~Masato

In '88 as I relate
As well I do remember
Was some say the 8th of May
But I say in September
That Spain and Biscay, Portugal
Toledo and Granada
All three did meet
And made a fleet
And called it the Armado

John Moulden posted to the ballad scholars list a related version from one of Roy Palmer's books. Here is a link; click on the 00 numbers:

Click here

--Stewie.

Sea Songs and Ballads, selected by Christopher Stone, with Introduction by Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1906; xxxiv+214 pp. Texts only; notes and index of first lines.

Contains just 100 poems and songs: for example, Shakespear songs, "Rule Britannia," "Tom Bowling," "The Golden Vanity," and sea shanties. I don't think this is a great collection, but some songs can be found here and note are helpful.

~Masato

Now, why didn't my mother call me something like "Cyprian" ?

/John.

Lyrics appear farther down the page. There are also sound samples available.

The Spanish Armada
Was blown off its course
Far to the north west of Rockall

Medina Sidonia
He knew what would befall
Those who closed with a lee shore

Wounded in Calais
And pounded at Gravelines
Laid over in the Atlantic

Raised upon mountains
And sunken in valleys
Spanish galleons run for shelter

What say your pilots
On their high and lofty castles
Cast among uncharted soundings

The sea bed rises
Throws foam up to heaven
And cables they break asunder

There is no handhold
In thundering water
Nor any means of rescue

Now Spanish gold
Slips down through the fathoms
So deep to lie forever

And silk and treasure
Roll in a sandstorm
Into the shallows and bays of Mayo

A drowned Spanish army
Invades unhappy Connaught
And Fitzwilliam cries for reinforcements

The English horsemen
They ride in the distance
And the Irish pick for the salvage

I wish I had never
Been a witness
To such savage scenes amidst the spoils

They cut down flowers
That could have been planted
And blossomed on less barren soil

Regards

A good start

(from the Pirate Joke Book).

"A JOYFUL NEW BALLAD, DECLARING THE HAPPIE OBTAINING OF THE GREAT GALLEAZO", entered in the Stationers' Register, on August 10, 1588. You can hear an excellent version of this broadside ballad on The York Waits' aptly named CD, "Music from the Time of the Spanish Armada".