Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down

Subject: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: Bill Brown
Date: 06 Sep 08 - 02:11 PM

I heard this sung with several verses with the catchy chorus:

Malt's come down, malt's come down
From an old angel to a French crown.

Online, I can only find this as a round, or as a nursery rhyme which provides two verses:

There's never a maiden in the town
But she knows that malt's come down;
Malt's come down, malt's come down
From an old angel to a French crown.
The greatest drunkards in the town
Are very, very glad that malt's come down.

Does anyone know of more? Perhaps this is one of those songs like "Martin Said To His Man" where some of the verses are made up or adapted on the spot.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: Tig
Date: 06 Sep 08 - 03:34 PM

Strawhead do a great version of this on Farewell Musket Pike and Drum.
Go to their website and contact them - they don't bite often especially if they stand a chance of selling a CD :-)

If you've not heard their music listen to the stuff you can download.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 06 Sep 08 - 04:36 PM

Thomas Ravenscroft, Deuteromelia, 1609. See Mault's come downe.

The tune also appears in The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book in an arrangement by Byrd. William Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time, 1885, I, 74) commented '...it appears that Ravenscroft, in arranging it as a round, has taken only half the tune.'

Quite a few people from the folk and early music worlds seem to have recorded arrangements of it. The words are as you quote them (though spelled differently by Ravenscroft, of course); there doesn't appear to be any more, though it's perfectly possible that there have been modern additions, I suppose.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: Bill Brown
Date: 05 Mar 09 - 02:10 PM

Following up on this old thread.

I've communicated with the Toronto Morris Men about this. They are the ones I heard singing this in a pub.

After the first two traditional verses, each teammember has or makes up a verse. (I was not close enough to the main body of verse singers to hear them clearly). That explains why it went on for so many verses and why those verses are not to be found anywhere. They are all in the Toronto Morris Men's heads, which are not currently available to Google. hopefully Google is working on that.

It makes a GREAT pub song, very peppy with an easy chorus that provides many harmonizing opportunities. And it's about BEER!

--Bill Brown

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 06 Mar 09 - 03:53 AM

There is a good recording on Vic Gammons excellent anthology ' The Tale Of Ale '

Dave H

Subject: Lyr Add: MALT'S COME DOWN
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Mar 09 - 01:13 AM

From Old English Popular Music by William Chappell, revised by Harry Ellis Wooldridge (London: Chappell & Co., 1893)—where it appears with musical notation:

MALT'S COME DOWN

1. Mault's come downe, mault's come downe,
From an old Angell to a French crown.

2. There's never a maide in all this towne
But well she knows that mault's come downe.

3. The greatest drunkards in this towne
Are very glad that mault's come downe.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: Greum
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 04:10 PM

Does anyone know to what "old angel" and "French crown" refer? I'm guessing they must be pub names, though I've never come across a pub called the French Crown.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: GUEST,#
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 04:51 PM

I'd gu4ess they are names of French currency from the period in which the stanza was written.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: GUEST,jugmws
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 08:18 PM

An angel was a coin from the 1400's my history teacher told me. Quite a high value.
A French crown was also a coin of the time but lower in value.
.
Makes sense I suppose but he also told me in later years (after leaving school) that in reality an "angel" was a prostitute; the "French crown" is the pox. This is true from the 1500/1600's at least.
m

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 08:20 PM

From……… an old angel……… (7/-)    to……… a French crown……… (5/-)
                                                                                                                                (Gold coins minted from 1465 to the time of Charles

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: GUEST,jugmws
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 08:24 PM

Sorry about that; I forgot the system.
.
I just checked my old records from the time & that was the result but somehow I hit the wrong button.

"From……… an old angel……… (7/-)    to……… a French crown……… (5/-)
(Gold coins minted from 1465 to the time of Charles II.
m

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: GUEST,jugmws
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 08:30 PM

I have had this for over 60 years

There’s never………   a drunkard………
In all………   of the town………
But well………   he knows…………
The mault’s……… come down………
                
Mault’s……… come down……… mault’s……… come down………
From……… an old angel………   to……… a French crown………
                                                                                                                                
And there’s never……… a maiden………
In all……… of the town………
That sleeps……… all alone………
Now the mault’s……… come down………

The gentleman leaves………
His porter brown………
& drinks with his ploughboy
Now the mault’s……… come down………

Cows in the meadow………
Balling are found………
There’s none there……… to milk
Now the mault’s……… come down………

Many the clergymen………
Worried……… are found………
There’s none to……… the mass………
Now the mault’s……… come down………

And many……… the drunkard………
Throughout……… the town………
Thankful……… is now……………
The mault’s……… come down…………

My grannie thought it degenerate & banned my grandad from singing it.
Stunted my growth I reckon !
m

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: Greum
Date: 25 Mar 21 - 04:36 AM

Thanks, guys.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 25 Mar 21 - 08:07 AM

Strawhead - Malt's Come Down

LFF

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Malt's Come Down
From: Greum
Date: 25 Mar 21 - 11:46 AM

That's the one, LFF. They obviously liked it a lot as they put it on no less than 7 albums.