Annotation:I am the Duke of Norfolk
X: 1 T:B211- I am the Duke of Norfolk S:(2nd/2) see also John Anderson, My Jo, + Sound a Charge(2) Q:1/4=120 L:1/4 M:C K:Gm G|G^FGA|B2BB|AFFF|F2^FD|G2GA|B2AG|D2D2|D2de| fdBd|f3d|cAFA|c2Bc|ddcB|A2G^F|G2G2|G3|]
I AM THE DUKE OF NORFOLK. AKA and see "Dumb Dumb Dumb," "Paul's Steeple." English, Country Dance Air (cut time). G Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The title Duke of Norfolk went defunct since the last Duke, a member of the Howard family, was executed by Queen Elizabeth I. The Howards aspired to regain the title and lobbied Charles I hard, even issuing public notices of loyalty to the Crown which circulated throughout England. Henry Frederick Howard (1608-1652) was eventually made Earl Marshall of Arundel in 1646, although he paid a price when Parliament imposed penalties and confiscation during the English Civil War. The Earldom was eventually restored to Henry's son, Thomas, in December, 1660.
The original ballad has been lost although references to it exist in literature, stated Chappell (1859), who also recorded a curious ritual attached to the tune that was current (or in living memory) in Suffolk at the time he was writing. At harvest festivals in that county it was customary to sing a song beginning—
I am the Duke of Norfolk
Newly come to Suffolk, (etc.)
and one of the gathered group would be crowned with a pillow or cushion, while another kneeled before him and presented him with a jug of ale. The one so crowned was required to then drink off the ale without spilling it or letting the cushion fall. The editor of the Suffolk Garland (1818, p. 402) says that "this custom has most probably some allusion to the homage formerly paid to the Lords of Norfolk, the possessors of immense domains in the country." Whether or not this was the origin, the term "to serve the Duke of Norfolk" entered tradition as equivalent to making merry, and Chappell finds references to it in literature as early as 1617; Shakespeare's Falstaff also makes reference to using a cushion as a crown.
See also note for "annotation:John Anderson My Jo."
