The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #64543   Message #1148355
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
28-Mar-04 - 03:39 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: the worcestershire wedding
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the worcestershire wedding
Well before then, probably. Those broadsides aren't dated, but there are examples with music extant elsewhere from c. 1705. The song was quoted in A Collection of Old Ballads (1723-1725, II, 230) so was likely not new at the beginning of the 18th century. Claude Simpson (The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music, 1966, 405) thinks it likely that it was in circulation during the later part of the 17th century, but notes that there appear to be no copies surviving from that period.