not sing their tunes in unison, like the inhabitants of other countries,
but in different parts. So that when a company of singers meets to sing, as is
usual in this country, as many different parts are heard as there are singers, who
all finally unite in consonance and organic melody, under the softness of B fiat.^

In the Northern parts of Britain, beyond the Humber, and on the borders of
Yorkshire, the inhabitants make use of a similar kind of symphonious harmony
in singing, but with only two differences or varieties of tone and voice, the one
murmuring the under part, the other singing the upper in a manner equally soft
and pleasing. This they do, not so much by
by a habit peculiar to them-
art, as

selves, which long practice has rendered almost natm-al, and this method of singing

has taken such deep root among this people, that hardly any melody is accustomed
to be uttered simply, or otherwise than in many parts by the former, and in two
parts by the latter. And what is more astonishing, their children, as soon as they
begin to sing, adopt the same manner. But as not all the English, but only those
of the North sing in this manner, I believe they had this art at first, like their
language, from the Danes and Norwegians, who were more frequently accustomed
to occupy, as well as longer to retain, possession of those parts of the island.'"'
Now, allowing a little for the hyperbolic style so common with writers of that age,
this may fairly be taken as evidence that part-singing was common in Wales, or
that at least they made descant to their tunes, in the same way that singers did
to the plain-song or Canto fermo of the Church at the same period ; also that
singing in two parts was common
North of England, and that children tried
in the
to imitate it. Burney and Hawkins think that what Giraldus says of the singing
of the people of Northumberland, in two parts, is reconcileable to probability,
because of the schools established there in the time of Bede, but Burney doubts
his account of the Welsh singing in many parts, and makes this " turba
canentium" to be of the common people, adding, " we can have no exalted idea
of the harmony of an untaught crowd." These, however, are his own inferences ;

Giraldus does not say that the singers were untaught, or that they were of
the common people. As he is describing what was the custom in his own time,

°-
"Uniting under the softness of B flat," is not very una inferius sub murmurante supem6 deraul-
altera ver6
intelligible,but one thing may be inferred from it, that cente pariter et delectante. Nee arte tantum sed* usu
they sang in the natural scale, such as the fifth mode longaevo et quasi in naturam mora diutina jam converse,
became by the use of B flat in the scale of F, and not iii heec vel ilia sibi gens hanc specialitatera comparavit.

the modes that were peculiar to the church. B flat was Qui ade6 apud utramque invaluit et aUas jam radices
only used in the fifth mode and its plagal. posuit, ut nihil hie simpliciter, ubi multipliciter ut apud
^ In musico modulamine non uniformiter ut alibi, priores, vel saltem dupliciter ut apud sequentes, mellit6
sed multipliciter multisque modis et modulis cantilenas proferri consuaverit. Pueris etiam (qu6d magis admi-
emittunt, adeS ut in turba canentium, sicut huic genti randum) et fer6 infantibus, (cum primum ii fletibus in
mos est, quot videas capita tot audias carmina dis- cantus erumpunt) eandem modulationem observantibus.
criminique vocum varia, in unam denique sub B mollis Angli ver5 quoniam non generaliter omnes sed boreales
dulcedineblanda consonantiam et organicam convenientia soliim hujusmodi vocum utuntur modulationibus, credo
melodiara. In borealibus quoque majoris Britannise par- quod a Dacis et Norwagiensibus qui partes illas insula
tibus trans Humbrum, Eboracique finlbus Anglorum frequentiiis oocupai-e ac diutiils obtinere solebant, sicut
populi qui partes illas inhabitant simili canendo sym- loquendi affinitatem, sic canendi proprietutem contrax-
phonica utuntur harmonia :binis tamen solummodo erunt. Cambrice DescnptiOy cap. xiii.

tonorura differentiis et vocum modulando varietatibus.

20 HARPERS NOT TAUGHT BY MONKS.

not what had taken place a centufy before, there seems no sufficient ground
for disbelieving his statement,'' and least of all, should they who are of the opinion
that all musical knowledge was derived from the monasteries, call it in question,

since, as already shown, part music had then existed in the Church, in the form
of descant, for three centuries.
" however," says Burney, " incredulity could be vanquished with respect to
If,

the account which Giraldus Oambrensis gives of the state of music in Wales
during the twelfth century, it would be a Welsh MS. in the possession of Richard
Morris, Esq., of the Tower, which contains pieces for the harp, that are in full
harmony or counterpoint ; they are written in a peculiar notation, and supposed
to be as old as the year 1100 ; at least, such is the known antiquity of many of

the songs mentioned in the collection," &c. It is not necessary here to enter

into the defence of Welsh music, but the specimens Dr. Burney has printed from
that manuscript, which he describes as in full harmony and counterpoint, are
really nothing more than the few simple chords which must fall naturally under
the hand of any one holding the instrument, and such as would form a child's
first lessons. First the chord, G C E, and then that of B D F, form the entire
bass of the only two lessons he has translated; and though from B to F is
a " false fifth," it must be shown that the harper derived his knowledge of
the instrument from the Church, before the assertion that it is more modern
harmony than then in use can have any weight. In England, at least, not
only the evidence of Giraldus, but all other that I can find, is against such a
supposition. I have before alluded to the Romance of Horn-Child, (note c, to
page 9), and here give the passage, to prove that such knowledge was not
derived from the Church, as well as to show what formed a necessary part of
education for a knight or warrior. It is from that part of the story where
Prince Horn appears at the court of the King of Westnesse.

Original Words. Words MoDEEiij^ED.

" The kyng com in to halle, The king came into [the] hall
Among his knyhtes alia, Among his knights all,

Forth he clepeth Athelbrus, Forth he calleth Athelbrus,

His stiward, and him seide thus : His steward, and [to] him said thus
'
Stiward, tac thou here " Steward, take thou here
My fundling, for to lere My foundling, for to teach
Of thine mestere Of thy mystery
Of wode and of ryuere, Of wood and of river.
Ant toggen o the harpe And to play on the harp
With is nayles sliarpe. With his nails sharp.
Ant tech him alle the listes And him all thou listest,
teach
That thou euer wystest. That thou ever knewest,
Byfore me to keruen. Before me to carve
And of my coupe to seruen And my cup to serve :

^ Dr. Percy says, "The credit of Giraldus, which hath work, 'Antiquities of Ireland,' by Edward Ledwich,
been attacked by some partial and bigoted antiquaries, LL.D. Dublin, 1790, 4to., p. 207. et seq."
the reader will find defended in that learned and curious
 CHARACTER OF TUNES OFTEN DERIVED FROM INSTRUMENTS. 21

Ant his feren deuyse And devise for his fellows-

With ous other seruise ;
With us other service
Horn-Child, thou vnderstond Horn-Child, thou understand
Tech Mm of harpe and of song.' " Teach him of harp and of song."

In another part of the poem he is introduced playing on his harp.

Horn him ahenche,
sette Horn seated himself on a bench,
Is harpe he gan clenche His harp he began to clench
He made Rymenild a lay He made Rymenild a lay
Ant hue seide weylaway, &c.° And he said wellaway ! &e.

In searching into the early history of the music of any country, the first

subject of inquiry should be the nature and character, as well as the peculiarities
of scale, of the musical instruments they possessed. If the musical instruments
in general use had an imperfect scale, the national music would generally, if not
universally, have retained the peculiarities of that scale. Hence the characteristics
of Scottish music, and of some of the tunes of the North of England, which re-
semble it. In the following collection many can be pointed out as bagpipe tunes,
such as " T^Tio liveth so merry in all this land, as doth the poor widow that selleth
the sand," and " By the border's side as I did pass," both of which seem to
require the accompaniment of the drone, while others, like "Mall (or Moll)
Sims," strictly retain the character of harp music. Where, however, the harp
was in general use, the scale would be more perfect than if some other instru-
ments were employed, and hence the melodies would exhibit fewer peculiarities,
unless, indeed, the harp was tuned to some particular scale, which, judging by
the passage above quoted from Bede, does not seem to have been the case in
England.
About 1250 we have the song, Sumer is icumen in, the earliest secular com-
position, in parts,known to exist in any country. Sir John Hawkins supposed that
it could not be earlier than the fifteenth century, because John of Dunstable, to

whom the invention of figm'ative music has been attributed, died in 1455. But
Dr. Birmey remarks that Dunstable could not have been the inventor of that art,
concerning which several treatises were written before John was born, and shows
that mistake to have originated in a passage from Proportionales Musices, by John
Tmctor, a native of Flanders, and the " most ancient composer and theorist of
that country, whose name is upon record." It is as follows " Of which new art, :

as I may call it (counterpoint) the fountain and source is said to have been among
,

the English, of whom Dunstable was the chief." ^ "Caput," literally meaning
" head," had been understood in its secondary sense of " originator or beginner."
Dr. Burney's opinion with respect to the age of this canon seems to have been
very unsettled (if indeed he can be said to have formed one at all). He first
presents it as a specimen of the harmony in our country, " about the fourteenth
* Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. i., p. 38, fuisse perhibetur." From Proportionale Musices, dedi-
8vo., 1840. Gated to Ferdinand, king of Sicily, Jerusalem, and
' "Cujus, ut dicam, novEeartis (Contrapunctis), fons
ita Hungary (who reigned from 1458 to 1494), by John
et origo apud Anglos, quorum caput Dunstaple extitit, Tirictor, Chaplain and Maestro di Capella to that Prince.
22 MANUSCRIPTS —THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

and fifteenth century." On the same page he tells us that the notes of the
MS. resemble those of Walter Oclington's Treatise" (1230), and seem to be of the
•thirteenth or fourteenth century, and he can hardly imagine the canon much
more modern. Then he is " sometimes mclined to imagine" it to have been
the production of the Northumbrians, (who, according to Giraldus Cambrensis,
used a kind of natural symphonious harmony,) but with additional parts, and a
second drone-base of later times. By " additional parts" I suppose Burney
to mean adding to the length of the tune, and so continuing the canon. Next
in reviewing " the most ancient musical tract that has been preserved in our
vernacular tongue" (by Lyonel Power), he says, this rule (a prohibition of
taking fifths and octaves in succession) seems to have been so much unknown
or disregarded by the composer of the canon, " Sumer is icxmaen in," as to
excite a suspicion that it is " much more ancient than has been imagined."
And " It has been already shown that counterpoint, in the Chm-ch,
finally,

began by adding parts to plain chant and in secular music, by harmonizing ;

old tunes, as florid melody did by variations on these tunes. It was long

before men had the courage to invent new melodies. It is a matter of sur-

prise that so little plain counterpoint is to be found, and of this little, none
correct, previous to attempts at imitation, fugue, and canon ; contrivances to which
there was a very early tendency, in all probability, during times of extemporary
descant, before there was any such thing as written harmony we find in the : for

most ancient music in parts that has come down to us, that fugue and canon had
made considerable progress at the time it was composed. The song, or round,
'
Sumer is icumen in,' is a very early proof of the cultivation of this art." He
then proceeds to show how, according to Martini, from the constant habit of
descanting in successive intervals, new melodies would be formed in harmony with
the original, and whence imitations would naturally arise.
Ritson, who knew more of the age of manuscripts than of musical history, is
of opinion that Burney and Hawkins were restrained by fear from giving their
opinion of its date, and says it may be referred to as early a period (at least) as

the year 1250. Sir Frederick Madden,'' in a note to the last edition of Warton's
English Poetry, says :
" Ritson justly exclaims against the ignorance of those who
refer the song to the fifteenth centmy, when the MS. itself is certainly of the
middle of the thirteenth." Mr. T. Wright, who has devoted his attention
almost exclusively to editing Anglo-Norman, Anglo-Saxon, and early English
manuscripts, says " The latter part of this manuscript, contaming,
: among others,
the long political song printed in my Pol. Songs, p. 72, was certainly written
diu-ing the interval between the battle of Lewes, in May, 1264, and that of
Evesham, in the year following, and most probably immediately after the first-

mentioned event. The earlier part of the MS., which contains the music, was
evidently wTitten at an earlier period —perhaps by twenty or thii-ty years and —
•^
The best summary of the state of music in England, complete of all the early treatises, -whether written here
about 1230, is contained in Walter Odington's Treatise, or abroad.
wiiich is fully described in Burney's Mistory of Music, ^ Keeper of the Manuscripts in the British Museum,
vol. ii., p. 155, et seq. Burney considers it the most
 SUMER IS ICUMEN IN. 23

the song with its music must therefore be given to the first half of the thir-
teenth century, at latest." I have thus entered into detail concerning this song
(though all the judges of manuscripts, whom I have been enabled to consult, are
of the same opmion as to its antiquity), because it is not only one of the first

English songs with or without music, but the first example of counterpoint in six
parts, as well as of fugue, catch, and canon ; and at least a centui-y, if not two
hundi'ed years, eai-lier than any composition of the kind produced out of
England."
The antiquity of the words has not been denied, the progress of our language
having been much more studied than our music, but the manuscript deserves much
more attention from musicians than it has yet received.'' It is not in Gregorian
notation, which might have been a bar to all improvement, but very much resem-
bles that of Walter Odington, in 1230. All the notes are black. It has neither
marks for time, the red note, nor the white open note, all of which were in use in
the following century.
The chief merit of this song is the airy and pastoi'al correspondence between
the words and music, and I believe its superiority to be owing to its having been
a national song and tune, selected, according to the custom of the time, as a basis
for harmony, and that it is not entu'ely a scholastic composition. The fact of its

having a natural di'one bass would tend rather to confirm this view than otherwise.
The bagpipe, the true parent of the organ, was then in use as a rustic instrument
throughout Em-ope. The rote, too, which was in somewhat better estimation, had
a di'one, like the modern hurdy-gm-dy, from the tuniing of its wheel. When the
canon is sung, the key note may be sustained througJwitt, and it will be in accord-
ance with the rules of modern harmony. But the foot, or bm'den, as it stands
in the ancient copy, will produce a very indifierent efiect on a modern ear,'' from its

constantly making fifths and octaves with the voices, although such progressions
were not forbidden by the laws of music in that age. No subject would be more
natural for a pastoral song than the approach of Summer ; and, curiously enough,
the late Mr. Bunting noted down an Irish song from tradition, the title of
which he translated " Summer coming," and the tune begins in the same way.
is

That is the air to which Moore adapted the words, " Rich and rare were the gems
she wore." Havmg given a fac-simile of " Sumer is icumen in," taken from the
" The earliest specimen of secular part-music that has back of page B, and just after it is an Antiphon in praise
yet been discovered on the Continent, is an old French of Thomas a Becket. At page 12 we have the musical
song, for three voices, the supposed production of a singer scale in letters, exactly corresponding with the scale of
and poet, by name Adam de la Hale, called Le Boiteux Guido, with the ut, re, mi, fa, &c., but only extending to
d' Arras, who was in the service of the Comte de Provence. two octaves and four notes, without even the "e e," said
The discovery has been recently made and communicated to have been added by his pupils. At the back of that
by M. FHis, in his Revue Musicale. " It may be placed page is an explanation of the intervals set to music, to
about the year 1280, if a, dilettante of the discantus of t!ie impress them on the memory by singing, and examples of
following age has not experimentalised on the melody left the ligatures used in the notation of the manuscript. At
by De la Hale, as on a tenor or Canto fermo; since the page S is a hymn, "Ave gloriosa mater Salvatoris," with
other songs, in similar notation, are not in counterpoint Latin and Norman French words, in score in three parts,
and the manuscript may be assigned to the fourieeiith on fifteen red lines undivided, and with three clefs for the
century." It is given in Kiesewetter's History of Music. voices. The remainder of the musical portion of the
''The Musical Notation in this MS. ( Harl. 978) is manuscript consists of hymns, &c., in one or two parts,
throughout the same. Only two forms of note are used We ought, perhaps, to except the lover of Scotch
"^

with occasional ligatures. " Sumeris icumen in" is on the Reels.

24 SUMER IS ICUMEN IN.

manuscript, and as it may be seen in score in Burney and Hawkins' Histories,

the tune is here printed, harmonized by Mr. Macfarren, as the first of National
English Airs. A few obsolete words have been changed, but the original are

giyen below.

SUMER IS ICUMEN IN. About 1250.

Rather slow, and smoothly.

s
-r^-^^-h r g f c r cctrf .f
Summer is a coming in, Loud-ly sing Cuc-koo ;
Groweth seed, and

m^
E^
Drone Bass.
T T T
^M
-r=^Trj
J.J ,j
k±±^i ^^
rr
;
bloweth mead and springeth wood a - new. Sing Cue - koo

-^—
!
.

Ewe
.

bleat-etli

^^^
.

—
af-ter
.

lamb, Low''th

j-

=T T T
^^3^ ^ r. i
; ,J / j ^
af- ter calf the cow Bullock start-etli, Buck to fern go'th, Mer-ry sing Cue

1 . ,J-.^^ Aj J i^U^
Ei
^ T T
^^m
-koo !

i.i. ^-^
m
Cuckoo! Cuc-koo! Well
:^ i-e^^
irr~t~T
Cue koo
singst thou.

J^ J ^
-

I
m
! Nor

i ^i
^
cease thou e - ver now.

AJ
±
Oeiginal Words. Words Modernized.
Sumer is icumen^ in, Summer is come in,
Lhude"" sing Cuccu, Loud sing Cuckoo
Groweth and bloweth med
sed, Groweth seed, and bloweth mead
And springth thewde nu And spring'th the wood now
Sing Cuccu ! Sing Cuckoo.

^"icumen*' come (from the Saxon verb, cuman, to ^ Lhude, wde, a"we, and calve, are all to be pronounced as
come); 50 in Robert of Gloucester, z'paied for paid. of two syllables.
 SONGS WITH MUSIC —THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 25

Awe bleteth after lomb Ewe Heateth after lamb,

Lliouth after calve cu ;
Lowetli after calf [the] cow.
Bullucstertetli, bucke vertetb Bullock startetb," buck vertetb''
Murie sing Cuccu, Merry Cuckoo ;
sing,
Cuccu, Cuccu. Cuckoo, Cuckoo !

Wei singes thu Cuccu •

Well sing'st tbou Cuckoo
Ne swik thu naver nu. Nor cease thou never now.

In the original, the " Foot," or Burden, is sung, as an under part by two

voices, to the words, " Sing Cuccu, nu, sing Cuccu," making a rude base to it.
Two other songs of the thirteenth century on the approach of Summer are
printed in Reliquiae Antiquse (8vo. Lond. 1841), but without music. The first

is taken from MSS. Egertou, No. 613, Brit. Mus., and begins thus :

" Somer is comen, and winter is gon, this day beginniz to longe [lengthen],
And this foules everichon [birds every one] joy [t]hem wit[h] songe."

The other from MSS. Digby, No. 86, Oxford, of the Thrush and the Nightingale
" Somer is comen with love to toune
With blostme [blossom], and with brides roune [birds' songs]
The note [nut] of hasel springeth," &o.
In the Douce Collection (Bod. Lib., Ox., MS. No. 139), there is an English
song with music, beginning
" Foweles in the frith, the fisses in the flod."

and the MS., which contains it, is of the thirteenth century, but it is only in
two parts; and in Harl. MSS. No. 1717, is a French or Anglo-Norman song,
" Parti de Mai," which seems to have been cut from an older manuscript to form
the cover of a Chronicle of the Dukes of Normandy, written by order of Henry 11.
It is only for one voice, and a sort of hymn, but a tolerable melody. Both these
may be seen in Stafford Smith's Musica Antiqua, Vol. 1.
Another very early English song, with music, is contained in a manuscript,
" Liber de Antiquis Legibus," now in the Record Room, Town Clerk's Ofiice,
Guildhall. It contains a Chronicle of Mayors and Sheriffs of London, and of the
events that occurred in their times, from the year 1188 to the month of August,
1274, at which time the manuscript seems to have been completed. It is the
Song of a Prisoner. The first four lines are more Saxon than modern English :

Original Woeds. Words Modernized.'

Ar ne kuthe ich sorghe non Ere [this] knew I sorrow none

Nu ich mot manen min mon Now I must utter my moan
Karful wel sore ich syche Full of care well sore I sigh
Geltles ilic sholye muchele schame Guiltless I suffer much shame
Help, God, for thin swete name Help, God, for thy sweet name,
Kyng of Hevene riche. King of Heaven-Kingdom.

•»
Jumps. ^ Frequents the green fern.
26 NATIONAL SONGS NOT ON CHURCH SCALES.

In the Arundel Collection (No. 292), there is a song in " a handwriting of

the time of Edward II.," beginning
" Uncomly in cloystre I coure [cower] fill of care,"

which is on the comparative difiiculties of learning secular and church music,

but, except in the line, " Thou bite§t asunder bequarre for bemol " (B natural
for B flat), there is no reference to the practice of music.

Secular music must have made considerable progress before the end of the
thirteenth centui-y, for even Franco had spoken of a sort of composition called
" Conductus," in which, instead of merely addmg parts to a plain song, the stu-
dent was first to compose as pretty a tune as he could, and the:i to make descant
upon and he further says, that in every other case, some melody already made
it;''

is chosen, which is called the tenor, and governs the descant originating from il
but it is different in the Conductus, where the cantus (or melody) and the descant
(or harmony) are both to be produced. This was evidently applied to secular
composition, since, about 1250, Odo, Archbishop of Rheims, speaks of Conduct! et
Motuli as " jocose and sciutHous songs."
Accidental sharps, discords and their resolutions, and even chromatic counter-
point, are treated on by Marchetto of Padua (in his Pomerium Ai'tis Musicae
Mensiu'abilis) in 1274, and the Dominican Monk, Peter Herp, mentions in
Chronicle of Frankfort, under the year 1300, that new singers, composers, and
harmonists had arisen, who used other scales or modes than those of the Church.''
Pope John XXII. (in his decree given at Avignon in 1322) reproves those who,
" attending to the neiv notes and new measures of the disciples of the neio school,
would rather have their ears tickled with semibreves and minims, and such frivolous
inventions, than hear the ancient ecclesiastical chant." White minims, with tails,
to distinguish them from semibreves, seem first to have been used by John de
Muris, about 1330, retaining the lozenge-shaped head to the note. He also used
signs to distinguish triple from common time. These points should be borne in
mind judging of the age of manuscripts.
in
It will be observed that " Sumer is icumen in" is not within the compass of
any Church scale. It extends over the octave of F, and ends by descending to the

seventh below the key note for the close, which, indeed, is one of the most common

and characteristic terminations of English airs. The dance tune which follows
next in order has the same termination, and extends over a still greater compass
of notes. I shall therefore quit the subject of on the Church scales, relying

which a further examination of the tunes will afford. Buniey

practical refutation
has remarked that at any given period secular music has always been at least a
century in advance of Church music. And notwithstanding the improvements
in musical notation made by monks, the Church still adhered to her imperfect
system, as well as to bad harmony, for centuries after better had become general.

* *'
In Conductis aliter est operandum, quia qui vult qui inceperunt alios modos assuere." Wlien music de-
faeere Couductum, primum cantum invenire deliet pul- viated from Church scales, it was called by tlic old
tlie

chriorem quam potest, deinde uti debet illo, ut de tenore, -writers generally, Musica faUii, and by Franchiiuis,

facieudo discantum." Musica JicLa, sen colorala, from the cliromatic semitones
b " Novicantores surrexere, et componist2c, et figuristae, used in it.
 CHURCH MUSIC ALWAYS IN ARREAE. 27

Even in the sixteentli century, modulation being still confined to the ecclesiastical
modes, precluded the use of the most agreeable keys in music. Zarlino, who
approved of the four modes added by Glareanus, speaks of himself, and a few
others, having composed in the eleventh mode, or key of C natural (which was not
one of the original eight) , to which they were led hj the vulgar musicians of the

streetsand villages, who generally accompanied rustic dances with tunes in this
key, and —
which was then called, II moclo lascivo The wanton key. I suppose it
acquired this name, because, like the " sweet Lydian measure" of old, the in-
terval from the seventh to the octave is only a semitone.

DANCE TUNE. About 1300.

jj'j
s
.):, n r
Pf^^Hr^
J- J
,
-^s
i
^
-
J ^EP=^

^pj]g I J? J^jffiffn^tg^Ljjj jjj I

!P
rf.
t^ iri-M>
'^^ \ » .% :
\
i : £

^ ^^^^^^^^^
•5
^ — J y — " J tl
m 0^

The above dance tune is taken from the Musica Antiqua by John Stafford
Smith. He transcribed it from a manuscript then in the possession of Francis
Douce, Esq. (who bequeathed the whole of his manuscripts to the Bodleian
Library), and calls it, " a dance tune of the reign of Edward II., or earlier."

The notation of the MS. is the same as in that which contams >S't«Her w icimen in,
28 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY RESUMED.

and I do not think it can be dated later than 1300. Dr. Crotch remarks :

" The abundance of appoggiaturas in so ancient a melody, and the number of bars
in the phrases, four in one and five in another —
nine in each part, are its most
striking peculiarities. It is formed on an excellent design, similar to that of
several fine airs of different nations. It consists of three parts, resembling each
other excepting in the commencement of their phrases, in which they tower above
each other with increasing energy, and is altogether a cm-ious and very favorable
specimen of the state of music at this very early period."
The omission of the eighth bar in each phrase would make it strictly in modern
rhythm.

CHAPTER in.

English Minstrelsy from 1270 to 1480, and the gradual extinction

OF THE old Minstrel.

Edward the First, according to the Chronicle of Walter Hemmingford, about the
year 1271, a short time before he ascended the throne, took his harper with him
to the Holy Land, who must have been a close and constant attendant on his
master, for when Edward was wounded at Ptolemais, the hai-per (Citharseda
suus), hearing the struggle, rushed into the royal apartment, and, striking the
head with a tripod or trestle, beat out his brains.
assassin on the
" That Edward ordered a massacre of the Welsh bards," says Sharon Turner,
" seems rather a vindictive tradition of an irritated nation than an historical fact.

The destruction of the independent sovereignties of Wales abolished the patronage

of the bards, and in the cessation of internal warfare, and of external ravages,
they lost their favorite subjects, and most familiar imagery. They declined
because they were no longer encouraged." The Hon. Daines Barrington could
find no instances of severity against the Welsh in the laws, &c. of this monarch,"
and that they were not extirpated is proved by the severe law which we find in
the Statute Book, 4 Henry IV. (1402), c. 27, passed against them during the
resentment occasioned by the outrages committed under Owen Glendour. In that
act they are described as Rymours and Ministralx, proving that our ancestors
could not distinguish between them and our own minstrels.
In May, 1290, was celebrated the marriage of Queen Eleanor's daughter Joan,
surnamed of Acre, to the Earl of Gloucester, and in the following July, that of
Margaret, her fifth daughter, to John, son of the Duke of Brabant. Both cere-
monies were conducted with much splendour, and a multitude of minstrels flocked
from all parts to Westminster to the fii-st came King Grey of England, King
:

Caupenny from Scotland, and Poveret, the minstrel of the Mareschal of Champagne.
The nuptials of Margaret, however, seem to have eclipsed those of her sister.
Walter de Storton, the king's harper, distributed a hundred pounds, the gift of

» See his observations on the Statutes, 4to. 4th Ed.

 EDWARD I. 29

the bridegroom, among 426 minstrels, as Avell English as others." In 1291 , in the
accounts of the executors of Queen Eleanor, there is an entry of a payment of

39s., for a cup purchased to be given to one of the king's minstrels.

The highly valuable roll, preserved among the records in the custody of the
Queen's Remembrancer, which has been printed for the Roxburghe Club, marks
the gradations of rank among the minstrels, and the corresponding rewards
bestowed upon them. It contains the names of those who attended the cour
pleniere held by King Edward at the Feast of Whitsuntide, 1306, at West-
minster, and also at the New Temple, London ; because " the royal palace,
although large, was nevertheless small for the crowd of comers." Edward then
conferred the honor of knighthood upon his son. Prince Edward, and a great
number of the young nobility and military tenants of the crown, who were sum-
moned to receive it, preparatory to the King's expedition to Scotland to avenge
the murder of John Comyn, and the revolt of the Scotch.
On this occasion there were six kings of the minstrels, five of whom, viz.,
Le Roy de Champaigne, Le Roy Capenny, Le Roy Boisescue, Le Roy Marchis,
and Le Roy Robert, i-eceived each five marks, or 3/. 6s. 8cl., the mark being

13s. 4c?. It is calculated that a shilling in those days was equivalent to fifteen
shillings of the present time ; according to which computation, they received 50?.
each. The sixth, Le Roy Druet, received only 21. The list of money given to
minstrels is but that of payments nmde to them being in
principally in Latin ;

Norman French, it is difficult to distinguish English minstrels from others. Le

Roy de Champaigne was probably " Poveret, the minstrel of the Mareschal of
Champagne," of 1290, Le Roy Capenny, " King Caupenny from Scotland," and
Le Roy Robert, whom we know to have been the English king of the minstrels
by other payments made to him by the crown (see Anstis' Register of the Order
of the Garter, vol. ii. p. 303), was probably the " King Grey of England" of
the former date. Among the names we find, Northfolke, Carletone, Ricard de
Haleford, Adam de Werintone (Warrington ?) , Adam de Grimmeshawe, Merlin,
Lambyn Clay, Fairfax, Hanecocke de Blithe, Richard Wheatacre, &c. The
harpers are generally mentioned only by their christian names, as Laurence,
Mathew, Richard, John, Robert, and Geofirey, but there are also Richard de
Quitacre, Richard de Leylonde, William de Grimesar, William de Duifelde, John
de Trenham, &c., as well as Adekyn, harper to the Prince, who was probably
a Welsh bard. In these lists only the principal minstrels are named, the remain-
ing sum being divided, by the kings and few others, among the menestraus de la
commune. Harpers are in the majority where the particular branch of minstrelsy
is specified. Some minstrels are locally described, as Robert " de Colecestria,"
John " de Salopia," and Robert " de Scardeburghe ;" others are distinguished
as the harpers of the Bishop of Durham, Abbot of Abyngdon, Earls of Warrenne,
Gloucester, &c. ; one is Guillaume sans maniere ; another, Reginald le menteur
a third is called Makejoye ; and a fom-th, Perle in the eghe.

• Pages Ixix. and Ixx. Introduction to Manners and Printed (or the Roxburghe Club, and quoted from
1841,
Household Expenses of England in the 131h and 15th Wardrobe Book, IS Edward I. Rot. Miscell. in Turr,
centuries, illustrated by original records. 4to. London. Lond. No. 56.
30 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.

The total sum expended was about 200/., which according to the preceding
estimate would be equal to about 3,000/. of our money.
The minstrels seem to have been in many respects upon the same footuig as the
heralds ; and the King of the Heralds, Uke the King at Arms, was, both here and
on the Continent, an usual officer in the courts of princes. Heralds seem even to
have been included with minstrels in the preceding accouiit, for Carletone, who
occupies a fan- position among them, receiving 1/. as a a payment, and 5s. as
gratuity, is in the latter case described as Carleton " Haralde."
In the reign of Edward JI., besides other grants to " King Robert," before
mentioned, there is one in the sixteenth year of his reign to William de Morlee,
" The king's minstrel, styled Hoy de North" of houses that had belonged to
John le Boteler, called Roy Brunhaud. So, among heralds, Norroy was usually
styled Roy cV Amies de North (Anstis. ii. 300), and the Kings at Arms in general
were originally called Reges Heraldorum, as these were Reges Minstrallorum.^
— Percy'' s Essay.
The proverbially lengthy pedigrees of the Welsh were registered by their bards,
who were also heralds.''
In the reign of Edward H., A.D. 1309, at the feast of the installation of Ralph,
Abbot of St. Augustm's, at Canterbury, seventy shillings was expended on
minstrels, who accompanied their songs with the harp. Warton, vol. i., p. 89. —
In this reign such extensive privileges were claimed by these men, and by dis-
solute persons assuming their character, that it became a matter of public griev-
ance, and a royal decree was issued in 1315 to put an end to it, of which the
following is an extract :

"Edward by the grace of God, &c. to sheriffes, &c. greetyng, Forasmuch as... many
idle persons, under colour of Mynstrelsie, and going in messages, and other faigned
business, haveben and yet be receaved in other mens houses to meate and drynke, and
be not therwith contented yf they be not largely consydered with gyftes of the lordes
of the houses &c....We wyllyng to restrayne suohe outrageous enterprises and idle-
:

ness, &c. have ordeyned that to the houses of prelates, earles, and barons, none
resort to meate and drynke, unlesse he be a Mynstrel, and of these Minstrels that there
come none except it be three or four Minstrels of honour at the most in one day,
unlesse he be desired of the lorde of the house. And to the houses of meaner men

" Heralds and minstrels seem to have been on nearly The Arwyddvardd, in early Cambrian history, was an
the same footing abroad. For Instance, Froissart tells us officer of national appointment, who, at a later period,
" The same day th' Erie of Foix {rave to Heraudes and "^'as succeeded by the Prydydd, or Poet. One of these was
MinstreUes the somme of fyve hundred frankes and ; to attend at the birth, marriage, and death of any man of
gave to the Duke of Tourayn's MinstreUes gowns of high descent, and to enter the facts in his genealogy.
Cloth of Gold, furred with Ermyns, valued at two hun- The Marwnad, or Elegy, composed at the decease of such
dred franks."— C/iro;;ic^t? Ed. 1525, book 3, ch. 31. a person, was required to contain truly and at length his
''
"The Welshman's pedigree was his title-deed, by genealogy and descent and to commemorate the survivor,
;

which he claimed his birthright in the country. Every wife or husband, with his or her descent and progeny,
one was obliged to shew his descent through nine gene- The particulars were registered in the books of the
rations, in order to be acknowledged a free native, and by Arivyddvardd, and a true copy therefrom delivered to the
which right he claimed his portion of land in the com- heir, to be placed among the authentic documents of the
munity. Among a people, where surnames were not in family. The bard's fee, or recompense, was a stipend
use, and where the right of property depended on descent, out of every plough land in the district ; and he made a
an attention to pedigree was indispensable. Hence arose triennial Bardic circuit to correctand arrange genealogical
the second order of Bards, who were the jiriyf/rfdiiifrrfrf, or entries." Extracted from Meyrich's Introduction to his
Bard-Heralds, whose duty it was to register arms and edition of Lewis Durm's Heraldic Visitations of Wales
pedigrees, as well as undertake the embassies of state. 2 vols. ito. Llandovcri/. 1846.
 EDWARD II. 31

that none come nnlesse he be desired, and that such as shall come so, holde themselves
contented with meate and drynlie, and with such curtesie as the maister of the house
wyl shewe unto them of his owue good wyll, without their asliyng of any thyng.
And yf any one do agaynst this Ordinaunce, at the firstetyme he to lose his 3Im-
strelsie, and at the second tyme to forsweare his craft, and never to be receaved for
a Minstrel in any house.... Geven at Langley the vi. day of August, in the ix yere of
our reigne." Hearne's Append, ad Leland Collect., vol. vi., p. 36.

Stow, in his Survey of London, in an estimate of the annual expenses of

the Earl of Lancaster about this time, mentions a large disbursement for the
That they received vast quantities of money and costly
liveries of the minstrels.

we learn from many authorities and in a poem on

habiliments from the nobles, ;

the times of Edivard LE., knights are recommended to adhere to theii- proper
costume lest they be mistaken for minstrels.
" Kny[gh]tes schuld weare clothes That no man may knowe
I-schape in dewe manere, A mynstrel from a knyg[h]t
As his order wo[u]ld aske, Well ny :

As wel as schuld a frere [friar] : So is mekenes[s] fait adown

Now thei beth [are] disgysed, And pride aryse an hye."
So diverselych i-digt [bedight], Percy Soc., No. 82, p. 23.

That minstrels were usually known by their di'ess, is shown by the following
anecdote, which is related by Stowe : —
" When Edward II. this year (1316)
solemnized the feast of Pentecost, and sat at table in the great hall of West-
minster, attended by the peers of the realm, a certain woman, dressed in the habit
of a Minstrel, riding on a great horse, trapped in the Minstrel fashion, entered the
and going romid the several tables, acting the part of a Minstrel,
hall, at length
mounted the steps to the royal table, on which she deposited a letter. Having
done this, she turned her horse, and, saluting all the company, she departed."
The subject of this letter was a remonstrance to the king on the favors heaped
by him on his mmions to the neglect of his faithful servants. The door-keepers
being called, and threatened for admitting such a woman, readily replied, " that
it never was the custom of the king's palace to deny admission to Minstrels,

especially on such high solemnities and feast days."

On the capital of a column in Beverley Minster, is the inscription, " Thys
pillor made the meynstyi-ls." Five men are thereon represented, foui* in short
coats, reaching to the knee, and one with an overcoat, all having chains round
their necks and tolerably large purses. The building is assigned to the reign of
Henry VI., 1422 to 1460, when minstrelsy had greatly declined, and it cannot
therefore be considered as representing minstrels in the height of then- prosperity.
They are probably only instrumental performers (with the exception, perhaps, of
the lute player) ; but as one holds a pipe and tabor, used only for rustic dances,
another a crowd or treble viol, a thhd what appears to be a bass flute, and a
fourth either a treble flute or perhaps that kind of hautboy called a wayght, or
wait, and there is no harper among them —
I do not suppose any to have been of
that class called minstrels of honom-, who rode on horseback, with their servants
 32 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.

to attend them, and who could Such distinctions

enter freely into a king's palace.
among minstrels are frequently drawn For instance, in the
in the old romances.
romance of Launfel we are told, " They had menstralles of moche honom-s," and
also that they had " Fydelers, sytolyrs (citolers), and trompoteres." It is not,
however, surprising that they should be rich enough to huild a column of a
Minster, considering the excessive devotion to, and encouragement of, music which
characterised the English in that and the two following centuries.
No poets of any country make such frequent and enthusiastic mention of min-
'
strelsy as the English. There is scarcely an old poem but abounds with the
praises of music. Adam Davy, or Davie, of Stratford-le-Bow, near London,
flourished about 1312. In his Life of Alexander, we have several passages like
this : " Mcr[r]y it is ia haHe to he[a]re the liarpe,
The myustrall synge, the jogelour carpe" (recite).

And again, " Mery is the twynkelyng of the harpour."

The fondness of even the most illiterate, to hear tales and rhymes, is much
dwelt on by Robert de Brunne, or Robert Mannyng, " the first of om- vernacular
poets who is at all readable now." All rhymes were then sung with accompani-
ment, and generally to the harp. So in 1338, when Adam de Orleton, bishop of
Winchester, visited his Cathedral Priory of St. Swithin, in that city, a minstrel
named Herbert was introduced, who sang the Song of Colhrond, a Danish Giant,
and the tale of Queen Umima delivered from the plough-shares, or trial by fire, in
the hall of the Prior. A similar festival was held in this Priory in 1374, when
similar gestes or tales were sung. Chaucer's Troilus and Cresseide, though almost
as long as the ^neid, was to be " redde, or else songe," and Warton has printed
a portion of the Life of St. Swithin from a manuscript, with points and accents
inserted, both over the words and dividing the line, evidently for the pm-poses of
singing or recitation (History of English Poetry, vol. i., p. 15. 1840). We have
probably by far more tunes that are fitted for the recitation of such lengthy stories
than exist in any other country.
In the year 1362, an Act of Parliament passed, that " all pleas in the court
of the king, or of any other lord, shall be pleaded and adjudged in the English
tongue" (stat. 36 Edw. HE., cap. 15) ; and the reason, which is recited in the
preamble, was, that the French tongue was so unknown in England that the
parties to the law-suits had no knowledge or understanding of what was said for
or against them, because the coimsel spoke French. This was the era of Chaucer,
—
and of the author of Pierce Plowman two poets whose language is as different as
if they had been born a centui'y apart. Longland, instead of availing himself of the
rising and rapid improvements of the English language, prefers and adopts the style
of the Anglo-Saxon poets, even prefering their perpetual alliteration to rhyme.
—
His subject a satire on the vices of the age, but particularly on the corruptions
of the clergy and the absurdities of superstition —
does not lead him to say much
of music, but he speaks of ignorance of the art as a just subject of reproach.
" They kennen [know] no more mynstralcy, ne musik, men to gladde,
Than Mundy the muller [miller], of multa fecit Dens !"
 PIERCE PLOWMAN. —CHAUCER. 33

He says, however, of himself, in allusion to the minstrels :

" Ich can nat tahre, ne trompe, ne telle faire gestes,

Ne fithelyn, at fe[a]stes, ne harpen :

Japan ne jagelyn, ne gentilliche pipe ;

Nother sailen [leap or dance], ne sautrien, ne singe with the giterne."

He also describes his Friar as much better acquainted with the " Rimes of
Rohinliode and of Randal, of erle Ghester,^'' than with his Paternoster.
Chaucer, throughout his works, never loses an opportunity of describing or
alluding to the general use of music, and of bestowing it as an accomplishment
upon the pilgrims, heroes, and heroines of his several tales or poems, whenever
propriety admits. We may learn as much from Chaucer of the music of his day,
and of the estimation in which the art was then held in England, as if a treatise
had been written on the subject.
Firstly, from the Canterbury Tales, in his description of the Squire (line 91
to 96) , he says :

" Syngyngc he mas, or Jlomtynge [fluting] al the day ;

He was as fresh as is the moneth of May :

Short was his goune, with sleeves long and wyde

Well cowde he sitte on hors, and faire ryde.

ITe cowde songes wel make and endite,

Juste (fence) and eke daimce, and wel p[o]urtray and write."
Of the Nun, a Prioress (line 122 to 126) he says , :

" Ful wel sche sang the servise devyne,

Entuned in hire nose ful seemyly ;
And Frenscli sche spak ful faire and fetysly [neatly],
Aftur the schole of Stratford att6 Bowe,
For Frensch of Parys was to hire unknowe " [unknown].
The Monk, a jolly fellow, and gi-eat sportsman, seems to have had a passion for
no music but that of hounds, and the bells on his horse's bridle (line 169 to 171)
" And whan he rood [rode], men might his bridel heere
Gyngle in a whistlyng wynd so cleere,
And eke as lowde as doth the chapel belle."
Of his Mendicant Friar, whose study was only to please (lines 235 —270),
he says :
— " And certayn he hadde a mery note
Wel coutlie he synge andplaye on a
rote [hurdy-gurdy]. . . .

Somewhat he lipsede [lisped] for wantounesse,

To make his Englissch swete upon his tunge
And in his harpyng, whan that he had sunge,
His eyghen [eyes] tvs^nkeled in his he[a]d aright,
As don the sterrfes [do the stars] in the frosty night."
Of the Miller (Ime 564 to 568), he says :—
" Wel cowde he ste[a]le corn, and tollen thries [take toll thrice] ; ,

And yet he had a thombe of gold/ parde,

A whight cote and blewe hood we[a]i'ed he

» Tyrwhitt says there is an old proverb—" Every honest nevertheless he was as honest as his brethren. There are
miller has a thumb of gold." Perhaps it means that many early songs on thievish millers and bakers.
D
34 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.

A haggepipe cowcle Tic hlome and sowne [sound],

'
And therewithal he brought us out of towne."

Of the Pardoner (line 674 to 676) :—

" Fill lowde he sang, '
Come hider, love, to me.'
This Sompnour bar[e] to him a stif hurdoim,^
Was never trompe [trumpet] of half so gre[a]t a soun" (sound).
Of the poor scholar, Nicholas (line 3213 to 3219) :—
" And al above ther lay a gay samtrye [psaltry],
On which he made, a-nightes, melodye
So swetely, that al the chambur rang :

And Angehis ad Virginem he sang.

And after that he sang The Kynge's note ;

Ful often blessed was his mery throte."

Of the Carpenter's Wife (lines 8257 and 8) :—
" But of her song, it was as lowde and yerne [brisk]
As eny swalwe [swallow] chiteryng on a berne" [barn].

Of the Parish Clerk, Absolon (lines 3328 to 3335) :—

" In twenty manners he coude skip and daunce,
After the schole of Oxenforde the.
And with his legges casten to and fro ;

And pleyen songes on a small JRubible" [Rebec],

Ther-to he sang som tynie a lowde qiiynyhle ;''

And as n'el coude he pleye on a giterne

In al the toun nas [nor was] brewhous ne taverne
That he ne visited with his solas" [solace].

He serenades the Carpenter's Wife, and we have part of his song (lines 3352 — 64)
" The moone at night ful cleer and brighte schoon.
And Absolon his giterne hath i-take,
For paramours he seyde he wold awake
He syngeth in hys voys gentil and smal
'
Now, deere lady, if thi wills be,

I pray you that ye wol rewe [have compassion] on me.'

Full wel acordyng to his gyternyng,
This carpenter awook, and herde him syng."
Of the Appi-entice in the Cook's Tale, who plays both on the ribible and gitterne
" At every brideale wold he synge and hoppe ;

He lt)ved bet [better] the taverne than the schoppe."

» A curious reason for the use of the Bagpipe in Pil- singing the burden, or bnss, to his song in a deep loud
—
grimages will he found in State Trials Trial of William voice. Bourdon is the French for Drone; and Foot,
Thorpe. Henry IV., an. 8, shortly after Chaucer's death. • Undersong, and Burden mean the same thing, although
" I say to thee that it is right well done, that Pilgremys Burden was afterwards used in the sense of Ditty, or
have with them both Syngers, and also Pipers, that whan any line often recurring in a song, as will be seen here-
oneofthem, thatgoethbar[e]fo[o]te, strikethhis too upon after.
a stone, and hurteth hym sore, and maketh hym to blede; •=
Ribible (the diminutive of Ribibe or Rebec)is a small

it is well done that he orhis fel[l]owbegyn than aSonge, fiddle with three strings.
or else take out of his bosome a. Baggepype ioxto &n\Q ^ To sing a "quinible" means to descant by singing

away with soche myrthe the hurte of his felow." fifths on a plain-song, and to sing a '* quatrible" to des-
This Sompnour (Sumner or Summoner to the Eccle-
i"
cant by fourths. The latter term is used by Cornish in
siastical Courts, now called Apparitor) supported him by his Treatise between Trowthe and Enformacion. 1528.
 NOTICES OF MUSIC BY CHAUCER. 35

The Wife of Bath says (lines 5481 and 2, and 6039 and 40), that wives were
chosen " some, for they can synge and daunce.
And some for gentilesse or daliaiince

How conthe I daunce to an harpe smale,

And synge y-wys as eny nightyngale."
I shall conclude Chaucer's inimitable descriptions of character with that of hia
Oxford Clerk, who was so fond of books and study, that he loved Aristotle better
" Than robes riche, or fidel or sautrie
Souning in moral virtue was his speech,
And gladly woidd he lerne and gladly teclie."
We learn from the preceding quotations, that country squu-es in the fourteenth
century could pass the day in singing, or playing the flute, and that some could
" Songes well make and indite:" that the most attractive accomplishment in
a young lady was to be able to sing well, and that it afforded the best chance of
her obtaining an eligible husband ; also that the cultivation of music extended
to every class. The Miller, of whose education Pierce Plowmari speaks so slight-
ingly, could play upon the bagpipe ; and the apprentice both on the ribible and
gittern. The musical instruments that have been named are the harp, psaltry,
fiddle, bagpipe, flute, trumpet, rote, rebec, and gittern. There remain the lute,

organ, shalm (or shawm), and citole, the hautboy (or wayte), the horn, and
shepherd's pipe, and the catalogue will be nearly complete, for the cittern or
cithren difiered chiefly from the gittern, in being strung with wire instead of gut,
or other material. The sackbut was a bass trumpet with a slide,'' like the modern
trombone ; and the dulcimer differed chiefly from the psaltry in the wires being
struck, instead of being twitted by a plectrum, or quill, and therefore requiring
both hands to perform on it.

In the commencement of the Pardoner's Tale he mentions lutes, harps, and

gitterns fordancmg, as well as singers with harps in the Knight's Tale he repre- ;

sents Venus with a citole in her right hand, and the organ is alluded to both in
the History of St. Cecilia, and in the tale of the Cock and the Fox.
In the House of Fame (Urry's Edit., line 127 to 136), he says:
" That madin loude Minsti-alsies
In Cornmnse [bagpipe] and eke in Shalmies,^
1 •' As he that plaies upon a Sagbut, by pulling it up the shrillness to have arisen from over-blowing, or else
and down alters his tones and tunes." Burion's Anatomy the following quotation will appear contradictory :

of Melanclinly, Svo. Edit, of 1800, p. .379. " A Shawme maketh a swele souiide, for he tiinyihe the
^ A very early drawing of the Shalm, or Shawm, is in basse,
one of the illustrations to a copy of Froissart, in the Brit. Itmountithe not to hye, but hepithe rule and space.
Mus. Royal MSS. IS, E. Another in Commenius' \si yf it be hlowne withe to vehement a wyndc,
Visible World, translated by Hoole, 1650, (he translates It it to mysgovcrne out of his kynde."
makithe
the Latin word gingras, shawm,) from which it is copied This one of the " proverbis " that were written about
is

into Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, edited by Singer, vol. i. the time of Henry VII., on the walls of the Manor House
p. 114., Ed. 1825. The modern clarionet is an improve- at Leckingfield, near Beverley, Yorkshire, anciently be-
ment upon the shawm, which was played with a reed, longing to the Percys, Earls of Northumberland, but now
like the wayte, or hautboy, but being a bass instrument, destroyed. There were many others relating to music,
with about the compass of an octave, had probably more and musical instruments (harp, lute, recorder, claricorde,
the tone of a bassoon. It was used on occasions of state. clarysymballis, virgynalls, clarion, organ, singing, and
"What stately music have you? You have shawms? musical notation,) and the inscribing them on the walls
Ralph plays a stately part, and he must needs have adds another to the numberless proofs of the estimation
shawms." Knight of ilie Burning Pestle. Drayton speaks in which the art was held. A manuscript copy of them
of it as shrill-toned *' E'en from the shrillest shawm, unto
: is preserved in Bib. Reg. 18. D. II. Brit. Mus.
the cornamute." Polyolbion, vol. iv., p. n7G. I conceive
36 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.

And in many an othir pipe,

That craftely began to pipe
Bothe in Douced and eke in Rede,'^
That bin at feastes with the brede [bread] :

And many a Floite and litlyng Home

And Pipes made of grenti come.
As have these little Herd^groomes
That kopin Beastes [keep oxen] in the broomes."
As to the songs of his time, see the Frankeleyne's Tale (line 11,254 to 60) :

" He was dispeired, nothing dorst he seye

Sauf [save] in his songes somewhat wolde be wreye [betray]
His woo, as in a general compleyning
He and was beloved nothing.
said he loved,
Of suche matier made he many Layes,
Songes, Coinpleyntes, Roimdelets, Virelayes:
How that he dorstd not bis sorwe [sorrow] telle,
Bnt languisheth as doth a fuyr in helle."
and he speaks elsewhere of Ditees, Rondils, Bcdades, &c.
The foUowiiig passages relate to minstrelsy, and to the manner of playing the
harp, pointing and performing with the nails; as the Spaniards do now with the
guitar. The first from the House of Fame (Urry, line 105
is to 112) :

. .
" Stoden .... the castell all aboutin
. .

Of all mani^ of Minstralis

And gestours that tellen tales
Both of wepyng and of game,
And all that 'longeth unto fame
There herde I playin on an Harpe
Tliat ysounid hothe well and sliarpe"
and from Troylus, lib. 2, 1030 :

" For though that the best harper upon live

Would on the beste sounid jolly harpe
That evir was, with all his fingers five
Touch aie o (one) string, or aie o warble harpe,
Were his nailes poi')icted nevir so sliarpe
It shoulde makin every wight to[o] dull
To heare [h]is Glee, and of his strokes ful."
Even the musical gamut is mentioned by Chaucer. In the supplementary tale
he makes the host give " an hid[e]ouse cry in ge-sol-re-ut the haut," and there is
scarcely a subject connected with the art as practised in his day, that may not be
illustrated by quotation from his works ;

" For, gif he have nought sayd hem, leeve [dear] brother,
In o bo[o]k, he bath seyd hem in another."

^ Tyrwhitt thinks Doncete an Instrument, and quotes "douced" that flutes are intended; the
a reed), I infer by
Lydgate toneofwliich, especially the largeflute, is extremely soft.
" Ther were trumpes and trumpetes, I had a collection of English flutes, of which one was
Lowde shall [m]ys and doucetes." nearly a yard and a half long. All had mouth-pieces like
but it seems to me only to mean soft pipes in opposition the flageolet, and were blown in the same manner; the
to loud shalms. By the distinction Chaucer draws, "both tone very pleasing, but less powerful and brilliant than
in douced and in reed" (the shalm being played on by the modern or "German" flute.
 60WER. — RICHARD II. 37

I shall conclude these numerous extracts with one of the song of nature, from
the Knighte's Tale, ( line 1493 to 98) :—
" The busy lark6, messager of daye,
Sahieth in hire song the morwe [morning] gray
And fyry Phehus ryseth up so bright,
That al tlie orient laugheth of the light,

And with his strem^s dryeth in the greves [groves]

The silver dropfis, hongyng on the leeves."

Having quoted so largely from Chaucer, whose portraiture of character and

persons has never been excelled, it will be unnecessary to refer to his contem-
porary, Gower, fui-ther than to say that in his Confessio Amantis, Venus greets
Chaucer as her disciple and poet, who had filled the land in his youth with
dittoes and " songes glade," which he had made for her sake and Gower says of ;

himself: " And also I have ofte assaide

Roundel, Balades, and Virelaie
For her on whom myn hert laie."

But about the same time, in the Burlesque Romance, The T[o]urnament of
Tottenham (written in ridicule of chivalry) we find a notice of songs in six parts
,

which demands attention. In the last verse :

" Mekyl mirth was them among

In every corner of the hous
Was melody delycyous
For to he[a]re precyus
Of six menys song."
It has been supposed that this is an allusion to Sumer is icumen in, which
requires six performers, but in all probability thei'e were many such songs,
although but one of so early a date has descended to us. We find in the Statutes
ofNew College, Oxford (which was founded about 1380), that William of
Wykeham ordered his scholars to recreate themselves on festival days with songs
in the hall, both after dinner and supper ; and as part-music was then in common
use, it is reasonable to suppose that the founder intended the students thereby to
combine improvement and recreation, instead of each singing a difierent song.
In the fourth year of king Richard II. (1381), John of Gaunt erected at
Tutbury, in Staifordshire, a Qourt of Minstrels similar to that annually kept at
Chester and which, like a court-leet, or com't-baron, had a legal jui'isdiction,
;

with full power to receive suit and service from the men of this profession within
five neighbouring counties, to determine their controversies and enact laws ; also
to apprehend and arrest such of them as should refuse to appear at the said court,
annually held on the 16th of August. For this they had a charter, by which
they were empowered to appoint a King of the Minstrels, with four officers to

preside over them. They were every year elected with great ceremony ; the
whole form of which, as observed in 1680, is described by Dr. Plot in his History
of Staffordshire. That the barbarous diversion of bull-running was no part of the
original institution, is fully proved by the Rev. Dr. Pegge, in Archseologia, vol. ii..

No. xiii., p. 86. The bull-running tune, however, is still popular in Staffordshire.
38 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.

Du Fresne in hia Glossary (art. Ministrelli) , speaking of the King of the

Minstrels, says, "His office and power are defined in a French charter of
Henry IV., king of England, in the Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. i., p. 355;"

but though I have searched through Dugdale's Monasticon, I find no such

charter.
In 1402, we find the before-mentioned statute against the Welsh bards,
(4 Henry IV., c. 27).'' As they had excited their countrymen to rebellion
against the English government, it is not to be wondered (says Percy) that the
Act is conceived in terms of the utmost indignation and contempt against this
class of men, who are described as Rymours, Ministralx, which are apparently
here used as only synonymous terms to express the Welsh bards, with the usual
exuberance of our Acts of Parliament; for if their Ministralx had been mere
musicians, they would not have requu-ed the vigilance of the English legislature
to suppressthem. It was their songs, exciting their countrymen to insurrection,
which produced " les diseases et mischiefs en la terre de Gales."

At the coronation of Henry V., which took place in Westminster Hall (1413),
we are told by Thomas de Elmham, that " the number of harpers was exceedingly
great ; and that the sweet strings of their harps soothed the souls of the guests
by their soft melody." He also speaks of the dulcet sounds of the united
music of other instruments, in which no discord interrupted the harmony,
as " inviting the royal banqueters to the full enjoyment of the festival."
(Vit. et. Gest. Henr. V., c. 12, p. 23.) Minstrelsy seems still to have
flourished in England, although it had declined so greatly abroad ; the Provenyals
had ceased ^vi'iting during the preceding century. When Henry was preparing
for his great voyage to France in 1415, an express order was given for his
minstrels to attend him. — (Rymer, ix., 255.) Monstrelet speaks of the English
camp resounding with the national music (170) the day preceding the battle of
Agincoui-t, but this must have been before the king " gave the order for silence,
Avhich was afterwards strictly observed."
When he entered the City of London in triumph after the battle, the gates and
streets were hung with tapestry representing the histories of ancient heroes ; and
boys with pleasing voices were placed in artificial turrets, singing verses in his
praise. But Henry ordered this part of the pageantry to cease, and commanded
that for the future no "ditties should be made and sung by Minstrels'" or others,"
in praise of the recent victory ;
" for that he would whollie have the praise
and thankes altogether given to God."
Nevertheless, among many
a minstrel-piece soon appeared on the
others,
Seyge of Harflett (Harfleur), and the Battayle of Agynhourte, " evidently," says
Warton, " adapted to the harp," and of which he has printed some portions.

alt runs in these terms: "Item, pour eschuirplusieurs ^ Hollinslied, quoting from Thomas de Elmliam, whose
diseases et mischiefs qont advenuz devaunt ces heures en words are, " Quod cantus de suo triumpho fieri, seu per
la terre de Gales par plusieurs Westours Rymours, Citharistas vel alios (luoscunque cantari penitus pro-
Minstralx et autres Vacabondes, ordeignez est, et hibebat." It will be observed that HuUinshed translates
establiz,que nul Westour, Rymour Minstral, ne Vaca- Citharistas {literally harpers) minstrels,
bond soit aucunemeut sustenuz en la terre de Gales pur
faire kymorthas ou coillage sur la commune poeple
ilioeques."
 HENRY V. 39

(Hist. Eng. Poet., vol. ii. p. 257.) Also the following song, wliich Percy has
printed in his Reliques of Ancient Poetry, from a M.S. in the Pepysian Library,
and Stafford Smith, in his Collection of English Songs, 1779 fol., in fac-simile of
the old notation, as well as in modern score, and with a chorus in three parts to
the words, " Deo gratias, Anglia, redde pro victoria." The tune is here given
with the first verse of the words," for although the original is a regular composi-
tion in three parts, it serves to shew the state of melody at an early period, and
the subject is certainly a national one.

SONG ON THE VICTOEY OP AGINCOUET. 1415.

Slowly and Majestically,

Our king went forth to Normandy, With gi'ace and might of chi-val-iy The God , for him wrouglit

m¥^
gfr
(t ?r?^:
t f
ritard.
-m-
i
5^=J=* fe

maiv'lously, Where-fore England may call and cry,

^ E^
j=

- There are also two well-known ballads on the Battle of Agincourt the one ;

commencing " A council grave our king did hold;" the other " As our king lay
musuig in his bed," which will be noticed under later dates and a three-men's ;

song, which was simg by the tanner and his fellows, to amuse the guests, in
Hey wood's play. King Udivard IV., beginning —
" Agincourt ! Agincourt ! I<now ye not Agincourt ?

Where the English slew or hurt

All the French foemen?" &c.

Although Henry had forbidden the minstrels to celebrate his victory, the order
evidently did not proceed from any disregard for the professors of music or of
song, for at the Feast of Pentecost, which he celebrated in 1416, having the
Emperor and the Duke of Holland as his guests, he ordered rich gowns for sixteen

of his minstrels. And having before his death orally granted an annuity of an

i*
I do not intend to reprint songs or ballads that are to music, because more metrical than others, although
contained in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, -without they may be less exactly and minutely in accordance
some particular motive, for that delightful book can be with old copies, which are often very carelessly printed
purchased in many shapes and at a small cost. As a or transcribed.
general rule, the versions given by Percy are best suited
40 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.

hundred was confirmed in the first

shillings to each of his minstrels, the grant

year of his son, Henry VI.

1423), and payment ordered out of the ex-
(a.d.

chequer. Both the biographers of Henry declare his love for music." Lydgate
and Occleve, the poets whom he patronized, attest also his love of literature, and
the encouragement he gave to it.

John Lydgate, Monk of Bury St. Edmunds, describes the minstrelsy of his

time less completely, but in nearly the same terms as Chaucer.

Lydgate was a very voluminous writer. Ritson enumerates 251 of his pieces,
and the from being complete. Among his minor pieces are many songs
list is far

and ballads, chiefly satirical, such as " On the forked head-dresses of the ladies,"
on " Thievish Millers and Bakers," &c. A
selection from these has been recently

printed by the Percy Society.

Among the devices at the coronation banquet of Henry VI. (1429), were, in
the first course, a "sotiltie" (subtlety) of St. Edward and St. Lewis, in coat
armour, holding between them a figure like King Henry, similarly armed, and

standing luith a ballad under his feet." In the second, a device of the Emperor
Sigismund and King Henry V., arrayed in mantles of garter, and a figure like
Henry VI. kneeling before them with a ballad against the Lollards ;'' and in the
third, one of our Lady, sitting with her child in her lap, and holding a crown in
her hand, St. George and St. Denis kneeling on either side, presenting to her
King Henry ivith a ballad in his hand.'' These subtleties were probably devised
by the clergy, who strove to smother the odium which, as a body, their vices had
excited, by turning public attention to the further persecution of the Lollards.*^
In a discourse which was prepared to be delivered at the Convocation of the
Clei'gy, ten days after the death of Edward IV., and which still exists in MS.
(MS. Cotton Cleopatra, E. 3), exhorting the clergy to amendment, the writer
complains that " The people laugh at us, and make us their songs all the day
long." Vicious persons of every description bad been induced to enter the church
on account of the protection it afforded against the secular power, and the facilities

it provided for continued indulgence in their vices.

In that age, as in more enlightened times, the people loved better to be pleased
than instructed, and the minstrels were often more amply paid than the clergy.
During many of the years of Henry VI., particularly in the year 1430, at the
annual feast of the fraternity of the Holie Crosse, at Abingdon, a town in
Berkshire, twelve priests each received four pence for singing a dirge and the :

same number of minstrels were rewarded each with two shillings and four pence,
besides diet and horse-meat. Some of these minstrels came only from Mayden-
hithe, or Maidenhead, a town at no great distance, in the same county. ( Liber

Niger, p. 598.) In the year 1441, eight priests were hired from Coventry,
to assist in celebrating a yearly obit in the church of the neighbouring priory of

^ "Musicis delectabatur." —Tit. Liv., p. "Instru-

5. '^
Quoted by Sharon Turner, from Fab. -119.
mentis organicis pluriraum deditus." — Elmham. '^
SirJohn Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, had been put to
''
Ritson has printed one of these ballads against the death in the preceding reign.
Lollards, in his Ancient Songs, p. 6.1, 1790, taken from

MS. Cotton, Vespasicm, B. 16. Brit. Mus.

 HENRY VI. 41

Maxtoke ; as were six minstrels (MiMi) belonging to the family of Lord Clinton
who lived in the adjoining Castle of Maxtoke, to sing, harp, and play in the hall
of the monastery, during the extraordinary refection allowed to the monks on that
anniversary. Two were given to the priests, and four to the minstrels
shillings :

and the latter are said to have supped in camera pida, or the painted chamber of
the convent, with the sub-prior, on which occasion the chamberlain furnished
eight massive tapers of wax. (Warton, vol. ii., p. 309.) However, on this occa-
sion, the priests seem to have been better paid than usual, for in the same year
(1441) the prior gave no more than sixpence to a preaching friar.

As late as in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, we find an entry in the
books of the Stationers' Company (1560) of a similar character : Item, payd to
the preacher, 6s. 2d. Item, payd to the minstrell, 12s. ; so that even in the
decline of minstrelsy, the scale of remuneration was relatively the same.
A curious collection of the songs and Christmas carols of this reign (Henry
VI.) have been printed recently by the Percy Society. (Songs and Carols, No. 73.)
The manuscript book from which they are taken, had, in all probability, belonged
to a country minstrel who sang at festivals and merry makings, and it has been,
most judiciously, printed entire, as giving a general view of the classes of poetry
then popular. A proportion of its contents consists of carols and religious songs,
such as were sung at Christmas, and perhaps at other festivals of the Church.
Another class, in which the MS. is, for its date, peculiarly rich, consists of
drinking songs. It also contains a number of those satirical songs against the
fair sex, and especially against shrews, which were so common in the middle ages,
and have a certain degree of importance as showing the condition of private
society among our forefathers. The larger number of the songs, including some
of the most interesting and curious, appear to be unique, and the others
are in general much better and more complete copies than those previously
known (viz. in MS. Sloane, No. 2593, Brit. Mus). The editor of the MS.
(Mr. T. Wright) observes that " The great variations in the different copies of
the same song, show that they were taken down from oral recitation, and had
often been preserved by memory among who were not unskilful at
minstrels,
composing, and who were not only in the habit of, voluntarily or involuntarily,
modifying the songs as they passed through their hands, and adding or omitting
stanzas, but of making up new songs by stringing together phrases and lines, and
even whole stanzas from the different compositions which were imprinted on their
memories." But what renders the manuscript peculiarly interesting, is, that it

contains the melodies of some of the songs as well as the words. From this it
appears that the same tune was used for different words. At page 62 is a note,
which in modern spellingis as follows " This is the tune for the song following
:

if so be that ye will have another tune, it may be at your pleasure, for I have set
all the song." The words of the carol, " Nowell, Nowell," (Noel) are wi-itten
under the notes, but the wassail song that follows, and for which the tune was also
mtended, is of a very opposite character, "Bryng us in good ale." I have
printed the first verse of each under the tune, but it requires to be sung more
quickly for the wassail song than for the carol.
42 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.

CHRISTMAS CAROL. About 1460,

The Burden or Chorus.

^^^^m 4-

Now nowell, now

- ell,
Bring us in good
- ell,
ale,
nowell,
good ale,
[Now-ell, now-ell, now
And bring us in good
^=te$
- ell.]
ale :
This

ES
ffi
J m 8 -S^ • -*-
P-

m
ir-rr
*=•: ^^^f^^^^4^
lu - ta tion of the an-gel Ga - bi-i - el.
^

|f=^
Carol.

^^
Ti-dings true there

^
IS the sa - -

For oiu-bless-ed La-dy'ssake, bring us in good ale. Bring us in no

S
^
be come new, sent
=^ ^=rT.
from the Trin - i -
^^
ty,
-#-

By
=1
Ga - bri - el
^H4 to Na - za - reth,

^^m
brown bread, for that is made of bran, Nor bring us in no white bread, For

r^ m m

s ^ ^i t=s=w
ci - ty of Ga - h - lee : A clean maiden and pure virgin. Through her hu-mi-li
there - in is no gain. But bring us in good ale, good ale. And bring us in good
•

^ ^ J ."i t .J ^J* ^
'mr^m
Se
-
~~-^' * -1- -l-"^~*
Hath con-cei-ved the per - son
-3- • p
second in De
r=ssf
- i ty.
ty . .

ale. For our blessed La-dy'ssake, Bring us in good ale.

sEi* ^
i ^
i

^ The two bars marked off by a line are added, because which the latter could have been sung to the music as
there would not otherwise be music enough for the Was- written in the manuscript, would be by omitting the line
sail Song. They are a mere repetition of the preced- " And bring us in good ale ; " but, as it is merely a repe-
ing, and can be omitted at pleasure. The only way in tition, it could be omitted.
 CHRISTMAS CAROL AND WASSAIL SONG. 43

The notation of the original is in semibreves, minims, and crotchets, which

are diminished to crotchets, quavers, and semiquavers, as became necessary in
modernizing tlie notation ; for the quickest note then in use was the crotchet."
The Christmas carol partakes so much of the character of sacred music, that it is

not surprising it should be in an old scale. If there were not the flat at the sig-
nature, which takes off a little of the barbarity, it would be exactly m the eighth
Gregorian tone.
There are seven verses to the carol, but as they are not particularly interesting,
perhaps the words of the wassail song will be preferred, although we should not
now sing of " our blessed lady," as was common in those days.
Bring iis in no brown bread, for that is made of bran,
Nor bring us in no white bread, for therein no gain, is

But bring us in good ale, and bring us in good ale ;

For our blessed Lady's sake, bring us in good ale.

Bring us in no beef, for there is many bones.
But bring us in good ale, for that go'th down at once. And bring, &c.

Bring us in no bacon, for that is passing fat.

But bring us in good ale, and give us enough of that. And bring, &c.

Bring us in no mutton, for that is passing lean.

Nor bring us in uo tripes, for they be seldom clean. But bring, &c.

Bring us in no eggs, for there are many shells,

But bring us in good ale, and give us nothing else. But bring, &e.

Bring us in no butter, for therein are many hairs,

Nor bring us in no pig's flesh, for that will make us bears. But bring, &c.

Bring us in no puddings, for therein is all God's good,

Nor bring us in no venison, that is not for our blood. But bring, &c.

Bring us in no capon's flesh, for that is often dear.

Nor bring us in uo duck's flesh, for they slobber in the mere, [mire]
But bring us in good ale, and bring us in good ale,
For ovTr blessed lady's sake, bring us in good ale.

An inferior copy of this song, without music, is in Harl. M.S., No. 541, from
which it has been printed in Ritson's Ancient Songs, p. xxxiv. and xxxv.
With the reign ofEdward IV. we may conclude the history of the old wandering
minstrel. Lr 1469, on a complaint that persons had collected money in different
parts of the kingdom by assuming the title and livery of the king's minstrels, he
granted to "Walter Halliday, Marshal, and to seven others whom he names,
a charter of incorporation. be governed by a marshal appointed for
They were to

life, and two wardens to be chosen annually, who were authorized to admit mem-
bers ; also to examine the pretensions of all who exercised the minstrel profession,
and to regulate, govern, and punish them throughout the realm (those of Chester

•After the Percy Society had printed the Songs, I was MS. was entrusted, disappeared, and with him the manu-
to have had the opportunity of transcribing all the Music ; script, which is, perhaps, already insome library in the
hut, in the mean time, the bookbinder to whom this rare United States.
 44 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.

excepted). " This," says Percy, " seems to liave some resemblance to the Earl
Marshal's court among the heralds, and is another proof of the great affinity and
resemblance which the mmstrels bore to the College of Arms." Walter Halliday,
above mentioned, had been retained in the service of the two preceding monarchs,
and Edward had granted him an annuity of ten marks for life, in 1464.
In this reign we find also mention of a Serjeant of the minstrels, who upon
one occasion did his royal master a singular service, and by which his ready access
to the king at all hours for "as he [K. Edward IV.] was in
is very apparent :

the north contray, in the Monneth of Septembre, as he lay in his hedde, one
named Alexander Carlile, that was Sarjaunt of the Mynstrellis, cam to him
• in grete hast, and badde hym aryse, for he hadde enemyes cumming for to take
him, the which were within six or seven miles," &c.
Edward seems to have been very liberal to his minstrels. He gave to several
annuities of ten marks a year (6 Pari. Rolls, p. 89), and, besides their
regular pay, with clothing and lodging for themselves and their horses, they had
two servants to carry theii' instruments, four gallons of ale per night, wax candles,
and other indulgences. The charter is printed in Rymer, xi. 642, by Sir
J. Hawkins, vol. iv., p. 366, and Barney, vol. ii., p. 429. All the minstrels
have English names.
When Elizabeth, his queen, went to Westminster Abbey to be churched (1466),
she was preceded by troops of choristers, chanting hymns, and to these succeeded
long lines of the noblest and fairest women of London and its vicinity, attended by
bands of musicians and trumpeters, and forty-two royal singers. After the banquet
and state ball, a state concert commenced, at which the Bohemian ambassadors
were present, and in' their opinion as well as that of Tetzel, the German who accom-
panied them, and who has also recounted their visit to England, no better
singers could be found in the whole world,^ than those of the English king.
These ambassadors travelled through France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy,
and parts of Germany, as well as England, affording them, therefore, the widest
field for comparison with the singers of other countries.
At this time every great family had its establishment of musicians, and among
them the harper held a prominent position. Some who were less wealthy retained
a harper only, as did many bishops and abbots. In Sir John Howard's expenses
(1464) there is an entry of a payment as a new year's gift to Lady Howard's
grandmother's harper, "that dwellyth in Chestre." When he became Lord
Howard he retained in his service, Nicholas Stapylton, William Lyndsey, and
" little Richard," as singers, besides " Thomas, the harperd," (whom he provided
with a "lyard," or grey "gown"), and children of the chapel, who were succes-
sively four, five, and six in number at different dates. Mr. Payne Collier, who
edited his Household Book from 1481 to 1485 for the Roxburghe Club, remarks

^ Tetzel says, " Nach dem Tantz do muosten des Korgesang, das alls gesatzt was, das lieblich zu lioren
Kunigs Cantores kutnen und muosten singen .... ich was." lb. p. 158.
mein das, in der Welt, nit besser Cantores sein." "Des Leo Von Rozmital, brother of tlie Queen of Bohemia
hohmisehen Hcrrn Leo's von Rozmital Ritter, IIof und — says, "Musicos nullo uspiam in loco jucundiores et
Pilger —Reise, 1465-1467," Sfc, 8ro,, Stuttgart, 1844, p. 157. suaviores audivimus, quam ibi eorum cliorus sexaginta,
;

Again Tetzel says, *'

Do hbrten wir das aller kostlichst circiter cantoribus constat." —lb. p. 42.
 EDWARD IV. 45

on " the great variety of entries in connection with music and musical performers,"
as forming " a prominent feature" of the book. " Not only lyere the musicians
attached to noblemen, or to private individuals, liberally rewarded, but also those
who were attached to particular towns, and who seem to have been generally
requked to On the 14th of
perform before Lord Howard on his various journies.
October, 1841, he entered into an agreement with William Wastell, harper of
London, that he should teach the son of John Colet, of Colchester, harper, for
a year, in order, probably, to render him competent afterwards to fill the post of
one of the family musicians."
Here also a part of the stipulation was that, at the end of the year, Lord
Howard should give Wastell a gown, which seems to have been the distinguishing
feature of a harper's di-ess. In Laneham's letter from Kenilworth (1575),
describing the " device of an ancient minstrel and his song," which was to have
been proffered for the amusement of queen Elizabeth, this " Squire minstrel, of
Middlesex, who travelled the country this summer season, unto worshipful men's
houses," is represented as a harper with a long gown of Kendal green, gathered
at the neck with a narrow gorget, and fastened before with a white clasp his ;

gown having long sleeves down to mid-leg, but slit from the shoulders to the
hand, and lined with white. His harp was to be " in good grace dependent before
him," and his " wrest," or tuning-key, " tied to a green lace, and hanging by."
He wore a red Cadiz girdle, and the corner of his handkerchief, edged with blue
lace hung from his bosom. Under the gorget of his gown hung a chain, " re-
splendent upon his breast, of the ancient arms of Islington." The acts of king
Arthur were the subject of his song.
The Romances which still remained popular [1480] are mentioned by William
of Nassyngton [in a MS. which Warton saw in the library of Lincoln Cathedral],
who gives his readers fair notice that he does not intend to amuse them.

" Iwarne you first at the begynnynge And of many other Gestes,
That I will make no vayne carpynge, As namely, when they come to festes
Of dedes of armes, ne of amours, Ne of the lyf of Bevys op Hamptoune,
As does Mynatrellia and Gestours, That was a Knyght of grete renowne ;

That maketh carpynge in many a place Ne of Sye Gye of Warwyke, &c.

Of OcTAviANE and Isbnbrace, Warton, vol. iv., p. 368.

The invention of printing, coupled with the increased cultivation of poetry and
music by men of genius and learning, accelerated the downfall of the Minstrels.
They could not long withstand the superior standard of excellence in the sister
arts, on the one hand, and the competition of the ballad-singer (who sang without
asking remuneration, and sold his songs for a penny) on the other. In little more
than fifty years from this time they seem to have fallen into utter contempt. We
have a melancholy picture of their condition, in the person of Richard Sheale,
which it is impossible to read without sympathy, if we consider that to him we
are indebted for the preservation of the celebrated heroic ballad of Chevy Cliace,
at which Sir Philip Sidney's heart was wont to beat, " as at the sound of a
46 ENGLISH MINSTRELSY.

trumpet;"* and of which Ben Jonson declared he would rather have heen the
author, than of all he had ever written. This luckless Minstrel had been robbed
on Dunsmore Heath, and, shame to tell, he was unable to persuade the public
that a son of the Muses had ever been possessed of sixty pounds, which he
averred he had lost on the occasion. The account he gives of the effect upon his
spirits is melancholy, and yet ridiculous enough. [As the preservation of the
old spelling is no longer essential to the rhyme or metre, I venture to give it in
modern orthography.]
" After my robbery my memory
was so decay'd
That my wits were so dismay'd.
I could neither sing, nor talk,
My audacity was gone, and all my merry talk,
There are some here have seen me as merry as a liawk
But now I am so troubled with fancies in my mind,
I cannot play tbe merry knave, according to my kind.
Yet to take thought, I perceive, is not the next way
—
To bring me out of debt, my creditors to pay.
I may well say that I had but evil hap
For to lose about threescore pounds at a clap.
The loss of my money did not grieve me so sore,
But the talk of the people did grieve me much more.
Some said I was not robb'd, I was but a lying- knave.
It was not possible for a Minstrel so much money to have.
Indeed, to say the truth, it is right well known
That I never had so much money of my own,
But I had friends in London, whose names I can declare,
That at all times would lend me two hundred pounds of ware,
And with some again such friendship I found,
That they would lend me in money nine or ten pound.
The occasion why I came in debt I shall make relation
My wife, indeed, is a silk-woman, by her occnpation;
In linen cloths, most chiefly, was ber greatest trade,
And at fairs and markets she sold sale-ware that she made,
As shirts, smocks, and partlets, head-clothes, and other things,
As silk thread and edgings, skirts, bands, and strings.
At Lichfield market, and Atherston, good customers sbe found,
Also at Tamworth, where I dwell, sbe took many a pound.
When I had got my money together, my debts to have paid,
This sad mischance on me did fall, that cannot be denay'd [denied] ;

I thought to have paid all my debts and to have set me clear,

And then what evil did ensue, ye shall hereafter hear :

Because my carriage should be light I put my money into gold,

And without company I rode alone — thus was I foolish bold
I thought hy reason of my harp no man would me suspect,
For Minstrels oft with money, they he not much infect.''
—
From the " Chant of Richard Sheale," British Bibliographer, vol. iv., p. 100.

» "I neverheavd the old song of Percy and Douglas, that in thedust and cobweb of that uncivil age, what would it

I found not ray heart moved more than with a trumpet: and work, trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindare !"
yet it is sung but by some blind crowder, with no rougher Sir Philip Sidney^ s Defence of Poetry.
voice than rude style; which being so evil aparelled
 RICHARD SHEALE. —EXTINCTION OF MINSTRELSY. 47

Sheale was a Minstrel in the service of Edward, Earl of Derby, who died in
1574, celebrated for his bounty and hospitality, of whom Sheale speaks most
gratefully, as well as of his eldest son, Lord Strange. The same MS. contains an
" Epilogue " on the Countess of Derby, who died in January, 1558, and his
version of Chevy Chace must have been written at least ten years before the
latter date, if it be the one mentioned in the Complaynte of Scotland, which was
written in 1548.
In the thirty-ninth year of Elizabeth, an act was passed by which " Minstrels,
wandering abroad" were held to be "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars,"
and were to be punished as such. This act seems to have extinguished the pro-
fession of the Minstrels, who so long had basked in the sunshine of prosperity.
The name, however, remained, and was applied to itinerant harpers, fiddlers,
and other strolling musicians, who are thus described by Puttenham, in his Arte
of English Poesie, printed in 1589. Speaking of ballad music, he says, " The
over busy and too speedy return of one manner of tune, doth too much annoy,
and, as it were, glut the ear, unless it be in small and popular musicks sung by
these Cantabanqui upon benches and barrels' heads, where they have none other
audience than boys or country fellows that pass by them in the street ; or else by
blind harpers, or such like tavern minstrels, that give a fit of mirth for a groat
and their matter being for the most part stories of old time, as the Tale of Sir

Topas, Bevis of Southampton, Guy of Warwick, Adam Bell and Clym of the
Clough, and such other old romances or historical rhimes, made purposely for the
recreation of the common people at Christmas dinners and bride-ales, and in
taverns and alehouses, and such other places of base resort.Also they" [these
short tunes] " be used in Carols and Rounds, and such like light and lascivious
poems, which are commonly more commodiously uttered by these bufibns, or vices
in plays than by another person."
Ritson, whose animosity to Percy and Warton seems to have extended itself

to the whole minstrel race, quotes, with great glee, the following lines on their
downfall, which were written by Dr. Bull, a rival musician :

" When Jesus went to Jairus' house,

(Whose daughter was about to die)
He turned the Minstrels out of doors,
Among the rascal company :

Beggars they are with one consent,

And rogues, by act of Parliament."
 POPULAR MUSIC,
SONGS AND BALLADS,
REIGNS OF HENRY VII., HENRY VIII., EDWARD VI.,

AND MARY.

Little occurs about music and ballads during the short reigns of Edward V. and
Richard III.

Richard was very liberal to his musicians, giving annuities to some, and
gratuities to others. But his chief anxiety seems to
(See Harl. MS., No. 433.)
have been to increase the akeady splendid choral establishment of the Chapel
Royal. For that purpose he empowered John Melynek, one of the gentlemen of
the chapel, " to take and seize for the king" not only childi-en, but also " all
such singing nmi expert in the science of music, as he could find and think able
to do the king's service, within all places of the realm, as well cathedi'al churches,
colleges, chapels, houses of religion, and all other franchised or exempt places, or
elsewhere." (Harl. MS., 433, p. 189.) But it is not my object to pursue the
subject of royal establishments fm-ther.
In the privy purse expenses of Henry VH., from the seventh to the twentieth
year of his reign, there are many payments relating to music and to popular
sports, from which the following are selected :

1492. Feb. 4th, To the cliikle that playeth on the records

[recorder] - - - - £100
April 6th, To Gwyllim for flotes [flutes] with a case - 3 10
May 8th, For making a case for the kinges suerde, and a
case for James Hide's harp - - 10 8
July 8th. To the maydens of Lambeth for a May - 10
August 1st, At Canterbury, To the children, for singing in
the gardyn - - - - 3 4
1493. Jan 1st, To the Queresters [choristers], at Paule's and
St. Steven - - - - - 13 4
Jan. 6th, To Newark [William Newark, the composer] for
making a song - - - - 10
Nov. 12th, To one Cornysshe for a prophecy, in rewarde 13 4
Probably William Cornish, jun., composer, who belonged to the king's chapel,
and was the author of a poem, called " A
Treatise between Trouth and Informa-
cion." He was paid 13s. 4f?. on Christmas day, 1502, for setting a carol.
 HENRY VII. 49

Nov. 30th, Delivered to a mercliaunt, for a pair" of Organnes 30

1494:.
Dec.

Jan.
1st,

2,
To
felde
For playing
..----
Basset, riding for th' organ pleyer of Liehe-

of the Mourice [Morris] Daunce - 2

13 4

Nov. 29th, To Burton, for making a Masse 1

„ To my Lorde Prince's Luter, in rewarde 1

1495. Aug 2nd, To the women that songe before the king and
the quene, in rewarde - - - 6 8
Nov. 2nd, To a woman that singeth with a fidell - 2
Nov. 27th, To Hampton of Wourcestre, for making of
Balades, in rewarde . - . 1
1496. April 25th, To Hugh Denes, for a lute 13 4
June 25th, To Frensheman, player of the organea 6 8
Aug. 5th, To a Preste that wrestelled at Ceceter - 6 8
Aug. 17th, To the queue's fideler, in rewarde 1 6 8
1499. June Gth, To the May-game at Greenwich 4
1501. May 21st, For a lute for my lady Margaret [the king's
eldest daughter, then about twelve years old,
afterwards Queen of Scots] 13 4
Sept. 30th, To theym that daunced the mer' [morris] daunce 1 6 8
Dec. 4th, To the Princesse stryng mynstrels at Westminster 2
1502. Jan. 7th, To one that sett the king's cleyvecordes 10 4

1504.
Feb. 4th,
March
„
Gth,
To one Lewes, for a morris daunce
For a pair of Clavycordes
To John Sudborough,
...
for a
1 13

songe 1
13
4

1505. July 25th,

Aug. 1st,
To the gentylmen of

For a
drinke with a bucke
lute for my Lady Mary
...
the kinges chapell, for to
2
13 4
There is also a great variety of payments to the musicians of different towns,
as the " Waytes" of Dover, Canterbury, Dartford, Coventry, and Northampton ;

the minstrels of Sandwich, the sha^vms of Maidstone ; to bagpipers, the king's

piper (repeatedly), the piper at Huntingdon, &c. to harpers, some of whom were ;

Welsh. And there are also several entries " To a Walsheman for a ryme ;"
liberal presents to the poets, of hismother (the Countess of Richmond), of the
prince, and of the king to " the rymer of Scotland," who was in all probability the
;

Scotch poet, William Dunbar, who celebrated the nuptials of James IV. and the
princess Margaret, in his " Thistle and the Rose," and to an Italian poet. All
these may be seen in Excerpta Historica (8vo., 1833), and, as the editor
remarks :
—" To judge from the long catalogue of musicians and musical instru-
ments, flutes, recorders, ti'umpets, sackbuts, harps, shalmes, bagpipes, organs, and
round organs, clavicords, lutes, horns, pipers, fiddlers, singers, and dancers, Hem-y's
love of music must have been great, which is further established by the fact, that
in every town he entered, as well as on board the ship which conveyed him to
Calais, he was attended by minstrels and waits."

* A pair of organs, means a set of organs, i.e., an organ. we still say, " a^atr of steps" — " up two pair of stairs."
A pack of cards was formerly called a pair of cards, and
60 HENRY VIII.

A manuscript, containing a large number of songs and carols, has been recently
found in the library of Balliol it had been accidently con-
Coll., Oxford, -where
cealed, behind a book-case, during a greatnumber of years. It is in the hand-
writing of Eichard Hill, merchant of London, and contains entries from the year
1483 to 1535. Six or eight of the songs and carols are the same as in the book
printed by the Percy Society, to which I have referred at page 41, and especially
the carol, " Nowell Nowell," but the volume does not contain music. The song
of the contention between Holly and Ivy, beginning " Holly beareth berries, berries
red enough," which is printed in Ritson's Ancient Songs, from a manuscript
of Henry the Sixth's time, is there also, proving that some of the songs are
of a much earlier date than the manuscript, and that they were still in favor. At
fol. 210, V. is a copy of the " Nut-browne Mayde," and at the end of it " Explicit
quod, Rich. Hill," which was the usual mode of claiming authorship of a work.
In the Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cambi-idge, there is a manuscript
book of vocal music (No. 87), containing the compositions of the most eminent
masters, English and foreign, of the time of Henry VH., written for the then
Prince of Wales. It was the Prince's book, is beautifully written on vellum, and
illuminated with his figure in miniature.
Hem-y VHI. was not only a great patron of music, but also a composer; and,
according to Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who wrote his life, he composed two
complete services, which were often sung in his chapel. Hollinshed, in speaking
of the removal of the court to Windsor, when Henry was beginning his progress,
tells us that he " exercised himselfe dailie in shooting, singing, dansing, -ftTessling,
casting of the barre, plaieing at the recorders, flute, virginals, in setting of songs,
and making of ballades." All accounts agree in describing him and
as an amiable
accomplished prince in the early part of his reign; and the character given of him
to the Doge of Venice, by his three ambassadors at the English court, could
scarcely be expressed in more favorable terms. In their joint despatch of
May 3rd, 1515, they say :
" He is so gifted and adorned with mental accomplish-
ments of every sort, that we believe him to have few equals in the world. He
speaks English, French, and Latin ; understands Italian weU ;
plays almost
on every instrument, and composes faii'ly (delegnamente) ; is prudent and sage,
and free from every vice."*
In the Sagudino (Secretary to the Embassy) writen to Alvise Foscari,
letter of ,

at this same date, he says " He is courageous, an excellent musician, plays the
:

virginals well, is learned for his age and station, and has many other endowments
and good parts." On the 1st of May, 1515, after the celebration of May-day at
Greenwich, the ambassadors dined at the palace, and after dinner were taken into
certain chambers containing a number of organs, virginals (clavicimbani), flutes,
and other instruments ; and having heard from the ambassadors that Saguduio
was a proficient on some of them, he was asked by the nobles to play, which

» Despatch written by Pasqualigo, Badoer, and Gius- of Venice, from January, 1515, to July 26, 1519. Trans-
tinian conjointly. See four years at tlie Court of Henry lated by Rawdon Brown. 8vo., 1854, vol. i., p. 76,
VIII., Selection of Despatches addressed to the Signory
 VENETIAN AMBASSADORS —ERASMUS. 61

he did for a long while, both on the virginals and organ, and says that he bore
himself bravely, and was listened to with great attention. The prelates told him
that the king would certainly wish to hear him, for he practised on these instru-
ments day and night.
Pasqualigo, the ambassador-extraordinary, gives a similar account at the same
time. Of Henry he says :
" He speaks French, English, and Latin, and a little

Italian, plays well on the lute and virginals, sings from book at sight, di-aws the
bow with greater strength than any man in England, and jousts marvellously.
Believe me he is in every respect a most accomplished prince ; and I, who have
now seen all the sovereigns in Christendom, and last of all these two of France
and England, might well rest content," &c. Of the chapel service, Pasqualigo
says :
" We attended High Mass, which was chaunted by the bishop of Durham,
with a superb and noble descant choir"" (Capella di Discanto) ; and Sagudino
says " High Mass was chaunted, and it was sung by his majesty's choristers,
:

whose voices are really rather divine than human they did not chaunt, but sung ;

like angels (non cantavano, ma jubilavano) and as for the deep bass voices, ;

I don't think they have their equals in the world." ''

(Vol. i., p. 77.)

Upon these despatches the editor remarks: "As Pasqualigo had been ambassador
at the courts of Spain, Portugal, Hungary, France, and of the Emperor, he was
enabled to form comparisons between the state of the science in those kingdoms
and our own and, indeed, it is the universal experience of the Venetian ambas-
;

sadors, and their peculiar freedom from prejudice or partiality (no jealousy or
rivalry existing between them and England), that makes their comments on our
country so valuable." (Vol. 1, p. 89.)
Erasmus, speaking of the English, said that they challenge the prerogative of
having the most handsome women, of keeping the best tables, and of being most
accomplished in the skill of music of any people; "^
and it is certain that the begin-
ning of the sixteenth century produced in England a race of musicians equal to
the best in foreign countries, and in point of secular music decidedly in advance
of them. When Thomas Cromwell, afterwards Earl of Essex, went from Antwerp
to Eome, in 1510, to obtain from Pope Julius H. the renewal of the " greater and
lesser pardon" "^
for the town of Boston, for the maintenance of their decayed port,

a Descant choir is not a proper term, because the Music Hu. — " Peace, man, prick-song may not be despised,
of the King's Chapel was not extempore descant, but in For therewith God is well pleased,
written counterpoint of four parts. Several of the manu- Honoured, praised, and served
scripts in use about this period, are preserved in the In the Church oft-times among."
King's Library, British Museum, and some were Henry's Ig, — '*
Is God well pleased, trow'st thou, thereby?
own books. They are beautifully written manuscripts Nay, nay for there I is no reason why :

on parchment, bearing the King's arms. In one a Canon For is it not as good to say plainly
in eight parts is inserted on the words " Honi soit qui Give me a spade,'
mal y pense." The references to these manuscripts As 'give me a spa-ve-va, ve-va-ve-vade?*
will be found in Mr. Oliphant's Catalogue of Musical But if thou wilt have a song that is good,
MSS., British Museum, towards the commencement. I have one of Robin Hood," &c.
See Nos. 12, 13, 21, &c. « "Britanni, prater alia, formam, musicam, et lautas

1,
^ The aflond
ml, -J 1, i
character
j^ i, L .
of the counterpoint va use in
mensas
""="»"= propria
iiit^pn sibi vindicent." — Erasmus Enconium

churches in those days

'
is slyly reproved in a dialogue
' ' " s be- . ,„. r.
i These pardons, says Foxe, gave .,
-,

them *, ,^- to
the power «
tween Humanity and Ignorance, in the Interlude of The " also pardon
^^^^^^^ f^^ remission, " a pa?na et culpa ;
^our Elements, printed about 1510. (Prick-song meant f^j j^uls in purgatory, on payment of 6s. id. for the first
harmony written or pricked down, in opposition to plain- year, and 12d. for every year after, to the Church of St.
song, where the descant rested with the will of the singer.) Botolph's, Boston.
52 HENRY VIII.

"being loth," says Foxe, "to spend much time, and more loth to spend his money,
amoiag the greedy cormorants of the Pope's court," he devised to meet him on his
return from hunting; and "having knowledge how the Pope's holy tooth greatly
delighted in new-fangled strange delicates and dainty dishes, it came into his
mind to prepare certain fine dishes of jelly, made after our covintry manner here
in England which to them of Rome was not known nor seen before. This done,
;

Cromwell observing his time accordingly, as the Pope was newly come from
hmiting into his pavilion, he, with his companions, approached with his English
presents, brought in with a three-man^ s song (as we call it) in the English tongue,
and all after the English fashion. The Pope suddenly marvelling at the strange-

ness of the song, and understanding that they were Englishmen, and that they
came not empty-handed, willed them to be called in; and seeing the strangeness of
the dishes, commanded by and by his Cardinal to make the assay who in tasting ;

thereof, liked it so well, and so likewise the Pope after him, that knowing of them
what their suits were, and requiring them to make known the making of that meat,
he, incontinent, without any more ado, stamped both their pardons, as well the
greater as the lesser." (Acts and Monuments.) The introduction of these songs
into Italy is also mentioned by Michael Drayton in his Legend of Thomas
Cromwell, Earl of Essex, which was first printed in quarto in 1609.

" Not long it was ere Eome of me did ring,

Hardly shall Eome such full days see again
Of Freemen's Catches to the Pope I sing,
Which won much licence for my countrymen.
Thither the which I was the first did bring,
That were unknown in Italy till then," &c.

In the Life of Sir Peter Carew, by John Vowell, alias Hoker, of Exeter
(Archseologia, vol. 28), Freemen's Songs are again mentioned. "From this time
he (Sir Peter) continued for the most part in the court, spending his time in
all coui-tly exercises, to his great praise and commendation, and especially to the
good liking of the king (Henry VIH.), who had a great pleasure in him, as
For the king himself
well for his sundry noble qualities, as also for his singing.
being much delighted to sing, and Sir Peter Carew having a pleasant voice, the
king would often use him to sing with him certain songs they call Freemen Songs,

as namely, 'By the bancke as I lay,' and 'As I walked the wode so wylde,' " &c.

To sing at sight was so usual an accomplishment of gentlemen in those days,

that to be deficient in that respect was considered a serious drawback to success in
life. Skelton, in his Bowge at Court, introduces Harvy Hafter as one who cannot
sing " on the booke," but he thus expresses his desire to learn :

" Wolde to God it wolde please you some day,

A me for to laye,
balade boke before
And lerne me for to synge re, mi, fa, sol,
, And when I fayle, bobbe me on the noil."
Skelton's Works. Ed. Dyce, vol. i., p. 40.
 THE ENGLISH LOVE OF SONGS AND BALLADS. 53

Barklay, in his fourth Eclogue, (about 1514) says

" When your fat dishes smoke hot upon your table,
Then laude ye songs, and ballades magnifie
If they be merry, or written craftely,
Ye clap your handes and to the making harke,
And one say to another, Lo, here a proper warke !

The interlude of " The Foui- Elements" was printed by Eastall about 1510
and, in that. Sensual Appetite, one of the characters, recommends Humanity " to
comfort his lyf naturall" with "daunsing, laughyng, or plesaunt songe," and
says " Make room, sirs, and let us be merry,
With huff a galand, syng Tyrll on the berry.
And let the wide world wynde.
Sing Frisk a jolly, with Hey trolly lolly.
For I see it is but folly for to have a sad mind."
Percy Soc, No. 74.
" Hey, ho, frisca jolly, under the greenwood tree," is the burden of one of the
songs in the musical volume of the reign of Hem-y VHI. (MS. Reg. Append. 58.)
from which I have extracted several specimens. It contains, also, some instru-
mental pieces, such as " My Lady Carey's Dompe," and " My Lady Wynkfield's
Rownde," which when well played on the virginals, as recently, by an able lectui-er,
are very effective and musical.
Some of Henry the Eighth's own compositions are still extant. Li a collection
of anthems, motets, and other church offices, in the handwriting of John Baldwin,
of Windsor, (who also transcribed that beautiful manuscript, Lady Neville's
Virginal Book, in 1591), is a composition for three voices, " Quam pulchra es, et
quam decora." It bears the name Henricus Octavus at the beginning, and "quod
Henricus Octavus" at the end of the cantus part. The anthem " Lord, the
maker of all things," which is attributed to him in Boyce's Cathedral Music, is

the composition of William Mundy ; the words only are taken from Henry the
Eighth's primer. Some music for a mask, which Stafford Smith attributes to

him, be found in the Arundel Collection of MS. (Brit. Mus.) or in Musica

will

Antiqua, vol. i. and one of his ballads, " Pastime with good company," is given
;

as a specimen in the following pages.

In 1533 a proclamation was issued to suppress " fond [foolish] books, ballads,
rhimes, and other lewd treatises in the English tongue ;" and in 1537 a man of
the name of John Hogon was arrested for singing a political ballad to the tune of
" The hunt is up." It was not only among the upper classes that songs and
ballads were then so general, although the- allusions to the music of the lower
classes are less frequently to bemet with at this period than a little later, when
plays, which give the best insight to the manners and customs of private life, had
become general. One passage, however, from Miles Coverdale's " Address unto
the Christian reader" prefixed to his " Goastly Psalmes and Spii'ituall Songes,"
[1538] will suffice to prove it. " Wolde God that our Mynstrels had none other
thynge to play upon, neither our carters and plowmen other thynge to whistle
54 HENRY VIII.

upon, save psalmes, hymns, and such like godly songes. . . And if women at

the rockes,'' and spinnynge at the wheles, had none other songes to pass their tyme
withall, than such as Moses' sister, . . songe before them, they should be better
occupied than with Sey, nonny, nonny —Hey, trolly, lolly, and such like fantasies."

Despite the excellent intent with which this advice was given, it did not evidently
make much impression, either then or after. The traditional tunes of every

country seem as natui-al to the common people as warbling is to birds in a

state of nature; the carters and ploughmen continued to be celebrated for their
whistling, to the end of the eighteenth century, and the women thought rather with
Ophelia :
" You must sing doiun, a-down, an you call him a-down-a, Oh, how the
"
wheel becomes it !

Anthony a Wood says that Sternhold, who was Groom of the Chamber to
Henry "VlLL., versified fifty-one of the Psalms, and " caused musical notes to be
set to them, thinking thereby that the courtiers would sing them instead of their
sonnets, but did not, only some few excepted." They were not, however, printed
till 1549. On the title page it is expressed that they were to be sung "in private
houses, for godly solace and comfort, and for the laying apart all ungodly songes
and ballads."
Although Henry VHI. had given all possible encouragement to ballads and
songs in the early part of his reign, both in public and private, — and in proof
of their having been used on public occasions, I may mention the coronation of
Anne Boleyn, when a chou' of men and boys stood on the leads of St. Martin's
Chm'ch, and sang new ballads in praise of her majesty, — yet, when they were re-
sorted to as a weapon against the Reformation, or in opposition to any of his own
opinions and varying commands, he adopted the summary process of suppressing
them altogether. some measm-e owing to that act, but principally to their
It is in
perishable nature, that we have no printed ballads now remaining of an earlier
date than that on the do^vnfall of his former favorite, Thomas, Lord Cromwell,
which is in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, at Somerset House. The
act, which was passed in 1543, is entitled " An act for the advancement of true
religion, and for the abolishment of the contrary" (Anno 34-35, c. i.), and recites
that " froward and malicious minds, intending to subvert the true exposition of
scripture, have taken upon them, by printed ballads, rhymes, etc., subtilly and
craftily to instruct his highness' people, and specially the youth of this his realm,
untruly. For reformation whereof, his majesty considereth it most requisite to
pm'ge his realm of all such books, ballads, rhymes, and songs, as be pestiferous
and noisome. Thei'efore, if any printer shall print, give, or deliver, any such, he
shall suifer for the first time imprisonment for three months, and forfeit for every
copy 10/., and for the second time, forfeit all his goods and his body be committed
to perpetual prison." Although the act only expresses " all such books, ballads,
rhymes, and songs as be pestiferous and noisome," there is a list of exceptions
to it, and no ballads of any description are excepted. " Provided, also, that

" Rock, a distaff; that is, the staff on which flax was the corresponding part of the spinning wheel. Narss*
held, when spinning was performed without a wheel : or Glossary.
 ACTS OF PARLIAMENT AND PROCLAMATIONS AGAINST BALLADS. 55

all books printed before tlie year 1540, entituled Statutes, Chronicles, Canterbury
Tales, Cbaucer's books, Gower's books, and stories of men's lives, shall not be
comprehended in the prohibition of this act." It was not, hoTvever, the first time
that ballads had been employed for controversy on religious subjects. The ballads
against the Lollards, and those against the old clergy, have been mentioned at
page 40 ; and there is a large number extant against monks and friars, many of
which were, and some still are, popular.

The first collection of songs in parts that was printed in England, was in 1530
but of that only a base part now remains.^ There are, however, many such collec-

tions in manuscript in pubUc and private libraries. Stafibrd Smith's printed

collection of songs in score, composed about the year 1500, is almost entirely
taken from one manuscript.
Henry Vm. left a large number of musical instruments at his death, the in-
ventory of which may be seen in Harl. MSS. No. 1419, fol. 200 ; and, as might
be expected, all his children were well taught in music.
"Ballads," says Mr. Collier, "seem to have multiplied after Edward VI. came
to the throne no new proclamation was
; issued, nor statute passed on the subject,
while Edward continued to reign ; but in less than a month after Mary became
queen, she published an edict against '
books, baUads, rhymes, and treatises,'
which she complained had been '
set out by printers and stationers, of an evil
zeal for lucre, and covetous of vile gain.' There is little doubt, from the few
pieces remaining, that it was, in a considerable degree, efiectual for the end

The following tunes are occasionally classed rather under the dates to which
I consider them to belong, than by those of the copies from which they are derived;
but as the authorities are given in every case, the reader has the means before him
of forming his own
Some, however, are classed rather for convenience of
opinion.
subject, as songs ofRobin Hood, songs or tunes mentioned by Shakespeare, &c.
After a few from manuscripts of the time of Henry VIH., there are specimens
of " King Henry's Mirth, or Freemen's Songs," from a collection printed in 1609,
which contains many " fine vocal compositions of very great antiquity,'"' But
of those, I have only selected such as were also used as song or ballad tunes,
sung by a single voice.

* It contained compositions by Cornish, Pygot, Ash- It met with so much success, that in the same year he
well, Tavemer, Gwynneth, Jones, Dr. Cowper, and Dr. published a second, called "Deuteromelia: or the second
Fairfax. See the Index in Ritson's Ancient Songs, part of Musick's Melodie, or melodious musicke of plea-
p. xxili., last edition. StatFord Smith's are principally by sant Roundelayes, K. H. [King Henry's] Mirth, or Free-
Fairfax, Newark, Heath, Turges, Sheringham, and Sir men's Songs," &c. and in 1611, a third collection, called
;

Thomas Philipps; but this list of composers might be " Melismata Musical Phansies, fitting the court, city,
:

increased greatly by including those in other manuscripts. and countrey humours." Some of the Songs and Catches
''
In 1609, Thomas Ravenscroft, Mus. Bac, collected in these collections are undoubtedly of the reign of Henry
and printed 100 old Catches, Rounds, and Canons, under VII., and it is to be presumed that the authors of all
the title of "Pammelia: Musick's Miscellanie, or mixed were unknown to Ravenscroft, as, contrary to custom,
varietie of pleasant Roundelayes and delightful Catches." he does not mention them in any instance.
56 ENGLISH SONG AND BAILAB MUSIC.

"Pastime with good Company."

The words and music of this song are preserved in a manuscript of the time of
Henry VIII., formerly in Ritson's possession, and now in the British Museum
(Add. MSS., 5665) in which it is entitled The King's Ballad.
; Ritson
mentions it Essay on Scotish Song, and Stafford Smith
in a note to his Historical
printed Musica Antiqua in score for three men's voices. It is the first of
it in his
those mentioned in Wedderburn's Complaint of Scotland, which was published in
1549 " Now I will rehearse some of the sweet songs that I heard among them
:

(the shepherds) as after follows : in the first Pastance tvitJi good Company^'' &c.
The time is also to be found arranged for the lute (without words) in the volume
among the king's MSS. before cited (Append. 58), of which " Dominus Johannes
Bray" was at one time the possessor. This may be considered as another proof
of its former popularity.
Song by Henry VIII.
In moderate time.

i
s
E-^
Pas-time with good
• m—
- *
com
^
-
*=i
•
pa-ny
i*
I
t
love,
1^ 1-^
and
-^
shall un - til I die

ffia?;
^m E& 2z:
^
«l

g^
Gnidge who
•
^
'

m i
•

will,
i--J
- J.
T^—
but none As -
^
m ^ -*
. <-

ny, So God l>e

^
pleas'd this
•s^-t^
-^
life wiil 1
-5-

:
^m
For
-J ^
my pastance, Eunt,

IS
^^ t

and dance My All good-ly sport To my

m
comfort, Who shall me let

S
sing ; heart is set. ?

:^
± ^Ir J Jij^i^ Z2r ^
Youth will needs have dalliance, Company with honesty
Of good or ill some pastance ;
Is virtue, —and vice to flee ;

Company me thinketh the best Company is good or ill,

All thoughts and fantasies to digest. But ev'ry man hath his free will.
For idleness The best I sue.
Is chief mistress The worst eschew :

Of vices all : My mind shall be

Then who can say Virtue to use :

But pass the day Vice to refuse

Is best of all? I shall use me.

 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 57

" Ah ! THE SIGHS THAT COME FRO' MY HEART."

This little love-song is the first in MSS. Reg. Append. 58., of the time of
Henry VIII., and the air is both elegant and expressive. The cadence, or flom-ish
at the end, is characteristic of the period, and there is a pretty attempt at
musical expression on the words, " fro' my love depart."

Smoothly and with expression.

iEE ^ d=fci:
^m
S ^
Ah ! the syghes that come fro' my heart, They grieve me

P ^ passing sore : . Syth

I must
J^^=^t^^^j-
fro' my
^love de - part, Fare-well
i

r
''..-

TVP
jn7i rp^
my joye for e- ver -
i

more
m
3SI
S T n
Ah ! the sighs that come from my heart, I was wont her to behold.
They grieve me passing sore, And take in armes twain ;

Sith I must fro' my love depart, And now, with sighes manifold,
Farewell, my joye, for evermore. Farewell my joy ! and welcome pain !

Oft to me, with her goodly face. Ah !me think that should I yet.

She was wont to cast an eye : As would to God that I might

And now absence to me in place ? There would no joys compare with it

Alas ! for woe I die, I die ! Unto my heart, to make it light.

" Western wind, when wilt thou blow ? "

This is also taken from MSS. Reg. Append. 58, time of Henry VHI. As the
tmae appears to be in the ancient Dorian mode, it has been harmonized iii that
mode, to preserve its peculiarity of character.
The writer of a quarto volume on ancient Scotish melodies has asserted that
all the ancient English music in Ritson's, or other collections, is of a heavy
drawling character. An assertion so at variance with fact must either have
proceeded from narrow-minded prejudice, or from his not having understood
ancient musical notation. That he could not discriminate between Scotch and
English music is evinced by the fact of his having appropriated some of the best
known English compositions as ancient Scotish melodies."

^ This writer also cites the authority of Giraldus Cam- sentence, appropriates what Giraldus says in favour of
brensis, who says uolliing of Ike hind; and in the same Irish music to Scotcli,
68 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The following song is one of those adduced by him in proof of the drawling of
English music; but I have restored the words to their proper places, and it is by

no means a drawling song. It should be borne in mind that these specimens of

EngKsh music are long anterior to any Scotish music that has been produced.

Moderate time.

(^HH^^
^ "?
m J J —«— . h J «

Westron wynde when wyll thou blow? The smalle rain downe 'doth' rayne; 'Oh!

3 ^ IS

F? 1 i '
i i I 't
i my
^^^^^s
my love were in armys, Or' I in my bed a

^ - gayne.
'
if

i^^ i^ i

" Blow thy horn, Hunter !

"

This is also copied from MSS. Reg. Append. 58, time of Henry VHI. It is a
spirited tune, and should be sung more quickly in proportion than the others,

because in modernizing the notation, I have only made a crotchet into a quaver,
instead of into a semiquaver, as would have been more correct, considering the

date of the manuscript.

J Boldly
Xioiaiu and well marked.
uitti -inuj kcu. i i

Blow thy home, hun-ter, Cum, blow thy home on hye In yonder wode there lyeth a duo. In

^
!

i
zzez

s>--zr
T^ W
^
:5f=^ ^ Li^^ T^^J JJh
home, joly
n m'\

hu
\

fnyih she wo'll not dye. Cum, blow thy home, him-ter, fcum, blow thy

^ ISSI

W^
~eT-

^- f -zf
 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 59

"The Three Kavens."

This song one of those included under the head of " Country Pastimes " in
is

Melismata, 1611. Ritson in his Ancient Songs, remarlis " It will be obvious :

that this ballad is much older, not only than the date of that book, but than most
of the other pieces contained in it." It is nevertheless still so popular in some
parts of the country, that I have been favored with a variety of copies of it,

written down from memory ; and all diifering in some respects, both as to words
and tune, but with sufficient resemblance to prove a similar origin.
and with great

^^jljUiMJ
Slowly, smoothly, expression.

^hM
7=T

There were three ra-vens sat on a tree, Down

^
a down, hey down, hey down, They

^^i?i^~r m :^

N4JH=^^ ^ ^^-4-^
fls^
"^1
T"
were as black as
^^*f^
they might be, With a down, The one of them said

^^
m
r^
to his mate,Where
#^^^ m
shall wo now'
'
om' breakfast take ?
^^ -^-
luni
T^=^
With a down, deny, derry deny down, do^vn
,

m iffi

^
Down in yonder green field, Down a down, hey down, hey down,
With a down.
Tliere lies a knight slain, under his shield.
His hounds they lie down at bis feet,
So well do' they their master keep. With a down, derry, &c.
'

His hawks they fly so eagerly, Down a down, &c.

There's no fowl '
that ' dare him come nigh. With a down.
Down there comes a fallow doe.
As great with young as she might go. With a down, derry, &c.

She lifted up his bloody head, Down a down, &c.

And wounds that were
kiss'd his so red; With a down.
She got him up upon her back,
And carried him to earthen lake. With a down, &c.
She buried him before the prime With a down, &c. :

She was dead herself ere even-song time. With a down.

God send every gentleman
Such hawks, such hounds, and such a leman [lov'd one]. With a down, &c.
60 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

" The Hunt is up."

Among Henry the Eighth, Puttenham notices " one Gray,
the favorites of
what good estimation did he grow unto with the same King Henry, and afterwards
with the Duke of Somerset, Protectour, for making certaine merry hallades,
whereof one chiefly was, The himte is up, the hunte is ?«p." Perhaps it was the
same William Gray who wrote a ballad on the downfall of Thomas Lord Cromwell
in 1540, to which there are several rejomders in the library of the Society of
Antiquaries. The tune The Hunt is up was known as early as 1537, when
information was sent to the Council against one John Hogon, who had offended
against the proclamation of 1533, which was issued to suppress " fond books,
ballads, rhimes, and other lewd treatises in the English tongue," by singing,
" with a crowd or a fyddyll," a political song to that tune. Some of the words
are inserted in the information, but they were taken down from recitation, and are
not given as verse (see Collier's Shakespeare, i., p. cclxxxviii.) In the Complaint
of Scotland, 1549, The Hunt is up is mentioned as a tune for dancing, for which,
from its lively seems peculiarly suited ; and Mr. Collier has a MS.
character, it

which contains a song called " The Kinges Hunt is upp," which may be the very
one written by Gray, since " Harry om* King" is twice mentioned in it, and a
religious parody as old as the reign of Henry VIH. is in precisely the same
measure. The following is the song :

m
"The Kinges Hunt

m— ^^^
is upp."
Merrihj.

^A& m^. y — —=^

)>'

The hunt is up, the hunt is up, And well nigh

^ m M =

day ;
And Harry our King
rfrrrrris gone hunting, To bring his deer to bay.

iP^
The east is bright with morning light, The horses snort to be at the sport,
And darkness it is fled, The dogges are running free.
And the merie home wakes up the morne The woddes rejoyce at the mery noise
To leave his idle bed. Of hey tantara tee ree !

Beholde the skyes with golden dyes The sunne is glad to see us clad
Are glowing all around, All in our lustie greene,
The grasse is greene, and so are the treene And smiles in the skye as he riseth hj'e,
All laughing at the sound. To see and to be seene.

Awake, all men, I say agen,

Be mery as you maye.
For Harry our Kinge is gone hunting,
To bring his deere to baye.
 FROM HENEY VII. TO MARY. 61

The tune is taken from MusicFs delight on the Cithren, edition of 1666, -which
contains many very old and popular tunes, such as " Trip, and go," and " Light
o' Love" (both mentioned by Shakespeare), which I have not found in any other
printed collection. Ritson, in his Ancient Songs, quotes the following song of
one verse, -which is in the same measure, and -was therefore probably sung to the
same tune. It may be found in Merry Drollery Oomplete, 1661, and the Wew
Academy of Complements, 1694 and 1713.
" The hunt is up, the hunt is up,
And now it is almost day ;

And he that's 'at home, in bed with his wife,'

'Tis time to get him away."

Any song intended to arouse in the morning —even a love-song— -was formerly

called a hunfs-up. Shakespeare so employs it in Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Sc. 5 ;

and the name -was of course derived from a tune or song employed by early
hunters. Butler, in his Principles of Musik, 1636, defines a hunfs-up as
" morning music ;" and Cotgrave defines "Resveil" as a hunt's-up, or ilforMzwy
Sonff for a new-married wife. In^arnfield's Affectionate SJiepherd, 1594,
" And every morn by dawning of the day,
When Phcsbus riseth with a bhishing face,

SUvanus' chapel clerks shall chaunt a lay,

And play thee hunt's-up in thy resting place.
My cot thy chamber, my bosom thy bed.
Shall be appointed for thy sleepy head."

Again, in Wifs Bedlam, 1617,

" Maurus, last morne, at's mistress' window plaid
An hunt's-up on his lute," &c.

The follo-fting song, which is also taken from Mr. Collier's manuscript, is of
the character of a love-song :

"The New Hunt's-up."

The hunt is up, the hunt is up, The hunt is up, the hunt is up,
Awake, my lady free. Awake, my lady gay,
The sun hath risen, from out his prison, The stars are fled to the ocean bed,
Beneath the glistering sea. And it is now broad day.

The hunt is up, the hunt is up, The hunt is up, the hunt is up.
Awake, my lady bright. Awake, my lady sheen.
The morning lark is high, to mark The hills look out, and the woods about,
The coming of day-light. Are drest in lovely green.

The hunt is up, the hunt is up, • The hunt is up, the hunt is up,
Awake, my lady fair, Awake, my lady dear.
The kine and sheep, but now asleep, A morn in spring is the sweetest thing
Browse in the morning air. Cometh in all the year.
The hunt is up, the hunt is up.
Awake, my lady sweet,
I come to thy bower, at this lov'd hour,
My own true love to greet.
62 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The religious parody of The Hunt is up, wMch -was -written by John Thorne,
has been printed by Mr. Halliwell, at the end of the moral play of Wit and
Science, together mth other curious songs from the same manuscript (Addit. MS.,
No. 15,233, Brit. Mus.) There are seventeen verses ; the first is as foUows :

" The hunt ys up, the hunt j'S up,

Loe it is allmost daye
I
;

For Christ our Kyng is cum a huntyiig,

And browght his dears to staye," &c.
but a more lively performance is contained in " Ane compendious booke of Godly
and SpirituaU Songs . . . with sundrie . . . baUates changed out of prophaine
Sanges," &c., printed by Andro Hart in Edinburgh in 1621. The writer is very
bitter against the Pope, who, he says, never ceased, " under dispence, to get our
pence," and who sold " remission of sins in aukl sheep skins;" and compares
him to the fox of the hunt. The original edition of that book was printed in 1590.
In Queen Elizabeth's and Lady NevUle's Vii-ginal Books, is a piece, with twelve
variations, by Byrde, called " The Hunt is up," which is also called " Pescod
Time," in another part of the former book. It Jbears no appearance of ever having
been intended for words ; certainly the songs in question could not be sung
to it.

A tune called Tlie Queene^s Majesties neio Sunt is up, is mentioned in Anthony
Munday's Banquet of daintye conceits, 1588 ; and the ditty he gives, to be sung
to it, called " Women are strongest, but truth overcometh all things," is in the

same measure as the above, but I have not found any copy of the tune under that
name. In 1565, William Pickering paid 4(?. for a license to print " a ballett
intituled The Hunte ys up," &c. (see Registers of Stationers' Company, p. 129J.

" Yonder comes a Courteous Knight."

This is one of King Henry's Mirth or Freemen's Songs, in Deuteromelia, 1609,

and is to be found as a ballad in Wit and Mirth, or Pills to purge Melancholy,
voh i. 1698 and 1707, or in vol. iii. of the edition of 1719. The story seems to
have been particularly popular, as there are three ballads of later date upon the
same subject. It is of a young lady who, being alone and unprotected, finds the
too urgent addresses of a knight likely to prove troublesome ; and, to escape
from that position, pretends to yield to him, and persuades him to escort her
home; but
" When she came to her father's hall,
was well walled round about.
It
She yode in at the wicket gate,
And shut the four-ear'd fool without.
Then she sung down, a-down," &c.

The knight, regretting the lost opportunity, expresses himself in very uncourteous
terms on the deceit of women. The ballad is printed in Eitson's Ancient Songs.
 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 63

Gracefully. •

i ifc
^ yi ^ ^"?^
i ~ii: }":. r^^p^^
i

l\) n '
s
'

Yon - der comes a cour-teous knight, Lus- ti-ly rak-ing o - ver the lay,

^ffi
:A: ^ r •
r
-

i
f

frt^ti
TT was well 'ware of a bon - ny lass, As
3
she came wand'ring
i
o- ver the way. Then

i J ^ r ^
1 i

^
^^ she sang
^ fe 3
down a down, hey down derry, Then she sang down a down, hey down
3 1 ^ 3=

derry.

ijJ J^^ J^f^^

" Oft have I ridden upon my Grey Nag."
This is evidently a version of the tune called Dargason. (See p. 65.) The latter
part diifers, but that may be because this copy is taken from Pammelia, 1609,
where three old tunes, " Shall I go walk the woods so wild," "Robin Hood, Robin
Hood, said Little John," and this, are arranged to be sung together by three
persons at the same time. Perhaps, the two lines from the Isle of Gulls, which
are quoted at page 64, formed a portion of this song. Only one verse is given in
Pammelia, and I have not succeeded in finding any other copy.

^^ ^
-^-L
J J iT^U^
•^
^ ^\n~i
"T
j ^ T^^
Ofthavel ridden up - on my grey nag, And with his cut tail he play'd the wag, And

^
TTT-fT^
^

-^ --^
^F^ f-
down he fell up - on his crag. Fa, la, re, la, la, ri dan - di

r-^r^
64 english song and ballad music.

" Dargason." "

In Ritson's Ancient Songs, class 4 (from the reign of Edward VI. to Elizabeth)
is " A merry ballad of the Hawthorn tree," to be sung to the tune of Donkin
Dargeson. This cm-iosity is copied from a miscellaneous collection in the Cotton
Library (Vespasian A. 25), and Ritson remarks, "This tune, whatever it was,
appears to have been in use till after the Restoration." I have found several
copies of the tune ; one is in the Public Library, Cambridge, among Dowland's
manuscripts. The copy here given is from the Dancing Master, 1650-51, where
it is called Dargason, or the Sedany. The Sedany was a country dance, the figure
of which is described in the The Triumph of Wit, or Ingenuity displayed, p. 206.
In Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub, we find, " But if you get the lass from Dargison,
what will you do with her ? " Giiford, in a note upon this passage, says, " In
some childish book of knight-errantry, which I formerly read, but which I cannot
now recall to mind, there is a dwarf of this name (Dargison), who accompanies a
lady, of great beauty and virtue, through many perilous adventures, as her guard
and guide." In the Isle of G-ulls, played by the children of the Revels, in the
Black Fryars, 1606, may be found the following scrap, possibly of the original
ballad :
" An ambling nag, and a-down, a-down,
We have borne her away to Dargison."

See also " Oft have I ridden upon my grey nag," page 63. In the Douce collec-
tion of Ballads (fol. 207), Bodleian Library, as well as in the Pepysian, is a song
called " The Shropshire Wakes, or hey for Christmas, being the delightful sports
of most countries, to the tune of Dargason." It begins thus ;

" Come Robin, Ralph, and little Harry,

And merry Thomas to our green ;

Where we shall meet with Bridget and Sary,

And the finest girls that e'er were seen.
Then hey for Christmas a once year,
"VMien we have cakes, with ale and beer,
For at Christmas '
every day,'
Young men and maids may dance '
away,' " &c.

"»
This tune is inserted in Jones' Musical and Poetical (and especially by a very different version, under the same
Relics of tJie Welsh Bards, -p. 129, under the name of "The name, in Parry's Cambrian Harmon^/, published about
melody of Cynwyd;" and some other curious coincidences fifty years ago), there is considerable variation, as maybe
occur in the same work. At page 172, the tune called expected in tunes traditionally preserved for so long a
"The Welcome of the Hostess" is evidently our *' Mitter time, but their identity admits of little question. In
Rant." At page 176, the tune called " Flaunting two," vol. ii., at p. 25, " The Willow Hymn" is, *' By the osiers
is the country dance of " The Hemp Dresser, or the Lon- so dank." At p. 44, " The first of August " is, " Come,
don Gentlewoman." At page 129, " The Delight of the jollyBacchus," with a little admixture of " In my cottage
men of Dovey," appears to be an inferior copy of near a wood." At page 33, a tune called " The Britons,"
'*
Green Sleeves." At page 174, is '* Hunting the Hare," which is in The Dancing Master of 1696, is claimed. At
which we also claim. At page 162, " The Monks* March" p. 45, " Mopsy's Tune, the old way," is "The Barking

(of which Jones says, " Probably the tune of the Monks Barber," and " Prestwich Bells" is "Talk no more of
of Bangor, when they marched to Chester, about the year Whig or Tory," contained in many collections. At vol. iii.,
603,") is " General Monk's March," published by Play- p. 15, " The Heiress of Montgomery" is another version
ford, and the quick part, "The Rummer;" and at page of "As do^vn in the meadows." At p. 16, "Captain
142, the air called "White Locks" is evidently Lord Corbett " is " Of all comforts I miscarried ;" and at p. 49,
Commissioner Whitelocke's coranto, an account of which, " If love's a sweet passion," is claimed." In addition
with the tune, is contained in Sir J. Hawkins' History o/ to these, Mr. Jones has himself noticed a coincidence
J^fKS^c, vol. iv. page 51, and in Burney'siffsioryo/JIfMsic, between the tune called "The King's Note," (vol. iii.)
vol. iii. page 378. In several of these, particularly in the and " Pastyme with good Company." Such mistakes will
last, which is identified by the second part of the tune always occur when an editor relies solely on tradition.
 FROM HENKY VII. TO MARY. 65

There are sixteen verses in the song. The tune is one of those which only end
when the singer is exhausted; for although, strictly speaking, it consists of but
eight bars (and in the seventh edition of The Dancing Master only eight bars are
printed), yet, from never finishing on the key-note, it seems never to end. Many
of these short eight-bar tunes terminate on the fifth of the key, but when longer
melodies were used, such as sixteen bars, they generally closed with the key-note.
There were, however, exceptions to the rule, especially among dance tunes, which
required frequent repetition.

i^
s
Pastoral character.

It was a
1^
maid of
^^
my
'A MERY Ballet

coun-try, As slie came by

of the Hatiiorne Tre.'

i ^m
a hawthorn tree, As

^^ Effi
IS 51 32?:

full
^
of flow'rs as might
^^
be seen, She marvell'd to

^ ^
see
^
the tree
^
so
^
green. At

J
=ft
^ -^ P-

^ife ^^??T
last she ask ed of this tree, How came this fresh-ness un - to thee, And
^ • ^-^
r^&- %\
l-\

ev' - ry branch so fair and clean ? I mar - vel that you grow so green. The
^
The tree made answer by and
f^^ by, Though many one take flowers from me,
^
I have cause grow triumphantly,
to And many a branch out of my tree
The sweetest dew that ever be seen, Ihave such store they will not be seen,
Doth fall on me to keep me green. For more and more my twigs grow green.

Yea, quoth the maid, but where you grow But how, an they chance to cut thee down,
You stand at hand for every blow. And carry thy branches into the town ?

Of every man for to be seen, Then they will never more be seen
I marvel that you grow so green. To grow again so fresh and green.
66 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Though that you do it is no boot, The Maid with that began to blush.
Although they cut me to the root, And turn'd her from the hawthorn bush ;

Next year again I will be seen She thought herself so fair and clean,
To bud my branches fresh and green. Her beauty still would ever grow green.
* * * *
And you, fair maid, can not do so.
But after this never I could hear
For 'when your beauty once does go,'
Of this fair maiden any where.
Then will it never more be seen.
That ever she was in forest seen
As I with my branches can grow green. To talk again with the hawthorn green.

The above will be found in Ritson's Ancient Songs, in Evans' Collection of Old
Ballads (vol. i., p. 342, 1810), and in Peele's Works, vol. ii., p. 256, edited by
Dyce. It is included in the last named work, because in the MS. the name of
" G. Peele " is appended to the song, but by a comparatively modern hand. The
Rev. Alexander Dyce does not believe Peele to have been the author, and Ritson,
who copied from the same manuscript, does not mention his name.

SHALL I GO WALK THE WOODS SO WILD ?

This is mentioned in the Life of Sir Peter Carew as one of the Freemen's Songs,
which he used to sing with Henry VHI. — (See page 52). It must have enjoyed
an extensive and long-continued popularity, for there are three diiferent arrange-
mfents of it in Queen Elizabeth's Vii'ginal Book, all by Byrde it is in Lady ;

Neville's Virginal Book in Pammelia (1609) it is one of the three tunes that
;

could be sung together and it is in The Dancing Master, from the first edition,
;

in 1650, to that of 1690. In the edition of 1650, it is called Greenwood^ and in

some of the later copies, Greenivood, or The Huntsman.
There were probably different words to the tune, because in the Life of Sir
Peter Carew it is called " As I walked the woods so wild;" in Lady Neville's
Virginal Book, " TTiY/ ^/om walk the woods so wild ? " and in PamMze&, "Shall
T go walk,'" &c.

Moderate time.

f^ssi
Ws^ f
aypft
^^E
Shall I go walk the woods so wild.

^
Wandering, wand'ring here and there, As

i^
I was once full sore beguil'd, A - las ! for love I
^Pf
die with woe.

;. r :-
 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 67

JOHN DORY.
This celebrated old song is inserted among the Freemen^ Songs of three voices
in Deuteromelia, 1609. It is also to be found in Playford's Musical Companion
1687, and for one voice in Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy, vol. i.

1698 and 1707. It is, however, much older than any of these books. Carew,
in his Survey of Cornwall, 1602, p. 135, says, " The prowess of one Nicholas
son to a widow near Foy, is descanted upon in an old three-man'' s song, namely
how he fought bravely at sea, with one John Dory (a Genowey, as I conjecture)
set forth by John, the French King, and after much blood shed on both sides, took
and slew him," &c. Carew was born in 1555. The only King John of France
died a prisoner in England, in 1364. In the play of Gf-ammer Gfurton's Needle
there is a song, "I cannot eat but little meat," which was sung to the tune of
John Dory. The play was printedin 1575, but the song appears to be older.
(See page 72). Bishop Corbet thus mentions John Dory, with others, in his
"Journey to Fraunce :

" But woe is me I the guard, those men of warre,

Who but two weapons use, beef and the barre,
Begun to gripe me, knowing not the truth,
That I had sung John Dory iu my youth
Or that I knew the day when I could chaunt.
Chevy, and Arthur, or The Siege of Gaunt."
Bishop Earle, in his " Character of a Poor Fiddler," says, "Hunger is the greatest
pains he takes, except a broken head sometimes, and labouring John Dory.''^ In
Fletcher's comedy Tlie Chances, Antonio, a humourous old man, receives a wound,
which he will only suffer to be dressed on condition that the song of John Dory be
sung the while, and he gives 10s. to the singers. It is again mentioned by
Fletcher in The Knight of the Burning Pestle; by Brathwayte in Drunken
JBarnahy's Journal ; in Vox Borealis, or the Northern Discoverie, 1641 ; in some
verses on the Duke of Buckingham, 1628 :

" Then Viscount Slego telleth a long storie

;"
Of the supplies, as if he sung John Dorie
and twice by Gayton, in his Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixote, 1654.
A parody was made upon it by Sir John Mennis, on the occasion of Sir John
Suckling's troop of horse, which he raised for Charles I., running away in the
civil war, and it was much sung by the Parliamentarians at the time. In will be
found in Wit Restored, 1658, entitled " Upon Sir John Suckling's most warlike
preparation for the Scottish War," and begins
" Sir John got him an ambling nag."

In the epilogue to a farce called the Empress of Morocco, 1674, intended to

ridicule a tragedy of the same name by Elk. Settle, and Sir W. Davenant's
alteration of Macbeth (which had been lately revived with the addition of music
by Mathew Locke), " the most renowned and melodious song of John Dory was
to be heard in the air, sung m parts by spirits, to raise the expectation and charm
the aiidience with thoughts sublime and worthy of the heroic scene which follows."
It is quoted in Folly in print, 1667 in Merry Drollery complete, 1670 ; and in
;
68 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

many songs. Dryden refers to it, as one of the most hackneyed m his time,
in one of his lampoons
" But Sunderland, Godolpliin, Lory,
These will appear such chits in story,
'Twill turn all politics to jest.

To be repeated, like John Dory,

When fiddlers sing at feasts."
The above lines were also printed under the name of the " Earl of Rochester."
The name of the fish called John Dory, corrupted from doree or dorn, is

another proof of the great popularity of this song.

Cheerfully.

•ff
As
rrt
It fell on a lio - li - day. And up - on a ho - ly

m^ i8=

wm
tide, a
H-^J
John Do -ry bought hhii an am
-NJ ^^ ^
- bling nag To
1

^^
Pa - ris for to

^ i i
/.J'y/U.i J"li//^.^UJ
ride, a,

And when John Dory

A little
To Pa

m
- ris for

to Paris
before the gate-a ;
to ride,

was come,
^
And up -

Rim up, my boy,

And look what
on a ho -

into the
ly

thou canst spy-a

tide.

main top.

John Dory was fitted, the porter was witted, Who, ho who, ho a good ship
! ! I do see,
To let him in thereat-a. I trow it be John Dory-a.

The first man that John Dory did meet, Tliey hoist their sails, both top and top.
Was good King John of France-a : The mizen and all was tried-a;
John Dory could well of his courtesie, And every man stood to his lot,

But fell down in a trance-a. Whatever should betide-a.

A pardon, a pardon, my liege and king. The roaring cannons then were plied,
For my
merry men and me-a : And dub-a-dub went the drum-a ;

And all the churls in merr)' England The braying trumpets loud they cried,
I'll bring them bound to thee-a. To courage both all and some-a.
And Nichol was then a Cornish man, The grappling hooks were brought at length,
A little beside Bohyde-a The brown bill and the sword-a :

And he manned forth a good black bark, John Dory at length, for all his strength.
With fifty good oars on a side-a. Was clapt fast under board-a.
 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 69

SELLENGER'd ROUND, ob THE BEGINNING OF THE WOULD.

Smoothly and in moderate time.

^
^^i^^^^^
•
j- • '

•
'i.

^ .^'^ jj
MzSp i .nr^ fe^^
fS^

Jf-T^ J
jj . i5^J ^iJl g
f- r 'f-^'^
J J i ^j r

-,-<n-
-a .
[^ij
i
/rn ^

F^^f
i i

;^;"''

mi^f^i^^p?
F=^^^
i

33E^
70 ENSLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

This tune, which Sir John Hawkins thought to be " the oldest country-dance
tune now extant" (an opinion to which I do not subscribe), is to be found in
Queen Elizabeth's and Lady Neville's Virginal Books, in Music^s Ifanclmaicl,

1678, &c. It is difficult to say from whom

might be from
it derived its name. It
" Sir Thomas Sellynger," who was bm-ied in St. George's Chapel, Windsor,
before the year 1475, as appears by a brass plate there or from Sir Antony ;

St. Leger, whom Henry VIH. appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1540.
In Bacchus'' Bountie (4to., 1593), we find this passage: "While thus they
tippled, the fiddler he fiddled, and the pots danced for joy the old hop-about
commonly called Sellcngar's Bound." In Middleton's Father Suhlurd's Tales
(1604) :
—"Do but imagine now what a sad Christmas we all kept in the country,
without either carols, wassail bowls, dancing of Sellenger's Bound in moonshine
nights about Maypoles, shoeing the mare, hoodman-blind, hot cockles, or any of our
—
Christmas gambols, no, not not so much as choosing king and queen on Twelfth
Night " In Heywood's Fair Maid of the West, part ii.
!
" They have so tired : —
me with their moriscoes [morris dances], and I have so tickled them with our
country dances, 8ellenger''s Bound and Tom Tiler. We have so fiddled it !

A cui'ious reason for the second name to this tune is given in the comedy
of Lingua, 1607. Anamnestes : " By the same token the first tune the planets
played ; I remember Venus, the treble, ran sweet division upon Saturn, the base.
The first tmie they played was Sellenger''s Bound, inmemory whereof, ever since,

it hath been called The Beginning of the World." asks On this, Common Sense
" How comes it we hear it not now ? and Memory, another of the characters,
says " Our ears are so. ivell acquainted ivith the sound, that we never mark it."
:

In Shirley's Lady of Pleasure, Lady Bornwell says that, " to hear a fellow make
iimself merry and his horse with whistling Sellenger^s Bound, and to observe with
what solemnity they keep their wakes, moriscoes, and Whitsun-ales, are the only
amusements of the country."
It is mentioned as The Beginning of the World by Deloney in his history of
Jack of Newbury, and the times to which he refers are those of Henry VIH.
but, so great was its popularity, that it is mentioned three or four times by
Heywood ; also by Ben Jonson, by Taylor the water-poet, by Fletcher, Shu-ley,
Brome,Farquhar, Wycherley, Morley (1597), Clieveland (1677),Marmion (1641);
by the author of The Beturnfrom Parnassus, and by many other writers.
There is a wood-cut of a number of young men and women dancing Sellenger's
Bound, with hands joined, round a Maypole, on the title page of a black letter
garland, called "The new Crown Garland of princely pastime and mirth," printed
by J. Back, on London Bridge. In the centre are two musicians, the one playing
the fidiUe, the other the pipe, with the inscription, "Hey for Sellenger's Bound!"
above them.
As the dance was so extremely popular, I shall, in this instance, give the figure
from the The Pancing Master of 1670, where it is described as a round dance
" for as many as will."
" Take hands, and go round twice : back again. All set and turn sides : that
 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 71

again. Lead all in a double forward and back : that again. Two singles and a
double back, set and turn single : that again. Sides all: that agam. Arms all:

that again. As before, as before." Country dances were formerly danced as

often in circles as in parallel lines.
The following songs were sung to the tune :
—"The merry wooing of Robin and
Joan, the West-comitry Lovers, to the tmie of the Beginning of the World, or
Sellenger's Round." Roxburgh Collection. "The Fair Maid of Islington, or the
London Vintner over-reached," in the Bagford Collection. " Robin's Courtship,"
in Wit Restored, 1658.
As a specimen of old harmony, I have added the arrangement of Sellenger's
Round by Byi-d, from Queen Elizabeth's Vii'ginal Book. Having an instrument
that would not sustain the tone (for the virginals, like the harpsichord, only
twitted the wires with a quill) it is curious to see how he has filled up the harmony
by an inner part, that seems intended to imitate the prancing of the hobby-horse.
The hobby-horse was the usual attendant on May-day and May Games.

^
y moderate time.
In 7/waerate
in iviiie. *»iir THE OLD HARMONY BY BYRD.
WITH
^.-^

f csc^mrr-r f
^ ^m
8
# * • # mi=^m T*I ^
ifiz PFSEEfE ^-e^F— g

J ji^ J
.

Ipl l\ # I
J, p
\r'^^
=^d-- J
ii

\
^
^J-
\X^i==^^
. : , I
j .^ /

j^^i
^ ^m jSofeSSsfSS
-S-

f-^^ "^T T r^t •

m ^
Y^T^r
^=^
r-" i

^ -r . f , .4 /J
ip^ ;^

D. C. al Segno.

J r.J1,j j--^^^^j3^^
?^^^|feg
j,,j]^ ,
j

cJ r i^r
r
Hobby-horse.
72 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

I CANNOT EAT BUT LITTLE MEAT.

This song was sung in " a right pithy, pleasant, and merry comedy," called
Crammer Grurtonh Needle, which was printed in 1575, but the Rev. Alex. Dyce
has given a copy of double length from a manuscript in his possession, and
" certainly of an earlier date than the play." It may be seen in his account of
Skelton and his writings, vol. i., p. 7. I have selected four from the eight
verses, as sufficiently long for singing. Warton calls it " the first drinking song of
any merit in our language." In early dramas it was the custom to sing old songs,
or to play old tunes, both at the commencement and at the end of the acts. For
instance, in Summer'' s Last Will and Testament, which was performed in 1593,
the direction to the actors in the Prologue is to begin the play with " a fit

of mirth and an old song:" and at the end of the comedy, Ram Alley, "strike up
music; have an old song." In Peele's Arraignment of Paris, Venus " singeth
let's

an old song, called The wooing of ColmanP In Marston's Antonio and Mellida,
Feliche sings " the old ballad. And was not good king Solomon." To these in-
stances many others might be added; indeed, in the very play {Crammer Crurton),
at the end of the second act, Diccon says :

" In the mean time, fellows, pipe up your fiddles, I say take them
And let your friends have such mirth as ye can make them."
The tune is printed in Staiford Smith's Musica Antiqua, and in Ritson's English
Songs. Ritson says :
" Set, four parts in one, by Mr. Walker, before the year
1600." And Smith, not knowing, I suppose, who Mr. Walker was, seems to have
guessed Weelkes ; but it is the old tune of John Dory in common time.

In moderate time, and well marked.

^m
s i
122:

^ f =5
I can - not eat but - tie meat, My sto - mach is not

^
lit

m ^^
^
m¥
good ;
E^
But sure I think that
T*
I
1

can
m I

drink
^
With him that wears a
mI I

hood.
-I

IE 35 ZZ2Z

Though I go bare, take ye no care, I love no roast, but a nut-brown toast.

'
For I am never ' cold : And a crab laid in the fire,

I stuif my skin so full within A little bread shall do me stead,

Of jolly good ale and old. Much bread I never desire.
Back and side, go bare, go hare, No frost nor snow, nor wind, I trow.
Both foot and hand go cold : Can hurt me, if it would ;

But belly, God send thee good ale enough, I am so wrapp'd, so thoroughly lapp'd
Whether it be new or old. With jolly good ale and old.

Back and side, &c.

 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 73

I care rightnought, I take no thought Now let them drink till they nod and wink,
For clothes to keep me warm, Even as good fellows should do,
Have I good drink I surely think They shall not miss to have the hliss
That none can do me harm.
'
' Good ale doth hring men to ;

For truly then I fear no man, And all poor souls that scour hlack bowls,
'
Though never he ' so bold, Or have them lustily troled,
When I am arm'd and thoroughly warni'd God save the lives of them and their wives,
With jolly good ale and old. Whether they be young or old.
Back and side, &c. Back and side, &c.

HANSKIN, OR HALF HANNIKIN.

In Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book there is a tune called SansMn, and in all
the early editions of The Dancing Master, viz., from 1650 to 1690, one called
Half Hannikin. Hankin or Hannikin was the common name of a clown :

Thus
''
for her love and loss poor Hankin dies ;

His amorous soul down flies

To th' bottom of the cellar, there to dwell
"
Susan, farewell, farewell ! Musarum Delicia, 1655.
And Hanhin Booly was used as term of contempt. Nash, meaning to call his
opponent a Welsh clown, calls him a " Gobin a Grace ap Hannikin," and says,
" No vulgar respects have I, what Hoppenny Hoe and his fellow Hanhin Booby
think of me." (Have with you to Saffron- Waldon, 1596.J
We Hankin Booby mentioned as a tune in the interlude of Thersytes,
find
which was written in 1537 :

" And we wyll have minstrelsy

That shall pype Hankin baby."

Skelton, in his Ware the Hauke, says
" With troll, cytrace, and trovy. These be my pystillers, [epistlers]
They ranged, hankin bovy, These be my querysters [choristers]
My churche all aboute. To help me to synge,
This fawconer then gan showte. My bawkes to mattens rynge.
These be my gospeUers, Skelton's Works, Ed. Dyce, vol. i., p. 159.

By an extract from Sir H. Herbert's office-book of revels and plays performed at

Whitehall at Christmas, 1622-3, quoted by Mr. Collier, in his Annals of the
Stage, we find that on Sunday, 19th Jan., 1623, after the performance of Ben
Jonson's masque, Time Vindicated, "The Prince did lead the measures with the
French Ambassador's wife," and " the measures, braules, corrantos, and galliards,
being ended, the masquers, with the ladies, did daunce two countrey dances,
namely, The Soldier's Marche and Hiff Hamukin." I believe that by Hvff
Hamukin, Half Hannikin is intended, the letters are so nearly alike in form, and
might be so easily mistaken. In Brome's Jovial Crew, 16B2, "Our father is so —
pensive that he makes us even sick of his sadness, that were wont to See my '

gossip's cock to-day,' mould cocklebread, daunce Clutterdepouch and Hannykin

booby, bind barrels, or do anything before him, and he would laugh at us."
The tune called Hanskin in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book is the same as
S U^ it^t4^M<

74 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

" Jog on, the foot-path way," and will be found in this collection among the airs
that are mentioned by Shakspeare. The following is Half Hannikin, from The
Dancing Master.

B!Bf
^ J .MrraJ ^u
rmr^-i
m rf^
i^il '

f-

i^ ^ r

^^ gp^
i
^
MALT'S COME DOWN.
This is one of the tunes in Queen Elizabeth's Vu'ginal Book, ^Yhere it is
arranged by Byrd. The words are from Deuteromelia, 1609, but it appears that
Ravenscroft, in arranging it as a round, has taken only half the tune.

^
^s H=rfhr37T^^^]Trr^
^EE
¥
r •
r
There's ne-ver a maid in

Malt's come down,

^^
malt's
'

^
r
'

all this

comedown,
r
town, But

From an
•
r
'

well she knows that malt's

old an - gel to
-f
^comedown,

a French crown.

It

The greatest drunkards in the town

Are very glad that malt's come down.
Malt's come down, &c.
 rHOM HBNEY VII. TO MARY. 75

OF ALL THE BIRDS.

In Beaumont and Fletcher's j^lay, The Knigld of the Burning Pestle, Old
Merrythought sings many snatches of old songs, and among others
" Nose, nose, jolly red nose,
And who gave thee this jolly red nose ?
Cinnamon, ginger, nutmegs and cloves.
And they gave me this jolly red nose ;"

which are the four last lines of this song. It is one of the King Henry's Mkth
or Freemen's Songs va Deuteromelia, 1609.

^ Of all the birds that

f=Fe-ver I see, The owl is
^=r^
the fairest in her de-gTee;For
A
^ -^-

^^
•
• -^- • • • - J
^E
.

li

A And when the night comes, away flies she Te whit te whoo to
all the day long she sits in a tree, : !

$ ^rr^H^^
^ ^-^^ ^^ rr^i'^f ^'
'

V'
J j-ij^j
'r ^
whom di-inkst thou? Sir Knave, to you. This song is well sung I make you a vow, And

^^^^ ^
I
i^
he is
m
a knave that drinketh now :
mm
Nose, nose, jol - ly
i=^^^
f^-^
red nose ! And who gave thee that
m
rrJr-
^ .. . . .:±EE£

i^
^
I
1,
.^; '

. i|' n ri,.^i II

^
,

jolly red nose ? Cinnamon, gin- ger, nutmegs and cloves, And that gave me my jol - ly red nose.

^=
76 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

WHO'S THE FOOL NOW?

This tune is iii Queen Elizabeth's Virgmal Book, and it is one of the Freemen's
Songs in Deuteromelia, 1609. was entered on the hooks of the Stationer's
It
Company as a ballad in 1588, when Thomas Orwyn had a
license to print it; and
it is alluded to in Dekker's comedy, Old Fortunatiis, where Shadow says " Only :

to make other idiots laugh, and wise men to cry '

WIio's the fool now .^
'
" which
is the burden of every verse. It is thought to be a satire upon those who tell

wonderful stories.

&*
^& ^
^^3
i
f i
Martin said to his man, fie, man, fie Martin said to his man,

aiflln
^^=ft=^

*
Who's
^
-^r g ....1^— ^J —
the fool now? Martin said to hismanjFill the cup and I thecan;ThouhastweUdninken,man
'

r^ n: 'f
3^

r=f
Who's the fool now? Thou
/

hast
^ i=r^
well drunken man, who's the fool
Se
now?

H^^ l
r iJ
I saw the man in the moon ;
I saw a goose ring a hog;
Fie ! man, fie ! Fie man, fie
! !

I saw the man in the moon ;

I saw a goose ring a hog ;

Who's the fool now ? Who's the fool now ?

I saw the man in the moon I saw a goose ring a hog.

Clouting of St. Peter's shoon ;
And a snail bite a dog
Thou hast well drunken, man Tho hast well drunken, man
Who's the fool now? Who's the fool now ?

I saw a hare chase a hound ;

I saw a mouse catch a cat
Fie man, fie ! Fie man, ! fie

I saw a hare chase a hound ;

I saw a mouse catch a cat
Who's the fool now ? Who's the fool now ?

I saw a hare chase a hound, I saw a mouse catch a cat.

Twenty miles above the ground And the cheese eat the rat
Thou hast well drunken, man Thou hast well drunken, man
Who's the fool now ? Who's the fool now?
 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 77

WE BE SOLDIERS THREE.
This is also one of the King Henry's Mirth or Freemen's Songs in Deutero-
melia, 1609, and will be found as a song in Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge
Melancholy, vol. i., 1698 and 1707.

We be sol - diers three, Par-dona moy, ie vous an vree

aag
^ S3f
E^E
-r T
Lately come forth of the
^
^Low
E^
^
. .

Country, With

=f
tf^
..

:±
r"
ne - ver a pen
VrH - ny of
^m
mo - ney.

^
Here, good fellow, I drink to thee, And he that will not pledge me this,
Pardona moy, je vous anpree; " Par dona moy,je vous an pree,
To all good fellows, wherever they be, Pays for the shot whatever it is.

With never a penny of money. With never a penny of money.

Charge it again, boy, charge it again,
Pardona moy,je vous anpree
As long as there is any ink in thy pen.
With never a penny of money.

WE BE THREE POOR MARINERS.

This is one of the King Henry's Mii-th or Freemen's Songs in Deuteromelia,
1609, and is to be found as a dance tune in the Skene MS. (about 1630), called
Brangill of Poictu, — i.e., Branle, or Braule of Poictu,
Braules * were dances much in vogue with the upper classes during the six-
teenth and seventeenth centui'ies. Their being danced at Whitehall in 1623, has
been mentioned at page 73 ; and Pepys speaks of them at the Court of Charles H.
Branle de Poictu is explained by Morley (1597) as meaning the Double Branle,
in contradistinction to the French Branle, or Branle- Simple.
Another Branle de Poictu (quite a different tune) will be found in the Straloch
Manuscript, for the name was given to any air used for the dance. It was so

" These pardonucz-vioy's who stand so much on the

*' "akind which several persons danced together
of dance in
new fonn." Romeo and Juliet, act ii., sc. 4. Dr. John- in a ring, holding
one another by the hand." In Marston's
son in a note says " Pardonnez moi became the language
: play of Tlie Malcontent there is a minute, hut perhaps
of doubt or hesitation among men of the sword, when the not now very intelligible description of the figures. See
point of Ixonour was grown so delicate that no other mode Dodsley's Collection of old Plays, vol. iv. Braules are
of contradiction would be endured." alluded to by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Massinger, and
* Braules, which, Mr. M. Mason observes, seem to be others.
what we now call cotillons, are described by Philips as
78 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

usual in England, formerly, to make dances out of such song and ballad tunes as
were of a sufiSciently cheerful character, that nearly every air in the first edition
of The Dancing Master, 1650-51, can be jiroved to be that of a song or " ballet"
of earlier date than the book. It has for that reason been so valuable an aid in
the present collection. About 1690, tunes composed expressly for dancing were
becoming more general, and in the editions of The Dancing Master from 1715
to 1728, the song

^
and the dance times are nearly equally divided.

;j I

i
m V^
r^^r
=j=j
-C/r
We be three poor ma - ri-ners, New - ly come from the seas We

w^
S m. i^

m
spend our lives
jg

in jeo
m

-
-

par -
j-j—
'

dy,
«-^—
w

While o - tlicrs
1

live
a

at
*<;;3

ease. Shall we go dance the

221 IS
3^^^=i=j=
i

round, the round, the round? Shall

^ TT
we go dance the
-Qt
^
round, the round, the round ? And

w.

i
ii=e
jj mm ;
m i^BEdz
he that is a bul - ly boy, Come pledge me on this ground, a ground, a ground,
jol - ly

We care not for those martial men

W^
That do our states disdain ;

But we care for the merchantmen

Who do our states maintain.
To them we dance this round, around, around,
To them we dance this round ;

And he that is a bully [jolly] boy,

Come pledge me on the ground, aground, .aground.
 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 79

MY LITTLE PRETTY ONE.

This ancient melody is also transcribed from a MSS. of the time of Henry the
Eighth (No. 4900, Additional MS., Brit. Mus.). The original is, as usual, with-
out bars, but with an accompaniment in tablature for the lute. In the same
volume are songs by John Taverner, Shepherde, Heywood, &c. It has the same
peculiarity as the dance tune at page 27, each part consisting of nine bars. A
song called " My little pretty one " is in the Eoxburgh Collection of Eallads,
" to a pleasant new tune," but the measui'e is different.

* ff T m fes^ m
My lit - tie pvet - ty one, My pret - ty ho - ney one,

BME 35
:t^ ¥
r rail.

±EEi
^ m^ '
g^^^^gg
T- ' ^
f-f f
-
She is

a tempo.
a joy
joy
-

- ous
ly one,
I
And
^
gen
.
- tie as .

^
. . can be.

3E

•
With a beck she comes a - non,
i- i-'r
With a wink she will '
be gone.

^ T
^i^^^i^
rail.

3
No doubt she is a - lone of all that e - ver I

w^^ ROBIN,
^r^
LEND TO ME THY BOW.
^r=^
This song is still known in some parts of the country, and was written down for
me by a friend, in Leicestershire, some years ago. In the " very mery and pithie
commedie " called The longer thou livest the more fool thou art, there is a
stage direction —" Here entreth Moros, counterfaiting a vaine gesture and foolish
countenance, synging the foote [burden] of many songes, as fooles were wont."
Among the burdens is the following :

" Robin, lende me thy bowe, tliy bowe,

Robin, the bow, Rohin, lend to me thy how-a."
80 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The play was entered at Stationers' Hall in 1568-9. " That it was a popular
song in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign appears also from its being
mentioned, amongst others, in a curious old musical piece (MS. Harl. 7578),
Durham, written about that
containing the description and praises of the city of
time." It is found as one of the " pleasant roundelayes " in Pammelia,
to be
1609, and has likewise been printed by Kitson, in his Ancient Songs. The tune
differs slightly from the copy in Pammelia, but I think for the better.

Smoothly and slow.

JM^
^
ffi
^ -1hU-J^

^ Now Robin, lend to

T^n
me thy bow, Sweet Ro- bin lend to

^
me tby bow,

^
For

-^
I must now
r q
a hunt - ing
^
w:th my
^
la - dy go. With my
m sweet la - dy
zrsz

go-

^m -iS^

And whither will thy Lady go ?

Sweet Wilkin, tell it unto me ;

And thou shalt have my hawke, my hound, and eke my bow,

To wait on thy Lady.

My Lady will to Uppingham,*

To Uppingham forsooth will shee ;

And I myself appointed for to be the man

To wait on my Lady.

Adieu, good Wilkin, all beshrewde,

Thy hunting nothing pleaseth mee ;

But yet beware thy babling hounds stray not abroad

For ang'ring of thy Lady.

My hounds shall be led in the line.

So well I can assure it thee
Unless by straine of view some pursue I may finde.

To please my sweet Ladye.

With that the Lady shee came in,

-And will'd them all for to agree ;

For honest hunting never was accounted sinne.

Nor never shall for mee.

» A market-town in Rutlandshire.
 PROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 81

WHO LIVETH SO MERRY IN ALL THIS LAND ?

This is also one of the King Henrif s Mirth or FreemerCs Songs, in Deufero-
melia. first year of the Kegisters of the Stationers' Company (1557-58)
In the
there an entry of a license to Mr. John Wallye and Mrs. Toye to print a
is

"Ballette" called " Who lyve so mery and make such sporte,
As thay that be of the poorest sorte ?"
These lines will be found in the last verse of the song, and were probably printed
at the head ofit as the title. Ballets were songs of a cheerful character, which
being " sung to a ditty may likemse be danced." So the " Merry Ballet of the
Hawthorn Tree" page 64), was to be sung to the tune of Dargason, which
(see is
also mentioned as a dance tune.
The following song will also be found in Wit and Drollery, Jovial Poems, p. 252,
and Wii and Mirth, or Pills to purge Melancholy, vol. i., 1698 and 1707. In
in
Wit and Drollery, as well as in Deutermnelia, the third and fourth lines of each
verse are marked to be sung in chorus.
Moderate time. w^^^

53 — =
i^
—r —T =
9~i w — = — =~
f f
Who li-veth so meny in all this lan(i,AsdoththepoorwidowthatBelleththesand, And

e^
^ k
^
J. J J .

^
J . J

."
i •
.
e- ver she singeth as
. r
I
f r
can guess, Will you buy any sand, any
•
r/ r •

sand,
r
Mistress.

J J—: •-
i
•

i
f=^=^
The broom-man maketh his living most sweet,
With carrying of brooms from street to street.

Chorus. —Who would desire a pleasanter thing

Than all the day long to do nothing but sing ?

The chimnej'-sweeper all the long day,

He singeth and sweepeth the soot away ;

Ch. —Yet when he comes home, although he be weary,

With his pretty, sweet wife he maketh full merry.

The cobbler he sits cobbling till noon.

And till they be done
cobbles his shoes ;

Ch. —Yet doth he not and so doth say,

fear,

For he knows that his work will soon decay.

The merchantman he doth sail on the seas.

And lie on the ship-board with little ease ;

Ch. — For always he doubts that the rocks are near,

How can he be merry and make good cheer?
82. ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The husbandman all day goeth to plough,

And when he comes home he serveth his sow ;

Ch. — He moileth and toileth all the long year,

How can he be merry and make good cheer ?

The serving-man waiteth from street to street.

Either blowing his nails or beating his feet
Ch. —Yet all that serves for, four angels" a year.
Impossible 'tis that he make good cheer.

Who liveth so merry and maketh such sport

As those that be of the poorest sort ?
C/j.—The poorest sort, wheresoever they be.
They gather together by one, two, and three.

And every man will spend his penny, ",

>- his.
What makes such a shot among a great many.

TO-MOKROW THE FOX WILL COME TO TOWN, or TEENCHMORE.

In The Dancing Master this tune
is called Trenchmore. In Deuteromelia it is
one of the King Henry's Mirth or Freemen^ s Songs, under the name of " To-

morrow the fox will come to town."

In a Morality, by William BuUeyn, called A Dialogue both pleasant and piety
full, wherein is a goodly regimen against the fever pestilence, &c., 1564, a minstrel
is thus described: "There is one lately come into the hall, in a green Kendal coat,
with yellow hose ; a beard of the same colour, only upon the upper lip ; a russet
hat, with a great plume of strange feathers and a brave scarf about his neck
; ;

in cut buskins. He is playing at the trea trippe with our host's son he playeth ;

trick upon the gittern, daunces Trenchmore and Heie de Grie, and telleth news
from Terra Florida."
Taylor, the water-poet, in A Merry Wherry-ferry Voyage, says:
" Heigh, to the time of Trenchmore I could write
The valiant men of Cromer's sad affright
;

and in A Navy of Land Ships, 1627, " Nimble-heel' d mariners, like so many
dancers, capering a morisco [morris dance], or Trenchmore of forty miles long,
to the tune of '
Dusty, my dear,' '
Dirty, come thou to me,' '
Dun out of the mire,'
these dances have no other music."
:
or '
I wail in woe and plunge in pain ' all

Deloney, in his History of the gentle craft, 1598, says: "like one dancing the
Trenchmore, he stamp'd up and down the yard, holding his hips in his hands."
Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621, says that mankind are at no
"Who can withstand it? be we young
period of their lives insensible to dancing.
or old, though our teeth shake in our heads like Vii'ginal Jacks, or stand parallel
asunder like the arches of a bridge, — there is no remedy: we must dance Trench-
more over tables, chairs, and stools." The following amusing description is from
Selden's Talle Talk:
" The court of England ia much alter'd. At a solemn dancing, first you had the
grave measures, then the corantoes and the galliards, and this kept up with ceremony
and at length to Trenchmore and the Cushion Dance : then all the company dances,

'The angel was a gold coin worth about ten shillings, so named from having the representation of an angel upon it.
 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 83

lord and groom, lady and kitchen maid, no distinction. So in our court in Queen
Elizabeth's time, gravity and state were kept up. In King James's time things were
pretty well, but in King Charles's time, there has been nothing hut Trenchniore and
the Cushion Dance, omnium gatherum, tolly polly, hoite come toite."

Trenchmore is mentioned also in Stephen Gosson's Schoole of Abuse, 1579; in

Heywood's A Woman in Chapman's Wit of a
Killed with Kindness, 1600;
Woman, 1604; Ram
in Barry's Beaumont and Fletcher's Island
Alley, 1611; in
Princess ; in Weelkes' Ayres or Phantasticke Sprites, 1608 and in 1728 was ;

still to be found in Tlie Dancing Master. In the comedy of The Rehearsal,

1672, the earth, sun, and moon, are made to dance the Sey to the tune of
Trenchmore.
Several political songs were sung to it, one of which is in the collection of
" Poems on AfFau's of State, from 1640 to 1704." In the Roxburghe Collection
of Ballads is one called " The West-country Jigg, or a Trenchmore Galliard,"
" Four-and-twenty lasses went over Trenchmore Lee."
The following is the song in Deuteromelia.

^^^^^^^
Moderate time.

To - morrow the fox will come to town, Keep, keep, keep, keep; To-morrow the fox will

^K :ft
J .
J -
i J. J ^m^
* * ^ i
*• * 5:
i i TF-i
a==fs

come to town, O keep you all well there. I must de - sire you neighbours all. To

^ f^^^^

^^
hal-lo the fox out of the hall, And cry as
twn
loud as you can call.
4-

A
Whoop, whoop.

^^
'-^EE^^
iiJ
t<^} yi^^
whoop, whoop, whoop. And cry as loud as
l
JJiJl
you can call, O
l
t^
keep you all well there.

1^^
84 ENGfLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

He'll steal the cock out from his flock, He'll steal the duck out of the brook,
Keep, keep, keep, keep, keep Keep, keep, &c.
He'll steal the cock e'en from his flock, He'll steal the duck out of the brook,
O keep you all well there. O keep you all well there.
I must desire you, &c. I must desire you, &c.

He'll steal the hen out of the pen. He'll steal the lamb e'en from his dam,
Keep, keep, &c. Keep, keep, &c.
He'll steal the hen out of the pen. He'll steal the lamb e'en from his dam,
O keep you all well there. O keep you all well there.
I must desire you, &c. I must desire you, &c.

THE SHAKING OF THE SHEET, ob THE DANCE OF DEATH.

This is frequently mentioned by writers in tlie sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies, both as a country dance and as a ballad tune. In the recently- discovered
play of Misogonus, produced about 1560," The Shaking of the Sheets, TJie Vicar
of St. Fools, and The Catching of Quails, are mentioned as country dances.'^
There is a manuscript copy of the ballad in the British Museum (Add. MSS.
No. 15,225), in which it is ascribed to Thomas Hill; and printed copies, in black
letter, are to be found in the Roxburghe Collection (i., 499), and in that of

Anthony ^ Wood, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (vol. 401., f. 60). In

in the
1568-9, it was entered at Stationers' Hall to John Awdelay (see Collier's
Extracts, vol. i., p. 195).
Dance after my pipe, which is the second title of the ballad, seems to have
been a proverbial expression. In Ben Jonson's Every man out of his humour,
Saviolina says: "Nay, I cannot stay to dance after your pipe.'''' In Yox Borealis,
1641, — "I would teach them to sing another song, and make them dance after
my pipe, ere I had done with them." And in Middleton's The "World Lost at
Tennis, —"If I should dance after your j)ipe I should soon dance to the devil;"
and so in many other instances.
In The Meeting of Q-allants at an Ordinary, the host, describing a young man
who died of the plague, in London, in 1603, says: "But this youngster daunced
the shahing of one sheete within a few dales after " (Percy Soc. Reprint, p. 20) ;
and in A West-country Jigg, or a Trenchnore Galliard, verse 5 :

" The piper he struck up.

And merrily he did play
TJie Shahing of the Sheets,
And eke The Irish Hay."
The tune mentioned in Lilly's Pappe with a Hatchet, 1589 ; in Gosson's
is also

Schoole of Abuse, 1579; by Rowley, Middleton, Taylor the water-poet, Marston,

Massmger, Heywood, Dekker, Shirley, &c., &c.
There are two tunes under this name, the one in William Ballet's Lute Book,
which is the same as printed by Sir John Hawkins in his History of Music
(vol. 2, p. 934, 8vo. edit.) the other, and in all probability the more popular one,
;

is contained in numerous publications,'^ from Tlie Dancing Master of 1650-51, to

The Voccd Enchantress of 1783.

• See Collier's History of Early Dramatic Poetry, v. 2, *=
The tune of The Catchifig of Quails is also in The Ban-
p. 474. cing Master.
*» Sometimes it J8 called The Night Piece, or The Shaking
of the Sheets.
 FEOM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 85

Many ballads were sung and among them, King Olfrey and the old Abbot,
to it,

whicli is on the same story as King John and the Abbot of Canterbury; and Tlie
Song of the Caps, in the Roxburghe Collection, -which is also, in an altered form,
in Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy.
The following ballad is from a black-letter copy, in the Ashmolean Museum.
THE DOLEFULL DANCE AND SONG OF DEATH :

INTITHLED DANCE AFTER MY PIPE.— 10 A PIEASANT NEW TUNE.

Moderate time.

^ a^d=£^
Can you dance The shaking of the sheets, A
E^
dance that ev'
fca - ry one must do ; Can you
Je
jW^

^^4^-1
trim it up with dain - ty sweets, And ev' - ry thing that 'longs there-to ? Make

NN
rea -
^^

dy, then, yom'

ff ^ wind - ing sheet. And see how ye can be - stir your feet, For

^^^ -^

Death is
^^^
the man that all must meet, For Death is the man that
i^
all must meet.

J
h
|
J_J J'

Bring away the beggar and the king, Merchants, have you made your mart in France,
And every man in his degree ;
In Italy, and all about,
Bring away the old and youngest thing, Know you not that you and
I must dance.

Come all to death, and follow me Both our heels wrapt in a clout
The courtier with his lofty looks, What mean you to make your houses gay,
The lawyer with his learned books, And I must take the tenant away,
The banker with his baiting hooks. And dig for your sake the clods of clay ?
86 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Think you on the solemn 'sizes past, And you that are busy-headed fools.
How suddenly in Oxfordshire To brabble for a pelting straw.
I came, and made the judges all aghast, Know you not that I have ready tools
And justices that did appear. To cut you from your crafty law ?

And took both Bell and Barham away," And you that falsely buy and sell.
And many a worthy man that day, And think you make your markets well,
And all their bodies brought to clay. Must dance with Death wheresoe'eryou dwell.

Think you that I dare not come to schools, Pride must have a pretty sheet, I see.
Where all the cunning clerks be most For properly she loves to dance
Take I not away both wise and fools, Come away my wanton wench to me,
And am I not in every coast ? As gallantly as your eye doth glance ;

Assure yourselves no creature can And good fellows that flash and swash
all

Make Death afraid of any man. In reds and yellows of revell dash,
Or know my coming where or whan. I warrant you need not be so rash.

Where be they that make their leases strong, For I can quickly cool you all,

And join about them land to land. How hot or stout soever you be.
Do you make account to live so long, Both high and low, both great and small,
To have the world come to your hand ? I nought do fear your high degree ;

No, foolish nowle, for all thy pence, The ladies fair, the beldames old.
Full soon thy soul must needs go hence ;
The champion stout, the souldier bold,
Then who shall toyl for thy defence ? Must all with me to earthly mould.

And you that lean on your ladies' laps. Therefore take time while it is lent,

And lay your heads upon their knee, Prepare with me yourselves to dance ;

'
May think that you'll escape, perhaps, Forget me not, your lives lament,
And need not come to dance with me.' I come oft-times by sudden chance.

But no ! fair lords and ladies all, Be ready, therefore, watch and pray, —
I will make you come when I do call. That when my minstrel pipe doth play.
And find you a pipe to dance withall. You may to heaven dance the way.

WOLSEY'S WILD.

This tune is called Wolsey^s Wild in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, but in
William Ballet's Lute Book'' it is called Wilson'' s Wile, and in MusiclUs Delight
on the Cithren, 1666, Wilson^s Wild. In the Bagford Collection of Ballads,
Brit. Mus., there is one called " A proper newe sonet, declaring the Lamentation
of Beccles, a town in Suffolk," &c., by T. D. (Thomas Deloney), to Wilson^s Tune,
and dated 1586, but it does not appear, from the metre, to have been intended
for this air.Another "proper new ballad" to Wilson'' s Neiv Tune is in the

» Anthony t Wood observes: *'This solemn Assize, besides " The Witches Dawnce," "The hunt is up," "The
mentioned in the foregoing page, was liept in the Court- Shaking of the Shetes," "The Quadran Pavan," "aHom-
house in the Castle-yard at Oxon, 4 Jul., 1577. The Judges pipe," " Robin Reddocke," "Barrow Foster's Dreame,"
who were infected and dyed mth the danipe, were Sir " Dowland's LachrimEe," "Lusty Gallant," The Black-
Rob. Bell, Baron of the Exchequer, and Sir Nich. Bar- smith," "Rogero," " Turkeyloney," "Staynes Morris,"
ham, Seijeant at Lawe." See Hist, et Antiq. Univ. Oxon. "Sellenger's Rownde," " All flowers in brome," "Baloo,"
lib. i. sub an. 1577. This verse, therefore, cannot have " Wigmore's Galliard," "Robiu Hood is to the greenwood
been in the ballad entered to Awdelay, in 1568-9. gone," &c., &c.,are to be found in it. "Queen Mariees
^ This highly interesting manuscript, which is in the Dump" (in whose reign it was probably commenced)
library of Trinity College, Dublin (D. I. 21), contains a stands first in the book. The tunes are in lute tablature,
large number of the popular tunes of the sixteenth cen- a style of notation now obsolete, in which the letters of

tury. "Fortune my foe," "Peg

Ramsey," "Bonny
a the alphabet up to K are used to designate the strings and
sweet Robin," "Calleno, " "Lightie love Ladies," "Green frets of the instrument.
Sleeves," " Weladay " (all mentioned by Shakspeare),
 FROM HBNKY VII. TO MARY. 87

Library of the Society of Antiquaries. It is on Ballard and Babington's con-

spiracy, and was wi'itten just after their execution, in 1586. Wilson^s Delight,
Arthur a Bradley, and Mall DixorCs Round, are mentioned as popular tunes in
Braithwaite's Strappado for the Devil, 1615.
The' song, "Quoth John to Joan," or " I cannot come every day to woo," is

certainly as old as the time of Hem-y VIII., because the first verse is to be found
elaborately set to music in a manuscript of that date, formerly in the possession
of Stafford Smith (who printed the song in Musica Antiqua, vol. i., p. 32), and now

in that of Dr. Rimbault. There are two copies of the words in vol. ii. of the
Roxburghe Collection of Ballads, and it is in all the editions of Wit and Mirth, or
Pills to purge Melancholy, from 1698 to 1719. In Wifs Cabinet, 1731, it is
called " The Clown's Courtship, sung to the King at Windsor."

^
Moderate

S
time.

ast#
^S f
Quoth John to Joan, wilt thou have me? I prithee now, wilt? And I'se
J A'^^
•tt

ffi
H I

^ ^ ^
'^^^
=F=T
marry with thee, My
^
^^^
cow, my calf, my house,myrents,
S^
And allmylandsand
lands
n
tenements:
m
O

^ ^£
say, my Joan, say my Joan, will not that do ?

3M ^
cannot come ev ry day

^
to woo.

I've corn and hay in the barn hard by. I have a cheese upon the shelf,
And three fat hogs pent up in the sty ;
And I cannot eat it all myself

I have a mare, and she is coal-black, I've three good marks that lie in a rag,

I ride on her tail to save her back. In the nook of the chimney, instead of a bag.
Then say, my Joan, &c. Then say, my Joan, &c.

To marry would have thy consent.

I
But, faith, never could compliment
I

I can say nought but " hoy, gee ho,"

Words that belong to the cart and the plough :

Then say, my Joan, say, my Joan^ will that not do,

I cannot come every day to woo.
88 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAB MUSIC.

THE MARRIAGE OF THE FROG AND THE MOUSE.

In Wedderburn's Complaint of Scotland, 1549, one of the songs sung by the
shepherds is Tlie frog cam to the myl dur [mill-door]. In 1580, a ballad of
"A most strange wedding of the frog and the mouse" was licensed to Edward
White, at Stationers' Hall : and in 1611, this song was printed with music, among
the " Country Pastimes," in Melismata. It is the progenitor of several others
one beginning " There was a frog lived in a well,
;"
And a farce mouse in a mill
another, "A frog he would a- wooing go;" a third in Fills to purge Melan-
choly, &c., &c.

Moderate time. m^^^^^^^ ^^—^

j-ff o I rn 1 II ^ .PT
i5^
I I I
I I

It was a frog in the well, Hum - ble-dum, hum - ble - dum,

agff
i ^

And the merry mouse

^
in the mill, twee - die, tweedle, twi - no.

^^
The frogge would a-wooing ride, Hast thou any mind of me ?
I have e'en great mind of thee.
Humble-dum, humble-dum
Sword and buckler by his side, Who shall this marriage make ?

Tweedle, tweedle, twino. Our lord, which is the rat.

When upon his high horse set,
What shall we have to our supper ?
Humble-dum, &c..
Three beans in a pound of butter.
His boots they shone as black as jet,
But, when supper they were at.
Tweedle, &c.
The frog, the mouse, and e'en the rat.

When he came to the merry mill pin. Then came in Gib, our cat,
Lady Mouse beene you within ? And caught the mouse e'en by the back.
Then came out the dusty mouse :
Then did they separate :

I am lady of this house ; The frog leapt on the floor so flat

Then came in Dick, our drake.
And drew the frog e'en to the lake ;

The rat he ran up the wall,

'
And so the company parted all.'

THE CRAMP.
This is one of the three country dance tunes arranged to be sung together in
Pammelia, and is frequently referred to as a ballad tune.
In the Ashmolean library, in the same manuscript volume with Chevy Ohace
(No. 48), is a ballad by Elderton, describing the articles sold in the market in
time of Lent. The observance of Lent was compulsory in those days, and it was
by no means palatable to all. In 1570, William Pickering had a license to print
 FROM HENRY VII. TO RIARY. 89

a ballad, entitled Lenton Stuff, which was, in all probability, the same. Elderton's
ballad is called — " A new ballad, entitled Lenton Stxuff,
For a little money ye may have enough;"
to the tune of Tlie Cramp.
" Lenton stuff come to the town,
is

The cleansing week comes quickly

You know well enough you must kneel down,
Come on, take ashes trickly
That neither are good flesh nor fish,

But dip with Judas in the dish.

And keep a rout not worth a ryshe " [rush].
[Heigh ho the cramp-a.] !

It is not noticed by Ritson in 195-8

his list of Elderton's ballads, Bibl. Poet. p.
bat Mr. Halliwell has printed volume containing The Marriage of Wit
it in the
and Wisdom, for the Shakespeare Society. The following is from Pammelia,
Moderate time. _^___

^^
j^

i^
I fe^
m i
^ i==^=f= ^ ^
The cramp is in my purse full sore, No money will bide there-in, a. And

if
b

I'i'i^'rrr^^^
I
ft
I

had some
^

salve therefore, O light- ly then

F

^^would I
^

sing.

^ ^ fe^^ P
Hey ho ! the cramp, a. Hey ho! the cramp, a,

g k ^
1^^ P
Hey ho ! the cramp,
t^
Hey ho! the
W
cramp.

^
 90 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

I HAVE HOUSE AND LAND IN KENT.

This song, which is one of the " Country Pastimes," in Melismata, 1611, ison
the same subject as Quoth John to Joan, page 87. The tune begins like The
Three Ravens, but is in quicker time. In Melismata it is called Wooing Song A
of a Yeoman of Kenfs son, and the words are given in the Kentish dialect.
Moderate time. ^_^^^_
r#:
^3E ^:
ir—* ^ ^ p
-J =F=
I have house and land in Kent, And if you'll love me, love me

^vFf=i^
*=i S %
^ ^
Two -pence 7half- penny is

E=^ ^
Chorus.

m fyrnjj^
woo. Yes, twopence half-penny is his rent, He cannot come ev - 'ry day to woo.

to ^ ^^
Ich am my vather's eldest zonne, Ich have beene twise our Whitson lord.
My mother eke doth love me well Ich have had ladies many vare ;

For ich can bravely clout my shoone, And eke thou hast my heart in hold.
And ich full well can ring a bell.^ And in my mind zeemes passing rare.
Chorus. — For he can bravely clout his shoone, Chorus. —And eke thou hast his heart in hold,
And he full well can ring a bell. And in his mind zeemes passing rare.
My vather he gave me a hogge. Ich will put on my best white slopp.
My mouther she gave me a zow ;
And ich will wear my jellow hose,
have a godvather dwells there by,
I And on my head a good gray hat.
And he on me bestowed a plow. And in't ich stick a lovely rose.
Chorus. —
He has a godvather dwells there by. Chorus. —
And on his head a good gray hat.
And he on him bestowed a plow. And i'nt he'll stick a lovely rose.
One time I gave thee a paper of pins, Wherefore cease off, make no delay.
Anoder time a taudry lace ;
And if you'll love me, love me now ;

And if thou wilt not grant me love. Or else ich zeek zome oder where.
In truth ich die bevore thy vace. For I cannot come every day to woo.
Chorus. — And if thou wilt not grant his love. Chorus. — Or zeek zome oder where.
else he'll

In truth he'll die bevore thy face. For he cannot come every day to woo.

= Bell-ringing was formerly a great amusement of the found in Churchwardens' accounts of the 16th and 17th
English, and the allusions to it are of frequent occurrence. centuries.
Numerous payments to hell-ringerG are generally to be
 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 91

. LUSTY GALLANT.
This tune, which was extremely populaf in former times, is to be found in .

William Ballet's Lute Book. It resembles "Now foot it as I do, Tom, boy, Tom,"
which is one of three country dances, arranged to be sung together as a round, in
Pammelia.
Nicholas Breton mentions Old Lusty Grallant as a dance tune in his Works of
a Young Wit, 1577: "by chance,
Our banquet done, we had our music by,
And then, you know, the youth must needs go dance,
First galliards —
then larousse, and heidegy
—
Old Lusty Gallant Allflowers of the broom;
And then a hall, for dancers must have room ;

and Elderton, wi-ote, " a proper new balad in praise of my Ladie Marques, whose
death is bewailed," to the tune ofLusty Grallant. New A copy of that ballad is

in the possession of Mr. George Daniel, of Canonbury ; but I assume it to have

been intended for another air, because there are seven lines in each stanza. The
following is the first :

" Ladies, I thinke you marvell that

I writ no mery report to you

And what is the cause I court it not
So merye as I was wont to dooe ?

Alas I let you ujideratand

!

It is no newes for me to me to show

The fairest flower of my garland."

If sung to this tune, the last line of each stanza would require repetition.
Nashe, in his Terrors of the Night, 1594, says, " After all they danced Lusty
G-allant, and a drunken Danish levalto or two."

There is a song beginning, " Fain would I have a pi-etie thing to give unto my
ladie " (to the tune of Lusty G-allant) in A
HandefuU of Pleasant Lelites, and
,

although that volume is not known

have been printed before 1584, it seems to
to
have been entered at Stationers' Hall as early as 1565-6. Fain ivould I, &c.,
must have been written, and have attained popularity, either in or before the
year 1566, because, in 1566-7, a moralization, called Fain woxdd I have a godly
thing to sheio unto my lady, was entered, and in MSS. Ashmole"^ 48, fol. 120, is a
baUad of Troilus and Oreseida, beginning
" When Troilus dwelt in Troy town,
A man of noble fame-a "
to the tune of Fain would J find some pretty thing, &c., so that, from the popu-
larity of the ballad, the tune had become known by its name also.

I have not found any song called Lusty Gallant : perhaps it is referred to in
Massinger's play, Tlie Picture, where Ferdinand says

» Mr. W. H. Black, in his Catalogue of the Ashmolean tains Chevy Chace). Mr. HalliweU has printed the ballad
MSS., describes this volume as " written in the middle of of Troilus and Creseida, in the volume containing The
the sixteenth century " (it is the manuscript which con-
— Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, for the Shakespeare Society.
92 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

" is your Theorbo

Turn'd to a distaff, Signior, and your voice.
With which you chanted Room for a lusty Gallant,
Timed to the note of Lachrymce ? ""
The ballad of " A famous sea-fight between Captain Ward and the Rainbow"
(in the Roxburghe Collection) " to the tune of Captain Ward," &c., begins, " Strike
up, you lusty Gallants."
In the G-orgeous Gallery of gallant Inventions, 1578, there is a " proper dittie,"
to the tune of Lusty Gallant; and Pepys mentions a song with the bui'den of
" St. George for England," to the tune of List, lusty Gallants.

)^ n
Pc.
Moderate

Fain
^
J> I
\
time.

would
\

J.

I
HI

have
^
a
r*i *

pret - ty thing
a

To
II

give
H

un - to
m my La - dy.

WWW'
-&:
W
^
I name no thing, And mean no
^ -«

thing. But
.

as pretty
r
a thing as
m
may he.

w
Twenty journeys would make, I Some do long for pretty knacks,
And twenty days would hie me, And some for strange devices ;

To make adventure for her sake. God send me what my lady lacks,
To set some matter hy me. I care not what the price is.

There are eight more stanzas, which will be found in Evans' Old Ballads, vol. 1,

p. 123, edit. 1810, or in the reprint of A Handefidl of Pleasant Lelites.

BY A BANK AS I LAY.
In the Life of Sir Peter Carew, before quoted (page 52), "By the bank as
I lay " is mentioned as one of the Freemen'' s Sotigs which Sir Peter used to sing
with Henry Vm. ;and this is one of the JKing Henry's Mirth or Freemen^ s Songs
in Deutermnelia. In Laneham's letter from Kenilworth, 1565, " By a bank as
I lay" is included in the " bunch of ballads and songs, all ancient," which were
then in the possession of Captain Cox, the Mason of Coventry. In Wager's in-
terlude, TJie longer thou livest the more fool thou art, 1568, Moros sings the two
following lines :
— " By a bank as I lay, / lay,
"
Musing on things paM, heigh ho !

In Royal MSS. Append. 58, there is another song, of which the first line is the

Lachrymw, a tune often referred to, composed by Dowland.

 FKOM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 93

same, but tlie second differs ; and the music to it is not of the light and popuhar
class called Freemen'' s Songs, but a studied composition. The words of the latter
have been printed by Mr. Payne Collier, in his Extracts from the Registers of
the Stationers' Company, vol. i., page 193. They are in the same metre, and
therefore might also be simg to this tune.
The last line of the song, as printed in Deuteromelia, is "And save noble James
our king," because the book was printed in his reign.
Moderate time.

t^^t=^-^!
^ By 5=^
^^^hn^n^^s
1^ ^
bank lay, Musing on a thing that was past and gone, heigh ho!

HE
^ 3:51
^
t^»-iiS^^Tp
fthemeny
In month
lonthof Os
?^ U-^
^
of May, Osoniewhatbeforetheday,Methought
i J^J-J

I heard
iJTPJ
at the last.

S -—^
O the gentle nightingale, Oh, for joy, my spirits were quick,
The lady and the mistress of all musick, To hear the bird how merrily she could sing,
She sits down ever in the dale ;
And I said, good Lord, defend
Singing with her notes smale [small], England, with thy most holy hand,
And quavering them wonderfully thick. And save noble '
Henry' our king.

ROGEEO.
This tune is to be found among Dowland's Manuscripts,'' in the public library,
Cambridge ; in William Ballet's Lute Book, and in Dallis' Lute Book, both in
the library of Trinity College, Dublin.
The first entry in Mr. Payne Collier's Extracts from the Registers of the
Stationers' Company, is to William Pickering, a "Ballett called Arise and wake"
(1557). In the Rosburghe Collection of Ballads, there is one commencing,
" Arise and awake," entitled
" A godly and Christian A. B.C.,
Shewing the duty of every degree,"
to the tune of Rogero. It may be the ballad referred to, although the copy in the
Roxburghe Collection was printed at a later date. In the same year, 1557, there
isan entry of " A Ballett of the A.B.C. of a Priest, called Hugh Stourmy,"
and another of " The aged man's A.B.C."

" The references to these Manuscripts are, D. d. 2. II. the celebrated lutenist of Elizabeth's reign. The tune of
— D. d. 3. 18.— D. d. 4. 2.3.— D. d. 9. 33.— D. d. 14. 24., Rogero is in three or four of them.
&c. Some appear to be in the handwriting of Dowland,
94 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Roger
is mentioned as a dance tune in Stephen Gosson's School of Abuse,

1579 Heywood's
; in A
woman hilled tvith kindness (acted before 1604) and in ;

Nashe's Have ivith you to Saffron- Walden, 1596 also by Dekker, in The Shoe- ;

maker's Holiday, &c.

Many ballads were sung to the tune of Rogero. In the first volume of the
Roxburghe Collection, for instance, there are at least four.* Others in the
Pepysian Collection; m
The Croivn G-arland of Grolden Roses, 1612; in Deloney's
Strange Histories,^ 1607in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry
; and in Evans' ;

Old Ballads. Arise and atvake is also referred to as a ballad tune.

The following, which is entitled " The valiant courage and policy of the
Kentishmen with long tails, whereby they kept their ancient laws and customs,
which William the Conqueror sought to take from them" — to the tune ot Rogero,'"
is from Strange Histories, &c., 1607. It was written by Deloney, " the ballading
silk-weaver," who died in or before 1600.

^^m
Boldly and marhed.

^
When
i=*
as the Duke
s
r ^
of Nor man -dy, With ring spear and

^
- glist

et
=5jcz:
^ ^
rg p
iJ '

i^ imMu^ ^
shield. Had en - ter'd in - to fair England, And foil'd his foes in field

On Christmas-day in solemn sort

T
m
And many
=p

cities
m
he subdued,
Then was he crowned here, London with the rest
Fair ;

By Albert archbishop of York, But Kent did still withstand his force,
With many a noble peer. And did his laws detest.

Which being done, he changed quite To Dover then he toolc his way,
The customs of this land, The castle down to fling,
And punisht such as daily sought Which Arviragus builded there,
His statutes to withstand : The noble British king.
^ See folios 130, 258, 4S2, and 492. a moving wood they enclosed him upon the sudden, and
;

^ The Croivn Garland and Strange Histories have been with a firm countenance, but words well tempered with
reprinted by the Percy Society. modesty and respect, they demanded of him the use of
" Evans, who prints this ballad from another copy (TAe their ancient liberties and laws that in other matters
:

Garland of Delight) extracts the following account of the they would yield obedience unto him that mthout tliia :

event which gave rise to it, from The Lives of the three they desired not to live. The king was content to strike
Norman Kings of England, by Sir John Hey ward, 4to, 1613, sail to the storm, and to give them a vain satisfaction for
p. 97: "Further, by the counsel of Stigand, Archbishop the present;knowing right well that the general customs
of Canterbury, and of Eglesine, Abbot of St. Augustine's and laws of the residue of the realm would in short time
(who at that time were the chief governors of Kent), as the overflow these particular places. So pledges being given
King was riding towards Dover, at Swanscombe, two on both sides, they conducted him to Rochester, and
miles from Gravesend, the Kentishmen came towards him yielded up the county of Kent, and the castle of Dover
armed and bearing bougha in their hands, as if it had been into his power."
 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 95

Whicliwhen the brave archbishop bold The shape of men he could not see,
Of Canterbury knew, The boughs did hide them so :

The abbot of Saint Augustines eke, And now his heart for fear did quake.
With all their gallant crew, To see a forest go ;

They set themselves in armour bright, Before, behind, and on each side,
These mischiefs to prevent. As he did cast his eye,
With all the yeomen brave and bold He spied those woods with sober pace
That were in fruitful Kent. Approach to him full nigh :

At Canterbury did they meet But when the Kentish-men had thus
Upon a certain day. Enclos'd the conqueror round.
With sword and and bow,
spear, with bill Most suddenly they drew their swords.
And stopt the conqueror's way. And threw the boughs to ground ;

Let us not live like bond-men poor Their banners they display 'd in sight.
To Frenchmen in their pride, Their trumpets sound a charge,
But keep our ancient liberty, Their rattling drums strike up alarms.
What chance so e'er betide, Their troops stretch out at large.
And rather die in bloody field. The conqueror, and all his train,
In manlike courage prest (ready), Were hereat sore aghast,
Than to endure the servile yoke. And most in peril, when they thought
Which we so much detest. All peril had been past.

Thus did the Kentish commons cry Unto the Kentish men he sent,
Unto their leaders still. The cause to understand.
And so march'd forth in warlike sort. For what intent, and for what cause,
And stand at Swanscomb hill They took this war in hand ;

Where woods they hid themselves.

in the To whom they made this short reply.
Under the shady green. For liberty we fight.
Thereby to get them vantage good, And to enjoy king Edward's laws,
Of all their foes unseen. The which we hold our right.

And for the conqueror's coming there. Then said the dreadful conqueror.
They privily laid wait. You shall have what you will.
And thereby suddenly appal'd Your ancient customs and your laws.
His lofty high conceit So that you will be still

For when they spied his approach, And each thing else that you will crave
In place as they did stand. With reason, at my hand.
Then marched they, to hem him in, So you will but acknowledge me
Each one a bough in hand, Chief king of fair England.
So that unto the conqueror's sight, The Kentish men agreed thereon,
Amazed as he stood. And laid their arms aside.
They seem'd to be a walking grove, And by this means king Edward's laws
Or else a moving wood. In Kent do still abide ;

And in no place in England else

These customs do remain,
Which they by manly policy
Did of duke William gain.

TURKEYLONEY.
The figure of the dance called Turlceyloney is described with others in a manu-
script in the Bodleian Library (MS. Rawl. Poet. 108), -which was written about
1570. Stephen Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, containing a pleasant Invective
against Poets, Pipers, Players, Jesters, &c,, 1579, alludes to the tune as one of
96 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

the most popular in his day. He says, " Homer, with his music, cured the sick
soldiers in the Grecians' camp, and purged every man's tent of the plague.
Think you that those miracles could be wought with playing dances, dumps,
pavans, galliards, fancies, or new strains ? They never came where this grew,
nor knew what it meant Terpander neither piped Rogero, nor Turkeloney,
when he ended the brabbles at Lacedemon, but, putting them in mind of Lycm"gus'
laws, taught them to tread a better measure:" but, "if you enquire how many
such poets and pipers we have in our age, I am persuaded that every one of them
may creep through a ring, or dance the wild morris in a needle's eye.We have
infinite poetsand pipers, and such peevish cattle among us in England, that live
by merry begging, maintained by alms, and privily encroach upon every man's
purse, but if they in authority should call an account to see how many Chirons,
Terpandri, and Homers are here, they might cast the sum without pen or
counters, and down with Rachel to weep for her children, because they are not."
sit

Turheylony is also mentioned, as a dance tune, in Nashe's Have ivith you to

Saffron- Walden, 1596; and the music will be found in William Ballet's Lute
Book, described in a note at page 86.
The words here coupled with the tune are taken from a manuscript in the
possession of Mr. Payne Collier. Although the manuscript is of the reign of
James I., the " ballett " Yf ever I marry, I will marry a mayde, was entered
at Stationers' Hall as early as 1557-8. The name of the air to which it should
be sung is neither given in the MS., nor in the entry at Stationers' Hall; but the
words and music agree so well together, that it is very probable the ballet was
written to this tune.

ii^
t=^

If
^
In moderate time, and smoothly.

e - ver
*^
I inar-ry, I'll
n/.r
mar-ry a maid :
3

To
1
rf^
marry a
^
widow I'm

r- r-

^b ft '
\ r

p a - fraid ;
j- i
J.-n^:-^
For maids they are sim - pie, and never
^ will grutcli,
(grudge)
But

^^ w^ m
widows full
n r
oft, as they say,
^ know too much,
 FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 97

A maid is so sweet, and so gentle of kind,

That a maid is the wife I will choose to my mind ;

A widow is fro ward, and never will yield ;

Or if such there be, you will meet them but seeld. [seldom]

A maid ne'er complaineth, do what so you will

But what you mean well, a widow takes ill
A widow will make you a drudge and a slave,
And cost ne'er so much, she will ever go brave, [gaily dress'd]

A maid is so modest, she seemeth a rose,

When first it beginneth the bud to unclose ;

But a widow full blowen, fiill often deceives,

And the next wind that bloweth shakes down all her leaves.

That widows be lovely I never gainsay.

But too well all their beauty they know to display ;

But a maid hath so great hidden beauty in store,

She can spare to a widow, yet never be poor.

Then, if ever I marry, give me a fresh maid,

If to maiTy with any I be not afraid
But to marry with any it asketh much care.
And some bachelors hold they are best as they are.
 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

REIGN O'F ELIZABETH.

During the long reign of Elizabeth, music seems to have been in universal
cultivation, as well as in universal esteem.Not only was it a necessary qualifica-
tion for ladies and gentlemen, but even the city of London advertised the musical
abilities of boys educated in Bridewell and Christ's Hospital, as a mode of

recommending them as servants, apprentices, or husbandmen." In Deloney's

History of the gentle Craft, 1598, one who tried to pass for a shoemaker was
detected as an imposter, because he could neither " sing, sound the trumpet, play
upon the flute, nor reckon up his tools in rhyme." Tinkers sang catches; milk-
maids sang ballads ; carters whistled ; each trade, and even the beggars, had
their special songs ; the base-viol hung
amusement of in the di-awing room for the
waiting visitors ; and the amusement of wait-
lute, cittern, and virginals, for the
ing customers, were the necessary furniture of the barber's shop. They had
music at dinner; music at supper; music at weddings; music at funerals; music
at night; music at dawn; music at work; and music at play.
He who in some degree, its soothing influences, was viewed as a
felt not,
morose, unsocial being, whose converse ought to be shmmed, and regarded with
suspicion and distrust.
" The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils ;

The motions of his spirit are as dull as night,

And dark as Erebus
his affections
Let no such man be trusted."
Merchant of Venice, act v., so. 1.

" Preposterous ass ! that never read so far

To know the cause why music was ordain'd !

Was it not to refresh the mind of man

"
After his studies, or his usual pain ?

Tlie Taming of the Shrew, act ii., sc. 3.

» "That the preachers be moved at the sermons at the Golden Tunne;" reprinted in The British Bibliographer.
Crosse" [St. Paul's Cross] "and other convenient times, Edward VI. granted the charters of incorporation for
and that all other good notorious meanes be used, to re- Bridewell and Christ's Hospital, a few days before his
quire both citizens, artificers, and other, and also
all death. Bridewell is a foundation of a mixed and sin-
farmers and other for husbandry, and gentlemen and other gular nature, partaking of the hospital, prison, and work-
for their kitchens and other services, to take servants and house. Youths were sent to the Hospital as apprentices
children both out of Bridewell and Christ's Hospital at to manufacturers, who resided there ;and on leaving, re-
their pleasures, . . . with further declaration that many ceived a donation of 10^., and their freedom of the city,
of them be of toward qualities in readyng, wryting, gram- Pepys, in his Diary, 5th October, 16G4, says, "To new
mer, and musike." This Is the 66th and last of the Bridewell, and there I did with great pleasure see the
"Orders appointed to be executed in the cittie of London, many pretty works, and the little children employed,
for setting rogCuJes and idle persons to worke, and for every one to do something, which was a very fine sight,
releefe of the poore." "At London, printed by Hugh and worthy encouragement."
singleton, dwelling in Smith Fielde, at the signe of the
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 99

Steevens, in a note upon the above passage in The Merchant of Venice, quotes the
authority of Lord Chesterfield against what he terms this "capricious sentiment"
of Shakespeare, and adds that Peacham requires of his gentleman only to be able
" to sing his part sure, and at first sight, and withall to play the same on a viol,
or lute." But this sentiment, so far from being peculiar to Shakespeare, may be
said to have been the prevailiag one of Europe. Nor was Peacham an exception,
for,although he says, " I dare not pass so rash a censure of these " (who love not
music) " as Pindar doth or the Italian, having fitted a proverb to the same effect,
;

Whom Grocl loves not, that man loves not music-''' he adds, " but I am verily per-
suaded that they are by nature very ill disposed, and of such a brutish stupidity
that scarce any thing else that is good and savoureth of virtue is to be found
in them." '^
Tusser, in his " Points of Huswifry united to the comfort of
Husbandry," 1570, recommends the country huswife to select servants that sing
most pains-taking, and the best. He says
at their work, as being usually the
" Such servants are oftenest painfull and good,
That sing in their labour, as birds in the wood ;"

and old Merrythought says, "Never trust a tailor that does not sing at
his work, for his mind is of nothing but filching." (Dyce''s Beaumont and
Fletcher, vol. ii., p. 171.)
Byrd, in his Psalmes, Sonnets, and Songs, &c., 1588, gives the following eight
reasons why every one should learn to sing :

—"It a knowledge
1st. is easily taught, and quickly learned, where there is a good
master and an apt scholar."
2nd. — The " singing exercise of is delightful to nature, and good to preserve the
health ofman."
— doth strengthen
3rd. " It all parts of the breast, and doth open the pipes."
—"It
4tb. good remedy
is a singular for a stutting and stammering in the speech."
6th.
— "It is the best means to procure a perfect pronunciation, and to make a good
orator."
6th.
—" It is the only way to know where nature hath bestowed a good voice ; . . .

and in many that excellent gift because they want art to express nature."
is lost,

7th.
— There
" is not any music of instruments wliatsoever, comparable to that which
is made of the voices of men; where the voices are good, and the same well sorted
and ordered."
8th. — " The better the voice is, the m^eter it is to honour and serve God therewith
and the voice of man is chiefly to be emisloyed to that end."

" Since singing is so good a thing,

I wish all men would learn to sing."

Morley, in his Introduction to Pratical Mustek, 1597, written in dialogue,

introduces the pupil thus :
" But supper being ended, and music books,
according to custom, being brought to the table, the mistress of the house pre-
sented me with a part, earnestly requesting me to sing ; but when, after many
excuses, I protested unfeignedly that I could not, every one began to wonder ;
yea,

^ The Corapleat Gentleman; fashioning him absolute in mind or bodie, tliat maybe required in a noble gentleman,
the most necessary and commendable qualities, concerning By Henry Peacliam, Master of Arts, &c., 1622.
100 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

some whispered to others, demanding how I was brought up, so that upon shame
of mine ignorance, I go now to seek out mine old friend, Master Gnorimus, to
make myself his scholar."
Laneham, to whom we are indebted for the description of the pageants at Kenil-
worth in 1575, thus describes his own evening amusements. " Sometimes I foot
it with dancing now with my gittern, and else with my
; cittern, then at the

virginals (ye know nothing comes amiss to me) then carol I up a song withal
:

that by and by they come flocking about me like bees to honey and ever they ;

cry, '
Another, good Laneham, another.' " He who thus speaks of his playing
upon three instruments and singing, had been promoted from a situation in the

royal stables, through the favour of the Earl of Leicester, to the duty of keeping
eaves-droppers from the council-chamber door.
Dekker, in 27*6 Gulfs Horn-hooh, tells us that the usual routine of a young
gentlewoman's education was " to read and write to play upon the virginals, ;

lute, and cittern ; and to read prick-song (i.e., music written or pricked down) at
first sight." Whenever a lady was highly commended by a writer of that age,
her skill in music was sure to be included ; as
" Her own tongue speaks all tongues, and her own hand
Can teach all strings to speak in their best grace."
Heytvood's A Woman kill'd with kindness.
" Observe," says Lazarillo, who is instructing the ladies how to render them-
selves most attractive, "it shall be your first and finest praise to sing the note of

every new fashion at first sight. (Middleton's Blurt, Master OonstaMe, 1602.)
Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579, alluding to the custom of serenading,
recommends young ladies to be careful not to "flee to inchaunting," and says, "if
assaulted with music in the night, close up your eyes, stop your ears, tie up your
tongues; when they speak, answer them not; when they halloo, stoop not ; when
they sigh, laugh at them; when they sue, scorn them." He admits that "these are
hard lessons," but advises them " nevertheless to drink up the potion, though it
like not [please not] your taste." In those days, however, the " serenate, which
the starv'd lover sings to his i3roud fair," was not quite so customary in England
as the Morning song or Hunfs-vp ; such as
" Fain would I wake you, sweet, but fear
I should invite you to *orse cheer ; . . .

I'd wish my life no better play,

Your dream by night, your thought by day :

Wake, gently wake,

Part softly from your dreams !

The Morning Jiies

To your fair eyes,

To guide her special beams."

As to the custom of having a base-viol (or viol da gamba) hanging up in draw-
ing rooms for visitors to play on, one quotation from Ben Jonson may sufiice:
" In making love to her, never fear to be out, for ... a base viol shall hang o' the
wall, of purpose, shall put you in presently. {Gifford's Edit. vol. ii., p. 162.)
 EEISN OP ELIZABETH. 101

If more to the same purport be required, many similar allusions will be found in
the same volume. (See pages 125, 126, 127, and 472, and Gifford's Notes.)
The base-viol was also played upon by ladies (at least during the following
reign), although thought by some "an unmannerly instrimient for a woman."
The mode in which some ladies passed their time is described in the following
lines, and perhaps, even in the present day, instances not wholly milike might be
found. " This is all that women do,
Sit and answer them that woo ;

Deck themselves in new attive,

To entangle fresh desire ;

After dinner sing and play,

Or dancing, pass the time away."
" England," says a French writer of the seventeenth century, " is the paradise of
women, as Spain and Italy are their purgatory." ^
The musical instruments principally in use in barbers' shops, during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were the cittern, the gittern, the lute, and
the virginals. Of these the cittern was the most common, perhaps because most
easily played. It was in shape somewhat like the English guitar of the last
century, but had only four double strings of wire, i. e., two to each note.*" These
were tuned to the notes g, b, d, and e of the present treble staff, or to correspond-
ing intervals for no rules are given concerning the pitch of these instruments,
;

unless they were to be used in concert. The instructions for tuning are generally
to draw up the treble string as high as possible, without breaking it, and to tune
the others from that. A particular feature of the cittern was the carved head,
which is frequently alluded to by the old writers.'^ Playford in his "Musick's
Delight on the Githren restored and refined to a more easie and pleasant manner of
playing than formerly," 1666, speaks of having revived the instrument, and re-
stored to what it was in the reign of Queen Mary, and his tuning agrees with
it

that inAnthony Holborne's Qittharn Schoole, 1597, and in Thomas Robinson's Wew
Citharen Lessons, 1609. The peculiarity of the cittern, or cithren, was that the
thii'd string was tuned lower than the fourth, so that if the first or highest string
were tuned to e, the third would be the g below, and the fourth the intermediate b.

The cittern appears to have been an instrument of English invention.*

Of the gittern or ghitterne, I can say but little, not having seen any instruc-
tion-book for the instrument. Ritson says it differed chiefly from the cittern

^ Description of England by Jorevin de Rocheford. the great astronomer, Galileo Galilei), I assume to mean
Paris, 1672. Cittern, because the word Liuto, for Lute, was in common
^ Sir John Hawkins, in his History of Music, vol. ii., use. He says, " Fu la Cetera usata prima tra gli Inglesi
p. 602, 8vo., copies the Cistrum from Mersenne, as the che da altre nazioni, nella quale Isola si lavoravano gii
Cittern, but it has six strings, and therefore more closely in eccellenza ;
quantunque hoggi le pitl riputate da loro
resembles the English guitar. siano quelle che si lavorano in Brescia; con tutto questo
= In Love's Labour Lost, act v., sc. 2, Boyet compares S adoperata ed apprezzata da nobili, e fu cosi detta dagli
Holofernes' countenance to that of a cittern head. In autori di essa, per forse resuscitate I'antica Cithara ; ma
Forde's Lovers' Melancholy, act ii., sc. 1, "Barbers shall la diiferenza che sia tra la nostra e quella, si 6 possuto
wear thee on their citterns;" and in Fletcher's Love's benissimoconoscere da quello che se n' ^ di sopra detto."
Cxtre, "You cittern head! you ill-countenanced cur!" Dialogo di Vinccnzo Galilei, nobile Fiorentino, fol. 1581,
&c.. Sic p. 147.
* The word Cetera, as employed by Galilei (father of

I
102 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

in being strung with gut instead of wire ; and, from the various allusions to it,

I have no doubt of his correctness. Perhaps, also, it was somewhat less in size.

In the catalogue of musical instruments left in the charge of Philip van Wilder,
at the death of Henry VHI., we find " four Gitterons, which are called Spanish
vialles." As Galilei says, in 1581, that " Viols are little used in Spain, and that
they do not make them,"" I assume Spanish viol to mean the guitarra, or guitar.
The gittern is ranked with string instruments in the following extract from the
old play of Lingua, written in this reign :

" 'Tis true the finding of a dead horse-liead

"VS'as the first invention of string instruments,

Whence rose the Oitterne, Viol, and the Lide
Though others think the Lute was first devis'd
In imitation of a tortoise badi,
Whose sinews, parched by Apollo's beams,
'

Echo'd about the concave of the shell

And seeing the shortest and smallest gave shrillest sound,

They found out Frets, whose sweet diversity
(Well touched by the skilful learned fingers)

Raiseth so strange a multitude of Chords ;

Which, their opinion, many do confirm,

Because Testudo signifies a Lute."
Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. v., p. 198.

Coles, in his Dictionary, describes gittern as a smcdl sort of cittern, and Playford
printed OUhren and Grittern Lessons, ivith plain and easie Instructions for Beginners
thereooi, together in one book, in 1659. Ritson may have gained his information
from this book, as he mentions it in the second edition of his Ancient Songs, but
I have not succeeded in finding a copy.
The lute (derived from the Anglo-Saxon Hlud, or Lud, i. e., sounded), was
once the most popular instrument in Europe, although now rarely to be seen,
except represented in old pictures. It has been superseded by the guitar, but
for what reason it is difficult to say, unless from the greater convenience of the
bent sides of the guitar for holding the instrument, when touching the higher notes
of the finger-board. The tone of the lute is decidedly superior to the guitar, being
larger, and having a convex back, somewhat like the vertical section of a gourd, or
more nearly resembling that of a pear. As it was used chiefly for accompanying
the voice, there were only eight frets, or divisions of the finger-board, and these
frets (so called from fretting, or stopping the strings) were made by tying
pieces of cord, dipped in glue, tightly round the neck of the lute, at inter-
vals of a semitone. It had virtually six strings, because, although the num-
ber was eleven or twelve, five, at least, were doubled, the first, or treble, being
sometimes a single string.'' The head, in which the pegs to turn the strings were

" " La viola da garaba, e da braccio, nella Spagna non lutes of various sizes, from the mandura, or mandore,
se ne fanno, e poco vi si usano." Bialogo delta Mimca, to the theorbo and arch-lute; some with less, and others
fol, 1581., p. 147. with more strings.
^ I speak only of the usual English hite. There were
 EEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 103

inserted, receded almost at a right angle. The most usual mode of tuning it was
as follows : assuming c in the third space of the treble clef to be the pitch of the
first string (i.e., cc in the scale given at page 14), the base, or sixth string would
be ; the tenor, or fifth, F; the counter-tenor, or fourth, b flat ; the great
mean, or the small mean, or second, g ; and the minikin, or treble, cc*
third, d ;

Lute strings'" were a usual present to ladies as new-year's gifts. From

Nichols' Progresseswe learn that queen Elizabeth received a box of lute-strings,
as a new-year's gift, from Innocent Corry,and at the same time, a box of lute-
strings and a glass of sweet water from Ambrose Lupo. When young men
in want of money went to usurers, it was their common practice to lend it
in the shape of goods which could only be re-sold at a great loss ; and lute-strings
were then as commonly the medium employed as bad wine is now. In Lodge's
Looking Glasse for London and Miglande, 1594, the usurer being very urgent
for the repayment of his loan, is thus answered, " I pray you, Sir, consider that
my was great by the commodity I took up; you know. Sir, I borrowed of you
loss

forty pounds, whereof I had ten pounds in money, and thirty pounds in lute-
strings, which, when I came to sell again, I could get but five pounds for them, so
had I, Sir, but fifteen pounds for my forty." So in Dekker's A Nighfs Con-
juring, the spendthrift, speaking of his father, says, " He cozen'd young gentle-
men of their land, only for me, had acres mortgaged to him by wiseacres for three
hundred pounds, paid in hobby-horses, dogs, bells, and lute-strings, which, if they
had been sold by the di'um, or at an out-rop (auction), with the cry of No man '

better?' would never have yielded £50." Nash alludes twice to the custom. In
Will Summer'' s Last Will and Testament, he says, " I know one that ran in debt,
in the space of four or five years, above fourteen thousand pounds in lute-strings
and grey paper;" and in CJirisfs Tears over Jerusalem, 1593; " Li the first in-

stance, spendthrifts and prodigals obtain what they desire, but at the second time
of their coming, it is doubtful to say whether they shall have money or no the world :

grows hard, and we are all mortal : let them make him any assurance before a
judge, and they shall have some hundi-ed pounds (per consequence) in silks and
velvets. The third time, if they come, they have baser commodities. The fourth
time, lute-strings and then, I pray you pardon me, I am not for
and grey paper ;

you : pay me what you owe me, and you shall have anything." (Dodsley, v. 9,
p. 22.)
The virginals (probably so called because chiefly played upon by young girls)
resembled in shape the " square" pianoforte of the present day, as the harpsichord
did the "grand." The sound ofthe pianoforte is produced by a hammer striking
when the keys of the virginals or harpsichord were pressed, the
the strings, but
"jacks," (slender pieces of wood, armed at the upper ends with quills) were

» The notes which these letters represent will be seen House duties printed in 1545, the iiuport duty on "lute-
by referring to the scale at p. 14-. strings called Mynikins" was 22d. the gross, but as no
^ Mace, in his Musick's Monument, 1678, speaking of other lute-strings are named, I assume that only the
lute-strings, says, " Chuse your trebles, seconds, and smallest were then occasionally imported. Minikin is
thirds, and some of your small octaves, especially the one of the many words, derived from music or musical
sixth, out of your Minikins; the fourth and fifth, and instruments, which have puzzled the commentators on
most of your octaves, of Venice Catlins ; your Pistoys or the old dramatists. The first string of a violin was also
Lyons only for the great bases." In the list of Custom- called a minikin.
104 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

raised to the strings, and acted as plectra, by impinging, or twitching them.

These yacfe were the constant subject of simile and pun; for instance, in a play
of Dekker's, where Matheo complains that his wife is never at home, Orlando says,
"No, for she's like a pan- of virginals, always with jacfa at her tail." — (Dodsley's
Old Plays, vol. iii., p. 398). And in Middleton's Father Suhhurd's Tales, de-
Charity as frozen, he says, "Her teeth chattered in her head, and leaped
sci'ibing

up and down like virginal jacks."

One branch of the barber's occupation in former days was to di'aw teeth, to bind
up wounds, and to let blood. The parti-colovu-ed pole, which was exhibited at the
doorway, painted after the fashion of a bandage, was his sign, and the teeth
he had drawn were suspended at the windows, tied upon lute strings. The lute,
the cittern, and the gittern hung from the walls, and the virginals stood in the
corner of his shop. " If idle," says the author of The Trimming of Tliomas
Nashe, " barbers pass their time in life-delighting musique," (1597). The
barber in Lyly's Midas, (1592), says to his apprentice, " Thou knowest I have
taught thee the knacking of the hands," like the tuning of a cittern," and
Truewit, in Ben Jonson's Silent Woman, wishes the barber " may draw his own
teeth, and add them to the lute-string." In the same play, Morose, who had
married the barber's daughter, thinking her faithless, exclaims " That cursed
barber ! I have married his cittern, that is common
men." One of the to all

commentators not understanding this, altered it to " I have married his cistern^''
&c, Dekker also speaks of " a barber's cittern for every serving-man to play
upon."
One of the Merrie- conceited jests of Greorge Peek is the stealing of a barber's
lute, and in Lord Fcdkland's Wedding Night, we read " He has travelled
and speaks languages, as a barber's boy plays o'th' gittern." Ben Jonson says,*"
" I can compare him to nothing more happily than a barber's virginals for every ;

man may play upon him," and in The Staple of News, " My barber Tom, one
Christmas, got into a Masque at court, by his wit and the good means of his
cittern, holding up thus for one of the music." To the latter passage Gifford adds
another in a note. " For you know, says Tom Brown, that a cittern is as natural
to a barber, as milk to a calf, or dancing bears to a bagpiper."
As to the music they played, we may assume it to have been, generally,
the common tunes of the day, and such as would be familiar to all. Morley, in
his Introduction to Music, tells us that the tune called the Quadrant Pavan, was
called Q-regory Walker, "because it walketh 'mongst barbers and fiddlers more
common than any other," and says in derision, " Nay, you sing you know not
what ; it should seem you came lately from a barber's shop, where you had
Gregory Walker, or a Coranto, played in the new proportions by them lately found
out." Notwithstanding this, we find the Quadran Pavan (so called, I suppose,
because it was a pavan for four to dance) was one of the tunes arranged for
queen Elizabeth in her Virginal Book; and Morley, himself, arranged it for

* The knacking of the hands was a peculiar crack witli barber was expected to make while shaving a customer,
the fingers, by knocking them together, which every ^ Every mnn in his hvmour. Act iii., sc. 2.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 105

several instruments in his Consort Lessons. I have alluded to the custom of

introducing old songs into plays, and playing old tunes at the beginning and end
of the acts, at p. 72. Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, and Lady Neville's,
contain than old tunes, arranged with variations, or as then more
little else

usually termed, with " division." It is often difficult to extract the air accurately
from these arrangements, if there be no other copy as a guide. Occasionally
a mere skeleton of the tune is given, sometimes it is " in prolation," i. e., with
every note drawn out to two, four, or eight times its proper duration, sometimes
the melody is in the base, at others it is to be found in an inner part.
The rage for popular tunes abroad had shewn itself in the Masses set to
music by the greatest composers. Baini, in his Life of Palestrina, gives, what
he terms, a shori list (" breve elenco") of some of them. It contains the
names of eighty secular tunes upon which Masses had been composed, and sung
even in the Pope's chapel. The tunes have principally French names, some
are of lascivious songs, others of dance tunes. He names fifty different authors
who composed them, and intimates that there is a much larger number than he
has cited in the library of the Vatican. * Even our island was not quite irre-
proachable on this point. Shakespeare speaks of Puritans singing psalms to
hornpipes, and the Presbyterians sang their Divine Hymns to the tunes of
popular songs, the titles of some of which the editor of Sacred Minstrelsy (vol. i.,

p. 7) " would not allow to sully his pages." Generally, however, the passion
for melody expended itself in singing old tunes about the country, in the streets,
and at the ends of plays, in playing them in barbers' shops, or at home, when
arranged for chamber use with all the art and embellishment our musicians could
devise. The scholastic music of that age, great as it was, was so entirely devoted
to harmony, and that harmony so constructed upon old scales, that scarcely any-
thing like tune could be found in it — I mean such tune as the uncultivated ear
could carry away. Many would then, no doubt, say with Imperia, "I cannot abide
these dull and lumpish tunes the musician stands longer a pricking them than
;

I would do to hear them no, no, give me your light ones."

: (Middleton's Blurt, —
blaster Oonstahle.) No line of demarcation could be more complete than that
between the music of the great composers of the time, and, what may be termed,
the music of the people. Perhaps the only instance of a tune by a well-known
musician of that age having been afterwards used as a ballad tune, is that of The
Frog Cralliard, composed by Dowland. Musicians held ballads in contempt, and
the great poets rarely wrote in ballad metre.
Dr. Drake, in his Shakespeare and his Times, gives a list of two hundred and
thirty- three British poets'' (forty major, and one hundred and ninety-three
minor), who were contemporaneous with Shakespeare, and even that list, large as
it is, might be greatly extended from miscellanies, and from ballads. Some idea
of the number of ballads that were printed in the early part of the reign of

"*
*' Memorie storico-critiche della vita, e delle Opere di is already said (and, 'as I thinlc, truly said) it is not
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina." Roma, 2 vols, 4to,, rhyming and versing that maketh poesy: one may be a
1828. Vol. i., p. 136, et seq. This evil was checked by a poet without versing, and a versifier without poetry."
decree of the Council of Trent. Sir Philip Sidney's Defence of Poesy.
**
The word " Poet " is here too generally applied. " It
106 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Elizabeth may be formed from the fact that seven hundred and ninety-six ballads,
left for entry at Stationers' Hall, remained in the cupboard of the council chamber
of the company at the end of the year 1560, to be transferred to the new
Wardens, and only forty-four books.^ As to the latter part of her reign, see
Bishop Hall, 1597.
" Some drunken rhymer thinks his time well spent
If he can live to see his name in print
Who, when he once is fleshed to the press,
And sees his handsell have such fair success,

Simg to the rvJieel, and sung unto the pail,*'

He sends forth thraves" of ballads to the sale."

And to the same purport, in Martin Mar-sixim, 1592 : " I lothe to speak it,

every red-nosed rhymester is an author ; every drunken man's dream is a book ;

and he, whose talent of little wit is hardly worth a farthing, yet layeth about him
so outrageously as if all Helicon had run through his pen : in a word, scarce a cat
can look out of a gutter, but out starts a halfpenny chronicler, and presently a
proper new ballet of a strange sight is indited."
Henry Chettle, in his pamphlet entitled Kind Sarfs Dream, 1592, speaks of
idle youths singing and selling ballads in every corner of cities and market towns,
and especially at fairs, markets, and such like public meetings. Contrasting that
time with the simplicity of former days, he says, "What hath there not, contrary
to order, been printed ? Now ballads are abusively chanted in every street ; and
from London this evil has overspread Essex and the adjoining counties. There is

many a tradesman of a worshipful trade, yet no stationer, who after a little bring-
ing up apprentices to singing brokery, takes into his shop some fresh men, and
trusts his servants of two months' standing with a dozen groatsworth of ballads.
In which, if they prove thrifty, he makes them pretty chapmen, able to spread
more pamphlets by the state forbidden, than all the booksellers in London."
He particularly mentions the sons of one Barnes, most frequenting Bishop's
Stortford, the one with a squeaking treble, the other with an ale-blown base, as
bragging that they earned twenty shillings a day ; whilst others, horse and man,
the man with many a hard meal, and the horse pinched for want of provender,
have together hardly taken ten shillings in a week.
In a pamphlet intended to ridicule the follies of the times, printed in 1591, the
writer says, that if men that are studious would " read that which is good, a poor
man may be able" —
not to obtain bread the cheaper, but as the most desirable of
all results, he would be able " to buy three ballets for a halfpenny."'^
" And tell prose writers, stories are so stale,

That penny ballads make a better sale."

PasquilVs Mad?iess, 1600.
The words of the ballads were written by such men as Elderton, " with his ale-
crammed nose," and Thomas Deloney, " the balloting silk-weaver of Norwich."
^ " Thrave " signifies a number of sheaves of corn set
^ See Collier's Extracts from the Ret/islers of the Sta-
tioners* Company, vol. i., p. 28. up together metaphorically, an indefinite number of any-
;

^ " Sung to the wheel," i.e., to the spinning wheel; and thing. Nares' Glossary.
" sung to the pail," sung by milk-maids, of whose love of * FearefuU and lamentable effects of two ctanyerous Comets
ballads furtlier proofs will be adduced. that shall appeare, &c., 4to, l.')91.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 107

The former is thus described in a MS. of the time of James I., in the pos-
session of Mr. Payne Collier :

" Will. Elderton's red nose is famous everywhere,

And many a ballet shows it cost him very dear
In ale, and toast, and spice, he spent good store of coin,
You need not ask him twice to take a cup of wine.
But though his nose was red, his hand was very white.
In work it never sped, nor took in it delight
No marvel therefore 'tis, that white should be his hand.
That ballets writ a score, as you well understand."
Nashe, in Have ivith you to Saffron Walden, says of Deloney, " He hath rhyme
enough and wit to make a Garland of Good Will, &c., but
for all miracles,
whereas his muse, from the first peeping forth, hath stood at livery at an ale-house
wisp, never exceeding a penny a quart, day or night —and this dear year,
together with the silencing of his looms, scarce that — he is constrained to betake
himself to carded ale" (i. e., ale mixed with small beer), "whence it proceedeth
that since Candlemas, or his jigg of John for the king, not one merry ditty will
come from him ; nothing but The Thunderlolt against swearers, Repent, England,
repent,and the Strange Judgments of God."
In 1581, Thomas Lovell, a zealous puritan, (one who objected to the word
Christmas, as savoui*ing too much of popery, and calls it Ghxistide), published
" A Dialogue between Custom and Verity, concerning the use and abuse of
dauncinge and minstralsye." From Payne Collier has
this, now rare book, Mr.
printed various extracts. The down dancing and minstrelsy
object was to put
Custom defends and excuses them, and Verity, who is always allowed to have the
best of the argument, attacks and abuses them. It shows, however, that the old

race of minstrels was not quite extinct. Verity says :

" But this- do minstrels clean forget

Some godly songs they have.
Some wicked ballads and unmeet,
*
As companies do crave.
For filthies they have filthy songs ;

For some' lascivious rhymes

'
;

For honest, good for sober, grave;

Songs so they watch their times.

;

Among the lovers of the truth,

Ditties of truth they sing ;

Among the papists, such as of

Their godless legends spring
T/ie minstrels do, with instrutnents,
With songs, or else with jest,
3faintain themseloos : but, as they use, [act]
Of these naught is the best."
Collier's Extracts Reg. Stat. Comp., vol. ii., pp. 144, 145.

Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, 1602, speaking of Tregarrick, then the

108 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

residence of Mr. Buller, "It was sometime the Wideslade's

tlie sheriff, says,
inheritance, until the father's rebellion forfeited it," and the " son then led
a walking life with his harp, to gentlemen's houses, where-through, and by his
other active qualities, he was entitled Sir Tristram neither wanted he (as some ;

say) a helle Isound^ the more aptly to resemble his pattern."

'

So in the "Pleasant, plain, and pithy pathway, leading to a virtuous and honest
life" (about 1550),
" Very lusty I was, and pleasant withall.

To sing, dance, and play at the ball ....

And besides all this, I could then finely play
On the harp much better than now far away,
By which my minstrelsy and my fair speech and sport,
All the maids in the parish to me did resort."
As minstrelsy declined, the harp became the common resource of the blind,
and towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth, harpers were proverbially blind :

" If thou'lt not have her look'd on by thy guests,

Bid none but harpers henceforth to thy feasts."

Guilpin's Sldaletheia, 1598.
There are many ballads about blind harpers, and many tricks were played upon
them, such as a rogue engaging a harper to perform at a tavern, and stealing the
plate " while the unseeing harper plays on." As to the other street and tavern
musicians, Gosson tells us, in his Short Apologie of the Schoole of Aluse, 1586,
that " London is so full of unprofitable pipers and fiddlers, that a man can no
sooner enter a tavern, than two or three cast (i.e., companies) of them, hang at
his heels, to give him a dance before he departs," but they sang ballads and
catches as well as played dances. They also played at dinner,
a dish removed " Not
But to the music, nor a drop of wine
Mixt with the water, without harmony."
" Thou need no more send for a fidler to a feast (says Lyly), than a beggar to
a fair."
Part-Singing, and especially the singing Eounds, or Roundelays, and Catches,
was general throughout England dm-ing the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
In the Moralities and the earliest plays, when part-music was sung instead of old
ballads, it was generally in Canon, for although neither Round, Catch, nor Canon
be specified, we find some direction from the one to the other to sing after him.''
Thus, in the old Morality called JVew Oustome (Dodsley, vol. i.) Avarice says ,
:

" But, Sirs, because we have tarried so long,

If you be good fellows, let us depart with a song."
To which Cruelty answers :

" I am and therefore let every man

pleased,
Follow after in order as well as he can."

• Catch, Round or Roundelay, and Canon in unison, are, other, tfiere results a harmony of as many parts as there
in music, nearly the same thing. In all, the harmony is to are singers. The Oatoh differs only in that the words of
be sung by several persons; and is so contrived, that, one part are made to answer, or cflVcA the other as, "Ah!
;

though each sings precisely the same notes as his fellows, liow, Sophia," sung like " a house o' tire," " Buraey's
yet, by beginning at stated periods of time from each History," like " burn his history," &c.
 REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 109

And in John Heywood's The Four I" s, one of our eai-liest plays, the Apothecary,
having first asked the Pedler whether he can sing at sight, says, " Who that lyste
sing after me." In neither case are the words of the Round given.
Tinkers, tailors, blacksmiths, servants, clowns, and others, are so constantly
mentioned as singing music in parts, and by so many writers, as to leave no doubt
of the ability of at least many among them to do so.
Perhaps the form of Catch, or Round, was more generally in favour, because,
as each would sing thesame notes, there would be but one part to remember, and
the tune would guide those who learnt by ear.
We find Roundelays generally termed " merry," and cheerfulness was the
common attribute of country songs.
In Peele's Arraignment of Paris, 1584 :

" Some Rounds, or merry Roundelays, we sing no other songs — ;

Your melancholic notes not to our country mirth ielongs."

And in his King Hclward I., the Friar says :

" And let our lips and voices meet in a merry country song."
In Shakespeare's A
Winter's Tale, when Autolycus says that the song is a
merry one, and that " there's scarce a maid westward but she sings it," Mopsa
answers, " We can both sing it if thou wilt bear a part, thou shalt hear
: 'tis
—
in three parts."
Tradesmen and artificers had evidently not retrograded in their love of music
since the time of Chaucer, whose admirable descriptions have been before quoted,
(p. 33, et seq.) Occleve, a somewhat later poet, has also remarked the different
efiect produced by the labour of the hand and of the head. He says :

" These artificers see I, day by day,

In the hottest of all their business,
Talken and sing, and make game and play,
And forth their labour passeth with gladness
But we labour in travailous stillness ;

We stoop and stare upon the sheep-skin,

And keep most our song and our words in."
From the numerous allusions to their singing in parts, I have selected the
following. Peele, in his Old Wiveh Tale, 1595, says, " This smith leads a life as
merry as a king. am
sure you are not without some Round or
Sirrah Frolic, I
other ; no doubt but Clunch (the smith) can bear his part ;" which he accordingly
does. In Damon and the collier sings " a bussing base,"
Pithias, 1571, Grimme
and Jack and Will, two of his feUows, " quiddell upon it," that is, they sing the
tune and words of the song whilst he buzzes the burden or under-song. Li Ben
Jonson's Silent Woman, we find, " We got this cold sitting up late and singing
Catches with cloth-ivorkers." In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Sir Toby says,
" Shall we rouse the night-owl in a Catch that will di-aw three souls out of one
weaver ? " and, in the same play, Malvolio says, " Do you make an ale-house of
my lady's house that ye squeak out your cozier'' s Catches, without any mitigation
or remorse of voice ? " Dr. Johnson says cozier means a tailor, from " coudre,"
110 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

to sew; but Nares quotes four authorities to prove it to mean a cobbler. In

Beaumont and Fletcher's Coxcomb we find
"Where were the Watch the while? Good soher gentlemen,
They were, like careful members of the city,
Drawing in diligent ale, and singing Catches."

In ADeclaration of egregious Impostures, 1604, by Samuel Harsnet (afterwards

Archbishop of York), he speaks of " the master setter of Catches, or Rounds,
used to be sung by tinkers as they sit by the fire, with a pot of good ale between
their legs."
Sometimes the names of these Catches are given, as, for instance, " Three blue
beans in a blue bladder, rattle, bladder, rattle," mentioned in Peele's Old Wive^s
Tale, in Ben Jonson's Bartholomeio Fair, and in Dekker's Old Fortunatus; or
" Whoop, Barnaby," which is also frequently named. But whoever will read the
words of those in Pammelia, Deuteromelia, Hilton's Catch that catch can, or Play-
ford's Musical Com23anion,ml\ not doubt that many of the Catches were intended for
the ale-house and its frequenters ; but not so generally, the Bounds or Bounde-
lays. Singing in parts was, by no means, confined to the meridian of London ;
Carew, in his Survey of Cornivall, 1602, says the same of Cornishmen " Pastimes :

to delight the mind, the Cornishmen have guary miracles [miracle plays] and
three-men^ s songs, cunningly contrived for the ditty, and pleasantly for the note."

Catches seem to have increased in use towards the latter part of the seven-
teenth century, for, although I cannot cite an instance of one composed by a
celebrated musician of Elizabeth's reign, in that of Charles II. such cases were
abundant.
Some of the dances in favour in the reign of Elizabeth will be mentioned as
the tunes occur ; the Queen herself danced galliards in her sixty-ninth year, and,

when given up by her physiciaiis in her last illness, refusing to take medicine, she
sent for her baud to play to her upon which Beaumont, the French Ambassador,
;

remarks, in the despatch to his court, that he believed " she meant to die as
cheerfully as she had Uved." Her singing and playing upon the lute and
virginals have been so often mentioned, that I will not fm-ther allude to them
here.

ALL IN A GAEDEN GEEEN.

By the Registers of the Stationers' Company we find that in 1565 William
Pickering had a license to print ''
A Ballett intituled All in a garden grene,
between two lovers;" and in 1568-9, William GriiEth had a similar license. In
1584, "an excellent song of an outcast lover," beginning " My fancie did I fire

in faithful form and frame," to the tune of All in a garden grene, appeared in
A Handeful of Pleasant Delites.
In the rare tract called " Westward for smelts, or the Waterman's fare of mad
merry Western Wenches," quarto, 1603, the boatman, finding his fare sleeping,
sprinkles a little cool water on them with his oar, and, to "keep them from melan-
choly sleep," promises " to strain the best voice he has, and not to cloy their ears
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. Ill

with an old fiddler' s song, as Riding to Rumford, or All in a garden green, but to
give them a new one of a serving man and his mistress, which neither fiddler nor
ballad-singer had ever polluted with their unsavoury breath."
In the British Museum is a copy of " Psalmes, or Songs of Sion, turned into
the language, and set to the tunes of a strange land, by W[illiam] SQatyer],
intended for Christmas Carols, and fitted to divers of the most noted and common,
but solemne tunes, every where in this land familiarly used and knowne." 1642.
Upon this copy, a former possessor has written the names of some of the times to
which the author designed them to be sung. One of these is All in a garden grene.

The tune is in William Ballet's Lute Book, from which this copy is taken, and
in The Dancing Masters of 1651, 1670, 1686, 1690, &c. The first part of the
air is the same as another in The Dancing Master, called Gathering of Peascods.

(See Index.)
The words are contained in a manuscript volume, in the possession of Mr.
Payne Collier.
/Moderate time.

.1,^^
•s
-'

All
^^1^^
a
r-"
g^''-
f
den green Two
±Ei
1
lov - ers
^
sat at ease, As

S ^ S
'J

=r
. J r^
I

they could scarce be

i
^
seen
I

a -
f
g^
mong, A -
^
mong the leaf -
y trees.

iji^ \ U 4
iS 1 ^^ PP
They
^
long had lov'd y - fere,
^
And no ,
'

°
than tru - ly, 111 that time
(together)

3 -) -\\^ I N J 3t

; rTJ ^ JEpfeii
J
^ I J J'
ISSI

Tththe
01 year, In that time of the year Com - eth 'twixt May and
an July.

-izr
^^ ^^^
112 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Quoth he, " Most lovely maid, No sooner night is not.

My troth shall aye endure; But he returns alway,
And be not thou afraid, And shines as bright and hot
But rest thee still secure. As on this gladsome day.
That I will love thee long He is no older now

As life in me shall last Than when he first was born ;

Now I am strong and young, Age cannot make him bow,

And when my youth is past. He laughs old Time to scorn.
When I am gray and old, My love shall be the same,
And then must stoop to age. It never shall decay,
I'll love thee twenty-fold, But shine without all blame.
My troth I here engage." Though body turn to clay."
She heard with joy the youth. She listed to his song.
When he thus far had gone And heard it with a smile.
She trusted in his truth. And, innocent as young.
And, loving, he went on : She dreamed not of guile.
" Yonder thou seest the sun No guile he meant, I ween.
Shine in the sky so bright. For he was true as steel,
And when this day is done, As was thereafter seen
And Cometh the dark night, When she made him her weal.

Full soon both two were wed.

And these most faithful lovers
May serve at board at bed,
Example to all others.

ROW WELL, YE MARINERS.

From the Registers of the Stationers' Company, we find that in 1565-6,

William Pickering had a license to print a ballet entitled, Row well, ye mariners,
and in the following year, " Row well, ye mariners, moralized." In 1566-7,
John Allde had a license to print " Stand fast, ye mariners," which was, in all
probability, another moralization ; and in the following year, two others; the one,
"Row well, ye mariners, moralized, with the story of Jonas," the other, "Row
well, Christ's mariners." In 1567-8, Alexander Lacy took a license to print
" Row well, God's mariners," and in 1569-70, John Sampson to print " Row
well, ye mariners, for those that look big." These numerous entries sufficiently

prove the popularity of the original, and I regret the not having succeeded in
finding a copy of any of these ballads.
Three others, to the tune of Row tvell, ye mariners, have been reprinted by
Mr. Payne Collier, in his Old Ballads, for the Percy Society. The first (dated
1570) " A lamentation from Rome, how the Pope doth bewail
That the rebels in England cannot prevail."
The second, " The end and confession of John Felton, who sufired in Paules
Churcheyarde, in London, the 8th August [1570], for high treason." Felton
placed the Bull of Pope Pius V., excommunicating Elizabeth, on the gate of the
palace of the Bishop of London, and was hmig on a gallows set up expressly
before that spot. The third, " A warning to London by the fall of Antwerp."
 KEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 113

In A
Handefull of Pleasant Delites, 1584, there is " proper sonet, -wherein A
the lover dolefully sheweth his grief to his love and requireth pity," which is
also, to the tune of How well, ye mariners.
The tune is printed in Thomas Robinson's Schoole of Musick, fol., 1603, and
in every edition of The Dancing Master that I have seen, from the first, dated
1651, to the eighteenth, 1725.
Not having the original -vvords, a few verses from the " Lamentation from
Rome," above mentioned, are given as a specimen of the merry political ballad of
those days. It is the Song of a fly buzzing about the Pope's nose. The Pope and
his court are supposed to be greatly disconcerted at the news of the defeat of the
rebels in Northumberland.

Moderate time and smoothly.

W=^=i
fi- ^
f All you that news would hear, Give to me, poor

jmir-
1=^^

? $ ^m
Jl JT]
3=^
|
I

J
Fa-byn Fly, At Rome

P^
MJ~nj
I

hn
was

^ this year,

P
And

S
in the Pope his nose did lie

r-
But there
'

I could not long

•
'
r' ly-He
a-bide,
J blew me out
i of ev' - ry side.
For first when he had heard

1^
the news That re

^
-

^
^
bels did their prince mis - use, .

»Row
/l

Then
He
well.

he
then
-
-
with
so -
-
well. Row

joy,-Did sport him-self

from his nose
stout, -That
^
well, ye

with many
he blew
ma - ri - ners.

a
me
toy
out.

m^ ^ ^t=£

* I have added the old burden over the music, feeling no doubt of its having been sung to this part of the tune.
114 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAB MUSIC.

But as he was asleep, When he perceived well

Into the same again I got The news was true to him was brought,
I crept therein so deep, Upon his knees he fell,
That I had almost burnt my coat. And then Saint Peter he besought
New news to him was brought that night, That he would stand his friend in this,
The rebels they were put to flight To help to aid those servants his,

But, Loid, how then the Pope took on. And he would do as much for him
And called for a Mary-bone. But Peter sent him to Saint Sim.
Up-ho !-make-haste, So-then-he-snulTd,
My lovers all be like to waste ;
The friars all about he cuffd,
Rise-Cardinal,-up-Priest, He-roar'd,-he-cried
Saint Peter he doth what he list. The priests they durst not once abide.

So then they fell to mess The Cardinals then begin

The friars on their beads did pray ;
To stay, and take him in their arms.
The Pope began to bless. He spurn 'd them on the shin.
At last he wist not what to say. Away they trudg'd, for fear of harms.
It chanced so the next day morn, So then the Pope was left alone
A post came blowing of his horn. Good Lord how he did make his moan
! !

Saying, Northumberland is take ;

The stools against the walls he threw.
But then the Pope began to quake. And me, out of his nose he blew.
He-then-rubb'd-his-nose, I-hopp'd,-I-skipp'd,
With pilgrim-salve he 'noint his hose ;
From place to place, about I whipp'd
Run-here,-run-there, He-sware,-he-tare,
His nails, for anger, 'gan to pare. Till from his crown he puU'd the hair.

LORD WILLOUGHBY.
This tune is names of Lord Willoughby; Lord Wil-
refeiTcd to under the
lougliby's March, and Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home. In Queen's Elizabeth's
Virginal Book, it is called Rowland.
In Lady Neville's Virginal Book (MS., 1591), and in Robinson's School of
Music, 1603, it is called "Lord Willobie's Welcome Home:" the ballad of The
Carman's Whistle was to be sung to the tune of The Carman's Whistle, or to

Lord Willoughby's March; and that of "Lord Willoughby being a true relation —
of a famous and bloody battel fought in Flanders, &c., against the Spaniards
where the English obtained a notable victory, to the glory and renown of oiu-

nation" —was to the tune of "Lord Willoughby, ^c." A copy of the last will

be found in the Bagford Collection of Ballads, British Museum.

Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, one of the bravest and most
had distinguished himself in the Low Countries in
skilful soldiers of this reign,

1586, and in the following year, on the recall of the Earl of Leicester, was
made commander of the English forces. The tune, with which his name was
associated, was as popular in the Netherlands as in England, and continued so, in

both countries, long after his death, which occurred in 1601. It was printed at
Haerlem, with other English tunes, in 1626, in Neder-landtsche Gedenck-clanck,
under the name of Soet Rohhert, and Soet, soet Mobbertchen [Sweet Robert, and
Sweet, sweet little Robert], which it probably derived from some other ballad
sung to the tune.
As the ballad of "Brave Lord Willoughby" is printed in Percy's Reliques of
Ancient Poetry, a few verses, only, are subjoined.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 115

m^
w§
In Marching

The
time.

fifteenth
J
J

day
J

of
|j.._^j

Ju

i
ly,
^
With glist'-ring
m
sword and

J r F i^r^^J-^
shield, A fa -mous fight in
f
Flan -
^
ders AVas fought-en in the

^^^m ^ ^M * *

p=?=°^
field: The most cou-ra- geous
#5^
S^ ^=^
of - ficers Were English Captains

3^—
^
three

^^
; But
d^
the

¥ r r 1
^=

j-^ j j-^
=^ l

-^ -Jt# -^
bra

Stand
^
vest

to
in the

it,
bat

noble pikeraen,
And look you round about
- tie Was

^E^=H=4
brave Lord Wil- lough

Then quoth
Come let
-

the Spanish general.

us march away,
by.

And shoot you right, you bowmen, I fear we shall be spoiled all

And we will keep them out If here we longer stay ;

You musquet and caliver men, For yonder comes Lord Willoughbey
Do you prove true to me, With courage fierce and fell,
I'le be the foremost man in fight, He will not give one inch of way
Says brave Lord Willoughbey. For all the devils in hell.

The sharp steel-pointed arrows, And then the fearful enemy

And bullets thick did fly. Was quickly put to flight,
Then did our valiant soldiers Our men pursued couragiously.
Charge on most furiously ;
And caught their forces quite ;

Which made the Spaniards waver, But at last they gave a shout.
They thought it best to flee, Which ecchoed through the sky,
They fear'd the stout behaviour God, and St. George for England!
Of brave Lord Willoughbey. The conquerors did cry.
116 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

To the souldiers that were maimed, Then courage, nohle Englishmen,

And wounded in the fray, And never be dismaid
The queen allowed a pension If that we he but one to ten

Of fifteen pence a day ;

We will not be afraid
And from all costs and charges To fight with foraign enemies.
She quit and set them free And set our nation free.
And this she did all for the sake And thus I end the bloody bout
Of brave Lord Willoughhey. Of brave Lord Willoughhey.

ALL FLOWERS OF THE BEOOM.

This is mentioned as a dance tune by Nicholas Breton, in a passage already
quoted from his Works of a young Wit, 1577 (ante p. 91) ; and by Nashe, in the
following, from his Have with you to Saffron- Walden, 1596 :

" Or doo as Dick Harvey did, that having preacht and beat downs three pulpits in

inveighing against dauncing, one Sunday evening, vrhen his wench or friskin was foot-
ing it aloft on the greene, with foote out and foote in, and as busie as might be at
Rogero, Basilino, Turkelony, All the flowers of the broom, Pepper is black, Greene
Sleeves, Peggie Ramsey,'^ he came sneaking behind a tree, and lookt on and though ;

hee was loth to be seene to countenance the sport, having laid God's word against it so
dreadfully ;
yet to shew his good will to it in heart, hee sent her eighteen pence in
hugger-mugger {i.e., in secret), to pay the fiddlers."

The time is contained in William Ballet's Lute Book, under the name of
Allfloures in hroome.

i
feOt
ft: ^ P ^^JTiJ.J -^-f«'
s
9
An j-.^, ^-^^ ^-^^ j.;^L
^SE i
i

i i

^ ^
i

^=U
^m "T
^^^m^^^^^^m ^
=? ?^

T"^
^ f '
^ig
-r 'ir^
jcrrss

» All the tunes here mentioned will be found in this Collection, except Basilino.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 117

I AM THE DUKE OF NORFOLK, or PAUL'S STEEPLE.

This tune is frequently mentioned under both names. In Playford's Dancing

Master, from 1650 to 1695, it is called Paul's Steeple. In his Divisimi Violin,
1685, at page 2, it is called TJie Duke of Norfolk, or Paul's Steeple ; and at
page 18, PauT's Steeple, or the Duke of Norfolk.
The steeple of the old Cathedral of St. Paul was proverbial for height. In the
Vnlgaria, printed by Wynkin de Worde, in1530, we read " Poule's Steple is a
:

mighty great thing, and so hye that unneth [hardly] a man may discerne
the wether cocke, —
the top is unneth perceived." So in Lodge's Wounds of
Civil War, a clown talks of the PauVs Steeple of honour, as the highest point
that can be The
attaiaed. set on fire by lightning, and burnt
steeple was
down on the 4th June, 1561 and within seven days, a ballad of " The true
;

report of the bui-ning of the steeple and church of Paul's, in London," was
entered, and afterwards printed by William Seres, " at the west-ende of Pawles
church, at "the sygne of the Hedghogge." In 1564, a ballad was entered for
" the encouraging all kind of men to the re-edifying and building Paul's steeple
again ;" but the spu-e was never re-constructed. Mr. Payne Collier has printed
a ballad, written on the occasion of the fire, in his Extracts from the Registers of
the Stationers^ Company, vol. i., p. 40; and it seems to have been intended for the
tune. The first verse is as follows :

" Lament each one the blazing fire,

That down from heaven came,
And burnt S. Powles bis lofty spire
With lightning's furious flame.
Lament, I say,
Both night and day,
Sith London's sins did cause the same."
In 1562-3, John Cherlewood had a license for printing another, called " When
young Paul's steeple, old Paul's steeple's child."
: '
In Fletcher's comedy. Monsieur Thomas, act iii., sc. 3, a fiddler, being questioned
as to what ballads he is best versed in, replies :

" Under your mastership's correction, I can sing

The Duke of Norfolk; or the merry ballad
Of Diverus and Lazarus; The Rose of England;
In Crete, when Dedimus Jirst began;
Jonas, his crying out against Coventry
Maudlin, the merchant's daughter
The Devil and ye dainty dames
The- landing of the Spaniards at Bow s
With the bloody battle at Mile-End." »
a Of the ballads mentioned above, Diverus perhaps, Deloney's ballad of Fair Rosamond, reprinted in
and Lazarus
seems to bean intentionalcorruptionof2>(re5a«rfiasaraj. Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry. In Crete is often re-
The Rose of England may be ferred to as a ballad tune ; for instance, My mind to vie a
" The rose, the rose, the English rose, kingdom is, was
be sung to the tune of In Crete, accord-
to
It is the fairest flower that blows ;
ing to a black-letter copy in the Pepysian Collection,
a copy of which is in Mr. Payne Collier's Manuscript ; or, Maudlin, the merchant's daughter, \^ The merchanVs daughter
118 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

In the Pepysian Collection, vol. i., 146, and Roxburghe Collection, vol. i., 180,
is a black-letter ballad, called "ALanthorne for Landlords" to the tune of
Tlie Duke of Norfolk, the initial lines of which are
" With sobbing grief my heart will break
Asunder in my breast, &c."
In 27*6 Loyal Garland, 1686, and in the Roxburghe Collection, vol. ii., 188 (or
Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, p. ^12), Q-od speed the plough, and bless the corn-mow,
&c., to the tune oi I am the Bidte of Norfolk, beginning
" My noble friends, give ear,
If mirth you love to hear,
I'll tell yoTi as fast as I can,
A story very true :

Then mark what doth ensue,

Concerning a husbandman."
This ballad-dialogue, between a husbandman and a serving-man, has been orally
preserved in various parts of the country. One version will be foimd in Mr. Davies
Gilbert's Christmas Carols; a second in Mr. J. H. Dixon's Ancient Poems and
Songs of the Peasantry (printed for the Percy Society) ; and a third in " Old
English Songs, as now sung by the Peasantry of the Weald of Surrey and Sussex,"
&c., ; " harmonized for the Collector" [the Rev. Mr. Broadwood] " in 1843, by
G. A. Dusart."
In the Collection of Poems on Affairs of State, vol. iii., 70, is "A new ballad
to an old tune, called I amthe Duke of Norfolk.'''' It is a satire on Charles EC.,

and begins thus : — am a senseless thing, with a hey,

" I with a hey
Men call me a king, with a ho ;

To my luxury and ease.

They brought me o'er the seas.
With a hey nonny, nonny, nonny no."
In Shadwell's Epsom Wells, 1673, act iii., sc. 1, we find, " Could I not play
I am the Duke of Norfolk, Grreen Sleeves, and the fourth Psahn, upon the
virginals ? " and in Wycherley's Gf-entleman Dancing Master, Ger. says, " Sing
him Arthur of Bradley, or I am the Duke of Norfolk."
A curious custom still remains in parts of Suffolk, at the harvest suppers, to
sing the song "I am the Duke of Norfolk" (here printed with the music); one
of the company being crowned with an inverted pillow or cushion, and another
presenting to him a jug of ale, kneeling, as represented in the vignette of the
Horkey. [See Suffolk Garland, 1818, p. 402.] The editor of the Suffolk
Garland says, that " this custom has most probably some allusion to the homage
formerly paid to the Lords of Norfolk, the possessors of immense domains in the
county." To " serve the Duke of Norfolk," seems to have been equivalent to
making merry, as in the following speech of Mine host, at the end of the play of
The merry Devil of Mlmonton, 1617 :

of Bristow [Bristol], to the tun^ of The maiden's joy. (See Roxburghe Collection, vol. i., 501). The landing of the
Roxburghe Collection, vol i., 232, or Collier's Roxburghe Spaniards, S:c. (probably on some mock-fight of the train
Ballads, p. 104). Ye dainty dames, are the first words of bands, who exercised at Mile-end) seems to be referred to
A warning for maidens, to the tune of The ladies' fall. (See in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, act ii., sc. 2.
 EEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 119

" Why, Sir George, send for Spendle's noise ^ presently

Ha ! ere 't be niglit, Til serve the good Duke of Norfolk."
To -which Sir John rejoins :

" Grass and hay I mine host, let's live till we die,
And be merry ; and there's an end."
Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. v., 271.
Dr. Letherland, in a note -which Steevens has printed on King Henry FV.,
Part I., act 4 (-where Falstaff says, "This chair shall be my state, this
ii., sc.

dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my crown"), observes that the country people
in Warwickshire also use a cushion for a crown, at their harvest home diversions

and in the play of King Ed-ward IV., Part II., 1619, is the following passage :

" Then comes a slave, one of those drunken sots.

In -with a tavern reck'ning for a supplication,
Disguised with a cushion on his head."

In the Suffolk custom, he who is cro-wned with the pillow, is to take the ale, to

raise it to his lips, and to drink it off without spilling it, or allowing the cushion

to fall ; but there was, also, another drinking custom connected with this tune.
In the first volume of Wit and Mirth, or Pills to purge Melancholy, 1698 and
1707, and the third volume, 1719, is a song called Bacchus' Health, " to be sung
by all the company together, with directions to be observed." They are as
follows " First man stands up, with a glass in his hand, and sings
:

Here's a health to jolly Bacchus, {sung three tiines)

I-ho, I-ho, I-ho
For he doth make us merry, (three times)
I-ho, I-ho, I-ho.
*• Come sit ye down together, {three times)
(At this star all bow to each other and sit down.)

I-ho, I-ho, I-ho

And bringf more liquor hither {three times)
(At tliis dagger all the company beckon to the drawer.)
I-ho, I-ho, I-ho.
It goes into the * cranium, {three times)
(At this star the first man drinks his glass, while the others eing and point at him.)
I-ho, I-ho, I-ho
And f thou'rt a boon companion {three times)
(At this dagger all sit down, each clapping the nextman on the shoulder.)

I-ho, I-ho, I-ho.

Every line of the above is to be sung three times, except I-ho, I-ho, I-ho. Then
the second man takes his glass and sings ; and so round.
About 1728, after the success of Tlie Beggars' Opera, a great number of other
ballad operas were printed. In the Cobblers' Opera, and some others, this tune is
called I am the Biike of Norfolk ; but in The Jovial Grew, The Livery Make, and
The Lover his own Rival, it is called There ivas a bonny blade. It acquired that
name from the following song, which is still occasionally to be heard, and which
is also in Pills to purge Melancholy, from 1698 to 1719 :

'^
Spindle's noise, i.e.. Spindle's band, or company of musicians.
120 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

There was a bonny blade, To the doctor he did her bring.

Had married a country maid, And he cut her chattering string.
And safely conducted her home, home, home ;
And at liberty he set her tongue
She was neat in every part, Her tongue began to walk.
And she pleas'd him to the heart, And she began to talk
But ah! and alas! she was dumb, dumb, dumb. As though she never had been dumb.
She was bright as the day, Her faculty she tries.
And brisk as the May, And she fills the house with noise.
And as round and as plump as a plum, And she rattled in his ears like a drum
But still the silly swain She bred a deal of strife,
Could do nothing but complain Made him weary of his life
Because that his wife she was dumb. He'd give any thing again she was dumb.
She could brew, she could bake. To the doctor then he goes.
She could sew, and she could make. And thus he vents his woes :

She could sweep the house with a broom ' Oh doctor, you've me undone;
!

She could wash, and she could wring. For my wife she's turn'd a scold,
And do any kind of thing. And her tongue can never hold,
But ah and alas she was dumb.
! ! I'd give any kind of thing she was dmnb."
To the doctor then he went. " When I did undertake
For to give himself content. To make thy wife to speak.
And to cure his wife of the mum : Itwas a thing easily done,
"Oh! it is the easiest part But 'tis past the art of man.
That belongs unto my art Let him do whate'er he can.
For to make a woman speak that is dumb." For to make a scolding wife hold her tongue.'

From the last line of the verses of this song, the tune also became known as
" Alack and or " Dumb, dumb,

^
! alas ! she was dumb,' dumb.'

i^
i
^
Rather
±
^^
slow.

3 S sS
am the Duke of Nor - folk. New-ly come to Suf- folk, Say

^
-Sr
^w^ ICT
£

shall I be at -
^^
tend - ed, or no, no,
^==m
no?
^
?=p
Good Duke be not of -fended,
^
And

"m

m
w I
j Ji^+^^Ti
9lhb^
F=R
you shall be at - tend-

^ed, And you shall be

^:
at - tend - ed, now, now, now,
 REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 121

PEPPER IS BLACK.
This tune is to be found in Tlie Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1690. It is
mentioned as a dance tmie by Nashe in Save ivith you to Saffron- Walden, 1596.
(See ante p. 116.) A copy of the following ballad by Elderton is in the collection
of Mr. George Daniel, of Canonbary " Prepare ye to the plough, to the tune
:

of Pepper is black."
" The Queen holds the plough, to continue good seed,

^
Moderate time
iig—
)=H=»
Look
«.

up,
Trusty subjects, be ready to help

my lords, and
i 1-'
mark my
^
mv words, And hear
hi
''r
what
if

^
she need."

T I shall sing ye; And

VTSfr
Mi^ -"h-f^ -^^-^^
^^
Fd^-^^^^H-^ ^ i
Tsub - jects
Tall, both
rgreat and
T small, Now mark what
f=^
words I bring ye

3;

Parnaso hill, not all the skill Can bring about that I found out.
Of nymphs, or muses fgigned, By Christ himself ordained, &c.

There are twelve stanzas, each of eight lines, subscribed W. Elderton. Printed
by Wm. How, for Richard Johnes.

WALSINGHAM.
This tune Queen Elizabeth's, and Lady Neville's, Virginal Books (with
is in
thirty variationsby Dr, John Bull) in Anthony Holborne's Cittharn ScJioole,
;

1597 in Barley's Ifew Boohe of Tablatitre, 1596, &c. It is called " Walsingham,"
;

''Have with you to Walsingham" and '^ As I went to Walsingham."

It belongs, in all probability, to an earlier reign, as the Priory of Walsingham,
in Norfolk, which was founded dui-ing the Episcopate of William, Bishop of
Norwich (1146 to 1174), was dissolved in 1538.
Pilgrimages to this once famous shrine commenced in or before the reign of
Henry HI., who was there in 1241. Edward I. was at Walsingham in 1280, and
again in 1296 and Edward H. in 1315. The author of The Vision of Piers
;

Ploughman, says
" Heremytes on a hepe, with hooked staves,

Wenten to Walsyngham, and her [their] wenches after."

A curious reason why pilgrims should have both singers and pipers to accompany
them, will be found in note a, at page 34.
Henry VH., having kept his Christmas of 1486-7, at Norwich, " from thence
went in manner of pilgrimage to Walsingham, where he visited Our Lady's Clnu'ch,
famous for miracles and made his prayers and vows
; for help and deliverance."
122 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

And in the following summer, after the battle of Stoke, " he sent his banner to
be offered to Our Lady of Walsingham, where before he made his vows."
" Erasmus has given a very exact and humorous description of the superstitions
practised there in his time. See his account of the Virgo Parathalassia, in his
colloquy, intitled Peregrinatio Religionis ergo. He tells us, the rich offerings in
and precious stones, that were shewn him, were incredible there being
silver, gold, ;

scarce a person of any note in England, but what some time or other paid a visit,
or sent a present, to Our Lady of Walsingham. At the dissolution of the monas-
teries in 1538, this splendid image, mth another from Ipswich, was carried to
Chelsea, and there burnt in the presence of commissioners ; who, we trust, did not
burn the jewels and the finery." Percy's Heliques.
The tune is frequently mentioned by winters of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. Li act v. of Fletcher's Tlie Honest Man's Forticne, one of the servants
my five mark a year, and all the hidden art I have in carving,
says, "I'll renounce
young birds to whistle Walsingham.'" A verse of "As you came from
to teach
Walsingham," is quoted in Tlie Knight of the Burning Pestle, and in Sans Beer-
pot, his invisible Comedy, 4to,, 1618.
In The weakest goes to the wall, 1600, the scene being laid in Burgundy, the
following lines are given :
" King Richard's gone to Walsingham, to the Holy Land,
To kill Turk and Saracen, that the truth do withstand
Christ his cross be his good speed, Christ his foes to quell,
Send him help in time of need, and to come home well."

In the Bodleian Library is a small quarto volume, apparently in the hand-writing

of Philip, Eaid of Arundel (eldest son of the Duke of Norfolk, who suffered in
Elizabeth's time), containing A lament for Walsingham. It is in the ballad style,

and the two last stanzas are as follows :

" Weep, weep, O W^alsingham I Sin is where Our Lady sat,

Whose days are nights ;
Heaven turned is to hell
Blessings turn'd to blasphemies Satan sits where Our Lord did sway
"
Holy deeds to despites. Walsingham, Oh, farewell I

In Nashe's Save with you to Saffron- Walden, 1596, sign. L, "As I went to
Walsingham " is quoted, which is the first line of the ballad in the Pepysian
Collection, vol. i., p. 226, and a verse of which is here printed to the music.
One of the Psahnes and Songs of Sion, turned into the language, and set to the

tunes of a strange land, 1642, is to the tune of Walsingham; and Osborne, in his
Traditional Memoirs on the Reigns of Mizabeth and James, 1653, speaking of the
Earl of Salisbury, says :

" Many a hornpipe he tuned to his PhiUis,

And sweetly sung Walsingham to's Amaryllis."
In Don Quixote, translated by 278, he says, " An infinite
J. Phillips, 1687, p.
number of little birds, with painted wings of various colours, hopping from branch

to branch, all naturally singing Walsingham, and whistling John, come kiss

me now.''
of the ballads are reprinted in Percy's Eeliques of Ancient Poetry; the
Two
one beginning, "Gentle herdsman, tell to me ;" the other, " As ye came from the
 REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 123

Holy Land." The last mU. also be found in Deloney's Garland of Qoodwill,
reprinted by the Percy Society.
Shw and plaintive.
i:^ ^EE^
i
^
^±1
ift

As I went
1"-^
to Wal- sing- ham,
f=^
To the shrine with speed,

yH=ff
m g E^

F?^
Met I with a jol - ly pal - - mer
m
In
n
p'Pf a pil grim i weed.

This ballad
S
is
±
on one of the affairs of gallantry that so frequently arose out of
pilgrimages.
PACKINGTON'S, ok PAGGINGTON'S POUND.
This tune is to be found in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book
Neio Book ; in A
of Tablakire, 1596 ; Amsterdam, in
in the Collection of English Songs, printed at
1634 ia Select Aijres, 1659 in
; ; A
Choice Collection of 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 ;
in Playford's Pleasant Musical Companion, Part H., 1687 ia Tlie Beggars' ;

Opera, 1728 in The Musical Miscellany, vol. v.

; and in many other collections. ;

It probably took its name from Sir John Packington, commonly called " lusty
Packington," the same who wagered that he would swim from the Bridge at
Westminster, i.e., Whitehall Stairs, to that at Greenwich, for the sum of 3,000?.
" But the good Queen, who had particular tenderness for handsome fellows, would
not permit Sir John to run the hazard of the trial." His portrait is stUl pre-
served at Westwood, the ancient seat of the family.
In Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book it is called Packington's Pound ; by Ben
Jonson, Paggington's Pound; and, in a MS. now in Dr. Rimbault's possession,
A Fancy of Sir John Paging ton.

Some copies, viz., that in the Virginal Book, and in the Amsterdam Collection,
have the following difference in the melody of the first four bars :

^^ !:J> i n e ^^tm~n
^
and it is probably the more correct reading, as the other closely resembles the

commencement of " Robin Hood, Robin Hood, said Little John."

The song in Ben Jonson's comedy of Bartholomew Pair, commencing, " My
masters and friends, and good people, draw near," was written to this air, and is

thus introduced :

Night. To the tune of Paggington's Pound, Sir ?

Cokes. (Sings) Fa, la la la, la la la, fa la la, la Nay, I'll put thee in tune and
! all

Mine own country dance ! Pray thee begin." Act 3.

124 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The songs written to the tune are too many for enumeration. Besides those
in the various Collections of Ballads iu the British Museum, in D'Urfey's Fills,
and in the Pill to purge State Melancholy, 1716, — in one Collection alone, viz.,
TJie Choice Collection of 180 Loyal Songs, there are no fewer than thirteen. The
following are curious :

No. 1. A popular Beggars' Song, by which the tune is often named, com-
mencing: — "From hunger and cold who liveth more free?
Or who is so richly cloathed as we." Select Ayres, 1659.
No. 2." Blanket Fair, or the History of Temple Street. Being a relation of
the merry pranks plaid on the river Thames during the great Frost."
" Come, listen awhile, though the weather be cold."

No. 3. " The North Country Mayor," dated 1697, from a manuscript volume
of Songs by WUmot, Earl of Kochester, and others, in the Harleian Library :

" I sing of no heretic Turk, or of Tartar,

But of a suffering Mayor who may pass for a Martyr
For a story so tragick was never yet told
By Fox or by Stowe, those authors so old
How a vile Lansprasado
Did a Mayor bastinado.
And played him a trick worse than any Strappado :

Mayor, Mayor, better ne'er have transub'd, [turn'd Papist]

Than thus to be toBs'd in a blanket and drubb'd," &c.
The following song, in praise of milk, is from Playford's Musical Companion,
Part n., 1687 :—
Moderate time and smoothly.

pfflTiTi^ffig^r-n ¥J nij^j^
r-r
Inpraiseof a dai-ry I pur-posetosing,Butallthingsinorder;firstGodsavetheKing!

^s g^^
i i
^m
pj ^
J'
I
pj J jifrg J
j i
ff] fT^ I j
rT-—-f^T
AndtheQueenlmay say; That ev'-ryMaj-day, Has ma-ny fair dai-rj'-maids all fine and gay: As

^^ iSt m
^ *•—*-

ff^^nrmTr^^i^}\rr^
sistme,fairdamsel8,to finish my theme, In - spiling my fan-cy with strawheny cream.

m 3^
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 125

The first of fair dairy-maids, if you'll believe,

Was Adam's own wife, our great-grandmother Eve,

Who oft milk'd a cow.
As well she knew how ;

Though butter was not then

so cheap as 'tis now,
She hoarded no butter nor cheese on her shelves,
For butter and cheese in those days made themselves.

In that age or time there was no horrid money,

Yet the children of Israel had both milk and honey :

No queen you could see.

Of the highest degree,
But would milk the brown cow with the meanest she ;

Their lambs gave them clothing, their cows gave them meat.
And in plenty and peace all their joys were compleat.
Amongst the rare virtues that milk does produce,
For a thousand of dainties it's daily in use ;

Now a pudding I'll tell thee.

Ere it goes in the belly.
Must have from good milk both the cream and the jelly :

For a dainty fine pudding, without cream or milk,

Is a citizen's wife without satin or silk.

In the virtues of milk there is more to be muster'd,

The charming and custard.
delights both of cheese-cake
Tottenham Court,
For at
You can have no sport,
Unless you give custards and cheese-cake too for't
And what's the jack-pudding that makes us to laugh.
Unless he hath got a great custard to quaif ?

Both pancake and fritter of milk have good store.

But a Devonshire whitepot' must needs have much more ;

No state you can think.

Though you study and wink.
From the lusty sack-posset' to poor posset drink.
But milk's the ingredient, though sack's ne'er the worse.
For 'tis sack makes the man, though 'tis milk makes the nurse.
Elderton's ballad, called " News from Northumberland," a copy of which is in

the Library of the Society of Antiquaries, was probably written to this tune.
-

THE STAINES MORRIS TUNE.

This tune is taken from the first edition of Tlie Dancing Master. It is also in
William Ballet's Lute Book (time of Elizabeth) and was printed as late as about ;

1760, in a Collection of Country Dances, by Wright.

The Maypole Song, in Admon and Diana, seems so exactly fitted to the air,
that, having no guide as to the one intended, I have, on conjecture, printed it

with this tune.

» Devonshire white-pot, or hasty-pudding, consisting of A pint ; then fetch, from India's fertile coast,
flour and milk hoiled together. Nutmeg, the glory of this British toast."
' The following is a receipt for sack-posset :
Dryden's LSisceliany PoemSf vol. v., p. 138.
"From fair Barhadoes, on the western main,
Fetch sugar, half a pound ; fetch sack, from Spain,
126 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

// Boldly and rather

UVIlCt quick.
t/UtVIt,
JLtUbLLIjt/ Ultlti I
j
_

Come, ye young men, come a - long, With your mu - sic, dance, and song.

^
^ E
FRg;;
?

T
Bring your
S^
lass - es
^-3 ^.-pj
in your hands.
q^ ^^
For 'tis
MJ^jj^^
that which love commands.

Then
y Repeat

to the
in Chorus.

Maypole come a
m -
F=^
way,
fes^ mj-Uj
For it is now a ho
0—
li - day.

zss

^
It is the choice time of the year. And when you well reckoned have
For the violets now appear What kisses you your sweethearts gave.
Now the rose receives its hirth, Take them all again, and more.
And pretty primrose decks the eartli. It will never make them poor.
Then to the May-pole come away. Then to the May-pole come away,
For it is now a holiday. For it is now a holiday.

Here each batchelor may chuse When you thus have spent the time
One that will not faith abuse Till the day be past its prime,
Nor repay with coy disdain To your beds repair at night.
Love that should be loved again. And dream there of your day's delight.
Then to the May-pole come away, Then to the May-pole come away,
For it is now a holiday. For it is now a holiday.

THE SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER.

This is in every ei iition of The Dancing Master, except the first, either under

the name of The She pherd's Daughter, or Parson and Dorothy. It is also under
the latter title in s( jveral of the ballad operas. Percy says the ballad of The
Knight and Shephero Vs Daughter, " was popular in the time of Queen Elizabeth,
being usually printec 1 with her picture before it, as Hearne informs us in his pre-

face to Gul. Neubrig . ITist. Oxon., vol. i., 70.

Fom- lines are qu( rted in Fletcher's comedy The Pilgrim, act iv., sc. 2: "He
called down his men •y men all," &c. and in The Knight of the Burning Pestle
;

" He set her on a mi Jk- white steed," &c.

•
In William Ballet's Lute Book, the third note of the melody is E ; in the 2nd edition of The Dancing Master, B.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 127

Copies of the ballad will be found in the Roxburghe Collection, vol. ii., 30
and in the Douce Collection, with the burden or chorus, " Sing, trang, dildo dee,"
at the end of each verse, which is not given by Percy. The two last bars are
here added for the burden. In some copies the foiu* first bars are repeated.
Rather slow. ^~. ^-v ,— — . ,

i
S
There was
^g
a
P^k^M4j
Bhep-herd's daugh - ter, Came trip - ping on the way,
=it

And

;??f;;
gs
^ 22

Chorus.

h^-i-^ t
there,
P '^ i"
by chance, a Knight she met, which caused her
^-;fl*
to
^
stay.
^
Sing, trang, dil-do dee.

rsz
'''
i ^
The ballad will be found in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, series 3, booh i.

THE FROG GALLIARD, or NOW, O NOW

This is the only tune, composed by a well-known musician of the age, that
I have found employed as a ballad tune.
In Dowland's First Book of Songes, 1597, it is adapted to the words, " Now,
now, I needs must part " (to be sung by one voice with the lute, or by four
without accompaniment) ; it is called The Prog
but in his Lute Manuscripts
Galliard, and seems to have been commonly known by that name.
In Morley's Consort Lessons, 1599 and 1611, it is called The Prog Galliard
in Thomas Robinson's Weiv Citharen Lessons, 1609, Tlie Prog ; and in the Skene
Manuscript, Proggis Gcdziard.
In Nederlandtsche Q-edencli-Clanch, printed at Haerlem in 1626, it is called
Nou, nou Now,
[for now] but all the ballads I have seen, that were written
;

'to it, give the name as Tlie Prog Galliard.

In Anthony Munday's Banquet of daintie Conceits, 1588, there is a song to the

tune of Dowland's Galliard, but it could not be sung to this air.

It seems probable that Noiv, noiv, was originally a dance tune, and the
composer finding that others wrote songs to his galliards, afterwards so adapted
it likewise.
The latest Dutch copy that I have obsei'ved is in Dr. Camphuysen's Stichtelycke
Rymen, priiited at Amsterdam in 1647.
Dowland is celebrated in the following sonnet, which, from having appeared in
The Passionate Pilgrim, has been attributed to Shakespeare, but was published
previously in a Collection of Poems by Richard Barnfield.
128 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

" To his friend, Master JR. L., in praise of Music amd Poetry."
" If music and sweet poetry agree,
As they must needs, (the sister and the brother,)
Then must the love he great 'twixt thee and me.
Because thou lov'st the one, and I the other.
Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch
Upon the lute doth ravish human sense
Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such,
As, passing all conceit, needs no defence ;

Thou lov'st to hear the sweet melodious sound

That Phoebus' lute, the queen of music, makes,
And I, in deep delight am chiefly drown'd,
When as himself to singing he betakes
One God is good to both, as poets feign,
One knight loves both, and both in thee remain !

Anthony Wood says of Dowland, that " he was the rarest musician that the
age did behold." In Ifo Wit, no Help, like a Woman^s, a comedy by Thomas
Middleton (1657), the servant tells his master bad news; and is thus answered
" Thou plaiest Dowland's Lachrimce to thy master."
In Peacham's Garden of Heroical Devices, are the following verses, portraying
Dowland's forlorn condition in the latter part of his life :

" Here Philomel in silence sits alone

In depth of winter, on the bared briar,
Whereon the rose had once her beauty shown.
Which lords and ladies did so much desire 1

But fruitless now, in winter's frost and snow.

It doth despis'd and unregarded grow.

So since (old friend) thy years have made thee white,

And thou for others hast consum'd thy spring.
How few regard thee, whom thou didst delight,
And and near came once to hear thee sing
far

Ungrateful times, and worthless age of ours,

That lets us pine when it hath cropt our flowers."
The device which precedes these stanzas, is a nightingale sitting on a bare
brier, in the midst of a wintry storm.
The following ballads were sung to the tune under the title of The Frog
G-alliard: —"The true love's-knot untyed: being the right path to advise princely

vu-gins how to behave themselves, by the example of the renouned Princess, the
Lady Arabella, and the second son to the Lord Seymore, late Earl of Hertford;"
commencing — " As I to Ireland did pass,
I saw a ship at anchor lay.
Another ship likewise there was,
Which from fair England took her way.
This ship that sail'd from fair England,
Unknown unto our gracious King,
The Lord Chief Justice did command,
That they to London should her bring," &c.
 EEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 129

A copy in the British Museum Collection, and printed by Evans in Old Ballads,
1810, vol. iii., 184.
Also, " The Shepherd's Delight," commencing
" On yonder hill there stands a flower,
Fair befall those dainty sweets
And by that flower there stands a bower,
Where all the heavenly muses meet," &c.

A copy in the Roxburghe Collection, vol. i., 388, and Evans, vo]. i., 388.

^ ^
Slowly and smootlily.

fi:

Now, O now
-
» i
^ • 9 — :
li
^
^
I needs must part, Part - ing though I ab - sent mourn,
not when

^
While I live I needs must love, Love lives life is gone

W^W

Ab-sencecan
i H: ^^m
^"3JIT^ l

^
no joy im-part, Joy once fled can ne'er re -turn.
Now, at last, des - pair doth prove. Love di - vi - ded, lov - eth none.

=^
J ^J ^ |
J
=^
^^^jM^
"F
^m
T
^
Sad despair doth drive me hence. That des -pair

^ un - kind-ness sends;

1'
If
^
that part - ing be of
?
- fence. It is she, who then
i of-fends.

^' N J J>j
Dear, when I from thee am gone, Now, at last, despair doth prove
Gone are all my joys at once ! Love divided loveth none.
I loved thee, and thee alone, And although your sight I leave,
In whose love I joyed once. Sight wherein my joys do lie.

While I live I needs must love, Till that death do sense bereave,
Love lives not when life is gone : Never shall affection die.

K
130 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

PAUL'S WHARF.
This tune is in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, and in The Dancing Master,
from 1650 to 1665.
Paul's Wharf was, and one of the public places for taking water, near
still is,

to St. Paul's Cathedi-al. In " The Prices of Fares and Passages to be paide to
"Watermen," printed by John Cawood, (n.d.,) is the following: "Item, that no
Whyry manne, with a pare of ores, take for his fare from Pawles Wharfe, Queen
hithe, Parishe Garden, or the blacke Fryers to Westminster, or White hall, or

lyke distance to and fro, above iijd

i
l^E&
^
^O
StE^
Gracefully.

if=fr

^^ ^
i^

^m
^^ ^^^^

h^^pj
9

m
I t±Ldji^
^ TRIP AND GO.
This was one of the favorite Morris-dances of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, and frequently alluded to by ivriters of those times.

Nashe, in his Introductory Epistle to the surreptitious edition of Sidney's

Astrophel and Stella, 4to., 1591, says, "Indeede, to say the truth, my stile is

somewhat heavie gated, and cannot daunce Trip and goe so lively, with '
Oh my
love, ah my love, all my love gone,' as other shepheards that have beene Fooles in
the morris, time out of minde." He introduces it more at length, and with a
description of the Morris-dance, in the play of Summer'' s last Will and Testament,
1600:
" Veu goes in andfetcheth out the Hobby-horse and the Morris-dance, mho
dance about.
Ver.—"About, about put your horseI him harder; jerk him with
lively, to it; rein
your wand. man hold up your
Sit fast, sit fast, Fool, ladle " there."
Will Summer. —
!

brave Hall " butcher Now !

" well said, ! for the credit of
Worcestershire. The finest set of Morris-dancers that is between this and Streatbani.
Marry, methinks there is one of them danceth like a clothier's horse, with a wool-pack

The ladle used by the sweeps on May-day.

is still . . . " The wood of this olde Hall's tabor should
.

^ The Old Meg of Herefordshire for a Mayd

tract of " have beene made a paile to carie water in at the beginning
Marian, and Hereford towne for a Morris-dance," 4to, of King Edward the Sixt's reigne but Hall (being wise,
;

1609, is dedicated to old Sail, a celebrated Taborer of because hee was even then reasonably well strucken in
Herefordshire; and the author says, "The People of — years) saved it from going to the water, and converted it
Herefordshire are beholding to thee thou givest the men
; in these days to a tahor." For more about old Hall and
light hearts by thy pipe, and the women light heeles by his pipe and tabor, see page 1 34.
thy tabor. O wonderful piper O admirable tabor-man!"
!
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 131

upon liis back. You, fi-iend, with the hobby-horse, go not too fast, for fear of wearing
out my lord's tile-stones with your hob-nails."
Ver. — " So, so, so ; trot the ring twice over, and away."
After this, three clowns and three maids enter, dancing, and singing the song
which is here printed with the music.
Trip and go seems to have become a proverbial expression. In Gosson's Schoole
of Abuse, 1579 " Trip and go, for I dare not tarry." In The tioo angrie Women
:

of Ahington, 1599 " Nay, then, trip and go."

: In Ben Jonson's Case is altered,:
"0 delicate trip and go." And in Shakespeare's Lovers Labour Lost: " Trip
and go, my sweet."
The tune is taken from MusicKs Delight on the Cithren, 1666. It resembles
another tune, called The Boatman. (See Index.)

^ ^
Moderate time mid trippingly.

&* ^ ^j ^-^i^-j^J.7J: ^^
i
5i^a
i

Trip and go, heave and

"T-n"
Up and down,
ho, and to fro; From the town

^ E^ 1
ffiiat?;
lEfc 3
J^^-4J^
^^^-Ms^i ^
:\fi^^pf:4^
^
to the grove, Two and two let us rove, A may - ing, a phiy - ing ; Love hath no gain-

-^
£ ^±: -^P-
E

- say - ing ; So trip and

3
go, trip and go,
^
Mer-ri - ly trip
I ^^
and go.

^ i -=1-f^

The Morris-dance was sometimes performed by

-"'l-F-

frequently joined to processions and pageants, especially to those appointed for

itself, but was
:(t=

much more

the celebration of May-day, and the games of Robin Hood. The festival, in-

stituted in honour of Robin Hood, was usually solemnized on the first and
May, and owes
succeeding days of its original establishment to the cultivation

and improvement of the manly exercise of archery, which was not, in former
times, practised merely for the sake of amusement.
" I find," says Stow, " that in the month of May, the citizens of London, of all

estates, lightly in every parish, or sometimes two or three parishes joining

together, had thek several Mayings, and did fetch in May-poles, with divers
warlike sheivs, with good archers, Morris-dancers, and other devices for pastime all
132 MORRIS-DANCE AND MAY-DAY.

the day long and towards the evenmg they had stage-plays and bonfires in the
:

streets. . . made by the governors and

.These great Mayings and May-games,
masters of this city, with the triumphant setting up of the great shaft (a principal
Maypole in Cornhill, before the parish church of St. Andrew, which, from the pole
being higher than the steeple itself, was, and still is, called St. Andrew Under-
shaft) , by means of an insurrection of youths against aliens on May-day, 1517," the
ninth of Henry the Eighth, have not been so freely used as afore." Survey of
London, 1598, p. 72.
The celebration of May-day may be traced as far back as Chaucer, " who, in
the conclusion of his Court of Love, has described the Feast of May, when —
" Forth go'th all the court, both most and least,

To and braunch and bloom

fetch the floures fresh,
And namely hawthorn brought, both page and groom
And they rejoicen in their great delight
Eke each at other throw the floures bright,
The primerose, the violete, and the gold,
With freshe garlants party blue and wliite."
Henry the Eighth appears to have been particularly attached to the exercise of
archery, and the observance of May. " Some short time after his coronation,"
says Hall, " he came to Westminster, with the queen, and all their train : and on
a time being there, his grace, the Earls of Essex, Wiltshire, and other noblemen,
to the number of twelve, came suddenly in a morning into the queen's chamber,
all appareled in short coats of Kentish Kendal, with hoods on theu* heads, and
hosen of the same, every one of them his bow and arrows, and a sword and
buckler, like outlaws or Robin Hood's men ; whereof the queen, the ladies, and
all other there, were abashed, as well for the strange sight, as also for their
sudden coming : and, after certain dances and pastime made, they departed."
Sen. VIII., 6, b. The same author gives a curious account of Henry and
fo.

Queen Catherine gouig a Maying. -

Bourne, in his Antiquitates Vidgares, says, " On the Calends, or first day of
May, commonly called May-day, the juvenile part of both sexes were wont to rise
a little before midnight and walk to some neighbouring wood, accompanied with
music, and the blowing of horns, where they brake down branches from the trees,
and adorn them with nosegays and crowns of flowers. When this is done, they
return with their booty homewards, about the rising of the sun, and make their
doors and windows to triumph in the flowery spoil. The after part of the day is

chiefly spent in dancing round a tall pole, they call a May-pole ; which being
placed in a convenient part of the village, stands there, as it were consecrated
to the goddess of flowers, Avithout the least violence offered it in the whole circle
of the year." Borlase, in his Natwal History of Cormvall, tells us, " An ancient
custom, still retained by the Cornish, is that of decking their doors and porches,
on the first of May, with green sycamore and hawthorn boughs, and of planting
trees, or rather stumps of trees, before their houses : and on May-eve, they from

» The " story of 111 May-day, in the time of Henry the the subject of an old ballad in Johnson's Crown Garland
Eight, and why it is 60 called; and how Queen Catherine of Golden Roses, and has been reprinted in Evans' Old
begged the lives of two thousand London apprentices," is Ballads, vol. iii. p. 76, edition of 1810.
 EEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 133

towns make excursions into the country, and having cut down a tall elm, brought
itinto town, fitted a straight and taper pole to the end of it, and painted the
same, erect it in the most public places, and on holidays and festivals adorn it
with ilower garlands, or insigns and streamers."
Philip Stubbes, the puritan, who declaims as vehemently against May-games as
against dancing, minstrelsy, and other sports and amusements, thus describes
" the order of their May-games " in this reign. " Against May, Whitsimtide, or
some other time of the year, every parish, town, and village, assemble themselves
together, both men, women, and
chilch-en and either all together, or dividing
;

themselves into companies, they go, some to the woods and groves, some to the
hills and mountains, some to one place, some to another, aud in the morning they

return, bringing with them birch, boughs, and branches of trees, to deck their
assemblies withal. . . . But their chiefest jewel they bring from thence is their
May-pole, which they bring home with great veneration, as thus: they have
twenty or forty yoke of oxen, every ox having a sweet nosegay of flowers tied to
the tip of his horns ; and these oxen di-aw home this May-pole, (this stinking
idol rather), which is covered all over with flowers and herbs, boimd round
about with strings, from the top to the bottom, and sometime painted with
variable colours, with two or three hundred men, women, and children, follow-
ing it with great devotion. Aud thus, being reared up, with handkerchiefs
and flags streaming on the top, they strew the ground about, bind green boughs
about it, set up summer halls, bowers, and arbours, hard by it ; and then fall

they to banquet and feast, to leap and dance about it, as the heathen people
did at the dedication of their idols, whereof this is a perfect pattern, or rather
the thing itself." (Anatomie of Abuses, reprint of 1585 edit., p. 171.)
Browne, also, has given a similar description of the May-day rites, in his
Britannia^ s Pastorals, book ii., song 4 :

" As I have seen the Lady of the May

Sit ill an arbour, ....
Built by a May-pole, where the jocund swains
Dance with the maidens to the bagpipe's strains.
When envious night commands them to be gone,
Call for the merry youngsters one by one,
And, for their well jierformance, she disposes '
'

To this a garland interwove with roses

To that a carved hook, or well-wrought scrip ;

Gracing another with her cherry lip :

To one her garter ; to another, then,

A handkerchief, cast o'er and o'er again
And none returneth empty, that hath spent
His pains to fill their rural merriment."

The Morris-dance, when performed on May-day, and not connected with the
Games of Robin Hood, usually consisted of the Lady of the May, the fool or jester,
a piper, and two, fom*, or more, morris-dancers. But, on other occasions, the hobby-
horse, and sometimes a dragon, with Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Little
John, and other characters supposed to have been the companions of that famous
134 MOEBIS-DANCE AND MAY-DAY.

outlaw, were added to the dance. Maid Marian was sometimes represented by a
smooth-faced youth, di'essed in a female garb; Friar Tuck, Robin Hood's chaplain,
by a man of portly form, in the habit of a Franciscan friar ; the hobby-horse was a
paste-board resemblance of the head and tail of a horse, on a wicker frame, and
attached to the body of a man, whose feet being concealed by a foot-cloth hanging
to the ground, he was to imitate the ambling, the prancing, and the curveting of
the horse; the dragon (constructed of the same materials) was made to hiss, yell,
and shake his wings, and was frequently attacked by the man on the hobby-horse,
who then personated St. George.
The garments of the Morris-dancers were adorned with bells, which were not
placed there merely for the sake of ornament, but were sounded as they danced.
These, which were worn round the elbows and knees, were of unequal sizes,

and differently denominated ; as the fore bell, the second bell, the treble, the mean
or countertenor, the tenor, the great bell or base, and sometimes double bells were
worn.^ The principal dancer in the Morris was more superbly habited than his
companions ; as appears from a passage in
The blind Beggar of Bethnall Cfreen
(dramatised from the ballad of the same name), by John Day, 1659 " He wants :

no clothes, for he hath a cloak laid on with gold lace, and an embroidered jerkin;
and thus he is marching hither like the foreman of a morris."
In The Voiv-breaker, or JFair Maid of Clifton, by William Sampson, 1636,
we find, " Have I not practised my reins, my careers, my prankers, my ambles,
my false trots, my smooth ambles, and Canterbury paces —and shall the mayor
put me, besides the hobby-horse? I have borrowed the fore-horse bells, his
plumes, and braveries nay, I have had the mane new shorn and frizzled.
; Am
I not going to buy ribbons and toys of sweet Ursula for the Marian and — shall

I not play the hobby-horse ? Provide thou the di'agon, and let me alone for the
hobby-horse." And afterwards :
" Alas, sh- ! I come only to borrow a few
ribbands, bracelets, ear-rings, wire-tiers, and silk girdles, and handkerchers, for a
Morris and a show before the queen ; I come to furnish the hobby-horse."
There is a curious account of twelve persons of the average age of a hundred
years, dancing the Morris, in an old book, called " Old Meg of Herefordshire for
a Mayd Marian, and Hereford towne for a Morris-dance; or twelve Morris-dancers
in Herefordshire of 1200 years old,"*' quarto, 1609. It is dedicated to the re-
nowned old Hall, taborer of Herefordshire, and to " his most invincible weather-

beaten nut-brown tabor, which hath made bachelors and lasses dance round
about the May-pole, three-score summers, one after another in order, and is not
yet worm-eaten." Hall, who had then " stood, like an oak, in all storms, for
ninety-seven winters," is recommended to " imitate that Bohemian Zisca, who at
his death gave his soldiers a strict command to flay his skin off, and cover a drum
with it, that alive and dead he might sound like a terror m the ears of his enemies
so thou, sweet Hereford Hall, bequeath in thy last will, thy vellum-spotted skin

• For the bells of the Morris, see Ford's play, TAe fTiVcA eight persons in Herefordshire, whose ages, computed
of Edmonton, act 2, sc. 1. Weber is mistaken as to together, amounted probably the same as
to 800 years;
"mean" meaning tenor. mentioned by Lord Bacon, as happening " a few years
*•
Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, vol.2, p. 208, 1813, since in the county of Hereford." See History, Noturat
gives an account of a May-game, or Morris-dance, by itnd Experimental, of Life and DeatJt , 1638.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 135

to cover tabors ; at the sound of which to set all the shires a dancing. . . . The
court of kings is for stately measures; the city for light heels and nimble footing
western men for gambols ; Middlesex men for tricks above ground Essex men ;

for the S^ey ; Lancashire for Sornpipes ; Worcestershire for bagpipes ; but Here-
fordshire for a Morris-dance, puts down not only all Kent, but very near (if one
had line enough to measure it) three quarters of Chi-istendom. Never had Saint
Sepulchre's a truer ring of bells ; never did any silk-weaver keep braver time ;

never could Beverley Fair give money to a more sound taborer ; nor ever had
Robin Hood a more deft Maid Marian."
Full particulars of the Morris-dance and May-games may be found by referring
to Strutt's Sports and Pastimes; to Ritson's Robin Hood ; to an account of a
painted window, appended to part of Henry IV., in Steevens' Shakespeare, the
XV. vol. edition ; to Gifford's Ben Jonson, vol. i., pages 50, 51, 62, vol. iv.,p. 405,
and vol. vii., p. 397 ; to The British Bibliographer, 326 Brand's
vol. iv., p. ;

Popular Antiquities; Deuce's Illustrations of Shakespeare; and Dr. Drake's

Shakespeare and his Times, vol. i., &c., &c.

BARLEY-BREAK.
From Lady Neville's Virginal Book, which was transcribed in 1591.
Stately.

221

ruf
Jilif.liffhi ru
ts i ff l f r-h^a g

-_-s i i I
ci^rnHi
Repeat Piano.
Fast.

W^ — -» —— 1^
^li:
"-

^g
I ^r . I J J J — I
g
|
^~=hgp^
J JJ J^. JJ
^
^
I* •
i»

i 5
J ;j ^ i
ji =ib=i&
=F^ r
# m.

I g
136 ENSLISII SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Gifford has given the following description of the sport called Barley-break, in
a note upon Massinger's Virgin Martyr, act v., so. 1 :
—" Barley-break was
played by six people " (three of each sex) who were coupled by
, lot. A piece of
ground was then chosen and divided into three compartments, of which the middle
one was called Hell. It was the object of the couple condemned to this division,
to catch the others, who advanced from the two extremities in which case a ;

change of situation took place, and hell was filled by the couple who were excluded
by pre-occupation, from the other places in this catching,' however, there was
:
'

some diiSculty, as, by the regulations of the game, the middle couple were not
to separate before they had succeeded, while the others might break hands when-
ever they found themselves hard pressed. When all had been taken in turn, the
last couple was said to he in hell, and the game ended." In this description,
Gifford does not in any way allude to it as a dance, but Littleton explains Chorus
circularis, barley-break, when they dance, taking their hands round. See Payne
Collier's note on Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. iii., p. 316. Strutt, in his Sports and
Pastimes, quotes only two lines from Sidney, which he takes from Johnson's
Dictionary : —
By neighbours prais'd, she went abroad thereby,
"
At barley-brake her sweet swift feet to try."
In the Roxburghe Collection, vol. i., 344, is a ballad called " The Praise of our
Country Barley-brake, or
Cupid's advisement for young men to take
Up this loving old sport, called Barley-brake."
" To the tune of When this old cap ivas neiv." It commences thus :

" Both young men, maids, and lads.

Of what state or degree,
Whether south, east, or west.
Or of the north country
I wishyou all good health,
That in this summer weather
Your sweet-hearts and yourselves
Play at barley-break together." &c.
Allusions to Barley-hreak occur repeatedly in our old writers. Mr. M. Mason
quotes a description of the pastime with allegorical personages, from Sir John
Suckling : " Love, Keason, Hate, did once bespeak
Three mates to play at Barley-break ;

Love Folly took, and Reason Fancy

And Hate consorts with Pride; so dance they," &c.

WATKIN'S ALE.
The tune from Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, where it is arranged by Byrd.
Ward, in his Lives of the Gresham Professors, states that it is also contained in
one of the MSS. formerly belonging to Dr. John Bull. A copy of the original
ballad is in the collection of Mr. George Daniel, of Canonbury. Watkhi's Ale is

referred to in a letter prefixed -to Anthony Munday's translation of Gerileon in

" Rather, perhaps, by not less than six people. break." The Guardian, act i,, sc. I.
" Heyday there are a legion of young cupids at Barli-
!
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH, 137

England, part ii., 1592, and in Henry Chettle's pamphlet, Kind-harfs Dreame,
printed in the same year. The ballad is entitled
" A
ditty delightful of Mother Watkin's ale
A warning well weighed, though counted a tale."
Moderate time.

1. sNt
i "A
i )
its '>
=P ^ *
m
-5-

There was a maid this o- ther day, And she would needs go forth to play; .^
And, as she walk'd, she sigh'dandsaid, I am a - fraid to die a maid.

H-:g„ n
^^H=^
H

^ ^ -'^-p-

When that be-heard a lad What talk this

T
maiden had, There-of he was full
r glad,
To say, fair maid, I pray, Whither go you to play ? Good sir, then did she say,

-J •-
r-iz
•— ^

J=i
T
And did not spare .^
A^ hat do you care ?'^ Watkin's
in's
J'j

Fori
For I will
ale,
J

good
I hJ
without fail,
Sir, quoth she.
she, What is
-:£

^W
Maiden, give you Watkin's ^'
that?? I pray,
that prav, tell
^'
•

}^

^3
Each part of the tune is
i
to
-J^J
^
^:
be repeated for the words.
F=
^ The following stanza
is the seventh :

Thrice scarcely changed hath the moon. This dance is now in prime,
Since first this pretty trick was done And chiefly us'd this time.
Which being heard of one by chance. And lately put in rhime :

He made thereof a coimtry dance. Let no man grieve.

And as I heard the tale, To hear this merry jesting tale,
He called it Watkin's Ale, The which is called Watkin's Ale :

Which never will be stale It is not long since it was made.

I do believe ;
The finest flower will soonest fade.

THE CARMAN'S WHISTLE.

This tuneQueen Elizabeth's and Lady Neville's Virginal Books (arranged
is in
by Byrd) as well as in several others of later date. The ballad is mentioned in a
,

letter, bearing the signature of T. N., addressed to his good friend A[nthony]

M[unday], prefixed to the latter's translation of Grerileon of Migland, part ii.,

quarto,1592 ; and by Henry Chettle in his Kind-harfs Dreame, printed in the
same year.
138 ENSLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The Carmen of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries appear to have been
singularly famous for theii- musical abilities ; but especially for whistling their
tunes. Falstaff's description of Justice Shallow is, that " he came ever in the
rear-ward of the fashion," and " sang the tunes he heard the carmen whistle,
and sware they were his Fancies, or his Good-nights."^ {Henry IV., Part ii.,
act 3.) In Ben Jonson's Bartliolomew Fair, Waspe says, " I dare not let him
walk alone, for fear of learning vile tunes, which he will sing at supper, and in
the sermon times If he meet but a carman in the street, and I find him not
!

talk to keep him off on him, he will whistle him all his tunes over at night, in his
sleep." — (Act In the tract called "The World runnes on Wheeles," ^
i., sc. 1.)

by Taylor, the Water-poet, he says, " If the carman's horse be melancholy or

dull with hard and heavy labour, then will he, like a kind piper, whistle him a
fit of mirth to any tune, from above Eela to below Gammoth ;
"=
of which gene-
rosity and courtesy your coachman is altogether ignorant, for he never whistles,
but all his music is to rap out an oath." And again he says, " The word carmen,
as I find it in the [Latin] dictionary, doth signify a verse, or a song; and betwixt
carmen and carman, there is some good correspondence, for versing, singing, and
whistling, are all three musical." Bui-ton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, says,
" A carman's whistle, or a boy singing some ballad early in the street, many
times alters, revives, recreates a restless patient that cannot sleep ; " and again,
" As carmen, boys, and prentices, when a new song is published with us, go sing-
ing that new tune still in the streets." Hemy Chefctle, in his Kind-harfs
Breame, says, " It would be thought the carman, that was wont to whistle to his

beasts a comfortable note, might as well continue his old course, whereby his
somrd served for a musical harmony in God's ear, as now to follow profane
jigging vanity." In Tlie Pleasant Historie of the two angrie Women of Abington,
quarto, 1599, Mall Barnes asks, " But are ye cunning in the carman's lash, and
can ye whistle well ? " In The Hog hath lost its Pearl, Haddit, the poet, tells the
player shortly to expect " a notable piece of matter ; such a jig, whose tune, with
the natural whistle of a carman, shall be more ravishing to the ears of shop-
keepers than a whole concert of barbers at midnight." {Bodslef s Old Plays,
vol. vi.) So in Lyly's Midas, " A carter with his whistle and his whip, in true
ears, moves as much as Phoebus with his fiery chariot and winged horses." In
Heywood's A Woman hilVd with Kindness, although all others are sad, the stage
direction is, " Exeunt, except Wendall and Jenkin ; the carters whistling." And
Playford, in his Introduction to the skill of Music, 1679, says, " Nay, the poor
labourmg beasts at plough and cart are cheered by the sound of music, though it

be but their master's whistle."

« Good-nights are "Last dying speeches" made into brought out of China, and some imagined it
crab-shell,

ballads. See Essex's last Good-night. to beone of the Pagan temples, in -which the cannibals
*>
Taylor's tract was written against coaches, which in- adored the devil." He argues that the cart-horse is a
jured his trade as a waterman. He says, "In the year more learned beast than a coach-horse, "for scarce any
15G4, one William Boonen, a Dutchman, brought first the coach-horse in the world doth know any letter in the book
use of coaches hither, and the said Boonen was Queen when as every cart-horse doth know the letter G most
Elizabeth's coachman, for indeed a coach was a strange understandingly."
monster in those days, and the sight of them put both « Gamut, then the lowest note of the scale, as Eela was
horse and man into amazement. Some said it was a great the highest.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 139

The following ballads were sung to the tune :

—"The Comber's Whistle, or The
Sport of the Spring," commencing
"All in a pleasant morning;"
a copy in Pepys' Collection, vol. iii., 291, and Roxburghe Collection, vol. ii., 67.
;
"All is ours and our husbands', or the Country Hostesses' Vindication " a copy
in the Roxburghe Collection, vol. ii., 8.

" The Courteous Carman and the Amorous Maid: or the Carman's Whistle," *

&c., " To the tune of The Oarmanh Whistle; or Lord Willoughhy's March."
Gracefully.

d=^ t
w^^w ^;
As I abroad was walk - ing By the break - ing of the day, In

^^ ^.J -
Uj #
^ li
^
,

^
3* ^
to a plea-sant mea - dow A
K1^
young
^ man took
^
his way,

And look - ing

w
round a - bout him
^
"1
To mark what
w he
could see,

5fe^
At

^ ^^^ ^
P ^
length he spied a fair 1 maid der a
myr - tie tree.

; yj f i
^
j /

So comely was her countenance,

|

f^
j

^
At length she chang'd her countenance.
And winning was her air,'
'
And
sung a mournful song,
As though the goddess Venus Lamenting her misfortune
Herself she had been there She staid a maid so long
And many a smirking smile she gave Sure young men are hard-hearted.
Amongst the leaves so green. And know not what they do.
Although she was perceived, Or else they want for compliments
She thought she was not seen. Fair maidens for to woo.

" There are twelve stanzas in the ballad, of which live Collection, fol. 33, and one in Mr. Payne Collier's Collec-
Lre here omitted. A black-letter copy in the Douce tion.
140 ENGLISH SONa AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Why should young virgins pine away Now, if my mother chide me

And lose their chiefest prime ;

For staying here so long
And all for want of sweet-hearts, What if she doth, I care not,
To cheer us up in time ? For this shall be my song :

The young man heard her ditty, '

Pray, mother, be contented,
And could no longer stay, Break not my heart in twain ;

But straight imto the damosel Although I have been ill a-while,
With speed he did away. I now am well again.'

When he had played unto her Now fare thee well, brave carman,
One merry note or two, I wish thee well to fare.

Then was she so rejoiced. For thou didst use me kindly,

She knew not what to do : As I can well declare ;

O God-a-mercy, carman. Let other maids say what they will.

Thou art a lively lad ;

The truth of all is so.
Thou hast as rare a whistle The bonny carman's whistle
As ever carman had. Shall for my money go.

The following is the old arrangement of the tune of The QarmarHs Wldstle,
by Byrd, taken from Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book.

^
Gracefully.

s
S HVr^
fFfr ^
=fE^^ t
^^ ^ feb^ w
j -.^ ;j N-, ^-.^ ^ fe^
=^ ^

r^r^ M r
1

r ^
f
^-
1

^ w m
-tK-i^ J J.J ^i J .^J ^ j—
=f r-nt^ 3E
W^^
,

GO FROM MY WINDOW.
This tune is arranged both by Morley and by John Munday, in Queen Eliza-
beth's Virginal Book ; it is in A new Book of Tabhture, 1596 ; in Morley's First

Boohe of Consort Lessons, 1599 and 1611 ; and in Robinson's Schoole of Musick,
1603. In Tlie Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1686, it appears imder the title of
" The new Exchange, or Durham Stable
;
" but the tune is there altered into

% time, to fit it for dancing.

On the 4th March, 1587-8, John Wolfe had a license to print a ballad called
" Goe from the windowe." Nash, in his controversial tracts with Harvey, 1599,
mentions a song, " Go from my garden, go." In Beaumont and Fletcher's
Knight of the Burning Pestle, Old Merrythought sings
 BEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 141

Slowly and smoot/di/.

r^f^f^4 "try
E^i
S
Go from my window, love, go ;
Go from my window, my dear ; The

&^
iiajy.
22
w
t^^-^^-^
^ r 3 i= ^?3=i is3i:

n
wind and the rain Will drive you back a - gain, You can-not he lodged here.

—^>-
^Ei • #

Begone, begone, my juggy, my puggy.

Begone, my love, my dear
The weather is warm,
'Twill do thee no harm :

Thou canst not be lodged here."

Li Fletcher's Monsieur Tlwmas, we find

" Come up to my window, love, come, come, come.
Come to my window, my dear
The wind nor the rain
Shall trouble thee again
But thou slialt be lodged here."
It is again quoted by Fletcher in The Womanh Prize, or the Tamer tamed, act i.,

sc. 3 ; by Middleton in Blurt, Master Constable ; and by Otway in The Soldier''

Fortune.
It is one of the ballads that were parodied in " Ane compendious booke of
Godly and Spirituall Songs . . with sundrie of other ballates, chainged out of
prophaine Songes, for avoiding of Sinne and Harlotrie ; " printed in Etlinburgh
in 1590 and 1621. There are twenty-two stanzas in the Godly Song, the following
are the two first : — '' Quho [who] is at my windo, who, who ?
Goe from my windo goe, goe. ;

Quha calles there, so like ane strangere ?

Go from my windo, goe.
Lord, I am here, ane wratched mortall,
That for thy mercie dois crie and call

Unto Thee, my Lord celestiall

See who is at my windo, who ? "
At the end of Heywood's The Rape of Lucrece, a song is printed beginning
" Begone, begone, my Willie, my Billie,
Begone, begone, my deere
The weather is warme, 'twill doe thee no harms.
Thou canst not be lodged here."
which is also in Wit and Drollery, Jovial Poems, 1661, p. 25.
 142 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

In Pills to purge Melancholy, 1707, vol. ii., 44, or 1719, vol. iv., 44, is another
version of that song, beginning, " Arise, arise, my juggy, my puggy ;
" but in
both editions it is printed to the tune of " Good morrow, 'tis St. Valentine's day,"
and not to the original music.

Go from my window " from a

I received the following traditional version of "
very kind friend of former days, the late R. M. Bacon, of Norwich." The tune is
very like that of Ophelia's Song, "And how should I your true love know " the ;

first and last strains being the same in both. The words promise an improvement

of the original, and it is to be regretted that my informant had only heard

the first stanza, which is here printed to the music.

^^^
r^
Rather slow.

Go from my window, my love, my love

S
; Go
^^EEfcE^
from my window, my dear For the

^
;

m
P flg'
•

f^^^^^^^if^^i
ind is in the west, And the cuckoo's in his nest, And you
u
can't have a lodging here.

DULCINA.

This tune is referred to under the names of " Dulcina;" " As at noon Dulcina
rested " '' From Oberon in fairy-land " and " Robin Goodfellow,"
;
;

The ballad of " The merry pranks of .Robin Goodfellow " (attributed to Ben
Jonson) commences with the line, "From Oberon in fairy-land;" and in the old
black-letter copies, is directed to be sung to the tune of Dulcina. The ballad of
" As at noon Dulcina rested," is said, upon the authority of Cayley and Ellis, to

have been written by Sir Walter Raleigh. Both are printed in Percy's Reliques

of Ancient Poetnj^ series iii., book 2.

The Milk-Tfoman in Walton's Angler^ says, " Wliat song was it, I pray
you? Was it, "Come, shepherds, deck your heads," or "As at -noon Dulcina
rested," &c.

Mr. Bacon was for many years the well known editor,
a songs to have been written upon. He had Jeamt a number
The Norwich Mercury,
as well as principal proprietor, of of sea songs, principally from one old sailor, and some
and editor of The Quarterly Musical Review. His memory were so descriptive, that it was almost thrilling to hear
was so stored with traditional songs, learnt in boyhood, them sung by him. Seventeen years ago, these ap-
that,having accepted a challenge at the tea-table to sing peared to me too irregular and declamatory to be reduced
a song upon any subject a lady would mention, I have to rhythm, but I have since greatly regretted the loss of
heard him sing verse after verse iipon tea-spoons, and an opportunity that can never recur.
other such themes, proposed as the most unlikely for
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 143

The following ballads were also sung to the tune :

" The downfall of dancing ; or the overthrow of three fiddlers and three bag-
pipers," &c., " to the tune of Robin Goodfelloiv. Copies in the Douce and Pepys
Collections.
" A delicate new ditty, composed upon the posie of a ring, being, '
I fancy none
but thee alone
:
' new
sent as a year's gift by a lover to his sweet-heart. To the
tune oi Dulcina." Roxburghe Collection, vol. i., 80.
"The desperate damsel's tragedy, or the faithless young man;" beginning,
" Li the gallant month of June. "
" A
pleasant new song, betwixt a sailor and his love. To the tune of Dulcina;''^
beginning, " What doth ail my love so sadly." In the Bagford and Roxburghe
Collections, where several more will be found.
A Cavalier's drinking-song, by Matt. Arundel, to the tune of Robin Gfood-
fellow, commencing, " Some say drmking does disguise men," is printed in Tixall
Poetry, quarto, 1813. The last verse dates this after the Restoration.

Dulcina was also one of the tunes to the " Psalms and Songs of Sion ; turned
into the language and set to the tunes of a strange land," 1642.

^^
5
Cheerfully.

From O - beron, in
^
fai - ry -
^

land,
^ 3EES3
The king of ghosts and
m_ Tune of Dulcina.

sha
m
- dows there,

a
mE it 35
"M
^^^ i

Mad Robin I,
^

at
I
J

his
J,-?
command, Am
^m
H-y^-^
sent to view the night - sports here.

^
^p

What
^S
re-vel rout Is Icept
^S a - bout, In ev'-ry
^ * f

cor - ner
M
where I
S n

go,

:^ 3t
^
/
I will o'er-see, And mer-ry
1^
be, And make good
5 ^^P^^ sport, With ho, ho, ho

~CT P=i
zss: S
144 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

WHO LIST TO LEAD A SOLDIER'S LIFE.

This tune is in The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1725, called " soldier's A
life," or " Who list to lead a soldier's life." There were, evidently, two tunes
under the same name (one of which I have not discovered), because some of the
ballads could not be sung to this air. In Peele's Udivard I., 1593, we find,
" Enter a harper and sing, to the tune of Wlw list to lead a soldier's life, the
following :
— " Go to, go to, you Britons all,

And play the men both great and small," &c.

and in Deloney's Strange Sistories, 1607
" When Isabell, fair England's queen,
In woeful wars had victorious been," &c ;

neither of which could be sung to this air, but " A Song of an English Knight,
that married the Royal Princess, Lady Mary, sister to Henry VIII., which Knight
was afterwards made Duke of Suffolk " beginning
;

"Eighth Henry ruling in this land,

He had a sister fair ;"
and "A Song of the Life and Death of King Richard III., who, after many
murders by him committed, &c., was slain at the battle of Bosworth, by
Henry VII., King of England;" beginning
" In England once there reigned a king,
A tyrant fierce and fell," " .

as well as several others, are exactly fitted to the tune.

Ophelia's Song, "
Good morrow, 'tis St. Valentine's day," and the traditional
air to" Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor," are only different versions of this.
Li the Pepys Collection, vol i., is a black-letter ballad of " The joyful peace
concluded between the King of Denmark and the King of Sweden, by the means of
our most worthy sovereign James," &c., to the tune of "Who list to lead a
soldier's life;" dated 1613.
In The Miseries of infarced Marriage (Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. v.), the song,
" Who list to have a lubberly load," was, perhaps, a parody on " Who list to lead
a soldier's life," the

i
s
Gracefully.

't=^
¥^=^
Who
T
words of which I have not been successful
^--i*1

hst to lead
^
a
m
sol - dier's life.
T-"
^-.*^

—^
in finding.

e^^
^E i I
fd^l^H^jti?
T ^^^T^^TO
^
i-^S
These two ballads have been reprinted by Evans in
a the names of the tunes to which they were to be sung, not
Old Ballads, vol. iii., 30 and 84(1810); but he has omitted only in these, but in numberless other instances.
 KBIGN OF ELIZABETH. 145

LOED THOMAS AND FAIR ELLINOK.

This traditional version of tlie tune of Lord Thomas and Fair MUnor is taken
from Sandys' Collection of Christmas Carols. It is, evidently, the air of Who
list to lead a soldiers life ? adapted for words of a somewhat diiferent measure.
(See the opposite page.)
At p. 17 of Ritson's Observations on the Minstrels, in enumerating the prob,able
" causes of the rapid decline of the minstrel profession, since the time of Eliza-
beth," he says, " It is conceived that a few individuals, resembling the character,
might have been lately, and may possibly be still found, in some of the least
polished or less frequented parts of the kingdom. It is not long since the public
papers announced the death of a person of this description, somewhere in Derby-
shii-e and another was within these two years to be seen in the streets of London
;

he played on an instrument of the rudest construction, which he, properly enough,

called a hum-strum, and chanted (amongst others) the old ballad of Lord Thomas
and Fair MUnor, which, by the way, has every appearance of being originally a
minstrel song."
The ballad will be found in book i., series 3, of Percy's Beliques of Ancient
Poetry, and
copies direct

^yS
Lord
it is

it

Gracefully.
to be

f-
^
one of those

Thomas he was
still

r
kept in print in Seven Dials.
sung " to a pleasant new tune." See Douce Collection,

a bold
t
fo -
^
res - ter,
^
And
^
r
The black-letter

r-
a chaser of the
i. 121.

king's

t^ m
deer,
^^l^^J^rT.l^^f^^
t7~r
Fair El-li-nor was a fine
t^==f
woman, And Lord Thomas he loved her dear.
m
?=
THE FRIAR AND THE NUN.
In Henry Chettle's Kind-harfs Dreame, 1592, two lines are quoted from the
ballad of " The Friar and the Nun." The tune is in Tlie Dancing Master, from
1650 to 1725; in MusicKs Delight on the Cithren, 1666; in Fills to purge
Melancholy ; and in many of the ballad-operas, such as The Beggars' Opera, Tlie
Devil to Henry Carey wrote a song to the tune in his
pay, The Jovial Qrew, &c.
Honest Yorhshireman, 1735, and there are three, or more, in Pills to purge Melan-
choly. In vol. ii. of some editions, and vol. iv. of others, the title and tune of
" The Friar and the Nun " are printed by mistake with the song of " Fly, merry
news," which has no reference to them. The ballad of The London Prentice was
146 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC,

occasionally sung to it, and in some of the ballad-operas the tune bears that v;ame.
In The Plot, 1735, it is called " The merry songster." The composer of the
"
modern song, Jump, Jim Crow," is under some obligations to this air.
"
Henry Carey's song is called The old one outwitted," and begins
" There was a certain usurer,
He had a pretty niece," &c.
In Tlie Beggars^ Opera, the name of " All in a misty morning " is given to
the tune, from the first line of a song called Tlie Wiltshire Wedding, which will

be found in Pills to purge Melanclwly, iv. 148, or ii. 148. There are fifteen

verses, of which the following nine suflice to tell the story.

T^^r^
Quick.

wsz^skB^ ^ ;
tT All in a mis-ty
e .

morn-ing,
I n
3
Cloudy was the weather,
A rTT
I
^^
meeting with an
'

Wff%
TV ^
9 4 i>
s

^^P^^^'Tf^
i
E^
J J ^ I
i ^^
old man Clothed all in leather, With ne'er a shirt up - on his hack, But

w
wool un - to his skin
^
With ho w
^-^ M
^r
d'ye do, and how d'ye do, and how d'ye do
^^
— a- gain.

The rustic
m
was a thresher, This maid, her name was Dolly,
And on his way he hied, Cloth'd in a gown of gray,
And with a leather hottle I, being somewhat jolly.
Fast buckled by his side Persuaded her to stay :

And witli a cap of woollen, Then straight I fell to courting her.

Which covered cheek and chin ;

In hopes her love to win.
AVith how d'ye do ? and how d'ye do? With how d'ye do? &c.
And how d'ye do ? again. I told her I would married be,

I went a little further, And she should be my bride.

And there I met a maid And long we should not tarry,
Was going then a milking, With twenty things beside :

A milking, sir, she said ;

" I'll plough and sow, and reap and mow,
Then I began to compliment, Whilst thou shalt sit and spin,"
And she began to sing : With how d'ye do? &c.
With how d'ye do? Src.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 147

" Kind sir, I Iiave a mother, Her dad came home full weary,
Besides, a father, still. he could not choose ;)
(Alas !

And so, before all other. Her mother being merry.

You must ask their good will She told him all the news.
For if I be un dutiful Then he was mighty jovial too,
To them, it is a sin ;" His son did soon begin
With how d'ye do? &c. With how d'ye do? &c.

Now, there we left the milking-pail, The parents being willing.

And to her mother went, All parties were agreed,
And when we were come thither, Her portion, thirty shilling;
I asked her consent We married were with speed.
I dofF'd my hat, and made a leg, Then Will, the piper, he did play.
When I found her within ;
Whilst others dance and sing
With how d'ye do ? &c. With how d'ye do? and how d'ye do?
And how d'ye do? again.

JOHN, COME KISS ME NOW.

This favorite old tune will be found in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book ; in
Plajford's Introduction ; in Apollo's Banquet for the Treble Violin ; and in the
I'irst part of the Division Violin, containing a collection of Divisions upon several
excellent grounds, printed by Walsh; as well as Playford's Division Violin (1685.)
In Pills to purge Melancholy, vol. iii., 1707., and vol. v., 1719, it is adapted to a
song called Stoto, the Ih'iar. It is mentioned in Heywood's A Woman kill'd ivith

/^ly. Kindness, 1600

Jack Slime. — " I come to dance, not to quarrel : come, what shall it be? Rogero?
Jenliin. — Mogero, no we
" ; dance The Beginning of the World.
will

Sisly. —" I love no dance so well as John, come hiss vie now"

In ''Tis merry when Grossips meet, 1609

—
Widow. " No musique in the evening did we lacke ;

Such dauncing, coussen, you would hardly thinke it;

Whole pottles of the daintiest burned sack,

'
Twould do a wench good at the heart to drinke it.

Such store of tickling galliards, I do vow

Not an old dance, but John, come hisse me now.
In a song in Westminster Drollery, 1671 and 1674, beginning, " My name is

honest Harry:" "The fidlera shall attend us,

And first play, John, come hisse me;
And when that we have danc'd a round,
"
They shall play, Hit or misse me."

Jn Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621: "Yea, many times this love will
make old men and women, that have more toes than teeth, dance John, come kiss
me now." It is also mentioned in The Scourge of Folly, 8vo. (n.d.) in Brath- ;

wayte's Shepherd'' s Tides, 1623; in Tom Tiler and his Wife, 1661 and in Henry ;

Bold's Songs and Poems, 1685.

Hit or miss is a tune in Tke Dancinfj Master of 1650, wliere he speaks of one "wliose i)ractice in physic is

and later editions. It is referred to by Wniitlock, in his "nothing more than the country dance called Hit or
Zoolamia, or present Manners of t/ie Eiiglisli, 12nio., 1(>54, nrissc."
 148 ENGLISH SONGf AND BALLAD MUSIC.

''
In former times 't liatli been upbraided thus,
That barber's music was most barbarous
For that the cittern was confin'd unto
'
The Ladies' Fall,' or John, come kiss me now,'
'

'
Green Sleeves and Pudding Pyes,' The P 's Delight,' '

'Winning of Bulloigne,' Essex's last Good-night,' &c."

'

From lines " On a Barber who became a great Master of Musick." The ground
of John, come kiss me now, was a popular theme for fancies and divisions (now
called fantasias and variations) for the virginals, lute, and viols. In the
Vu-ginal Book, only the first part of the tune is taken, and it is doubtful if it

then had any second part ; the copy we have given is from Playford's and Walsh's
Division Violin. It is one of the songs parodied in Andro Hart's Compendium
//«/
of Godly Songs, before mentioned, on the strength of which the tmie has been
claimed as Scotch, although it has no Scotch character, nor has hitherto been
found in any old Scotch copy. Not only are all the other tunes to the songs in the
Compendium, of which any traces are left, English, but what little secular music

was printed ui Scotland until the eighteenth century, was entirely English or
foreign. The following are the first, second, and twenty-first stanzas of the
"Godly Song":—
John, come kisse me now ;
John represents man.
John, come kisse me now, By grace celestiall.

Johne, come kisse me by and by, My prophites call,my preachers cry,

And make no more adow. John, come kisse me now
The Lord thy God I am, John, come kisse me by and by.
That John dois thee call And make no more adow.
/ Rather slow and stately.

&^
W=^
I
m^mf^^^y^irmf^
John, come kiss me now, now, now.

m^
m- f-^ l LJf Ip
^^i^-^^^^^t^^-f^ I I
- I I f c nr" i i c . . p 8
.

£: p-f-^

F T -
F

^^m ^M
£: feFT^ i
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 149

ALL YOU THAT LOVE GOOD FELLOWS, oe THE LONDON PRENTICE.

The tunes called Nancie in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book; Uduward
Wouwels, in Bellerophon (Amsterdam, 1622, p. 115); Sir Eduward NomveVs
Delight, in Friesclie Lust-hof, 1634 ; and Tlie London Prentice, in Pills to purge
Melancholy (vi., 342), and in The Devil topay, 1731, are the same: but the two
last contain only sixteen bars, while all the former consist of twenty-four.
The following is the version called Sir Hdivard Noel's Delight.
In marching time.
\mo. '2do.

p=^^A^iv^;^^^ik^ j~T-rr^^
^H=F
w

p^p^^^^^Pi =t

^ i-^-i^Wf?^ ^ J
? ^^ i
pHfff; f-tt i

'=^5^

The ballad of " The honour of a London Prentice : being an account of his
matchless manhood, and brave adventures done m Turkey, and by what means he
married the king's daughter," is evidently a production of the reign of Elizabeth.

The apprentice maintams her to be " the phoenix of the world," " the pearl of
princely majesty," &c., against "a score of Tm-kish Knights," whom he over-
throws at tUt.
The ballad is printed in Ritson's JEnglish Songs (among the Ancient Ballads),
and in Evans' Old Ballads, vol. iii., 178. Copies will also be found in the Bagford
Roxbui'ghe 747), and other Collections.
(iii. It was "to be sung to the tune
of All you that love good fellows ; " under which name the air is most frequently
mentioned.
150 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Bishop Earle, in his Micosmogi-aphy, 1628, in giving the character of a Pot-

poet, says, " He is a man now much employed in commendations of our navy, and
a bitter inveigher against the Spaniard. His frequentest works go out in single
sheets, and are chanted from market to market to a vile tune, and a worse throat;

whilst the poor country wench melts, like her butter, to hear them. And these
are the stories of some men of Tyburn, or A strange monster out of Germany."
One of these ballads of " strange monsters out of Germany " will be found in the
Bagford and in the Pepys Collection (ii. 66), " to the tune of All you that love

good fellows.^'' It is entitled "Pride's fall: or a warning for. all English women
by the example of a strange monster born late in Germany, by a merchant's
proud wife of Geneva." The ballad, evidently a production of the reign of
James I.,^ is perhaps the one alluded to by Bishop Earle.
There are other ballads about London apprentices; one of "The honors achieved
in Fraunce and Spayne by four prentises of London," was entered to John
Danter, in 1592. " Well, my dear countrymen, Wliat-cVye-lacks" (as apprentices
were frequently called, from theii" usual mode of inviting custom), "I'll have you
chronicled, and all to be praised, and sung in sonnets, and bawled in new brave
ballads, that all tongues shall troul you in scectda seculorum." —Beaumont and
Fletcher's Philaster.

One of the ballads to the tune of " the worthy London prentice " relates

to a very old superstition, and will recall to us the "Out, damned spot!" in
Macbeth. It is entitled the " True relation of Susan Higges, dwelling in Ris-
borow, a towne in Buckinghamshire, and how she lived twenty years by robbing
on the high wayes, yet unsuspected of all that knew her ; till at last coming to

Messeldon, and there robbing and murdering a woman, which woman knew her,
and standing by her while she gave three groanes, she spat three drops of Hood in
her face, ivhich never could be ivasht out, by which she was knowne, and executed
for the aforesaid murder, at the assises in Lent at Brickhill." A copy is in the
Roxburghe Collection, i. 424; also in Evans' Old Ballads, i. 203 (1810).
I have not found any song or ballad commencing " All you that love good
fellows," although so frequently quoted as a tune ; but there are several "All you
that are," and "All you that be good fellows," which, from similarity of metre,
I assume to be intended for the same air.

In a chap-book called " The arraigning and indicting of Sir John Barleycoi-n,
knight ; newly composed by a well-wisher to Sir John, and all that love him," are
two songs, "All you that are good fellows," and "All you that be good fellows,"
" to the tune of Sir John Barleycorn, or Jach of all trades.'''' Lowndes speaks of
this tract as printed for T. Passenger in 1675, and of the author as Thomas
Robins ; but there are Aldermary and Bow Chui-ch-yard editions of later date.
Another "All you that are good fellows" is here printed to the shorter copy of
the tune. It is from a little black-letter volume (in Wood's library, Ashmolean
Museum) entitled " Good and true, fresh and new Christmas Carols," &c.,
printed by E. P. for Francis Coles, dwelling in the Old Bailey, 1642. It is one

' See FairboU's Satirical Songs and Poems an Costume, p. 107 ;

printed for the Percy Society.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 161

of the merry Christmas carols, and to be sung to the tune of " All you that
are good fellow?."

In marching time.

s
^^ All you
A
that are good fel -
E£E

lows, Come
f=^w=r=r=^
3
heark-en to my

m ^ ^
m ^

22: 5
song ;
II know you do not hate good cheer,
*
Nor li-quorthat
* i S
is
^-&-

strong.

~N ^ -i
—*
^^^ ^^
I hope there is none here. But soon will take my part, See

^^^^^^m
f=?=Fp 1=^=4^ 5
- ing my mas - ter and my dame Say wel - come with tlieir heart.

i-^ — ^
This is a time of joyfulness. Come fill us of the strongest.
And merry time of year. Small drink is out of date
When as the rich with plenty stor'd Methinks I shall fare like a prince.
Do make the poor good cheer. And sit in gallant state :

Plum-porridge, roast beef, and minc'd pies, Thisis no miser's feast,

Stand smoking on the board Although that things be dear

With other brave varieties, God grant the founder of this feast
Our master doth afford. Each Christmas keep good cheer.

Our mistress and her cleanly maids This day for Christ we celebrate,
Have neatly play'd the cooks Who was bom at this time
Methinks these dishes eagerly For which all Christians should rejoice.
At my sharp stomach looks. And I do sing in rhyme.
As though they were afraid When you have given thanks.
To see me draw my blade ;
Unto your dainties fall,
But I revenged on them will be. Heav'n bless my master and my dame,
Until my stomach's stay'd. Lord bless me, and you all.
152 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

THE BRITISH GEENADIERS.

The correct date of this fine old melody appears altogether uncertain, as it

is to be found in different forms at different periods; but it is here placed in juxta-

position to Sir Ediuard JVoel's Delight, and All yon that love good fellows, or
The London Prentice, because evidently derived from the same source. The
commencement of the air is also rather like Prince Ruperfs March, and the end
resembles Old King Cole, with the difference of being major instead of minor.
Next to the National Anthems, there is not any tune of a more spirit-stirring
character, nor is any one more truly characteristic of English national music. ^

This version of the tune is as played by the band of the Grenadier Guards. The
words are from a copy about a hundi-ed years old, with the music.

March.

Some talk
t
of lex an -
J
der,
^
And
l i

some
J

of
5^
Her

^
»-N
S
^=f=
^-

^\ JT.n
5=^ Ly
m-
i J ^^-j^rJig:
^
^ ^^
-les, Of Hec-tor and - san - der, Audsucli greatnamesas these;

n ^ S—S-fi-ei-

But of
^
all
n ^^
the world's brave he -
=tt

roes There's

—
none that can com
—
- pare,
i=^
With a

^5
P ^:S: c^ ^S2i

Repeat the last part in Chorus.

—
i—
#0. -J. * ^^ i ^
tow row, row, row, row. row. To the Bri-tish Gre - na - dier.

w * ^
Those heroes of antiquity ne'er saw a cannon hall,
Or knew the force of powder to slay their foes withal;'
But our brave boys do know it, and banish all their fears,
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.
Chorus. —But our brave boys, &c.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 153

Whene'er we are comniaiided to storm the palisades,

Our leaders march with fusees, and we with hand grenades.
We throw them from the glacis, about the enemies' ears,
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.
Chorus. —We throw them, &c.
And when the siege is over, we to the town repair,
The townsmen cry Hurra, hoys, here comes a Grenadier,
Here come the Grenadiers, my hoys, who know no doubts or fears,
Then sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.
Chorus. Here come the, &c. —
Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health to those
Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the louped clothes.
May they and their commanders live happy all their years,
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.
Chorus. —May they, &c.
THE CUSHION DANCE.
The Cushion Dance was in favour both in court and country in the reign of
Elizabeth, and is occasionally danced even at the present day. In Lilly's Miphues,
1580, Lucilla, says, "Trulie, Euphues, you have mist the cushion, for I was neither
angrie with your long absence, neither am I well pleased at your presence." This
is, perhaps, in allusion to the dance, in which each woman selected her partner by
placing the cushion before him. Taylor, the water-poet, calls it " a pretty little

provocatory dance," for he before whom the cushion was placed, was to kneel and
salute the lady. In Heywood's A Woman kiWd loith Kindjiess, (which Henslow
mentions in his diary, in 1602), the dances which the country people call for are,
Rogero ; The Beginning of the World, or Sellenger''s Round; John, come kiss me
now ; Tom Tyler ; The hunting of the Fox; Tlie Say ; Put on your smock a
Monday ; and The Cushion Dance ; and Sir Francis thus describes their style of
dancing ;

" Now, gallants, while the town-musicians

Finger their frets within ; and the mad lads
And country lasses, every mother's child.
With nosegays and bride-laces in their hats.
Dance aU their country measures, rounds, and jigs,
What shall we do ? Hark ! they're all on the hoigh ;

They toil like mill-horses, and turn as round

Marry, not on the toe : aye, and they caper,
But not without cutting ; you shall see, to-morrow,
The hall floor peck'd and dinted like a mill-stone,
Made with their high shoes though : their skill be small.
Yet they tread heavy where their hob-nails fall."

When a partner was selected in the dance, he, or she, sang "Prinkum-
prankum is a fine dance," &c. which line is quoted by Burton, in his Anatomy
;

of Melancholy ; and, " No dance is lawful but Prinkum-prankum," in The Muses'

Looking-glass, 1638.
In the AiMthegms of King James, the Earl of Worcester, kc, 1658, a wedding
154 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

entertainment is spoken of: and, " Tvlien the masque Avas ended, and time had
brought in the supper, the cushion led the dance out of the parlour into the hall."
Selden, speaking of Trenchmore and The Cushion Dance in Queen Elizabeth's
time, says, " Then all the company dances, lord and groom, lady and kitchen-
maid, no distinction." — (See ante p. 82.) In The Dancing Master of 1686, and
later editions, the figure is thus described :

" This dance is begun by a single person (either man or woman), who, talcing a
cushion in hand, dances about the room, and at the end of the tune, stops and sings,
'
This dance it will no further go." The musician answers, '
I pray you, good Sir,
why say you so ? '
Ifan. '
Because Joan Sanderson will not come too.' Musician.
'
She must come too, and she shall come
and she must come whether she will
too,

or no.' Then he lays down the cushion before the woman, on which she kneels, and
he kisses her, singing Welcome, Joan Sanderson, welcome, welcome.' Then she
'

rises, takes up the cushion, and both dance, singing, 'Prinkum-prankum is a fine dance,

and shall we go dance it once again, once again, and once again, and shall we go dance
it once again.' Then making a stop, the woman sings as before, 'This dance it will
no furthergo.' Musician. I pray you, madam, why say yon so ?'
'
Woman. Because — '

John Sanderson will not come too.' Musician. He must come too, and he shall '

come too, and he must come whether he will or no.' And so she lays down the
cushion before a man, who kneeling upon it, salutes her; she singing, 'Welcome,
John Sanderson, welcome, welcome.' Then he taking up the cushion, they take
hands, and dance round, singing as before. And thus they do, till the whole com-
pany are taken into the ring and if there is company enough, make a little ring in its
;

middle, and within that ring, set a chair, and lay the cushion in it, and the first man
set in it. Then the cushion is laid before the first man, the woman singing, This '

dance it will no further go and as before, only instead of Come too,' they sing, Go
;' ' '

fro and instead of Welcome, John Sanderson,' they sing, Farewell, John Sanderson,
;' '
'

farewell, farewell;' and so they go out one by one as they came in. Note. The —
women are kissed ly all the men in the ring at their coming and going out, and liJte-
rvise the men hy all the women."

This agreeable pastime tended, without doubt, to popularize the dance.

One of the engravings in Johannis de Brunes Mnblemata (4to., Amsterdam,
1624, and 1661) seems to represent the Cushion Dance. The company being
seated round the room, one of the gentlemen, hat in hand, and with a cushion held
over the left shoulder, bows to a lady, and seems about to lay the cushion at her
feet.

In 1737, the Rev. Mr. Henley, or " Orator Henley," as he called himself,
advertised in the London Daily Post that he would deliver an oration on the
subject of the Cushion Dance.
A political parody is to be found in Poems on Affairs of State, from 1640 to
1704, called, " The Cushion Dance at Whitehall, by way of Masquerade. To the
tune of Joan Sanderson."
'
Enter Godfrey Aldworth, followed by the King and Duke.
King. " The trick of trimming is a fine trick.
And shall we go try it once again?
Duke. " The plot it will no further go.
King. " I pray thee, wise brother, why say you so," &c.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 155

The tunes of Cusliion-Dances ( like Barley-Breaks ) have the first part in

I, and the last in i time. The earliest printed copy I have found is in Tahlature

de Luth, intihiU Le Secret des Muses, 4to., Amsterdam, 1615, where it is

called Gaillarde Anglaise. In Nederlandtsche Q-edenck-Glanck, Haerlem, 1626,

the same air is entitled Grallarde Suit Margriet, -(vhich being intended as English,
may be guessed as " Galliard, Sweet Margaret." It is the following :

Slo-w.

k^.
a= i
FEr^SEE^
^
^ p f
-231-
=^rf
e^£ ^
dS^ ^^ ?E
j
=ff^''T^^=f^^

r=&i ^
fe^ s ^1
p /

i= m St
^
-I N-
^fe^ :S^=S=
*3t
>!
drV-
^rf=r&i
3e i^ ^^kjj=j.h;=^

/
aj=y^^=ri
^=r-T=&f
zGz
Ai
^
Quick.

ii a—
_
8 1
f
*
—' ^ 53t±::

Bi^^a^^^ S^ESE^

^ :^=e

t ^ E^
1=
^ ?^^^^^
The Galliard (a word meaning brisk, gay ; and used in that sense by Chaucer)
is described by Sir John Davis as a swift and wandering dance, with lofty turns
and capriols in the air. Thoinot Arbeau, in his OrchesograpJiie, 1589, says that,
formerly, when the dancer had taken his partner for the galliard, they first placed
themselves at the end of the room, and, after a bow and curtsey, they walked once
156 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

or twice round it. Then the lady danced to the other end, and remained there
dancing, while the gentleman followed ; and presenting himself before her, made
some steps, and then tm-ned to the right or left. After that she danced to the
other end, and he followed, doing other steps ; and so again, and again. " But
now" says he, " in towns they dance it tumultuously, and content themselves
with making the five steps and some movements without any design, caring only
to be in position on the sixth of the bar" (pourvu qu'ils tombent en cadence).

In the foiu' first steps, the left and right foot of the dancer were raised alternately,
and on the fifth of the bar he sprang into the air, twisting round, or capering, as
best he could. The repose on the sixth note gave more time for a lofty spring.''
"Let them take their pleasures," says Burton, in his Anatomy of MelancJioly
" young men and maids flourishing in their age, fair and lovely to behold, well
attired, and of comely carriage, dancing a Greek GralUarde, and, as their dance

requireth, keep their time, now turning, now tracing, now apart, now altogether,
now a curtesie, then a caper, &c., it is a pleasant sight."
The following tune is from The Dancing Master of 1686, called ''Joan Sanderson,
or The Cushion Dance, an old Round Dance."

y4 j
Slow.
J -If ^^ ^jjj ;-tn \b^ -

i^W^
^m s
^
Quick.
fe^p^^
jk *_

•• '

i
i.
» Naies, ill his Glossary, refers to Cinque pace, but that of the bar, and the fifth on a long note nt the conimcnce-
ivas a dance in common time four steps to the four beats
: ment of the second bar.
 REISN OF ELIZABETH. 157

Reverting to the pavan and galliard, Morley says, " The pavan" (derived from
pavo, a peacock) "for grave dancing; galliards, which usually follow pavans, they
are for a lighter and more stii'ring kind of dancing."' The pavan was sometimes
danced by princes and judges in their robes, and by ladies with long trains held up
behind them but usually the galliard followed the pavan,
; much in the same manner
as the gavotte follows the minuet. Butler, in his Principles of Musick, 1636, says,
" Of this sort (the Ionic mood) are pavans, invented for a slow and soft kind of
dancing, altogether in duple proportion [common time]. Unto which are framed
galliards for more quick and nimble motion, always in triple proportion and, :

therefore, the triple is oft called galliard time, and the duple pavan time. In this

kind is also comprehended the infinite multitude of Ballads, set to sundry pleasant
and delightful tunes by cunning and witty composers, with country dances fitted
unto them, . . . and which surely might and would be more freely permitted by
our sages, were they used as they ought, only for health and recreation." — (p. 8.)
At this time Puritanism was nearly at its height.

WITH MY FLOCK AS WALKED I.

Stafford Smith found this song, with the tune, in a manuscript of about the year
1600, and printed it in his Musica Antiqua, p. 57. I discovered a second copy of
the tune in Elizabeth Rogers' MS. Virginal book, in the British Museum, under
the name of The faithful Brothers.
The song is evidently in allusion to Queen Elizabeth, and in the usual com-
plimentary style to her beauty, to her vow of virginity, &c.
Gracefully.

:fi=^:
m^^ i S^
^^ 4ij: Jim: ^

^
=HFtrfi
With my flock as alk-ed r
walk I, The

^plains and mountains

^
o - ver,

TT- ^
^. ^ *!=!< ^^ ^
Late, a dam

^
- sel pass'd me by ;
With an in-tent to move her.

^ ^^^^^^
^
stept in her way ; She slept a - wry, But oh ! I shall e - ver love her.

±
^
158 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Sucli a face she had for to Though she be so pure and chaste,
Invite any man to love her; That nobody can disprove her;
But her coy behaviour taught So demure and straightly cast.
That it was but in vain to move lier ;
That nobody dares to move her;
For divers so this dame had wrought Yet is she so fresh and sweetly fair
That they themselves might move her." That I shall always love her.

Phoebus for her favour spent Let her know, though fair she he,
His hair, her fair brows to cover That there is a power above her
Venus' cheek and lips were sent, Thousands more enamoured shall be.

That Cupid and Mars might move her Though little it will move her;
But Juno, alone, her nothing lent. She still doth vow virginity.
Lest Jove himself should love her. When all the world doth love her.

GO NO MORE A RUSHING.
This tune is called Cfo no more a rusliing, in a MS. Virginal Book of Byrd's
arrangements and compositions, in the possession of Dr. Rimbault ; and Tell me,
Daphne, in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book.

w ^^
Moderate t'lme.^^^ ^^

&
-b

^1
^^-^n
-m
J 1 ,1
«r
-i-"^
,.. -^ F I I I

a=a=
I .
n^
T=r
f

Go no more a rush-ing,

^^ -a m r-
r H r ^
£
g
Ie

^ m m ^ /
—
f

^
—
m » q
^i *r^*
-*g-^

P
^^ f|^^ ji^^^i rrr:r
e~.

i
r

ant
ri-
^ 'W
f
i la ^ ^ J-
'

ii
THE BLIND BEGGAR'S DAUGHTER OF BETHNAL GREEN.
This tune was found by Dr. Rimbault in a MS. volume of Lute Music, written
by Rogers, a celebrated lutenist of the reign of Chai-les II., in the library at
Etwall Hall, Derbyshire. It is there called The Cripple, and the ballad of
The stout Cripple of Cornwall is directed to be sung to the tune of The Hind
Beggar. See Roxburghe Collection, i. 389, and Bagford, i. 32. It is also in
Evans' Old Ballads, i. 97 (1810) ; but, as too frequently the case, the name of
the tune to which it was to be sung, is there omitted.

This line is evidently incorrect, but I liave no other cupy to refer to.
 KEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 169

Pepys, in his diary, 25th June, 1663, speaks of going with Sii* William and
Lady Batten, and Sir J. Minnas, to Sir W. Rider's, at Bednall Green, to dinner,
" a fine place ; " and adds, " This very house was built by the blind Beggar of
Bednall Green, so much talked of and sang in ballads ; but they say it was only
some outhouses of it." The house was called Kirby Castle, then the property of
Sir William Ryder, Knight, who died there m 1669.
"This popular old ballad," says Percy, " was wi'itten in the reign of Elizabeth,
as appears not only from verse 23, where the arms of England are called the
;
' Queenes armes ' but from its tune being quoted in other old pieces written in
her time. See the baUad on Mary Ambree," &c.
In a blaek-letter book called The World's Folly, we read that " a dapper fellow,
that in his youth had spent more than he got, on his person, fell to singing
The blind Beggar, to the tune of Heigh ho! " (Brit. Bibliographer, ii. 560.)

In the " Collection of Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament," and
in " Rats rhimed to death, or the Rump Parliament hang'd up in the shambles "
(1660), are many songs to the tune of The blind Beggar, as well as in the King's
Pamphlets, Brit. Museum.
Among "A Hymn to the gentle craft, or Hewson's lamentation"
them,
Lord Hewson, one of Cromwell's lords, who had been a cobbler,
(a satire on
and had but one eye), and " The second Martyrdom of the Rmnp."
The tune was sometimes called Pretty Bessy, and a ballad to be sung to it,

under that name, is in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 142.

^
^
Moderate time and with expression.

It
^ nt~n.
a blind beg gar had
M^5p
long lost his sight,
^
He
—y—
g^^ ^ P ^
h^J4^.S.Eg^^^lrt=^-K^
had a fair daughter of beau - ty most bright, And ma - ny a gal - lant brave

sui - tor had

^
she.

^
For none
^
was so come
mm
- ly as pret - tj' Bes - sie.

m^ =3=
160 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The ballad of The Wind Beggar will be found in Percy's ReUques, book ii.,
series 2; in tlie Roxburgbe Collection, i. 10; and in Dixon's Songs of the Peasantry
of England. It is still kept in print in Seven Dials, and sung about tbe country,
but to the following tune.
Moderate time and with expression.

ite
tj
d2-
S ^ 1^ ^^
It was a blind
7beg -
f
gav had
'-r'
long
.f
lost his sight,
-^
„
He
fc^^^fepFy
^
^m had a fair
izne

daughtei- of beau -
^
ty most bright;
1"=^

And
^3
^
ma ny
- a
^
gallant brave

-s* ^^ 3E

=fts^3^
sui
f
-tor had she, For
g
none was so come -ly as
^ P
pret^ty Bes - sie

m^^^^
COCK LORREL, ok COOK LAWEEL.
This tune is in the Choice Collection o/" 180 Loyal Songs, &c. (3rd edit. 1685),
and in Pills to purge Melancholy, as well as in every edition of Tlie Dancing
Master, from 1650 to 1725. In The Dancing Master it is called An old man is

a bed full of hones, from a song, of which four lines are quoted in Rowley's
A Match at Midnight, act i., sc. 1., and one in Shirley's The Constant Maid,
act ii., sc. 2., where the usurer's niece sings it.

The song of Cooh Lorrel is in Ben Jonson's masque, The Cripsies metamor-
phosed. Copies are also in the Pepys Collection of Ballads ; in Dr. Percy's folio

MS., p. 182;'' and, with music, in Pills to purge Melancholy. It is a satii'e upon
rogues and knaves of all classes supposed to be doomed to perdition. Cook
Lorrel, a notorious rogue, invites his Satanic Majesty into the Peak in Derby-
shire to dinner; and he, somewhat inconvenienced by the roughness of the
road, commences by feasting on the most delicate sinner
" His stomach was queasie (for, riding there coaoh'd,
The jogging had caused some crudities rise)
To help it lie called for a Puritan jjoach'd,
That used to turn up the eggs of his eyes, &c."

'
See Dr. DibiUn's Decameron, vol. 3.
 REIGN OF KLIZABBTH. 161

Wynken Worde printed a tract called Cocke LorreWs Bote ; in which persons
de
of all classes, among them the MynstreUes, are summoned te go on board
and,
his Ship of Fools. Cock LoreWs Boat is mentioned in a MS. poem in the
Bodleian Library, called Boctour BouUe Ale, and in John Heywood's E-pigrams
upon 300 Proverbs, 1566 (in the Epigram upon a Busy-body, No. 189).
In S. Rowland's Martin Markhall, his defence and answer to the Bellman of

London, 1610, is a list of rogues by profession, in which Cock Lorrel stands

second. He is thus described :
" After him succeeded, by the general council,
one Cock Lorrell, the most notorious knave that ever lived. By trade he was a
tinker, often carrying a pan and hammer for shew ; but when he came to a good
booty, he would cast his profession in a ditch, and play the padder." In 1565,
a book was printed called The Fraternitye of Vacahomles ; ivhereunto also is
adjoyned the tiventy-five orders of knaves: confirmed for ever by Cocke Lor ell.
In Satirical Poems by Lord Rochester (Harl. MSS., 6913) there is a ballad to
the tune of An old man is a bed full of bones, but the air is far more generally
referred to by the name of Cock Lorrel.
In the " Collection of Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament
there are many to this air, such as "The Rump roughly but righteously
handled;" "The City's Feast to the Lord Protector;" " St. George for England"
(commencing, " The Westminster Rump hath been little at ease ") ; &c., &c.
Others in the King's Pamphlets, Brit. Mus. ; in the Collection of 180 Loyal
Songs, 1685 ; in Poems on Affairs of State, vol. i., 1703; and in the Roxburghe
Collection of Ballads.
A tune called TJie Painter is sometimes mentioned, and it appears to be
another name for this air, because the ballad of " The Painter's Pastime or a :

woman defined after a new fashion," &c., was to be sung to the tune of Cook
Laurel. A black-letter copy is in the Douce Collection (printed by P. Brooksby,
at the Golden Ball, &c.).
Some copies of the tune are in a major, others in a minor key. The four lines
here printed to it are from an Antidote to Melancholy, 1651, for, although some
of the ballads above quoted are witty, they would not be admissible in the

^
present day.

i
S
r#
k^S T—r g^gWJ ^ j"! m
J^^ ^ ItJ H^

^
FFFFfi

—
Let's cast a-way care, and merrily sing, For there

w^ is a time for ev'ry thing. He that

-^ 1
3 J W J ^^J *'

I*
• ^^ ^
o i- ay,
playsathis work, Andworksat his play, Doth neither keep working '^^i -

-^r
St # -^
M
162 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

FORTUNE MY FOE.
The tune of Fortune is in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book; in William
Ballet's MS. Lute Book; in Vallet's Tablature de Luth, book i., 1615, and
book ii., 1616; in Bellerophon, 1622; in Nederlandtsche Q-edenck-Clanck, 1626 ; in
Dr. Camphuysen's Stichtelyclce Rymen, 1652 ; and in other more recent publica-
tions. In the Dutch books above quoted, it is always given as an English air.
A ballad" Of one complaining of the mutability of Fortune" was licensed to
John Charlewood to print in 1565-6 (See Collier's Ex. Reg. Stat. Gomp., p. 139).
A black-letter copy of " A
sweet sonnet, wherein the lover exclaimeth against
Fortune for the loss of his lady's favour, almost past hope to get it again, and in
the end receives a comfortable answer, and attains his desire, as may here appear
to the tune of Fortune my foe P is in the Bagford Collection of Ballads (643 m.,
British Museum). It begins as follows:
Slow.

i
^
^
For - time
fcjzHzz^zj^J
^Fg=ft|
my
T r^ foe, why dost thou frown on
=*T
me ?
^m
And will thy

?^¥^

fa
^
-
^
vours
^
ne - ver great-er
^
be? Wilt thou,

^
^
^^
m
•-=-
^

•
I say, for ev -
3

er breed me

^ pam, And wilt thou not

"T
5g
^
re - store my joys
gain?

* ~s» m 3 ^
=f
There are twenty-two stanzas, of four lines each, in the above.
Fortune my foe is in The Merry Wives of Windsor,
alluded to by Shakespeare
act ii., and the old ballad of Titus Andronicus, upon which Shakespeare
sc. 3 ;

founded his play of the same name, was sung to the tune. A copy of that ballad
is in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 892, and reprinted in Percy's Meliques.

Ben Jonson alludes to Fortune my foe, in The case is altered, and in his masque
The Gipsies Metamorphosed; Beaumont and Fletcher, in TJie Custom of the

Country, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, and The Wild Goose Cliase ; Lilly
gives the first verse in his Maydes Metamorphosis, 1600 Chettle mentions the ;

tune in Kind-harfs Dreame, 1592 Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621

;

Shirley, in The Gi-ateful Servant, 1630 Brome, in his Antipodes, 1638. See
;
 KEIQN OF ELIZABETH. 163

1590 Lingua, 1607 Every Woman in her humour, 1609

also Lodge's Rosalind, ; ;

The Widoiv's Tears, 1612 Henry Hutton's Follie's Anatomie, 1619 Tlie tivo
; ;

merry Milkmaids, 1620 Vox Borealis, 1641 The Rump, or Mirror of the
;
;

Times, 1660 Tomh Ussence, 1677, &c. In Forbes' Oantus, 1682, is a parody
;

on Fortune my foe, beginning, Satan my foe, fidl of iniquity, with which the tune
is there printed.
One reason for the great popularity of this air is that " the metrical lamenta-
tions of extraordinary criminals have been usually chanted to it for upwards of
these two hundred years." Rowley alludes to this in his Noble Soldier, 1634:
" Tlie King be bitter 'gainst the King
! shall I ?

I shall have scurvy ballads made of me,

!
Sung to the hanging tune
And in " The penitent Traytor the humble petition of a Devonshire gentleman,
:

who was condemned for treason, and executed for the same, anno 1641," the
last verse but two runs thus :

" How could I bless thee, couldst thou take away

My life and infamy both in one day ?
But this in ballads will survive I know,
Sung to that preaching tune, Fortune my foe"
The last is from " Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament."
Deloney's ballad, " The Death of King John," in his Strange Histories, 1607 ;
and " The most cruel murder of Edward V., and his brother the Duke of York,
in the Tower, by their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester" (reprinted in Evans' Old
Ballads, iii. 13, ed. 1810), are to this tune; but ballads of this description which
were sung to it are too many for enumeration. In the first volume of the Rox-
burghe Collection, at pages 136, 182, 376, 392, 486, 487, 488, and 490, are
ballads to the tune of Fortune, and all about mm-ders, last dying speeches, or
some heavy misfortunes.
In the Pepys' Collection, i. 68, is a ballad of " The lamentable burning of the

city of Cork, by the lightning which happened the last day of May, 1622, after
the prodigious battle of the stares" {i.e., starlings), "which fought most strangely
over and near the city the 12th and 14th May, 1621."
Two other ballads require notice, because the tune is often referred to under
their names, Dr. Faustus, and Aim according to the title
not too high. The first,

of the ballad, is " The Judgment of God shewed upon Dr. John Faustus tune, :

Fortune my foe.'''' A copy is in the Bagford Collection.^ It is illustrated by two

woodcuts at the top one representing Dr. Faustus signing the contract with the
:

devil and the other shewing him standing in a magic circle, with a wand in his
;

left hand, and a sword with flame running up it, in his right: a little devil

seated on his right arm. Richard Jones had a licence to print the baUad " of the
life and deathe of Dr. Faustus, the gi-eat cungerer," on the 28th Feb., 1588-9.
In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 434, is " Youth's warning piece," &c., " to the
tune of Dr. Faustus;^' printed for A. K., 1636. And in Dr. Wild's Iter
Boreale, 1671, " The recantation of a penitent Proteus," &c., to the tune of
Dr. Faustus.
" It is also printed iti my Nit/ionnl English Airs, quarto, part i., 183S.
164 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The other name is derived from

" An excellent song, wherein you shall finde

Great consolation for a troubled mind.

To the txme oi Fortu7ie my foe." Commencing thus
"Ayme not too Me in things above thy reach
Be not too foolish in thine owne conceit
As thou hast wit and worldly wealth at will,

So give Him thanks that shall encreaae it still," &c.

This ballad is also in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 106., printed by the "Assignes
of Thomas Symcocke " and, :
in the same, others to the tune of Aim not too high
will be found, viz., in vol. i., at pages 70, 78, 82, 106, 132, and 482 ; ui vol. ii.,

at pages 128, 130, 189, 202, 283, 482, and 562, &c.
In the Douce Collection there is a ballad of "The manner of the King's"
[Charles the First's] " Trial at Westminster Hall," &c. ; " the tune is Aim not
too high.''''

DEATH AND THE LADY.

Death and the Lady is one of a series of popular ballads which had their rise
from the celebrated Dance of Death. A
Dance of Death seems to be alluded to
in The Vision of Pierce Plowman, written about 1350
" Death came driving after, and al[l] to dust pashed

Kyngs and Kaisars, Knights and Popes ;"

but the subject was rendered especially popular in England by Lydgate's free
translation from a French version of the celebrated German one by Machaber.
Eepresentations of The Dance of Death were frequently depicted upon the
walls of cloisters and cathedrals. Sir Thomas More speaks of one " pictured in
Paules," of which Stow, in his Survey of London, gives the following account :

" John Carpenter, town clerk of London in the reign of Henry VI., caused, with
great expense, to be curiously painted upon board, about the north cloister of
Paul's, a monument of Death leading all estates, with the speeches of Death, and
answer of every state. This cloister was pulled down in 1549."
On the walls of the Hungerford Chapel in Salisbury Cathedral was a painting
executed about 1460, representing Death holding conversation with a young
gallant, attired in the fullest fashion, who thus addresses him :

" Alasse, Dethe, alasse a hlessful thing thou were

!

If thou woldyst spare us in our lustynesse.

And cum to wretches that hethe of he[a]vy chere.
When they thee clepe [call] to slake their dystresse.
But, owte alasse 1 thyne owne sely self-willdnesse
Crewelly we[a]rieth them that sighe, wayle, and weepe,
To close their eyen that after thee doth clepe."
To which Death gloomily replies
" Graceles Gallante, in all thy luste and pryde
Rememhyr that thou ones schalte dye
De[a]th shold fro' thy body thy sonle devyde,
Thou mayst him not escape, certaynly.
 BEIGN OP ELIZABETH. 165

To the de[a]de bodys cast downe thyne eye,

Behold them well, consyder and see,
For such as they are, such shalt thou he."
Among the Roxburghe Ballads is one entitled " Death's unconti'oUable sum-
mons, or the mortality of mankind; being a dialogue between Death and a young
man," which very much resembles the verses in the Hungerford Chapel, above
quoted. We have also " The dead man's song," reprinted in Evans' Collection,
"Death and the Cobbler," and "Death's Dance," proving the popularity of these
moralizations on death. Another "Dance and Song of Death," which was
licensed in 1568, has been printed at page 85.
In the Douce Collection is a black-letter copy of " The midnight messenger, or

a sudden call from an earthly glory to the cold grave, in a dialogue between Death
and a rich man," &c., beginning
" Thou wealthy man, of large possessions here,
Amounting to some thousand pounds a year.
Extorted by oppression from the poor.
The time is come that thou shalt be no more," &c.
which is reprinted in Dixon's Songs of the Peasantry, &c.
In Mr. Payne Collier's MS. volume, written in the reign of James I., is a
dialogue of twenty-four stanzas, between " Life and Death," commencing
Life. —" Nay, what art thou, that I should give
To thee my parting breath ?
"
Why may not I much longer live ?
Death. —" Behold ! my name is Death."
lAfe. — ".I never have seen thy face before
Now tell me why thou came
I never wish to see it more
Death. —" Behold I Death is my name," &c.
The following " Dialogue betwixt an Exciseman and Death " is from a copy in
the Bagford Collection, dated 1659.
Upon a time when Titan's steeds were driven Sjpeake, what's thy name? and quickly tell

To drench themselves against the western me this,

heaven Whither thou goest, and what thy bus'ness is ?

And sable Morpheus had his curtains spread, exciseman.

And silent night had laid the world to bed, Whate'er my bus'ness is, thou foule-mouthed
'Mongst other night-birds which did seek for scould,
prey, I'de have you know I scorn to be coutroul'd
A blunt exciseman, which abhorr'd the day, By any man that lives ; much less by thou.
Was rambling forth to seeke himself a booty Who blurtest out thou knowst not what, nor
'Mongst merchants' goods which had not paid how ;

the duty : 1 goe about my lawful bus'ness ; and

But walking all alone, Death chanc'd to meet I'le make you smarte forbidding of mee stand.
him, DEATH.
And in this manner did begin to greet him. Imperious cox-combe is your stomach vext ?
I

DEATH. Pray slack your rage, and harkeii what comes

Stand, who comes here? what means this knave next
to peepe I have a writt to take you up ;
therefore,
And sculke abroad, when honest men should To chafe your blood, I bid you stand, once
sleepe ? more.
166 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

EXCISEMAN. EXCISEMAN.
A writt to take mee up ! excuse mee, sir, The judgement seate I must confess that I

You doe mistake, I am an officer word

In publick service, for my private wealth Doth cut my heart, like any sharpned sword
My bus'ness is, if any seeke by stealth What! come t' account! methinks the dreadful
To undermine the states, I doe discover sound
Their falsehood ; therefore hold your hand, Of every word doth make a mortal wound,
give over. Which sticks not only in ray outward skin,
But penetrates my very soule within.
DEATH.
'Twas least of all my thoughts that ever Death
Nay, fair and soft ! 'tis not so quickly done Would once attempt to stop excisemen's breath.
As you conceive it is : I am not gone But since 'tis so, that now I doe perceive
A jott the sooner, for your hastie chat You are in earnest, then I must relieve
Nor bragging language ; for I tell you flat
Myself another way come, wee'l be friends.
:

'Tis more than so, though fortune seeme to

If I have wronged thee, I'le make th' amendes.
thwart us.
Let's joyne together I'le pass my word this
;

Such easie terms I don't intend shall part us. night

With this impartial arme I'll make you feele Shall yield us grub, before the morning light.
My fingers first, and with this shaft of Steele Or otherwise (to mitigate my sorrow),
I'le peck thy bones as thou alive wert hated,
!
Stay here, I'le bring you gold enough to-
So dead, to doggs thou shalt be segregated. morrow.
EXCISEMAN. DEATH.
To-morrow's gold I will not have and thou ;
I'de laugh at that would thou didst but dare
; I
Shalt have no gold upon to-morrow now :

To lay thy fingers on me I'de not spare ;

To hack thy carkass till my sword was broken,

My final writt shall to th' execution have thee,
All earthly treasure cannot help or save thee.
I'de make thee eat the wordes which thou hast
EXCISEMAN.
spoken
Then woe is mee ah how was I befool'd
! !
All men should warning take by thy trans-
I thought that gold (which answereth all
gression.
things) could
How they molested men of my profession.
Have stood my friend at any time to baile mee
My service to the states is so welle known.
But griefe growes great, and now my trust doth
That I should but complaine, they'd quickly
faile me.
owne
My publicke grievances and give mee right
Oh ! that my conscience were but clear within,
;

Which now is racked with my former sin

To cut your eares, before to-morrow night.
With horror I behold my secret stealing.
DEATH. My bribes, oppression, and my graceless deal-
Well said, indeed ! but bootless all, for I ing I

Am well acquainted with thy villanie; My office-sins, which I had clean forgotten.
Iknow thy office, and thy trade is such. Will gnaw my soul when all my bones are
Thy service little, and thy gaines are much rotten
Thy braggs are many; but 'tis vaine to swagger. I must confess it, very griefe doth force mee,
And thinke to fighte mee with thy guilded Dead or alive, both God and man doth curse
dagger mee,
As I abhor thy person, place, and threate. Let all excisemen hereby warning take.
So now I'le bring thee to the judgement seate. To shun their practice for their conscience sake.

Of all the ballads on the subject of Death, the most popular, however, was
Death and Lady. In Mr. George Daniel's Collection there is a ballad
the

"imprinted London by Alexander Lacy" (about 1572), at the end of which

at
is a still older woodcut, representing Death and the Lady. It has been used as '

an ornament to fill up a blank in one to which it bears no reference but was, in ;

all probability, engraved for this, or one on the same subject. The tunc is in
 EEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 167

Henry Carey's Musical Century, 1738. He calls it " the old tune of Death and
the Lady." Also in Tlic Cohhler's Opera, 1729 ; The Fashionable Lady ; and
many others about the same date.
The oldest copies of Aim not too high direct it to be sung to the tune of Fortune,

but there is one class of ballads, said to be to the tune of Aim not too high, that
could not well be sung to that air. The accent oi Fortune my foe is on the first

syllable of each line; exactly agreeing with the tune. But these ballads on
Death have the accent on the second, and agree with the tune of Death and the
Lady. See, for instance, the four lines above quoted from The Dialogue hetiveen
Death and the rich man, which the black-letter copies direct to be sung to the
tune of Aim not too high. I believe, therefore, that Aim not too high had either
a separate tune, which is the same I find under the name of Death and the Lady,
or else, Fortune, being altered by the singer for the accent of those ballads, and
sung in a major key, gradually acquu-ed a different shape. (Many of these airs
are found both in major and minor keys.) This would account for Fortune and
Aim not too high being so frequently cited as different tmies in ballads printed
about the same period.
I suppose, then, that ballads to the tune of Aim- not too high may be either
to Fortune, or Death and the Lady; a point to be determined generally by the
accent of the words.
The ballad of Death and the Lady is printed in a small volume entitled A Guide
to Heaven, 12mo., 1736 and it is twice mentioned in Goldsmith's popular tale,
;

The Vicar of Wakefield, fii-st printed in 1776.

y Slow.

fe s
^
Death. Fair La - dy, lay your cost - ly
=«-

robes a -
^side,
f m
No

^s i

^^-^H^ f^ ^
It -V-

Ion - ger may you glo - ry in your pride Take leave of ev'-ry

^=3= r u F-J
~\
J
i
car-nal vain de -
»^#H=te!
^ rf^
light,
rr^ I'm come to sum-mon you a - way this night.

T-J-TT^ m ^f
168 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

DEATH.
What bold attempt is this ? pray let me know This is a slender, frivolous excuse,
From whence you come, and whither I must go I have you fast, and will not let you loose ;

Shall I, who am a lady, stoop or bow Leave her to Providence, for you must go
To such a pale-fac'd visage? Who art thou? Along with me, whether you will or no.
I, Death, command e'en kings to leave their
DEATH.
crown.
Do you not know me? Well, I'll tell you, then :
And at my feet they lay their sceptres down.
'Tis I who conquer all the sons of men If unto kings this favour I don't give.
No pitch of honour from my dart is free ;
But cut them off, can you expect to live
My name is Death ! have you not heard of me ?
Beyond the limits of your time and space?
LADY. No ! I must send you to another place.

Yes, have heard of thee time after time

I LADY.
But, being in the glory of my prime, You learned doctors, now express your skill.
I did not think you would have called so soon. And let not Death of me obtain his will
Why must my sun go down before its noon ? Prepare your cordials, let me comfort find,

DEATH.
And gold shall fly like chaff before the wind
DEATH.
Talk not of noon you may as well be mute
!

Forbear to call, their skill will never do.

This is no more the time for to dispute
They are but mortals here, as well as you
Your riches, jewels, gold, and garments brave
I gave the fatal wound, my dart is sure
Houses and lands, must all new masters have.
'Tis far beyond the doctor's skill to cure.
Though thy vain heart was inclin'd.
to riches
How freely can you let your riches fly
Yet thou must die, and leave them all behind.
To purchase life, rather than yield to die
LADY. But while you flourish'd here in all your store.
My heart is cold ; I tremble at the news You would not give one penny to the poor.
Here's bags of gold if thou wilt me excuse, Who in God's name their suit to you did make
And seizeon them and finish thou the strife
:
You would not spare one penny for His sake.
Of those that are most weary of their life. The Lord beheld wherein you did amiss.
Are there not many bound in prison strong. And calls you hence to give account for this.
In bitter grief of soul have languish'd long? LADY.
All such would find the grave a place of rest Oh, heavy news ! must I no longer stay?
From all the griefs by which they are opprest. How shall I stand at the great judgment day."
Besides, there's many both with hoary head, Down from her eyes the crystal tears did flow :

And palsied joints, from which all strength is She said, "None knows what now I undergo.
fled.
Upon a bed of sorrow here I lie.
Release thou those, whose sorrows are so great. My makes me afraid to die
carnal life
But spare my life to have a longer date. My sins, alas are many, gross, and foul.
!

DEATH. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on my soul

Though they, by age, are full of grief and And though I much deserve thy righteous
pain, frown,
Yet their appointed time they must remain. Yet pardon. Lord, and send a blessing down !

I come to none before their warrant's seal'd.

Then, with a dying sigh, her heart did break,
And when it is, all must submit and yield
And she the pleasures of this world forsake.
I take no bribe, believe me this is true ;
Thus do we see the high and mighty fall.
Prepare yourself, for now I come for you.
For cruel death shows not respect at all
LADY. To any one of high or low degree :

Be not severe ! O Death ! let me obtain Great men submit to death, as well as we.
A little longer time to live and reign ! If old or young, our life is but a span
Fain would I stay, if thou my life wilt spare, A —
lump of clay so vile a creature's man.
I have a daughter, beautiful and fair Then happy they whom Christ has made his
I'd live to see her wed, whom I adore; care
Grant me but this, and I will ask no more. Die in the Lord, and ever blessed are !
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 169

THE KING AND THE MILLER OF MANSFIELD.

This tune was found by Dr. Rimbault in a MS. volume of virginal music in the
possession of T. Birch, Esq., of Repton, Derbyshire. The black-letter copies of
the ballad of King Eenry II. and the Miller of Mansfield, direct it to be sung to

the tune of The French Levalto, and, as the air was found under that name, it
may be a French tune, although neither Dr. Rimbault nor I think it so. The
progression of the last four notes in each part is very English in character.
There are copies of the ballad in the Roxbm-ghe Collection (v. i. 178 and 228) ;

in the Bagford (p. 25) ; and ia the Pepys. It is also in Old Ballads, 1727,

v. i., p. 53 and in Percy's Beliques, series 3, book ii. Tlie French Levalto is
;

frequently referred to as a ballad tune.

^ ^^
Rather slow and gracefully.

fci^lPI fTj i j-JJij

^^^
Hen-ry, our royal King, would ride a

^w
hunt - ing,

^
To the green fo - rest so

,
t rl f
''^°

^
^** '^® harts skip-ping, and

^^
dain - ty does trip-ping

•—
Un

y=ftTtl7||Ttr?-^ Jjjk^^^Hf
to mer-rySheiTvoodhis no-bles re-pair. Hawkandhoundwereunbound, allthingspre-pa-red

^Sf
^
F^»^=^ /'^ i 1
Chorus.

i
^^ ^S^
For the game, in the same, with good re - gard. Hawk and hound were un - bound,

^^^^^^^
all things pre-pa - red For the game, in the same, with good re - gard.

:*t
^
 170 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

All a long summer's day rode the king pleasantlye,

With all his princes and nobles eche one
Chasing the hart and hind, and the bucke gallantlye,
Till the darke evening forc'd all to turne home.
Then at last, riding fast, he had lost quite
All his lords in the wood, late in the night.

Wandering thus wearilye, all alone, up and downe,

With a rude miller he mett at the last :

Asking the ready way unto faire Nottingham ;

Sir, quoth the miller, I meane not to jest.

Yet I thinke, what I thinke, sooth for to say,

You doe not lightlye ride out of your way.

Why, what dost thou thinke of me, quoth our king merrily
Passing thy judgment upon me so briefe ?

Good faith, sayd the miller, I meane not to flatter thee;

I guess thee to be but some gentleman thiefe
;

Stand thee backe, in the darke; light not adowne,

Lest that I presentlye crack thy knaves crowns. &c.

LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD.

This ballad is quoted in Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, and Monsieur
TJiomas ; in The Varietie, 1649 ; and in Davenant's The Wits, where Twack, an
antiquated beau, boasting of his qualifications, says
" Besides, I sing Little Musgrove ; and then
For Chevy Chase no lark comes near me."
A copy of the ballad is in the Bagford Collection, entitled " A lamentable

ballad of Little Musgrove and the Lady Barnet, to an excellent new time." It is
also in Wit restored, 1658 in Dryden's Miscellany Poems, iii. 312 (1716) and
; ;

in Percy's Reliques, series 3, book i.

The tune is the usual traditional version.

GracefuUi).

^ 22Z

As it fell out on a high holiday, As many there be in the year, When

^EE ^ ^ r ¥=^
r^ W^ T
^3 J r^J
^
:

^f
1

? r r tJ"^ r
youugmen and maids to - ge-therdo go, Their mass -es andmatinsto hear.

^ ^
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 171

THE GIPSIES' ROUND.

The tune from Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book.
Whenever gipsies are introduced in old plays, we find some allusions to their
singing, dancing, or music, and generally a variety of songs to be sung by them.
In Middleton's Spanish Gipsy, Roderigo, being invited to turn gipsy, says
"I can neither dance, nor sing; but if my pen
From my invention can strike music tunes.
My head and brains are yours."
In other words, " I think I can invent tunes, and therefore have one qualification
for a gipsy, although I cannot dance, nor sing."
By Round is here meant a country dance. Counti'y dances were formerly danced
quite as much in rounds as in parallel lines ; and in the reign of Elizabeth were
in favour at court, as well as at the May-pole. In the Talbot papers. Herald's
College, is a letter from the Earl of Worcester to the Earl of Shrewsbury, dated

Sep. 19th, 1602, in which he says, " We

are frolic here in court ; much dancing
in the privy chamber of country dances before the Queen's Majesty, who is

much pleased therewith." — (Lodge, iii. 577.)

Boldly.

^
f^
e
ft
P ^^^ ^
7)

^ffi

-8^1-
i ^^ ^
^FFF^
-•-•-•-#-

^
ISS ?Ef£
^
i
^ mi-^-i ms
^i ^
fW^^^ 3:^

THE LEGEND OF SIR GUY.

This ballad was entered to Richard Jones on Jan. 6th, 1591-2, as "A plesante
songe of the valiant actes of Guy of Warwicke, to the tune of Was ever man so

tost in love." The copy in the Bagford Collection

(p. 19) is entitled " A pleasant
song of the valiant deeds of chivalry achieved by that noble knight, Sir Guy of
Warwick, who, for the love of fair Phillis, became a hermit, and died in a cave of
172 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC,

a craggy rock, a mile distant from Warwick. Tune, Was ever man, &c." Other
copies are in the Pepys Collection ; Roxburghe, iii. 50 ; and in Percy's Reliques,
series 3, book ii.

It is quoted in Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, act ii., sc. 8 ; and in
Tlie little French Lawyer, act ii., sc. 3.

William of Nassyngton (about 1480) mentions stories of Sir Guy as usually

sung by minstrels at feasts. (See ante page 45.) Puttenham, in his Art of
Poetry, 1589, says they were then commonly sung to the harp at Christmas
dinners and bride-ales, for the recreation of the lower classes. And in Dr. King's
Dialogues of the Dead, "It is the negligence of our ballad singers that makes us to
be talked of less than others : for who, almost, besides St. G-eorge, King Arthur,
Bevis, Guy, and Hichathrift, are in the chronicles." — (Vol. i., p. 153.)
This tune is from the ballad-opera of Robin Hood, 1730, called Sir Guy.

Slow.

^ J J^ i J ^ J-

Was Guy For

^m
ever knight for la-dy's sake Sotoss'din love as I, Sir ! Phillis

WW ^
1 V* '
#

•^
fair,
.

tliat
J ^
r.
la-dy
i

'

.r.
bright
J

As
^e- ver
3:5=

man be -
^=^
held with eye.
W
She gave me

c :.; i rMr \^- ^

leave
^^'7 ^-LLi
my -
f
self to try The
'

;
E^^S^
r
M
va-liant knight with shield and spear,
r
'
r m
Ere that her

i-pH i
love she would grant me.
\
i ufttpn
Which made me ven - ture far and near.

E^
^ ^ m
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 173

LOTH TO DEPAKT.
Tune from Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, where it is arranged by Giles
Farnaby.
In Beaumont and Fletcher's Wii at several Weapons, act ii., sc. 2, Pompey
makes his exit singing Loath to depart. In Middleton's The Old Law, act iv.,
sc. 1, " The old woman is loath to depart; she never sung other tune in her life."

In the ballad of Arthur of Bradley, which exists in black-letter, and in the Anti-
dote to Melancholy, 1661, are the following lines :

" Then Will and his sweetheart

Did call for Loth to depart."

Also in Chapman's Widoiu's Tears, 1612 ; Vox Borealis, 1641; and many others.
A Loth to depart was the common term for a song sung, or a tune played, on
taking leave of friends. So in a Discourse on Marine Affairs (Harl. MSS.,
No. 1341) we find, "Being again returned into his barge, after that the trumpets
have sounded a Loathe to departe, and the barge is fallen off a fit and fair birth
and distance from the ship-side, he is to be saluted with so many guns, for an
adieu, as the ship is able to give, provided that they be always of an odd
number." — (Quoted in a note to Teonge's Diary, p. 5.) In Tarlton's Neivs out of
Piirgatory, (about 1589), "And so, with a Loath to depart, they took their
leaves " and in the old play of Damon and Pithias, when Damon takes leave,
;

saymg, " Loth am I to depart," he adds, " Music, sound my doleful plaints
"
when I am gone away," and the regals play a mourning song."
The following are the words of a round in D
enter omelia, 1609 :

" Sing with thy mouth, sing with thy heart,

Like faithful friends, sing Loath to depart;
Though friends together may not always remain,
Yet Loath to depart sing once again."
The four lines here printed to the tune, are part of a song called " Loth to
depart," in Wifs Lnterpreter, 1671. It is also in TJie Loyal Q-arland ; and, with
some alteration, in Dryden's Miscellany Poems, iv., 80. It is there attributed to
Mr. Donne.

m ^^
J.

Slow.

3 r^j tufe
a « M P^iP '^
Lie near my dear! why dost thourise? The light that shines, comes fiom thine eyes

;?FFft
s ^'^t t \

!f ^
p n W^t 'i=i
^
'Tis not the day breaks, but my heart, To think that thou and I must part

^ h
174 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

QUEEJSr ELEANOR'S CONFESSION.

This is the traditional tune to the ballad which is printed in Percy's Reliques^
of Ancient Poetry (No. 8, series ii., book 2). A copy is in the Bagford Collection,
i. 26, to be sung to "a pleasant new tune."

lE
Moderate time.

m ^^^=FJ^= ^
s
vm^
W=^
Queen Eleanor was a
r
sick

J
woman, And
^ r r-. La r ,

^^
[raid that she should die,
a-fraid die Then

she
^m
r—Tr
sent for two friars out
-

of
-
FTf^
,-

France To speak with her spee - di

d^^y ^=P^
g^^ :t

ESSEX'S LAST GOOD-NIGHT, or WELL-A-DAY.

This air is contained in Elizabeth Rogers' MS. Virginal Book (Brit. Mus.)
and in a transcript of virginal music made by Sir John Hawkins, now in the pos-

session of Dr. Rimbault. In the former it is entitled Essex's last Grood-night, and
there are but eight bars in the tune ; the latter is called Well-a-day, and consists
of sixteen bars.
The ballad of Essex's last Good-nigld is in the Pepys Collection, i. 106 ; and
Roxburghe, i. 101, and 185. In the Pepys Collection it is called "A lamentable
new ballad upon the Earl of Essex his death ; to the tune of Tlie King's last

Good-nighty In the Roxburghe, i. 101, to the tune of Essex's last Oood-night.

It is printed in Evans' Old Ballads, iii. 167 (1810) ; but, as usual, without the
name of the tune. The first verse of the Pepys copy is as follows :

" All you that cry hone [alas], hone, O !

Come now and sing Lord with me ;

For why our jewel is from us gone,
The valiant knight of chivalry.
Of rich and poor belov'd was he
In time an honorable knight ;
When by our laws condemn'd was he.
And lately took his last Good-night."

This is on the death of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex (father of Queen Eliza-
beth's favorite), who died in Dublin, in 1576. Another on the same subject, and
in the same metre, has been printed by Mr. Payne Collier, in his Extracts from
the Registers of the Stationers' Company, ii. 35 ; beginning thus :
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 175

" Lament, lament, for he is dead

Who serv'd his priuce most faithfully ;

Lament, each subject, and the head

Of this our realm of Brittany.
Our Queen has lost a soldier true ;

Her subjects lost a noble friend :

Oft for his queen his sword he drew,

And for her subjects blood did spend," &c.
The ballad of Well-a-day is entitled " A lamentable dittie composed upon the
death of Robert Lord Devereux, late Earle of Essex, who was beheaded in the
Tower of London, upon Ash Wednesday, in the morning, 1601. To the tune of
Well-a-day. Imprinted at London for Margret Allde, &c., 1603. Reprinted in
Payne Collier's Old Ballads, 124, 8vo., 1840 and in Evans', iii. 158. Copies ;

are also in the Bagford and Roxburghe Collections (i. 184) and Harl. MSS., ;

293. The first verse is here given with the tune.

The ballads to the tune of Essex's last Good-night are in quite a different metre
to those which were to be sung to Well-a-day and either the melody consisted
;

originally of but eight bars, and those bars were repeated for the last four lines

of each stanza, or else the second part differed from my copy.

Well-a-day seems to be older than the date of the death of either Earl, because,
in 1566-7, Mr. Wally had a license to print "the second Well-a-day" (Ux. Reg.
Stat., i. 151.) ;and, in 1569-70, Thomas Colwell, to print " A new Well-a-day,
As plain. Mi-. Papist, as Dunstable way."
To " sing well-away " was proverbial even in Chaucer's time ; for in the pro-
logue to the Wife of Bath's Tale, speaking of her husbands, she says (lines
5597-600) " I sette [t]hem so on werke, by my fay
That many a night thay songen weylaway.
The bacoun was nought fet for hem, I trowe.
That som men fecche in Essex at Dunmowe." *
And in the Shipman's Tale, " For I may synge alias and waylaway that I was
born." So in the Oivl and the Nightingale, one of our earliest original poems, the
owl says to the nightingale
" Thu singest a night, and noght a dai,
And al thi song is wail awai."
In the sixteenth century we find a similar passage in Nicholas Breton's Farewell
to town — " I must, ah me wretch, as I may, !

Go sing the song of Welaway."

The ballads sung to one or other of these tunes are very numerous. Among
them are
" Sir Walter Rauleigh his Lamentation," &c., " to the tune of Well-a-day.
Pepys Collection, i. Ill, b. l.
" The arraignment of the Devil for stealing away President Bradshaw." Tune,
Well-a-day, tvell-a-day. (King's Pamphlets, vol. 15, or Wright's Political
Ballads, 139.)

•^
The claiming the Flitch of Bacon at Dimmow was fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. See also a song in
a custom to which frequent allusions are made in the ReliquicE AiiiiqiK^, ii. 29.
176 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

" The story of 111 May-day, &c., and how Queen Catherine begged the lives of
2,000 London apprentices." Tune JEssex's Crood-night. {Grown Grarland of
G-olden Roses, or Evans, iii. 76.)
"The doleful death of Queen Jane, wife of Henry VIH.," &c. "Tune,
The Lamentation of the Lord of Essex. ''^
[Grown G-arland, or Evans, iii. 92.)
A Carol, to the tune of Essex's last Q-ood-night, dated 1661. (Wright's
Carols.) " All you that in this house be here,
Remember Christ that for us died ;

And spend away with modest cheer,

In loving sort this Christmas-tide," &c.

Several other tunes were named after the Earl of Essex. Li Dr. Camphuysen's
Stichtelycke Hymen (4to., Amsterdam, 1647) is one called Essex'' s Cralliard, and.
another Essex^s Lamentation. The last is the same air as What if a day, or a
month, or a year.
In The World's Folly (b.l.) a widow "would sing The Lamentatimi of a Sinner,
to the tune of Well-a-daye."
Slow.

i 3*
ES J^?=F^??^ ^
s
Sweet England's prize is gone! Well -a- day, well
ell - a-dav
a-day iTn
^1,'

^m
: 1 i i
; i t l •

^O^
f

sigh and groan E-ver - more still He did her fame advance, reland, Spain, and

J- i
J-p'J
T^^n^ m
And
gj.ru^^j-.rtp77i m
^^
by a sad mis-chance. Is from us ta'en.
France,

=f
THE FIT'S COME ON ME NOW.
This song is quoted by Valentine in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit without
money, act v., sc. 4., where a verse is printed.
One of my friends recollects his nurse singing a ballad with the burden
" I must and will get married,
The fit's upon me now."
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 177

The tune is from the seventh edition of The Dancing Master. In some later
editions it is called The Bishop of Chester's Jig, or Thefifs come on me now.

Cheerfully.

^ ^
The fit's up - on me now, The fit's up - on me now. Come

m w%
iJi%1>-J=F^

-* —
quick-ly gen
\_# * *
- tie lady,
i ^—
The
"^
fit's up
*
"

-
s
on
* -s.

me now. The
* *
world shall know
^— 1 I
-
' I

tliey 're fools.

'
— </

And

3;
r-rr-^

^m
SO T „*.
shaltthou do too, I'Let
^
1, T.1
cob-blera
w
^J
mend il— !..
their tools,
A 1„ )111
'The
m
£i>-^^^
fit's ,,„ qj,

m
..

MALL SIMS.

This favorite old dance tune Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book in Morley's
is in ;

Consort Lessons, 1599 and 1611 ; 1609 in Vallet's

in Rossiter's Consort Lessons, ;

Tahlature de Lutk, intitule Le Secret des Muses, book i., 4to., Amsterdam, 1615,
entitled " Bal Anglois, Mai Simmes ;" also in the second book of the same work,
1616 ;in Nederlandtsclie Gredench-Clank, 1626 in Camphuysen's Stichtehjcke ;

B2jmen,1647 (called "The English Echo, or Malsims"); in the Skene MS., &c.
It is most likely one of the old harpers' tunes, as it has quite the character of
harp music. In Rossiter's Consort Lessons, 1609, in which the names of the com-
posers are given to every other air, this is marked Incertus: and if imknown
then, it is probably much older than the date of the book.

In Wit Restored, 1658, is the ballad of " The Miller and the King's Daughters,"
written by Dr. James Smith, in which this tune is mentioned
" What did he doe with her two shinnes ?
Unto the violl they danc't 3Ioll Syms."
178 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

t
S
s
Pompously.

^^ w ly^ s 4=0=^
^F^^
mW 3 ^r^^
"ST ^ "T

S^^ J|j J -
^^-i3^P?
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,

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P

m m f=rl
"m

^^ p
^^^i&
/
Iff-rmTFr
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^
f p^
m
ri
22
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^
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^
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g£^f ^
H^
CRIMSON VELVET.
This tune is found in one of the Dutch collections, Friesche I/ust-Hof, by Jan
Jansz Starter, the edition printed at Amsterdam in 1634. It is called " 'Twas a
youthful Knight, which loved a galjant Lady," which is the first line of the
ballad of " Constance of Cleveland: to the tune of Crimson Velvet.''^ The
ballad is in the Roxburghe Collection, iii. 94, and in Collier's Roxburghe
Ballads, p. 163.
The tune of Crimson Velvet was, as Mr. Collier remarks, " highly popular in
the reigns of Elizabeth and her successor." Among the ballads that were sung
to it, are " The lamentable complaint ofQueen Mary, for the unkind departure of
;
King Philip, in whose absence she fell sick and died " beginning
" Mary doth complain,
Ladies, be you moved
my lamentations
"S^'ith

And my bitter groans," &c.

A copy in the Crown Garland of Golden Roses (reprint of edit, of 1659, p. 69).
" An excellent ballad of a prince of England's courtship to the King of
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 179

France's daughter, and liow the prince was disasterously slain; and how the
was afterwards married to a forrester ; " commencing
aforesaid princess
" In the daj's of old,
When fair France did flourish," &c.
Copies in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 102, the Bagford, the Pepys, Deloney's

^
G-arland of good-will, and Percy's Reliques, series iii., book 2, 16.
The following is the ballad of " Constance of Cleveland."

^^^^^r^-f^'^^T'-^m
Slow.

m
It was
a youth-ful knight Lov'd a gal-lant la-dy, Fair she was and bright,
Her-self she did be - have, So courteously as maybe, Wedded they were, brave;

W=¥^.
=3= ^ m
First time.

i ^i Second time.

-^ ^ ^
And of vir - tues rare. Joy with -out com - pare. Here be gan the grief,
-
Wo - men lewd of mind.

m±
^ ^
^1^
m
j^ ife
^ ^
Pain with - out re - lief ; Her husband soon her love for - sook, To
Be - ing bad in-clin'd. He on - ly lent a plea - sant look. The

ES ff
w- ^
-r;
43=5
tt
—
s
T
1-

"
lAv
^ ^^'® ^^^
-^'''^
* • *
Ji
weeping, While that he was keeping
I^ \
^in 13
Company with others moe. Her
[more]

e
^^ irV-LL^

^^
"Z?- r r

» • * * — ^ ^
words ^y ^°^^' ^'^"^'^^^ "°t> Come to me, and grieve not; Wantons will thee o- ver-throw.

*i i ^r- ?^^
180 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

His fair lady's words Refusing me, your loving wife,

Nothing lie regarded For an harlot's sake.
Wantonness affords, Which each one will take ;

To some, delightful sport Whose vile deeds provoke much strife.

While they dance and sing, Many can accuse her,

With great mirth prepared. O, my love, refuse her.

She her hands did wring With thy lady home return ;

In most grievous sort. Her flatteries believe not.

Oh what hap had I,
! Come to me and grieve not;
Thus to wail and cry, Wantons will thee overthrow."
Unrespected every day.
Living in disdain, All in a fury then

While that others gain The angry knight upstarted.

All the right I should enjoy !

Very furious when
I am left forsaken,
He heard his lady's speech

Others they are taken

With many bitter terms
;

Ah my love why dost thou so ?

!
His wife he ever thwarted.
Her flatteries helieve not. Using hard extremes
Come to me and grieve not While she did him beseech.
Wantons will thee overthrow. From her neck so white
He tookaway in spite
The knight, with his fair piece. Her curious chain of purest gold :

At length the lady spied. Her jewels and her rings.

Who did him daily fleece And all such costly things.
Of his wealth and store As he about her did behold
Secretly she stood, The harlot, in her presence.
While she her fashions tiyed He did gently reverence.
With a patient mind ;
And to her he gave them all.
While deep the strumpet swore : He sent away his lady.
" O sir knight," quoth she, Full of woe as may be.
"So dearly I love thee. Who in a swound with grief did fall.

My life doth rest at thy dispose.

By day, and eke by night. At the lady's wrong
For thy sweet delight The harlot fleer'd and laughed
Thou shalt me in thy arms enclose Enticements are so strong,
;

I am thine for ever, They overcome the wise :

Still I will persever, The knight nothing regarded

True to thee where'er I go." To see the lady scoff'ed
Her flatteries believe not. Thus she was rewarded
Come to me and grieve not; For her enterprise.

Wantons will thee overthrow. The harlot all this space

Did him oft embrace
The virtuous lady mild She flatters him, and thus doth say
Enters then among them. " For thee I'll die and live,
Being big with child For thee my faith I'll give.
As ever she might be ;
No woe shall work my love's decay;
With distilling tears Thou shalt be my treasure.
She looked then upon them, Thou shalt be my pleasure,
FilledJuH of fears. Thou shalt be my heart's delight
Thus replyed she I will be thy darling,
" Ah, my love and dear. I will be thy worldling.
Wherefore stay you here, In despite of fortune's spite."
 IIEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 181

Thus did he remain And pardon my poor husband's life;

In wasteful great expences, Else I am undone,
Till it bred his pain, With my little son,
And consum'd him quite. Let mercy mitigate this grief."
When his lands were spent, " Lady fair, content thee.
Troubled in his senses. Soon thou wouldst repent thee
Then he did repent If he should be saved so ;

Of his late lewd life ;

Sore he hath abus'd thee,
For relief he hies, Sore he hath misus'd thee,
For relief he flies Therefore, lady, let him go."
To them on whom he spent his gold;
" O, my liege," quoth she,
They do him deny.
" Grant your gracious favour;
They do him defy.
They will not once his face behold.
Dear he is to me.
Being thus distressed.
Though he did me wrong."
Being thus oppressed. The king replied again.
In the fields that night he lay With a stern behaviour,
;

Which the harlot knowing.

" A subject he hath slain.

Through her malice growing, Die, he shall, ere long :

Sought to take his life away. Except thou canst find

Any one so kind
A young and proper lad That will die and set him free."
They had slain in secret " Noble king," she said,
For the gold he had ;
" Glad am I apaid,
Whom they did convey. That same person wUl I be.
By a ruffian lewd. I will suffer duly,
To that place directly. I will suffer truly,

Where the youthful knight For my love and husband's sake."

Fast a sleeping lay The king thereat amazed.
The bloody dagger, then, Though he her beauty praised, [take.
Wherewith they kill'd the man. He bade from thence they should her
Hard by the knight he likewise laid
Sprinklhig him with blood, Itwas the king's command,
As be thought it good,
On
the morrow after.

And then no longer there he stay'd. She should out of hand

The knight, being so abused,
To the scaffold go ;

Was forthwith accused

Her husband was
For this murder which was done To bear the sword before her
And he was condemned He must, eke alas !

That had not offended. Give the deadly blow.

Shameful death he might not shun. He refus'd the deed,
She bade him to proceed
When the lady bright With a thousand kisses sweet.
Understood the matter, In this woeful case
That her wedded knight They did both embrace
Was condemned to die, Which mov'd the ruffians in that place
To the king she went Straight for to discover
With all the speed that might be. This concealed murder
Where she did lament Whereby the lady saved was.
Her hard destiny. The harlot then was hanged.
" Noble king," quoth she, As she well deserved :

" Pity take on me, This did virtue bring to pass.

182 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

WALKING IN A COUNTRY TOWN.

The tune from Robinson's ScJioole of Musicke, 1603, called Walking in a
country town. In the Roxburghe Collection,i. 412, is a ballad beginning
" Walking in a meadow green," and, from the similarity of the lines, and the
measure of the verse so exactly suiting the air, I infer this to be the tune of both.
The latter was printed by John Trundle, at the sign of the Nobody in Barbican,
rendered famous by Ben Jonson, who in his Every man in his Humour, makes
Rnowell say, " Well, if he read this with patience, I'll ' go,' and troll ballads for
Master John Trundle yonder, the rest of my mortality."
It is entitled " The two Leicestershire Lovers to the tune of : And yet methinks
I love thee." The first stanza is here printed to the music.
The last line of the verse is, "Upon the meadow brow," and Tlie meadow brow
is often quoted as a tune. So in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 92, or Colliers's
Roxburghe Ballads, p. 1, is " Death's Dance" (beginning, "If Death would come
and shew his face"), " to be sung to a pleasant new tune called no, no, no, not
yet, or TJie meadow brow." And Bishop Corbet's song, " Farewell, rewards and
" to be sung or whistled to the tune TJie meddoiv broiv by the learned
fairies," is

by the unlearned, to the tune of Fortune." (Percy, series iii., book 2.) All
might be sung to this time.

i ^
^3E
^
Slou

r
i *
—

^ '^T
FH=1
•^
iS
y^\Y

V"
-^
in a

^^r=T ^m
meadow green, For

i=h
^
recre -a-tion's sake,

^ To drive

£
a-way some

I
?
m
sad thoughts That sorrow-ful did me make, I spied two love ly lo - vers, Did

^^^ I f r r
i

n
g
j^i n-JT'l"^ i

J J , ^
j^- ^^ l-^-p^
|8- : • ir
hear each o - ther's woe, To 'point a place of meet - ing Up - on the meadow brow.

-^ e£
S
PHILLIDA FLOUTS ME.
In The Croivn Garland of Golden Hoses, 1612, is " short and sweet sonnet A
made by one of the Maides of Honor upon the death of Queene Elizabeth, which
she sowed upon a sampler, in red silke: to a new tune, or Phillida flouts me;"
beginning " Gone is Elizabeth,
^'STiom we have lov'd so dear," &c.
 EEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 183

Patrick Carey also wrote a ballad to the tune of Pliillida jkuts me ; beginning
" Ned she that likes thee now,
I

Next week will leave thee !

It is contained in his " Trivial Poems and Triolets, written in obedience to

Mrs. Tomkin's commands, 20th August, 1651." In Walton's Angler, 1653, the
Milkwoman asks, " What song was it, I pray ? Was it Come, shepherds, deck
your heads, or As at noon Didcina rested, or Phillida me ? " flouts
The me is in the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 142, and
ballad oi Phillida flouts in
the same volume, p. 24, " The Bashful Virgin, or The Secret Lover tune : of
I am so deep in love, or Little boy, &c." It begms
" what a plague it is

To be a lover
Being denied the bliss

For to discover," &c.

This appears to be also to the air of Phillida flouts me, although the first line of
that ballad is " Oh what a plague is love," not " I am so deep in love."
!

The words and music are in Watts' ii. 132 (1729), and an
Musical Miscellany,
answer, beginning, " where's the plague in love." The tune is also in many of
the ballad-operas, such as The Quaker'' s Opera, 1728 ; Love in a Riddle, 1729 ;

Damon a?id Phillida, 1734, &c.

Ritson printed the words in his Ancient Songs, from a copy in The Theatre of
Compliments, or Neiv Academy, 1689, but did not discover the tune.
Slowly and gracefully.

O what a plague is love I can -not bear it; It so tor-

^
!

She will in - constant prove I great -ly fear it: She wa - vers

W=¥^
^
S
*c:
S n
mentsmy mind, Thatmy
Thatmj heart fail - eth ;
pi,^^, j,„ j,,, ^est I may, She loves still
'
with the wind As a ship sail - eth.ftB

—
f !iM If f.
#
^dxnrii

Ry?
^
to gain-say. A-lack, and well a-day ! Phil - Ii - da flouts me.

3^
184 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

At the fair t'other day, Pye-lid, and pastry-crust,

As she pass'd by me. Pears, plums, and cherries ;

She look'd another way, Thy garments shall be thin.

And would not spy me. Made of a wether's skin ;

I woo'd her for to dine, Yet all's not worth a pin

But could not get her Phillida flouts me.

Dick had her to the Vine, Which way soe'er I go,

He might intreat her. She still torments me ;

With Daniel she did dance, And, whatsoe'er I do.

On me she would not glance ;
Nothing contents me
Oh, thrice unhappy chance !
I fade, and pine away
Phillida flouts me.
With grief and sorrow
Fair maid, be not so coy, I fall quite to decay,
Do not disdain me ;
Like any shadow
I am my mother's joy ;
I shall be dead, I fear,

Sweet, entertain me. Within a thousand year,

I shall have, when she dies, And all because my dear
All things that's fitting Phillida flouts me.

Her poultry and her bees.

Fair maiden, have a care,
And her goose sitting And in time take me
A pair of mattrass beds, I can have those as fair,
A barrel full of shreds If you forsake me ;

And yet, for all these goods, There's Doll, the dairy-maid,
Phillida flouts me. Smil'd on me lately,
I often heard her say. And wanton Winifred
That she lov'd posies Favours me greatly
In the last month of May One throws milk on my clothes,

I gave her roses. T'other plays with my nose

Cowslips and gilly-flowers. What pretty toys are those !

And the sweet lily, Phillida flouts me.

I got to deck the bow'rs

She has a cloth of mine,
Of my dear Philly.
Wrought with blue Coventry,
She did them all disdain,
Which she keeps as a sign
And threw them back again
Of my fidelity
Therefore 'tis flat and plain
But if she frowns on me.
Phillida flouts me.
She shall ne'er wear it
Thou shalt eat curds ond cream I'll give it my maid Joan,

All the year lasting. And she shall tear jt.

And drink the ciystal stream. Since 'twill no better be,

Pleasant in tasting : I'll bear it patiently ;

Swig whey until you burst, Yet, all the world may see,

Eat bramble-berries. Phillida flouts me.

LADY, LIE NEAR ME.

This ballad is entitled " The longing Shepherdess, or Lady " pLiaddy] " lie

near me." Copies are in the Pepys Collection, iii., 59, and Douce, p. 119, &c.
It is also in the list of ballads that were printed by W. Thackeray, at the Angel,
in Duck Lane.
The tune (which bears a strong resemblance to Phillida flouts me) is in The
Dancing Master, from the first edition in 1650, to the eighth in 1690.
 EEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 185

In Ritson's North Country Chorister there is another ballad, called " Laddy, lie
near me" (beginning, "As I walked over hills, dales, and high mountains") and ;

in1793 Mr. George Thomson gave Burns a tune of that name, to wi-ite words to,

which is now included in Scotch Collections. It differs wholly from this.

Slowly and gracefully. ^^^^^^

lirfej
All in the month
otith of May, W
When all things bios - som, As in my

.y.i\ J .£^
=fr=*
I "
'

f g '
^ ? ^^
S m ^s
bed I lay, Sleep it grew loath - some. Up I rose, and did walk O - ver yon

? r^^"^ ^ • 1

^
t:u^^-^
1

^ ^T f
— =§
mountains Through meadows and through
^ ^-^f dales,
'
Mf-'Tp
Over rocks and foun-tains; I heard a

S ^

m
p

voice to sing, Sweetheart,

i j
Ij
come cheer me, Thou
J
f
B •

P^W
hast been long away, Lady, lie near me.

rr^ 1
.
1
J"l'
g_y ^^
MILL-FIELD.

In the collection of ballads and proclamations in the library of the Society of

Antiquaries is one by W. Elderton, entitled " A new ballad, declaring the great

treason conspii-ed against the young King of Scots, and how one Andrew Browne,
an Englishman, which was the King's Chamberlaine, prevented the same. To the
tune of Milfield, or els to Greene sleeves." It was printed by " Yarathe James,"
to whom was licensed on 30th May, 1581.
it

The tuneis in The Dancing Master from 1650 to 1658. The ballad in Percy's

Beliques, series ii., book 2, No. 16. The first stanza is here mth the music.
186 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Gracefully.

i
S
^ * fii

Out,
^^^A t^^^
a- las! what grief is this,
--

That princes' subjects cannot be true; But

FRgfF
±s-
n
;/7-;|
^
J
^t
still the Devil hath some of his Will play their parts what- e'er en - sue.

^ ^

For - get-ting what a

u
grievous thing It is to of - fend
^
th'
f-
a- nointed
^
•
*
-r
king. A
3^E

Efe ^^^

las ! for woe, why

$ i
should it be
^
so ? This makes a sor row - ful heigh ho
•^
f

THE SPANISH LADY.

^ '

Dr. Percy says, " this beautiful old ballad most probably took its rise from one
of those descents made on the Spanish Queen Elizabeth
coasts in the time of
and, in all likelihood, from the taking of the city of Cadiz (called by our sailors,
corruptly. Gales), on June 21, 1596, mider the command of the Lord Howard,
admiral, and of the Earl of Essex, general."
The question as to who was the favored lover, has been fully discussed; it may
therefore be sufficient here to refer the reader to Tlie Edinhnrgh Revieiv for April,
1846 Tlie Times newspapers of April 30, and
; May 1, 1846 ; and The Quarterly
Review for October, 1846.
The ballad is quoted in Cupid's Wliirligig, 1616, and parodied in Rowley's
A Match at Midnight, 1633. In the Douce Collection, ii. 210 and 212, there
are two copies, the one " to a pleasant new tune " the other (which is of later
;

date) to the tune of Flying Fame ; but could not be sung to that air. In the
same volume, p. 254, is " The Westminster Wedding, or Carlton's Epithalamium,"
(dated 1663) : to the tune of Tlie Spanish Lady. It commences thus
"Will you hear a German Princess,
How she chous'd an English Lord," &c.
 REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 187

The tune is contained in the Skene MS., and in several of the ballad-operas,
such as The Quaker's Opera, 1728 ; Tlie Jovial Crew, 1731, &c.
The words are found in Tlie Garland of Grood-will, and in several of the cele-
brated collections of ballads; also in Percy's Reliques, series ii., book 2.
y Slow.

^SE r-:

Will you hear

ij
I f-
^=^fTT~r ^
a Span-ish la - dy, How she wooed an
^ English

rr gjnrf
iEt m P
4=
-*
man?
^—^
Garments gay,
i
j
--^-—t-r
.^n-i ^j.n
and rich as
.

may be,
.

Deck'd with Jew

^W - els
.
she had

m ^^^m
^^^^^^^^
on. Ofacome-ly countenanceandgracewas she, Andbybirthand pa-rentage of high de-gree.
s
g^
THE JOVIAL TINKER, or JOAN'S ALE IS NEW.
On the 26th Oct., 1594, John Danter entered on the books of the Stationers'
Company, " for his copie, a ballet intituled Jone's ale is
;
newe " and on the
15th Nov., of the same year, Edward White one called " The unthrifte's adieu
to Jone's aleis newe."

In Ben Jonson's Tale of a tub, " old father Rosin, chief minstrel of Highgate,
and his two boys " play the dances called for by the company, which are " Tom
Tiler; The jolly Joiner ; and TJie jovial Tinker." The burden of the song called
"The jovial Tinker" is "Joan's ale is new." ("Tom Tiler" is one of the
country dances mentioned in Heywood's A woman IdWd loith kindness.) In the
Mad Pranks and merry Jests of Rolin Croodfellow, 1628, there is a song to the
tune of The jovial Tinker, which has a burden or chorus of four lines, unsuited to
this air, although the song itself could be sung to it. As tinkers were so famous
in song, there was probably another tune called TJie jovial Tinker. " He that a
tinker, a tinker will be," is one of the catches in the Antidote to Melancholy, 1661;
" Tom Tinker lives a is in Davenant's play, The Benefice ; " Have
merry life,"

you any work Wit and Drollery, 1661 and Ben Jonson says,
for a tinker," in ;

in Paris'' Anniversary, " Here comes the tinker I told you of, with his kettle-
drum before and after, a master of music."
188 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The song of Joan's ale is new is in the Douce Collection, p. 110. It is in the
listof those printed by W. Thackeray, at the Angel in Duck Lane, in the reign
of Charles II. ; and is in both editions of Pills to purge Melancholy, with the
tune.— (Ed. iii. 133
of 1707, or ed. of 1719, v. 61.) ;

The copy Douce Collection consists of thirteen stanzas, and has the
in the
following lengthy title " Joan's ale is new or a new merry medley, sh'ewing
: ;

the power, the strength, the operation, and the vu-tue that remains in good ale,
which is accounted the mother-di-ink of England."
" All you that do this merry ditty view,
Taste of Joan's ale, for it is strong and new, &:c."
" To a pleasant new Northern tune."

m
^w^
Cheerfully.

't^
^m
aa?iF
aE5^
There was a jo - vial tin - ker, Who

^
was °

i T\i U 4 ^tf * • *

drink - er, He ne - ver was a shrink -er, Be - lieve me, this is true.

^^^^^
^
And he came
m4^tH from the Weald of Kent,
?=^
When all
* — m
hismoney was gone andspent, Which

^ ?^
f-l f r

ade him look like a Jack - a - lent.

>

And
<
^^^
Joan's ale is new, And

; ^ r f
nP^
i^ m ^^3^ m 9^ • ^m
Joan's ale is new, my boys, And Joan's ale is

^ i'
Mr r
r
-£.
%
 , REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 189

The tinker he did settle The cobhler and the broom-man

Most like a man of mettle, Came up into the room, man,
And vovv'd to pawn his kettle ;
And said they would drink for boon, man,
Now mark what did ensue Let each one take his due
His neighbours they flock in apace. But when the liquor good they found.
To see Tom Tinker's comely face. They cast their caps upon the ground,
Where they drank soundly for a space. And so the tinker he drank round,
Whilst Joan's ale, &c. Whilst Joan's ale, &c.

In anothei' volume in the Douce Collection, p. 180, is an answer to the

above, to the same tune. It is the " The poet's new year's gift or a pleasant ;

poem in praise of sack : setting forth its admu-able vii-tues and qualities, and how
much it is to be preferred before all other sorts of liquors, &c. To the tune of
The jovial Tinker, or Tom a Bedlam;" commencing
" Come hither, learned sisters,
And leave Parnassus mountain
I will you tell where is a well
Doth far exceed your fountain," &c.

UNDER AND OVER.

This is the same air as the preceding, but in a minor instead of a major key.
It is in every edition of TJie Dancing Master, under the name of Under and over;
but in a MS. volume of virginal music, formerly in the possession of Mr. Windsor,
of Bath, it is entitled A man had three sons.
The ballad of Under and over is in the Pepys Collection, i. 264, b.l., as "A new
little Northern Song, called
" Under and over, over and under.
Or a pretty new jest aud yet no wonder
" Or a maiden mistaken, as many now be.
View well this glass, and you may plainly see."
" To a pretty new Northern tune."
It is very long, full of typographical errors, and devoid of merit ; I have
therefore only printed the first verse with the music.
In the same volume are the following :
" Rocke the babie, Joane : to the tune
of Under and over," p. 396 ; beginning
" A
young man in our parish,
His wife was somewhat currish," &c.

And commencing
at p. 404, another,
" There was a country gallant.
That wasted had his talent," &c.
In the Roxburghe, iii. 176, " Rock the cradle, John
Let no man at this strange story wonder,
It goes to the tune of Over and underT

And in the same Collection, i. 411, " The Times' Abuses ; to the tune of Over and
under; commencing
'•'
Attend, my masters, and give ear," &c.
The last is also printed in Collier's Boxhunjhe Ballads, p. 281.
190 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

^
ie^
Cheerfully.

^^
As abroad was walk heard two vers

^
ilk - ing, I lo -
As a mea - dow turn
rn Up on a sura mer's

^m
- ins:, - -

^ ^^ T rr^
|
J-j ^\aU^^^ h^
r^r
talk - ing One to an - o - tlier speaking, Of lo - vers' con - stan - cy.
morn - ing, I heard these lo - vers mourning 'Cause of love's cru - el - ty.

im #
? ^
For
ftK^M^ =F
under and o - ver, over and un
S ^ ^p
- der,
tzz*
Un-der and o - ver a

IF
- gain.
¥^ Quoth she, sweetheart, I
r
c 'r -^
love thee,
-

As
I

f-:
maidens
r
should love
g
'
^-^
men.

u
^
THE OXFORDSHIRE TRAGEDY.
This is one of the old and simple chaunt-like ditties, which seem to have been
peculiarly suited to the lengthy narratives of the minstrels ; and I am strongly
impressed with a belief that it was one of theh' tunes. It has very much the same
character as Sir Quy, which I met with in another of the ballad operas, and
which —the entry at Stationers' Hall proving to be earlier than 1592 —^may be
fairly supposed to be the air used, by the class of minstrel described by Puttenham,
in singing the adventures of Sir Guy, at feasts. See page 172.
I have seen no earlier copy of The Oxfordshire Tragedy, than an edition
" printed and sold in Bow Church- Yard," in which the name of the tune is not
mentioned. The ballad is in four parts, the third and fourth of which, being in

a different metre, must have been sung to another air.

*' As I walk'd forth to take the air," is the second line of the first part,

and a tune is often referred to under that title. As the measures agree, it may
be a second name for this air.

In the Douce Collection, 44, is a black-letter ballad of " Cupid's Conquest, or

 KEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 191

Will the Shepherd and fair Kate of the Green, hoth united together in pure love
to the tune, As J went forth to take the air j-" commencing,
" Now am I tost on waves of love
;

Here like a ship that's under sail," &c.

and in the Eoxburge, ii. 149, " The faithful lovers of the West : tune, AsIwalU
forth to take the air."
In Mr. Payne Collier's Collection, is " The unfortunate Sailor's Garland, with
an account how his parents murdered him for love of his gold." It is in two
parts, and hoth to the tune of Tlie Oxfordshire Tragedy. After four lines of
exordium, it begins thus :

" Near Bristol liv'd a man of fame,

But I'll forbear to tell his name ;

He
had one son and daughter bright,
In whom he took a great delight," &c.
Another Garland, called " The cruel parents, or the two faithful lovers," is to

the tune of The Oxfordshire Lady, and in the same metre.

The tune of The Oxfordshire Tragedy is in Tlie Cobblers' Opera, 1729, Tlie
Village Opera, 1729, and Sylvia, or

^
ra=
s

^^
Slow.

NearWoodstocktown,in
m
m^
Ox-ford -
w
shire.

_-^. N
^^
The Country Burial, 1731.

As I walk'd forth to take the

tflpf
air.

To view
fVr^-^Ttt^^W ^
the fields and meadows round, Methoughtl heard a dreadful sound.

Mi

A
^
Down by
gallant
a crystal river side,
bower I espied,
^
To me
Fair, beauteous,
EE
these words he often said:
handsome, comely maid.
Where a fair lady made great moan. Oh ! pity me, I do implore.
With many a bitter sigh and groan. For it is you I do adore.

Alas ! quoth she, my love's unkind, He still did beg me to be kind,

My sighs and tears he will not mind And ease his love-tormented mind;
But he is cruel unto me, For if, said he, you should deny,
Which causes all my misery. For love of you I soon shall die.
My father is a worthy knight. These words did pierce my tender heart,
My mother is a lady bright, I soon did yield, to ease his smart
And 1 their only child and heir And unto him made this reply,
Yet love has brought me to despair. For love of me you shall not die.

A wealthy squire lived nigh, With that he flew into my arms.

Who on my beauty cast an eye And swore I had a thousand charms
He courted me, both day and night. He call'd me angel, saint, and he
To be his jewel and delight. Did swear, for ever true to be.
192 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Soon he had gain'd my heart,

after With dying groans and grievous cries,
He cruelly did from me part As tears were flowing through her eyes.
Another maid he does pursue, did once appear.
The beauty which
And to his vows he bids adieu.
On her sweet cheeks, so fair and clear.
he that makes my heart lament,
'Tis —
Was waxed pale, her life was fled ;

He causes all my discontent He heard, at length, that she was dead.

He hath caus'd my sad despair, He was not sorry in the least.
And now occasions this my care.
But cheerfully resolv'd to feast;
The lady round the meadow run. And quite forgot her beauty bright.
And gather'd flowers as they sprung Whom he so basely ruin'd quite.
Of every sort she there did pull.
Now, when, alas ! this youthful maid.
Until she got her apron full.
Within her silent tomb was laid,

Now, there's a flower, she did say. The squire thought that all was well.
Is named heart's-ease night and day, ;
He should in peace and quiet dwell.
I wish I could that flower find.
Soon after this he was possest
For to ease my love-sick mind.
With various thoughts, that broke his rest
But oh ! alas ! 'tis all in vain Sometimes he thought her groans he heard.
For me to sigh, and to complain Sometimes her ghastly ghost appear'd
There's nothing that can ease my smart.
With a sad visage, pale and grim.
For his disdain will break my heart.
And ghastly looks she cast on him
The green ground served as a bed.
He often started back and cried,
And flow'rs a pillow for her head go myself to hide ?
Where shall I
She laid her down and nothing spoke,
for love her heart was broke. Here I am haunted, night and day.
Alas !

Sometimes methinks I hear her say,

But when I found her body cold, Perfidous man ! false and unkind.
I went to her false love, and told Henceforth you shall no comfort find.
What unto her had just befel
I'm glad, said he, she is so well. If through the fields I chance to go,
Where she receiv'd her overthrow,
Did she think I so fond could be. Methinks I see her in despair;-
That I could fancy none but she ?
And, if at home, I meet her there.
Man was not made for one alone
I take delight to hear her moan. No place is free of torment now
Alas ! broke a solemn vow
I
Oh wicked man I find thou art.
Which once I made but now, at
!

;
last,
Thus to break a lady's heart
It does my worldly glory blast.
In Abraham's bosom may she sleep.
While thy wicked soul doth weep Since my unkindness did destroy

THE ANSWER. My dearest love and only joy.

A second part, I bring you here.

My wretched life must ended be.
Now must I die and come to thee.
Of the fair maid of Oxfordshire,
Who lately broke her heart for love His rapier from his side he di-ew.

Of one, that did inconstant prove. And pierced his body thro' and thro'
So he dropt down in purple gore
A youthful squire, most unjust.
Just where she did some time before.
When he beheld this lass at first,
A thousand solemn vows he made, He buried was within the grave
And so her yielding heart betray 'd. Of his true love. And thus you have
She mourning, broke her heart, and died. A sad account of his hard fate.

Feeling the shades on every side Who died in Oxfordshire of late.

The third and fourth parts present a similar story, in different metre : but

it is the lady's cruelty which causes the first suicide.

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 193

PUT ON THY SMOCK ON MONDAY.

This is mentioned as a country dance tune in Heywood's A Woman MWd with
Kindness, act i., sc. 2; and alluded to in Fletcher's Lovers Cure, act ii., so. 2.

It is contained in the fom-th, fifth, and later editions of The Dancing Master.
Moderate time.

^^ £: ^ ^ ^
*
dE
' . ^

# ^ ^
^^^lJ.J-^^=^
-F=^=^ ^ 7==^ 13 r>i

DRIVE THE COLD WINTER AWAY.

This is the burden of a song in praise of Chi'istmas, copies of which are in the
Pepys (i. 186) and Roxburghe (i. 24) Collections. It is entitled " A pleasant
countrey new ditty: merrily shewing how to drive the cold winter away. To
the tune of WIten Phmbus did rest" " &c. ; by H[enry]
black-letter, printed
G[osson]. It is one of those parodied in Andro Hart's Oompendinm of Crodly
Songs. " The wind blawis cald, furious and bald,
This lang and mony a day
But, Christ's mercy, we mon all die,

Or keep the cald wind away.

This wind sa keine, that I of meine,
It is the vyce of auld
Our faith is inelusit, and plainely abusit,
This wind he's blawin too cald," &c.
Scottish Poems qfl&th Century, ii. 177, 8vo., 1801.
The tune is in every edition of The Dancing Master ; in MusicFs Delight on
the Cithren, 1666; and in Walsh's Dancing Master: also in both editions of

Pills purge Melancholy, with an abbreviated copy of the words.

to

In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 518, is a ballad entitled " Hang pinching ; or

The good fellow's observation 'mongst a jovial crew, of them that hate flinch-
;''
ing, but are always true blue. To the tune of Drive the cold luinter away
commencing — " All you that lay claim to a good fellow's name,
And yet do not prove yourselves so,

Give ear to this tiling, the which I will sing.

Wherein I most plainly will shew
" A song beginning "When Phoebus addrest liis course not prepared to die." By that name it is quoted in J.
to the West," will be' found in Merry Drotleri/ Complete, Starter's Boerligheden, quarto, Amsterdam, 1634, where
Part ii., 1G6I; also in Wii and Drollery, Jorial Poems. the tune is also printed.
The burden is, " O do not, do not kill me yet, for I am
194 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

^Yith proof and good ground, those fellows profound,

That unto the alewives are true,
• In drinking their drink, and paying their chink,
such a good fellow's true Hue."
Sometimes a tune named True Hue is quoted, and perhaps from this ballad. It is
subscribed W. B., and printed for Thomas Lambert, at the sign of the Horse
Shoe, in Smithfield. Lambert was a printer of the reigns of James and Charles I.
Li the Pepys Collection, i. 362, is another black-letter ballad, entitled " The

father hath beguil'd the son : Or a wonderful tragedy which lately befell in Wilt-
many men know "
shu-e, as full well ; to the tune of Drive the cold winter away ;

beginning — " I often have known, and experience hath shown.

That a spokesman hath wooed for himself,
And that one rich neighbour will, underhand, labour
To overthrow another with pelf," &c.
Other ballads to the tune will be found in the Roxburghe Collection (i. 150 and
160, &c.) ; in the King's Pamphlets, and the Collection of Songs against the
Rump Parliament; in Wright's Political Songs; in Moch Songs, 1676 in Evans' ;

Collection, i. 349, &c.

Boldly and not too fast. , Song in praise of Christmas.

F=^^ ^"g^
All hail to the days that
fc
me-rit more praise Than all
^ =i=

the rest of the

^P year. And

E^ PFF
V^yb ,
fi * Ei^

UP^) ; i l
Jf^
welcome the nights that dou-ble delights. As well for the poor as the peer!

UT—r'^

Good fortunee attend each merry man's friend,

friend. That dothbutthebestthathe may ;
For -

P ^ -. ^ -.

^ -a-M-

-get-ting old wrongs, with

=P
ca -
^^
rols and songs. To
J:iiU^.i
drive the cold win-ter a- way.

i iN—g-
4=^\^ e£
t^
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 195

Let Misery pack, with a whip at his back, Old gpudges forgot, are put in the pot,
To tlie deep Tantalian flood ;
All sorrows aside they lay.
In Letlie profound, let envy be drown'd, The old and the young doth carol his song.
That pines at another man's good ;
To drive the cold winter away.
Let Sorrow's expanse be banded from hence.
Sisley and Nanny, more jocund than any.
All payments of grief delay,
As blithe as the month of June,
And wholly consort with mirth and with sport
Do carol and sing, like birds of the Spring,
To drive. the cold winter away.
(No nightingale sweeter in tune)
'Tis ill for a mind to anger inclin'd To bring in content, when summer is spent,
To think of old injuries now ; In pleasant delight and play, [year.
If wrath be to seek, do not lend her thy cheek, With mirth and good cheer, to end the old
Nor let her inhabit thy brow. And drive the cold winter away.
Cross out of thy books malevolent looks,
Both beauty and youth's decay. The shepherd and swain do highly disdain

And spend the long nights in honest delights, To waste out their time in care.
To drive the cold winter away. And Clira of the Clough' hath plenty enough
If he but a penny can spare,
The court in all state now opens her gate, To spend at the night in joy and delight.
And bids a free Welcome to most;
Now after his labours all day.
The city likewise, tho' somewhat precise. For better than lands is the help of his hands,
Doth willingly part with her cost:
To drive the cold winter away.
And yet by report, from city and court.
The country will gain the day To mask and to mum kind neighbours will

More liquor is spent, and with better content. With wassails of nut-brown ale, [cou.e
To drive the cold winter away. To drink and carouse to all in the house.
As merry as bucks in the dale
Our good gentry there, for cost do not spare.
Where cake, bread and cheese, is brought for
The yeomanry fast not till Lent ;
»
To make you the longer stay [your fees.
The farmers, and such, think nothing too much. ;

At the fire to warm will do you no harm,

If they keep but to pay for their rent.
To drive the cold winter away.
The poorest of all do merrily call.

When at a fit place they can stay. When Christmas's tide comes in like a bride.
For a song or a tale, or a pot of good ale, With holly and ivy clad,
To drive the cold winter away. Twelve days in the year, much mirth and
Thus none will allow of solitude now, In every household is had [good cheer.
;

But merrily greets the time. The country guise is then to devise
To make it appear, of all the whole year, Some gambols of Christmas play,
That this is accounted the prime Whereat the young men do best that they can.
December is seen apparel'd in green, To drive the cold winter away.

And January, fresh as May, When white-bearded frost hath threatened his
Comes dancing along, with a cup and a song,
And fallen from branch and brier, [worst,
To drive the cold winter away. Then time away calls, from husbandry halls
THE SECOND PART. And from the good countryman's fire.

This time of the year is spent in good cheer. Together to go to plough and to sow.

And neighbours together do meet. To get us both food and array ;

To by the fire, with friendly

sit desire. And thus with content the time we have spent
Each other in love to greet To drive the cold winter away.

" For tile support and encouragement of the tishing *• Clim of the Clough means Clement of the Cleft. The
towns, in the time of Elizabeth, "Wednesdays and Fridays name is derived from a noted archer, once famous in the

were constantly observed as fast days, or days of absti- north of England. See the old ballad, Adam Bdl, Clim of
nence from flesh. This was by the advice of her minister, ilie Clough, and William of Cloudesty, printed by Bp. Percy.

Cecil and by the vnlgar it was generally called Cecil's

; A Clougk is a sloping valley, breach, or Cleft, from the
Fast. See Warburton's and Blakeway's notes in Boswell's side of a hill, where trees or furze usually grow.
edition of Shakespeare, x. 49 and 50.
196 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

UP, TAILS ALL.

This tune is Queen Elizabeth's Virgmal Book, and in Tlie Dancing Master
in
from 1650 to 1690. It is alluded to m Sharpham's Fleire, 1610: " She every
day sings John for the King, and at ZTp, tails all, she's perfect." Also in Ben
Jonson's Ever^J man out of his humour; in Beaumont and Fletcher's Coxcomb;
Vanbrugh's Provoked Wife, &c.
There are several political songs of the Cavaliers to this air, in the King's
Pamphlets (Brit. Mus.) in the Collection of Songs wi'itten against the Rump
;

Parliament in Rats rhimed to Death, 1660 and one in Merry Drollery complete,
; ;

1670 but party feeling was then so often expressed with more virulence than wit,
:

that few of them will bear republication. In both the editions of Pills to purge
Melancholy, 1707 and 1719, the song of Up, tails all, beginning " Fly, merry
news," is printed by mistake with the title and tune of The Friar and the Nun.
Moderate tune and lightly.

m^
r^ r
^ r? H^-j^
r—
Fly, mer - ry news, a - mong the crews, That love to hear of

^^
*5
w
J

jests,
p^P
.^
&c.
\
r^B I n m ^ i

Up tails all

^-rf m: ^ $
PESCOD TIME.
The tune of In Pescod Time (i.e., peas-cod time, when the field peas are
gathered) , was extremely popular towards the end of the sixteenth century. It is
contained in Queen Elizabeth's and Lady
Books in Anthony Neville's Virginal ;

Holborne's Citharn Schoole (1597) and in Sir John Hawkins' transcripts but
; ;

so disguised by point, augmentation, and other learned contrivances, that it was

only by scanning the whole arrangement (by Orlando Gibbons) that this simple
air could be extracted. In Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, the same air is
called The Hunt's up, in another part of the book.
The words are in Migland^s Helicon, 1600 (or reprint in 1812, p. 206) in ;

Miss Cooper's Tlie Muses' Library, 8vo, p. 281 ; and in Evans' Old Ballads,
i. 332 (ed. of 1810).
Two very important and popular ballads were sung to the tune : Chevy Chace,
and The Lady^s Fall.
Chevy Chace had also a separate air (see page 199) but the earlier printed ;

copies of the ballad direct it to be sung to " Jm Pescod Time.''^

 EEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 197

The " Lamentable ballad of the Lady's Fall, to the tune of In Pescod Time"
will be found in the Douce, Pepys, and Bagford Collections, and has been reprinted
by Percy and Ritson. It commences thus :

" Mark well my heavy dolefull tale,

You loyal lovers all

And heedfiilly bear in your breast
A gallant lady's fall."
Among the ballads to the tune of The Lady's Fall are The Bride's Burial,
and TJie Lady Isabella's Tragedy ; both in Percy's Reliqiies. The life and death
of Queen Elizabeth, in the Qroion Garland of Q olden Roses, 1612 (page 39 of the
reprint), and in Evans' Old Ballads, iii. 171. The Wandering Jew, or the Shoe-
maker of Jerusalem, ivho lived ivhen our and appointed
Saviour Christ ivas crucified,

to live until his coming again; two copies in the British Museum, and one in

Mr. Halliwell's Collection also reprinted by Washbourne. It has the burden,

;

" Repent, therefore, England," and is, perhaps, the ballad by Deloney, to which
Nashe refers in Have with you to Saffron- Walden (ante page 107). Tlie Cruel
Black ; see Evans' Old Ballads, iii. 232. A Warning for Maidens, or young
Bateman; Roxburghe Collection, i. 501. It begins, "You dainty dames so finely
framed." And You dainty dames is sometimes quoted as a tune also Bateman, ;

as in a ballad entitled " A

Warning for Married Women, to a West-country tune
called TJie Fair Maid of Bristol, or Bateman, or John True; Roxburghe, i. 502.
The following Carol is from a Collection, printed in 1642, a copy of which is in
Wood's Library, Oxford. I have not seen it elsewhere.
" A Carol for Twelfth Day, to the tune of The Lady's Fall"
Mark well my heavy doleful tale, Come, butler, fill a brimmer full,
For Twelfth Day now is come, To cheer my fainting heart,
And now I must no longer stay, Th{it to old Christmas I may drink
And say no word but mum. Before he does depart.
For I perforce must take my leave And let each one that's in the room
Of all my dainty cheer With me likewise condole,
Plum porridge, roast beef, and minc'd pies, And now, to cheer their spirits sad,
My strong ale and my beer. Let each one drink a bowl.

Kind-hearted Christmas, now adieu. And when the same it hath gone round,
For I with thee must part; Then fall unto your cheer;
But oh to take my leave of thee
! For you well know that Christmas time
Doth grieve me at the heart. It comes but once a year.
Thou wert an ancient housekeeper, But this good draught which I have drank
And mirth with meat didst keep ;
Hath comforted my heart
But thou art going out of town, For I was very fearful that
Which causes me to weep. My stomach would depart.

God knoweth whether I again Thanks to my master and my dame,

Thy merry face shall see ;
That do such cheer afford ;

Which to good fellows and the poor God bless them, that, each Christmas, they
Was always frank and free. May furnish so their board.
Thou lovest pastime with thy heart, My stomach being come to me,
And eke good company ;
mean to have a bout
I
Pray hold me up for fear I swound [swoon], And now to eat most heartily,
For I am like to die. Good friends, I do not flout.
198 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Rather slow and smooMy.

In Peas -
^m S^^
cod time, when hound to horn
teN^
Gives
ta==t
ear, till huck he

m^ ^
ifc

kill'd:
^-
^
And
^=U=^
lit - tie

P^
*=s
rf
lads, with pipes of corn, Sat

f^^S^
sr-"— a-

keep-ing beasts a
?^ -
=c^^
5=Fl?
field.

I
CHEVY CHACE.
Although sometimes sung to the tunes of Pescod Time and Tlie Children in the

Wood, this is the air usually entitled Chevy Chace. It bears that name in all the

editions of Pills to purge Melancholy, and in the ballad operas, such as Tlie

Beggars' Opera, 1728, Trick for Trick, 1735, &c. Another name, and probably
an Fame, or Wlien flying Fame, to which a large number of
older, is Flying
ballads have been written. In Pills to purge Melancholy, " King Alfred and the
Shepherd's Wife," which the old copies direct to be sung to the tune of Flying
Fame, is printed to this air.

Much has been written on the subject of CJievy Chace ; but as both the ballads
are printed in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry (and in many other collec-
tions) , it may be sufficient here to refer the reader to that Avork, and to Tlie
British Bihliographer (iv. 97). The latter contains an account of Richard Sheale,
the minstrel to whom we are indebted for the preservation of the more ancient
ballad,and of his productions. The manuscript containing them is in the Ash-
molean Library, Oxford (No. 48, 4to). His verses on being robbed on Duns-
more Heath have been already quoted (pages 45 to 47).
The ballad of Chevy Chace, in Latin Rhymes, by Henry Bold, will be found in
Dryden's Miscellany Poems, ii. 288. The translation was made at the request of
Dr. Compton, Bishop of London.
Bishop Corbet, in his Journey into Fraunce, speaks of having sung Chevy
Chace in his youth ; the antiquated beau in Davenant's play of Tlie Wits, also
prides himself on being able to sing it ; and, in Wifs Interpreter, 1671, a man,
enumerating the good qualities of his wife, cites, after the beauties of her mind
and her patience, " her curious voice, wherewith she useth to sing Chevy Chace."
From these, and many similar allusions, it is evident that it was much sung in
the seventeenth century, despite its length.
Among the many ballads to the tune (either as Flying Fame or Chevy Oliace),
the following require particular notice.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 199

" A lamentable song of the Death of King Lear and his three Daughters : to
the tune of Wlwi flying Fame." See Percy's Rdiques, series i., booli 2.
" A mournefull dittie on the death of Faire Kosamond; tune of Flying Fame " :

beginning, " When ;

as King Hem-y rul'd this land " and quoted in Rowley's
A Match at Midnight. See Strange Sistories, 1607 ; 27*6 Garland of Q-ood-
will; and Percy, series ii., book 2.
" The noble acts of Arthur of the Round Table, and of Sir Launcelot du Lake
tune of Flying Fame." See The Crarland of Good-will, 1678, and Percy, series i.,

book 2. The first line of this ballad (" When Arthur first in court began") is

sung by FalstaiF in Part II. of Shakespeare's King Henry IV. ; also in Marston's
The Malcontent, 1604, and in Beaumont and Fletcher's The Little French Lawyer.
" King Alfred and the Shepherd's Wife to the tune of Flying Fame." See :

Old Ballads, 1727, i. 43 ; Pills to purge Melancholy, 1719, v. 289 ; and Evans'
Old Ballads, 1810, ii. 11.
" The Union of the Red Rose and the White, by a marriage between King
Henry VII. and Elizabeth Plantagenet, daughter of Edward IV : to the tune of
Wlien flying Fame." See Grown Garland, 1612, and Evans, iii. 35.
" The Battle of Agincourt, between the Englishmen and the Frenchmen : tune,
Flying Fame." (Commencing, " A council grave our King did hold.") See
Oroivn Garland, 1659, and Evans, ii. 351.
" The King and the Bishop tune of Qhevy Ohace." Roxburghe, iii. 170.
:

" Strange and true newes of an Ocean of Flies di-opping out a cloud, upon the
town of Bodnam p3odmin?] in Cornwall: tune of Chevy Ohace" (dated 1647).
See King's Pamphlets, Brit. Mus., vol. v., and Wright's Political Ballads.
" The Fire on London Bridge " (from which the nursery rhyme, " Three
childi-en sliding on the ice," has been extracted), " to the tune of Chevy Chace.^'
Merry Drollery complete, 1670, Pills to purge Melancholy, ii. 6, 1707, and
RimhsiVLlt' 3 Little Book of Songs and Ballads, 12mo., 1851. Dr. Rimbault quotes
other copies of the ballad, and especially one in the Pepys Collection (ii. 146),
to the tune of The Ladfs Fall ; further proving the difficulty of distinguishing

tune and In Pescod Time.

^
between this
Smoothly and rather slow.

s :tt

God pros - per long our no - ble king, Our lives and safe - ties

^Eft
i

all A
^
R^ ^m j

woe - ful
^j

hunting
: \

once there did In

m
Che-vy-Chace be - fall.

^
^^IM 'f r
^ ^
200 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

THE CHILDREN IN THE WOOD.

In the Registers of the Stationers' Company, under the date of 15th Octoher,
1595, we find, " Thomas Millington entred for his copie under t'handes of bothe

the Wardens, a ballad intitutled The Norfolk Gentleman, his Will and Testament,
'

and howe he commytted the keeping of his children to his owne brother, -whoe delte
moste wickedly with them, and howe God plagued him for it." This entry agrees,
almost verbatim, with the title of the ballad in the Pepys Collection (i. 518),
but which is of later date. Copies will also be found in the Roxburghe (i. 284),
and other Collections in Old Ballads^ 1726, i. 222 and in Percy's Heliques,
; ;

series iii., book 2.

Sharon Turner says, " I have sometimes fancied that the popular ballad of
Tlie Children in the Wood may have been written at this time, on Richard [III.]

and his nephews, before it was quite safe to stigmatize him more openly."
{Hist. Miff., iii. 487, 4to). This theory has been ably advocated by Miss
Halsted, in the Appendix to her Richard III. as Duke of Gloucester and King of
England. Her argument is based chiefly upon internal evidence, there being no
direct proof that the ballad is older than the date of the entry at Stationers' Hall.
In Wager's interlude. The longer thoulivest the more fool thou art, Moros says,

"I can sing a song of Robin Redbreast; " and in Webster's TJie White Devil,
Cornelia says, " I'll give you a saying which my grandmother was wont, when
she heard the bell toll, to sing unto her lute
Call for the robin-redbreastand the wren,
Since o'er the shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men," &c.
Dudsley's Old Plays, vi. 312, 1825.
These maij be in allusion to the ballad.

In Anthony a Wood's Collection, at Oxford, there is a ballad to the tune of

The tivo Children in the Wood, entitled " The Devil's Cruelty to Mankind," &c.
The history of the tune is somewhat perplexing. In the ballad-operas of
Tlie Jovial Creio, The Lottery, An old man taught ivisdom, and Tlie Beggars^
Opera, it is printed under the title of Now ponder well, which are the first words
of " The Children in the Wood."
The broadsides of Chevy Chace, which were printed ivith music about the com-
mencement of the last century, are also to this tune and in the ballad-opera of
;

Penelope, 1728, a parody on Chevy Chace to the same.

In Pills to purge Melancholy, 1707 and 1719, the ballads of " Henry V. at the
battle of Agincourt," " The Lady Isabella's Tragedy," and a song by Sir John
Birkenhead, are printed to it. The last seems to be a parody on " Some Christian
people all give ear," or " The Fire on London Bridge."
According to the old ballads, Tlie Battle of Agincourt should be to the tune of
Flying Fame, The Lady IsahellcCs Tragedy to In Pescod Time, and Tlie Fire on
London Bridge to Chevy Chace. I suppose the confusion to have arisen from
Chevy Chace being sung to all the three tunes.
The traditions of the stage also give this as the air of the Gravedigger's Song
in Hamlet, " A pick-axe and a spade."
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 201
Slowly and smoothly.

i
s
t#
pjS^^.^U3 ^W
Now pon-der well, You parents dear, These wordawhich I shall

UIJ.^
^ ^ W^^
-o-
A
1=^ m ! f-
5

^
write ;
dole - ful sto - ry you shall hear, In time brought forth to light,

^ IN SAD AND ASHY WEEDS.

The four first stanzas of this song were found among the Howard papers in
the Heralds' College, in the hand^vriting of Anne, Countess of Arundel, widow of
the Earl who died in confinement in the Tower of London in 1595. They were
written on the cover of a letter. Lodge, who printed them in his Illustrations of
British History (iii. 241, 8vo., 1838), thought they " were probably composed"
by the Countess and that " the melancholy exit of her lord was not unlikely to
;

have produced these pathetic effusions." She could not, however, have been the
autJior of verses, in her transcript of which the rhymes between the first and third
lines of every stanza They were evidently written from
have been overlooked."
memory, and rendered more applicable to her case by a few trifling alterations,
such as " Not I, poor I, alone," instead of " Now, a poor lad alone," at the
commencement of the fourth stanza.
The tune is contained in a MS. volume of virginal music, transcribed by Sir
John Hawkins the words in the Croiim Garland of Golden Jtoses, edition of
;

1659 (Percy Society reprint, p. 6.). It is there entitled " The good Shepherd's
sorrow for the loss of his beloved son."
Among sad and ashy weeds, are "
the ballads to the tune of servant's
Iii A
sorrow for the loss of his late royal mistress, Queen Anne " (wife to James I.)
" who died at Hampton Court" (May 2, 1618), beginning
" In dole and deep distress,
Poor soul, I, sighing, make my moan."
same edition of the Croivn Garland ; as well as an answer
It will be found in the
toIn sad and ashy tveeds, entitled " Coridon's Comfort the second part of the :

good Shepherd;" commencing, " Peace, Shepherd, cease to moan."

The tune is quoted under the title of "In sadness, or Who can blame my woe,"
as one for the Psalnies or Songs of Sion, &c., 1642.

» In the Countess's transcript, as printed by Lodge, instead of

the four lines stand thus
first " In sad and ashy weeds
"In sad and asliy weeds I sigh, ;"
I sigh, I groan, I pine, I mourn
I groan, I pine, I mourn as " weeds " should rhyme with " reeris " in the third line,
My oaten yellow reeds and so In eaeh verse.
"
I all to jet and ebon turn ;
202 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

Slowly and smoothly.

— ==
I
±
i
I^Sl
^
In sad and ash weeds I sigh, I groan, I

;^^=fr
lit

-jir-^
T ^ d ^ j-^^MHS^
^ i

X ' ' '

:s=F

f J- 4r
'
. -W- -J-

pine, I mourn; My oat - en yel -low reeds I all to jet and e-bon turn.

m rTTrr ^ m
'nr^^^^^TiTrnTi~^[^ij=4i

^
My wa - fry eyes, Like winter's skies. My furrow'd cheeks o'er - flow : All

m
i
heav'n know why. Men mourn
*
^ as I !
^m
•
And
^- —
3^"T
who can blame my
^ w^^ woe ?

In sable robes of night

^ r I M^f-pi^
Still breathe, and he not so ;

My days of joy consumed be, Hate earth, that doth

My sorrow sees no light. Entomb his youth
My lights through sorrow nothing see.
And who can blame my woe?
For now my sun
His course hath run. Not I, poor I, alone,

And from my sphere doth go, how can this son-ow be?)
(Alone,
To endless bed Not only men make moan.
Of folded lead But more than men make moan with me :

And who can blame my woe ? The gods of greens,

My flocks I now forsake,
The mountain queens,
That so my sheep my grief may know, The fairy-circled row.
Tlie lilies loathe to take.
The muses nine,
That since his death presum'd to grow.
And powers divine.

I envy air,
Do all condole my woe.

Because it dare

In the above lines I have chiefly followed the Countess of Arundel's transcript.
There are three more verses in the Oroivn Garland of Golden Hoses, besides seven
in the second part.
 REIGN OF KLIZABETH. 203

THE BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON.

Copies of this ballad are in the Roxburgte, Pepys, and Douce Collections; it is
printedby Ritson among the ancient ballads in his English Songs, and by Percy
{Reliques, series iii., book 2, No. 8).

In the Roxburghe, ii. 457, and Douce, 230, it is entitled " True love requited,
or The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington to a North-countnj tune, or I have a good
:

old mother at home.^' In other copies it is to "I have a good old woman at home,"
and " I have a good wife at home."
In the Douce, 32, is a ballad called " Crums of comfort for the youngest sister,
&c., to a pleasant new West-country tune;" beginning
" I have a good oldfatJier at home,
Au ancient man is he :

But he has a mind that ere he dies

That I should married be."
Dr. Rimbault found the first tune in a lute MS., formerly in the possession of
the Rev. Mr. Gostling, of Canterbury, under the name of The jolly Pinder. It is
in the ballad-opera of The Jovial Crew, 1731, called " The Rally's Daughter of
Islington."
The second is the traditional tune to which it is commonly sung throughout the
country.

^ Pn=^^
Rather slow. First Tune.

^^ a
fHrWr
gffi
There
"T
was

t-m-tn^.
a youth, and

^
a well-belov'd youth, And he was

^^pm
^
a Squire's

T-^ ^ -p^

a=
He lov

35
- ed the bai

3t
Yet she was coy, and would not believe
- lifF's

^^
daughter dear, That

Then all the

liv - ed in

maids of Islington
Is-ling - ton.

^
That he did love her so, Went forth to sport and play,
No, nor at any time would she All but the bailiff's daughter dear;
Any countenance to him show. She secretly stole away.

But when his friends did understand She pulled off her gown of green.
His fond and foolish mind, And put on ragged attire,
They sent him up to fair London, And to fair London she would go.
An apprentice for to bind. Her true love to enquire.

And when he had been seven long years, And as she went along the high road.
And never his love could see : The weather being hot and dry.
Many a tear have I shed for her sake. She sat her down upon a green bank,
When she little thought of me. And her true love came riding by.
204 ENQLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

She started up with a colour so red, If she be dead, then take my horse,
Catching hold of his bridle-rein ;
My saddle and bridle also
One penny, one penny, kind sir, she said. For I will into some far country,

Will ease me of much pain. Where no man shall me know.

Before I give you one penny, sweet-heart. O stay, O stay, thou goodly youth,
Pray tell me where you were bom : She standeth by thy side
At Islington, kind Sir, said she, She is here alive, she is not dead.
Where I have had many a scorn. And ready to be thy bride.
I prythee, sweet^heart, tell to me, O farewell grief, and welcome joy,
O tell me whether you know Ten thousand times therefore
The bailiff's daughter of Islington ? For now I have found mine own true love.
She is dead, Sir, long ago. Whom I thought I should never see more

Rather slowly and very smoothly. Second Tune. , i

iSrfH-^ j^JJ.j J Jl ^g J
:^
I
*

There was a youth, and a well - be-lov - ed youth. And he was a squi-er's

teBd^Uj w ,
J
|
j

^^ £^H^H-HL_: Mcc^- J 1,1,-.. J T-u^*. i:.. „j ;„ »

son; He lov - ed the bai-liff's daughter dear, That liv - ed in , ,.
^

^ ^ ^
3 W
IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS.

From a quarto MS., which has successively passed through the hands of
Mr. Cranston, Dr. John Ley den, and Mr. Heber ; and is now in the Advocates'

Libi'ary, Edinbui-gh. It contains about thirty-four songs with words," and sixteen
song and dance tunes without. The latter part of the manuscript, which bears
the name of a former proprietor, William Stii-ling, and the date of May, 1639,
consists of Psalm Tunes, evidently in the same handwriting, and written about
the same time as the earlier portion. This song is in the comedy of As you
like it, the first edition of which was printed in 1623 ; and the inaccuracies in
that copy, which have given much trouble to commentators on Shakespeare, are
not to be found in this. In the printed copy, the last verse stands in the place of

the second : observed and remedied by Dr. Thirlby and the words
this was first ;

" ring time," there rendered " rang time," and by commentators altered to "rank
time," were first restored to the proper meaning by Steevens, who explains them
as signifying the aptest season for marriage. The words are here printed fi:om the

' Among these are Wither's song, " Shall I, wasting Antiqua: a Selection of Music from the commencement*of
in despair," and " Farewell, dear love," quoted in Twelfth the twelfth to the beginnitig of the eighteenth century, &c.

Night, the music of which, by Robert Jones (twelfth from edited by John StaiFord Smith.
his first book, published in IGOl) is reprinted in Musica
 ILLUSTRATIKG SHAKESPKARE. 205

manuscript in the Advocates' Library, (fol. 18), and other variations will be
found on comparing them with the published copies of the play.
Moderate time. - i- . ^

^^^^pS^
n l p-.

»*
arj
f -0 i^
It was a lover and his lass, With a hey, with a ho, with a hey non ne

^^f^fc

3 mH^J^i:~fi^f^d^4^
did pass. In Spring time, in Spring time, in Spring time; The on-ly pretty
field,

^
^^^^^^^^r^^^
ring time, When birds do sing,

^ Hey ding a ding a ding, Hey

S
ding a ding a ding, Hey

ding a
^ ding a
5^
ding.
I
Sweet lov
^
n
r-f'H
-
j

ers love the Spring.

1 1
-

. M^ C-
^
Between the acres of the rye. This carol they began that hour,
With a hey, with a ho, with a hey, non ne no. With a hey, &c.
And a hey non ne, no ni no. How that life was but a flow'r.

These pretty country fools did lie, In Spring time, &c.

In Spring time, in Spring time,
Then, pretty lovers, take the time,
The only pretty ring time.
With a hey, &c.,
When birds do sing
For love is crowned with the prime,
Hey ding, a ding, a ding,
In Spring time, &c.
Sweet lovers love the Spring.
206 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

WILLOW, WILLOW!

The song of Oh ! ivilloio, willow, wtich Desdemona sings in the fourth act of
Othello, is MS. volume of songs, with accompaniment for the lute,
contained in a
in the British Museum (Addit. MSS. 16,117). Mr. Halliwell considers the
transcript to have been made about the year 1633; Mr. Oliphant (who catalogued
the musical MS.) dates it about 1600 ; but the manuscript undoubtedly contains
songs of an earlier time, such as
" O death I rock me asleep,
Bring me to quiet rest," &c.

attributed to Anne Boleyn, and which Sir John Hawkins found in a MS. of the
reign of Henry VHI.
The song of Willoiv, ivillow, is also in the Roxburghe Ballads, i. 54 ; and was
printed by Percy from a copy in the Pepys Collection, entitled " A Lover's
Complaint, being forsaken of his Love : to a pleasant tune."

Willoio, ivillow, was a favorite burden for songs in the sixteenth century.
There is one by John Heywood, a favorite dramatist and court musician of the
reigns of Henry VHI. and Queen Mary, beginning —
" Alas by what mean may I make ye to know
I

The unkindness for kindness that to me doth grow?"

which has for the burden
" All a green willow ; willow, willow, willow
All a green willow, is my garland."

It has been printed by Mr. Halliwell, with others by Hey^vood, Bedford, &c., for
the Shakespeare Society, in a volume containing the moral play of Wit and
Science.

Another with the burden

" Willow, willow, willow ; sing all of green willow ;

Sing all of green willow, shall be my garland,"

will be found in A Gorgious G-allery of Gallant Inventions (1578). It commences

thus
" My love, what misliking in me do you find,

Sing all of green willow

That on such a sudden you alter your mind ?

Sing willow, willow, willow.

What cause doth compel you so fickle to be,
Willow, willow, willow, willow ;

In heart which you plighted most loyal to me ?

Willow, willow, willow, willow." Heliconia, i. 32.

In Fletcher's Tlie tivo Nohle Kinsmen, when the Jailer's daughter went mad
" She sung nothing but Willoiv, willow, willow.''''
for love, Act iv., sc. 1. —
In the tragedy of Othello, Desdemona introduces the song " in this pathetic

and affecting manner :

 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 207

" My mother had a maid call'd Barbara

She was in love and he she lov'd prov'd mad,
;

And did forsake her she had a song of Willow

: ;

And old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune.

And she died singing it. That song to-uight
Mill not go from my mind ; I have much to do.
But to go hang my head all at one side.

And sing it like poor Barbara."

^3
^ffl
JRather slow

^^

mf
4
J

The
I
and smoothh).

poor
t
soul sat sigh - ing
^by a
^•^1

si - ca - more tree.
PP

Sing

W^^^ ^
A

^m
Ritard. ~ tempo, sf
mf
^-1-n •3^
wil - low, willow, wi -low! With his hand in his bo-som, and his head up-on his

r r r

/
n
^ 3i:

PP

knee ;
Oh! (fillow. willow, willow,
willow, wil-low.
wil-low, Oh
Oh! ! willow, willow, willow, wil-low.
wi. Shall

^ m
E£
^
i
-^
/
3E i s=t
p
j^
r r r
he
my gar - land : Sing all a green wil - low, wil - low, willow.

J—
h^^kd
^ T-r
Cres.

^^^ -PP

=^ 3
wil - low. Ah me ! the green wil - low must be my gar land.

^:> . J i-
iE
^m
208 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

He sigh'd in his singing, and made a great moan, Sing, &c. ; ,

I am dead to all pleasure, my true love he is gone, &c.

The mute bird sat by him was made tame by his moans, &c.
The true tears fell from him would have melted the stones, Sing, &c.

Come, all you forsaken, and mourn you with me. Sing, &c. ;

Who speaks of a false love, mine's falser than she. Sue.

Let love no more boast her in palace nor bower, Sing, &c. ;

It buds, but it blasteth ere it be a flower, &c.

Though fair, and more false, 1 die with thy wound, Sing, &c.
Thou hast lost the truest lover that goes upon the ground, &c.

Let nobody chide her, her scorns I approve [though I prove]

She was born to be false, and I to die for her love, &c.

Take this for my farewell and latest adieu, Sing, &e.

Write this on my tomb, that in love I was true, &c.

The above copy of the words is from the same manuscript as the music. It
differs from that in Percy's Meliqnes of Ancient Poetry; and Shakespeare has

somewhat varied it to apply to a female character.

WHOOP DO ME NO HARM, GOOD MAN.

!

This is twice alluded to by Shakespeare, in act iv., sc. 3, of J. Winter's Tale ;

and by Ford, in act iii., sc. 3, of The Fancies cJiaste and noble, where Seeco,
applying it to Morosa, sings " Whoop ! me no harm, good womari."
do
The tune was transcribed by Dr. Rimbault, from a MS. volume of virginal
music, in the possession of the late John Holmes, Esq. , of Retford. A song with
this burden will be found in Fry's Ancient Poetry, but it would not be desirable
for republication.

Cheerfully.

—^—-—
W -
I
•
f—' f
whoop !
f
"^^"^
do me no
nc harm, good man.

m ^f
I
'— >^
 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 209

O MISTRESS MINE
This tune is contained in both the editions of Morley's Consort Lessons, 1599
and 1611. It is also in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, arranged by Byrd.
As it is to be found in print in 1599, it proves either that Shakespeare's Ttvelfth
Night was wi-itten in or before that year, or that, m accordance with the then pre-
vailing custom, Mistress mine was an old song, introduced into the play.
Mr. Payne Collier has proved Twelfth Night to have been an established
favorite in February, 1602 {Annals of the Stage, i. 327), but we have no evidence
of so early a date as 1599.
In act ii., sc. 3., the Clown asks, " Would you have a love-song, or a song of
good life?"
Sir Tobij. —" A love-song, a love-song."

i :&
lEfcDi^
S
Moderate time and very smoothly.

^^irmtfr ^ s
F's^'^f^
O mistress mine, where are you roaming? O mistress mine, where are )'ou roaming ?

^S
^ m ^
rail.

s
^E^^^E^^E^^zS^S
a tempo. ^-^

l=3t

stay and hear ;

your tnie love's coming. That can sing both higli and low Trip : no further,

eJ^eN F^ffe^ =f=F

^g
^s^mxHi^^mi
pretty eweet-ing, Jom' - nej-s end in lovers' meeting, Ev' - ry wise man's son doth know.

g ir ^^ 1
^ s ^
"What love?
is
—
'tis not hereafter ;

Present mirth hath present laughter;

What's to come is still unsure :

In delay there lies no plenty

Then come kiss me, sweet-and-twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure."

HEART'S-EASE.
The tune of Mearf s-ease is contained in a MS. volume of lute music, of the
sixteenth century, in the Public Library, Cambridge (D. d., ii. 11), as well as in
The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1698. It belongs, in all probability, to an
earlier reign than that of Elizabeth, as it was sufficiently popular about the year
1560 to have a song written to it in the interlude of Misogonus. Shakespeare
thus alludes to it in Romeo and Juliet, 1597 (act iv., sc. 5.)
210 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

Peter. —" Musicians, musicians, Heart' s-ease, heart' s-ease : an you will have
me live, play Hearts-ease.
\st Mus. —Why Heart' s-ease?
Peter. — musicians, because my heart itself plays My heart is full of rvoe:''

O play me some merry dump,'' to comfort me."

The follo-ffing from Misogonus, hy Thomas Rychardes and, as Mr.
song is ;

Payne Collier remarks, " recollecting that it was written about the year 1560,
may be pronounced quite as good in its kind as the drinking song"= in Gfammer
Chirtonh Needle.''''

I
^
i^
¥=i^ ^
Moderate

Sine
time.

care a- way
^ ^
with sport and play. Pas - time
m
is all our

fHpHi
^ i
fe*

pleasure ; If well we fare. For nought we care. In mirth con-sists our treasure.

1^ E^^ -^ M fei

Let lun - gis lurk. And

f^
di-udges work. We do de - fy their slavery He

^
:

[lankies]
/-

^tr^^yy^^
^=r
is but a fool That goes
-m —.
^ *

to school. All
r—T^5^
we de - light in
53:r

^p bravery.

^- i f : rn
^ This is the burden of "A pleasant new Ballad of two It has been reprinted by Mr. Andrew Barton, in the first
Lovers: to a pleasant new tune;" beginning— volume of the Shakespeare Society's Papers, 1844.
"Complain my lute, complain on him ^ A dump was a slow dance. Queen Marifs Btimp \s
That stays so long away; one of the tunes in "William Ballet's Lute Book, and My
He promised to be here ere this, Lady Carey's Dompc is printed in Stafford Smith's Musica
But still unkind doth stay. Antigua, ii. 470, from a manuscript in the British
But now the proverb true I find. Museum, temp. Henry VIII.
Once out of sight then out of mind. " *' I cannot eat but little meat," see page 72.
Hey, ho ! my heart is full of woe," &c.
 ILLUSTBATING SHAKESPBAKE. 211
" What doth't avail far hence to sail, 'Tisa beastly thing to lie musing
And lead our life in toiling? With pensiveness and sorrow;
Or to what end should we here spend For who can tell that he shall well
Our days in irksome moiling? [labour] Live here until the morrow?
It is the best to live at rest, We will, therefore, for evermore,
And talce't as God doth send it; While this our life is lasting,

To haunt each wake, and mirth to make, Eat, drink, and sleep, and '
merry '
keep,
And with good fellows spend it. 'Tis Popery to use fasting.

Nothing is worse than a full purse In cards and dice our comfort lies.

To niggards and to pinchers; In sporting and in dancing,

They always spare, and live in care. Our minds to please and live at ease.
There's no man loves such flinchers. And sometimes to use prancing.
The merry man, with cup and can, With Bess and Nell we love to dwell
'
Lives longer than do twenty In kissing and in talking '
;

The miser's wealth doth hurt his health ; But whoop ho holly, with trolly lolly,
!

Examples we have plenty. To them we'll now be walking."

Collier's History of Early Dramatic Poetry, ii. 470.

JOG ON, JOG ON.

This tune is in The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1698, called Jog on ; also in
Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, under the name of Hanskin. The words of
Jog on, of which the first verse is stmg by Autolycus, in act iv., sc. 2, of
Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale, are in TJie Antidote against MelancJwhj, 1661.
Another name for the tune is Sir Francis Brake, or Eigldy- eight.
The following is the song from The Antidote against Melancholy :

" Jog on, jog on the footpath way, Yovar paltry money-bags of gold,
And merrily hent* the stile-a; What need have we to stare for.
Your merry heart goes all the day ;
When little or nothing soon is told.
Your sad tires in a mile-a. And we have the less to care for.
Cast care away, let sorrow cease,
A fig for melancholy
Let's laugh and sing, or, if you please.
We'll frolic with sweet Dolly."
In the Westminster Drollery, 3rd edit., 1672, is " An old song on the Spanish
Armado," beginning, " Some years of late, in eighty-eight " and in MSS. Hark, ;

791, fol. 59, and in Merry Drollery complete, 1661, a different version of the same,
commencing, " La eighty-eight, ere I was born." Both have been reprinted for
the Percy Society in Halli well's Naval Ballads of England. The former is also
in Pills to purge Melancholy, 1707, ii. 37, and 1719, iv. 37, or Ritson's Ancient
Songs, 1790, p. 271.
In the Collection of Ballads in the Cheetham Library, Manchester, fol. 30, is

* To kcnt or Iiaid is to hold or seize. At the head of "Upon the sea, till Jhesu Crist him hciitc," — Chaucer,
one of the chapters of Sir Walter Scott's novels, this is line 700.
misquoted " bend." "Till they the reynes of his bridel ;;eH(™."— Chaucer,
" And in his hand a battle-axe he henty— Honor of the line 900.
Garter, by George Peele. " Or reave it out of the hand that did it AeKd."— Spenset'a
Faern Queen.
212 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

" The Catholick Ballad, or an Invitation to Popery, upon considerable grounds and
reasons, to the tune oi Mghty-eight." It is in black-letter, -with a bad copy of the
tune, and another (No. 1103), dated 1674. It will also be found in J^ills to purge
Melancholy, 1707, ii. 32, or 1719, iv. 32. It commences thus :—
" Since Popery of late is so much in debate,
And great strivings have been to restore it,

I cannot forbear openly to declare

That the ballad-makers are for it."

This song attained some popularity, because others are found to the tune of
Tlie Qatholic Ballad.
The following are the two ballads on the Spanish Armada; the first (with the
tune) as in the Harl. MS., and the second from Westminster Drollery.

Moderate time.

iFSi^
In eiglity-eight, ere I
55
was bom, As
m I can well re - mem-ber, In

i^S
iS=
•-~s m^
Au - gust was a fleet pre - par'd, The month be - fore Sep - tern - ber

^W
Spain, with Biscay and Portugal,
^
The King of Spain did fret amain.
P
Toledo and Grenada And to do yet more harm-a ;

All these did meet, and made a fleet, He sent along, to make him strong,
And call'd it the Armada. The famous Prince of Parma.

Where they had got provision, When they had sail'd along the seas.
As mustard, pease, and bacon ; And anchor'd upon Dover,
Some say two ships were full of whips, Our Englishmen did board them then,
But I think they were mistaken. And cast the Spaniards over.

There was a little man of Spain Our Queen was then at Tilbury,
That shot well in a gun-a, What could you more desire-a?
Don Pedro" hight, [called] as good a knight For whose sweet sake Sir Francis Drake
As the Knight of the Sun-a. Did set them all on fire-a.
King Philip made him admiral. But let them look about themselves,
And charg'd him not to stay-a. For if they come again-a,
But to destroy both man and boy. They shall be serv'd with that same sauce
And then to run away-a. As they were, I know when-a.

• The person meant by Don Pedro was the Duke of

name was not Pedro, but A'lonzo Perez di Guzman.
Medina Sidonia, commander of tlie Spanish fleet. His
 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 213

" An old song on the Spanish Armado," called, also, in Pills to purge Melan-
choly, " Sir Francis Drake or Eighty-eight." To the same tune.
: (The words
from Westminster Drollery, 1672.)
Some years of late, in eighty-eight, Their men were young, munition strong,
As I do well remember And do us more harm-a.
to

It was, some say, the nineteenth of May, They thought it meet to join their fleet,

And some say in September. All with the Prince of Parma.

The Spanish train, launch'd forth amain. They coasted round about our land.
With many a fine bravado. And so came in to Dover
Their (as they thought, but it proved not) But we had men, set on them then,
Invincible Armado. And threw the rascals over.

There was a little man that dwelt in Spain, The Queen was then at Tilbury,
Who shot well in a gun-a. What could we more desire-a,
Don Pedro hight, as black a wight And Sir Francis Drake, for her sweet sake.
As the Knight of the Sun-a. Did set them all on fire-a.

King made him

Philip admiral, Then by sea and land,
straight they fled
And him not to stay-a.
bid That one man kill'd three score-a;
But to destroy both man and boy, And had not they all run away.
And so to come away-a. In truth he had kill'd more-a.

Their navy was well Wctualled Then let them neither brag nor boast.

With biscuit, pease, and bacon But if they come again-a.

They brought two ships well fraught with whips. Let them take heed they do not speed.
But I think they were mistaken. As they did, you know when-a.

COME, LIVE WITH ME, AND BE MY LOVE.

This tune, which was discovered by Sir John Hawkins, " in a MS. as old as
Shakespeare's time," and printed in Steevens' edition of Shakespeare, is also con-
tained in " The Second Booke of Ayres, some to sing and play to the Base-Violl
alone : others to be sung to the Lute and Base-Violl," &c., by W. Corkine,
fol. 1612.
In act iii., sc. 1, of Tlie Merry Wives of Windsor, 1602, Sir Hugh Evans sings
the following lines, which form part of the song :

" To shallow rivers, to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals ;

There will we make our beds of roses,

And a thousand fragrant posies."

In Marlow's tragedy, Tlie Jew of Malta, written in or before 1591, he introduces
the first lines of the song in the following manner :

" Thou, in whose groves, by Dis above,

Shall live with me and be my love."

In England's Helicon, 1600, it is printed with the name " Chr. Marlow " as the

author. Marlow in the following passage from Walton's

It is also attributed to
Angler, 1653 :
—
" It was a handsome milkmaid, that had not attained so much
age and wisdom as to load her mind with any fears of many things that will never
be, as too many men often do; but she cast away all care and sung like a nightin-
gale her voice was good, and the ditty fitted for it it was that smooth song
: :

which was made by Kit. Marlow, now at least fifty years ago."
214 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

On the other hand, it was first printed by W. Jaggard in " The passionate
Pilgrim and other sonnets by Mr. William Shakespeare," in 1599; but Jaggard
is a very bad authority, for he included songs and sonnets by Griffin and Barnfield
in the same collection, and subsequently others by Hey wood.
EnglancVs Helicon contains, also, " The Nimph's reply to the Shepheard,"
beginning " If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue;"

which is there subscribed " Ignoto," but which Walton attributes to Sir Walter

Raleigh, "in his younger days ;" and "Another of the same nature made since,"
commencing — " Come, live with me, and be my deere,
And we will revel all the yeere,"

with the same subscription.

Dr. Donne's song, entitled " The Bait," beginning
" Come, live with me, and be my love,
And we some new pleasures prove,
will
Of golden sands and crystal brooks,
With silken lines and silver hooks," &c.
which, as Walton observes, he " made to shew the world that he could make soft
and smooth verses, when he thought smoothness worth his labour," is also in
Tlie Complete Angler ; and the thi-ee above quoted from England's Helicon, are
reprinted in Ritsou's English Songs and Ancient Songs; and two in Percy's
Reliques of Ancient Poetry, &c., &c.
In QJioice, Chance, and Change ; or Conceits in their colours, 4to., 1606,
Tidero, being invited to live with his fi-iend, replies, " Why, how now ? do you
takeme for a woman, that you come upon me with a ballad of Gome, live with me,
and my love ? "
he
Nicholas Breton, in his Poste with a packet of Mad Letters, 4to., 1637, says,
" You shall hear the old song that you were wont to like well of, sung by the
black brows with the cherry cheek, under the side of the pied cow. Come, live with
me, and he my love, you know the rest."
Sir Harris Nicholas, in his edition of Walton's Angler, quotes a song in imi-
tation of Come, live with me, by Herrick, commencing
" Live, live with me, and thou shalt see ;

and Steevens remarks that the ballad appears to have furnished Milton with the
hint for the last lines of E' Allegro and Penseroso.
From the following passage in The World's Polly, 1609, it appears that there
may have been an older name for the tune :
—" But there sat he, hanging his
head, lifting up the eyes, and with a deep sigh, singing the ballad of Come, live

with me, and he my love, to the tune of Adeiv, my deere." ^

In Deloney's Strange Histories, 1607, is the ballad of " The Imprisonment of
Queen Eleanor," &c. , to the tune of Come, live ivith me, and he my love, but it has

• A song in Hail. MSS. 2252, of the early part of Henry It is reprinted in Eitson's Ancieni Songs (p. 98), but the
the Eighth's reign, "Upon the inconstancy of his mis- metre differs from that of Come, live with me, and with
tiessi*' begins thus :
out repeating words, could not have been sung to the
"JMornyng, momyng, thus may I sing, same air.

Adew, my dere, adew."

 ILLUSTRATINS SHAKESPEARE. 215

and " The woefull lamentation of Jane Shore," beginning,

six lines in each stanza;
" If Rosamond that was so fair " (copies of which are in the Pepys, Bagford, and
Roxburghe Collections), "to the tune of Live with rae," has four lines and a
burden of two — " Then maids and wives in time amend,
For love and beauty wiU have end."
From this it appears that either the half of the tune was repeated, or that there
were two airs to which it was sung. In Westminster Drollery, 1871 and 1674, a
parody on Qome, live with me, is to the tune of My freedom is all my joy. That
hag also six lines, and the last is repeated.
Other ballads, like " A most sorrowful song, setting forth the miserable end of
Banister, who betrayed the Duke of Buckingham, his lord and master : to the tune
of Live with me;" and the Life and Death of the great Duke of Buckingham, who
came to an untimely end for consenting to the depositing of two gallant young
princes," &c. : to the tune of Shore's Wife, have, like Gome, live with me, only
four lines in each stanza. (See Crown G-arland of Crolden Hoses, 1612 ; and
Evans' Old Ballads, 18 and 23.)

m
iii.

Rather slow.

i *#
Si^a ^=^P=f^
MdJilMii^r^=f
Come, live with me, and be my love, And we will all the plea-sures

W$=^ It It g O f I
g-
|

»:
&

y=,Mfe
^±± 3E
£^^
^^^ n
prove That hilU and val-leys, dale and field, And all the crag-gy moun-tains yield,

fe^fe^
There will we sit upon the rocks, A gown made of the finest wool,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks, Which from our pretty lambs we pull
By shallow rivers, to whose falls Slippers lined choicely for the cold,
Melodious birds sing madrigals. With buckles of the purest gold.

There will I make thee beds of roses. A and ivy buds.

belt of straw
And twine a thousand fragrant posies ;
With and amber studs:
coral clasps
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle, And if these pleasures may thee move,
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. Come, live with me, and be my love.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing.

For thy delight, each May
morning
If these delights thy mind may move.
Then live with me, and be my love.

* In Sir John Hawkins' copy, this note is written an copy, if transposed into this key, would be b a d, instead
octave lower, probably because taken from a lute arrange- of B c D ; which latter seems right by the analogy of that
ment, in which the note, being repeated, was to be played and the other phrases, although the difference js not very
on a lower string. In the second bar of the melody, his material.
216 ENGLISH BONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

THREE MERRY MEN BE WE.

This is quoted in the same passage in Tioelftli Night as Peg-a-Ramsey. The tune
is contained in a MS. common-place book, in the handwi-iting of John Playford,
the publisher of Tlie Dancing Master, in the possession of the Hon. George
O'Callaghan." The words are also in Peele's The Old Wives' Tale, 1595 (Dyce,
i. 208), where it is sung instead of the song proposed, man in desperation.
In the comedy of Laugh and lie doivn, 1605, " He plaied such a song of the
TlireeMerry Men.'" In Fletcher's The Bloody Brother, the Cook, who is about to
be hung with two others, says
" Good Master Sheriff, your leave too
This hasty work was ne'er done well give us so much time :

As hut to sing our own ballads, for we'll trust no man.

Nor no tune but our own 'twas done in ale too,;

And therefore cannot be refus'd in justice

Your penny-pot poets are such pelting thieves,
TJiey ever hang men twice"
Each then sings a song, and they join in the chorus of
" Three merry boys, and three merry boys.
And three merry boys are we.
As ever did sing
hempen string in a
Under the gallow tree." Act iii., sc. 2, Dyce, x. 428.
" Three merry men be we " is also quoted in Westward Soe, by Dekker and
Webster, 1607 ; and in Ram Alley, 1611.
Moderate time and gaily.

fe^^-^-f^^^^
M
5

^
'

^ 1
Three merry men and three merry men, And three merry men be we

^S ^
j^-^^ j n jijx-u^
rr
i

in the wood, and

^
thou on the ground,
"f
And Jack sleeps in the
"f
tree

r cj ^ r "sr-
-t
I LOATHE THAT I DID LOVE.
On the margin of a copy of the Earl of Surrey's poems, in the possession of
Sir W. W. Wynne, some of the little airs to which his favorite songs were sung
are written in characters of the times. Dr. Nott printed them from that copy in
his edition of Surrey's Songs and Sonnets,'^ 4to., 1814. From this the first tune
for " I loathe that I did love " is taken. The second is from a MS. containing
songs to the lute, in the British Museum (Addit. 4900), but it is more like the
regular composition of a musician than the former.
» The music was added after a portion of the edition had been circulated.
 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 217

Three stanzas from the poem are sung by the grave-digger in Hamlet ; but
they are much corrupted, and in all probability designedly, to suit the character
of an illiterate clown. On the stage the grave-digger now sings them to the tune
of The Children in the Wood.
In the Grorgious Crallery of Gallant Inventions, 1578, " the lover complaineth
of his lady's inconstancy ; to the tune of Ilothe that I did love," therefore a tune
was formerly known by that name, and probably one of the two here printed.
The song will be found among the ballads that illustrate Shakespeare, in Percy's
Beliques of Ancient Poetry.
Slow. First Tune.

^
I
f ^^i
loathe that I did love !
3^
In
lzi=2:

youth that I thought sweet, (As

m. s izt

^ « *—^-g:
^ a -^
time re-quires for my behove,) Me - thinks it is not meet.

^ 3S:

Slow. Second Tune.

imn-rT^^^ ^, ^^
loathe
,the that I did love! In youth that I thought sweet (As
•^
^T
'>'(',
P- -CT ~eT 3^ ::^5z

E^E^
-» m — =Si-
y 1
-^ r s =-

time re quires for my be hove, my Me

^
- - for be - hove).

-g?"
SE
^^^
Ej^^ *—
i^Erf
^ ^ ?
-thinks it is not meet. Me - thinks, nie - thinks, it is not meet.

?^ :zi:
218 ENGLISH 50NG AND BALLAD MUSIC

PEG A RAMSEY, ob PEGGIE EAMSET.

In Twelfth Night, act ii., sc. 3, Sir Toby says, " Malvolio's a Peg-a-Bamsey,
and Three merry men he we." There are two tunes under the name of Peg-a-
Ramsey, and both as old as Shakespeare's time. The first is called Peg-a-Ramsey y
in William Ballet's Lute Book, and is given by Sir John Hawkins as the tune
quoted in Twelfth Night. (See Steevens' edition of Shakespeare.) He says,
" Peggy Ramsey is the name of some old song ; " but, as usual, does not cite his
authority. It is mentioned as a dance tune by Nashe (see the passage quoted at
p. 116), and in The Shepheard' s Holiday —
"Bounce it Mall, I hope thou will, Spaniletto —The Venetto;
For I know that thou hast skill John come me —Wilson's Fancy.
kiss
And I am sure thou there shall find But of aU there's none so sprightly
Measures store to please thy mind. To my ear, as Touch ms lightly."

Roundelays — Irish hayes Wi€s Recreations, 1640.

Cogs and Rongs, and Peggie Ramsy 'r!i

" Little Pegge of Ramsie " is one of the tunes in a manuscript by Dr. Bull, which
formed a part of Dr. Pepusch's, and afterwards of Dr. Kitchener's library. Ramsey, f"? TT-- /<

in Huntingdonshire, was formerly an important town, and called " Ramsey the
rich," before the destruction of its abbey.

Bui-ton, in his Anatomy of Melanclwly, " So long as we are wooers, we

says,
may kiss at our pleasure, nothing is so sweet, we are in heaven as we think but ;

when we are once tied, and have lost our liberty, marriage is an hell. Crive me '

my yellow hose again '

a mouse in a trap lives as merrily."
" Give me my yellow hose" is the burden of a ballad called
" A merry jest of John Tomson, and Jackaman his wife,
;"
"VSTiose jealousy was justly the cause of all their strife

to the tune of Pegge of Ramsey ; beginning thus

" When I was a bachelor I cannot do as I have done,
I led a merry life, Because I live in fear
But now I am a married man If I go hut to Islington,
And troubled with a wife, My wife is watching there.

Oive me my yellow again,

Give me my yellow hose,
For now my wife she watcheth me,
See yonder where she goes."

It has been reprinted in Evans' Old Ballads, i. 187 (1810.)

In Wit and Mirth, or Pills to purge Melancholy (1707, ill. 219, or 1719,
V. 139), there is a song called "Bonny Peggy Ramsey," to the second tune, X
which in earlier copies is called London is a fine town, and Watton Town's Mid.

The original song, " Oh ! London is a fine town," is probably no longer extant.
A ballad to be sung to the tune was written on the occasion of James the First's

visit to Cambridge, in March, 1614

 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 219

" Cambridge is a merry town,

And Oxford is another,
Tlie King was welcome to the one.
And fared well at the other," &c.
See Hawkins' Ignoramus, xxxvi.
A second with the burden
" London is a fine town.
Yet I their cases pity
The Mayor and some few Aldermen
Have clean undone the city,"
will be found in the King's Pamphlets, British Museum (fol. broadsides, vol. v.).
It begins, " Why kept your train-bands such a stir," and is dated Aug. 13, 1647.
(Reprinted in Wright's Political Ballads, for the Percy Society.)
In Le Prince d' Amour, 12m., 1660, is a third, commencing thus :

" London is a fine town, and a brave city,

Governed with scarlet gowns give ear unto my ditty ;
:

And there is a Mayor, which Mayor he is a Lord,

That governeth the city by righteous record.
Upon Simon and Jude's day their sails then up they hoist.
And then he goes to Westminster with all the galley foist.
London is a fine town," &c.
A foui'th song beginning, " Oli ILondon is a fine town," will be found in Pills to
purge Melanclwly, 1707, ii. 40, or 1719, iv. 40 and in the same volume another
;

to the tune, beginning

" As I came from Tottingham, Her journey was to London
'

Upon a market day, With butterijjilk and whey,

There I met a bonny lass To come down, a down.
Clothed all in gray. To come down, down, a down-a"
The burden to this song suggests the possibility of its being the tune of a snatch
sung by Ophelia in Hamlet —
" You must sing down, a down.
An you call him a down-a."
One of D'Urfey's " Scotch" Songs, called Tlie Groivlin, in his play of Trick for
Trick, was also sung to this tune.
~^ In 77ie Dancing Master, 1665 and after, it is called Walton Town^s Mid ; and
in the second part of Mohin Croodfelloiv, 1628, there is a song " to the tune of
Wattoti Town's Mid," beginning
" It was a country lad.
That fashions strange would see," &c.
It is reprinted in Evans' Old Ballads, 1810, i. 200. Another entitled
The common cries of London town.
"

Some go up street, some go down,"

is to the tune of Walton Townes Mid, black-letter, 1662.
Many others will be found to these tunes, under their various names.
The following is a verse from the ballad quoted in Burton's Anatomy of
Melancholy. It consists of eighteen stanzas, each of eight lines, and a ditty of
four (" Give me my yellow hose again," &c.). See Evans' Old Ballads.
220 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

^
Moderate time.

g r4 H—p
B
^ :*=5=gs
^ -t^
When I was a Bache-lor, I liv'd a mer-ry life, But now 1 am a

^3
m i ^

mar-ried man, And troubled with a wife, I can -not

^
do
a
^
as I have done, Be-

^^^Tffl=F^:^^ N ii Myjlj
-cause I live in fear. If I go but to Isling-ton, wife
=*=^—
watching
is there.

There are slight diflferences in the copies of the tune called Waiton Toivii's Mid
in The Dancing Master, and Oh ! London is a fine town in Pills to purge Melan-
choly, and in The Beggars^ Opera. The following is The Beggars' Opera version :

K
^m
5
Lively.

Oh Lon
^
don a
^r-
town, And gal
^f^
lant
4-
rJ *-
.

^^
! - is fine a - ci - ty ; 'Tis

"gy
rff <' f ~crr '^^~
r^

^^
govern'd by the scar

-ir^
- let gown, Come lis -
^^
ten to my dit - ty.
zaz

This

^"^^-^ -^
May May He

^
ty has a - or. This - or is a Lord,

3 32=

Eki^
go - ver -
^^
netli the
^^
^
cit - i - zens All by
^

his own
t i
ac - cord.

=^ -TS-
 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 221

LIGHT O'LOVE.

Light of Love is so frequently mentioned by writers of the sixteenth century,

that it is much to be regretted that the words of the original song are still

undiscovered. When
played slowly and with expression the air is beautiful. In
the collection of Mr. George Daniel, of Canonbury, is " very proper dittie to A :

the tune Light ie Love;" which was printed in 1570. The original may not have
"
been quite so proper," if " Light o'Love " was used in a sense in which it was

occasionally employed, instead of its more poetical meaning :

" One of your London Light d Loves, a right one,

Come over in thin pumps, and half a petticoat."
Fletcher's Wild Goose Chase, act iv., so. 2.

Or in the passage quoted by Douce :

" There be wealthy housewives and good
housekeepers that use no starch, but fair water ; their linen is as white, and they
look more Christian-like in small ruffs than Light of Love looks in her great
starched ruffs, look she never so high, with her eye-lids awry." The Cflasse of

Man's FoUie, 1615.

Shakespeare alludes twice to the tune. Firstly in The Two Q-entlemen of Verona,
act i., sc. 2

" Julia. Some love of yours hath writ to you in rhime.

Lucetta. That I might sing it, madam, to a tune

Oive me a
note —
your ladyship can set.
Jul. As by such toys as may be possible
little

Best sing it 'to the tune of Light oLove.

Luc. It is too heavy for so light a tune.
Jul. Heavy? belike it hath some hiirden then.
Luc. Ay and melodious were it would you sing
; it.

Jul. And why not you ?

Luc. I cannot reach so high.
Jul. Let's see your song : — How now, minion ?

Luc. Keep tune there still, so you W'ill sing it out

And yet, methinks, I do not like this tune.
Jul. You do not ?
Luc. No, madam 'tis ; too sharp.
Jul. You, minion, are too saucy.
Luc. Nay, now you are too flat,
And mar the concord with too harsh a descant
There wanteth but a mean io fill your song.
Jul. The mean is drown'd with your unruly base."

I have quoted this passage in extenso as bearing upon the state of music at the
time, beyond the mere mention of the tune. Fu'stly, when Lucetta says, " Give
me a note [to sing it to] : your ladyship can set" [a song to music,] it adds one
more to the many proofs of the superior cultivation of the science in those days.
We should not now readily attribute to ladies, even to those who are gene-
rally considered to be well educated and accomplished, enough knowledge of
222 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

harmony to enable them to set a song correctly to music, however agile their
fingers may be. Secondly
" It is too heavy for so light a tune,
Heavy ? belike it hath some burden then I

The burden of a song, in the old acceptation of the word, was the base, foot, or
under-song. It was sung throughout, and not merely at the end of the verse.
Burden is derived from bourdoun, a drone base (French, bourdon.)
" This Sompnour bare to him a stiff burdoun,
Was never trompe of half so gret a soun." Chaucer.
We find as early as 1250, that Somer is icumen in was sung with a foot, or burden,
in two parts throughout (
" Sing cuckoo, sing cuckoo " and in the preceding ;
)

century Giraldus had noticed the peculiarity of the English in singing under-parts
to their songs.
That burden still bore the sense of an under-part or base, and not merely of a
ditty," see A Quest of Inquirie, &c., 4to., 1595, where it is compai-ed to the music
of a tabor :
—" Good people, beware of wooers' promises, they are like the musique
of a tabor and pipe : the pipe says golde, giftes, and many gay things ; but perform-
ance is moralized in the tabor, which bears the burden of I doubt ' it, I doubt it.'

{British Bibliographer, vol. i.) In Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant, act v., sc. 2,

"H'as made a thousand rhymes, sir, and plays the burden to 'em on a Jew's-
trump" {Jeugd-tromp, the Dutch Much Ado about
for a child's horn). So in
Nothing, in the scene between Hero, Beatrice, and Margaret, the last says, " Clap

us into Light goes without a burden " [there being no man or men
o''Love, that

on the stage to suig one]. " Do you sing it and I'll dance it." Light d'Love
was therefore strictly a ballet, to be sung and danced.
In the interlude of Tlie Four Elements, about 1510, Ignorance says
" But if thou wilt have a song that is good,
I have one of Roliin Hood,
The best that ever was made.
Humanity. Then i' fellowship, let us hear it.

Ign. JBut there is a bordon, thou must bear it,

Or else it mill not be.

Hum. Then begin and care not to . . .

Downe, downe, dorvne, &c.

Ign. Eobin Hood in Barnsdale stood," &c.

Here Humanity starts with the burden, giving the key for the other to sing in.
So in old manuscripts, the burden is generally found at the head of the song, and
not at the end of the first verse.

Many of these burdens were short proverbial expressions, such as

"
" 'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all ;

which mentioned as the " under-song or holding " of one in The Serving-man''
is

Comfort, 1598, and the line quoted by Adam Davy, in his Life of Alexander, as
early as about 1312. Peele, in his Edivard I., speaks of it as "the old

« " Ditties, they are Uie ouh of old ballads."— Rowley's A Ualch nl Midnighl, act iii., so. 1
 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 223

Englisli proverb ;" but he uses theword " proverb" also in the sense of song, for
in his Old Wives' Tale, 1595, Antick says, " Let us rehearse the old proverb
'
Three merry men and three merry men,
And three merry men be we,' " &c.
Shakespeare puts the following four- Imes into the mouth of Justice Silence when
in his cups : —
" Be merry, be merry, my wife has all,
For women are shrews, both short and tall
'
Tis merry in hall, when heards mag all.

And welcome merry Shrovetide."

See also Ben Jonson, v. 235, and note; and vii. 273, Gifford's edit.

Other burdens were mere nonsense words that went glibly off the tongue, giving
the accent of the music, such as hey nonny, nonny no ; hey derry down, &c. The
"foot" of the first song in The 'pleasant Comedy of Patient Grissil is
" Work apace, apace, apace, apace,
Honest labour bears a lovely face
Then hey noney, noney hey noney, noney." ;

I am aware that " Hey down, down, derry down," has been said to be " a modern
version of ' Hai down, ir deri danno,' the burden of an old song of the Druids,
signifying, '
Come, let us hasten to the oaken grove' (Jones' Welsh Bards, i. 128)

but I believe this to be mere conjecture, and that it would now be impossible to
prove that the Druids had such a song.
The last comment I have to make upon the passage from Shakespeare is on the
word mean. The mean in music was the intermediate part between the tenor and
treble ; not the tenor itself, as explained by Steevens. Descant has already been
explained at p. 15.
Reverting to Light d'Love : it is also quoted as a tune by Fletcher in The Two

Nolle Kinsmen, The air was found by Sir J. Hawkins in an " ancient manu-
script ; " it is also contained in "William Ballet's MS. Lute Book, and in Mtisick's
Delight on the Cithren, 1666.
In the volume of transcripts made by Sir John Hawkins there is a tune entitled
Ihir Maid are you walking, the first four bars of which are identical with Light
d'Love ; Music School, Oxford, one of the manuscripts presented by
and in the
Bishop Fell, with a date 1620, has Light o''Love under the name of Siche and sicJce
and very sicke; but this must be a mistake, as that ballad could not be sung to it.
See Captain Car in Ritson's Ancient Songs, 1790, p. 139.
Li A
Gorgious Grallery of Gfallant Inventions, 1578, the lover exhorteth his
lady to be constant to the tune of Attend thee, go p)lay tJiee ;
: and begins with =•

the line, " Not Light d'Love, lady." The ballad, " The Banishment of Lord Mal-
travers and Sir Thomas Gurney," in Deloney's Strange Histories, &c., 1607, and of
" A song of the wooing of Queen Catherine by Owen Tudor, a young gentleman
of Wales" are also to the tune of Light d'Love. See Old Ballads, 1727, iii. 32;
or Evans, ii. 356.
The following is the ballad by Leonard Gybson, a copy of which is in Mr.
George Daniel's Collection.

» "Attend tliee, go play thee," is a song in A Ilandefull by Wantonness in the interlude of The Marriage of Wit
of Pleasant Seliles, 15S4, and is also the tune of one sung and Wisdom. See Shakespeare Society's Reprint, p. 20.
224 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

A VERY PROPER DITTIE: TO THE TUNE OF LIGHTIE LOVE.

" Leave lightie love, ladies, for fear of j-ll name:
And trae love embrace ye, to pm'chase your fame."

5Es
Very slow and

s iv^fW^ P^
S7nooihly.

By force I am fix-ed my
7^
'
fan --cy
c
^M
w ^
to write, In- p;ra-titudewilletlime not to re-frain :

Thenblameme not, ladies, altliough 1 indite Wliatliglitj' love now amongstyoudothreign :

BW^ ^M
»=bfr m ?y=^t^=5

Your
r . T
^ i
tra-ces in places, to
7 . P r • r P
I
^ f -r
outward allurements. Do move my en-deavour to hetliemoreplam:
g§
Your nioings and 'ticings,with sundry procurement3,To publish your lightie love do me constrain.

:^
i-3-

Deceit is not dainty, it comes at each dish Thus fraud for friendship did lodge in her
w
Fraud goes a fishing with friendly looks breast;
Through friendship is spoiled, the silly poor Such are most women, that when they espy
fish Their lovers inflamed, with sorrows opprest,
That hover and shower upon your false hooks, They stand then with Cupid against their reply.
With bait you lay wait, to catch here and there, They taunt, and they vaunt, they smile when
Which causeth poor fishes their freedom to they view
lose; How Cupid hath caught them under his train
Then lout ye, and flout ye; —whereby doth But warned, discerned, the proof is most true,

appear. That lighty love, ladies, amongst you does

Your lighty love, ladies, still cloaked with reign.

glose. Ye men that are subject to Cupid his stroke,

With Dian so chaste you seem'd to compare. And therein seem now to have your delight,

When Helens you be, and hang on her train Think, when you see bait, there is hidden a
Methinks faithful Thisbes be now very rare, hook, [bite.

But one Cleopatra, I doubt, doth remain. Which surely will have you, if that you do
You wink, and you twink, until Cupid have Such wiles, and such guiles by women are
caught. wraught, [prevent
And forceth through ilames your lovers to sue That half of their mischiefs men cannot
Your lighty love, ladies, too dear they have When they are most pleasant, unto your
bought, [rue. thought.
When nothing will move you their causes to Then nothing but lighty love is their intent.

I speak not for spite, nor do I disdain Consider that poison doth lurk oftentime
Your beauty, fair ladies, in any respect; In shape of sugar, to put some to pain ;

But one's ingratitude doth me constrain. And wordes painted, as dames can define,
fair

As child hurt with fire, the flame to neglect. The old proverb saith, doth make some fools
For, proving in loving, I find by good trial, fain.

When Beauty had brought me unto her beck. Be wise and precise, take warning by me,
She staying, not weighing, but making denial, Trust not the crocodile, lest you do rue
And shewing her lighty love, gave me the To women's fair words do never agi-ee.

check. For all is hut lighty love ;

— this is most tnie.
 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 225

I touch no such ladies as true love embrace, To trust women's words, in any respect.
But such as to lighty love daily apply ;
The danger by me right well it is seen
And none will be grieved, in this kind of And Love and his laws, who would not neglect,
case. The trial whereof hath most perilous been?
Save such as are minded true love to deny. Pretending, the ending, if I have offended,
Yet friendly and kindly I shew you ray mind : I crave of you, ladies, an answer again :

Fair ladies, I wish you to use it no more; Amend, and what's said shall soon be amended.
But say what you list, thus I have defin'd If case that your light love no longer do reign.
That lighty love, ladies, you ought to abhor.

WHEN THAT I WAS A LITTLE TINY BOY.

The Fool's song -wliicli forms the Epilogue to Twelfth Night is still sung on the
stage to this tune. It has no other authority than theatrical tradition. A song
of the same description, and with the same burden, is sung by the Fool in King
Lear, act iii., sc. 2
" He that lias a little tiny vpit,

With a heigh ho ! the wind and the rain,

Must make content with his fortunes fit,
For the rain it raineth ecery day."
The following is the song in Twelfth Night :

In moderate time.

When that I was a little tiny boy ,With a heigh ho! the wind and the rain, A
fB>»:
P
%
fool - ish
4
thing was
^
^n-^f^ff
but a toy. For the rain it rain-eth
^^ ev' ry day. With a

^^^P^^^
heigh ho the wind and the rain. And the rain it rain - eth ev' - ry day.

^
!

But when I came to

With
man's
a heigh ho &c.,
estate,
!
^^ ^S3
But when I came unto my bed.
With a heigh ho ! &c.,
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate, With toss-pots still I'd drunken head.
For the rain, &c. For the rain, &c.

But when I came, alas I to wive, A great while ago the world begun,
With a heigh ho &c.. ! With a heigh ho the wind and the rain
!
;

By swaggering I could never thrive, But that is all one, our play is done,
For the rain, &c. And we'll strive to please you every day.
Q
226 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

SICK, SICK, AND VEEY SICK.

This tune is contained in Anthony Holborne's Cittharn Schoole, 4to., 1697, and
Lute MSS. in the Public Library, Cambridge. (D. d. iv. 23.)
in one of the In
Much Ado about Notliing, Hero says, " Why, how now do you speak in the ! sich

tuneP" and Beatrice answers, "I am out of all other tune, methinks." Li
Nashe's Summer's last Will and Testament, Harvest says, " My mates and fellows,

sing no more Merry, merry, but weep out a lamentable Hoohy, lioohj, and let your
sickles cry
and very sick,
Sick, sick,
And and for the time
sick ;

For Harvest, your master, is

Abus'd without reason or rhyme."
On 24th March, 1578, Richard Jones had licensed to him a ballad intituled '
'

Sich, sick, &c., and on the following 19th June, " new songe, intituled A
Sich., sick, in grave I would I were.
For grief to see this wicked world, that will not mend, I fear."

This was probably a moralization of the former.

In the Harleian Miscellany, 4to, 10. 272, is " A new ballad, declaring the
dangerous shooting of the gun at the court (1578), to the tune of Siclce and siche;
commencing
" The seventeenth day of July last, About the river to and fro,
At evening toward night, As much as they could make.
Our noble Queen Elizabeth Weep, weep, still I weep,
Took barge for her delight ;
And shall do till I die,
And had watermen to row,
the To think upon the gun was shot
Her pleasure she might take. At court so dangerously."
The ballad from which the tune derives its name is probably that printed in
Ritson's Ancient Songs, (1793, p. 139) from a manuscript in the Cotton Library
(Vespasian, A 25), and entitled Captain Car. The event which gave rise to it

occurred in the year 1571. The first stanza is here printed to the tune :

I
S
S
It
^M
^^^
be - fell at Mar tin-mas,
m
When weather wax - ed
=^
-sr

cold,

^^ ^
Sick, sick, and ry sick. And sick and like to die The

^
^P^^-^fej ^ sir
-t IT
Cap - tain Car said to his men, We must
go take a hold,
sick - est night that I a - bode. Good Lord, have mercy on me.

:^
S -^
 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 227

TO-MORROW IS ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.

This is one of Ophelia's songs in Hamlet. It is found in several of the ballad
operas, such as The CobUers' Opera (1729), The Quakers'' Opera (1728), &c.,
under this name. Li Pills to piurge Melancholy (1707, ii. 44) it is printed to a
song in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, beginning, " Arise, arise, my juggy, my
puggy." Other versions will be found under the names of " Who list to lead

15^
i
^
Cheerfully.

^ as
a soldier's life," and " Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor." See pages 144 and 145.

MrA
Good moi--row, 'tis St. Valentine's day, All in the morning be

e^i ^ 3e
3^

W^^^^^ SS t^

m
- time, And a maid at your window, To be your Valen - tine.

3:
3t ^^^-

GREEN SLEEVES.
Green Sleeves, or Which nolocly can deny, has been a favorite tune, from the
time of Elizabeth to the present day ; and is still frequently to be heard in the
streets of London to songs with the old burden, " Which nobody can deny." It
will also be recognised as the air of Christinas comes hut once a year, and many
another raerry ditty.
"And set our credits to the tune of Greene Sleeves." — The Loyal Subject, by
Beaumont and Fletcher.
JPalstqff.
— " Let
the sky rain potatoes let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves,
!

hail kissing comfits,and snow eringoes, let there come a tempest of provocation, I will
shelter me here." (Embracing her.) —
Merry Wives of Windsor, act v., sc. 5.
" llrs. Ford. —
" I shall think the worse of fat men, as long as I have an eye to
make difference of men's liking. And yet he would not swear; praised women's
modesty and gave such orderly and well-behaved reproof to all uncomeliness, that
;

I would have sworn his disposition would have gone to the truth of his words but :

they do no more adhere and keep pace together, than the Hundredth Psalm to the
tune of Green Sleeves." —
Merry Wives of Windsor, act ii., sc. 1.
The earliest mention of the ballad of Green Sleeves in the Registers of the
Stationers' Company is in September, 1580, when Richard Jones had licensed to
him, " A new Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves.^' The date of the
entry, however, is not always the date of the ballad ; and thishad evidently
attained some popularity before that time, because on the same day Edward
228 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

White had a license to print, "A ballad, being the Ladie Greene Sleeves Ansioere
to Donkyn his frende." Also Edward Guilpin in his SkialetJtia, or a Shadow of
Truth, 1598, says " Yet like tli' olde ballad of the Lo7-d of Lome,
:

Whose last line" in King Harries days was borne."

As the ballad of The Lord of Lome and the False Steivard, -which was entered on
the 6th October, 1580, was sung to the tune of Green Sleeves, it would appear that
G-reen Sleevesmust be a tune of Henry's reign. Copies of The Lord of Lome are in
the Pepys Collection (i. 494), and the Roxbui-ghe (i. 222).
Within twelve days of the first entry of Green Sleeves it was converted to a
pious use, and we have, " Greene Sieves moralised to the Scripture, declaring the
manifold benefites and blessings of God bestowed on sinful man " and on the
;

fifteenth day Edward White had " tollerated unto him by Mr. Watkins, a
ballad intituled Greene Sleeves and Countenance, in Countenance is Greene
Sleeves." By the expression " tolerated " instead of " licensed," we may infer

it to have been of questionable propriety.

Great, therefore, was the popularity of the ballad immediately after its publica-
tion, and this may be attributed rather to the merry swing of the tune, than to the
words, which are neither remarkable for novelty of subject, nor for its treatment.
An attempt was speedily made to improve upon them, or to supply others of
more attractive character, for in December of the same year, Jones, the original
publisher, had " tolerated to him A merry newe Northern Songe of Greene
Sleeves," beginning, The honniest lass in all the land. This was probably the ballad
that excited William Elderton to write his "Reprehension against Greene Sleeves"
in the following February, for there appears nothing in the original song to have
causedit. The seventh entry within the year was on the 24th of August, 1581,
when Edward White had licensed " a ballad intituled
" Greene Sleeves is worne awaie,
Yellow Sleeves come to decaie.
Blacke Sleeves I holde in despite,
But White Sleeves is my delight."

Nashe, speaking of Barnes' Divine Centime of Sonets, says they are " such
another device as the goodly ballet of John Careless, or the song of Green Sleeves
Moralized." Fletcher says, " And, by my Lady Greensleeves, am I grown so
tame after all my
triumphs ? " and Dr. Rainoldes, in his Overthrow of Stage
Plays, 1599, says, " Now if this were lawfully done because he did it, then
William, Bishop of Ely, who, to save his honour and wealth, became a Green
Sleeves, going in women's raiment from Dover Castle to the sea-side, did therein
like a man ;
—although the women of Dover, when they found it out, by plucking
down his muffler and seeing his new shaven beard, called him a monster for it."
In Mr. Payne Collier's Collection, and in that of the Society of Antiquaries,
are copies of " A Warning to false Traitors, by example of fourteen ; whereof six
were executed in divers places neere about London, and two near Braintford, the

" The last lines of the Lord of Zorjie are— For God may suffer for a time,
*' Let Rebels therefore warned be, But will disclose it at the end."
How mischief once they do pretend ;
Perhaps Guilpin may mean that this formed part of an
older balled.
 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 229

28t]i day of August, 1588; also at Tyborne were executed the 30th day six;
viz., five men and one woman : to the tune of Q-reen Sleeves ^^ beginning
" You traitors all that do devise
To hurt our Queen in treacherous wise.
And in your hearts do still surmise
Which way to hurt our England
Consider what the end will be
Of traitors all in their degree :

Hanging is still their destiny

That trouble the peace of England."
The conspirators were treated with very little consideration by the ballad-
monger in having their exit chaunted to a merry tune, instead of the usual
lamentation, to the hanging-tune of Fortune my foe.
Elderton's ballad, The King . of Scots and Andrew Brown, was to be sung to
the tune oi Mill-field, or else to Green Sleeves (see p. 185), but the measure suits
the former and not the latter. However, his " New Yorkshire Song, intituled
" Yorke, Yorke, for my monie,
Of all the cities that ever I see,
For merry pastime and companie,
"
Except the cittie of London ;

which is dated "from Yorke, by W. E., and imprinted at London by Richard

Jones," in 1584, goes so trippingly to Gfreen Sleeves, that, although no tune is

mentioned on the title, I feel but little doubt of its having been intended for that
air. It was written during the height of its popularity, and not long, after his
own " Reprehension."
The song of York for my money is on a match at archery between the York-

shire and the Cumberland men, backed by the Earls of Essex and Cumberland,
which Elderton went to see, and was delighted with the city and with his
reception especially by the hospitality of Alderman Maltby of York.
;

^ Copies will be found in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 1, and Evans' Old Ballads,
i. 20,. It begins, " As I come thorow the North countrey," and is refered to in
Heywood's Xing Edivard IV., 1600.
In Mr. Payne Collier's Old Ballads, printed for the Percy Society, there is one
of Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury Fort (written shortly anterior to the destruction of
the Spanish Armada) to the tune of Triumph and Joy. The name of the air is
probably derived from a ballad which was entered on the Stationers' books in
1581, of " The Triumpe shewed before the Queene and the French Embassadors,"
who preceded the arrival of the Duke of Anjou, and for whose entertainment
jousts and triumphs were held. The tune for this ballad is not named in the
entry at Stationers' Hall, but if a copy should be found, I imagine it will prove

also to have been written to G-reen Sleeves, from the metre, and the date
coinciding with the period of its great popularity.
Richard Jones, to whom Green Sleeves was first licensed, was also the printer
of A Handefull of Pleasant D elites, 1584, in which a copy of the ballad will be
found. Also in Ellis' Specimens, ii. 394, (1803). A few verses are subjoined,
230 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

as affording an insiglit into the dress and manners of an age with which we cannot
be too well acquainted.
The tune is contained in several of Dowland's lute manuscripts; in William
Ballet's Lute Book ; in Sir John Hawkins' transcripts of virginal music ; in The
Dancing Master ; Tlie Beggar's Opera ; and in many other books.
As the second part differs in the oldest copies, from others of later date, both
versions are subjoined.
The first is from William Ballet's Lute Book compared with another in Sir
John Hawkins' transcripts of vu-ginal music both having the older second part. ;

i
sw=^
Smoothly and

»5
in moderate time.
"
^
5 W^
Tune of Green Sleeves. Oldest copy.

FRg=fr
i m
las ! tny love, you

^
do me wi'ong, To cast me off dis -

^m
-courteously, And
i=3
I have lov - ed
^
you so
^i.^^^i
long, De - light-ing in your
company.
'* I m

=M= ^^^FF^^^F^

Green was my joy. Green - sleeves was my

m
- sleeves all delight,

^^:^
sf Green - sleeves
m SI
was my heart of
m
gold, And who but my La -
^m
dy
Greensleeves.

P '^^m
I have been ready at your hand I bought thee kerchers to thy head,
To grant whatever you would crave, That were wrought fine and gallantly,
I have both waged life and land, I kept thee booth at board and bed.
Your love and good-will for to have. Which cost my purse well favoredly.
Greensleeves was all my joy, &c. Greensleeves was all my joy, &c.
 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 231

I'bought thee petticoats of the best, Thy smock of silk, both fair and white,
The cloth so fine as might be With gold embroidered gargeously ;

I gave thee jewels for thy chest, Thy petticoat of sendal right, [thin silk]

And all this cost I spent on thee. And these I bought thee gladly.
Greensleeves was all my joy, &c. Greensleeves was all my joy, &c.

He then describes her girdle of gold, her purse, the crimson stockings all of sUk,
the pumps as -white as milk, the gown of grassy green, the satin sleeves, the
gold-fringed garters ; all of which he gave her, together with his gayest gelding,
and his men decked green to wait upon her
all in

They set thee up, they took thee down,

They serv'd thee with humility ;

Thy foot might not once touch the ground,

And yet thou wouldst not love me.
Greensleeves was all ray joy, &c.

She could desire no earthly thing without being gratified

Well I will pray to God on high, •
Greensleeves, now farewell I adieu !

That thou my constancy mayst see, God I pray to prosper thee

And that yet once before I die For I am still thy lover true.
Thou wilt vouchsafe to love me. Come once again and love me.
Greensleeves was all my joy, &c. Greensleeves was all my joy, &c.

At the Revolution Green Sleeves became one of the party tunes of the Cavaliers
and in the " Collection of Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament,"
there are no less than foui'teen to be sung to it. It is sometimes referred to under
the name of The Blachsmith, from a song (in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 250)
to the tune oi Green Sleeves, beginning
"Of all the trades that ever I see
There is none with the blacksmith's compared may be.

For with so many several tools works he,

Wldch nohody can deny."
Pepys, in his diary, 22nd April, 1660, says that, after playing at nine-pins,
" my lord fell to singing a song upon the Rump, The BlachsmilhP
to the tune of
It was also called The Breiuer, or Old Noll, the Brewer of Huntingdon, from a
satirical song about Oliver Cromwell, which is to be found in TJie Antidote to
Melancholy, 1661, entitled "The Brewer,
made in the year 1657, to the a ballad
tune of The Blacksmith " also in Wit and Drollery, Jovial Poems, 1661.
In Dancing Master, 1686, the time first appears under the name of Green
I7ie

Sleeves and Budding Pies ; and in some of the latest editions it is called Green
Sleeves and Yellow Lace. Percy says, " It is a received tradition in Scotland that
Green Sleeves and Pudding Pies was designed to ridicule the Popish clergy," but
the tradition most probably refers to a song of James the Second's time called
At Borne there is a terrible rout,^ which was sung to the tune, and attained some
popularity, since in the ballad-opera of Silvia, or The Country Burial, 1731,
it appears under that name. Boswell, in his Journal, 8vo., 785, p. 319, prints
the following Jacobite song :

^This is entitled"Father Peters' Policy discovered; or "In Rome there is a most fearful rout;
the Prince of Wales proved a Popish Perkln." London : And what do you think it is about ?

printed for R. M., ten stanzas, of which the following is Because the birth of the babe's come out,
the first : Sing Lullaby Baby, by, by, by."
232 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

" Green Sleeves and Pudding Pies, May our affairs abroad succeed,
Tell me where my mistress lies, And may our King come home witli speed,
And I'll be with, her before she rise, And all Pretenders shake for speed,
Fiddle and aw together. And let his health go round.
To all our injured friends in need,
This side and beyond the Tweed,
Let all Pretenders shake for dread,
And let his health go round."

There is no apparent connection between the subject of the first and that of the
remaining stanzas ; and although the first may have been the burden of an older
song, it bears no indication of having refered to the clergy of any denomination.
There is scarcely a collection of old English songs in which at least one may
not be found to the tune of Green Sleeves. In the West of England it is still
sung at harvest-homes to a song beginning, " A pie sat on a pear-tree top; " and
at the Maypole still remaining at Ansty, near Blandford, the villagers still dance
annually round it to this tune.
The following " Carol for New Year's Day, to the tune of Crreen Sleeves" is

from a black-letter collection printed in 1642, of which the only copy I have seen
is in the Ashmolean Library, Oxford.
mi,™
1 he old ,„„
„ij year „
now away
•
a
is tied,
J I thank my •'
master and my •'
dame, '
,

year u
1 he new „
rri,„ „,it
;„ „„i. A
is entered
The which are founders of the same, '
. .

Then let us now our sins down tread.

To eat to drink now is no shame

And joyfully all appear.

^"^ send us a merry new year.

Let's merry be this holiday. Come lads and lasses every one.
And let us run with sport and play. Jack, Tom, Dick, Bess, Mary, and Joan,
Hang sorrow, let's cast care away Let's cut the meat unto the bone,
God send you a happy new year. For welcome you need not fear.
And here for good liquor we shall not lack.
And now with new year's gifts each friend j^ ^ju ^^^^^^ ^^ i^^ains and strengthen my
Unto each other they do send back
God grant we may our lives amend. This joll'y good cheer it must go to wrack-
And that the truth may appear.
Q^d send us a merry new year.
Now like the snake cast off your skin
Of evil thoughts and wicked sin,
C°'"''' S^^^ "^ ^°'^ ^^1"°'' ^^^° ^ '^° '=^"'

And to amend this new year begin- °"® '"^ ^'"' ^^"'
^'^^ ^''""^ ^° ^^''^

a „ ^ that so loud I must not bawl,

I hope
GodJ sendJ us
/-,
merry new year. '

But unto me lend an ear.

And now let all the company Good fortune tomy master send,
In friendly manner all agree. And to my dame which is our friend.
For we are here welcome all may see God bless us all, and so I end
Unto this jolly good cheer. And God send us a happy new year.

The following version of the tune, from The Bee/gars'' Opera, 1728, is that
pow best known. I have not found any lute or virginal copy which had this
second part. The earliest authority for it is Tlie Dancing Master, 1686, and it
may have been altered to suit the violin, as the older second part is rather low,
and less effective, for the instrument.
 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 233

I have selected a few lines from a political song called Tlie Trimmer, to print
with this copy, because has the burden, " Which nobody can deny." It is one

^
it

^
of the many songs to the tune in Pills to purge Melancholy.

-^ ^ Boldly.

fj ^ ^-
Pray lend me youi' ear,
'
^^^

if you've
S
-

a - ny
-
Tune

-
to spare,
of Green Sleeves.

-w- -0-

You that love ComtDon-wealth

Later copy.

-ph
as j-ou

'^^iW^
SEfE r
•

r c

^:
hate
-^-^-V
_i
Common Prayer,That r_
can in
rfi! -1 ii. _T- 1.1- J TiTi,:^!, .r.^l.„j
abreath pray, dissemble and swear,Whichnobodycan de
^ J., - '-^
ny-

^ f^^ ^
id^zd^
I'm
I ^=*
fii-st
-* r ^^ £^
on the wrong side, and then on the right. To-day I'm a Jack, and to -
M
morrow a Mite, I for

p"=rF

ei-ther will pray,

^
but for nei-therwiU fight, Which no
ss
- body can de
f
?^^^ w
MY ROBIN IS TO THE GREENWOOD GONE; ok, BONNY SWEET ROBIN.

This is contained in Anthony Holborne's Cittharn Schoole, 1597 in Queen ;

Elizabeth's Virginal Book in William Ballet's Lute Book and in many other
; ;

manuscripts and printed books.

There are two copies in William Ballet's Lute Book, and the second is entitled
" Robin Hood is to the greenwood gone;" it is, therefore, probably the tune of a
ballad of Robin Hood, now lost.

Ophelia sings a line of in Samlet

it —
" For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy ;

and in Fletcher's Two liable Kinsmen, the jailer's daughter, being mad, says,
" I can sing twenty more ... I can sing 27*6 Broom and Bonny Rohin." Li
Robinson's Schoole of Musiche (1603), and in one of Dowland's Lute Manuscripts,
234 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

(D. d., 2. 11, Cambridge), "Robin is to the greenwood gone; in

it is entitled,

Addit. MSS. 17,786 (Brit. Mus.), " My Robin," &c.

Aballad of " A
dolefull adieu to the last Erie of Darby, to the tune of Bonny

Mohin," was entered at Stationers' Hall to John Danter on the 26th April,
siveet

1593 ; and in the Croivn Crarland of Golden Hoses is " courtly new ballad of A
;
the princely wooing of the fair London by King Edward " as well as
Maid of
" The fair Maid of London's answer," to the same tune. The two last were also
printed in black-letter by Henry Gosson, and are reprinted in Evans' Old
Ballads, iii. 8.

In " Good and true, fresh and new Christmas Carols," b.l., 1642, there is a
" Carol for St. Stephen's day tune of Bonny sweet Mohin" beginning
:

" Come, mad boys, be glad, boys, for Christmas is here.

And we shall be feasted with jolly good cheer," &o.
Slowly and ad Uhitum.
^
My Ro - bin is to the green-wood gone,

^Efi
ES ^

1*
g^
i
A
\^
S
I
pi /-^^s^^yEE^
^
i
^ f
? zfcft

WITH A FADING.
In act iv., so. 3, of Shakespeare's Winter^s Tale, the servant says of Autolycus,
" He hath songs for man or woman, of all sizes ; no milliner can so fit his

customers with gloves: he has the prettiest love-songs for maids; . . . with such
delicate burdens of dildos a,nd fadings.^'
In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 12, there is a ballad by L. P. (Laurence Price?),
entitled " The Batchelor's Feast ; or
The difference betwixt a single life and a double ;
Betwixt the batchelor's pleasure and the married man's trouble.
To a pleasant new tune, called With a hie dildo dill." It begins thus : —
" As I walkt forth of late, where grass and flowers spring,
I heard a batchelor within an harbour sing.
The tenor of his song contain'd much melodie :

It is a gallant thing to live in liberty.

With a hie, dildo, dill,

Hie do, dil dur lie

It is a delightful thing
To live at liberty."

There are six stanzas ; and six more in a second part (at p. 17 of the same
 ILLUSTRATINO SHAKESPEARE. 235

volume), " printed at London for I. W." (either I. Wright or L White, who were
both ballad printers of the reigns of James I. and Charles I.)

In Qlioice Drollery, 1656, p. 31, is another, which would require a different

tune, commencing — " A story strange I will you tell,

But not so strange as true,

Of a woman that danc'd upon the rope,
And so did her husband too.
With a dildo, clildo, dildo,
With a dildo, dildo dee."
In the Pepys Collection of Ballads, i. 224, is one by Robert Guy, printed for

H. Gosson, and with the following title :

" The Merry Forester.

Yoimg men and maids, in country or in city
I crave your aids with me to tune this ditty ;

Both new and true it is, no harm in this is,

But is composed of the word call'd kisses ;

Yet meant by none, abroad loves to be gadding

It goes unto the tune of With a adding!' f
The first line is " Of be where I," &c.
late I chanc'd to

Another song, which has the burden " with a fading," will be found in
Shirley's Bird in a Cage, act iv., sc. 1 (1633). A third in Sportive Wit, &c.,

1656, p. 58. The last is also printed in Pills to purge Melancholy, ii. 99 (1707),
with the tune, of which there are other copies in the same work.
There are also ballads to it, under the name of An Orange, and With a
Pudding. See Roxburghe Collection, ii. 16 ; Pills to purge Melancholy, i. 90
(1707), &c.
The Fading is the name of an Irish dance, but With a fading {or /adding)
seems to be used as a nonsense-burden, like Derry down, Hey nanny, nonny no, &c.

The
w
Trippingly and in moderate time.

cour - tiers scom us

^ coun-try clowns ;
^^
We coiin - try clowns
EE
do

^3
^^^ i ^m
^^^^^^^^^^m
scorn the court, For we are as mer-ry up - on the downs As you are at

mid - night with all your sport. With a fad-in

i -^-
 236 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

You hawk, you hunt, you lie upon pallets. Your clothes are made of silk and satin,
You eat, you drink (the Lord knows how !) ;
And ours are made of good sheep's gray;
We sit upon hillocks, and pick up our sallets, You mix your discourse with pieces of Latin,
And drink up a syllahub under a cow. We speak our English as well as we may.
With a fading. With a fading.
Your masks are made for knights and lords, You dance Corants and the French Braul,
And go fine and gay
ladies that ;
We jig the Morris upon the green.
We dance to such music the bagpipe affords. And make as good sport in a country hall,
And trick up our lasses as well as we may. As you do before the King and the Queen.
With a fading. With a fading.

HOW SHOULD I YOUR TRUE LOVE KNOW.'

The W.
Linley (an aceomplislaed amateur, and brother of the highly-gifted
late
Mrs. Sheridan) collected and published " the wild and pathetic melodies of
Ophelia, as he I'emembered them to have been exquisitely sung by Mrs. Forster,
when she was Miss Field, and belonged to Drury Lane Theatre;" and he says,
" the impression remained too strong on his mind to make him doubt the
correctness of the airs, agreeably to her delivery of them." Dr. Arnold also
noted them down from the singing of Mrs. Jordan, and Mr. Ayrton has followed
that version in his Annotations to Knight's Pictorial Hdition of Shakespeare.
The notes of this ah- are the same in both ; but in the former it is in I time,
in the latter in common time. The melody is printed in common time in
The Beggars' Opera (1728) to " You'll think, ere many days ensue," and in
The Grenerous Freemason, 1731.
Dr.Percy selected some of the fragments of ancient ballads which are
dispersed through Shakespeare's plays, and especially those sung by Ophelia in
Samlet, and connected them by a few supplemental stanzas into his charming
ballad, Tlie Friar of Orders Gray, the first line of which is taken from one, sung
by Petruchio, in The Taming of the Shrew.
The following is the tune; but in singing Ophelia's fragments, each line should

begin on the first of the bar, and not with the note before it. In the ballad-
operas it has the burden. Twang, lang, dildo dee at the end, with two additional
bars of music, the same as to The Knight and Shepherd'' s Daughter. See p. 127.
Moderate time and smoothly.

i
^
^
And
How
T
^~^~-n
how should
should
I your
¥
true - love know From many an
From an
^m ^ -
-
o - ther
o - ther

E ''
^
I

p
^
CJ I
»J J =p

o
T^
J J

his
j

coc -
i3
=^
kle hat
^
and staff, And by his san-dal shoon.
^
"r^

He is
He
By

^
dead and gone, lady.
is dead and gone
his

At his head a green grass turf,

;
^ -^
And his

^
White his shroud as mountain snow,
Larded with sweet flowers,
Which bewept to the grave did go
m

At his heels a stone. With true love showers.

 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 237

A parody on this song seems to be intended in Rowley's A Match at Midnight,

1633, where the Welshman sings
" Did hur not see hur true love-a
As hur come from London ?" &c. _

AND WILL HE NOT COME AGAIN ?

This fragment, sung by Ophelia, was also noted down by W. Liuley. It

appears to be a portion of the tune entitled TJie Merry Milhnaids in Tlie Dancing
Master, 1650, and The Milkmaids' Bimips in several ballads. The following lines
in Uastivard Roe, 1605, resemble, and are probably a parody on, Ophelia's song:
" His head as white as milk,
All flaxen was his hair
But now he is dead,
And lain in his bed,
And never will come again." -Doddey, iv., 223.

e^
^
. Very slowly and ad libifum.

And will he not come a -

m?
gain, And
jt la:
will
^
he not come a -
MF^gain ? No,

fH^
:&
35
^ ^ -j»^»

^
i^:

^P*no, he
' "-
is dead. Gone
^
to
— "

his deathhed,
*-

He
^MljH^
ne - ver will come a - gain.

m=^
His beard was white as snow,
All flaxen was his hair,
He is gone, he is gone,
And we east away moan ;

God 'a mercy on his soul.

O DEATH! ROCK ME ASLEEP.

In the second part of Shakespeare's King Henry IV., act ii., so. 4, Pistol
snatching up his sword, exclaims
" What ! shall we have incision ? shall we imbrue ?
Then death rockme asleep, abridge my doleful days !

This is in allusion to the following song, which is supposed to have been written
by Anne Boleyn. The words were printed by Sir John
Hawkins in his History
of Music, having been "communicated to him by a very judicious antiquary,"
then " lately deceased," whose opinion was that they were written either by, or in
the person of, Anne Boleyn; "a conjecture," he adds, "which her unfortunate
history renders very probable." On this Ritson remai-ks, " It is, however, but a
conjecture: any other state prisoner of that period having an equal claim.
238 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

George, Viscount Eochford, brother to the above lady, and who suffered on her
account, '
hath the fame,' according to Wood, '
of being the author of several
poems, songs, and sonnets, with other things of the like nature,' and to him he
(Ritson) is willing to refer them." (Ancient iSoni/s, 1790, p. 120.)
The first stanza of the words, with the tune, is contained in a manuscript of
the latter part of Henry's reign, foi'merly in the possession of Stafford Smith,
and now in that of Dr. Rimbault. It is a single-voice part, in the diamond-headed
note,and without accompaniment. Another copy, with an accompaniment for the
lute, will be found in Addit. MSS. 4900, British Museum.
Moderate time, and like recitative.

^r-r ^^^Si^= J=
5 2? =^
I
^^
O Death ! O Death, rock me a - sleep ! Bring nre to qui - et

fi=F :^ IS
^

^
-y:r-

teSEfe^^
*^ i i=3f
tmy 1
rest : Let pass my wea-ry, guiltless life Out of careful breast.

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ^

-N
c
_!:
^. tfJ ' ^
J
"^
— si
"— 5
1
'
_i^ S
f—^^
1

-y

— i=P=i=? -^-
-^^-^-^^^1 • * ^
=^a=^=~-^,—fl-
' ^
^^ :!
•
^o-
Toll on the pass - ing bell, Ring out my dole-ful knell, Let thy

-^
i :^ •"C5~

* 4 ^i ^
sound my death tell. PP Death doth draw near me, f There

"cr

i^ ^
5 ^—
is no re - me - dy,
^ no re - me -
22

dy, There is no
*

re-me-dy.
* r.

-S^
3E
^ w "f
S ~^T
 ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. 239

My pains who can express 1 Farewell my pleasures past,

Alas ! they are so strong Welcome my present pain ;

My dolour will not suffer strength I feel my torments so increase,

My life for to prolong. That life cannot remain.
Toll on, &c. Cease now the passing bell.
Rung is my doleful knell.
Alone in prison strong
For the sound my death doth tell.
I wail my destiny
Death doth draw nigh,
Woe worth this cruel hap that I
Sound my end dolefully,
Should taste this misery.
For now I die.
Toll on, &c.

CAN YOU NOT HIT IT, MY GOOD MAN?

The following lines are sung by Rosaline and Boyet in act iv., sc. 1, of Love's
Labour Lost. The tune was transcribed by Dr. Rimbault from one of the MSS.
presented by Bishop Fell to the Music School at Oxford, and bearing a date of
1620. Canst thou not kit it is mentioned as a dance in the play of Wily Beguiled,
written in the reign of Elizabeth. In 1579, " a ballat intytuled There is better

game, if you coidd hit it," was licensed to

rnr]
P^^^R^^
a
Trippingly and moderately fast.

j4.

*=f=^
F^r

Rosaline.— Thou canst not hit

J h-iH^

hit hit
,
Hughe

-^r
it,
i

Thou
Jaxon.

S=il

canst not hit

^
it, my good man.

^ ^^
it, it,

HSj-ft
Z2_ ^

Boyet— An
m^
I can -not,
^iJ J
can - not, can
J

-
^
nut, An I can -not, an - o
^
- ther can.

P^S ^ W^
The list of music illustrating Shakespeare might be largely increased, by-

including in it catcheSj part-music, and the works of known composers, which do

not fall within the scope of the present collection. The admirers of Shakespeare
will be gratified to know that a work is in progress which will include not only

those, but also such of the original music to his dramas as can still be found.^
The three following ballads, with which I close the reign of Elizabeth, were
popular in the time of Shakespeare, but are not mentioned by the great poet.

°'This work (to which Dr. Rimbault has devoted many the music of The Tempest will be included in this part.
years of zealous research) will be entitled " A Collection Another division will contain the old songs, ballads,
of Ancient Music, illustrating the plays and poems of catches, &c., inserted, or alluded to, by Shakespeare. Tlie
Shakespeare." The first portion will contain all that now dances will form the third part. It was owing to re-
remains of the original music to his dramas, or which, if searches on a subject so much akin to that of the present
not composed for the first representation of them, was Collection, that Dr. Rimbault's aid has been so peculiarly
written during the life-time of the poet. The whole of valuable in this work.
240 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC

BAKA FAUSTUS- DREAM.

In tlie instrumental arrangements of this tune it is usually entitled Baia
Faustus (or Barrow Fosterh) Dream ; and when found as a song, it is generally
as, " Come, sweet love, let sorrow cease."

It will be found under the former name in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book
(twice); in Rossiter's Lessons for Consort, 1609 and in Nederlandtsche Gedenck-
;

Clanck, 1626, under the latter in " Airs and Sonnets," MS., Trin. Col., Dublin
(F. V. 13) ; in the MS. containing "It was a lover and his lass," described at
p. 204 ; and in Forbes' Cantus, 1682.
Bara Faushis' Dreame was one of the tunes chosen for the Psalmes or Songs
of Sion, kc, 1642,
Smoothly, and with expression

.^^
^ ^H^=^^-^h^
^ft. ^ ^ I
^ I I J iT
*fr
i
S n=^
Come sweet Love, let sor-row cease, Banish frowns, leave oiF dis-sen-tion.

^m fi J • J ^rrr^

T
p
,
=*i:
-

1
^
^'
xi
^^^^te^M
-th

Love swarmakesthesweetestpeace, Hearts u-ni-ting

X i IT
f
1
'^
• .• 1,
by
""

1 i-
contention,
P
Sunsliine follows
Af.ier sor-row

m ^ i^ *:
^ -^ Mz

^^
^
af-ter rain,
f
Sor-rows ceas-ing,
T Ha:

This is pleasing,
P
All proves fair a
IM -
E£
"sr-

gain.
Cometh joy, Trust me, prove me, try me, love me, This will care an - noy.

fe^
THE SPANISH PA VAN.
Dekker, in his KnigWs Qonjuring (1607) thus apostrophises his opponent
" Thou, most clear-throated singing man, with thy harp, to the twinkling of
which inferior spirits skipp'd like goats over the Welsh mountains, hadst privilege

(because thou wert a fiddler) to be saucy ? Inspire me with thy cunning, and
guide me in true fingering, that I may strike those tunes which thou playd'st
Lucifer himself danced a Lancashire Hornpipe whilst thou wert there. If I can
but harp upon thy string, he shall now, for my pleasure, tickle up The Spanish
Favan." The tune of Tlie Spanish Pavan was very popular in the reigns of
Elizabeth and James. One of the songs in Anthony Munday's Banquet of
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 241

Daintie Conceits, 1588, is " to the note of The Spanish Pavin ; " aoother in
.part ii. of Mobin Cfoodfelloiv, 1628; and there are many in the Pepys and Rox-
bui-ghe Collections of Ballads.
It is mentioned as a dance in act iy., sc. 2, of Middleton's Blurt, Master Con-
stable, 1602 ; and in act i., sc. 2, of Ford's ^Tis Pity, 1633. In the former the
tune is played for Lazarillo to dance The Spanish Pavan. The figure, which
differed from other Payans, is described in Thoinot Arbeau's Orchesographie, 1589;
but as the tune there printed is wholly different from the following (which is

found in Queen Elizabeth's Vii'ginal Book, William Ballet's Lute Book, Sh-
J. Hawkins' transcripts of Virginal Music, &c.), I suppose this to be English,
although not a characteristic air.
The ballad, " When Samson was a tall young man," (of which the first stanza

is here prmted) Pepys Collection, i. 32 in the Roxburghe, i. 366 and

is in the ; ;

in Evans' Old Ballads, i. 283 (1810)." It is parodied in Eastivard Hoe, the joint
pi'oduction of Ben Jonson, Marston, and Chapman, act ii.,sc. 1. The two first
lines are the same in the parody and the ballad.
Moderate time.

i^ :#i * r^ M
.
^' '\
.

When Sara - son was tall young man, His pow'r and strength in

^^yrrn^
^^^^^^^

^
-creas-ed then, And
ist
in the host
^=r^ IE ^^pi
and tribe of Dan, The Lord did bless him
>^=^-»i-

IE*
al - way.

i •T-^
1

It
iEEk
1=^
chan-ced so up -
^-^-^U=4
"^
on
^
a day, As he was walking
i-ailv
^^ ^
on his way, He

i ES
"77~

M j^U^_iJ^H^^4lU^
saw a maiden fresh and gay, In Tim-nath, in Tim - nath.

a=
^^^ The
-Sh
^
by Evans) was printed "for the
« and Roxburghe Collections
copies in the Pepys (which is followed
differ. The former has no printer's name; the latter assigns of T. Symcocke."
R
242 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

WIGMOEE'S GALLIARD.

The tune from William Ballet's Lute Book. In Middleton's Yovrfive Crallants,
Jack says, " This will make my master leap out of the bed for joy, and dance
Wigmore's Q-alliard in his shirt about his chamber !" It is frequently mentioned
by other early wi'iters, and there are many ballads to the tune. Among them
are " A most excellent new Dittie, wherein is shewed the wise sayings and wise
sentences of Solomon, Avherein each estate is taught his dutie, with singular
counsell to his comfort and consolation " (a copy in the collection of the late
Mr. W. H. Miller, from Heber's Library). " A most famous Dittie of the joyful
receiving of the Queen's most excellent Majestic by the worthie citizens of
London, the 12th day of November, 1584, at her Grace's coming to St. James'
(a copy in the Collection of Mr. George Daniel). In the Pepys Collection, i. 455,
is "A most excellent Ditty called Collin's Conceit," beginning
" Conceits of sundry sorts there are."

Others are in the second volume of the Pepys Collection ; in the Roxburghe ; in
Anthony Munday's Banquet of Daintie Conceits; in Deloney's Strange Histories,
1607, &c.
The following stanza is from the ballad of " King Henry the Second cro'^vning

his son Henry, in his life-time," &c., by Deloney. The entire ballad is reprinted
by Evans (ii. 63), from The Grarland of Delight, but he omits the name of the tune.

teuF^mTJ
^ ^=^f
^j^te^^^^ka
^ You pa - rents, whose af - fee - tion fond Up on your

^^3
r^E 2±

^^ chil - dren doth

^3 'b^~~^ap - pear, Mark
m
well the
a"~»r
sto - ry
m
now
^3E
in

W^ lE^
=^
^m
^^^m
hand.

':jsr
Where -

=g
in you

Vr
shall

^
great mat - ters hear.
 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 243

GOOD FELLOWS MUST GO LEARN TO DANCE.

The following ballad is from a copy (probably unique) in the Collection of

Mr. George Daniel, of Canonbury. It may be sung to several of the foregoing
airs, but the name of the proper tune is not given on the copy.

A NEW BALLAD INTITULED

GOOD FELLOWS MUST GO LEARN TO DANCE.
Good fellows must go leai-n to dance, A baud of bells in bawdrick wise
The bridal is full near- a, Would deck us in our kind-a
There is a Braule come out of France, A shirt after the Morris guise,
The you heard this year-a
trick'st ;
To flounce it in the wind-a
For I must leap, and thou must hop, A Whiffler for to make the way,
And we must turn all three-a, And May brought in with all-a,

The fourth must hounce it like a top. Is braver than the sun, I say.
And so we shall agree-a And passeth Eound or Braule-a,
I pray thee, Minstrel, make no stop, For we will trip so trick and gay,
For we will merry be-a. That we will pass them all-a.
The bridegroom would give 20 pound Draw to dancing, neighbours all.
The marriage-day were past-a Good fellows, hip is best-a;
You know while lovers are unbound, It skills not if we take a fall,
The knot is slipp'ry fast-a. In honoring this feast-a.
A better man may come in place, The bride will thank us for our glee,
And take the bride away-a; The world will us behold-a ;

Grod send or Wilkin better grace, where shall all this dancing be ?

Our pretty Tom doth say-a ; - In Kent or in Cotswold-a ?

Good Vicar, axe the banns apace, Our lord doth know, then axe not me,
And haste the marriage-dav-a. And so my tale is told-a.

Imprinted at London in Flete Strete at the signe of the Faucon, by Wylliam

Gryffith, and are to be solde at his shoppe in S. Dunstones Church Yearde, 1569.
244 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

EEIGN OP JAMES I.

The most distmguisliing featm-e of chamber music, in the reign of James I.,
from that of his predecessor, was the rapidly-increasing cultivation of mstrumental
music, especially of such as could he played in concert ; and, coevally, the in-
cipient decline of the more learned, but less melodious descriptions of vocal music,
such as madrigals and motets.
During the greater part of the reign of Elizabeth, vocal music held an almost
undivided sway, and the practice of instrumental music, in private life, was

generally confined to solo performances, and to accompaniments for the voice.

The change of fashion, so far as I have been able to trace it, may be dated from
1599, in which year Morley printed a " Fu'st Booke of Consorte Lessons, made
by divers exquisite authors," for six instruments to play together ; and Anthony
Holborne a collection of " Pavans, Galliards, Almaines, and other short airs, both
grave and light, in five parts." Morley's publication consisted of favorite
subjects arranged for the Treble Lute, the Pandora," the Cittern, the (English)
Flute,'' and the Treble and Bass Viols. Holborne's was for Viols, for Violins,"
or for wind-instruments.
I know of no set of Madrigals printed during the reign of Elizabeth, which is

described on the title-page as "apt /or Viols and Voices" it was fully under- —
stood that they were for voices only; —
but, from 1603, when James ascended the
throne, that mode of describing them became so general, that I have found but
two sets printed without it.'^

There was a foreign instrument of the lute descrip-

a rather more than two feet. I had three or four of differ-
tion, with a great number of strings, called the Pandara, ent sizes, the largest exceeding four feet in length. Tlie
but I imagine the English Pandora to be the same instru- base flute must have been still longer. The modem
ment as the iJandora. In Thomas Robinson's " School flute is blown like the old fife; or as in the ancient
of Musicke, the perfect fingering of the Lute, Pandora, sculpture of The Piping Fawn.
Orpharion and Viol da Gamba" the music is noted on six ° Under the name of " Violins " the four different sizes
lines, for an instrument of six strings like the Lute. In of the instrument are here comprehended. The word.
1613, Drayton and Sir William Leighton severally enu- Violoncello is of comparatively modem use. In Ben
merated the instruments in use ih England. Drayton Jonson's BarUiolomew Fair, we find, set of these "A
names the " Pandore" among instruments strung with Violins I would buy, too, for a delicate young noise" {i.e.,
wire. Sir William Leighton speaks of the "Bandore," company of young musicians) "I have in the country;
but neither of i»o/A. In 1G09, Philip Hosseter printed a they are every one a size less than another; just like your
set of *' Lessons for Consort," like Morley's, and for the Jiddles." —
Act iii., sc. 1. Charles the Second's famous
same six instruments, if the Bandora be not an ex- band of " four-and-twenty fiddlers, all in a row," con-
ception. It was a large instrument of the lute kind, sisted of six violins, six counter-tenors, six tenors,
with the same number of strings (but in all probability of and six bases. The counter-tenor violin has become oh-
wire), and invented in 1562 by John Rose, citizen of solete, because all the notes of its scale could be played
London, dwelling in Bridewell. It was much used in upon the violin or tenor.
this reign, especially with the Cittern, to which it formed The exceptions are Bateson's First Set of Madrigals,
'^

tlie appropriate base. 1604, and Pilkington's First Set. 1613, but the second sets
I'
The English flute, described by Mersenne as the of both authors are described as "apt for viols and voices."
Fistula dulcis, sen Anglica, and by some as the Flute SoareWilbye's5ccon<iSe(, 1609 ; Michael Este'sJ5i>7i«Sris,
(I bee, has eight holes for the fingers, and a mouth-piece of "various dates, and the Madrigals of Orlando Gibbons,
at the end like a flageolet. Of the eight holes, six are in Robert Jones, John Ward, Henry Lichfield, Walter Porter,
a row in front, one at the end for the little finger as well as Byrd's P^a/mes, 5ony5, and 5onwef5, 1611 Peer- :

(added afte^^'ards ), and one at the back for the son's Motets or Grave Chamber Music, 1630; and many
thumb. The tone is soft, rich, and melodious, but less lighter kinds of music. See Rimbault's Bibliotlieca
brilliant than the present flute. The ordinary length is Madrigaliana, 8vo., 1847.
 REIGN OF JAMES I. 245

Between 1603 and 1609, Dowland printed his "Lacrimse, or Seven Teares
figured in seven passionate Pavans, with divers other Pavans, Galliards, and
Almands." This work, to which there are so many allusions by contemporary
Dramatists, was in five parts, for the Lute, Viols, or Violins. In 1609, Rossiter
printed his '*
Lessons for Consort" for the same six instruments as Morley, Li
1611, Morley's woi'k was reprinted,^ and about the same time Orlando Gibbons
published his Fantasies of three parts for Viols,^
"^ Twelve volumes of Dr. Burney's MS. extracts for his soft music compared with that of his heroic daughter
History of Music were formerly in my possession, and are Elizabeth, who, according to Hentzner, used io be regaled
uow in the British Museum. In one of them (Add. MSS. during dinner " with twelve trumpets, and two kettle-
11,587) are his extracts from Morley's Consort Lessons. drums; which, together with fifes, cornets, and side-drums,
To "0 mistress mine " (which I have printed at p. 209) made the hall ring for half an hour together." I find
—
he appends the following note: "If any melody or move- nothing of the kind in Hall's Chronicle (there is a short
ment, hesides the Hornpipe {a tune played by the Cornish notice of a similar Masque at Cardinal Wolsey's, in the
pipCf or pipe of Cornwall), be truly native, it seems to be tenth year of Henry VIII., fol. 65, b. 1548, but no drums •

this; which has the genuine drawl of our country clowns and and Hollinshed, who takes the account from
fifes);

and ballad singers in sorrowful ditties, as the hornpipe has Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, is speaking not of a "concert"
the coarse and vulgar jollity of their mirth and merri- at the Cardinal's, but of tlie manner of receiving the King
ment." This criticism is a curiosity, and not less curious and some of his nobles, who came by water tu a Masque;
is the judgment he passes on the Consort Lessons, after firstly by firing off "divers chambers" (short guns that

scoring two out of the six parts (the Treble Viol and make a loud report) at his landing, and then conducting
Flute), and adding hisown base. Morley dedicates them him up into the chamber "with such a noise of drums
to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and Dr. Bumey says, and fleutes, as seldom had been heard the like." Caven-
" Master Morley, supposing that the harmony which was dish says, "with such a number of drums and fifes as
I have seldom seen together at one time in any masque
"
to be heard through the clattering of knives, forks, spoons,
and plates, with the jingling of glasses, and clamorous (Singer's edit., 8vo., 1825); and, describing the masques
conversation of a city feast, need notbe very accurate and generally, says, "Then was there all kind of music and
refined, was not very nice in setting parts to these tunes, harmony set forth, with excellent voices both of men and
if we may judge
of the rest by what passes betiveen the viol children." Saguduio, the Venetian Ambassador, who
and flute," &c. The whole of this passage is transferred describes a banquet given by Henry VIII., in honor of
to his History of Music (iii. 102, Note D, 17S9), except the Flemish envoys, on the 7th July, 1517, says, "during
tlie qualification, "if we may judge," &c. It was not the dinner there were boys on a stage in the centre of the
advisable to tell the reader Aoiy he had formed his opinion hall, some of whom sang, and others played the flute, re-

of a work that had formerly passed through two editions. beck, and virginals, making the sweetest melody." As to
Among Dr. Burney's other criticisms of English Music Queen Elizabeth, I quote Hentzner's words from the copy
(for Ills History is essentially a critical one, and he has been used by Dr. Bumey; " During the time this guard, which
commonly quoted as an authority) are the following, which consists of the tallest and stoutest men that can be found
are also directly connected with the subject of this hook :— in all England, were bringing dinner, twelve trumpets and
In vol. ii., p. 553, he says, "It is related by Gio. Battista two kettle-drums made the hall ring for half an hour to-
Donatio that the Turks have a limitednumber of tunes, to gether." (This was the loud music togive notice to pre-
wliich the poets of their country have continued to write pare for dinner, like the gong, or dinner-bell of the present
for ages; and the vocal music of our own country seems day, but the fifes, comets, and side-drums, are of Dr.
long to have been equally circumscribed ; for, till the last Burney's invention.) ^^Ai the end of all this ceremonial
century, it seems as if the number of our secular and a number of unmarried ladies appeared, wlio with par-
popular melodies did not greatly exceed that of the Turks." ticular solemnity lifted the meat off the table, and conveyed
In a note it is stated that the tunes of the Turks were in it into ike Queen's inner and more private chamber, where,
all twenty-four; which were to depict melancholy, joy, or after she had chosen for herself, the rest goes to the ladies

fury; to be mellifluous or amorous. It may not, I hope, of the Court. The Queen
dines and sups alone, with very
be too presumptuous to say that Dr. Burney knew very few attendants," &c. Hentzner also says, "Without the
little of the subject. In vol. iii., 143, after criticising a city" (of London) "are some theatres where English
work printed in 1C14, and saying, "The Violin was now actors represent almost every day tragedies and comedies
hardly known by the English, in shape or name" (although to very numerous audiences: these are concluded with
Ben Jonson describes the instrument, at that very time, excellent music, variety of dances, and the excessive
as commonly sold with roast pigs in Bartholomew Fair, applause of those that are present.'* The original words
and violins had certainly been used on the English are " quas variis etiam saltationibus, suavissima adhibita
stage from its infancy. See, for instance, the tragedy of musica, magno cum populi applausu finiresolent." Again,
Gorboduc, or Ferrex and Porrext acted by the gentlemen in summing up the character of the English in a few
of the Inner Temple before Queen Elizabeth, in 1561); lines, he says, '
' They excel in dancing and music, for they
he adds, " And the low state of our regal music are active and though of a thicker make than the
lively,

in the time of Henry VIII., 1530, may be gathered French," Dr. Burney, throughout his History, writes in
from the accounts given in Hall and HoUinshed's a similarly disparaging strain about English music and
Chronicles, of a Masque at Cardinal Wolsey's palace, English musicians, for which I am unable to account.
Whitehall, where the King was entertained with 'o con- ^For the republication of these, and many other works of
cert of drums and ffcs.'** He then says, " But this was the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, tlie world is in-
246 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Viola had six strings, and the position of the fingers was marked on the finger-
board by frets, as in guitars of the present day. The " Chest of Viols " consisted
of three, four, five, or six of difierent sizes ; one for the treble, others for the mean,
the counter-tenor, the tenor, and perhaps two for the base. Old English musical
instruments were commonly made of three or four difierent sizes, so that a player
might take any of the four parts that were requii'ed to fill up the harmony. So
Violins, Lutes, Recorders, Flutes, Shawms, &c., have been described by some
writers in a manner which (to those unacquainted with this peculiarity) has
appeared irreconcileable with other accounts. Shakespeare (in Samlet) speaks of
the Recorder as a little pipe, and says, in A Midsummer Nighfs Bream, " he hath
played on his prologue like a child on a recorder ; " but in an engraving of the
instrument," it reaches from the lip to the knee of the performer; and among

those leftby Henry VIII. were Recorders of box, oak, and ivory, gi'eat and small,
two base recorders of walnut, and one great base recorder. In the same catalogue
we find " flutes called Pilgrims' staves," which were probably six feet long.
Richard Braithwait, a writer of this reign, has " set down Some Bides for the
Crovernment of the House of an Earl^^ in which the Earl was to keep "five
musitions skillfull in that commendable sweete science," and they were required
to teach the Earl's children to sing, and to play upon the base-viol, the vii'ginals,
the lute, and the bandora, or cittern. When he gave " great feasts," the musi-
cians were to play, whUst the service to the table, upon Sackbuts,
was going
Cornets, Shawms, and "such other instruments going with wind;'"' and upon
" Viols, Violins, or other broken'^ musicke," during the repast.
The custom of retaining musicians in the service of families continued to the
time of the Protectorate. It was not confined to men of high rank (either in this
or the preceding century), but was general with the wealthy of all classes.
debted to Musical Antiquarian Society. The Madri-
tlie reed in the Hautboy, and that these were Recorders. In
gals of Wilbye, Weelkes, Bennet, Bateson, and Gibbons; the proverbs at Leckingfield (quoted ante Note *, p. 35),
the Ballets of Morley and Hilton the four-part songs of
; the Recorder is described as " desiring " the mean part,
Dowtand, and four Operas by Purcell; besides the first but manifold fingering and stops bringetb high (notes)
music printed for the Virginals, the four-part Psalms by from its clear tones. This agrees with Salter's book. He
Este, and various Anthems, &c., &c. tells us the high notes are produced byplacing the thumb
° See "The Genteel Companion for the Recorder," by Ao?/over the hole at the back, and blowing alittle stronger.
Humphrey Salter, 16S3. Recorders and (English) Flutes Recorders were used for teaching birds to pipe,
are tooutward appearance the same, although Lord Bacon, ''In Middleton's play. The Spanish Gipsy, act ii., sc. 1,
in his Natural History, cent, iii., sec. 221, says the Re- is another allusion to the loud music while dinner was
corder hath a less bore, and a greater above and below. being carried in, as well as a common pun upon sackbuts
The number of holes for the fingers is the same, and the and sack.
scale, the compass, and the manner of playing, the same. Alv, " You must not look to have your dinner served in
Salter describes the recorder from which the instrument with trumpets.'*
derives its name, as situate in the upper part of it, i.e.. Car. " No, no, sack-buts shall serve us."
between the hole below the mouth and the highest hole " Broken Music," as is evident from this and other
<=

for the finger. He says, " Of the kinds of music, vocal passages, means what we now term "a string band."
has always had the preference in esteem, and in con- Shakespeare plays with the term twice: firstly in Troilus
sequence, the Recorder, as approaching nearest to the ond Cressida, act iii., sc. 1, proving that the musicians then
sweet delight/illness of the voice, ought to have first place on the stage were performing on stringed instruments;
in opinion, as we see by the universal use of it confirmed." and secondly in Henry V., act v., sc. 2, where he says to
The Hautboy is now to approach most nearly
considered the French Princess Katherine, " Come, your answer in
to the human and Mr. Ward, the military instru-
voice, broken music; for thy voice is music and thy English
ment manufacturer, informs me that he has seen "old broken." The term originated probably from harps, lutes,
English Flutes "with a hole bored through the side, in and such other stringed instruments as were played with-
the upper part of the instrument, the holes being covered out a bow, not having the capability to sustain a long note
with a thin piece of skin, like gold-beater's skin. 1 sup- to its full duration of time,
pose this would give somewhat the effect of the quill or
 EEISN OP JAMES I. 247

So the old mercliaiit in Shii-ley's Love Tricks (licensed 1625) says, " I made a
ditty,and my musician, that I keep in my house to teach my daughter, liath set it

to a very good an*, lie tells me." At least one wealthy merchant of the reign of
Henry VIII. retained as many musicians in his service as are prescribed for the
household of an Earl m James' reign. Sir Thomas Kytson, citizen and mercer,
built Hengrave Hall, in Suffolk, between the years 1525 and 1538, and at the
death of his son (towards the close of Elizabeth's reign) inventories of all the fur-
niture and effects were taken, including those of " the chamber where the musicyons
playe," and of the " instruments and books of musicke" it contaiaed." With the
exception of those for the lute, all the books of instrumental music were in sets of
five (formusic in five or more parts), as well as those containing the vocal music,
described as " old." The number of musicians was perhaps increased by his son,
for in the household expenses of the year 1574, we find, " seven cornets bought
for the musicians
;
" and the viols, violins, and recorders, in the inventory, are

(like those of Henry VHI.) in chests or cases containing six or seven of each
whilst much
of the vocal music required six, and some seven and eight, voices
to sing In 1575 he lent the services of Robert Johnson, Mus. Bac, one of
it.

his musicians, to the Earl of Leicester, on the occasion of the pageants at

Kenil worth.
Although we have no old English book written for the purpose of describing the

musical instruments in use in former days, like those of Mersenne and Kircher
for France and Germany, we find in our translations of the Bible and the
Meti'ical Psalms, the names of all in general use at the times those translations
were made, for the Hebrew instruments are all rendered by the names of such as
were then commonly known. We are so accustomed to picture David play-
ing on the harp, that we are not easily reconciled to the French version of the
Psalms, in which, in translations of the same passages, the violin is the instru-
ment assigned and what we translate lute, they render bagpipe [musette).
to him ;

It is not my pui'pose to enter upon a detailed account of musical instruments,''

but the curious in such matters will find in Sir William Leighton's " Teares or
Lamentations of a sorrowful soule," a long catalogue of those known at this period.
"
It is contained in A
thanksgiving to God, with magnifying of his holy name upon
all instruments.'^ In the following lines from Song IV. in Drayton's Poly-olhion,
printed in the same year (1613), many of those in common use are cited:
« History and Antiquities of Hengrave, by John Gage, « A copy with music in the British Museum. Among
F.S.A., fol., 1822. There are six viols in a chest; six the instruments not mentioned by Drayton are the foUow-
violins in a chest (in 1572 a treble violin cost 20s.); seven ing, which I give in Sir William Leighton's spelling:
recorders in a case; besides lutes, cornets, bandoras, "Regalls, Simballs, Timbrell, Syrons, Crowdes, Clari-
citterns, sackbuts, flutes, hautboys, a curtail (orshortsort coales, Dulsemers, Crouncorns, and Simfonie." He men-
of bassoon), a lysarden (base comet, or serpent), a pair of tions the Drum after the Simphony, thereby apparently
a pair of double virginals, "a wind instru-
little virginals, drawing a distinction between them, but according to
ment and a pair of double organs.
like a virginal," Bartholomeus Be Proprietatibus Rerum, printed by
*>Sir John Hawkins' descriptions of musical instru- Wynken de Worde, the Simphony is "an instrument
ments are too much drawn from foreign sources. English of musyke made of an holowe tree, closed in lether
. . .

instruments often differed materially from those in use in eyther syde, and mystrels betyth it wyth styckes."
abroad, as many do at the present day. I cannot agree "Crouncom" means, perhaps, Krurahom or Cromhom, a
with his description of the Cittern (it has too many strings) crooked horn, in imitation of which we have a reed stop in
or ofsome others. The catalogue of musical instru- old organs called the Cromhorn, which is now corrupted
ments left by Henry VHI. (Harl. MSS. 1419, fol. 200) into Cremona. Henry VIII., at his death, left several
was unfortunately unkno^vn to him, or it would have cases containing from four to seven Crumhoms in each,
explained many difficulties.
248 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

" When now the British side scarce finished their song,
But th' English, that repin'd to be delay'd so long,
All quickly at the hint, as with one free consent.
Struck up at once and sung, each to the instrument
(Of sundry sorts that were, as the musician likes),
On which the practic'd hand with perfect' st fing'ring strikes,
Whereby their height of slrill might liveliest be exprest.
The trembling Lute some touch, some strain the Viol best.
In sets that there were seen, the music wondrous choice.
Some, likewise, there affect the Gamba with the voice,
To shew that England could variety afford.
Some that delight to touch the sterner wiry chord,
The Githren, the Pandore, and the Theorbo strike :

The Gittern and the Kit the wand'ring fiddlers like.

So were there some again, in this their learned strife,
Loud instruments that lov'd, the Cornet" and the Fife,
The Hoboy, Sackbut deep, Recorder, and the Flute
E'en from the shrillest Shawm unto the Gornamute.
Some blow the Bagpipe up, that plays the Country-Eound
The Tabor and the Pipe some take delight to sound."
The Sundry 3Ivsiques of England.
In consequence of the almost universal cultivation of music in the sixteenth
century, and of the great employment and encouragement of musicians, so many
persons embraced music as a profession, that England overflowed with them.
Many travelled, and some were tempted by lucrative engagements to settle abroad.
Dowland, whose " touch upon the lute " was said to " ravish human sense,"
travelled through Italy, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, and about the
year 1600 became lutenist to the King of Denmark. On Dowland's return to
England in 1607, Christian IV. begged of Lady Arabella Stuart (thi-ough the
Queen and Prince Henry) to allow Thomas Cutting, another famous lutenist, then
in her service, to replace him. Peter Phillips, better known on the continent
(where the greater part of his works were printed) as Pietro Philippi, accepted an
engagement as organist to the Arch-duke and Duchess of Austria, governors of
the Low Countries, and settled there. John Cooper spent much of his life in
Italy, and was called Coprario, or Cuperario. There were few, if any, Italian
composers or singers then in England,^ and the music of Italy was chiefly known
by the Madrigal, for the sacred music, as being for the service of the Mass, was
strictly prohibited.

^ Among Henry the Eighth's instruments were "Git- voices in Cathedral Service. The base Cornet was of a
teron Pipes of ivory orwood, called Comets." The Comet more serpentine form, and from four to five feet in length ;

describedbyMersenne is of a bent shape, like the segment but Mersenne says, the Serpent (contorted to render it
of a large circle, gradually tapering from the bottom to more easy of carriage, as its length was six feet one inch)
the mouth-piece. The comet was of a loud sound, but was the genuine base of that instrument,
in skilful hands could be modulated so as to resemble tlie ^ Alfonso Ferabosco, the elder, was bom, of Italian

tones of the human In Ben Jonson's Masque of

voice. parents, at Greenwich. As he was brought up and lived
NcpUtne's Triumph, the instruments employed were five in England, he can scarcely be considered as an Italian
Lutes and three Cornets. In several other Masques, Lutes musician. Nicholas Lanier was an Italian by birth, and
and Comets were the only instruments used. At the came to England as an engraver. He settled liere, and
Restoration, Cornets supplied the deficiency of boys' became an eminent musician.
 EEIGN OP JAMES I. 249

Anthony k Wood tells the following story of Dr. John Bull: — While
travelling incognito through France and Germany for the recovery of his health,

he heard of a famous musician belonging to the Cathedral of St. Omer, and

applied to him to see his works. The musician having conducted Bull to a vestry
or music-school adjoining the Cathedi-al, shewed him a lesson or song of forty

parts, and then made a vaunting challenge to any person in the Avorld to add one
more part, supposing it so complete that it was impossible to correct or add to it.

Dr. BuU having requested to be locked up for two or three houi-s, speedily added
forty more whereupon the musician declared that " he that added those
parts,
forty parts must either be the devil or Dr. John Bull."" In 1613, Bull (to
whom many offers of preferment at foreign coui'ts had been previously made)
quitted England, and went to reside in the Netherlands, where he entered the
service of the Archduke.
The emigration of musicians was not confined to a few of the most eminent, for
we hear, indirectly, of many in the employ of foreign courts, whose movements
would not otherwise be recorded. Thus Taylor, the water-poet, who had just
described the Lutes, Viols, Bandoras, Recorders, Sackbuts, and Organs, in the
Chapel of the Graf (or Count) of Schomburg, says, "I was conducted an English
mile on my way by certain of my countrymen, my Lord's musicians."
We are indebted to foreign countries for the preservation of many of the works
of our best musicians of this age, as well as of our popular tunes. Dr. Bull's
music be found in foreign manuscripts.'' Dowland tells us that "some
is chiefly to

part of his poor labours " had been printed in eight cities beyond the seas, viz.,
Paris, Antwerp, Cologne, Nuremburg, Frankfort, Leipzig, Amsterdam, and Ham-
burg. Much of the music printed in Holland in the seventeenth century was also
by English Composers. The right of printing music in England was a monopoly,
generally in the hands of one or two musicians," and therefore very little, and

only such as they chose, could be printed. Hence the scarcity, as well as the
frequent imperfection, of these early works.
In London, each ward of the city had its musicians there was also the Fins- ;

bury Music, the Southwark and the Blackfriars Music, as well as the Waits of
London and Westminster. Morley thus alludes to the Waits, in the dedication
of his Consort Lessons to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen : "As the ancient
custom of this most honourable and renowned city hath been ever to retain and
maintain excellent and expert musicians to adorn your honours' favours, feasts,
and solemn meetings : to those, your Lordships' Wayts, I recommend the same."
A " Wayte," in the time of Edward IV., had to pij>e watch four times in the
night, from Michaelmas to Shrovetide, and three in the summer, as well as to

» Such exercises of learned ingenuity were common in One foreign manuscript volume of Dr. Bull's works
>>

that day. Tallis wrote a Motet in forty parts, a copy of is now in my possession, and another in that of Mr.

which is now before me.

It is for eight choirs, each of Richard Clarke, who asserts tliat it contains " God save
five voicesthe voices only coming together occasionally.
; the King," of which more hereafter. The contents of
Dr. Buniey discredits Dr. Bull's feat as " impossihle," both are described in Ward's Lives of the Gresham Pro-
hut I am assured by Dr. Rimbault and by Mr. Macfarren, fessors,
who have seen this Motet, that whether the story be true = It was held by Tallis and Byrd from 1575 to 1596, then

or not, it was quite possible. In all cases the anecdote by Morley and his assignee. See Introduction to Eim-
raay be taken as a proof of the very high reputation Dr. bault's Bibliothica Madrigaliana, 8vo., 1847.
Bull enjoyed.
250 ENGLISH SONG ANB BALLAD MUSIC.

"make hon gayte^^ at every chamber door; but Morley's Consort Lessons^ as
before mentioned, required six instruments to play them,^ and the city bands are
commonly quoted as playing in six parts.^
After the act of the 39th year of Elizabeth, which rendered all " minstrels
"wandering abroad" liable to punishment as "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy
beggars," all itinerant musicians were obliged to wear cloaks and badges, with the
arms of some nobleman, gentleman, or corporate body, whose service to denote in
they were engaged, being thereby excepted from the operation of the act. So in
Ram Alley, 1611, Sir Oliver says —
" Musicians, on
Lightly, lightly, and by my knighthood's spurs
This year you shall have my protection,
And yet not buy your livery coats yourselves,"

And as late as 1699, we find in Sistoria Sistrionica, " It is not unlikely that the
lords in those days, and persons of eminent quality, had their several gangs of
players, as some have now of fiddlers, to whom they give cloaks and badges."
Musicians in the service of noblemen and gentlemen seem to have held a
prescriptive right to go and perform to the friends and acquaintances of their
masters, whenever they wanted money : such visits were received as compliments,
and the musicians were rewarded in proportion to the rank of their masters.
Innumerable instances of this will be found in early books of household expen-
diture ; but, in James' reign, musicians not actually in employ presumed so far
upon the license, that their intrusion into aU companies, and at all times, became
a constant subject of rebuke. Ben Jonson's Club, the Apollo, which met at the
Devil tavern, chiefly for conversation, was obliged to make a law that no fiddler
should enter, unless requested.^ Nevertheless, they were generally welcome, and
generally well paid ; more especially, at merry-makings where their services were
ever required. In those days a wedding was of a much gayer character than
now. There was first the hunt's-up, or morning song, to awake the bride ; then

» A few specimens of the tunes of the waits of different And let our only emulation be,
towns will be given under the reign of Charles II. Not drinking much, but talking wittily.
t So in Heywood's The English Traveller, last scene of Let it be voted lawful to stir up
act i., 1633— Each other with a moderate chirping cup
*' you sliall have a
Riot. Fear not, full table. Let not our company be, or talk too much ;

Young L. What, and music? On serious things, or sacred, let's not touch
Riot. The best consort in the city for six parts. With sated heads and bellies. Neither may-
"
Young L. We shall have songs, then? Fiddlers unask'd obtrude themselves to play.
c The rules of this club, in Latin, will be found in Ben With laughing, leaping, dancing, jests and songs.
Jonson's Works. The following translation is by one of And whate'er else to grateful mirth belongs,
his adopted poetical sons : Let's celebrate our feasts; and let us see
" Let none but guests, or clubbers, hither come;, That all our jests without reflection be.
Let dunces, fools, sad sordid men, keep home, Insipid poems let no man rehearse.
Let learned, civil, merry men b'invited, Nor any be compelled to write a verse.

And modest, too; nor be choice ladies slighted. All noise of vain disputes must be forborn,
Let nothing in the treat offend the guests And let no lover in a corner mourn.
More for delight than cost, prepare the feasts. To fight and brawl, like Hectors, let none dare,
The cook and purvey'r must our palates know, Glasses or windows break, or hangings tear.
And none contend who shall sit high or low. Whoe'er shall publish what's here done or said.

Our waiters must quick-sighted be, and dumb, From our society must be banished.
And let the drawers quickly hear and come. Let none by drinking do or suffer harm,
Let not our wine be mix'd, but brisk and neat, And, wliile we stay, let us be always warm."
Or else the drinkers may the vintners beat. Poems and Songs by Alexander Brome, Svo., 1661.
 EEIGN OF JAMBS I. 251

the music to conduct lier to churcli (young maids and bachelors following with
garlands in their hands) ;
the music at dinner
the same from church and ; ;

singing, dancing, and merry-making throughout the evening. For those who had
no talent to write a hunt's-up, there were songs ready printed (like " The Bride's
Good-morrow," in the Roxburghe Collection), but the hunt's-up was not confined
to weddings, it was a usual compliment to young ladies, especially upon their
birthdays. The custom seems now to be continued only with princesses, and on
the last bii'thday of the Princess Royal, the court newsman, at a loss how to
describe this old English custom, gave it the name of a " Matinale."
As to music at weddings, see the following allusions :

" Then was there a fair bride-cup of silver and gilt carried before her [the
bride] , wherein was a goodly braunch of rosemarie gilded very faire, hung about
with silken ribbonds of all colours; next there was a noyse'^ of musitians, that
played all the loay before came all the chiefest maydens of the
her ; after her
countrie, some bearing great bride-cakes, and some garlands of wheat finely
gilded, and so she past unto the church." —
Deloney's Pleasant History of John
Winchcomb, in his younger years called Jacke of Neivherie.
" Come, come, we'll to church presently. Prythee, Jarvis, ivhilst the musich
plays just upon the delicious close, usher in the brides." —Rowley's A Match at

Midnight, 1633.
In Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub, Tm-fe, the constable, "will let no music go afore
his child to church," and says to his wife
"Because you have entertained [musicians] all from Highgate,
To shew your pomp, you'd have your daughters and maids
Dance o'er the fields like faies to church this frost.
have no rondels, I, in the queen's paths
I'll

Let them scrape the gut at home, where they have fill'd it."

And again, where Dame Turfe insists on having them to play at dinner, Clench
adds — " She is in the right, sir, vor your wedding dinner
Is starv'd without the music."
Even at funerals musicians were in request : dirges were sung, and recorders the
instruments usually employed. It appears that the Blue-Coat boys sang at City
Funerals ;* being then taught music, as they shoidd be now. Music was not less
esteemed as a solace for grief, than as an excitement to merriment. Peacham says,
" the physicians you that the exercise of music is a great lengthener of life,
will tell

by stu-ring and reviving the spirits, holdmg a secret sympathy with them besides ;

it is an enemy to melancholy and dejection of mind; yea, a curer of some dis-

eases." {Qompleat Gentleman, 1622.) And Burton, " But I leave all declamatory
speeches in praise of divine music, I will confine myself to my proper subject
besides that excellent power it hath to expel many other diseases, it is a sovereign
remedy against despair and melancholy, and will drive away the devil himself."
{Anatomy of Melancholy.) So, m Henry IV., Shakespeare says
* A noise of musicians means a company of musicians. "having authority to thrust into any man's room, only
It is an expression frequently occurring :
" those terrible —
speaking but this 'Will you have any musicke?'"
noijses, with threadbare cloakes, that live by red lattices Dekker's Belman of London, 1608.
and ivy-bushes" [that is by ale-houses and taverns], ''
See Brome's Ci/y Tfi/, act iii. sc. 1.
252 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

" Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends,

Unless some slow and favourable hand
Will whisper music to my weary spirit."

Part II., act iv., sc. S).

Shakespeare purchased his house in Blackfriars, in 1612, from Henry Walker,

who is described in the deed as " Citizen and Minstrel, of London." The price
paid was £140,^ which, considering the difference in the value of money, is equal
to, at least, £700 now. Of what class of " minstrel " Walker was, we know not,
but there were very few of any talent who had not the opportunity of saving money,
if so disposed. Even the itinerant fiddler who gave " a fytte of mirth for a groat,"

was well paid. The long ballads were usually divided into two or three "fyttes,"
and if he received a shilling per ballad, it would pui'chase as many of the neces-
saries of life as five or six times that amount now. The groat was so generally his
remuneration, whether it were for singing or for playing dances, as to be
commonly called " fiddlers' money," and when the groat was no longer current,
the term was transferred to the sixpence.
It appears that in the reign of James, ballads were first collected into little
miscellanies, called Garlands, for we have none extant of earlier date. Thomas
Deloney and Richard Johnson (author of the still popular boys' book, called The,
Seven Champions of Christendom) were the first who collected their scattered pro-
ductions, and printed them in that form.
Deloney's G-arland of Qood-ivill, and Johnson's Crown Garland of Golden Moses,
were two of the most popular of the class. They have been reprinted, with some
others, by the Percy Society, and the reader will find some account of the authors
prefixed to those works.
During the reign of Henry VHI., " the most pregnant wits " were employed
in compiling ballads.'' Those in the possession of Captain Cox, described in
Laneham's Letter from Kenilworth (1575), as " all ancient," ° could not well be
of later date than Henry's reign and at Henry's death we find, with the list of
;

musical instruments left in the charge of Philip van Wilder, "sondrie bookes and
shrolles of songes and ballattes.^' hi the reign of James, however, poets rarely
wrote in ballad metre ; ballad writing had become quite a separate employment,
and (from the evidently great demand for ballads) I should suppose it to have
been a profitable one. In Shakespeare's Senry IV., when Falstafi" threatens
Prince Henry and his companions, he says, " An I have not ballads made on you
all, and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be " and after Sirmy poison
;

John Colvile had surrendered, he thus addresses Prince John " I beseech your :

grace, let it be booked with the rest of this day's deeds or by the Lord, I will ;

have it in a particular ballad else, with mine own picture at the top of it, Colvile
kissing my foot."
To conclude this introduction, I have subjoined a few quotations to shew the
a Shakespeare's autograph, attached to the counterpart « The list of Captain Cox's ballads has been so often re-
of this deed, was sold by auction by Evans, on 24th May, printed, that I do not fliink it necessary to repeat it. The
1S41, for .€155. reader will find it, with many others, in the introduction
*>
See The Nature ofihe Four Elements, written about to Kitson's Ancient Songs, as well as in more recently-
1517. printed books.
 REIGN OF JAMES I. 253

universality of ballads, as well as their influence upon the public mind ; but limit-
ing myself to dramatists, to Shakespeare's contemporaries, and to one passage
from each author.

In Ben Jonson's Bartliolomew Fair, Avhen Trash, the gingerbread-woman,

quarrels with Leatherhead, the hobby-horse seller, she threatens him
" 111 find a friend shall right me, and make a ballad of thee, and thy cattle all over."
In Hey wood's A Ohallenge for Beauty, Valladaura says
" She has told all I shall be balladed
;

Sung up and down by minstrels."

In Fletcher's Queen of Oorintli, Euphanes says
. " and whate'er he be
Can with unthankfulness assoil me, let him
Dig out mine eyes, and sing my name in verse,
In ballad verse, at every drinking-liouse."

In Massinger's Parliament of Love, Chamont threatens Lamira

. " I will have thee
Pictured as thou art now, and thy whole story
Sung to some villainous tune in a lewd ballad,
And make thee so notorious in the world,
That boys in the streets shall hoot at thee."

In Chapman's Monsieur (T Olive, he says

"I am afraid of nothing but I shall be balladed."
In a play of Dekker's (Dodsley, iii. 224) Matheo says
" Sfoot, do you long to have base rogues, that maintain a Saiut Anthony's fire in
"
their noses by nothing but two-penny ale, make ballads of you V
In Webster's DeviPs Law Case, the officers are cautioned not to allow any to
take notes, because
" We cannot have a cause of any fame.
But you must have some scurvy pamphlets and lewd
Ballads engendered of it presently."
In Ford's Love''s Sacrifice, Fiormonda says
. . " Better, Duke, thou hadst been born a peasant
Now Tjoys will sing thy scandal in the streets,
Tune ballads to thy infamy."
In Marlow's Mheard 11. Mortimer says to the King
,

" Libels are cast against thee in the street;

Ballads and rhymes made of thy overthrow."

In Machui's The Dumb Knight —
" The slave will make base songs on my disgrace."
In Middleton's Tlie Roaring —
Crirl
" 0, if men's secret youthful faults should judge 'em,
'Tvvould be the general'st execution
That e'er was seen in England
, There would be few left to sing the ballads,
There would be so much work."
This is in allusion to the ballads on last dying speeches.
254 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

In the academic play of Lingua, Phantastes says

" heavens how am I troubled these latter times with poets
1 —ballad-makers. Were
it not that I pity the printers, these sonnet-mongers should starve for conceits for all

Phantasies."

The popular music of the time of Charles I. was so much like that: of James,
as not to require separate notice. I have therefore included many ballads
of Charles' reign in this division ; but reserved those which relate to the troubles
and to the civil war, for the period of the Protectorate.

UPON A SUMMER'S-DAY.
In The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1665, and in MusicVs Delight on the
is entitled " Upon a Summer' s-day " and in later editions of
;
Cithren, 1666, this
The Dancing Master, viz., from 1670 to 1690, it is called " The Garland, or a
Summer's-day."
The song, "Upon a Summer's-day" is in Merry Drollery Complete, 1661,
p. 148. " The Garland " refers, in all probability, to a ballad in the Roxburghe
Collection, i. 300; which is reprinted in Evans' Old Ballads,
22, or Pepysian, i.

iv. 345 (1810), beginning, "Upon a Summer's time." It is more frequently

quoted by the last name in ballads. In the Pepys Collection, vol. i., is a
" Discourse between a Soldier and his Love ;"
" Shewing that she did hear a faithful mind,
For land nor sea could make her stay behind.
To the tune of Upon a Summer time."
It begins, " My dearest love, adieu." And at p. 182 of the same volume,
"I smell a rat: to the tune of Upon a Summer tide, or The Seminary Priest.''''
It begins, " I travell'd far to find."
In the Roxburghe Collection, vol. i. 526, " The good fellow's advice," &c., to

the tune of Upon a Summer time ; " the burden of which is

''
Good fellows, great and small,
Pray let me you advise
To have a care withall
'Tis good to be merry and wise."
And at p. 384 of the same volume, another by L.P., called " Seldom cleanely, or
A merry new ditty, wherein you may see
The trick of a huswife in every degree ;

Then lend your attention, while I do unfold

As pleasant a story as ever was told.

To the tune of Upon a Summer's tiTne."

It begins- " Draw near, you country girls.

And listen unto me

you here a new conceit,
111 tell
Concerning huswifry."
I have chosen a song which illustrates an old custom, instead of the original
words to this tune, because it is not desirable to reprint them. In Wit and
 REIGN OP JAMES I. 255

Mirth, 1707, the following song, entitled The Queen of May, is joined to an
indifferent composition :

Slowly and smoothly.

i
55&
Up -on a time
-Hr
I chanc'd
93^^=^;^
^-
To walk a-long a
ji_:_*

•-=— •

green,
—
PP ^m
Where pretty lasses

e^ '^^
jt ^ ?^
^J MJ~J J-

danced In strife, to
r?^^^^^^
choose a Queen. Some home-lydress'd, some handsome. Some

*» ^^^ w ^
^j^=^
3:^
pre tty, and some
fs
gay,
^rH-^^-^^^4^^^=^
But who excell'd in dancing, Must be the Queen of May.

^J_J1 J-
*
flj
•
-j3^ *
?^ iiC
V
From morning till the evening Her carriage was so good.
Their controversy held. As did appear that day.
And I, as judge, stood gazing on, That she was justly chosen
To crown her that excell'd. To he the Queen of May.
At last when Phoebus' steeds
Then all the rest in sorrow,
Had drawn their wain away.
And she in sweet content.
We found and crown'da damsel
Gave over till the morrow.
To be the Queen of May.
And homewards straight they went.
Full well her nature from her But she, of all the rest,
Face I did admire; Was hinder'd by the way,
Her habit well became her. For ev'ry youth that met her.
Although in poor attire. Must kiss the Queen of May.

THE HUNTER IN HIS CAEEER.

This is one of the songs alluded to in Walton's Angler. Piscator. "I'll
promise you I'll sing a song that was lately made at my request by Mr. William
Basse, one that made the choice songs of '
The Hunter in his career,' and Tom '

of Bedlam,' and many others of note." The tune was translated from lute
tablature by Mr. G. F. Graham, of Edinburgh. It is taken from the " Straloch
Manuscript," formerly in the possession of Mr, Chalmers, the date of which is
given in the original MS. from 1627 to 1629. It is also in the Skene MS., &c.
A copy of the song is in the Pepys Collection, i. 452, entitled " Maister Basse
his careere, or The Hunting of the Hare. To a new court tune." Printed for
256 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

E[liz.]Apide]. On the same sheet is " The Faulconer's Hunting; to the tune
of Basse his careere." The words are also in Wit and Drollery, Jovial Poems,
1682, p. 64, and in Old Ballads, second edition, 1738, iii. 196.
With spirit.

P Psv-i

^=^^P?FFFJ=te
«=-. 1 fl-i-^ ^^v-\
^
«^
Long mom
ere the Ex - pects the re-turn Of Apollo from the o - cean queen, Be

^W s +
-*-*

fore
&4=^^^f^^^N
the creak Of the crow and the break Of the day
i-*~*-^. f
in the wel - kin
-
\ ^ ,

seen,
(croak)

E^

^^^^^^m And To hu

^^
Mounted he'd halloo. cheerful - ly follow the chace with his - gle clear.

:3f=±

^^ TT f¥p T?
^-/^^^
Echo doth he make, And the moun-tains sbake,With the thunder
^m of his ca - reer.

Now bonny hay

m Swains their repast,
zJ
—
In his foine waxeth gray ;
And strangers their haste
Dapple-grey waxeth hay in his blood Neglect, when the horns they do hear
White-Lily stops To see a fleet
With the scent in her chaps, Pack of hounds in a sheet,

And Black-Lady makes it good. And the hunter in his career.

Poor silly Wat,
Thus he careers,
In this wretched state.
Over heaths, over meres.
Forgets these delights for to hear ;
Over deeps, over downs, over clay
Nimbly she bounds Till he hath won
From the cry of the hounds,
The noon from the morn.
And the music of their career.
And the evening from the day.
Hills, with the heat His sport then he ends.
Of the gallopers' sweat And joyfully wends
Reviving their frozen tops, Home again to his cottage, where
[And] the dale's purple flowers. Frankly he feasts
That droop from the showers Himself and his guests,
That down from the rowels drops. And carouses in his career.
 REIGNS OP JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 257

ONCE I LOVED A MAIDKN FAIR.

A copy of this ballad is in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 360, printer! for the
assigns of Thomas Symcock. The tune is in The Dancing Master, from 1650 to
1698 ; in Playford's Introduction, 1664; in MnsicKs Delight on the Oithren, 1666;
in ApoUo^s Banqtiet for the Treble Violin, 1670 ; in the Pleasant Companion for
the Flageolet, 1680 ; &c.
The first song in Patrick Carey's Trivial Poems, written in 1651 (" Fair one
if thus kind you be"), is to the tune Once I lov'd a maiden fair. It is also
alluded to in The Fool titrn\l Critic, 1678 —" We have now such tunes, such
lamentable tunes, that would make me forswear all music. Maiden fair and Tlie

King^s Delight are incomparable to some of these we have now."

The ballad consists of twelve stanzas, from which the following are selected.

Smoothly and in moderate time.

fe T~~*' ^— J

Once I lov'd a maiden fair, But she did de - ceive me; Slie witli Ve-nus

m ^ 2Z i

SEiES33^
^
might compare In my mind, be - lieve me. She was young, And among Creatures of temp

±
^ :3=3t

P
ta
tri
- tion,
'-^

Who
?s=t

will say But

^ ^"
maid-ens may
^m
»^
Kiss for
w *
re - ere -
-ff
a -
S
iE
tion

Eit

^ 3
Three times I did make it known Happy he who never knew
To the congregation, What to love belonged
That the church should make us one. Maidens wavering and untrue
As priest had made relation. Many a man have wronged.
Married we straight must be. Fare thee well ! faithless girl,
Although we go a begging I'll not sorrow for thee;
Now, alas ! 'tis like to prove Once I held thee dear as pearl,
A very hopeless wedding. Now I do abhor thee.
258 ENOLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

GATHERING PEASCODS.
This beautiful air is contained in all editions of The Dancing Master, from
1650 to 1690. The two first bars are the same as " All in a garden gi-een" (see
p. Ill) ; but the resemblance continues no further, and that air is in phrases of
eight, and this of six bars.
Not having been able to discover the original words, the following lines were
written to it by the late Mr. J. A. Wade ; retaining the pastoral character, which
is indicated by its name.
Moderate
i^
^
•^ How
^1
lime,

J
and susta'med

i)lea-sant
I

ir^-\r
J

is

A
^
it
J

in
:

the bios
^
- som of the year, "'^ To
all.

mg ^ iSr
^^
a tempo.

trt^j-^-^N
3=5=^=^
stray and find
^ a
^
nook,
/ '
1
Where nought doth
' V
fill
r
the hoi -low
r
of
... the list'ning

* d
i 22

rail. a tempo.

^ : 3 rT~^ =^ #
ear, Ex - cept the mur-m'ring brook; Or bird in neighb'ring grove, That in

i
d
W^ ~&

^ so - li-tude doth
-^

love
rail.

W~^ i i "-^^ 4
To breathe his lone ly -
' ^
hymn!
-
a tempo.

:^=^
^
Lost in the

^
w * ^ T
=P=5?

rail.

min - gled song, I care-less roam a -

i
pqs^^5i=q=j
long, From morn to
^twi - light dim

ES ^ ii^ ^
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 259

And as I wander in the blossom of the year, To shed then- bahiis around!
By crystal waters' flow, Thus from the busy throng-,
Flow'rs sweet to gaze on, as the songs of birds I cai-eless roam along,

Spring up where e'er I go! [to hear, 'Mid perfume and sweet sound.
The violet agrees.
With the honey-suckle trees,

LULL ME BEYOND THEE.

This tune is in The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1690.
In tlie Pepys Collection, i. 372, there is a black-letter ballad entitled " The
Northern Turtle, Tvailing his unhappy fate in being deprived of his sweet mate
to a new Northern tune, or A health to Betty." This is not the air of A health of
Betty, and therefore I suppose it to be the " new Northern tune." The first
stanza is here arranged to the music. The same ballad is the Roxburghe Collec-
tion, i. 319, as the second part to one entitled " The paire of Northerne Turtles:
"VMiose love -was firm till cruel death
Depriv'd them both of
and breath." life

That is also to " a new Northern tune," and printed " for F. Coules, dwelling in
the Old Baily." Coules printed about 1620 to 1628.
The following ballads are also to the tune :

Pepys, i. 390 — " A constant wife, a Idnd wife,

Which gives content unto a man's life.

To the tune of Lie lulling leyondtheey Printed for F. C[oules]. It begins

" Young men and maids, do lend me your aids."

Pepys i.,
—
and Roxburghe, i. 156 " The Honest Wooer,
His mind expressing, in plain and few terms,
:
By which to his mistris his love he confirms
to the tune of IJulling beyond her, begins
" Fairest mistris, cease your moane.

Spoil not your eyes with weeping,

For certainly if one be gone.
You may have another sweeting.
I will not compliment with oaths,
Nor speak you fair to prove you :

But save your eyes, and mend your clothes.

For it is I that love you."
Roxbui'ghe, i. 416 —" The two fervent Lovers," &c., " to the tune of The two
loving Sisters, or Lulling beyond thee." Signed L.P.
Pepys, i.
—
A pleasant new ballad to sing both even and morn.
427 "
Of the bloody murther of Sir John Barley-Come.
To the tune of Shall I lie beyond thee." Printed at London for II[enry] G[osson].
It commences thus : —
"As I went through the North country,
I heard a merry greeting," &c.
This excellent ballad has been reprinted by Evans (Old Ballads, iv. 214,
ed. 1810), from a copy in the Roxburghe Collection, " printed for John Wright."
260 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Smoothly and rather sloiv.

m E^ § ^—
us
As I was walking all alone, I heard a youth la - ment - ing.

^s iSl

Under a
N—

hoi
rmzPF^^^
- low bush he lay, But sore he did
-ttaJzSai
re -
g
pent
3=
him. A

-F - li

Ul-fTj Q_^^y=^ I

-las! quoth he, my love is gone, Which caus- eth me to wan - der,

_( _t t—^f^
P^^^ -JT-

'f

Yet merry
3
will I
wne - ver
1
be.
PP
Till I lie lull-ing be-yond
^:
her.

I m
COME, SHEPHERDS, DECK YOUR HEADS.
This is also one of the songs mentioned by old Isaak Walton.
Milkwoman, " What song was it, I pray? was it 'Come, shepherds, deck your
heads;' or, 'As, at noon, Duleina rested;' or, 'Philida flouts me;' or. Chevy
or, Troy To"v\ti ? "
*
Chace ;' 'Johnny Armstrong
or,
;
'
'
'

Izaak Walton was born in 1593, and married first Rachel Cranmer, niece of
that distinguished prelate, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1624.
The air is found, under its English name, in Bellerophoii, of Lust tot Wyshed^
Amsterdam, 1622 and in Gescmgh der Zeeden^ Amsterdam, 1662.**
;

The words (which Ritson said " are not known ") will be found in the Pepys
Collection, i. 366, entitled " The Shepherd's Lamentation to the tune of :

* All will be found in this collection except "Johnny There is also a Scotch ballad about the same hero.
Armstrong" of which (although an English song, and of There is another English tune under the same name,
*•

a Westmoreland man) I have not yet found the tune. The to be found in two other collections, Nederlandtsche Ge-
words are in Wit restored, 1658, and in Wit and Drollery, denck-Clanck, 1626, and Friescke Lusl-Hof, 1634. I printed
Jovial Poems, 1682, called "A Northern Ballet, " begin- it in National English Airs, 1839, but think this rather

ning— " There dwelt a man in fair Westmorland, more like a ballad-tune, and it is of somewhat earlier
Johnny Armstrong men did him call; authority.
He had neither lands nor rents coming in,
Yet he kept eight score men in his hall."
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 261

The plaine-dealing Woman." On the other half of the sheet is " The second part
of The plaine-dealing Woman," beginning
" Ye Sylvan Nymphs, come skip it," &c.
Imprinted at London for J. W. Sir Harris Nicolas prints the song, Come,
shepherds, in his edition of Walton's Angler, from a MS. formerly in the posses-
sion of Mr. Heber. A third copy will be found in MSS. Ashmole, No. 38,
art.

i^
164.
Moderate time.

Come, Shep-herds, deck your

iEE^
=ftt:
P^^^=r^
heads
^^
No more with bays but

Ss£

'i
is

wil - lows ; For -

H — ^

sake your down

»>
f

f
f-

*
-
^^
'

f
y

i:
T'
T-gr
bedS;
^^
And
^^M^
make the downs your

pii •
lows:
"3
" 1

And mourn
' ^^
E^
=^ with me, since cross'd
TTTf
As
mm T^
ne-ver yet was
3^1
1-
no man, For

^ ^ i

^
zz -27

fet^
shep - herd ne - ver
^
lost
r'r T
So
•
i
plam — a
-A
rt^
mg
deal -

V sp s
All ye forsaken wooers, Yet seem'd she to their view
That ever care oppressed. So coy, so nice, that no man
And all you lusty dooers, Could judge, but he that knew
That ever love distressed. My own plain-dealing woman.
That losses can condole,
At all her pretty parts
And altogether summon; enough can wonder;
I ne'er
Oh mourn for the poor soul
!
She overcame all hearts,
Of my plain-dealing woman. Yet she all hearts came under
Fair Venus made her chaste, Her inward mind was sweet.
And Ceres beauty gave her ;
Good tempers ever common ;

Pan wept when she was lost, Shepherd shall never meet
The Satyrs strove to have her So plain a dealing woman.
262 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

THEEE WAS AN OLD FELLOW AT WALTHAM CEOSS.

This is quoted as an old song in Brome's play, TJie Jovial Oreiu, Tvliicli waa
acted at tlie Cock-pit in Drui-y Lane, in 1641—" T'other old song for that."

It is also in the Antidote to MelancJioly, 1661.

The Jovial Creiv was turned into a ballad-opera in 1731, and this song
retained. The tune was then printed under the name of Tamiton Dean
perhaps from a song commencing, " In Taunton Dean I was born and bred."
The foui- last bars of the air are the prototype of Lillihurlero, and still often
sung to the chorus,
—"A very good song, and very well sung
Jolly companions every one."
The first part resembles Dargason (see p. 65), and an air of later date, called
Country Qourtsldp (see Index).

^
Boldly and moderate time.

i ^
Wl\
S
• ±=±: ^^^^^
There was an old fel-low at Waltham Cross, Who mer-ri-ly sung when he

.):, P fi

iS^N^

#
liv'dliy theloss, He
fM^am:
^^^^^B
^ ?
never was heai'd to sigh with hey-ho! But sent itoutwith a heigh
J^
^-l-^

trolly-lo
j 3

! He

1^ " J 3 a I * S ^="
*

cheer'd uphisheartwhenhisgoodswentto wrack,With a hem, hoys, hem, And a

r
cup of old sack

f •
r
^^
OLD SIB SIMON THE KING.

This tune is contained in Playford's MnsicFs Recreation on the Lyra Viol,

1652 ; in MnsicFs Sandmaid for 1678 in Apollo's Banquet for
the Virginals, ;

the Treble Violin ; in Tlie Division Violin, 1685 in 180 Loyal Songs, 1684
;

and 1694 ; and in the seventh and all later editions of TJie Dancing Master.
It it also in JPills to purge Melancholy ; in the Musical Miscellany, 1721 ; in
many ballad-operas, and other works of later date.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 263

Some of the ballads written to the tune have the following burden, which
appears to be the original :

" Says old Simon the ting,

Says old Simon the king,
With his ale-dropt hose, and his malmsey nose,
Sing, hey ding, ding a ding, ding."
From its last line, Kitson conjectured that the "Hey ding a ding" mentioned

in Laneham's Leiicr from Ken ilworth, 1575, as one of the ballads "all ancient,"
then in the possession of Captain Cox, the Coventry mason, was Old Sir Simon
under another name. So far as internal evidence can weigh, the tune may be of
even much greater antiquity, but we have no direct proof.
Mr. Payne Collier is of opinion that the ballad entitled Ragged and torn and
true, was " first published while Elizabeth was still on the throne." (See Collier's
Roxburghe Ballads, p. 26.) As it was sung to the tune of Old Simon tlie King,
the latter necessarily preceded it. This adds to the probability of Ritson's con-
jecture. But, although we have ballads printed during the reign of James I., to
the tune of Old Simon, I have not succeeded in discovering one of earlier date.
Sir John Hawkins, in the additional notes to his Historg of Music, says, " It is

conjectured that the subject of the song was Simon Wadloe, who kept the Devil
(and St. Dunstan) Tavern, at the time when Ben Jonson's Club, called the
Apollo Club," met there." The conjecture rests upon two lines of the inscription
over the door of the Apollo room
" Hang up all the poor hop-drinkeis,
CriesOld Sym, the King of Skinkcrs."
A skinker meaning one who serves drink. Sir John quotes the song in Pills to
purge Melancholy, iii. 144. It has but one Une of burden,
" Says old Simon the King; "
and instead of the Devil tavern, the Crowi named in it. It appears is the tavern
to The Simon Wadloe ^ whom Ben
be of too late a date for the original song.
Jonson dubbed "King of Skinkers," was buried in March, 1627,'^ and more
probably owed his title to having the same Christian name as the Simon of the
earlier song.
As there are two tunes, which differ considerably, it seems desirable, in the
case of a song once so popular, to print both. The first is fi-om MusicKs
Recreation on the Lyra Viol, 1652 ; and the viol was tuned to what was
termed the " bagpipe tuning," to play it. To this I have adapted the song quoted
by Hawkins, but completing the burden as the music requires. I have no doubt
that "Old Simon the King" was changed to " Old Sir Simon the King," from
the want of another syllable to correspond with accent of the tune.

" For the excellent rules of this Cluh, see Note, p. 250. Jacob Henry Burn, 8vo., 1855. From the same book we learn
>>A Latin " Epitaph upon Simon Wadloe, vintner, that John Wadlow was proprietor of the Devil Tavern at
dwelling at the Signe of the Devil and St. Dunstan," will the Restoration. He is mentioned twice in Pepys' Diary
be found in MS. Ashmole, No. 38 fol., art. 328; and in (22nd April, 1661, and 25th Feb., 1664-5). The second
Camden's Remains. It commences thus :
time as having made a fortune— gone to live like a prince
" Apollo et cohors Musarum in the country,— there spent almost all he had got, and
Bacchus vini et uvaruni," &'c. finally returned to his old trade again.
« Sec Descriptive Catalogue of the Beaul'oy Tokens, by
264 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Cheerfully. First Tune.

i
'()

s
R . r
^iS! ^ m.
T*
In a humour I was of late, As many good fellows may be, To
That best might suit my mind. So I tra - vell'd up and down, No

^SA ^

, .

thmk otf
compa -
, no matters
•'
J
m
of state, But to
could find, Till I
seek for
came to
good com
the sight of
-
^
pa - ny.
the Crown. •*
• My
Says

^
^
—
old
«
hostess was
[Sir]
^
sick of the
Si - mon the
mumps, The
king, [Says
maid
old
was
Sir
i!*^
ill

Si
S^^
mon
at her
the
ease.
king.
The
With his
^^

^ rf
T
^-^-4~^
was drunk in his dumps, They were of
all one
Wdis - ease,
tapster
dropt hose, and his Malm - sey nose, Sing hey ding ding a ding, ding.]
ale -

Considering in my mind,
^ And he that will drink all right.

began to think Is never afraid of that;

I thus :

For drinkingwill make a man quaff.

If a man be full to the throat,
And cannot take off his drink, And quaflnng will make a man sing,
If his drink will not go down. And singing will make a man laugh.
He may hang up himself for shame, And laughing long life doth bring,
So the tapster at the Crown Says Old Simon the King.
Whereupon this reason I frame : If a Puritan skinker do cry,
Drink will make a man drunk, Dear brother, it is a sin
Drunk will make a man dry, To drink unless you be dry.
Dry will make a man sick. Then straight this tale I begin :

And sick will make a man die, A Puritan left his can,
Says Old Simon the King. And took him to his jug,
And there he played the man
If aman should be drunk to-night. As long as he could tug j

And laid in his grave to-morrow. And when that he was spied,
Will you or any man say Did ever he swear or rail ?

That he died of care or sorrow ? No, truly, dear brother,he cried.

Then hang up all sorrow and care, Indeed all flesh is frail.
'Tis able to kill a cat, Says Old Simon the King.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 265

The above song dates before the Restoration, because there is a political parody
upon it among the King's Pamphlets, Brit. Mus., dated January 19th, 1659,

commencing thus :
—
" In a humour of late I was
Ycleped a doleful dump ;

Thought I, we're at a fine pass,

Not a man stands up for the Rump," &c.
I suppose it to have been written only a short time before the return of Charles,
and that this Old Simon the King is the same person alluded to in one of the
Catches in the Antidote to Melancholy, 4to, 1661, beginning
" Good Symon, how comes it your nose is so red,
And your cheeks and your lips look so pale ?
Sure the heat of the toast your nose did so roast
When they were both soused in ale," &c.
And perhaps also in " An Epitaph on an honest citizen and true friend to all

claret drinkers," contained in part ii. of Playford's Pleasant Musical Qompanion,

4to, 1687 — "Here lyeth Simon, cold as clay,
"VMio whilst he liv'd cried Tip away," &c.
At the end of this epitaph it is said
" Now although this same epitaph was long since given.
Yet Simon's not dead more than any man living."
He was, perhaps, an old man whose death had been long expected.
The tune was in great favour at, and after, the Restoration. Many of the
songs of the Cavaliers were sung to it; many by Martin Parker, and other
ballad-writers of the reigns of James and Charles ; several by Wilmott, Earl of
Rochester ; and others of still later date.

Penkethman, the actor, wrote a comedy called Love without Interest, or

The Man too hard for theMaster (1699), in which one of the characters says
satu-ically, " Who? he! why the newest song he has is Tlie Children in the Wood,
or The London Prentice, or some such like ditty, set to the netv modish tune of
Old Sir Simon the King."
The name of the tune. Old Simon the King, is printed in much larger letters
than any other of the collection, on the title-page of "A Choice Collection of
Lessons, being excellently sett to the Harpsichord, by the two great masters,
Dr. John Blow, and the late Mr. Henry Purcell," printed by Henry Playford in
1705 : it was evidently thought to be the great attraction to pui-chasers.
Fielding, in his novel of Tommakes it Squire Western's favorite tune.
Jones,
He tells us, " It was Mr. Western's custom every afternoon, as soon as he was
drunk, to hear his daughter play upon the harpsichord. . . . He never relished
any music but what was light and airy ; and, indeed, his most favorite tunes were
Old Sir Simon the King, St. George he was for England, and some others. . . . The
Squire declared, if she would give him t'other bout of Old Sir Simon, he would
give the gamekeeper his deputation the next morning. Sir Simon was played
again and again, till the charms of music soothed Mr. Western to sleep." — i. 169.
It was the tune rather than the words, that gave it so lengthened a popularity.
I have found the air commonly quoted under five other names; viz., as Ragged
266 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

and torn, and The Golden Age ; as Til ne'er he drunh again ; as When
true ; as
this old and as liound about our coal-fire. The first is from the
cap was new ;

ballad called " Ragged and torn, and true or The Poor Man's Resolution to; :

the tune of Old Simon the King.'''' See Roxburghe Collection, i. 352 ; or Payne
Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, p. 26.

The second from " The Neivmarket Song, to the tune of Old Simon the King ; "
and beginning with the line, " The Golden Age is come." See 180 Loyal Songs,
4th edition, 1694, p. 152.

The third from a song called " The Reformed Drmker " the burden of which ;

is, "And ne'er be drunk again." See Pills to purge Melancholy, ii. 47, 1707, or
iv. 47, 1719 ; also Ritson's Knglish Songs, ii. 59, 1813.

The fourth from one entitled " Time's Alteration

" The old man's rehearsal what brave things lie knew,
A great while agone, when this old cap was new
to the tune of lie nere he drunJce againe.^' Pepy's Collection, i. 160 ; or Evans'
Old Ballads, iii. 262. (The name of the tune omitted, as usual, by Evans.)
The fifth is the name commonly given to it in collections of country dances,-
printed during the last century.

One of the best political songs to the tune is " The Sale of Rebellion's
Household Stufi";" a triumph over the downfall of the Rump Parliament,
beginning " Rebellion hath broken up house,
And hath left me old lumber to sell

Come hither and take your choice,

I'll promise to use you well.
Will you buy the old Speaker's chair,
Which was warm and pleasant to sit in ? " &c.

This song has the old burden at full length. The auctioneer, finding no pur-
chasers, offers, at the end, to sell the whole " for an old song." It has been re-
printed in Percy's Reliques of Ancie?it Poetry.

I have seen a song beginning

" To old Sir Simon the King,
And young Sir Simon the Squire,"
but have mislaid the reference. The tune is called " To old Sir Simon the King,"
in the first edition of the Beggars^ Opera, 1728.

In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 468, one of the ballads by Martin Parker, to

the tune of Bagged and torn, and true, is entitled "Well met, Neighbour, or
" A dainty discourse, between Nell and Sis,

Of men that do use their wives amiss."

This might be revived with some benefit to the lower classes at the present day,
especially if the last line of the burden could be impressed upon them
" Heard you not lately of Hugh,
How soundly his'wife he bang'd?
He beat her all black and blue :

Oh ! such a rogue should be hang'd."

 EEIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 267

Farquhar's song in the Beaux^s Stratagem, beginning

" A trifling song you shall hear,

Begun with a trifle and ended;

All trifling people draw near,
And I shall be nobly attended,"

was written to this tune, and is printed to it in The Musical Qompanion, or Lady's
Magazine, 8vo., 1741.
" The praise of St. David's day ; shewing the reason why the Welshmen honour
the leek on that day." Beginning
" Who list to read the deeds
By valiant Welshmen done," &c.,
is also to the tune, under the name of Wlien this old cap was new.
The following is the ballad of "Ragged and torn, and true; or The Poor Man's
Resolution," set to the tune as it is found in Tlie Dancing Master, and other
violin copies, but omitting the variations.
Second Tune.
Cheerfally.

^^f^^~i=p^^r^r^ri
I am a poor man, God knows, And all my neighbours can tell, I'

BHF
^ ^^
^3 ^ itr^ -T— -J-
And
—=^ ?
want both money and clothes. yet I live wond' rous well

1= ^
*t *=
I have a con - tent - ed mind. And a heart to bear out all. Though
Then hang up sor- row and care, It never shall make me rue; What

^=E^ ^^
^^f^^
for
though
- tune being
my back goes
un - kind
bare,
Hath
I'm
giv'n me
ragged and torn
i
sub - stance small,
and true.
268 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

I scorn to live by the shift, Ihave seen some gallants brave

Or by any sinister dealing ;
Up Holborn ride in a cart.
I'll flatter no man for a gift, Which sight much sorrow gave
Nor will I get money by stealing. To every tender he^rt
I'll be no knight of the post. Then have I said to myself
To sell my soul for a bribe What pity is it, for this.

Though all my fortunes be cross'd. That any man for pelf

Yet I scorn the cheater's tribe. Should do such a foul amiss.
Then hang up sorrow and care, O, fie on deceit and theft
It never shall make me rue It makes men at the last rue ;

What though my cloak be threadbare, Though I have but little left,

I'm ragged, and torn, and true. I'm ragged, and torn, and true.

A boot of Spanish leather The pick-pockets in a throng.

I've seen set fast in the stocks, Either at market or fair,

Exposed to wind and weather, Will try whose purse is strong.

And foul reproach and mocks ;

That they may the money share
While I, in my poor rags, But if they are caught i' th' action.
Can pass at liberty still They're can'ied away in disgrace.
O, fie on these brawling brags, Either to the House of Correction,
When money is gotten so ill Or else to a worser place.
O, on these pilfering knaves
fie ! O, fie on these pilfering thieves?
I scorn to be of that crew The gallows will be their due ;

They steal to make themselves brave What need I sue for reprieves ?

I'm ragged, and torn, and true. I'm ragged, and torn, and true.

I've seen a gallant go by The ostler to maintain

With all his wealth on his back ;
Himself with money in's purse,
He looked as loftily Approves the proverb true,
As one that did ilothing lack. And says, Grammercy horse ;

And yet he hath no means He robs the travelling beast.

But what he gets by the sword. That cannot divulge his ill.

Which he consumes on queans. He steals a whole handful, at least,

For it thrives not, take my word. From every half-peck he should fill.

O, on these highway thieves

fie ! O, fie on these cozening scabs,
The gallows will be their due That rob the poor jades of their due !

Though my doublet be rent i' th' sleeves, I scorn all thieves and drabs
I'm ragged, and torn, and true. I'm ragged, and torn, and true.

Some do themselves maintain 'Tis good to be honest and jusi.

With playing at cards and dice Though a man be never so poor ;

O, on that lawless gain.

fie False dealers are still in mistrust.
Got by such wicked vice They're afraid of the officer's door :

They cozen poor country-men Their conscience doth them accuse.

With their delusions vilde [vile] ;
And they quake at the noise of a bush ;

Yet it happens now and then WhUe he that doth no man abuse.
That they are themselves beguil'd; For the law needs not care a rush.
For,if they be caught in a snare, Then well fare the men that can say,
The pillory claims its due ; pay every man his due
I ;

Though my jerkin be worn and bare, Although I go poor in array,

I'm ragged, and torn, and true. I'm ragged, and torn, and true.
 REIGNS OP JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 269

The following is the before-mentioned song, " The Reformed Drinker, or I'll

ne'er be drunk again," also to the tune of Old Sir Simon the King.
Come, my hearts of gold, When with good fellows we meet.
Let us be merry and wise A quart among three or four,
;

It is a proverb of old, 'Twill make us stand on our feet,

Suspicion hath double eyes. While others lie drunk on the floor.
Whatever we say or do, Then, drawer, go fill us a quart.
Let's not drink to disturb the brain And let it be claret in grain ;

Let's laugh for an hour or two, 'Twill cherish and comfort the heart
And ne'er be drunk again. But we'll ne'er be drunk again.

A cup of old sack is good Here's a health to our noble King,

To drive the cold winter away ;
And to the Queen of his heart;
'Twill cherishand comfort the blood Let's laugh and merrily sing,
Most when a man's spirits decay And he's a coward that will start.

But he that drinks too much, Here's a health to our general.

Of his head he will complain ;
And to those that were in Spain ;

Then let's have a gentle touch, And to our colonel

And ne'er be drunk again. And we'll ne'er be drunk again.

Good was made for man.

claret Enough's as good as a feast.
But man was not made for it If a man did but measure know ;

Let's be merry as we can, A drunkard's worse than a beast.

So we drink not away our wit For he'll drink till he cannot go.
Good fellowship is abus'd, If a man could time recall,
And wine will infect the brain: In a tavern that's spent in vain,
But we'll have it better us'd. We'd learn to be sober all,

And ne'er be drunk again. And we'd ne'er be drunk again,

THE BEGGAR BOY.

This tune is contained in TJie Dancing Master, from 1660 to 1690.

The following ballads were sung to it :

—
Roxburghe Collection, i. 528 " Trial brings Truth to light or ;

The proof a pudding is all in the eating ;

A dainty new ditty of many things treating

to the tune of The Beggar Boy,^'' by Martin Parker ; and beginning
"
The world hath allurements and flattering shows.
To purchase her lovers' good estimation
Her tricks and devices he's wise that well knows
The learn'd in this science are taught by probation," &c.
"
The burden is, The proof of the pudding is all in the eating."
—
In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 542 " The Beggar Boy of the North
Whose lineage and calling to the world is proclaim'd,
Which is to be sung to the tune so nam'd ;

beginning — "From ancient pedigree, by due descent,

I well can derive my generation," &c. ;

and the burden, " And cry, Good, your worship, bestow one token."
—
In the Roxburghe, i. 450, and Pepys, i. 306 " The witty "Western Lasse," &c.,
" to a new tune called The Beggar Boy:" subscribed Robert Guy. This begins,
" Sweet Lucina, lend me thy ayde; " and in the Pepys Collection, i. 310, there is
270 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

a ballad to the tune of Lucina, entitled " A most pleasant Dialogue, or a merry
greeting between two Lovers," &c. ; beginning, " Good morrow, fair Nancie,
whither so fast; " which I suppose to be also to the tune. It is subscribed C.R.
Printed at London for H[enry G[osson.]
The following is also from the Roxburghe Collection (i. 462) , and is reprinted
in Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, p. 7.
Slow very smoothly. _

^^^
Sf

^
i^F^ * *
^^^
Sweet mis-tress Money, I here will declare Thy beauty whicliev'ry one adoreth.The

^E
;?^i=ft ^ i ^
-i ^
lof- ty
^
gal-lant
J-nJH^-

7^ and beg-gar
I
so bare,
i-J—
Some help and comfort from
L^
^^ thee im-plor-eth. For

^
^

nthou art
T J ^ ; i

become the world's sweet-heart,

J :*=I=S
While
^rr ev'ry
m^ ^=^
one dothmake thee their honey, And

:i—^-i^ ft-^
=^
^
r?3 ^ Ag
^ ^^^^
i J
f= w i—t-^

msH^-mrf f ST==^
loth they are from thee to de-part. So well they do love sweet Mis- tress Mo-ney.

-r it

w i

THE BOATMAN.
This is a bagpipe tune, and might be harmonized with a drone base. In
MusicVs Recreation on the Viol, Lyra-ioay, 1661, the viol is strung to the " bag-
pipe tuning," to play it. It is to be found in every edition of The Dancing Master,
from the first to that of 1698. I have not discovered the song of The Boatman,
but have adapted a stanza from Coryat's Orambe, 1611, to the air. It resembles

Trip and go (see p. 131), and the same words might be sung to it. The accent
of the tune seems intended to imitate the turning of the scull in boating.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 496, is a ballad entitled " The wanton wife of
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 271

Castle-gate, or The Boatman's Delight: to its own proper new tune;" but it

appears, from the following, which is the fii'st stanza, that this air cannot have
been intended.
" Farewell both liawk and hind, Farewell, my best beloved,
Farewell both shaft and bow, In whom I put my trust
Farewell all merry pastimes. For its neither grief nor sorrow
And pleasures in a row : Shall harbour in my breast."

There is an air in Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius called The Boatman, but wholly

^^
different from this.

In rowing time.

:&:
B^Qr^.^-J=^
;):
a=^ Se
(\
Ye

-^
Church-ales and ye Mor - ris - as, With hob- by-horse ad

i-J i^^
-

^
van - cing, Ye

round games with fine Sim and Sis A -

tf
bout the
^
May-pole dan - cing.

\r^
^m g • f-
-^H-F-

-i~U .r i j ;
Ye nim-ble joints, that with red points and rib - bons deck the bri - dal. Lock
-•- • a

m i
J -fJ -T J
'^^ r—
i

'
"r - ^7"^
up your pumps, and rest your stumps, For you are now down - cried all.

i
^E:
i A 1 r

SIR LAUNCELOT DU LAKE.

This second tune to the ballad, " When Arthur first in court began " (which
the black-letter copies. The Grarland of Groocl-will, &c., dh-ect to be sung to the
tune of Flying Fame — see p. 199), was transcribed by Dr. Rimbault, from the fly-

leaf of a rare book of Lessons for the Virginals, entitled Parthenia Inviolata.
The ballad is quoted by Shakespeare, by Beaumont and Fletcher, by Marston,
&c. founded on the romance of Sir Launcelot du Lake, than which none
It is

was more popular. Chaucer, in " The Nonne Prest his tale," says
'
This story is al so trewe, I undertake,
As the book is of Launcelot the Lake ;
272 ENGLISH SONS AND BALLAD MUSIC.

and Churchard, " Eeplication to Camel's objection," says to him

in his
" The most of your study hath been of Robyn Hood :

And Bevis of Hampton and Syr Launcelet de Lake

Hath taught you, full oft, your verses to make."

^
The ballad, entitled " The noble acts of Arthur of the Round Table, and of Sir
Launcelot du Lake," is printed in Percy's Beliques of Ancient Poetry.
Boldly and slow

i^3: ^ i
When Ar - thur first in court be-gan. And was ap-pi-ov-ed King, By

^^S F r^

force
^
of arms, great vie - fries won. And con - quest home did bring.

te^^?=M THE SPANISH GIPSY.

This is in every edition of The Dancing Master, and in MusicFs Delight on
the Cithren, 1666.
It is found in the ballad-operas, such as The Bays' Opera, 1730, and The
Fashionahle Lady, 1730, under the name of Qome,folloio, follow me.
The name of The Spanish Gipsy is probably derived from a gipsies' song in
Rowley and Middleton's play of that name. It begins, " Come, follow your
leader, follow," and the metre is suitable to the air.

In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 544, is a black-letter ballad, entitled " The

brave English Jipsie: to the tune of The Spanish Jipsie. Printed for John
Trundle," &c. It consists of eighteen stanzas, and commencing
" Come, follow, follow all,

'Tis English Jipsies' call."

And same volume, p. 408, one by M[artin] P[arker], called " The three
in the
merry Cobblers," of which the following are the first, eighth, fourteenth, and last
stanzas. (Printed at London for F. Grove.)
Come, follow, follow me, All day we merrily sing,
To the alehouse we'll march all three. And customers to us do bring
Leave awl, last, thread, and leather. Or unto us do send
And lot's go all together. Their boots and shoes to mend.
Our trade excels most trades i'the land, We have our money at fii;st demand;
For. we are still on the mending hand. Thus still we are on the mending hand.
Whatever we do intend. We pray for dirty weather,
We bring a perfect end
tti And money to pay for leather.
If any offence be past. Which if wehave, and health,
We make all well at last. A fig for worldly wealth.

We sit at work when others stand. Till men upon their heads do stand,
And still we are on the mending hand. We still shall be on the mending hand.
 BEIQNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I, 273

The most popular song to this tune was

" Come, follow, follow mo,
Ye fairy elves that be," &c.
It is the first in a tract entitled " A Description of the King and Queene of
Fayries, their habit, fare, abode, pompe, and state: being very delightful to the
sense, and full of mirth. London : printed for Richard Harper, and are to be
sold at his shop at the Hospitall Gate, 1635 " and the song was
;
to be " sung
like to the Spanish Gipsie."
The first stanza is here printed to the tune. The song will be found entire in
Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, or Ritson's English Songs.
Lightly, and in moderate time.

Come fol - low, fol - low me, Ye fai - ry elves that be, Which

^S * *

cir - cle
Eit^
on the green,
3
Come fol - low Mab, your queen. .
^.

* *

w
m r^^^^ 1^
Hand in hand let's dance a-round,

THE FEIAE IN
In Anthony Munday's Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington (written in
For

THE WELL.
this place is

^
fai - ry ground.

1597), where Little John expresses his doubts of the success of the play;
saying " Methinks I see no jests of Robin Hood
No merry Morrices of Friar Tuck
No pleasant skippings up and down the wood
No hunting songs," &c.
The Friar answers, that " merry jests" have been shewn before, such as —
" How the Friar fell into the well.
For love of Jenny, that fair, bonny belle," &c.
The title of this ballad is " The Fryer well fitted; or—

A pretty jest that once befell

How a maid put a Fryer to cool in a well

to a merry tune."
274 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The tune is in The Lancing Master, from 1650 to 1686, entitled The Maid
peept out at the ivindow, or The Frier in the Well.
The ballad is in the Bagford Collection; in the Koxburghe (ii. 172) the ;

Pepys (iii. 145) ; the Douce (p. 85) and in Wit and Mirth, an Antidote to
;

Melancholy, 8vo., 1682. Also, in an altered form, in Fills to purge Melancholy,

1707, i. 340 ; or 1719, iii. 325. Eut not one of these contains the line, " The
maid peept out of the window." I suppose, therefore, that the present has been
modelled upon some earlier version of the ballad, which I have not seen. The
story is a very old one, and one of the many against monks and friars, in which,
not only England but all Europe delighted.

m
Chorus.
Gracefully. Solo.

s
As I lay mus-ing all
i
a - lone, Fa
m
la, la la la, A

^^ SsL S^
=s
±
pret - ty jest, I thought up Fa la, la la la.

Solo.
^^
P
.

^ ^^^\^-^4=^ m
Then listen a -while, And I will tell Of a Friar that lov'd a honny lass well,

-^- £= &^h^^-£=^=fr S -ih

^

PP
Chorus.

Fa la,
S la la la,

i.=FJ
Fa
1
la
^
lang-tre down dilly.

jT^
The
'

story of the ballad

^^ may
r
•

'
r
•

=^
be told, with slight abbreviation. Firstly, the

Friar makes love to the Maid :—

" But she denyed his desire,
And told him that she fear'd Hell-fire.
Tush, quoth the Friar, thou needst not doubt,
If thou wert in Hell, I could sing thee out."
 REIGNS OP JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 275

The Maid pretends to be persuaded by his arguments, but stipulates that he shall
bring her an angel of money.
"Tush, quoth the Friar, we shall agree, While he was gone (the truth to tell),
No money shall part my love and me She hung a cloth before the well.
Before that I will see thee lack, The Friar came, as his covenant was,
pawn my grey gown from my back.
I'll With money to his bonny lass. [quoth he.
The Maid bethought her of a wile. Good morrow, fair Maid, good morrow,
How she the Friar might beguile Here is the money I promised thee."

The Maid thanks him, and takes the money, but immediately pretends that her
father is coming.
" Alas quoth the
! Friar, where shall I run. Quoth he, for sweet St. Francis' sake,
To hide myself till he be gone ? On his disciple some pity take
Behind the cloth run thou, quoth she, Quoth she, St. Francis never taught
And there my father cannot thee see. His scholars to tempt young maids to naught.
Behind the cloth the Friar crept. The Friar did entreat her still

And into the well on a sudden he leapt. That she would help him out of the well
Alas! quoth he, I am in the well She heard him make such piteous moan.
No matter, quoth she, if thou wert in Hell : She help'd him out, and bid him begone.
Thou sayst thou couldst sing me out of Hell, Quoth he, shall I have my money again.
Now, prythee, sing thyself out of the well. Which from me thou hast before-hand ta'en?
The Friar sung on with a pitiful sound. Good sir, quoth she, there's no such matter,
help me out! or I shall be drown'd. I'll make you pay for fouling the water.

1 trow, quoth she, your courage is cool'd The Friar went all along the street.
Quoth the Friar, I never was so fool'd; Dropping wet, like a new-wash'd sheep;
I never was served so before. [no more Both old and young commended the Maid
Then take heed, quoth she, thou com'st here That such a witty prank had play'd."

SIE EGLAMORE.

This " merry tune " is another version of The Friar in the Well (see the pre-
ceding). The ballad of Sir Eglamore is a sath-e upon the narratives of deeds
of chivalry in old romances. It is contained in Tlie Melancholie Knight, by
S[amuel] R[owlands], 1615 ; in the Antidote to Melancholy, 1661; in Merry
Drollery Complete, 1661 ; in Dryden's Miscellany Poems, iv. 104; in the Bagford
and Roxburghe Collections of Ballads ; in Ritson's Ancient Songs ; Evans' Old
Ballads; &c., &c.
It appears, with music, in part ii. of Playford's Pleasant Musical Companion,
1687 ; in Pills to purge Melancholy; in Stafford Smith's Musica Antiqua; and the
tune, with other words, in 180 Loyal Songs, &c.
The title of the ballad is, " Courage crowned with Conquest; or A brief rela-
tion how that valiant Knight, and heroic Champion, Sir Eglamore, bravely fought
with and manfully slew a terrible, huge, great, monstrous Dragon. To a pleasant
new tune." There are many variations in the copies from different presses.
The following songs were sung to Sir Eglamore: —
" Sir Eglamore and the Dragon, or a relation how General Monk slew a most
cruel Dragon, Feb. 11, 1659." See Loijcd Songs written against the Rump
Parliament.
276 ENGLISH SONG ANS' BALLAD MUSIC,

''
Ignoramus Justice ; or
The English laws turn'd into a gin,
To let knaves out and keep honest men in :

to the tune of Sir Ugkdemore." London : printed for Allen Bancks, 1682.
" The Jacobite toss'd in a Blanket," &c. (Pepys Coll., ii. 292) ; beginning-
" I pray, Mr. Jacobite, tell me why, Fa la, &c..
You on our government look awry. Fa la, &c.
With paltry hat, and threadbare coat,
And jaws as thin as a Harry groat.
You've brought yourselves and your cause to nought.
Fa-la, fa-la-la-la. Fa-la, lanky down dilly."

In Rowland's Melancliolie Knight, the ballad is thus prefaced :

" But tj>at I turn, and overturn again.

Old bo"6kB, wherein the worm-holes do remain

Containing acts of ancient knights and squires
That fought with dragons, spitting forth wild fires.

^
The history unto you shall appear.
Even by myself, verbatim, set down here."
Gracefully. Chorus.

=^^
fi—

Sir Eg - la -
Pmore, that va-liant knight. Fa, la, lanky down dilly.

^S
Solo. Chokus.

He took
^m
his swovd, and went
s to fight. Fa,
*la,
=ifc^

lanky down dilly.

ySoLO.

^=^^^^^Hf=H=iH-M:^b^E^
And as he rode o'er hill and dale. All arni'd up-on his shirt of mail,

ISS
• ^
,Chorus.

Fa
T^
la, fa la la. Fa la, Ian -ky down dilly.
i
^§PP
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 277

A Dragon came out of his den. The Dragon had a plaguey hide,
Had slain, God knows how many men : And could the sharpest steel abide;
When he espied Sir Eglamore, No sword would enter him with cuts,
Oh if you had but heard him roar
! Which vext the Knight unto the guts ;

Then the trees began to shake, But, as in choler he did burn.

The Knight did tremble, horse did quake He watched the Dragon a good turn,

The birds betake them all to peeping, And as a yawning he did fall,
It would have made you fall a weeping. He thrust the sword in, hilt and all.

But now it is vain to fear. Then like a coward he [did] fly

For it must be fight dog, fight bear Unto his den that was hard by,
To it they go, and fiercely fight And there he lay all night and roar'd
A live-long day, from morn till night. The Knight was sorry for his sword ;

But riding thence, said, I forsake it,

He that will fetch it, let him take it."

Instead of the two last lines, in many of the copies, are the three following
stanzas :

The sword, that was a right good blade, ^or he was so hot with tugging with the
As ever Turk or Spaniard made, ° '
L S >

That nothing would quench him but a whole

I, for my part, do forsake it,

And he that will fetch it, let him take it. Now God preserve our King and Queen,
And eke in London may be seen
When all was done, to the alehouse he went, As many knights, and as many more,
And by and by his two-pence he spent And all so good as Sir Eglamore.

THE COBBLER'S JIGG.

This tune first appears in The Dancing Master, in the seventh edition, printed
in 1686. It is there entitled Tlie Colhler's Jigg. More than sixty years before
ithad been published in Holland, as an English song-tune, in Bellerophon, 1622
and in Nederlandtsche Q-edenck-Clanch, 1626. In the index to the latter, among
the "Engelsche Stemmen," it is entitled " Cobbeler, of: Het Engelsch Lapper-
ken." All the English airs in these Dutch books have Dutch words adapted to
them; but as I do not know the English words which belong to this, I have
adapted an appropriate song from Tlie Shoemaker'' s Holiday, 1600.
In the Pepys Collection of Ballads, vol. i.. No. 227, is one entitled " Round,
boyes, indeed ! or The Shoomaker's Holy-day :

Being a very pleasant new^ ditty,

To fit both country, towne, and cittie, &c.
To a pleasantnew tune." It is signed L.P. (Laurence Price?), and printed
for J. Wright, who printed about 1620. This may prove to be the ballad.
I noted that it was in eighteen stanzas, but omitted to copy it.

Shoemakers called their trade " the gentle craft," from a tradition that King
Edward IV., in one of his disguises, once drank with a party of shoemakers, and
pledged them. The story is alluded to in the old play, Greorge a Greene, the
Pinner of Wakefield (1599), when Jenkin says
" Marry, because you have drank with the King,
And the King hath so graciously pledg'd yon,
You shall no more be called shoemakers
But you and yours, to the world's end,
Shall be called the trade of the gentle graft."
Dodsley's Old Plays, v. iii., ]). 45.
278 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

" Would I had been created a shoemaker," (says the servant in a play of Dekker's)
" for all the gentle craft are gentlemen every Monday by their copy, and scorn
then to work one true stitch." —Dodsley's Old Flays, v. iii., p. 282.
Cobblers, too, were proverbially a meri'y set. In the opening scene of Ben
Jonson's play, TJie case is altered, Juniper, the cobbler, is discovered sitting at
work in his shop, and Onion, who is sent for him, has great diffi-
and singing ;

culty in stopping his song. When told that he must slip on his coat and go to
assist, because they lack waiters, he exclaims, " A pityful hearing for now must I, !

of a merry cohhler, become a mourning creature." (The family were in moui-ning).

Juniper is also represented as a small poet ; and when, in the third act. Onion
goes to him again (the cobbler being in his shop, and singing, as usual), and
explains his distress because Valentine had not written the ditty he ordered of
"No hammer

^ ^
him. Juniper says, matter, I'll out a ditty myself."
Jovially, and in moderate time.

-j—J—j-^
i^ "! ^ n =F
I f=f
3
Cold's the wind, and wet's the rain, Saint Hugh be our good

^EE
m 3
j=j ^ n J iJ =^^ ^
speed

, Chorus.
111 is the

S
T
^
weather that bringeth no gain, Nor helps good hearts

^=
in need.

w- ^ i i I
Irl^T- I
Hey down a down, hey down a down, Hey der-ry der-ry down a down.

m :5t

^ 3 ^
Ho!
r T
well done. To let
T
come. Ring corn-pass, gen - tie joy-

^ ^
Troll the bowl, the nut-brown bowl,
And here, kind mate, to thee !

Let's sing a dirge for Saint Hugh's soul,

And down it merrily.
Hey down a down, hey down a down.
Hey derry, derry, down a down ;

Ho well done, to me let come.

!

Ring compass, gentle joy.

 EEIGNS OP JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 279

DOWN IN THE NORTH COUNTRY.

This tune was formerly very popular, and is to be found under a variety of
names, and in various shapes. In the second vol. of The Dancing Master it is

entitled Tlie Merry Milkmaids.

In The Merry Musician, or a Cure for the
Spleen, i. 64, it is printed to the ballad, " The Farmer's Daughter of merry
Wakefield." That ballad begins with the line, " Down in the North Country ;
and the air is so entitled in the ballad-opera, Cure for a Scold, 1738. In A
180 Loyal Songs, thii-d and fourth editions, 1684 and 1694, there are two songs,
and the tune is named Philander. The first of the songs begins, " Ah, cruel
bloody fate," and the second is " to the tune of Ah, cruel Uoody fate " by which
name it is also called in The Q-enteel Comjoaniou for the Recorder, 1683, and
elsewhere.
One of M[artin] P[arker's] ballads is entitled " Take time while 'tis ofiier'd;
"
" For Tom has broke his word with his sweeting,
Andlost a good wife for an hour's meeting
Another good fellow has gotten the lass,
And Tom may go shake his long ears like an ass."

to the tune Within the North OountryP (Roxburghe, i. 396.) It begins with
the line, " When Titan's fiery steeds," and the last stanza is
" Thus Tom hath lost liis lass,
Because he broke his vow ;

And I have raised my fortunes well

The case is alter' d notv."

There are many ballads to the tune The case is altered, and probably this is
intended.
In the Bagford Collection is " The True Lover's lamentable Overthrow ; or
The Damosel's last Farewell," &c. : "to the tune of Cruel Uoody fate;''''

commencing " You parents all attend

To what of late befell
you I send
It is to
These lines, my last farewell." &c.
In the Douce Collection, p. 245, " The West Country Lovers
See here the pattern of true love,
Amongst the country blades.
Who never can delighted be,

But when amongst the maids

tune oi Philander."
The last is in black-letter, printed J. Bonyers, at the Black Raven in Duck
by
Lane. A former possessor has written " Cruel bloody fate " under " Philander,"
as being the other name of the tune.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 105, —" The Deceiver Deceived ; or The
Virgin's Revenge : to the tune of Ah, cruel Uoody fate," begins, " Ah, cruel maid,
give o'er."
In A Cabinet of CJioice Jewels, 1688 (Wood's Library, Oxford) —a " Carol for

Innocents' Day: tune oi Bloody fate."

280 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The Bong of Philander is in Pills to pmge Melancholy, ii. 252 (1707), or

iv. 284 (1719) in Wit and Drollery, 1682 and a black-letter copy in the
; ;

Douce Collection, p. 74, entitled " The Faithfull Lover's Downfall; or The
Death of fair Phillis, who killed herself for the loss of her Philander," &c. to a :

pleasant new play-house tune, or cruel bloody fate." (Printed by T. Vere, at

^^
the Angel in Giltspur Street.)

^m
Smoothli),

^
Ah,
and

cru
in

- el
^^
moderate time.

bloody fate, What ^ canst thou now do

S 3
m:t>-p-l s a:

^ iSa ; 1^
more ?
wm Ah me, 'tis now too
^
late,
s?
Phi - Ian - der
J

to
. ,

res - tore,

^ ^ m^.
J-^(^^ J.;j l)\i-nrr ^=J=
j

Why f^ | |

should the heavenly pow'rs persuade Poor mor - tals to be - lieve That they
_q.i2

3
fe^-j:j- N^ "T
m ¥=
^
guard us here and re - ward us there, Yet all joys de

11^21 ^^
Her poniard then she took, and graspt it in her hand.
And with a dying look, cried, Thus I fate command
Philander, ah, my love I come to meet thy shade below
!
;

Ah, I come ! she cried, with a wound so wide, to need no second blow.
In pui-ple waves her blood ran streaming down the floor
Unmov'd she saw the flood, and bless'd her dying hour
Philander, ah Philander, still tlie bleeding Phillis cried;
She wept awhile, and forc'd a smile, then clos'd her eyes and died.

The following is the version called "Down in the North Country," of which
there are also copies in Halliwell's Collection (Cheetham Library, 1850), and in
Dr. Burney's Collection, Brit. Mus.
 KEIQNS OP JAMES I. AND CUARLE6 I. 281
Cheerfully.

i^E
5
L=^^3^
Down in the North Coun - try, As an - cient re - ports do

^
HSgg^ S i
3 ^
:iU=
3^
m^^^^ S
r!a
* * J *

tell, There lies a fa-mous country town, Some call it merry Wakefield, And

i
^PB ^
3^^ S: j ^in^ Ei
in this coun
~
- try town, A far - mer there did dwell, Whose
3 i^i: —«- _g:_

i
&
daugh-ter would to
mmar-ket Her trea - sure

J-

^ — 1- ^
The following is the version of the same tune, which is entitled Tlie Merry Milk-
maids in the second Yolume of The Dancing Master. It was formerly the custom
for milkmaids to dance before the houses of their customers in the month of May,
to obtain a small gratuity ; and probably this tune, and The Merry Milkmaids in
green, were especial favorites, and therefore named after them. To be a milkmaid
and to be merry were almost synonymous in the olden time. Sir Thomas
Overbury's Character of a Milkmaid, and some allusions to their songs, will be
found with the tune entitled The Merry Milkmaids in green. The following
quotations relate to their music and dancing.
In Beaumont and Fletcher's play, The Coxcomb, Nan, the milkmaid, says
" Come, you shall e'en home with us, and be our fellow
Our house is so honest
And we serve a very good woman, and a gentlewoman
And we live as merrily, and dance o' good days
After even-song. Our wake shall be on Sunday
—
Do j'ou know what a wake is ? we have mighty cheer then," &c.
Pepys, in his Diary, 13th Oct., 1662, says, " With my father took a melan-
choly walk to Portholme, seeing the country-maids, milking their cows there,
they being there now at grass ; and to see with what mirth they come all home
together in pomp with their milk, and sometimes they have music go before them."
282 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Again, on the 1st May, 1667, " To Westminster ; on the -way meeting many
milkmaids with theii- garlands upon their pails, dancing -with a fiddler before
them; and saw pretty Nelly" [Nell G Wynne] "standing at her lodgings' door in
Drury Lane, in her smock sleeves and bodice, looking upon one she seemed a :

mighty pretty creature."

In a set of prints, called Tempesfs Qryes of London, one is called " The Merry
Milkmaid, whose proper name was Kate Smith. She is dancing with her milk-
pail on her head, decorated with silver cups, tankards, and salvers, borrowed for
the purpose, and tied together with ribbands, and ornamented with flowers. Of
late years, the plate, with other decorations, were placed in a pyramidical form,
and carried by two chainnen upon a wooden horse. The mikmaids walked before
it,and performed the dance without any incumbrance. Strutt mentions having
seen " these superfluous ornaments, with much more propriety, substituted by a
cow. The animal had her horns gilt, and was nearly covered with ribbands of
various colours, formed into bows and roses, and interspersed with green oaken
leaves and bunches of flowers." Sports and Pastimes, edited by Hone, p. 358.

i
^
±
fe^Rf

HVb^-p-H
Lively.

a=
^
^ s
^ -ZT
The Milkmaids' Dance.

^^
^
S is
s T- "F

^!^?3m^:^p^^ i
^:; j \^m
^ O) s
w
^p^^
i
U^
3=3=i^
fiLCjl; ^ 3;
"ST

f=T=F=^
^ 3
1^^
1?
3^
^
sj
;
c
-
j
I
j,JI;:jmp
s
g^ \-^ s

1=T
I

^ ^^ Tt T m
•r

^ -•—©- 22=

1^ ^^^^^^^
S
-^-
1=
 EEIQNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 283

MORRIS DANCE.

This is entitled Migelsche Kloche-Dans in tliree of the Collections published in

Holland : viz., in Belleroplion (Amsterdam, 1622) Nederlandtsche ; GfedencJc-

Clanck (Haerlem, 1626) ; and Friesche Lust-Hof (Amsterdam, 1634.)

As "kick" signifies "bell," and bells were worn in the morris, I suppose it to
have been a morris-dance. In the above-named collections, Dutch songs are
adapted to it, but I have no clue to the English words.

A
Moderate time.

^
^
^ ^a£g ^
"^
t=ib
M 3
T? ^
^^^
^ mm s
?
j£ j7j.^
^r % 1 —r-n i J./j.^

^^ i
j
M=^=F^
^J^^fl e^t^

'i
^
^
«; =-

TB
P
P^
T^ 5& i
e Vf TS'

^ ^m
AMARILLIS TOLD HER SWAIN.
^
f

^
This is found, under the name of Amarillis, among the violin tunes in Tfie
Dancing Master of 1665, and in all later editions in MusicKs Delight on ; the
Oithren, 1666 in Apollo's Banquet, 1670
; in the Pleasant Companion for
; the
Flageolet, 1680 &c. ;

The song, "Amarillis told her swain," is in Memj Drollery complete, 1670 (p. 3).
The air is sometimes referred to as " Phillis on the new-made hay," from a
284 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

ballad entitled " The coy Shepherdess; or Phillis and Amintas ; " -which was sung
to the tune of Amarillis. See Roxbui-ghe Collection, ii. 85.
Among the ballads to the air, are also the following :

" The Rojal Recreation of Jovial Anglers " beginning ;

"Of all the recreations which

Attend on human nature," &c.
Eoxburghe Collection.
Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, p. 232 ; and Merry Drollery complete, 1661 and
1670. It is also in Fills to furge Melancholy ; but there set to the tune of
My father ivas lorn before me.
" Love in the blossom ; or Fancy in the bud : to the tune Amarillis told her
swain." Roxburghe, ii. 315.
" Fancy's Freedom ; or true Lovers' bliss : tune of Amarillis, or Phillis on the
new-made hay." Roxburghe, iii. 114.
" The true Lovers' Happiness ; or Nothing venture, nothing have," &c. : tune
of Amintas on the new-made hay ; or Tlie Loyal Lovers." Douce Collection, and
Roxbm-ghe, ii. 486.
" The Cotsall Shepherds to the tune of Amarillis : told her swain" in Folly in
'print,or a Booh of Rhymes, 1667.

The following stanza, set to the tune, is the first of the above-named ballad,
" The coy Shepherdess ; or Phillis and Amintas :"

i
S

^.
STF=g

SP
Smoothly, and in moderate time.

Ir-'-^^-
Phil
=
EjE
- lis
T

on
^
tlie new-made hay,
s
On
*ti i
a plea -

^
^
sant summer's day.

^
iTi
In 're -
9

clin -
8
ing'
=a
pos -
^ W
ture lay. And thought no shep -
^B
herd nigh her;

T
3 J .J J ^^^
m rtrn j^hiHS
Till A-min - tas came that way. And threw him - self down by her.

^ Ef
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 285

CHEERILY AND MERRILY.

In Tlie Dancing Master of 1652, this is entitled Mr, Webb's Fancy ; and in
later editions Gherrily and merrily.
In vol. xi. of the King's Pamphlets, folio, there is a copy of a ballad written on
the violent dissolution of the Long Parliament by Cromwell, entitled " The Par-
liament routed ; or Here's a house to be let
I hope that England, after many jarres,
Shall be at peace, and give no way to warres :

Lord, protect the general!, that he

May he the agent of our unitie :

to the tune of Lucina, or Merrily and cherrily." [June 3, 1653.] It has been
reprinted in Political Ballads, Percy Society, No. 11, p. 126. The first stanza
is as follows :
— " Cheer up, kind countrymen, he not dismay'd.
True news I can tell ye concerning the nation
Hot spirits are quenched, the tempest is layd,
And now we may hope for a good reformation."
The above is more suited to the tune of Lucina (i.e., The Beggar Boy, p. 269)
than to this air ; I have therefore adapted a song from Universal Harmony, 1746,
an alteration of the celebrated one by George Herbert.

i
r^^*^
^Smootlily,

V^Tb-^=
^S
Sweet
and in moderate time.

day.
^
so cool. so calm, so bright, The

T^^ ^

bri - dal
m ^3of the
-*

earth
•

and
—a
sky, The
tr
i.,;^
dews shall
i
J
"1-
weep
J

thy

:^ =t:
m
fall
i
to - night,
^dr
For thou,
^^m
f^=^
with all thy
1^
m
sweets, must die

3 *:
±
J=i
^^=F
Sweet rose, so fragrant and so brave, Not long thy fading glories stay,
Dazzling the rash beholder's eye. But thou, with all thy sweets, must die.

Thy root is ever in its grave.

Sweet love, alone, sweet wedded love.
And thou, with all thy sweets, must die.
To thee no period is assign'd ;

Sweet Spring, so beauteous and so gay. Thy tender joys by time improve,
Storehouse where sweets unnumber'd lie, In death itself the most refin'd.
286 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND.

There are black-letter copies of this ballad in the Pepys and Bagford Collec-
tions. It is also in An Antidote to Melmicholy, 1661 ; in part ii. of Merry
Drollery Complete, 1661 and 1670; m Wit and Drollery, 1682; Pills to purge
Melancholy, 1707 and 1719; &c.
It is one of those offered for sale by the ballad-singer in Ben Jonson's
comedy of Bartholomew Fair.
Pepys, in his Diary, tells us of " reading a ridiculous ballad, made in praise of

the Duke of Albemarle, to the tune of St. G-eorge —the tune being printed too;"
and adds, " I observe that people have great encouragement to make ballads of
him, of this kind. There are so many, that hereafter he will sound like Guy of
Warwick." (6th March, 1667.)
Fielding, in his novel of Tom Jones, speaks of St. George he toas for Migland
as one of Squire Western's favorite tunes.
The ballad in the Pepys Collection (i.is entitled " Saint George's Com-
87)
mendation to all Souldiers ; or Saint George'sAlarum to all that profess martiall
discipline, with a memoriall of the Worthies who have been borne so high on the
wings of Fame they cannot be buried in the pit of
for their brave adventures, as
oblivion to a pleasant neio tuneP
: It was " imprinted at London, by W. W.," in

1612, and is the copy from which Percy printed, in his Reliques of Ancient
Poetry. It begins
—
" "ViTiy do we boast of Arthur and his Knigbtes."
In Anthony Wood's Collection, at Oxford, No. 401, there is a modernization
of this ballad, entitled
" St. George for England, and St. Dennis for France;
O hony soite qui mal y pance :

to an excellent new tune." (Wood's Ballads, ii. 118.) It is subscribed S. S., and
" printed for W. Gilbertson, in Giltspur Street " from which it may be dated ;

about 1659.
As a specimen of the comparative modernization, I give the first stanza :

" What need we brag or boast at all Sir Tarquin, that great giant,
Of Arthur and his Knights, His vassal did remain
Knowing how many gallant men But St. George, St. George,
They have subdued in fights. The Dragon he hath slain.
For bold Sir Launcelot du Lake St. George he was for England,

Was of the table round St. Dennis was for France ;

And fighting for a lady's sake, O hony soite qui mal y pance."
His sword with fame was crown'd ;

A copy of the old ballad in the Bagford Collection is entitled " A new ballad
of St. George and the Dragon," but there is also another of St. George and the
Dragon, which Percy has printed in the Reliques.
In 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694, there is " a new song on the instalment of
Sir John Moor, Lord Mayor of London tune, St. George for England.^'' And in
:

Pills to purge Melancholy, iii. 20 (1707), "A new ballad of King Edward and
Jane Shore," to the same.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 287

As the ballad is contained in Percy's Heliques, as well as a witty second part,

written by John Grubb, and published in 1688, the first stanza only is here
printed with the music.
Moderate

3^^
time.

^
^ iM
* *•
P^ ^ - '
*
»^
771 n J

Why should we boast of Ar-thur and his knights, Knowing well how many men

m^^ "gr
^

have en-du-red^ights? For be -sides King Ar - thur and Lance - lot du Lake, Or
^ Sir

i
3 "CV

1?^
j-jO'T^^i-j^^
^

^ ^ S
Tris - tram de Li - o - nel, that fought for La-dies' sake, Read in old his - to - ries and

SE

^1—

there you shall see.

V
How
*)

St. George,
=3=»
St. George the
i^ ^
Dragon made *"
j //
^^^- Saint
•«•

-i fi • • »—.
f • »
I 9

^
'

m 1
5
George he was for England,
r-^-i-
Den
St. - nis was for France,
r
Sing

=--j-^
i
^^ -^Stt
Ri^ ft
-i

i
Ho soit pense.

rrrrrt m w s
288 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

THE HEALTHS.
This tune is in The Dancing Master, fi'om 1650 to 1690, and in Mustek's
Delight on the Cithren, 1666.
In the first editions of Tlie Dancing Master it is entitled Tlie Health ; in the
seventh and eighth, The Healths, or Tlie Merry Wassail.
The following song, " Come, faith, since I'm parting," was written by Patrick
Carey, a loyal cavalier, on bidding farewell to his hospitable entertainers at Wick-
ham, in 1651. It is " to the tune of The Healths."

Moderate time.

2
mf
s L J. "
.
3=^-
m
P
Come, faith, since I'm part-ing, And that God knows when The

^E fF=P=
^ "sr
-F^

iS ^
cres.\ -
walls of sweet Wick - ham I shall see gain, Let's

~CT-
-grr-
^ ^^^
Ke'en
S=f—
have
I J

fro - lie.
J ^ And drink like tall
S
men.
g
Till
bold

"S3"

^m
heads with healths go
m
round.
-*- Jr..
Till
^;3~
heads with healths
m
go round.

And
rs:5z

first

knee;
to Sir William,
Wn
I'll take't on my And
He'll
then to yoimg Will, the heir of
make a brave man, you may
ISS

this place

see't in his
;

He well doth deserve that a brimmer it be [he : face

More brave entertainments none ere gave than I only could wish we had more of the race
Then let his health go round. At least let his health go round.

Next to his chaste lady, who loves him as life; To well-grac'd Victoria the next room we owe ;

And whilst we are drinking to so good a wife. As virtuous she'll prove as her mother, I trow,
The poor of the parish will pray for her life ;
And somewhat in huswifry more she will know;
Be sure her health go round. O let her health go round!
 RKIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 289

To plump Bess, her sister, I drink down this Hot Coles is on fire, and fain would be
cup: [up; quench'd; [drench 'd:
Birlackins, my masters, each man must take't As well as his horses, the groom must be
'Tis foul play, I bar it, to simper and sup. Who's else? let Wm speak, if his thirst he'd
When such a health goes round. have stench'd.
Or have his health go round.
And now, helter-skelter, to th'rest of the house:
The most are good fellows, and love to carouse ;
-^"'^ """' '° ^^ women, who
must not be coy
Who's not, may go sneck-up ^ he's not worth a ;
A you know's but a toy;
glass, Mistress Gary,

louse Come, come, Mistress Sculler, no perdonnex

That stops a health i' th' round. ^^V'
It must, it must go round.
To th' clerk, so he'll learn to drink in the morn [sop
To Heynous, that stares when he has quaft up Dame Nell, so you'll drink, we'll allow you a
his horn Up with't, Mary Smith, in your draught never
To by whom good ale ne'er was forlorn
Philip, stop [drop,
These lads can drink a round. Law, there now. Nan German has left ne'er a
And so must all the round.
John Chandler! come on, here's some warm
beer for you Jane, Joan, Goody Lee, great Meg, and the
A health to the man that this liquor did brew less,

Why Hewet ! there's for thee ; nay take't, 'tis Youmustnotbe squeamish, but do as did Bess
thy due, How th' others are nam'd, if I could but guess,
But see that it go roiuid. I'd call them to the round.

And now, for my farewell, I drink up this quart.

To you, lads and lasses, e'en with all my heart
May I find you ever, as now when we part.

Each health still going round.

MALL PEATLY.

This tune is contained in Bellerophon, of Lust tot Wyshed, Amsterdam, 1622

in the seventh and later editions of The Dancing Master ; in Apollo's Banquet
and in several of the ballad-operas.

In Bellerophon, the first part is in common time, and the second in triple, like
a cushion dance ; but it is not so in any of the above-named English copies,
which, however, are of later date.
D'Urfey wrote to it a song entitled Gillian of Croydon (see Pills to purge
Melancholy, ii. 46), and it is to be found under that name in some of the ballad-

operas, such as The Fashionable Lady, or Harlequin^ s Opera, 1730 Sylvia, or ;

The Country Burial, 1731; The Jealous Cloim, 1730; &c. There are also several
songs to it in the Collection of State Songs sung at the Mug-houses in London and
Westminster, 1716. In Apollo's Banquet, the tune is entitled The Old Marinett,
or Mall Peatly ; in Gay's Achilles, Moll Peatly.

Mall is the old abbreviation of Mary. (See Ben Jonson's Miglish Grammar.)
In Bound about our coal-fire, or Christmas Entertainments (7th edit., 1734), it

is said, in allusion to Christmas, " This time of year bemg cold and frosty,

" Sir Walter Scott prints this "sneake-up:" I sup- equivalent to "go and be hanged."
pose it —
should be "snecke-up" a common expression,
290 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

generally speaking, or when Jack-Frost commonly takes us by the nose, the

diversions are within doors, either in exei'cise or by the fire-side. Dancing is one
of the chief exercises Moll Peatly is never forgot ;
— this dance stirs the blood

and gives the males and females a fellow-feeling for each other's activity, ability,
and agility Cupid always sits in the corner of the room where these diversions
:

are transacting, and shoots quivers full of arrows at the dancers, and makes his

o'wn game of them."

^^^^^^^^Gaily.

One Iio-li - day, last summer, From four to seven, by Croy-don chimes,

^ ^ m
m
Three lass-es
i
to -
33
ping rummers Were set
^
a pra - ting
^^
of the times.

S i
^\P=^-^-^ms ^s^^^^
A wife call'd Joan of the And a maid they brown

^Nell: Take
Mill, call'd

m l—'^FfSf
3Ep^ g=B ^ :a=*^
off your glass, said Gillian of Croy-don, A health to onr Mas - ter Will.

^
*
BOBBING JOE, oe BOBBING JOAN.

The tune of Bohhing Joe will be found in every edition of TJie Lancing Master;
in Mustek's Delight on the Githren, 1666 ; &c.
It sometimes entitled Bohhing Joan, as by Carey in his Ballades (1651) ; in
is

Polly, 1729 in The Bay's Opera, 1730 ; The Mad Mouse, 1737 ;
; Cure for a A
Scold, 1738 ; &c.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 291

" New Bob-in- Jo " is mentioned as a tune in No. 38 of Mercurius Democritiis,

or a True and Perfect Nodurnall, December, 1652. (See King's Pamphlets,

Brit. Mus.)
The song, " My dog and I," is to the tune of My dog and I, or Bobbing Joan.
(A copy in Mr. Halliwell's Collection.)

^
The following is the ballad by Patrick Carey, " to the tune of Bobbing Joane."
Cheerfully.

1iS
S
S=^
I
^ P=?f^
ne'er yet saw a
^^S r^
love - ly crea-ture, Were she widow, maid, or wife. But

*£
VlKgfr
^ 1 e g_

r-nr^ ^
^
•
r «f f
straight with -in my breast her feature Was paint- ed, strangely to the life:

t^

^ ^
^If

-^
out of sight,

f
Tho' ne'er so bright,

l \
\-l-f
I straightway lost her pic -

=1=
ture quite.

It still was mine and others' wonder Both seem as they

To see me court so eagerly Would ne'er away
Yet, soon as absence did me sunder Yet last but while the lookers stay.
From those I lov'd, quite cured was I.

The reason was, Then let no woman think that ever

That my breast has.
In absence J shall constant prove
Instead of heart, a looking-glass. Till some occasion does us sever

And as those forms that lately shined I can, as true as any, love

I' th' glass, are easily defac'd ;

But when that we
Those beauties so, which were enshrined Once parted be.

Within my breast, are soon displac'd Troth, I shall court the next I see.

WHEN THE STOEJIY WINDS DO BLOW.

The ballad, now known as You Gentlemen of England, is an alteration of one

by M[artin] P[arker], a copy of which is in the Pepys Collection, i. 420; printed
at London for C. Wright. It is in black-letter, and entitled " Saylers for my
money: a new ditty composed in the praise of Saylers and Sea Affaires; briefly
industry to the
shewing the nature of so worthy a callmg, and effects of their :
292 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

tune of The Joviall Cobler." Instead of " You gentlemen of England," it begins,
" Countriemen of England," &c.
Ritson prints from a copy entitled "Neptune's raging fury; or The Gallant
Seaman's Sufferings. Being a relation of their perils and dangers, and of the
extraordinary hazards they undergo in their noble adventures : together -with
their undaunted valour and rare constancy in all their extremites and the ;

manner of their rejoycing on shore, at their return home. Tune of When the

stormy tvinds do blow" (the burden of the song). A black-letter copy of this
version is in the Bagford Collection, printed by W. 0[nley], temp. Charles 11. ;-

and in one of the volumes of the Douce Collection, p. 168, printed by C. Brown
and T. Noi'ris, and sold at the Looking Glass on London Bridge. A third in the
Roxburghe Collection, ii. 543. " Stormy ivinds " is also in the list of ballads
printed by W. Thackeray, about 1660.
On the accession of Charles IL, we have, " The valiant Seaman's Congratu-

lation to his Sacred Majesty King Charles the Second," &c. : to the tune of

Let us drink and sing, and merrily troul the howl, or The stormy ivinds do blow, or
Hey, ho, my honey."" (Black-letter, twelve stanzas ; F. Grove, Snow Hill.)

It commences thus — :
" Great Charles, your English seamen.
Upon oxir bended knee,
Present ourselves as freemen
Unto your Majesty.
Beseeching God to bless you
\Miere ever that you go
So we pray, night and day,
When the stormy winds do blow."
Although the option of singing it to three tunes is given, it is evident, from the
two last lines, that it was written to this.

Among the other ballads to the tune are, " The valiant Virgin, or Philip and
Mary : In a description of a young gentlewoman of Worcestershire (a rich gentle-
man's daughter) being in love with a farmer's son, which her father despising,
because he was poor, caus'd him to be press'd for sea: and how she disguised
herself in man's apparel and follow'd him," &c. "To the tune of Wlien the stormy
winds do blow;" (Roxbm-ghe, ii. 546) beginning
" To every faithful lover
That's constant to her dear," &c.
In Poems by Ben Jonson, junior, 8vo., 1672, is " The Bridegroom's Salutation:
to the tune Wlien the stormy ivinds do blow ; " beginning
" I took thee on a suddain,
In all thy glories drest," &c.
In 180 Loyal Songs, 1686 and 1694, a bad version of the time is printed to
" You Calvinists of England."
There are fourteen stanzas in the copy of "You gentlemen" printed by Ritson,
in his Miglish So7igs. The following shorter version is from one of the broadsides
with music, compared with another copy in Uarly Naval Ballads (Percy Society,
No. 8, p. 34.)
 ^±
mE
^^
Boldly.

^m
You
REIGNS OF JAMES

Gen -tie-men
-w) —
of
IJI
I.

Eng-land, That

3r
^
AND CHARLES

live

-&-
at home
I.

— -
at
-a-
ease,
•
p-t
How
293

^fe^
lit -
ftie do
^?.
you think
r
up -
*
on The
^=^^=w=^
dan - gers of the seas, Give

1^ ^. st
#
ear un - to the
i
mar - i - ners. And they
•F-

will plain - ly show.

^
//

All the

JJ JJ-^J i
J j^ I
J
; .. . .
E ,. J J

?=^ *
P -• 3S~ i^ ^ ^
=s
i* ^
cares

^-4 and the fears When the storm - y winds do blow

3
The
t
sailor
f
must have courage.
a f m
Sometimes in Neptune's bosom
No danger he must shun ;
Our ship is toss'd by waves,
In every kind of weather And every man expecting
His course he still must run ;
The sea to be our graves
Now mounted on the top-mast. Then up aloft she's mounted.
How dreadful 'tis below : And down again so low,
Then we ride, as the tide, In the waves, on the seas.

When the stormy winds do blow. When the stormy winds do blow.

If enemies oppose us. But when the'danger's over.

And England is at war And safe we come on shore,
With any foreign nation. The horrors of the tempest
We fear not wound nor scar. Wethink of then no more ;

To humble them, come on, lads, The flowing bowl invites us,
Their flags we'll soon lay low; And joyfully we go.
Clear the way for the fray, All the day drink away,
Tho' the stormy winds do blow. Tho' the stormy winds do blow.
294 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MTTSIC.

EED BULL.
This tune is named after the Red Bull Playhouse, which formerly stood in
St. John Street, Clerkenwell. was in use throughout the reigns of James I.
It
and Charles I., and perhaps before. At the Restoration, the King's actors, under
Thomas Killigrew, played there until they removed to the new Theatre in Drui'y
Lane and when Davenant produced his Playliouse to he Let, in 1663, it was
;

entirely abandoned. (See Collier's Annals of the Stage.)

In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 246, is a ballad entitled " A mad kind of
wooing ; or A Dialogue between Will the simple, and Nan the subtle, with their
loving agreement : to the tune of The new Dance at the Bed Bull Playhouse."
It is black-letter, printed for the assigns of T. Symcocke, whose patent for
"printing of paper and parchment on the one side" was granted in 1620, and
assigned in the same year. Another copy of the ballad will be found in the
Pepys Collection, i. 276, " printed for H[emy] G[osson] on London Bridge.
The tune is contained in Apollo'' s Banquet for the Treble Violin, entitled T/ie
BamseWs Bance ; and in Tlie Dancing Master (1698), Bed Bidl.
Rather sloiv.

/fun
s
Sweet
p>

Nan - cy, I do love thee dear, Be - lieve

W^
^ iS=4
T
J . J J .J

r r^ ^
m=a Ts ^^m
if thou can, And shall, I firm - ly do declare, While thy name is Nan. I

4-^-^ J • ^ ;- J • J

can - not court with el - o-quence As ma - ny cour - tiers do. But

I do
ri ^^
love en
1

-
^

t ire - ly thee. Then love me dear - ly, too.

1.-1
^^
J
Se^ J .

The
V f^^ ^F=^
last eight bars are repeated for four more lines in the stanza. The whole
is reprinted in Evans' Old Ballads, i. 312 (1810).
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 295

THE MERRY MILKMAIDS IN GREEN.

This is evidently the same air as And will he not come again, one of the snatches
sung by Ophelia in Hamlet, but in a difierent form (see p. 237) . It is contained
in every edition of The Dancing Master. In the eighteenth edition it is entitled
" The merry Milkmaids in green^^ to distinguish it from another air of similar
name.
In Su' Thomas Overbury's Character of a Milkmaid, he says, " She dares go
alone,and unfold her sheep in the night, and fears no manner of ill, because she
means none : yet, to say truth, she is never alone, she is still accompanied ivith old
and prayers, but short ones."
songs, honest thoughts,
In the " Character of a Ballad-monger," in WJiimzies, or a new Cast of
Characters, 12mo., 1631, we find, " Stale ballad news, cashiered the city, must
now ride post for the country, where it is no less admired than a giant in a
pageant : till at last it grows so common there too, as every poor milkmaid can
chant and chirp it under her coiv, which she useth, as a harmless charm, to make
her let down her milk."
Maudlin, the milkmaid, in Walton's Angler, sings (among others) portions of
two ballads by Martin Parker, a well-known ballad- writer of the latter part of the
reign of James I., and during that of Charles and the Protectorate, and both are
to this tune. The first is
" The Milkemaid's Life ; or—
A pretty new ditty, composed and pen'd
The praise of the milking paile to defend :

to a cuiious new tune, called The Milkemaid's Dumps." (Roxburghe Coll., i. 244,

or Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, 243.) Mr. Payne Collier remarks that the last
stanza but one proves it to have been written before " the downfall of May-
games " under the Puritans.
You rural goddpsses. Their courages never quail
That woods and fields possess, In wet and dry,
Assistme with your skill. Though winds be high,
That may direct my quill And dark's the sky,
More jocundly to express They ne'er deny
The mirth and delight. To carry the milking pail.
Both morning and night,
On mountain or in dale, Tj^^jj, j^^^^.^^ ^^^ f^^^ f^.^^^ ^^^^^
Of those who choose They never will despair;
This trade to use. Whatever may befaU,
And through cold dews They bravely bear out all.
Do never refuse ^„j Fortune's frowns out-dare.
To carry the milking pail. They pleasantly sing
The bravest lasses gay To welcome the Spring
Live not so merry as they 'Gainst heaven they never rail
'

In honest civil sort If grass well grow.

They make each other sport. Their thanks they show ;

As they trudge on' their way. And, frost or snow.

Come fair or foul weather. They merrily go
They're fearful of neither Along with the milking pail.
296 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Bad idleness they do scorn If they any sweethearts have

They rise very early i' th' morn. That do affection crave.
And walk into the field, Their privilege is this.
Where pretty birds do yield Which many others miss :

Brave music on ev'ry thorn : They can give them welcome brave.
The linnet and thrush With them they may walk,
Do sing on each hush. And pleasantly talk.

And the dulcet nightingale With a bottle of wine or ale;

Her note doth strain The gentle cow

In a jocund vein, Doth them allow,
To entertain As they know how.
That worthy train God speed the plough.
Which carry the milking pail. And bless the milking pail.

Their labour doth health preserve. Upon the first of May,

No doctors' rules they observe With garlands fresh and gay ;

While others, too nice With mirth and music sweet,

In taking their advice, [starve For such a season meet.
Look always as though they would They pass their time away :

Their meat is digested. They dance away sorrow,

They ne'er are molested, And all the day thorom,
No sickness doth them assail Their legs do never fail

Their time is spent They nimblely

In merriment ; Their feet do ply.
While limbs are lent. And bravely try
They are content The victory,
To carry the milking pail. In honour o' th' milking pail.

Those lasses nice and strange, If any think that I

That keep shops in the Exchange, Do practice flattery,
Sit pricking of clouts. In seeking thus to raise
And giving of flouts The merry milkmaids' praise,
They seldom abroad do range : I'll to them thus reply :

Then comes the green sickness It is their desert

And changeth their likeness, Inviteth my art

AH this for want of good sale To study this pleasant tale

But 'tis not so, In their defence,
Aa proof doth show, Whose innocence
By those that go And providence
In frost and snow Gets honest pence
To carry the milking pail. Out of the milking pail.

There is another version of the above ballad in the Roxburghe Collection

(ii. 230), entitled "The innocent Counti-y Maid's Delight; or a Description of
the lives of the Lasses of London set to an excellent Country Dance." It com-
:

mences with the lines quoted by the milkmaid from the above sixth stanza
" Some lasses are nice and strange
That keep shop in the Exchange."
 BEIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 297

The second balla'd quoted by Maudlin is entitled " Keep a good tongue in your
head ; or Here's a good woman, in every respect,
But only her tongue breeds all her defect
to the tune of The Milkmaids," &c. (Roxburghe Coll., i. 510, or Collier's Box-
hurghe Ballads, 237.) Fronx this I have selected a few stanzas to print with the
tune. It is sometimes referred to under its name, as in the following :

" Hold your hands, honest men for :

Here's a good wife hath a husband that likes her.

In every respect, but only he strikes her
Then if you desire to be held men complete.
Whatever you do, your wives do not beat.
To the tune of Keepe a good tongue," &c. (Roxburghe, i. 514.) The following
song by D'Urfey, entitled The Bonny Milkmaid, was also wi'itten to the tune, but
had afterwards music composed to it for his play of Bon Quixote, and is so printed
in both editions of Bills to purge Melancholy, and in The Merry Musician, or
A Gure for the Spleen, ii. 116. It is a rifacimento of Martin Parker's song
printed above.
Ye nymphs and sylvan gods, When cold bleak winds do roar
That love green and woods,
fields And flow'rs can spring no more,
\Miere Spring, newly blown. The were seen
fields that

Herself does adorn So pleasant and green

With flow'rs and blooming buds : By Winter all candied o'er :

Come sing in the praise, Oh how

! the town lass
Whilst flocks do graze Looks, with her white face
In yonder pleasant vale. And lips so deadly pale ;

Of those that choose But it is not so

Their sleep to lose. With those that go
And in cold dews, Through frost and snow.
With clouted shoes, With cheeks that glow,
Do carry the milking pail. To carry the milking pail.

The goddess of the morn The country lad is free

With blushes they adorn. From fear and jealousy.
And take the fresh air. When upon the green
Whilst linnets prepare He is often seen
A concert in each green thorn. With a lass upon his knee
The blackbird and thrush With kisses most sweet
On every bush, He does her greet.
And charming nightingale, And swears she'll ne'er grow stale
In merry vein W'hUe the London lass,
Their throats do strain In every place.
To entertain With her brazen face,
The jolly train Despises the grace
That carry the milking pail. Of those with the milking pail.

"The Merry Milkmaid's Delight" was one of the ballads printed by

W. Thackeray, in the time of Charles IT.

The following stanzas are selected from the ballad above-mentioned, " Keep
a good tongue in your head."
298 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

fate took her for love, As fan - cy did me move, And not for her world-ly

m i ? ^
s'n'ij^lij:nryrp
]j l\
r i S
state. For qual-ities

f—f—
rare, Few with her corn-pare, Let

^
me do her no

wrong

g ^
I must

r
con

1
m
- fess, Her
T=f
chief
^^S-rn\i
a - miss is
^r^
p=F
on -

="=5=
ly this, As

some wives'
pi
Slie can- not rule her
^
tongue, She
g ^ ^M
can -not rule her tongue.

^^
is,

iM:

Her cheeks are red as the rose With elcquence she will dispute ;

Which June for her glory shows Few women can her confute.
Her teeth in a row She sinffs and she plays,
Stand snow
like a wall of And she knows all the keys
Between her round chin and her nose ; Of the vial de gamho, or lute.

Her shoulders are decent. She'll dance with a grace,

Her arms wliite and pleasant. Her Measures she'll trace
Her fingers are small and long. As doth unto art belong;
No fault I find, She is a gii'l

But, in my mind, Fit for an earl,

Most womenkind Not for a chm-1
Must come behind She were worth a pearl.
O that she could rule her tongue If she could but rule her tongue.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 299

Her needle she can use well, For huswifery she doth exceed ;

In that she doth most excel She looks to her business with heed ;

She can spin and knit, She's early and late

And every thing fit, Employ'd, I dare say't.
As all her neighhours can tell. To see all things well succeed.

Her fingers apace She is very wary

At weaving bone-lace To look to her dairy.
She useth all day long. As doth to her charge belong ;

All arts that he Her servants all

To women free. Are at her call.
Of each degree, But she'll so brawl
Performeth she : That still I shall
O that she could rule her tongue ! Wish that she could hold her tongue.

THE QUEEN'S OLD COURTIER.

This ballad, whicli obtained a long and extensive popularity, seems to have
been first printed in the reign of James I. (by T. Symcocke).

Pepys thus refers to it in his Diary, under the date of 16th of June, 1668.
" Came to Newbery, and there dined, and music a song of the Old Courtier of :

Queen Elizabeth's, and how he was changed upon the coming in of the King, did
please me mightily, and I did cause W. Hewer to write it out." There are many
other versions of the ballad (sometimes entitled " The Old and New Courtier"),
and some are of greater length than others. Besides those in the great collections,
copies will be found in Le Prince 1660 Antidote to Melanclioly, 1661
d' Amour, ;

Wit and Drollery, 1682 ; Dryden's Miscellany Poems, iv., 108 (1716), &c.
In Le Prince d'' Amour, and in Merry Drollery Complete, 1661 and 1670, there
is a song of " An old Soldier of the Queen's ;" commencing
" Of an old Soldier of the Queen's,
With an old motley coat and a malmsey nose,"

and in Wit and Drollery, 1682, p. 165, one entitled " Old Soldiers;" commencing
" Of old soldiers the song you would hear,
And we old fiddlers have forgot who they were,"

and at p. 282, " The new Soldier" (" With a new beard," &c.).
A ballad, written on the occasion of the overthrow of the Rump Parliament,
by General Monck, and dated Feb. 28, 1659, is amongst the King's Pamphlets,
Brit. Mus. (folio broadsides, vol. xvi.). It is entitled " Saint Geoi-ge and the

Dragon, anglice Mercurius Poeticus." To the tune of " The old Soiddier of the
Queen's;" commencing
" News, news, —
here's the occurrences and a new Mercurius,
A dialogue between Haselrigg the baffled, and Arthur the furious.
With Ireton's readings upon legitimate and spurious, &c."
It is reprinted in Wright's Political Ballads (Percy Soc, No. 11).

In the reign of Charles IL, " T. Howard, Gent.," wrote and published " An
old song of the Old Courtiers of the King's, with a new song of a New Courtier of
800 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

the King's : to the tune of The Queeii's Old Courtier.'''' A copy of this latter,
" printed for F. Coles," is among the Roxburghe Ballads.

Dr. King, in his " Preface to the Art of Cookery, in imitation of Horace's Art
of Poetry," declares his love " to the old British Hospitality, charity and valour,
when the arms of the family, the old pikes, muskets, and halberts, hung up in
the hall over the long table, and Chevy Chase, and The Old Courtier of the QueerCs
were placed over the carved mantle-piece, and beef and brown bread were carried
every day to the poor." (Dr. King's Works, vol. iii.)

About the middle of the last century the ballad was revived and sung by
Mr. Vernon in Shad well's comedy. The Squire of Alsatia, the burden being altered
to " Moderation and Alteration," and, when comparing the young courtier to
the old, to " Alteration, alteration,
'Tis a wonderful alteration."

Finally, has been again revived, with further " alteration," in the present
it

century, under the title of " The old English Gentleman."

The ballad is to be chanted, ad libitum, upon one note, except the final syllable

of each stanza, and the burden " Like an old Courtier," &c.

To he sung ad. upon one

M
i^
lib. noie.

^
-^
With an old song, made by an old ancient pate.
Of an old worshipful gentleman, who had a great estate,
gate. Like an
Which kept an old house at a bountiful rate, , •

And an old porter to relieve the poor at his

a^ ^ "^:^
321

3 I

old Cour - tier of the Queen's,

S !^
And the Queen's old
-rr

Courtier.

i
a
e>

¥ rf •sr

With an old lady whose anger a good word

With an old study fill'd full of learned old books,
assuages, With an old reverend parson, you may judge
[wages.
Who every quarter pays her old servants their him by his looks. [hooks,
Who never knew what belonged to coachman, With an old buttery hatch worn quite off the
footmen, nor pages And an old kitchen, that maintains half-a-
But kept twenty old fellows with blue coats and dozen old cooks. Like an old, &c.
badges. Like an old Courtier, &c.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 301

With an old hall hung about with guns, pikes, With a neat lady that is brisk and fair.
and bows, [many shrewd blows, That never knew what belonged to good
With old swords and bucklers that have stood house-keeping or care, [air,

And an old frieze coat to cover his worship's But buys several fans to play with the wanton
trunk hose. And seventeen or eighteen dressings of other
And a cup of old sherrj' to comfort his copper women's hair. Like a young, &c.
nose. Like an old, &c.
With a new hall built where the old one stood,
With an old fashion when Christmas was come. Wherein is burned neither coal nor wood.
To call in his neighbours with bagpipe and drum And a shovelboard-table whereon meat never
And good cheer enough to furnish every old stood.
room. Hung round with pictures that do the poor
And old liquor able to make a cat speak and no good. Like a young, &c.
a man dumb. Like an old, &c.
With a new study stuft full of pamphlets and
With an old huntsman, a falconer, and a kennel
plays [he prays
of hounds; [grounds; ;

Which never hunted nor hawked but in his own With a new chaplain that swears faster than
With a new buttery hatch that opens once in
Who like an old wise man kept himself within
four or five days;
his own bounds,
With a new French cook to make kickshaws
And when he died, gave every child a thousand
and toys. Like a young, &c.
old pounds. Like an old, &c.

But to his eldest son, his house and land he With a new fashion when Christmas is come,
assigned, [tiful mind. With a new journey up to London we must
Charging him in his will to keep the old boun- be gone, [porter John,
To love hisgood old servants and to his And leave nobody home but our new
at

neighbours be kind Who relieves the poor with a thump on the

But in the ensuing ditty you shall hear how he back with a stone. Like a young, &c.
was inclin'd. Like a young Courtier, &c.
With a gentleman usher whose carriage is

Like a young gallant newly-come to his land, complete ;

[meat
That keeps a brace of creatures at his com- With a footman, coachman, and page to carry
mand, [land. With a waiting-gentlewoman whose dressing
And takes up a thousand pound upon his own is very neat
And lies drunk in a new tavern, 'till he can Who, when the master has dined, lets the
neither go nor stand. Like a young, &c. servants not eat. Like a young, &c.

With a new honour bought with the old gold,

That many of his father's old manors had sold.
And this is the occasion that most men do hold.
That good house-keeping is now grown so cold. Like a young, &c.

JOAN, TO THE MAYPOLE.

This ballad is in the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 354, and Douce Collection,
p. 152. It is entitled " May-day Country Miuth or The young Lads' and ;

Lasses' innocent Recreation, which be prized before courtly pomp and pas-
is to

time : to an excellent new tune." Dr. Rimbault, in his " Little Book of Songs and
Ballads, gathered from Ancient Music-books," prints a version " from a MS.
volume of old songs and music, formerly in the possession of the Rev. H. J.
Todd, dated 1630." The same is in Evans' Old Ballads, i. 245 (1810). Another
version will be found with the tune in Pills to purge Melancholy, ii. 145 (1707),
or iv. 145 (1719), with many more stanzas.
302 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Gaily. ___

^ ^^
=tS^:

^ m
Joan, to the Maypole a-way let us on, The thne is swift, and will be

liW9:
^ m
—-^^^

^ ^F^n ^=3z i m:?r"r-^

gone, There go the

artt^ierit:^;^
lass - es

^ a-way

.
to the green,

j >^
Where

^^
their beau-ties

u .cd^-fj^j^
may be seen ;

Bess, Moll, Kate, Doll, All the brave lass-es have lads to at - tend 'em, Hodge,

J~Fi
i i3=«
HFLFi n
^^
-g-
TT

f=W

Nick, Tom,
^J r
Dick, Jol -
"3

ly brave
EJ
dancers, and who can a -mend 'em. Joan to
^
the

y 1 g^ -p=^^ -^-
* i*

»w
^^
ft ^
RW-

£ ^^S3
May-pole a-way let us on. The time is swift and must be gone. There go the

z: -d- -d-
?
^^

f
Lass-es a-way
$
to the Green,
-q^-
^
Where their beau-ties
W=i=^^

may be seen.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 303

Joan, shall we have a Hay or a Round, But now, methinks, these courtly toys
Or some dance that is new-found ? Us deprive of better joys :

Lately I was at a Masque in the Court, Gown made of gray,and skin soft as silk.

Where I saw of every sort, Breath sweet as morning milk

Many a dance made in France, O, these more please ;

Many a Braule, and many a Measure [All] these hath my Joan to delight me :

Gay coats, sweet notes, False wiles, court smiles,

Brave wenches — O 'twas a treasure. None of these hath my Joan to despite me.

In Pills to purge Melancholy, the above second and third stanzas are replaced
by others, such as the following:
Did you not see the Lord of the May Come, sweet Joan, let us call a new dance,
Walk along in his rich array ? That we before 'em may advance ;

There goes the lass that is only his Let it be what you desire and crave.
See how they meet, and how they kiss And sure the same sweet Joan shall have.
Come Will, run Gill, She cried, and replied.
Or dost thou list to lose thy labour If to please me thou wilt endeavour,
Kit, Crowd, scrape aloud, Sweet Pig, the Wedding Jig,
Tickle up Tom with a pipe and tabor. Then, my dear, I'll love thee for ever.

Lately I went to a Masque at the Court,

There is not any that shall outvie
Where saw dances of every sort
I
My litttle pretty Joan and I
There they did dance with time and measure,
For I am sure I can dance as well
But none like a country-dance for pleasure ;
As Robin, Jenny, Tom, and Nell
They did dance as in France,
Last year we were here,
Not like the English lofty manner ;
When rough Ralph he played us a Boree,
And every she must furnished be
And we merrily
With a feathered knack, when she's hot for
Thump'd it about, and gain'd the glory.
to fan her.
[sweat,
But we, when we dance, and do happen to And if we hold on as we begin,
Have a napkin in hand for to wipe off the wet; Joan, thou and I the garland shall win ;

And we with our lasses do jig it about, Nay, if thou live till another day,
Not like at Court, where they often are out make thee Lady of the May.
I'll

If the tabor play, we jump away, Dance about, in and out.

And turn, and meet our lasses to kiss 'em ;
Turn and kiss, and then for greeting
Nay, they will be as ready as we, Now, Joan, we have done,
That hardly at any time can we miss 'em. Fare thee well till next merry meeting.

LOVE WILL FIND OUT I'HE WAY.

This tune is tjie Lyra Viol,
contained in Playford's MusicMs Recreation on
1652 ;
1666 in the Skene and several other
in MusicJc's Delight on the Cithren, ;

MSS. also in Pills to purge Melancholy, vi. 86 (1719).

;

The words are in Percy's Beliques Evans' Old Ballads, iii. 282 (1810) and
; ;

Rimbault's Little Booh of Songs and Ballads, p. 187. All these versions differ.
Evans prints from a black-letter copy by F. Coules (whose ballads occasionally
bear dates which vary from 1620 to 1628) Rimbault from Forbes' Oantus, 1662, ;

with the second part from Coules' copy and Percy from a comparatively modern;

edition.
The ballad is quoted in Brome's Sparagus Crarden, acted in 1635, and its

popularity was so great, that "Love will find out the way" was taken as the
title to a play printed in 1661. Although stated on the title-page to be a
comedy by T. B., it was only Shirley's Consicmf Maid, under a new name.
304 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The air is still current, for in the summer of 1855, Mr. Jennings, Organist of
All Saints' Church, Maidstone, noted it down from the wandering hop-pickers
singing a song to it, on their entrance into that town.
The title of the ballad, as printed by Coules, is " Truth's Integrity ; or
A curious Northern ditty, called Love will find out the way to a pleasant new :

tune." A later copy in the Douce Collection, p. 232, entitled " A curious is

Northern ditty, called Love will find out the ivay."

In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 436, is a black-letter ballad of " Stephen and
Cloris ; or The coy Shepherd and the kind Shepherdess : to a new play-house
tune, or Love luillfind out the way."
I suppose ballads which are said to be "to the tune of Over hills and high
mountains" are also intended for this air ; because the words of that ballad are
almost a paraphrase of this, and in the same measure. See the following stanza
from a copy in the Pepys Collection, iii. 165 :

" Over hills and high mountains Through bushes and briers,
Long time have I gone ;
Being void of all care ;

Ah and down by the fountains,

I Through perils and dangers
By myself all alone ;
For the loss of my dear."
There is, however, an air, entitled On yonder high mountains, which may be in-
tended, and which will be found in this collection, under a later date.
Another black-letter ballad to the tune of Love ivillfind out the way, is entitled
" The Countryman's new Care away ; " commencing
" If there were employments And every worthy soldier
For men, as have been Had truly his pay
And drums, pikes, and muskets, Then might they be bolder
I' the field to be seen To sing Care away."
As the version of Love will find out the way printed by Percy is the shortest,
consisting in all of but five stanzas, it is here coupled with the tune.
Smoothly and not too fast.

f^
^t 32:
^^
^EA
SS
It
O

I
- ver the moun-tains,

3 ^
And

i
o

5=
- ver

^^I
the

E
waves

i
J I
Un

221

JllJjJ^
- der the

fountains.

3
And un-der the graves;
- ^
Under ~
floods that are deepest. Which Neptune
r^
o

3 ^ i m s
m r r r '

i^^ Love
F
B^^Pf -&-
- bey : 0-ver rocks that are steep-est will find out the way.

^ 3
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 305

Where there is no place Some think to lose him,

For the glow-worm to lie ;
By having him confin'd;
Where there is no space And some do suppose him,
For receipt of a fly Poor thing, to be blind
Where the midge dares not venture, But if ne'er so close ye wall him,
Lest herself fast she la}' Uo the best that you may.
If Love come, he will enter, Blind Love, if so ye call him.
And soon find out his way. Soon will find out his way.
You may esteem him You may train the eagle
A child for his might; To stoop to your fist
Or you may deem him Or you may inveigle
A coward from his flight. The phoenix of the east
But if she, whom Love doth honour, The lioness, ye may move her
Be conceal'd from the day. To give o'er her prey ;

Set a thousand guards upon her, But you'll ne'er stop a lover
Love will find out the way. He will find out his way.

STINGO, on OIL OF BARLEY.

This tune is contained in every edition of Tlie Dancing Master, and in many
other publications. It is often quoted under three, if not more, names.
In The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1690, it appears as Stingo, or The Ogle
of Barley.
The song, "A cup of old stingo" (i.e., old strong beer), is contained in Merry
Drollery Complete, 1661 and 1670, and, if it be the original song, must be of a
date from thirty to forty (and perhaps more) years earlier than the book.
Traces of that doughty hero, Sir John Barleycorn, so famous in the days of
ballad-singing, are to be found as far back as the time of the Anglo-Saxons. In
the Exeter MS. (fol. 107) is an enigma in Anglo-Saxon verse, of Avhich the
following is a literal translation ;

"Apart of the earth is prepared beautifully with the hardest, and with the sharpest,
and with the grimest of the productions of men, cut and .... (sworfen), turned and
dried, bound and twisted, bleached and awakened, ornamented and poured out, carried
afar to the doors of people ; it is joy in the inside of living creatures, it knocks and
slights those, of whom before, while alive, a long while it obeys the will, and expos-
tulateth not and then after death it takes upon it to judge, to talk variously.
; It is
greatly to seek by the wisest man, what this creature is."- Essay on the State of
Literature and Learning under the Anglo-Saxons, by Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A.,
F.S.A., p. 79, 8vo., 1839.
In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 214, there is a black-letter ballad " to the tune
of Stingo," which was evidently -written in the reign of Charles I., by its

allusions to " the King's great porter," " Eankes' Horse," &c. It is entitled,
"The Little Barley-Corn:
Whose properties and vertues here
Shall plainly to the world appeare ;
To make you merry all the yeere."
As it has been reprinted in Evans' Old Ballads, i. 156 (1810), the first stanza
only is subjoined :

" Come, and do not musing stand, Not of the earth, nor of the air,
If thou the truth discern At evening
or at morn.
But take a full cup in thy hand. But, jovial boys, your Christmas keep
And thus begin to learn With the little barley-corn."
The ballad is divided into two parts, each consisting of eight stanzas.
X
306 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

A second name for the tune is The Country Lass, which it derived from a
ballad by Martin Parker. Copies of that ballad are in the Pepys Collection
(i. 268), and in the Roxburghe (i. 52). The former bears Martin Parker's
initials, but no printer's name the latter was printed for the assigns of Thomas
;

Symcocke.
The copy in the Pepys Collection is entitled " The Countrey Lasse:
To a dainty new note : which ifyou cannot hit,
There's another tune which doth as well fit

That's TJie 31other hegidTd the Daugliter."

"Although I am a countrey lasse, As those that with the choicest wines
A loftie minde I beare-a Do bathe their bodies oft-a.
I thinke myselfe as good as those Downe, downe derry, derry downe,
That gay apparrell weare-a. Heigh downe, a downe, a downe-a,
My coat is made of comely gray,. A derry, derry, derry downe.
Yet is my skin as soft-a. Heigh downe, a downe, a derry."

This is reprinted in Evans' Old Ballads, i. 41, and an altered copy will be found,
with the music, in Pills to ii. 165 (1707), or iv. 152 (1719).
purge Melancholy,
The tune is referred to, under the above name, in a ballad by Laurence Price,
entitled " Good Ale for my money
The good fellowes resolution of strong ale,
That cures his nose from looking pale.
To the tune of The Countrey Lasse.
Be merry, my friends, and list awhile This song in'e head he always carried.

Unto a merry jest, When drink liad made him mellow :

It may from you produce a smile, I cannot go home, nor will I go home,
"VSTien you hear it exprest; It's long of the oyle of barley
Of a young man lately married, I'll tarry all night for my delight,

\Miich was a boone good fellow, And go home in the morning early
A copy will be found in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 138.

Hilton wrought this tune into a catch for three voices, and published it in his

Catch that catch can, in 1652 ; and it was afterwards reprinted in that form by
Playford in his Musical Companion, 1667, 1673, &c.
The first line of the catch is " I'se goe with thee, my sweet Peggy, my honey."
The third part is to the tune of Stingo, with the following words :

" Thou and I will foot it, Joe,

And what we doe neene shall know;

But taste iX\6 juice of barley.
We'll sport all night for our delight.
And home in the morning early."

The air is somewhat altered to harmonize with the other parts. -

In the editions of The Dancing Master which were printed after 1690, the
name is changed from Stingo, or The Ogle of Barley, to Cold and raw. This new
title was derived from a (so called) " New Scotch Song," written by Tom
D'Urfey, which first appeared in the second book of Comes Amoris, or Tlxe
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CUARLES I. SOT'

Companion of Love, printed by John Carr in 1688 ;" and, as frequently the case,

the air was a little altered for the words.

Of song Sir John Hawkins relates the following anecdofe in his History of
this

Music (8vo., ii. 564) :—

" This tune was greatly admired by Queen Mary, the consort of King William
;
and she once affronted Purcell by requesting to have it sung to her, he being present.
The story is as follows The Queen having a mind one afternoon to be entertained
:

with music, sent to Mr. Gosling, '|.hen one of her Chapel, and afterwards Sub-Dean of
St. Paul's, )to Henry Purcell, and to Mrs. Arabella Hunt, who had a very fine voice,
and an admirable hand on the lute, with a request to attend her they obeyed her ;

commands; Mr. Gosling and Mrs. Hunt sung several compositions of Purcell, who
accompanied them upon the harpsichord; at length, the Queen beginning to grow •^iiA -/fi^f
tired, asked Mrs. Hunt if she could not sing tlieVhallad of Cold and raw;'" Mrs. '

Hunt answered, Yes, and sung it to her lute. Purcell was all the while sitting at the
harpsichord unemployed, and not a little nettled at the Queen's preference of a vulgar
ballad to his music but seeing Her Majesty delighted with this tune, he determined
;

that she should hear it upon another occasion; and, accordingly, in the next birth-
day song, viz., that for the year 1692, he composed an air to the words, May her '

bright example chaoe vice in troops out of the land,' the bass whereof is the tune to
"
'
Cold and raw.'
In Anthony a Wood's collection of broadsides (Ashmolean Library, vol. 417)
there are two ballads with music, bearing the date of December, 1688, and
printed to this tune. The first is " The Irish Lasses Letter ; or her earnest
request to Teague, her dear joy : to an excellent new tune." The second is the
famous song of Lilliburlero.

In the Douce Collection is a ballad called " The lusty Friar of Flanders : to
the tune of Cold and raw."
Horace Walpole mentions it under the same name in a letter to Richard West,
Esq., dated from Florence (Feb. 27, 1740), where, in speaking of the Carnival,
he says, " The Italians are fond to a degree of our Country Dances." Gold and
raw they only know by the tune; Blowzijbella is almost Italian, and Butter''
Peas is Pizelli al luro." {Letters of Walpole, in vi. vols, 1840 vol. i. ; p. 32.)

The following is the song of " A cup of old stingo," from Merry Drollery
Complete, with the tune from The Lancing Master of 1650.

• A few pages further in the same book there is another ^' O^cr the hills andfar away; By moontiyht on ihc green;
"new Scotch song," by Mr. Akeroyd.
«ci What's thai to you? and several others, whicli he has
Ritson, in his Historical Essay on Scotish Song, 1794, been probably used to consider as genuine specimens of
says, "An Inuniiation of Scotch sonys, so called, appears Scotish song; as, indeed, most of them are regarded
to have been poured upon the town by Tom D'Urfey and even in Scotland." Ritson's list might be very greatly
his Grub-street brethren, toward the end of the seven- extended.
teenth and in the beginning of the eighteenth century ; of Jolm Hawkins, who relates the anecdote tradition-
' Sir

which it is hard to say whether wretchedness of poetry, and who had evidently seen no older copy of the tune
ally,
ignorance of the Scotish dialect, or nastiness of ideas, is than that contained in the Catch (as he elsewhere men-
most evident, or most despicable. In the number of tions Hilton's Ca/c/ie5 as Playford's./7rs/ publication) calls
these miserable caricatures, the reader may be a little sur- it " the old Scot's ballad," but from the allusion to '*
the
prised to find the favorite songs of De'ill take the Wars next birth-day song," it must have happened witliin four
that hurry'd Willy fromme; Jenny, Jenny, where hast thou years of the first publication. The term "old," could
been? Young Philander wooed me long; Farewell, my therefore only be applied, with propriety, to the music.
bonny, witty, pretty Moggy; In January last; She rose and This agrees with what I have been told aboutthe book
"

let me in ; Pretty Kate of Edinburgh ; As J sat at my spin- entitled The Dancing Master (the early editions of which
ning wheel ; Fife, and a' the lands about it; Bonny lad, are extremely scarce in England), viz., that it is very well
prithee lay iby pipe down; The bonyty grey-ey'd morn; known to the dealers in Italy, and that it may be procured
'Twas within a furlongof Edinburgh town ; Bonny Dundee; there with comparatively little trouble.
308 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Jovialli).

i^
s
ft:

$
There's a lus - ty li-quor which Good fel - lows use to take - a, It

^^3 zhi
=t i
g. * -

iis distill'd
JH^N^
with Nard most rich, And wa -
s-«

ter of
^
the lake -a;

r=¥=\
quan - ti - ty, And Barm to it they hring too ; Being bar - rell'd

m %

t^^^^Ri-ip^
call't a cup Of
m dain - ty good Old

-J*-i-
Stin - go.

m 'Twill make a man indentures make,

'Twill make a fool seem wise,
=F
i
'Twillmake a weaver break his yarn.
That works with right and left foot,
'Twill make a Puritan sociate. But he hath a trick to save himself.
And leave to he precise : He'll say there wanteth woof to't
'Twill make him dance about a cross. 'Twill make a tailor break his thread.
And eke to rvm the ring too. And eke his thimble ring too,
Or anything he once thought gross, 'Twill make him not to care for bread.
Such virtue hath old stingo. If his head be lin'd with stingo.
'Twill make
a constable oversee 'Twill make a baker quite forget
Sometimes to serve a warrant, That ever corn was cheap,
'Twill make a bailiff lose his fee. 'Twill make a butcher have a fit
Though he be a knave-aiTant; Sometimes to dance and leap
'Twill make a lawyer, though that he 'Twill make a miller keep his room,
To ruin oft men brings, too. A health for to begin, too,
Sometimes forget to take his fee. 'Twill make him shew his golden thumb.
If his head be lin'd with stingo. If his head be lin'd with stingo.
'Twillmake a parson not to flinch, 'Twill make an hostess free of heart.
Though he seem wondrous holy. And leave her measures pinching,
And for to kiss a pretty wench. 'Twill make an host with liquor pai-t
And think it is no folly ;
And bid him hang all flinching ;

'Twill make him learn for to decline It's so belov'd, I dare protest,
The verb that's called Mingo, Men cannot live without it,
'Twillmake his nose like copper shine, And where they find there is the best.
If his head be lin'd with stingo. The most will flock about it.
 BEIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 309

And, finally, the beggar poor. Now to conclude, here is a liealth

That walks till he be weary, Unto the lad that spendeth,
Craving along from door to door. Let every man drink off his can,
With pre-commiserere ; And so my ditty endeth ;

If he do chance to catch a touch. I willing am my friend to pledge,

Although his clothes be thin, too. For he will meet me one day ;

Though he be lame, he'll prove his crutch, Let's drink the barrel to the dregs,
If his head be lin'd with stingo. For the malt-man comes a Monday.
The last line has furnished the subject for a Scotch song.
The following is a later version of the tune. The copies in The Beggars'
Opera, Pills to purge Melancholy, The Dancing Master, and Midas (1764), have
all slight differences, such as would occur from writing down a familiar tune from
memory. The words are Tom D'Urfey's " last new Scotch song." (See
Comes Amoris, or The Companion of Love, ii. 16, fol. 1688.)
,-^

^
Gracefully. ^
,

-^

s ^
Cold and raw the north did blow Bleak in the morn-ing ear - ly

^K ^
. •

4 J J

^=F
*—flfr-J—
All the trees
flS-

were
^
hid with snow ;
^
Dag-gled in
-s*
win - ter's year - ly : As

£
-r

j^rr-iUr^
I came ri - ding on the slough, I met a
mfar - mer's daughter, With
m
i

m ta ^^ ^
ro - sy cheeks

Down
and bon

I veil'd my bonnet low.

- ny brow. Good faith,

I
made

^ my mouth wa

ask'd her where she went so soon,

- ter.

Thinking to show my breeding I long'd to begin a parley,

She returned a graceful bow She told me to the next market town
A village far exceeding. On purpose to sell her barley.''

" However unobjectionable this song may have been in not be very courteously received in Queen Victoria's
Queen Mary's time, the three remaining' stanzas would Tempora mutantur.
310 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

WHAT IF A DAY, OR A MONTH, OR A TEAR?

i. 116 and ii. 182, and
Copies of thia song are in the Roxburghe Collection,
in The Golden Garland of Princely Delights, third edition, 1620. In the
Roxburghe Ballads it is entitled " A Friend's Advice, in an excellent ditty,
concerning the variable changes in this world" (printed by the assigns of Thomas
Symcocke) in Tlie Golden Garland, " The inconstancy of the world."
;

The music
is in a volume of transcripts of virginal music, by Sir John Hawkins

inLogonomia Anglica, by Alexander Gil, 1619 in Friesche lAist-Hof, 1634 in ; ;

D. R. Camphuysen's Stichtelycke Rymen, 4to., Amsterdam, 1647 in the Skene ;

MS. ; in Forbes' Oantus ; &c. The same words are differently set by Richard
Allison, in his Howre's Recreatimi in Musicke, 1608.
Gil (or Gill) , who was Master of St. Paul's School, refers to the song twice in his
Logonomia. Firstly, " Hemistichium est, duobus constans dactylis, et choriambo ;"
and secondly, " Ut in illo perbello cantico Tho. Campaiani, cujus mensuram, ut
rectius agnoscas, exhibeo cum notis."
Thomas Campian, or Campion, to whom the poetry, and perhaps also the
music, is here ascribed, was by pi'ofession a physician ; but he was also an emi-
nent poet and admirable musician. He flourished during the latter part of the
reign of Elizabeth and the greater portion of that of James I. Neither the words
nor music are, however, to be found in his printed collections.
According to the registers of St. Dunstan's in the West, " Thomas Campion,
Doctor of Physicke," was buried there on the 1st of March, 1619."
In Camphuysen's Stichtelycke Rymen the song is entitled " Ussex^s Lamentation,
or What if a day"
Ritson, in a note to his Sistorical Essay on Scotish Song, p. 57, says, " In a
curious dramatic piece, entitled Philotus, printed at Edinburgh in 1603, by way
of finale, is Ane sang of the foure lifearis (lovers) , though little deserving that
title. It is followed by the old English song, beginning, '
What if a day, or
a month, or a year?' alluded to in Hudihras, which appears to have been sung at
the end of the play, and was probably, at that time, new and fashionable."
Mr. Halliwell, in a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries in Dec, 1840,
says, " It is a curious fact that one of the songs in Ryman's well-known collection
of the fifteenth century, in the Cambridge Public Library, commences
'
What yf a daye, or nyghte, or howre,
Crowne my desyres wythe every delyglite ;

and that in Sanderson's Diary in the British Museum, MSS. Lansdowne 241,
fol. 49, temp. Elizabeth, are the two first stanzas of the song, more like the copy

in Ryman, and differing in its minor arrangements from the later version.
Moreover, that the time in Dowland's Musical Collection, in the Public Library,
Cambridge, is entitled '
What if a day, or a night, or an hour f agreeing with
Sanderson's copy." Mr. HalliweU has reverted to the subject in Reliquce Antiqtme,
i. 323, and ii. 123.
» Haslewood supposed him to have died in 1621, It does not notice his four books of "Ayres," printed in
is strange that the name of so eminent a man should 1610 and 1612, -which, with some others, are described in
have been omitted in the usual Biographical Dictionaries Rimbault's Bibliothica Madrigaliana. He composed the
and Universal Biographies. A short account of him is Psalm tune, called *' Babylon's streams," which is still
given, with the reprint of his " Observations in the art in use. His Art of Descant is contained in Playford's
of English Poetry," in Haslewood's "Ancient Critical Introduction.
Essays upon English Poets and Poesy." Haslewood
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 311

"What if a day, or a montli, or a year? " is mentioned as one of the tunes for
Psalms and Songs of Sion, by W[illiam] SQatyer], 1642. See p. 319.
Rather slow. ^^^^

is^
5
a—*
What
May
if a day,
55
or a month,
not the change of a night
Se^=N-^-^1
or
or
a year,
an hour.
Crown thy
Cross
de-lights with a
thy de-lights with as
J
e^^
3
A. jL

=^ ^
fe P
i~=~g

ma - ny sad tor-mentings, as ma - ny sad tor

t*-
thousand sweet con-tentings, a thousand sweet con
«*^
-
-
^
ten - tings,
men - tings,
/

^
p
^^
'
T
,

" '

-rz)"
33
m
P

^
^i^
"^
ZZtL

=F=
^ :Jr-tff
beau •
ty, youth, Are but blossoms dy - ing Wan - ton pleasures,

^ * ^ 1^
9P

g J ^ J -
I

^
s ting love. Are but sha - dows fly - ing. All our joys

35

^
i
S
but toys,
^WI
-i^

- die thoughts de - ceiv - ing

^ //
sf
None hath pow'r

^ ?^ -cr

fof an hour
fOf his
P
life's be
-¥
ing.

J=i=i
fft?
312 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Th' earth's but a point of the world, and a man What if the world, with lure of its wealth.
a

compared centre Raise thy degree to great place of high ad-

Is but a point of the earth's
Shall then the point of a point be so vain,
vancmg
As to triumph in a silly point's adventure ?
May not the world, by a check of that wealth.
Bring thee again to as low despised changing ?
All is hazard that we have,
Here is nothing biding While the sun of wealth doth shine
Days of pleasure are as streams Thou shalt have friends plenty ;

Through fair meadows gliding. But, come want, they repine,

Weal or woe, time doth go. Not one abides of twenty.

Time hath no returning Wealth (and friends), holds and ends,
;

Secret Fates guide our states As thy fortunes rise and fall

Both in mirth and mourning. Up and down, smile and frown,

Certain is no state at all.

What if a smile, or a beck, or a look. What if a grip, or a strain, or a fit, [sickness :

Feed thy fond thoughts with many vain con- Pinch thee with pain of the feeling pangs of
ceivings : May not that grip, or that strain, or that fit.

May not that smile, or that beck, or that look. Shew thee the form of thine own true perfect
Tell thee as well they are all but false deceivings 1 likeness ?

Why should beauty be so proud. Health is but a glance of joy.

In things of no surmounting? Subject to all changes;
All her wealth is but a shroud, Mirth is but a silly toy.

Nothing of accounting. Which mishap estranges.

Then in this there's no bliss. Tell me, then, silly man.
Which is vain and idle, Why art thou so weak of wit.
Beauty's flow'rs have their houi-s. As to be in jeopardy,
Time doth hold the bridle. When thou mayst in quiet sit ?

THE HEMP-DEESSEK, or THE LONDON GENTLEWOMAN.

This tune has attained a long-enduring popularity. It is to be found in every
edition of The Dancing Master, as well as in many other publications, and is

commonly known at the present day.

The name of The Hemp- dresser, or Tlie London Gentlewoman, is derived from
an old song which was translated into Latin (together with Chevy Chace and many
others) by Henry Bold, and published, after his death, in " Latine Songs with
their English," 1685.
One of D'Urfey's songs, commencing^ " The sun had loos'd his weary team,"
was written to this air. It is printed, with music, in his third book of songs,
1685 in Playford's third book of " Choice Ayres and Songs " and in vol. i.
; ;

of all the editions of Pills to purge Melancholy. In the first, it is entitled "A new
song set to a pretty country dance, called Tlie Hemp-dresser : " in the second, it
has the further prefix of " The Winchester Christening ; The Sequel of the
Winchester Wedding. A new song," &c.
In The Beggars' Opera, 1728 Tlie Court Legacy, 1733 TJie Sturdy Beggars,
; ;

1733 and The Rival Milliners, 1737, the tune is named " The sun had loos'd
;

his weary team," from D'Urfey's song. In other ballad-operas, such as Penelope,
1728 and Love and Revenge, or The Vintner outivitted, n.d., it takes the name
;

of one beginning, " Jone stoop'd down." Burns also wrote a song to it " The —
Deil's awa Avi' the Exciseman."
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I, 313

In the " Histoi-y of Robert Powel, the puppet-showman," 8vo., 1715, Tlie
; Welcome home, Old Rowley ; The Knot ; and The Hemp-
DuTte of YorlUs Beligld
dressers, are mentioned as favorite tunes called for by the company.
The song of Tlie Hemp-dresser consists of four stanzas, of which the two first

are as follows :

There was a London gentlewoman This man he was a hemp-dresser,

That lov'd a country man-a And dressing was his trade-a
And she did desire his company And he did kiss the mistress, sir,
A little now and then-a. And now and then the maid-a.
Fa la, &c Fa la, &c.
The first verse of D'Urfey's song is here printed with the music.

(c) H J J- r •
" * ^-A—F^
^
W The
I

sun had loos'd his wea

I

ry team, And turn'd his steeds a

- graz - ing, Ten

e^
:& 3= i:

i- .9~]
\
i .h
rfh^ :S=1=
=^=^=^
"^
fa - thorn deep in
r~^
Neptune's stream His The - tis was em - bra - cing ; The

^ M
$
i^^
—m -•

stars tripp'd in
a =

the
T
fir -

^
«

ma - ment,
W
m
-*
Like milk-maids
P
on
m
a
"-ll

May
— -:

-
:i=^
day,

±
Or

'^^ T S—
coun - try
T
lass-es a
-
mumming sent,
-
Or schoolboys on a play - day

^ SINCE FIRST I SAW YOUR FACE.

^
The following tune by Thomas Ford, one of the musicians in the suite of
is

Prince Henry, the eldest son of James I. It is a song for one voice to the lute,
or for four without accompaniment, and contained in his Musiche
of sundrie
Kindes (fol. 1607.) The second part of a popular tune called Jamaica, or My
father was horn before me, bears a resemblance to the second part of this.
In the Golden Garland of Princely Delight, third edition, 1620, the song is
entitled," Love's Constancy."
314 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Ford was not a great harmonist, but this song (now miscalled a madrigal) has
survived the works of many more learned composers, and is probably as popular
at the present day as when first written. The harmony of the modern copies is
not by Eord.
Slow.
V—r-^ ^i= 1—r-! K
i
.
^^ ^

fe^inr =!=
,

3r
S
Since first I saw your face I resolv'd To lio - nour and re

^^ ISS

f=f^

nown
I
you, If now
T=P^
I be dis -
\
i

dain'd
nj-^
I wish My
^
lieart had ne - ver

^?=F ^ w
f
¥^^^T^^^^^^ ^=F=^
rf
known
J
N^
— you.

i-
What! I

^^
that lov'd, and you that

a:
:^
lik'd, Shall we

321
be-gin to

J.
v>p •

I
IT/ t'

^ ^^ 1 TT
wran - gle ? No, no, no, my heart is fast. And can - not dis - en - tan - gle

k
s? "r^P"^ =f=fstf^
If I admire or praise you too much, When beauty moves, and wit delights,
That fault you may forgive me ;
And signs of kindness bind me.
Or if my hands had stray 'd to touch, There, O there, where'er I go,
Then justly might you leave me. I'll leave my heart behind me.
I ask'd you leave, you bade me love,
[If I have wronged you, tell me wherein,
Is't now a time to chide me?
And I will soon amend it
No, no, no, I'll love you still,
In recompense of such a sin,
What fortune e'er betide me.
Here is my heart, I'll send it.

The whose beams most glorious

sun, are, If that will not your mercy move.
Rejecteth no beholder; Then, for my life I care not
And your sweet beauty, past compare. Then, O then, torment me still.
Made my poor eyes the bolder. And take my life, and spare not.]
I have only found the last stanza in late copies, such as Wits Interpreter',

third edition, 8vo., 1671.

 KEIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 315

WHAT CARE I HOW FAIR SHE BE ?

A copy of this song is in the Pepys Collection, i. 230, entitled "A new song of
a young man's opinion of the diiference between good and bad women. To a
'pleasant new tune.'" (Printed at London for W. I.) It is also in the second part

of The Grolden Garland of Princely Delights, third edition, 1620, entitled " The
Shepherd's Resolution. To the tune of The Toung Mmi's Opinion." As the
name of the tune is here derived from the title of the ballad, it must have been
printed in ballad form before 1620, when it was published among TJie Workes of
Master Greorge Wither.
The tune is in Heber's Manuscript (described at p. 204), but, except for the
popularity of the words, it would scarcely be worth preserving. They were after-

wards reset by Mr. King, and are printed to his tune in Pills to purge Melancholy.
The fii-st line of the copy in the Pepys Collection (unlike that in The Golden
Garland) is, " Shall I wrestling in dispaire." In the same volume are the
following :

Pa^e 200. — "The unfortunate Gallant guU'd at London. To the tune of

Shall Iiorastle in despair." (Printed for T. L.) Beginning
" From Cornwall Mount to London fair."

Page 316. —" This maid would give tenne shillings for a kisse. To the tune
of Shall I tvrassle in despair." (Printed at London by I. White.) Beginning
" You young men all, take pity on me."

Page 236. —" Jone is as good as my lady. To the tune of Wliat care I how
fair she he ?" (Printed at London for A. Mplbourn].) Beginning
" Shall I here rehearse the story."

The following (which has been attributed, upon insufficient evidence, to Sir

Walter Raleigh) is in the same metre, and has the same burden as George
Wither's song :

Shall I, like an hermit, dwell Were her hands as rich a prize

On a rock or in a cell? As her hairs or precious eyes;
Calling home the smallest part If she lay them out to take
That is missing of my heart, Kisses, for good manners sake ;

To bestow where I mayit And let every lover skip

Meet a rival every day ? From her hand unto her lip

If she undervalues me, If she seem not chaste to me.

What care I how fair she be. What care I how chaste she be.

Were her tresses angel-gold No, she must he perfect snow,

If a stranger may be bold, In effect as well as show,
Unrebuked, unafraid, Warming but as snow-balls do,
To convert them to a braid, Not, like by burning too
fire,

And, with little more ado. But when she by chance hath got
Work them into bracelets too To her heart a second lot

If the mine he grown so free, Then, if others share with me,

What care I how rich it he. Farewell her, whate'er she be.
316 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

m
s
Moderate

Shall
time.

I, wast-ing
g^ in des - pair, Die because a woman's
t—g—
fair?

m^ EfeS:
i 3^

Or my
mm -#
cheeks make pale with
X — "^"^
^

care,
•

Be
^- =S->
^^
-
^i
cause
J

an
J.

- o - ther's
CfS-
ro -
^ sy are?

-ri-

^P^
yf

Be she fair - er than the

^
day, Or the
^
flow' -
r^r?
ry meads in May

1=?
32 J^ 1^ rssi
~Z3'

'// ^p

j=^^ i^ 2 r-"xr i
If she be not so to me, What care I how fair she be.

^
Shall my foolish heart be pin'd, 'Cause her fortune seems too high.
'Cause I see a woman kind ? Shall I play the fool, and die ?

Or a well-disposed nature. He that bears a noble mind

Joined with a lovely feature ? If no outward help he find.
Be she kind, or meeker than Think what with them he would do,

Turtle-dove or pelican That without them dares to woo :

If she be not so to me, And, unless that mind I see,

What care I how kind she be. What care I how great she be.

Shall a woman's virtues move Great, or good, or kind, or fair,

Me to perish for her love ? I will ne'er the more despair :

Or, her well-deservings known, If she love me, this believe,

Make me quite forget mine own ? I will die ere she shall grieve.
Be she with that goodness blest, If she slight me when I woo,
Which may gain her name of Best I can slight and let her go :

If she be not so to me, If she be not fit for me,

What care I how good she be. What care I for whom she be.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 317

THE NEW EOYAL EXCHANGE.

In The Dancing Master of 1665 there are two tunes under very similar titles.

The first is The New Hxchange ; the second, Tlie New Neiv-Exchange. The first

is sometimes called Durham Stable ;" the second, which was more frequently
used as a ballad tune, is, in other editions, named The Neiu Moyal Hxchange.
In Wit and Drollery, 1656, p. 110, is a song to this tune —" On the Souldiers
walking in the new Exchange to affront the Ladies." It consists of four stanzas,
the first of which is here printed with the music.
-
In the same book, at p. 60, is another song of six stanzas beginning
" We'll go no more to Tunbridge Wells, And we will have them henceforth call'd

The journey is too far ;

The Kentish new-found Spa.
Nor ride in Epsom waggon, where Then go, lords and ladies, whate'er you
Our bodies jumbled are. Go thither all that pleases [ail
But we will all to the westward waters go, For it will cure you, without fail.

The best that e'er you saw. Of and new diseases."

old
In Westminster Drollery, part ii, 1671, is a third song, " to the tune of Til go
no more to the Neio Exchange ; " beginning
" Never will I wed a girl that's coy. For, if too coy, then I must court
Nor one that is too free For a kiss as well as any ;

But she alone shall be my joy And if too free, I fear o' th' sport
That keeps a mean'' to me. I then may have too many," &c.
In Wit Restored, in severall select Poems, not formerly puhlisht, 1658, there are
two songs, The Burse of Reformation, and Tlie Answer, The first commencing—
" We will go no more to the Old Exchange, And we have it henceforth call'd
There's no good ware at all The Burse of Reformation.
Their bodkins, and their thimbles, too. Come, lads and lasses, what do you lack ?
Went long since to Guildhall. Here is ware of all prices ;
'

But we will go to the New Exchange, Here's long and short, here's wide and
Where all things are in fashion Here are things of all sizes, [straight;
—
;

and the Answer

" We will go no more to the New Exchange, Gold chaines and ruffes shalt beare the bell,
Their credit's like to fall. For all your reformation.
Their money and their loyalty Look on our walls, and pillars too.
Is gone to Goldsmiths' Hall." You'll find us much the sounder :

But we will keep our Old Exchange, Sir Thomas Gresham stands upright,
Where wealth is still in fashion. But Crook-back was your founder."
These have been reprinted in " Satirical Songs and Poems on Costume," for the
Percy Society, by F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A. Another equally curious song for the

Strype, inhis editlonof Sto-w'sion&)K,bookvi.,p.75, tilings; where we saw some new-fashion pettycoats of
says "In the place where certain old stables stood, belong- sarcenet, with a black broad lace printed round the
bottom
ing to this house[Durham House], is the NeW Exchange; and before; very handsome, and my wife had a mind to
being furnished with shops on both sides the walls, both one of them."
below and above stairs, for milliners, sempstresses, and ' Mean, i.e., a middle course; the mean being the inter-
other trades, and is a place of great resort and trade for mediate part, or parts, between the treble and tenor. If
the nobility and gentry, and such as have occasion for there were two means, as in the lute, the lower was called
such commodities." was opened April 11th, 1609, in
It the greater: the upper, the lesser mean,
the presence of James and his Queen, and taken down
I. » The place appointed for the reception of fines imposed
in 173?. Coutts' Banking House now stands upon the upon the Royalists; and for loans, etc., to the Puritanic
site. Pepys, in his Diary, 1.5th April, 1652, says, " With party,
my wife by coach to the New Exchange, to buy her some
318 ENGLISH SONG AND B^iLLAD MUSIC.

manners and fashions of the day, is " The New Exchange," in Merry Drollery
Complete, 1670, p. 134 commencing ;

" I'll go no more to the Old Exchange, For men and maids, for girls and boys.
There's no good ware at all And trajjs to catch the fleas.

But I will go to the New Exchange,

Call'd Haberdashers' Hall There you may buy a Holland smock.
For there are choice of knacks and toys, Tliat's made without a gore," tfec.

The fancy for to please

^
Lively.

^ #^
I'll go no more to the New Ex-change, There is no room at

^^^= W ± ^
j^^fld
^=^^-^l ^^ ^
J
^
all, It is so throng'd and crowded by the gallants of White - hall.

_S_^ _S> ^ .
. 1
^-s^ 1^:
g; —
^

wt ir^
^3 s^ t^^=^
^
But I'll go to the Old Exchange, Where
;re
^^
old things are
old in
TT
fashion; For

?:
3

now
^^^
the
^
Kew's

1^
be - come

^«{g-
m
the shop Of this
^ bless - ed Re -
^
for -
"^3"

mation.

Come, my new Courtiers, what d'ye lack? Good con - scien - ces ? if you do. Here's

^3, m

long and wide,

j _^_j=j^.^P
the on - ly
^
wejir. The
^
straight will
^^=^
trou - ble you.
_Q_
m m
 REIGNS OF JAMES 1. AND CUARLES I. 319

THE FAIREST NYMPH THE VALLEYS.

This, like In sad and ashy weeds (p. 202), or like Fear no more the heat of the
sun, in Shakespeare's Cijmbeline, is a sort of dirge, a mourning or funeral song.
The copy in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 330, is entitled " The Obsequy of
Faire Phillida: with the Shepherds' and Nymphs' Lamentation for her losse.

To a neio court tune." The music is contained in a MS. volume of virginal

music transcribed by Sir John Hawkins, and in Starter's Friesche Lust-Hof,
1634, under its English name. In the library of the British Museum there is a
copy of " Psalmes or Songs of Sion, turned into the language and set to the tunes
of a Strange Land, by W[illiam] S[latyer], intended for Christmas Carols, and
fitted to divers of the most noted and common, but solemne tunes, every where
in this land familiarly used and knowne." 1642. Upon this copy a former
possessor had written the names of the tunes to which they were designed to be
sung. These are, Tlie fairest N'l/mph the valleys ; All in a garden green ; Bara
Faustus' Dreame; Crimson velvet; What if a day, or a njonth, or a year? Fair
Angel of England ; Dulcina ; Walsingham ; ani Jaiie Shore.^

i
s
^
&^
H ith expression.

The
^^
f
On whom they oft
r~^
fair-est nymph the
have tend
3*
val-leys
- ed
Or mountains
And ca
t
- rol'd
e - ver
in the
^
bred,
plains,
The
And

^
evFa
^^ f^
f &=s *^
shepherd's joy, So beau-ti-ful and coy. Fair Phi- li - is dead!
1
da
But
for her sake, SweetRounde-laysdid make, Ad - mir'd by youthful i

^
S
.n/?3 |
J>
"T
cruel fate, the
_.
beau-ties
.
-en-vying Of this
... blooming rose. So ready to dis

w
3^ m ^ ^ 4!* «^=s=r^

^^
close. With a frost un-kind-ly Nipt the bud untime-Iy, So a-way her glo-ry goes.

=SE
N r ^El
T
I

If
* AH the tunes here named will be found in this Collection.
320 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

With mournful verse.

The sheep for woe go bleating,
Did all attend her hearse,
That they their goddess miss,
And in sable saddles go.
And sable ewes, Flora, the goddess that us'd to beautify
By their mourning, shew Fair Phillis' lovely bowers
Her absence, cause of this. With sweet fragrant flowers.
Tl\e nymphs leave off their dancing,
Now her grave adorned.
Pan's pipe of joy is cleft,
And with flowers mourned,
For great his grief,
Tears thereon in vain she pours.
He shunneth all relief,
Since she from him is reft. Venus alone triumphed
Come, fatal sisters, leave your spools," To see this dismal day.
Leave 'weaving' altogether. Who did despair

That made this flower to wither. That Phillida the fair

Let envy, that foul vipress, Her laws would ne'er obey.
Put on a wreath of cypress. The blinded boy his arrows
Sing sad dirges altogether. And darts were vainly spent
Her heart, alas,
Lnpenetrable was.
Diana was chief mourner
At these sad obsequies,
And to love would ne'er assent.
At which aflront, Citharea repining,
Who with her train
Caus'd Death with his dart
Went tripping o'er the plain.
To pierce her tender heart
Singing doleful elegies.
But her noble spirit
Menalchus and Amintas,
Doth such joys inherit,
And many shepherds moe,''
'
As' from her shall ne'er depart.

HUNTING THE HARE.

" Of prikyng and of hunting for the Hare
AVas al his lust, for no cost wolde he spare."
Chaucer's Description of a Monk.

Hunting has always been so favorite an amusement with the English, that the
great variety of songs upon the subject will excite no surprise. Those I have
printed, of the reign of Henry VHI., relate either to deer or fox-hunting; but

Henry was no less careful of the minor sport, as may be seen by an act of
Parliament (passed anno 14-15 of his reign), entitled "An Act concerning
the Hunting of the Hai'e." It recites that, " For as muche as cure Soveraigne
Lorde the Kinge, and other noblemen -of this realme, before this time hath
used and exercised the game of huntynge the hare,- for their disporte and
pleasure, which game is now decayed and almost utterly dystroied for that
divers parties of this realme, by reason of the trasinge in the snoiv, have killed
and destroied, and dayly do kille and distroy the same hares, by fourteen or six-

teen upon a daye, to the dyspleasure of our Soveraigne Lorde the Kinge and
other noblemen," &c. ; therefore the aot fixes a penalty of six shillings and eight-
pence (a large sum in comparison with the value of the hares in those days) for
every one so killed. Henry seems, also, to have considered the sale of hunting-

A spool to wind yarn upon. ^ More.

 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 321

horns of sufficient importance, as a soui'ce of revenue, to affix an export duty of

four shillings per dozen upon them."
"ASonge of the huntinge and killinge of the Hare" was entei'ed on the
registers of the Stationers'Company, to Richard Jones, on June 1, 1577, but the
entry contains no clue to the words, or to the air.
The tune of the present song may be traced back to the reign of James I.

but, both in his reign, and in that of his predecessor,

hunting was so favorite a
sport, and hunting songs so generally popular, that the mtroduction of either on
the stage was thought a good means of assisting the success of a play.
Wood tells us that in Richard Edwardes' comedy of Palcemon and Arcyie
(which was performed before Queen Elizabeth, in Christ Church Hall, Oxford, on
the 2nd and 3rd September, 1566) " A
cry of hounds was acted in the quadrant
upon the train of a fox, in the hunting of Theseus; with which the young
scholars, who stood in the remoter part of the stage and windows, were so much
taken and surprised, supposing it to be real, that they cried out, '
There, there
— he's caught, he's caught!' All which the Queen, merrily beholding, said,
'
Oh, excellent ! These boys, in very truth, are ready to leap out of the windows
to follow the hounds.'
James was passionately fond of hunting ; and Anthony Munday, in his play,
The Downfall of Rohert, Earl of Huntington, thus deprecates his displeasure and
that of the audience for not having introduced hunting songs, or resorted to the
other usual expedients to ensure applause. In act iv., sc. 2, Little John says
" Methinks I see no jests of Robin Hood;

No merry Morrices of Friar Tuck

No pleasant skippings up and down the wood
No hunting songs; no coursing of the buck.
Pray God this play of ours may have good luck,
And the King's Majesty mislike it not."
I have printed one song on hare-hunting, of James' reign {Master Basse his
Gareere, or TheNew Hunting of the Hare), at p. 256. Another song, entitled
" The Hunting of the Hare, with her last will and testament.
As it was performed on Barastead Downs,
By coney-catchers and their hoimds,"
was printed by Coles, Vere, and Wright, and will be found in Anthony h Wood's
Collection. It commences thus
" Of all delights that earth doth yield,
Give me a pack of hounds in field,
Whose echo shall, throughout the sk}'.
Make Jove admire our harmony,
And wish that he a mortal were.
To share the pastime we have here."
No tune is indicated in th« copy, and it could not have been sung to this air,

This will be found in "The Rates of the Custome

» " Clarycordes, the payre, 2s.; Harpe Strynges, the boxe,
House, both inwarde and outwarde, very necessarye 10s. Lute Strynges, called Mynikins, the groce, 22d.
;

for all Merchantes to knowe. Imprinted at London, by Orgons, the payre, ut sint in valore; Wyer for Clary-
me, Rycharde Kele, dwellynge at the longe shoppe in the cordes, the pound, 4d.i Virginales, the payre, 3s. 4d.
Poultrye, under Saynt Myldreds Churche." 1545. Among Whisteling Bellowes, the groc, 8s.
the import duties relating to music, will be found
322 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

In Wit and Drollery, and in several other publications, is a song, entitled

The Sunt, commencing
" Clear is the air, and the morning is fair,

Fellow huntsmen, come wind me your horn

Sweet is the breath, and fresh is the earth
That melteth the rime from the thorn."
Minting the Hare is also in the list of the songs and ballads printed by William
Thackeray, at the Angel in Duck" Lane, in the early part of the reign of
Charles II., and it is, in all probability, the song to this tune (commencing
" Songs of shepherds, and rustical roundelays"),

because the tune was then popular, and the words are to be found near that time
in Westminster Drollery, part ii. (1672); as well as afterwards in Wit and
Drollery, 1682 ; in the Collection of Old Ballads, 8vo., 1727 ; in Miscellany

Poems, edited by Dryden, iii. 309 (1716) ; in Ritson's, Dale's, and other
Collections of English Songs.
The first copy of the tune that I have discovered is in Playford's Musick^s
Recreation on the Lyra Viol, 1652 ; the second is in MusicWs Recreation on the

Viol, Lyra-way, 1661. In both publications it is entitled Room for Cuckolds,

Pennant speaking of Rychard Middleton (father of Sir Hugh Middleton), says,
" Thomas, the fom-th son, became Lord Mayor of London, and was the founder of
the family of Chirk Castle. It is recorded that having married a young wife in
his old age, the famous song of Room for Cuckolds, here comes my Lord Mayor !
was invented on the occasion." Pennanfs Tours in Wales, ii. 152 (1810).
Thomas Middleton was Lord Mayor of London in 1614. Pennant gives the
Sebright MSS. as his authority for the anecdote.
In the Pepys Collection, i. 60, will be found, "A Scom-ge for the Pope;
satyrically scom^ging the itching sides of this obstinate brood in England. To
the tune of Room for Cuckolds.'''' It is one of Martin Parker's early songs:
" Printed by John Trundle, at his shop in Smithfield," and signed, " Per me,
Martin Parker." Another song, which bears this title of the tune, is contained

in vol. xvi. of the King's Pamphlets Brit. Mus., and dated in MS., 1659. It is
also quoted, by the same name, in Folly in ^wint, or A Book of Rhymes, 1667, in
the song, " Away
from Romford, away, away."
A third, and perhaps the earliest name for the air, is Room for Com'pany
apparently derived from a ballad in the Pepys Collection, i. 168, entitled and
commencing, " Room for Company, here comes good feUowes. To a pleasant new
tu7ie." Imprinted at London for E. W. This was perhaps Edward White, a
ballad-printer of Elizabeth's reign, and of the earliest part of that of James I.
In Pills to purge Melancholy, vi. 136, there is a song about the twelve great
Companies of the city of London, printed to this tune, and commencing
" Room for gentlemen, here comes my Lord Mayor."

In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 538, is, " The fetching home of May or ;

" A pretty new ditty, wherein is made known,

How each lass doth strive for to have a green gown.

To the tune of Boom for Company.'''' Printed for J. Wright, jun., dwelling
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 323

at the upper end of the Old Bailey (about 1663). It is also contained in the
Antidote to Melanchohj, 1661; and in Pills to ptiri/e Melancholy, ii. 26 (1707),
or iv. 26 (1719).
The first stanza is subjoined, with the earlier version of the tune.
Smoothly, and in moderate time.

er
:& ^^^^^
Pan, leave piping, The Gods have done feasting, There's never a Goddess
S
a

^s

^ ^^
liunting to-day
^^fj
; Mor - tals marvel at
f ^
TCo - ri-don's jesting,
,^3.^4=£^^l
That gives them assistance

S^M
to

P=P^
^S D:::^3-J"^'^ =F^^=^&p^
en - ter-tain May. The lads and the lass - es. With scarves on their fa - ces. So

^^^m
f^^
ff*

lively
— js-p^..r^=p

time pass-es, Trip

p~l
o - ver the downs
\
.

:
I

Much
J-Ti-j-CQ
mirth and sport they make.

^^
i ^-
^
w

r
Run-niiig at Barley -break, Good lack, what pains they take For a green gown.

^ ^Se ^
In the Antidote to Melancholy, and in Pills to purye Melancholy, the above song-
is printed luider the title of Tlie Green Grown, a name derived from the last line or
each stanza of the song. In Musick d-la-Mode ; or Tlie youny MaicVs Beliyht
324 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

containing five excellent new songs simg at the Drolls in Bartholomew Fair, 1691,
there is another song, under the name of The GfreenCrown, "to an excellent play-
house tune."
The tune of Sunting the Hare is now in common use for comic songs, or for
such as require great rapidity of utterance ; but it has also been employed as a
slow For instance,
air. in Gay's ballad-opera of Achilles, 1733, it is printed
in I time, and entitled " A Minuet."

^^
/ Fast. Hunting the Hare.

i ^qrpiJTJij S^
Si^fP
-fi:

?=
"•"
I fP
Sungs of shepherds and rus-ti-cal roundelays, Form'd of fancies, and whistled on reeds,

-J--
^± ifc
^ ^ m
^
fp-"-'
-p I fp ^^ _ I
. , . r
Sung to solace young nymphs up-on ho - li - days, Ai-e too un-worthy for wonderful deeds.

^=^
^ ^ I^ ^
^E^^ji^
f) ctes.
Sot-tish Si - le-nus To Phoebus
-
^f^^=^=F^Ei
the genius "Was sent by dame Ve-nus a song to prepare,

^
fp
In
w ^
'^
^ m ~

phrase nicely coin'd.

I

And in verse quite refln'd. How

fp J •'
^
•

the states divine

'

r"T
md
hunted the hare.

^ ^T
Stars quite tir'd with pastimes Olympical, Chaste Diana applauded the motion,
and planets which beautiful shone,
Stars While pale Proserpina sat in her place,
Could no longer endure that men only shall To light the welkin, and govern the ocean,
Swim in pleasures, and they but look on While she conducted her nephews in chase :

Round about horned By her example.

Lucina they swarmed, Their father to trample,
And her informed how minded they were, The earth old and ample, they soon leave the air :

Each god and goddess. Neptune the water.

To take human bodies. And wine Liber Pater,
As lords and ladies, to follow the hare. And Mars the slaughter, to follow the hare.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 325

Light god Cupid was mounted on Pegasus, Hymen ushers the lady Astrsea,
Lent by the Muses, by kisses and pray'rs; The jest took hold of Latona the cold ;

Strong Alcides, upon cloudy Caucasus, Ceres the brown, with bright Cytherea;
Mounts a centaur, whioh proudly him bears; Thetis the wanton, Bellona the bold;
Postilion of the sky, Shame-fac'd Aurora,
Light-heeled Mercury With witty Pandora,
Soon made his courser fly, fleet as the air; And Maia with Flora did company bear ;

Tuneful Apollo, But Juno was stated

The kennel did follow, Too high to be mated,
And whoop and halloo, hoys, after the hare. Although she hated not hunting the hare.

Drown'd Narcissus from his metamorphosis, Three brown bowls to th' Olympical rector.
Rous'd by Echo, new manhood did take The Troy-born boy presents on his knee
Snoring Somnus upstarted from Cimmei-is, Jove to Phoebus carouses in nectar,
Before, for a thousand years, he did not And Phoebus to Hermes, and Hermes to
There was club-footed [wake ;
Wherewith infused, [me
Mulciber booted. I piped and I mused.

And Pan promoted on Corydon's mare; In language unused, their sports to declare :

Proud Pallas pouted, Till the house of Jove

Loud jEolus shouted, Like the spheres did move :

And Momus flouted, yet followed the hare. Health to those who love hunting the hare

THE CROSSED COUPLE.

This tune is referred to under three names, viz., Tlie Crossed Couple, Hyde
Park, and Tantara rara tantivee.
The ballad of " The Crost Couple to a new Northern tune much in fashion,"
:

is Roxburghe Collection, ii. 94. hi the same volume, at p. 379, is " News
in the
from Hide Park," &c., " to the tune of TJie Crost Couple."
The burden of " News fi-om Hide Park" (as will be seen by the verse printed
below with the music) is Tantara rara tantivee; and in the Bagford Collection
(p. 170), the tune is quoted under that name, in "A pleasant Dialogue betwixt
two wanton Ladies of Pleasure or, The Duchess of Portsmouth's woful farewell
;

to her former felicity." This ballad is a supposed conversation between Nell

Gwyn and Louise Renee de Penencourt de Querouaille (vulgarly, Madame
Carwell) whom Charles II. created Duchess of Portsmouth.
,

Nell Gwynn was as popular with the ballad-singers, from her many redeeming
qualities, as the Duchess of Portsmouth (being a Roman Catholic, and supposed
to send large sums of money to her relations in France) was out of favour with
them.^ The ballad commences thus :

" Brave gallants, now listen, and I will you tell.

With a fa la la, la fa, la la.

Of a pleasant discourse that I heard at Pell-Mell,

With a fa la la, la fa, la la, &c.
» On the following page, in the same collection, there It commences thus:
is another Dialogue between the Duchess of Portsmouth " I prithee, Portsmouth, tell me plain.

and Nell Gwyn, on the supposed intention of the former Without dissimulation.
to retire to France with the money she had acquired. It When dost thou home return again,
is entitled, "Portsmouth's Lamentation: Or a Dialogue And leave this English nation f

between two amorous Ladies, E. G. and D. P. Your youthful days are past and gone.
" Dame Portsmouth was design'd for France You plainly may perceive it,

But was prevented

therein ;
Winter of age is coming on,
Who mourns at this unhappy chance, —
'Tis true you may believe it."

And sadly doth lament it. Nine stanzas, " Printed for C. Dennisson, at the Stationers
To the tune of Tom the Taylor^ or Titus Oates." Arms, within Aldgate."
326 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The ballad of News from Hide Park is also printed, -witli the tune, in Pills to

purge Melancholy, ii. 138 (1700 and 1707). Cunningham, Hand-hook of in his

London, says of Hyde Park :

—
" In 1550, the French Ambassador hunted there
with the King ; in 1578, the Duke Casimer '
killed a barren doe with his piece,

in Hyde Park, from amongst 300 other deer.' In Charles the First's reign, it

became celebrated for its foot and horse races round the Ring ; in Cromwell's

time, forits musters and coach races in Charles the Second's reign, for its drives
;

—
and promenades a reputation which it still retains." (Edit. 1850, p. 241.)

This ballad was printed in the reign of Charles II. The following are the three
first stanzas.
Gaily.

One ev'-ning a lit- tie be - fore it was dark, Sing tan-ta-ra, ra - ra, tan
I call'd for ray gelding, and rode to Hyde Park, Sing tan-ta-ra, ra - ra, tan

ff?>B
£&

i5^ms^^ fe
FE £
•
f^P"
ti -

ti -
vee.
vee. ^
'It wasin the merry month of May,Whenmeadowsandfieldsweregaudyandgay,And
^T*

^^^^ijljjl ,^^ r
flowers apparrell'd as bright as the day, I got iip-on my tan - ti - vee.

The Park shone brighter than the skies,

There hath not been such a sight since Adam's,
Sing tantara rara tantivee.
For perriwig, ribbon, and feather
With jewels, and gold, and ladies' eyes.
Hyde Park may be termed the market for
That sparkled and cried, " Come see me; "
Or lady-fair, choose you whether, [madams.
Of all parts of England Hyde Park hath the
Their gowns were a yard too long for their legs,
[name
They show'd like the rainbow cut into rags,
For coaches, and horses, and persons of fame;
A garden of flowers, or navy of flags,
Itlook'd, at first sight, like a field full of flame.
When they did all mingle together.
Which made me ride up tantivee.

Another tune called Ride Park is to be found in the earliest editions of TJie
Dancing Master, and there are ballads in a different metre, such as "A new ditty
of a Lover, tost hither and thither, that cannot speak his mind when they are
together," by Peter Lowberry (Roxburghe, i. 290) commencing thus ;
:
 REIGNS OP JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 327

" Alas ! I am in love, She doth so far excel

And cannot speak it All and each other,
My mind I dare not move, My mind I cannot tell,
Nor ne'er can break it. "When we're toarether."
In the Pepys Collection, i. 197, is a ballad, " The Defence of Hide Parke from
some aspersions cast upon her, tending to her great dishonour To a curious new :

Court timer It is in ten-line stanzas, and commences, " When glistering Phoebus."
"Printed at London for H[enry] G[osson]." Also, at i. 188, "The praise of
London : or, A delicate new Ditty, which doth invite you to faire London City.
To the tune of the second 'part of Hide Farke.''''

In Westminster Drollenj, 1671, there is another song called " Hide Park: the
Honour
tune. invites you to delights — Come to the Court, and be all made Knights; "
commencing " Come, all you noble,
You that are neat ones," &c.
A copy of the ballad, Come to the Court, and he all made Knights, will be found in
Addit. MSS., Brit. Mus., No. 5,832, fol. 205, entitled "Verses upon the Order
for making Knights of such persons who had 40/. per annum, in King James
the First's time." Both James I. and Charles I. resorted to this obnoxious ex-
pedient for raising money. According to John Philipot, Somerset Herald, in his
Perfect Collection or Catalogue of cdl Knights Batchelours made by King James,
since his coming to the Crown of England, 1660, James I. created 2,323 Knights,
of whom 900 were made the first year of his reign.
Shepherds, leave singing your pastoral sonnets,
" Come you farmers out of the country,
all And to learn compliments shew your en-
Carters, ploughmen, hedgers, and all [deavours
Tom, Dick, and Will, Ralph, Roger, and Cast off for ever your two shilling bonnets,
[Humphrey, Cover your coxcombs with three pound
Leave off your gestures rustical]. [beavers.
Bid all your home-spun russets adieu, Sell cart and tar-box, new coaches to buy.
And suit yourselves in fashions new; Then, 'Good, your worship,' the vulgar will
Honour invites you to delights — Honour invites you, &e. [cry.
Come all to Court, and be made Knights.
And thus unto worship being advanced.
Keep all your tenants in awe with your
He pounds per annum
that hath forty
[frowns.
Shall be promoted from the plough ;
And let your rents be yearly enhanced.
His wife shall take the wall of her grannum.
To buy your new-moulded madams new
Honour is sold so dog-cheap now. [ingj
[gowns.
Though thou hast neither good birth nor breed-
Joan, Siss, and Nell, shall all be ladyfied,
If thou hast money thou'rt sure of speeding.
Instead of hay-carts, in coaches shall ride.
Honour invites you, &c.
Honour invites you, &c.

Knighthood, in old time, was counted an Whatever you have a care of expences
do,

[honour, In hospitality do not exceed

Which the blest spirits did not disdain Greatness of followers belongeth to princes,
;

But now it is used in so base a manner. A coachman and footman are all that you
That no credit, but rather a stain.
it's [need.

Tush, it's no matter what people do say. And still observe this — Let your servants meat
The name of a Knight a whole village will [lack.

Honour invites you, &c. [sway. To keep brave apparel upon your wife's back.
Honour invites you," &c.
328 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Another version of Rev. Joseph Hunter's History

this ballad is printed in the

of Sheffield (p. 104), from " a small volume of old poetry in the Wilson Collec-
tions." It is there entitled, " Verses on account of King Charles the First raising
money by Knighthood, 1630." Shepherds are said to wear ten-penny, instead of
"'
two shilling," bonnets in that version ; and it has the following concluding
stanza : " Now to conclude and shut up my sonnet,
Leave off the cart, whip, hedge-bill, and flail

This is my counsel, think well upon it,

Knighthood and honour are now put to sale.

Then make haste quickly, and let out your farms.
And take my advice in blazing your arms.
Honour invites you," &c.
The above would suit the tune of Hunting the Hare.

NEW MAD TOM OF BEDLAM, ob MAD TOM.

The earliest printed copy hitherto discovered of the music of this celebrated
song, which retains undiminished popularity after a lapse of more than two cen-
turies, is to be found in the first edition of The English Dancing Master, 1650-51.
This is one of the earliest known publications by Playford, before whose time music
was sparingly printed, and small pieces, such as songs, ballad and dance tunes, or
lessons for the virginals, were chiefly to be bought in manuscript, as they are in
many parts of Italy at the present time. In the first edition of Tlie Dancing
Master the tune is called Grray' s-Inne Maske, and in later editions (for instance,
the foui'th, printed in 1670) G-ray'' s-Inne Maslee; or, Mad Tom. The black-
letter copies of the ballad, in the Pepys Collection (i. 502) in the Bagford ;

(643, m. 9, p. 52) ; and the Roxburghe (i. 299), are entitled New Mad Tom of
Bedlam; or, " The Man in the Moone drinks claret,"
"With powder'd beef, turnip, and carret," &c.
" The tune is Gray's-Inn MaskeP

was formerly the custom of gentlemen of the Inns of Court to hold revels
It
four times a year,*" and to represent masks and plays in their own Halls, or else-

The ballad is usually printed with another, which is also

* It makes an old man lusty,
entitled "The New Mad Tom; or. The Man in the Moon The young to brawl,
drinks Claret, as it was lately sung at the Curtain, Holy- And the drawers up call,
well, to the same tune." The Curtain Theatre (according Before being too much musty,
to Malone and Collier) was in disuse at the commence- Whether you drink all or little,

ment of the reign of Charles I. (1625). This ballad has Pot it so yourselves to wittle;
thtee long verses, in the same measure, and evidently in- Then though twelve
tended to be sung to the same music. The first is as A clock it be,
follows:— Yet all the way go roaring.
" Bacchus, the father of drunken nowls. If "is *and
Full mazers, beakers, glasses, howls. Of bills cry stand,
Greezie flap-dragons, Flemish upsie freeze, Swear that you must a
With health stab'd in arms upon naked knees Such gambols, such tricks, such fegaries,
Of all his wines he makes you tasters, We fetch though we touch no canaries ;

So you tipple like bumbasters Drink wine till the welkin roars.
Drink till you reel, a welcome he doth give •*n* '^''1 out a of your scores."

O how the boon claret makes you live Another curious custom, of obliging lawyers to dance
i-

Not a painter purer colours shows four times a year,is quoted from Dugdale by Sir John
Then what's laid on by claret. Hawkins. (iJisiory 0/ Jfasic, vol. ii., p. 137.) "It is not
Pearl and ruby doth set out the nose, many years since the judges, in compliance with ancient
When thin small beer doth mar it custom, danced annually on Candlemas-day. And. that
Rich wine is good, nothing miglit be wanting for their encouragement in this
It heats the blood, excellent study (the law), they have very anciently had
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 329

where. A curious letter on the subject of a mask, -which for some unexplained
reason did not take place, may be seen in Collier's History of Early Dramatic
Poetry and Annals of the Stage, vol. i., p. 268. It is addressed to Lord

Burghley, by " Mr. Frauncis Bacon " (afterwards Lord Bacon), who in 1588 dis-
charged the office of Reader of Gray's Inn. Many other curious particulars of
their masks may be found in the same work, and some in Sir J. Hawkins' History
of Music. For the Christmas Revels of the bar, see Mi-. Payne Collier's note to
Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. vii., p. 311. Lawyers are now, generally speaking, a
music-loving class. The enjoyment of sweet sounds is to many the most accept-
able recreation after long study. They were also famous in former days for

songs and squibs. Some, too, were tolerable composers, for every one claiming to
be a gentleman leai'nt music. As their compositions are rather out of my present
subject, I will refer only to their rhyming propensities ; and, although much more
ample might be given, two passages from letters of John Chamberlain
illustration

to Sir Dudley Carleton, printed in Tlie Court of James I. (1849), will probably
suffice. On May 20, 1615, Chamberlain says, " On Saturday last the King went
again to Cambridge to see the play, Ignoramus, which hath so nettled the lawyers,
that they are almost out of all patience and the Lord Chief Justice [Sir E. ;

Coke] both openly at the King's Bench, and divers other places, hath galled and
glanced at scholars withmuch bittei-ness and there he divers Inns at Court have
;

made rhymes and ballads against them, which they have answered sharply enough."
(i. 363.) Again in the letter of Nov. 23, 1616, "Here is a bold rhyme of
our young gallants of Inns of Court against their old benchers, and a pretty
epigram upon the Lord Coke, and no doubt more will follow for when men are ;

down, the very drunkards make rhymes and songs upon them." (i. 444.)
The authorship of the music of this song has been a subject of contention ; and
so little have dates been regarded, that has long passed as the composition of
it

Henry Purcell, and is still published with his name. Walsh paved the way to
this error which Ritson and many others followed), by including
(in it in
a collection of " Mr. Henry Puixell's Favourite Songs, out of his most cele-
brated Orpheus Britannicus, and the rest of his works." It is not contained in
the Orpheus Britannicus (which was published by Pm-cell's widow), and the music
may still be seen as printed eight years before Purcell's birth.
In a note upon the passage before quoted from Walton's Angler, Sir J.
Hawkins adds, " This song, beginning, ' Forth from my dark and dismal cell,'
with the music to it, set by Henry Laioes, is printed in a book, entitled Clioice
Ayres, Songs, and Dialogues to sing to the Theorbo-Lute and Bass Viol, fol. 1675 •

and in Playford's Antidote against Melancholy, 8vo., 1669."

dancings for their recreations and delight, commonly Feb. 7 Jac,it appears that the under-bairisters were by

called Revels, allowed at certain seasons; and that, by decimation put out of Commons for example's sake, be-
special order of the society, as appeareth in 9 Hen. VI., cause the whole bar offended by not dancing on the
there should be four Revels that year, and no more," &c. Candlemas-day preceding, according to the ancient order
And again he says, " Nor were these exercises of dancing when the judges were present with this,
of this society, ;

merelypermitted, but thought very necessary, as it seems, that if the like fault were afterwards committed, they
and much conducing to the making of gentlemen more fit should be fined or disbarred."
for their books at other times ; for, by an order made 6th
330 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Sir John Hawkins must have had some reason, which he does not assign, for
attributing the composition to Henry Lawcs. It is not contained in either of the
printed collections of Lawes' songs, nor have I been able to find any copy with his
name attached to it. Sir John seems to bo mistaken, because Lawes did not
enter the Chapel Royal until 1626, and the Curtain Theatre, at which one of the
songs to the tune were simg,"- was in disuse at the commencement of the reign of
Charles I. (1625). We must therefore look to an earlier composer.
One of the Addit. MSS., Brit. Mus. (No. 10,444) is a collection of Mask-
tunes, and there arc several in that collection entitled " Gray's Inn." See
Nos. 60, 51, 91, 99, &c. If Nos. 50 and 99 are fi-om the same Mask (which is

not improbable). Mad Tom may be the composition of Lawes' master, John
Cooper, called " Cuperario " after his visit to Italy. No. 50, the first of the
above tunes, is there called '^
Cuperaree, or Gray's Inn;" No. 51, "Gray's In
Anticke Masque ; " and No. 99 (the tune in question) , " Gray's Inne Masque."
There is an equal uncertainty about the authorship of the words. In Walton's
Angler, 1653, Piscator says, " I'll promise you I'll sing a song that was lately
made at my request by Mr. William Basse, one that made the choice songs of
Tlie Hunter in his career, and Tom of Bedlam, and many others of note." There
are, however, so many Toms of Bedlam, that it is impossible to determine, from
this passage, to which of them Isaak Walton refers.

In addition to the broadsides, Le Prince d'' Amour, 1660, there is

and a copy in

in MSS. Ilarl., No. 7,332, a version in the handwriting of " Fcarcgod Barebone, of
Davcntry, in the county of Northampton," who, "beinge at many times idle, and
wanting imploymont, bcstocd his time with his pcnn and incke wrighting theaso
sonnets, songes, and epigrames, thinkinge that it weare bettar so to doe for the
mendinge of his hand in wrighting, then worse to bestow his time." Master
Fearegod Barebone was, no doubt, a puritanical hypocrite ; and wrote this excuse

about improving his handwriting, to be prepared in case the book should fall into
" ungodly hands." No other inference can be drawn from his selection of some
of the songs in the manuscript. Mad Tom-, however, is not one of those objection-
able ditties, and, as being the oldest copy, I have here followed his manuscript.
The tune is from The Dancing Master, and differs somewhat from later versions.

Mad Tom was employed as a ballad tune in Penelope, 1728 ; and The Bay's
Opera, 1730.
MrijeslicaUy.

^Ek
1 3^T^
Forth from my sad and daikBomc cell, From tlic deep a - byss of hell, Mad
Fear and despair pur - sue my eoul, IlarU, how the angry fu - ricB howl, Plu-

e^P^ ^ idti
U lEZ

" Mr. Payno Collier, in a note to Ilclicr'-s C;ita]ogue, Ifi7r), the cotniioscr'a name is not given, and it is printed

Tart iv., p. 92, says that this Hong was sun^ at the Curtain wiltiout any base.
Tlicatro, ahout IfilO. In C//o»>r' /(yrw, 2rifl edition, fnl,,
 REIGNS OP JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 331

Toni
^^p^i^^*i
is come view tlio world
to a- gain, To sec if he can ease his dis -
azzss:
-d-

tcuiper'il lllain..^.
-si-

-to doth laugli, and Proa-cr - pino is glad To see poor

mnaked Tom of

i-J-v J--

\ma.
Bed-lam mad.

-m
•
1I=S
—
r.

'Ida.

LL^L:U M
I

i
M?«
"M H
Throughthewoods I wander night and day, To find my straggling senses, .j^; When
la an an-grymoodi met old Time With a whip for my of - - fences;

ESE
i^^1 a in
=S 3^^=^
i
Ima.

Tli
he me
^
spies, a -
hideous cries I rendtheskies.IJow
^^
way he flies, For Time will stay for
pi - ty
fefei

is not
£3:

no man With
;
-m
—

common.''^
"=•

,
3
=^

Cold
Ilelp,
•

and
oli

fei=l=^
iE^feiiEi tr. :i i rT-

\ina.
I'rrrf Ida.
•Ida. u. ^-~

comfort -less I lie, hark! I hear A - polio's team, 'I'ho

The car -man 'gms to
car-i
hc.lii! or else I die. Now--^uhasto Di a - na hends her bow, The boar be - gins to

^ ¥^
t=^ 22 ^^^
\ma. Ida.

^13 S^i^^sl^
^
whistle: . ,, Come, Vulcan, with fools and with
&-=-&
tac-kles, And knock off my troublesome

^^
' -'
bnstle.

S:
ir-g

o a —m *o^" • ^ *^
^T —— '

c
~ev-

shackles. Bid Charles ninke rca - dy his wain. To fetch my five scntea a gam.
_C3__! .—o, :

%
332 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Last night I heard the dog-star hark But I could get no cider
Mars met Venus in the dark ;
Hedrank whole huts.
Limping Vulcan het an iron bar, Till he brake his guts.

And god of war.

furiously he ran at the But mine be never the wider.
Mars with his weapons beset him about, Poor Tom is very dry :

But Vulcan's temples had the gout, A little drink for charity !

And his horns did hang so in his light. Now, hark I hear Actseon's hounds,
!

He could not see to aim his blows aright. The huntsman whoops and halloos ;

Mercury, the nimble post of heaven, Ringwood, Roister, Bowman, Jowler,

Came to see the quarrel And all the troop do follow.
Gor-bellied Bacchus, giant-like, The Man in the Moon drinks claret.
Bestrid a strong-beer barrel. Eats powder'd beef, turnip, and caiTot,
To me he drank, But a cup of old Malaga sack
I did him thank. Will fire the bush at his back.

It Tvill is not now sung.

be observed that the second verse of the above
Another Tom, composed by George Hayden, and commencing, " In my
Mad
triumphant chariot hurl'd," has been added to the first, to make a bravura. There
are even different copies of George Hayden's song, some having a | movement at
the close, which others have not. Hayden was the author of the still favorite

duet, " As I saw fair Clora." He flourished in the early part of last century.

TOM A BEDLAM.
In Le Prince d' Amour, 1660, there are no less than three songs entitled
To'm of Bedlam ; also Bishop Corbet's song. The distracted Puritan, which is to
the tune of Tom of Bedlam.
The first 164) consists of eight stanzas, and commences thus
song (at p. :

" From the top of high Cancaeus, And them I bore twelve leagues and more,
To Paul's Wharf near the Tovrer, In spite of Turks and soldiers, [nierry;
In no great haste, I easily pass'd Sing, sing, and sob ; sing, sigh, and be
In less than half an hour. Sighing, singing, and sobbing
The gates of old Byzantium Thus naked Tom away doth run,
I took upon my shoulders, And fears no cold nor robbing.
The second is at p. 167, and consists also of eight stanzas, of which the two
first are as follows :

" Fromthe hag and hungry goblin. Of thirty bare years have I
That into rags would rend you, [man Twice twenty been enraged ;

And the spirits, that stand by the naked And, of forty, been three times fifteen

In the book of moons, defend you ;

In durance soundly caged ;
That of your five sound senses On the lordly lofts of Bedlam,
You never be forsaken. With stubble soft and dainty, [dong,
Nor travel from yourselves with Tom Brave bracelets strong, and whij)s, ding-

Abroad to beg your bacon. And wholesome hunger plenty.

IVhile I do sing, ^
Anyfood, anyfeeding, Yet didI sing, ' Any food, any feeding.
Feeding, drink, or clothing ! Feeding, drink, or clothing !

Come, dame or maid, be not afraid, Come, dame or maid, he not afraid,
Poor Tom will injure nothing.' Poor Tom mill injure nothing.'

Ritson,who has reprinted the above two songs, supposes them " to have been
written by way of burlesque on such sort of things." {Ancient Songs, p. 261, 1790.)
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 333

The tliird song (p. 169) is now commonly known as Mad Tom. It is in
another metre, and has a separate tune. (Ante p. 330.)
The fourth, commencing, "Am I mad, noble Festus," (p. 171), is here
printed to this tune.
In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 42, there is a song on the tricks and disguises
of beggars, entitled " The cmming Northerne Begger
\^'Tio all the bystanders doth earnestly pray,
To bestow a penny upon him to-day:
to the tune of Tom of Bedlam." The first stanza is as follows :

" Iam a lusty begger, Yet, though I'm bare,

And live by others giving I'm free from care,
I scorne to worke, A fig for high preferments, [good sir.
But by the highway lurke, But still will I cry, '
Good, your worship,
And beg to get my living. Bestow one poor denier, sir
I'll i' th' wind and weather, 'Which, when, Tve got,
And weare all ragged garments At the pipe and the pot,
I soon will it cashier, sir.'

This copy of the ballad was priated "at London" for F. Coules, and may be
dated as of the reign of Charles, or James I.

In Wit and Drollery, 1656 (p. 126), there is yet another Tom of Bedlam,
beginning — " Forth from the Elysian fields, a place of restless souls.
Mad Maudlin is come to seek her naked Tom,
Hell's fury she controls," &c.
This is printed in an altered form, and with an imperfect copy of the tune, in
Pills to purge Melancholy, ii. 192 (1700 and 1707), under the title of "Mad
Maudlin to find out Tom of Bedlam :

" To find my Tom of Bedlam, ten thousand years I'll travel;

Mad Maudlin goes, with dirty toes, to save her shoes from gravel.
. Yet will I sing, Bonny boys, Bedlam boys are bonny
boys, bonny mad
They still go bare, andand want no drink nor money."
live by the air,

The tune is again printed in Pills to purge Melancholy, iii. 18 (1707), to a song
"On Dr. G[ill?], formerly master of St. Paul's School," commencing
" In Paul'sChurchyard in London,
There dwells a noble firker,
Take heed, you that pass,
Lest you taste of bis lash,
For I have found him a jerker :

Still doth he cry, talie him up, tahe him up, sir,

Untruss with expedition

the birchen tool
Which he winds in the school
Frights worse than the Inquisition."
In Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament, 1731, ii. 272, we have
" The cock-crowing at the approach of a Free Parliament or— ;

Good news in a ballat A country wit made it,

More sweet to your pallat Who ne'er got the trade yet,
Than fig, raisin, or stewed prune is : And Mad Tom of Bedlam the tune is."
334 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Among the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum there are two songs to
this tune. The first (by a loyal Cavalier) is " Mad Tom a Bedlam's desires of
Peace: Or his Benedicities for distracted England's Restauration to her wits
again. By a constant though unjust sufi"erer (now in prison) for His Majesties
just Regality and his Country's Liberty. S.F.W.B." (Sir Francis Wortley,
Bart.) This is in the sixth vol. of folio broadsides, and dated June 27, 1648.
" Poor Tom hath been imprison'd, Yet still he cries for the King, for the good
With strange oppressions vexed ;
Tom loves brave confessors ;
[King
He dares boldly say, they try'd each way But he curses those that dare their King de-
Wherewith Job was perplexed. Committees and oppressors." &c. [pose.

This has been reprinted in Wright's Political Ballads, for the Percy Society,
p. 102 ; and in the same volume, p. 183, is another, taken from the fifteenth vol.
of broadsides, entitled "A new Ballade, to an old tune, Tom of Bedlam" dated
January 17, 1659, and commencing, " Make room for an honest red-coat."
Besides these, we have, in Wit and Drollery, 1682, p. 184, Loving Mad Tom,
commencing, " Pll bark against the dog-star " and many other mad-songs in the
;

Roxburghe Collection, such as " The Mad Man! s Morrice;" " Lovers Lunacie, or
Mad Besse's Vagarij ;" &c., &c.
Bishop Percy has remarked that " the English have more songs on the subject
of madness, than any of their neighbours." For this the following reason has
been assigned by Mr. Payne Collier, in a note to Dodsley's Collection of Old
Plays, ii. 4 :

" After tlie dissolution of the religious houses, where the poor of every denomination

were provided for, there was for many years no settled or fixed provision made to
supply the want of that care which those bodies appear always to have taken of their
distressed brethren. In consequence of this neglect, the idle and dissolute were
suffered to wander about the country, assuming such characters as they imagined were
most likely to insure success to their frauds, and security from detection. Among
other disguises, many affected madness, and were distinguished by the name of

Bedlam Beggars. These are mentioned by Edgar, in King Lear

" The country gives me proof and precedent.
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices.
Stick in their numb'd and mortify'd bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary
And, with this horrible object, from low farms.
Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills.
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayer,
Inforce their charity."
In Dekker's Bellmayi of London, 1616, all the different species of beggars are
enumerated. Amongst the rest are mentioned Tom of Bedla7n's band of mad caps,
otherwise called Poor Tom's flock of wild geese (whom here thou seest by his black
and blue naked arms to be a man beaten to the world), and those wild geese, or hair
brains, are called Abraham men. An Abraham man is afterwards described in this
manner Of all the mad rascals (that are of this wing) the Abraham man is the
: '

most fantastick. The fellow (quoth this old Lady of the Lake unto me) that sate
half naked (at table to-day) from the girdle upward, is the best Abraham man that
ever came to my house, and the notablest villain he swears he hath been in Bedlam, :
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 335

and will talk frantickly of purpose : you see pins stuck in sundry places of hia naked
flesh, especially in his arms, which pain he gladly puts himself to (being, indeed, no
torment dead with some foul disease, or so hardened with
at all, his skin is either so
weather, only to make you believe he
is out of his wits) he calls himself by the name :

of Poor Tom, and coming near any body, cries out. Poor Tom is a cold. Of these
Abraham men, some be exceeding merry, and do nothing but sing songs, fashioned
out of their own brains, some will dance ; others will do nothing but either laugh or
weep ; others are dogged, and are sullen both in look and speech, that, spying but a
small company in a house, they boldly and blimtly enter, compelling the servants
through fear to give them what they demand, which is commonly Bacon, or some-
thing that will yield ready money.'
The song of Tom of Bedlam is alluded to in Ben Jonson's The Devil is an Ass,
1616, act v., sc. 2. When Pug wishes to be thought mad, he says, " Your best
song's Thom o'Bet'lem."
The following copy of the tune is from a manuscript volume of vii-ginal music,
formerly in the possession of Mr. Windsor, of Bath, and now in that of
Dr. Rimbault. It is entitled Tom a Bedlam. The words are from Bishop
Corbet's song, The distracted Puritan, which is printed entire in Percy's Reliqices
of Ancient Poetry.

i
^
S *~r
Pompously.

p
Am
^
i
O
1
When
^=^=t'T=^^
^
I mad, no-ble Festus, zeal and god-ly knowledge Have

3 =55:

*^
put me in hope To
m
deal with the
/

Pope

^
As
^
P

well as the best

s
m
m
Col - lege :

Bold-ly I preach, hate a cross, hate a sur-plice, Mi - tres, copes and

^
roch-ets.

Come, hear me pray nine times a day. And fill your heads with crotchets.

=i=^ = S ^^M
 336 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

In the house of pure Emanuel* When I sack'd the seven hill'd city,
I had my education, I met the great red dragon ;

Where my friends surmise I kept him aloof

I dazzled my eyes With the armour of proof.
With the sight of revelation. Though here I have never a rag on.
Boldly I preach, &c. Boldly I preach, &c.
They bound me like a bedlam, With a fiery sword and target.
They lash'd my four poor quarters ;
There fought I with this monster :

Whilst this I endure, But the sons of pride

Faith makes me sure My zeal deride.
To be one of Fox's martyrs. And all my deeds misconster.
Boldly I preach, &c. Boldly I preach, &c.
These injuries I suffer I un-hors'd the Whore of Babel,
Through antichrist's persuasion With the lance of Inspiration ;

Take off this chain, I made her stink,

Neither Rome nor Spain And spill the drink
Can resist my strong invasion. In her cup of abomination.
Boldly I preach, &c. Boldly I preach, &c.

Of the beast's ten horns (God bless us!) I appear'd before the archbishop,
I have knock'd off three already ;
And all the high commission ;

If they let me alone I gave him no grace,

I'll leave him none : But told him to his face.
But they say I am too heady. That he favour'd superstition.
Boldly I preach, &c. Boldly I preach, &c.

THOMAS, YOU CANNOT.

This tune is contained in Sir John Hawkins' Transcripts of Virginal Music ; in
the fourth and later editions of The Dancing Master; in The Beggars' Opera;
The Mock Doctor ; An Old Man taught Wisdom ; The Oxford Act ; and other
ballad-operas.
In some of the earlier editions of Tlie Dancing Master, it is entitled Thomas,
you cannot ; in others, Tumas, I cannot, or Tom Trusty ; in some of the ballad-
operas (for instance, The Generous Freemason, and The Lover his own Rival),
Sir Tlwmas, I cannot.
In the Pepys Collection, i. 62, is a black-letter ballad (one of the many written
against the Roman Catholics after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, in 1605),
entitled " A New-yeeres-Gift for the Pope ; come see the difference plainly
decided between Truth and Falsehood
Not all the Pope's trinkets, which here are brought forth,
Can balance the bible, for weight, or for worth," &c.
" To the tune of Thomas you cannot^ It commences thus :

" All you that desirous are to behold

The difference 'twixt falsehood and faith," &c.

In G-rammatical Drollery, by W. H. (Captain Hicks), 1682, p. 75, is a song

commencing, " Come, my Molly, let us be jolly " to the tune of Thomas,
:

I cannot ; and in Chetwood's History of the Stage, 8vo., 1749, a song on a

theatrical anecdote, by Mr. John Leigh (an actor, who died in 1726), of which
the following is the first stanza :

=*
Emanuel College, Cambridge, was originally a seminary of Puritans.

«£
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 337

i
s>
5m
^
Gaily.

My
I'll
^^ m
scandalous neighbours
sing you a song though
of
my
^
Poi-tu - gal Street,
voice be not sweet,
n ^
Come
And
list- en
^
a-while to
that you will say is
my
a

ei^
m ^ i
J^-.fH^-^'D'^J^r-]
t
^ I

1 J j^ i
^
1^ ?

^m
pi - tv
—-'^ '^^

^
merry a sonnet as times can

*
af- ford, Of Eglington, Walker, Jack

EB
Hall and
r?
my Lord ; If
^HJ—^^^=^
you doubt what I say, to con - firm
^ =¥=«:
ev' - ry word, I'll

t^^^^ ^
:*=

as
i r •

awitness Will Thomas, Will Thomas,

.
r
a witness Will
^
call I'll call as Thomas.

8=
k-»-

I have not been successful in finding the song of Tliomas, you cannot, from
which the tune derives
its name. In some copies (when there are no words), the

^
second part of the tune consists only of eight bars, instead of ten. See the
following from Sir J. Hawkins' Transcripts of Virginal Music.

HIJ
Gaily.

m ^Pt'^=±^-_l_iljAAl^
m^^S^^ ! J'l^ ^J iBb? S^
"-^tt
iS ll 1 ^ ^ 4:-^-=^
«—|L
I
V

'f^^^m^. ^ • —r* s i^**

p-
5=r
'8-*^ '^ ?
^Bi

^&P=^4£fl^tmgt se
338 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

WHEN DAPHNE DID FROM PHCEBUS FLY.

This tune is to be found in Nederlandtsche Gredenclc-Olanck, 1626 ; in Friesche
Lust-Hof, 1634; and in The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1690.
In the first named it is entitled Prins Daphne ; in the second, Wllen Daphne
did from Phoebus fly ; and in the last, Daphne, or TJie Shepherdess.
A
copy of the words will be found in the Koxburghe Collection, i. 388, entitled
" A pleasant new Ballad of Daphne : To a new tune." Printed by the assignees
of Thomas Symcocke. It ia on the old mythological story of Daphne turned into
a laurel.
Gracefully, and not too slotc.

i^^^
^^m :^ s
When Daph - ne from fair Phoebus did fly, The west wind most
Her silk - en scarf scarce shadow'd her eyes. The God cried, O

V>Hr-H
»=b^
=1=
^
^i^

=^ -;> J
^^-^^^ g
r i
J

sweet -ly did blow in her face, Stay, Nymph, stay, Nymph,
T
cries A
pi - ty ! and held her in chace. Lion nor ti - ger doth thee

4=J
'^
^^
r 'ff r

31 m ^
pol - lo, Tar - ry, and turn thee, Sweet Nymph, stay,
fol - low, Turn thy fair eyes, and look this way. O turn, O pretty

?=F?
J -J-
^^

sweet, And
fe^
^
let our red
^ lips meet : O pi - ty me,
-TS~

Daph - ne !
^
T=f pi ty

^— ffl -eh
^ S—

^ :S=t
qa
O
^-q-
pi -
•

ty me,
-q-
Daph
^^
ne, pi - - ty
mme

^ ^ r^yr
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 339

She gave no ear unto his cry, [moan ;

Let the earth a virgin bear me,
But still did neglect him the more he did Or devour me quick a maid.
Though he did entreat, she still did deny, Diana heard her pray,
And earnestly pray him to leave her alone. And turn'd her to a Bay.
Never, never, cries Apollo, Pity, Daphne, pity me, &c.
Unless to love thou wilt consent,
Amazed stood Apollo then, [desir'd.
But still, with my voice so hollow,
While he beheld Daphne turn'd as she
I'll cry to thee, while life be spent.
Accurs'd am I, above gods and men.
But if thou turn to me,
With griefs and laments my senses are tir'd.
'Twill prove thy felicity.
Farewell false Daphne, most unkind,
!

Pity, O Daphne, pity me, &c.

My love lies buried in thy grave,
Away, like Venus's dove she flies. Long sought I love, yet love could not find,
The red blood her buskins did run all adown, Therefore is this thy epitaph :

His plaintive love she still denies, [renown. " This tree doth Daphne cover,
Crying, Help, help, Diana, and save my That never pitied Lover." [™6i
Wanton, wanton lust is near me. Farewell, false Daphne, that would not pity
Cold and chaste Diana, aid ! Although not my love, yet art thou my Tree.

COME YOU NOT FEOM NEWCASTLE?

This beautiful and very expressive melody is to be found in Tlie Dancing
Master, from 1650 to 1690, under tbe title of Newcastle. In Tlie Gruh Street
Opera, 1731, it is named Why sliould I not love my love ? from the burden of the
song. The following fragment of the first stanza is contained in the folio manu-
script formerly in the possession of Bishop Percy, p. 95. See Dr. Dibdin's
Decameron, vol. 3.
" Come you not from Newcastle ? Why should I not love my love ?
O
Come you not there away ?
met you not my true love,
Ryding on a bonny bay ?
»**»»»
Why should not my love love me ?

It is quoted in a little black-letter volume, called " The famous Historic of

Fryer Bacon : containing the wonderfull things that he did in his life ; also the
manner of his death with the lives and deaths of the two Conjurers, Bungye
;

and Vandermast. Very pleasant and delightfull to be read." 4ito.,n.d. "Printed

at London by A. E., for Francis Grove, and are to be sold at his shop at the
upper-end of Snow Hill, against the Sarazen's Head " :

" The second time, Fryer Bungy and he went to sleepe, and Miles alone to watch
the brazen head; Miles, to keepe him from sleeping, got a tabor and pipe, and being
merry disposed, sung this song to a Northern tune of Cam'st thou not from New-
castle —
'
To couple is a custome. If my love prove untrue.
All things thereto agree With that I can get more.
Why should not I then love ?
The faire is oft unconstant.
Since love to all is free.
The blacke is often proud
But He have one that's pretty, He chuse a lovely browne
Her cheekes of scarlet dye, Come, fidler, scrape thy crowd.
For to breed my delight,
Come, scrape thy crowd.
fidler,
Whea that I ligge her by.
For Peggie the browne is she
Though vertue be a dowry. Must be my bride God guide ;

Yet He chuse money store : That Peggie and I agree."

340 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

I have been favored by Mr. Barrett with a song, " come ye from Newcastle? "
as still current in the North of England ; but, doubting its antiquity, I have not
thought it desu'able to print it in this collection.

^m
^W -J^^J—
Rather

O
slow,

*
and with

come you from

^
•
expression.

15:

New
J ,
-
•_>-"

J
cas
^
-
«
tie,
Ig:

Come you not

J.
»
i #3
there a -
^^^^
C5~
way ? O

"^ 7=f "T

^

^m
-+-
^^ 4= s
^
"^ '
i, - J
^ =g
met you not my true love, Riding on a bon - ny bay ? Why

s ^^
T

should not I love

^^E
my love. Why should not my love
^^ ^g love
s;
me ? " [Why
Q ^S ™ ,—C^
3 =1=

"ST-

H^
fe^ ¥W -a
—
should not I speed af - ter him, Since love to alL is free ?
]

i^
r 4 1
CUCKOLDS ALL A ROW.
This tune is to be found in every edition of The Dancing Master. Pepys
mentions it in the following account of a court ball, in the reign of Charles II. :

" 31 Dec, 1662. King and Queene, the Duke and

By and bye comes the
Duchess, and all King takes out the
the great ones; and after seating themselves, the
Duchesse of York and the Duke, the;Duohesse of Buckingham the Duke of ;

Monmouth, my Lady Castlemaine and so on, other lords other ladies and they ; ;

danced the Bransle. After that, the King led a lady a single Coranto and then the :

rest of the lords, one after another, other ladies : very noble it was, and great pleasure
to see. Then to Country-dances ; the King leading the first, which he called for,

which was Cxtckolds all a row, the old dance of England."

It became a party tune of the Cavaliers, who sang the songs of Sey, hoys, up

The two last lines are supplied from a song written to complete the fragment, by the late Mr. George Macfarren,
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 341

go we, and London^ s true character, to it. The latter, abusing the Londoners for
taking part against the King, and commencing, " You coward-hearted citizens,"
is contained in Rats rhimed to death, or The Rump Parliament hanged in the
Shambles, 1660 ; and in both editions of Loyal Songs luritten against the Rump
Parliament.
The tune is mentioned in the old song, London is a fine town ; and one with
the burden is contained iii Wit and Drollery, 1661. The latter is reprinted (to
the tune of London is a fine town) in Pills to purge Melancholy, ii. 77, 1700, and
iv. 77, 1719.
The following, on the miseries of married life, is from a black-letter ballad,
" printed by M.P. for Henry Gosson, on London Bridge, neere the gate," and
signed Arthur Halliarg. A copy is in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 28 and ;

it is reprinted in Evans' Old Ballads,!. 170 (1810). I have omitted four stanzas,
the remainder being sufficient to tell the story. " The cruel Shrew ; or The
Patient Man's Woe : Declaring the misery and great pain,
By his unquiet vcife, he doth daily sustain."
To the tune of Cuckolds all a row.

p^ ^ m
Moderate time.

:?

Come
i ba-che-lors and
T
mar-riedmen, And lis - ten my song, And

^
to

-
J=^ J . •
-«-

^
^J^J^UJ-J-H^-^ J^ 3^
T^
I will shew you
T
plain - ly then, The
f^^^
in - ju - ry and wrona That

i
^
con - stant
=i^^
- ly I do sus
^
- tain Through
i
my un - happy
^ life,
^
The

fW^
*
w m ^
which does put me to great pain, By my un - qui - et

^ wife.
342 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

She never lins her bawling, And if a friend by chance me call

Her tongue it is so loud, To drink a pot of beer.

But always she'll be railing. Then she'll begin to curse and brawl,
And will not be controll'd And fight, and scratch, and tear
For she the breeches still will wear. And swears unto my work she'll send
Although it breeds ray strife Me straight without delay

If I were now a bachelor, Or else with the same cudgel's end,

I'd never have a wife. She will me soundly pay.

Sometimes I go in the morning Then is not this a piteous cause,

About my daily work. Let all men now it try.

My wife she will be snorting, And give their verdicts, by the laws,
And in her bed she'll lurk, Between my wife and I

Until the chimes do go at eight, And judge the cause, who is to blame,
Then she'll begin to wake. I'll to their judgment stand.
Her morning's draught well spiced straight And be contented with the same,
To clear her eyes she'll take. And put thereto my hand.
As soon as she is out of bed, If I abroad go anywhere,
Her looking-glass she takes, My business for to do,
(So vainly is she daily led). Then will my wife anon be there
Her morning's work she makes For to increase my woe ;

In putting on her brave attire, Straightway she such a noise will make
That fine and costly be With her most wicked tongue,
While I work hard in dirt and mire : That all her mates, her part to take.
Alack what remedy ? About me soon will throng.
Then she goes forth a gossiping Thus am I now tormented still
Amongst her own comrades With my most wretched wife
And then she falls a boosing All through her wicked tongue so ill,

With all her merry blades I am weary of my life :

When I come from my labour hard, I know not truly what to do.
Then she'll begin to scold, Nor how myself to mend,
And call me rogue without regard This lingering life doth, breed my woe,
Which makes my heart full cold. I would 'twere at an end.

When I, for quiet's sake, desire O that some harmless honest man,
My wife for to be still, Whom death did so befriend.
She will not grant what I require. To take his wife from off his hand,
But swears she'll have her will His sorrows for to end.

Then if I chance to heave my hand. Would change with me to rid my care,

Straightway murder cry
she'll ;
And take my wife alive.
Then judge all men that here do stand, For his dead wife, unto his share !

In what a case am I. Then I would hope to thrive.

THE BUFF COAT HAS NO FELLOW.

In Fletcher's play, Tlie Kniglit of Malta, act iii., sc. 1, there is a " Song by
the Watchj" commencing thus :

" Sit, soldiers, sit and sing, the round is clear,

And cock-a-loodle-loo tells us the day is near

Each toss his can until his throat be mellow,
Drink, laugh, and sing The soldier has no fellow."
The last line is repeated in three out of the four verses or parts, and I suppose
The soldier has no fellow to have been then a well-known song.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 343

Various ballads were written to a tune called The buff coat has no fellow (see,
for instance, Pepys Coll., iii. 150; Roxburghe, i. 636; &c.), and as the buff
coat was a distinguishing mark of the soldier of the seventeenth century, if the
words could be recovered, to be the song in question.
it might prove
" In the reign of King James I.," says Grose, " no great alterations were made
in the article of defensive armour except that the huff coat, or jerkin, which was
originally worn under the cuirass, now became frequently a substitute for it, it
having been found that a good buff leather would of itself resist the stroke of a
sword this, however, only occasionally took place among the light-armed cavalry
;

and infantry, complete suits of armour being still used among the heavy horse."
Military Antiquities, 1801, 4to., ii., 323. I have been favored with the follow-
ing note on the same subject by F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A. :
—" The buff coat was
peculiarly indicative of the soldier. It first came into use in the early part of

the seventeenth' century, when the heavier defensive armour of plate was dis-
carded by all but cavalry regiments. The infantry, during the great civil wars
of England, were all arrayed in buff coats ; and in Rochester Cathedral are
still preserved some of these defensive coverings, as worn by Oliver's soldiers
in their unwelcome visits there worn over them, to hold
; as well as the bandoleers
the charges for muskets. The officers added the
and cavalry at this time only

cuirass the leather coat was frequently very thick and

; tough, and a defence
against a sword cut. The foreign, as well as the English ai-mies, about this time,
discarded heavier armour ; and the prints by Gheyn, of Low-Country troopers, as
well as those by Ciartes, of the soldiers of the French King, are all habited in
the buff coat, which displays, in the rigidity of its form, its innate strength."
Grose gives an engraving of those that were worn over corslets, from one that
belonged to Sir Francis Rhodes, Bart., of Balbrough Hall, Derbyshire, in the
time of Charles I.
^
The tune, The biff coat has no fellow, is to be found in the fourth and every
subsequent edition of The Dancing Master f in the earlier editions as Biiff coat,

and afterwards as B-uff coat, or Excuse me. The

following list of ballad-operas, in
all of which songs may be found that were written to the tune, sufficiently proves

its former popularity Pollij ; The Lottery ; An Old Man taught Wisdom ; Tlie
:

Intriguing Chambermaid ; The Lovers' Opera ; The BaiJ s Opera ; The Lover his
own Rival; The Grub Street Opera ; The Devil of a Duhe, or Trapolin^s Vagaries;
The Fashionable Lady, or Harlequin^ s Opera; The Gfenerous Freemason; and
TlieFootman.
This popularity extended to Ireland and Scotland and although, in its old ;

form, purely English in character, the air has been claimed both as Irish and as
Scotch. T. Moore appropriated it, under the name of My husband's a journey to

Portugal gone, although in the opinion of Dr. Crotch, Mr. Wade, and others, " it is

» Mr. Stenhouse, in his notes to Johnson's Scot's Musical is to be found inMr. Stenhouse had hefore him one
it.

Museum, asserts that this air is to he found in Playford's of the last editions of vol. i. of The Dancing Master,
Dancing Master of 1667, a book wliich he quotes con- printed by Pearson and Young, between 1713 and 1725,
stantly, and which, I am convinced, he never saw. Having and consisting of 358 pages, to which only can all of his
tested all his references to that work, I have no hesi- quotations be referred,
tation in saying that not even one of the airs he mentions
344 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC,

not at all like an Irish tune." In Scotland it has been claimed as The Deuks
dang o'er again disclaimed by Mr. George Farquhar Graham,
my Daddie, and
editor of Wood's Songs of Scotland, who " freely confesses his belief that the air
is not of Scottish origin." iii. 165.

All the oldest copies of Buff coat begin with three long notes, which seem to
require corresponding monosyllables for the commencement of the words. The
line I have quoted from The Knight of Malta suggests a commencement some-
manner

M
what in the following :

Boldly.

Drink,
t^^irH
laugh, sing,
m
boys, For the sol-dier
^ J
has
j
no
i
j'4
fel-low.

%^
Mf^=^zf
i • ^
f *- -^

^"^yrr^^^^-^rrt-^^^^^^
A
^
i iEEt
m
^g^^ ^ =^^
^
time.
In later versions,
-^

I should add, that in some copies of The Dancing Master the tune
m^
where the long notes at the commencement are
is in common

split into

quavers (as in many of the ballad-operas) , the bold character of the tune is lost,

and it becomes rather a pretty than a spirited air. This change seems to be
owing to the monosyllabic commencement having been discarded in the ballads
which were written to it as, for instance, in the following, from the Roxbui'ghe
—" The merry Hostess
:

Collection, i. 536 :
; or
A pretty new ditty, compos'd on an hostess that lives in the city.
To wrong such an hostess it were a great pity,
By reason she caused this pretty new ditty.
To the tune of Buff coat has no fellow."
" Come all that love good company, Who sells good ale, nappy and stale,
And hearken to my ditty ; And always thus sings she :

'Tis of a lovely hostess fine. My ale was tunn'd when I was young,
That lives in London city; And but little above my knee," &c.
The above is printed in Evans' Collection, i. 150 (1810).
 REIGNS OP JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 345

In several of the ballad-operas, the tune, whether under the name of Buff
coat, or Excuse me, commences thus (see, for instance, TJie Generous Dree-

PN3 ^
mason, 1731) :

:&
iSi
ipS * *
^Sfl
And in some more modern versions, thus :-

^LiLmrJ-j-^^^ ^^m
it is
When the key-note is heard three times in equal succession at the end of a tune,
considered to be characteristic of L'ish music ; but that peculiarity often
m arises,

as in the last example, from too many syllables in the words adapted to the au*.

A BEGGING WE WILL GO.

In the Bagford Collection, a copy of this song, in black-letter, is entitled " The
Beggars' Chorus in The Jovial Crew, to an excellent new tune." Brome's comedy,'
The Jovial Oreiv, or TJie Merry Beggars, was acted at the Cockpit in Drury
Lane, in 1641, and I suppose the song to have been introduced, as it is

not contained in the printed copy of the play. One of the Cavaliers' ditties,
" Col. John Okie's Lamentation, or a Rumper cashiered," is to the tune of
A begging we This was published on the 28th March, 1660, and a copy
ivill go.

may be seen among the King's Pamphlets, Brit. Mus.

A begging we ivill go is printed, with the music, in book v. of Ctioice Ayres
and Songs to sing to the Theorbo or Bass Viol, fol. 1684 ; in 180 Loyal Songs,
3rd edit., 1685; in Pills to purge Melancholy; &c. It is sometimes entitled
The Jovial Beggars.
,
"There was a jovial beggar, I begg'd for my master,
He had a wooden leg, And got him store of pelf;
Lame from his cradle, But now, Jove be praised,
And forced for to beg. I'm begging for myself, &c.
And a begging we will go, we'll go, we'll go,
In a hollow tree
And a begging we will go ! ,

I live, and pay no rent

A bag for his oatmeal, Providence provides for me,
Another for his salt
And I am well content, &c.
And a pair of crutches
To show that he can halt Of all the occupations,
And a begging, &c. A beggar's life's the best
For whene'er he's weary,
A bag for his wheat,
He'll lay him down and rest, &c.
Another for his rj'e
A little bottle by his side I fear no plots against me,
To drink when he's a dry, &c. I live in open cell

Seven years I begg'd Then who would be a king

For my old master Wild, When beggars live so well.
He taught me to beg And a begging we will go, we'll go, we'll go,
When I was but a child, &c. And a begging we will go !
346 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

The tune was introduced into the ballad-operas of Polhj, Tlie Lovers, Tlie
Quakers^ Opera, Bon Quixote in England, The Court Legacy, The Rape of Helen,
The Sumours of the Court, Tlie Oxford Act, Tlie Sturdy Beggars, &c. ; and the
song is the prototype of many others, such as, " A bowling we will go," "A fish-
ing we will go," "A hawking we will go," and "A hunting we will go." The
last-named is printed in the sixth vol. of The Musical Miscellany, 8vo., 1731.
It is still popular with those who take delight in hunting and ; as the air is now
scarcely known by any other title, I have printed the words In to the tune.
Tlie Musical Miscellany it is entitled The Stag Chace, and there are twenty-nine
verses; twelve are here omitted, being principally a description of the dogs,
and a catalogue of their names ; indeed, it is presum'd that seventeen stanzas
will suffice.

Gaily.

i
^
s r^-i J ;-r^rrJ J •
-^

I am a jol - ly hunts-man, My voice is shrill and clear, Well

m ^^F=¥ -'
ZV

-^
T—
'.
^-ru^::^^
T
% S^S
\
Chorus.

hm^
known to drive the stag. And the drooping dogs to cheer. And a hunt-ing we will

3e
W
2?:
^^
go, will

I leave
go, will

my bed betimes,
go. And a

^
hunt mg

Now sweetly in
will

full cry
go-

^n
Before the morning's grey ;
Their various notes they join ;

Let loose my and mount my horse.

dogs, Gods ! what a concert's here, my lads !

And halloo " come away " &c. ! 'Tis more than half divine, &c.

The game's no sooner rous'd, The woods, the rocks, and mountains,
But in rush the cheerful cry, Delighted with the sound,
Thro' hush and brake, o'er hedge and stake, To neighb'ring dales and fountains
The noble beast does fly, &c. Repeating, deal it round, &c.

In vain he flies to covert, A glorious chace it is.

A num'rous pack pursue. We him many a mile,

drive
That never cease to trace his steps. O'er hedge and ditch, we go thro' stitch.

Even tho' they've lost the view, &c. And hit off many a foil, &c.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 347

And yet he runs it stoutly, He scarce has touch'd the bank,

How wide, how swift he strains! The cry bounce finely in.

With what a skip he took that leap. And swiftly swim across the stream,
And scours o'er the plains ! &c. And raise a glorious din, &c.

See how our horses foam His legs begin to fail.

The dogs begin to droop His wind and speed are gone.
With winding horn, on shoulder borne. He stands at bay, and gives 'em play,
'Tis time to cheer them up, &c. He can no longer run, &c.
Hark ! Leader, Countess, Bouncer But vain are heels and antlers.
Cheer up my good dogs all With such a pack set round,
To Tatler, hark he holds
! it smart, Spite of his heart, they seize each part,
And answers ev'ry call, &c. And pull him fearless down, &c.

Up yonder steep I'll follow, Ha ! dead, 'ware dead ! whip off.

Beset with craggy stones And take a special care

My lord cries, " Jack, you dog, come back. Dismount with speed, and pray take heed.
Or else you'll break your bones !
" &c. Lest they his haunches tear! &c.

See, now he takes the moors, The sport is ended now,

And strains to reach the stream ! We're laden with the spoil
He leaps the flood, to cool his blood. As home we pass, we talk o' th' chace,
And quench his thirsty flame, &c. O'erpaid for all our toil, &c.

Many songs to the tune will be found in the publications enumerated above.
Others in the Songs sung at the Mug-houses in London and Westminster, 1716 ; in
120 Loyal Songs, 1684 ; and in the various collections of ballads. " The Church
Scuffle, or News from St. Andrew's "
is one of these and contained ; in the collec-
tion given to the Cheetham Library by Mr. Halliwell (No. 366).

THE NOBLE SHIRVE.

This tune is taken from a manuscript volume of virginal music, formerly in

the possession of Mr. Windsor, of Bath, and now in that of Dr. Rimbault.
Although the transcript is of the seventeenth, the tunes are generally traceable
to the sixteenth century, and perhaps the latest are of the reign of James I.

I regi'et very much not having been able to find the ballad from which it

derives its name, for I imagine it would prove an interesting, and, probably, a
very early one.
" Shirve " is a very old form of " Shire-reeve," or Sheriff; and I have not
been able to trace any other instance of its use so late as the seventeenth century.
It was then, almost universally, written " Shrieve." The tune is one that
like Tlie TJiree Havens (ante p. 59), and The Friar in the Well (p. 274)
requires a burden at the end of the first and second lines of words, as well as at
the end. The third and fourth bars of music seem almost to speak the words
" down-a-down," and " hey down-a-down " (or some similar burden) ; and the
seventh and eighth, " down, a-down, a-down-a."
These repeated burdens were more common in the sixteenth than in the
seventeenth century.
As every ballad-tune sounds the better for having words to it, I have taken one
of the snatches of old songs sung by Moros, the fool, or jester, in Wager's
348 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

interlude, The longer thou lived the more fool thou art, 1568. It is not in the

precise measure —there should be two long syllables, instead of " out of Kent,"
in the second bar, &c. —but I cannot any find old ballad, with similar burdens,

that corresponds exactly.

^Moderate time, and smoothly. Down a-down,Hey down a-down.

There was a maid came out of Kent, Dain-ty love,

irt^ Dain-ty love, There

^ffi I^
s
Down a - down,
^a - down - a,

—
i=^
*
^ p
was a maid came out of Kent, Dan - "er - 0U3 be.

S
•
Wr

^ ^^
^^^^
There was a maid came out of Kent, Fair, pro-per, small and gent As

E^
xPl

e- ver on
^ ^^
the
^^
ground went For
Down

so
a-down

should it
a - down

be.
- a.

1^ f==
DEKRT DOWN.
This tune is referred to as Tlie Abbot of Canterbury; as Derry doivn; as
A Cobbler there ivas ; and as Death and the Oebbler.

Hem-y Carey, in his Musical Century, 1740, i. 53, gives a song commencing
" King George he was born in the month of October^
;
'Tis a sin for a subject tliat month to be sober

which is to this tune ; and he says, " The melody stolen from an old ballad,
called Death and the Cobbler.^'

In Watts' Musical Miscellany, 1729, i. 94, is " A ballad to the old tune. The

Abbot of Canterbury ;^^ and, in the second volume of the same collection,

"A Cobbler there was, set by Mr. Leveridge," who was then living. The tunes
are essentially the same, but Leveridge altered a few notes in the
second part.

Dr. Percy remarks that " the common popular ballad of King John and the
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 349

Ahloi of Oanferhury seems to have been abridged and modernized about the time
of King James I., from one mucb older, entitled JSjing John and the Bishop of
Qanterhury.'''' He adds that " the archness of the questions and answers hath
been much admired by our old ballad-makers ; for, besides the two copies above
mentioned, there is extant another ballad on the same subject, entitled King
Olfrey and the " Lastly, about the time of the civil wars, when the cry
Abbot."
ran against the bishops, some Pui-itan worked up the same story into a very
doleful ditty to a solemn tune, concerning King Henry and a Bishop, with this
stinging moral "
" Unlearned men hard matters out can find,
When learned bishops princes' eyes do blind."
A copy of the last is in the Douce
Collection, fol. 110, entitled The King and
the Bishop ; another in the Pepys, 472 and a third in the Roxburghe, iii. 170.
i.

—
;

It commences thus :
" In Popish times, when bishops proud
In England did bear sway,
Their lordships did like princes live,
And kept all at obey."
The ballad of Tlie old Abbot and King Olfrey is in the Douce Collection, fol. 169.
Olfrey is supposed to be a corruption of Alfred.
Mr. Payne Collier, in his Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers''

Company, i. 90, prints a ballad entitled TJie praise of Milkemaydes, from

a manuscript of the time of James I., now in his possession. It is evidently the
same as A defence for Mylkemaydes against the terme of Maiohen, which was
entered on the Registers in 1563-4. Unfortunately neither the entry, nor Mr.
Collier's manuscript, gives the name of the tune to which that ballad was sung.
I have a strong persuasion that it was to this air, for it has all the character of
antiquity, and I can find no other that would suit the words. The ballad
commences thus :

" Passe not for rybaldes which mylkemaydes defame.

And them but Malkins, poore Malkins by name
call

Their trade is as good as anie we knowe,

And that it is so I will presently showe.
Downe, a-downe, &c."
If, instead of "downe, a-downe, ^c," we had the burden complete, "downe,
a-downe, downe, hey derry down," I should feel no doubt of its being the air
but the burden is not given at length in the manuscript. The second and sixth
stanzas allude to the singing of milkmaids
" They rise in the morning to heare the larke sing,
And welcome with hallettes the summer's comming
They goe to their kine, and their milking is done
Before that some slnggardes have lookt at the sunne.
Downe, a-downe, &c.
In going to milking, or comming awaie,
They sing mery ballettes, or storyes they saye ;

Their mirth is as pure and as white as their milke

You cannot say that of your velvett and silke.

Downe, a-downe," &c.

850 ENaLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

There are numberlesa songs and ballads to the tune, under one or other of its
names. Political songs will be found in the collections written against the Rump
Parliament ; in those of the time of James 11. ; and again in " A Collection of
State Songs, &c., that have been published since the Rebellion, and sung in the
several mug-houses in the cities of London and Westminster" (1716). One of
Shenstone's ballads, TJie Gossiping,is to the tune of King John and the Ahhot of

Oanterlury, and is printed in his works, Oxford, 1737. Again, in The Asylum
for Fugitive Pieces, 1789, there are several; and the tune is in common use at
the present day.
Dr. Rimbault, in his Musical Illustrations to Percifs Reliques of Ancient

Poetry, prints from a MS. of the latter part of the seventeenth century, which
agrees with the copy in Watts' Musical Miscellany. Other copies will be found
in Tlie Beggars' Opera, third edit., 1729; Tlie Village Opera, 1729; Penelope,
1728; TJie Fashionable Lady, 1730; Tlie Lover his own Rival, 1736; The
Boarding-School, or The Sham Captain, 1733 The JDevil to pay, 1731 Tlie
; ;

Oxford Act; The Sturdy Beggars ; Love and Revenge ; The Jew decof d ; &c.
I have printed two copies of the tune the first being the commonly received
;

version, and the second taken from Watts' Musical Miscellany. These differ
materially, but intermediate versions will be found in Tlie Beggars^ Opera, and
some other of the above-mentioned works.
Both Tlie King and the Ahhot, and Tlie King and the Bishop, are in the
catalogue of ballads, printed by Thackeray, in the reign of Charles II. The
copy of the former in the Bagford Collection is entitled " King John and the
Abbot of Canterbury, to the tune of The King and Lord Ahhot." The story,
upon which these ballads are founded, can be traced back to the fifteenth
century.
Moderate time.

?m=w-
An an-cient sto-ry

3»
I'll tell

^
you a-non, Of a

^^m
no - ta - ble prince that

:*
Efea^
was

call- ed King John ; And he rul'd o - ver Eng-land with main and with might, For

-^
T
^mP^^^mp 4 •

^
he did great wrong, And maintain'd lit - tie right, Derry down, down, hey, der-ry down.

m
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 351

And I'll tell you a story, a story so merry, The first is to tell him there in that stead,
Concerning the Abbot of Canterbury ;
With his crown of gold so fair on his head,
How for his housekeeping, and high renown. Among all his liegemen so noble of birth.
The king he sent for him to fair London town. To within one penny of what he is worth.

An hundred men, the king did hear say. The second, to tell him, without any doubt,
The abbot did keep in his house every day ; How soon he may ride whole world about
this
And fifty gold chains, without any doubt. And at the third question I must not shrink,
In velvet coats waited the lord abbot about. But tell him there truly what he does think."
How now, father abbot, I hear it of thee. " Now cheer up, sire abbot, did you never hear
Thou keepest a far better house than me yet.
And from thy housekeeping and high renown, That a fool he may learn a wise man wit ?
I fear thou work'st treason against my crown. Lend me horse, and serving men, and your
My liege, quo' the abbot, I would it were known, apparel.

I never spend nothing but what is my own ;

And I'll ride to London to answer your quaiTel.

And I trust that your grace will do me no dere, Nay frown not, if it hath been told unto me
For spending of my own true-gotten gear. I am like your lordship, as ever may be

Yes, yes, father abbot, thy fault it is high. And if you will only hut lend me your gown.
And now same thou needest must die
for the There's none that shall know us at fair London
For, except thou canst answer me questions town."
three, " Now horses and serving-men thou shalt have.
Thy head shall be smitten from off thy hoA^.
With sumptuous array most gallant and brave
And first, quo' the king, when I'm in this stead, With crozier, and mitre, and rochet, and cope,
With my crown of gold so fair on my head, Fit to appear 'fore our father the pope."
Among all my liegemen so noble of birth. "Now welcome, sire abbot, the king he did say,
Thou must tell me to one penny what I am worth. 'Tis well thou'rt come back to keep
to thy day
And, secondly, tell me, without any doubt, For and if thou canst answer my questions
How soon I may ride the whole world about. three.
And at the third question thou must not shrink. Thy life and thy living both saved shall be.
But tell me here truly what I do think.
And first, when thou seest me here in this stead.
O, these are hard questions for my shallow wit, With my crown of gold so fair on my head.
And I cannot answer your grace as yet Among all my liegemen so noble of birth.
But if you will give me but three weeks space, Tell me to one penny what I am worth."
I'll do my endeavour to answer your grace.
"For thirty pence our Saviour was sold
Now three weeks' space to thee will I give. Among the false Jews, as I have been told
And that is the longest time thou hast to live And twenty-nine is the worth of thee.
For if thou dost not answer my questions three. For I think thou art one penny worser than he.
Thy lands and thy livings are forfeit to me.
The king he laughed, and swore by St. Bittel,
Away rode the abbot all sad at that word. " I did not think I had been worth so little !

And he rode to Cambridge and Oxenford — Now, secondly tell me, without any doubt,
But never a doctor there was so wise,' How soon I may ride this whole world about."
That could with his learning an answer devise.
" You must rise with the sun, and ride with
Then home rode the abbot of comfort so cold, the same.
And he met his shepherd a going to fold :
Until the next morning he riseth again ;
" How now, my lord abbot, you are welcome And then your grace need not make any doubt,
home, [John?" But in twenty-four hours you'll ride it about."
What news do you bring us from good King
The king he laughed, and swore by St. Jone,
" Sad news, sad news, shepherd, I must give " I did not think it could be gone so soon !
;

That I have but three days longer to live —Now from the third question thou must not
For if I do not answer him questions three, shrink,
My head will be smitten from oiF my hoAj: But tell me here truly what I do think."
352 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

" Yea, that shall I do, and make your grace " Now nay, my liege, be not in such speed,
merry. For, alack, I can neither write ne read."
You think I'm the Abbot of Canterbury [see, ;

But I'm his poor shepherd, as plain you may "Fo"-^ "O^es a week, then, I will give thee,

That am come to beg pardon for him and for Fo'' ^^'^ "^''"y J''^' *°" ^"^^ ^1^°^" ""'« ™« '

jjjg
> And tell the old abbot, when thou comest home,
Thou hast brought him a pardon from good
The king he laughed, and swore by the mass, ^. t T "
" I'll make thee lord abbot this day in his place."
The following is a very different version of tte tune, as printed in Watts'
Musical Miscellany.

^^^^B
Moderate time.

rsJ
w ri^-^^a^^N^^
r
An Of a

^ ^
an - cient sto-ry I'll tell you a - non, no -ta-ble prince that was
^i-n
zSn
d^fi

cal -
S
ledKingJohn. He
^
rul'd o - ver
* =f
^
England with
^^^
main and with might. For

-v :^ ^

he did great wrong, and maintain'dlit-tle right, Derry down, down, hey derry down

The following punning prototype of the late T. Hood's comic songs, should not
be omitted. It is entitled The Cobbler's Mid ;

A cobbler there was, and he liv'd in a stall, gyj love the disturber of high and of low.
Which serv'd him for parlour, for kitchen, and -pi^^j ^y^^^^^ ^j jj^g peasant as well as the beau,
^" > He shot the poor cobbler quite thorough the
No coin in his pocket, nor care in his pate, heart
No ambition had he, nor duns at his gate. j ^^i^^^ jjg had hit some more ignoble part-
Derry down, down, down, derry down. j)gj.,.y jg,,,,,^ ^^^^^ ^^
Contented he work'd, and he thought himself
jjg_p„ fnappv ^^ ^^^ from a cellar this archer did play.
•

If at night he could purchase a jug of brown Where a buxom young damsel continually lay
How he'd laugh then, and whistle, and sing, Her eyes shone so bright when she rose ev'ry
^''y' C^^^X'
too, most sweet,
Saying just to a hair I have made both ends That she shot the poor cobbler quite over the
meet. Derry down, down, &c. ^^''J <J«wn, down, &c.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 353

He sang her love songs as he sat at his work : He pierc'd through his body instead of his sole,
But she was as hard as a Jew or a Turk ;
So the cobbler he died, and the bell it did toll.
Whenever he spake, she would flounce and Derry down, down, &c.
would fleer, And now in good-will I advise as a friend,
Which put the poor cobbler quite into despair.
All cobblers take warning by this cobbler's
Derry down, down, &c. end [what's past.
;

Keep your hearts out of love, for we find by

He took up his awl that he had in the world.
That love brings us all to an end at the last.
And to make away with himself was resolv'd ;

Derry down, down, &c.

TOM TINKER'S MY TRUE-LOVE.

The tune of Tom Tinker's my true love is mentioned in a black-letter tract,
called The World's Folly, which was reprinted in Tlie British Bibliographer,

edited by Sir Egerton Brydges :

— " A pot of strong ale, which was often at his nose,
kept his face in so good a coulour, and his braine in so kinde a heate, as, forgetting

part of his forepassed pride, (in the good humour of grieving patience,) made him,
with a hemming sigh, ilfavourdly singe the ballad of Wliilom I was, to the tune of
Tom Tinker." (ii. 559). The tune is in The Dancing Master, from 1650 to
1698. About the latter period it seems to have been rejected for another air
(under the same name), which is printed with the words in Pills to furge
Melancholy, vi. 265 ; and was introduced in The Beggars' Opera for the song
Which way shall I turn me ?
The following tune is from The Dancing Master —
Moderate
ft:

Tom
For of
time.

T
all the young
,

Tin-ker's my true love. And

men he
I
has
,

i
am his
the best
dear,
way
^^*
And
All the day
I will go
he will

a
;

i?T§-B-

^ f^ P
^=
t ^=^ T
^
with
ivith him, his
fid -die,

^=^i-ti-^f^^i-^
^
at
bud - get to
night he will
bear,
play.

m
This way, that way, which - e - ver you

will,
"T r "T
I'm sure I say no - thing that
-^-
you can ike
take ill.
854 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAB MUSIC,

The Tom Tinker of The Beggars' Opera, and to -which D'Urfey prints the
above words, is subjoined.

Moderate time, and Smoothly.

ft-jf- j:
-«i f
i ^m ^ ^^-T? ii=f
T rr- f i ^JM -I* — CT

^
i

w ^N^^A^ni^^ j^J 3 S d rJ

m
\

^ 35 :^S^

^ ^
NOETHEBN NANCY.
This tune is contained in every edition of TJie Dancing Master, after 1665.
It is evidently only another version of With my flock as ivalked I (ante p. 157).*
" Then plump Bohbing Joan straight call'd for her own,
And thought she frisk'd hatter than any,
Till Sisly, with pride, took the fiddler aside.
And bade him strike up Northern Nanny."
Pills to purge Melancholy, ii. 232, 1719.

In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 252, is a black-letter ballad, entitled " The

Map Mock-Begger Hall, with his scituation in the spacious countrey
of called
Anywhere. To the tune of It is not your Northern Nanny ; or Sweet is the

lass that loves me." It commences thus

" I read in ancient times of yore And few men seek them to repair.
That men of worthy calling Nor is there one among twenty
Built alms-houses and spittles store, That for good deeds will take any care,

"Which now are all down falling While Moch-BeggarlTall stands empty."
It consists of twelve stanzas, and " Printed at London for Richard Harper, neere
to the Hospitall Gate in Smithfield."
In the same Collection, iii. 218, is another version of the same ballad, issued
by the same printer, but with variations in the imprint, in the number of stanzas,
and in the woodcut.
The first has a woodcut of a country mansion ; the second of a castle. The
second has three additional stanzas, and variations in the remaining twelve.
The title commences, " Mock-Begger's-Hall," instead of " The Map of; " and

T had not observed the identity of these tunes when difference is chiefly in the two first bars, but even that
the former sheet went to press ; otherwise I should have variation is diminislied in the copy called The faithful
compressed the account of them under one head. The Brothers, to which I have referred at the former page.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 355

at the end, " London : Printed for Richard Harper, at the Bible and Harp in
Smithfield."
Mr. Payne Collier, who has reprinted the latter in his Roxburghe Ballads, is of
opinion that, although Richard Harper printed during the Commonwealth, the
ballad itself is of the early part of the seventeenth century. (It contains the
same complaints of the decay of hospitality that are to be found in Tlie Queen's
Old Courtier.) The first stanza of the second ballad is here printed to the tune.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 390, is another ballad, called The ruined
Lover, &c., "to the tune of Mock-Begger' s Hall stands empty ^^ beginning
" Mars shall to Cupid now submit, For it is new, 'tia strange and true,
For he hath gain'd the glory As ever age afforded
You that in love were never yet, A tale more sad you never had
Attend unto my story In any books recorded."
This was printed by W. Thackeray, temp. Charles

^
II.
Northern Nancy is one of the tunes called for by " the hob-nailed fellows " in
The Second Tale of a Tub, 8vo., 1715.
/ Rather slowly. .

^
^^
'
Atn I

SI J I : ^-.-H N-

*—**•^i
In an-cient times when as plain dealing Was most of all in fashion, There

aiPMF t-- I J J^r-

^^ /

was not then

^^^S half so much stealing,
?i^=S

Nor men so giv'n

^
to
t
pas - sion : But
i

T^^=^^ -
jrT"P
\\»

^ni
now - a - days, truth
i

so
j
r i

de-cays,
i

And
frijjij./f
false knaves there are plen - ty, So

fe 3^ ^ ^
^^^rm^^
pride ex - ceeds all o - ther deeds,
m
And Mock-heggar Hall
o — '^
stands
1emp - ty,

*
^
356 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

I HAVE BUT A MARK A YEAR.

This tune is to be found in Pills to purge Melancholy, ii. 116, 1700 and 1707 ;

or iv. 116, 1719. The ballad is by Martin Parker, and a copy is contained in
the Roxburghe Collection, 122. In the preface to the Pills, Playford tells us
i.

that the words of the songs " which are old have their rust generally filed from
them, which cannot but make them very agreeable." This is one that has
undergone the process of " filing " it is abbreviated, but certainly not improved,
;

by the operation. The copy in the Roxburghe Collection is entitled " fair A
portion for a fair Maid ; or
The thrifty maid of Worcestershire, This mark was her old mother's gift,

Who lives at London for a mark a year; She teaches all maids how to thrift.

To the tune of Grrammercy, Penny.^' (The first stanza is here printed with the
music.) Grrammercy (or Grod-a-mercy) Penny, derives , its name from
the burden
of another ballad, also in the Roxburghe Collection (i. 400), entitled " There's
nothing to be had without money ; or
He that brings money in his hand, His fortune is a great deal worse
Is sure to speed by sea and land Then happy are they that always have
But he that hath no coin in's purse, A penny in purse, their credit to save.
To a neiv Northern tune, or Tlie mother heguiVd the daughter." It commences thus
" You gallants and you swagg'ring blades, I always lov'd to wear good clothes,
Give ear unto my dittj' And ever scorned to take blows ;

I am a boon-companion known I am belov'd of all me knows,

In country, town, and city; But God-a-mercy penny."
This was " printed at London for H[enry] G[osson]." Six stanzas in the
first, and eight in the second part.

Another ballad, from the same press, is " The Praise of Nothing : to the tune
of Tliough I have hut a marke a yeare, &c." A copy in the Roxburghe Collection,
i. 328, and reprinted in Payne Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, p. 147. The
following lines are added to the title of the ballad :
" Though some do wonder why I write the praise
Of Nothing in these lamentable days,
When they have read, and will my counsel take,
!"
I hope of Nothing they will Something make
The above contains much excellent advice.
Having traced the tune from / have hut a mark a year to Crod-a-mercy, Penny,
and from the latter to " a neiv Northern tune, or The mother heguiVd the daughter"
the following ballads may also be referred to it :

Roxburghe, i. 238 —" The meri-y careless lover : Or a pleasant new ditty, called
I love a lass since yesterday, and yet I cannot get her. To the tune of The
mother heguilde the daughter."
" Oft have I heard of many men I have lov'd a lass since yesterday,
W^hom love hath sore tormented, And yet I cannot get her.
With grief of heart, and bitter smart. But let her choose — if she refuse,
And minds much discontented And go to take another.
Such, love to me shall never be, I will not grieve, but still will be
Distasteful, grievous, bitter I The merry careless lover" &c.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 357

Signed Robert Guy. Twelve stanzas. Printed at London for F. Coules, and
reprinted in Evans' Old Ballads, i. 176, 1810.
Roxburghe, i. 314, " A Peerless Paragon ; or
Few 80 chaste, so beauteous, or so fair
For with my love I think none can compare.
To the tune of T}ie mother legidld the daughter,"
" In times of yore sure men did doat, For, read of all the faces then
And beauty never knew. That did most brightly shine,
Else women were not of that note, Be judg'd by all true-judging men,
As daily come to view They were not like to mine."
This has no burden. It consists of thirteen stanzas. "Printed at London for
Thomas Lambert."
Martin Parker's ballad, " The Countrey Lasse," to the tune of T/ie mother
heguild the daughter, has been quoted at p. 306, but it appears also to have had a
separate tune, which will be given hereafter.

_y Ckeerfully

S f lii i SU:^
s
Now all my friends are dead and gone, A - las
^m ! what will be

eis 3
^ 122

eM —
-tide me.
^m.
*r—^
For I, poor maid,
* w

am
I *

left a-lone. With - out

•>— 1

a house to hide me.

^ EfeS
^ ^
— — — — "

Yet
a
still
^==

I'll
^be of merry cheer.
; ^=

And have kind welcome

— d

ev'-ry - where. Though

-sJ- _
isilis
cr i r ~CT"
^
fe^^
I have but a mark
i
a year. And that my mo-ther gave
m me.

^ '^
• n
358 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC,

I TELL THEE, DICK, WHERE I HAVE BEEN.

This celebrated ballad, by Sir John Suckling, was occasioned by the marriage
of Roger Boyle, the first Earl of Orrery (then Lord Broghill), with Lady
Margaret Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk. The words are in the first
edition of Sir John Suckling's works, 1646 in Wifs Recreation, 1654 ; in ;

Merry Drollery Complete, 1661 ; Antidote to MelancJioly, 1661 in The Convivial

;

Songster, 1782 ; in Ritson's Ancient Songs, p. 223 ; and Ellis' Specimens of Early
English Poets, iii. 248.
The tune is in A Choice Collection of 180 Loyal Songs, third edit., 1685 ; in
Pills to purge Melancholy, vol. i., 1699 and 1707 ; in The Convivial Songster,
1782, &c.
The following were written to the tune :

1. The Cavalier^s Complaint. A copy in the Bagford Collection (643, m. 11,

p. 23) dated 1660 ; and one in the King's Pamphlets, No. 19, fol., 1661 ; others
ha. Antidote to Melancholy; Merry Drollery,\Q10; TJie New Academy of Com-
pliments, 1694 and 1713 ; and Dryden's Miscellany Poems, vi. 352 ; &c.
" Come, Jack, let's drink a pot of ale, And I suppose the place can shew
And I will tell thee such a tale, As few of those whom thou didst know
Shall make thine ears to ring At York, or Marston-Moor.
My coin is spent, my time is lost,
But, truly, there are swarms of those
And I this only fruit can boast
Whose chins are beardless, yet their hose
That once I saw my King.
And buttocks still wear muffs
But this doth most afflict my mind Whilst the old rusty Cavalier
I went to court in hope to iind Retires, or dares not once appear,
Some of my friends in place For want of coin and cuffs.

And, walking there, I had a sight When none of these I could descry,
—
Of all the crew but, by this light, (Who better far deserv'd than I,)
I hardly knew one face
Calmly did I reflect
S'life, of so many noble sparks, Old services, by rule of state,
Who on their bodies bear the marks Like almanacks, grow out of date
Of their integrity. What then can I expect ?

And suffer'd ruin of estate.

Troth, in contempt of fortune's frown,
It was my damn'd unhappy fate
I'll get me fairly out of town.
That I not one could see. And in a cloister pray
Not one, upon my life, among That since the stars are yet unkind
My old acquaintance, all along To Royalists, the King may find

At Truro, and before More faithful friends than they."

An Echo to the Cavalier's Complaint. Copies in TJie Antidote to Melanclwly,

2.

1661; Merry Drollery Complete, IQIO; New Academy of Compliments ; &c.

" I marvel, Dick, that having been Are we to learn what is a court ?
So long abroad, and having seen A pageant made for Fortune's sport,
The world, as thou hast done, MTiere merits scarce appear
Thou shouldst acquaint me with a tale For bashful merit only dwells
As old as Nestor, and as stale In camps, in villages, and cells ;

As that of priest and nun. Alas ! it dwells not there.

 EEIGNS OF JAMBS I. AND CHARLES I. 359

Desert is nice in its address, And courtiers find't their interest

And merit oft-times dotli oppress, In time to feather well their nest,
Beyond what guilt would do Providing for their fall.
But they are sure of their demands Our comfort doth on time depend
That come to court with golden hands, Things, when they are at worst, will
And brazen faces too. _^ii^ let us but reflect [mend
The King, they say, doth still profess On our condition th'other day.
To give his party some redress. When none but tyrants bore the sway.
And cherish honesty What, then, did we expect ?
But his good wishes prove in vain. Meanwhile, a calm retreat is best
Whose service with his servant's gain ^^t discontent, if not supprest.
Not always doth agree. -yV^ill breed disloyalty.

All princes, be they ne'er so wise. This is the constant note I sing,
Are fain to see with others' eyes, I have been faithful to my Mng,
But seldom hear at all And so shall ever be.

3. Upon Sir John Suckling's 100 Horse. Contained in Le Prince d? Amour, or

Tlie Prince of Love, 1660, p. 148. Sir John raised a magnificent regiment of
cavalry at his own expense (12,000/.), in the beginning of our civil wars, which
became equally conspicuous for cowardice and finery. They rendered him the
subject of much ridicule ; and although he had previously served in a campaign
under Gustavus Adolphus — during which he was present at three battles, five
sieges, and as many skirmishes — his military reputation did not escape.
"I tell thee, Jack, thou gav'st the King For ev'ry horse shall have on's back
So rare a present, that nothing A man as valiant as Sir Jack,
Could welcomer have been ;
Although not half so witty :

A hundred horse beshrew my heart. ! Yet hear the other day

I did
It was a brave heroic part. Two tailors made seven run away.
The like will scarce be seen. Good faith, the more's the pity." &c.
There are seven stanzas, and then " An Answer " to it."'

4 and 5. A ballad on a Friend's Wedding, and Three Merry Boys of Kent,

in Folly in Print, or a Booh of Rhymes, 1667.
6. A new ballad, called The Chequers Inn, in Poems on State Affairs, iii. 57,
1704, It begins :
— "I Dick, where I have been,
tell thee,

\^1iere I the Parliament have seen," &c.

7. A Christmas Song, when the Rump Parliament was first dissolved, Loyal
Songs, ii. 99, 1731.
Besides these, there is one in Carey's Trivial Poems, 1651 ; three in 180 Loyal
Songs, 1685 ; &c.
" The grace and elegance of Sir John Suckling's songs and ballads are in-
imitable." " They have a touch," says Phillips, " of a gentle spirit, and seem

• These were not the only satires Sir John Suckling With a hundred horse, without remorse,
liad to bear. There were, at least, two others. One, to To keep ye from the foe
the tune of John Dory, begins— No went to flght
carpet knight ever
"Sir John got on a bonny brown beast, With half so much bravado ; [the book.

To Scotland for to ride-a; Had you seen but his look, you would sweare by
A brave buff coat upon his back, He'd ha' conquer'd the whole Armado."
And a short sword by his side-a." There are also two other versions of the latter the one ;

The other beginning, "Then as it fell out on a holiday," (see " Cen-
" Sir John got him an ambling nag, sura Literaria," vol. vi., p. 269) and the other in Percy's
To Scotland for to go, Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. ii., p. 326.
860 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

to savour more of the grape than the lamp." The author of the song above
quoted from Folly in Print, says
" I do not write to get a name, And Suckling hath shut up that door,
At beat this is but ballad-fame To all hereafter, as before."

Sir John died in 1641, at the early age of twenty -eight. The ballad is a
countryman's description of a -wedding.

E^
i
s
^]
Smoothly.

r J1-
Dick, where
^^
have been, Where the
i
r^^==^
ra rest things have

m
I'll tell thee, 1 I -

^3
^ i
3= ^

seen,
p

Oh
w.

things beyond corn-pare. Such

f

sights a - gain can-not

^s
? ^r^-^ be found
^
In
sa-ny

^
!

3PE 3 £
-t •
^^^m
place on En-glish ground, Be it at Wake
-^
or Fair.

"At Charing Cross, hard by the way And there did I see, coming down.
Where we, thou know'st, do sell our hay. Such folk as are not in our town.
There is a house with stairs; Forty, at least, in pairs."

There are twenty-two stanzas, but some lines of the ballad might now be
considered objectionable. I have, therefore, extracted the following —a part of
the description of the bride :-
—
The maid and thereby hangs a tale But, oh ! she dances such a way.
For such a maid no Whitsun-ale No sun upon an Easter-day
Could ever yet produce
No grape that's kindly ripe could be
So round, so plump, so soft as she.
:

•
Her cheeks
»«»*«
Is half so fine a sight.

so rare a white was on.

Nor half so full of juice. No daisy makes comparison ;

(Who sees them is undone;)

Her finger was so small, the ring For streaks of red were mingled there.
Would not stay on which they did bring. Such as are on a Kath'rine pear.
It was too wide a peck :
The side that's next the sun.
And, to say truth, (for out it must,)
Her lips were red, and one was thin,
It lookt like the great collar (just)
Compar'd was next her chin
to that
About our young colt's neck. ;

Some bee had stung it newly :

Her feet beneath her petticoat. But, Dick, her eyes so guard her face,
Like little mice stole in and out. I durst no more upon them gaze.

As if they fear'd the light Than on the sun in July.

 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 361

THE COURT LADY.

The first ballad in the Collection of Old Ballads, 8vo., 1727, vol. i., is "The
unfortunate Concubine, or Rosamond's Overthrow occasioned by her brother's ;

praising her beauty to two young knights of Salisbury, as they rid on the road.
To the tune of The Court Lady^ I have not found the ballad of Tlie Court Lady,
but the tune is contained in Tlie Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1698, under the
name of Confess, or The Court Lady.
This ballad of Fair Eosamond is so exceedingly long (twenty-six stanzas of

^
eight lines, and occupying ten pages in vol. ii. of Evans' Old Ballads, where it is

reprinted), that the first, third, and fourth stanzas only, are here subjoined.

Moderate time.

i ^fcfc
i
Sweet, youthful, charming la - dies fair, Fram'd of the pu - rest mould, With

aFJF
=w=
^ ? E
f—^^^
^
-A
—-*
— FT-i — ^- - -^M
-a
[J J r 1

^-i
—•
—• Mi Ji
ro - sy cheeks and

•1 - •
sil k -

-f
bzt
en hair, Which

-^—
-1
shine

r
like

'-
— tl ireads of gold; Soft

=
r-

^
r 1

^-a

n
tears of pi - ty here be stow,
N'^

On
^m
r^^
the un - hap-py
IZIB

fate Of

I
^ w
-i
Ro - sa -
m
mond, who long a
^
- go,
^
Proved most un -
i ^E
I

for - tu - nate.

As three young knights of Salisbury My sister's locks of curled hair

Were riding on the way. Outshine the golden ore;
One boasted of a fair lady. Her skin for whiteness may compare
Within her bower so gay : With the fine lily flow'r;
I have a sister, Clifford swears. Her breasts are lovely to behold,
But few men do her know ;
Like to the driven snow
Upon her face the skin appears I would not, for her weight in gold,
Like drops of blood on snow. King Henry should her know, &c.
362 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

GATHER YOUR ROSEBUDS WHILE YOU MAY.

This song is Ayres and Dialogues, 1659, p. 101 in Playford's
in Playford's ;

Introduction to Music, third

edit., 1660 in Musick's Delight on the Cithren, 1666
;

and in The Musical Companion, 1667. The music is the composition of William
Lawes ; the poetry by Herrick. It became popular in ballad-form, and is in the
list of those printed by W. Thackeray, at the Angel in Duck Lane, as well as
in Merry Drollery Complete, 1670. It has been reprinted (from a defective
copy) in Evans' Old Ballads, iii, 287, 1810. Herrick addresses it " To the
Virgins, to make much of time." Sesperides, i. 110, 1846.

fe7;=j=^=^=^ ^ri=J?^—
M ^=rp—
i=^pF=
•:
1» sS
=
S "TS^

7TT?7T~^
^3^
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, Old Time

^ is still a fly - ing

^
=^
^
And this
r ^^
same flow'r that smiles to-day, To - mor - row will be dy - ing.

i Etfe*E§
The glorious lamp of heaven, the
m sun, But being spent, the worse and worst
The higher he is getting, Times still succeed the former.
The sooner will his race be run, Then be not coy, hut use your time.
And nearer he's to setting.
And, while ye may, go marry
That age is best which is the first, For having once but lost your prime,
When youth and blood are warmer You may for ever tarry.

THREE MERRY BOYS ARE WE.

Thisproperly a round, and composed by William Lawes, who was appointed
is

Gentleman of the Chapel Eoyal in 1602. He became afterwards one of Charles

the First's Chamber Musicians, and was killed fighting for his cause in 1645.

It is to be found in Hilton's Catch that catch can, 1652 ; in Playford's Musical

Companion; in MusicMs Delight on the Cithren; &c. The words have been
adduced by Sir John Hawkins to illustrate the Tliree merry men are tve quoted
by Shakespeare. See note to Twelfth Night, act ii., sc. 3.

In Merry Drollery Complete, 1670, is a parody on this, entitled " The Cam-

bridge Droll"—
"The 'proctors are two and no more, I wish they were more for me :

Then hang them, that makes them three ; For three merry boys, and three merry boys,
The taverns are but four, And three merry boys are we."
 BEIGNS OP JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 363

Boldly.

i tt#
M"4 W *- i^
S' / V y V V V
J4- -*- •'T''W
The ^vise men were but seven, Nor more shall be for me ; The

^
f>4H7-fT -^^^
i ?T1i

f
mu - seswere but
I
nine, The wor
^-^^
- thies three times thre And

^T :3=fz

^
f=
three mer-ry boys, And three mer-ry boys. And three
-P —
mer-ry boys
1^ are we.

T
^Ei 1^
I

J
'- .^^
The virtues they were seven, And the fatal sisters three.
And three the greater be ;
And three merry girls, and three merry girls,
The Csesars they were twelve, And three merry girls are we.
Another Three merry hoys are we has been akeady quoted (ante p. 216).

CUPID'S COURTESY.

Copies of this ballad are in the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 58 ; and in the Douce
Collection, p. 27. It is also printed entu-e, with the tune, in Pills to purge
Melancholy, vi. 43.
The copy in the Roxburghe Collection may be dated as of the reign of
Charles II., being " printed by and for W. 0[nley], for A[lexander] JVI[ilbourne],
and sold by the booksellers ; " but Mr. Payne CoUier, who reprints it in his Booh
of Roxhurghe Ballads, p. 80, mentions "a manuscript copy, dated 1595," as still
extant. The words are in the same metre as Phillida flouts me, and Lady lie near
me (ante pages 183 and 185), but the stanzas are shorter, being of eight instead
of twelve lines. The ballad is entitled " Cupid's Courtesie or The young Gallant ;

foil'd at hisown weapon. To a most pleasant Northern tune.'"

In another volume of the Douce Collection (p. 264) is " The Young Man's
Vindication against The Virgin's Complaint. Tune of The Virgin's Qomplai7it,
or Qiqnd's Courtesie ; " commencing
" Sweet virgin, hath disdain Ne'er to love man again,
Mov'd you to passion, But for the fashion ? " &c.
364 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

This is also in eight-line stanzas (black-letter) ; and a former possessor has

pencill'd against the name of the tune, " I am so deep in love." I have referred
to I am so deep in love (ante p. 183) as probably another name for Phillida flouts

^
me, but on this authority it should rather be to Cupid's Courtesy.

Smoothly,

^^^^^ Through the cool sha - dy woods As I

\lU\
was ran -
nj
ging, I
^

heard the
^
wm
^ 3:^
321

pret-ty
Pf
birds Notes sweet -
=3
ly
p
chan - ging.
/.

f=f
Down by the mea -
^
dow's side

^ ^
t^
A boy spied With bow

^
and qui
ver lit - tie I - ver.
There runs a ri - ;

4- 19 ^
"^ ^
" Little boy, tell me why thou art here diving " If thou dost but the least at my laws grumble,
;

"
Art thou some runaway, and hast no biding? I'll pierce thy stubborn breast, and make thee
" I am no runaway Venus, my mother,
; humble
She gave me leave to play, when I camebither." If I with golden dart wound thee but surely,
" go with me, and be my servant There's no physician's art that e'er can cure
Little boy,
thy preferment." [me, thee."
I will take care to see for
"If I with thee should go, Venus would chide
" Little boy, with thy bow why dost thou
And talce away my bow, and never abide me."
threaten ?
" Little boy, let me know what's thy name It is not long ago since thou wast beaten.
termed. Thy wanton mother, fair Venus, will chide
That thou dost wear a bow, and go'st so thee:
armed?" [changing, When all thy arrows are gone, thou may'st go
"You may perceive tbe same with often hide thee."
Cupid it is my name I live by ranging."
;

" Of powerful shafts, you see, I am well stored.

" If Cupid be thy name, that shoots at rovers,
Which makes my deity so much adored :

I have heard of thy fame, by wounded lovers :

With one poor arrow now I'll make thee shiver,

Should any languish that are set on fire
And bend unto my bow, and fear my quiver."
By such a naked brat, I much admire."
 REIGNS OF JAMBS I. AND CHARLES I, 365

" Dear little Cupid, be courteous and kindly : For Cupid with his craft quickly had chosen,
I know thou canst not hit, but shootest And with a leaden shaft her heart had frozen
blindly." [thee. Which caus'd this lover more sadly to
"Although thou eall'st me blind, surely I'll hit languish.
That thou shalt quickly find I'll not forget ;
And Cupid's aid implore to heal hia anguish.
thee."
„, ^ He humbly pardon crav'd for his oifence past.

',.,
,. , . , , , . , . ,
Then littleCupid caught his bow so nimble, , ,
vow d3
, , ij. , i
And himseli a slave, and to love sted-
, ,

And shot a fatal shaft which made me tremble

fast.
" Go, tell thy mistress dear thou canst discover
His pray'rs so ardent were, whilst his heart
What all the passions are of a dying lover."
panted.
And now his gallant heart sorely was bleeding, That Cupid lent an ear, and his suit granted.
And felt the greatest smart from love proceed-
ing : For by his present plaint he was regarded.
He did her help implore whom he affected. And his adored saint his love rewarded.
But found that more and more him she re- And now they live in joy, sweetly embracing,
jected. And left the little boy in the woods chasing.

HAVE AT THY COAT, OLD WOMAN.

This tune is contained in every edition of The Dancing Master^ and in MusicFs
Delight on the Cithren, 1666.
A copy of the ballad from which it derives the above name is in the Pepys
Collection, i. 284. It is—
" A merry new song of a rich widovy's wooing.
Who married a young man to her own undoing.
To the tune of Stand thy ground, old Harry?'' It is a long ballad, in black-
letter, " printed at London for T. Langley," and commences thus :•

"I am so sick for love. Have at thy coat, old woman,

As like was never no man, [sigh, Have at thy coat, old woman,
Which makes me cry, with a love-sick Here and there, and everywhere,
Have at thy coat, old woman. Have at thy coat, old woman."
Marry ; but there is another
I have not found the ballad, Stand thy ground, old
to the tune, under that name, in the same volume, i. 282 " A very pleasant —
new ditty, to the tune of Stand thy ground, old Harry ; commencing, " Come,
hostess, fill the pot." Printed at London for H. Gosson.
A song, commencing, " My name is honest Harry," to the tune of Robin
Rowser, which is in the same metre, is contained in Westminster Drollery, 1671
and 1674 ; and in Dryden's Miscellany Poems, iv. 119. I imagine that Stand
thy ground, old Harry, and My name is honest Harry, are to the same tune,
although I cannot prove it. The words of the latter suit the air so exactly, that
I have here printed them with the music.
Whitlock, in his Zootomia ; or Observations on the Present Manners of the
English, 12mo., 1654, p. 45, commences his character of a female quack, with
the line, "And have at thy coat, old woman." In Vox Borealis, 4to., 1641, we
find, " But all this sport was little to the court-ladies, who began to be very
melancholy for lack of company, till at last some young gentlemen revived an old
game, called Have at thy coat, old woman.''''
366 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Merrily.

iH^:^\\:^^-n^^^
y
\

T
t^
My name is ho - nest Har - ry, And I love lit - tie

m^^ ^S #
^
m ^^ a^-Njij'^
Ma - ry In
=r^f
spite of Cis, or jealous Bess, I'll
"f
have myownva-ga - ry.

^
;

gfe ^^
My love is blithe and buxom, Her stockings of a Bow-dyed hue,
And sweet and fine as can be, And her shoes of Spanish leather.
Fresh and gay as the flowers in May, Her smock o' th' finest holland.
And looks like Jack-a-dandy. And lac'd in every quarter;

And if she will not have me, • Side and wide, and long enough,
That am so true a lover, To hang below her garter.
I'll drink my wine, and ne'er repine,
Then to the church I'll have her,
And down the stairs I'll shove her.
Where we will wed together
But if that she will love me, And so come home when we have done.
I'll be as kind as may be ;
In spite of wind and weather.
I'll give her rings and pretty things. The fiddlers shall attend us.
And deck her like a lady. And first play John come kiss me ;
Her petticoat of satin. And when that we have danc'd a round.
Her gown of crimson tabby, They shall play Hit or miss me.
Lac'd up before, and spangled o'er, Then hey for little Mary,
Just like a Bart'lemew baby. Tis she I love alone, sir

Her waistcoat shall be scarlet. Let any man do what he can,

With ribbons tied together I will have her or none, sir.

A HEALTH TO BETTY.
This tune is contained in every edition of Tlie Dancing Master, and in MusicFs
Delight on the Cithren.
D'Urfey prints "The Female Quarrel: Or a Lampoon upon Phillida and
Chloris, to the tune of a country dance, call'd A health to Betty," Pills

ii. 110, 1719.

In the Pepys Collection, a ballad—" Four-pence-half-penny-farthing
i. 274, is

or A woman will have the oddes;" signed M[artin] P[arker]. "Printed at

London for C. W. To the tune of Bessy Bell [she doth excel!], or A health to

Betty." The first verse is here printed to the tune.

Li the same Collection, ii. 372, is " The Northern Turtle
Wayling his unhappy fate,

In being deprived of his sweet mate.

 REIGNS OP JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 367

To a new Northern tune, or health to Betty.'''' A

Printed at London for J. H.,
and beginning —
" As I was walking all alone."

In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 318, " The 'pair of Northern Turtles

"VSTiose love was firm, till cruel death
Deprived them both of life and breath."
This is also " to a new Northern tune, or health to Betty" and commences A
" Farewell, farewell, my dearest dear.
All happiness wait on thee."

i?^=R
±
&^
Gracefully.

^
One morn-ing bright,
^
for my
i

m
de-light.
^

In -
r to
-I

the fields
m^d I walked. There
It seem'd to me they could not agree A - bout some pret-ty bargain. He
-1
3SS
^ .1
g
^
'
i-^-r^
did
offer'd
I
a
see
groat,
-

a
but
lad,
still
and he
her note
^
Was
^
With a fair maid - en
--ini-

talk - ed.
four -pence -half-penny - far - thing.
m

SHACKLEY-HAY.
W

^m ^ —
'

The only copy I have found of this tune is in the Skene Manuscript, temp.
Charles I.

It seems to derive its name from " A most excellent song of the love of young
Palmus and faire Sheldra, with their unfortunate love." Copies of this, " to the
tune of Shackley-kay" are in the Pepys Collection, i. 350 ; in the Roxburghe,
i. 436 and 472; the Bagford, fol. 75; and it is reprinted in Evans' Old
Ballads, i. 50.
In the Pepys Collection, i. 344, is a ballad of " Leander's love to Hero. To
the tune of ShacUey-hay" beginning
" Two
famous lovers once there was."
In Westminster Drollery, 1671 and 1674, " Song of the Declensions. A The
tune is Shackle de hay," and the same, with two others, in Grammatical Brollery,
by W. H. (Captain Hicks), 1682.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 244, and the Douce Collection, p. 109, is
" The Knitter's Job Or the earnest suitor of Walton town to a fair maid, with
:

her modest answers, and conclusion of their intents. To the tune of Shackley-
hey." It commences thus :

" Within the town of Walton fair. This maid she many suitors had,
A lovely lass did dwell And some were good, and some were bad.
Both carding, spinning, knitting yarn. Fa, la la la la, &c.
She could do all full well.
368 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Tlie Canaries (a dance " with sprightly fire and motion," alluded to by
Shakespeare, and which, under that name, seems always to have had the same
tune) is called " The Canaries, or The Hay,'" in MusicKs Handmaid, 1678.
The figure of The Hay was also frequently danced in country-dances ; but
Shachley-hay is the name of a place in the ballad. It is very long —twenty-four
stanzas of eight lines —
I have, therefore, selected nine from the first part. The
second recounts young Palmus's going to sea in an open boat, through fair
Sheldra's disdain his being wrecked and drowned, and the sea-nymphs falling in
;

love with him.

Smoothly.

m^
w m J-Hij^
Young Pal-mus was a Fer- ry - man, Whom Shel-dra fair
-»

did love, At
IT

iffiHj ^^|J J .
I J . J ^EfEJ T
\> A J ]^=i=

^^^^^^m
Shackley, where her sheep did graze, She there his thoughts did prove But

J^
:

^ J- J ^ I

M=^
^
m m ^^
^ Ur V
lie un - kind - ly stole a - way, And left his love at Shackley - hay, So

^ loud at Shack-ley did she cry,

PP
^ P S^
The words resound at Shackley-hay.

it

But all in vain she did complain. No, no, quoth she, I thee deny,
For nothing could him move, My love thou once did scorn,
Till wind did turn him back again, And my prayers wouldst not hear,
And brought him to his love. But left me here forlorn.
When she saw him thus turn'd by fate, And now, being turn'd by fate of wind.
She turn'd her love to mortal hate ;
Thou thinkst to win me to thy mind
Then weeping, to her he did say, Go, go, farewell I thee deny. !

I'll live with thee at Shackley-hay. Thou shalt not live at Shackley-hay.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLKS I. 369

If that thou dost my love disdain, And if we be opprest with heat.

Because I live on seas In mid-time of the day.
Or that I am a ferry-man Under the willows tall and great
My Sheldra doth displease, Shall be our quiet bay ;

I will no more in that estate Where I will make thee fans of boughs.
Be servile unto wind and fate, From Phoebus' beams to shade thy brows
But quite forsake boats, oars, and sea. And cause them at the feiTy cry,
And live with thee at Shackley-hay. A boat, a boat, to Shackley-hay !

* • • • •
To strew my hoat, for thy avail, A troop of dainty neighbouring girls
I'll rob the flowery shores; Shall dance along the strand.
And whilst thou guid'st the silken sail, Upon the gravel all of pearls,
row with silv'ry oars;
I'll To wait when thou shalt land
And as upon the streams we float, And cast themselves about thee round,
A thousand swans shall guide our boat; Whilst thou with garlands shalt be crown 'd;
And to the shore still will I cry, And all the shepherds with joy shall cry,
My Sheldra comes to Shackley-hay. O Sheldra, come to Shackley-hay
* • • • •
And, walking lazily to the strand, Although I did myself absent,
We'll angle in the brook, 'Twas but to try thy mind ;

And fish with thy white lily hand. And now thou may'st thyself repent,
Thou need'st no other hook For being so unkind.
To which the fish shall soon be brought, No now thou art turn'd by wind and fate,
!

And strive which shall the first be caught Instead of love thou hast purchas'd hate,
A thousand pleasures will we try. Therefore return thee to the sea.
As we do row to Shackley-hay. And bid farewell to Shackley-hay.

FEANKLIN IS FLED AWAY.

Copies of this ballad are in the Pepys Collection, ii. 76 ; the Roxburghe,
ii. 348 ; the Bagford, 643, m. 10, p. 69 ; and the Douce, fol. 222.
In the same volume of the Bagford Collection, p. 139, is "The two faithful
Lovers. To the tune of Franldin is fled aivay commencing
;''''

" Farewell, my heart's delight, I must now take my flight.

Ladies, adieu Whate'er ensue."

The tune is contained in Apollo's Banquet for the Treble Violin, 1669 ; in
180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694 and in Pills to purge Melancholy, iii. 208, 1707
;

sometimes under the name of i'raji/c/m is fled aivay, and at others as hone,
burden of the ballad. This burden is derived from the Ii-ish lamen-
hone, the
tation, to which there were many allusions in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, as in Marston's Uasiivard Hoe, act v., sc. 1 ; or in Gayton's Festivous
—
Notes upon Bon Quixote, 1654, p. 57,- " Who this night is to be rail'd upon by
the black-skins, in as lamentable noyse as the wild Irish make their honest
A different version of the tune will be found in the ballad opera of The Jovial
Crew, 1731, under the name of You gallant ladies all.

A variety of songs and ballads, which were sung to it, will be found in the
above-named collections of ballads; in the 180 Loyal Songs ; in Patrick Carey's

Trivial Poems, 1651 ; and in Pills to purge Melancholy.

The tune is one of the many from which Qod save the King has been said to be

derived.
2b
370 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAB MUSIC.

The title of the oi-iginal ballad is "A mournful Caral : Or an Elegy lamenting
the tragical ends of two unfortunate faithful Lovers, Franklin and Cordeli?«s ; he
being slain, she slew herself with her dagger. To a new tune called Franklin is

fled atvay.^'

Moderate time.
4 Sc
.CD 4 ^ ^
r
«!-

s * ^ -^
Franklin, my loy - al friend, O hone, O hone In whom my

^FF? J ,J-
^j=..M
"

^«
"1
joys do end, O
f

hone!
SE
O hone!
^
Franklin,
^

my heart's delight, -Since last

t^jj^

^ f^ 1221
3 f^^^W

took his flight, Bids now the

eT=f i
O
world goodnight. hone,
1=^^=^
O hone!

£j=f:j-^-^- i g
* f^
Franklin is fled and gone, O hone, O hone
And left me here alone, O hone, O hone !

Franklin is fled away,

The glory of the May ;

Who can but mourn and say, O hone, O hone

There are six stanzas in the first, and eight in the second part. Black-letter.
Printed for M. Coles, W. Thackeray, &c.

QUEEN DIDO, OR TROY TOWN.

"Aballett intituled TJie Wanderijnge Prince" was entered on the Registers
of the Stationers' Company in 1564-5. This was, no doubt, the "Proper new
ballad, intituled The Wandering Prince of Troy : to the tune of Queen Dido" of
which there are two copies in the Pepys Collection (i. 84 and 548). Of these
copies, the first, bemg printed by John Wright, is probably not of earlier date
than 1620 ; and the second, by Clarke, Thackeray, and Passinger, after 1660.
The ballad has been reprinted in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, iii. 192,
1765 ; and in Ritson's Ancient Songs, ii. 141, 1829. Its extensive popularity
will be best shown by the following quotations :
—" You ale-knights, you that
devour the marrow of the malt, and drink whole ale-tubs into consumptions ; that
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 371

sing Queen Dido over a cup, and

tell strange news over an ale-pot you shall be . . .

awarded with punishment, that the rot shall infect your purses, and eat out
this
the bottom before you are aware." The Penniless Parliament of threadbare
Poets, 1608. (Percy Soc. reprint, p. 44.)
Prank. — " These are your eyes
Where were they, Clora, when you fell in love
With the old footman for singing Queen Dido ? "
Fletcher's TJie Captain, act iii., sc. 3.
Fletcher again mentions it in act i., sc. 2, of Bonduca, where Petillius says of
Junius that he is " in most lamentably loving, to the tune
love, indeed in love, —
of Queen Dido." At
a later date. Sir Robert Howard (speaking of himself)
^
says, " In my younger time I have been delighted with a ballad for its sake
and 'twas ten to one but my muse and I had so set up first nay, I had almost :

thought that Queen Dido, sung that way, was some ornament to the pen of Virgil.
I was then a trifler with the lute and fiddle, and perhaps, being musical, might
have been willing that words should have their tones, unisons, concords, and
diapasons, in order to a poetical gamuth." Poems and Essays, 8vo., 1673.
A great number of ballads were sung to the tune, either under the name of
Queen Dido or of Trotj Toivn. Of these I will only cite the following :

" The most excellent History of the Duchess of Sufiblk's Calamity. To the
tune of Queen Dido " commencing
" WTienGod had taken for our sin
That prudent prince, King Edward, away."
Contained in Strange Histories, or Songes and Sonets, &c., 1607 ; in the Crown
Garland of Grolden Roses, 1659 ; in the Pepys Collection, i. 544 ; and reprinted
in Evans' Old Ballads, iii. 135.
"Of the Inconveniences by Marriage. To the tune of Wlien Troy towne;"
beginning " Fond, wanton youth makes love a god."
Contained in The Golden Garland of Princely Delights, third edit., 1620 also ;

set to music by Robert Jones, and printed in his First Booheof Ayres, fol., 1601.
" The lamentable song of the Lord Wigmore, Governor of Warwick Castle,
and the fayre Maid of Dunsmoore," &c. beginning ;

" In Warwicksliire there stands a downs,

And Dunsmoore-heath it hath to name;
which, in the Crown Garland of Golden Roses, 1612, is to the tune of Diana \and
her darlings dear'] ; but in the copy in the Bagford Collection is to the tune of
Troy Toiun. (Reprinted by Evans, iii. 226.)
"The Spanish Tragedy: containing the lamentable murder of Horatio and
Belimperia; with the pitiful death of old Hieronimo. To the tune of Queen
Dido ; beginning — " You that have lost your former joys."
Printed at the end of the play of The Spanish Tragedy, in Dodsley'S' Old Plays,
iii. 203, 1825 ; and by Evans, iii. 288.
" A Looking-glass for Ladies ; or a Mirror for Married Women. Tune, Queen
Dido, or Troy Town " commencing
" WTien Greeks and Trojans fell at strife."
372 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Reprinted by Percy, under the name of Constant Penelope, from a copy in the
Pepys Collection,
" The Pattern of True Love ; or Bowes' Tragedy," written in 1717, and printed
in Ritson's Yorkshire Garland.

The last shows its popularity at a late period.

The only tune I can find for the ballad, TJie Wandering Prince of Troy, is the
composition of Dr. Wilson. It is adopted in Pills to purge Melancholy, iii. 15,
1707, and iv. 266, 1719 ; and is the Troy Town of the ballad-operas, such as
Polly, 1729, &c. The ballad was entered at Stationers' Hall before Dr. Wilson
was born ; therefore this cannot be the original tune, — unless he merely arranged
it for three voices, which we have no reason for supposing. It is printed in his
" Cheerful Ayres or Ballads, first composed for one single voice, and since set
for three voices," Oxford, 1660. Dr. Rimbault has recently identified Dr.
Wilson with the " Jack Wilson " who was a singer on the stage in Shakespeare's
time. It is possible, therefore, that he may have sung the ballad on the stage,
according to the custom of those days. Wilson was created Doctor, at Oxford,
in 1644, and died in his seventy-ninth year, a.d. 1673.

There is also a song of Queen Dido, but, being in a difierent metre, it could
not be sung to the same air. (See Index.) In the following, I have adopted
Dr. Percy's copy of the ballad, after the first stanza, which is printed with the
tune. It consists of twenty-three verses, of which eleven are subjoined ; enduig
with the

^^^^m
first

Moderate

When Troy town

climax

time.
—Dido's death.

for
i
ten years' wars Withstood the Greeks in
^ manful wise;

eM E i ^
w
Yet didtheirfoes
pp i^i^^
in-crease so fast, That to re-sist none could suf- fice.

rr : f ^ :£
3 ^

Waste lie those walls that were so good, And

=#3=pP=
^^m
corn
*=r
now grows whereTroy town stood.

f^^P^^g
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 373

tineas, wandering prince of Troy, This silly woman never slept,

When he for land long time had sought, B\it in her chamber, all alone,
At length arriving with great joy, As one unhajjpy, always wept.
To mighty Carthage walls was brought; And to the walls she made her moan ;

Where Dido queen, with sumptuous feast, That she should still desire in vain
Did entertain that wandering guest. The thing she never must obtain.

And, meat they sate,

as in hall at And thus in grief she spent the night.
The queen, desirous news to hear. Till twinkling stars the sky were fled.
Says, Of thy Troy's unhappy fate
'
And Phosbus, with his glistering light,
Declare to me, thou Trojan dear Through misty clouds appeared red
The heavy hap and chance so bad. Then tidings came to her anon.
That thou, poor wandering prince, hast had.' That all the Trojan ships were gone.

And then anon this comely knight, And then the queen, with bloody knife.
With words demure, as he could well. Did arm her heart as hard as stone,
Of his unhappy ten years' fight. Yet, something loth to loose her life,

So true a tale began to tell. In woful wise she made her moan ;

With words so sweet, and sighs so deep, And, rolling on her careful bed,
That oft he made them all to weep. With sighs and sobs these words she said

And then a thousand sighs he fet. O wretched Dido, queen quoth she, !

And every sigh brought tears amain I see thy end approachetb near ;

That where he sate the place was wet. For he is fled away from thee.
As though he had seen those wars again Whom thou didst love and hold so dear
So that the queen, with ruth therefore. What ! is he gone, and passed by '.'

Said, worthy prince, enough, no more. O heart, prepare thyself to die.

And then the darksome night drew on. Though reason says, thou shouldst forbear.
And twinkling stars the sky bespread And hand from bloody
stay thy stroke.
When he his doleful tale had done, Yet fancy bids thee not to fear.
And every one was laid in bed Which fetter'd thee in Cupid's yoke.
Where they full sweetly took their rest, Come death, quoth she, resolve thy smart!
Save only Dido's boiling breast. And with those words she pierced her heart.

REMEMBER, THOU MAN.

This Christmas Carol is the last of the "Country Pastimes" in "Melismata:
Musicall Phansies fitting the Court, Citie, and Countrey Humours," edited by
Ravenscroft, 4to., 1611. It is paraphrased in " Ane compendious booke of
Godly and SpLrituall Songs . . changed out of prophaine
with sundi-ie . . ballates
Sanges," &c., printed by Andro Hart, in Ediubm-gh, in 1621.
" Remember, man, remember, man. And hes done for thee what I can,
That I thy sauU from Sathan wan, Thow art full deir to me," &c.
Scottish Poems of tlie Sixteentli Century, ii. 188, 1801.
From Melismata the carol was copied into Forbes' Cantus, and taught in the
Music School at Aberdeen. Some years ago, the latter work was sold for a
comparatively high price at public auctions in London (about 10/.), and chiefly
on the reputation of containing, in this carol, the original of God save the King.
The report originated with Mr. Pinkerton, who asserted in his Recollections of
Paris, ii.4, that " the supposed national air is a mere transcript of a Scottish
Anthem " contained in a collection printed in 1682. Forbes' Cantus is compara-
tively useless to a musician, since it contains only the "cantus," or treble voice
374 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

part of English compositions, -which were written, and should be, in three, four,
or five parts. There are, also, a few ballad tunes, such as " Satan, my foe," to
Fortune, tmj foe ; " Shepherd, saw thou not," to Grimson Velvet, &c. ; and, in the
last edition, 1682, some Italian songs, and " new English Ayres," in three parts
complete. The two former editions were printed at Aberdeen, in 1662 and 1666.

^^^^^^m —
Moderate time.

~m ^TT ^ 5=^
iW¥n
»-4=
Re-mem-ber,

T
O thou man, O

^
thou man, O

fl*-
thou man, Re-mem-ber,

^m- «t ti

O thou man, thy time spent. Re - mem - her, O thou man,

N^ J I
i .UU *3f
how thou art dead and gone, And I did what I can, there-fore pent.

^^^ ^^ 1=

Remember Adam's fall, O thou man, &c., To Bethlem they did go, O thou man, &c..
Remember Adam's fall, from heaven to hell; To Bethlem they did go, the shepherds
Remember Adam's fall, how we were con- three [so or no,
;

demned all To Bethlem they did go, to see wh'er it were

In hell perpetual there for to dwell. Whether Christ were born or no, to set man
free.
Remember God's goodness, O thou man, &c..
Remember God's goodness and his promise As the angels before did say, O thou man, &c.,
made [Son, doubtless, As the angels before did say, so it came
Remember God's goodness, how he sent his to pass [babe where it lay,

Our sins for to redress Be not afraid.

;
— As the angels before did say, they found a
In a manger, wrapt in hay, so poor he was.
The angels all did sing, O thou man, &c.,
The angels all did sing upon the shepherd's In Bethlem he was born, O thou man, &c.,
hill [King, In Bethlem he was born for mankind's sake;
The angels all did sing praises to our heavenly In Bethlem he was bom, for us that were
And peace to man living, with a good will. forlorn, [take.

The shepherds amazed were, O thou man, &c.,

And thei-efore took no scorn our flesh to

The shepherds amazed were, to hear the Give thanks to God always, O thou man, &c.,
angels sing ;
[come to pass Give thanks to God always with heart most
Tile shepherds amazed were, liow it should joyfully; [day
Tliat Christ, our Messias, should be our Give thanks to God alway, for this our happy
King. Let all men sing and say, Holy, holy.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 375

THE COUNTRY LASS.

This is the tune to -n'hich, with slight alteration, Salli/ in our Alky is now sung.
Henry Carey, the author of that song, composed other music for it, which is

introduced four times in his Musical Century. Carey's tune is the Sally in our
Alley of the ballad-operas that were printed from 1728 to 1760 ; but from the
latter period its popularity seems to have waned, and, at length, his music was
entirely superseded by this older ballad-tune.
The Qountrey Lasse, from which it derives its name, was to be sung to " a dainty
new note " but, if unacquainted with that, the singer had the option of another
;

tune The mother beyuiPd the daughter. In Pills to purge Melancholy, ii. 165,
1700 and 1707, it is printed (in an abbreviated form) to the one; and in Tlic
Merry Musician, or a Cure for the Spleen,^ iii. 9, to the other.
In Tlie Devil to pay, 8vo., 1731, where Carey's tune is printed at p. 35, as
Charming Sally, this will be found, as What tho' I am a Country Lass, at p. 50.
Being unfit for dancing, the air is not contained in Tlie Dancing Master.
I have quoted the full title of the ballad of The Country Lass at p. 306. The
copy in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 52, being printed by the assigns of Thomas
Symcocke, would date in or after 1620, the year of that assignment. The copy in
the Pepys Collection, i. 268, is, perhaps, an original copy. It bears the initials
of Martin Parker, the famous ballad-writer, and is evidently more correctly
printed.
The versions in Pills to purge Melancholy, and in The Merry Musician, have each
had " the rust of antiquity filed from them," and, as usual, without any improve-
ment. The two first stanzas are nearly the same as in the old ballad but the ;

three remaining have been re-written. The older ballad is reprinted by Evans,
i. 41, from the Roxburghe copy.

The "a" at the end of each alternate line is a very old expedient of the
ballad-maker for fitting his words to music, when an extra syllable was requu-ed.
The reader may have observed it already in John Dory, Jog on the footpath way.
Good fellows must go learn to dance, and others. The custom is thus reproved in
"A Discourse of Miglish Poetrie, by Wilham Webbe, graduate," 1586 " If :
—
I let passe the un-countahle rabble of ryming ballet-makers, and compylers of
sencelesse sonets (who be most busy to stuife every stall full of grosse devises
and unlearned pamphlets), I trust I shall, with the best sort, be held excused.
For though many such can frame an alehouse song of five or six score verses,
hobbling uppon some tune of a Northern Jygge, or Robyn Soode, or La
Lubber, &c. and perhappes observe just number of sillables, eight in one
:

line, sixe in an other, and therewithal! an « to make a jercJee in the ende : yet'
'

if these might be accounted poets (as it is sayde some of them make meanes to

be promoted to the Lawrell), surely we shall shortly have whole swarmes of

poets and every one that can frame a booke in ryme, though, for want of
;

matter, it be but in commendations of copper noses or bottle ale, wyll catch at

the garlande due to poets — whose potticall (poeticall, I should say) heades,

* The first volume of The Merry Musician is dated not set up in type like the first, bear no dates.
1716 ; but the second, third, and fourtli, being engraved,
376 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

I would wyslie, at their worshipfull commencements, might, in steede of lawi'ell,

be gorgiously garnished with fayi-e gi-eene barley, in token of their good affection
to our Englishe malt."
The following verses are selected from the older copy of the ballad. In the
Pills, and Merry Musician, the burden, which requkes the repetition of the first
part of the tune, is omitted :

Gracefully.

^^ ^ ^S ^ r
=fi^=it
:3: ^
Although, I am a country lass, A lof-tymind I bear- a,
Down, down, derry, der-ry down, Hey down a down, a down-a.

^& ^-

^ ^^
^ I
zB ±
-r f-
Fine.

think my •
self as good as those That gay ap - pa •
rel wear - a My
der - ry, der - ry derry, derrydown. Hey down- a, down •
der - ry.

——
'
r 1» 1-

T
L,n i . J .^v=j
-
^-r
coat is made of come-ly gray.
rYet ^ my is skin
F
as . soft - a, As

^^ tf^ElEf ¥

^
those that.with the
r*^

choicest wines
fe^^^^
Do bathe their bo - '
dies oft - a.
Da Capo.

^E5l

What, though
^^ keep my
1=
I father's sheep, 1 care not for the fan or mask.
A thing that must be done-a, When Titan's heat refleeteth,
A garland of the fairest flow'rs A homely hat is all I ask.
Shall shroud me from the sun-a ;
Which well my face protecteth ;

And when them feeding by,

I see Yet am I, in my country guise,
Where grass and flowers spring-a. Esteem'd a lass as pretty.
Close by a crystal fountain side, As those that every day devise
I sit me down and sing-a. New shapes in court or city.

Dame Kature crowns us with delight Then do not scorn the country lass.
Surpassing court or city, Though she go plain and meanly ;

We pleasures take, from morn to night. Who takes a country wench to wife
In sports and pastimes pretty : (That goeth neat and cleanly).
Your city dames in coaches ride Is better sped, than if he wed
Abroad for recreation, A fine one from the city,

We eounti-y lasses hate their pride, For there they are so nicely bred.
And keep the country fashion. They must not work for pity.
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 377

MAYING-TIME.
In Tlie Golden Grcirland of Princely Delights, 3rd edit., 1620, this is entitled
" The Shepherd's Dialogue of Love between Willy and Cuddy To the tune of :

Maying-time.'''' It is also in Dryden's Miscellany Poems, vi. 337, and in Percy's

JReliques of Ancient Poetry. Percy entitles it " The WiUow Tree a Pastoral :

Dialogue."
The tune is in a manuscript dated 1639, in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh;
in the Skene MS. ; and in all the editions of Forbes' Canfiis.

m
Willy.

sq=t ^
*: =it
i
How now, Shepherd, what means that? Why that wil-low in thy hat?
mt =1 M P m
eis 1
c^ r-^S^ 1

^=

"^^ ^^^
Sfc -M=ii
tl^^ J—"^ --^-

Why thy scarfs of red and yel- low Turn'd to branches of green wil - low ?

^^ — r-r
*: ^
Cuddy.
t d=i:
^ ^^, ^
is:

~®i
q ^^i
^^
They and
are chang'd, so am I Sor - rows live, hut plea - sures die :

==^ i 2i:
=^ ^

"1"
Phil -
•=f
.
lis hath for
^^^^^m
- sa - ken me, Which makes

i:
me wear the
^=3?
wil - low tree.

m "^r-t-^i-i ^
WILLY. CUDDY.
Phillis ! she that lov'd thee long? Thy hard hap doth mine appease,
Is she the lass hath done thee wrong ? Company doth sorrow ease :

She that lov'd thee long and best. Yet, Phillis, pine for thee.
still I
Is her love turned to a jest? And still must wear the willow-tree.
CUDDY. WILLY.
She that long true love profest, Shepherd, be advis'd by me,
She hath robb'd my heart of rest Cast off grief and willow-tree :

For she a new love loves, not me ;

For thy grief brings her content,
Which makes we wear the willow-tree. She is pleas'd if thou lament.
WILLY. CUDDY.
Come then, shepherd, let us join. Herdsman, I'll be rul'd by thee,
Since thy hap is like to mine : There lies grief and willow-tree :

For the maid I thought most true Henceforth I will do as they.

Me hath also hid adieu. And love a new love every day.
378 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

NEVER LOVE THEE MORE.

This song, commencing, " My dear and only love, take heed," is contained in a
manuscript volume of songs and ballads, with music, dated 1659, in the hand-
writing of John Gamble, the composer. The MS. is now in the possession of
Dr. Rimbault.
Gamble published some of his own works in 1657 and 1659, but this seems to
have been his common-place book. It contains the songs Dr. Wilson composed
for Brome's play, Tlie Northern Lass, and many compositions of H. and W.
Lawes, as well as common songs and ballads. The last are usually noted down
without bases ; but, in some instances, the space intended for the tune is unfilled.

In the Pepys Collection, i. 256, is " The FaythfuU Lover's Resolution ; being
forsaken of a coy and faythless dame. To the tune of My dear and only love, take

heed;" commencing, "Though booteles I must needs complaui. " "Printed

at London for P. Birch."
—
In the same volume, i. 280 " Good sir, you wi'ong your Britches pleasantly ;
—
discoursed by a witty youth and a wily wench. To the tune of no, no, no, not

yet, or lie never love thee more ; " commencing, " A young man and a lasse of

late." " Printed at London for J[ohn] T[rundle]."

—
At p. 378 " Anything for a quiet life or The Married Man's Bondage," &c.
;

" To the tune of no, no, no, not yet, or lie never love thee moreP Printed at
London by G. P.
And at p. 394 —" 'Tis not otherwise : Or The Praise of a Married Life. To
the tune of lie never love thee more;'''' commencing, "A young man lately did

complaine." Printed at London by G. B.

The above quotations tend to prove the tune to be of the time of James I.

Philip Bu-ch, the publisher of the first ballad, had a " shop at the Guyldhall

in 1618, when he published " Sir Walter Rauleigh his Lamentation," to which
I have referred atp. 175. John Trundle, the publisher of the second, was dead
in 1628; the ballads were then printed by "M. T., widdow." Trundle is
mentioned as a ballad-printer in Ben Jonson's Every man in his humour, 1598.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 574, is " A proper new ballad, being the

regrate [regret] of a true Lover for his Mistris unkindness. To a new tune, lie
ever love thee more." The rude orthography of this seems to mark it as an early
ballad ; but, unfortunately, the printer's name is cut away. It commences thus
" I wish I were those gloves, dear heart, Then should no sorrow, grief, or smart,
Which could thy hands inshrine ;
Molest this heart of mine," &c.

and consists of twenty-one stanzas of eight lines ; thirteen in the first part, and
eight in the second.
In the same collection, and in Mr. Payne Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, p. 227, is
" The Tragedy of Hero and Leander. To a pleasant netv tune, or I will never love
thee more." The last was " printed for R. Burton, at the Horse-shoe in West-
;
Smithfield, neer the Hospital-gate " and the copy would, therefore, date in the

reign of Charles I., or during the Commonwealth.

 REIGNS OF JAMES I, AND CHARLES I. 379

James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, also wrote "Lines" to this tune,

retaining a part of the first line, and the burden of each verse, " Til never love
thee more.'''' It is " An Address to his Mistress," and commences
" My dear and only love, 1 pray
This noble v^forld of thee, &c.
Like " My dear and only love, take heed" ; and must it consists of five stanzas
have been written after the establishment of the Committees and the Synod of
Divines at Westminster (1643) because he refers to both in the song.
,

Watson Poems, part iii., 1711, printed one of the

in his Collection of Scotch
extended versions of " My
dear and only love, take heed," as a " second part " to
the Marquis of Montrose's song but it cannot have been written by him, as he
;

was only born in 1612. Neither Ritson, Robert Chambers, nor Peter Cimningham,
have followed this error but it has been reproduced in Memoirs of Montrose,
;

Edinburgh, 1819.
It was, no doubt, the Marquis of Montrose's song that made the tune popular
in Scotland. It is found, under the name of Montrose Lijns, in a manuscript of
lyra-viol music, dated 1695, recently in the possession of Mr. A. Blaikie. The
tune has, therefore, been included in collections of Scottish music ; but " My dear
and only love, take heed " continued to be the popular song in England, and from
that it derives its name. In English ballads it is called "A rare Northern
tune,"" and I have never yet found that term applied to a Scotch air. Besides
Gamble's manuscript, which contains both the words and air, the words will be
found in the first and second editions of Wit and Drollery, 1656 and 1661,
(there entitled "A Song") ; in Pills to purge Melancholy, 1700, 1707,
and 1719.
The tune was first added to Tlie Dancing Master in 1686, and is contained in
every subsequent edition, in a form more appropriate to dancing than the
earlier copy.
Some of the ballads are of a later date than the Marquis of Montrose's
song, such as " Teach me, Belissa, what to do:" to the tune of "ilfy dear and
only love, take heed," in Folly in print, 1667 " A Dialogue between Tom and
;

Dick," in Bats rhimed to death, 1660 ;

" The Swimming Lady," in the Bagford,
others in Roxburghe and Pepys Collections but I have already cited enough to
;

prove that it was a vei-y popular air, and popular before the Marquis of Montrose's
song can have been written.
A copy of the ballad, consisting of four verses in the first, and five in the

^ In ballad-phrase, the terms " Northern " and " North- men, or of their best clarkes, all is a matter), nor in effect
country" were often applied to places within a hundred any speach used beyond the river of Trent: though no man
miles of London. Percy describes the old ballad of Chevy can deny but theirs is the purer English Saxon at this day,
Chace as written in " the coarsest and broadest Northern yet it is not so courtly nor so current as our Southerne
dialect," although Richard Sheale, the author of that ver- English is, no more is the far Western man's speach :

sion, was a minstrel residing in Tamworth, and in the ye shall therefore take the usuall speach of the Court,
service of the Earl of Derby. Puttenham thus notices and that of London and the shires lying about London,
the diiference of speech prevailing in his time beyond the witliin sixty miles, and not much above."
(Arte of
—
Trent: " Our [writer] therefore at these days shall not English Poesie.J Many
of the characters in plays of the
follow Piers Plowman, nor Gower, nor Lydgate, nor yet seventeenth century, such as Brome's Northern Lass,
Chaucer, for their language is now out of use with us : speak in a dialect which might often pass for Scotch with
neither shall he take the terms of North-men, such as they those who are unacquainted with the language of the
use in dayly talke (whether they be noble men or gentle- time.
380 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

second part, is contained in the Douce Collection, p. 102, entitled " Be never love
thee more : Being the Forsaken Lover's Farewell to his fickle Mistress. To a rare
Northern tune, or lie never love thee more." It commences, " My dear and only
" and the second part, " lie lock myself within a cell."
;
joij, take heed Having
"
been Printed for W. Whitwood, at the Golden Lyon in Duck Lane," this copy
may be dated about 1670. It is also in the list of those printed by W.
Thackeray at the same period. The copies in Wit and Drollery, and in Gamble's
MS., consist only of five stanzas.

The following copy of the tune is taken from Gamble's MS. ; the words are the
first, second, and fourth stanzas, in the order in which they stand in Wit and
Drollery ; or first, third, and fourth, in the MS. All the old copies above cited

^
have verbal difiierences, as well as differences of arrangement.

Rather slowly and smoothly

§T^=^
? ^
My dear and on - ly love, take heed How thou thyself ex pose, By

^lE -^ 3S

^
?;
-^^
let - ting long - ing
J-^-TT
?
lev
•—'
- ers
E^

feed Up -
f
on
•
^^
such looks
«f
•

as those. I'll

^m m ^SEE

F^=^=J^l^p
mar - ble - wall thee round
^^=^-^Tj-f
a - bout, And build with-out a door;
~ But

35 :.tJ
^
H-r ^r

if thy heart do once break out, I'll

^^ ne-ver love thee more.
 EEISNS OV JAMES I. AND CHAELES I. 381

Let not their oaths, by volleys shot, Then if by fraud or by consent,

Make any breach at all, To ruin thou shouldst come,
Nor smoothness of their language plot I'll sound no trumpet as of wont,

A way to scale the wall Nor march by beat of drum ;

No balls of wild-fire-love consume But fold my arms, like ensigns, up.

The shrine which I adore ;
Thy falsehood to deplore.
For, if such smoke about it fume. And, after such a bitter cup,
I'll never love thee more. I'll never love thee more.

THE MERCHANTMAN.
The ballad of tte Merchantman and the Fiddler's Wife is in the list of those
printed by Thackeray, in the reign of Charles 11. It is also printed in Pills to

pitrffe Melancholy, iii. 153, 1707, to the following " pleasant Northern tune."
It commences with the line, " It was a rich Merchantman," and the ballad of
" George Barnwell " was to be sung to the tune of The rich Merchantman. (See
Roxburghe Collection, iii. 26.) Percy prints it from another copy in the Ash-
mole Collection, where the tune is entitled " T/ie Merchant."
There must either be another tune called A rich Merchantman, or else only

half the air is printed in Pills to purge Melancholy ; for, although eight bars of
music suffice for the above-named, which are in short stanzas of four lines,
sixteen, at least, are requu-ed for other ballads, which are in stanzas of eight,
and have occasionally a burden of four more. It is not unusual to find only
the half of a tune printed in the Pills (see, for instance, Tom of Bedlam, Green
Sleeves, &c.) , but I know of no other version of this tune, and therefore have not
the means of testing it.

" A song of the strange Lives of two young Princes of England, who became
shepherds on Salisbury Plain, and were afterwards restored to their former
estates : To the tune of The Merchant Man" — is contained in Tlie Golden G-arland
of Princely Delights, 3rd 1620, as well as in Old Ballads, 2nd edit.,
edit.,

iii. 5, 1738. It is in stanzas of eight lines (commencing, " In kingly Stephen's

reign"), and reprinted, omitting the name of the tune, in Evans' Old Ballads,
ii. 53, 1810.
" A most sweet song of an English Merchant, born at Chichester : To an
excellent —
new tune " has the additional burden of four lines, and is probably
the earliest. It commences thus :

" A rich merchant man there vfus.. And for this fact the merchant man
That was botli grave and wise, Was judg'd to lose his head.
Did kill a man at Embden towne A srueet thing is love,
Through quarrels that did rise. It rules both heart and mind,
Through quarrels that did rise, TJiere is no comfort in this world
The German he was dead, 'Like' women that are kind."
Of this various copies are extant, and all apparently very corrupt. One in the
Roxburghe Collection, i. 104, is " Printed at London for Francis Coules ;

a second, in the Bagford Collection, printed for A. P. a third, in the Pepys

;

Collection, by Clarke, Thackeray, and Passinger. Evans reprints from the last.
382 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC,

(See Old Ballads, i. 28, 1810.) It is parodied in act iii. of Kcwley's comedy,
A new Wonder, a Woman never vext, 1632 ; and quoted in 27*6 Trmmphant
Widow, 1677 :—
" There was a rich merchant man, He kill'd a man in Athens town,
That was both great and wise, Great quarrels there did arise," &c.

A rich Merchantman is one of the tunes to a song in Tlie Famous Historic of

Fryer Bacon, b.l., 4to, n.d. ; and There was a rich Merchantman to a ballad in

the Pepys Collection, ii. 190. Others (under the one name or the other) -will

be found in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 286 and 444, ii. 242, &c.

M
There was a rich merchant - man, That was both grave and wise, He

FFfi=r iE 5fe IfF — £ f-

^^

^^-fr^^
kill'd a man in Athens town, Great
J- ' ^
quarrels there did
t=4^=i^
a

=i*
r
FAIR MARGARET AND SWEET "WILLIAM.
Copies of this ballad are in the Douce Collection, fol. 72, and in the Col-
lection of Mr. George Daniel ; also in Percy's Beliques of Ancient Poetry.
Percy says, " This seems to be the old song quoted in Fletcher's Knight of the
Burning Pestle, acts ii. and iii. ; although the six lines there preserved are some-
what different from those in the ballad as it stands at present. The lines preserved

in the play are this distich

:

" You are no love for me, Margaret,

;
I am no love for you
and the following stanza :

" When all was grown to dark midnight. In came Margaret's grimly ghost.
And all were fast asleep. And stood at William's feet."

Percy adds that " these lines have acquired an importance by giving birth to one
of the most beautiful ballads in our own or any other language" "Margaret's —
Ghost " by Mallet.
Mallet's ballad attained deserved popularity. was printed in various forms It

on half-sheets with music, and in "Watts' Musical Miscellany, ii. 84, 1729. The
air became known by its name, and is so published in The Village Opera, 1729,
and inThe Devil to pay, 1731.
It was not, however, printed exclusively to this tune. Thomson published it
 REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 383

in his Orpheus Oaledonius, and described it, with, his usual inaccuracy, as " an
old Scotch ballad, with the original Scotch tune
;
" —" old," although (on the
authority of Dr. Johnson) it was first printed in Aaron Hill's Plain Dealer,
No. 36, July 24, 1724, and Thomson's Orpheus was published within six months
of that time —
viz., on January 5, 1725. The "original Scotch tune" of Thomson

is a version of " Montrose's lines," or Never love thee more.

Another point deserving notice in the old ballad, is that one part of it has
furnished the principal subject of the modern burlesque ballad, " Lord Lovel,"an d
another that of T. Hood's song, " Mary's Ghost."
The copy in the Douce Collection " Fair Margaret's Misfortune ; or
is entitled
Sweet William's frightful di'eams on his wedding night With the sudden death :

and burial of those noble lovers. To an excellent new tune."

The following version of the words is from Percy's Jteliques of Ancient
Poetry :

^^3
With expresiion.

fca= ^
fell out
^ long sum - mer's
:ziz

day, Two

^^
J
±
I

^Ea

^^T^
^-
lo - vers they sat
^ ou a
i
hill; They
m
sat
^ to -
T

ge -
^^
=r
ther that

it

long sum-mer s day,

—*~
And could not
^^
talk
w their fill.

I seeno harm by you, Margaret, Then down she laid her ivory comb.
And you see none by me ;
And braided her hair in twain ;

Before to-morrow at eight o' the clock She went alive out of her bower.
A rich wedding you shall see. But ne'er came alive in't again.
Fair Margaret sat in her bower-window. When day was gone, and night was come,
Combing her yellow hair ;
And all men fast asleep.
There she spied sweet William and his bride, Then came the spirit of fair Marg'ret,
As they were a riding near. And stood at William's feet.
384 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

Are you awake, sweet William ? she said, For I will kiss thy pale wan lips,

Or, sweet William, are you asleep ? Though a smile I cannot win.
God give you joy of your gay bride-bed. With that bespake the seven brethren.
And me of my winding-sheet. Making most piteous moan :

When day was come, and night was gone, You may go kiss your jolly brown bride.
And all men wak'd from sleep, And let our sister alone.

Sweet William to his lady said, If I do kiss my jolly brown bride,

My dear, 1 have cause to weep, I do but -what is right
I dreamt a dream, my dear lady, I ne'er made a vow to yonder poor corpse
Such dreams are never good ;
By day, nor yet by night.
I dreamt my bower was full of red wine,
Deal on, deal on, my merry men all,
And my bride-bed full of blood.
Deal on your cake and your wine ;

Such dreams, such dreams, my honoured Sir, For whatever is dealt at her funeral to-day.
They never do prove good ;
Shall be dealt to-morrow at mine.
To dream thy bower was full of red wine. Fair Margaret died to-day, to-day.
And thy bride-bed full of blood.
Sweet William died the morrow ;

He called up his merry men all. Fair Margaret died for pure true love.
By one, by two, and by three Sweet William died for sorrow.

Saying, I'll away to fair Marg'ret's bower,

Margaret was buried in the lower chancel,
By leave of my lady.
And William in the higher ;

And when he came to fair Marg'ret's bower, Out of her breast there sprang a rose.
He knocked at the ring ;
And out of his a brier.
And who so ready as her seven brethren They grew till they grew unto the church-top,
To let sweet William in.
And then they could grow no higher ;

Then he turned up the covering sheet, And there they tied in a true lover's knot,

Pray let me see the dead Which made all the people admire.
Methinks she looks all pale and wan, Then came the clerk of the parish.
She hath lost her cherry red.
As you the truth shall hear.
I'll do more for thee, Margaret, And by misfortune cut them down.
Than any of thy kin ;
Or they now had been there.

END OF VOLUME THE FIRST.