Part 3 (1/2)

Mallow is in County Cork and was a fas.h.i.+onable watering-place in the eighteenth century, when it was known as the ”Irish Bath.” Croker says that the young men of that fas.h.i.+onable water-drinking town were proverbially called ”the rakes of Mallow,” and he adds: ”A set of pretty pickles they were, if the song descriptive of their mode of life, here recorded after the most delicate oral testimony, is not very much over-coloured.”

Neither the Oxfords.h.i.+re nor the Gloucesters.h.i.+re Morris-men, from both of whom we recovered this tune, had probably heard of ”Mallow”; it was natural enough, therefore, to subst.i.tute ”Marlow,” which, of course, they know very well.

”COUNTRY GARDENS.”

This is the prototype of ”The Vicar of Bray,” and Mr. Kidson tells us that he has it in an old book of airs under the more ancient t.i.tle. It is also called ”The Country Garden” in Playford's ”Dancing Master,” and in Chappell's ”National English Airs,” Nos. 25 and 26. Chappell gives it in 3-4 time, and remarks that it then becomes ”a plaintive love ditty instead of a st.u.r.dy and bold air.”

”SHEPHERD'S HEY.”

This air bears some resemblance to ”The Faithful Shepherd” in Thompson's ”Complete Collection of Country Dances” (_circa_ 1775), which is reprinted in Mr. Kidson's ”Old English Country Dances,” p. 10.

”CONSTANT BILLY.”

This is a variant of the ”Constant Billy” printed in Playford's ”Dancing Master” (1726), p. 170, and also in one of Walsh's dancing books. It is also in Gay's ”Beggars' Opera,” where it is set to the words, ”Cease your funning.” Mr. Kidson tells us that the air is known in old books as ”Over hills and lofty mountains” or ”Lofty mountains.”

The well-known Welsh air ”The Ash Grove” is but another version of the same tune; but whether the Welsh derived the air from England or _vice versa_ is a moot point. The matter is discussed, at some length, in Chappell's ”Popular Music of the Olden Time,” p. 665, to which the reader is referred.

The air that we print is as the Headington Morris-men played it; but we also recovered a variant of it from the Bidford dancers. The ”Constant Billy” of the Bampton men, already mentioned, is yet another variant, but in the aeolian mode.

The words of the first verse of the Headington version were as follows:

O Constant Billy, Shall I go with 'ee?

O when shall I see My Billy again?

The Bampton words were different:

O my Billy, my constant Billy, When shall I see my Billy again?

When the fishes flies over the mountains Then you will see your Billy again.

”BLUE-EYED STRANGER.”

Mr. Kidson tells us that this is a variant of ”The Mill, Mill, O” in ”Orpheus Caledonius,” I., p. 40 (1725). It has also some points in common with ”Just as the tide was a-flowing” in ”Folk-Songs from Somerset,” II., No. 37 (and note).

”BLUFF KING HAL.”

This is a version in the major mode of ”The Staines Morris Tune,”

published in the first edition of Playford's ”Dancing Master,” and reprinted in Chappell's ”Popular Music of the Olden Time,” I., p. 126.

How it has come to be christened ”Bluff King Hal” we do not know unless, as Mr. Kidson suggests, the Bidford Morris men have taken the name from some modern collection of old English dances.

”MORRIS OFF.”

As has already been stated, this tune, which was given us by the Bidford Morris dancers, is printed in Thoinot Arbeau's ”Orchesographie,” p. 94. A Dutch version of the same air is included in a collection of dance-tunes by Tielman Susato (Antwerp, 1551); and is reprinted in Carl Engel's ”Literature of National Music,” p. 56. See also Grove's ”Dictionary of Music” (old ed.) II., 369.