We Be Three Poor Mariners

DESCRIPTION: "We be three poor mariners, newly come from the seas, We spend our lives in jeopardy, while others live at east. Shall we do dance the Round, around, around (x2)...." The singer praises merchantmen "that do our states maintain."
AUTHOR: Thomas Ravenscroft?
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 77-78, "We Be Three Poor Mariners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 134-135, "We Be Three Poor Mariners" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 120-121, "We Be Three Poor Mariners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads VI, p. 9, "We be three poor Mariners" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed_, _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822, No. IV/p. 5, "We Be Three Poor Mariners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 202-204, "Wee Be Three Poore Mariners" (1 text, 1 tune with harmonization)
NOTES [42 words]: The text of this is pretty definitely not traditional (it looks like Ravenscroft hacked it up as a merchant sailor's equivalent of "We Be Soldiers Three"), but the tune, which Chappell describes as a dance tune "Brangill/Branle of Poictu," may be. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShaSS120

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