Scotland," 1549; it is probably the "Ballett of Tomalin," licensed
to be printed in 1557-8. A snatch of it occurs in Wager's play: "The
longer thou livest the more fool thou art," _circ._ 1560--
"Tom a Lin and his wife and his wife's mother
They got over the bridge all three together.
The bridge was broken, and they fell in,
The Devill go with you all, quoth Tom a Lin."
It was printed in Ritson's "North Country Chorister," Durham, 1802;
and it occurs in "The Distracted Sailor's Garland," B.M. (11,621, c
3). "Bryan o' Lynn was a gentleman born," as sung by "Mr. Purcell's
celebrated Irish vocalists," is in the "Dublin Comic Songster,"
Dublin, 1841. Halliwell gives the song in his "Popular Rhymes," 1849,
p. 271, and one verse in his "Nursery Rhymes," No. 61.
Mr. J. Phillips, who founded the Aller Vale potteries, in a lecture
on the condition of Dartmoor in 1837, says: "For roughing it on
the moor, warm waterproof coats were made by using a sheep's skin,
the wool on the inside. Warm caps of rabbit skin were common, with
lappets over the ears. An old rhyme sung by the boys was--
"Old Harry Trewin, no breeches to wear,
He stole a ram's skin to make a new pair.
The shiny side out and the woolly side in,
And thus doth go old Harry Trewin."
We have taken down the song twice from Thomas Dart and from James
Parsons. What "A Bone of my stover" signifies I am unable to say.
43. THE GREEN BUSHES. Words and melody taken down from Robert Hard.
Another sent me by Mr. Crossing, heard by him on Dartmoor from
a labouring man in 1869. The same as this taken down from James
Parsons. This latter sent by me to Miss Broadwood, who has published
it in her "County Songs," p. 170. In Buckstone's play of "The Green
Bushes," 1845, Nelly O'Neil sings snatches of this song, one verse,
"I'll buy you fine petticoats," etc., in Act 1., and that and the
following verse in Act III. Nowhere is the complete ballad given.
That, however, owing to the popularity of the drama, was published
soon after as a "popular Irish ballad sung by Mrs. FitzWilliam."
Later it was attributed to the husband of that lady, Mr. E.F.
FitzWilliam, but it was not published in his lifetime. The words are
substantially old, in this form are a softening down of an earlier
ballad which has its analogue in Scotland, "My daddie is a cankered
carle," each verse of which ends--
"For he's low down, he's in the broom
That's waiting for me."
The English form is "Whitsun Monday," an early copy of which is in
one of the collections in the British Museum, date about 1760. Each
verse ends--
"And 'tis low down in the broom
She's waiting there for me."
Broadsides by Disley and Such. In a collection of early ballad books
in the British Museum is "The Lady's Book of Pleasure," printed in
Cow Lane, _circ._ 1760. This contains a ballad that begins--
"As I was a walking one morning in May,
I heard a young damsel to sigh and to say,
My love is gone from me, and showed me foul play,
It was down in the meadow, among the Green Hay."
Another, with Green Bushes in place of Green Hay, published by Hodges
of Seven Dials, B.M. (1875, b 19). For other versions, see Kidson's
"Traditional Tunes"; Joyce's "Ancient Irish Music," 1873; Petrie's
"Ancient Music of Ireland," 1855. The Irish air is not the same as
ours.
44. THE BROKEN TOKEN. Words and melody from Robert Hard. Broadside
forms as "The Brisk Young Sailor," or as "Fair Phoebe"; as "The
Dark Eyed Sailor," by Such, and Wheeler of Manchester; and as "The
Sailor's Return," by Catnach. A version is published in Christie's
"Traditional Ballads," and Mr. Kidson obtained it in Yorkshire to a
tune different from ours. The same as ours was noted down by Mr. S.
Reay about 1830-5 from a ballad singer at Durham.
45. THE MOLE CATCHER. Taken down from J. Hockin, South Brent, by H.
Fleetwood Sheppard in 1888. The original words were very gross, and
I did not note them. In the British Museum is an early Garland, and
in the list of contents on the cover is "The Mole Catcher," but the
song has been torn out, probably for the same reason that prevented
me from taking it down. All I copied was the beginning of the song. I
have supplemented this with fresh words.
46. THE KEENLY LODE. Mr. Bussell and I spent a week in 1894 at the
Lugger Inn, Fowey, collecting songs. We met there one day an old
miner, who asked us if we knew "The Keenly Lode," and on our saying
that we did not, he gave us a long song on mining, that, however,
lacked point. I have therefore re-composed the song. The air is
that employed for "The Crocodile," an extravagant ballad, which has
been published by Miss Broadwood in her "County Songs." Her tune is
practically the same as ours, but there are some differences. "The
Crocodile" is a very popular ballad among old song-men, but no one
would care to sing it in a drawing-room or at a concert, because it
is vastly silly.
"A Keenly Lode" is a lode that promises well. A "Bâll" is a mine in
Cornish. In Cornwall every old man is termed "Uncle."
We have taken down "The Meat Pie" to the same air.
47. MAY DAY CAROL. Melody and words noted down a good many years
ago by J.S. Cayzer, Esq. It was sung, till of late years, in my
neighbourhood, where a bunch of flowers at the end of a stick was
carried about by children. It was customary in England for a lover
on May morning to take a green bough to the house of the beloved. If
she opened the door and took it in, this was a token of acceptance.
At the Puritan epoch this custom was altered, and the song was
converted into a carol with a moral to it, see "Notes and Queries,"
Third Series, ix. p. 380; Hone's "Every Day Book," 1826, i. p. 567;
Chambers' "Book of Days," i. p. 578. Herrick refers to the custom of
youths bringing their May bushes to the maids of their choice:--
"A deale of youth ere this is come
Back, and with white thorn laden home,
Some have dispatched their cakes and cream,
Before that we have left to dream."
The melody is a very early one in the Dorian mode, and resembles that
of the carol, "The Moon shines bright," Broadwood's "County Songs,"
p. 108. The carol is still sung in Cornwall.
48. THE LOVERS' TASKS. This very curious song belongs, as I was
told, in Cornwall, to a sort of play that was wont to be performed
in farmhouses at Christmas. One performer, a male, left the room,
and entered again singing the first part. A girl, seated on a chair,
responded with the second part. The story was this. She had been
engaged to a young man who died. His ghost returned to claim her. She
demurred to this, and he said that he would waive his claim if she
could perform a series of tasks he set her. To this she responded
that he must, in the first place, accomplish a set of impossible
tasks she would set him. Thus was he baffled.
"In all stories of this kind," says Professor Child, "the person
upon whom a task is imposed stands acquitted if another of no less
difficulty is devised which must be performed first."
This ballad and dramatic scene corresponds with that in "Cold blows
the wind" (No. 6). There, in the original, the ghost desires to draw
the girl underground, when she is seated on his grave. She objects,
and he sets her a task--
"Go fetch me a light from dungeon deep,
Wring water from a stone,
And likewise milk from a maiden's breast,
That never babe had none."
She answers the requirement--
"She stroke a light from out a flint,
An icebell squeezed she,
And likewise milk from a Johnnis' wort,
And so she did all three."
Icebell is icicle. By this means she was quit. In the version I have
given I have altered this to suit the song for modern singing.
In "The Elfin Knight," Child's "British Ballads," No. 2, an elf
appears to the damsel and sets her tasks. If she cannot accomplish
these, she must accompany him to the elf world. Here we have a
substitution of a fairy for a ghost.
In an Ulster Broadside in the British Museum (1162, k 5) we have
a later substitution. A low-born gamekeeper gets a damsel of high
degree into his power, and will not release her unless she can solve
a series of riddles. This she does, and so makes her escape.
Of the Northumbrian ballad, "Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom," Child,
No. 1, there are two versions. In one given by Miss Mason, "Nursery
Rhymes and Country Songs," a stranger comes to the door of a house
where are three sisters, and demands that one shall follow him or
answer a series of riddles. Then ensues a contest of wit, and the
girl escapes the obligation of following the mysterious stranger.
Who he is is not ascertained. In the other version it is different;
he is a knight, and he offers to marry the girl who can solve his
riddles. The youngest sister effects this, so he marries her. It is
the same in the corresponding Cornish ballad of "Genefer Gentle and
Rosemarie," originally given by Gilbert in his "Cornish Christmas
Carols," 2nd ed., p. 65, and reprinted by Child.
To the same category belongs the song, "Go no more a-rushing, Maids,
in May," that we have taken down from several singers, and which is
given as well by Miss Mason, and by Chappell, i. p. 158, where the
task is to solve riddles--
"I'll give you a chicken that has no bone,
I'll give you a cherry without a stone,
I'll give you a ring that has no rim,
I'll give you an oak that has no limb."
The solution is--
"When the chicken is in the egg it has no bone,
When the cherry is in bloom it has no stone,
When the ring is a-melting it has no rim,
When the oak is in the acorn it has no limb."
But the story about the setting of the puzzle has fallen away.
We did obtain a ballad in Cornwall about the ghost visiting the
damsel and demanding that she should keep her engagement, but the
metre was not the same as that of the "Lovers' Tasks."
Apparently at some remote period a maiden who was pledged to a man
was held to belong to him after he was dead, and to be obliged to
follow her lover into the world of spirits, unless she could evade
the obligation by some clever contrivance. When this idea fell away,
either an elf was substituted or a man of low birth, or else the
whole story was dropped; or, again, it was so altered that a knight
was put in the place of the ghost, and it became the privilege of the
shrewd girl who could answer the riddles to be taken as his wife.
The setting of hard tasks occurs in German folk-tales, as in
"Rumpelstiltskin," where the girl has to spin straw into gold.
In the "Gesta Romanorum," ed. Osterley, p. 374, one of the most
popular collections of stories in the Middle Ages, is a corrupt
reminiscence of the tale. A king delayed to take a wife till he could
find one sagacious enough to make him a shirt without seam out of a
scrap of linen three inches square. She retorts that she will do this
when he sends her a vessel in which she can do the work. Jacques de
Voragine wrote his "Golden Legend" in or about 1260. In that he tells
this tale. A bishop was about to succumb to the blandishments of the
devil in female form, when a pilgrim arrived. Either the damsel or
the palmer must leave, and which it should be was to be determined by
the solution of riddles. The pilgrim solved two. Then the fiend in
female form asked: "How far is it from heaven to earth?" "That you
know best, for you fell the whole distance," replied the palmer, and
the fiend vanished. Then the pilgrim revealed himself as St. Andrew,
to whom the bishop had a special devotion.
The classic tale of [OE]dipus and the Sphinx will be remembered in
connection with delivery from death by solving riddles. In Norse
mythology we have the contest in conundrums between Odin and the
giant Vafthrudnir. The Rabbis tell of the Queen of Sheba proving
Solomon with hard questions, which are riddles.
The historians of Tyre, as Josephus informs us, recorded that an
interchange of riddles went on constantly between Solomon and Hiram,
each being under an engagement to pay a forfeit of money for every
riddle that he could not solve. Solomon got the best of Hiram, till
Hiram set a Tyrian boy to work, who both solved the riddles of
Solomon, and set others which Solomon could not answer. We have a
later version of this story in the ballad of King John and the Abbot
of Canterbury, who, unable to solve the king's riddles, set his
cowherd to do this, and he accomplished it successfully.
We took down the ballad and air from Philip Symonds of Jacobstow,
Cornwall, also from John Hext, Two Bridges, and from James Dyer of
Mawgan. The burden, "And every grove rings with a merry antine," is
curious; _antine_ is antienne--anthem. In "Gammer Gurton's Garland,"
1783, the burden is "Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme." In one of
Motherwell's MSS. it stands, "Every rose grows merry wi' thyme."
These are attempts made to give sense where the meaning of the
original word was lost.
In _Folk-Song Journal_, vol. i. p. 83, is a version from Sussex:
"Sing Ivy, Sing Ivy."
49. LULLABY. Noted by me from recollection, as sung by a nurse, Anne
Bickle of Bratton Clovelly, about 1842. James Olver of Launceston
also knew the tune. The words I have re-composed to the best of my
ability.
50. THE GIPSY COUNTESS. The melody of the first part from James
Parsons, that of the second from John Woodrich. Versions also from
Peter Cheriton, shoemaker, Oakford, near Tiverton; William Setter
and George Kerswell, Two Bridges, Dartmoor. Robert Browning composed
on this theme his poem, "The Flight of the Duchess," having heard
a beggar woman sing the ballad. Mrs. Gibbons told me she heard the
whole ballad sung by her nurse in Cornwall, about 1830.
The Scottish version of the ballad is that of "Johnny Faa," in Allan
Ramsay's "Tea-Table Miscellany," 1724, from which it passed into
all collections of Scottish songs. Allan Ramsay's version turns on
a story--utterly unhistorical--that Lady Jean Hamilton, married to
the grim Covenanter, John, Earl of Cassilis, fell in love with, and
eloped with, Sir John Faa of Dunbar, who came to the castle disguised
as a gipsy along with some others. She was pursued, and Faa and his
companions were hung. No such an event took place. The Scotch are
wont to take an old ballad, give it local habitation and name, and so
make it out to be purely Scottish. My impression is that this was an
old English ballad dealt with by Ramsay. It may have been so adapted
for political purposes, as a libel on Lady Cassilis, who was the
mother of Bishop Burnet's wife. An Irish form of the ballad in the
British Museum (1162, k 6). For a full account of the "Johnny Faa"
ballad, see Child's "English and Scottish Ballads," No. 200. He is of
opinion that the English ballad is taken from the Scottish. I think
the reverse is the case. Parsons sang right through without division
of parts. I have made the division, so as to allow of the use of both
airs; but actually the second is a modern corruption of the first,
and is interesting as showing how completely a melody may undergo
transformation. Mr. Sharp has given a Somersetshire version of the
ballad in his "Folk Songs from Somerset," No. 9.
51. THE GREY MARE. The melody and a fragment of the song were taken
down from J. Hockin, South Brent, and again from James Olver. Neither
could recall all the words. There are two forms of the ballad on
Broadsides. Both are printed by Mr. Kidson in his "Traditional
Tunes." Mr. Sheppard recast the words.
52. THE WRECK OFF SCILLY. Words and melody from James Parsons. The
ballad as sung consisted of seven verses. Broadside by Catnach. The
last verse in this is nonsense, and I have re-written this verse.
Under the title "The Rocks of Scilly," it occurs, in twenty-two
verses, in "The Sailor's Tragedy," Glasgow, 1802.
53. HENRY MARTYN. Words and melody from Roger Luxton, Halwell. Again,
from Matthew Baker, James Parsons, and from a shepherd on Dartmoor.
The versions slightly differed, as far as words went. In one, Henry
Martyn receives his death-wound; in another, it is the king's ship
that is sunk by the pirate.
Mr. Kidson has printed two versions of the song in his "Traditional
Tunes," from Yorkshire sources. Miss Broadwood has also collected it,
_Folk-Song Journal_, vol. i. p. 162, in Sussex.
Henry Martyn is a corruption of Andrew Barton. In 1476, a Portuguese
squadron seized a richly laden ship, commanded by John Barton, in
consequence of which letters of reprisal were granted by James IV.
to the three sons, Andrew, Robert, and John, and these were renewed
in 1506. Hall, in his "Chronicle," under 1511, says that King Henry
VIII. being at Leicester, tidings reached him that Andrew Barton so
stopped the king's ports that the merchant vessels could not pass
out, and he seized their goods, pretending that they were Portuguese.
Sir Edward Howard, Lord High Admiral, and Sir Thomas Howard were sent
against him. Their two ships were separated, but a fight ensued, in
which Andrew was wounded, and his vessel, the _Lion_, was taken. He
died of his wounds.
The ballad was re-composed in the reign of James I., and this is
published in Percy's "Relicks" and in Evans' "Old Ballads." For an
account of Sir Andrew Barton, see Child's "English and Scottish
Ballads," No. 167. The ballad in full in Percy's MS. book is in
sixty-four stanzas. Our form of the ballad is probably earlier, but
it is incomplete. I have added the last verse to give a finish to the
story. The tune is in the Æolian mode.
54. PLYMOUTH SOUND. Melody taken down from Roger Luxton to a song of
this name. There are three songs that go by the title of "Plymouth
Sound" on Broadsides, by Keys, of Devonport, and by Such; but all are
coarse and undesirable. I have therefore written fresh words to this
delicious air.
55. THE FOX. In the early part of last century this song was sung at
all harvest suppers in the West of England. It is known elsewhere,
but not to the same tune. A version of "The Fox" in the tenth volume
of "Notes and Queries," 1854, is spoken of as "an old Cornish Song."
In "Gammer Gurton's Garland," _circ._ 1783, is one verse of the
song. It occurs in "The Opera, or Cabinet of Song," Edinburgh, 1832.
Halliwell, in his "Nursery Rhymes," Percy Soc., 1842, gives a fuller
version than ours. He begins--
"The fox and his wife they had a great strife,
They never eat mustard in all their life;
They eat their meat without fork or knife,
And loved to be picking a bone, e-no!"
In a collection of songs in the British Museum is the ballad on a
Broadside by Harkness of Birmingham. It begins--
"The fox went out of a moon-shiny night,
When the moon and the stars they shined so bright;
I hope, said the Fox, we'll have a good night,
When we go to yonder town, O!
Mogga, mogga, Reynard.
The wheel it goes round, and we'll tally-ho th' hounds,
And I wish I was through the town, O!"
The tune we give was taken down from James Parsons. There were two
other airs to which it was sung in other parts of England. These I
give--
[Music: The Fox, II.]
[Music: III.]
56. FURZE BLOOM. The melody from Roger Luxton to the words of the
ballad, "Gosport Beach," which could not possibly be inserted here. I
have accordingly written fresh words to it, embodying the folk-saying
in Devon and Cornwall--
"When the Furze is out of bloom,
Then Love is out of tune."
57. THE OXEN PLOUGHING. This song was known throughout Devon and
Cornwall at the beginning of the 19th century. It went out of use
along with the oxen at the plough. We found every old singer had
heard it in his boyhood, but none could recall more than snatches
of the tune and some of the words. We were for three years on its
traces, always disappointed. Then we heard that there was an old
man at Liskeard who could sing the song through. Mr. Sheppard and
I hastened thither, to find that he had been speechless for three
days, and that his death was hourly expected. One day I found an
old white-headed and white-bearded man cutting ferns in the hedges
at Trebartha in Cornwall. His name was Adam Landry. We got into
conversation. I had heard he was a singer, and I asked after this
especial song. He knew it. I sat down among the cut fern and learned
it from him, singing it over and over till I had it by heart, and
then drove home eighteen miles, warbling it the whole way, and went
to my piano and fixed it. Later we found a labouring man, Joseph
Dyer, at Mawgan-in-Pyder, who could sing the song through.
Mr. Sharp has also taken this down note for note in North Devon from
an old farmer, Mr. Lake of Worlington, who remembered the use of oxen
ploughing.
A very similar folk-song is found in France, with its refrain, naming
the oxen--
"Aronda, Vironda,
Charbonné, Maréchaô,
Motet et Roget,
Mortaigne et Chollet,
Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! mon mignon,
He! he! he! he! he! he! mon valet."
See George Sand's account of the song in "Le mare au diable," c. 2;
Tiersot, _op. cit._, p. 157.
58. FLORA, THE LILY OF THE WEST. Two melodies have been noted down to
this ballad, one from Matthew Baker, the old cripple on Lew Down, the
other from Samuel Fone. The first is identical with one obtained in
Yorkshire by Mr. Kidson.
The words are on Broadsheets by Such, Fortey, Barr of Leeds, etc.
In the original the lover betrayed by Flora stabs to the heart the
"lord of high degree" who has supplanted him--
"I walked up to my rival with a dagger in my hand,
And seized him from my false love, and bid him boldly stand;
Then, mad with desperation, I swore I'd pierce his breast,
And I was betrayed by Flora, the Lily of the West."
He is tried for murder, but "a flaw was in the indictment found," and
he escapes the gallows. And the ballad winds up--
"Although she swore my life away, she still disturbs my rest,
I must ramble for my Flora, the Lily of the West."
I have thought it well to cut out the murder and the trial.
The ballad has clearly an Irish origin, what air is used for it in
Ireland I am unable to say. It has been generally accepted that the
ending of a phrase on the same three notes is characteristic of Irish
music. It is not more so than of English folk airs. "Flora, the
Lily of the West" was wont to be sung annually at the Revel at St.
Breward's on the Bodmin Moors, and can be traced back there to 1839.
There Henry Hawken, sexton at Michaelstow, hard by, acquired it, and
from him the first melody was taken down as well by the Rev. W.J.
Wyon, vicar of St. Issey, in 1899.
59. THE SIMPLE PLOUGHBOY. This charming ballad was taken down, words
and music, from J. Masters, Bradstone. The Broadside versions that
were published by Fortey, Hodges, Taylor of Spitalfields, Ringham of
Lincoln, and Pratt of Birmingham, are all very corrupt. The version
of old Masters is given exactly as he sang it, and it is but one
instance out of many of the superiority of the ballads handed down
traditionally in the country by unlettered men, to those picked up
from the ballad-mongers employed by the Broadside publishers.
A version of the song, "It's of a Pretty Ploughboy," is given in the
_Folk-Song Journal_, vol. i. p. 132, as taken down in Sussex. The
words are very corrupt, and they closely resemble those on Broadsides.
60. FAIR LADY PITY ME. Taken down from a labouring man at Exbourne.
The melody is ancient and dates from the Tudor period. The words are
a fragment from "The Noble Lord's Cruelty," "Roxburgh Ballads," ed.
Ebsworth, vi. 681-3. Its date is before 1624. But that was to be
sung to the tune, "Dainty come Thou to Me," which is in Chappell,
ii. p. 517. A ballad, "The Four Wonders of the Land," printed by P.
Brocksby, 1672-95, was set to the tune, "Dear Love Regard My Grief,"
which are the initial words of this song, and shows that already the
long ballad had been broken up.
This song has already been given, arranged by Dr. Bussell, who took
it down, in "English Minstrelsie," iv. p. 84.
61. THE PAINFUL PLOUGH. Words and melody from Roger Huggins, mason,
Lydford. It is in reality a much longer song. Under the title of "The
Ploughman's Glory" it runs to 25 verses. Bell gives 9 in his "Ballads
of the English Peasantry." It is found on Broadsides. In the original
it consists of a contention between a ploughman and a gardener as
to which exercises the noblest profession. Our air is not the same
as that to which the song is sung in the Midlands and south-east of
England. Dr. Barrett gives the song in his "English Folk-Songs," No.
3, to a North Country air.
62. AT THE SETTING OF THE SUN. This very curious ballad has been
taken down twice, from Samuel Fone by Mr. Sheppard, and again by
Mr. Cecil Sharp from the singing of Louie Hooper and Lucy White at
Hambridge, Somerset, to a different air. Fone had forgotten portions
of the song. The man who mistakes his true love for a swan because
she had thrown her apron over her head as a protection from the rain
is tried at the assizes for the murder--