Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 1

Ancient Songs, Ballads, & Dance Tunes, Sheet Music & Lyrics - online book

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88                                     ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
TEE MARRIAGE OF THE FROG AND THE MOUSE. In Wedderburn's Complaint of Scotland, 1549, one of the songs sung by the shepherds is The frog cam to the myl dur [mill-door]. In 1580, a ballad of "A most strange wedding of the frog and the mouse " was licensed to Edward White, at Stationers' Hall: and in 1611, this song was printed with music, among the " Country Pastimes," in Melismata. It is the progenitor of several others; one beginning—            " There was a frog lived in a well,
And a farce mouse in a mill;" another, "A frog he would a-wooing go;" a third in Pills to purge Melan­choly, &c, &c.
The frogge would a-wooing ride,
Humble-dum, humble-dum; Sword and buckler by his side,
Tweedle, tweedle, twino. When upon his high horse set,
Humble-dum, &c., His boots they shone as black as jet,
Tweedle, &c.
When he came to the merry mill pin, Lady Mouse beene you within ? Then came out the dusty mouse : I am lady of this house;
Hast thou any mind of me 1 I have e'en great mind of thee. Who shall this marriage make ? Our lord, which is the rat.
What shall we have to our supper? Three beans in a pound of butter. But, when supper they were at, The frog, the mouse, and e'en the rat, J
Then came m Gib, our cat,
And caught the mouse e'en by the back.
Then did they separate :
The frog leapt on the floor so flat;
Then came in Dick, our drake, And drew the frog e'en to the lake ; The rat he ran up the wall, 'And so the company parted all.'
THE CRAMP.
This is one of the three country dance tunes arranged to bo sung together in Pammelia, and is frequently referred to as a ballad tune.
In the Ashmolean library, in the same manuscript volume with Chevy Chace (No. 48), is a ballad by Elderton, describing the articles sold in the market in time of Lent. The observance of Lent was compulsory in those days, and it was by no means palatable to all. In 1570, William Pickering had a license to print