New York.
The subject of this and the preceding number has furnished endless mirth to popular poetry. The present song is ancient; for it is identical with a German, Flemish, and French round of the fifteenth or sixteenth century, in which a nun (or monk) is tempted to dance by similar offers. The spirit of the latter piece seems to be rather light-hearted ridicule than puritanic satire, and the allusion does not show that the piece is subsequent to the Reformation.
No. 34.
There were Three Jolly Welshmen.
There were three jolly Welshmen,
And I have heard them say,
That they would go a-hunting
Upon St. David's day—
Look—a—there—now!
They hunted, they hunted,
And nothing could they find,
But a woman in the road,
And her they left behind—
Look—a—there—now!
One said it was a woman,
The other said nay;
One said it was an angel
With the wings blowed away—
Look—a—there—now!
We have obtained only three verses of the song, which was a favorite with little children as they sat on the door-step of a summer's evening. Another version of the ancient jest comes to us as sung by college students:
(Slow and mournful, in C minor.)
And so they went along,
To see what they could see,
And soon they saw a frog
A-sitting under a tree.
(Recit.) So—they—did.
One said it was a frog,
But the other said nay—
One said it was a canary-bird
With the feathers blown away.
(Recit.) So—it—was.