Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 1

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

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REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I.

309

And, finally, the beggar poor, That walks till he be weary, Craving along from door to door, With pre-commiserere ; If he do chance to catch a touch, Although his clothes be thin, too, Though he be lame, he'll prove his crutch, If his head be lin'd with stingo.

Now to conclude, here is a health Unto the lad that spendeth, Let'every man drink off his can, And so my ditty endeth; I willing am my friend to pledge, For he will meet me one day ; Let's drink the harrel to the dregs, For the malt-man comes a Monday.

The last line has furnished the subject for a Scotch song, The following is a later version of the tune. The copies in The Beggars' Opera, Pills to purge Melancholy, The Dancing Master, and Midas (1764), have all slight differences, such as would occur from writing down a familiar tune from memory. The words are Tom D'Urfey's "last new Scotch song." (See Comes Amoris, or The Companion of Love, ii.*16, fol. 1688.)

Gracefully.

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Cold and raw the north did blow Bleak in the morn-ing . ear - ly

All the trees were hid with snow; Dag-gled in win-ter's year - ly: As

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ro - sy cheeks and bon - ny brow, Good faith, made my mouth wa - ter,

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Down I veil'd my bonnet low, Thinking to show my breeding; She returned a graceful bow— A village far exceeding. * However unobjectionable this song may have been in Queen Mary's time, the three remaining stanzas would

I ask'd her where she went so soon, I long'd to begin a parley, She told me to the next market town On purpose to sell her barley.* not be very courteously received in Queen Victoria's Tempora mutantur.