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Cuckolds all in a row
The tune to which Hey boys up go we is danced.

Cecil Sharp felt free to change the tune of a dance if he wasn't satisfied with the original. Often his choice is purely esthetic but here, there is historical precedent. with respect to Cuckolds, Chappell notes, "This tune is mentioned in the old song O London is a fine town. The date of its origin is not known, but it was used as a party tune by the Cavaliers, who sang the songs of Hey, boys, up go we and London's true character to it." So far as I know, no one does Hey boys up go we to the tune given in Playford, (its original name, by the way, was Hey, then, up go we) but there are a dozen or so songs to the original tune. Chappell, pp 204-8 gives many. Others can be found on the web, for example, here.

Any way, here is the first set of words given by Chappell for Hey then up go we. The following comments come from a web page whose URL I have carelessly misplaced: This song, ... which describes with some humour the taste of the Puritans, might pass for a Puritan song, if it were not contained in the Shepherds' Oracles, by Francis Quarles, 1646. He was cup-bearer to Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I, and afterwards chronologer to the city of London. He died in 1644, and his Shepherds' Oracles were a posthumous publication. It was often reprinted during the Restoration, and reproduced and slightly altered by Thomas Durfey, in his Pills to Purge Melancholy, where the burthen is, "Hey, boys, up go we".

Know this, my brethren, heaven is clear,

And all the clouds are gone;

The righteous man shall flourish now,

Good days are coming on.

Then come, my brethren, and be glad,

And eke rejoyce with me; [eke : also or in addition]

Lawn sleeves and rochets shall go down, [See note 1]

And hey, then, up go we.

 

We'll break the windows which the whore

Of Babylon hath painted,

And when the popish saints are down

Then Barrow shall be sainted; [See note 2]

There's neither cross nor crucifix

Shall stand for men to see,

Rome's trash and trumpery shall go down,

And hey, then, up go we.

 

Whate'er the Popish hands have built

Our hammers shall undo;

We'll break their pipes and burn their copes, [cope : cloak or cape]

And pull down churches too;

We'll exercise within the groves,

And teach beneath a tree;

We'll make a pulpit of a cask,

And hey, then, up go we.

 

We'll put down Universities,

Where learning is profest,

Because they practise and maintain

The language of the Beast;

We'll drive the doctors out of doors,

And all that learned be;

We'll cry all arts and learning down,

And hey, then, up go we.

 

We'll down with deans and prebends, too,

And I rejoyce to tell ye

We then shall get our fill of pig,

And capons for the belly.

We'll burn the Fathers' weighty tomes,

And make the School-men flee;

We'll down with all that smells of wit,

And hey, then, up go we.

 

If once the Antichristian crew

Be crush'd and overthrown,

We'll teach the nobles how to stoop,

And keep the gentry down:

Good manners have an ill report,

And turn to pride, we see,

We'll therefore put good manners down,

And hey, then, up go we.

 

The name of lords shall be abhorr'd,

For every man's a brother;

No reason why in Church and State

One man should rule another;

But when the change of government

Shall set our fingers free,

We'll make these wanton sisters stoop,

And hey, then, up go we.

 

What though the King and Parliament

Do not accord together,

We have more cause to be content,

This is our sunshine weather:

For if that reason should take place,

And they should once agree,

Who would be in a Roundhead's case,

For hey, then, up go we.

 

What should we do, then, in this case?

Let's put it to a venture;

If that we hold out seven years' space

We'll sue out our indenture.

A time may come to make us rue,

And time may set us free,

Except the gallows claim his due,

And hey, then, up go we.

• Note 1: A rochet is an outer cloak in the form of smock, cloak, or mantle, but it may also be a bishop's surplice.
• Note 2: Barrow may well be Isaac Barrow (1630-77) described thus in Chambers' Biographical dictionary: "English mathematician and divine... educated at ... Cambridge where he became a fellow in 1649. His royalist sympathies .. prevented him from obtaining the professorship of Greek until 1660. He published on trigonometry, optics, and the Pope's supremacy and became known for the length of his sermons. At Westminster Abbey he once detained a congregation so long that they got the organ to play 'till they had blowed him down'." Interestingly he resigned his professorship in Geometry in Cambridge to make way for his student, Isaac Newton.

There is a variant, Beggars all in a row which begins:

Come cease your songs of Cuckolds row
For now 'tis something stale,
And let us sing of Beggars now,
For that's in generall,
In City and in Country,
Men from high to low,
In each degree or quality,
Are Beggars all a row.

The full text can be found here.

Sharp was