A most godly and comfortable Ballad was first registered in 1588 and remained successful for over a century, fading in popularity only after 1700. Along with other hit songs on our list, it demonstrates that a strong demand for religious ballads persisted throughout the early modern period. In Tessa Watt’s estimation, the song reveals that, for many people, post-Reformation religion was ‘still primarily the record of miracles and wonders’.
Clearly, the song does focus on the ‘wow’ factor in the gospel story, rather than on the theological content of Christ’s teachings. One could argue, however, that the relevant sections of the gospels reveal a very similar emphasis, and that the ballad is not actually devoid of theology. The importance of faith is emphasised powerfully in the first three verses and the last three, and the implications of faithlessness are clearly outlined. Ian Green, who tends to emphasise ‘the dearth of solidly Protestant teaching’ in successful ballads, regards this one as something of an exception, partly because it avoids the assumption found in many songs that an individual’s good works will lead to his or her salvation. Green also considers the possibility that this particular ballad may originally have been written by a clergyman, unlike most of the other religious songs that proved themselves popular (see also Related texts).
It seems possible that the song may have played a role in promoting use of the expression, ‘above the lofty skies’ (see last line). It is difficult to be sure but the description seems to have been rare before 1590 and fairly common thereafter. It does not appear in the Sternhold-Hopkins Whole Book of psalms but certain new versions of the metrical psalms, published in the later seventeenth century, introduced it (see Anon, Psalms of David). The expression was also used in other literary works of the seventeenth century (see Anon, The card of courtship, and Turner).
Christopher Marsh
References
Anon, The Psalms of David in English metre (1698), pp. 4, 65 and 117.
Anon, The card of courtship, or the language of love (1653), p. 90.
English Broadside Ballad Archive: https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/
English Short Title Catalogue.
Ian Green, Print and Protestantism in early modern England (Oxford, 2000), pp. 454-55.
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), nos. 971, 972 and 2283.
Cyril Turner, The transformed metamorphosis (1600), D3v.
Tessa Watt, Cheap print and popular piety, 1550-1640 (Cambridge, 1991), p. 122.
To the tune of ‘Rogero’ (standard name)
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 tune was almost always known as ‘Rogero’, though two of the ballads listed below name it ‘In slumbering sleep’. Its orgins lay in the sixteenth century, when one of the ground basses over which Italian singers improvised descants was known as the ‘Ruggiero’ air. Somehow, this term reached the world of the London balladeers in the crudely anglicised form, ‘Rogero’. This simple and well-known tune was actually an improvised descant that had become detached from its bass-line, and one suspects that most urban ballad-singers remained blissfully ignorant of its intriguing continental roots.
Versions of the tune are found in several manuscript sources of the late sixteenth century, mainly in arrangements for cittern or lute. These vary slightly but are clearly renditions of the same tune. Our recording makes use of the melody as it appears in two sources: Henry Sampson’s lute manuscript (c. 1610); and Matthew Holmes’ cittern book (early seventeenth century).
Echoes (an overview)
Rogero was an enduring tune that came to be strongly associated in the minds of English ballad-consumers with morality and religion. Almost all of the ballads listed below sit solidly within this thematic category, and it is notable that a bright tune in a major key never made the transition to significantly lighter fare. Instead, the melody animated songs about sin and repentance, the neglect of friendship and kinship, the oppression of the poor by the rich, and the eternal battle between Christ and Satan.
When The Norfolke Gentleman was sung to the tune, the moral horror experienced by listeners must have been reinforced and intensified by the potent associations that ‘Rogero’ carried. Here, the tragedy of the text is relentless, though in some ballads it seems possible that the musical buoyancy of the tune helped to reassure listeners that, despite the parlous state of the world, all was not lost. This may have been the effect in the hit song under consideraton here: the dismal material on Christ’s death is mitigated to some degree by the tune’s bright mood and the upbeat title, A most godly and comfortable Ballad of the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus. ‘Rogero’ apparently fell out of fashion in the second half of the seventeenth century and was not nominated on new ballads.
Some of these songs were connected with one another not just by their shared tune but by inter-textual referencing, whether deliberate or unconscious. In The Norfolke Gentleman, for example, the line, ‘and left two Babes behind’ may recall a similar expression, ‘and leave her younge behinde’ in A worthy Mirrour (the two songs also share a focus on the care of the young). The poore man payes for all shares its dream-theme with A comfortable new Ballad, and it shares the line ‘a twelve-month and a day’ with The Norfolke Gentleman. The moral challenges thrown down to readers/listeners at the opening of The Lamentation of Follie and A most godly and comfortable Ballad of the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus also seem to echo one another.
In addition there are verbal echoes of ballads set to other tunes: for example, two lines in The torment of a Jealious [sic] minde - ‘To true, alas! this storye is,/ as many a man can tell’ – occur almost verbatim in A Lamentable Ballad of the Ladies Fall, set to the melody of ‘In Pescod time’ (which, again, bears a close musical resemblance to ‘Rogero’).
[See 'Postscript', below, for additional notes on this melody].
Songs and Summaries
The Lamentation of Follie: To the tune of New Rogero (Edward Allde, 1584-1627). Huntington Library - Britwell 18296; EBBA 32228. Society – criticism, rich/poor; Religion – sin/repentance, Christ/God, charity; Morality – social/economic, general; Royalty – praise. This criticises people for their uncaring sinfulness and urges them to turn urgently to God.
A most godly and comfortable Ballad of the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ... To the tune of Rogero (originally registered 1588; Francis Coules, 1624-44). Roxburghe 1.258-59; EBBA 30184. Religion – Christ/God, heaven/hell, angels/devils, body/soul, ghosts/spirits; Death – burial/funeral, godly end, grief, ghostly abduction; Family – children/parents; Gender – femininity; Emotions – wonder, confusion, anxiety, fear, love, hope, sorrow; Bodies – physique/looks, injury; History – ancient/mythological; Environment – buildings. This asserts the importance of believing literally in the resurrection of Christ, and recounts the Biblical story in order to remind listeners of the details.
A worthy Mirrour, wherein you may Marke, An excellent discourse of a breeding Larke. To the tune of new Rogero (Richard Jhones, 1589). Huntington Library - Britwell 18271; EBBA 32090. Environment – birds, crops, seasons; Society – criticism, friendship; Family – children/parents, kin, siblings; Gender – femininity; Employment – agrarian; Emotions – fear, love; Bodies – nourishment. This uses a tale of a mother lark protecting her brood at harvest time in order to draw attention to the neglect of friendship and kinship in contemporary society.
The Norfolke Gentleman his last Will and Testament... To the tune of Rogero (registered 1595; J. W., 1602-46). Roxburghe 1.284-85; EBBA 30201. Family – children/parents, inheritance, kin, siblings; Morality – familial; Crime – murder, robbery/theft; Death – illness, result of immorality, unlawful killing, neglect, burial/funeral, execution; Violence – interpersonal, divine, punitive; Environment – birds, flowers/trees, landscape; Emotions – greed, fear, love, despair; Bodies – looks/physique, nourishment; Places – English, travel/transport; Religion – Christ/God, divine intervention. Two orphans, in the care of their uncle, are treated with hateful cruelty as he tries to gain their inheritance, and the consequences are tragic on all sides.
John Spenser a Chesshire Gallant, his life and repentance, who for killing of one Randall Gam: was lately executed at Burford a mile from Nantwich. To the Tune of in Slumbring Sleepe (J. Trundle, 1597-1626). Pepys 1.114; EBBA 20047. Crime – murder; Death – unlawful killing, result of immorality, burial/funeral; Violence – interpersonal; Recreation – dance, music, good fellowship; alcohol; Emotions – anger, excitement, sorrow; Gender – masculinity, marriage, sex; Morality – familial, romantic/sexual; Bodies – clothing, physique/looks; Society – friendship; News – convicts/crimes; Places – English. The first part tells the tale of John Spenser, whose manly instincts eventually led to his execution for murder, and the second part presents his own warning to others about the dangers of a dissolute lifestyle.
The torment of a Jealious [sic] minde, expressed by the Tragicall and true historye of one commonlye called the Jealous man of Marget in Kent. To the Tune of Rogero (no printed copies have survived but the song was copied out by hand, c. 1600-03). Shirburn Ballads LXIV. Emotions – jealousy, anger, fear; Gender – marriage, adultery/cuckoldry, masculinity, femininity, sex; Crime – murder; Death – unlawful killing, suicide; Violence – interpersonal, self-inflicted; Society – old/young; Morality – romantic/sexual; Employment – apprenticeship/service; Bodies – clothing; Places – English; Recreation – hunting, food; Environment – birds. An old man marries a young woman and, despite her virtue, is driven to distraction by jealousy, a state of mind that leads him to commit double murder followed by suicide.
The poore man payes for all. This is but a dreame which here shall insue: But the Author wishes his words were not true. To the tune of In slumbring sleepe I lay (H. G., 1601-40). Roxburghe 1.326-27; EBBA 30223. Economy – hardship/prosperity, extortion, money; Morality – social/economic; Society – criticism, rich/poor; Employment – professions, crafts/trades; Recreation – alcohol; Bodies – clothing. This describes a dream about a cruel reality – the rich live well off the hard labour of the poor.
A right Godly and Christian A.B.C. shewing the duty of every degree. To the tune of Rogero (Henry Gosson, 1601-40). Roxburghe 1.492; EBBA 30328. Morality – general, social/economic; Religion – moral rules, charity, Christ/God, Bible; Economy – hardship/prosperity, prices/wages, extortion; Society – neighbours, rich/poor; Royalty – praise. A pithy guide to godly and moral living, backed by examples from the Bible.
A new Sonnet, shewing how the Goddesse Diana transformed Acteon into the shape of an Hart. To the tune of, Rogero (registered 1624 and possibly 1565-66; J. W., 1602-46). Manchester Central Library, Blackletter Ballads 1.29; EBBA 36019. History – ancient/mythological; Religion – ancient gods; Environment – animals, landscape; Bodies - looks/physique, injury; Violency – animals; Death – tragedy; Emotion – anger; Gender – masculinity, femininity; Recreation – hunting. Acteon observes Diana and her nymphs bathing and the angry goddess transforms him into a large deer, after which he is hunted down and torn apart by his own hounds.
A comfortable new Ballad of a Dreame of a Sinner, being very sore troubled with the assaults of Sathan. To the tune of Rogero (E. Wright, 1611-56). Pepys 1.39; EBBA 20025. Religion – angels/devils, Christ/God, faith, heaven/hell, sin/repentance; Emotions – fear, joy. The singer describes a dream in which, on the ‘day of doome’, Satan and Christ argued over the destiny of his or her soul.
Postscript
‘Rogero’ was also nominated for the singing of several texts that were published in song-books of the early seventeenth century. Here, the thematic range is somewhat wider than in the ballads listed above, though songs such as Thomas Deloney’s ‘The valiant courage and policie of Kentishmen’ (Strange Histories, 1602) and Richard Johnson’s ‘A lamentable song of Lady Elinor’ (Golden Garland, 1620) are serious in tone.
In A Crowne-Garland of Golden Roses (1612), Johnson also published ‘A pleasant new sonnet, intituled, mine owne deare lady brave’ in which a man wishes he was his mistress’ cosseted pet spaniel. Even this may have been intended and received primarily as a sober statement of romantic devotion rather than a spoof on such devotion (though both interpretative options were presumably available).
The currency of the tune in the Elizabethan period is suggested by a reference to ‘Rogero’ as a good tune for dancing on the village green in Thomas Nashe’s Have with you to Saffron-walden. This is a little surprising in view of the tune’s mainly sober associations. Perhaps more fittingly, ‘Rogero’ was chosen for a metrical version of Psalm 128 that William Slatyer published, in Latin, during the early 1630s. Common knowledge of the melody is also echoed in the words chosen by Firke, in Dekker’s Shomaker’s holiday, to explain that he is now working for a man named Roger: ‘I sing now to the tune of Rogero’.
Christopher Marsh
References
Dallis Lute Book, Trinity College Dublin, MS 410/1, pp. 20-21.
Thomas Deloney, Strange Histories (1602), A2r-3v.
Thomas Dekker, The Shomakers Holiday (1600), H2r.
Matthew Holmes, Cittern manuscript (early seventeenth century), Cambridge University Library MS Dd 4.23, fo. 23v.
Richard Johnson, A Crowne-Garland of Golden Roses (1612), F6r-7r.
The Golden Garland of Princely pleasures and delicate Delights (1620), D3v-4v.
Thomas Nashe, Have with you to Saffron-walden (1596), fo. T1r.
Henry Sampson, Lute manuscript (c. 1610), p. 3. Private library of Robert Spencer.
Claude M. Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and its Music (New Brunswick, 1966), pp. 612-14.
William Slatyer, Psalmes, or songs of Sion turned into the language, and set to the tunes of a strange land (1631), p. 44.
Back to contentsStandard woodcut name: Christ’s resurrection
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 probably designed specially for a slightly earlier edition of this ballad, and it can be seen on almost all surviving copies from the seventeenth century. It was surely an important part of the song’s appeal, and the high quality of the image – in which Christ’s triumphant gesture contrasts with the sheer shock of the soldiers – makes it easy to see why. When Alexander Milbourn issued an edition around 1690, at a time when he apparently did not have access to the usual block, he commissioned a new version of the old picture rather than risk trying something different.
The only other ballad listed below was also about the life of Christ, though here the picture serves a subtly different purpose. Two pleasant Ditties focus on the nativity and the death of Christ, without mentioning his resurrection specifically. The picture therefore introduces supplementary content by carrying the story forward and reminding viewers of the glorious transformation that was to come.
All surviving copies of the image – most of which are on editions of A most godly and comfortable Ballad - seem to have come from a single woodblock that deteriorated slightly but not drastically over the decades. The relative lack of damage probably reflects the fact that this was a specialist item, used for songs about Christ but not for anything else.
[See 'Postscript', below, for additional notes on this woodcut].
Songs and summaries:
A most godly and comfortable Ballad of the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (Francis Coules, 1626-44). Roxburghe 1.258-59; EBBA 30184. Religion – Christ/God, faith, heaven/hell, divine intervention, Bible, angels/devils, sin/repentance, ghosts/spirits, Death – burial/funeral; Emotions – sorrow, suspicion, wonder, joy; Gender – femininity; Bodies – clothing. This recounts the Biblical story of Christ’s resurrection in considerable detail, challenging us to believe it literally (picture placement: the scene appears beneath the title, and there are no other woodcuts).
Two pleasant Ditties, one of the Birth, the other of the Passion of Christ (‘Printed by the Assignes of Thomas Symcocke’, 1628-31). Roxburghe 1.394-95; EBBA 30269. Religion – Christ/God, heroism, Judaism; Bodies – injury, adornment; Death – execution, godly end; Violence – punitive; Emotions – joy, sorrow; Environment – wonders; Places – extra-European, travel/transport; Politics – power; Royalty – authority, criticism. Two songs that tell the Biblical stories of the nativity and the crucifixion of Christ respectively, without any direct reference to his resurrection (picture placement: the scene appears beneath the general title and over the song about the nativity).
Postscript
This woodcut bears a close relationship to the many European artworks of the period that depicted the Resurrection of Christ (there are paintings by El Greco, Rubens and Van Dyck, for example). These works took their place in a tradition of representing this scene that stretched back through the medieval period. In England, the Reformation disrupted this history by disallowing the colourful scenes that had appeared on medieval church walls but the ballad genre, as Tessa Watt has noted, played an important role in ensuring that traditional scenes such as this one were displaced rather than destroyed.
Tara Hamling shows that images of Christ’s Resurrection also continued to be created in domestic settings and private chapels during the seventeenth century. Clearly, the English Reformation was not as comprehensively iconoclastic as we once thought. The detail in the woodcut makes it clear that the anonymous wood-carver understood the artistic tradition well and worked happily within it. The eye-shielding gesture of the soldier on the left, for example, can be seen in several of the period’s more celebrated representations of Christ’s Resurrection (though the soldiers were also fast asleep in numerous versions).
Christopher Marsh
References
Tara Hamling, Decorating the ‘godly’ household. Religious art in post-Reformation Britain (New Haven and London, 2010), pp. 223-25.
Tessa Watt, Cheap print and popular piety, 1550-1640 (Cambridge, 1991).
Back to contentsThis account of Christ’s resurrection is squarely based on the narratives found in the four gospels. Except for the introductory and concluding verses, the ballad hardly adds anything to the Biblical stories and includes numerous verbal echoes. It reveals a familiarity with all four gospels and a capacity to weave details from each of them skilfully together.
For the first part of the story, the ballad-makers draw particularly on Matthew 27-28, while the latter verses of the song rely most heavily on John 20-21. In between these sections, there are several details that only occur in Mark 16. Luke is less strongly represented but it is nevertheless clear that the ballad-makers took care to root their song in all four gospels and to announce their reliance (‘his Word declareth here’). The success of the song suggests the value to consumers of hearing, reading and purchasing ballads that were fundamentally Biblical.
Christopher Marsh
References
The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament (Geneva, 1561), Matthew 27-28, Mark 15-16, Luke 23-24 and John 19-20.
A most godly and Comfortable Ballad of the glorious/ Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, how he triumphed over/ death, hell, and sinne, whereby we are certainly perswaded of our/ rising againe from the dead. To the tune of Rogero.
[Play each verse by clicking anywhere within its text]
so farre from grace is fled, That doth not in his heart beleeve the rising from the dead: O why do wicked mortall men, their lives on earth so frame: That being dead they do suppose, they shall not rise again?
which now consuming lies, Shall not by God be rais’d againe, then Christ did never rise: And if so be our Saviour sweet, did not arise from death: Our preaching is of no effect, and vaine is hope on earth.
then are we yet in sinne: And they that fall a=sleep in him, no part of joy shall winne: Of all the Creatures living then, which God on earth did frame, Most wretched are the state of men, which spend their time in vaine.
as it was right and meet: And thereby trod down death and Hell, and sinne under his feet: And that the same to simple men, the plainer might appeare: The glorious rising of the Lord, his Word declareth here.
the Jewes did watchmen set, Lest by his friends his corps from thence should secretly be set: A mighty stone likewise they did on his Sepulchre role, And all for fear his body should away from thence be stole.
a mighty earthquake came, The which did shake both Sea and Land, and all within the same. And then the Angell of the Lord, came down from Heaven so high, And rold away the mighty stone, which on the grave did lye.
The second part, To the same tune.
his cloathes were white as snow, Which put the watchmen in great feare, who ran away for woe: And told unto the high Priest plaine, what I do now rehearse: Who hired them for money straight, that they should hold their peace.
which he sometimes did keepe: And secretly stole him away, while we were sound asleepe. And if that Herod heare thereof, we will perswade him so: That you shall have no hurt at all, wher=ever you do goe.
and James his Mother too, They brought great store of oyntment sweet, as Jewes were wont to do: Who rose up early in the morne, before that it was day: The body of the Lord to noynt, in grave whereas he lay.
they were in wondrous feare: They saw a young man in the same, but Christ they saw not there: Then said the Angell unto them, why are you so afraid? The Lord whom you do seek, I know, is risen up, he said.
who told these tidings than: To John and Peter, who in haste, to the Sepulchre ran, Who found it as the Women said, and then away did goe: But Mary stayed weeping still, whose teares declar’d her woe.
two Angells there did see, Quoth they, why weeps this woman so: even for my Lord, quoth she. And turning then her selfe aside, as she stood weeping so, The Lord was standing at her back, but him she did not know.
whom seekes she in this place? She thought he had a gardner been, and thus she shewes her case: If thou hast born him hence, she said, then tell me where he is And for to fetch him back againe, be sure I will not misse.
dost thou lament for me? O Master livest thou again? my soule doth joy in thee: O Mary, touch me not, he said, ere I have been above: Even with my God, the onely God, and Father whom we love.
to his disciples all: But Thomas would not yet beleeve, his faith it was so small: Except that he might thrust his hand into the wound so wide, And put his finger where the Speare did pierce his tender side.
to them again came he; Who said to Thomas here I am, as plainly thou maist see. See here the hands which nailes did pierce, and feel thou here my side: And be not faithlesse, O thou man, for whom these paines I bide.
when he did rise again: And then ascended he to Heaven, in glory for to raigne: Where he prepares a place for those, whom he shall raise likewise, To live with him in heavenly blisse, above the lofty skies.
FINIS.
London, Printed for Francis Coules/ dwelling at the lower end of the/ Old Bayley.
This ballad is included according to the criteria for List A (see Methodology). The evidence presented here is accurate, to the best of our knowledge, as of 1st January 2024.
Shirburn ballads: not included.
Appearances on Ballad Partners' lists: Pavier and partners, 1624 (as 'Resurrection of Christ'); Coles, Vere, Wright and Clarke, 1675; and Thackeray, 1689 ('Resurrection of Christ').
Other registrations with Stationers' Company: 1588.
No. of known editions c.1560-1711: 8
No. of extant copies: 6
New tune-titles generated: none.
Specially-commissioned woodcuts: Christ's resurrection on featured edition (and other editions).
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library databases: 1 reference, with no evidence of later collection as a folk-song (Roud no. V38596).
POINTS: 0 + 30 + 5 + 16 + 6 + 0 + 5 + 0 = 62
This box will be used to highlight any new information on this song that might come to light after the launch of the website.
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