Tell me where my mistress lies,
And I'll be with her before she rise,
Fiddle and aw together.
And may our King come home with speed,
And all Pretenders shake for speed,[errata 1]
And let his health go round.
This side and beyond the Tweed,
Let all Pretenders shake for dread,
And let his health go round.”
There is no apparent connection between the subject of the first and that of the remaining stanzas; and although the first may have been the burden of an older song, it bears no indication of having refered to the clergy of any denomination.
There is scarcely a collection of old English songs in which at least one may not be found to the tune of Green Sleeves. In the West of England it is still sung at harvest-homes to a song beginning, “A pie sat on a pear-tree top;” and at the Maypole still remaining at Ansty, near Blandford, the villagers still dance annually round it to this tune.
The following “Carol for New Year's Day, to the tune of Green Sleeves,” is from a black-letter collection printed in 1642, of which the only copy I have seen is in the Ashmolean Library, Oxford.
The new year it is entered;
Then let us now our sins down tread,
And joyfully all appear.
Let's merry be this holiday,
And let us run with sport and play,
Hang sorrow, let’s cast care away—
God send you a happy new year.
Unto each other they do send;
God grant we may our lives amend,
And that the truth may appear.
Now like the snake cast off your skin
Of evil thoughts and wicked sin,
And to amend this new year begin—
God send us a merry new year.
In friendly manner all agree,
For we are here welcome all may see
Unto this jolly good cheer.
I thank my master and my dame,
The which are founders of the same,
To eat to drink now is no shame—
God send us a merry new year.
Jack, Tom, Dick, Bess, Mary, and Joan,
Let’s cut the meat unto the bone,
For welcome you need not fear.
And here for good liquor we shall not lack,
It will whet my brains and strengthen my back,
This jolly good cheer it must go to wrack—
God send us a merry new year.
I’ll drink to each one in this hall,
I hope that so loud I must not bawl,
But unto me lend an ear.
Good fortune to my master send,
And to my dame which is our friend,
God bless us all, and so I end—
And God send us a happy new year.
The following version of the tune, from The Beggars’ Opera, 1728, is that now best known. I have not found any late or virginal copy which had this second part. The earliest authority for it is The Dancing Master, 1686, and it may have been altered to suit the violin, as the older second part is rather low, and less effective, for the instrument.
- ↑ Correction: speed, should be amended to dread,
