[Page 103 [244].] Among the Purifidian Sect.
In Harl. MS. No. 6057, fol. 47. There it is entitled “The Puritans of New England.”
[Page 106 [248].] Come hither, my own sweet Duck.
We come delightedly, as a relief, upon this racy and jovial Love-song, which redeems the close of the volume. It has the gaiety and abandon of John Fletcher’s and Richard Brome’s. We have never yet met it elsewhere. It was probably written about 1642. The reserved song in Part i., p. 153 (Supplement, p. 3), seems to be a vile parody on it, in the coarse fashion of those persons who disgraced the cause of the Cavaliers. The rank and file were often base, and their brutality is evidenced in the songs which we have been obliged to degrade to the Supplement.
It was certainly popular before 1659, for we find it quoted as furnishing the tune to “A proper new ballad (25 verses) on the Old Parliament,” beginning “Good Morrow, my neighbours all,” with a varying burden:—
Hei ho, my hony,
My heart shall never rue,
Four and twenty now for your Mony,
And yet a hard penny worth too.
(Rump, 1662 ii, 26.)