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

EEIGNS OP JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 279
DOWN IN THE NORTH COUNTRY.
This tune was formerly very popular, and is to be found under a variety of
names, and in various shapes. In the second vol. of The Dancing Master it is
entitled Tlie Merry Milkmaids. In The Merry Musician, or a Cure for the
Spleen, i. 64, it is printed to the ballad, " The Farmer's Daughter of merry
Wakefield." That ballad begins with the line, " Down in the North Country ; "
and the air is so entitled in the ballad-opera, A Cure for a Scold, 1738. In
180 Loyal Songs, thii-d and fourth editions, 1684 and 1694, there are two songs,
and the tune is named Philander. The first of the songs begins, " Ah, cruel
bloody fate," and the second is " to the tune of Ah, cruel Uoody fate ; " by which
name it is also called in The Q-enteel Comjoaniou for the Recorder, 1683, and
elsewhere.
One of M[artin] P[arker's] ballads is entitled " Take time while 'tis ofiier'd; "
" For Tom has broke his word with his sweeting,
And lost a good wife for an hour's meeting ;
Another good fellow has gotten the lass,
And Tom may go shake his long ears like an ass."
to the tune Within the North OountryP (Roxburghe, i. 396.) It begins with
the line, " When Titan's fiery steeds," and the last stanza is —
" Thus Tom hath lost liis lass,
Because he broke his vow ;
And I have raised my fortunes well —
The case is alter' d notv."
There are many ballads to the tune The case is altered, and probably this is
intended.
In the Bagford Collection is " The True Lover's lamentable Overthrow ; or
The Damosel's last Farewell," &c. : "to the tune of Cruel Uoody fate;''''
commencing — " You parents all attend
To what of late befell ;
It is to you I send
These lines, my last farewell." &c.
In the Douce Collection, p. 245, " The West Country Lovers —
See here the pattern of true love,
Amongst the country blades.
Who never can delighted be,
But when amongst the maids :
tune oi Philander."
The last is in black-letter, printed by J. Bonyers, at the Black Raven in Duck
Lane. A former possessor has written " Cruel bloody fate " under " Philander,"
as being the other name of the tune.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 105, — " The Deceiver Deceived ; or The
Virgin's Revenge : to the tune of Ah, cruel Uoody fate," begins, " Ah, cruel maid,
give o'er."
In A Cabinet of CJioice Jewels, 1688 (Wood's Library, Oxford) — a " Carol for
Innocents' Day: tune oi Bloody fate."