Milk-Maid's Life, The

DESCRIPTION: "You rural goddesses, That woods and fields possess, Assist me with your skill" to praise "them who choose this trade to use... To carry the milking-pail." They are gay and free from care, they are not idle, they are healthy, they do good work
AUTHOR: Martin Parker?
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 446-449, "The Milk-Maid's Life," "The Milking-Pail" (2 texts)
ST BeCo446 (Partial)
NOTES [120 words]: The earliest copy of this known to Bell carried the initials "M. P."; he conjectured that this is Martin Parker. This is not absolutely convincing, but certainly the piece has the hallmarks of Parker's flowery style and ignorant praise of a life he would hever in fact have gone near.
A. W. Pollard, G. R. Redgrave, et al, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland And of English Books Printed Abroad 1475-1640, The Bibliographical Society [of London], 1963, also attributes it to Parker; it is #19257 on p. 440, and is listed under the title "The milke-maids life. A pretty new ditty." It is signed "M. P." and was registered by T. Lambert 22 March 1634 and published in the same year. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: BeCo446

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