Source: Playford, The English Dancing Master
The first stanza of a ballad called Rosamond to the tune of Confess:
Sweet youthfull, charming ladies fair,
Fram'd of the purest mould,
With rosy cheeks and silken hair,
Which shine like threads of gold;
Soft tears of pity here bestow,
On the unhappy fate
Of Rosamond, who long ago,
Proved most unfortunate.
Sources: Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.
One set of ballads amoung the King's Pamphlets (1649) are directed to be
sung to this tune:
Cromwell on the Throne
So, so, the deed is done,
The Royal head is severed;
As I meant when I first begun,
And strongly have endeavoured.
Now charles the First is tumbled down,
The Second I don't fear;
I grasp the sceptre, wear the crown,
Nor for Jehovah care.
King Charles in His Coffin
Think'st thou, base slave, though in my grave,
Like other men I lie?
My sparkling fame and royal name
Can, as thou wishest, die?
Know, caitiff, in my sone I live
(The Black Prince call'd by some),
And he shall ample vengeance give
On those that did me doom.
The People in the Pit
Supress'd, supres'd, involv'd in woes,
Great Charles, thy people be,
Basely deceiv'd with specious shows
By those that murther'd thee.
We are enslaved to tyrants' heasts,
Who have our freedom won:
Our fainting hope now only rests
On thy succeding son.
Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.
Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.
What doth't availe farr hence to saile,
And lead our life in toylinge;
Or to what end shoulde we here spende
Our dayes in urksome moylinge.
It is the best to live at rest
And tak't as god doth send it;
To haunt ech wake and mirth to make,
And with good fellowes spend it.
Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.
but He take heart to me,
I will reveale it;
He try her constancy,
He not conceal it.
But alas, but alas,
I doe consider,
I cannot breake my mind,
when we are together.
The more I strive to hide,
the more it flameth;
These pains I can not bide,
my wits it lameth.
And if it hidden be,
will burn for ever,
Unless I speake my mind
when we are together.
I think 'twere good I tride
and went to prove her;
And lay all feare aside,
stoutly to move her.
but when I am going to speake,
my tongue doth quiver,
And will not breake my mind,
when we are together.
Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.
The song "A Cup of Old Stingo" from the Merry Drollery Complete
(1661):
There's a lusty liquor which
good fellows used to take-a;
It is distilled with Nard most rich
And water of the lake-a.
Of hop a little quantity,
And Barm to it they bring too;
Being barrelled up, they call't a cup
of dainty good old stingo.
From the Roxburghe Collection, a black-lettered ballad from the reign of
Charles 1, "The Little Barley-corn":
Come and do not musing stand,
if thou the truth discerne:
but take a full cup in thy hand,
and thus begin to learne.
Not of the earth, nor of the ayre,
at evening or at morne;
but joviall boyes, your Christmas keep
with the littl eBarley-Corne.
It is the cunningst Alchimist,
that ere was in the land:
Twil change your mettle when it list,
in turning of a hand.
Your blushing gold to silver wan,
Your silver into brasse:
Twill turne a Taylor to a man,
and a man into an asse.
From notes.
Twill make a man indentures make,
Twill make a fool seem wise,
Twill make a Puritan sociate,
And leave to be precise:
Twill make him dance about a cross,
And eke to run the ring too,
Or anything he once thought gross,
Such virtue hath Old Stingo.
Twil make a constable oversee
Sometimes to serve a warrant,
Twill make a baliff lose his fee,
Thought he be a knave-arrant;
Twill make a lawyer, though that he
To ruin oft men brings, too,
Sometimes forget to take his fee,
If his head be lin'd with Stingo.
Twill make a parson not to flinch,
Though he seem wondrous holy,
And for to kiss a pretty wench,
And think it is no folly;
Twill make him learn for to decline
The very that's called Mingo,
Twill make his nose like copper shine,
If his head be lin'd with Stingo.
Twill make a weaver break his yarn,
That works with right and left foot,
But he hath a trick to save himself,
He'll say there wanteth woof to't;
Twill make a tailor break his thread,
And eke his thimble ring too,
Twill make him not to care for bread,
If his head be lin'd with Stingo.
Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.
A set of words published in 1707 to the tune of Upon a Summer's
Day:
Upon a time I chance to walk along a green
Where pretty lasses danced in strife to choose a queen.
Some homely-dressed, some handsome, some pretty and some gay,
but who excelled in dancing must be the queen of May.
Good fellows, great and small, pray let me you advise
To have a care withall; 'tis good to be merry and wise.
Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.
Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.
>From the Roxburghe Colection. a ballad called "Begger-Boy of the North."
which begins:
>From ancient pedigree by due descent
I well can drive my generation:
Throughout all Christendome. and also Kent.
my calling is knowne both in Terme and Vacation.
My parents old taught me to be bold.
Ile never be daunted whatever spoken.
when I come my custome I hold.
and cry. Good your worship, bestow one token.
My Father, my Mother, my Gransire and Grannum. my Uncles, my Aunts, and all my kindred. did maund for Loure, casum and pannum: then wherefore should I from the Trade be hindred. Cat will to kind. the Proverbe doth say. 'tis pity old customes should be broken: Still as I wander along on the way. Ile cry. Good your worship, bestow one token.
Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.
Sources:
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.
Keller. et al. The Playford Ball.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Sources:
Keller. et al. The Playford Ball.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Sources:
Notes.
SCA Publications
Ferris, Elaine. 1980. Dance!.
Pugliese, Patri, & Casazza, Joseph. 1980 Practise for Dancinge.
Cambridge, Mass.
Symborski, Lynn. 1979. The Eastern Kingdom Dancebook.
Notes
Sources of undetermined or unknown origin.