Sharp, Cecil J., and Macilwaine, Herbert C., The Morris Book,  London: Novello & Co, (1907)

[p25]

MORRIS DANCE-TUNES

THERE is not much information about Morris tunes to be gathered from books. Chappell, for instance, in his "Popular Music of the Olden Time," I., pp.125 and 130, gives but two Morris dance-tunes, "The Staines Morris Tune" and "Trip and Go"; while Mr. Edward Naylor, in the appendix to his "Shakespeare and Music," only prints the same number - "An English Morris, 1650" (a variant of Chappell's "Staines Morris Tune"), and an Italian Moresca by Claudio Monteverde, 1608. In Grove's "Dictionary of Music" (old ed.), II., p.869, three Morris tunes are recorded: Arbeau's "Morris Off," a Yorkshire melody founded on that of "The Literary Dustman," and a Cheshire Morris to words beginning:-

Morris Dance is a very pretty tune,
I can dance in my new shoon;

In an interesting and most instructive paper on "Morris-dancing in Oxfordshire," read by Mr. Percy Manning before the Folk-Lore Society, and printed in their "Transactions" for December, 1897, five tunes are given: "Green Garters," "Constant Billy," "Willow Tree," "Maid of the Mill," and "Bob and Joan." Mr. Manning also quotes the names only of the following Morris dances and songs: "Handsome John," "Highland Mary," "Green Sleeves," "Trunk Hose," "Cockey Brown," "The Old Road," "Moll o' the Whad," "The Cuckoo," "The Cuckoo's Nest," "White Jock," and "Hey Morris." The first three of these, as well as the tunes previously mentioned, were sung, or danced by the men of Bampton; the remainder by the Morris men of Field Assarts.

Our own investigations enable us to add very materially to existing knowledge of this branch of the subject. We have noted down between twenty and thirty Morris tunes, and have collected the names of several others, which no doubt we shall eventually acquire as well. The list given below consists almost entirely of tunes which are still in constant use by Morris-men in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, and Derbyshire.

The figures in brackets record the number of times we have collected the same tune, or variants of it, from different Morris sides.

Laudnum Bunches.
Bean Setting.
Constant Billy (3).
Blue-Eyed Stranger.
The Rigs o' Marlow (2).
Old Mother Oxford.
The old Woman tossed up in a blanket (2).
Jockie to the Fair.
Rodney.
How d'ye do?
Trunkles (4).
Country Gardens.
Brighton Camp (The Girl I've left behind me) (2).
Shepherd's Hey (3).
Bluff King Hal.
We won't go home till morning.
Princess Royal (2).
Heel and Toe.
Morris Off.
Green Sleeves.
Hey Morris.
The Cuckoo's Nest.
Swag and Boney.
The Gallant Hussars.
The British Grenadiers.

The Vicar of Bray.
The Sherborne Jig.
Belle Isle's March.
Two Derbyshire tunes ("This is it, and That is it.")

It must be remembered that our investigations have up to the present been confined within a limited area, and that we have not yet attempted to deal with the northern counties of England. The experience, however, that we have already acquired is enough to prove that there are a much larger number of traditional Morris tunes still to be found in country districts than most people would imagine. Unfortunately, many Morris sides have been disbanded within the last two or three decades, and our field of work is therefore becoming more and more restricted; for it is difficult, and in many cases impossible, to acquire accurate information unless the Morris side is actually in being. We intend, however, to continue our inquiries without pause, in order, that we may collect all the existing tunes and other information upon this most interesting subject before it is too late.

We append some notes on the tunes which we are publishing in connection with this volume, with the exception of Bean Setting, Trunkles, and Laudnum Bunches, about which we know nothing.

NOTES ON MORRIS TUNES.

"HOW D'YE DO?"

Compare Blowzabella, my bouncing Doxie," in d'Urfey's "Pills to purge melancholy," I., p190 (Ed. 1719).

"RIGS O' MARLOW."

This air is printed in Burke Thumoth's collection of Irish Airs (1720), in Holden's "Old Irish Tunes (1806), and in "Songs of Ireland," p.164 (Boosey).

T. Crofton Croker quotes the words of the original song in "The Popular Songs of Ireland" (1839), of which the first verse is as follows:-

AIR - "Sandy lent the man his Mull."

Beauing, belling, dancing, drinking,
Breaking windows, damning, sinking,
Ever raking, never thinking,
Live the rakes of Mallow.

Mr. Kimber, the leader of the Headington Morris, could only give us the first verse of their song, which, however, is quite different from the Irish words:-

When I go to Marlow Fair
With the ribbons in my hair,
All the boys and girls declare,
Here comes the rigs o' Marlow.

Mallow is in County Cork and was a fashionable watering-place in the eighteenth century, when it was known as the "Irish Bath." Croker says that the young men of that fashionable water-drinking town were proverbially called "the rakes of Mallow," and he adds: "A set of pretty pickles they were, if the song descriptive of their mode of life, here recorded after the most delicate oral testimony, is not very much over-coloured."

Neither the Oxfordshire nor the Gloucestershire Morris-men, from both of whom we recovered this tune, had probably heard of "Mallow"; it was natural enough, therefore, to substitute "Marlow," which, of course, they know very well.

"COUNTRY GARDENS."

This is the prototype of " The Vicar of Bray," and Mr. Kidson tells us that he has it in an old book of airs under the more ancient title. It is also called "The Country Garden" in Playford's "Dancing Master," and in Chappell's

"National English Airs," Nos. 25 and 26. Chappell gives it in 3-4 time, and remarks that it then becomes a plaintive love ditty instead of a sturdy and bold air."

"SHEPHERD'S HEY."

This air bears some resemblance to "The Faithful Shepherd " in Thompson's " Complete Collection of Country Dances" (circa 1775), which is reprinted in Mr. Kidson's "Old English Country Dances," p.10.

"CONSTANT BILLY."

This is a variant of the "Constant Billy" printed in Playford's "Dancing Master" (1726), p.170, and also in one of Walsh's dancing books. It is also in Gay's "Beggars' Opera," where it is set to the words, "Cease your funning." Mr. Kidson tells us that the air is known in old books as "Over hills and lofty mountains" or "Lofty mountains."

The well-known Welsh air "The Ash Grove" is but another version of the same tune; but whether the Welsh derived the air from England or vice versa is a moot point. The matter is discussed, at some length, in Chappell's "Popular Music of the Olden Time," p.665, to which the reader is referred.

The air that we print is as the Headington Morris-men played it; but we also recovered a variant of it from the Bidford dancers. The "Constant Billy" of the Bampton men, already mentioned, is yet another variant, but in the Aeolian mode.

The words of the first verse of the Headington version were as follows:

O Constant Billy,
Shall I go with 'ee ?
O when Shall I see
My Billy again ?

The Bampton words were different:

O my Billy, my constant Billy,
When shall I see my Billy again ?
When the fishes flies over the mountains
Then you will see your Billy again.

"BLUE-EYED STRANGER."

Mr. Kidson tells us that this is a variant of "The Mill, Mill, O" in "Orpheus Caledonius," I., p.40 (1725). It has also some points in common with "Just as the tide was a-flowing" in "Folk-Songs from Somerset," II., No. 37 (and note).

"BLUFF KING HAL."

This is a version in the major mode of "The Staines Morris Tune," published in the first edition of Playford's "Dancing Master," and reprinted in Chappell's "Popular Music of the Olden Time," I., p.126. How it has come to be christened "Bluff King Hal" we do not know unless, as Mr. Kidson suggests, the Bidford Morris men have taken the name from some modern collection of old English dances.

"MORRIS OFF."

As has already been stated, this tune, which was given us by the Bidford Morris dancers, is printed in Thoinot Arbeau's "Orchesographie," p. 94. A Dutch version of the same air is included in a collection of dance-tunes by Tielman Susato (Antwerp, 1551) ; and is reprinted in Carl Engel's "Literature of National Music," p.56. See also Grove's ,Dictionary of Music (old ed.) II., 369.