Dartmoor. The original words were so poor, and so closely resembled
those of "The Broken Token" (No. 44), that Mr. Shepherd wrote fresh
words. The original began--
"A fair maid walking in her garden,
A brisk young sailor came passing by;
And he stepped up to her, thinking to woo her,
And said, 'Fair maid, can you fancy I?'
"'You seem to talk like some man of honour,
Some man of honour, you seem to be;
How can you fancy such a poor young woman,
Not fit your servant for to be?'"
The ballad is published by Such as "The Young and Single Sailor," No.
126. It is also in "The Vocal Library," London, 1822, p. 525. It was
printed on Broadside by Catnach as "The Sailor's Return." We obtained
it again from James Parsons.
106. THE BONNY BIRD. Always sung as "My Bonny Boy." It is the
companion song to the "Jolly Goss Hawk" (No. 71). Words and melody
from Mary Langworthy, Stoke Fleming. We have taken this down from two
other singers, but not to the same tune; one J. Doidge, of Chillaton,
gave us an air characteristic and good. Miss Broadwood has the song
in her "County Songs," pp. 146-7, but to a different melody.
In all the versions taken down from oral recitation, the word is Boy
and not Bird, but _Bird_ is the original word. The ballad was printed
by J. Coles, 1646-74, and by W. Thackeray, 1660-1680, and is in the
Douce Collection of early Broadsides in the Bodleian Library; also in
the Pepysian Collection, and is printed by Ebsworth in the Roxburgh
Ballads, viii. p. 359.
It was originally sung to "Cupid's Trepan," also called "Up the Green
Forest," and "Bonny, Bonny Bird." This air is given by Chappell, ii.
p. 557, but this differs from our tune entirely, as also from that
given by Miss Broadwood. The ballad has not, as yet, been traced
earlier than the reign of Charles II. It begins--
"Once I did love a bonny brave bird,
And thought he had been all my own;
But he loved another far better than me,
And has taken his flight and is flown,
Bonny Boys,
And has taken his flight and is flown.
"Up the green forest, and down the green forest,
Like one distracted in mind,
I hoopt and I hoopt, and I flung up my hood,
But my bonny bird I could not find."
A later version is found, _circ._ 1780, in Single Sheet Broadsides,
in the British Museum (11,621).
"Cupid's Trepan or Up the Green Forest" was priced in Russell Smith's
Catalogue at £1, 11s. 6d.
107. THE LADY AND APPRENTICE. Taken down twice, the tune here given
is that sung with these words by Samuel Fone. We got the melody
also from Sally Satterley, but with her the words were in confusion.
The ballad runs on the same lines, and is almost identical with "The
Lady who fell in love with a 'Prentice Boy," printed as a Broadside
by Pitts, 1790-1810; also by Harkness of Preston. A copy in the
British Museum (1876, d). This ballad begins like that of "Cupid's
Garden," which is well known. But the ballad is a mere cooking up by
a balladmonger of the earlier theme, and very badly done.
The melody is actually the same as that of "Love's Tale" in our
"Garland of Country Song."
108. PAUL JONES. Taken down from a good many singers on and around
Dartmoor. The melody is in the Mixolydian mode, and is very early and
rugged, far older than the period of Paul Jones himself. Mr. C. Sharp
says: "In my opinion the tune should perhaps never be harmonised at
all. The whole air is cast in the chord of the dominant 7th, and, in
the opinion of most authorities, this chord should end the song; but
in view of the popular preference for a concord rather than a discord
as the concluding harmony, I have ended with the usual cadence."
Paul Jones was the terror of our coasts; he was born near
Kirkcudbright in 1747. His real name was John Paul. When the rupture
took place between Great Britain and America, he enlisted under the
Revolutionary flag, and assumed the name of Paul Jones. His daring
disposition, and his knowledge of the British coast, pointed him out
as a fitting leader in marauding schemes. Towards the end of 1777
he was actively employed, as commander, in fitting out the _Ranger_
privateer, mounting eighteen guns, and manned with a crew of 150 men.
We have not the space for narrating his daring exploits; his life has
often been written, and a good notice of him will be found in the
"Dictionary of National Biography." The fight described in the ballad
took place on September 23, 1779. The body of Paul Jones was removed
from Paris, where he died, to America in 1905.
The ballad is found on Broadsides. It is given by Logan in his
"Pedlar's Pack," p. 32. Dr. Barrett, in his "English Folk-Songs," No.
33, has the ballad to the tune we have given here to "The Bonny Blue
Kerchief," to which Paul Jones is quite unsuited.
109. THE MERRY HAYMAKERS. This quaint carol-like song was taken down
from John Woodrich, who learned it, about 1850, and he says that it
was his father's favourite song, also from James Parsons. Neither
knew the words in their entirety, but they may be found in "West
Country Garlands," B.M. (11,621, b 11), and among the Broadsheets of
Pitts, about the beginning of the nineteenth century, beginning "In
the merry month of June." The words also in Bell's "Ballads of the
English Peasantry," p. 171. Dr. Brushfield of Budleigh Salterton has
kindly sent me a MS. copy of the end of the seventeenth century or
early in the eighteenth. The words, however, did not fit the tune
comfortably, and I was constrained to re-write the song.
"The Merry Haymakers" is in D'Urfey's "Pills," and as a Broadside
printed by C.B. (Bates), 1695, was priced in Russell Smith's
Catalogue, 1850, at three guineas.
110. IN BIBBERLY TOWN. The air taken down from John Bennett,
Chagford. In Broadsides the place is "Beverley Town," and is entitled
"The Beverley Maid and the Tinker," printed by Catnach, B.M. (1876,
c 2); as "The Tinker's Frolic," in a Garland in the British Museum,
printed by Swindells, Manchester (11,621, b 14); as "The Tinker and
Chambermaid," a Broadside by Harkness, Preston (1876, d). It begins--
"In Beverley Town a maid did dwell,
A buxom lass, I knew her well.
Her age it was just twenty-two,
And for a man she had in view."
It is a coarse ballad, and Mr. Sheppard re-wrote it. The first phrase
in the melody is apparently a modernised edition of an older one. The
rest of the air is ancient, and in the Mixolydian mode.
111. THE MARIGOLD. This ballad was first taken down by Davies Gilbert
in 1830 from an old man named John Hockin, in his eighty-sixth
year, at St. Erth, Cornwall. The melody, which is very early, was,
curiously enough, used by William Aggett for Hook's song, "On board
the ninety-eight." Hook was born in 1746, and the melody is probably
two centuries earlier than his time. There was another Bristol
ballad, "The Honour of Bristol, showing how the Angel Gabriel of
Bristol fought with three Spanish Ships, who boarded us Seven times,
wherein we cleared our Decks, and killed Five hundred of their men,
and wounded many more, and made them flye into Cales when we lost but
three men, to the Honour of the Angel Gabriel of Bristol," priced in
Russell Smith's Catalogue at £2, 12s. 6d.
We have taken down the ballad, "Come all ye worthy Christian men,"
to this melody, which is in the Dorian mode. A fragment of this
latter ballad is given in _Folk-Song Journal_, vol. i. p. 74, taken
down in Sussex, in five verses. We have had it twice: once from J.
Dingle, Coryton, and once as learned in 1820 by George Radford, from
a blind fiddler at Washfield, near Tiverton, and "pricked down" by
H. Pinkney, gardener, Washfield. Mr. Sharp has also met with it in
Rackenford, N. Devon. The air in Sussex is not the same.
In "Hakluyt's Voyages," vol. iii. (1600), is an account of "The
Voyage of the ship called the Marigold of Mr. Hill of Redrife unto
Cape Breton and beyond, to the latitude of 44 degrees and a half,
1593, written by Rd. Fisher, Master Hille's man of Redriffe."
So also Hakluyt mentions "the Marigold 70 tunnes in burthen,
furnished with 20 men, whereof ten were mariners," which is stated
to have "departed out of Falmouth, the 1st June, 1593," commanded
by Richard Strong, "bound for an island within the straights of S.
Peter on the backe side of Newfoundland to the S.W. in the lat. of 47
degrees."
In Latimer's 17th century "Annals of Bristol" is mention made of a
ship "The Marigold," under the date 1627-8, of seventy tons, owned by
Mr. Ellis. It was granted letters of marque to prey upon the enemy's
commerce; but no mention is made of Sir Thomas Merrifield. The
_Redrife_ above is Redcliffe, Bristol. Bristol was spelled _Bristow_
in maps of the city published in 1568 and 1610, but in one of 1671 it
is spelled Bristoll.
I have been unable to find Sir Thomas Merrifield in any lists of
knights; but before the reign of James I. no official record of
knights was kept.
112. ARTHUR LE BRIDE. Taken down from Sam Fone, Mary Tavy, by Mr.
Bussell, in 1892. Sam told us that this was his father's favourite
song. He had learned it from his father when he was quite a child,
for the elder Fone deserted his family, and was never heard of again.
But one day Sam, when aged eighteen, saw a workman standing at a
cottage door, talking to someone within, and he had his hand against
the door-post, clutching it as he leaned forward. Sam exclaimed:
"That's my father's hand!" The man turned about, and without showing
his face, walked away. When Sam came from his work in the evening he
made enquiries, and ascertained that a stranger had been lodging in
the cottage for a few nights, but was gone. He asked the woman of the
house about her lodger. "Well," said she, "I don't know his name, nor
nothing about him. But he asked me for a tallow candle, and melted it
up into his boots." "That was my father. It was a trick of his," said
Sam, promptly. And that was the last ever seen of the man.
There was one more verse in the original, omitted to reduce the
lengthy ballad to singable proportions.
113. THE KEEPER. This song was taken down from Peter Sandry, St.
Ervan's. He had a bad cold, and could not reach the upper notes. But
we got the same tune from Mr. Jas. Ellis, Chaddlehanger, Lamerton,
and also from Miss Templer, from the singing of harvesters in 1834;
but in both these latter cases to the words of "Green Broom." A copy
of the ballad will be found in a "Garland," B.M., 11,621, c 3; but
this has a chorus to it--
"Jack my master, sing you well,
Very well, with my derry down,
With my Down, down, down."
I have been compelled to re-write most of the song, which in the
original is very gross. It is certainly an ancient composition.
114. THE QUEEN OF HEARTS. Sung by a workman engaged on the Burrow-Tor
reservoir at Sheepstor, the water supply for Plymouth, 1894. A quaint
little song. It has been printed on Broadside by Bachelar, B.M., in
vol. vi. p. 110, of several volumes of Broadsides I gave to the B.M.
This begins--
"O my poor heart, my poor heart is breaking
For a false young man, or I am mistaking:
He is gone to Ireland, for a long time to tarry,
Some Irish girl I am afraid he will marry."
This is obviously an addition to fill out space in the Broadside. The
ballad has a flavour of the period of Charles II.
115. THE OWL. This song occurs in part in King Henry VIII.'s
music-book, "Deuteromelia," published in 1609. It was set by Mr.
Freeman as a glee in "The Essex Harmony," vol. i. 1767, p. 8. In
Beaumont and Fletcher's play, "The Knight of the Burning Pestle,"
1635, Old Merrythought trolls out snatches of songs, and amongst
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."
Mr. Bussell noted down the melody from James Olver, tanner of
Launceston, in 1889. Of the words, Olver could not recall the line
that follows
"And all the day long the Owl is asleep,"
and I have had to supply what lacked.
I give this song because it is interesting to note the changes that
the air has undergone since it was performed as a Three Man's song
before King Henry VIII. It will be noticed that Olver has not got all
that portion of the song beginning "To whom drink'st thou." Chappell
has given "Of all the Birds," in i. p. 75. On the other hand, in
"Deuteromelia," only the first verse is given; Olver had three. A
re-writing of the song "Of all the Birds on Bush or Tree" in "The
Thrush," London, 1830, has two stanzas. The second concerns the lark.
116. MY MOTHER DID SO BEFORE ME. This song is based on the old
English ditty "My Father was Born before Me," as may be seen at once
by comparing the first few lines--
"I am a lusty, lively lad
Now come to one and twenty,
My father left me all he had,
Both gold and silver plenty.
"Now he's in grave, I will be brave,
The ladies shall adore me,
I'll court and kiss, what hurt's in this?
My father did so before me."
The first appearance of this ballad is in Thomas Jordan's "London
Triumphant," 1672. It was taken by D'Urfey into his "Pills to Purge
Melancholy," vol. i., 1699 and 1707. The air appears in the "Dancing
Master" as "Jamaca," 4th edition, 1670, and in those subsequent.
The tune we give was taken down to the song from S. Fone by Mr.
Sheppard in 1895.
"My Mother did so before Me" occurs without music in "The
Nightingale," a song-book published in Edinburgh, 1776, and is given
by Logan in his "Pedlar's Pack," 1869, from a chap-book of 1804. It
occurs also on a Broadside by Pitts of Seven Dials. It is also in
"The Quaver," Lond. 1831. The tune we have taken down is certainly
based on the early air as given in the "Dancing Master." It is in
Chappell, ii. p. 446.
117. A WEEK'S WORK WELL DONE. This popular song, relished by married
men, was taken down from Richard Hard a little over a month before
he died. In the original it is much longer. There are in all eleven
verses. The first four are concerned with the happiness of the man
previous to his marriage. But I find that most singers begin with the
fifth verse.
The ballad is found in "West Country Garlands," date _circ._ 1760,
B.M., 1161, b 11.
It actually begins thus--
"O when that I was a bachelor brave,
Enjoying of all that my soul could have;
My silver and guineas I then let fly,
I cock'd my beaver, and, who but I?
"I roved about, and I roved awhile,
Till all the ladies did on me smile;
From noble lady to country Joan,
Both gentle and simple, were all mine own.
"My rapier it was a Bilboa blade,
My coat and waistcoat were overlaid
With silver spangles, so neat and gay,
As I were a king in some country play.
"Besides, I had such a flattering tongue,
The ladies laughed whene'er I sung;
I had a voice so sweet and fine
That every lady's heart was mine."
118. THE OLD MAN CAN'T KEEP HIS WIFE AT HOME. The curious rugged
melody was taken down from a very old fiddler named William Andrews,
at Sheepstor, by Mr. Bussell. The old fellow did not recall all the
words, but remembered the story. According to his account this was a
dance tune to which the performers sang in accompaniment to the music
and tramp of feet.
I have had to re-compose the ballad from the fragment and the story.
It bears a family resemblance to "The Old Couple" given in "The
Garland of Country Song," p. 100. In the story the old man locks his
wife out. She threatens to drown herself, and throws a stone into
the well. The old man, when he hears the splash, descends, opens
the door, and goes forth to see whether his wife really has drowned
herself. At once she slips in at the open door and locks him out. The
story is very ancient. It occurred in the lost Sanscrit book of tales
of which Persian and Arabic and Turkish versions exist, and which
filtered into Europe through Greek and Latin and Hebrew translations.
This story came into Dolopathos and the Seven Wise Masters. The
French and Latin versions were made in the 13th century. But the
story had already got to Europe through the converted Jew, Peter
Alphonsus, who inserted it in his "Disciplina Clericalis," written
in 1062. From this it got into some of the versions of the "Gesta
Romanorum," and finally into Boccaccio's "Decameron," seventh day,
tale 4.
To give the whole story in ballad form would have made the ballad too
long; I have therefore reduced it to three verses, and have given it,
from the man's point of view, a happier termination.
The tune is clearly a bagpipe air with drone.
119. SWEET, FAREWELL. Taken down from Samuel Fone, of Mary Tavy, in
1889, the music noted by Mr. Bussell. Fone had forgotten the two last
lines of verse 1 and the two first of verse 2. The air is pleasant,
but the words are naught.
120. OLD ADAM, THE POACHER. This curious melody was taken down by
Mr. Bussell from the fiddling of William Andrews, Sheepstor. We saw
the old man a little over a year before his death. He brought out
and lent us a collection of MS. violin tunes, but all of these were
well-known, old-fashioned dance airs. Then he played to us several
not in his book that were traditional at Sheepstor. This was one of
them, a dance tune; but he could not recall the words, only he knew
that they told of the adventures of "Old Adam, the Poacher." Mr.
Sheppard arranged this for "English Minstrelsy," but did not perceive
that the first four lines of air have to be repeated to complete the
tune; and in taking the melody from the fiddler, one could not detect
at first, not knowing the words, where the tune precisely ended. It
seems, however, obvious that there is a repeat of the first strain. I
wrote the words.
121. EVENING PRAYER. Some fifty years ago this was the only, or
almost the only, prayer used by village children. It was said or
chanted far more extensively than the Lord's Prayer. The children
had, however, cut down the hymn to one verse. The complete song,
as "Prayer of the Week," was obtained from an old woman in the
workhouse at Tavistock. Where the passage occurs purporting to come
from the Epistles of St. Peter it would be hard to say. The tune, as
it stands, is in the Major mode, and is so harmonised. But if the
last note were G instead of E[flat]--as, indeed, it is in the two
previous repetitions of the same phrase--the melody would then be in
the Phrygian mode. The termination in E[flat] is probably a modern
corruption.
Something very much like this prayer is found throughout Europe. Here
is the Quercy version, sung also in Poitou, Gascony, and Brittany--
"Father of habit, our Lord salutes you.
He is at the head, He is at the feet;
He is now, He is hereafter.
On the bed, when I lie,
Five angels are me by,
Two to head and two to feet,
The Mother of God in the midst, whilst I sleep.
I need not fear fire and flame and sudden death," etc.
Daymard, "Chansons Populaires," Cahors, 1889. It is probably the
"White Paternoster" referred to in "The Miller's Tale," by Chaucer--
"Lord Jhesu Crist, and Seynte Benedight,
Bless this hous from every wikkede wight,
Fro nyghtesmare werye the witte (white) Pater-noster."
White, in his "Way to the True Church," 1624, insists on "the
prodigious ignorance" which he found among his parishioners when
he entered on his ministrations. He gives what he calls "The White
Paternoster":--
"White Paternoster, Saint Peter's brother,
What hast i' th' one hand? White book leaves.
What hast i' th' t'other hand? Heaven yate keyes.
Open heaven yates, and streike hell yates:
And let every crysome child creep to its own mother,
White Paternoster, Amen."
This, however, is not the same. But in the Magical Treatise,
"Enchiridion Papæ Leonis," Rome, 1660, it runs--
"Petit Pate nôtre blanche que Dieu fit, que Dieu dit, que
Dieu mit en Paradis. Au soir me allant coucher je trouve
trois anges à mon lit couchés, un aux pieds, deux au
chevet, la bonne Vierge Marie au milieu, qui me dit que je
me arrette, que rien ne doute."
This was to be recited thrice at eve, thrice in the morning, and it
would secure Paradise.
The White Paternoster was proscribed by the Church as superstitious:
"Le Tableau de la vida del parfet Crestia," by P. Amilha, 1703, p.
234. See Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables," iv. p. 117.
A form used on the Cornish moors, and repeated by a boy at Alternon,
runs--
"Ding dong, the parson's bell,
Very well my mother.
I shall be buried in the old churchyard,
By the side of my dear brother.
My coffin shall be black,
Two little angels at my back,
Two to watch, and two to pray,
And two to carry my soul away.
When I am dead and in my grave,
And all my bones are rotten,
Jesus Christ will come again
When I am quite forgotten."
The boy was taught this by his aunt.
In the "Townley Mysteries," p. 91, the shepherds watching their
flocks by night repeat a form of this prayer. See also Ady's "Candle
in the Dark," London, 1650, p. 58; also a paper in the _Archæologia_,
xxvii. p. 253, by the Rev. Lancelot Sharpe; and Halliwell's "Nursery
Rhymes," No. ccxl.
* * * * *
Songs in the first edition omitted from this are--
Fathom the Bowl.
The Squire and the Fair Maid.
My Lady's Coach.
An Evening so Clear.
The Warson Hunt.
The Rout is Out.
Why should we be dullards sad?
Nancy.
Farewell to Kingsbridge.
Something Lacking.
The Wrestling Match.
Broadbury Gibbet.
The Orchestra.
Fair girl, mind this when you marry.
Cupid, the Ploughboy.
Come, my Lads, let us be jolly.
A Single and a Married Life.
The Saucy Ploughboy.
The Everlasting Circle.
Hunting the Hare.
Dead Maid's Land.
Shower and Sunshine.
The first edition is still kept in stock, so that such persons as
desire these ballads, and such others as are retained in this, but
treated differently, as duets and quartettes, can obtain them from
the publishers.
* * * * *
[Illustration:
PRINTED BY
C.G. RODER,
LIMITED,
Willesden Junction
LONDON, N.W.]