Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age Part 28

THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN.

Though strange outlandish spirits Praise towns and countries scorn, The country is my home, I dwell where I was born.

There profit and command With pleasure I partake, Yet do not hawks and dogs My sole companions make.

I rule, but not oppress; End quarrels, not maintain; See towns, but dwell not there To abridge my charge or train.

THE WIFE.

The first of all our s.e.x Came from the side of man, I thither am return'd From whence our s.e.x began.

I do not visit oft, Nor many when I do, I tell my mind to few And that in counsel too.

I seem not sick in health, Nor sullen but in sorrow; I care for somewhat else Than what to wear to-morrow.

THE WIDOW.

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 la.s.s, gin ze'll take me, tell me now, And I hae brew'n three pickles o' ma't And I cannae c.u.m ilka day to woo.

_To woo, to woo, to lilt and to woo, And I cannae c.u.m ilka day to woo_.

I hae a wee ca'f that wad fain be a cow, Bonny la.s.sie, gin ye'll take me, tell me now, I hae a wee gryce that wad fain be a sow, And I cannae c.u.m ilka day to woo.

_To woo, to woo, to lilt and to woo, And I cannae c.u.m 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 Hamps.h.i.+re, by the Right Honorable the Earl of Hertford," 1591, under the t.i.tle 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 ent.i.tled "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 pa.s.sage 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:--