This short ballad fragment from New England is a remnant of a lively strand of folklore going back 850 years. The characters are real but the stories are fanciful, so buckle up for a wild ride and a gratuitous quantity of early music.

Music

The Lamentable Ballad of Fair Rosamond on the English Broadside Ballad Archive - to the tune of Chevy Chase

Sainte Nicholaes by Godric of Finchale (11th Century) - find out more here

O Viridissima Virga by Hildegard von Bingen (12th Century)

Summer is Icumen In, anon (14th Century)

Flow my Tears by that notorious Elizabethan Emo, John Dowland

The Unfortunate Concubine on the English Broadside Ballad Archive - to the tune of The Court Lady (also known as Confesse, his tune)

Chevy Chase again, this time on recorders

En amours n'a si non bien, anon (15th Century)

Alleluia, anon (in medieval style with organum)

Fair Rosamund, based on the version in Folk Songs of New England by Eloise Hubbard Linscott

References

French Chronicle of London: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-mayors-sheriffs/1188-1274/pp231-237 

England’s heroical epistles, by Michael Drayton: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A20814.0001.001/1:5?rgn=div1;view=fulltext