Nursery Rhyme. Viii. Historical

[In a tract, called 'Pigges Corantoe, or Newes from the North,' 4to Lond. 1642, p. 3, this is called "Old Tarlton's Song." It is perhaps a parody on the popular epigram of "Jack and Jill." I do not know the period of the battle to which it appears to allude, but Tarlton died in the year 1588, so that the rhyme must be earlier.]

The king of France went up the hill,
With twenty thousand men;
The king of France came down the hill,
And ne'er went up again.