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

REIttN OF CHARLES II. 541
UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE.
This ballad, and the tune (noted down in common time, and without bars) , are
found among Ashmole's Manuscripts, at Oxford (36 and 37, fol. 194, b).
There are two versions in The Dancing Master of 1686, — the first in common,
and the second in % time : the first entitled Under the Grreenivood Tree, — the
second (in the additional sheet), Oh! how they frisk it, or Leather Apron.
I have only observed one other copy in common time, and that is in The
Dancing Master of 1690. In all later editions, and in Pills to purge Melancholy,
it is in \ time, which the words seem to require.
The popularity of the tune may be inferred from the great number of ballad-
operas in which it was introduced. Among these may be reckoned Tfie Devil to
pay, The Jovial Crew, The Village Opera, The Cobblers' 1 Opera, The Mad Captain,
The Court Legacy, The Devil of a Duke, and The Woman of Taste.
Ashmole's copy of the words differs somewhat from the black detter ballads ;
and, if written at the time when he is stated to have been intent upon music, —
soon after his father's death, in 1634, — it may be from forty to fifty years older
than any printed copy that I have observed, the earliest of which was published
by Brooksby."
Ashmole noted down the tune without bars, and bars were in general use in the
reign of Charles II., but not so in that of Charles I. b The words in his copy
begin thus : —
" In summer time, when leaves grow green, There's Jeffry and Tom, there's Ursula and
And birds sit on the tree, With Roger and bonny Bettee ; [John,
Let all the lords say what they can, Oh ! how they do firk it, caper and jerk it,
There's none so merry as we. Under the Greenwood Tree.
The ballads of " King Edward the Fourth and the Tanner of Tamworth," and
" Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar," commence precisely as in Ashmole's copy,
and, the metre of all being the same, it appears very probable that they were sung
to one tune, and therefore, that this ah- may yet be traced back to the reign of
Elizabeth. Another ancient ballad, " Robin Hood and the Monk," begins in a
similar manner, and the eighth line corresponds with the burden of this ballad.
The tune is sometimes entitled Caper and firk it (i.e., caper and frisk it) as in
" The fair Maid of Islington ; or, The London Vintner over-reach'd : To the tune
of Sellinger's Round, or Caper and firk it." (Bagford 643 m. 10, p. 113.)
Commencing —
" There was a fair Maid of Islington, And she would to fair London go,
As I heard many tell, Fine apples and pears to sell," &c.
It is included among the tunes of Christmas Carols in " A Cabinet of Choice
Jewels ; or, The Christian's Joy and Gladness, set forth in sundry pleasant new
a The earliest date that I have noted to any ballad ' century ; but, in England, each part was usually printed
printed by Brooksby, is April 12, 1677, when Sir Roger separately, and then bars were thought unnecessary.
L'Estrange licensed to him, "A Kind Husband; or, The Dancing Masters of 1651 and 1652, being for one
Advice for Married Men. To the tune of The Ladies' instrument, have no bars ; but the score in the moral play,
Delight, or Never let a man take heavily." A copy in The four Elements, printed by Rastell (to which Dr.
the Rawlinson Collection of " Olde Balades," Bodleian Dlbdin assigns the date of 1510), is barred. So far as
Library. I have observed, all music in the ordinary notation, even
b Bars were used to music in score in the fifteenth for one voice or one instrument, was barred after 1660.