A brief encounter with the SCA, led me to research some of the songs I had known for ever. I found things like "Martin Said to His Man" were published by Thomas Ravenscroft in 1597 or so. This led to forming a "medievil (sp deliberate) renaissance (sp not deliberate)" group who also did some English trad Folky stuff. We were together for about 8 years. We dressed in a style which had about a 4 century span but who knows. Developed a whole patter about drinking and singing with Henry VIII (Harry to his friends) and Bill Shakespeare (a writer who I think has a great future). We did several School performances, which were always well accepted and attended. Small children seemed to be totally enthralled and would sit down right in front of us during performances and be totally attentive. The trouble was with eight of us in the group, you could not afford to take a day off work for what it paid. It is all history now ;) as the group has disbanded ;)
JohnB