Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 2

Ancient Songs, Ballads, & Dance Tunes, Sheet Music & Lyrics - online book

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	REIGN Off CHARLES II.		555
	The following tune, which has much the same character as The Rant, is con­tained in the second and subsequent editions of The Dancing-Master, either as Winifred's Knot, or Open the door to three.
	CUPID'S TREPAN. This was a very popular ballad tune, and it acquired a variety of names from the different ballads that were sung to it at different periods. I have not, however, observed any of these to have been issued by printers earlier than those of the reign of Charles II. (Thackeray, Coles, &c), but there are many extant of later date. Among the various names of the tune, may be cited, Cupid's Trappan; Up the green Forest; Bonny, bonny bird; Brave Boys; The Twitcher; A Damsel I'm told ; and I have left the world as the world found "me. The following ballads were sung to it:— " Cupid's Trappan, or, The Scorner scorn'd, or, The Willow turn'd into car­nation : described in The Ranting Resolution of a forsaken maid. To a pleasant new tune now all in fashion." It commences:— " Once did I love a bonny brave bird,         Up the green forest, and down the green fo- And thought he had been all my own, Like one much distressed in mind, [rest,
	But he lov'd another far better than me, And has taken his flight and is flown, Brave Boys. And has talten his flight and isjlown.	I hoopt and I hoopt, and I flung up my hood,                         [Brave Boys. But my bonny bird I could not find, But my bonny bird I could not find."
	There are many copies of this ballad, and, among them, two will be found in the Douce Collection, one of which is entitled, " Cupid's Trappan, or, Up the green Forest," &c. There was quite a ballad-contest between the sexes, sung to this air, for in answer to the above we have, firstly, " A young man put to his shifts, or, The Ranting Young Man's Resolution," &c, to the tune of Cupid's Trappan (Rox., ii. 548, and Douce, 262,) commencing— " Of late did I hear a young damsel complain, And rail much against a young man, His cause and his state I'll now vindicate, And hold battle with Cupid's Trappan, Brave Boys, And hold battle with Cupid''s Trappan. Then came " The Plowman's art of wooing" (Rox., ii. 260) :— " The brisk young Ploughman doth believe, If he were put to trial, There's not a maid in all the Shire Could give him the denial."