MySongBook.de

Henry's Songbook

© All original copyrights respected


previous page
vorherige Seite zurück / back

go to  de   Susannes Folksong-Notizen   English Notes  uk

As I Roved Out

  • And who are you, me pretty fair maid
    And who are you, me honey?
    And who are you, me pretty fair maid
    And who are you, me honey?
    She answered me quite modestly,
    "I am me mother's darling."

    cho: With me too-ry-ay
    Fol-de-diddle-day
    Di-re fol-de-diddle
    Dai-rie oh.

    And will you come to me mother's house,
    When the sun is shining clearly ( repeat )
    I'll open the door and I'll let you in
    And divil 'o one would hear us.

    So I went to her house in the middle of the night
    When the moon was shining clearly ( repeat )
    Shc opened the door and she let me in
    And divil the one did hear us.

    She took me horse by the bridle and the bit
    And she led him to the stable ( repeat )
    Saying "There's plenty of oats for a soldier's horse,
    To eat it if he's able."

    Then she took me by the lily-white hand
    And she led me to the table ( repeat )
    Saying "There's plenty of wine for a soldier boy,
    To drink it if you're able."

    Then I got up and made the bed
    And I made it nice and aisy ( repeat )
    Then I got up and laid her down
    Saying "Lassie, are you able?"

    And there we lay till the break of day
    And divil a one did hear us ( repeat )
    Then I arose and put on me clothes
    Saying "Lassie, I must leave you."

    And when will you return again
    And when will we get married ( repeat )
    When broken shells make Christmas bells
    We might well get married.

Susannes Folksong-Notizen

  • english [1967:] Even the commonplace As I roved out opening of so many English folk songs can be traced to a standard incipit of courtly 'chanson d'aventure' of twelfth-century France. (Lloyd, England 55)

  • english [1972:] 17 Come Sunday or As I Roved Out or One May Morning is yet another example of how rich British folk song is in variants of the same song. Versions of this story are found all over these islands, a great many in the southern counties of England. (Notes The Spinners, 'Love Is Teasing')

  • english [1973:] A. L. Lloyd has described this song as 'probably the commonest and most popular folk song found in the British Isles today'. For some reason the age of the girl is usually given in England as 17, while in Ireland she is usually 16 [...]. Perhaps they mature earlier, or something. Mrs Sarah Makem's version was for many years the sig. tune of a pioneer programme on field recordings [...]. (Dallas, Wars 56)

  • english [1973:] Although this one has the same title as the previous one [As I Roved Out II], the resemblance ends there - it is a completely different song. This version was learned from Andy Rynne of Prosperous, Co. Kildare. (Notes Planxty, 'The Well Below the Valley')

  • english [1979:] Mothers with nubile daughters were particularly wary of soldiers, who were proverbial for the girls they left behind. The man here is atypical, for he takes the girl with him to be at least a common-law wife. The song originated in the eighteenth century, and remained widely popular until the twentieth. Cecil Sharp alone collected 22 versions [...]. (Palmer, Country 139)

  • english [1982:] As I roved out one midsummer's morning is a first line that countless folksongs have in common. Nearly all songs starting this way go on to tell a tale of seduction or attempted seduction, often of the wicked squire and the milkmaid sort, though sometimes with the roles reversed. One huge family of As I walked out songs is descended from a long ballad of 1609 called The baffled knight, or lady's policy, which was one of those collected by Samuel Pepys. This begins with a drunken knight meeting with a fine lady on his morning ride. By verse two, he is suggesting that they should lie down on the grass. In the original ballad, which runs to one hundred and eighty verses, she engages in a series of tricks to preserve her honour, ending by inviting the knight into her castle by way of a plank that she had laid across the moat. The plank, previously almost sawn through, snaps and the knight gets a ducking.
    After 1609, the ballad seems to have led two different lives. In one, it went on being sung in its original form - though much shortened - until it emerged from the notebooks of Cecil Sharp and the Hammond brothers as Blow away the morning dew. Most versions had lost the knight drunk with wine, however, and substituted a 'brisk young farmer' and had attracted an 'As I walked out' opening. The common link, though, is the theme of woman's guile. (Pollard, Folksong 30)

  • english [1998:] [Seventeen Come Sunday] Common as a broadside as well as in aural tradition, the "amorous encounter" song was more popular with singers than with collectors, who often considered such lyrics unfit or unworthy of publication. This one became well known to Grainger aficionados through his 1912 chorus arrangement. It comes from Mr. Fred Atkinson of Redbourne, 1905. (Notes John Roberts & Tony Barrand, Heartoutbursts - Lincolnshire Folksongs collected by Percy Grainger)

See also
16 come next sunday -- lyrics
Lith a doodle, As I Rode Out ?
sixteen come next Sunday or so
who are you my pretty fine dear...

Quelle: Ireland

go back  de  A-Index  uk


Henry
© Sammlung : Susanne Kalweit (Kiel)
Layout : Henry Kochlin  (D-21435 Stelle)

29.10.1999, aktualisiert am 02.04.2010, 15.04.2009