Scottish Song on the Battle of Bannockburn,—Fabyan’s _Chron._, vol. ii. fol. 169. ed. 1559.
“Your maryners shall synge arowe _Hey how and rumby lowe_.”
_The Squyr of Lowe Degre_,—Ritson’s _Met. Rom._ iii. 179.
“I saw three ladies fair, singing _hey and how_, Upon yon ley land, hey: I saw three mariners, singing _rumbelow_, Upon yon sea-strand, hey.”
“Where were many shippes and maryners noyse with _hale & how_.”
_Morte d’Arthur_, B. vii. c. xv. vol. i. 209. ed. Southey.
“Hope, Calye, and Cardronow, Gathered out thick-fold, With _heigh, and how, rumbelow_, The young fools were full bold.”
_Peblis to the Play_,—Chalmers’s _Poet. Rem. of Scot. Kings_, p. 108.
“Robin Hood and Little John They are both gone to fair O! And we will go to the merry green wood, To see what they do there O! With _Hel-an-tow_ _And Rum-be-low_,” &c.
Cornish Song,—_Gent. Mag._ for Dec. 1790. vol. lx. (part sec.) 1100.
Among the songs enumerated in _The Complaynt of Scotland_ is “Sal i go vitht zou to _rumbelo_ fayr,” p. 101. ed. Leyden: and in _Hycke Scorner_ mention is made of
“the londe of _rumbelowe_ Thre myle out of hell.”
Page 40. v. 252. _row the bote, Norman, rowe!_] A fragment of an old song, the origin of which is thus recorded by Fabyan: “In this. xxxii. yere [of King Henry the Sixth] Jhon Norman foresaid, vpon the morowe of Simon and Judes daie, thaccustomed day when the newe Maior vsed yerely to ride with greate pompe vnto westminster to take his charge, this Maior firste of all Maiors brake that auncient and olde continued custome, and was rowed thither by water, for the whiche yᵉ Watermen made of hym a roundell or song to his greate praise, the whiche began: _Rowe the bote Norman, rowe_ to thy lemman, and so forth with a long processe.” _Chron._ vol. ii. fol. 457. ed. 1559.
v. 253. _Prynces of yougthe can ye synge by rote?_] The meaning of this line seems to be—Can you sing by rote the song beginning, _Princess of youth_? Skelton, in his _Garlande of Laurell_, calls Lady Anne Dakers
“_Princes of yowth_, and flowre of goodly porte.”
Page 40. v. 254. _Or shall I sayle wyth you a felashyp assaye_] i. e., I suppose,—Or try, of good fellowship, (or, perhaps, together with me,) the song which commences _Shall I sail with you?_ Compare the quotation from _The Complaynt of Scotland_ in preceding page.