Dulcina

DESCRIPTION: "As at noone Dulcina rested In a sweete and shady bower, Came a shepherd and requested In her lap to sleep an hour." The song obliquely describes what might have happened, but the singer admits ignorance of what actually happened
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1707 (Pills to Purge Melancholy; registered 1615); a song "As at noon Dulcina Rested" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 153-155, "Dulcina" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LIX, p. 103, "Dulcina" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 142-143, "Dulcina" (1 text, 1 tune plus an excerpt)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 160-161, "Dulcina" (1 tune, partial text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN195, "As at noon Dulcina rested"
ADDITIONAL: Frederick J. Furnivall, _Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript: Loose and Humorous Songs_, printed by and for the Editor, London, 1868, pp. 32-34, "Dulcina" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 78
ST Perc3153 (Full)
Roud #9916
SAME TUNE:
In the month of February/The true Lovers Good-morrow... brace of Valentines (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1481)
Thou who art so sweet a creature/A delicate new ditty... Posie of a Ring (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2595)
What doth aile my loue, so sadly/A pleasant new Song, betwixt a Saylor and his Loue (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2793; Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXXVII, pp. 152-156)
From Oberon in Fairy Land/The mad-merry prankes of Robbin Good-fellow (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN933)
Of late it was my chance to walke/A penny-worth of Good Counsell (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2114)
In the gallant month of June/The desperate Damsell's Tragedy (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1478)
All you Young-men who would Marry/A Prouerb old, yet nere forgot, Tis good to strike while the Irons hott (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN160)
Jewry came to Jerusalem/Two pleasant Ditties, one of the Birth, the other of the Passion of Christ (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1551)
The golden god Hyperion/An excellent new ditty.. Dulcina complaineth for the absence of.. Coridon (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN988)
NOTES [132 words]: Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 209, #2419, "The shepards wooing," registered March 13, 1656, is said by Rollins to be this piece, but I can't prove it.
This is probably not an actual traditional song (widespread attributions to Walter Raleigh are said to be false). It is so often cited, however, that I thought it best to include it (there are eight or nine broadsides in the Broadside Ballad Index using this tune).
Izaak Walton's Compeat Angler also refers to this tune (Chapter II). He makes it sound like a folk song -- but he lists "Phyllida Flouts Me" and other arty songs in the same context. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Perc3153

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