Broadside ballads entitled 'The Milking Pail' and 'Nancies Unkindness to her Lover'

Commentary

Verse 1: 'Ye Nimphs and Silvian Gods, / That Love green Feilds and Woods, / When spring newly Born herself does Adorn / With Flowers and Blooming Budes; / Come singing the Praise, while Flooks does graze / in yonder pleasant Vail: / Or these that choose their Sleep to loose / And in Cold goes with clouted Shoes, / To carry the Milking Pail.' The ballad was to be sung 'To an excellent New Tune, much in request'.

Verse 1: 'As I was a ranging yon Forrest of Fancies, / With the nine Muses attending me, / Into a Bour I spied beautiful Nancie, / Sadly bemoaning her Destinie; / Saying Alas! Where shall I wander, / Where to find out my own dear Swain, / Patience of Sorrow in heart I lay under, / True love is a Tormenting pain. ' This should be sung 'To its own propper Tune: True Love is a Tormenting Pain'.

Despite being published on the same broadside, these two ballads are very different in tone. 'The Milking Pail' is a song celebrating the beauty of milkmaids above all other women, and attributing this beauty to the health-giving properties of the countryside. 'Nancies Unkindness to her lover' is a young woman's heartbroken lament for the lover she has betrayed, overheard by a passer-by.

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