Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/138

118 confusion the unmatched man tries to seize one of the ladies. The air of "Après six heures" has a distinct likeness to that used, in very varying forms, by English children for their ring-games, more especially "The Mulberry-bush" and "Three Dukes a-riding." The original air was named "Nancy Dawson," after the celebrated dancer, who died in 1767. Her dance-tune became the rage, not only in England but in France, where it figured as "Sixième Anglaise de la Reine" in a book of "contre danses" compiled by Landrin in the 18th century. The fourth dance described by Miss Carey seems to be on the lines of a morris. The air, however, is identical with the polka-tune of the last century which we have all heard sung to the words "My mother said that I never should play with the gypsies in the wood." It has done duty for various sets of words, and became popular in such opposite parts of the globe as the East Indies and the Western Hebrides.

The remaining songs, which, like the foregoing, are all in the major, include a version of the well-known "Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre." Few people know that the tune of "For he's a jolly good fellow" hails from Paris, where Marie Antoinette learnt "Malbrouck" from her son's Breton nurse, and sang it till it became the fashion first throughout France and then in England, where it was wedded to English words. To most students of folk-song Miss Carey's interesting statement that the tune of "Malbrouck" was used at a requiem for the Duke of Guise, in 1563, will come as a surprise. Miss Carey quotes two verses of the requiem from Le Chansonnier Huguenot showing the obvious connection between the words of the two songs. To the folklorist the migration of popular tunes is always of interest, so it should here be mentioned that, in the Fitzwilliam Virginal-book and two lute-books of the late 16th or early 17th century, there is an air "Calino Custurame," immortalised by Pistol in his reply to the French soldier (Hen. V., act iv., sc. 4). The first half of this air is identical with the tune of "Malbrouck." In what country did it originate?

The ninth song in this pamphlet, "Le Meunier, l'Âne at la Femme," should be compared with a similar ballad, "La