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

PHILLIDA FLOUTS ME, THE SPANISH LADY, ETC. 773
Martin Parker's ballad of the siege of Roclielle is included in the Pepys Collection,
i. 96, as " Rochell her yielding to the obedience of the French King, on the 28 October
1628, after a long siege by land and sea, in great penury and want. To the tune
of In the days of old." It is subscribed " M. Parker," was " printed at London for
J. Wright," and begins " You that true Christians be." " In the days of old," from
which the tune here derives its name, has already been quoted. In Porbes's Cantus,
1682, and in the Straloch MS., the same air is entitled "Shepherd, saw thou not my
fair, lovely Phillis ? "
p. 183. Phillida flouts me. — The copy of this ballad in Wit restored, 1658, is
older, and in many respects preferable to the version I have printed, which agrees
with the one in Ritson's Ancient Songs.
p. 186. The Spanish Lady. — This ballad is quoted in Mrs. Behn's comedy, Tlw
Rovers, or The banished Cavaliers, and in Richard Brome's Northern Lasse.
p. 187. The Jovial Tinker. — The song in Robin Goodfellom, " to the tune of
The Jovial Tinker," was, no doubt, intended to be sung to Tom a Bedlam. See
further remarks upon that tune, p. 779.
p. 191. The Oxfordshire Tragedy. — The ballad of " The Miller's advice to his
three Sons on the taking of toll" is still sung to this tune in the North of England.
A copy in the Roxburghe Collection, iii. 6S1, commences thus : —
" There was a miller who had three sons,
And, knowing his life was almost run,
He call'd them all, and ask'd their will,
If that to them he left his mill."
The miller reproves the eldest son, and the second also, for not intending to take
toll enough, but the youngest wins his heart by saying : —
" Father, you know I am your boy,
And in taking toll is all my joy :
Rather than I'd good living lack,
I'd take the whole and forswear the sack."
p. 196. Up tails all. — This seems to have been Herrick's favorite tune, for he
not only wrote a song under the name, but also five more in the peculiar metre.
Of these the first is " Ceremonies for Christmas : " —
" Come, bring with a noise,
My merry, merry boyes,
The Christmas log to the firing ;
While my good dame, she
Bids ye all be free,
And drink to your hearts' desiring," &c.
The second is " The hag is astride ; " the third, " The Maypole is up ; " the fourth,
" The Peter-penny ; " and the fifth, " Twelfth Night, or King and Queen." (See
Hesperides, vol. ii., 1825.)
p. 199. Chevy Chace. — The celebrated John Locke, when secretary to the em-
bassy sent by Charles II. to the Elector of Brandenburg, wrote home a description of
the Brandenburg Church singing : " He that could not, though he had a cold, make