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460 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC. |
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directly the reverse, and the popularity of Scotch tunes in England should rather be dated from the reign of James II. I shall hereafter have occasion to revert to this subject, and therefore will not further enlarge at present.
I know of no other copy of The new Iroome on hill than the one in the Pepys Collection, but am persuaded it is a reprint of a much earlier ballad. Such lines as " To ease my grieved grone" seem to point to the " doleful dump" period of poetry; and the tune not being named, is an indication of its having been copied from one of the earlier part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, or perhaps even before. The ballad of Brome on hill in Mr. Gutch's Robin Hood, ii. 363, is a modern fabrication.
The broom of Cowdon Knoioes is a long story in two parts. Besides the copy in Mr. Halliwell's Collection, it will be found among the Roxburghe Ballads, i. 190; and is reprinted in Evans' Old Ballads, i. 88,1810. The following are the two first stanzas:—
" Through Liddersdale as lately I went, Fain would I be in the North Country, I musing on did passe; To milk my daddies ernes.
I heard a maid was discontent, My love into the fields did come,
She sigh'd and said, alas! When my daddy was at home;
All maids that ever deceived were, Sugar'd words he gave me there,
Bear a part of these my woes, Prais'd me for such a one;
For once I was a bonny lasse, His honey breath and lips so soft,
When I milkt my daddies ewes. And his alluring eye,
With 0 the broom, the bonny broom, His tempting tongue hath woo'd me oft, The broom of Condon Knorves; Now forces me to cry.
All maids," &c. The balled which follows The new broom in the Pepys Collection is "The Complaint of a Sinner. To the tune of The bonny broome (i. 41). It commences, " Christ is my love, he loved me," and has but a slightly different burden.
In the Roxburghe, i. 522, is " John Hadland's advice ; Or, a warning for all young men that have meanes, advising them to forsake bad company, cards, dice, and queanes. To the tune of The bonny, bonny broome." Subscribed Rpchard] Cpimsall], and " Printed at London for Francis Coules." It commences— " To all men now I'll plainly shew For I have wrought my overthrow,
How I have spent my time; With drinking beer and wine," &c.
In the same Collection, iii. 174, is a ballad by M[artin] P[arker], called "The bonny Bryer; or—
" A Lancashire lass her sore lamentation For the death of her love and her own reputation. To the tune of The bonny broome." It commences— " One morning early by the break of day, At last I spyed, within my ken,
Walking to Totnam Court, A blyth and buxome lasse. [bryer,
Upon the left hand of the high-way, Sing 0 the bryer, the bonny, bonny
I heard a sad report: The bryer that is so sweet;
I made a stay, and look'd about me then, Would I had stay'd in Lancashire,
Wond'ring from whence it was,— To milk my mother's neate." |
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