Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge

285. The George Aloe and the Sweepstake

In 1611 there were entered to Richard Jones, "Captayne Jennings his songe, which he made in the Marshalsey," etc., and "the second parte of the George Aloo and the Swiftestake, beinge both ballades" (Arber, in, 456). The second part of the George Aloo must needs mean a second ballad, not the printers' second half (which begins in C with st. 14). In The Two Noble Kinsmen, printed in 1634, or earlier, the Jailer's Daughter sings:

The George Alow came from the south,
From the coast of Barbary-a,
And there he met with brave gallants of war,
By one, by two, by three-a.
Well haild, well haild, you jolly gallants,
And whither now are yon bound-a?
Oh, let me have your company
Till [I] come to the sound-a.

These verses certainly seem to belong to another ballad. 'The Swepstacke' was a king's ship in 1545, and 'The Sweepstakes' apparently again in 1666.

This page most recently updated on 10-Dec-2010, 19:14:36.
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