With buckskin breeches, shoes and hose, All bedaubed with ribbons red. Young Richard he rode without dread or fear, Till he came to the house where lived his sweet dear, When he knocked, and shouted, and bellowed, 'Hallo! Be the folks at home? say aye or no.' A trusty servant let him in, That he his courtship might begin; Young Richard he walked along the great hall, Miss Jean she came without delay, 'I'm an honest fellow, although I be poor, 6 My mother she bid me come here for to woo, Suppose that I would be your bride, Pray how would you for me provide? Pray what will your day's work bring in?' 'Ninepence a-day will never do, Besides, I have a house hard by, If thee and I were married now, Ods! I'd feed thee as fat as my feyther's old zow.' They made the family laugh outright; Young Richard took huff, and no more would say, WOOING SONG OF A YEOMAN OF KENT'S SONNE. [THE following song is the original of a well-known and popular Scottish song: 'I hae laid a herring in saut; Lass, 'gin ye lo'e me, tell me now! An' I canna come ilka day to woo.' There are modern copies of our Kentish Wooing Song, but the present version is taken from Melismata, Musical phansies fitting the court, citie, and countree. To 3, 4, and 5 voyces. London, printed by William Stansby, for Thomas Adams, 1611. The tune will be found in Popular Music, I., 90. The words are in the Kentish dialect.] CH have house and land in Kent, ICH And if you'll love me, love me now; Ich cannot come every day to woo. And he cannot come every day to woo. Ich am my vather's eldest zonne, Cho. For he can bravely clout his shoone, * Bell-ringing was formerly a great amusement of the English, and the allusions to it are of frequent occurrence. Numerous payments to bell-ringers are generally to be found in Churchwarden's accounts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.-CHAPPELL. My vather he gave me a hogge, One time Ich gave thee a paper of pins, And if thou wilt not grant me love, Cho. And if thou wilt not grant his love, Ich have been twice our Whitson Lord, And in my minde zeemes passing rare. Ich will put on my best white sloppe, Wherefore cease off, make no delay, For Ich cannot come every day to woo. For he cannot come every day to woo. * The subject and burthen of this song are identical with those of the song which immediately follows, called in some copies The Clown's Courtship, sung to the King at Windsor, and in others, I cannot come every day to woo. The Kentish ditty cannot be traced to so remote a date as the Clown's Courtship; but it probably belongs to the same period. THE CLOWN'S COURTSHIP. [THIS Song, on the same subject as the preceding, is as old as the reign of Henry VIII., the first verse, says Mr. Chappell, being found elaborately set to music in a manuscript of that date. The air is given in Popular Music, 1., 87.] QUOTH John to Joan, wilt thou hare with I prythee now, wilt? and I'ze marry with thee, My cow, my calf, my house, my rents, And all my lands and tenements: Oh, say, my Joan, will not that do? I cannot come every day to woo. I've corn and hay in the barn hard by, I have a cheese upon the shelf, I've three good marks that lie in a rag, To marry I would have thy consent, Words that belong to the cart and the plow. HARRY'S COURTSHIP. [THIS old ditty, in its incidents, bears a resemblance to Dumbledum-deary, see ante, p. 149. It used to be a popular song in the Yorkshire dales. We have been obliged to supply an hiatus in the second verse, and to make an alteration in the last, where we have converted the 'red-nosed parson' of the original into a squire.] HA [ARRY courted modest Mary, Harry was country neat as could be, But his words were rough, and his duds were muddy. Harry when he first bespoke her, [Kept a dandling the kitchen poker ;] Mary spoke her words like Venus, But said, 'There's something I fear between us. 'Have you got cups of China mettle, 'I've got none o' your cups of Chaney, I've a three-footed pot and a good brass kettle, 'A shippen full of rye for to fother, A house full of goods, one mack or another; Oh, grant me patience gracious Heaven! Why then thou must marry some red-nosed squire, [Who'll buy thee a settle to sit by the fire,] For I'll to Margery in the valley, She is my girl, so farewell Malley.' HARVEST-HOME SONG. [OUR copy of this song is taken from one in the Roxburgh Collection, where it is called, The Country Farmer's vain glory; in a new song of Harvest Home, sung to a new tune much in request. Licensed according to order. The tune is published in Popular Music. A copy of this song, with the music, may be found in D'Urfey's Pills to purge Melancholy. It varies from ours ;_b but |