The Rev. Mr. J. W. Ebsworth, a great authority on our early songs and ballads, supplies the following information as to the different existing versions of “Hang sorrow.”
The music of this old ballad was composed by William Lawes, and “published by John Hilton: printed for John Benson and John Playford, and to be sould in St. Dunstan’s Churchyard, and in the Inner Temple neare the Church doore, 1652.” It reappeared in ‘Windsor Drollery,’ 1672, with a few verbal alterations.
From J. Hilton’s ‘Catch that Catch Can,’ 1652 (music by William Lawes):—
Hang Sorrow and cast away Care,
and let us drink up our Sack;
They say ’tis good to cherish the blood,
and for to strengthen the back.
’Tis wine that makes the thoughts aspire,
and fills the body with heat;
Besides ’tis good, if well understood,