Songs of the West: Folk Songs of Devon & Cornwall Collected from the Mouths of the PeopleBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
General
Songs of the West: Folk Songs of Devon & Cornwall Collected from the Mouths of the People
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Ballads, English; Folk songs, English
8. "The Great Archangel"; "The Angels"; "The Daybreak."
9. "The Nine Delights," _i.e._ the Joys of Mary; "The Moonshine."
10. "The Commandments"; "Begin Again."
11. "The Eleven Disciples"; "They that go to Heaven."
There are similar verses in German and Flemish; a Scottish version
in Chambers' "Popular Rhymes," 1842, p. 50. Also found in Brittany:
Luzel, "Chansons Populaires," 1890, p. 88. There is a Mediæval Latin
form, beginning "Unus est Deus." A Hebrew form is printed in Mendez:
"Service for the First Night of the Passover," London, 1862; a
Moravian form in Wenzig: "Slavischer Märchen-Schatz," 1857, p. 295.
It is also sung in the Eifel, Schmitz: "Sitten u. Bräuche des Eifler
Volkes," Trier, 1856, p. 113. A Greek form is in Sanders: "Volksleben
der Neugriechen." See also: Coussemaker, "Chants populaires des
Flamands," Gand, 1850; Villemarqué, Barzas Breis, 1846, and later
editions.
The lily-white boys are probably the Gemini, or sign for Spring. In
the "Queen-like Closet, or Rich Cabinet," 1681, are instructions for
embroidering emblems of the months. "May is to be clothed in a robe
of _white and green_, and his sign must be Gemini."
"The Ferryman in the Boat" is perhaps Charon. In other versions Five
is the Dilly-bird, or the Dilly-hour, "when blooms the dilly-flower."
Some are obviously merely adopted as rhymes, as "six the crucifix."
In Cornwall and Devon the song goes by the name of "The Dilly Song."
What the meaning of "Dilly" is must remain uncertain. Possibly it
signifies the Festal Song (Welsh, _dillyn_, pretty, gay).
The song used to be sung by Eton boys. It was introduced by Sir
Arthur Sullivan into "The Yeomen of the Guard"; he, I believe, heard
it sung by a sailor. His melody bears a certain relationship to ours.
The song requires to be sung by at least two persons, a questioner
and the responder.
79. COUNTRY DANCE. This dance tune, called "The Mallard," because
of some silly words that go to it relative to the gobbling up of a
mallard. It begins--
"Oh, what have I ate, and what have I ate?
I have eaten the toe of a mallard.
Toe and toe, nevins and all,
And I have been to ballery allery,
And so good meat was the mallard."
The singer proceeds to eat the foot, then the leg, the thigh, the
rump, the wing, the back, the breast, the neck, the head; and then
the dance was concluded. A Breton version in Luzel, p. 80. I have
written fresh words to the tune.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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