Fortune My Foe (Aim Not Too High)

DESCRIPTION: "Fortune my foe, why dost thou frown on me? And will thy favour never better be?" The singer laments the sad fortune that has stolen his love away, and hopes for ease. Notable primarily for the tune, often cited under the title "Aim Not Too High"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1610 (W. Corkine's Instruction Book for the Lute)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 162-163, "Fortune My Foe" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 76-79, "Fortune" (1 tune, with partial texts of "Fortune My Foe" and "Aim Not Too High")
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 48-49, "Fortune, My Foe" (1 short text, 1 tune, which was surely revived from print)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN912, "Fortune my foe, why dost thou frown on me"
DT, FORTFOE*
ST ChWI076 (Full)
SAME TUNE:
A Caveat for Young-men/Give ear to me you young men whilst I write (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN963)
The Great Assize../Here is presented to the eye (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1135)
The Disturbed Ghost/Good Christain people all pray lend an ear (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN992)
A Looking- Glass for Traytors [executed Dec. 3, 1678]/Let all bold Traytors here come take a view (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1614)
The true manner of the Kings Tryal/King Charles was once a Prince of great state (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1578)
A Pill against Popery/Kind countrymen give ear unto these lines (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1565)
A Godly Guide of Directions/Good people all I pray you understand (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1034)
Newes from Hereford..Earthquake [Oct. 1, 1661]/Old England of thy sins in time repent (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2135)
The Godly Mans Instruction/Good people all I pray hear what I read (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1031)
Sad News from Salisbury. Dreadful Frost and Snow.. 23d. of December, 1684/Good Christians all that live both far & near (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN999)
Dying Tears [death of Henry, son of K. Chas. I, 13 Sept., 1660]/Great are the wonders that our God has done (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1072)
The Bloody-minded Husband... John Chamber/Good people all I pray attend, and mind (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1025)
The Bloody Murtherer..James Selbee/All you that come to see my fatal end (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN115)
The Gunpowder Plot/True Protestants I pray you to draw near (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2674) [cf. in this Index "Guy Fawkes"]
The Downfall of Pride/In London liv'd a wealthy merchants wife (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1439)
The Distressed Gentlewoman/Good people all, I pray you now draw near (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1032)
The Royal Court in Mourning.. Death.. King William/England, thy Sun have shined many years (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN828)
The Young-Mans A. B. C./Accept dear Love, these shadows of my grief (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN6)
..Strange and Wonderful Storm of Hail.. 18th of May 1680../Good Christians all attend unto my ditty (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN997)
Criminals Cruelty.. Tho. Wise.. murdered Elizabeth Fairbank.. executed.. Oct. 1684/Oh! this would make a stout heart lament (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2048)
Englands Miseries..preserving ..Royal Brother.. last horrid Plot/Old England now rise up with one accord (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2134)
Looking-glass for a Christian Family/All you that fear the Lord that rules the sky (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN133)
Looking-Glass for all true Christians/O hark, O hark, methinks I hear a voice (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2012)
The Despairing Lover/Break heart and dye, I can no longer live (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN449)
The Young Man's Counsellor/All you that to begin the world intend (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN149)
[Title lost. Naval Warfare of 1692]/To God alone, let us all Glory give (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2641); C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 114
The Kentish Wonder/You faithful Christians, whereso'er you be (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3008)
The Young- Mans Repentance/You that have spent your time in wickedness (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3127)
Dying Christians friendly Advice/You mortal men who vainly spend your youth (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3073)
Truth brought to Light/Amongst those wonders which on earth are shown (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN178)
A Lamentable List.. Prodigious signs.. 1618.. 1638/You who would be inform'd of forraine news (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3147)
A Warning for Swearers/All you that do desire to hear and know (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN124)
A True Relation of the Great Floods/Oh, England, England! 'tis high time to repent (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2002)
[missing title, Fire on London bridge]/It grieves my heart to write such heavy news (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1510)
The Hartford-shires Murder/All melting hearts come here and.. (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN93)
A wonderfull wonder/Look downe, O Lord, upon this sinful land (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1715)
Death's loud Allarum/Lament your sinnes, good people all, lament (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1599)
You that the Lord have blessed with riches (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3134)
Now to discourse of man I take in hand/A discourse of Man's life (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1982)
What woeful times we have now in our land/A Looking- Glass for all true Protestants (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2812)
Behold, O Lord, a Sinner in distresse/A Godly Song, entitled, A Farewell to the world (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN400)
Give thanks, rejoyce all, you that are secure/A Sad and True Relation of a great fire or two (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN972)
Brave Windham late/Iohn Flodder and his Wife,... burning Town of Windham. .xi day of June 1615 (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN448)
Who please to heare such news as are most true/The lamentable burning..Corke..1621 (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2912)
All Christian men give ear a while to me/The Judgement of God..John Faustus (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN59)
Aim not to high in things above thy reach/An excellent song..consolation for a troubled mind (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN37)
As I lay slumbering in my bed one night/St. Bernard's Vision (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN224)
Ay me, vile wretch, that ever I was born/complaint and lamentation of Mistresse Arden of Feuversham in Kent (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN369; John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 291-297)
Listen a while dear friends I do you pray/sad judgement..Dorothy Mattley.. 1660 (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1698)
You disobedient children mark my fall/Save a Thief from the Gallows (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3006)
Kind countreymen, and our acquaintances all/The lamentation of Edward Bruton [Mar. 18, 1633] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1563)
Now, like the swan, before my death I sing/.. lamentation of..John Stevens..[executed Mar. 7, 1632 (old style)] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1933)
England, give prayse unto the Lord thy God/A joyfull new ballad..Victory obtained by my Lord Mount-joy.. 2 of December last [1601] to [Jan. 9, 1602] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN825)
I pray give ear unto my tale of woe/..cruel murder.. upon..Abraham Gearsy (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1320; John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 298-301)
Great God that sees all things that here are don/Anne Wallens Lamentation,. murthering ..husband...22 June 1616 (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1077)
Vnhappy she whom fortune hath forlorne/Lamentation ..Master Pages Wife of Plymouth [1609?] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2697)
Titus Andronicus's Complaint/You noble minds, and famous martial wights (Percy/Wheately I, pp. 224-229; Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3085; Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XII, p. 54)
The Midnight Messenger, or A Sudden Call from an Earthly Glory to the Cold Grave (File: DixP004)
NOTES [229 words]: As a song, this is of no particular note, but the tune was immensely popular, and sustained numbers of broadsides (see the Same Tune list; these more often list the tune as "Aim Not Too High," but many give both titles; in any case, it's the same melody). This popularity, rather than the not-demonstrably-traditional and quite banal text, explain the song's inclusion here.
Chappell claims that Shakespeare alludes to this song in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II, Scene iii. I can't find anything that strikes *me* as an allusion to the song, though. He also says that the song "Titus Andronicus," upon which Shakespeare based his play, used this melody. I don't trust the latter, since everything claimed to use this tune....
We do know that the song was used in Jacobean drama, though, because it is cited in Francis Beaumont's "The Knight of the Burning Pestle." (For that play, see the notes to "Three Merry Men"). Usually, when the "Knight" quotes a song, the printed copy includes the text, but in this case, the song was seemingly so familiar that all Beaumont had to do was put in an instruction to sing "Fortune, my foe, etc." This is Act V, scene iii, line 87 on p. 377 of Wine; KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, which does not mark scenes, makes it Act V, line 242, p. 112. In KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, it's Act V, line 246 on p. 157, with tune on p. 183. - RBW
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File: ChWI076

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