| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
524 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC. |
||
|
To a new Play-house tune, or In January last,& or The Groivlin."b Printed by P.
Brooksby, at the Golden Ball in West Smithfield (Rox. ii. 556). Commencing—
" Young Jemmy was a lad A face and shape so wondrous fine,
Of royal birth and breeding, So charming every part,
With every beauty clad, That every lass upon the green
And every swain exceeding : For Jemmy had a heart," &c.
Both these ballads have been reprinted in Evans's Collection, iii. 206 and 211 (1810). The tune is in The Genteel Companion for the Recorder, 1683; in 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694; in The Village Opera, 1729; in Love and Revenge, or The Vintner Outwitted, N.D. ; in The Bay's Opera, 1730; &c.
There are two others, to the tune, in 180 Loyal Songs ; the first', " Old Jemmy, tune -of Young Jemmy." It is a counter-panegyric upon James II., when Duke of York, by Mat. Taubman; commencing—
" Old Jemmy is a lad
Right lawfully descended." The second, " A new song on the arrival of Prince George [of Denmark], and his intermarriage with the Lady Anne," afterwards Queen Anne; commencing— " Prince George at last is come ;
Fill every man his bumper," &c.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 504, is " The West-country Nymph ; or, The loyal Maid of Bristol," &c., to the tune of Young Jemmy; beginning— " Come, all you maidens fair, In Bristol city fair
And listen to my ditty ; There liv'd a damsel pretty."
In the early part of the last century, the Pretender was called " Young Jemmy," and the tune became a favorite with the Jacobites. " I never can pass through Cranbourn Alley, but I am astonished at the remissness or lenity of the magistrates in suffering the Pretender's interest to be carried on and promoted in so public and shameful a manner as it there is. Here a fellow stands eternally bawling out his Pye-Corner pastorals in behalf of Dear Jemmy, Lovely Jemmy, &c. I have been credibly informed, this-man has actually in his pocket a commission, under the Pretender's great seal, constituting him his Ballad-singer in Ordinary in Great Britain; and that his ditties are so well worded, that they often poison the minds of many well-meaning people: that this person is not more industrious with his tongue in behalf of his master, than others are, at the same time, busy with their fingers among the audience; and the monies collected in this manner are most of those mighty remittances the Post-hoy so frequently boasts of being made to the Chevalier."—From " A View of London and Westminster : or, The Town Spy. Containing an account of the different customs, tempers, manners, policies, &c, of the People in the several most noted Parishes within the Bills of Mortality, respectively," &c. By a German Gentleman. 2nd. edit., 8vo., 1725.
» For In January last, see Index. " The Gowlin is a yellow flower
- The Gowlin is called "a new Plavhoi.se tune " In the That «rov,s ^m tl,e I,,airs'
ballad, the last stanza of which explains that- Wllich <>ft™times is gathered
By nymphs and shepherd swains, &c. |
||