Authority Cited: Old Song
Author name and dates: Unknown
BKG Bio-tweet: 1755 Dict. cite: from A. Philips ballad collection; 1773 Dict. cite: from Farquhar play
Categories (list of works cited – preliminary) [BKG Note: One Old Song cite in 1755 Dict. vol. 1. Two Old Song cites were identified as added in the 1773 Dict., indicated in bold italics below. SJ quotes three different songs, likely from memory. One added citation in the 1773 Dict., appears in a George Farquhar play.]
Author name and dates: Unknown
BKG Bio-tweet: 1755 Dict. cite: from A. Philips ballad collection; 1773 Dict. cite: from Farquhar play
Categories (list of works cited – preliminary) [BKG Note: One Old Song cite in 1755 Dict. vol. 1. Two Old Song cites were identified as added in the 1773 Dict., indicated in bold italics below. SJ quotes three different songs, likely from memory. One added citation in the 1773 Dict., appears in a George Farquhar play.]
- Old Song; fault (For that I will not fault thee, but for humbleness exalt thee.); "The Devonshire Nymph: Or The Knight's Happy Choice," v.1, p.227-230 of A collection of old ballads. Corrected from the best and most ancient copies extant. With introductions historical, critical, or humorous. Illustrated with copper plates, attributed to Ambrose Philips (q.v), 1723, London: printed for J. Roberts; and sold by J. Brotherton in Cornhill; A. Bettesworth in Pater-Noster-Row; J. Pemberton in Fleetstreet; J. Woodman in Bow-Street, Covent-Garden; and J. Stag in Westminster-Hall, . [BKG Note: Watkins in Johnson and English Poetry before 1660 (p. 87 et seq.), compares later editions of the Ballads with several SJ works. Watkins: "It is hard to believe that of the few ballads from which Johnson quotes, six should by mere coincidence be included in the first volume of this Collection." With this Old Song citation, there are seven ballads from the first volume of this text quoted by SJ, four of these cited in the word list of the 1755 Dict. : Chevy Chase, Children in the Wood, Old Song, Song of the King and the Miller. In addition, lines from "A Prince of England's Courtship to the King of France's Daughter" is quoted in the Grammar of the English Tongue in the Dict. prefatory matter, and cited as "Old Ballad": "In days of old/Stories plainly told/Lovers felt annoy" (p.181 of the title above). The thought in n.8, p.355 of Yale vol. 18 that SJ might have seen this ballad in a Percy manuscript seems unlikely since Percy did not meet SJ until after the Dict. publication.]
- Old Song; command (Dict.: The queen commands, and we'll obey / Over the hills and far away); p.19 of The recruiting officer. A comedy. As it is acted at the Theatre Royal in Dryry-lane, by Her Majesty's servants. Written by Mr. Farquhar, The Second Edition, Corrected. 1706, London: printed for Bernard Lintott at the Cross Keys next Nando's Coffee-House near Temple Bar.
- Old Song; play (1773 Dict.: Boys and girls come out to play / Moon shines as bright as day.) Wikipedia indicates that these lines appeared in dance books as early as 1708.