59  Flora's farewell: Or,/ The Shepherds Love-passion Song [Euing 121]

Author: Price, Laurence (fl. 1628–1675)

Bodies - looks/physique Emotions - anger Emotions - love Employment - agrarian Gender - Cupid Gender - courtship Gender - femininity Gender - masculinity Morality - romantic/sexual

Song History

Flora’s Farewell was written by Laurence Price and first published by Francis Grove, probably in the 1640s. 

Content

A classic story in pastoral mode, the song enacts a dialogue between Flora and her shepherd suitor. The shepherd blames Flora for being false - though he acknowledges he has set her a bad example. Made miserable by unrequited love, but refusing to be deceived by a ‘female brat’, her suitor is determined to abandon his love for her entirely. In reply, Flora rejects her lover’s accusations which, as she points out, are prompted by her refusal to give in to his sexual demands. His shameful behaviour has made her realise his love isn’t worth having and she welcomes his departure.

Authorship

The song’s author, Laurence Price (fl. 1624-c.1667), was a prolific song- and story-writer. Despite his fame, he is a shadowy figure - like so many of his contemporaries in London’s cheap print trade. By the 1650s, when Grove first had opportunity to register his rights to Flora’s Farewell after the disruptions of the civil wars, Price reigned supreme as the most popular and prolific writer of the decade. His widespread fame as a popular writer is reflected by the rare accolade of being frequently named as an author in the Stationers’ registers of copy rights. Moreover, in 1656, Price was named as one of the ‘glorious three’ popular writers, alongside Humphrey Crouch and Samuel Smithson.

Over the course of his career, Price sold his songs to several publishers, but he developed a particularly close relationship with Francis Grove and Grove’s erstwhile apprentice, John Andrews. Between them, Grove and Andrews published the majority – at least twenty-three – of his songs. There may well have been more; in at least seven cases, the first we know of a new Price title is a decision by the Ballad Partners to acquire it for their warehouse, suggesting that it was already a best-seller (see the Ballad business essay). The Ballad Partners were well aware of Price's saleability, and several of them - Thomas Vere, William Gilbertson, and John Wright II – acquired and published Price songs individually.

Publishing History and Popularity

An interesting aspect of this song’s nine editions is the unusual number of times the design of the sheet changed. Grove’s two surviving editions are illustrated with a woodcut that drew upon a portrait of James I and his Queen, Ann of Denmark. However, on the copy collected by Anthony Wood, the woodcut is a remake of the one on the Euing edition, which suggests there were several more, now lost, editions in between.

After his death in 1662, Grove's titles were acquired by the Cole-led Ballad Partners (see Ballad business essay). The Ballad Partnership first re-issued the song in 1675 and their printer used a different set of woodcuts, depicting a more modern couple. However, under John Wright’s leadership in the 1680s, the original woodcut was remade and applied to their reprint. A new attempt to update the ballad’s look was made in 1695, after William Thackeray had retired from direct involvement in the business. A new partnership led by Alexander Milbourne and including Thomas Thackeray (William Thackeray's nephew), illustrated the ballad with an old image of Charles II and a woman. Once the young Thackeray had left the partnership, however, Milbourn and Onley restored the original woodcut to the song.

This complex story of shifts in illustrative design shows how publishers took note of the market’s determination that particular images could be seen as intrinsic to the pleasure of an old song. Another intriguing change occurred when the Ballad Partners acquired the song from Francis Grove’s heir: the compositor made the mistake of leaving off the ‘b’ from the line ‘No Female Brat shall me deceive’. For the rest of the century the line read ‘Female Rat’ which was a great deal more insulting than the original!

Its tune may have been one of the most compelling reasons for the popularity of Flora’s Farewell. Yet, it is just one of several Price titles that were popular enough to be continually reprinted over a century or more, but for which the tune is now lost. The scale of this mystery prompts some conjecture. Despite Price's well-known 'popular' touch, his music does not seem to have appealed to the class of people that compiled music books for domestic use and from which our knowledge of tunes so often comes. 

Angela McShane

References

S.F. Death in a new dress (1656), Sig. A3

McShane, Angela. "Price, Laurence (fl. 1628–c.1667), ballad and chapbook writer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online (2020)

 

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Featured Tune History

'To a delicate new Tune' (lost melody; standard name - Flora farewell)

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

We have not been able to find a seventeenth-century tune entitled 'Flora's farewell', nor a later melody with a strong connection to subsequent versions of the song ('A thousand times my love commend', named as an alternative on the sheet, was probably a different tune, and it too has been lost). We have not, therefore, provided a recording. Within seventeenth-century balladry, the tune was known most often as ‘Flora farewell’ (a name drawn from the song under discussion here) but it also seems to have been called ‘True love rewarded with loyalty’, ‘My dearest dear and I must part’ and ‘Love’s downfall’.

Echoes (an overview)

This tune, though now lost, was clearly popular in the middle decades of the seventeenth century. Almost all of the ballads upon which it was nominated dealt with courtship, and in most of these a strong narrative pattern was established in which a couple faced a difficulty but eventually found a positive resolution. The problem was often that either the man or the woman felt insecure about the other’s love and the resolution came in the form of reassurance (see, for example, The Discontented Plow-man and The constant Country Maid). Occasionally, the difficulty was of a different sort, and The Famous Flower of SERVINGMEN tells the story of a wealthy woman who, having fallen into poverty, disguises herself as a man and ends up marrying the king.

There were also ballads, however, in which the romantic problems proved insurmountable, and the hit song, Flora’s farewell, is a good example. Here, a romantic relationship has broken up over the vexed question of pre-marital sex (see also Loves Downfall and Clorinda’s Complaint). Perhaps the mainly positive associations of the melody served to intensify the poignancy of such narratives. Something similar might be said of The married wives Complaint, in which a woman recalls the happiness of her youth from the miserable confines of her subsequent marriage (the refrain runs, ‘for as I am bound I must obey’).

The only outlier in the list below is The Shepherds Glory, a song of praise to men of a particular occupation that does not discuss courtship explicitly (though surely the romance of shepherds, highlighted in dozens of other ballads, hangs tunefully in the air).

The ballads listed below are connected not only by their tune but also by numerous textual cross-references, only a few of which can be mentioned here. Physical descriptions of individual men and women in several ballads seem to echo one another: ‘Of Stature he was streight and tall’ (Clorinda’s Complaint); ‘A proper man both streight and tall’ (The Maids Revenge); ‘He is both proper, strait and tall’ (The constant Country Maid); and ‘Her body is both proper and tall’ (The Discontented Plow-man).

Three songs present verses in which ‘heart’ and ‘part’ are rhymed in lines 1 and 3 respectively (The Discontented Young-Man, The Constant Country Maid, and The Northampton-shire Lovers). There is also a striking similarity between the following verses:

‘My Dearest why dost thou complain/ And grieve thy heart since I am true,/ Fear not that I will thee disdain/ ile never change thee for a new (True Love rewarded with Loyalty).

‘Quoth he my love I understand/ thy love is constant, firm, and true,/ Loe here I give thee heart and hand/ ile never change thee for a new’ (The constant Country Maid).

The notion of ‘changing an old love for a new’ was, admittedly, proverbial but its repetitive deployment in the final lines of verses is nevertheless striking (see also The Maids Revenge). As in other cases, songs to the same melody seem to have been participated in a lively dialogue with one another.

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

Songs and Summaries

Flora's farewell: Or, The Shepherds Love-passion Song, Wherein he greatly doth complain, Because his love was spent in vain... To a delicate new Tune: or, A thousand times my love commend (F. G., 1642-56). Euing 121; EBBA 31829. Gender – courtship, masculinity, femininity; Morality – romantic/sexual; Employment – agrarian; Emotions – anger. A shepherd expresses his anger at the behaviour of his former sweetheart, and she responds by reminding him that she did no more than exert her right to refuse sex before marriage.

True Love rewarded with Loyalty: Or, Mirth and Joy after sorrow and sadness... To a new West Country tune called, O hark my love, or Flora Farwell (registered 1675 but certainly written somewhat earlier; 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.

Loves Downfall... To the Tune of, Flora farewell Or, True Love rewarded with Loyalty (registered 1678 but certainly written earlier; J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1684-86). Pepys 3.326; EBBA 21341. Gender – courtship, femininity, masculinity; Family – children/parents; Death – suicide, heartbreak, grief; Violence – self-inflicted; Morality – familial, romantic/sexual; Emotion – love, anger, despair; Employment – apprenticeship/service; Society – rich/poor; Religion – prayer, Christ/God; Recreation – reading/writing. A wealthy maiden falls in love with her father’s stable groom and kills herself when she is ordered to marry a man of much higher status.

Clorinda’s Complaint. OR, The Forsaken Ladies lamentation... Tune of, True love rewarded with loyalty: Or, loves Downfall (R. Burton, 1640-79). Douce 1(27a). Gender – courtship, masculinity, femininity; Emotions – sorrow, love, suspicion; Bodies – looks/physique; Environment – weather, sea, weather, birds; Recreation – music; Religion – ancient gods; History – ancient/mythological. A woman laments the fact that her sweetheart, driven by groundless jealousy to doubt her loyalty, has fled to France.

The Maids Revenge upon Cupid and Venus... To the Tune of Loves Tyde, or, Flora Farewel (registered 1656; Fra. Grove, c. 1656). Roxburghe 3.222-23; EBBA 30868. Gender – courtship, sex, masculinity, Cupid; Emotions – frustration, sorrow, hope; Employment- crafts/trades; History – ancient/mythological; Morality – romantic/sexual; Recreation – food; Death – general; Bodies – adornment; Religion – ancient gods.  A woman, drawing on several proverbs, resolves not to marry unless she can find a man more reliable than the numerous suitors who have so far presented themselves.

The Famous Flower of SERVINGMEN. OR, The Lady turn'd Serving-Man... To a dainty Tune, or, Flora Farewel, Summer time, or, Loves tide (registered 1656; W. Thackeray and T. Passinger, 1687-88).  Pepys 3.142; EBBA 21154.  Employment – apprenticeship/ service, female/male; Gender – courtship, cross-dressing, femininity, masculinity; Recreation – music; Bodies – clothing; Humour – deceit/disguise, extreme situations; Politics – court; Royalty – authority.  A brave young lady, fallen on hard times, disguises herself as a man and finds employment at court, only reverting to her female persona when the King realises the truth and decides to marry her.

The constant Country Maid, OR Innocent Love at length Rewarded... Tune of True Love rewarded with Loyalty (W. Whitwood, 1666-84). Roxburghe 3.110-11; EBBA 30430. Gender – courtship, Cupid; Emotions – anxiety, joy; Employment – agrarian, female; Bodies – looks/physique; Environment – animals, flowers/trees, weather, skies/stars; Family – children/parents; Society – rural life. A young woman is sad because her sweetheart seems to have deserted her but eventually he emerges from a grove and reassures her of his love.

The Shepherds Glory... To the Tune of, True love rewarded with loyalty: Or, Flora Farewel (P. Brooksby, 1670-98).  Roxburghe 2.428; EBBA 30894.  Employment – agrarian, crafts/trades, female/male; Religion – Bible; History – ancient/mythological; Economy – livings; Environment – animals, birds, flowers/trees; Gender – masculinity; Recreation – music; Society – rural life.  A song in praise of shepherds, covering both their prominence in the Bible and their vital economic role in the present day.

The married wives Complaint of her unkind Husband; OR, A Caution for Maids to beware how they marry... To a very pleasant new tune, or, jonny armstrong, or, True love rewarded with Loyalty (P. Brooksby, 1670-98). Douce 2(151b). Gender – marriage, masculinity, femininity; Family – children/parents; Morality – familial, romantic/sexual; Violence – domestic, interpersonal; Recreation – alcohol; Employment – female; Emotions – frustration, sorrow; Economy – household, money; Bodies – nourishment. The wife of a lazy, irresponsible and abusive husband laments her situation and advises unmarried maidens to beware of marriage.

Cupids Conquest: OR, Will the Shepheard, and fair Kate of the Green... To the Tune of, As I went forth to take the Air: Or, My dearest dear and I must part (J. Deacon, 1671-99). Crawford 882; EBBA 33747. Gender – courtship, Cupid; Bodies – looks/physique; Emotions – love, longing, joy; Employment – agrarian; Environment – weather, sea; Society – rural life. A man asks Cupid to come to his aid in securing the affections of the woman he loves, and the little god of love duly obliges.

The Discontented Plow-man... To the Tune of True Love rewarded, Or, Flora Farewel (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke, 1675-80). 4o Rawl. 566(86). Gender – courtship; Bodies – looks/physique; Economy – money; Emotions –sorrow, joy; Employment – agrarian, female;  Society – rural life; Recreation – music, weddings. A man bemoans the fact that his sweetheart has decided to leave him, but in the latter part of the song she turns up, reassures him, and wedding bells begin to ring.

The Discontented Young-Man, and the Loving Maide; Or, True Love with Loyalty ought for to be paid... To the Tune of, Farewel thou flower of false Deceit. or, Flora Farewel (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1680-81). Pepys 3.112; EBBA 21117. Gender – courtship, masculinity, femininity; Emotions – anger, love, joy; Bodies – looks/physique; Economy – money.  A man is angry because his sweetheart treats him with disdain, so she reassures him that she has merely been testing his loyalty and it all ends happily.

The Northampton-shire Lovers. OR, No Wealth can compare unto true Love... Tune of, True Love rewarded with Loyalty, or, Loves downfal (J. Wright, J. Clark, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1682-84). Pepys 1.532-33; EBBA 20254. Gender – courtship, femininity, masculinity, singles; Emotions – love, suspicion, joy; Environment – flowers/trees, animals, birds; Employment – agrarian; Economy – money; Recreation – walking; Society – rural life, rich/poor. A man declares his love for a woman and she, after an initial expression of reluctance, accepts him.

Postscript

‘The Tune of Flora farewell’ is also nominated on a highly unusual white-letter ballad entitled The DESCRIPTION of the Singers of Israel, or the Family of LOVE, in a Song of ZION (1680). The author, Elizabeth Rone, defends the members of the mysterious religious fellowship to which she belongs from the attacks of others. She adopts the old technique of appropriating a courtship melody for a serious religious song, and the only love on display is that which connects ‘The Sweet Singers of Israel’ with their maker (see Marsh, below).

More conventionally, ‘Flora’s Farewel’ provides the music for a long song, published in chapbook form as The Lovers Quarrel; Or, Cupids Triumph (1677). This tells the tale of a noblewoman who refuses to marry a fellow aristocrat because she is in love with Tommy Pots, the servingman. After plenty of violence and emotional turbulence, it ends happily, thereby following a trajectory familiar from several of the ballads listed above.

Christopher Marsh

References

The Lovers Quarrel; Or, Cupids Triumph (1677), A3r-B4r.

Christopher Marsh, The Family of Love in English society, 1550-1630 (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 245-7.

Claude Simpson, The British broadside ballad and its music (New Brunswick, 1966), pp. 22, 374, 402, 506, 564, 751.

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Featured Woodcut History

Standard woodcut name: Chapman with box

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 picture was apparently used sparingly, and almost exclusively during the first half of the seventeenth century. It seems that more than one woodblock existed, though it is difficult to be sure. The Chapman with box usually represents a street-seller or shopkeeper, often being approached by a wealthy gallant. On There's nothing to be had without money, for example, his presence reinforces the point made in the title.

Other uses are more peculiar. On The Begger-Boy of the North, he seems to represent the carefree and dishonest vagabond who believes that he is morally superior to those who hoard their wealth. Beggars and chapmen were connected by their itinerancy, and the implied interaction between the man in the picture and the gentleman who approaches him was presumably considered a sufficiently suggestive thematic fit.

The chapman’s appearance on Flora’s farewell is more of a stretch, for here he apparently stands for the shepherd who has fallen out with his sweetheart. It is perhaps not surprising that other editions of this successful song dropped the woodcut. Overall, therefore, it looks as if the specificity of the picture made it difficult for ballad-makers to deploy it effectively, and only a few of them attempted to do so.

[See also Song history for discussion of the woodcut that appears on the left side of our featured edition].

Songs and summaries:

A Mad Crue; Or, That shall be tryde (John Trundle, 1597-1626).  Pepys 1.444-45; EBBA  20209.  Recreation – alcohol, good fellowship, food, games, theatre, tobacco, hospitality; Employment – crafts/trades, professions, female/male; Places – English; Gender – adultery/cuckoldry, femininity, masculinity; Bodies – clothing; Crime – robbery; Death – execution; Family – kin. The narrator walks around London, sampling the recreations and conversing with all sorts of men and women (picture placement: he appears over the fourth and final column of text, alongside a man who smokes a long pipe).

The Begger-Boy of the North: Whose linage and calling to th' world is proclaim'd (F. Grove, 1623-62).  Roxburghe 1.542-43; EBBA 30359.  Employment – begging; Recreation – alcohol, good fellowship; Bodies – clothing, health/sickness; Disability – physical; Family – children/parents, kin; Economy – hardship/prosperity; Places – travel/transport.  A beggar describes the tricks of the trade, asserts that he is morally superior to a rich miser, and claims that he would not wish to live in any other way (picture placement: he stands on the right side of the sheet, next to a gallant in a plumed hat).

A Whetstone for Lyers.  A Song of strange wonders, beleeue them, if you wil, As true as some Stories that Travellers tell (Francis Grove, 1623-62).  Pepys 1.466-67; EBBA 20218.  Places – travel, English, European, Scottish; Humour – deceit/disguise, extreme situations/surprises, mockery, satire; Politics – foreign affairs; Emotions – pride.  A traveller boasts of his outlandish adventures while warning everyone to beware of liars (picture placement: he stands over the final column of text, alongside the same man who appears in A Mad Crue, above, but now without his pipe).

There's nothing to be had without money (H. G., 1633-40?).  Roxburghe 1.400-01; EBBA 30275.  Recreation – alcohol, good fellowship, theatre, games/sports, sight-seeing; Bodies – clothing; Employment – professions, crafts/trades; Gender – masculinity; Economy – money, shopping; Places – English.  A 'good fellow' describes his exuberant social activities and shopping habits, and he seems to argue that the key to sustaining his flamboyant lifestyle is to avoid entanglement with disreputable women (picture placement: he stands on the right side and is being approached by a gallant in a plumed hat).

Flora's farewell: Or, The Shepherds Love-passion Song, Wherein he greatly doth complain, Because his love was spent in vain (F. G., 1642-56). Euing 121; EBBA 31829. Gender – courtship, masculinity, femininity; Morality – romantic/sexual; Employment – agrarian; Emotions – anger. A shepherd expresses his anger at the behaviour of his former sweetheart, and she responds by reminding him that she did no more than exert her right to refuse sex before marriage (picture placement: he appears on the right, with his back to a Welcoming woman).

Christopher Marsh

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Related Texts

There are no additional texts to report relating to the content of the song. See Featured tune history for evidence of other songs that used the tune.

Angela McShane

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Flora’s farewell: OR,/ The Shepherds Love-passion Song,/ Wherein he greatly doth complain,/ Because his love was spent in vain.

To a delicate new Tune: or, A thousand times my love commend.

[We have not recorded this song because the tune is unknown]

 

FLora farewel, I needs must go,

for if with thee I longer stay,

Thine eyes prevaile over me so,

I shall be blind and lose my way.

 

Fame of thy beauty and thy youth,

to seek for love me hither brought;

But when in thee I found no truth,

it was no boot to stay I thought.

 

Now I’m ingag’d by word and oath

a servant to anothers will;

Yet for thy sake would forego both,

wouldst thou be sure to love me still.

 

But what assurance can I have

of thee, who seeing mine abuse,

In that which love desires to crave,

may leave me with a just excuse.

 

For thou maist say, ‘twas not thy fault,

that thou didst so inconstant prove,

Thou were by mine example taught

to break thy oath and leave thy love.

 

No Flora no, I will recal

the former words which I have spoke,

And thou shalt have no cause at all

to hamper me in Cupids yoke.

 

But since thy humor is to range,

and that thou bear’st a wavering mind

Like to the Moon with thee Ile change,

and turn I can with every wind.

 

Henceforth blind Fancy Ile remove,

and cast all sorrows from my heart:

Young men to dye for doting Love,

I hold it but a foolish part.

 

Why should I to one love be bound,

and fix my thoughts on none but thee,

When as a thousand may be found,

thats far more fair and fit for me.

 

Though I am but a Shepherds Swain,

my minde to me doth comfort bring,

Feeding my Flocks upon the Plain,

I tryumph like a petty King.

 

No Female Brat shall me deceive,

nor catch me by a crafty wilde?

Though I doe love, yet I can leave,

and will no longer be begilde.

 

Flora, once more farewell, adew,

I so conclud my passion Song;

To thy next Love see thou prove true,

for thou hast done me double wrong.

 

The second part, to the same Tune./ Being the Answer of fair Flora to the Shepherds Song:/ Wherein she shews that he hath done the wrong.

 

FYe, Shepherd fie, thou art to blame

to rail against me in this sort:

Thou dost disgrace a Sweet=hearts name,

To give thy Love a false report.

 

There was a Proverb used of old,

and now I find it is no lye,

One Tale is good till the other’s told,

she that loves most is least set by.

 

A brief Description I will tell,

of thy favor, love and flattery,

And how at first thou didst excell

with cunning tricks and policy.

 

But Oh that flattering tongue of thine,

and tempting eye sought to intice,

And to insnare the heart of mine,

and bring me in fools Paradise.

 

When thou at first began to woo,

and with thy skill my patience tryed,

You thought there was no more to do,

But presently get up and ride.

 

Thou saidst that I was fair and bright,

and fitting for thy Marriage bed,

Thou fedst my fancy with delight,

thinking to have my Maiden-head.

 

But when thou sawst thou couldst not gain

the Jem that thou desirest to have,

My company thou didst refrain,

like to a false dissembling Knave.

 

Whereby I answered thus, and said,

to shun the cause of further strife,

I would contain my self a Maid,

till such time I was made a wife.

 

And since that you my minde have crost,

you may bestow you as you will:

Shepherd, farewell, theres nothing lost

I am resolved to say so still.

 

Blind Cupid with his wounding dart

could never make me sorrows feel:

Ile not lay that unto my heart

as others shake off with the heel.

FINIS.    L. P

London, Printed for F. G./ on Snow=hill.

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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: Coles, Vere, Wright and Clarke, 1675; and Thackeray, 1689.

Other registrations with Stationers' Company: 1656.

No. of known editions c.1560-1711: 9

No. of extant copies: 14

New tune-titles generated: 'Flora[s] farewell' (8 ballads).

Specially-commissioned woodcuts: none known.

Vaughan Williams Memorial Library databases: 11 references, with no evidence of later collection as a folk-song (Roud no. V12023).

POINTS: 0 + 10 + 5 + 18 + 14 + 16 + 0 + 1 = 64

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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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