Page:Popular Music of the Olden Time, Volume 1.pdf/204

All a long summer's day rode the king pleasantlye,
With all his princes and nobles eche one;
Chasing the bart and hind, and the bucke gallantlye,
Till the darke evening forc'd all to turne home.
Then at last, riding fast, he had lost quite
All his lords in the wood, late in the night.
Wandering thus wearilye, all alone, up and downe,
With a rude miller he mett at the last:
Asking the ready way unto faire Nottingham;
Sir, quoth the miller, I meane not to jest,
Yet I thinke, what I thinke, sooth for to say,
You doe not lightlye ride out of your way.
Why, what dost thou thinke of me, quoth our king merrily
Passing thy judgment upon me so briefe ?
Good faith, sayd the miller, I meane not to flatter thee;
I guess thee to be but some gentleman thiefe ;
Stand thee backe, in the darke; light not adowne,
Lest that I presentlye crack thy knaves crowne.
&c.

Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.

This ballad is quoted in Fletcher’s Knight of the Burning Pestle, and Monsieur Thomas; in The Varietie, 1649; and in Davenant’s The Wits, where Twack, an antiquated beau, boasting of his qualifications, says—

“Besides, I sing Little Musgrove; and then
For Chevy Chase no lark comes near me.”

A copy of the ballad is in the Bagford Collection, entitled “A lamentable ballad of Little Musgrove and the Lady Barnet, to an excellent new tune.” It is also in Wit restored, 1658; in Dryden’s Miscellany Poems, iii. 312 (1716); and in Percy’s Reliques, series 3, book i.

The tune is the usual traditional version.