+The Text+ is from Ravenscroft's _Deuteromelia_ (1609), the only text
that has come down to us of a 'three-man's song' which achieved
extraordinary popularity during' the seventeenth century.
+The Story.+--'Good King John of France' is presumed to be John II., who
was taken prisoner at the battle of Poictiers and died in 1364. But the
earliest literary reference to this ballad occurs in the play of _Gammar
Gurton's Needle_, acted in 1566, where the song 'I cannot eat but little
meat' is to be sung 'to the tune of John Dory.' From Carew's _Survey of
Cornwall_ (1602) we learn a little more: 'Moreover, the prowess of one
Nicholas, son to a widow near Foy [Fowey], is descanted upon in an old
three-man's song, namely, how he fought bravely at sea with John Dory
(a Genowey, as I conjecture), set forth by John, the French king, and,
after much bloodshed on both sides, took, and slew him, in revenge of
the great ravine and cruelty which he had fore committed upon the
Englishmen's goods and bodies.'