119  A Voyage to Virginia;/ OR,/ The Valiant Soldiers Fare-well to his Love [Bodleian Douce 2 (236b)]

To the tune of ‘She’s gone and left me Bird, alone’ (standard name: I live not where I love)

The purpose of this section is to provide brief notes on the melody followed by detailed evidence relating to  its career, paying particular attention to the ‘echoes’ (inter-song associations and connections) that may have been set up if it was nominated for the singing of more than one ballad. In the list presented in the ‘Songs and Summaries’ section below, we have endeavoured to include as many of the black-letter ballads that used the tune as possible, under any of its variant names. Titles from our chart of best-sellers are presented in bold type (these are also in colour when there is a link to the relevant ballad page on the website). It should be noted that it is extremely difficult to date many ballads precisely and the chronological order in which the songs are listed is therefore very approximate (we have drawn on previous attempts to date the ballads, making adjustments when additional evidence can be brought into play).  In most cases, we list the earliest surviving edition of a ballad, though in many instances there may have been earlier versions, now lost.

Versions and variations

This melody was known variously as ‘[Though] I live not where I love’, ‘[Shall] the absence of my mistress’, ‘She’s gone and left me bird/here alone’, ‘The valiant trooper’, ‘Inconstant woman’ and ‘Did you ever hear of a gallant sailor’.

It appears to have been a particularly flexible or unstable tune and it exists in several rather different forms. The earliest that has been identified is in John Forbes’ Cantus (1662). This is in quadruple time and fits the first three ballads listed below very well. It is, however, less comfortably suited to the remainder of the songs, and it seems likely that a new version of the melody took over from c. 1680. A good example can be found in the famous song collection, Wit and mirth, and our recording uses the tune presented in the edition of 1707. This is in a leisurely triple time with minim beats. It is virtually a new melody, though there are sufficient passing affinities to suggest that it may have evolved from the earlier version.

The tune that appears in John Hippisley’s A sequel to the opera of Flora (1732) reveals a further evolution: the first and third parts of the tune are very similar to the Pills version, but the middle portion includes a new modulation to the dominant minor (a similar version appears in John Gay’s Achilles, 1733).

Echoes (an overview)

This tune maintained a steady if unspectacular popularity from the 1630s onwards. All but one of the black-letter ballads listed below deal with romantic relations, and within this category there is a notable concentration on lovers who were apart or about to be unhappily separated. Most of these songs feature repetitive refrains, and these tend to reinforce the central emphasis (each with the potential to remind listeners of the others): ‘though I live not where I love’; ‘Although I must to Virginia go’; ‘why wilt thou leave thy bird alone’. If A Voyage to Virginia was a military recruitment song (see Song history), then it was more heart-wrenching than tub-thumping.

The love of the sweethearts featured in these ballads is usually strong and positive, threatened only by spatial separation, and the concept of constancy runs through the series. Indeed, ‘constant’ and closely related terms are deployed in virtually every song, appearing twenty-one times in the five ballads.

The only song that does not use a related term is, not surprisingly, the single clear outlier in the set. The Rag-man is a jest about theft and drunkenness, and it seems possible that the romantic associations of the tune may have added to the humour (although the ballad is the first on this list, it seems to have been preceded by an earlier romantic ballad, now lost).

The ballads are connected not only by their shared tune but by several textual cross-references, only a selection of which can be presented here. The tune title, ‘The absence of my Mistresse’, is probably derived from a now lost ballad, and the opening line of Martin Parker’s A Paire of Turtle Doves – ‘Must the absence of my Mistresse’ – was almost certainly designed to echo this previous song.

Across the set of ballads, there are other lines and couplets that seem to nod towards others. ‘Yet Ile be constant every instant’ in The Constant Lover is echoed, for example, by ‘For when I’me absent, I will be constant’ in A Voyage to Virginia. These lines are sung to the same portion of the tune, and this is also true of the following expressions, found in three different ballads: ‘In singing sweetly and compleately’ (The Constant Lover line 5); ‘O my sweetest, the compleatest’ (A Paire of Turtle Doves); and ‘Then he kist her sweetly and compleatly’ (Cupids Delight).

Similarly, the line ‘If thou wilt me marry, then i’le not tarry’ in The Valiant Trooper and pritty Peggy is recalled by ‘I will not tarry, but with you ile Marry’ in Cupids Delight. Again, the fact that the two lines are sung to the same section of the tune strengthens the link.

[See 'Postscript', below, for additional notes on this melody].

Songs and Summaries

The Rag-man... To the Tune of Upon the highest Mountaines, or The absence of my Mistresse (Fr. Grove, 1623-62). Roxburghe 3.182-83; EBBA 30477. Employment – crafts/trades; Crime – robbery/theft; Humour – verbal; Recreation – drink, music. A repetitive ballad about pairs of tradesmen being robbed of ‘cunny skins’ by other pairs, and then using alcohol to reclaim their possessions – until, eventually, the Devil and a usurer successfully escape with the stolen goods.

A Paire of Turtle Doves, OR, A dainty new Scotch Dialogue... To a pretty pleasant tune, called the absence of my Mistresse, or I live not where I love (Thomas Lambert, 1633-69). Roxburghe 1.320-21; EBBA 30220. Gender – courtship; Emotion – love, hope; Environment – animals, birds; History – ancient/mythological. A young man and his sweetheart, kept apart for the moment, declare their constant love for one another and plan to marry.

The Constant Lover.  Who his affection will not move, Though he live not where he love... To a Northerne tune called, Shall the absence of my Mistresse (Henry Gosson, c. 1638).  Roxburghe 1.68-69; EBBA 30047.  Gender – courtship, masculinity; Emotions – love, frustration; History – ancient/mythological, romance; Religion – ancient gods. A man declares his undying devotion to a woman who lives some distance away.

The Valiant Trooper and pritty Peggy... To a pretty new Tune: Or, though I live not where I Love (W. Thackeray, T. Passenger, and W. Whitwood, 1666-79).  Pepys 4.40; EBBA 21706.  Gender – courtship, femininity, masculinity; Emotions – anger, love; Employment – sailors/soldiers.  A man accuses his sweetheart of abandoning him but fortunately she is on hand to deliver reassurance to her ‘little pretty bird’.

Cupids Delight; Or, The Two young Lovers broyl’d in love... The Tune is, If the Door is locked, where I have knocked; Or, The Valiant Trooper (J. Deacon, 1671-99). Roxburghe 4.9; EBBA 30910. Gender – courtship, mixed sociability, Cupid; Emotions – love, hope, contentment; Bodies – looks/physique, clothing; Economy – money, hardship/prosperity; Recreation – alcohol. A man declares his love for a woman, and she agrees graciously to marry him.

A Voyage to Virginia; OR, The Valiant Soldiers Fare-well to his Love... To the Tune of, She’s gone and left me Bird, alone (imprint cropped, 1676-77). Douce 2 (236b). Gender – courtship, masculinity, femininity,cross-dressing; Politics – foreign affairs; Environment – sea, weather; Places – extra-European; Emotions – love, sorrow, hope, patriotism; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Bodies – looks/physique, injury. A soldier bids farewell to his sweetheart as he prepares to travel to Virginia, promising to return and explaining why he cannot change his decision.

Postscript

This tune does not appear to have been used regularly on white-letter ballads, nor in song-books. It was, however, called for occasionally in ballad-operas and song collections of the eighteenth century, suggesting a measure of on-going popularity. And Chappell provides another tune that was apparently used in oral tradition during the nineteenth century for a song called ‘Unconstant woman’ (itself descended from the seventeenth-century ballad, The Valiant Trooper and a re-worked version that appeared in Wit and Mirth, 1707). This feels like a fresh melody that somehow preserves several traces of its ancestors.

Christopher Marsh

References

William Chappell, Popular music of the olden time (2 vols., 1855-56), vol. 2, pp. 452-53.

John Forbes’ Cantus (1662), no. 45 (transcription in Simpson).

John Gay, Achilles (1733), p4.

John Hippisley, A sequel to the opera of Flora (1732), p. 19 and appendix of airs, p. 4 (air 8).

Claude Simpson, The British broadside ballad and its music (New Brunswick, 1966), pp. 336-39.

Wit and mirth (1707), vol. 3, p. 156.

Standard woodcut name: Woman with patches

The purpose of this section is to provide evidence relating to the career of the image under discussion, paying particular attention to the ‘reflections’ (inter-song associations and connections) that may have been set up if it was chosen to illustrate more than one ballad. The list given below includes all ballads from the Pepys and Roxburghe collections that feature this woodcut or a close variant (these are the two largest collections, including approximately 3300 sheets, in total). References to ballads from other collections occur only when the featured edition of the song under consideration here (or the featured edition of another song from our list) comes from such a source. Ballads from our chart of best-sellers are presented in bold type, and they also appear in colour where there is a link to another song in the database. Please note, however, that the editions of hit songs listed below are not necessarily those for which digital images are presented on this website. Cross-references to other examples of our featured woodcuts are also presented in bold. It is extremely difficult to date many ballads precisely and the chronological order in which the songs are listed is therefore very approximate (we have drawn on previous attempts to date the ballads, making adjustments when additional evidence can be brought into play).

Reflections (an overview)

This image was used quite regularly in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, though other surviving editions of A Voyage to Virginia adopted different pictures. More than one woodblock seems to have existed, though the differences between the resultant images are very subtle. Numerous publishers put their names to ballads that carried the image.

Like other small generic images of single women, this character played an interesting variety of roles, and ballad-makers adopted the usual tactic of combining her in various ways with other woodcuts, many of which depicted single men. Her most frequent role was as the female partner in ballads about courtship, and she was most often presented as desirable, reliable and deserving of sympathy. A Voyage to Virginia is a good example, and we might also note that this was not the only occasion upon which the Woman with Patches represented the sweetheart of a soldier or sailor.

To seventeenth-century eyes, however, a beautifully-presented woman with fashionable face-patches could also represent the dark and dangerous side of femininity. Patches could enhance beauty but also conceal scars caused by sexually-transmitted disease. On Jennies Answer to Sawny, the woman in the picture is presumably the loathsome ‘London Quean’, ‘Pox’d and Patch’d with an Impudent face’, who stole Jenny’s sweetheart from her. These contrasting roles set up the potential for some stimulating interplay between the woodcut’s various outings in the minds of viewers.

Inventively, the woman also appeared on two ballads that featured cross-dressing. On The Last News from France, she stands for the ‘young gentleman in womans apparel’ who helped Charles Stuart to flee England in 1651, while on The Famous Flower of SERVINGMEN the transformation proceeds in the opposite direction and we are treated to ‘before’ and ‘after’ images.

Songs and summaries:

The Bashful Virgin: Or, The Secret Lover (W. Thackeray, T. Passenger, and W. Whitwood, 1666-79).  Pepys 4.30 EBBA 21696. Gender – courtship, femininity, Cupid; Emotions – love, anxiety, fear, hope. A shy, young woman, suffering the pains of a love that she fears may be unrequited, summons up the courage to tell her sweetheart how she feels about him (picture placement: she appears beneath the title).

The Last News from France, Being a true Relation of the escape of the King of Scots from Worcester to London, and from London to France (W. Thackeray, T. Passenger, and W. Whitwood, 1666-79). Roxburghe 3.54-55; EBBA 30402.  Politics – domestic, foreign affairs, Royalist, obedience; Royalty – incognito; Bodies – clothing; Emotions – sorrow, hope; Gender – masculinity, cross-dressing; History – recent; Places – English, European. A gentleman explains how he dressed as a woman in order to help Charles Stuart escape from England following the Battle of Worcester in 1651 (picture placement: she appears over the opening verse, alongside a head-and-shoulders portrait of a man).

A Tryal of True Love: Or, The Loyal Damosels Resolution (W. Thackeray, T. Passenger, and W. Whitwood, 1666-79). Roxburghe 3.122-23; EBBA 30436.  Gender – courtship, femininity; Emotions – love, patriotism; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Family – children/parents, siblings; Places – travel/transport.  A young woman expresses her deep devotion to her soldier-sweetheart and resolves to travel with him when he goes away to war, even ‘To the Worlds end’ (picture placement: she appears beneath the title, to the right of a Declaiming man).

Jennies Answer to Sawny. Wherein Loves Cruelty is requited, Or, The Inconstant Lover justly Despised (P. Brooksby, 1670-98).  Roxburghe 2.223; EBBA 30684. Gender – courtship, femininity, masculinity, sex; Bodies – clothing, adornment, physique/looks, health/sickness; Emotions – anger; Morality – romantic/sexual; Environment – animals, flowers/trees; Places – English, Scottish, nationalities. Jenny is still furious that Sawny left her for a London jade with ‘Patchd and Painted face’, and she refuses to take him back now that he has returned in shame to Scotland (picture placement: she appears beneath the title, to the right of a man with a staff in his hand).

Love and Gallantry: OR, A Noble Seaman's last adieu to his Mistris (Philip Brooksby, 1670-98).  Roxburghe 3.236; EBBA 30877. Gender – courtship; Death – warfare, heartbreak; Emotions – sorrow; Nature – sea; Politics – foreign affairs, Royalist; Royalty – praise, authority; Violence – at sea.  A seaman bids farewell to his mistress when he is drowned in combat, and she responds with tears and a desire to join him beyond the grave (picture placement: she appears on the right side of the sheet, alongside a Ship in full sail).

The Letters Three (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke, 1675-80).  Roxburghe 3.86-87; EBBA 30418.  Gender – courtship; Environment – birds; Emotions – love, disdain, sorrow.  A young man is warned by the singing birds that he will have to give up his sweetheart, and the realisation that she does not love him is a source of great pain (picture placement: she appears on the right side of the sheet, next to a head-and-shoulders image of a man with long hair).

A Voyage to Virginia (imprint cropped, 1676-77). Douce 2 (236b). Gender – courtship, masculinity, femininity,cross-dressing; Politics – foreign affairs; Environment – sea, weather; Places – extra-European; Emotions – love, sorrow, hope, patriotism; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Bodies – looks/physique, injury. A soldier bids farewell to his sweetheart as he prepares to travel to Virginia, promising to return and explaining why he cannot change his decision (picture placement: she appears beneath the title, standing between a soldier and a ship).

The Tormented Lovers (Charles Passenger, 1678-95).  Roxburghe 2.448-49; EBBA 30923.  Gender – courtship, femininity; Emotions – despair, love; Bodies – health/sickness; Death – heartbreak.  A woman laments the break-up of her relationship and describes the extreme pain that jilted maidens endure in order to hide their life-threatening feelings from others (picture placement: she appears beneath the title, to the right of a young woman with a fan).

The Young-Mans Complaint for The Loss of his Mistris (J. Wright, J. Clark, W. Thackeray, T. Passinger, and M. Coles, 1682). Pepys 4.52; EBBA 21718.  Gender – courtship, masculinity; Emotions – love, sorrow.  A young man expresses his despair at having failed to win the woman he loves because of his temperamental bashfulness (picture placement: she appears beneath the title, in between a man who approaches her and another who walks away).

Renowned ROBIN HOOD: Or, His Famous Archery truly related, with the Worthy Exploits he acted before Queen Katherine (J. W., I. C., W. T, and T. Passinger, 1682-84).  Pepys 2.103; EBBA 20725.  Crime – outlaws; Gender – masculinity; Recreation – games/sports; History – medieval, heroism; Humour – deceit/disguise; Religion – clergy; Royalty – authority; Politics – domestic.  Robin does a good deed for Queen Katherine and is summoned to court where, with his usual panache, he defeats the King’s archers in a competition and wins plentiful gold and a partial pardon (picture placement: she appears beneath the title, to the right of an outdoor gathering featuring ecclesiastics, archers and a queen).

The Bleeding LOVER (J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passenger, 1684-86).  Roxburghe 2.33; EBBA 30176. Gender – courtship, femininity, masculinity; Religion – ghosts/spirits; Death – heartbreak; Emotions – hatred. A woman dies in despair, having been cruelly treated by a sweetheart whom she now vows to haunt and torment (picture placement: she appears on the right, next to head-and-shoulders images of a woman and a man).

A Courtly New Ballad of the Princely Wooing of the fair maid of London, by King Edward (J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1684-86).  Pepys 3.235; EBBA 21249.  Emotions – longing; Gender – sex, masculinity, femininity; History – medieval, romance; Morality – romantic/sexual; Politics – court; Royalty – authority, criticism; Family – children/parents. The king attempts to persuade a beautiful London maiden to become his concubine, promising her all measure of pleasure and treasure, but she utterly refuses to compromise her virtue (picture placement: she appears beneath the title, just to the right of a king).

Time's Darling: Or, A Love worth liking: Being a fit Companion for all Men, abroad and at home, at bed and at board, that lacketh good Company (J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1684-86).  Pepys 2.11; EBBA 21668.  Emotions – contentment; Morality – general; Religion – Christ/God, divine intervention; Crime – prison. This argues that the pursuit of a ‘contented mind’ through acceptance of the will of God – whether he delivers riches or poverty – is the only way to live (picture placement: she appears on the far right, completing a series of four generic pictures of individual men and women).

An Answer to Nanny O: Or, The Happy Agreement between the Two Scotch Lovers, WILLY & NANNY (P. Brooksby, 1685-88).  Roxburghe 2.17; EBBA 30125.  Gender – courtship, femininity, sex; Emotions – love, joy; Family – children/parents; Humour – verbal; Environment – animals; Places – English, Scottish, nationalities; Recreation – games/sports. A young woman declares her love for Willy and resolves that nothing will prevent her from marrying him (picture placement: she appears on the right, next to a head-and-shoulders woodcut of a gentleman).

The Famous Flower of SERVINGMEN. OR, The Lady turn'd Serving-Man (W. Thackeray and T. Passinger, 1687-88).  Pepys 3.142; EBBA 21154.  Employment – apprenticeship/ service, female/male; Gender – courtship, cross-dressing, femininity, masculinity; Recreation – music; Bodies – clothing; Humour – deceit/disguise, extreme situations; Politics – court; Royalty – authority. A brave young lady, fallen on hard times, disguises herself as a man and finds employment at court, only reverting to her female persona when the King realises the truth and decides to marry her (picture placement: she appears beneath the title, just to the right of an armed knight on horseback).

Christopher Marsh