Printed for E. Brooksby, at the Golden Ball in Pye-Corner. [Date about 1685.] [Bagford Collection, I. 72.] Musick à la Mode. Sung in Bartholomew Fair. THE ballad above named, formerly in this Bagford Collection, has disappeared at the British Museum Library since the manuscript Table of Contents was prefixed to the volume. The page which had contained it only shows the word "stolen." Very properly this collection and the Roxburghe Ballads are not now allowed to be carried into the Reading Room," but are inspected under the closer supervision of the gentlemen in charge of the "Large Room." In case another copy of "Musick à la Mode" can be found, in time, it shall be used for the Appendix. It is not probable that one lost song was Ben Jonson's "My Masters, and friends, and good people draw near," as sung in his "Bartholomew Fair," 1614, Act iii. sc. 1, by Nightingale, the Ballad-singer; for that song generally bears the name of "The Cut-Purse," to the tune of "Paggington's Pound." Nightshade earlier sings: "Now the Fair's a-filling! O, for a tune to startle The birds of the booths here billing, The drunkards they are wading, The Punks and Chapmen trading; Who'd see the Fair without his lading? Buy any ballads, new ballads ?" Ned Ward, in his London Spy, 1699, Parts IX. and X., gives a description of the Music-Booths in Bartholomew-Fair; wherein we suppose our lost songs to have been sung. They were in a cluster in the N. W. corner of Smithfield: "Two or three Scaramouches with forbidding faces and inviting voices being at the door of each." With music of kettle-drums, trumpets, and fiddles, the ears were regaled inside. "There followed upon the drums a ballad in two parts by seven voices, a 'fine new Playhouse song, by the best composer."" Is not this our lost song ? There is a humorous ditty of "The Country-man's Ramble thro' Bartholomew Fair," which, for lack of the Bagford, deserves to be reproduced here. It goes to the tune of "The Dutchman's Jig," and was printed for A. M[ilbourne] about 1682. Pepys, v. 248. Music in Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1699, p. 55. ADZOOKS, ches went the other day to London Town, In Smithfield such gazing Zuch thrusting and squeezing, Was never known: A Zitty of Wood, some Volk do call it Bartledom-Fair, But one in blew jacket came, which some do Andrew call, At last Cutzooks, he made such sport, I laugh'd aloud, He flung me a Custard, Amidst the croud: The Volk vell a laughing at me; then the Vezen zaid, 1241 18 Where Trumpets and Bagpipes, Kettle-drums, Fiddlers, all were at work. And the Cook zung, Here's your delicate Pig and Pork. I look'd around, to see the Wonders of the Vair, Where Lads and Lasses, Zo nimble were; Heels over head, as round as a wheel they turn'd about, Most woundy pleas'd, I up and down the Vair did range, I vow 'twas strange. I ask'd them aloud, What Country little Volk they were? I thrust and shov'd along as well as e'er I could, At last did I grovel, Into a dark Hovel, Where Drink was sold; They brought me Cans, which cost a penny apiece, ads heart, Che went to draw her Purse, to pay them for their beer, The Devil a Penny, Was left of my Money, Che'll vow and zwear: They doft my Hat for a Groat, then turn'd me out of doors: Another Bartholomew-Fair Song begins: 66 Bonny lads and damsels, You're welcome to our booth." 24 30 336 42 48 It dates before 1682, and is in Pills to P. M., iii. 237: also, like "Adzooks," etc., in Dr. Rimbault's Little Book of Songs, 1851, pp. 163-9. The full title of our lost sheet is "Musick à-la-mode; or, the Young maid's delight: containing five excellent new Songs, sung at the Drolls in Bartholomew Fair." London, 1691. 8vo. One of the recovered songs, and the opening verse of another, we give on our pages immediately following The Midshipman's Garland (Bagford Coll., i. 103). LITTLE The Toothless Bride. ITTLE need be written about this coarse "relation of a wealthy old Woman," except the one word of excuse for it that can be advanced. Money-marriages, marriages de convenance, actually take place among us, and with equally repulsive disparities of age. They are seen frequently now-a-days, as they were in France before the first Revolution; and are scarcely less offensive, where the worn-out rake of a bridegroom is nearly four times the age of the girl whom money and rank buy to his arms from her willing parents. No wonder is it, therefore, that social scandals are notorious, and the Divorce Courts crowded with applicants. us. We know of no other copy of this ballad save the one before It is dated 1705. The tune mentioned, "An Old Woman Poor and Blind," was a favourite at the time for "pleasant and comical relations" of this sort. Another ballad to the same tune will be found on I. 92 of the Bagford Collection. In Mr. Wm. Chappell's invaluable Popular Music of the Olden Time, pp. 551553, the music is given, accompanying the words "Jack met his mother all alone" (Roxburghe Coll., iii. 499). The original words, however, belong to "The Old Woman's Wish" (perhaps intended as a parody on Dr. Walter Pope's excellent "Old Man's Wish," "When I live to grow old, for I find I go down," 1684), which, with the music, appears in Tom D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1719, v. 29, beginning: "As I went by an Hospital I heard an Old Woman cry, Kind Sir, quoth she, be kind to me, And grant to me those joys, That belong to Woman-kind, And the Fates reward your Love, To an Old Woman Poor and Blind, etc. Compare Pills to Purge Melancholy, v. 22; vi. 124, for songs to the same tune. Choyce Drollery, 1656, p. 88, and Roxb. Coll., I. 308, 336, give instances of young men overlooking physical deformities in the bride, for the sake of her money. [Bagford Collection, I. 79.] The Toothless Bride; Dr, The Wonton Did Woman: Being a pleasant and comical Relation of a Wealthy old Woman, of above Fourscore Pears of Age, near Fleet-street, that Married a young Man not above Twenty, because he Played so sweetly on her old Instrument. With the pleasant Particulars of their Courtship, Marriage, and comical Humours of the Wedding Night. TO THE TUNE OF, The Old Woman Poor and Blind. To Wed with me is no Disgrace, |