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THE BROOM, THE BONNY BROOM, ETC. 783 |
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p. 458. The Broom, the bonny Broom.—In The Carnival, a comedy by Thomas Porter, 4to., 1664, a song " to the tune of The broom, the bonny broom" begins thus: " The beard, the beard, the bonny, bonny beard, Oh! it was of wondrous growth ; But, eating too fast, his spoon he misplac'd, And scalded it off with the broth." " An excellent new song, entitled The new Song of the Broom of Cowden Knows," is i* the possession of Mr. David Laing, who dates the copy " circa 1716." It commences, " Hard fate that I should banisht be." This would be about eight years e*rlier than the "new words" in the Tea Table Miscellany, " How blyth each morn was I to see."
p. 464. Christmas is my name.—The flocking of the nobility to London at Christmas, complained of in the ballad, was the occasion of a proclamation by James I., which is thus noticed in a letter from Mr. Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleto^ bearing date Dec. 21, 1622: " Divers Lords and personages of quality have made means to be dispensed withall for going into the country this Christmas according to the proclamation; but it will not be granted, so that they pack away on all sides for fear of the worst." (Nichols's Progresses of James I.)
■ p. 478, 1. 26. Sir W. Davenant's Siege OF Bhodes.—On the 9th September, 1653, The Siege of Rhodes was entered at Stationers' Hall, with many other plays, to "Mr. Mosely." On 27th August, 1656, it was again entered as "The Siege of Rhodes by Sir William Davenant, acted at the back of Rutland House," &c, and then printed by Henry Herringman. In the preface to The Fairy Queen, an opera by Purcell, " represented at the Queen's theatre, by their Majesties' servants," is the following passage:—" That Sir William Davenant's Siege of Rhodes was the first opera we ever had in England, no man can deny; and it is indeed a perfect opera; there being this difference between an opera and a tragedy; that the one is the story sung with proper action, the other spoken." (4to., 1G92.) If Dr. Burney had read this preface, he might have avoided his error about the first operas in England.
p. 482. Row the boat, Norman.—The missing words to this "roundel" are supplied by Skelton, in his Borage at Court, where Harvy Hafter says :— " I wolde be mery, what wynde that ever blowe, Heve and how rombelow, row the bote, Norman, rowe ! "
(Dyce's Skelton, i. 40.) The commencing with " Heave and ho, rumbelow," is the material part. It was evidently the burden or under-song, and sung on the key-note by each of the three voices in turn. The words should, therefore, stand thus:—
;fca=^=ft=
Heave and ho, rum-be-low, Row the boat, Nor-man, row, Row to thy le-man.
The second singer begins two bars after the first, and the third two bars after the second. They continue in that order, without stopping at the end of the line, but recommencing and singing it over many times. " Our sailors at Newcastle, in heaving their anchors, have [still] their ' Heave and ho, rumbelow,'" says D'Israeli, in his Curiosities of literature. |
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