Recording: The Scotch Lasses Constancy
The first broadside version of The Scotch Lasses Constancy was published early in 1682 in a white-letter format with musical notation by Alexander Banks, under the title Jenneys lamentation for the loss of Jocky or, A new song in the play called the Royalist. A much longer edition, also a white-letter notation ballad, was published the same year by the speculative ballad specialist Philip Brooksby. Brooksby also published the black-letter edition featured here, between 1685 and 1698.
Authorship and Popularity
As Alexander Bank's musical broadside clearly stated, The Scotch Lasses Constancy originated in Thomas D’Urfey’s play The Royalist (1682). It was clearly an enormously popular song: Banks' edition included just the three verses from the play, but Brooksby's two white-letter editions (published in 1682) and his two black-letter editions (published after 1685) were lengthened by six additional verses composed by an unknown author. Nathaniel Thompson also reprinted the three-verse song in his 1684 and 1685 anthologies of loyal songs.
At the same time, other ballad specialists, such as Josiah Deacon and Joshua Conyers, had long been interested in publishing songs relating to the anxious relationship between Jenny and Jocky. One of them are likely to have been responsible for commissioning another extended version of Durfey's song – ten verses – under the title, Unfortunate JOCKEY, And mournful JENNY [Pepys 3.359, 3.389]. The only known edition of this title was purchased by the Ballad Partners as a best-seller. It was published by them at some time between 1682 and 1684 and it was listed (as 'Sawney & Jockey') on Thackeray's stock list in 1689.
A Political Song?
Given that he was primarily interested in political songs, it is surprising that Narcissus Luttrell collected Phillip Brooksby's white-letter version of The Scotch Lasses Constancy in March 1682. This may suggest that he saw the ballad as politically significant in some way and certainly D'Urfey's play was a politically partisan work. Many songs referenced the rivalry between the two ‘Jemmies’ (the dukes of York and Monmouth), but such an interpretation would not easily fit the fraught romance story of this song, in which Jenny's lover Jocky has been killed in a duel with her rival suitor, Sawny. Perhaps Luttrell was caught out by the retail ballad trade's shift towards publishing white-letter theatre songs, which began at about this time.
Angela McShane
References
Thomas D’Urfey,The Royalist (1682), p. 32.
Angela McShane, The Ballad Trade and its Politics in Seventeenth Century Britain (Woodbridge, forthcoming), chs. 6 & 7.
'To a new Tune' (standard name: Sawney and Jockey)
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 variation
This tune, composed by Thomas D’Urfey, appears in various printed sources of the late seventeenth century, and our recording is based on a comparison of the slightly variant examples in the following publications: Matthew Taubman’s Heroick Poem (1682); Thomas Greeting’s Pleasant Companion… for the Flagelet (1683); Humphrey Salter’s Genteel Companion… for the Recorder (1683); and a 1682 edition of our hit ballad, The Scotch Lasses Constancy (EBBA 31238).
Other examples are listed by Simpson, who also notes that there are several eighteenth-century versions of the tune. In addition, it was written out as ‘Sandy & Jockey’ in the musical notebook kept by Henry Atkinson, a coal merchant in early eighteenth century Newcastle Upon Tyne. D’Urfey was clearly tapping into the English taste for mock-Scottish melodies and he here produced an enduring example. The melody was well-known but does not appear to have generated alternative names.
Echoes (an overview)
Both the text and the tune of The Scotch Lasses Constancy began life in D’Urfey’s play, The Royalist (1682). This ‘Scotch Song’ soon appeared in broadside form under several different titles, and our hit ballad is a substantially expanded version of the original. It was a big success, but the melody itself was nominated only sparingly on other black-letter ballads, perhaps because it is quite complicated and not particularly easy for inexpert musicians to sing. Three songs are listed below, all published by Philip Brooksby and all focusing on the fashionable theme of Scottish rural courtship. One of these is a happy song (ALL FOR LOVE) but the other two both present the lamentations of heartbroken maidens.
The songs are connected not only by their tune but by several textual cross-references. In ALL FOR LOVE, Jenny declares, ‘If I believe ye,/ And you deceive me,/ Nothing but Death Im sure can reprieve me’. At the same point in the tune, The Shepherds Unconstancy includes the closely related lines, ‘For he deceives thee,/ leaves thee, grieves thee,/ Grim-looked Death is the thing that reprieves thee’. The dense internal rhymes that characterise the fifth lines of verses to the tune are also distinctive and reminiscent of one another, even if the precise words used are not generally the same. ‘See how I’ve frighted, spighted, slighted’ in The Shepherds Unconstancy bears some similarity, for example, to the line, ‘But I’d spight him, hate him, fight him’ in The Scotch Lasses Constancy.
[See 'Postscript', below, for additional notes on this melody].
Songs and Summaries
The Scotch Lasses Constancy… Being a most pleasant New Song, to a New Tune (composed 1682; P. Brooksby, 1685-98). Crawford 1217; EBBA 34022. Gender – courtship, masculinity, femininity; Places – nationalities, Scottish; Death – duel; Violence – interpersonal; Emotions – love, sorrow, anger, despair; Bodies – looks/physique, injury; Environment – flowers/trees. Jenny loves Jockey more than she loves Sawny, and is understandably distraught when the latter kills the former in a duel.
ALL FOR LOVE, Or, The Happy Match Betwixt Jockey and Jenny... Tune of, Sawny and Jockey (P. Brooksby, 1682-98). Crawford 125; EBBA 32807. Gender – courtship; Emotions – love, anxiety, joy; Environment – animals, buildings; Employment – agrarian, female; Economy – hardship/prosperity, money; Society – rural life. Jockey woos Jenny despite her poverty and, after initial caution, she accepts him willingly and they prepare to marry.
The Shepherds Unconstancy... To the Tune of, Sawney and Jockey (P. Brooksby, 1682-98). Bodleian Douce 2(205a); ESTC R233807. Gender – courtship; Emotions – love, despair; Employment – agrarian, female; Environment – animals; Society – rural life. Clea, a shepherdess, is inconsolable after being abandoned by her sweetheart, Damon.
Postscript
The tune was also used occasionally on political white-letter ballads of the later seventeenth century (see, for example, A Message from Tory-Land To the Whig-Makers in Albian). These songs seem to have drawn variously upon the romance, tragedy and supposed Scottishness of the melody for satirical purpose. THE REBEL CAPTIVE also echoes the first lines of D’Urfey’s original song in its opening, ‘Three bony lads were Sawny Cloud Hamilton/ And Andrew Grier the Captain that led ‘em on’ (compare ‘Twa Bonny Lads were Sawny and Jockey’ at the start of The Scotch Lasses Constancy).
Christopher Marsh
References
Henry Atkinson, violin manuscript (1695-c.1750), Northumberland Record Office, MS MU 207, p. 13.
Thomas D’Urfey,The Royalist (1682), p. 32.
Thomas Greeting, The Pleasant Companion… for the Flagelet (1683), no. 77.
Matthew Taubman, An Heroick Poem (1682), p. 4.
Humphrey Salter, The Genteel Companion… for the Recorder (1683), p. 22.
Claude Simpson, The British broadside ballad and its music (New Brunswick, 1966), pp. 630-32.
Back to contentsStandard woodcut name: Country couple with large flower
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 was a popular image, used regularly on romantic ballads between the 1660s and the 1680s. There were at least two wood-blocks in existence, and numerous different publishers issued ballads illustrated by the picture. The songs listed below give an overwhelmingly positive and/or amusing impression of courtship. Some of the texts were relatively straightforward, asserting the benefits of marriage or telling love-stories with happy endings. Others found humour in sex: one woman regrets her promiscuity and resolves to be a ‘pin-cushion’ no longer; another travels in the opposite direction, regretting her chastity and vowing to welcome all comers in the future. Several feature romantic partners – some male and some female – who feel anxious and insecure until their sweethearts deliver reassurance.
Ballads that narrate tales of romantic woe – The Scotch Lasses Constancy, for example – are therefore rarities, and the picture in such cases may need to be partially re-processed so that it speaks to us of lost love and happiness denied.
[See 'Postscript', below, for additional notes on this woodcut].
Songs and summaries:
The Mariner's Delight, OR, The Seaman's SEAVEN WIVES (J. Conyers, 1661-92). Roxburghe 2.355; EBBA 30795. Gender – courtship, marriage, masculinity; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Humour – deceit/disguise, extreme situations/surprises; Morality – romantic/sexual; Environment – animals, birds, sea. Susan is persuaded of the honest romantic intentions of a sailor named Anthony, but realises just in time that he has seven wives dotted around the world already (picture placement: they appear over the third and fourth columns of text).
Fair LUCINA Conquered By prevailing Cupid (J. Conyers, 1662-85). Pepys 3.229; EBBA 21242. Gender – courtship, femininity, singles; Emotions – disdain, love, joy; Nature – birds. Lucina, assaulted by Cupid, regrets the disdain with which she has treated the lovely Coridon and quickly makes it up to him (picture placement: they appear beneath the title).
The Maids new All-a-mode PINCUSHING, OR, Come stick a Pin here my LADS (P. Brooksby, 1670-98). Pepys 3.178; EBBA 21191. Gender – sex, femininity, masculinity, courtship; Humour – bawdry; Bodies – physique. A woman describes the enthusiasm with which all sorts of men flock to her pin-cushion but resolves at the end that the time has come to marry and settle down (picture placement: they stand beneath the title and there is no other woodcut).
Shall I? shall I? No, No (P. Brooksby, 1670-98). Roxburghe 2.421; EBBA 30886. Gender – sex, masculinity, femininity, courtship; Emotions – longing, contentment; Recreation – alcohol, walking; Morality – romantic/sexual. A young man, burning with desire for a woman, courts her relentlessly until, eventually, she agrees to have sex with him (picture placement: they appear on the right side of the sheet).
TOBIAS ADVICE: Or, A Remedy for a ranting Young-Man (P. Brooksby, 1670-98). Pepys 3.154; EBBA 21166. Gender – marriage, masculinity; Recreation – alcohol, good fellowship; Economy – household, general. A man offers advice to others about the substantial advantages that marriage has over a free-spending single life (picture placement: they appear beneath the title, alongside a man holding a document and turning towards them).
The Distressed Virgin (M. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clark, W. Thackeray, and T. Passenger, 1680-81). Pepys 4.58; EBBA 21724. Gender – courtship, femininity, sex; Emotions – anxiety, longing, sorrow; Humour – bawdry. A maiden, desperate for a man, regrets her previous policy of romantic and sexual caution and resolves to become indiscriminately receptive (picture placement: they appear beneath the title, alongside an image of two trees apparently bound by a crown).
THE True Lovers Overthrow (no imprint, 1680-1700?). Roxburghe 2.472-73; EBBA 30957. Gender – courtship; Death – heartbreak; Emotions – love, disdain, despair; Employment – agrarian. Amintas dies, his heart broken by Celia’s disdain, and she feels so guilty at the news that she dies too (picture placement: they appear beneath the title, and there are no other woodcuts).
Diddle, Diddle. Or, The Kind Country Lovers (J. Wright, J. Clark, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1682-84). Roxburghe 2.134-35; EBBA 30615. Gender – courtship, sex; Humour – bawdry, verbal; Environment – animals, birds, flowers/trees, crops; Recreation – alcohol; Employment – alehouses/inns. A set of short sex-related anecdotes, described in the subtitle as the stories a man tells a woman while he persuades her, little by little, to ‘enjoy’ him (picture placement: they appear beneath the title).
The Passionate LOVER: OR, The Damsels Grief Crown'd with Comforts (no imprint, 1685-88). Roxburghe 2.252; EBBA 30710. Gender – courtship, femininity, masculinity; Emotions – anxiety, love, contentment. A woman expresses her insecurities about the loyalty of her sweetheart, and of men in general, but he reassures her and it all works out well in the end (picture placement: they appear beneath the title, next to another loving couple).
The Contention, between a Countryman & a Citizen, For a beauteous London Lass, who at length is married to the Country Man (P. Brooksby, 1685-88). Pepys 3.255; EBBA 21269. Gender – courtship, masculinity; Society – rural life, urban life; Emotions – longing, anger; Employment – agrarian; Bodies – clothing, physique; Places – English. A farmer and a Londoner argue over who is best equipped to win the hand of a city maiden (picture placement: they stand over the third and fourth columns of text).
LOVE in a Bush: OR, The two Loyal Lovers Joy compleated (James Bissel, 1685-88). Pepys 3.158; EBBA 21170. Gender – courtship; Emotions – anger, anxiety, disdain, love, joy; Nature – birds, flowers/trees. A man expresses sadness that his sweetheart treats him with disdain but fortunately she climbs out of a nearby bush to reassure him (picture placement: they stand over the third and fourth columns of text).
The Scotch Lasses Constancy (P. Brooksby, 1685-98). Crawford 1217; EBBA 34022. Gender – courtship, masculinity, femininity; Places – nationalities, Scottish; Death – duel; Violence – interpersonal; Emotions – love, sorrow, anger, despair; Bodies – looks/physique, injury; Environment – flowers/trees. Jenny loves Jockey more than she loves Sawny, and is understandably distraught when the latter kills the former in a duel (picture placement: they stand beneath the title, and there are no other woodcuts).
True Love rewarded with Loyalty: Or, Mirth and Joy after sorrow and sadness (W. Thackery and T. Passenger, 1687-88). Pepys 3.146; EBBA 21158. Gender – courtship; Emotions – anxiety, love, joy; Environment – flowers/trees, skies, weather, rivers, animals; Economy – hardship/prosperity, money, livings; Society – friendship; History – ancient/mythological. A young man is anxious because he feels unsure of his sweetheart’s love and he fears the disapproval of her friends but the maiden in question comes to the rescue and reassures him (picture placement: they appear beneath the title and there is no other woodcut).
A Weeks Loving, Wooing, and Wedding: OR, Happy is that Wooing that is not long a Dooing (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1688-96). Pepys 3.39; EBBA 21035. Gender – courtship, sex; Humour – extreme situations; Employment – crafts/trades; Recreation – weddings; Bodies – clothing. A whirlwind romance in which Johny and Jinny meet in church one Sunday and marry in the same building the following week (picture placement: the couple stand over the third and fourth columns of text).
The Love-sick SERVING-MAN: SHEWING How he was Wounded with the Charms of a young Lady, and did not dare to reveal his Mind (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1688-96). Roxburghe 2.299; EBBA 30752. Gender – courtship, Cupid; Society – rich/poor; Emotions – despair, love; Employment – apprenticeship/service; Family – children/parents. A poor servant is in distress because he dare not voice his love for a rich lady, but fortunately a thousand Cupids visit her in the night and persuade her that she must devote herself to him (picture placement: they appear beneath the title, and there are no other woodcuts).
An ANSWER to the Love-sick SERVING-MAN (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1688-96). Pepys 3.60; EBBA 21058. Gender – courtship, Cupid; Society – rich/poor; Emotions – love, longing; Family – children/parents. A serving-man loves his master’s daughter and, with Cupid’s irresistible assistance, persuades her to fall for him, despite the disapproval of her father (picture placement: they appear over the third and fourth columns of text).
An excellent Ballad of a Prince of England's Courtship to the King of France's Daughter (Alex. Milbourn, 1695-1708). Roxburghe 1.102-03; EBBA 30068. Gender – courtship, marriage, femininity; Family – children/parents; Crime – murder, robbery; Death – unlawful killing, grief; Emotions – love, sorrow; Morality – familial; Politics – foreign affairs; Royalty – authority, incognito; Violence – interpersonal. The French king’s daughter runs away to meet her sweetheart but tragedy befalls him and she re-builds her life as the wife of a humble forester (picture placement: they stand beneath the title, to the right of a Nobleman’s head).
Postscript
There were also several white-letter editions of this hit ballad, but these tended to feature musical notation rather than pictures.
Christopher Marsh
Back to contentsAs noted in the Song history, this song was hugely popular and was often amended by other publishers cashing in on the trend for ballad stories about Scottish couples, such as 'Jenny and Jockey' or 'Jocky and Moggie'. D'Urfey too drew on the popularity of these songs for his play.
See for example: Brooksby: The Scotch Wooing: Or, / JOCKEY of the Lough, and JENNY of the Lee, EBBA 30862; The Loves of Jockey and Jenny: / OR, / The Scotch Wedding, EBBA 30756; Deacon: A New SONG of Moggie's Jealousie: / OR / Jockies Vindication, EBBA 30798; Couragious JOCKEY / OR, CUPID'S Victorious Triumph, EBBA 21704; Conyers: The Scotch rebellion. Or, Jennys lamentation for parting with Jockey, Balllads Online Edition - Bod23831.
Angela McShane
The Scotch Lasses Constancy/ OR/ Jenny’s Lamentation for the loss of Jockey:/ Who for her sake was Unfortunately Kill'd by SAWNEY in a Duel.
Being a most pleasant New Song, to a New Tune.
[Play each verse by clicking anywhere within its text]
But Jockey was Low'd and Sawny unlucky; Yet Sawny was tall, well=favour'd and witty, But I's in my heart thought Jockey more pritty: For when he view'd me su'd me, woo'd me, Never was Lad so like to undo me, Fie I cry’d, and almost dy'd, Least Jockey would gang and come no mere to me.
And I was afraid that I should miscarry; For his cunning tongue with Wit as [‘was’ in other editions] so guilded, That I had a dread my heart would have yielded: Daily he prest me, blest me, kist me, Lost was the hour methought when he mist me Crying denying, & sighing, I woo'd him, And mickle ado I had to get from him.
For Sawney would make him fight in a Duel; Then down in a dale with Cyprus surrounded, Oh! there in my sight poor Jockey was wounded: But when he thrill'd him, fell'd him, kill'd him, Who can express my grief that beheld him; Raging I tore my hair to bind him, And vowed and swore I'de ne'r stay behind him.
For I'se now have lost mine nene sweet Jockey, Sawny I curst and bid him to flye me, I vow'd & I swore he should ne'r come nigh me: But I'd spight him, hate him, fight him, And never again wou’d Jenny like him: Though he did sigh and almost dye, He cry'd fie on me, cause I did slight him.
When with arms across, and head down hanging; Whilst that my poor Jockey was a dying, He to the Woods then departed sighing: And his breath wanted, panted, fainted, Whilst that for him many tears were not scanted: I'se beat my breast, and my grief expressed, Wae's me that Death my joy had suppressed.
And with his death as it were he lay then striving, Open'd his eyes and looked upon me: And faintly sigh'd, Ah! Death has undone me: Jenny my Hony, I'se must part from thee, But when I'm dead, sure there's none will wrong thee, I did love thee, and that did move me, To Fight, that so a man I'se might prove me.
Oh! and with that again he sounded [‘swounded’ in another edition]; Whil’st for to dress his wound I apply'd me, But wae alas his life was deny'd me, Death had appaul'd him, gaul'd him, thrall'd him, So that he dy'd, with grief I beheld him; And left poor Jenny all a mourning, And cruel Sawny cursing and scorning.
The which whilst he lived were still my blisses: A thousand times I did sob, sigh it; And mickle ado I'se had to be quiet: For as I ey'd him, spy'd him, ply'd him, Never a thought could then pass beside him: I'se bann the Fates that Life denying, Had robb'd me of Jockey, and long I sat sighing.
And with my Tears; Is'e almost had drown'd him The Turtles about us then came flying, And mourning coo'd to seem a sighing: I'se view'd him, ru'd him, with Flowers strew'd him And with my Love to the last pursu'd him: Resolving that I'se not stay behind him, But sighing, do, and seek for to find him.
FINIS,
Printed for P. Brooksby in Pyecorner.
This ballad is included according to the criteria for List B (see Methodology). The evidence presented here is accurate, to the best of our knowledge, as of 1st January 2024.
No. of known editions c. 1560-1711: 5
No. of extant copies: 12
Appearances on Ballad Partners' lists: Thackeray, 1689 (as 'Sawney & Jockey').
Other registrations with Stationers' Company: none.
3-year periods that produced multiple editions: 1682-84 (3)
New tune titles generated: 'Sawny and Jockey' (5 ballads).
Specially-commissioned woodcuts: none known.
Pre-1640 bonus: no.
POINTS: 10 + 12 +10 + 0 + 18 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 60
[On this ballad, see also Angela McShane, Political Broadside Ballads of Seventeenth-Century England, no. 622X].
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