Francesca’s Bookshelf: The Common Muse: An Anthology of Popular British Ballad Poetry XVth – XXth Centuries

You may remember from my earlier blog posts that Francesca loves to collect old books of ballads and songs. In fact, with all the necessities of life taken care of, and book collecting as her only real hobby, it’s all she has to spend her allowance on. It’s unsurprising that her collection contains numerous old and very interesting books.

Today, Francesca is browsing The Common Muse: An Anthology of Popular British Ballad Poetry XVth – XXth Centuries. Edited by V. de Sola Pinto & A.E. Rodway. This first edition was published by Chatto & Windus, London in 1957. The objective of the editors was given on the front flyleaf of the dustjacket. The dustjacket is missing from many copies of this book, so I have reproduced the editors’ objectives below for you (click to enlarge it). From this, you would expect the book to contain a wealth of old popular poetry, songs and ballads, and you would not be disappointed.

There is a 29-page introduction, which begins with the words: ‘Though many of our greatest poets knew, used and imitated street songs and ballads, in modern times it is mainly the political and social historians and antiquaries who have so far paid serious attention to them. Literary critics and historians dismiss them as “doggerel” or “journalism in verse”. What was good enough for Shakespeare, apparently, is no longer good enough for us.’

The introduction goes on to give a critical analysis of the genre of songs and ballads in poetry from mediaeval times to the 20th century. The authors discuss varying perceptions of the literary and moral value of these works, at the same time highlighting the wide range of subject and style, from bawdy to romantic, from historical to social commentary. They acknowledge that while the preservation of mediaeval verse can be attributed to broadsheet¹ publications, they also owe a debt to ‘folk memory’, since the earliest songs and ballads were composed and sung by minstrels, many of them itinerant, and passed on by word of mouth rather than printing. The critical analysis is an engaging read for anyone with an interest in this kind of poetry.

Following the introduction, the book is structured in two parts. Part I: General has subsections Historical; Social Criticism; Manners and Fashions; Soldiers, Sailors, Highwaymen and Poachers; Portents and Prodigies; Crime and Punishment; Religion. Part II: Amatory has subsections Rural; Urban; Vocational; Clerical; Marital; Wise and Foolish Virgins. As is apparent, this collection contains a rich variety of interesting songs and ballads. Each subsection is prefaced by a delightful woodblock print, and contains a number of songs or ballads.

After browsing for a while, Francesca finds herself reading a song called Don’t Be Foolish Pray.

Young Hodge met Mog the miller’s maid
Who long his suite denied,
And half inclined and half afraid,
Scratched his rough head and cried:-
‘Now Molly while I love you so,
Why still our joys delay,
Come dang it, to the parson go,
And don’t be foolish pray.’

Sweet Moggy with an artful blush
That sham’d the rose’s hue,
Looked round, and cried to Hodge ‘hush hush
Speak softly, softly do:
We shall be overheard I know,
The mill don’t work to day
Be quiet, Hodge my hand let go,
Now don’t be foolish pray.’

Poor Hodge, thus chid, at a stand,
And cried,-‘Well then, good bye,
I’se go to give to Sue my hand,
Since thee do cast off I.’
‘Me cast you off’, cries Moggy ‘no,
The mill don’t work to day;
And so dear Hodge, to church let’s go,
And don’t be foolish pray.’

Francesca rather likes the idea of a blush that shames the rose’s hue, but she’s not quite sure of the wisdom behind Molly’s initial refusal of Hodge’s hand. Perhaps Molly is toying with him. Would Francesca do such a thing herself? She doesn’t really want to have to answer that question.

The song was recorded by the brilliant folk-singer/guitarist Nic Jones on his album Ballads and Songs in 1970. If you’re not familiar with his work I highly recommend you get the album for this, and the other wonderful songs and ballads on it. As a tune for this song he used a part of the tune The Merry Merry Milkmaids from The Dancing Master by John Playford (published in a number of editions from 1651 to about 1728). He also altered the words a little to scan with the tune.

In the sleeve notes for Ballads and Songs, Nic Jones wrote, ‘The printed broadsides are often accused of stunting the growth of folksongs and of solidifying the words by submitting them to print. True as this is in many cases, they also created and diffused a great many songs which possess a deal of charm in themselves. Don’t you be foolish pray is a good example of this, probably created by a townsman with his idealised view of rural life. In many instances, songs such as this appealed very strongly to the country singers and were allotted high positions in their repertories.’

1: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the words broadsheet and broadside both refer to a large sheet of paper printed on one side only. These were used to publish ballads and songs, as well as news items and advertisements, and sold by street vendors, particularly in the Elizabethan age, but continuing until the nineteenth century.

Francesca's Bookshelf: Percy's Reliques

“Consisting of old heroic ballads, songs and other pieces of our earlier poets together with some few of later date”

Francesca loves her ballads and songs, and with plenty of spare time and little else to spend her money on, she has assembled a formidable collection of old books, many of them containing ancient collections of ballads. She is pleased to find a copy of the three volume set of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, a collection put together by the Rev. Thomas Percy in the 18^th Century, and commonly known as Percy's Reliques. The full three volume set is hard to find, and she pays a high price for the set.

We owe Percy a lot, as the inspiration for subsequent generations of collectors and singers. Without his work, fewer of these old ballads and songs would be available to us today, and artists such as Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention and many others would have had a poorer access to our traditional songs and ballads.

This collection, first published in 1765, was one of the earliest published collections of ballads, and at a time when ballads were popularly thought of as vulgar street songs, it shone a new light on the form, providing future generations with a window into the past of these wonderful gems. Indeed, his work provided inspiration for future collectors such as Child, Scott, Jamieson, Motherwell and Buchan to name but a few. Notably, the Rev. R. A Willmott produced a single “handy volume” revision of the Reliques in 1857, entitled Percy's Reliques, in which he cleared away all Percy's essays and prefaces, and added annotation of his own.

Henry B. Wheatley, edited the 1885 three volume edition photographed above (this copy is a 1927 reprint). According to Wheatley, Thomas Percy was born in 1729 in Bridgenorth in Shropshire. He matriculated at Christ Church College, Oxford in 1746 and achieved his Masters degree in 1750. In 1753, at the age of 24, he was made rector of Easton Maudit in Northampton. As a young man he came into possession of an unbound manuscript in poor condition. Of it, he said, “I saw it lying dirty on the floor, under a bureau in ye parlour: being used by the maids to light the fire …” Happily he was able to rescue the manuscript, and this, along with other collections, printed broadsides and other sources, provided the material from which he derived the Reliques. Percy's precious rescued manuscript itself was probably written shortly before 1650, and was used extensively by Child more than a hundred years later.

Percy died in 1811 at the ripe old age of 83.

On the left is Willmott's "handy volume" edition. Percy's Reliques. This copy is not dated by the publisher or printer, but the inscription in the front is as a prize, given in 1879.

This edition contains a small number of illustrations, like the one shown here.

As an interesting footnote, I should add that, although Percy titled his work "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry", the collection does not contain only English poetry! As an example, some ballads such as Sir Patrik Spence, and Edward, Edward are Scottish, as he states in the text.

I have scanned some pages from Wheatley's 3 volume set for your delight. What follows is a ballad entitled On Thomas Lord Cromwell, from the second volume. I chose this because Thomas Cromwell is currently being depicted in the media in a television dramatisation of Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf Hall. Percy prefaces the ballad with a brief essay, and this is followed by [in square brackets] Wheatley's own comments. The ballad is written in archaic language, which makes it a challenge to read if you're not used to it, but it's worth the effort. Just click on the images to enlarge them.

I hope you've enjoyed this little trip into the life of Thomas Percy.

Francesca is one of the two main characters in An Accident Of Birth, by Tony Benson

Francesca's Bookshelf: Motherwell's Minstrelsy - The Twa Corbies

Confined as she is to an oppressive Atelier life, Francesca's imagination roams free. Her collection of rare, antique books of ballads and songs is a source of constant inspiration, and as she browses the dusty pages of the ancient books she sings the old songs, transported to a different place - a different life.

One of her favourite songs is The Twa Corbies. This old Scottish ballad tells of ravens who are discussing their prospective meal of a knight who has been slain on the battlefield. The ballad appears in many of Francesca's collections, and typically for old ballads and songs, each time it appears in a different collection or performance, the words differ.

First, here's Damh The Bard with a modern rendition of the song:

In Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern by William Motherwell, first published in 1827, the ballad uses slightly more archaic language, but it's easy to follow:

There were twa corbies sat on a tree
Large and black as black might be,
And one the other gan say,
Where shall we go and dine to-day?
Shall we go dine by the wild salt sea?
Shall we go dine 'neath the greenwood tree?

As I sat on the deep sea sand,
I waved my wings and bent my beak,
The ship sunk and I heard a shriek;
There they lie, one, two, and three,
I shall dine by the wild salt sea.

Come, I shall show ye a sweeter sight,
A lonesome glen and a new slain knight;
His blood yet on the grass is hot,
His sword half drawn, his shafts unshot,
And no one kens that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair.

His hound is to the hunting gane,
His hawk to fetch the wild fowl hame,
His lady's away with another mate,
So we shall make our dinner sweet;
Our dinner's sure, our feasting free,
Come, and dine by the greenwood tree.

Ye shall sit on his white hause-bane,
I will pick out his bonny blue een;
Ye'll take a tress of his yellow hair,
To theak yere nest when it grows bare;
The gowden down on his young chin
Will do to sewe my young ones in.

O cauld and bare will his bed be,
When winter storms sing in the tree;
At his head a turf, at his feet a stone,
He will sleep, nor hear the maiden's moan;
O'er his white bones the birds shall fly,
The wild deer bound and foxes cry.

I mentioned earlier that different versions of this ballad vary, depending on the collection or performance. This is typical for old ballads and songs, but never more so than for this one. In the version by Damh The Bard, and in Motherwell's version, the ravens are able to look forward to a tasty meal of freshly slain knight. However, many versions differ in a fundamental way - the hound lies at the knight's feet, the hawk hovers overhead, warning off any predators and the lady buries him. The ravens sit by and wish they could feast, but cannot. One of the versions given in Minstrelsy Of The Scottish Border by Sir Walter Scott has this version of events, and finishes with the words:

God send euery gentleman,
Such haukes, such houndes, and such a leman.

Images © Tony Benson. All rights reserved

Francesca's Bookshelf: Child Ballads - The Elfin Knight

Francesca collects old books. She loves to read, but she also loves the look, feel and smell of ancient books. She has many books in her collection, but none more loved than her ballads, songs and poetry.

Over the years she has collected many rare and valuable books. Among them is a set of ten volumes of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child. The collection is commonly known as The Child Ballads, and these days when it is available it is usually printed in five volumes - two of the original volumes to each in the new edition.

Today I've picked one of my favorite ballads from the Child collection, called The Elfin Knight. We'll take a look at the ballad, and see a rendition of it by J Lenoir, and a relatively modern interpretation by Simon and Garfunkle called Scarborough Fair. It tells of two lovers setting each other impossible tasks before they can be together.

First, let's listen to J Lenoir with an interpretation which is pretty much straight from Child's collection. If you like this performance, please support the artist by buying this excellent CD.

Child collected eleven different versions of this song, and provided copious notes about each. The version I have chosen is Child's second, which he attributes to A Collection of Curious Old Ballads, etc., p. 3. Partly from an old copy in black letter, and partly from the recitation of an old lady:

The Ellfin knight sits on yon hill,
Ba, Ba, Ba, lillie ba
He blaws his horn baith loud and shrill.
And the wind hath blawn my plaid awa

He blaws it east, he blaws it west,
He blaws it where he liketh best

‘I wish that horn were in my kist
Yea, and the knight in my arm niest.’

She had no sooner these words said,
Than the knight came to her bed.

‘Thou art oer young a maid,’ quoth he,
‘Married with me that thou wouldst be.’

‘I have a sister, younger than I,
And she was married yesterday.’

‘Married with me if thou wouldst be,
A curtisie thou must do to me.

‘It's ye maun mak a sark to me,
Without any cut or seam,’ quoth he.

‘And ye maun shape it, kinfe-, sheerless,
And also sew it needle-, threedless.’

‘If that courtisie I do to thee,
Another thou must do to me.

‘I have an aiker of good ley land,
Which lyeth low by yon sea strand.

‘It's ye maun till 't wi your touting horn,
And ye maun saw 't wi the pepper corn.

‘And ye maun harrow 't wi a thorn,
And hae your wark done ere the morn.

‘And ye maun shear it wi your knife,
And no lose a stack o't for your life.

‘And ye maun stack it in a mouse hole,
And ye maun thrash it in your shoe sole.

‘And ye maun dight it in your loof,
And also sack it in your glove.

‘And thou must bring it over the sea,
Fair and clean and dry to me.

‘And when that ye have done your wark,
Come back to me, and ye'll get your sark.’

‘I'll not quit my plaid for my life;
It haps my seven bairns and my wife.’

‘My maidenhead I'll then keep still,
Let the elphin knight do what he will.

We don't find out the young lady's name, but I confess I admire her. She was no pushover.
And to finish, how better than with the wonderful Simon and Garfunkle, with their own very special version of this same ballad - Scarborough Fair:

The old ballads were passed down by word of mouth and evolved with every generation. Even today it's unusual to find two performers who perform the same ballad with the same tune and the same words. Indeed, I sing a version of this same ballad which is a hybrid of the words in Child's collection, a tune and refrain which I received via oral tradition and a unique flavour which is my own. Such is the fate of the old ballads.

Francesca is a character in An Accident of Birth by Tony Benson.