A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Burden

by William H. Cummings

BURDEN or BURTHEN. Old songs and ballads frequently had a chorus or motto to each verse, which in the language of the time was called a Burden or Bob. One of the most ancient and most popular was 'Hey troly loly lo,' quoted in 'Piers Plowman,' 1362, and other early songs. It occurs after every line of a song of the time of Edward IV (Sloane MS. No. 1584); and in Isaac Walton's 'Compleat Angler' is the burden of 'O the sweet contentment the countryman doth find,'

         'Heigh trollollie loe,
          Heigh trollollie lee.'

The ancient 'Frogge Song' has the ridiculous burden—

        'Farthing linkum laddium,
         Fann—ho—fanny ho,
         Farthing glen.'

In the ballad of 'feir Eglamore,' which was very popular in the i?th century, the burden is 'Fa la, lanky down dilly.' In Shakespeare's 'Tempest ' we find—

     'Foote it featly heere and there,
      And sweet Sprites the burthen beare.'

The stage direction to which is 'Burthen dispersedly'; and the burthen follows—

     'Harke, harke, bowgh-wough;
      The watch-dogges barke
      Bowgh-wough.'

The second song in the same play has 'Ding-dong' for the burden. In 'As You Like It' Celia says 'I would sing my song without a burthen, thou bring'st me out of tune.'

The ballad 'The Jolly Miller' has been a favourite from the 16th or 17th century, and was sent to Beethoven to harmonise on account of 'its merited popularity' by Thomson, who inserted it in his 'Scotch Songs,' 1824. In it we find the lines—

     'This the burden of his song
      For ever us'd to be,
      I care for nobody, no, not I,
      If nobody cares for me.'

It is probable that the burdens were accompanied by motion or dancing. [ Ballad.] In 'Much Ado about Nothing' Margaret say 'Claps into Light-a-love (that goes without a burden). Do you sing it and I'll dance it.' Burden also means the drone or bass of a bagpipe. [ Faux-Bourdon.]

[ W. H. C. ]