Lyr Req: My Lodging Is on the Cold Ground

23 May 98 - 09:25 AM (#29054)
Subject: My lodging is on the cold ground
From: [e-mail]

I am trying to find ANY information on this song. Can anyone help me , please.

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23 May 98 - 01:42 PM (#29063)
Subject: RE: My lodging is on the cold ground
From: Bruce O.

There's a fair amount of good information in C. M. Simpson's 'The British Broadside Ballad and It's Music', 1966. Simpson gives versions of 1670 and 1775, both of which are also given as ABC's on my website (tunes- B315 and 316). There's also a lot of nonsense about the tune which Thomas Moore used for "Believe my if all those endearing young charms". In Scotland it was the tune for "I loe nae a laddie but ane", SMM #267. The tune was also used in the 18th century for "Happy Dick Dawson". It was apparetly originially for a song in Davenant's play "The Rivals" acted in 1664. Davenant's song was expanded to a broadside ballad "The Slighted Maid: or, the Pining Lover" listed in my broadside ballad index.
www.erols.com/olsonw

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23 May 98 - 01:44 PM (#29065)
Subject: RE: My lodging is on the cold ground
From: Bruce O.

I overlooked that the tune of 1775 was a new tune for the old song, so there are two tunes of that title.

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23 May 98 - 01:57 PM (#29067)
Subject: RE: My lodging is on the cold ground
From: Bruce O.

I had also overlooked that the later tune (as "My lodging is on the cold ground") is in my Irish tune index, too (several early copies of the tune are listed). See note there to Phillips Barry's comments on it.

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23 May 98 - 02:29 PM (#29069)
Subject: RE: My lodging is on the cold ground
From: Bruce O.

I had also forgotten that Domenico Corri had printed "My lodging is on the cold ground" in 1783 as a Scots song. See my Scots tunes index. Later Scots printings of the tune as "I loe nae a laddie but ane" and "My lodging is on the cold ground" are listed in Charles Gore's "The Scottish Fiddle Music Index", 1994.

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23 May 98 - 02:51 PM (#29071)
Subject: RE: My lodging is on the cold ground
From: Joe Offer

Do you have the lyrics to this song, Bruce? I looked at your web site and found the tune, but not the lyrics; and the lyrics are not in Sharp, Peter Kennedy, Sam Henry, and a couple of other books I checked.
Help!
-Joe Offer-

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23 May 98 - 03:37 PM (#29076)
Subject: Lyr Add: MY LODGING IS ON THE COLD GROUND
From: Bruce O.

I don't have the song in Davenant's play, but here's the version in 'Merry Drollery Compleat', 1670, 1691. Same as in Chappell's PMOT, where most of the information in Simpson's BBBM had originally appeared.

Phillis, her lamentation

My lodging is on the cold ground,
And very hard is my Fare;
But that which troubles me the most is
The unkindness of my Dear:
Yet still I cry O turn Love,
And I prethee Love turn to me;
For thou art the man that I long for,
An alack what remedy!

I'll crown thee with Garlands of straw then,
And I'll marry thee with a Rush Ring;
My frozen hopes shall thaw then,
And merrily we will sing
O turn to me my dear Love,
And I prethee Love turn to me;
For thou art the man that alone can'st
Procure my libertie.

But if thou wilt harden thy Heart still,
And be deaf to my pitiful moan,
Then I must endure the smart still,
And tumble in straw alone;
Yet still I cry O turn Love,
And I prethee Love turn to me;
For thou art the man that alone art
The cause of my misery.

C. M. Simpson suggested a song in 'Merry Drollery', 1661, may have suggested the form of Davenant's song.

Womens delight.

There dwelt a maid in the Cunny-gate,
And she was wondrous fair,
And she would have an old man
Was overgrown with hair;
And ever she cry'd, O turn,
O turn thee unto me,
Thou hast the thing I have not,
A little above the knee.

[5 total verses]

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23 May 98 - 04:05 PM (#29079)
Subject: RE: My lodging is on the cold ground
From: Joe Offer

Thanks, Bruce.
-Joe-

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