Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Popular music of the olden time > Volume 1

FROM HBNKY VII. TO MARY.
87
Library of the Society of Antiquaries. It is on Ballard and Babington's con-
spiracy, and was wi'itten just after their execution, in 1586. Wilson^s Delight,
Arthur a Bradley, and Mall DixorCs Round, are mentioned as popular tunes in
Braithwaite's Strappado for the Devil, 1615.
The' song, "Quoth John to Joan," or " I cannot come every day to woo," is
certainly as old as the time of Hem-y VIII., because the first verse is to be found
elaborately set to music in a manuscript of that date, formerly in the possession
of Stafford Smith (who printed the song in Musica Antiqua, vol. i., p. 32), and now
in that of Dr. Rimbault. There are two copies of the words in vol. ii. of the
Roxburghe Collection of Ballads, and it is in all the editions of Wit and Mirth, or
Pills to purge Melancholy, from 1698 to 1719. In Wifs Cabinet, 1731, it is
called " The Clown's Courtship, sung to the King at Windsor."
Moderate time.
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Quoth John to Joan, wilt thou have me? I prithee now, wilt? And I'se
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marry with thee, My cow, my calf, my house,myrents, And allmylandsand tenements: O
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say, my Joan, say my Joan, will not that do ?
cannot come ev
ry
day to woo.
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I have a cheese upon the shelf,
And I cannot eat it all myself ;
I've three good marks that lie in a rag,
In the nook of the chimney, instead of a bag.
Then say, my Joan, &c.
I've corn and hay in the barn hard by.
And three fat hogs pent up in the sty ;
I have a mare, and she is coal-black,
I ride on her tail to save her back.
Then say, my Joan, &c.
To marry I would have thy consent.
But, faith, I never could compliment ;
I can say nought but " hoy, gee ho,"
Words that belong to the cart and the plough :
Then say, my Joan, say, my Joan^ will that not do,
I cannot come every day to woo.