The little barley​-​corn

from Old Christmas Returned by Passamezzo

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about

Seventeenth Century Christmas drinking ballad

lyrics

The Little Barley-Corn
Come and do not musing stand, if thou the truth discern,
But take a full cup in thy hand, and thus begin to learn,
Not of the earth, nor of the air, at evening or at morn,
But jovial boys your Christmas keep, with the little Barley-Corn.
It is the cunningst alchymist that ere was in the land;
'Twill change your metal, when it list, in the turning of the hand,
Your blushing gold to silver wan, your silver into brass;
'Twill turn a tailor to a man, and a man into an ass.
If sickness come this physic take, it from your heart will set it;
If fear encroach, take more of it, your heart will soon forget it:
Apollo and the Muses nine, doe take it in no scorn;
There's no such stuff to pass the time as the little Barley-Corn.
'Twill make a weeping widow laugh, and soon incline to pleasure;
'Twill make an old man leave his staff, and dance a youthful measure:
And though your clothes be ne'er so bad all ragged rent and torn,
Against the cold you may be clad with the little Barley-Corn.
Thus the Barley-Corn hath power even for to change our nature,
And make a shrew, within an hour, prove a kind-hearted creature:
And therefore here, I say again, let no man tak't in scorn
That I the virtues doe proclaim of the little Barley-Corn.
Roxburghe Ballads, c1618

credits

from Old Christmas Returned, released March 2, 2017
Eleanor Cramer: Bass Viol
Robin Jeffrey: Lute
Alison Kinder: drum
Tamsin Lewis: Renaissance Violin
Michael Palmer: Baritone

license

all rights reserved

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about

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Passamezzo London, UK

London based early music ensemble specialising in English 16th and 17th repertoire.

Early modern music, song, ballads, theatre & dance. Viols, lute, voices, violin, recorders, harp. Christmas, Elizabethan, Tudors, Stuarts

Part of the intercultural project 'Shore to Shore', working with Moroccan Sufi musicians, Ensemble Mogador. ... more

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