Choyce Drollery: Songs and Sonnets: Being a Collection of Divers Excellent Pieces of Poetry, of Several Eminent Authors.
History
Choyce Drollery: Songs and Sonnets: Being a Collection of Divers Excellent Pieces of Poetry, of Several Eminent Authors.
English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700; English wit and humor; Songs, English -- Texts
(See Col. F. Cunningham’s “Mermaid” Ben Jonson, iii. 130-2, for Gifford’s
Notes.) With a quaint old woodcut of a strutting Welshman, in cap and
feather, the song reappears in “_Recreations for Ingenious Head-pieces_,”
1645 (_Wits Recreations_, Reprint, p. 387).
Page 143. _Old Poets Hipocrin admire._
This is attributed to THOMAS RANDALL, or RANDOLPH (died 1634-5), in _Wit
and Mirth_, 1684. p. 101: But to N. N., along with music by Hy. Lawes,
in his _Ayres_, Book ii. p. 29, 1655. It is also in _Parnassus Biceps_,
1656, p. 158, “_All_ Poets,” &c., and in _Sportive Wit_, p. 60.
Page 144. _Hang the Presbyter’s Gill._
With music in _Pills_, vi. 182; title, “The Presbyter’s Gill:” where we
find three other verses, as 4th, 5th, and 7th:—
4.
_The stout-brested ~Lombard~, His brains ne’er incumbred,_
_With drinking of Gallons three;_
_~Trycongius~ was named, And by ~Cæsar~ famed,_
_Who dubb’d him Knight Cap-a-pee._
5.
_If then Honour be in’t, Why a Pox should we stint_
_Ourselves of the fulness it bears?_
_H’ has less Wit than an Ape, In the blood of a Grape,_
_Will not plunge himself o’er Head and Ears._
7.
_See the bold Foe appears, May he fall that him Fears,_
_Keep you but close order, and then_
_We will give him the Rout, Be he never so stout[,]_
_And prepare for his Rallying agen._
8 (Final).
_Let’s drain the whole Cellar, &c._
The accumulative progression, humourously exaggerated, is to be seen
employed in other Drinking Songs; notably in “Here’s a Health to the
Barley-Mow, my brave boys!” (still heard at rural festivals in East
Yorkshire, and printed in J. H. Dixon’s _Bds. & Sgs. of the Peasantry_,
Bell’s annotated edit., p. 159) and “Bacchus Overcome,” beginning “My
Friend and I, we drank,” &c. (in _Coll. Old Bds._, iii. 145, 1725.)
Page 145. _’Tis Wine that inspires._
With music by Henry Lawes, in his Select Ayres, i. 32, 1653, entitled
“The Excellency of Wine:” the author was “LORD BROUGHALL” [query,
Broghill?].
(Page, in original, 55.) _Let the bells ring._
See Introduction to our _Westminster-Drollery_ Reprint, pp. xxxvii-viii.
Although not printed in the first edition of his “Spanish Curate,” it is
so entirely in the spirit of JOHN FLETCHER that we need not hesitate to
assign it to him: and he died in 1625.
Page 146. _Bring out the [c]old Chyne._
With music, by Dr. John Wilson, in John Playford’s _Select Ayres_, 1659,
p. 86, entitled Glee to the Cook. A poem attributed to Thomas Flatman,
1655, begins, “A Chine of Beef, God save us all!”
Page 147. _In Love? away! you do me wrong._
Given, with music by Henry Lawes, in his _Select Ayres_, Book iii. p. 5,
1669. The author of the words was Dr. HENRY HUGHES. We do not find the
burden, “Come, fill’s a Cup,” along with the music.
(Page 65, orig.) _He that a Tinker, a Tinker &c._
See _Choyce Drollery_, 52, and note on p. 289.
Page 149, line 8th, _Now that the Spring, &c._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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