Book I. Folk-Songs from Dorset. Collected by

Transcriber’s Notes:

Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_

in the original text.

Equal signs “=” before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold=

in the original text.

Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals.

Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs.

Old or antiquated spellings have been preserved.

Typographical errors have been silently corrected.

ENGLISH FOLK-SONG AND DANCE

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

London: FETTER LANE, E.C.

C. F. CLAY, MANAGER

[Illustration]

Edinburgh: 100 PRINCES STREET

Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.

Toronto: J. M. DENT & SONS, LTD.

Tokyo: THE MARUZEN KABUSHIKI-KAISHA

_All rights reserved_

ENGLISH FOLK-SONG

AND DANCE

BY

FRANK KIDSON

AND

MARY NEAL

Cambridge:

at the University Press

1915

CONTENTS

ENGLISH FOLK-SONG

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 3

I. DEFINITION 9

II. THE ORIGIN OF FOLK-SONG 11

III. THE CANTE-FABLE 15

IV. THE CONSTRUCTION OF FOLK-MUSIC 19

V. CHANGES THAT OCCUR IN FOLK-MUSIC 25

VI. THE QUALITY OF FOLK-SONG, AND ITS DIFFUSION 36

VII. THE MOVEMENT FOR COLLECTING ENGLISH FOLK-SONG 40

VIII. THE NOTING OF FOLK-MUSIC 47

IX. THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF FOLK-SONG 52

X. THE NARRATIVE BALLAD 53

XI. LOVE SONGS AND MYSTIC SONGS 57

XII. THE PASTORAL 60

XIII. DRINKING SONGS AND HUMOROUS SONGS 62

XIV. HIGHWAYMAN AND POACHER SONGS 64

XV. SOLDIER SONGS 66

XVI. SEA SONGS 67

XVII. PRESSGANG SONGS 69

XVIII. HUNTING AND SPORTING SONGS 70

XIX. SONGS OF LABOUR 71

XX. TRADITIONAL CAROLS 74

XXI. CHILDREN’S SINGING-GAMES 77

XXII. THE BALLAD SHEET AND SONG GARLAND 78

BIBLIOGRAPHY 86

ENGLISH FOLK-DANCE

INTRODUCTION 97

I. THE MORRIS DANCE TO-DAY 125

II. TUNES 130

III. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 132

IV. THE DRESS 136

V. EXTRA CHARACTERS 141

VI. THE SWORD DANCE 145

VII. THE FURRY DANCE 150

VIII. THE COUNTRY DANCE 152

IX. THE PRESENT-DAY REVIVAL OF THE FOLK-DANCE 158

X. CONCLUSIONS 167

BIBLIOGRAPHY 173

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

MORRIS DANCERS AT BAMPTON-IN-THE-BUSH, OXON. 97

(By kind permission of _The Daily Chronicle_)

ABINGDON DANCES, WHOSE TRADITION GOES BACK TO 1700 104

(From _The Espérance Morris Book_, Vol. I.,

by kind permission of Messrs J. Curwen & Son)

MORRIS DANCERS IN THE TIME OF JAMES I. 120

MORRIS DANCE AND MUSIC 125

(From the _Orchesographie_ of Thoinot-Arbeau,

British Museum)

WHIT-MONDAY AT BAMPTON-IN-THE-BUSH, OXON. 145

(By kind permission of _The Daily Chronicle_)

THE LOCK; CHARACTERISTIC OF SWORD DANCES 148

(From _The Espérance Morris Book_, Vol. II.,

by kind permission of Messrs J. Curwen & Son)

ENGLISH FOLK-SONG

BY FRANK KIDSON

_NOTE_

_I am indebted to Miss Lucy E. Broadwood

for permission to use a folk-tune of her

collecting, and for many helpful suggestions._

_F. K._

INTRODUCTION

Writing two centuries ago, Joseph Addison tells us in the character of

Mr Spectator:—

“When I travelled I took a particular delight in hearing the songs and

fables that are come down from father to son, and are most in vogue

among the common people of the countries through which I passed; for it

is impossible that anything should be universally tasted and approved

of by a multitude, though they are only the rabble of the nation, which

hath not in it some peculiar aptness to please and gratify the mind of

man” (_Spectator_, No. 70). He further says:—

“An ordinary song or ballad, that is the delight of the common people,

cannot fail to please all such readers as are not unqualified for the

entertainment by their affectation or ignorance.”

It was not only the cultured Mr Addison who recognised the claims of

the people’s songs as expressive of sentiments that were worthy the

consideration of the more learned, for quotation upon quotation could

be given of examples where the refined and learned have found in the

primitive song that which appealed in the highest degree.

The moderns need no excuse for the study of folk-song, and few will

regard the consideration of people’s-lore as an idle amusement.

The present essay is put forth with all diffidence as a very slight

dissertation upon a complex subject, and it does not pretend to do more

than enter into the fringe of it.

The younger of the present generation have seen the gradual speeding up

of technique in composition and performance, but with this increased

standard there has been a tendency to let fall certain very sacred and

essential things that belong to musical art. In too many cases the

composer has not quite justified the complexity of his composition;

while glorying in the skill of his craftsmanship he has too frequently

forgotten the primitive demand for art and beauty, apart from technical

elaboration.

That type of simple melody that formerly pleased what we might regard

as a less cultured age, holds no place in present-day composition or in

the esteem of a certain class.

It is probable that this melodic starvation turned so many, who had not

lost the feeling for simple tune, towards folk-music when this was

dragged from obscurity and declared by competent musical judges to be

worthy of consideration. Then people began to revel in its charm, and

to feel that here was something that had been withheld from them, but

which was good for their musical souls.

A simple air of eight or sixteen bars may not appear difficult to

evolve, or even worth evolving at all, much less of record; but

when the matter is further considered, we have to acknowledge that

seemingly trivial melodies have wrought effects which have upset

thrones and changed the fate of nations. Where they have not had this

great political influence their histories show that they have rooted

themselves deeply into the hearts of a people, and put into shade the

finest compositions of great musicians. An undying vitality appears

to be inherent in them, and this is shown by their general appeal

throughout periods of thought and life totally unlike. Many examples

prove this, and such an air as “Greensleeves” might be cited in this

connexion.

One would suppose that nothing could be more apart in thought, action,

and habit than the gallant of Elizabeth’s reign and an English farm

labourer of the present day. And yet the tune “Greensleeves” that

pleased the sixteenth century culture is found the cherished possession

of countrymen in the Midlands, who execute a rustic dance to a

traditional survival of it. Further proof that it is one of those

immortal tunes to which reference has been made is shown by the fact

that it exists in various forms, and has had all kinds of songs fitted

to it from its first recorded appearance in Shakespeare’s time (who

mentions it) down to the present day.

“Greensleeves” is probably an “art” tune and not strictly folk-music.

Hence in its passage downwards it has gradually got stripped of some of

its subtilty, as it has been chiefly passed onward by tradition. This

change will be noted further on.

Other tunes that, coming from remote antiquity, still find a welcome

with the people are, “John Anderson my Jo,” and “Scots wha hae,” while

“Lillibulero,” and “Boyne Water,” though of lesser age, fall into the

same category.

We have even taken to our hearts tunes of other nationalities, and

perhaps have more French airs among our popular music than of any other

country. As every student of national song knows, “We won’t go home

till morning” is but “Malbrook,” the favourite of Marie Antoinette, who

learned it from the peasant woman called in to nurse her first child.

“Ah vous dirai je” is known as “Baa baa black sheep” in every nursery,

while “In my cottage near a wood” is a literal translation from an old

French song to its proper tune.

Such of these, or of this class, as are not folk-tunes have the same

spirit, and it is this indefinable quality that causes folk-music to be

so tenacious of existence. If it be good enough it is almost impossible

for it to die and be totally forgotten. A tune may lie dormant for half

a century, but it rises again and has its period of renewed popularity.

One might name many a music-hall air, over which the people have for a

period gone half wild, that is merely a resuscitation of a tune that

has pleased a former generation. Thus such airs pass through strata of

widely differing thought and mode of life.

It is folk-music that appeals to the bed-rock temperament of the

people. Artificial music can only do so to a culture, which may

change its standards with a change of thought, and that which is the

applauded of one generation becomes the despised of a succeeding one;

musical history can furnish many such examples. These facts justify our

appreciation of folk-music and elevate its study.

I. DEFINITION

The word “folk-song” is so elastic in definition that it has been

freely used to indicate types of song and melody that greatly

differ from each other. The word conveys a different signification

to different people, and writers have got sadly confused from this

circumstance. Even the word “song” has not a fixed meaning, for it can

imply both a lyric with its music, and the words of the lyric only.

“Folk-song,” or “people’s song,” may be understood to imply, in its

broadest sense, as _Volkslied_ does to the German, a song and its

music which is generally approved by the bulk of the people. Thus any

current popular drawing-room song, or the latest music-hall production,

would naturally hold this meaning, though it would not come into line

with the other conceptions of folk-song, and probably not altogether

satisfy the German ideal. Then, what may fitly be called “national”

songs have a strong claim upon the word. “God save the King,” “Home

sweet Home,” “Tom Bowling,” “Heart of Oak,” and countless others that

form our national store of song and melody could under this meaning be

called folk-songs, and this might come closer to the German idea of a

_Volkslied_.

The type, however, which lies nearest the definition of folk-song, as

understood by the modern expert, is a song born of the people and used

by the people—practically exclusively used by them before being noted

down by collectors and placed before a different class of singers.

To pursue the subject further one might split straws over the word

“people,” but it may be generally accepted that “the people,” in this

instance, stands for a stratum of society where education of a literary

kind is, in a greater or lesser degree, absent.

This last definition of folk-song, as “song and melody born of the

people and used by the people as an expression of their emotions, and

(as in the case of historical ballads) for lyrical narrative,” is

the one adopted in these pages and that generally recognised by the

chief collectors and by the Folk-Song Society. In addition it may be

mentioned that folk-song is practically almost always traditional, so

far as its melody is concerned, and, like all traditional lore, subject

to corruption and alteration. Also, that we have no definite knowledge

of its original birth, and frequently but a very vague idea as to its

period.

It has been cleverly said that a proverb is the “wit of one and the

wisdom of many.” In a folk-song or folk-ballad we may accept a similar

definition, to the effect that it is in the power of one person to

put into tangible form a history, a legend, or a sentiment which is

generally known to, or felt by, the community at large, but which few

are able to put into definite shape. We may suppose that such effort

from one individual may be either crude or polished; that matters

little if the sentiment is a commonly felt one, for common usage will

give it some degree of polish, or at any rate round off some of its

corners.

II. THE ORIGIN OF FOLK-SONG

Every nation, both savage and civilized, has its folk-song, and this

folk-song is a reflection of the current thought of the class among

which it is popular. It is frequently a spontaneous production that

invests in lyric form the commonly felt emotion or sentiment of the

moment.

This type is more observable among savage tribes than among civilized

nations. Folk-song is therefore not so permanent among the former

as it is among the latter. So far as we can gather, though it is

difficult to get at the truth of this matter, among primitive people

the savage does not appear to retain his song-traditions, but invents

new lyrics as occasion calls. For example, one is continually reading

in books of travel of negroes, or natives of wild countries, chanting

extemporary songs descriptive of things which have been the happenings

of the day, and telling of the white man who has come among them,

of the feast he has provided, of the dangers they have encountered

during the journey, and so forth. The tunes of these songs appear to

be chiefly monotonous chants, and the accompanying music of the rudest

character, produced on tom-toms, horns, reed-flutes, or similar kinds

of instruments. A very typical description of this class of folk-song,

the like of which may be found in most books of travel, occurs in Day’s

_Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan_. The

author says:—

“The ordinary folk-songs of the country are called

“Lavanis,” and will be familiar to every one who has

heard the coolies sing as they do their work, the

women nursing their children, the bullock-drivers and

dooley-bearers, or Sepoys on the march. The airs are

usually very monotonous, the words, if not impromptu,

are a sort of history, or ballad in praise of some

warrior, or ‘burra-sahib.’ Some have a kind of chorus,

each in turn singing an improvised verse.”

This type appears to be the origin of a nation’s folk-song.

It is a sign of a country’s civilization when it begins to keep

records, either by tradition or more fixed methods, and it is a theory

(which may be probably accepted as correct) that chronicles were

first chanted in ballad form and thus more easily passed downward in

remembrance. This may be accepted as the origin of the folk-ballad.

Its music has originated by the same natural instinct that produces

language.

Much has been said of the communal origin of folk-song and folk-music,

but it is somewhat difficult fully to realise what is meant by such a

term in relation to these matters.

Those who hold this theory appear to assert that a folk-song with its

music has had a primal formation at some early and indefinite time, and

that this germ, thrown upon the world, has been fashioned and changed

by numberless brains according to the popular demand, and has only met

with general acceptance when it has fulfilled the requirements that

the populace have demanded. This change is called its “evolution,”

and it is sometimes claimed that this evolution still goes on where

folk-songs are yet sung; this means that the folk-song is virtually in

a state of fluidity.

Such, briefly, appears to be the idea of those who hold the

evolutionary, or communal, theory of folk-song origin. It cannot be

denied that there is an obvious truth in such a contention, but before

it can be generally accepted surely there must be much modification.

It cannot be altogether decided that the original germ is absolutely

different from the folk-song as found existing to-day, but that both

folk-song and folk-music are subject to change also cannot be disputed.

The parlour game “Gossip,” in which A whispers a short narrative to

B, who in turn whispers it to C, the narrative passing finally to Z,

has been used as an illustration of the variations that folk-song

undergoes. In the game, the tale originally put forth by A is generally

found to be much unlike that received by Z. Folk-song in some degree

suffers such change by conscious or unconscious alteration. Unconscious

alteration we can easily understand; that is merely the result of

imperfect remembrance. Conscious alteration may be the effect, in

vocal rendering, of a difficulty in individual singers of attaining

certain intervals, or from choice. Alteration in instrumental rendering

of folk-music is chiefly due to lack of skill in the performer on a

particular instrument. Thus, what may be difficult to render on a

flute may be easy on a fiddle; hence we can conceive an alteration may

be purposely made for facility of performance. This is decidedly not

evolution, nor communal origin.

III. THE CANTE-FABLE

The existence of the “Cante-fable” has furnished another theory of

folk-song origin. The Cante-fable is a traditional prose narrative

having rhymed passages incorporated with the tale. These rhymes are

generally short verses, or couplets, which recur at dramatic points

of the story. They were probably sung to tunes, but present-day

remembrance has failed to preserve more than a few specimens, and the

verse, or couplet, is now generally recited.

It has been asserted that the Cante-fable is a sort of germ from which

both ballad and prose narrative have evolved. Mr Jacobs, in _English

Fairy Tales_, says—“The Cante-fable is probably the protoplasm out of

which both ballad and folk-tale have been differentiated; the ballad by

omitting the narrative prose, and the folk-tale by expanding it.”

Mr Cecil J. Sharp, in _English Folk-song: Some Conclusions_, p. 6,

tells of having noted a version of the ballad “Lord Thomas and Fair

Eleanor”—“in which the whole of the story was sung, with the exception

of three lines, which the singer assured me should be spoken. This was

clearly a case of a Cante-fable that had very nearly, but not quite,

passed into the form of a ballad, thus corroborating Mr Jacobs’ theory.”

The present writer is sorry to differ from Mr Jacobs as well as from Mr

Sharp in this matter, but he does not think that facts quite justify

the conclusion. He can but look upon the speaking of the three lines

of the “Fair Eleanor” ballad, instead of singing them, as merely an

individual eccentricity that has no value as pointing to a nearly

completed evolution. Their theory indicates, to put it crudely, that

the Cante-fable is in the condition of a tadpole which by and by will

have its fins and tail turned into legs, will forsake its original

element, and hop about a meadow, instead of being entirely confined to

pond water.

An examination of existing Cante-fables will certainly reveal the fact

that the fragments of verse are used either as a literary ornament, or

to force some particular dramatic situation home to the hearer. Also,

it must be noticed that the rhyme passages are not merely fragmentary

parts of a prose narrative which is gradually turning wholly into

rhyme, but most frequently consist of a repeated verse, or couplet,

that occurs at parts of the story, which could not be so effectively

told in prose.

The commonly known story of “Orange,” versions of which, all having

the same rhyme passages, are to be found in English, German, and other

folk-tales is a good example. With little variation the story tells of

a stepmother who kills her husband’s child, makes the body into a pie,

to be eaten by the father, and buries the bones in the cellar. First

one member of the family goes into this place and hears the voice of

the murdered child sing,—

“My mother did kill me and put me in pies,

My father did eat me and say I was nice;

My two little sisters came picking my bones,

And buried me under cold marble stones.”

Then other members of the family go to the cellar and in turn hear the

same voice repeating the rhyme (see _Folk-Song Journal_, vol. ii.,

p. 295, for a version of the tale and a tune sung to the above words

learned from Liverpool children).

Another Cante-fable, surely a genuine one, is given by Charles Dickens

in “Nurses’ Stories” in _The Uncommercial Traveller_.

In this case the rhyme—

“A lemon has pips,

A yard has ships,

And I’ll have Chips!”

is brought out with vivid effect by the narrator at intervals and with

terror-striking force due to its expected recurrence, just as in the

case of the story of “Orange.” As Dickens puts it—“I don’t know why,

but the fact of the Devil expressing himself in rhyme was peculiarly

trying to me.” And again—“For this refrain I had waited since its last

appearance with inexpressible horror, which now culminated.” And—“The

invariable effect of this alarming tautology on the part of the Evil

Spirit was to deprive me of my senses.”

There can be but little doubt that this Cante-fable is a real nurse’s

story, remembered by the great author from his childhood, and Dickens

so well describes the feeling of terror that the rhyme inspires in the

childish listener, that we cannot but grant that the original makers

of Cante-fable were quite alive to the dramatic force such recurring

rhymes possess.

Other examples of the Cante-fable are to be found in Chambers’ _Popular

Rhymes of Scotland_ and elsewhere. All, however, point to the verse

being used as an ornamental and dramatic addition to the story, and

certainly not as indicating a transitionary stage between a rhyming and

a prose narrative.

The question of a Cante-fable origin of the folk-ballad is here

somewhat fully dealt with, as it is a sufficiently romantic theory to

lead people, who have not fully considered all the points involved, to

accept it on trust.

IV. THE CONSTRUCTION OF FOLK-MUSIC

It will be quite evident to the average hearer that much folk-music is

built upon scales different from those that form the foundation of the

ordinary modern tune. This fact is accounted for by the circumstance

that a large percentage of folk-melodies are “modal”; _i.e._

constructed upon the so-called “ecclesiastical modes” which, whether

adopted from the Greek musical system or not, had Greek nomenclature,

and were employed in the early church services.

The ecclesiastical scales may be realised by playing an octave scale

on the white keys of the piano only. Thus—C to C is Ionian, D to

D Dorian, E to E Phrygian, F to F Lydian (rarely used), G to G

Mixolydian, A to A Æolian, and B to B Locrian (practically unused).

Progress in harmony and polyphony gradually revealed the cramping

effect of many modal intervals, and already by the beginning of the

seventeenth century our modern major and minor scales (the first,

however, corresponding to the Ionian mode in structure) had supplanted

the rest, so far as trained musicians were concerned. Not so with the

folk-tune maker; he was conservative enough to preserve that which had

become obsolete elsewhere. We find a large proportion of folk-airs are

in the Dorian, Mixolydian, and Æolian modes, with much fewer in the

Phrygian.

When folk-music began to be first studied scientifically a theory was

held that because of its modal character it was necessarily a reflex

of ecclesiastical music, and that secular melodies were either church

chants set to songs, or in some other way derived from them. It is

known that many of the early clerics established schools for the

teaching of music, with intent to enrich the services. But while this

theory is temptingly plausible, yet it is incapable of proof, and a

reverse one might, with equal reason, be held to maintain that the

church took its music directly from the people, or at any rate adapted

its form from that mostly popular.

It has also been asserted that the modal character of folk-music is a

clear proof of great age. It is certainly more than likely that most of

the modal tunes that are found are of considerable antiquity, but it

is scarcely safe to conclude that all are so. How old any particular

folk-tune may be is a problem incapable of solution, and all attempts

to fix its age and period can be but, at best, mere guesswork.

We may grant that folk-music has been handed down traditionally by

many generations of singers, but if it has pleased these different

generations we must also admit that any new composition of folk-music,

to please the people, must conform to their common demand.

Folk-music seems to have held its own traditional ideals longer

and more closely than music composed for that class which has so

persistently ignored it. The cultured musician is always, consciously

or unconsciously, influenced by the music of his day, and as a

consequence adheres to its idioms, or is genius enough to found a

school of his own. His music too is far more elaborate than that

produced by the rustic, or untaught musician. It has harmony, and many

more points of evidence that enable us definitely to fix its period of

composition.

The composer of folk-music may be compared, in a sense, to the Indian,

or Chinese art-worker who repeats the class of patterns that has come

down to him from time immemorial. When European influence was brought

to bear on his work his patterns became debased, lost their original

beauty, and gained nothing from the new source of inspiration.

There is no space in this small manual to enter into a disquisition on

the Modes. The reader is referred to such a work as the new edition

of Grove’s _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_ (vol. iii., p. 222),

to Carl Engel’s _Study of National Music_, and to a most valuable

contribution to the subject by Miss A. G. Gilchrist, “Note on the Modal

System of Gaelic Tunes,” in the _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_,

vol. iv., No. 16.

The following are given as examples of modal folk-tunes, in the modes

most frequently found:—

[Music: ONE MOONLIGHT NIGHT

DORIAN _Sung in a “Cante-Fable”_

One moonlight night, as I sat high,

I looked for one, but two came by;

The boughs did bend, the leaves did shake,

To see the hole the fox did make.

]

[Music: THE BONNY LABOURING BOY

_Noted by Miss L. E. Broadwood_ _Sung by Mr Lough, Surrey_

MIXOLYDIAN

As I roved out one evening, being in the blooming spring,

I heard a lovely damsel fair most grievously did sing,

Saying “Cruel were my parents that did me so annoy.

They did not let me marry with my bonny lab’ring boy.”

]

[Music: CHRISTMAS CAROL AS SUNG IN NORTH YORKSHIRE

ÆOLIAN MODE

God rest you merry, merry gentlemen,

Let nothing you dismay,

Remember Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas day,

To save our souls from Satan’s pow’r that long had gone astray,

Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, and joy, and joy,

Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, and joy.

]

In addition to modal tunes we have a certain number of folk-airs built

upon a “gapped,” or limited, scale of five notes instead of the usual

seven. This “pentatonic” scale, which appears to be very characteristic

of the primitive music of all nations, was formerly held as an

infallible sign of a Scottish origin, and the old recipe to produce a

Scottish air was—“stick to the black keys of the piano.” It is quite

true that a large number of Scottish melodies have the characteristics

of the pentatonic scale, but so also have the Irish tunes, and there

are a lesser number that may claim to be English.

Much nonsense has been written to account for the existence of the

pentatonic scale, the general conclusion arrived at being that it arose

from the use of an imperfect instrument that could only produce five

tones. Whatever the instrument so limited may have been, it was neither

the primitive flute (like the tin whistle) of six vents, which is

sufficient to produce well over an octave, nor was it the human voice.

The universal use of the five note scale among many nations wide apart

has never been satisfactorily explained. The following is an Irish

pentatonic traditional air.

[Music: THE SHAMROCK SHORE

PENTATONIC]

V. CHANGES THAT OCCUR IN FOLK-MUSIC

That all traditional lore is subject to change is of course a

well-recognised fact, and this change is so uncertain in its effects,

and so erratic in its selection that no law appears to govern it. In

ballads or prose narratives that exist only by verbal transmission we

may expect the dropping of obsolete words and phrases, and this usually

occurs; though sometimes corruptions of such remain and are meaningless

to those who repeat them.

For instance, in a certain singing-game, children of a particular

district were accustomed to say—

“She knocked at the door and picked up a pin.” It is quite obvious that

the original stood—

“She knocked at the door and tirled at the pin.” The “tirling

pin” having completely gone out of usage, and even out of popular

remembrance, in the limited area where it formerly served the purpose

of attracting the attention of the householder, the phrase would have

no meaning to the modern child; hence the change into something more

comprehensible.

There is considerable analogy in the above to the change that takes

place in folk-music. But as musical phrases do not, at any rate

in folk-music, become so obsolete as words, the variation is less

considerable and is probably due to different causes. These are chiefly

wilful alteration for particular reasons, and unconscious change due to

lapse of memory, or imperfect hearing. We may usefully consider two or

three examples of these kinds of alterations. The tune “Greensleeves”

is a very characteristic instance. The first record of the song is at

the date 1580, when the ballad was entered at Stationers’ Hall. It is

evident that both words and tune became immediately popular, and from

that time to our own day it has always retained considerable favour,

for it was one of those stock tunes used for ephemeral political

ditties, and for the scraps of verse that were employed in the early

ballad operas. It is easy to trace, from the eighteenth century printed

copies, how the tendency has been to eliminate complex passages, and

generally to simplify, while retaining the essential features of the

tune. Probably this is its pure sixteenth century form—

[Music: GREENSLEEVES (_Earliest form_) _16th Century_]

It is rather a shock to find that the beautiful air has by careless

transmission or wilful change got so degraded as finally to appear in a

manuscript book of fiddle airs dated 1838, thus,—

[Music: GREENSLEEVES _From a Manuscript Book, dated 1838_]

Other copies which have deplorably lost much of the purity of the

original are to be seen in D’Urfey’s _Wit and Mirth_, _The Beggar’s

Opera_ and other early eighteenth century publications. This is from an

edition of _The Dancing Master_, dated 1716:

[Music: GREENSLEEVES AND YELLOW LACE _Printed 1716_]

We may trace a curious corruption in the tune as found in traditional

usage in Ireland nearly eighty years ago. Thomas Moore employed this

traditional version for his song, “Oh, could we do with this world of

ours,” and published it united to his verses in his _Irish Melodies_,

the tenth number dated 1834. He gives the tune the name of “The Basket

of Oysters.” The real tune which went by this title, otherwise known

as “Paddy the Weaver,” is to be seen in Aird’s _Selection of Scotch,

English, Irish and Foreign Airs_, vol. iii., Glasgow [1788], and

elsewhere. It will be noticed that Moore’s tune is “Greensleeves,” to

which is joined a part of “Paddy the Weaver.” It is a notable example

of the manner in which traditional tunes suffer change from imperfect

remembrances or other causes.

[Music: THE BASKET OF OYSTERS _Greensleeves, Irish Version, 1834_]

[Music: A BASKET OF OYSTERS, OR PADDY THE WEAVER

_From Aird’s “Selection,”_ 1788 ]

Although “Greensleeves” is probably not a folk-tune, yet in some cases

folk-tunes are apt to suffer a like degradation in character, although

it must be clearly stated that tradition frequently holds them together

in a wonderfully perfect manner.

In this latter case we may rank “Joan’s placket is torn,” which

survives in the modern “Cock o’ the North,” with “Greensleeves,” and

their histories are well worth recalling.

We may pass over the tradition that “Joan’s placket” was played at

the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. The structure of the tune shows

it to have been originally a trumpet tune, and strangely enough

throughout the whole course of its existence it seems to have been

used in defiance or ridicule. Mr Pepys tells us that when the English

sailors left the deserted “Royal Charles” in the Medway in 1667, a

Dutch trumpeter sounded the tune from the deck of the captured ship.

After this period political lampoons were adapted to the melody. It is

difficult to find out when the tune was first named “The Cock o’ the

North,” or when, under that title, it was adopted as a British army

tune, but there is a striking instance of its use during the siege of

Lucknow in the Mutiny of 1857. It was the practice to signal by flag

and bugle call from the City to the Residency, both in a state of

siege. On one occasion a drummer boy, named Ross, after the signalling

was over again climbed to the high dome from which it was conducted,

and in spite of the Sepoy rifles sounded “The Cock o’ the North” as a

defiance. We all know the story of the wounded piper, shot in the ankle

during the rush at Dargai, crouching behind a rock and still sounding

the pipe tune the “Cock o’ the North” that had inspired the onslaught.

How little the traditional “Cock o’ the North” differs from “Joan’s

Placket” the reader will be able to see from the following copies:—

[Music: JOAN’S PLACKET IS TORN _17th Century_]

[Music: THE COCK O’ THE NORTH _20th Century_] Many other examples of

traditional cohesion as regards folk-tunes might be cited did space

permit.

The tune “A sailor loved a farmer’s daughter,” given in Edward

Bunting’s _Ancient Music of Ireland_, 1840, has recently been noted

from a farm labourer by Mrs Stanton of Armscott, Warwickshire, in a

form practically identical with the printed version, though it is

quite evident that the tune noted in Warwickshire has had a source

independent of Bunting’s. Every collector could point to such instances

from his own experience.

Another fact forces itself into notice. A tune may develop by

traditional passage, or by wilful alteration, into several forms,

and thus we get airs having points of similarity but also points

of difference. In some cases the likeness may be so close that the

different tunes are classed as “variants.”

It must be realised that a folk-song singer is under no bond to sing

an air strictly as he has received it. Fortunately, in many cases, as

shown above, he does, and religiously adheres to the melody as far

as his memory, or skill, will permit. There are, however, difficult

tunes to remember as well as easy ones, and this fact has considerable

bearing on the question.

The reason why we find well-known folk-songs adapted to different airs

is somewhat obvious, and the following explanation may be I think

accepted. Where a singer reads a folk-song from a ballad sheet and does

not know its particular tune, it is easy to believe that he uses one

with which he is already familiar, or adapts one, or even composes an

air from the stock musical phrases that he knows in other melodies.

Thus we find folk-songs sung to many different airs, and this is not

evolution.

It may be noticed that in the lesser marked tunes, or rather less

original airs, stock musical phrases are in use just as the stock

phrases of the ballad-maker are employed by him over and over again.

The folk-song singer looks for and welcomes these passages. They are

conventional and are the most acceptable. Just as a child gives a

better welcome to a story beginning “Once upon a time” than to a less

hackneyed manner of opening, and as the folk-singer demands that every

girl shall be “a fair damsel,” that the incident of the song shall

happen “As I was a-walking one morning in May,” and that his mode of

address shall be “I stepped up boldly to her,” or the like, so there

are certain inevitable musical phrases in folk-music that one meets

with in a particular type of melody.

Waggish musicians are sometimes guilty of inventing “a folk-melody”

for the purpose of deceiving and laughing at collectors. The collector,

recognising the phrases he knows so well, may accept the tune as

genuine. He is not wrong or ignorant in this; the musician has got

possession of the material and spirit of folk-music, and then deception

is easy. A man may have a Johnsonian method of diction without having

the wit or learning of the great lexicographer, and might even pass off

a short speech as a genuine one of the Doctor’s.

These stock phrases are of course freely used in folk-music, and it

is quite easy for a singer of folk-song legitimately to make an air

for a ballad whose proper tune he may not know. This is another way

in which variation of tunes occurs, and such results are frequently

very puzzling to the expert. The singer may have remembered a passage

of a melody and to this he has fitted other phrases that he is also

familiar with. He is probably not conscious of the composite tune he is

making,—he may even think that he is singing the correct tune.

VI. THE QUALITY OF FOLK-SONG, AND ITS DIFFUSION

The strongest and most valuable feature of folk-song is its earnestness

and good faith. Though the quality of earnestness is indefinable it is

the soul of art work, and its presence is ever felt.

A folk-song may be very doggerel in verse, its subject trite and

trivial, yet it possesses that subtle character that has the appeal and

lasting power only belonging to sincerity. The maker of a folk-song

did not produce his work for professional reasons; he sang because he

must, and sometimes he was very ill-fitted for the task. Yet the work,

being done in good faith, has not only the power of appeal to the class

for which it was made, but also to a higher culture. Work of greater

cleverness if it lack this great asset of earnestness cannot do more

than please a particular cult for the moment.

As with folk-music and folk-song, so with the original folk-song

singer. In general he does not sing anything that is not fully in

accord with his own sentiments, and this is really why folk-song not

only keeps in favour with him, but also why it maintains its integrity

in tradition. It is seldom, except for the reasons I have before

given, that a folk-song singer wilfully alters his song. As I have

said, he may, and indeed frequently does, make unconscious changes, but

he has a respect for the songs handed down to him.

On the other hand a singer will without scruple rob another district

of its right in a folk-song. What in one district is “Scarbro’ Fair”

becomes “Whittingham Fair,” and “Birmingham Fair” becomes “Brocklesby

Fair,” according to the places where the songs are current. Otherwise

the song sustains no material change, and each set of singers will

declare their own version is the true one.

The drawing-room vocalist has not the same constancy to his songs as

the folk-song singer, nor have his songs the same stability. When

the stout respectable father of a family proclaims his passion for a

fascinating nymph, and entreats her to fly with him, his wife smiles

approval and silently applauds his efforts. When a feeble-looking

young man voices sentiments of a blood-thirsty or gruesome character

nobody is expected to believe him. In fact he is not in earnest, and in

neither of the two cases I have supposed do the singer’s voice their

general sentiments. On the other hand, the folk-song singer really

_does_ feel the sentiments he sings. If he likes fox-hunting, he

sings a fox-hunting song, and is in perfect agreement with the ditty

that proclaims fox-hunting a noble sport. And the song represents his

feelings when he sings of the joys of farming, or of good liquor, or

any other subject that appeals to him as a man, including love. When a

young girl or even an old lady sings—

“Oh, my very heart is breaking

All for the love of him,”

we may be quite sure that this puts into song some sentiments that

either hold possession of the soul or recalls certain sacred memories.

Such songs as voice commonly felt sentiments are quickly diffused over

the countryside, and they are to be found very widely spread. Where

songs deal with the usages of a district, which, from some cause or

another, do not obtain elsewhere, they are less likely to travel.

For example, we find few harvest-home songs current in the north

of England, and not so many that deal with the joys of farming. In

the south-west, where there are large tracts of agricultural land,

and more organised merry-makings at the close of the harvest, or at

sheep-shearing, there are plenty of songs which proclaim that the life

of a farmer, or a ploughman, is all that can be desired.

In the North, where there is more grazing land, and the harvest is

harder to wring from the soil, this type of song scarcely exists. The

fact is therefore again forced upon us that the folk-song singer, or

maker, deals with things with which he is most familiar. Except for

these limitations it is unsafe to class a folk-song as “Yorkshire,”

“Devonshire,” or otherwise fix it to a particular county.

There are, of course, a very small number of folk-songs that obviously

belong to certain districts, but because a song is sung or noted

in one county we cannot claim that such county is the place of its

origin. Before folk-song collecting was so general as at present it

was frequently customary to fall into this error, but as collectors

and their published “finds” have increased in number, it has become

apparent that folk-songs have been very widespread.

For some reason a song may linger longer in one place than another.

Such a one may be compared to the snow which may have completely

covered a hill-side, but ultimately melting leaves its remnants only in

the sheltered nooks, to disappear last of all.

In a similar way we may find that a dialect word which might be hastily

assumed to belong strictly to, say, Yorkshire, is used in another part

of the country—quite remote, and is generally considered to be a local

word. Instances of such might be given, and we may speculate as to how

the word, or the song has got there, whether by travel, or whether,

like the snowdrift, by survival.

VII. THE MOVEMENT FOR COLLECTING ENGLISH FOLK-SONG

It remains now to consider what has been done towards the noting of

traditionary songs and their airs. Little attention was paid to the

songs sung by country singers prior to the first half of the nineteenth

century. In England, the first step toward the recognition of country

folk-song was made by the Rev. John Broadwood, squire of Lyne, on

the Sussex and Surrey border. In 1843 he published (modestly keeping

his name from the title page) a collection of sixteen songs which

were harmonised by a country organist. The title of the Rev. John

Broadwood’s book is lengthy, but so curious and explanatory that I

reproduce it. The work itself is of extraordinary rarity.

“Old English Songs, as now sung by the peasantry of the weald of Surrey

and Sussex, and collected by one who has learnt them by hearing them

sung every Christmas from early childhood by the country people who go

about to the neighbouring houses, singing, or ‘wassailing,’ as it is

called, at that season. The airs are set to music exactly as they are

now sung, to rescue them from oblivion, and to afford a specimen of

genuine old English Melody, and the words are given in their original

rough state with an occasional slight alteration to render the sense

intelligible. Harmonised for the collector, in 1843, by G. A. Dusart,

organist to the Chapel of Ease at Worthing, London. Published for

the Collector by Balls & Co., 408 Oxford St. for private circulation

(folio, pp. 32).”

It was about this time that William Chappell was bringing into notice

the fine store of English melodies, which were then quite unknown save

to a few musical antiquaries. He had already published a couple of

volumes of airs, but in 1856 he commenced the issue of his _Popular

Music of the Olden Time_, and among the tunes there printed he included

a small number of traditional melodies which he had taken down chiefly

in the South of England. Many of these have won their way into the

hearts of lovers of our national music, and it seems a pity that

they are omitted from the new edition of Chappell’s work. For a long

time after Chappell’s publication little attention was paid to the

folk-songs of our own country, though many German songs that claimed

to be people’s song obtained considerable favour with us. About 1878

a revival of interest in the Northumbrian small pipes caused a search

to be made for pipe tunes, and Mr John Stokoe, of South Shields,

was an active worker in the field. Commencing in December 1878 he

contributed to the _Newcastle Courant_ a series of pipe and fiddle

tunes once popular among Northumbrian pipers. They were chiefly taken

from manuscript collections, but while the airs were, in many cases,

merely transcripts from books of printed tunes for the violin or flute,

published in England and Scotland during the eighteenth and early

nineteenth centuries, there remained a number of traditional melodies

of purely Northumbrian usage.

In 1882, under the auspices of the Society of Antiquaries,

Newcastle-on-Tyne, Mr Stokoe, in collaboration with Dr Collingwood

Bruce, published a volume entitled _Northumbrian Minstrelsy_, and here

the _Courant_ tunes were republished with other material. The work has

the fault of including as fresh material much of what had already been

printed in early dance collections and elsewhere, but having small

claim to be considered as of Northumbrian origin.

A book of traditional nursery rhymes, chiefly from a Northumbrian

source, had already been issued (in 1877) by Miss M. A. Mason. In

1888 a small illustrated booklet, _The Besom Maker and other Country

Folk-Songs_, containing nine songs, was issued by Mr Heywood Sumner.

It was about this period that a wave of sympathy impelled several

persons to turn their attention to the consideration of the songs sung

by rustics and other persons who remembered the songs sung by their

parents or elders. Most persons were under the impression that these

country songs were merely remembrances from printed sources, and that

practically little, or nothing, existed purely traditionary.

A little study of the question, however, soon convinced Miss Lucy E.

Broadwood, Dr William Alexander Barrett, the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould,

and the present writer to the contrary.

Miss Broadwood, then living at Lyne in Sussex, found an unworked mine

of great richness among the country people of her district. The late

Dr Barrett had already gathered much, chiefly in the South of England,

while a chance suggestion at a dinner-table caused Mr Baring-Gould to

turn his attention to the collecting of the song current in Devonshire

and Cornwall. Mr Baring-Gould absolutely revelled in this work, and his

wild journeys over Dartmoor, with periods of settling down for a time

at village inns, brought him in a plentiful harvest of charming songs

and delightful melody. In this task he was associated with the Rev. H.

Fleetwood Sheppard and Mr F. W. Bussell. The work of these collectors

saw publication in _Songs of the West_, the first part of which was

issued about 1889, and the fourth and last part in 1891.

Another work of Mr Baring-Gould’s, in conjunction with the late Mr

Sheppard, is a _Garland of Country Songs_, 1895. This is some portion

of the material left over from _Songs of the West_; both were published

by Methuen. A re-issue of _Songs of the West_ with additions appeared

in 1905.

A small part of Miss Broadwood’s work was incorporated in _English

County Songs_, which she edited in collaboration with Mr J. A. Fuller

Maitland in 1893. The great popularity of this work is justified by its

excellence. A further selection appeared in _English Traditional Songs

and Carols_ (Boosey, 1908).

Dr Wm. Alex. Barrett, in February 1891, a few months prior to his

death, issued, through Novello & Co., _English Folk-Songs_, a most

interesting collection of fifty-four songs, some of which, however, are

to be found in print in earlier publications.

In the spring of 1891 the present writer issued the result of his

collecting under the title _Traditional Tunes, a collection of ballad

airs chiefly obtained in Yorkshire and the South of Scotland, by Frank

Kidson_.

After these publications no further work on English folk-song appeared

before the formation of the Folk-Song Society. This society, the most

important factor in calling attention to the existence of unnoted

folk-song, owed its existence to three or four enthusiasts in the cause

who saw the utility of such a thing. At first it was projected as a

branch of the Folk-Lore Society, but, finally, it was thought advisable

that it should stand alone. The Folk-Song Society was duly formed on

June 16th, 1898. The first president was the late Lord Herschell; the

vice-presidents the late Sir John Stainer, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Sir

Hubert Parry, Professor (now Sir Charles) Stanford, and the committee

as follows—Mrs Frederick Beer, Miss Lucy E. Broadwood, Sir Ernest

Clarke, Mr W. H. Gill, Mrs (now Lady) Gomme, Messrs A. P. Graves, (the

late) E. F. Jacques, Frank Kidson, J. A. Fuller Maitland, J. P. Rogers,

W. Barclay Squire, and Dr Todhunter. The late Mrs Kate Lee acted as

Hon. Secretary and Mr A. Kalisch as Hon. Treasurer, both being on the

committee.

In the first year 110 members joined; at the present time there are

probably more than three times that number. In 1904 Miss Lucy E.

Broadwood became Hon. Secretary, and the useful work of the society

advanced by leaps and bounds. Mrs Walter Ford, and Mr Frederick Keel,

the present secretary, followed Miss Broadwood.

The “Journals” of the Society, which by January 1914 had reached

eighteen issues, are of the utmost importance in the study of

folk-song. They contain material gathered by members of the Society

in different parts of the United Kingdom. The original members of the

Council of the Folk-Song Society who have died or retired have been

replaced by musicians and collectors equally enthusiastic, and such

additional names as Dr Vaughan Williams, Mr Percy Grainger, Mr Clive

Carey, and Mr Cecil J. Sharp bear witness to the excellent hands in

which the Society is held.

It would be invidious to name the individual members who have supplied

matter to the Journals of the Folk-Song Society, but besides the above

named, Miss A. G. Gilchrist, the late Dr Gardiner, the late H. E. D.

Hammond, Mrs Leather, Miss Tolmie (with her Gaelic songs), and Mr W.

P. Merrick have all contributed largely and well. Miss Gilchrist has

written with great knowledge on the construction of folk-tunes, and has

supplied other notes of much value.

English folk-song and folk-music has been utilised in several

compositions by Dr Vaughan Williams, Mr H. Balfour Gardiner, Mr Rutland

Boughton, and Mr Percy Grainger.

The part that Mr Cecil Sharp has taken in the advancement of folk-song

is well known. He has collected extensively, chiefly in Somerset, and

his vigorous methods of bringing the subject before the public have

caused “folk-song” to become a household word wherever the English

language is spoken.

VIII. THE NOTING OF FOLK-MUSIC

When the songs and the ballads of the people began to be recognised

as belonging, more or less, to literature, the editors of collections

deemed it was essential that their crudities of style, rhyme, and

diction should be amended, and that the whole should undergo a

polishing process before being launched to the public.

Bishop Percy, of course, naturally occurs to one’s mind in this

connection, and we must grant that in the classic age when he issued

his three volumes (1765) there was reason on his side, and he had some

justification for the trimming he did—the world was not yet ripe for

the folk-ballad collector.

There is much reason to suspect the later editors of ballad lore did

as much as Percy in the work of polishing, and even went beyond him

by pure fabrication. No excuse for such work as this nowadays exists.

People are quite prepared to accept fragments of traditional ballads or

songs precisely in the state they are sung or recited.

In a much lesser degree the same kind of thing held as regards certain

earlier collectors of folk-music. This attitude was not one of deceit,

but rather of ignorance. The modal influence on folk-music was not

understood. As a consequence intervals were altered to conform to the

harmony of another scale. As folk-music began to be better realised

more scientific knowledge was brought to bear on the subject, and every

nerve strained to obtain accuracy of notation.

The phonograph at once suggested itself as a ready and accurate

instrument for the work of noting traditional melody, and many

collectors employ it for this purpose. There is, however, a section

of workers in folk-song who rather mistrust its claim to give the

best results. The motive that inspires the use of the phonograph is

praiseworthy in the extreme, but those opposed to its use suggest that

these results are sometimes not very satisfactory where transcriptions

taken directly from phonograph records have been published. They are

generally complex and confusing, and for examples of the excessively

elaborate rhythms and shifting tonality from phonographic records,

the reader is invited to refer to some particular Journals of the

Folk-Song Society. The transcriber should certainly bear in mind that

mixed rhythms (2-4 time changing to 6-8, 7-8, 4-4, 5-8, and so forth

in one short air) can hardly belong to the original structure of the

tune, but rather to the method of singing it. If the performance of any

great singer were phonographed, and its actual note-value faithfully

transcribed, this would scarcely be considered a fair way of treating

it. It would show a complexity of rhythms of which both the singer and

the audience would be quite unaware. The composer would most certainly

repudiate such a notation, though he might be quite satisfied with

the singer’s treatment of the piece. He would claim that the most

legitimate method would be to indicate time-deviations by the ordinary

accepted marks of expression.

The difficulty of noting melodies from the ordinary possessor of

folk-song is very great, and varies with every singer. Some are a

delight to listen to, others, though it is quite evident that they

possess songs and melodies of the highest interest, produce an opposite

effect on the listener. A phonographic record from one would be a joy,

from the other a painful experience.

Practically every singer of original folk-song is an amateur, and

this by no means lessens the beauty of his singing; in many cases,

though, it offers much disadvantage to the one who notes his tunes.

Unconsciously the vocalist sings the air frequently with more or

less slight difference, and is sometimes not quite true to his note

or key. Any mechanical contrivance for noting his song reproduces

these inaccuracies, and, what is still more to the point, eight

folk-singers out of ten asked to sing into that strange funnel above

a moving cylinder will be nervous and not sing their best, either in

time or tune. A sturdy young farmer, perhaps, who knows all about

the gramophone, may come out of the ordeal with flying colours, and

his strong masculine voice be reproduced with good effect, but not

so a feeble old lady whose songs can only be obtained by careful

tact and sympathetic manner, nor can such be noted otherwise than by

getting constant repetitions and making selections from her differing

renderings.

It is the business of the folk-song collector not to make a hard and

fast record of one rendering of a folk-tune, with all its accidental

inaccuracies, but to obtain what the singer obviously means. Where

possible, the best rendering should be given in its full integrity, and

any emendation stated as such, with reasons given for the alteration.

It is too much to expect that every folk-song singer should be a

paragon of faithful accuracy. In many cases, as before observed, he

sings his tune with some difference on occasions, and this is due to

slips of memory, to wilful alteration, when he thinks such alterations

an improvement, and to extraneous influences—nervousness and the like.

Therefore the collector to give a true rendering of the original

folk-melody should get as many notations of it as possible, and make

such selection as his judgment and knowledge dictate. The ordinary

simple “composed” tune generally continues throughout its length in one

character of rhythm or time. The folk-air as sung to-day frequently

ignores this rule, and may have passages in the middle of it which

differ from the general run of the tune. The earlier collectors ignored

this fact, and practically always placed such airs under one time

signature, considering that any alteration of time-rhythm made by the

singer was a grammatical error on his part. In some cases they were

probably right, but recent comparisons of certain tunes, noted by

different collectors in various parts of the country, go to prove that,

to give particular effect to certain word passages, many folk-tunes

have been composed with deliberate intention of breaking rhythm. The

wary collector, therefore, while he is fully alive to the knowledge

that folk-singers are not always to be relied upon for accurate

transmission, is also aware of the fact I have above indicated.

IX. THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF FOLK-SONG

The folk-song that does, or did within recent years, exist is manifold

in its variety. It reflects very accurately the type of thought

that is, or was, current among the class who sang it. Its limits

are strictly within their understanding, though now and again its

commonplaces are tinged with romance. Yet this romance is not above the

comprehension of the most humble and constitutes a grown-up’s fairy

tale.

It tells its story or voices its sentiment in the fewest possible

words, and in tragedy is almost Biblical in narrative.

A consideration of a few of its types may be useful.

X. THE NARRATIVE BALLAD

This in its earliest form is, without doubt, the oldest surviving kind

of folk-song. In all cases it is a long rhyming story which tells of

events more or less romantic, and more or less true. It is probable

that such ballads have come down to us from the middle ages, when

professional glee-men, or minstrels, went from one noble house to

another and sang such lyrics to the harp or to other accompaniment.

The stories are dramatic and sufficiently well-marked in character to

be easily remembered. Obsolete expressions may be changed or may even

remain, but the essentials of the story will be retained.

We have sufficient remnants on ballad sheets as well as in popular

remembrance to show that there must have been an enormous number

of these lyrical narratives in common currency. How long these had

remained in oral transmission before being printed on ballad sheets

is a question not easily answered. The question whether, in some

instances, they were printed before being handed to the people may be

answered in the affirmative in respect to a certain number of obviously

later ballads.

The ballad-seller was bound to provide new wares for his patrons, and

his trade could not go on without fresh material. Undoubtedly many of

the ballads he printed were a re-dishing up of old stories, and many

rhymesters, in default of newer ideas, fell back upon the Greek classic

stories for subject. In fact, the common person of the sixteenth

century might claim to be more familiar with the Homeric romance than

the average “man in the street” of to-day. These can scarcely be called

folk-ballads in the strictest sense, because they are evidently the

work of people educated enough to put such matter from the classic, as

well as from Italian authors, into doggerel verse.

The man of an earlier period was as anxious for novelty as he is

to-day. The only difference is this—at the present time novelties so

crowd upon him that they become stale very rapidly. In the “golden age”

people gave leisurely consideration to and digested that which was put

before them. Hence it was held tenaciously in memory, and ballads and

tales lost none of their interest.

The invention of printing wrought a great change in every direction,

and when the press gave forth the ballad sheet it produced a new era in

folk-singing. The ballad sheet is so inextricably mixed up with the

folk-song that, for a clear understanding, it will be necessary to

devote some pages to it later on.

It is a noteworthy fact that among our ballad literature we find

numbers of stories that are practically the same in other languages and

current in other countries. If we find, as we frequently do, a ballad

common amongst Scandinavian folk that is also known in England, or

perhaps Brittany, we cannot safely determine its original birthplace,

for there can be no doubt that popular folk-tales and ballads travelled

from one country to another in a very remarkable degree.

Scotland has always been famous for her wealth of dramatic ballads. No

man can read unmoved the many fine ballad narratives that are published

in her ballad books, and without wondering whence came the rich flow of

fancy and poetic beauty that inspired them.

In spite of all that has been written, much regarding the Scottish

ballads remains a mystery. The early collectors appear to have had

little scruple in regard to the ballads being printed exactly as

received.

One thing we have satisfaction in, namely, that ballads of this

character _did_ exist, and that emendation of phrase, or addition

of verse, affects the matter, on the whole, very little. The

consideration of the Scottish ballad is, however, outside our inquiry,

although some narrative lyrics that are commonly thought to have had

origin in Scotland are found among English folk-singers. Of these,

“Lammikin,” collected by Miss Broadwood in Surrey, is a notable

example, as also the different versions of “The Gipsy Laddie,” and one

or two others that may be found in the Folk-Song Society’s Journals.

Certainly the best-known narrative ballad among English folk-singers

is “Lord Bateman,” and versions of this exist in the Scottish ballad

collections. “Barbara Allan” is another that has a Scottish variant,

while the “Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green” seems to be entirely English.

“Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor,” “The Outlandish Knight,” “Geordie” are

long ballads which, in a more or less fragmentary state, have been

found in nearly every part of England.

One or two of the Robin Hood ballads have also been recovered from

tradition, but such are, strangely enough, not common. All the tunes

found united to the above-named narrative ballads appear to be ancient

and contemporary with early versions of the words.

XI. LOVE SONGS AND MYSTIC SONGS

Love holds first place in all lyrics, and there is no exception to this

rule in the folk-song. There is, however, this difference;—whilst the

art-song is frequently couched in language abstract and sentimental,

and enriched with metaphor and simile, the folk-song is almost always

direct, and from its baldness of diction possessed of great force.

The declaration of love in a folk-song is simple, and there is no

mincing of words. It is unmistakably fervent and in earnest. The

tragedy of a girl’s forsakenness is Biblical in its plainness;

sometimes it is a song rather of triumph than pity.

Few more beautiful and direct specimens of the former type exist than

the one beginning—

“A brisk young farmer courted me,

He stole away my liberty,

He stole my heart with my free goodwill,

I must confess I love him still.

There is an ale-house in this town,

Where my love goes and sits him down;

He takes another girl on his knee,

Ah! is not that a grief to me?

A grief to me, I’ll tell you why,

Because she has more gold than I;

Her gold will waste, her beauty blast,

Poor girl she’ll come like me at last”;

and so forth.

Another very beautiful love song is “The bonnie bonnie boy” noted by

Miss Broadwood, and published in _English County Songs_. It opens—

“I once loved a boy, a bonnie, bonnie boy,

I loved him I’ll vow and protest.

I loved him so well, and so very, very well,

That I built him a bower in my breast,” etc.

A great feature in the love song of the folk-singer is the use of

allegory. The words “thyme,” “rue,” the “broom,” “barley,” “wearing

the green gown,” and several other similes are freely used, and have

an original meaning, for the most part, hidden from the modern singer.

The ever popular “I sowed the seeds of love,” in which is inextricably

entangled that other song, “The sprig of thyme,” is an inoffensive

example of this type. The latter runs—

“Come all you pretty fair maids

That are just in your prime,

I’d have you weed your garden clear

And let no one steal your thyme.

I once had a sprig of thyme,

It prospered night and day;

By chance there came a false young man

And he stole my thyme away,” etc.

As can be well realised, examples of love songs could be given to any

extent.

The folk-singer delights in something that gives a thrill of mysticism,

and there are many having this characteristic in traditional

remembrance. “The unquiet grave” is an example in point. It begins—

“Cold blows the wind over my true love,

And cold blows the drops of rain.

I never, never had but one true love,

And in the greenwood he was slain,” etc.

“The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter,” and “The Nightingale” have each a ghost,

as in a like manner has the one just quoted.

Of the mystic class is “The Prickly Bush.” It is undoubtedly very old

and is found in different forms among country singers. A copy occurs in

_English County Songs_—

“‘O Hangman hold thy hand,’ he c‘ied,

‘O hold thy hand awhile,

For I can see my own dear father

Coming over yonder stile.

Oh, the prickly, prickly bush,

The prickly, prickly bush,

It pricked my hand full sore;

If ever I get out of the prickly bush,

I’ll never get in any more,’” etc.

Common all over the country, with place names that vary according to

the district, is “The Lover’s Test,” sometimes called “Scarborough

Fair.” The lover in this demands a cambric shirt made without needle

and thread, and other impossibilities, with the reward that the lady

shall then be his true love. The lady, equally ready, demands an acre

of land between the sea foam and the sea sand. This is to be ploughed

with a ram’s horn, and to be sown all over with one peppercorn, and so

on. When all this is done the lover can come for his cambric shirt.

The story is a version of “The Elfin Knight,” and of the same type as

“Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship.”

XII. THE PASTORAL

The pastoral song is fairly frequent, especially in the Southern

counties of England. Its chief theme is the joys of country life. Such

are the songs in which the ploughman is the chief personage, and one

who glories in his calling. In _Sussex Songs_ we find a very typical

example—

“Come all ye jolly ploughboys, come listen to my lays,

And join with me in chorus, I’ll sing the ploughboy’s praise.

My song is of the ploughboy’s fame,

And unto you I’ll relate the same,

He whistles, sings, and drives his team,

The brave ploughing boy.”

Then there are sheep-shearing songs, some of which may be seen in Dr

Barrett’s _English Folk-Songs_ and elsewhere. _English County Songs_

provides this ordinary example—

“Our sheep shear is over, and supper is past;

Here’s a health to our mistress all in vull glaas,

For she’s a good ’ooman and purvides us good cheer,

Here’s a health to our mistress, so drink up your beer.”

Other verses would, of course, provide for consumption of more beer

by drinking the health of all the members of the family, and of such

neighbours as the contents of the barrel allowed.

Harvest-home songs too are not lacking, and a small number take the

form of a dialogue between a gardener and a ploughman, or between a

husbandman and a serving-man.

A famous song well known among farm-labourers is that known as “Poor

Old Horse,” and of this there are several versions. This song probably

suggested to Charles Dibdin his once popular song “The High-Mettled

Racer,” and to Thomas Bewick, the wood-engraver, his fine print of a

worn-out horse in the rain called “Waiting for Death.”

The ploughboy is sometimes in love and sings of his passion in the

folk-song. Sometimes it is the lady who declares her love for the

handsome ploughboy, and both varieties are quite popular specimens of

rural simplicity.

XIII. DRINKING SONGS AND HUMOROUS SONGS

The drinking song is not very common among folk-songs. “The good old

leathern bottle,” and some other South country songs, chiefly dealing

with harvest-home festivities, can scarcely be called such. They

speak of the home-brewed farm ale in an honest fashion, and without

the gloating over liquor which is so much a feature of the eighteenth

century bacchanalian song. “When Joan’s ale was new” is popular over

most parts of England, and “Drink old England dry” is another very

harmless production.

The humorous song does not very frequently occur. Sometimes we may come

across one that fulfils all the essentials of wit but will scarcely

bear repetition. Others are humorous and in other respects quite

satisfactory. “Richard of Taunton Dean” is too well known to quote, and

“The Dumb Wife Cured” is another that has been frequently reprinted,

and it is possibly, really, not a folk-song. “The Grey Mare” is an

excellent example. It tells of a young miller who made overtures to

a young lady’s father to obtain her hand. The dowry was agreed upon,

save that the young man had fixed his mind upon the farmer’s grey

mare as part of it. The old man not being inclined to part with this

the bargain was “off.” After the death of the farmer the miller again

sought the lady, who declared she did not know him. Except that

“A man in your likeness,

With long yellow hair,

_Did_ once come a-courting

My father’s grey mare.”

“Eggs in the basket,” narrating the adventures of two sailors, of which

there are several versions in the _Folk-Song Journal_, comes under

the category of humorous songs, and the Devonshire song “Widdicombe

Fair” has, since its publication in _Songs of the West_, met with wide

appreciation. Songs in dispraise of a married life are not frequent

in folk-song, but there is a well-known one in “Advice to Bachelors,”

in Dr Barrett’s _English Folk-Songs_, that appears to be a genuine

folk-song. Its end verse contains the gist of the story. A criminal

under the gallows is offered free pardon if he will marry, but—

“He pondered deep, for life is dear,

But still he thought without a fear

That wives are cheap, and he knew well

How much his sorrows one might swell.

There’s people here of every sort,

And why should I prevent their sport?

The bargain’s hard in every part;

But the woman’s the worst—

Drive on the cart!”

XIV. HIGHWAYMAN AND POACHER SONGS

If the pressgang was an unpleasant factor in eighteenth century life,

so also were the footpad and highwayman. The highwayman generally

claimed the sympathy of the folk-song maker on the ground that—

“He never robbed a poor man upon the King’s highway,” and that his

takings from the rich were distributed among the poor. This atoned

for all crimes against person and property that were committed by

such men as “Brennan on the Moor,” the hero of a very favourite

ballad. Sometimes these highwayman songs take a more moral tone, and

the criminal, in the condemned cell, offers his fate as a warning to

others. Charles Reilly, for example, sings—

“Adieu, adieu, I must meet my fate,

I was brought up in a tender state,

Until bad counsel did me entice

To leave off work, and follow vice.

Which makes me to lament and say,

As in my doleful cell I lay,

‘Pity the fall of young fellows all;

Ah well a day! Ah well a day!’

At seventeen I took a wife;

She was the joy of all my life,

And to maintain her rich and gay,

I went to rob on the King’s highway,

Which makes me to lament and say,” etc.

Poaching was a matter so near the class that sang folk-songs that as

a subject it could not fail in interest. If the folk-singer was not

himself a poacher he was sufficiently in touch to feel a brotherly

sympathy with him in his misfortunes, and in his triumphs, over the

gamekeeper. As a consequence there are many poaching songs well known

in rural districts, as—“Young Henry the poacher,” “The Sledmere

poachers,” “The death of Bill Brown,” “Hares in the old plantation,”

etc.

Highway robbery and poaching led to execution and transportation, and

both these are subjects for the folk-song maker. The execution songs

appear, however, generally to be the work of professional ballad

makers, and the “last dying speech and confession” of a criminal, with

appended verses, was in print long before he had paid the penalty of

his crime. The ballad was sung to one or other of those doleful tunes

especially appropriated to this kind of song by the ballad chanter, who

hawked the broadsides through the towns on the night of the execution.

Frequently the tag to such ditties was—

“Young men all now beware

How you fall into a snare.”

In a somewhat similar strain are the songs that tell of the miseries of

transportation to Van Diemen’s Land, for poaching or other offences.

XV. SOLDIER SONGS

Of soldier songs the folk-singer has comparatively few. One of the

prettiest is that indifferently called “The Summer Morning,” or “The

White Cockade.” It commences—

“It was one Monday morning, as I came o’er the moss,

I had no thought of listing till the soldiers did me cross;

They kindly did invite me to a flowing bowl, and down

They advancèd me some money, ten guineas and a crown.

’Tis true my love has ’listed; he wears a white cockade;

He is a handsome, tall young man, besides a roving blade;

He is a handsome young man, and he’s gone to serve the King.

Oh! my very heart is breaking all for the love of him!”

Another soldier’s song popular among folk-singers is “Pretty Polly

Oliver,” or “Polly Oliver’s Ramble.”

“One night Polly Oliver lay musing in bed;

A comical fancy came into her head,

Neither father nor mother shall make me false prove,

I’ll ’list for a soldier and follow my love.”

Polly dresses herself in male attire, mounts her father’s black

gelding, and joins the regiment, with the captain of which she is in

love.

Then we have the pathetic “Deserter.”

“When first I deserted I thought myself free

Until my false comrade informed on me.”

Another favourite is “The Gentleman Soldier,” and yet another, “The

bonny Scotch lad with his bonnet so blue.” The battle of Waterloo gave

rise to several long ballads descriptive of the fight, and these in

their full integrity of twenty or thirty verses used, not long ago, to

be remembered by old soldiers.

XVI. SEA SONGS

These have always been welcome among English singers, and our nation

has a plenitude of fine ones. In folk-song they generally take a

narrative form and treat of adventures with pirates, and the like.

Examples of this type are “Paul Jones,” “Ward the pirate,” “Henry

Martin,” “The bold Princess Royal,” and some others. The pressgang

songs might, in a sense, go under the heading “sailor songs,” and,

certainly, the Chanty, but these are dealt with separately. “The Golden

Vanity” is popular, so is “The Mermaid,” and both are well known to

modern singers. “The Greenland Whale Fishery” is a fine example of a

genuine whaling ditty (see _A Garland of Country Songs_), and “All on

Spurn Point” is a narrative of a wreck.

The charming song “Stowbrow,” or the “Drowned Sailor,” is chiefly known

on the Yorkshire coast.

“The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter” is a story of a murder and a ghost, which

follows the murderer to sea and denounces him. “William Taylor” (of

which a parody exists) is fairly well known.

“The Coasts of Barbary” is a fine sea song, and “The Indian Lass,”

“Just as the tide was flowing,” “On board a man-of-war,” “Outward

bound,” and “The bold privateers” are sea songs that are commonly

known but can boast no great degree of antiquity. “Fair Phœbe and her

dark-ey’d sailor,” and “The broken token”—the one being a variation of

the other—are songs that fall under the heading “Love Songs.”

XVII. PRESSGANG SONGS

These have a greater dramatic effect than any other type before dealt

with. In the eighteenth century, when the constant war with France

demanded a supply of men to man the navy, the pressgang was a very

vital thing in the lives of the humbler classes. The law empowered

(under a press warrant) officers of the King’s Navy to seize any man,

with few exceptions, and then and there remove him to a King’s ship

to serve as a common sailor. Violence was freely used, and at dead

of night whole villages were cleared of their male inhabitants, and

husbands and bread-winners dragged away, never, in most cases, to

return. Such occurrences were well within the memory of those only just

passed away. With such happenings in their midst, the folk-song makers

had no lack of thrilling and appealing material. The romantic element

was not absent, for it was quite possible, as the folk-song generally

makes it, for an irate father to bribe the pressgang for the removal

of an undesirable young ploughman, and so put an end to the love

passages that existed between his daughter and him, thus leaving the

ground clear for a wealthier or more favoured suitor. Poetic justice is

almost always satisfied in the song by the lady seeking her true love

on shipboard, and, by the production of “gold,” reclaiming him. “The

Banks of Sweet Dundee,” which is widespread and a universal favourite,

affords an excellent example of the pressgang song.

The beautiful song beginning—

“’Twas early, early in the Spring

My love was pressed to serve the King,”

and that one called “The Nightingale,” are earlier in date and quite

charming specimens of the class.

XVIII. HUNTING AND SPORTING SONGS

The folk-singer does not lack songs dealing with the sports he loves.

The fox-and hare-hunting songs are in a degree reflexes of the

eighteenth century ones—of great compass, and of much allusion to the

Greek gods. It is in these that Diana, Aurora and Phœbus figure so

largely.

The folk-song that deals with hunting, generally is local in its

narrative, and tells of some particular famous fox hunt or hare hunt,

naming every squire or yeoman farmer that joined in it. “The Fylingdale

Foxhunt” in _Traditional Tunes_ is a good and typical example. In the

same work will be found “The White Hare” (a description of a hare

hunt), and a song of a not very frequent type detailing a cock fight.

XIX. SONGS OF LABOUR

Primitive folk appear to have always had particular songs appropriate

to specific kinds of labour. Such songs seem to have been traditionally

associated with each class of work, and to have been used either to

give a marked rhythm, by which the efforts of a number of people are

united at a certain moment (as the pull upon a rope), or generally to

lighten work, an effect which song certainly has. It is well known that

girls in a weaving shop, or other factory, work twice as well and feel

the strain lighter while they are singing in chorus some favourite song

or hymn. Soldiers on the march are less tired if the men are allowed

to sing, or while the band plays. The Irish regiments marched out of

Brussels before Waterloo to the strains of the then popular Moore’s

“Melodies,” “The Young May Moon” being among the favourites. The men

of the North during the American Civil War were cheered by the song

“John Brown’s Body,” and our own soldiers in South Africa sung, with

deep meaning (considering that the Boers always managed to have the

advantage of the crest of the hill), “All that ever I want is a little

bit off the top.” Every great river of the world has its boat songs;

in most cases used by the rowers as an aid to their work. Specimens of

these river boat songs have been noted in China, India, on the Nile,

and elsewhere. The well-known “Canadian Boat Song,” of Thomas Moore,

was adapted by him from a chant he himself heard on the St Lawrence

river, the original of which chant, by the way, differs materially from

the version he published.

The Sea Chanty is too wide a subject to be dealt with in this small

volume. Its purpose is to give time to the pull of a rope, the thrust

against a capstan bar, or on occasions when the pumps have to be used.

The “Chanty” may be almost spoken of as obsolete. Its real home was the

sailing vessel, but, at the present day, steam does so much of what

formerly was man’s labour, that the chanty has almost died a natural

death.

There were capstan, pumping, and hauling chanties, and those used in

furling sail, apart from the sailors’ songs pure and simple. The sea

chanty was generally commenced by a leader—the chanty man, who would

perhaps string a few extemporary rough rhymes together, fitted to a

well-known tune, while the men joined in a recognised nonsense chorus

as they did the pulling, thrusting, or other work required.

The Chanties mostly in evidence amongst the English, or

English-speaking, sailors are “Whiskey for my Johnnie,” “Haul the

bowline,” “We’re all bound to go,” “The Rio Grande,” “Reuben Ranzo,”

“Tom’s gone to Ilo,” “Storm Along,” “Lowlands,” “Santa Anna,” “Sally

Brown,” “Banks of Sacramento,” and many others, copies of which, with

most of the above, are to be found in the _Folk-Song Journals_. The

fact cannot be ignored that there is decided American influence in most

of the sea chanties, and that points to them being interchangeable

between the English and the American sailor. The ships trading to San

Francisco and other sailing vessels that took long voyages round the

“Horn” were fit resting-places for the chanty. In former times, on the

old man-of-war ships, a fiddler was frequently requisitioned, or the

anchor was raised to the music of a fife.

Songs of occupation appear to have lingered longest, in the United

Kingdom, in the Hebrides, and quite recently there have been published

in the _Folk-Song Journal_ a number of interesting examples collected

by Miss Tolmie. Others have been obtained by Mrs Kennedy Fraser.

The boat songs, or “Iorrams,” are a feature of Gaelic music, as are the

“luinigs” sung by the women as songs to lighten work where there are a

number of people employed at any one occupation.

Gaelic music and song is outside the scope of this manual; although the

subject of the work-songs used in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland

is here lightly referred to for the purpose of indicating to the

student that such a class of song is still in existence in the British

Isles.

XX. TRADITIONAL CAROLS

That a large number of carols existed in a purely traditional form

was somewhat of a revelation, even to the folk-song collector, when

Miss Lucy Broadwood, Mr Cecil Sharp, and Dr Vaughan Williams published

their “finds” in the _Folk-Song Journal_. Mr Robin H. Legge, as early

as 1890, or before, had collected a number of traditional carols

in Cornwall, but his valuable manuscript collection of them was

accidentally destroyed.

Some of the folk-carols that have lately been recovered embody curious

legends, the origin of which is difficult to trace. “The Bitter Withy”

is one of these, and of this particular carol several variants have

been obtained, chiefly in the Midland Counties. The story is to the

effect that the infant Jesus being reproached for His humble birth by

His play-fellows, “lords’ and ladies’ sons,” makes a bridge over water

with the beams of the sun, and passes safely over; His companions who

follow Him being drowned. His Mother, Mary, chides Him and whips Him

with a bunch of the withy (willow) twigs. Jesus then lays a curse on

the willow and ordains that it shall for ever be rotten at the heart.

Another singular carol noted by Miss Broadwood is “King Pharaoh.” It

was obtained from the singing of gypsies in Sussex. Another version as

“King Herod and the Cock” was obtained by Mr Cecil Sharp, and earlier

versions, as “The Carnel and the Crane,” are to be found in Sandys’

_Christmas Carols_, and elsewhere. A roasted cock that crows three

times and corn which is in ear and ripened the same day are the chief

points in the story, as miracles that occur to testify to the divine

origin of the infant Christ.

“The Moon shines bright,” “The Cherry-tree Carol,” “The joys of Mary,”

with “God rest you merry gentlemen,” are all folk-carols, but words and

tunes have long been in print.

There are two different types of carol—the religious, dealing with

the Holy Nativity, and the festive. “Here we come a-wassailing” is

a folk-carol of the latter kind, and there are many others of this

character. One of the best known, which is yet sung traditionally,

is the carol which, from some cause, is named as belonging to

Gloucestershire—

“Wassail, wassail all over the town,

Our toast it is white, and our ale it is brown,

Our bowl it is made of the maplin tree,

So here’s good fellow, I’ll drink to thee,” etc.

The Gloucestershire rustics singing the song used formerly to go from

house to house bearing a gaily decorated maple-wood potato bowl, which

it was expected would be filled with liquor, or in lieu of this a

contribution of money placed in the bowl.

The May-day carol exists in several different kinds. Copies are to

be found in Dr Barrett’s collection, _English County Songs_, and in

several other works.

William Hone, in his _Ancient Mysteries_, 1822, speaks of the

Christmas carols that were at that time annually printed in chap-books

and on broadsides. He gives a list of eighty-nine of these, some of

which are still remembered among folk-singers.

XXI. CHILDREN’S SINGING-GAMES

The tunes used by children in the traditional singing-games rank as

folk-music, and are always of the most simple and marked character.

Having these qualities they are easily remembered, and capable of being

passed from one generation of children to another with but little

chance of corruption. Although certain games have the same rhymes and

tunes in different parts of the country, yet there are others where the

airs are not so fixed.

A very high antiquity has been allotted to the origin of these games.

It is claimed that many are reflexes of pagan marriage and burial

customs, and even of sacrificial rites. Into this question it is

outside the province of this book to inquire, but whatever may be

adduced as to the great age the games themselves possess, it seems

doubtful whether any exceptional degree of antiquity can be safely

assigned to the existing tunes, though they are all pretty and

charming, and well worth preservation, apart from their antiquarian

association.

Many collections of these singing-games have been published; details

of these will be found in the bibliography. Miss A. G. Gilchrist, of

Southport, has noted a very great number from children in different

parts of the country. Her collection, up to the present, remains in

manuscript.

A number of the singing-game tunes resemble in a greater or less degree

certain published airs, as “Nancy Dawson,” “Sheriff Muir,” and some

others. Whether the children have taken these airs for their games, or

whether the composers of the printed tunes have gone to the children’s

games for inspiration, is a problem not easily solved.

XXII. THE BALLAD SHEET AND SONG GARLAND

When the folk-song singer did not get his song by oral transmission he

took it from a ballad sheet, or from those small collections of songs

which, for at least three centuries, were called “Garlands.” The words

of most of our folk-songs were generally printed either on the ballad

sheet (otherwise “broadside”), or included among those that formed

the contents of the “Garland,” and nowhere else, except in the rarest

instances. Regular song books were too dignified to admit songs or

ballads of the folk-song class. As a consequence the folk-songs that

survive in an early printed form are chiefly found on broadsides.

Technically, the broadside is a printed piece of paper (the size is

immaterial) meant to be read unfolded. A tradesman’s hand-bill, for

example, is a broadside. Folded, the broadside becomes folio, quarto,

or octavo. The “garlands” were small folded booklets of either eight or

sixteen pages, and contained ten or twelve songs, the outer page being

generally decorated with a woodcut, and having a list of the songs

contained within.

The reason why the broadside ballad was printed on one side only

appears to be this—It was the practice to paste them on cottage walls,

inside cupboard doors, chest lids, and such like places. There are many

references in literature to this method of displaying the ballad, as

for example—

“I will now lead you to an honest ale-house where we shall find a

cleanly room, lavender in the window, and twenty ballads stuck about

the wall.”—Walton’s _Compleat Angler_, 1653.

No wonder that the old angler and his pupil found so many delightful

snatches of quaint old song current where ballads and songs were so

fostered. The _Spectator_ shows that the usage had not died out in

Queen Anne’s reign—

“I cannot for my heart leave a room before I have thoroughly studied

the walls of it, and examined the several printed papers which are

usually pasted upon them.”—No. 85, vol. ii.

Although the ballad was freely hawked about the streets of towns, and

carried into the country by “flying stationers” and pedlars (witness

Autolycus in the _Winter’s Tale_), yet the pastings upon walls and

the constant foldings of loose ballad sheets soon destroyed existing

copies, for few of the old ballad lovers were like Mr Pepys and Captain

Cox. Laneham, it will be remembered, tells in his “Letter,” 1575,

describing the festivities at Kenilworth Castle, that Cox’s ballads

numbered more than a hundred, and were “all ancient,” and were “fair

wrapt in parchment, and tied with a whip cord.” Would there had been

more of the Captain’s careful disposition.

Broadside ballads must have come among the people with the first dawn

of printing, and in Henry the Eighth’s reign they had become of such

weight in political influence that one or more royal edicts were

levied against them. The earliest known English printed ballad is, in

date, about 1540. Ballad printing was generally done by small local

printers, or else by those larger London printers who made a speciality

of the work, and who supplied the whole country with ballads and with

“garlands.”

Gough, Redman, Bankes, Walley, and many others who worked in London

during the sixteenth century were noted printers of ballads. In the

seventeenth century ballad printing became more general, and many

of the publishers clubbed together, so that we find several names

on one imprint. Henry Gosson printed in 1616, and John Trundle, his

contemporary, was so noted as a ballad vendor that he is named in Ben

Jonson’s play, “Every Man in His Humour.” In 1642 Francis Coles (or

Coules) flourished and issued ballads in conjunction with William

Gilbertson, having a shop on Saffron Hill. Of this period also were

Alexander Milbourn, Francis Grove, J. Wright, William Onley, and the

“Assignees of Thomas Symcocke.” At a later date William Thackeray, at

the “Angel in Duck Lane,” issued, with Passenger, at the “Three Bibles

on London Bridge,” many interesting ballads, garlands, and chap-books.

One of their dates is 1687.

All these seventeenth century ballads, or the chief part of them, were

printed in “_=black-letter=_,” a type of Gothic character which was

specially reserved for law books, bibles, and romances long after its

discontinuance as ordinary text. They were generally printed on rather

large paper, about 14 inches by 10 inches, and, of course, only on one

side of the paper. The name of the tune was frequently given, and on

some a few musical notes, professing to be the tune, were appended to

the verses. These musical notes, however, were a fraudulent inducement

to purchasers, for they were merely set at random. Rude woodcuts, which

more or less illustrated the theme of the ballad, generally headed the

whole.

The most noted collections of this period of ballad are the Roxburghe

collection in the British Museum, and the Pepysian at Cambridge. It

must be pointed out that a great number of these ballads were scarcely

folk-songs—that is, they were not “born of the people”—and only a

certain proportion were current among them. There were professional

ballad writers who supplied rhymed narratives to order for the ballad

seller, not only upon topical events, but re-dishings of earlier

romances, and other matter.

Whether at the opening of the eighteenth century printed ballads began

to be out of favour, or whether the ballads have not been so carefully

preserved, is not quite clear, but they are certainly more rare of this

period.

The chief ballad printer of this date was John Cluer, who was printing

ballads in 1720, and shortly after this date was established as a music

publisher of repute. He worked in Bow Church Yard, Cheapside, and was

succeeded by William Dicey, who had been in partnership with Robert

Raikes, at Northampton, in the ballad and chap-book printing business.

Robert Raikes removed to Gloucester, where he established the first

Gloucester newspaper. He was father to Robert Raikes, the originator of

Sunday Schools.

An important range of ballad sheets were those which issued from the

Aldermary Church Yard press. In 1793 J. Marshall was at this address,

printing engraved song sheets with pictorial headings. There was also

a J. Marshall at Newcastle-on-Tyne, who published song garlands about

1820.

One of the best-known ballad printers at the end of the eighteenth

century was John Evans, of 42 Long Lane, Smithfield. He printed

broadside ballads, chap-books, and garlands. He and his sons at a later

date printed for the Religious Tract Society, producing such quaint

religious stories as _The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain_. The Evans

family, and successors, were in full vigour as printers as late as

1815.

It was at the beginning of the nineteenth century that the great

ballad printer J. Pitts appeared. It is said that “Johnny Pitts” was

a female who had been a bumboat woman. The ballad sheets that issued

from the Pitts’ press are all of interest, and many genuine folk-songs

appear on them. A rival to Pitts came from Alnwick in the person of

James Catnach, the son of a printer in that small Northumbrian town.

James Catnach first commenced business in 1813, at 2 and 3 Monmouth

Court, Seven Dials, and he made a complete revolution in ballad sheet

printing. The early ballad-mongers used a rough grey, or blue tinted,

paper and their type was none of the best, or clearest. Catnach changed

the shape of the ballad sheet into Large Post Quarto (about 10 × 8

inches), used good, though thin, white paper, and clear type. Many of

his wood-blocks were either by the Bewick brothers, or by their pupils.

He put forth an enormous quantity of ballads and songs, and seems

to have not only employed men to write songs on topical events, but

also to have for the first time put into print many a stray folk-song

which the ballad-singers, who flocked to buy his ballads, would recite

to him. This latter fact accounts for a certain amount of ignorant

mistakes that occur in the text.

After founding an immense business he retired in 1838, and died in

1841. His married sister, Anne Ryle, took over the business and

advertised that she had “4000 sorts” of ballad sheets. Her manager,

James Paul, appears to have been some sort of an editor for her, and

it is believed that he wrote, or re-wrote, certain of the ballads and

songs she printed. He was, with others, proprietor of the business

at one time, but finally it became the property of W. S. Fortey, who

reprinted from Catnach’s old stereotypes. T. Batchelor, Piggot, and T.

Birt were other ballad printers, a little later than Catnach.

The broadsides printed by Henry Such are of considerable interest

to the collector, as they contain versions of folk-songs which are

generally good. He was printing in 1849, and his successors of the same

surname reprinted his ballad sheets up to a recent date. Provincial

ballad sheet printers are Walker of Durham (flourishing in 1839), and

Harkness of Preston, of a somewhat later date. R. Barr of Leeds and

J. Bebbington of Manchester were broadside printers of forty or fifty

years ago, while Shelmerdine & Co. of Manchester date from about 1815.

The folk-song collector cannot ignore the ballad sheet, for upon it are

found the words of many folk-songs of which he may only obtain very

fragmentary versions from the singer. It is not to be understood that

the ballad sheet version of a folk-song is always an accurate one, but

it is worth having, for the folk-song singer has generally learned his

words, or at any rate refreshed his memory, from the broadside copy.

The ballad printer was too wise a business man to print on the sheet

_only_ folk-songs. He printed a popular lyric side by side with an

old traditional song, for the sheet had room for at least two sets of

verses, and he, by this means, catered for two classes of customers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following works have each a bearing upon English Folk-Song and

Folk-Music, and the student will find a reference to them of great help

in obtaining a full knowledge of the subject. Many others might have

been named, for it is difficult, if not impossible, to fix a limit for

the bibliography of a particular line of study.

COLLECTION OF BALLADS AND SONGS, WITHOUT MUSIC

ASHTON, JOHN. A Century of Ballads. Collected,

edited, and illustrated in facsimile by ——. 1887.

—— Modern Street Ballads. 1888.

—— Real Sailor Songs.

BALLAD SOCIETY, THE. Published between 1868

and 1881 many volumes of ballads which were

reprinted from the black letter broadsides in

the British Museum and elsewhere.

BALLADS, THE ROXBURGHE. A Book of Roxburghe Ballads.

Edited by J. Payne Collier. 1847.

—— Edited by Charles Hindley. 2 vols. 1874.

(These two publications are merely selections

from the collection.)

BELL, JOHN. Rhymes of Northern Bards; being a

curious collection of old and new songs and poems

peculiar to the counties of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,

Northumberland, and Durham. 1812.

BELL, ROBERT. Early Ballads illustrative of History,

Tradition, and Custom. Edited by ——. 1856.

—— Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry

of England. Edited by ——. 1857.

(Of these two most useful volumes many later

editions have been published. They were really

compiled and annotated by John Henry Dixon, and

originally appeared in 1846, with some slight

differences, as one of the publications of the

Percy Society. As they formed one of the series

of “Bell’s English Poets,” the general editor’s

name appeared instead of the real compiler’s.

Other volumes of the Percy Society’s publications

have some interest for the inquirer into English

folk-song.)

CHILD, F. J. English and Scottish Ballads.

Selected and edited by ——. 8 vols. 1857-1859.

(This is the original American edition. A later

edition was published in 1861, and finally a large

quarto edition with much new matter was begun

in 1882, and completed in 1898 in 10 parts. A

condensed edition of Child’s ballads was issued in

1904.)

CLARK, ANDREW. The Shirburn Ballads,

1585-1616. Reprinted from the MS. by ——. 1907.

EVANS, THOMAS. Old Ballads, historical and

narrative, with some of modern date. 2 vols. 1777.

(A later edition in 4 vols., 1784. A different

and fuller edition, 1810, 4 vols.)

HARLAND, JOHN. Ballads and Songs of Lancashire.

Chiefly older than the nineteenth century. 1865.

JEWITT, L. Ballads and Songs of Derbyshire,

with illustrative notes and examples. 1867.

LILLY, JOSEPH. A collection of seventy-nine

black letter ballads and broadsides printed in

the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1867.

(This is a reprint from a collection of

broadsides that formerly belonged to George Daniels,

the antiquary.)

LOGAN, W. H. A Pedlar’s Pack of ballads and songs. 1869.

PERCY, BISHOP. Reliques of Ancient English

Poetry, consisting of old heroic ballads, songs,

and other pieces of popular poetry. 3 vols. 1765.

(Second edition, 1767; third, 1775; fourth, 1794;

and numerous later editions.)

—— Folio Manuscript. A reprint by Hales and Furnivall

of this celebrated collection from which the

“Reliques” were selected. 4 vols. 1867-1868.

RIMBAULT, DR E. F. A little book of songs and

ballads, gathered from ancient musick books, MS.

and printed, 1851.

RITSON, JOSEPH. Ancient Songs and Ballads from

the reign of Henry the Second. 2 vols. 1787.

(Later editions, 1790, 1792, and 1829.)

—— Northern Garlands. 1810. A reprinted edition, 1887.

(They consist of four song “Garlands” issued by

Joseph Ritson. “The Bishopric Garland or Durham

Minstrel,” 1784—enlarged edition, 1792; “The

Yorkshire Garland,” 1788; “The Northumberland

Garland,” 1793; and “The North Country Chorister,”

1802.)

—— Robin Hood, a collection of all the ancient poems,

songs, and ballads now extant relative to that

celebrated English outlaw. 2 vols. 1795.

(Collections of the Robin Hood ballads reprinted

from Ritson’s work are innumerable. An excellent

edition appeared in 1820, and again in 1823, while

a very useful one was published by Griffin about 1850.)

Another reprint was issued in 2 vols. in 1884.

SHARP, Sir CUTHBERT. The Bishopric

Garland of Legends, Songs, Ballads, etc., belonging

to the county of Durham. 1834.

SIDGWICK, FRANK. Popular Ballads of the Olden

Time. First to fourth series, 1903-1912.

(See also several small carol books compiled

by the above.)

ENGLISH FOLK-SONG COLLECTIONS WITH THE TUNES, OR MUSICAL WORKS BEARING

ON THE SUBJECT

CHAPPELL, WM. National English Airs. 2 vols.

1838-1839.

—— Popular Music of the Olden Time. 2 vols. 1856-1859.

(The new edition of Chappell’s “Popular Music”

edited by H. E. Wooldridge was published in 1893,

but the traditional airs obtained by Chappell and

his friends are omitted.)

RIMBAULT, EDWARD F. Musical Illustrations of

Bishop Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.

A collection of old ballad tunes chiefly from rare

MSS. and early printed books. 1850.

—— Nursery Rhymes. Edited and arranged by E. F.

Rimbault. (Several editions.) Chappell.

MASON, Miss M. A. Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs. 1877.

(A reprint by Metzler, recently issued.)

BRUCE, Dr C., and J. STOKOE.

Northumbrian Minstrelsy: Ballads, Melodies, and

Pipe Tunes of Northumbria. 1882.

STOKOE, JOHN, and SAMUEL REAY.

Songs and Ballads of Northern England.

(Contents principally taken from “Northumbrian

Minstrelsy” harmonised by the late Mr S. Reay,

about 1895.)

SUMNER, HEYWOOD. The Besom Maker, and other

country folk-songs. 1888.

SMITH, LAURA A. Music of the Waters. 1888.

—— Through Romany Song-land. 1889.

BROADWOOD, Rev. JOHN. Sussex Songs,

arranged by H. F. Birch Reynardson. 1889.

(This is a reprint of the tunes collected and

privately issued in 1843 by the Rev. John

Broadwood, with additional ones collected by

Miss Lucy E. Broadwood.)

BARING-GOULD, Rev. SABINE. Songs and

Ballads of the West. A collection made from the

mouths of the people, by Rev. S. Baring-Gould and

Rev. H. Fleetwood Sheppard. 4 parts. 1889-1891.

Methuen.

(Several later editions of the parts, and in volume

form. Also an entirely new edition in association

with Mr Cecil J. Sharp, published 1905.)

—— A Garland of Country Songs. 1895.

KIDSON, FRANK. Old English Country Dances

gathered from scarce printed collections, and from

manuscript. 1890.

(Contains several hitherto unprinted folk-airs

used as dance tunes.)

—— Traditional Tunes: a collection of ballad airs,

chiefly obtained in Yorkshire and the South of

Scotland. 1891.

BARRETT, W. ALEX. English Folk-Songs.

Collected and arranged by W. A. Barrett. Novello.

1891.

BROADWOOD, LUCY E., and J. A. FULLER

MAITLAND. English County Songs. Collected and

edited by ——. Leadenhall Press, and Cramer. 1893.

—— English Traditional Songs and Carols. Boosey. 1908.

TOZER, F. Sailors’ Songs and Chanties. Words

by F. Davis, music arranged from traditional

sailors’ airs. Boosey.

BRADFORD, J., and A. FAGGE. Old Sea

Chanties. Collected and arranged by ——. Metzler.

GRAHAM, JOHN. Dialect Songs of the North.

Collected and edited by ——. Curwen.

SHARP, CECIL J. Folk-Songs from Somerset,

gathered and edited with pianoforte accompaniments

by Cecil J. Sharp (and Rev. Charles L. Marson). 1905.

(Four more parts afterwards added. In the fourth

and fifth parts Mr Sharp’s name alone appears as

editor.)

—— Folk-Song Airs. Collected and arranged for the

pianoforte by ——. Books I. and II. Novello.

—— A School Series of Folk-Songs, in numbers. Novello.

BARING-GOULD, Rev. S., and CECIL J.

SHARP. English Folk-Songs for Schools. 1906.

Curwen.

FOLK-SONGS OF ENGLAND. Novello.

Book I. Folk-Songs from Dorset. Collected by

H. E. D. Hammond.