Ho by my soul it is the Talbott, Lillibulero bullen a la, And he will cut all de English throat, Lilibulero bullen a la.
Lero, lero etc. (chorus) I don't remember the rest of the verses, but it seems to match Howard's derivation from 1641. "The Talbott" would match the use of a name as a title that is common in Irish usage. I'll not go with the rest of his interpretations, nor will I reject them. Irish traditional music is full of "nonsense" syllables (as is the old English with the good old "hey nonny nonny). I do like the Gaelic victory chant interpretation, the words fit. And one can add that the Irish were a bit allied with the French at the time (as were the Scots) on the Arabic grounds of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". So the lily of France could have been a standard. I'll not speculate further, nor can I remember where I got the words from the verse. Perhaps they are tribal memory <g>. ----- Original Message ----- From: "bill kilpatrick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "lute list" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 2:21 PM Subject: [LUTE] lillibullero > if this is has been gone through many times before, > please excuse me, i missed it. > > i was under the impression that purcell lifted the > melody to "lillibullero" from an unnamed irish tune. > > is this correct and if so, does the refrain ... > > lero lero lillibullero > lillibullero bullen a la > > .. have any significance other than nonsense rhyme? > > - bill > > > > ___________________________________________________________ > To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > >
