Annotation:Three Merry Men
THREE MERRY MEN. English, Ballad Air (cut time). B Flat Major (Chappell): A Major (Kines). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The air appears in John Playford's MS Commonplace Book, while the words can be found in Peele's The Old Wives' Tale (1595). Shakespeare has Sir Toby mention the ballad, among others, in Twelfth Night (act II, scene 3). Only four lines seem to have been given by Chappell, Long and Gibbon:
Three merry men and three merry men and three merry men are we.
I in the wood and thou on the ground and Jack sleeps in the tree.
Hold thy peace, and I prithee hold thy peace.
Thou Knave, hold thy peace thou knave, thou knave.
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