In the Roxburghe Collection (ii. 504) is a ballad upon which the present song is clearly based. It is called _The West Country Nymph, or the little maid of Bristol_ to the time of _Young Jemmy_ (_i.e._ the Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's natural son). The first stanza runs--
Come all you maidens fair, And listen to my ditty, In Bristol city fair There liv'd a damsel pretty.
Stanza II, line 2. _Cly_ = properly pocket, but here is obviously meant the contents.
Stanza IV, line 1. _Blue bird's-eye_ = a blue and silk handkerchief with white spots.
Of R. Tomlinson nothing is known. The Dr. Byrom whose poem is here parodied is perhaps best remembered as the author of a once famous system of shorthand. He was born in 1691, went to the Merchant Taylor's School, and at the age of 16 was admitted a pensioner of Trinity College Cambridge. It was here that he wrote _My time, O ye muses_. He died in 1763, and his poems, no inconsiderable collection, were published in 1773.
Stanza I, line 1. _The lay_ = a pursuit, a scheme: here = thievery and roguery in general.
Stanza IV, line 4. _Like Blackamore Othello &c._--the reference is to _Othello_, v. 2. "Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men. Put out the light, and then--put out the light."
Though George Parker's name is not formally attached to this "Cantata" there would appear little doubt, from internal evidence, that it, with the two songs immediately following, forms part of a characteristic series from the pen of this roving soldier-actor. Parker was born in 1732 at Green Street, near Canterbury and was 'early admitted', he says, 'to walk the quarterdeck as a midshipman on board the Falmouth and the Guernsey'. A series of youthful indiscretions in London obliged him to leave the navy, and in or about 1754 to enlist as a common soldier in the 2Oth regiment of foot, the second battalion of which became in 1758 the 67th regiment, under the command of Wolfe. In his regiment he continued a private, corporal, and sergeant for seven years, was present at the siege of Belleisle, and saw service in Portugal, Gibraltar, and Minorca. At the end of the war he returned home as a supernumerary excise-man. About 1761 his friends placed him in the King's Head inn at Canterbury where he soon failed. Parker went upon the stage in Ireland, and in company with Brownlow Ford, a clergyman of convivial habits, strolled over the greater part of the island. On his return to London he played several times at the Haymarket, and was later introduced by Goldsmith to Colman. But on account of his corpulence Colman declined his services. Parker then joined the provincial strolling companies, and was engaged for one season with Digges, then manager of the Edinburgh Theatre. At Edinburgh he married an actress named Heydon, from whom, however, he was soon obliged to part on account of her dissolute life. Returning again to London, he set up as wandering lecturer on elocution, and in this character travelled with varying success through England. In November 1776 he set out on a visit to France, and lived at Paris for upwards of six months on funds supplied by his father. His resources being exhausted, he left Paris in the middle of July 1777 on foot. On reaching England he made another lecturing tour, which proved unsuccessful. His wit, humour, and knowledge of the world rendered him at one time an indispensable appendage to convivial gatherings of a kind; but in his later days he was so entirely neglected as to be obliged to sell gingerbread-nuts at fairs and race-meetings for a subsistance. He died in Coventry poorhouse in April 1800.