Chapter III: Introduction (2)

It is the business of the folk-song collector not to make a hard and fast record of one rendering of a folk-tune, with all its accidental inaccuracies, but to obtain what the singer obviously means. Where possible, the best rendering should be given in its full integrity, and any emendation stated as such, with reasons given for the alteration. It is too much to expect that every folk-song singer should be a paragon of faithful accuracy. In many cases, as before observed, he sings his tune with some difference on occasions, and this is due to slips of memory, to wilful alteration, when he thinks such alterations an improvement, and to extraneous influences—nervousness and the like.

Therefore the collector to give a true rendering of the original folk-melody should get as many notations of it as possible, and make such selection as his judgment and knowledge dictate. The ordinary simple “composed” tune generally continues throughout its length in one character of rhythm or time. The folk-air as sung to-day frequently ignores this rule, and may have passages in the middle of it which differ from the general run of the tune. The earlier collectors ignored this fact, and practically always placed such airs under one time signature, considering that any alteration of time-rhythm made by the singer was a grammatical error on his part. In some cases they were probably right, but recent comparisons of certain tunes, noted by different collectors in various parts of the country, go to prove that, to give particular effect to certain word passages, many folk-tunes have been composed with deliberate intention of breaking rhythm. The wary collector, therefore, while he is fully alive to the knowledge that folk-singers are not always to be relied upon for accurate transmission, is also aware of the fact I have above indicated.

IX. THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF FOLK-SONG

The folk-song that does, or did within recent years, exist is manifold in its variety. It reflects very accurately the type of thought that is, or was, current among the class who sang it. Its limits are strictly within their understanding, though now and again its commonplaces are tinged with romance. Yet this romance is not above the comprehension of the most humble and constitutes a grown-up’s fairy tale.

It tells its story or voices its sentiment in the fewest possible words, and in tragedy is almost Biblical in narrative.

A consideration of a few of its types may be useful.

X. THE NARRATIVE BALLAD

This in its earliest form is, without doubt, the oldest surviving kind of folk-song. In all cases it is a long rhyming story which tells of events more or less romantic, and more or less true. It is probable that such ballads have come down to us from the middle ages, when professional glee-men, or minstrels, went from one noble house to another and sang such lyrics to the harp or to other accompaniment.

The stories are dramatic and sufficiently well-marked in character to be easily remembered. Obsolete expressions may be changed or may even remain, but the essentials of the story will be retained.

We have sufficient remnants on ballad sheets as well as in popular remembrance to show that there must have been an enormous number of these lyrical narratives in common currency. How long these had remained in oral transmission before being printed on ballad sheets is a question not easily answered. The question whether, in some instances, they were printed before being handed to the people may be answered in the affirmative in respect to a certain number of obviously later ballads.

The ballad-seller was bound to provide new wares for his patrons, and his trade could not go on without fresh material. Undoubtedly many of the ballads he printed were a re-dishing up of old stories, and many rhymesters, in default of newer ideas, fell back upon the Greek classic stories for subject. In fact, the common person of the sixteenth century might claim to be more familiar with the Homeric romance than the average “man in the street” of to-day. These can scarcely be called folk-ballads in the strictest sense, because they are evidently the work of people educated enough to put such matter from the classic, as well as from Italian authors, into doggerel verse.

The man of an earlier period was as anxious for novelty as he is to-day. The only difference is this—at the present time novelties so crowd upon him that they become stale very rapidly. In the “golden age” people gave leisurely consideration to and digested that which was put before them. Hence it was held tenaciously in memory, and ballads and tales lost none of their interest.

The invention of printing wrought a great change in every direction, and when the press gave forth the ballad sheet it produced a new era in folk-singing. The ballad sheet is so inextricably mixed up with the folk-song that, for a clear understanding, it will be necessary to devote some pages to it later on.

It is a noteworthy fact that among our ballad literature we find numbers of stories that are practically the same in other languages and current in other countries. If we find, as we frequently do, a ballad common amongst Scandinavian folk that is also known in England, or perhaps Brittany, we cannot safely determine its original birthplace, for there can be no doubt that popular folk-tales and ballads travelled from one country to another in a very remarkable degree.

Scotland has always been famous for her wealth of dramatic ballads. No man can read unmoved the many fine ballad narratives that are published in her ballad books, and without wondering whence came the rich flow of fancy and poetic beauty that inspired them.

In spite of all that has been written, much regarding the Scottish ballads remains a mystery. The early collectors appear to have had little scruple in regard to the ballads being printed exactly as received.

One thing we have satisfaction in, namely, that ballads of this character _did_ exist, and that emendation of phrase, or addition of verse, affects the matter, on the whole, very little. The consideration of the Scottish ballad is, however, outside our inquiry, although some narrative lyrics that are commonly thought to have had origin in Scotland are found among English folk-singers. Of these, “Lammikin,” collected by Miss Broadwood in Surrey, is a notable example, as also the different versions of “The Gipsy Laddie,” and one or two others that may be found in the Folk-Song Society’s Journals. Certainly the best-known narrative ballad among English folk-singers is “Lord Bateman,” and versions of this exist in the Scottish ballad collections. “Barbara Allan” is another that has a Scottish variant, while the “Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green” seems to be entirely English. “Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor,” “The Outlandish Knight,” “Geordie” are long ballads which, in a more or less fragmentary state, have been found in nearly every part of England.

One or two of the Robin Hood ballads have also been recovered from tradition, but such are, strangely enough, not common. All the tunes found united to the above-named narrative ballads appear to be ancient and contemporary with early versions of the words.

XI. LOVE SONGS AND MYSTIC SONGS

Love holds first place in all lyrics, and there is no exception to this rule in the folk-song. There is, however, this difference;—whilst the art-song is frequently couched in language abstract and sentimental, and enriched with metaphor and simile, the folk-song is almost always direct, and from its baldness of diction possessed of great force.

The declaration of love in a folk-song is simple, and there is no mincing of words. It is unmistakably fervent and in earnest. The tragedy of a girl’s forsakenness is Biblical in its plainness; sometimes it is a song rather of triumph than pity.

Few more beautiful and direct specimens of the former type exist than the one beginning—

“A brisk young farmer courted me,
He stole away my liberty,
He stole my heart with my free goodwill,
I must confess I love him still.

There is an ale-house in this town,
Where my love goes and sits him down;
He takes another girl on his knee,
Ah! is not that a grief to me?

A grief to me, I’ll tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I;
Her gold will waste, her beauty blast,
Poor girl she’ll come like me at last”;

and so forth.

Another very beautiful love song is “The bonnie bonnie boy” noted by Miss Broadwood, and published in _English County Songs_. It opens—

“I once loved a boy, a bonnie, bonnie boy,
I loved him I’ll vow and protest.
I loved him so well, and so very, very well,
That I built him a bower in my breast,” etc.

A great feature in the love song of the folk-singer is the use of allegory. The words “thyme,” “rue,” the “broom,” “barley,” “wearing the green gown,” and several other similes are freely used, and have an original meaning, for the most part, hidden from the modern singer. The ever popular “I sowed the seeds of love,” in which is inextricably entangled that other song, “The sprig of thyme,” is an inoffensive example of this type. The latter runs—

“Come all you pretty fair maids
That are just in your prime,
I’d have you weed your garden clear
And let no one steal your thyme.

I once had a sprig of thyme,
It prospered night and day;
By chance there came a false young man
And he stole my thyme away,” etc.
As can be well realised, examples of love songs could be given to any
extent.

The folk-singer delights in something that gives a thrill of mysticism, and there are many having this characteristic in traditional remembrance. “The unquiet grave” is an example in point. It begins—

“Cold blows the wind over my true love,
And cold blows the drops of rain.
I never, never had but one true love,
And in the greenwood he was slain,” etc.

“The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter,” and “The Nightingale” have each a ghost, as in a like manner has the one just quoted.

Of the mystic class is “The Prickly Bush.” It is undoubtedly very old and is found in different forms among country singers. A copy occurs in _English County Songs_—

“‘O Hangman hold thy hand,’ he c‘ied,
‘O hold thy hand awhile,
For I can see my own dear father
Coming over yonder stile.
Oh, the prickly, prickly bush,
The prickly, prickly bush,
It pricked my hand full sore;
If ever I get out of the prickly bush,
I’ll never get in any more,’” etc.

Common all over the country, with place names that vary according to the district, is “The Lover’s Test,” sometimes called “Scarborough Fair.” The lover in this demands a cambric shirt made without needle and thread, and other impossibilities, with the reward that the lady shall then be his true love. The lady, equally ready, demands an acre of land between the sea foam and the sea sand. This is to be ploughed with a ram’s horn, and to be sown all over with one peppercorn, and so on. When all this is done the lover can come for his cambric shirt. The story is a version of “The Elfin Knight,” and of the same type as “Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship.”

XII. THE PASTORAL

The pastoral song is fairly frequent, especially in the Southern counties of England. Its chief theme is the joys of country life. Such are the songs in which the ploughman is the chief personage, and one who glories in his calling. In _Sussex Songs_ we find a very typical example—

“Come all ye jolly ploughboys, come listen to my lays,
And join with me in chorus, I’ll sing the ploughboy’s praise.
My song is of the ploughboy’s fame,
And unto you I’ll relate the same,
He whistles, sings, and drives his team,
The brave ploughing boy.”
Then there are sheep-shearing songs, some of which may be seen in Dr
Barrett’s _English Folk-Songs_ and elsewhere. _English County Songs_
provides this ordinary example—

“Our sheep shear is over, and supper is past;
Here’s a health to our mistress all in vull glaas,
For she’s a good ’ooman and purvides us good cheer,
Here’s a health to our mistress, so drink up your beer.”

Other verses would, of course, provide for consumption of more beer by drinking the health of all the members of the family, and of such neighbours as the contents of the barrel allowed.

Harvest-home songs too are not lacking, and a small number take the form of a dialogue between a gardener and a ploughman, or between a husbandman and a serving-man.

A famous song well known among farm-labourers is that known as “Poor Old Horse,” and of this there are several versions. This song probably suggested to Charles Dibdin his once popular song “The High-Mettled Racer,” and to Thomas Bewick, the wood-engraver, his fine print of a worn-out horse in the rain called “Waiting for Death.”

The ploughboy is sometimes in love and sings of his passion in the folk-song. Sometimes it is the lady who declares her love for the handsome ploughboy, and both varieties are quite popular specimens of rural simplicity.

XIII. DRINKING SONGS AND HUMOROUS SONGS

The drinking song is not very common among folk-songs. “The good old leathern bottle,” and some other South country songs, chiefly dealing with harvest-home festivities, can scarcely be called such. They speak of the home-brewed farm ale in an honest fashion, and without the gloating over liquor which is so much a feature of the eighteenth century bacchanalian song. “When Joan’s ale was new” is popular over most parts of England, and “Drink old England dry” is another very harmless production.

The humorous song does not very frequently occur. Sometimes we may come across one that fulfils all the essentials of wit but will scarcely bear repetition. Others are humorous and in other respects quite satisfactory. “Richard of Taunton Dean” is too well known to quote, and “The Dumb Wife Cured” is another that has been frequently reprinted, and it is possibly, really, not a folk-song. “The Grey Mare” is an excellent example. It tells of a young miller who made overtures to a young lady’s father to obtain her hand. The dowry was agreed upon, save that the young man had fixed his mind upon the farmer’s grey mare as part of it. The old man not being inclined to part with this the bargain was “off.” After the death of the farmer the miller again sought the lady, who declared she did not know him. Except that

“A man in your likeness,
With long yellow hair,
_Did_ once come a-courting
My father’s grey mare.”

“Eggs in the basket,” narrating the adventures of two sailors, of which there are several versions in the _Folk-Song Journal_, comes under the category of humorous songs, and the Devonshire song “Widdicombe Fair” has, since its publication in _Songs of the West_, met with wide appreciation. Songs in dispraise of a married life are not frequent in folk-song, but there is a well-known one in “Advice to Bachelors,” in Dr Barrett’s _English Folk-Songs_, that appears to be a genuine folk-song. Its end verse contains the gist of the story. A criminal under the gallows is offered free pardon if he will marry, but—

“He pondered deep, for life is dear,
But still he thought without a fear
That wives are cheap, and he knew well
How much his sorrows one might swell.
There’s people here of every sort,
And why should I prevent their sport?
The bargain’s hard in every part;
But the woman’s the worst—
Drive on the cart!”

XIV. HIGHWAYMAN AND POACHER SONGS

If the pressgang was an unpleasant factor in eighteenth century life, so also were the footpad and highwayman. The highwayman generally claimed the sympathy of the folk-song maker on the ground that—

“He never robbed a poor man upon the King’s highway,” and that his takings from the rich were distributed among the poor. This atoned for all crimes against person and property that were committed by such men as “Brennan on the Moor,” the hero of a very favourite ballad. Sometimes these highwayman songs take a more moral tone, and the criminal, in the condemned cell, offers his fate as a warning to others. Charles Reilly, for example, sings—

“Adieu, adieu, I must meet my fate,
I was brought up in a tender state,
Until bad counsel did me entice
To leave off work, and follow vice.
Which makes me to lament and say,
As in my doleful cell I lay,
‘Pity the fall of young fellows all;
Ah well a day! Ah well a day!’
At seventeen I took a wife;
She was the joy of all my life,
And to maintain her rich and gay,
I went to rob on the King’s highway,
Which makes me to lament and say,” etc.

Poaching was a matter so near the class that sang folk-songs that as a subject it could not fail in interest. If the folk-singer was not himself a poacher he was sufficiently in touch to feel a brotherly sympathy with him in his misfortunes, and in his triumphs, over the gamekeeper. As a consequence there are many poaching songs well known in rural districts, as—“Young Henry the poacher,” “The Sledmere poachers,” “The death of Bill Brown,” “Hares in the old plantation,” etc.

Highway robbery and poaching led to execution and transportation, and both these are subjects for the folk-song maker. The execution songs appear, however, generally to be the work of professional ballad makers, and the “last dying speech and confession” of a criminal, with appended verses, was in print long before he had paid the penalty of his crime. The ballad was sung to one or other of those doleful tunes especially appropriated to this kind of song by the ballad chanter, who hawked the broadsides through the towns on the night of the execution. Frequently the tag to such ditties was—

“Young men all now beware
How you fall into a snare.”

In a somewhat similar strain are the songs that tell of the miseries of transportation to Van Diemen’s Land, for poaching or other offences.

XV. SOLDIER SONGS

Of soldier songs the folk-singer has comparatively few. One of the prettiest is that indifferently called “The Summer Morning,” or “The White Cockade.” It commences—

“It was one Monday morning, as I came o’er the moss,
I had no thought of listing till the soldiers did me cross;
They kindly did invite me to a flowing bowl, and down
They advancèd me some money, ten guineas and a crown.

’Tis true my love has ’listed; he wears a white cockade;
He is a handsome, tall young man, besides a roving blade;
He is a handsome young man, and he’s gone to serve the King.
Oh! my very heart is breaking all for the love of him!”

Another soldier’s song popular among folk-singers is “Pretty Polly Oliver,” or “Polly Oliver’s Ramble.”

“One night Polly Oliver lay musing in bed;
A comical fancy came into her head,
Neither father nor mother shall make me false prove,
I’ll ’list for a soldier and follow my love.”

Polly dresses herself in male attire, mounts her father’s black gelding, and joins the regiment, with the captain of which she is in love.

Then we have the pathetic “Deserter.”

“When first I deserted I thought myself free
Until my false comrade informed on me.”

Another favourite is “The Gentleman Soldier,” and yet another, “The bonny Scotch lad with his bonnet so blue.” The battle of Waterloo gave rise to several long ballads descriptive of the fight, and these in their full integrity of twenty or thirty verses used, not long ago, to be remembered by old soldiers.

XVI. SEA SONGS

These have always been welcome among English singers, and our nation has a plenitude of fine ones. In folk-song they generally take a narrative form and treat of adventures with pirates, and the like. Examples of this type are “Paul Jones,” “Ward the pirate,” “Henry Martin,” “The bold Princess Royal,” and some others. The pressgang songs might, in a sense, go under the heading “sailor songs,” and, certainly, the Chanty, but these are dealt with separately. “The Golden Vanity” is popular, so is “The Mermaid,” and both are well known to modern singers. “The Greenland Whale Fishery” is a fine example of a genuine whaling ditty (see _A Garland of Country Songs_), and “All on Spurn Point” is a narrative of a wreck.

The charming song “Stowbrow,” or the “Drowned Sailor,” is chiefly known on the Yorkshire coast.

“The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter” is a story of a murder and a ghost, which follows the murderer to sea and denounces him. “William Taylor” (of which a parody exists) is fairly well known.

“The Coasts of Barbary” is a fine sea song, and “The Indian Lass,” “Just as the tide was flowing,” “On board a man-of-war,” “Outward bound,” and “The bold privateers” are sea songs that are commonly known but can boast no great degree of antiquity. “Fair Phœbe and her dark-ey’d sailor,” and “The broken token”—the one being a variation of the other—are songs that fall under the heading “Love Songs.”

XVII. PRESSGANG SONGS

These have a greater dramatic effect than any other type before dealt with. In the eighteenth century, when the constant war with France demanded a supply of men to man the navy, the pressgang was a very vital thing in the lives of the humbler classes. The law empowered (under a press warrant) officers of the King’s Navy to seize any man, with few exceptions, and then and there remove him to a King’s ship to serve as a common sailor. Violence was freely used, and at dead of night whole villages were cleared of their male inhabitants, and husbands and bread-winners dragged away, never, in most cases, to return. Such occurrences were well within the memory of those only just passed away. With such happenings in their midst, the folk-song makers had no lack of thrilling and appealing material. The romantic element was not absent, for it was quite possible, as the folk-song generally makes it, for an irate father to bribe the pressgang for the removal of an undesirable young ploughman, and so put an end to the love passages that existed between his daughter and him, thus leaving the ground clear for a wealthier or more favoured suitor. Poetic justice is almost always satisfied in the song by the lady seeking her true love on shipboard, and, by the production of “gold,” reclaiming him. “The Banks of Sweet Dundee,” which is widespread and a universal favourite, affords an excellent example of the pressgang song.

The beautiful song beginning—

“’Twas early, early in the Spring
My love was pressed to serve the King,”

and that one called “The Nightingale,” are earlier in date and quite charming specimens of the class.

XVIII. HUNTING AND SPORTING SONGS

The folk-singer does not lack songs dealing with the sports he loves. The fox-and hare-hunting songs are in a degree reflexes of the eighteenth century ones—of great compass, and of much allusion to the Greek gods. It is in these that Diana, Aurora and Phœbus figure so largely.

The folk-song that deals with hunting, generally is local in its narrative, and tells of some particular famous fox hunt or hare hunt, naming every squire or yeoman farmer that joined in it. “The Fylingdale Foxhunt” in _Traditional Tunes_ is a good and typical example. In the same work will be found “The White Hare” (a description of a hare hunt), and a song of a not very frequent type detailing a cock fight.

XIX. SONGS OF LABOUR

Primitive folk appear to have always had particular songs appropriate to specific kinds of labour. Such songs seem to have been traditionally associated with each class of work, and to have been used either to give a marked rhythm, by which the efforts of a number of people are united at a certain moment (as the pull upon a rope), or generally to lighten work, an effect which song certainly has. It is well known that girls in a weaving shop, or other factory, work twice as well and feel the strain lighter while they are singing in chorus some favourite song or hymn. Soldiers on the march are less tired if the men are allowed to sing, or while the band plays. The Irish regiments marched out of Brussels before Waterloo to the strains of the then popular Moore’s “Melodies,” “The Young May Moon” being among the favourites. The men of the North during the American Civil War were cheered by the song “John Brown’s Body,” and our own soldiers in South Africa sung, with deep meaning (considering that the Boers always managed to have the advantage of the crest of the hill), “All that ever I want is a little bit off the top.” Every great river of the world has its boat songs; in most cases used by the rowers as an aid to their work. Specimens of these river boat songs have been noted in China, India, on the Nile, and elsewhere. The well-known “Canadian Boat Song,” of Thomas Moore, was adapted by him from a chant he himself heard on the St Lawrence river, the original of which chant, by the way, differs materially from the version he published.

The Sea Chanty is too wide a subject to be dealt with in this small volume. Its purpose is to give time to the pull of a rope, the thrust against a capstan bar, or on occasions when the pumps have to be used. The “Chanty” may be almost spoken of as obsolete. Its real home was the sailing vessel, but, at the present day, steam does so much of what formerly was man’s labour, that the chanty has almost died a natural death.

There were capstan, pumping, and hauling chanties, and those used in furling sail, apart from the sailors’ songs pure and simple. The sea chanty was generally commenced by a leader—the chanty man, who would perhaps string a few extemporary rough rhymes together, fitted to a well-known tune, while the men joined in a recognised nonsense chorus as they did the pulling, thrusting, or other work required.

The Chanties mostly in evidence amongst the English, or English-speaking, sailors are “Whiskey for my Johnnie,” “Haul the bowline,” “We’re all bound to go,” “The Rio Grande,” “Reuben Ranzo,” “Tom’s gone to Ilo,” “Storm Along,” “Lowlands,” “Santa Anna,” “Sally Brown,” “Banks of Sacramento,” and many others, copies of which, with most of the above, are to be found in the _Folk-Song Journals_. The fact cannot be ignored that there is decided American influence in most of the sea chanties, and that points to them being interchangeable between the English and the American sailor. The ships trading to San Francisco and other sailing vessels that took long voyages round the “Horn” were fit resting-places for the chanty. In former times, on the old man-of-war ships, a fiddler was frequently requisitioned, or the anchor was raised to the music of a fife.

Songs of occupation appear to have lingered longest, in the United Kingdom, in the Hebrides, and quite recently there have been published in the _Folk-Song Journal_ a number of interesting examples collected by Miss Tolmie. Others have been obtained by Mrs Kennedy Fraser.

The boat songs, or “Iorrams,” are a feature of Gaelic music, as are the “luinigs” sung by the women as songs to lighten work where there are a number of people employed at any one occupation.

Gaelic music and song is outside the scope of this manual; although the subject of the work-songs used in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland is here lightly referred to for the purpose of indicating to the student that such a class of song is still in existence in the British Isles.

XX. TRADITIONAL CAROLS

That a large number of carols existed in a purely traditional form was somewhat of a revelation, even to the folk-song collector, when Miss Lucy Broadwood, Mr Cecil Sharp, and Dr Vaughan Williams published their “finds” in the _Folk-Song Journal_. Mr Robin H. Legge, as early as 1890, or before, had collected a number of traditional carols in Cornwall, but his valuable manuscript collection of them was accidentally destroyed.

Some of the folk-carols that have lately been recovered embody curious legends, the origin of which is difficult to trace. “The Bitter Withy” is one of these, and of this particular carol several variants have been obtained, chiefly in the Midland Counties. The story is to the effect that the infant Jesus being reproached for His humble birth by His play-fellows, “lords’ and ladies’ sons,” makes a bridge over water with the beams of the sun, and passes safely over; His companions who follow Him being drowned. His Mother, Mary, chides Him and whips Him with a bunch of the withy (willow) twigs. Jesus then lays a curse on the willow and ordains that it shall for ever be rotten at the heart.

Another singular carol noted by Miss Broadwood is “King Pharaoh.” It was obtained from the singing of gypsies in Sussex. Another version as “King Herod and the Cock” was obtained by Mr Cecil Sharp, and earlier versions, as “The Carnel and the Crane,” are to be found in Sandys’ _Christmas Carols_, and elsewhere. A roasted cock that crows three times and corn which is in ear and ripened the same day are the chief points in the story, as miracles that occur to testify to the divine origin of the infant Christ.

“The Moon shines bright,” “The Cherry-tree Carol,” “The joys of Mary,” with “God rest you merry gentlemen,” are all folk-carols, but words and tunes have long been in print.

There are two different types of carol—the religious, dealing with the Holy Nativity, and the festive. “Here we come a-wassailing” is a folk-carol of the latter kind, and there are many others of this character. One of the best known, which is yet sung traditionally, is the carol which, from some cause, is named as belonging to Gloucestershire—

“Wassail, wassail all over the town,
Our toast it is white, and our ale it is brown,
Our bowl it is made of the maplin tree,
So here’s good fellow, I’ll drink to thee,” etc.

The Gloucestershire rustics singing the song used formerly to go from house to house bearing a gaily decorated maple-wood potato bowl, which it was expected would be filled with liquor, or in lieu of this a contribution of money placed in the bowl.

The May-day carol exists in several different kinds. Copies are to be found in Dr Barrett’s collection, _English County Songs_, and in several other works.

William Hone, in his _Ancient Mysteries_, 1822, speaks of the Christmas carols that were at that time annually printed in chap-books and on broadsides. He gives a list of eighty-nine of these, some of which are still remembered among folk-singers.

XXI. CHILDREN’S SINGING-GAMES

The tunes used by children in the traditional singing-games rank as folk-music, and are always of the most simple and marked character. Having these qualities they are easily remembered, and capable of being passed from one generation of children to another with but little chance of corruption. Although certain games have the same rhymes and tunes in different parts of the country, yet there are others where the airs are not so fixed.

A very high antiquity has been allotted to the origin of these games. It is claimed that many are reflexes of pagan marriage and burial customs, and even of sacrificial rites. Into this question it is outside the province of this book to inquire, but whatever may be adduced as to the great age the games themselves possess, it seems doubtful whether any exceptional degree of antiquity can be safely assigned to the existing tunes, though they are all pretty and charming, and well worth preservation, apart from their antiquarian association.

Many collections of these singing-games have been published; details of these will be found in the bibliography. Miss A. G. Gilchrist, of Southport, has noted a very great number from children in different parts of the country. Her collection, up to the present, remains in manuscript.

A number of the singing-game tunes resemble in a greater or less degree certain published airs, as “Nancy Dawson,” “Sheriff Muir,” and some others. Whether the children have taken these airs for their games, or whether the composers of the printed tunes have gone to the children’s games for inspiration, is a problem not easily solved.

XXII. THE BALLAD SHEET AND SONG GARLAND

When the folk-song singer did not get his song by oral transmission he took it from a ballad sheet, or from those small collections of songs which, for at least three centuries, were called “Garlands.” The words of most of our folk-songs were generally printed either on the ballad sheet (otherwise “broadside”), or included among those that formed the contents of the “Garland,” and nowhere else, except in the rarest instances. Regular song books were too dignified to admit songs or ballads of the folk-song class. As a consequence the folk-songs that survive in an early printed form are chiefly found on broadsides.

Technically, the broadside is a printed piece of paper (the size is immaterial) meant to be read unfolded. A tradesman’s hand-bill, for example, is a broadside. Folded, the broadside becomes folio, quarto, or octavo. The “garlands” were small folded booklets of either eight or sixteen pages, and contained ten or twelve songs, the outer page being generally decorated with a woodcut, and having a list of the songs contained within.

The reason why the broadside ballad was printed on one side only appears to be this—It was the practice to paste them on cottage walls, inside cupboard doors, chest lids, and such like places. There are many references in literature to this method of displaying the ballad, as for example—

“I will now lead you to an honest ale-house where we shall find a cleanly room, lavender in the window, and twenty ballads stuck about the wall.”—Walton’s _Compleat Angler_, 1653.

No wonder that the old angler and his pupil found so many delightful snatches of quaint old song current where ballads and songs were so fostered. The _Spectator_ shows that the usage had not died out in Queen Anne’s reign—

“I cannot for my heart leave a room before I have thoroughly studied the walls of it, and examined the several printed papers which are usually pasted upon them.”—No. 85, vol. ii.

Although the ballad was freely hawked about the streets of towns, and carried into the country by “flying stationers” and pedlars (witness Autolycus in the _Winter’s Tale_), yet the pastings upon walls and the constant foldings of loose ballad sheets soon destroyed existing copies, for few of the old ballad lovers were like Mr Pepys and Captain Cox. Laneham, it will be remembered, tells in his “Letter,” 1575, describing the festivities at Kenilworth Castle, that Cox’s ballads numbered more than a hundred, and were “all ancient,” and were “fair wrapt in parchment, and tied with a whip cord.” Would there had been more of the Captain’s careful disposition.

Broadside ballads must have come among the people with the first dawn of printing, and in Henry the Eighth’s reign they had become of such weight in political influence that one or more royal edicts were levied against them. The earliest known English printed ballad is, in date, about 1540. Ballad printing was generally done by small local printers, or else by those larger London printers who made a speciality of the work, and who supplied the whole country with ballads and with “garlands.”

Gough, Redman, Bankes, Walley, and many others who worked in London during the sixteenth century were noted printers of ballads. In the seventeenth century ballad printing became more general, and many of the publishers clubbed together, so that we find several names on one imprint. Henry Gosson printed in 1616, and John Trundle, his contemporary, was so noted as a ballad vendor that he is named in Ben Jonson’s play, “Every Man in His Humour.” In 1642 Francis Coles (or Coules) flourished and issued ballads in conjunction with William Gilbertson, having a shop on Saffron Hill. Of this period also were Alexander Milbourn, Francis Grove, J. Wright, William Onley, and the “Assignees of Thomas Symcocke.” At a later date William Thackeray, at the “Angel in Duck Lane,” issued, with Passenger, at the “Three Bibles on London Bridge,” many interesting ballads, garlands, and chap-books. One of their dates is 1687.

All these seventeenth century ballads, or the chief part of them, were printed in “_=black-letter=_,” a type of Gothic character which was specially reserved for law books, bibles, and romances long after its discontinuance as ordinary text. They were generally printed on rather large paper, about 14 inches by 10 inches, and, of course, only on one side of the paper. The name of the tune was frequently given, and on some a few musical notes, professing to be the tune, were appended to the verses. These musical notes, however, were a fraudulent inducement to purchasers, for they were merely set at random. Rude woodcuts, which more or less illustrated the theme of the ballad, generally headed the whole.

The most noted collections of this period of ballad are the Roxburghe collection in the British Museum, and the Pepysian at Cambridge. It must be pointed out that a great number of these ballads were scarcely folk-songs—that is, they were not “born of the people”—and only a certain proportion were current among them. There were professional ballad writers who supplied rhymed narratives to order for the ballad seller, not only upon topical events, but re-dishings of earlier romances, and other matter.

Whether at the opening of the eighteenth century printed ballads began to be out of favour, or whether the ballads have not been so carefully preserved, is not quite clear, but they are certainly more rare of this period.

The chief ballad printer of this date was John Cluer, who was printing ballads in 1720, and shortly after this date was established as a music publisher of repute. He worked in Bow Church Yard, Cheapside, and was succeeded by William Dicey, who had been in partnership with Robert Raikes, at Northampton, in the ballad and chap-book printing business. Robert Raikes removed to Gloucester, where he established the first Gloucester newspaper. He was father to Robert Raikes, the originator of Sunday Schools.

An important range of ballad sheets were those which issued from the Aldermary Church Yard press. In 1793 J. Marshall was at this address, printing engraved song sheets with pictorial headings. There was also a J. Marshall at Newcastle-on-Tyne, who published song garlands about 1820.

One of the best-known ballad printers at the end of the eighteenth century was John Evans, of 42 Long Lane, Smithfield. He printed broadside ballads, chap-books, and garlands. He and his sons at a later date printed for the Religious Tract Society, producing such quaint religious stories as _The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain_. The Evans family, and successors, were in full vigour as printers as late as 1815.

It was at the beginning of the nineteenth century that the great ballad printer J. Pitts appeared. It is said that “Johnny Pitts” was a female who had been a bumboat woman. The ballad sheets that issued from the Pitts’ press are all of interest, and many genuine folk-songs appear on them. A rival to Pitts came from Alnwick in the person of James Catnach, the son of a printer in that small Northumbrian town. James Catnach first commenced business in 1813, at 2 and 3 Monmouth Court, Seven Dials, and he made a complete revolution in ballad sheet printing. The early ballad-mongers used a rough grey, or blue tinted, paper and their type was none of the best, or clearest. Catnach changed the shape of the ballad sheet into Large Post Quarto (about 10 × 8 inches), used good, though thin, white paper, and clear type. Many of his wood-blocks were either by the Bewick brothers, or by their pupils. He put forth an enormous quantity of ballads and songs, and seems to have not only employed men to write songs on topical events, but also to have for the first time put into print many a stray folk-song which the ballad-singers, who flocked to buy his ballads, would recite to him. This latter fact accounts for a certain amount of ignorant mistakes that occur in the text.

After founding an immense business he retired in 1838, and died in 1841. His married sister, Anne Ryle, took over the business and advertised that she had “4000 sorts” of ballad sheets. Her manager, James Paul, appears to have been some sort of an editor for her, and it is believed that he wrote, or re-wrote, certain of the ballads and songs she printed. He was, with others, proprietor of the business at one time, but finally it became the property of W. S. Fortey, who reprinted from Catnach’s old stereotypes. T. Batchelor, Piggot, and T. Birt were other ballad printers, a little later than Catnach.

The broadsides printed by Henry Such are of considerable interest to the collector, as they contain versions of folk-songs which are generally good. He was printing in 1849, and his successors of the same surname reprinted his ballad sheets up to a recent date. Provincial ballad sheet printers are Walker of Durham (flourishing in 1839), and Harkness of Preston, of a somewhat later date. R. Barr of Leeds and J. Bebbington of Manchester were broadside printers of forty or fifty years ago, while Shelmerdine & Co. of Manchester date from about 1815.

The folk-song collector cannot ignore the ballad sheet, for upon it are found the words of many folk-songs of which he may only obtain very fragmentary versions from the singer. It is not to be understood that the ballad sheet version of a folk-song is always an accurate one, but it is worth having, for the folk-song singer has generally learned his words, or at any rate refreshed his memory, from the broadside copy.

The ballad printer was too wise a business man to print on the sheet _only_ folk-songs. He printed a popular lyric side by side with an old traditional song, for the sheet had room for at least two sets of verses, and he, by this means, catered for two classes of customers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following works have each a bearing upon English Folk-Song and Folk-Music, and the student will find a reference to them of great help in obtaining a full knowledge of the subject. Many others might have been named, for it is difficult, if not impossible, to fix a limit for the bibliography of a particular line of study.

COLLECTION OF BALLADS AND SONGS, WITHOUT MUSIC

ASHTON, JOHN. A Century of Ballads. Collected,
edited, and illustrated in facsimile by ——. 1887.
—— Modern Street Ballads. 1888.
—— Real Sailor Songs.

BALLAD SOCIETY, THE. Published between 1868
and 1881 many volumes of ballads which were
reprinted from the black letter broadsides in
the British Museum and elsewhere.

BALLADS, THE ROXBURGHE. A Book of Roxburghe Ballads.
Edited by J. Payne Collier. 1847.
—— Edited by Charles Hindley. 2 vols. 1874.
(These two publications are merely selections
from the collection.)

BELL, JOHN. Rhymes of Northern Bards; being a
curious collection of old and new songs and poems
peculiar to the counties of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
Northumberland, and Durham. 1812.

BELL, ROBERT. Early Ballads illustrative of History,
Tradition, and Custom. Edited by ——. 1856.
—— Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry
of England. Edited by ——. 1857.
(Of these two most useful volumes many later
editions have been published. They were really
compiled and annotated by John Henry Dixon, and
originally appeared in 1846, with some slight
differences, as one of the publications of the
Percy Society. As they formed one of the series
of “Bell’s English Poets,” the general editor’s
name appeared instead of the real compiler’s.
Other volumes of the Percy Society’s publications
have some interest for the inquirer into English
folk-song.)

CHILD, F. J. English and Scottish Ballads.
Selected and edited by ——. 8 vols. 1857-1859.
(This is the original American edition. A later
edition was published in 1861, and finally a large
quarto edition with much new matter was begun
in 1882, and completed in 1898 in 10 parts. A
condensed edition of Child’s ballads was issued in
1904.)

CLARK, ANDREW. The Shirburn Ballads,
1585-1616. Reprinted from the MS. by ——. 1907.

EVANS, THOMAS. Old Ballads, historical and
narrative, with some of modern date. 2 vols. 1777.
(A later edition in 4 vols., 1784. A different
and fuller edition, 1810, 4 vols.)

HARLAND, JOHN. Ballads and Songs of Lancashire.
Chiefly older than the nineteenth century. 1865.

JEWITT, L. Ballads and Songs of Derbyshire,
with illustrative notes and examples. 1867.

LILLY, JOSEPH. A collection of seventy-nine
black letter ballads and broadsides printed in
the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1867.
(This is a reprint from a collection of
broadsides that formerly belonged to George Daniels,
the antiquary.)

LOGAN, W. H. A Pedlar’s Pack of ballads and songs. 1869.

PERCY, BISHOP. Reliques of Ancient English
Poetry, consisting of old heroic ballads, songs,
and other pieces of popular poetry. 3 vols. 1765.
(Second edition, 1767; third, 1775; fourth, 1794;
and numerous later editions.)
—— Folio Manuscript. A reprint by Hales and Furnivall
of this celebrated collection from which the
“Reliques” were selected. 4 vols. 1867-1868.

RIMBAULT, DR E. F. A little book of songs and
ballads, gathered from ancient musick books, MS.
and printed, 1851.

RITSON, JOSEPH. Ancient Songs and Ballads from
the reign of Henry the Second. 2 vols. 1787.
(Later editions, 1790, 1792, and 1829.)
—— Northern Garlands. 1810. A reprinted edition, 1887.
(They consist of four song “Garlands” issued by
Joseph Ritson. “The Bishopric Garland or Durham
Minstrel,” 1784—enlarged edition, 1792; “The
Yorkshire Garland,” 1788; “The Northumberland
Garland,” 1793; and “The North Country Chorister,”
1802.)
—— Robin Hood, a collection of all the ancient poems,
songs, and ballads now extant relative to that
celebrated English outlaw. 2 vols. 1795.
(Collections of the Robin Hood ballads reprinted
from Ritson’s work are innumerable. An excellent
edition appeared in 1820, and again in 1823, while
a very useful one was published by Griffin about 1850.)
Another reprint was issued in 2 vols. in 1884.

SHARP, Sir CUTHBERT. The Bishopric
Garland of Legends, Songs, Ballads, etc., belonging
to the county of Durham. 1834.

SIDGWICK, FRANK. Popular Ballads of the Olden
Time. First to fourth series, 1903-1912.
(See also several small carol books compiled
by the above.)

ENGLISH FOLK-SONG COLLECTIONS WITH THE TUNES, OR MUSICAL WORKS BEARING ON THE SUBJECT

CHAPPELL, WM. National English Airs. 2 vols.
1838-1839.
—— Popular Music of the Olden Time. 2 vols. 1856-1859.
(The new edition of Chappell’s “Popular Music”
edited by H. E. Wooldridge was published in 1893,
but the traditional airs obtained by Chappell and
his friends are omitted.)

RIMBAULT, EDWARD F. Musical Illustrations of
Bishop Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.
A collection of old ballad tunes chiefly from rare
MSS. and early printed books. 1850.
—— Nursery Rhymes. Edited and arranged by E. F.
Rimbault. (Several editions.) Chappell.

MASON, Miss M. A. Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs. 1877.
(A reprint by Metzler, recently issued.)

BRUCE, Dr C., and J. STOKOE.
Northumbrian Minstrelsy: Ballads, Melodies, and
Pipe Tunes of Northumbria. 1882.

STOKOE, JOHN, and SAMUEL REAY.
Songs and Ballads of Northern England.
(Contents principally taken from “Northumbrian
Minstrelsy” harmonised by the late Mr S. Reay,
about 1895.)

SUMNER, HEYWOOD. The Besom Maker, and other
country folk-songs. 1888.

SMITH, LAURA A. Music of the Waters. 1888.
—— Through Romany Song-land. 1889.

BROADWOOD, Rev. JOHN. Sussex Songs,
arranged by H. F. Birch Reynardson. 1889.
(This is a reprint of the tunes collected and
privately issued in 1843 by the Rev. John
Broadwood, with additional ones collected by
Miss Lucy E. Broadwood.)

BARING-GOULD, Rev. SABINE. Songs and
Ballads of the West. A collection made from the
mouths of the people, by Rev. S. Baring-Gould and
Rev. H. Fleetwood Sheppard. 4 parts. 1889-1891.
Methuen.
(Several later editions of the parts, and in volume
form. Also an entirely new edition in association
with Mr Cecil J. Sharp, published 1905.)
—— A Garland of Country Songs. 1895.

KIDSON, FRANK. Old English Country Dances
gathered from scarce printed collections, and from
manuscript. 1890.
(Contains several hitherto unprinted folk-airs
used as dance tunes.)
—— Traditional Tunes: a collection of ballad airs,
chiefly obtained in Yorkshire and the South of
Scotland. 1891.

BARRETT, W. ALEX. English Folk-Songs.
Collected and arranged by W. A. Barrett. Novello.
1891.

BROADWOOD, LUCY E., and J. A. FULLER
MAITLAND. English County Songs. Collected and
edited by ——. Leadenhall Press, and Cramer. 1893.
—— English Traditional Songs and Carols. Boosey. 1908.

TOZER, F. Sailors’ Songs and Chanties. Words
by F. Davis, music arranged from traditional
sailors’ airs. Boosey.

BRADFORD, J., and A. FAGGE. Old Sea
Chanties. Collected and arranged by ——. Metzler.

GRAHAM, JOHN. Dialect Songs of the North.
Collected and edited by ——. Curwen.

SHARP, CECIL J. Folk-Songs from Somerset,
gathered and edited with pianoforte accompaniments
by Cecil J. Sharp (and Rev. Charles L. Marson). 1905.
(Four more parts afterwards added. In the fourth
and fifth parts Mr Sharp’s name alone appears as
editor.)
—— Folk-Song Airs. Collected and arranged for the
pianoforte by ——. Books I. and II. Novello.
—— A School Series of Folk-Songs, in numbers. Novello.

BARING-GOULD, Rev. S., and CECIL J.
SHARP. English Folk-Songs for Schools. 1906.
Curwen.

FOLK-SONGS OF ENGLAND. Novello.