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REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHAKLES I. 299 |
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Her needle she can use well, For huswifery she doth exceed ;
In that she doth most excel; She looks to her business with heed ;
She can spin and knit, She's early and late
And every thing fit, Employ'd, I dare say't,
As all her neighbours can tell. To see all things well succeed.
__ Her fingers apace She is very wary
At weaving bone-lace To look to her dairy,
She useth all day long. As doth to her charge belong ;
All arts that be Her servants all
To women free, Are at her call,
Of each degree, But she'll so brawl
Performeth she : That still I shall
O that she could rule her tongue! Wish that she could hold her tongue.
THE QUEEN'S OLD COUKTIER.
This ballad, which obtained a long and extensive popularity, seems to have' been first printed in the reign of James I. (by T. Symcocke).
Pepys thus refers to it in his Diary, under the date of 16th of June, 1668. " Came to Newbery, and there dined, and music : a song of the Old Courtier of Queen Elizabeth's, and how he was changed upon the coming in of the King, did please me mightily, and I did cause W. Hewer to write it out." There are many other versions of the ballad (sometimes entitled " The Old and New Courtier"), and some are of greater length than others. Besides those in the great collections, copies will be found in Le Prince d'Amour, 1660 ; Antidote to Melancholy, 1661; Wit and Drollery, 1682 ; Dryden's Miscellany Poems, iv., 108 (1716), &c.
In Le Prince d'Amour, and in Merry Drollery Complete, 1661 and 1670, there is a song of " An old Soldier of the Queen's;" commencing— " Of an old Soldier of the Queen's, With an old motley coat and a malmsey nose," and in Wit and Drollery, 1682, p. 165, one entitled " Old Soldiers;" commencing— " Of old soldiers the song you would hear, And we old fiddlers have forgot who they were," and at p. 282, " The new Soldier" ("With a new beard," &c).
A ballad, written on the occasion of the overthrow of the Rump Parliament, by General Monck, and dated Feb. 28,1659, is amongst the King's Pamphlets, Brit. Mus. (folio broadsides, vol. xvi.). It is entitled " Saint George and the Dragon, anglice Mercurius Poeticus." To the tune of " The old Souldier of the Queen's;" commencing—
"News, news,—here's the occurrences and a new Mercurius, A dialogue between Haselrigg the baffled, and Arthur the furious, "With Ireton's readings upon legitimate and spurious, &c." It is reprinted in Wright's Political Ballads (Percy Soc, No. 11).
In the reign of Charles II., " T. Howard, Gent.," wrote and published " An old song of the Old Courtiers of the King's, with a new song of a New Courtier of |
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