My maid meanwhile runs off to kill
Two capons, dressing them with skill
In garlic sauce;
My daughter in her hand doth bear,
Kind girl, a comb to smooth my hair.
Then in my house I am a king,
Great joyance and no sorrowing,
Happier than you can say or sing.
Ballad-singing suffered by the invention of printing, but it was in England that the professional minstrel met with the cruellest blow of all—the statute passed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth which forbade his recitations, and classed him with "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars."
"Beggars they are with one consent,