Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Popular music of the olden time > Volume 2

REIGN OF CHARLES II. 493
GRIM KING OF THE GHOSTS.
Black-letter copies of this ballad are to be found in the Bagford, the Pepys,
the Douce, and the Roxburghe Collections. It is usually entitled " The Lunatick
Lover : Or the Young Man's call to Grim King of the Ghosts for cure. To an
excellent new tune." Percy reprinted it in his Meliques of Ancient Poetry, and
Ritson, in his Select Collection of English Songs ; the first stanza will therefore
suffice.
" Grim King of the Ghosts ! make haste, Come, you night hags, with all your
And bring hither all your train : And revelling witches, away, [charms,
See how the pale moon does waste, And hug me close in your arms ;
And just now is in the wane. To you my respects I'll pay."
Among the ballads sung to the tune, are the following : —
1. " The Father's wholesome Admonition: To the tune of Grim King of the
Ghosts." See Roxburghe Collection, ii. 165.
2: " The Subjects' Satisfaction ; being a new song of the proclaiming King
William and Queen Mary, the 13th of this instant February, to the great joy
and comfort of the whole kingdom. To the tune of Grim King of the Ghosts,
or Hail to the myrtle shades." See Roxburghe Collection, ii. 437.
3. " The Protestant's Joy ; or an excellent new song on the glorious Coronation
of King William and Queen Mary, which in much triumph was celebrated at
Westminster on the 11th of this instant April. Tune of Grim King of the
Ghosts, or Hail to the myrtle shades." This has a woodcut intended to represent
the King and Queen seated on the throne. See Bagford Collection (643, m. 10,
p. 172, Brit. Mus.) "Printed for J. Deacon, in Guiltspur Street." It
commences thus : —
" Let Protestants freely allow Brave boys, let us merrily sing,
Their spirits a happy good cheer, While smiling full bumpers go round ;
Th' eleventh of April now, Hear joyful good tidings I bring,
Has prov'd the best day in the year. King William and Mary are crown'd."
The tune was introduced into The Beggars' 1 Opera, Tlie Devil to pay, The
Oxford Act, and other ballad-operas ; also printed in Watts' Musical Miscellany,
i. 126 (1729) to a song entitled " Rosalind's Complaint," commencing, " On the
bank of a river so deep."
It was to this air that Rowe wrote his celebrated song " Colin's Complaint;"
in which, according to Dr. Johnson, he alluded to his own situation with the
Countess Dowager of Warwick, and his successful rival, Addison. Goldsmith, in
his preface to The Beaidies of English Poetry, says, " This, by Mr. Rowe, is better
than anything of the kind in our language." It commences —
" Despairing beside a clear stream, The wind that blew over the plain,
A shepherd forsaken was laid ; . To his sighs with a sigh did reply ;
And while a false nymph was his theme, And the brook, in return to his pain,
A willow supported his head : Ran mournfully murmuring by."
It has been reprinted in Ritson's English Songs, and in many other collections.
There are several parodies ; one of which is contained in " A complete Collection