Lyr Add: Like Will To Like

10 Jun 03 - 11:58 AM (#965129)
Subject: Lyr Add: Like Will To Like
From: IanC

Here's something I found while I was researching the texts of some medieval English plays. It's from a 16th Century Proverb play and the context suggests that it is sung to a dance tune (stage instructions tell the singer to accompany himself on a Cittern and The Collier and The Devil dance while it is being sung). There is no tune, but it should fit quite a few as it's in common metre. Also, the 2nd verse seems like a chorus.

Like Will To Like, Quoth the Devil to the Collier
from the Proverb Play of the same name by Ulpian Fulwell (1568)

Tom Colier of Croydon hath solde his coles,
and made his market today:
And now he daunceth with the Devil,
for like wil to like alway.

Wherfore let us reioyce and sing,
let us be mery and glad:
Sith that the Colier and the Devill
this match and daunce hath made.

Now of this daunce we make an end,
with mirth and eke with ioy:
The Colier and the Devill wil be
much like to like alway.

There are one or two songs about people mistaking a collier for the devil, but this is probably the earliest one with that theme. The idea of the collier coming from Croydon also appeals to me.

:-)

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