When I was a good little boy, I was a favourite visitor to an old maiden
lady, whose memory retained such a store of old ballads and folk-lore as
would be a treasure to many a reader of "N. & Q." were she still living
and able to communicate. One ballad, parts of which, as well as the
tune, still haunt my memory, I have tried to recover in its integrity
but in vain; and of all the little wearers of frocks and pinafores, who
had the privilege of occasionally assembling round the dear old lady's
tea-table, and for whose amusement she was wont to sing it, I fear I am
the sole survivor. The associations connected with this song may perhaps
have invested it with an undue degree of interest to me, but I think it
sufficiently curious to desire to insert as much as I can remember of it
in "N. & Q." in the hope that some of your correspondents may be able to
supply the deficiencies. I wish I could at the same time convey an idea
of the air. It began in a slow quaint strain, with these words:--
"Oh! was it eke a pheasant cock,
Or eke a pheasant hen,
Or was it the bodye of a faire ladye
Come swimming down the stream?
Oh! it was not a pheasant cock,
Nor eke a pheasant hen,
But it was the bodye of a faire ladye,
Came swimming down the stream."
For the next two verses I am at fault, but their purport was that the
body "stopped hard by a miller's mill," and that this "miller chanced to
come by," and took it out of the water "to make a melodye."
My venerable friend's tune here became a more lively one, and the time
quicker; but I can only recollect a few of the couplets, and those not
correctly, nor in order of sequence, in which the transformation of the
lady into a viol is described:
"And what did he do with her fair bodye?
Fal the lal the lal laral lody.
He made it a case for his melodye,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her legs so strong?
Fal, &c.
He made them a stand for his violon,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her hair so fine?
Fal, &c.
He made of it strings for his violine,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her arms so long?
Fal, &c.
He made them bows for his violon,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her nose so thin?
Fal, &c.
He made it a bridge for his violin,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her eyes so bright?
Fal, &c.
He made them spectacles to put to his sight,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her petty toes?
Fal, &c.
He made them a nosegay to put to his nose,
Fal, &c."