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Murray on Salt Spring History of 'The Wind and Rain'? (11) RE: History of 'The Wind and Rain'? 05 Jul 99


The Shakespeare song is sung as an Epilogue to "Twelfth Night" by the Fool. The tune it goes to is traditional in the theatre [published several places, e.g. Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 225. Another verse (which is a parody, I expect) is sung by the Fool in "King Lear".[He that has a little tiny wit, / With a heigh ho! the wind and the rain, / Must make content with his fortunes fit, / For the rain it raineth every day.] - the refrain's occurrence in ballads will be after this time, I suppose, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Shakespeare was using a verse (or a tune) already well current in his time. The unique version with the refrain was collected in West Virginia in 1931 [in Bulletin of the Folk-Song Society of the North-East no. 12 (1937), p. 10.] BTW: Wooldridge's edition of Chappell (Old English Popular Music), 1893, doesn't give the tune, because as he rather snootily says it (like some other stuff) rests "upon no better authority than tradition". [Sic.]


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