Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 2

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	636 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

	THE BOAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND. This famous old song has been admirably illustrated by Hogarth,⁸ in his picture of "The gate of Calais":— " With lanthorn jaws and meagre cut, But soon we'll teach these bragging foes See how the half-starv'd Frenchmen strut, That Beef and Beer give heavier blows And call us English dogs, Than soup and roasted frogs." There are two songs on this subject: the one by Henry Fielding, in his comedy of Bon Quixote in England; the other by Richard Leveridge, the composer of the tune. Fielding's song which was sung to the air of The Queen's old Courtier, consists of but two verses, and the comedy in which it is contained was published in 1733. Leveridge's song is printed in Walsh's British Musical Miscellany, and in The Universal Musician, both undated.



	H. Fielding's Song. When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's Then, Britons, from all the nice dainties re-food, [blood; frain, It ennobled our hearts, and enriched our Of effeminate Italy, France, or Spain; Our soldiers were brave, and our courtiers And mighty roast beef shall command on the were good. main. Oh, the roast beef of old England! Oh, the roast beef of old England ! And oh, for old England's roast beef! And oh, for old England's roast beef!

	* Hogarth was very inveterate in his enmity to the shot as a spy, while sketching the gate of Calais. French, having been seized, and narrowly escaping being