Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 1

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	REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 169

	THE KING AND THE MILLER OF MANSFIELD. This tune was found by Dr. Rimbault in a MS. volume of virginal music in the possession of T. Birch, Esq., of Eepton, Derbyshire. The black-letter copies of the ballad of King Henry II. and the Miller of Mansfield, direct it to be sung to the tune of The French Levalto, and, as the air was found under that name, it may be a French tune, although neither Dr. Rimbault nor I think it so. The progression of the last four notes in each part is very English in character. There are copies of the ballad in the Roxburghe Collection (v. i. 178 and 228) ; in the Bagford (p. 25); and in the Pepys. It is also in Old Ballads, 1727, v. i., p. 53; and in Percy's Reliques, series 3, book ii. The Irench Levalto is frequently referred to as a ballad tune.