Part 2 — NOTES ON THE SONGS (continued 2)
Reading edition
To give the whole story in ballad form would have made the ballad too long; I have therefore reduced it to three verses, and have given it, from the man's point of view, a happier termination.
The tune is clearly a bagpipe air with drone.
Something very much like this prayer is found throughout Europe. Here is the Quercy version, sung also in Poitou, Gascony, and Brittany—
"Father of habit, our Lord salutes you. He is at the head, He is at the feet; He is now, He is hereafter. On the bed, when I lie, Five angels are me by, Two to head and two to feet, The Mother of God in the midst, whilst I sleep. I need not fear fire and flame and sudden death," etc.
Daymard, "Chansons Populaires," Cahors, 1889. It is probably the "White Paternoster" referred to in "The Miller's Tale," by Chaucer—
"Lord Jhesu Crist, and Seynte Benedight, Bless this hous from every wikkede wight, Fro nyghtesmare werye the witte (white) Pater-noster."
White, in his "Way to the True Church," 1624, insists on "the prodigious ignorance" which he found among his parishioners when he entered on his ministrations. He gives what he calls "The White Paternoster":—
"White Paternoster, Saint Peter's brother, What hast i' th' one hand? White book leaves. What hast i' th' t'other hand? Heaven yate keyes. Open heaven yates, and streike hell yates: And let every crysome child creep to its own mother, White Paternoster, Amen."
This, however, is not the same. But in the Magical Treatise, "Enchiridion Papæ Leonis," Rome, 1660, it runs—
"Petit Pate nôtre blanche que Dieu fit, que Dieu dit, que Dieu mit en Paradis. Au soir me allant coucher je trouve trois anges à mon lit couchés, un aux pieds, deux au chevet, la bonne Vierge Marie au milieu, qui me dit que je me arrette, que rien ne doute."
This was to be recited thrice at eve, thrice in the morning, and it would secure Paradise.
The White Paternoster was proscribed by the Church as superstitious: "Le Tableau de la vida del parfet Crestia," by P. Amilha, 1703, p. 234. See Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables," iv. p. 117.
A form used on the Cornish moors, and repeated by a boy at Alternon, runs—
"Ding dong, the parson's bell, Very well my mother. I shall be buried in the old churchyard, By the side of my dear brother. My coffin shall be black, Two little angels at my back, Two to watch, and two to pray, And two to carry my soul away. When I am dead and in my grave, And all my bones are rotten, Jesus Christ will come again When I am quite forgotten."
The boy was taught this by his aunt.
In the "Townley Mysteries," p. 91, the shepherds watching their flocks by night repeat a form of this prayer. See also Ady's "Candle in the Dark," London, 1650, p. 58; also a paper in the Archæologia, xxvii. p. 253, by the Rev. Lancelot Sharpe; and Halliwell's "Nursery Rhymes," No. ccxl.
Songs in the first edition omitted from this are—
Fathom the Bowl.
The Squire and the Fair Maid.
My Lady's Coach.
An Evening so Clear.
The Warson Hunt.
The Rout is Out.
Why should we be dullards sad?
Nancy.
Farewell to Kingsbridge.
Something Lacking.
The Wrestling Match.
Broadbury Gibbet.
The Orchestra.
"Fair girl, mind this when you marry."
Cupid, the Ploughboy.
"Come, my Lads, let us be jolly."
A Single and a Married Life.
The Saucy Ploughboy.
The Everlasting Circle.
Hunting the Hare.
Dead Maid's Land.
Shower and Sunshine.
The first edition is still kept in stock, so that such persons as desire these ballads, and such others as are retained in this, but treated differently, as duets and quartettes, can obtain them from the publishers.
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