My dying husband knew
How much his death would grieve me,
And therefore left me wealth
To comfort and relieve me.
Though I no more will have,
I must not love disdain;
Penelope her self
Did suitors entertain.
And yet to draw on such
As are of best esteem,
Nor younger than I am
Nor richer will I seem."
_Page_ 41. "I have house and land in Kent."--This admirable song has
been frequently reprinted. Miss De Vaynes, in her very valuable "Kentish
Garland" (i., 142), observes:--"We have met with no other song in the
Kentish dialect except Jan Ploughshare's" (printed on p. 372, vol. i.,
of the "Garland"). Rimbault in his "Little Book of Songs and Ballads"
(1851), gives the following lines from an old MS. (temp. Henry VIII.):--
"Joan, quoth John, when will this be?
Tell me when wilt thou marry me,
My corn and eke my calf and rents,
My lands and all my tenements?
Say, Joan, quoth John, what wilt thou do?
I cannot come every day to woo?"
David Herd printed a fragment of a Scotch song that was founded on the
English song:--
"I hae layen three herring a' sa't,
Bonny lass, gin ze'll take me, tell me now,
And I hae brew'n three pickles o' ma't
And I cannae cum ilka day to woo.
_To woo, to woo, to lilt and to woo,
And I cannae cum ilka day to woo_.
I hae a wee ca'f that wad fain be a cow,
Bonny lassie, gin ye'll take me, tell me now,
I hae a wee gryce that wad fain be a sow,
And I cannae cum ilka day to woo.
_To woo, to woo, to lilt and to woo,
And I cannae cum ilka day to woo_."
_Page_ 43. "I joy not in no earthly bliss."--These stanzas are usually
printed with "My mind to me a kingdom is" (p. 78), and the whole poem
has been attributed to Sir Edward Dyer.
_Page_ 47. "I weigh not Fortune's frown nor smile."--These lines (which
seem to have been modelled on "I joy not in no earthly bliss") are by
Joshua Sylvester.
In the second stanza, "I sound not at the news of wreck," _sound_ is an
old form of _swoon_.
_Page_ 52. "If women could be fair."--This poem is ascribed to Edward,
Earl of Oxford, in Rawlinson, MS. 85, fol. 16.
_Page_ 53. "In darkness let me dwell."--These lines are also found in
Robert Dowland's "Musical Banquet," 1610, set to music by John Dowland.
_Page_ 57. "In the merry month of May."--First printed in "The Honorable
Entertainment given to the Queen's Majesty in Progress at Elvetham in
Hampshire, by the Right Honorable the Earl of Hertford," 1591, under the
title of "The Ploughman's Song."
_Page_ 60. "It was the frog in the well."--There are several versions of
this old ditty: the following is from Kirkpatrick Sharpe's "Ballad
Book," 1824:--
"There lived a puddy in a well,
And a merry mouse in a mill.
Puddy he'd a wooin ride,
Sword and pistol by his side.
Puddy came to the mouse's wonne,
'Mistress mouse, are you within?'
'Yes, kind sir, I am within;
Saftly do I sit and spin.'
'Madam, I am come to woo;
Marriage I must have of you.'
'Marriage I will grant you nane,
Until uncle Rotten he comes hame.'
'Uncle Rotten's now come hame;
Fy! gar busk the bride alang.'
Lord Rotten sat at the head o' the table,
Because he was baith stout and able.
Wha is't that sits next the wa',
But Lady Mouse, baith jimp and sma'?
What is't that sits next the bride,
But the sola puddy wi' his yellow side?
Syne came the deuk, but and the drake;
The deuk took puddy, and garred him squaik.
Then cam in the carl cat,
Wi' a fiddle on his back.
'Want ye ony music here?'
The puddy he swam doun the brook;
The drake he catched him in his fluke.
The cat he pu'd Lord Rotten doun;
The kittens they did claw his croun.
But Lady Mouse, baith jimp and sma',
Crept into a hole beneath the wa';
'Squeak!' quoth she, 'I'm weel awa.'"
Doubtless Ravenscroft's version is more ancient. A ballad entitled "A
most strange weddinge of the frogge and the mouse" was licensed for
printing in 1580.
_Page_ 65. "Lady, when I behold."--Gracefully Paraphrased from an
Italian original:--
"Quand' io miro le rose,
Ch'in voi natura pose;
E quelle che v' ha l'arte
Nel vago seno sparte;
Non so conoscer poi
Se voi le rose, o sian le rose in voi."
_Page_ 66. John Danyel is supposed to have been a brother of Samuel
Daniel, the poet. He took his degree of Bachelor of Music in 1604. "At
the commencement of the reign of Charles the First he was one of the
Court Musicians, and his name occurs among the 'Musicians for the Lutes
and Voices' in a privy seal, dated December 20th, 1625, exempting the
musicians belonging to the Court from the payment of subsidies"
(Rimbault).
_Page_ 68. "Then all at once _for our town_ cries."--"I should imagine,"
says Oliphant, "that there was occasionally a sort of friendly
contention in the sports between neighbouring villages; which idea is
rather corroborated by a passage from an old play called the
'Vow-breaker' by Samson, 1636: 'Let the major play the hobby-horse an'
he will; I hope _our Town lads_ cannot want a hobby-horse.'" In an old
play. "The Country Girl," (first printed in 1647), attributed to that
shadowy personage Antony Brewer, we have an allusion to this pleasant
form of rivalry:--
"_Abraham._ Sister Gillian,--I have the rarest news for you.
_Gillian._ For me? 'tis well. And what news have you got, sir?
_Abr._ Skipping news, lipping news, tripping news.
_Gil._ How! dancing, brother Abram, dancing?
_Abr._ Prancing, advancing, dancing. Nay, 'tis a match, a
match upon a wager.
_Gil._ A match. Who be they?
_Abr._ Why all the wenches of _our town_ Edmonton, and all the
mad wenches of Waltham.
_Gil._ A match, and leave me out! When, when is't, brother?
_Abr._ Marry, e'en this morning:--they are now going to't
helter-skelter. [_A treble plays within_.
_Gil._ And leave me out! where, brother, where?
_Abr._ Why there, Sister Gillian; there, at our own door almost,--on
the green there, close by the may-pole. Hark! you may hear them
hither." (Sig. D.)
The stage-direction at the entrance of the dancers runs thus:--"Enter
six country wenches, all red petticoats, white stitch'd bodies, in their
smock-sleeves, the fiddler before them, and Gillian with her tippet up
in the midst of them dancing."
_Page_ 73. "It was the purest light of heaven" &c.--I am reminded of a
fine passage in Drayton's "Barons' Wars," canto VI.:--
"Looking upon proud Phaeton wrapped in fire,
The gentle queen did much bewail his fall;
But Mortimer commended his desire
To lose one poor life or to govern all.
'What though,' quoth he, 'he madly did aspire
And his great mind made him proud Fortune's thrall?
Yet, in despight when she her worst had done,
_He perish'd in the chariot of the sun_.'"
_Page_ 74. "The Bellman's Song."--In "Robin Goodfellow; his mad pranks
and merry jests," 1628, we have another specimen of a Bellman's Song:--
"Sometimes would he go like a bellman in the night, and with many pretty
verses delight the ears of those that waked at his bell-ringing: his
verses were these:--
Maids in your smocks,
Look well to your locks,
And your tinder-box,
Your wheels and your rocks,
Your hens and your cocks,
Your cows and your ox,
And beware of the fox.
When the bellman knocks
Put out your fire and candle-light,
So they shall not you affright.
May you dream of your delights,
In your sleeps see pleasing sights!
Good rest to all, both old and young:
The bellman now hath done his song.