_Page_ 60. "It was the frog in the well."--There are several versions of this old ditty: the following is from Kirkpatrick Sharpe's "Ballad Book," 1824:--
"There lived a puddy in a well, And a merry mouse in a mill.
Puddy he'd a wooin ride, Sword and pistol by his side.
Puddy came to the mouse's wonne, 'Mistress mouse, are you within?'
'Yes, kind sir, I am within; Saftly do I sit and spin.'
'Madam, I am come to woo; Marriage I must have of you.'
'Marriage I will grant you nane, Until uncle Rotten he comes hame.'
'Uncle Rotten's now come hame; Fy! gar busk the bride alang.'
Lord Rotten sat at the head o' the table, Because he was baith stout and able.
Wha is't that sits next the wa', But Lady Mouse, baith jimp and sma'?
What is't that sits next the bride, But the sola puddy wi' his yellow side?
Syne came the deuk, but and the drake; The deuk took puddy, and garred him squaik.
Then cam in the carl cat, Wi' a fiddle on his back. 'Want ye ony music here?'
The puddy he swam doun the brook; The drake he catched him in his fluke.
The cat he pu'd Lord Rotten doun; The kittens they did claw his croun.
But Lady Mouse, baith jimp and sma', Crept into a hole beneath the wa'; 'Squeak!' quoth she, 'I'm weel awa.'"
Doubtless Ravenscroft's version is more ancient. A ballad entitled "A most strange weddinge of the frogge and the mouse" was licensed for printing in 1580.
_Page_ 65. "Lady, when I behold."--Gracefully Paraphrased from an Italian original:--
"Quand' io miro le rose, Ch'in voi natura pose; E quelle che v' ha l'arte Nel vago seno sparte; Non so conoscer poi Se voi le rose, o sian le rose in voi."
_Page_ 66. John Danyel is supposed to have been a brother of Samuel Daniel, the poet. He took his degree of Bachelor of Music in 1604. "At the commencement of the reign of Charles the First he was one of the Court Musicians, and his name occurs among the 'Musicians for the Lutes and Voices' in a privy seal, dated December 20th, 1625, exempting the musicians belonging to the Court from the payment of subsidies" (Rimbault).
_Page_ 68. "Then all at once _for our town_ cries."--"I should imagine," says Oliphant, "that there was occasionally a sort of friendly contention in the sports between neighbouring villages; which idea is rather corroborated by a passage from an old play called the 'Vow-breaker' by Samson, 1636: 'Let the major play the hobby-horse an' he will; I hope _our Town lads_ cannot want a hobby-horse.'" In an old play. "The Country Girl," (first printed in 1647), attributed to that shadowy personage Antony Brewer, we have an allusion to this pleasant form of rivalry:--