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266 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC. |
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and torn, and true; as The Golden Age; as Til ne'er be drunk again; as When this old cap was new; and as Bound about our coal-fire. The first is from the ballad called " Ragged and torn, and true; or The Poor Man's Resolution : to the tune of Old Simon the King." See Roxburghe Collection, i. 352; or Payne Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, p. 26.
The second from " The Newmarket Song, to the tune of Old Simon the King ; " and beginning with the line, " The Golden Age is come." See 180 Loyal Songs, 4th edition, 1694, p. 152.
The third from a song called " The Reformed Drinker;" the burden of which is, "And ne'er be drunk again." See Pills to purge Melanchohj, ii. 47,1707, or iv. 47, 1719; also Ritson's English Songs, ii. 59, 1813. The fourth from one entitled " Time's Alteration:
" The old man's rehearsal what brave things he knew, A great while agone, when this old cap was new; to the tune of Me nere be drunke againe." Pepy's Collection, i. 160; or Evans' Old Ballads, iii. 262. (The name of the tune omitted, as usual, by Evans.)
The fifth is the name commonly given to it in collections of country dances, printed during the last century.
One, of the best political songs to the tune is " The Sale of Rebellion's Household Stuff;" a triumph over the downfall of the Rump Parliament, beginning— " Rebellion hath broken up house,
And hath left me old lumber to sell; Come hither and take your choice,
I'll promise to use you well. "Will you buy the old Speaker's chair,
Which was warm and pleasant to sit in ? " <fcc. This song has the old burden at full length. The auctioneer, finding no purchasers, offers, at the end, to sell the whole " for an old song." It has been reprinted in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry. I have seen a song beginning—
" To old Sir Simon the King, ' And young Sir Simon the Squire," but have mislaid the reference. The tune is called " To old Sir Simon the King," in the first edition of the Beggars' Opera, 1728.
In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 468, one of the ballads by Martin Parker, to the tune of Ragged and torn, and true, is entitled "Well met, Neighbour, or— " A dainty discourse, between Nell and Sis, Of men that do use their wives amiss." This might be revived with some benefit to the lower classes at the present day, especially if the last line of the burden could be impressed upon them— " Heard you not lately of Hugh, How soundly his wife he bang'd? He beat her all black and blue :
Oh! such a rogue should be hang'd." |
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