Songs of the West: Folk Songs of Devon & Cornwall Collected from the Mouths of the PeopleBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
General
Songs of the West: Folk Songs of Devon & Cornwall Collected from the Mouths of the People
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Ballads, English; Folk songs, English
This tune is in the Dorian mode. As sung by J. Masters, the E was
sharpened in the 3rd bar but flattened on the repetition of the
same phase in the penultimate bar. Mr. Sheppard, when arranging
the song, flattened the E throughout. It must be one thing or the
other. Flattened throughout, it makes a charming melody, but the last
flattened E was probably due to the singer's memory failing him in
the latter part of the air, but serving him at the beginning of the
tune. Mr. Sharp has accordingly retained the E natural throughout.
The opening phrase is similar to the Plain-Song Easter Carol, "_O
Filii et Filiæ_." This was a melody used in French folk-song for the
welcoming in of spring. In fact, a May song. It forced its way into
the service of the Church, and was adopted and used for the Easter
Sequence. See Tiersot, _op. cit._, pp. 361, 391. It is certainly
curious finding the same in Devonshire folk-music. Neither Mr.
Sheppard nor I observed it; it was pointed out by Mr. Sharp.
80. CONSTANT JOHNNY. Words and melody taken down from Roger Luxton.
It was a dialogue, and so Mr. Sheppard had arranged it. Such lover
dialogues are and were very commonly sung in farmhouses. Ravenscroft
gives one in broad Devonshire in his "Brief Discourse," 1614,
entitled, "Hodge Trellindle and his Zweethart Malkyn." Our ballad
seems to be based on "Doubtful Robin and Constant Nanny," _circ._
1680, in the "Roxburgh Ballads."
These dialogue songs between a lover and his lass were very popular.
Addison, in _The Guardian_ of 1713, gives snatches of a West Country
ballad of this kind, and shows how vastly superior it is to the
pastorals of Dresden china shepherds and shepherdesses of Pope and
Philips.
81. THE DUKE'S HUNT. Words and melody taken from James Olver, again
at Stoke Gabriel, again at Mary Tavy, again at Menheniot. This is a
mere cento from a long ballad, entitled "The Fox Chase," narrating a
hunt by Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham, in the reign of Charles
II. It is in the Roxburgh Collection, and was printed by W. Oury,
_circ._ 1650. The ballad is there said to be sung "to an excellent
tune, much in request." We suspect that the melody we give is the
original tune handed down traditionally, and never before published.
Mr. Sharp has noted down the same song and melody from a singer at
East Harptree, Somerset.
82. THE BELL RINGING. Words and air from William George Kerswell, Two
Bridges, Dartmoor; sung also by James Down, blacksmith, Broadwood
Widger. Broadbury Down is the highest ridge of land between Dartmoor
and the Atlantic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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