He takes not any offence,
But fleeres upon his wench.
The Piper he play’d [a] Fadding,
And they ran all a gadding.
With oh brave Arthur [o’ Bradley], &c.
(“Wits Merriment,” 1656, pp. 81-7.)
The often mentioned “Arthur o’ Bradley’s Wedding,” a modern version attributed to Mr. Taylor, the actor and singer, is given, not only in Songs and Ballads of the Peasantry, &c., (p. 139 of R. Bell’s Annot. ed.), collected by J. H. Dixon; but also in Berger’s Red, White, and Blue Monster Songbook, p. 394, where the music arranged by S. Hale is stated to be “at Walker’s.”
Pages 326, 402. Why should we not laugh?
The reference to “Goldsmith’s Hall” ([see p. 363]), where a Roundhead Committee sate in 1647, and later, for the spoliation of Royalists’ estates, levying of fines and acceptance of “Compounders” money, dates the song.