SONGS OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND. [The distinction between Scotish and English Songs, it is conceived, arises-not from the language in which they are written, for that may be common to both,-but-from the country to which they respectively belong, or of which their authors are natives. The discrimination does not so necessarily or properly apply to ireland, great part of which was colonised from this kingdom, (England) and the descendants of the settlers have ever been looked upon as English. RITSON.] SONGS OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND. JOLLY GOOD ALE. BISHOP STILL. I can not eat, but little meat, Backe and side go bare, go bare, But belly, God send thee good ale ynoughe, Whether it be new or old. I love no rost, but a nut-browne toste, And a crab laid in the fire, A little bread shall do me stead, Much bread I not desire No froste nor snow, nor winde, I trow, I am so wrapt, and throwly lapt And Tib my wife, that as her life And saith, sweet heart, I took my part Back and side go bare, &c. Now let them drink, till they nod and wink, They shall not misse to have the blisse Good ale doth bring men to: And all poor souls that have scowred boules, God save the lives of them and their wives Back and side go bare, &c. (From "A ryght pithy, plesaunt and merie comedie: Intytuled Gammer Gurtons Nedle, imprinted by Thomas Colwell, 1575." Warton and Ritson tell us that it is the first drinking ballad of any merit in our language. "It has," writes Warton, "a vein of case and humour, which we should not expect to have been inspired by the simple beverage of those times." Hist. of Eng. Poet. Ed. 1824, vol. 4, p. 30. Still was Bishop of Bath and Wells.] |