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

REIGN OF CHARLES II.
543
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In Sum - mer time when flow'rs do spring, And birds sit on each
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tree, Let Lords and Knights say what they will, There's none so merry as we
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Our music is a little pipe,
That can so sweetly play ;
We hire Old Hal from Whitsuntide,
Till latter Lammas-day ;
On sabbath days and holy-days,
After ev'ning prayer comes he ; a
And then do we skip it, caper and trip it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
Come, play us Adam and Eve, says Dick ;
What's that ? says little Pipe ;
The Beginning of the World* quoth Dick ;
For we are dancing-ripe ;
Is't that you call 1 then have at all —
He play'd with merry glee;
O then did we skip it, caper and trip it,
Under the green- wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
O'er hills and dales, to Whitsun-ales,
We dance a merry fytte ;
When Susan sweet with John doth meet,
She gives him Hit for Hit —
From head to foot she holds him to 't,
And jumps as high as he ;
Oh how they spring it, flounce and fling it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
My lord's son must not be forgot,
So full of merry jest ;
He laughs to see the girls so hot,
And jumps it with the rest.
a Bishop Earle, in his Microcosmographic, describing
a " Plain countryfellow, or downright clown," says,
" Sunday he esteems a day to make merry in, and
thinks a bag-pipe as essential to it as evening prayer.
He walks very solemnly after service, with his hands
coupled behind him, and censures " ( ■. e., criti-
cises) " the dancing of his parish." Burton, in his
No time is spent with more content,
In camp, in court, or city,
So long as we skip it, frisk it and trip it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
We oft go to Sir William's ground,
And a rich old cub is he ;
And there we dance around, around,
But never a penny we see.
From thence we get to Somerset,
Where men are frolic and free,
And there do we skip it, frisk it and trip it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
We fear no plots of Jews or Scots,
For we are jolly swains :
With plow and cow, and barley-mow,
We busy all our brains ;
No city cares, nor merchant's fears
Of wreck or piracy ;
Therefore we skip it, frisk it and trip it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
On meads and lawns we trip like fauns,
Like fillies, kids and lambs ;
We have no twinge to make us cringe,
Or crinkle in the hams ;
When the day is spent, with one consent,
Again we all agree,
To caper it and skip it, trample and trip it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
Anatomy of Melancholy, says : " Young lasses are never
better pleased, than when, as upon a holiday, after even-
song, they may meet their sweet-hearts, and dance about
a May-pole, or in a Town-green, under a shady elm."
b For The Beginning of the World, or Sellcnger's Round,
see ante vol. i., p. 69.