55  A Warning to all lewd Livers./ By the Example of a disobedient Child [Roxburghe 3.262-63]

To the tune of 'Sir Andrew Barton' (lost tune with standard name, Bleeding heart)

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

The melody has not survived in a version from the seventeenth century, nor have we found a later tune with a strong link to a relevant text. We have therefore not recorded this song, though it could be sung to the later tune that we used on our rendition of A True Relation of the Life and Death of Sir Andrew Barton (the two songs shared a melody in the seventeenth century). This lost tune was known variously as 'Bleeding heart', 'Sir Andrew Barton' and 'Come follow my love'.

Echoes (an overview)

Although the tune is lost, it is possible to say something about the associations it carried on the basis of its nomination for the singing of other ballads. The story begins with three hits songs of c. 1629-31: two cautionary tales (An excellent Ballad, Intituled, the unfortunate love of a Lancashire Gentleman and A Warning to all lewd Livers) and a semi-celebratory song about the bold exploits of a pirate (A True Relation of the Life and Death of Sir Andrew Barton). The Barton ballad may have been the most successful of the three but, in terms of the tune’s subsequent history, it was the other two that set the tone, and praise for pirates was rarely encountered again (though a certain sneaking sympathy, encouraged by the melody's piratical past, may have survived in the minds of some listeners).

The largest number of ballads that subsequently nominated the tune were about vile murders and the justice visited upon the perpetrators (see, for example, The wicked Midwife and Inhumane, & Cruel Bloody News from Leeds). The tune seems to have become associated particularly with heavy moral warnings about the consequences of heinous sin, and the murder ballads were consumed alongside a number of cautionary tales about wrong-doing that often ended in death or mysterious illness (The YOUTHS Guide and Strange News from Stafford-shire). To these moralising stories, we might add several ballads about monstrous births, massacres of continental Protestants, the urgent need for repentance, the responsibility of preparing for death, and Quakers who died on hunger strike (the closest we come to light relief is a Christmas song entitled The Sinners Redemption).

The songs are connected not only by their tune but also by some textual cross-references or affinities. The opening lines of the influential Warning to all lewd Livers run ‘My bleeding heart with griefe and care,/ doth wish all young men to beware’, and they are echoed at the start of A Dreadful Relation: ‘With bleeding heart & mournful tear/ I am enforced to declare’ (a further ballad, the title of which is missing, begins ‘All hearts that ever yet did bleed’). The potency of the ‘bleeding heart’ motif is also reflected in the fact that this became a new title for the tune. Other ballads also presented couplets that bear more than a passing resemblance to one another:

‘The thing unto her then they told,/ And the whole Truth they did unfold’ [The Chamberlain’s Tragedy].

‘No tongue such cruelty e’re told,/ As I to you shall here unfold’ [Title missing... Being a sad and true Relation].

‘O then let me extort both young and old/ To pray to God e’re his wrath unfold’ [The YOUTHS Guide].

In addition, two of the ballads share material with songs that were set to other tunes. The Old Gentlewoman last Legacy, for example, is strongly related to the hit song An Hundred Godly Lessons, and two lines in The Sinners Redemption (‘But yet for all these wonders wrought/ The Jews his dire destruction wrought’) recall similar phraseology in A new Ditty, shewing the wonderfull Miracles of our Lord and Sauiour Jesus Christ (‘But yet for all these wonders great,/ The Jewes were in a raging heat’).

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

Songs and Summaries

An excellent Ballad, Intituled, the unfortunate love of a Lancashire Gentleman, and the hard fortune of a fair young Bride. The tune is, Come follow my Love  (registered 624; F. Coles, T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson, 1661-63). Euing 80; EBBA 31763. Gender – courtship, marriage; Family – children/parents; Crime – murder; Death – unlawful killing, execution; Violence – interpersonal, self-inflicted; Emotions – love, anger, despair; Morality – romantic/sexual, familial; Society – rich/poor; Recreation – weddings, food, walking. A wealthy young man marries his poor sweetheart in secret, but is then pressured by his father into wedding a richer woman whom he then murders in desperation (this song has a different metre from all of those listed below and it is difficult to believe that it can actually have been sung to the same tune).

A True Relation of the Life and Death of Sir Andrew Barton, a Pyrate and Rover on the Seas. Tune is, Come follow my Love (registered 1629; J. Wright, J. Clark, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1682-84). Pepys 1.484-85; EBBA 20227. Crime – piracy; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Gender – masculinity; History – medieval; Environment – sea; Violence – at sea; Death – warfare; Emotions – excitement, anger, patriotism; Politics – foreign affairs, controversy; Bodies – looks/physique, injury; Places – English, travel/transport; Royalty – authority. The Scottish pirate, Andrew Barton, has been disrupting England’s mercantile sea traffic, so King Henry despatches Lord Howard and more than a hundred brave men to sort him out.

A Warning to all lewd Livers... To the Tune of, Sir Andrew Barton (registered, 1633; Fra. Grove, 1656-62). Roxburghe 3.262-3; EBBA 30976. Family – children and parents; Emotions – sorrow; Gender – sex; Recreation – games; Religion – morality; Crime – robbery;  Death – result of immorality.  The tale of a young man who wastes all his money on gaming and lewd women before dying miserably on a dung-hill.

A Marvellous Murther, Committed upon the Body of one George Drawnefield of Brempton... To the tune of My bleeding heart (Francis Coules, 1633-80). Manchester Central Library, Blackletter Ballads 2.1; EBBA 36048. Crime – murder, robbery/theft, punishment, prison; Violence – interpersonal; Death – unlawful killing; Morality – general, social/economic; Economy – livings, money; Religion – angels/devils, divine intervention; Society – neighbours; Emotions – horror; Family – siblings, inheritance; Bodies – health/sickness, injury; Gender – singles; Environment – flowers/trees; News – domestic; Places – English.  This describes a brutal and cunning murder, the forensic examinations that eventually established cause of death, and the process by which all the perpretrators are now facing justice.

The Sinners Redemption, Wherein is described the blessed Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, together with his life on earth, and his precious death on the Cross for Mankind. To the tune of, The bleeding heart, or, In Creet, &c. (no imprint, mid-seventeenth century).  Roxburghe 1.374-75; EBBA 30252.  Religion – Christ/God, Bible, Judaism, heroism; Death – execution, godly end; Family – pregnancy/childbirth; Violence – punitive. This tells the story of the nativity and connects it with other passages in Christ’s life, particularly his miracles and his death.

The wicked Midwife, the cruell Mother, and the harmelesse Daughter... To the tune of, The bleeding Heart (imprint missing,  mid seventeenth-century). Manchester Central Library, Blackletter Ballads 1.41; EBBA 36032. Family – children/parents, pregnancy/childbirth; Crime – infanticide, punishment, false witness; Death – unlawful killing; Violence – interpersonal; Employment – professions, female; Economy – prices/wages; Emotions – despair, shame; Gender – femininity, courtship; Morality – familial, romantic/sexual; Places – English; News – convicts/crimes, domestic, sensational. A young woman becomes pregnant out of wedlock and turns to her mother for aid, but the older woman has the baby killed by the midwife and then blames her own daughter for the crime.

The Great Turks terrible Challenge, this yeare 1640... To the tune of My bleeding heart, or Lets to the wars againe (Richard Harper, 1640?). Manchester Central Library, Blackletter Ballads 1.2; EBBA 36010. Politics – foreign affairs, war; Religion –Muslims, heathens/infidels, prayer; Violence – between states; Death – warfare; Emotions – fear; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Gender – masculinity; News – international; Places – European, extra-European. The Holy Roman Empire and the kingdom of Poland are in grave danger from the huge and aggressive forces of the Turkish sultan, and this song raises the alarm and prays for the deliverance of all Christians.

Colonell Rainsborowes Ghost: OR, A true Relation of the manner of his Death... To the tune of, My bleeding heart with griefe and care (‘Printed at LONDON 1648’). British Library 669.f.13. EBBA 36658.. Crime – murder; Death – warfare; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Politics – domestic, war; Violence – civil war, interpersonal, punitive; Morality – political; Emotions – sorrow, guilt; Places – English; News – convicts/crimes. The ghost of a troubled parliamentary soldier regrets his role in the death of two worthy men in Colchester and describes his own murder at the hands of those seeking revenge.

A Dreadful Relation, of the Cruel, Bloudy, and most Inhumane Massacre and Butchery, committed on the poor Protestans, in the Dominions of the Duke of Savoy... To the Tune of, The Bleeding Heart (John Andrews, 1655?). British Library C.20.f.14.(20.); EBBA 36810. Violence – interpersonal, political; Religion – Catholic/Protestant; Crime – murder; Death – unlawful killing, warfare; Bodies – injury; Disability – physical; Emotions – horror, anger; Politics – foreign affairs, war; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Family – children/parents; Morality – general; Environment – landscape; News – international, political, sensational; Places – European; Society – old/young.  A graphic description of the massacre of many Protestants in the realms of the Duke of Savoy, all of them refusing to renounce their faith.

THE QUAKERS FEAR. OR, Wonderful strange and true News from the famous Town of Colchester... The tune is, Summertime. Or bleeding Heart (F. Coles, J. Wright, T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson, 1656-58). Wood 401(165). Religion – prophecy, Protestant nonconformity, saints, blasphemy; angels/devils, Bible, Christ/God; Bodies – nourishment, health/sickness; Crime – heresy, prison; Death – suicide; Emotions – hope, suspicion, wonder; News – domestic, convicts/crimes; Places – English. This describes the death in Colchester gaol of the Quaker leader, James Parnell, who perished after a twelve-day hunger strike and failed to fulfil the prophecies with which he had allegedly duped his followers.

The Examination, Confession, and Execution of Ursula Corbet... To the Tune of, The bleeding Heart (John Andrews, 1660?). Crawford 462(1); EBBA 32887. Crime – murder, punishment; Death – unlawful killing, execution, godly end; Gender – marriage; Morality – familial, general; Emotions – guilt; Employment – crafts/trades, professions; Family – children/parents; Places – English; Religion – sin/repentance, prayer; Violence – interpersonal, punitive; News – convicts/crimes. The story of a woman, born of ‘honest’ parents, who was excecuted by fire for poisoning her husband because she did not love him.

The Bloody Butcher, And the two wicked and cruel Bawds... The tune, The bleeding heart (F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright, 1667?). Euing 20; EBBA 31663. Crime – murder, rape, punishment; Death – unlawful killing, execution; Violence – interpersonal, sexual, domestic; Emotions – horror, anxiety, anger, longing; Gender – marriage, femininity, masculinity, sexual violence; Employment – crafts/trades, prostitution, alehouses/inns; Morality – general, familial, romantic/sexual; News – convicts/crimes; Religion – angels/devils; Society – neighbours, urban life; Recreation – alcohol; Places – English. Two London murder cases are here described: first, an account of a butcher who stabbed his pregnant wife in the back during a dispute over money; and second, the tale of a brothel-keeper who offered an innocent ten-year-old girl to a client and suffocated her while trying to stifle her cries.

The Old Gentlewoman last Legacy... Tune of My bleeding Heart (P. Brooksby, 1670-98). Crawford 849; EBBA 33488. Death – godly end; Family – children/parents; Religion – moral rules, Bible, Christ/God, charity, heaven/hell, church, blasphemy; Morality – general; Recreation – alcohol. A dying woman delivers moral and religious advice to her children, urging them to ‘Think on my words when I am dead’.

The YOUTHS Guide... Tune of, A Lesson for all true Christians; Or, My bleeding heart (P. Brooksby, 1670-98). Crawford 1014; EBBA 33629. Death – illness, godly end, providential; Religion – sin/repentance, Christ/God, Catholic/Protestant, heaven/hell, Bible; Society – old/young; Employment – apprenticeship/service; Family – children/parents; Gender – sex; Morality – general; Places – English; Politics – plots; Recreation – alcohol. A young man on his deathbed exhorts us all, particularly those who are youthful, to heed the signs that God has recently sent, fly from sin and prepare for Judgement Day.

Death’s Uncontrollable Summons; OR, The Mortality of MANKIND... To the Tune of, My Bleeding Heart (P. Brooksby, 1670-98). Roxburghe 2.103; EBBA 30571. Death – general; Religion – body/soul; Society –old/young; Emotions – fear; Bodies – looks/physique. A young man is approached by Death, and his pleas for additional time on earth are rejected out of hand.

The Chamberlain’s Tragedy: OR, The Cook-Maid’s Cruelty... Tune, Bleeding Heart (J. Deacon, 1671-99). Pepys 2.178; EBBA 20795. Crime – murder, prison; Death – unlawful killing; Violence – interpersonal; Emotions – anger, guilt, sorrow; Employment – apprenticeship/service; Gender – femininity, masculinity; Morality – general; Religion – sin/repentance, Christ/God; News – convicts/crimes, domestic; Places – English. This first describes the angry murder of a male servant (chamberlain) by a female servant (cook-maid) in a household in Andover, and then outlines the repentant spirit in which the murderer is facing death.

The wonder of wonders, or, the strange Birth in Hampshire... Tune of, My bleeding heart (J. Hose and E. Oliver, 1672-90). Wood E 25(104). Death – childbirth; Emotions – wonder, horror, anxiety; Bodies – looks/physique, health/sickness; Family – pregnancy/childbirth; Environment – animals; Morality – general; Employment – female; Religion – divine intervention, Christ/God; Society – neighbours; News – domestic, sensational; Places – English. A woman in Hampshire has reportedly died in childbed while giving birth to a toad, a winged serpent and a dead child.

[Title missing]. Being a sad and true Relation of the Apprehension, Tryal, Confession, Condemnation, and Execution of the two barbarous and bloody Murtherers... Tune is, Bleeding Heart (John Hose, 1675?). Pepys 2.144; EBBA 20762. Crime – murder, prison, punishment; Death – unlawful killing, execution; Violence – interpersonal; Employment – alehouses/inns; Gender – marriage; Morality – general; News – convicts/crimes; Religion – angels/devils, sin/repentance, moral rules; Society – friends, urban life; Places – English, travel/transport; Recreation – alcohol. A northern gentleman, on a visit to London, is cruelly murdered by two men following a dispute in a tavern, but fortunately the perpretrators have been been brought to justice and duly executed.

Inhumane, & Cruel Bloody News from Leeds in York-shire... The Tune is, The Bleeding Heart, &c. (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke, 1675-80). Wood E 25(102). Crime – murder, prison; Death – unlawful killing; Violence – interpersonal, domestic; Gender – adultery/cuckoldry; Morality – familial, romantic/sexual; Emotions – horror; Family – pregnancy/childbirth; Religion – prayer, Christ/God, angels/devils; News – convicts/crimes; Places – English, travel/transport. In this song, a wicked man seduces the wife of a Londoner and persuades her to travel to Leeds with him, but when she becomes pregnant he kills and mutilates her.

Strange News from Stafford-shire; OR, A Dreadful Example of Divine Justice... Tune of, My Bleeding heart (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clark, 1675-80). Wood E 25(125). Religion – divine intervention,angels/devils, prayer, Christ/God, clergy, sin/repentance; Crime – robbery/theft, punishment, false witness; Bodies – health/sickness; Disability – physical; Emotions – guilt; Morality – social/economic, general; News – domestic, sensational; Places – English. A young man steals a Bible, then denies the crime, asking God to cause his flesh to rot if he is lying – so God does exactly this, thereby stimulating a burst of late repentance.

The Worlds Wonder. Giving an Account of Two Old Men... Tune of, My Bleeding Heart (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1680-81).  Roxburghe 2.526-7; EBBA 31031.  News – international, sensational; Places – European; Religion – sin and repentance, prophecy, general; Morality – general; Society – criticism.  A report on two aged prophets who have appeared in Tolouse, urging repentance and prognosticating strange events.

The Suffolk Miracle... To the Tune of, My bleeding heart, &c. (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clark, W. Thackeray and T. Passenger, 1680-81). Douce 2(207b). Death – heartbreak, grief; Emotions – love, despair; Religion – ghosts/spirits; Family – children/parents, courtship, kin; Morality – romantic/sexual, familial; Society - old/young; Environment – animals; Bodies – clothing; Places – English, travel/transport. A young man dies of grief after being separated from his sweetheart by her angry father, but he visits her as a ghost and temporarily reclaims her before she too dies.

A Looking-Glass for all Impenitent Sinners... To the Tune of, My bleeding heart (R. Kell, 1684-94). Pepys 2.71; EBBA 20695. Religion – sin/repentance, heaven/hell, blasphemy, charity, prayer, Christ/God, clergy, angels/devils; Morality – general; Crime – general; Recreation – alcohol; Emotions – anxiety. An urgent call to repentance, motivated by the sinful state in which England currently exists.

Postscript

The tune was also used occasionally on white-letter ballads. See, for example: Britains sorrowful Lamentation, For the Loss of their Gracious QUEEN MARY (1695) and Great NEWS from SOUTHWARK (1695). The second of these was the first humorous song known to have been written to the melody, telling the story of an old miserable woman who reputedly left all her wealth to her cat. This might be understood as evidence of white-letter composers and consumers choosing to mock the supposedly unsophisticated but deeply serious content of the black-letter ballads listed above.

Christopher Marsh

References

Bertrand Harris Bronson, The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, vol. 1 (1959), pp. 138-42.

Thomas Deloney, The pleasant Historie of John Whinchcomb, In his younguer yeares called Jack of Newbery (composed 1590s; 1626), F3r-G1v.

Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) in the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London (1924; Hatboro, Pennsylvania, 1967).

Standard woodcut name: Devil with erection

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 woodcut appears to have been used sparingly but regularly, mainly during the period between 1660 and 1700. It could illustrate any text that featured the Devil, but it was also deployed on ballads of moral warning that did not mention him explicitly. A Warning to all lewd Livers is one such example. Here, the visual appearance of the Devil adds to the text by implying that a life of gaming and fornicating is not only immoral but diabolical. The fact that the woodcut appeared on songs in which the Devil actually did appear, often to claim the lives of humans in horrific circumstances, may have intensified its impact. There are other editions of A Warning to all lewd Livers that feature the image, but not all of them did so. Although only six examples are listed below, it seems that they reveal the existence of at least three different woodblocks, perhaps implying that the image was more popular – if that’s the word - than the surviving record allows us to know.

Songs and summaries:

A Warning to all lewd Livers (Fra. Grove, 1656-62). Roxburghe 3.262-3; EBBA 30976. Family – children and parents; Emotions – sorrow; Gender – sex; Recreation – games; Religion – morality; Crime – robbery;  Death – result of immorality.  The tale of a young man who wastes all his money on gaming and lewd women before dying miserably on a dung-hill (picture placement: he stands on the left, facing aggressively towards a gallant and woman with a fan).

A Looking-Glass for a Christian Family (no imprint, 1660-90?).  Roxburghe 2.283; EBBA 30740. Religion – moral rules, sin/repentance, heaven/hell, divine intervention; Morality – general; Family – children/parents; Society – criticism.  A call to repentance, emphasising the sinful state of the English nation (picture placement: he appears alongside a How-de-do-man).

Strange News from WESTMORELAND (E. Andrews, 1662-74). Euing 342; EBBA 32030.  News – sensational; Crime – murder; Death – unlawful killing, result of immorality; Religion – angels/Devil, divine intervention; Morality – familial; Gender – marriage; Emotions – fear, wonder; Society – neighbours; Violence - interpersonal. A sinful man murders his wife and denies it, so justice is administered by a visiting angel and the Devil (picture placement: he appears alongside a How-de-do-man).

Dirty Dolls Farewel (J. Wright, J. Clark, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1684).  Pepys 3.233v; EBBA 21247.  Death – result of immorality; Religion – angels/devils; Employment – female/male; Gender – femininity; Morality – social/economic; News – sensational; Places – English; Violence -  diabolical.  A warning to all by the example of Dirty Doll, a disreputable practitioner of extortion, who was beaten during a visitation from the Devil and died of her injuries (picture placement: in an version of the woodcut, he appears beneath the title and alongside a woman who stands beside a vase of flowers).

THE DEVILS OAK: Or, H[i]s ram[b]le in Tempestous Night, where he happened to Discourse with men of several Callings, of his own Colour and Complexion (C. Bates, 1690-1716).  Pepys 4.364; EBBA 22028.  Religion – angels/devils; Employment – crafts/trades; Humour – extreme situations. The Devil takes shelter beneath an oak tree and becomes involved in somewhat cryptic conversations with passers-by who, for one reason or another, remind him of himself (picture placement: he appears beneath the title, in between a tree and a friar).

Ungrateful LEWIS, Who Fought against his Old Friend (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1692).  Pepys 2.347; EBBA 20966.  Politics – celebration, foreign affairs, satire; Royalty – criticism; Humour – mockery, satire; Religion – angels/Devils, Catholic/Protestant; Violence – at sea, between states; Emotions – anger.  Louis XIV of France believes that the Devil, his old ally, has let him down by allowing his enemies to fire his fleet at sea, and he determines to take revenge (picture placement: he appears beneath the title, to the right of two soldiers and a battlefield covered in dead bodies).

Christopher Marsh