"All you that love poor Barleycorn,
A good word for him give,
And he that speaks against him,
I wish he may not live."
The foregoing is nothing like so witty, or funny, as the Black-Letter ballad. A copy is in the British Museum (Rox. i. 343), which, although it has been reprinted, is not generally known, and is too good to lose.[*]
"A pleasant new Ballad to Sing both Even and Morne,
Of the bloody Murther of Sir John Barleycorne.
"To the tune of Shall I lye beyond thee.
"As I went through the North Countrey,