Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 2

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

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492
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
HERE'S A HEALTH UNTO HIS MAJESTY. This was a very popular loyal song in the reign of Charles II. It is twice mentioned by Shad well in his plays. Firstly, in The Miser (1672), where Timothy says, " We can be merry as the best of you—we can, i' faith—and sing A boat, a boat [haste to the ferry], or Here's a health to his Majesty, with a fa, la, la, lero;" and secondly, in his Epsom Wells (1673), where Bisket says, " Come, let's all be musitioners, and all roar and sing Sere's a health unto his Majesty, with a fa, la, la, la, la, lero."
The words are in Merry Drollery Complete, 1670; and words and music together in Playford's Musical Companion, 1667, 1672, &c.
Dr. Kitchener, in his Loyal and National Songs of England, commits the sin­gular mistake of printing the tenor part as the tune, instead of the treble; and it is the more remarkable, because the three parts, treble, tenor, and base, are printed on the same page of the Musical Companion. Another blunder is his ascribing it to Jeremiah Savage, instead of Jeremiah Savile.