Arise, Arise- Jack Barnard (Som) 1907 Sharp
[From Cecil Sharp; Folk Songs of Somerset, 4th Series 1911. His notes follow. This is the "broadside text."
R. Matteson 2016]
No. 99. ARISE, ARISE.
Words and- air from Mr. Jack Barnard, of Bridgwater. Mrs. Lucy White of Hambridge also sang me a version of this song. Her tune, although in the major mode throughout, was in other respects very similar to Mr. Barnard's ; she could, however, remember only three verses of the words. I have also noted down a very close variant from a gipsy woman, Mrs. Rebecca Holland, 90 years of age, whom I met on Stafford's Common in Devonshire. I have substituted some of her lines for those that Mr. Barnard gave me. Otherwise the words in the text are exactly as he sang them.
Notes Malcolm Douglas: Possibly an adaptation by Sharp of an earlier collection. Text from Susie Clarke per Jack Barnard at Bridgwater, 6 April 1907.Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs, ed. Maud Karpeles; vol.I no.78, p.329. OUP 1974. Sharp commented "The words have not been altered, although I have made use of all the sets that I have collected." (One Hundred English Folksongs, Ditson, 1944). The two final verses above came from Mrs. Lucy White (Hambridge, Somerst, 1905). I don't know where verses 5 and 6 are from (though in verse 6, line one, not is an accidental interpolation not given by Sharp); the rest, with the exception of the substitutions in the first verse of drowsy for pretty and O for And, is from Barnard, as is the tune.
ARISE, ARISE- Sung by Jack Barnard at Bridgwater, 6 April 1907. Additional words from other collected versions (see notes).
Arise, arise, you drowsy[1] maiden,
Arise, arise, it is almost day,
O come unto your bedroom window
And hear what your true love do say.
Begone, begone, you'll awake my father,
My mother too, she can quickly hear;
Go, tell your tales unto some other
And whisper softly in her ear.
I won't be gone, I love no other,
You are the girl I do adore;
It's I, my dear, who love you dearly,
The pains of love that have brought me here.
Now when the old man heard them talking,
He nimbly stepped right out of bed,
And put his head out of the window,
Poor Johnny dear was quickly fled.
Turn back, turn back, don't be called a rover;
Turn back, turn back, and sit by my side;
O wait until his passions over,
And I will surely be your bride.
O daughter, daughter, I will not confine you,
And mother too, she will quickly hear.
Go, tell your tales unto some other,
And whisper softly in her ear.
O father, father, pay down my fortune,
It's fifty thousand bright pounds, you know,
And I will cross the briny ocean
Go where the stormy winds do blow.
O daughter, you may ease your own mind,
It's for your sweet sake that I say so;
If you cross the briny ocean
Without your fortune you must go.
O daughter, daughter, I'll confine you;
All in your private room alone;
And you shall live on bread and water,
Brought once a day and that at noon.
I do not want your bread and water,
Nor anything that you may have.
If I can't have my heart's desire,
Then single I go to my grave.
1. Susie Clarke's MS had "pretty"