Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 1

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

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	360                                 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
	to savour more of the grape than the lamp." The author of the song above quoted from Folly in Print, says— " I do not write to get a name,                     And Suckling hath shut up that door, At best this is but ballad-fame;                  To all hereafter, as before." Sir John died in 1641, at the early age of twenty-eight. The ballad is a countryman's description of a wedding.
	'At Charing Cross, hard by the way Where we, thou know'st, do sell our hay, There is a house with stairs;	And there did I see, coming down, Such folk as are not in our town, Forty, at least, in pairs."
	There are twenty-two stanzas, but some lines of the ballad might now be considered objectionable. I have, therefore, extracted the following—a part of the description of the bride:—
	The maid—and thereby hangs a tale— For such a maid no Whitsun-ale Could ever yet produce : No grape that's kindly ripe could be So round, so plump, so soft as she, Nor half so full of juice. Her finger was so small, the ring Would not stay on which they did bring, It was too wide a peck : And, to say truth, (for out it must,) It lookt like the great collar (just) About our young colt's neck. Her feet beneath her petticoat, Like little mice stole in and out, As if thev fear'd the linrVit •	But, oh! she dances such a way, No sun upon an Easter-day Is half so fine a sight. • ••«*» Her cheeks so rare a white was on, No daisy makes comparison ; (Who sees them is undone;) For streaks of red were mingled there, Such as are on a Kath'rine pear, The side that's next the sun. Her lips were red, and one was thin, Compar'd to that wa; next her chin ; Some bee had stung it newly : But, Dick, her eyes so guard her face, I durst no more upon them gaze. Tnsm nn t\\o cur* in .T11I17