The Feather-heel'd wenches that live by their owne,1
who long have been needy, for want of good trading,
For when all the gallants are gone out o' th' town,
Oh then these fine Pinaces lack their due lading:
Therefore the vacation they rue like the rest,
because neither dyet nor cloathes they can earne,
But now thei'r in hope well to feather their nest,
they looke for good doings in Michaelmas Term.
Pick-pockets and Cheaters, with Knights of the Post,3
doe long for the Term-time, like honester men,
Where concourse of people is, they doe get most,
with rooking exploits, which they use now and then,
And yet if they chance to be got in the nick,

the hang-man next Sessions will teach them a charm,
Will cure their disease, be they never so sick,
oh then will they think on Michaelmas Term.

The Court and the City, the Country withall,
if you will behold a part of all three,
Then come at this time to Westminster-hall,

where people from all parts assembled be: And thus I'le conclude, as at first I begun, experience all this for truth will confirm, I hope I have given distaste to no man,

for I bid them all welcome to Michaelmas Term.

76

80

84

88

92

96

Printed for F. Coles, J. W[right], T. Vere, W. Gilbertson.

[Black-letter. Date, not before 1655, perhaps a few years later.]

1 "Lais, Cleopatra, Helen, if our Clyme hath any such, noble Lord Warden of the wenches and anglers, I commend them with the rest of the uncleane sisters in Shoreditch, the Spittle, Southwarke, WESTMINSTER, and Turnbull Streete, to the protection of your portership; hoping you will speedily carry them to hell, there to keepe open house for all yonge divels that come, and not let our ayre be contaminated with their sixpenie damnation any longer. Your divelships bounden execrator, PIERCE PENILESSE."-Tho. Nashe's P.P. his Svpplication to the Diuell, ed. 1592.

2 Original has vocation.

6

266

3 Id est, a perjurer plying for hire, to offer bail or false witness. Why, Sir (quoth hee), if it be the Divell you seek for, know I am his man.' 'I pray, Sir, how might I cal you?' A Knight of the Post,' quoth he, for so I am tearmed; a fellow that will sweare you any thing for twelve pence, to set men together by the eares, and send soules by millions to hell.'”—Ibid. Perhaps the name came from his haunting a particular Post near the Law Courts, waiting to be hired.

The Fair Maid of Islington.

Sir Nathaniel-" Very reverend sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience."-Love's Labour's Lost, Act iv. Sc. 2.

PERSONS who are easily shocked, and who possess a very keen

scent for anything with the smallest taint of impropriety, “nice persons, who have nasty ideas," according to Dean Swift's wellknown definition, had better not make acquaintance with this "Fair Maid of Islington." But it is different for those amongst us who are robust enough to take the world as we find it, and only object to an excess of dirt, which is also dull, and devoid of that sportive humour and wit which (as here) atones for a slight impropriety. If we do not hurt the ballad, and the Maid, they will not hurt us. There are many much worse among the Roxburghe and Pepysian ditties and heroines. If London Vintners or Edmonton Bakers (our p. 34) misbehave, and also go off their bargains of immorality, it seems right for them to be punished and held up to ridicule, although the "weaker vessel" be not absolutely virtuous.

Another broadside version of our Bagford ballad begins "There was a Lass of Islington" (Roxb. Coll., iii. 678, and, with a scrap of the melody, Pills to P. Mel., v. 46). A much abbreviated variation of ours (only eight half-verses, or 32 lines) appears in M. Cooper's choice little volume entitled Philomel: being a Small Collection of only the best English Songs. London, 1744, p. 208: “There was a fair maid of Islington, And Margaret was her name; And she was a ganging to London town," &c.

One of the tunes named is "Sellenger's Round." Perhaps the name came from Sellynger, or St. Leger, corrupted colloquially; like the idiotic misuse of St. John as "Sinjon." It was an old Morris-dance tune, believed by Sir John Hawkins to be "the oldest in the world." To this opinion Mr. William Chappell does not subscribe, and he is a much safer authority; indeed, above comparison. He gives the music, describes the dance, and draws from Lingua, 1607, an explanation of the reason assigned for the second name of the tune, viz. "the Beginning of the World" (Popular Music of the Olden Time, pp. 69–71). But if some lost ballad were on "Adam and Eve " (as indicated in the third verse of what we are about to quote), it would also tell about "the beginning of the world," and probably be the same tune: thus the far-fetched notion of Lingua might be scouted.

"Caper and Ferk it" (= frisk it) is also named as the tune to which our Bagford ballad may be sung. It is given in Popular

Music, p. 542. It takes title from the chorus or burden of the original "West-Country Delight; or. Hey for Zommersetshire," a long black-letter ballad, which, telling of Morris dancers and Maypole and scoffing at Puritanical grumblers, thus begins :— In Summer time, when Flowers do spring,

and Birds sit on a Tree,

Let Lords and Knights say what they will,
there's none so Merry as we:

There's Will and Moll, here's Harry and Doll,
with Brian and bonny Bettee,

Oh, how they did jerk it,
Caper and ferk it,

Under the Greenwood Tree.

Our Musick is a little Pipe,
that can so sweetly play;
[We hire Old Hal] from Whitsontide
till latter Lam'as day;

On Sabbath-days, and Holy-days,
after Evening-Prayer comes he;

And then do we skip it,

Caper and trip it,

Under the Greenwood Tree.

Come, play us Adam and Eve, says Dick;
What's that, says little Pipe?

It is The Beginning o' th' World, quoth Dick,
For we are Dancing-ripe;

Is't that you call? then have at all!

he play'd with a merry glee:

Oh, then they did jerk it," &c.

We find another "Wanton Vintner and Subtile Damsel" in the Roxb. Coll., ii. 494. It is to the tune of the Doubting Virgin (see our p. 353, and Introduction to Bagf. Coll., ii. 162, the Redeemed Captive). It was printed by Joseph Blare, 1685-1702, and begins,

You that are with jests Delighted,

come give ear a while to me,
You shall hear of one requited,
according to his Letchery:

A Vintner gallant, brisk and Valiant,
had a fair and comely Maid,
He did indeavour to deceive her,
so on a time to her he said,

1 Not having immediate access to the older black-letter copies, two of which are in the Douce Collection, we employ a white-letter one of about 1699, and avail ourselves of the earlier version in second verse, bracketed, instead of "Whom we do hire," &c., where the word "Pipe " is used for the person who pipes, as folks still say, "He hired a fiddle and a drum."

Come my Damsel fair and pretty,
thou art Beauteous in my eye,
And thou art exceeding witty,

I do long with thee to lye:
But she deny'd and him defi'd,

and seemed loath to him to yield,
But in the end, did Love pretend,

by which he thought he'd won the field.

The Maid was honest, just, and Civil,
and abhor'd his base intent,
He was deluded by the Devil,

but she unto her Mistris went:
And told her all was to befall,

at which she seem'd to be inrag'd, But her passion, was a rash one,

and could not quickly be asswag'd.

The wife goes to the appointed place, at the hour fixed; partly to test the truth, partly to convict her husband of the wickedness in case he appeared. From this substitution of women one anticipates a "Measure for Measure," or "All's well that ends well" catastrophe. But the husband is a double traitor, and betrays the maid to a young roystering companion of his, telling of the trysting-place, and accepting a bribe to let him act as deputy. The result may be imagined. The husband finding the virtuous maid safe within doors suspects something wrong, makes inquiry, and ascertains speedily that he has contrived his own dishonour as his punishment.

Thus you may see who digs a hole,
thinking to cause another's fali,
In their own net sometimes do get,
let this be warning to you all.
Your honest wives, love as your lives,
and by them set a mighty store;
It brings out Shame, unto your name,
ever to meddle with a whore.

[Bagford Coll. II. 113.]

The Fair Maid of Islington :

Or, The

London Wintner Dver-reach'd.

This is a pritty FANCY if you mind,
He thought to fool her, since she was so kind;
But she was crafty, and resolv'd to fit him,
And in the end it prov'd she did Out-wit him;
She for her CELLER made him pay her Rent,
As by a Wile, which made him to repent.

To the Tune of, Sellenger's Round; or, Caper and Ferk it,
Licensed and Enter'd according to Drder.

&c.