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REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 279 |
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DOWN IN THE NORTH COUNTRY.
This tune was formerly very popular, and is to be found under a variety of names, and in various shapes. In the second vol. of The Dancing Master it is entitled The Merry Milkmaids. In The Merry Musician, or a Oure for the Spleen, i. 64, it is printed to the ballad, " The Farmer's Daughter of merry Wakefield." That ballad begins with the line, " Down in the North Country;" and the air is so entitled in the ballad-opera, A Cure for a Scold, 1738. In 180 Loyal Songs, third and fourth editions, 1684 and 1694, there are two songs, and the tune is named Philander. The first of the songs begins, " Ah, cruel bloody fate," and the second is " to the tune of Ah, cruel bloody fate;" by which name it is also called in The Genteel Companion for the Recorder, 1683, and elsewhere. One of M[artin] P[arker's] ballads is entitled " Take time while 'tis offer'd; " " For Tom has broke his word with his sweeting, And lost a good wife for an hour's meeting; Another good fellow has gotten the lass, And Tom may go shake his long ears like an ass." to the tune Within the North Country." (Roxburghe, i. 396.) It begins with the line, " When Titan's fiery steeds," and the last stanza is— " Thus Tom hath lost his lass, Because he broke his vow; And I have raised my fortunes well— The case is alter'd now." There are many ballads to the tune The case is altered, and probably this is intended.
In the Bagford Collection is " The True Lover's lamentable Overthrow; or The Damosel's last Farewell," &c.: "to the tune of Cruel bloody fate;" commencing— " You parents all attend
To what of late befell; It is to you I send These lines, my last farewell." &c. In the Douce Collection, p. 245, " The West Country Lovers— See here the pattern of true love,
Amongst the country blades, Who never can delighted be, But when amongst the maids: tune of Philander."
The last is in black-letter, printed by J. Bonyers, at the Black Raven in Duck Lane. A former possessor has written " Cruel bloody fate " under " Philander," as being the other name of the tunc.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 105,—"The Deceiver Deceived; or The Virgin's Revenge: to the tune of Ah, cruel bloody fate," begins, " Ah, cruel maid, give o'er."
In A Cabinet of Choice Jewels, 1688 (Wood's Library, Oxford)—a " Carol for Innocents'Day: tune of Bloody fate." ■. |
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