1641 - Suckling, John - Ballad upon Wedding

Allusion
Date	1641
Author	Suckling, John
Title	Ballad upon a Wedding
Mentions	George upon the Greene [George à Greene, Pinder of Wakefield?]; Lusty Roger; Whitsun ale; Vincent of the Crown; course-a-park [a game]

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-08-02. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2014-07-17.

Allusion

At Course-a-Park, without all doubt,
He should have first been taken out
By all the maids i' th' town:
Though lusty Roger there had been.
Or little George upon the Green,
Or Vincent of the Crown.
But wot you what ? the youth was going
To make an end of all his wooing;
The parson for him staid:
Yet by his leave (for all his haste)
He did not so much wish all past
(Perchance) as did the maid.
The maid—and thereby hangs a tale;
For such a maid no Whitson-ale
Could ever yet produce:
No grape, that's kindly ripe, could be
So round, so plump, so soft as she,
Nor half so full of juice.

Source notes

"l. 19 Course-a-Park] A country game, akin to Barleybreak, and not unlike Kiss-in-the-ring".
"1. 32. Whitson-ale] [...] The surplus of these feasts, supplied by parochial contributions, was devoted to repairs, etc., connected with the church fabric or furniture. Thus, an inscription on the ringing-gallery at Cawston, Norfolk, records ' what good ale this work made'; and another, on the 'bachelors' loft' before the south chapel of the chancel at Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex, states that part of the expense was defrayed by 'alys.'" [p. 371.]
IRHB's brackets.

IRHB comments

The editor does not comment on what may be an allusion to George à Greene, the Pinder of Wakefield. In this context, "lusty Roger" just possibly might allude to Roger of Doncaster of the Gest ("Red Roger" of the A-version of Robin Hood's Death; C119 A), but that would make Suckling something of a Robin Hood expert, and besides an allusion to a villain like Roger of Doncaster would hardly be in place here.

Lists

• Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976).
• Outside scope of Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88.

Editions

• Suckling, John; Suckling, Alfred, ed. Selections from the Works of Sir John Suckling. To which is prefixed a Life of the Author, with Critical Remarks on His Writings and Genius (London; Norwich, 1836), pp. 73-76; see p. 74.
• Suckling, John; Hazlitt, William Carew, ed. The Poems, Plays and Other Remains of Sir John Suckling. A New Edition. With a Copious Account of the Author, Notes, and an Appendix of Illustrative Pieces (London, 1874), pp. 42-46; see p. 43f.
• Suckling, John; Stokes, Frederick A., ed. The Poems of Sir John Suckling. A New Edition (New York: White, Stokes & Allen, 1886), pp. 31-36; see p. 32f.
• Hutchison, William G., ed.; Suckling, John; Sedley, Charles; Wilmot, John. Sir John Suckling: Ballads and Other Poems; Sir Charles Sedley: Lyrics; John Wilmot (Earl of Rochester): Poems and Songs (Hull, 1906), pp. 19-23; see p. 20.
• Suckling, John; Thompson, A. Hamilton, ed. The Works of Sir John Suckling in Prose and Verse (London; New York, Toronto, 1910); see p. 30, notes p. 371.
• Luminarium: A Ballad upon a Wedding.
• Representative Poetry Online: A Ballad upon a Wedding (excerpt; online text).

Also see

• Jolly Pinder of Wakefield
• Anonymous - 1632 - Pinder of Wakefield
• Greene, Robert - George a Greene.

Notes

 Allusionslinks1601-1700texts