28th day of August, 1588; also at Tyborne were executed the 30th day six; viz., five men and one woman to the tune of Green Sleeves,” beginning—
To hurt our Queen in treacherous wise,
And in your hearts do still surmise
Which way to hurt our England;
Consider what the end will be
Of traitors all in their degree:
Hanging is still their destiny
That trouble the peace of England.”
The conspirators were treated with very little consideration by the ballad-monger in having their exit chaunted to a merry tune, instead of the usual lamentation, to the hanging-tune of Fortune my foe.
Elderton’s ballad, The King of Scots and Andrew Brown, was to be sung to the tune of Mill-field, or else to Green Sleeves (see p. 185), but the measure suits the former and not the latter. However, his “New Yorkshire Song, intituled—
Of all the cities that ever I see,
For merry pastime and companie,
Except the cittie of London;”
which is dated “from Yorke, by W. E., and imprinted at London by Richard Jones,” in 1584, goes so trippingly to Green Sleeves, that, although no tune is mentioned on the title, I feel but little doubt of its having been intended for that air. It was written during the height of its popularity, and not long after his own “Reprehension.”
The song of York for my money is on a match at archery between the Yorkshire and the Cumberland men, backed by the Earls of Essex and Cumberland, which Elderton went to see, and was delighted with the city and with his reception; especially by the hospitality of Alderman Maltby of York.
Copies will be found in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 1, and Evans’ Old Ballads, i. 20,. It begins, “As I come thorow the North countrey,” and is refered to in Heywood’s King Edward IV., 1600.
In Mr. Payne Collier’s Old Ballads, printed for the Percy Society, there is one of Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury Fort (written shortly anterior to the destruction of the Spanish Armada) to the tune of Triumph and Joy. The name of the air is probably derived from a ballad which was entered on the Stationers’ books in 1581, of “The Triumpe showed before the Queene and the French Embassadors,” who preceded the arrival of the Duke of Anjou, and for whose entertainment jousts and triumphs were held. The tune for this ballad is not named in the entry at Stationers’ Hall, but if a copy should be found, I imagine it will prove also to have been written to Green Sleeves, from the metre, and the date coinciding with the period of its great popularity.
Richard Jones, to whom Green Sleeves was first licensed, was also the printer of A Handefull of Pleasant Delites, 1584, in which a copy of the ballad will be found. Also in Ellis’ Specimens, ii. 394, (1803). A few verses are subjoined,
