Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 2

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

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	564	ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
	One stanza of these intermediate versions will suffice,*— . " The Indian weed, -withered quite,          Shews thy decay—all flesh is hay : Green at morn, cut down at night,             Thus think, then drink tobacco." In 1699 it appeared in its present form, in the first volume of Pills to purge Melancholy, and so remained until 1719, -when D'Urfey became editor of that collection, and transferred it, with others, to the third. After the Pills, it was printed with alterations, .and the addition of a very inferior second part, by the Rev. Ralph Erskine, a minister of the Scotch Church, in his Gospel Sonnets. This is the " Smoking Spiritualized," which is still in print among the ballad-vendors of Seven Dials, and a copy of which is contained in Songs and Ballads of the Peasantry of England, by J. H. Dixon, or the new edition by Robert Bell. In the Rev. James Plumptre's Collection of Songs (8vo., 1805), Tobacco is an Indian weed was adapted to a more modern tune by Dr. Hague; and about 1830, the late Samuel Wesley again re-set the words, to music of his own composition. The following is the tune printed on the broadsides, and in the Pills;—
	The pipe, that is so lily white, Wherein so many take delight, Is broke with a touch—man's life is such : Think of this when you smoke tobacco. The pipe, that is so foul within, Shews how man's soul is stain'd with sin, And then the fire it doth require : Thiuk of this when you smoke tobacco.		The ashes that are left behind Do serve to put us all in mind That unto dust return we must: Think of this when you smoke tobacco. The smoke, that does so high ascend, Shews us man's life must have an end, The vapour's gone—man's life is done : Think of this when you smoke tobacco.
	POPULAR ROUNDS AND CATCHES. Some account of the public meetings of music-clubs in the reign of Charles the Second has already been given, but there were also private meetings for the practice of part music, both vocal and instrumental, which " were extremely fashionable with people of opulence." Hence, in The Citizen turri'd Gentleman,
	» The curious will find more on this subject in the articles of Dr. Rimbault, Mr. Husk, Mr. Payne, and others, in Notes and Queries, 2nd series, March 1st to		May 10th, 1856. Also in Dr. Rimbault's Utile Book of Sovgs and Ballads, 8vo., 1S51.