Thomas Deloney’s Most sweet song appears to have been a hit from the moment of its first publication, probably in the early 1590s. It was registered on 22 March 1594 and, within months, had apparently attracted such attention that a spin-off stage play, entitled The Merchant of Emden, was performed by the Admiral’s Men (see Related texts). The ballad remained highly successful throughout the seventeenth century, though its popularity faded after 1700. It was occasionally published under a new title, The Chichester merchant, and it appeared with its original name in the 1810 edition of Thomas Evans’ Old Ballads. It is not encountered frequently by this date, however, and it does not appear to have survived as a modern folksong.
Deloney presents his ballad as a factually-based narrative but it has not so far proved possible to link the drama to an actual case. Perhaps it was Deloney’s particular genius to create songs that felt ‘true’ to early-modern consumers, even if they were largely the products of his fertile imagination.
The humane principle that a romantically-minded maiden could ‘beg’ the life of a condemned man, saving him by marrying him, was spoken of in several European countries, including Germany and England. John Manningham wrote about the custom in his early seventeenth-century diary, linking it particularly with France and Italy, and noting the existence of jokes in which condemned men said they would prefer to die than marry the particular women who offered themselves. Manningham was a lawyer but it seems unlikely that this alleged practice had a reliable legal basis in any of the countries in which it was said to occur.
Deloney understood the value of such feasible fictions, and his song-writing talents can also be heard in his instinct for placing women – an important component of the market for romantic ballads - at the heart of his tale, and in his ability to warp the evolving conventions of the execution ballad. As Una McIlvenna has noted, Deloney’s Sweet song avoids common features of such ballads, including graphic descriptions of violent crime and representations of the condemned as thoroughly wicked sinners who are only forced into repentance by the prospect of execution. In A sweet song, the merchant makes a mistake, killing another man in a fight, but we are encouraged to believe that his heart was always true. Deloney also shows great skill in weaving together the strong but usually distinct ballad-themes of execution and love. Perhaps this creative attitude to convention goes some way towards explaining the success of the ballad (The Lamentation of Master Pages wife, another of Deloney’s super-songs, presents a comparable case).
Christopher Marsh
References
The Chichester merchant (1736-63).
William and Cluer Dicey, A catalogue of maps, prints… old ballads… (1754), p. 46.
Thomas Evans, Old Ballads, historical and narrative, 2 vols. (1810), vol. 1, pp. 28-35.
Lost plays database, https://lostplays.folger.edu/Merchant_of_Emden,_The
John Manningham, The diary of John Manningham of the Middle Temple 1602-1603, ed. Robert Parker Sorlien (Hanover, New Hampshire, 1976), p. 153.
Christopher Marsh, ‘Best-selling ballads and the female voices of Thomas Deloney’, Huntington Library Quarterly 82.1 (Spring, 2019), pp. 127-54.
Una McIlvenna, ‘The rich merchant man, or, What the punishment of greed sounded like in early modern English ballads’, Huntington Library Quarterly 79.2 (Summer, 2016), pp. 279-99.
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), no. 1816.
'To an excellent new Tune' (standard name: The rich merchant man)
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 usually known as ‘The Rich Merchant [Man]’ or ‘The Merchant [of Emden]’ and more rarely as ‘The Kentish Miracle’ or ‘George Barnwel’. It was clearly very well known and was cited on many ballads, but it was rarely if ever written down during the seventeenth century. The same was true of ‘Chevy Chase’, another immensely successful tune, and it is intriguing that the two melodies also share a tendency towards tonal indeterminacy and a feeling of circularity that was created by avoidance of the apparent key note in the final cadence.
Simpson read this melodic characteristic as evidence that the ‘The Rich Merchant Man’ was ‘of popular cast’, and perhaps for this reason it does not seem to have appealed to the period’s most sophisticated composers. In fact, the earliest written versions of the tune date from the early eighteenth century, and our recording is based on the music provided in Wit and Mirth (1707). Here, it appears with a text entitled ‘The Merchant and the Fiddler’s Wife’, a song that had been published in broadside form in c. 1680, set ‘To a Pleasant Northen [sic] Tune’. The song opened with lines that directly referenced those at the beginning of A most sweet Song of an English Merchant:
‘It was a Rich Merchant man,/ That had both ship and all’ [The Merchant-man and the Fiddlers wife].
‘A Rich Merchant man [‘there was’ added in some editions]/ That was both grave and wise’ [A most sweet Song].
Despite the significant thematic differences between the two unfolding narratives (see below), it seems certain that they were intended for the same tune.
Echoes (an overview)
There is a curious paradox here. A most sweet Song was sufficiently popular to generate a tune-title that endured for decades, yet most of the songs that subsequently named the melody abandoned the tense but ultimately buoyant romance of the original ballad and tied its music instead to texts that were heavily moral and religious. Editions of A most sweet Song continued to be published throughout the period of this transition, and the shifting associations of the tune must have altered the ‘feel’ of the old song somewhat.
There was, however, a thematic link, provided by the fact that the original ballad and many of those that followed highlighted an execution. In A most sweet Song, the condemned merchant’s death never actually happens because the delightful maidens of Emden intervene to save him; in later ballads, several of which feature repentant criminals, the executions are all too real and sometimes graphically described (see, for example, THE Unfaithful Servant; AND The Cruel Husband). Thus, the same tune animated individuals who escaped the gallows and individuals who did not. The message delivered by several of these unfortunate types was that others should learn from their wicked examples and abandon sin.
This theme had close links with another series of ballads that warned more generally of the sins of society and urged immediate repentance (see, for example, Englands Warning-Piece). Other songs used the same tune to describe providential wonders – miraculous showers of wheat, extraordinary tales of large families surviving for weeks on single loaves of bread, and so on – and these may suggest that, despite the doom and gloom of the calls for repentance, the tune still allowed for light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps, therefore, this melody came to convey a curious combination of hope and despair as it sounded and re-sounded across the decades.
There is one very striking outlier, entitled The Merchant-man and the Fidlers wife, published around 1680. This is a coarse and supposedly humorous ballad about two men who gamble on the chastity of a woman, and it is so far out of line with the subject matter of the other listed songs that the composer’s choice must be considered part of the comic strategy.
Some of the songs to this tune were connected with one another not just by their music but also by inter-textual referencing, though the links do not appear to have been as frequent as those found among the songs set, for example, to ‘Flying fame’. A most sweet song deploys the distinctive device of repeating the fourth line as the fifth line in its opening verses, and the same tactic is used in The wofull Lamentation of William Purcas. The long refrains that call for repentance in Christs tears over Jerusalem, Englands Warning-Piece and A Warning-Piece for all Wicked Livers are also strongly reminscent of one another. And the textual links between A new Ballad, shewing the great misery sustained by a poore man in Essex and A true sence of Sorrow: OR THE Poor York-shire-Man protected by Providence are so extensive that the latter has to be considered a re-vamping of the former. Interestingly, references to the Devil are removed, meaning that the tall man in black who appears in both ballads is Satan himself in the first song but a benevolent gentleman in the second. The tune, because of the curious route it had travelled through the seventeenth century, could handle both possibilities.
[See 'Postscript', below, for additional notes on the melody].
Songs and Summaries
A most sweet Song of an English Merchant, borne at Chichester... To an excellent new Tune (registered 1594; Francis Coules, 1624-56). Roxburghe 1.104-05; EBBA 30069. Crime – murder; Death – execution, unlawful killing; Gender – courtship, femininity, masculinity, sexual violence; Emotions – love, hope, anxiety, excitement, joy; Bodies – clothing, looks/physique; Violence – interpersonal; Religion – charity, sin/repentance; Places – English, European, travel/transport; Recreation – weddings. An English merchant is condemned to death in Emden after killing a man in a fight, but the local women – universally besotted – intervene to save him.
A new Ballad, shewing the great misery sustained by a poore man in Essex, his Wife and Children... To the tune of, The rich Merchant man (H. Gosson, 1601-40). Roxburghe 1.286-87; EBBA 30202. Religion – angels/devils, Christ/God, charity, Bible; Family – pregnancy/childbirth, children/parents; Gender – marriage; Morality – social/economic; Economy – hardship/prosperity, money, household; Society – rich/poor, neighbours; Emotions – despair, hope; Bodies – nourishment, health/sickness; Environment – flowers/trees; Places – English. A poor man, desperate to find food for his children and pregnant wife, is approached by the Devil in human form, but somehow goodness eventually prevails.
The fearefull Judgement of almighty god, shewed upon two sonnes who most unnaturallye murthered their naturall father. TO THE TUNE OF The Marchant of Emden or Crimson Velvet (no printed copy but it was copied out by hand, c. 1603-16). Shirburn Ballads, XXXIX. Family – children/parents, siblings, inheritance; Crime – murder; Death – unlawful killing, execution; Violence – interpersonal, punitive; Morality – familial; Recreation – games/sports; Religion – divine intervention, sin/repentance; News – international, sensational; Places – European; Emotions – hatred, despair, greed; Employment – professions. The terrible tale of two sons from Amsterdam, who brutally murder their father but are quickly brought to justice through a combination of divine intervention, remorse and legal process.
The Cucking of a Scould. To the tune of, The Merchant of Emden (G. P., 1609-32?). Pepys 1.454; EBBA 20029. Crime – antisocial, punishment; Gender – femininity; Morality – social/economic; Violence – punitive; Emotions – anger. A detailed description of the behaviour and punishment of a seventeen-year old scold.
The Arrainement condemnation and execution of the gran[d cutpurse] John Selman... To the tune of a rich Marchant man [issued with The Captaine Cut-purse] (imprint missing, 1612?). Pepys, Loose Ballads; EBBA 20057. Crime – robbery, punishment; Death – execution, result of immorality; Morality – social/economic; Religion – church, sin/repentance; Recreation – alcohol, games, good fellowship. Two songs - one autobiographical and one in a narrator’s voice – that both describe the wicked thieving ways of John Selman, whose worst crime was to cut a purse during a church service in the King’s Chapel on Christmas Day.
The wofull Lamentation of William Purcas... To the tune of, The rich Merchant (Francis Coules, 1624-80). Roxburghe 1.444-45; EBBA 30299. Family – children/parents; Recreation – alcohol; Morality – familial; Crime – murder; Violence interpersonal, domestic; Death – execution, result of immorality; Religion – angels/devils, body/soul, heaven/hell; Emotions – anger, anxiety, guilt, horror, shame; Bodies – injury; Gender – masculinity; Places – English. This presents the repentant words of a young man who faces execution for murdering his mother because she warned him of the dangers of drunkenness.
Englands Warning-Piece; OR, A Caviet for Wicked Sinners to remember their latter end. To the Tune of the Rich Merchant Man (R. Burton, 1640-79). Wood E 25(127); Religion – body/soul, Christ/God, sin/repentance, charity; Morality – general; Recreation – alchohol; Death – godly end; Emotions – anxiety, frustration; Family – children/parents, siblings; Gender – sex. This condemns the multiple sins that afflict contemporary society, and urges repentance upon all.
Strange Newes from Brotherton in Yorke-shire... To the Tune of The rich Merchant-man (John Hammond, 1642-51). Manchester Central Library, Blackletter Ballads 2.39; EBBA 36213. News - sensational, domestic; Religion - divine intervention, faith, sin/repentance; Environment - crops, weather, wonders; Morality - general; Emotions - wonder; Places - English, European; Economy - hardship/prosperity; Politics - civil war, domestic. This reports on wheat falling from the sky in Yorkshire, connecting it with other recent 'wonders of the LORD'.
A Warning to all Priests and jesuites... To the Tune of, A Rich Merchant Man (Fr. Grove, 1643?). Ashm. H 23(47). Crime – treason; Death – execution; Violence – punitive; Religion – Catholic/Protestant, clergy, church, heaven/hell, Emotions – hatred; News – convicts/crimes; Politics – domestic. A viciously anti-Catholic ballad that describes the recent execution of two ‘seducing’ priests and warns others to flee England before they meet the same fate.
An excellent Ballad of George Barnwel an Apprentice of London, who was undone by a strumpet... The tune is, The Merchant (F. Coles, T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson, 1661-63). Euing 81; EBBA 31764. Bodies – looks/physique, clothing, nourishment; Crime – murder, robbery/theft, outlaws, immorality; Death – execution, result of immorality; Violence – interpersonal, punitive; Employment – apprenticeship/service, prostitution; Gender – masculinity, femininity, sex; Economy – money, trade; Recreation – alcohol, food; Emotions – longing, excitement, despair, greed; Morality – social/economic, romantic/sexual, general; Places – English, European, travel/transport. The long story of an apprentice who is seduced by a ‘harlot’ and tempted into an ultimately destructive life of lasciviousness and crime.
A godly ballad of the just man Job.. The Tune is, The Merchant [issued with The doleful dance] (F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright, 1665-74). Bodleian 4o Rawl. 566(203); Religion – Bible, Christ/God, faith, heroism, sin/repentance; Emotions – sorrow; Family – children/parents, History – ancient/mythological, heroism. A man overhears Job describing his manifold sufferings but refusing resolutely to turn from God.
A true sence of Sorrow: OR THE Poor York-shire-Man protected by Providence... To the Tune of, Rich Merchant-Man (J. Deacon, 1671-99). Pepys 2.53; EBBA 20677. Economy – hardship, household; Emotions – despair, joy; Family – pregnancy/childbirth; Gender – marriage; Morality –social/economic; Society – neighbours, rich and poor. A poor man, whose wife is in child-bed, begs for relief and, after some disappoinments, is generously helped by a slightly mysterious gentleman dressed all in black.
THE Unfaithful Servant; AND The Cruel Husband... To the Tune of, The Rich Merchant-man: Or, George Barnwel (J. Deacon, 1671-99). Pepys 2.151; EBBA 20769. Crime – murder, punishment; Death –execution, result of immorality, unlawful killing; Employment – apprenticeship/service; Family – pregnancy/childbirth; Gender – marriage, adultery/cuckoldry; Violence – interpersonal, punitive; Morality – familial, romantic/sexual; Religion – Christ/God, sin/repentance, prayer; Emotions – anxiety, guilt fear. A maidservant who conspired with her master to poison the pregnant woman of the house regrets her foul deed and prepares for her execution by fire.
Christs tears over Jerusalem... To the Tune of, The Merchant (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke, 1675-80). Bodleian 4o Rawl. 566(190). Religion – Christ/God, divine intervention, sin/repentance, Bible; History – ancient/mythological; Places – extra-European; Violence – divine; Environment – buildings; Morality – general; Emotions – sorrow, hope; Bodies – injury; Death – execution, godly end. This recounts the Biblical tale of Christ’s warnings to sinful Jerusalem and the horrors that God unleashed upon the city, urging England to learn the lesson and avoid a similar fate.
TREASON Justly Punished... Tune of, The Rich Merchant-Man, &c (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke, 1678). Houghton Library, EBB65; EBBA 35048. Crime – treason, prison; Politics – plots, domestic, treason; Religion – Catholic/ProtestantDeath – execution; Violence – punitive; Employment – crafts/trades; News – convicts/crimes; Royalty – general. The sorry tale of William Staley, a Catholic who was excecuted for treason after threatening to kill the king.
Friendly Advice to / EXTRAVAGANTS... Tune of, The rich Merchant man (F. Cole, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Carlk [sic], W. Thackery, and T. Passenger, 1678-80?). Beinecke Library, Broadsides By6 1; EBBA 35694. Death – godly end; Emotions – anxiety; Recreation – alchohol; Religion – Christ/God, sin/repentance. This laments the sins of society, urging everyone to remember that death can strike at any instant and that urgent spiritual preparation is therefore necessary.
The Unnatural Mother... The Tune is, There was a Rich Merchant Man (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, I. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T Passinger, 1680?). Pepys 2.191; EBBA 20806. Gender – marriage, femininity, masculinity; Family – children and parents; Death – unlawful killing, suicide; Crime – infanticide; Violence – interpersonal; Morality – familial; Emotions – anger; News – convicts/crimes. A troubled wife kills herself and her two babies after an argument with her husband.
The Merchant-man and the Fidlers wife... To a Pleasant Northen [sic] Tune (Fr. Coles, Thos. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1680-81). Pepys 4.163; EBBA 21825. Gender – adultery/cuckoldry, marriage, femininity, masculinity, sex, sexual violence; Employment – crafts/trades, professions; Recreation – music, games/sports; Humour – bawdry; Violence – sexual. A fiddler and his wife take a journey in a merchant’s ship, and the two men make a bet over the chastity of the woman.
A Warning-Piece for all Wicked Livers... To the Tune of, The Rich Merchant Man (J. Wright, J. Clark, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1681-84). Crawford 1199; EBBA 34083. Death – godly end; Morality – social/economic, general; Religion – Christ/God, sin/repentance, Bible, charity; Economy – hardship/prosperity; Emotions – anxiety; Recreation – alcohol; Family – children/parents. This offers extensive moral advice after warning that Judgement Day and/or death may well be imminent.
Dirty Dolls Farewel ... Tune of, The Rich Merchant-man (J. Wright, J. Clark, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1684). Pepys, Loose Ballads; 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.
The Kentish MIRACLE... To the Tune of, A Rich Merchant Man (J. Deacon, 1684). Pepys 2.54; EBBA 20678. Religion – prayer, divine intervention, Bible, Christ/God, faith; Family – children/parents; Gender – femininity; Bodies – nourishment; Society – criticism; Economy – hardship, household; Morality – social/economic; Crime – robbery/theft; Places – English. A poor widow prays to God and is miraculously enabled to keep her seven children alive for seven weeks on a single loaf of (burnt) bread.
The Ungrateful Son; OR, An Example of God’s Justice... To the Tune of Kentish miracle (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, J. Back; 1688-96). Crawford 953; EBBA 33528. Family – children/parents, inheritance; Morality – familial; Religion – Catholic/Protestant, Protestant nonconformity, divine intervention; Death – illness, result of immorality; Emotions – anger, sorrow; Society – old/young; Violence – interpersonal; History – recent. A man, imprisoned for his religious beliefs, passes his estate to his son for safe-keeping, and when the son subsequently refuses to return it he is promptly struck down by a fatal illness.
THE GOLDEN Farmer’s Last FAREWEEL... To the Tune of The Rich Merchant-man (P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back, 1690?). Pepys 2.187; EBBA 20802. Crime – robbery/theft; Death – execution; Economy – money; Emotions – fear, guilt; Gender – masculinity; Morality – social/economic; News – convicts/crimes; Recreation – good fellowship; Religion – sin/repentance, Christ/God. A convicted burglar, formerly the head of a gang, repents his life of crime as he prepares for his execution.
Postscript
This tune was hardly ever named on white-letter ballads and was also used very sparingly in songbooks, facts that reinforce the impression that it appealed less strongly to richer and more sophisticated individuals than it did to the consumers of black-letter balladry in general. When the tune was named in more substantial publications, these were typically works that seemed to aim at a broad audience. In The famous historie of Fryer Bacon (1629), for example, the servant Miles sings a mocking song to the tune, and William Slatyer set one of his controversial metrical psalms to ‘The Rich Merchant Man’ in 1621, identifying it as one of ‘the most noted and common, but solemne tunes, every where in this Land familiarly used and knowne’.
Christopher Marsh
References
The famous historie of Fryer Bacon (1629), C2v-3r.
Una McIlvenna, ‘The Rich Merchant Man, or, What the Punishment of Greed Sounded like in Early Modern English Ballads’, Huntington Library Quarterly 79.2 (2016), pp. 279-99.
Claude M. Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and its music (New Brunswick, 1966), pp. 602-04.
William Slatyer, Psalms, or songs of Sion (1621).
Wit and Mirth (1707), vol. 3, p. 153.
Back to contentsStandard woodcut name: Merchant’s execution
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 was clearly designed specifically for the ballad, a fact that limited its relevance to other songs. All surviving copies and editions of the ‘sweet Song’ from the seventeenth century featured the image, usually produced from the same woodblock, but no other title in the Pepys or Roxburghe collections displays it. The only sheet listed below is therefore our featured edition. The picture stood so strongly for this particular narrative that consumers perhaps did not wish or expect to encounter it on other ballads.
Songs and summaries:
A most sweet Song of an English Merchant, borne at Chichester (Francis Coules, 1624-56). Roxburghe 1.104-05; EBBA 30069. Crime – murder; Death – execution, unlawful killing; Gender – courtship, femininity, masculinity, sexual violence; Emotions – love, hope, anxiety, excitement, joy; Bodies – clothing, looks/physique; Violence – interpersonal; Religion – charity, sin/repentance; Places – English, European, travel/transport; Recreation – weddings. An English merchant is condemned to death in Emden after killing a man in a fight, but the local women – universally besotted – intervene to save him (picture placement: the scene appears directly beneath the title, and there are no other woodcuts).
Christopher Marsh
Back to contentsWe have identified only one clearly related text and, sadly, it has not survived. Philip Henslowe, owner of the Rose theatre, noted on 30 July 1594 that a performance of a play entitled The Merchant of Emden, almost certainly based on the ballad, had brought in three pounds and eight shillings, suggesting a highly successful first night. Strangely, however, this was not only the first but also the last night, and The Merchant of Emden does not seem to have been performed again.
Without a surviving text, we can only speculate about the reasons for the pulling of the play. The ballad’s author, Thomas Deloney, and its printer, Abel Jeffs, were both controversial figures in the last decade of the sixteenth century: in 1595, the former was imprisoned for his role in defending the rights of London’s poorer weavers and the latter was banned from printing because he had published a number of ‘lewd’ and ‘offensive’ ballads and books. It seems unlikely, however, that the edgy reputations of these two men would have been sufficient to transform a play built on their ballad into a hot potato. Without further evidence, however, it is difficult to suggest a more plausible explanation.
Christopher Marsh
References
W. W. Greg and E. Boswell, Records of the Court of the Stationers' Company 1576 to 1602 from Register B (London: Bibliographical Soc, 1930), p. xx.
Lost plays database, https://lostplays.folger.edu/Merchant_of_Emden,_The
Christopher Marsh, ‘Best-selling ballads and the female voices of Thomas Deloney’, Huntington Library Quarterly 82.1 (Spring, 2019), pp. 127-54.
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), no. 3058.
A most sweet Song of an English Merchant,/ borne at Chichester.
To an excellent new Tune.
[Play each verse by clicking anywhere within its text]
That was both grave and wise, Did kill a man at Emden Towne, Through quarrels that did rise, Through quarrels that did rise, The German hee was dead, And for this fact the Merchant man was judg’d to lose his head. A sweet thing is love, It rules both heart and mind; There is no comfort in the world to women that are kind.
Within the Market-place, And all the people farre and neere, Did thither flocke apace. Did thither flocke apace, This dolefull sight to see, Who all in velvet blacke as Jet, unto the place came hee. A sweet thing is love, &c.
His hands were bound before, A Cambricke Ruffe about his necke, As white as milke hee wore: His Stockings were of silke, As fine as fine might be Of person, and of countenance, a proper man was hee. A sweet thing is love, &c.
Upon the Scaffold high, All women said great pity ‘twas, So sweet a man should die. The Merchants of the Towne, From death to set him free, Did proffer there two thousand pound, but yet it would not be. A sweet thing is love, It rules both heart and mind; There is no comfort in the world to women that are kind.
Began to speake his mind, Quoth hee, I have deserved death, In conscience I doe find: Yet sore against my will, This man I kild, quoth he, As Christ doth know, which of my soule must onely Saviour be. A sweet thing is love, &c.
This most unhappy deed; And for his wife and children small, My very soule doth bleed: This deed is done and past, My hope of life is vaine, And yet the losse of this my life, to them is little gain. A sweet thing is love, &c.
And her two Babes therefore, I give a hundred pound a piece, Their comfort to restore: Desiring at their hands, No one request but this, They will speake well of Englishm[en] though I have done amisse. A sweet thing is love, &c.
But that to stint his griefe, Ten goodly Maids did proffer him, For love to beg his life: This is our law, quoth they, We may your death remove, If you in lieu of our good will, will grant to us your love. A sweet thing is love, &c.
’Tis I will beg thy life: Nay, quoth the second, it is I, If I must be thy wife: ’Tis I, the third did say; Nay, quoth the fourth, ‘tis I: So each one after other said, still waiting his reply. A sweet thing is love, It rules both heart and mind; There is no comfort in the world to women that are kind.
The second Part, To the same tune.
I must confesse and say, That each of you full worthy is, To be a Lady gay: And I unworthy farre, The worst of you to have, Though you have offered willingly my loathed life to save. A sweet thing is love, It rules both heart and mind; There is no comfort in the world to women that are kind.
Of mee a dying man: But speake no more of love nor life, For why, my life is gone. To Christ my love I give, My body unto death: For none of you my heart can love, though I doe lose my breath. A sweet thing is love, &c.
Your Country Law is such, It takes but hold upon my life, My goods it cannot touch: Within one chest I have In gold a thousand pound, I give it equall to you all, for love which I have found. A sweet thing is love, &c.
Sweet England eake adieu, And Chichester where I was borne, Where first this breath I drew, And now thou man of death, Unto thy weapon stand: Ah nay another Damsell cry’d, sweet Headsman hold thy hand. A sweet thing is love, &c.
Brave Englishman, quoth shee, And grant her love for love again, That craves but love of thee: I wooe and sue for love, That have been wooed ere this, Then grant mee love, and therewithall shee proffers him a kisse. A sweet thing is love, It rules both heart and mind; There is no comfort in the world to women that are kind.
If thou wilt die, quoth shee: Yea live or die sweet Englishman, Ile live and die with thee. But can it be, hee said, That thou dost love mee so: ’Tis not by long acquaintance sir, whereby true love doth grow. A sweet thing is love, &c.
And I will be thine owne; If I should seeke the world for love, More love cannot be showne. The people on that word, Did give a joyfull cry, And said, it had great pitie been, so sweet a man should die A sweet thing is love, &c.
I run, I flye for thee; And gentle Headsman spare a while, My Lovers life for mee: Unto the Duke shee went, Who did her griefe remove; And with an hundred Maidens more, shee went to fetch her Love. A sweet thing is love, &c.
The formost of the traine, This gallant Maiden like a Bride, Did fetch him backe againe: Yea hand in hand they went Unto the Church that day, And they were married presently in sumptuous rich array. A sweet thing is love, &c.
With this his lovely Bride, A fairer woman never lay By any Merchants side: Where I must leave them now, In pleasure and delight; But of their name and dwelling place, I must not here recite. A sweet thing is love, It rules both heart and mind; There is no comfort in the world to women that are kind.
FINIS.
Printed at London for Francis Coules/ in 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 'A rich marchant man'); Coles, Vere, Wright and Clarke,1675 ('A most sweete song of an English merchant borne in Chichester'); and Thackeray, 1689 ('Rich Merchant man').
Other registrations with Stationers' Company: 1594.
No. of known editions c.1560-1711: 14
No. of extant copies: 12
New tune-titles generated: 'The [rich] merchant [man]'(17 ballads).
Specially-commissioned woodcuts: Merchant's execution on featured edition (and other editions).
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library databases: 14 references but no evidence of later collection as a folk-song (Roud no. V11298).
POINTS: 0 + 30 + 5 + 28 + 12 + 30 + 5 + 1 = 111
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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