Ok - Bruce - correct me if I go astray...

The entry is:

Good Lord, what Age we do live in/ZN1010|

Warning For all such as do desire to Sleep upon the Grass.. August 14, 1664/Tune: In Summer Time/ E 375: Charles Tyus, 1664 [PA 134]

The Form of index entries:

Entries are nominally; opening line, or two/ ZNnumber code| Short title/ Tune or tunes indicated/ author or initials, if any/ licensing and|or entry statements if any/ Source of collection or reprint of collection copy: Publisher or publishers code/

SO Bruce says above that the song indicated is the oldest version of what became "the little girl and the dreadful snake". From his knowledge he tells us it is about Mary Hudson and something that happened to her with a snake. The tune the lyrics are set to is "In summer time" - also known as "Callino" the entry in the BMADD file (found via a link on the page of ABC tunes for Broadside Ballads BMADD)

This is the entry there:

Callino Casturame, alias, In summer time

Pistol's gibberish in his reply to the French soldier in Act IV, Scene IV, of Shakespeare's Henry V was recognized by Edmund Malone in 1790, to contain the distorted Gaelic name of a tune, "Callino Casturame," or "Calen o custure me." The accepted translation of the title now is that due to Prof. Gerald Murphy, Éigse i pp 125-9 (1953), "Cailin o Chois tSiuire Me," or in English "I am a girl from beside the [river] Suir." This was found in a late 17th century Irish manuscript to be the title of a song, but the song is not known to be extant. The earliest known song associated with the tune is an English one that was entered in the Stationer's Register on March 10, 1582 as a broadside ballad with the title "Callin o custure me." No broadside copy of this song has survived, but the song was reprinted in 1584 in A Handefull of pleasant delites. In this songbook the song is entitled "A Sonet of a Louer in the praise of his lady. To Calen o Custure me: sung at euerie lines end." "Calen o Custure me" in the song, is simply an interlaced refrain, and does not have any direct connection with the song, and was obviously, as far are singers were concerned, simply a nonsense refrain. Except for this interlaced refrain, the song is a rather common 'praise of mistress' type of song, such a common type, in fact, that even parodies are quite common. "Callino" will here be used to designate the song in Handefull specifically, and the tune generally. "Callino" is not appropriate for a girl for beside the Suire to sing, and it is obvious the English song was in no way related to the lost Gaelic one which supplied its tune.

An account of the use of the tune for broadside ballads in England is that of C. M. Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music, (BBBM) and that will here be extended. Discussion of the tune, however, will here be confined to its use in England. Readers interested in Irish and Scots Gaelic songs connected to the tune are referred a book by Breandan Breathnach, Folk Dances and Music of Ireland and a subsequent article by Alan Bruford, 'The Sea-divided Gaels', Eigse Cheol Tire, Vol. 1. Breathnach included a reduce facsimile of the Ballat Lute MS copy of the tune, p. 17, and the tune in modern 6/8 time, p. 19. The tune is again given in 6/8 time in the recent Sources of Irish Traditional Music, I, #3, 1998.

Under the tune heading "Callino Casturame," Simpson noted several copies of the tune "Callino" in manuscripts of the late 16th and early 17th century. John Ward has added references to three more early copies of the tune (JAMS 20). I have found no record of any printed copy of the tune prior to that given by Wm. Chappell in 1858, Wm. Byrd's arrangement in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.

Three of these settings have been published, all translated from tablature, and they have all been printed more than once. These are:

1: Wm. Byrd's arrangement, entitled "Callino Casturame" in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. This has been printed by Chappell (PMOT) (time sig. 6/8), Maitland and Barclay Squire (FVB) (time sig. 12/4), Fellows (Collected Works of Wm. Byrd (time sig. 6/4), and Sternfeld ('Shakespeare's Use of Popular Song') (time sig. 3/4, tune 'edited' to fit the song "Callino").

2: William Ballet's Lute MS, Trinity College, Dublin, "Callino." This has been given by O'Sullivan Groves Dictionary, 5th ed.) (no time sig.), Ward (JAMS 10) (time sig. 6/8, edited to fit "Callino"), Sternfeld (as above, edited to fit "Callino"). Breathnach, (time sig. 6/8) with facsimile of the original tablature, and Bruford (time sig. 6/8, and transposed to G).

3: Thomas Robinson's cittern score (Sternfeld), Cambridge University Library MS Dd.4.23, "Callinoe." This has been given by Sternfeld (as above, edited to fit "Callino"), and Simpson.

All of these scores are instrumental, and all must be modified slightly in order to obtain a satisfactory vocal score. These unedited scores are given in Figure 1 followed by a slight revision, adding only the leading note and obvious slurs, of the Robinson arrangement as a setting for the first verse of another 16th century song to the tune, which will be discussed below. I have followed Sternfeld in giving these scores in 3/4 time, but he did not supply the usual missing leading note to the tune in setting the "Callino" to it, as is commonly required from older instrumental settings, and this leads to an awkward beginning for his setting of the song. Ward did supply it, as I have. As can be seen, Wm. Byrd's version of the tune requires more than trivial alteration to be transformed to a satisfactory vocal score. There are only two slurs in this arrangement, and both appear to be displaced one note to the left. The timing reversal in the measure following the second slur is also incompatible with the song meter.

John Ward (JAMS 20) has added several sources for the tune "Callino" in addition to those listed by Simpson, but all known old scores are for instruments, not voice. Prior to Simpson's work, Ward (JAMS 10) had shown this necessity of supplying leading notes to instrumental scores in his setting of "Callino" to its tune.

This tune, according to the account of C. M. Simpson, only had one other song sung to it. It will be shown here, however, that the tune under a different name was a popular for broadside ballads for over a century. As noted by Simpson, there must have been several tunes known by the name "In summer time" in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Simpson notes that thirty some broadside ballads call for the tune and these are of six distinct stanza patterns, of which the most common is the octosyllabic quatrain. For one tune of "In summer time," Simpson prints one from Pills to Purge Melancholy, set there to a broadside text, "The young-man's resolution to the maiden's request," that calls for the tune "In summer time." Simpson cites two broadside sequels to this song and another possible song to its tune. The broadside is of 1662 to about 1672, and is later than many others calling for the tune, and the metrical form is alternating 8 and 9 syllable lines, and is undoubtably not the tune for most of the other ballads to "In summer time". Simpson did not note any traditional versions of this ballad, but some are noted in the Appendix.

Simpson's final statement on the tune "In summer time" is that there is no unmistakable musical trace for it, but, actually, there is a very good one. Near the end of Simpson's discussion of the tune, he rejects a ballad beginning "In summer time when Phoebus rays," to the tune of "Calino," as the source of the tune title, on the basis that the song is of the mid-seventeenth century. Simpson usually did much better tracking of Stationers' Register entries and dating of printers imprints than in this case. "In summer time when Phebus" was entered in the Stationers' Register as a transfer on Dec. 14, 1624, and Hyder Rollins clearly noted that this was the first line of the ballad entered by Richard Jones on April 24, 1588, with the entry reading "A Sweete new songe latelie made by a Souldier, and named it the falle of follye." Ebsworth, Roxburghe Ballads VI, p. 285, had also clearly noted the original entry, and transfer in 1624.

The first verse of the first copy in the Pepys collection is as follows:

In summer time when Phoebus rayes,
Did cheere each mortall mans delight,
Increasing of the cheerefull dayes,
And cutting off the darkesome night.

While it might be argued that these four lines do not even make a complete sentence, and the next four should perhaps be included in the first verse, we find that to be no help. It isn't until the ninth and tenth lines, "It was my chance to walk abroad, to view Dame Nature's new-come brood," that the sentence is completed!

The title in the Stationers' Register is somewhat different than that on the surviving seventeenth century copies of the ballad, but that is not unusual, and I am certain that the 1588 entry was a belated one, as is the case for several late sixteenth century ballads. On July 29, 1583, Richard Jones had entered "Deathes merry answer to the songe of the Soldier." A reading of "A pleasant song made by a souldier" leaves no doubt that this lost ballad was a sequel to the original. Since the song of "Calino" was entered in the Stationers' Register on Mar. 10, 1582. "A pleasant song made be a souldier" must have been made after that date and before July 29, 1583.

Simpson must have misinterpreted the imprint on a copy of "A pleasant song made by a souldier" in the Pepys Collection. Pepys, I, p. 465, bears the imprint 'Printed at London for John Wright'. This could only be by the earliest of three ballad printers with the name John Wright, as is certain from the form of the imprint given. This John Wright printed from 1605 to 1646, and the second of that name printed from 1634 to 1658. The latter added 'the younger,' or 'Jr.' to his name until after the earlier John Wright had died, and seems also to have included his address, 'dwelling at the upper end of the Old Bayley,' on all early imprints, and later 'at the Globe in Little Britain.'

Prior to the 'Supplement' as labeled by Pepys at p. 469 in Volume I of his collection, all of the ballads seem to be ones that were printed before 1633, including others that bear the same imprint as "A pleasant song made by a souldier." None there are by John Wright, Jr. By the middle of 1633 this elder John Wright was adding his address 'in Gilt-spur street,' to his imprint. There can be no doubt that the Pepys copy of the song was printed by the earlier John Wright, and I would place it about 1620-1630. The Pepys collection also contains a much later copy of the song in Pepys, IV, p. 42, printed by Coles, Vere, and Wright, 1663-1674. The John Wright on this imprint is the third of that name to be a ballad printer, but he rarely, if ever, printed ballads without other company members included in the imprint.

"Callino Casturame" is then the proper tune for many broadside ballads directed to be sung to the tune "In summer time," and Simpson gives a separate account of the tune "Callino Casturame," noting "A pleasant song made by a souldier" as the only ballad to be sung to it.

The following incomplete listing of sixteenth and seventeenth century ballads to the tune of "Callino" under its alternative name "In summer time", shows that the tune was every bit as popular as "Greensleeves" for over a century.

Broadside Ballads sung to "In Summer Time/ Callino":

"A merry new Song how a Bruer meant to make a Cooper cuckold," about 1590, in J. O. Haliwell-Phillips' A Collection of Seventy-Nine Black-letter Ballads and Broadsides, p.60, London, 1867, and 1870. Martin Parker's reworked version of this ballad in Roxburghe Ballads, I p. 99, is entitled "The Cooper of Norfolk", and is probably of about 1620-1630, although not entered in the Stationers Register until 1675. His version of the tale was to be sung to the lost tune "The wiving age." Since Parker's ballad and others to this latter tune are in six line verses, it was not another name for "Callino."[We seem to be missing an 18th century reworking of the ballad. A version "Johnnie Cooper" is in Peter Buchan's MS. Secret Songs of Silence at Harvard, and some Scots traditional versions are in , VII, #1433, 1997.]

"The rimer's new trimming," c 1625. Pepys, I, p. 464. Reprinted by Hyder Rollins, The Pepys Ballads, II p. 43, 1929. Note that this is on the page preceding the Pepys copy of "A pleasant song made by a Souldier." This requires some note splitting in order to fit "Callino," as well as a leading note. John Ward has added several sources for the tune "Callino" in addition to those listed by Simpson, but all known old scores are for instruments, not voice. Prior to Simpson's work, Ward had shown this necessity of supplying leading notes to instrumental scores in his setting of "Callino" to its tune. A vocal score of "Callino" using note division to accommodate lines alternating nine and ten syllables per line is in Colm O'Lochlainn's More Irish Street Ballads, p. 82, The Three Candles, Dublin, 1965, as a setting for 'Carroll Malone's' song "The Croppy Boy."

"The Fatal Fall of Five Gentlemen," 1648. Manchester Collection II (43), reprinted by Hyder Rollins' Cavalier and Puritan (CP), p. 243.

"Strange and Wonderful News," by Lawrence Price, 1655. Reprinted by Rollins from the 'Book of Fortune' Collection in the British Library in CP, p. 372.

"The true Portraiture of a Prodigious Monster," June, 1655. Printed by John Andrews. Location and one verse noted by J. Frank, Hobbled Pegasus.

"A wonderful Prophesie declared by Christian James .... departed this life upon 8. Mar." in 1656, 'March 8, Contrived into Meeter, by L[awrence]. P[rice].' The Euing Collection of English Broadside Ballads, (Euing #400. Note the claim that the ballad was written on the day of the event. Entered to John Wright [II], Mar 26, 1656, who printed this copy. Ebsworth lists this and several later prints in Roxburghe Ballads, VIII, p. 891. Pepys, II p. 55.

"The Quaker's Fear," by Lawrence Price. Wood Collection 401 (165). Entered on April 25, 1656. Printed by Coles, Wright, Vere, and Gilbertson. Reprinted by Rollins, CP, p. 404.

"The famous Flower of Serving-Men," Euing, #111, by L[awrence] P[rice]. Printed by John Andrews before 1663, and entered by him on July 14, 1656. This is one of three Child ballads by Price and this copy may be the original edition of Child ballad #106. "In summer time" is here only one of four choices given as the tune for the song. Later copies of "The famous flower" are a John Hose print of c 1675-1685 in the Wood Collection E.25 #73, without authors initials, and a Thackeray and Passenger print of 1686-8 in the Pepys collection, Pepys, III, p. 142, also unsigned.

"Hells Master-piece discovered:..," Euing, #138, by C[harles]. H[ammond], c 1658-1663, a print by Francis Grove who gave up entering ballads in the Stationers' Register after May 29, 1658, but continued to state on many that they were 'Licensed and Entered According to Order.' Grove had died by Mar. 1663.

"A Warning-peice [sic] for Ingroosers of Corne," Euing #379, printed by William Gilbertson, who printed from 1648 to early 1665. This print is probably about 1660.

"A Warning For all such as desire to sleep on the Grass, By the Example of Mary Dudson..." who swallowed a snake in Aug. 1664. Euing, #375, printed by Charles Tyus in 1664 or early 1665, see next item.

"The Devils Conquest", May, 1665. Euing, #76, printed by Sarah Tyus. Same copy reprinted by Hyder Rollins, The Pack of Autolycus, (PA p. 146.

"The Godly maid of Leicester," Euing, #129, printed by Coles, Vere, and Wright, 1663-1674, before adding John Clarke [I] to the company and entering it in the Stationers' Register on March 1, 1675. This ballad is possibly many years older than the record would suggest. Later copies are in the Roxburghe, Bagford, Rawlinson and Pepys collections.

"Strange News from Westmoreland," Euing, #342, by Abraham Miles, 1662-c 1672, an Eliz. Andrews issue. Euing, #341 is a later issue by her former apprentice Philip Brooksby. Hyder E. Rollins (or his copyist) confused the two copies in the Euing Collection and printed from another copy of the same issue that Ebsworth did in Roxburghe Ballads, VIII, p. 79, in spite of his statement to the contrary, and missed identifying the author in PA, p. 162. A later issue, 1684-1686, is Pepys, II, p. 155.

"The Devouring Quaker", Cole, Vere, Wright and Clark issue, 1674-9, ColRawlinson 4to 566(85).

"Strange and Wonderful News from Northampton-shire", 1675. Reprinted from the Wood Collection by Hyder Rollins in PA, p. 179.

"The Frenchman's Wonder," 1676. Reprinted by Hyder Rollins from copies in the Rawlinson and Wood Collections in A Pepysian Garland, p. 161, 1922. The tune information in Rollins' headnote to this piece should be ignored. "In summer time" is not cited as an alternate tune for Collier's "The Soldier's Repentance" in his A Book of Roxburghe Ballads, London, 1847. Collier's song is actually "A pleasant song made by a Souldier," and I do not know where he got his title. His copy, he said, had no printers name and is presumably the Roxburghe Collection copy, which is without imprint. The ballad is, however, faithfully reprinted, and there is no 'improved' version of this ballad among his forgeries [see file on Collier's Forgeries]

"True Wonders and Strange News," by Lawrence White, c 1674-1679. Reprinted by Hyder Rollins from the Rawlinson collection in PA, p. 191.

"The Worlds Wonder...Alice Griffithes... April... 1677," April, 1677. Rawlinson Collection copy reprinted by Hyder Rollins, PA, p. 195.

"A looking-glass for wanton women," July, 1677. Printed by P. Brooksby at the Golden Ball in West-smith-field, near the Hospital gate. Wood Collection E.25 #145.

"The dying mans good counsel to his children and friends," 1674-1679. Printed by Coles, Vere, Wright, and Clarke. Wood Collection E.25 #142. A later issue is Pepys, II p. 44.

"The Clippers Execution," Apr. 1678. Printed by Coles, Vere, Wright, and Clarke. Wood Collection E.25 #105.

"The tradesmen's Complaint," c 1682. Roxburghe Ballads, VII, p. 4.

"The Extreams of Love," 1684-1685. Printed for J. Back. Pepys, III p. 349.

"The Mirror of Mercy," 1685-1688. Pepys, II p. 174. "In summer time" is given as an alternative tune to "Joy to the Bridegroom," and the six line stanzas may mean some tune other than "Callino" was meant.

"A New of Nelly's sorrow," and its sequel, from Neptune's Fair Garland, dated 1686. Reprinted in Roxburghe Ballads, VI, p. 789.

"The Happy Damsel," Nov. 1693. Pepys, II p. 81. Reprinted by Rollins, PA, p. 229.

Incomplete though it is, this list suffices to show that the tune "Callino" was popular for over a century. Hyder Rollins stated that no tune was called for more often on broadside ballads than "In summer time," but this was correctly refuted by Simpson who noted "Packington's Pound" as the most popular ballad tune.

Evidently not to "Callino" is "A pleasant new Ballad of King Edward the fourth, and a Tanner of Tamworth", "To an excellent new tune", commencing "In Summer time when Leaves grow green", which was first entered in the Stationers' Register on Aug. 1, 1586. Its first line is cited as the tune for "The Noble Fisherman, or, Robin Hood's Preferment," (Child #148) entered June 31, 1631. Other Robin Hood ballads calling for the tune "In summer time" have a "derry down" type of refrain that will not fit the tune "Callino" as we know it.

The statement of Hyder Rollins in PA, p. 201, that "In summer time" is equivalent to "My bleeding heart" is incorrect. Some broadsides give both as alternative tunes, but they are not alternative titles for the same tune. Rollins was, here and elsewhere, also misled as to the authorship of "My bleeding heart" by the initials M. P. on a late Roxburghe Collection copy of "A Warning to all Lewd Livers," Roxburghe Ballads III, p. 23. Thomas Lambert entered the ballad in the Stationers' Register, on July 14, 1633, and a copy with his imprint and the initials of Lawrence Price as author is the earlier of the two Roxburghe Collection copies. This copy certainly gives the correct author, and is probably the original issue.

I think we may say that we have recovered a very popular 'lost' ballad tune of the 16th and 17th century, but one which wasn't really very lost, just a little confused.

HTML line breaks added, and changed italics to indented text. (It was too hard to read, on my screen anyway.) --JoeClone, 3-Jun-02.