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118 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC. . |
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In the Pepysian Collection, vol. i., 146, and Roxburghe Collection, vol. i., 180, is a black-letter ballad, called " A Lanthorne for Landlords" to the tune of The Duke of Norfolk, the initial lines of which are—
" With sobbing grief my heart will break Asunder in my breast, &c." In The Loyal Garland, 1686, and in the Roxburghe Collection, vol. ii., 188 (or Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, p. 312), God speed the plough, and bless the corn-mow, &c, to the tune of lam the Duke of Norfolk, beginning— " My noble friends, give ear, If mirth you love to hear,
I'll tell you as fast as I can, A story very true : Then mark what doth ensue, Concerning a husbandman." This ballad-dialogue, between a husbandman and a serving-man, has been orally preserved in various parts of the country. One version will be found in Mr. Davies Gilbert's Christmas Carols; a second in Mr. J. H. Dixon's Ancient Poems and Songs of the Peasantry (printed for the Percy Society); and a third in " Old English Songs, as now sung by the Peasantry of the Weald of Surrey and Sussex," &c.,; " harmonized for the Collector" [the Rev. Mr. Broadwood] " in 1843, by G. A. Dusart."
In the Collection of Poems on Affairs of State, vol. iii., 70, is " A new ballad to an old tune, called I am the Duke of Norfolk.'" It is a satire on Charles LL, and begins thus:—" I am a senseless thing, with a hey, with a hey; Men call me a king, with a ho ; To my luxury and ease, They brought me o'er the seas, With a hey nonny, nonny, nonny no." In Shadwell's Epsom Wells, 1673, act iii., sc. 1, we find, " Could I not play I am the Duke of Norfolk, Green Sleeves, and the fourth Psalm, upon the virginals ? " and in Wycherley's Gentleman Dancing Master, Ger. says, " Sing him Arthur of Bradley, or Tarn the Duke of Norfolk."
A curious custom still remains in parts of Suffolk, at the harvest suppers, to sing the song "I am the Duke of Norfolk" (here printed with the music); one of the company being crowned with an inverted pillow or cushion, and another presenting to him a jug of ale, kneeling, as represented in the vignette of the Horkey. [See Suffolk Garland, 1818, p. 402.] The editor of the Suffolk Garland says, that " this custom has most probably some allusion to the homage formerly paid to the Lords of Norfolk, the possessors of immense domains in the county." To " serve the Duke of Norfolk," seems to have been equivalent to making merry, as in the following speech of Mine host, at the end of the play of The merry Devil of Edmonton, 1617:—
o/Brislow [Bristol], to the tune of The maiden's joy. (See Rorturghe Collection, vol. i., 501). The landing of the
Roxburghe Collection, vol i., 232, 01 Collier's Roxburghe Spaniards, &c. (probably on some mock-fight of the train
Ballads, p. 104). Ye dainty dames, are the first ■words of bands, who exercised at Mile-end) seems to be referred to
A warning for maidens, to the tune of The ladies' fall. (See in The Knight of the Burning Peslle, act ii., sc. 2. |
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