“ WHY SHOULD WE QUARREL FOR RICHES.
[A version of this very favourite song may be found in Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany. Though a sailor’s song, we question whether it is not a greater favourite with landsmen. The chorus is become proverbial, and its philosophy has often been invoked to mitigate the evils and misfortunes of life.]
How pleasant a sailor’s life passes,
Who roams o’er the watery main!
No treasure he ever amasses,
But cheerfully spends all his gain. ”

“ DEATH.
Though some by age be full of grief and pain,
Yet their appointed time they must remain:
I come to none before their warrant’s sealed,
And when it is, they must submit and yield.
I take no bribe, believe me, this is true;
Prepare yourself to go; I’m come for you.
LADY.
Death, be not so severe, let me obtain
A little longer time to live and reign!
Fain would I stay if thou my life will spare;
I have a daughter beautiful and fair,
I’d live to see her wed whom I adore:
Grant me but this and I will ask no more. ”

“ I’m begging for myself.
And a begging, &c.
In a hollow tree
I live, and pay no rent;
Providence provides for me,
And I am well content.
And a begging, &c.
Of all the occupations,
A beggar’s life’s the best;
For whene’er he’s weary,
He’ll lay him down and rest.
And a begging, &c.
I fear no plots against me,
I live in open cell;
Then who would be a king
When beggars live so well?
And a begging we will go, we’ll go, we’ll go;
And a begging we will go!
THE END.
FOOTNOTES.
[24] This is the same tune as Fortune my foe.—See Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 162. ”

“ In what we have retained will be found every variety,
‘From grave to gay, from lively to severe,’
from the moral poem and the religious dialogue,—
‘The scrolls that teach us to live and to die,’—
to the legendary, the historical, or the domestic ballad; from the strains that enliven the harvest-home and festival, to the love-ditties which the country lass warbles, or the comic song with which the rustic sets the village hostel in a roar. In our collection are several pieces exceedingly scarce, and hitherto to be met with only in broadsides and chap-books of the utmost rarity ”

“ Here’s to our cow, and to her long tail,
God send our measter us never may fail
Of a cup of good beer: I pray you draw near,
And our jolly wassail it’s then you shall hear.
Be here any maids? I suppose here be some;
Sure they will not let young men stand on the cold stone!
Sing hey O, maids! come trole back the pin,
And the fairest maid in the house let us all in.
Come, butler, come, bring us a bowl of the best;
I hope your soul in heaven will rest;
But if you do bring us a bowl of the small,
Then down fall butler, and bowl and all.
THE MUMMERS’ SONG ”

“ Nottinghamshire was, in the olden day, famous in song for the achievements of Robin Hood and his merry men. In our times the reckless daring of the heroes of the ‘greenwood tree’ has descended to the poachers of the county, who have also found poets to proclaim and exult over their lawless exploits; and in Thornehagh-Moor Woods we have a specimen of one of these rude, but mischievous and exciting lyrics. ”

“ With our bosses and our hounds, &c.
THE TROTTING HORSE.
[The common copies of this old highwayman’s song are very corrupt. We are indebted for the following version, which contains several emendations, to Mr. W. H. Ainsworth. The song, which may probably be referred to the age of Charles II., is a spirited specimen of its class.]
I can sport as fine a trotting horse as any swell in town,
To trot you fourteen miles an hour, I’ll bet you fifty crown;
He is such a one to bend his knees, and tuck his haunches in,
And throw the dust in people’s face, and think it not a sin. ”

“ And to grow so well on the land;
The plowing and the sowing, the reaping and the mowing,
Yield pleasure to the husbandman.
SERVINGMAN.
At our table you may eat all sorts of dainty meat,
Pig, cony, goose, capon, and swan;
And with lords and ladies fine, you may drink beer, ale, and wine!
This is pleasure for a servingman.
p. 46HUSBANDMAN.
While you eat goose and capon, I’ll feed on beef and bacon,
And piece of hard cheese now and than;
We pudding have, and souse, always ready in the house,
Which contents the honest husbandman. ”

“ Man without a woman’s a beggar,
Suppose the whole world he possessed;
And the beggar that’s got a good woman,
With more than the world he is blest.
TOBACCO.
[This song is a mere adaptation of Smoking Spiritualized; see ante, p. 39. The earliest copy of the abridgment we have been able to meet with, is published in D’Urfey’s Pills to purge Melancholy, p. 2331719; but whether we are indebted for it to the author of the original poem, or to ‘that bright genius, Tom D’Urfey,’ as Burns calls him, we are not able to determine. The song has always been popular. The tune is in Popular Music.] ”

“ The pageant called The Fool Plough, which consists of a number of sword-dancers dragging a plough with music, was anciently observed in the North of England, not only at Christmas time, but also in the beginning of Lent. Wallis thinks that the Sword Dance is the antic dance, or chorus armatus of the Romans. Brand supposes that it is a composition made up of the gleaning of several obsolete customs anciently followed in England and other countries. The Germans still practise the Sword Dance at Christmas and Easter. ”

“ THE PLAIN-DEALING MAN.
[The oldest copy of the Plain Dealing Man with which we have been able to meet is in black letter, printed by T. Vere at the sign ‘Of the Angel without Newgate.’ Vere was living in 1609.]
A crotchet comes into my mind
Concerning a proverb of old,
Plain dealing’s a jewel most rare,
And more precious than silver or gold:
And therefore with patience give ear,
And listen to what here is penned,
These verses were written on purpose
The honest man’s cause to defend. ”

“ Here’s a health to the barley-mow!
The ocean, the river, the well, the pipe, the hogshead,
the half-hogshead, the anker, the half-anker,
the gallon, the pottle, the quart, the pint, the
half-a-pint, the quarter-pint, the nipperkin, and
the jolly brown bowl!
Cho. Here’s a health to the barley-mow, my brave boys!
Here’s a health to the barley-mow!
[The above verses are very much ad libitum, but always in the third line repeating the whole of the previously-named measures; as we have shown in the recapitulation at the close of the last verse.] ”

“ To carry the milking-pail.
p. 227The bravest lasses gay,
Live not so merry as they;
In honest civil sort they make each other sport,
As they trudge on their way;
Come fair or foul weather, they’re fearful of neither,
Their courages never quail.
In wet and dry, though winds be high,
And dark’s the sky, they ne’er deny
To carry the milking-pail.
Their hearts are free from care,
They never will despair ”

“ The whole estate of mortal men;
How they from seven to seven do pass,
Until they are threescore and ten;
And when their glass is fully run,
They must leave off as they begun.
THE YOUNG MAN’S WISH.
[From an old copy, without printer’s name; probably one from the Aldermary Church-yard press. Poems in triplets were very popular during the reign of Charles I., and are frequently to be met with during the Interregnum, and the reign of Charles II.]
If I could but attain my wish,
I’d have each day one wholesome dish,
Of plain meat, or fowl, or fish. ”

“ SERVINGMAN.
Kind sir! it would be bad if none could be had
Those tables for to wait upon;
There is no lord, duke, nor squire, nor member for the shire,
Can do without a servingman.
p. 49HUSBANDMAN.
But, Jack! it would be worse if there was none of us
To follow the plowing of the land;
There is neither king, lord, nor squire, nor member for the shire,
Can do without the husbandman. ”

“ Let each man then take,
For the prong and the rake,
His can and his lass in his hand.
For Ceres, &c.
No courtier can be
So happy as we,
In innocence, pastime, and mirth;
While thus we carouse,
With our sweetheart or spouse,
And rejoice o’er the fruits of the earth.
For Ceres, &c.
THE MOW. A HARVEST HOME SONG.
Tune, Where the bee sucks.
[This favourite song, copied from a chap-book called The Whistling Ploughman, published at the commencement of the present century, is written in imitation of Ariel’s song, in the Tempest. It is probably taken from some defunct ballad-opera.] ”

“ And he soon came a-courting to charming Mollee.
Now charming Mollee in her carriage doth ride,
With her hounds at her feet, and her lord by her side:
Now all ye fair maids take a warning by me,
And ne’er love a married man till his wife dee. ”

“ And I can fancy none but you.’
‘Suppose that I would be your bride,
Pray how would you for me provide?
For I can neither sew nor spin;—
Pray what will your day’s work bring in?’
‘Why, I can plough, and I can zow,
And zometimes to the market go
With Gaffer Johnson’s straw or hay,
And yarn my ninepence every day!’
‘Ninepence a-day will never do,
For I must have silks and satins too!
Ninepence a day won’t buy us meat!’
‘Adzooks!’ says Dick, ‘I’ve a zack of wheat ”

“ THE HITCHIN MAY-DAY SONG.
[The following song is sung by the Mayers at Hitchin in the county of Herts. For an account of the manner in which May-day is observed at Hitchin, see Hone’s Every-Day Book.]
Remember us poor Mayers all!
And thus do we begin
To lead our lives in righteousness,
Or else we die in sin. ”

“ While fashionable life was masquerading in imaginary Arcadias, and deluging theatres and concert rooms with shams, the English peasant remained true to the realities of his own experience, and produced and sang songs which faithfully reflected the actual life around him. ”

“ This is the common English stall copy of a ballad of which there are a variety of versions, for an account of which, and of the presumed origin of the story, the reader is referred to the notes on the Water o’ Wearie’s Well, in the Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, published by the Percy Society. By the term ‘outlandish’ is signified an inhabitant of that portion of the border which was formerly known by the name of ‘the Debateable Land,’ a district which, though claimed by both England and Scotland, could not be said to belong to either country. ”

“ The dance is so elaborate that it requires frequent rehearsals, a quick eye, and a strict adherence to time and tune. Before it concludes, grace and elegance have given place to disorder, and at last all the actors are seen fighting. The Parish Clergyman rushes in to prevent bloodshed, and receives a death-blow. While on the ground, the actors walk round the body, and sing as follows, to a slow, psalm-like tune:—
Alas! our parson’s dead,
And on the ground is laid;
Some of us will suffer for’t,
Young men, I’m sore afraid.
I’m sure ’twas none of me,
I’m clear of that crime ”

“ The air is beautiful, and of a lively character; and will be found in Popular Music. There is it prevalent idea that the song is not the production of an ordinary ballad-writer, but was written about the middle of the last century by a gentleman of rank and education, who, detesting the English game-laws, adopted a too successful mode of inspiring the peasantry with a love of poaching. ”

“ The Felon Sewe belongs to the same class of compositions as the Hunting of the Hare, reprinted by Weber, and the Tournament of Tottenham, in Percy’s Reliques. Scott says that ‘the comic romance was a sort of parody upon the usual subjects of minstrel poetry.’ This idea may be extended, for the old comic romances were in many instances not merely ‘sorts of parodies,’ but real parodies on compositions which were popular in their day, although they have not descended to us. ”

“ Than we that, to politics strangers,
Escape the snares laid for the great.
The various blessings of nature,
In various nations we try;
No mortals than us can be greater,
Who merrily live till we die.
Then why should, &c.
THE MERRY FELLOWS; OR, HE THAT WILL NOT MERRY, MERRY BE.
[The popularity of this old lyric, of which ours is the ballad-printer’s version, has been increased by the lively and appropriate music recently adapted to it by Mr. Holderness. The date of this song is about the era of Charles II.]
Now, since we’re met, let’s merry, merry be,
In spite of all our foes ”

“ Of special interest, too, are the songs which relate to festival and customs; such as the Sword Dancer’s Song and Interlude, the Swearing-in Song, or Rhyme, at Highgate, the Cornish Midsummer Bonfire Song, and the Fairlop Fair Song.
In the arrangement of so multifarious an anthology, gathered from nearly all parts of the kingdom, the observance of chronological order, for obvious reasons, has not been attempted; but pieces which possess any kind of affinity to each other have been kept together as nearly as other considerations would permit. ”