ing, and also used as a dance. 'It seems to have been almost, if 'not quite, the most popular of the old ballad tunes'. The expression 'hunt is up' came to be used allusively to mean a song sung or tune played to rouse any one; an early morning song (see Chappell, I, 86, New Engl. Dict., s. v. hunt's-up). In this sense it is employed by Shakespeare in 'Romeo', III, v, 34:

Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day. Compare, too, Tit. Andron., II, II, 1 seq.

The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey, etc.

I CANNOT COME EVERY DAY TO WOO.

Of this song, 'very popular in the early part of Henry VIII.'s reign', the first stanza is to be found in 'an ancient MS.' from which John Stafford Smith reprinted both words and music in his 'Musica Antiqua', 1812. The song passed through a new phase in 1591-2, when it was entered on the Stat. Reg. as "a newe Ballad of John wooinge "of Jo[a]ne &c." (Arber Transcr., II, 602.) It is from this, in all probability (says Chappell), that the ballad in the Roxburghe Collection (II, 74) called 'The Country-man's Delight; or, The Happy Wooing. 'Being the successful Love of John the Serving-man, in his courting 'of Joan the Dairy-maid' has been copied. The burden 'I cannot come 'every day to woo' may have enjoyed proverbial currency. It is alluded to by Puttenham in his Arte of English Poesie, 1589, (Arber's Repr., p. 213) and, what is to our purpose, by Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, II, 1, 115-'6:

Signior Baptista, my business asketh haste,

And every day I cannot come to woo." etc.

For more information about the song see Ballad Society, No. 19, Roxb. Ball., vol. III, p. 590-'6 [Compare, too, Bibl. Lindes., No. 576, and Rimbault, Songs and Ballads, 1851, p. 60.]

LIGHT O' LOVE.

This old tune is mentioned twice by Shakespeare. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, I, 11, 83, we read:

Julia: Some love of yours hath writ to you in rhyme.
Lucetta: That I might sing it, madam, to a tune.

Give me a note: your ladyship can set.

Jul. As little by such toys as may be possible.

Best sing it to the tune of 'Light o' love'.

Luc. It is too heavy for so light a tune.

Again, in Much Ado, III, iv, 41f.:

Hero. Why, how now? do you speak in the sick tune? [vide post, p. 180, 'Sick, sick'.]

Beat. I am out of all other tune, methinks.

Marg. Clap's into 'Light o' love'; that goes without a burden: do you sing it, and I'll dance it.

Beat. Ye light o' love, with your heels! etc.

From this passage 'it appears that Light o' Love was strictly a ballet, 'to be sung and danced' (Chappell, old. ed., 222). The music will be found in Chappell, I, 82. The words of the original song are still undiscovered.

Regarding 'MAD TOM' cf. ante, s. v. Ovid (pp. 24-25).

MONSIEUR MINGO.

In 2. Henry IV. (Act V, 111, 77-79) Silence sings:

Do me right,

And dub me knight:
Samingo.

This is from an old song, beginning: 'Monsieur Mingo for quaffing 'doth surpass', to be found in Nash's 'Summer's Last Will and Testament' (1592; pr. 1600-see Dodsley, VIII, 55, 59, 61). Nash gives 'Domingo' instead of Silence's 'Samingo'.

MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS,

a song in praise of contentment and humbleness, composed by 'E. Dier', seems to have been a favourite poem in the sixteenth century. It is in Percy's Reliques and in Arber's Anthologies. There is some slight reason to suppose that Shakespeare had it in view in 3. Henry VI., Act III, 1, 59f.:

Sec. Keeper:

thou talk'st as if thou wert a king.

K. Henry: Why, so I am, in mind; and that's enough.
Sec. Keep. But, if thou be a king, where is thy crown?
K. Hen. My crown is in my heart, not on my head;

Sir Edward Dyer's poem' ought to be compared with this passage. Regarding the music, see Rimbault, ut sup., p. 16.

1 Set to music in 1588. (J. W. E.) The word 'slight' is J. W. E.'s. Anders, Shakespeare's books.

12

MY ROBIN IS TO THE GREENWOOD GONE;

or,

BONNY SWEET ROBIN.

This

One tune to this song is at any rate older than 1597. "The latter 'of the two versions given in William Ballet's Lute Book (circa 1600) 'is headed "Robin Hood is to the greenwood gone"; it is possible, 'therefore, that the original ballad was a song of Robin Hood.' title must be the first line of the song. Another title is 'Bonny sweet 'Robin'. 'Nothing more is known of the words, unless the line sung by Ophelia in Hamlet (IV, v, 187),—

"For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,"

'should be part of them, which, indeed, seems very probable.' (Chappell, I, 153.) "A ballad intituled A Dolefull adewe to the last Erle of "Darby. to the tune of 'Bonny sweete Robin"" was entered on the Stationers' Registers, 26 April, 1594. (Arber, Transcr. II, 647.)

O DEATH, ROCK ME ASLEEP.

"Then death rock me asleep' is quoted by Pistol in 2. Henry IV. (Act II, iv, 211). The song, 'attributed with great improbability to 'Anne Boleyn, and perhaps with as little likelihood to her brother 'Viscount Rochford' (Dyce) is very old. The first stanza of the words 'with the tune, is contained in a Manuscript of the latter part of 'Henry VIII.'s reign', (Chappell, 2nd ed., p. 238.) Compare, too, Chappell, 3rd ed., I, p. 111, and Halliwell, ed. of Shakesp., vol. X, p. 112.

O MISTRESS MINE

is the name of a tune printed in Morley's Consort Lessons, 1599, which book, being for instruments, does not contain words. Feste's 'love-song in Twelfth Night, II, 111, 40, exactly suits this air, reproduced by Chappell, I, 103, who remarks': 'As it [the tune] is to be found 'in print in 1599, it proves either that Shakespeare's Twelfth Night 'was written in or before that year, or that, in accordance with the 'then prevailing custom, O mistress mine was an old song, introduced 'into the play.' 'The latter supposition is doubtless the true one,' says Dyce. Mr. Furness expresses his flat dissent from such a supposition, which may none the less be correct. A third alternative, however, still remains: Shakespeare may have remodelled an old song, or composed entirely new words for an older tune.

1 Chappell, 1855-9, I, 209.

O SWEET OLIVER.

This song, now lost, is quoted by Touchstone in As You Like It, III, 1, 101 seq:

'It would seem that Touchstone is citing two distinct portions of the 'ballad' (Dyce)-or of two different ballads. In the Stationers' Registers, Aug. 6. 1584 (Arber, II, 434), we find the following entry:

Ric. Jones. Receaved of him for his license to printe A Ballat of.

O swete Olyver Leave me not behind the[e] .... IIII d.

(Comp. Furness, VIII, 190, and Malone, VI, 449–451, for more information. See also Chappell, I, 88-9.)

THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE,

beginning,

COME LIVE WITH ME, AND BE MY LOVE,

'that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlow', is quoted, or rather misquoted, by Sir Hugh Evans in The Merry Wives (III, 1, 17-29). Compare Chappell, I, 123. The poem was first published, fragmentarily, in The Passionate Pilgrim in the year 1599, and in complete form in England's Helicon, 1600.

PEG-A RAMSEY.

Malvolio's a Peg-a-Ramsey,

says Sir Toby in Twelfth Night, II, III, 81, referring to a well-known dance tune still preserved, and reprinted by Chappell (I, 248). It, together with Green Sleeves and other dance tunes, is mentioned by Nash in 'Have with you', etc., 1596 (Huth Libr. ed., III, 181). No earlier version of a 'Peggy Ramsey' ballad is known than the song in 'Wit and Mirth or Pills to purge Melancholy' (1707, 1714, vol. III, 219; or 1719, V, 139). Being amazingly indecorous, it has seldom been reprinted. [Burns made use of this or some other version for his 'Cauld is the e'enin blast'. See Cent. Ed., III, 203, 444.]

A PLEASANT NEW BALLAD OF TWO LOVERS,

To A PLEASANT NEW TUNE,

is the title of a song, beginning 'Complaine, my lute, complaine on 'him,' which has been handed down to us in a copy of the commence'ment of the seventeenth century.' The first stanza ends with the following line: 'Hey, hoe! my heart is full of woe! It is thought that this song (reprinted by the old Shakesp. Soc.,-Papers, 1844, p. 13, and by the Ball. Soc. No. 9, Roxb. Bds., vol. II, p. 305) is the very one Shakespeare quotes, in 'Romeo', IV, v, 107 (vide ante‘Heart's Ease', p. 175).

SICK, SICK.

This is the name of two old tunes printed by Chappell (I, 73-74), who remarks: In Much Ado about Nothing, [Act, III, iv, 41] Hero 'says, "Why, how now? do you speak in the sick tune?" and Beatrice "answers, "I am out of all other tune, methinks." An old 'ballad ‘in a handwriting of about the last quarter of the sixteenth century, 'which may perhaps be the original to which these tunes belong' is printed, in part, by Chappell (ut sup.).

A SONG TO THE LUTE IN MUSICKE;1

or,

IN COMMENDATION OF MUSICKE,

beginning: 'Where gripinge grefes the hart would wounde.' 'This 'song, both words and music, is the production of Richard Edwardes' (Rimbault). The words were printed in "The Paradise of Dainty Devises', which first appeared in 1576 and passed through 8 editions within 24 years. The first lines are quoted (but with several variations), and humorously commented on, by Peter in 'Romeo', IV, v, 128 seq. Reprints of the song are numerous. Percy and Rimbault give the song from MS. copies.

THERE WAS AN OLD FELLOW AT WALTHAM CROSS. Speaking of the wildness of his youth Shallow says: "our watch"word was 'Hem boys!" (2. Henry IV., Act III, 11, 231). Staunton observed very pertinently that "With a hem, boys, hem, And a cup

1 The first title is that given in a 'MS. volume of old tunes, etc. which purports to be "Thomas Mulliner's Boke for ye Organ or Virginalls." Rimbault, Mus. Ill. of Percy's Rel., p. 7. The music will be found there on p. 49. The song is not given by Chappell.-In Commendation', etc. is the heading in "The Paradise'.