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REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 117
I AM THE DUKE OF NORFOLK, or PAUL'S STEEPLE.
This tune is frequently mentioned under both names. In Playford's Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1695, it is called Paul's Steeple. In his Division Violin, 1685, at page 2, it is called The Duke of Norfolk, or Paul's Steeple; and at page 18, Paul's Steeple, or the Duke of Norfolk.
The steeple of the old Cathedral of St. Paul was proverbial for height. In the Vulgaria, printed by Wynkin de Worde, in 1530, we read: " Ponle's Steple is a mighty great thing, and so hye that unneth [hardly] a man may discerne the wether cocke,—the top is unneth perceived." So in Lodge's Wounds of Civil War, -a clown talks of the Paul's Steeple of honour, as the highest point that can be attained. The steeple was set on fire by lightning, and burnt down on the 4th June, 1561; and within seven days, a ballad of " The true report of the burning" of the steeple and church of Paul's, in London," was entered, and afterwards printed by William Seres, " at the west-ende of Pawles church, at the sygne of the Hedghogge." In 1564, a ballad was entered for " the encouraging all kind of men to the re-edifying and building Paul's steeple again;" but the spire was never re-constructed. Mr. Payne Collier has printed a ballad, written on the occasion of the fire, in his Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company, vol. i., p. 40; and it seems to have been intended for the tunc. The first verse is as follows:—
" Lament each one the blazing fire, That down from heaven came, And burnt S. Powles his lofty Spire With lightning's furious flame. Lament, I say, Both night and day, Sith London's sins did cause the same." In 1562-3, John Cherlewood had a license for printing another, called " When young Paul's steeple, old Paul's steeple's child."
In Fletcher's comedy, Monsieur Thomas, act iii., sc. 8, a fiddler, being questioned as to what ballads he is best versed in, replies:
" Under your mastership's correction, I can sing The Duke of Norfolk; or the merry ballad Of Diverus and Lazarus; The Rose of England; ■ In Crete, when Dedimusfrst began; Jonas, his crying out against Coventry; Maudlin, the merchants daughter; The Devil and ye dainty dames ; The landing of the Spaniards at Bow ; With the bloody battle at Mile-End." * |
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■ Of the ballads mentioned above, Diverus and Lazarus seems to be an intentional corruption of Dives and Lazarus, The Rose of England may be—
" The T08i., the rose, the English rose,
It is the fairest flower that blows;"
a copy of which is in Mr. Payne Collier's Manuscript; or, |
perhaps, Deloney's ballad of Fair Rosamond, reprinted in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry. In Crete is often referred to as a ballad tune; for instance, My mind to me a kingdom is, was to be aung to the tune of In Crete, according to a black-letter copy in the Pepysian Collection. Maudlint the merchant's daughter,is The merchant's daughter |
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