Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 1

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

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	198                                   ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
	CHEVY CHACE. - Although sometimes sung to the tunes of JPescod Time and The Children in the Wood, this is the air usually entitled Chevy Chace. It bears that name in all the editions of Pills to purge Melancholy, and in the ballad operas, such as The Beggars' Opera, 1728, Trick for Trick, 1735, &c. Another name, and probably an older, is Flying Fame, or When flying Fame, to which a large number of ballads have been written. In Pills to purge Melancholy, " King Alfred and the Shepherd's Wife," which the old copies direct to be sung to the tuneof Flying Fame, is printed to this air.- Much has been written on the subject of Chevy Chace ; but as both the ballads are printed in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry (and in many other collec­tions), it may be sufficient here to refer the reader to that work, and to The British Bibliographer (iv. 97). The latter contains an account of Richard Sheale, the minstrel to whom we are indebted for the preservation of the more ancient ballad, and of his productions. The manuscript containing them is in the Ash-molean Library, Oxford (No. 48, 4to). His verses on being robbed on Duns-more Heath have been already quoted (pages 45 to 47). The ballad of Chevy Chace, in Latin Rhymes, by Henry Bold, will be found in Dryden's Miscellany Poems, ii. 288. The translation was made at the request of Dr. Compton, Bishop of London. Bishop Corbet, in his Journey into Fraunce, speaks of having sung Chevy Chace in his youth; the antiquated beau in Davenant's play of The Wits, also prides himself on being able to sing it; and, in Wit's Interpreter, 1671, a man, enumerating the good qualities of his wife, cites, after the beauties of her mind and her patience, " her curious voice, wherewith she useth to sing Chevy Chace." From these, and many similar allusions, it is evident that it was much sung in the seventeenth century, despite its length. Among the many ballads to the tune (either as Flying Fame or Chevy Chare), the following require particular notice.