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From Rare Poems of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, A supplement to the Anthologies, collected and edited with Notes by W. J. Linton; Roberts Brothers; Boston; 1895; pp. 208, 260.

208

FROM DEUTEROMELIA

THREE POOR MARINERS

WE be three Poor Mariners,
Newly come from the seas:
We spend our lives in jeopardy
While others live at ease:

Shall we go dance the round, the round, the round?

And he that is a bully boy

Come pledge me on this ground, aground, aground!

We care not for those martial men
That do our states disdain;
But we care for the merchant men,
Who do our states maintain:

To them we dance this round, around, around —

And he that is a bully boy

Come pledge me on this ground, aground, aground!

260

Notes

P. 208. — DEUTEROMELIA , is the first, PAMMELIA the second, and MELISMATA the third, in a series of “Pleasant Roundelays, Delightful Catches, Freemen’s Songs,” &c., put forth by Thomas Ravenscroft. Was our THREE POOR MARINERS the original, or an imitation, of the better known song in the same collection? —

We be Soldiers three:
I’ardona moy, je vous an pree!
Lately come forth of the Low Countrie,
With never a penny of money.

Elf.Ed. —There is no mention of Thomas Ravenscroft in Chambers’s Cyclopædia of English Literature, but for much more on him and his work, go to the excellent page of Greg Lindahl’s here. This includes a great picture of Ravenscroft’s effigy on his tomb.

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THREE POOR MARINERS

WE be three Poor Mariners, Newly come from the seas: We spend our lives in jeopardy While others live at ease:

And he that is a bully boy

We care not for those martial men That do our states disdain; But we care for the merchant men, Who do our states maintain:

And he that is a bully boy

Notes

We be Soldiers three: I’ardona moy, je vous an pree! Lately come forth of the Low Countrie, With never a penny of money.

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[Back] [Blueprint] [Next]

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WE be three Poor Mariners,
Newly come from the seas:
We spend our lives in jeopardy
While others live at ease:

We care not for those martial men
That do our states disdain;
But we care for the merchant men,
Who do our states maintain:

We be Soldiers three:
I’ardona moy, je vous an pree!
Lately come forth of the Low Countrie,
With never a penny of money.

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