Our leaders march with fusees, and we with hand grenades,
We throw them from the glacis, about the enemies’ ears,
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.
Chorus.—We throw them, &c.
The townsmen cry Hurra, boys, here comes a Grenadier,
Here come the Grenadiers, my boys, who know no doubts or fears,
Then sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.
Chorus.—Here come the, &c.
Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the louped clothes,
May they and their commanders live happy all their years,
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.
Chorus.—May they, &c.
The Cushion Dance was in favour both in court and country in the reign of Elizabeth, and is occasionally danced even at the present day. In Lilly’s Euphues, 1580, Lucilla, says, “Trulie, Euphues, you have mist the cushion, for I was neither angrie with your long absence, neither am I well pleased at your presence.” This is, perhaps, in allusion to the dance, in which each woman selected her partner by placing the cushion before him. Taylor, the water-poet, calls it “a pretty little provocatory dance,” for he before whom the cushion was placed, was to kneel and salute the lady. In Heywood’s A Woman kill’d with Kindness, (which Henslow mentions in his diary, in 1602), the dances which the country people call for are, Rogero; The Beginning of the World, or Sellenger's Round; John, come kiss me now; Tom Tyler; The hunting of the Fox; The Hay; Put on your smock a Monday; and The Cushion Dance; and Sir Francis thus describes their style of dancing:—
Finger their frets within; and the mad lads
And country lasses, every mother’s child,
With nosegays and bride-laces in their hats,
Dance all their country measures, rounds, and jigs,
What shall we do? Hark! they're all on the hoigh;
They toil like mill-horses, and turn as round;
Marry, not on the toe aye, and they caper,
But not without cutting; you shall see, to-morrow,
The hall floor peck’d and dinted like a mill-stone,
Made with their high shoes: though their skill be small,
Yet they tread heavy where their hob-nails fall.”
When a partner was selected in the dance, he, or she, sang “Prinkum-prankum is a fine dance,” &c.; which line is quoted by Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy; and, “No dance is lawful but Prinkum-prankum,” in The Muses’ Looking-glass, 1638.
In the Apothegms of King James, the Earl of Worcester, &c., 1658, a wedding
