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ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC |
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" Green Sleeves and Pudding Pies, May our affairs abroad succeed,
Tell me where my mistress lies, And may our King come home with speed,
And I'll be with her before she rise, And all Pretenders shake for speed,
Fiddle and aw together. And let his health go round.
To all our injured friends in need, This side and beyond the Tweed, Let all Pretenders shake for dread, And let his health go round."
There is no apparent connection between the subject of the first and that of the remaining stanzas; and although the first may have been the burden of an older song, it bears no indication of having refered to the clergy of any denomination.
There is scarcely a collection of old English songs in which at least one may not be found to the tune of Gfreen Sleeves. In the West of England it is still sung at harvest-homes to a song beginning, " A pie sat on a pear-tree top;" and at the Maypole still remaining at Ansty, near Blandford, the villagers still dance annually round it to this tune.
The following " Carol for New Year's Day, to the tune of Green Sleeves," is from a black-letter collection printed in 1642, of which the only copy I have seen is in the Ashmolean Library, Oxford.
The old year now away is fled, I thanb my mast'er and my dame>
The new year it is entered; The wHch are founders of the same>
Then let us now our sins down tread, To eat to dnnk now is n0 shame-
And joyfully all appear. God send us a merry new year-
Let's merry be this holiday, Come lads and lasses every one,
And let us run with sport and play, Jack, Tom, Dick, Bess, Mary, and Joan,
Hang sorrow, let's cast care away— Let's cut the meat unto the bone,
God send you a happy new year. For welcome you need not fear.
And here for good liquor we shall not lack,
And now with new year's gifts each friend It wffl whet my brain8 and strengthen Unto each other they do send; ha.dk
God grant we may our lives amend, This joll'y good cheeritmustgo to wrack-
And that the truth may appear. God Mnd us , merry new
Now like the snake cast off your skin
Of evil thoughts and wicked sin, C?me' Sive us more ^T101 when I do call>
And to amend this new year begin— ri1 dFink to each one in this hal].
God send us a merry new year. I hoP°.that 80 loud I must not W1'
But unto me lend an ear. And now let all the company Good fortune to my master send,
In friendly manner all agree, And to my dame which is our friend,
For we are here welcome all may see God bless us all, and bo I end—
Unto this jolly good cheer. And God send us a happy new year.
The following version of the tune, from The Beggars' Opera, 1728, is that now best known. I have not found any lute or virginal copy which had this second part. The earliest authority for it is The Dancing Master, 1686, and it may have been altered to suit the violin, as the older second part is rather low, and less effective, for the instrument, |
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