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REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III. 571 |
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it is arranged for the virginals or harpsichord), when, in his play of The Scowerers (1691a), Eugenia says: " And another music master from the next town, to teach one to twinkle out Lilliburlero upon an old pair of virginals, that sound worse than a tinker's kettle, that he cries his work upon." It is also alluded to by Vanbrugh, in his comedy of JEsop, and by Sterne, in Tristram Shandy, where Uncle Toby is said to be constantly whistling it.
The ballads that were sung to the tune are so numerous, that space will only permit the mention of a very small proportion.
" Dublin's Deliverance; or, The Surrender of Drogheda:" commencing, " Protestant -Boys, good tidings I bring." This, singularly enough, is omitted in Mr. Crofton Croker's Historical Songs of Ireland. A copy is in the Pepys Collection, ii. 303.
" Undaunted London-derry; or, The Victorious Protestants' constant success against the proud French and Irish forces:" commencing, " Protestant Boys, both valiant and stout." Bagford Collection, 643, m., 10, p. 116 ; and in the same volume, " The Courageous Soldiers of the West," and " The Reading Skirmish."
The Roxburghe Collection contains " The Protestant Courage," " Courageous Betty of Chick Lane," &c, &c.
In the later editions of The'Q-arland of Q-oodwill, is " Teague and Sawney; or, The unfortunate success of dear Joy's devotion." It is about a windmill, which Sawney mistakes for St. Andrew's Cross, and Teague for St. Patrick's. The latter kneels before it, and is caught up by the wind setting the mill in motion.
The following are still commonly sung to the air :—" The Sussex Whistling Song:" beginning, " There was an old farmer in Sussex did dwell." To this the company whistle in chorus, wherever the words Lilliburlero and Bullen a lah would occur. It is printed in Dixon's Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 210.
A second is—
" A very good song, and very well sung, Jolly companions every one." This is a common chorus after any song that has been approved by the hearers. Lnstly, the well-known nursery rhyme :—
" There was an old woman went up in a basket, Seventeen times as high as the moon, And where she wTas going I could not but ask it,
Because in her hand she carried a broom,— ' Old woman, old woman, old woman,' said I, ' Where are you going ? whither so high ?' ' To sweep the cobwebs off the sky, And I shall be back again bye-and-bye.'" The tune was, and still is, so popular, that two versions are submitted to the reader,—the old way and the present. The following is the old way, with the first part of the words of Lilliburlero. The second part of the words was added after the landing of King William.
Mr. Dauney misdates this play "about 1670:" thereby eighteen years before the revolution.—Ancien' Me'odia miking the song of Lilliburlero to have been written of, Scotland, p. 19, 4to , 1838. |
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