Ye parents all that children have, And ye that have none yet, Preserve your children from the grave, And teach them at home to sit.
For had these at a sermon been, Or else upon dry ground, Why then I never would have been seen, If that they had been drown’d!
Even as a huntsman ties his dogs, For fear they should go fro him; So tye your children with severity’s clogs, _Untie ’em_--and you’ll _undo ’em_.
God bless our noble Parliament, And rid them from all fears; God bless _all_ the Commons of this land, And God bless--_some_ of the Peers!’
“And now, Sir, I shall, by your favour, say a few words with respect to the tune to which these verses were formerly sung; which I am the better enabled to do by the researches of a gentleman, to whom, in several other particulars of our history, I have been considerably indebted. By his information, I shall first inform you, that the foregoing Song exists in its original state, in the Pepysian Collection of Ballads preserved in Magdalen College, Cambridge, volume ii., page 146; where it is called ‘_The Lamentation of a bad market, or the drownding of three children on the Thames. To the tune of the Ladies’ Fall. Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke._’ Now the old verses, entitled ‘_A Lamentable Ballad of the Lady’s Fall_,’ you will find, with some account of it prefixed, in Bishop Percy’s ‘_Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_,’ volume iii., book ii., article x., page 137, fourth edition, London, 1794, octavo; or, indeed, you may consult any edition but the last. From the Editor’s notice of this latter poem, we learn that it was sung to the tune of the verses called ‘_The Shepherd’s Slumber_;’ better known by the first three words of the commencing stanza.
‘In pescod time, when hound to horne Gives eare till buck be kill’d; And little lads with pipes of corne, Sate keeping beasts a-field.’
“I have not, Mr. Barnaby, found the musical notation of _this_ song, though I am almost inclined to think it was sung to the very common tune of ‘_Flying Fame_,’ so familiar to every body under the name of ‘_Chevy Chace_;’ for in volume iv., page 1, of Tom D’Urfey’s collection of Songs called ‘_Wit and Mirth_,’ London, 1719, 12mo., you may see this very ballad on London Bridge, entitled ‘_Three children sliding on the Thames. Tune, Chevy chace_.’ Listen then, my good Sir, whilst, with my very unmelodious voice, I attempt to give you some idea of it;--the music I have alluded to, runs thus:--