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FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. 73 |
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I care right nought, I take no thought Now let them drink till they nod and wink,
For clothes to keep me warm, Even as good fellows should do,
Have I good drink I surely think They shall not miss to have the hliss
' That none' can do me harm. Good ale doth bring men to;
For truly then I fear no man, _ And all poor souls that scour black bowls,
' Though never he' so bold, Or have them lustily troled,
When I am arm'd and thoroughly warm'd God save the lives of them and their wives,
With jolly good ale and old. Whether they be young or old.
Back and side, &c. Back and side, &c.
HANSKIN, or HALF HANNIKIN.
In Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book there is a tune called Hanskin, and in all the early editions of The Dancing Master, viz., from 1650 to 1690, one called Half Sannikin. Hankin or Hannikin was the common name of a clown : " Thus for her love and loss poor Hankin dies ; His amorous soul down flies To th' bottom of the cellar, there to dwell: Susan, farewell, farewell!"—Musarum, Deliche, 1655. And Hankin Booby was used as term of contempt. Nash, meaning to call his opponent a "Welsh clown, calls him a " Gobin a Grace ap Hannikin," and says, " No vulgar respects have I, what Hoppenny Hoe and his fellow Hankin Booby think of me." (Save with you to Saffron- Waldon, 1596.^)
We find Hankin Boohy mentioned as a tune in the interlude of Thersytes, which was written in 1537 :
" And we wyll have minstrelsy That shall pype Hankin boby." Skelton, in his Ware the Hauke, says: " With troll, cytrace, and trovy, These'be my pystillers, [epistlers]
They ranged, hanJiin bovy, These be my querysters [choristers]
My churche all aboute. To help me to synge,
This fawconer then gan shpwte, My hawkes to mattens rynge.
These be my gospellers, Shelton's Works, Ed. Dyce, vol. i., p. 159.
By an extract from Sir H. Herbert's office-book of revels and plays performed at Whitehall at Christmas, 1622-3, quoted by Mr. Collier, in his Annals of the Stage, we find that on Sunday, 19th Jan., 1623, after the performance of Ben Jonson's masque, Time Vindicated, "The Prince did lead the measures with the French Ambassador's wife," and " the measures, braules, corrantos, and galliards, being ended, the masquers, with the ladies, did daunce two countrey dances, namely, The Soldier's Marche and Huff Hamukin." I believe that by Huff Hamukin, Half Hannikin is intended, the letters are so nearly alike in form, and might be so easily mistaken. In Brome's Jovial Crew, 1652,—"Our father is so pensive that he makes us even sick of his sadness, that were wont to ' See my gossip's cock to-day,' mould cocklebread, daunce Clutter'depouch and Hannykin booby, bind barrels, or do anything before him, and he would laugh at us." The tune called Hanskin in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book is the same as |
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