He That Will Not Merry, Merry Be

DESCRIPTION: "He that will not merry, merry be": "May he in Bridewell be shut up ... May he be plagued with a scolding wife ... May he be obliged to drink small beer ... May he be buried in the church-yard And me put in his stead [with his mistress]."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1733 (Ramsay [Logan says his copy is from Ramsay 1724 but I don't find it there - BS])
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 297-298, "He That Will Not Merry Be" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, "The Merry Fellows; or, He That Will Not Merry, Merry Be" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 51, "Now We've Met Let's Merry, Merry Be" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 149)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 588, "Three Merry Men of Kent" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 161-162, "Three Merry Men of Kent" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, #75 pp. 329-330, ("He that will not merry merry be") (1 text)
Robert Bell, editor, Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (London, 1857 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 239-240, "The Merry Fellows" or "He That Will Not Merry, Merry Be" (2 texts)
ST WT051 (Partial)
Roud #615
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl" (theme: drink and good fellowship) and references there
NOTES [41 words]: Bell: "The popularity of this old lyric, of which ours is the printer's version, has been increased by the lively and appropriate music recently adapted to it by Mr Holderness. The date of this song is about the era of Charles II [1660-1685]." - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: WT051

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