And whan in hande hee had her ta'en, Scho toke hym by the shouther bane, And held her hold ful faste;Scho strave sea stifflie in thatte stoure, Scho byt thro' ale hys rich armoure, Till bloud cam owt at laste.
Than Gilbert grieved was sea sare, That hee rave off the hyde of haire;The flesh cam fra the bane, And wyth force hee held her ther, And wanne her worthilie in warre, And band her hym alane;And lifte her on a horse sea hee, Into two panyers made of a tree, And toe Richmond anon.
When they sawe the felon come, They sange merrilye Te Deum!
The freers evrich one.
They thankyd God and Saynte Frauncis, That they had wonne the beaste of pris, And nere a man was sleyne:
There never didde man more manlye, The Knyght Marone, or Sir Guye, Nor Louis of Lothraine.
If yow wyl any more of thys, I' the fryarie at Richmond written yt is, In parchment gude and fyne, How Freer Myddeltone sea hende, Att Greta Bridge conjured a fiende, In lykeness of a swyne.
Yt is wel knowen toe manie a man, That Freer Theobald was warden than, And thys fel in hys tyme.
And Chryst thayme bles both ferre and nere, Al that for solas this doe here, And hym that made the ryme.
Raphe of Rokeby wid ful gode wyl, The freers of Richmond gav her tyll, This sewe toe mende ther fare;Freer Myddeltone by name, He wold bring the felon hame, That rewed hym sine ful sare.
Ballad: ARTHUR O'BRADLEY'S WEDDING.
[IN the ballad called ROBIN HOOD, HIS BIRTH, BREEDING, VALOUR ANDMARRIAGE, occurs the following line:-
And some singing Arthur-a-Bradley.
Antiquaries are by no means agreed as to what is the song of ARTHUR-A-BRADLEY, there alluded to, for it so happens that there are no less than three different songs about this same Arthur-a-Bradley. Ritson gives one of them in his ROBIN HOOD, commencing thus:-See you not Pierce the piper.
He took it from a black-letter copy in a private collection, compared with, and very much corrected by, a copy contained in ANANTIDOTE AGAINST MELANCHOLY, MADE UP IN PILLS COMPOUNDED OF WITTYBALLADS, JOVIAL SONGS, AND MERRY CATCHES, 1661. Ritson quotes another, and apparently much more modern song on the same subject, and to the same tune, beginning, -All in the merry month of May.
It is a miserable composition, as may be seen by referring to a copy preserved in the third volume of the Roxburgh Ballads. There is another song, the one given by us, which appears to be as ancient as any of those of which Arthur O'Bradley is the hero, and from its subject being a wedding, as also from its being the only Arthur O'Bradley song that we have been enabled to trace in broadside and chap-books of the last century, we are induced to believe that it may be the song mentioned in the old ballad, which is supposed to have been written in the reign of Charles I. An obscure music publisher, who about thirty years ago resided in the Metropolis, brought out an edition of ARTHUR O'BRADLEY'S WEDDING, with the prefix 'Written by Mr. Taylor.' This Mr. Taylor was, however, only a low comedian of the day, and the ascribed authorship was a mere trick on the publisher's part to increase the sale of the song. We are not able to give any account of the hero, but from his being alluded to by so many of our old writers, he was, perhaps, not altogether a fictitious personage. Ben Jonson names him in one of his plays, and he is also mentioned in Dekker's HONEST WHORE. Of one of the tunes mentioned in the song, viz., HENCE, MELANCHOLY! we can give no account; the other, - MAD MOLL, may be found in Playford's DANCING-MASTER, 1698: it is the same tune as the one known by the names of YELLOW STOCKINGS and the VIRGIN QUEEN, the latter title seeming to connect it with Queen Elizabeth, as the name of Mad Moll does with the history of Mary, who was subject to mental aberration. The words of MAD MOLL are not known to exist, but probably consisted of some fulsome panegyric on the virgin queen, at the expense of her unpopular sister. From the mention of HENCE, MELANCHOLY, and MAD MOLL, it is presumed that they were both popular favourites when ARTHURO'BRADLEY'S WEDDING was written. A good deal of vulgar grossness has been at different times introduced into this song, which seems in this respect to be as elastic as the French chanson, CADETROUSELLE, which is always being altered, and of which there are no two copies alike. The tune of ARTHUR O'BRADLEY is given by Mr.
Chappell in his POPULAR MUSIC.]
COME, neighbours, and listen awhile, If ever you wished to smile, Or hear a true story of old, Attend to what I now unfold!
'Tis of a lad whose fame did resound Through every village and town around, For fun, for frolic, and for whim, None ever was to equal him, And his name was Arthur O'Bradley!
O! rare Arthur O'Bradley! wonderful Arthur O'Bradley!
Sweet Arthur O'Bradley, O!
Now, Arthur being stout and bold, And near upon thirty years old, He needs a wooing would go, To get him a helpmate, you know.
So, gaining young Dolly's consent, Next to be married they went;And to make himself noble appear, He mounted the old padded mare;He chose her because she was blood, And the prime of his old daddy's stud.
She was wind-galled, spavined, and blind, And had lost a near leg behind;She was cropped, and docked, and fired, And seldom, if ever, was tired, She had such an abundance of bone;So he called her his high-bred roan, A credit to Arthur O'Bradley!
O! rare Arthur O'Bradley! wonderful Arthur O'Bradley!
Sweet Arthur O'Bradley, O!
