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STORIES OF
quently refer to the tune in their plays; Sterne also mentions it in "Tristam Shandy." Purcel makes use of it again in his " Gordian Knot Unty'd," but it only lives now in the old nur-sery rhyme:
'* There was an old -woman toss'd up in a blanket Ninety-nine times as high as the moon."
and in the convivial chorus :
" A very good song, and very well sung, Jolly companions every one."
which seems to be the inevitable fate of many martial strains!
Though Lord Wharton is generally believed to have written " Lilliburlero" this is not certain, it never having been conclusively proved. Dr. Charles Mackay identified the refrain as part of a solar hymn, astronomical and dmidical,reading it thus: " Li! li! Beur! lear-a! Buille na la!" i.e., " Light! light on the sea beyond the pro-montory! 'Tis the stroke (or dawn) of the morning." The author of the "Irish Hudi-bras" is said to have had something to do with the composition of the words.
But let us turn our attention to other wares. Thomas Campbell's " Ye Mariners of England," which I briefly referred to in a previous chapter,
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