British & other Versions 9A. I Love my Love (Owre Yon High, High Hill) Roud 5548
[Since there are only two extant versions of 9A. I Love my Love (Owre Yon High, High Hill) and they are both given in the main headnotes, there is no need to create a second page for the texts and have additional headnotes. This instead is just a work page. For info see the Main Headnotes,
R. Matteson 2018]
Random notes:
Wanton Lad (variant of Roving Bachelor) presumably from William Walker by 1891.
The Bedesman and the Hodbearer: The Epistolary Friendship of Francis ...
Francis James Child, William Walker, Mary Ellen Brown
The Wanton Lad
I've been a wanton
A wanton a' my life
And I am resolved
To go and seek a wife
[unknown syllable chorus]
The first thing that I asked her
Wad I convey her hame
The answer that she gaed to me
I wish to walk my lane
The next thing that I asked her
Was gin she was a maid
An' the answer that she gave to me
I once was one she said
The next thing that I asked her
Was she a maid just noo,
The answer that she gave to me
I'm sure I'm one for you.
The next thing that I asked her,
Was where did she dwell,
An' the answer that she gave me
Was, atween Heaven and Hell
Cambridge, Massachusetts 17th March, 1891
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First Line: First thing that I asked of her, The; Roud No: 5548 [Search for 5548 in the current indexes]; Other nums: Source: Greig-Duncan Collection 5 pp.86-88 (version a); Performer: Gillespie, Mrs. Margaret; Place: Scotland; Collector: Duncan, James B. Date collected: 1909 (2 Sep);
I Love my Love- Margaret Gillespie collected Duncan on September 2, 1909
CHORUS: I love my love as I love my life,
An' I love my love most dearly
My whole delight's in her well- faured face,
An' I long to have her near me.
The first thing I asked of her,
Where did her father dwell, O
And the answer she gae to me,
Was, "Between the cloods and hell, O."
CHORUS:
The next thing I asked of her,
Was, if she wad tak a man,
And the answer that she gave to me,
Was, "Files [sometimes] noo and than, O."
CHORUS:
The next thing I asked at her,
If she wad marry me,
And the answer she gae to me,
"I think I'm better free, O."
CHORUS:
This version, vaguely similar to, but probably based on "Seventeen," is published by Ord, Bothy Songs and Ballads. Ord's text seems to be reprinted from Grieg as taken from Bell Robertson about 1906. The chorus is unusual.
As I Cam' Owre Yon High High Hill
As I cam' owre yon high, high hill,
I met a bonnie lassie,
She looked at me and I at her,
And wow, but she looked saucy.
CHORUS: But I love my love and I love my love,
And I love my love most dearly
My whole delight's in her bonnie face,
And I long to have her near me.
The first thing I asked of her,
What was her father's name?
But the answer she gave to me,
"Ye're a curious man to ken."
CHORUS:
The next thing I asked of her,
Did he live here about?
And the answer she gave to me,
"His peat-stack stand thereout."
CHORUS:
The next thing I asked of her,
Gin she wad take a man,
But the answer she gave to me,
"'Tis nocht but what I can."
CHORUS:
The next thing I asked of her,
Gin wad she marry me?,
But the answer she gave to me,
"If you and I agree."
CHORUS:
Then fare ye weel, mu bonnie lass,
May joy and peace be wi' ye,
And ye'll be on a better tune,
When I come back to see ye.
LAST CHORUS: But I love her yet, I love her yet,
I love her yet most dearly
My whole delight's in her bonnie face,
And I long to have her near me.
Steve Gardham sent me two versions of "As I Cam' Owre Yon High High Hill." Both are named for the chorus "I Love my Love" and Steve says it seems to be a later rewrite. Ord's version is reprinted from Grieg as taken from Bell Robertson and is nearly identical.
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[Sim. to chorus]
The Loyal Lover
[ Roud 578 ; Ballad Index dlMC389A ; trad.]
The Loyal Lover is a song from Lucy Broadwood's English County Songs (1893) and from Sabine Baring-Gould's collection of folk songs of Devon and Cornwall, Songs of the West (1913).
Heather Wood sings The Loyal Lover
I'll weave my love a garland, it shall be dress'd so fine
I'll set it round with roses, with lilies, pinks and thyme
And I'll present it to my love when he comes home from sea.
For I love my love, and I love my love, because my love loves me.
------------------------------
First I was a gentleman
VWML Song Index (SN20441)
Source
James Madison Carpenter Collection, JMC/1/8/1/K, p. 12041
Performer
Place
Collector
Carpenter, James Madison
Date collected
Format
Manuscript
Source Contents
Music_-_single_melody_line Text
--------------------
First Line: [Search for 5548 in the current indexes]; Other nums: Source: James Madison Carpenter MSS Collection (American Folklife Center, Library of Congress / VWML, London) pp.00240 / 06204-06205 / 12041; Performer: Sutherland, John; Place: Scotland : Caithness : Latheron; Collector: Carpenter, James Madison; Date collected: 1929c-1935c;
Ruck a Juck[1]
First I was a gentleman
and then I was a grieve [2]
Then I got my dogs to keep
And then I got my leave.
CHORUS: To my ruck a juck a juck a doo
Too roo roo a raddle
To my ruck a juck a juck a doo
Then I met a fair maid.
The first question I asked of her,
If she was a maid?
And the answer that she gave to me,
"I once was what you said."
The next question I asked of her,
If she was a maid just now?
And the answer that she gave to me,
"I'm quite the maid for you."
The next question I asked of her,
If she would take a man?
And the answer that she gave to me,
"I'll take him now and then."
1. also is spelled "rook a jook"
2. A grieve is a farm overseer/manager for a gentleman farmer who had a biggish farm and left the everyday running of employees to the grieve.
------------------------------
Burn's Handsome Nell - same melody as Crawfurd version below
Volume VI, song 551, page 570 - 'O once I lov'd'
Introduction:
Verse 1:
'O once I lov'd a bonnie lass,
An' aye I love her still
an' whilst that virtue warms my breast
I'll love my handsome Nell.'
----------------
Andrew Crawfurd's collection of ballads and songs - Page 175-176
https://books.google.com/books?id=Y9tZAAAAMAAJ
Andrew Crawfurd, E. B. Lyle - 1975 - Snippet view - More editions
John Smith Lochwinnoch Renfrewshire 1827 Smith married in 1783
THE OLD BACHELOR
1 I am a man unmarried
And has been all my life
Now I am resolved
For to go seek a wife
2 Such a wife I must have
Is scarce for to be found
And such a wife I must have
Scarce walks upon the ground
3 A bonnie a braw wife
A wife with meikle gear
If I dinna get a bonnie wife
I'll want another year
4 A bonnie wife if she be na gude
She is gude companie
And if she be gude
Slio is pleasant to the ee
5 If I marry a tall one
I am sure she'll crack my crown
And little women is peevish
They'll pull a strong man doun
6 If I marry a black one
The lads will laugh at me
And if I marry a fair one
A cuckle I am sure to be
7 If I marry a young one
She'll ruin me with pride
And if I marry an old one
8 But as I was musing Mark
what came to pass
In my sight appeared
A handsome tall young lass
9 The first question that I speired at her
What was her name
The answer she gave to me
Was modesty and fame
10 The next question that I asked her
If she was a maid
And the answer that she gave to me
I was once what you said
11 The next question that I asked her
If she was one just now
And the answer she gave to me
And I may be one for you.
12 The next question that I asked her
If she wad take a man
And the answer she gave to me
A little now and then
13 The next question that I asked her
If she wad marry me
And the answer that she gave to me
It's no be what may be
14 The green it is a bonny thing
Till ance it gets a dip
And he that courts a bonnie lass
Is sure to get the slip
Sam Henry's Songs of the People - Page 263
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0820336254
Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann - 2010 - Preview
Margaret Noble (Links Cottage, Cloughey, Co. Down) in Ards district, Co. Down. s: [To the kindness of] Miss Margaret Noble ... we are indebted for the song. g: The versions cited are quite different from Henry's two. Key C.
THE ROVING BACHELOR (a) [To the kindness of] Miss Margaret Noble May 9, 1936
English and Scots Traditional
From "Sam Henry's Songs of the People" page 263.
I am a roving bachelor and have been all my life,
But now I am determined to gang and tak' a wife.
With my rum-rum-row, a raddy rum-rum-row.
Now the sort of wife that I do want, she's no aisy to be fun'[found],
She must be tall and handsome and worth a thoosan' pun'[pounds].
I strolled into the market place to see what a cud see,
When the bravest lass in a' the town begun tae wink at me.
I step-ped up beside her, said I, 'My maid sae shy ...'
The answer that she gaed me was, 'A'm nae sae shy as dry.'
The question then I axed her, what wud she hae tae drink?
The answer that she gaed me, 'Just onythin' ye think.'
The next question that I axed her, wud she no hae a gless?
And the answer that she gaed me, 'Ye couldna offer less.'
The next question that I axed her, did she ne'er lo'e a man?
The answer that she gaed me, 'I never loo'd but wan.'
Next question that I axed her, what like that might he be?
The answer that she gaed me was, 'The very image o' thee.'
Next question that I axed her, what way did she gang hame?
The answer that she gaed me, 'The very yin I came.'
So now we hae got married and the neighbours all can tell
That though she's tall and handsome she wears the breeks hersel'.
I am a roving bachelor
and have been all my life,
But now I am determined
to gang and tak' a wife.
With my rum -rum -row , a raddy rum-rum-row.
Now the sort of wife that I do want,
she's no aisy to be fun' ,
She must be tall and handsome
and worth a thoosan' pun'
---------------
Sam Henry's Songs of the People - Page 264
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0820336254
Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann - 2010 - Preview
3.1: cud = could. 3.1: a = I. 4.2: gaed = gave . 9.2: yin = one. 10.2: breeks = britches. The Roving Bachelor (b)[H650b: 9 May 1936] [m = H650a] A version collected in the Coleraine district has the same theme, but elaborates the dialogue between the lover and the lass. It runs --
As I went out one morning,
being on the dewy grass ,
'Twas by the will o' providence
I met a bonny lass.
Dram-a-da, toor-an-addy ,
toor-al-oor-an- andy 0.
The first question that I axed her,
what was her name?
And the answer that she geen tae me was,
'Bonny Jean, at hame.'
The next question that I axed her, was her fortune big? And the answer that she geen me was , 'Ten shillings and a pig.' The next question that I axed her, did her father deal in flax? And the answer that she geen me, 'If you knowed, you widna ax.' The next question that I axed her, was she good tae her mother? And the answer that she gaen me, 'Times I shake her off her fother.' 'It's I am a gentleman and you're a country lass, And all the fault I hae tae you, you hae ower muckle snash 'If you are a gentleman and I a country lass, You might hae passed me by and geen me nane o' your snash.' 3.1: coo = cow. 6.2: fother = ?fodder, feed. 7.2: muckle = big, large, much.
The Songs of Robert Burns - Page 42
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1134966954
Donald Low - 2005 - Preview - More editions
... acid Disappointment, gin-horse Prudence and bookworm Philosophy, I hold to be the first of human joys, our dearest pleasure here below . . . . (Letter 125, Letters I 137) The girl was Nelly Kilpatrick, daughter of a farmer near Dalrymple. She was fond of singing, and Burns states that ' 'twas her favorite reel to which I attempted giving an embodied vehicle in rhyme'. The reel in question, which has not been identified, was probably known to Burns as 'I am a man unmarried', because '0 .
The Indifferent Lover, Or, The Roving Batchelor: To a Pleasant New Tune Sung i nthe last new Comedy called Amphytrion Or, Fond Boy
Charles Bates at teh White-Hart in West Smithfield
1690
The second Song, in the fourth Act f1; The Indifferent LOVER, OR, The Roving Batchelor. T0 a Pleasant new Tune, Sung in the last new Comedy, called Amphitryon, Or, Fond Boy f2; A Song in the last new Comedy call'd AMPHITRYON. Written by Mr. DRYDEN SET by Mr. Henry Purcel. Sung by Mrs. Butler q; A SONG d. 482-493 italics and romans of text of song reversed in fl, fa, and d, but normalized in the following textual notes.
Edinburgh Companion to Robert Burns - Page 77
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0748636501
Gerard Carruthers - 2009 - Preview - More editions
The second part of the melody is then a rousing sing-a-long chorus again with two strains, the latter ending slightly differently than the former. This matches the refrain as noted by Burns in his Commonplace Book and also the original lyric notated by Crawford. Lyle notes that the song at this time had 'quite wide currency'10 and is found often with a lyric entitled 'The Roving Batchelor' in Scottish chapbooks or pamphlets.11 Like Burns's lyric 'The Roving Batchelor' appears to have been .
National Library of Scotland, L. C. 2864:20 Kattie's Answer to Wabster Jock, Together with, jock's Reply, with, The Roving Batchelor, and Roger of Coverly (Stirling, Printed for the Booksellers, 18o[?]), pp. 4-6 'The Roving Bachelor', The Wanton Seed, edited by Frank Purslow (E.F.D.S. Publications: London, 1969), p. 100, and Sam Henry's Songs of the People, edited by Gale Huntington and revised by Lani Herrmann (University of Georgia Press: Athens, Georgia, and London ...
Kattie's answer to wabster Jock, together with Jock's reply, with, The roving batchelor, and Roger of Coverly. 8p. Stirling, Booksellers, 1806.
Roving Bachelor(I), The
DESCRIPTION: Bachelors, be careful before you take a wife. Women are unpredictable. Even Samson and Aristotle erred in marrying. Consider the man who preferred hanging to marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadsides, Bodleian Harding B 15(263b), Bodleian Harding B 15(267a))
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage death humorous nonballad bachelor execution
FOUND IN: US(MA,Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-Pioneer 86, "Roving Bachelor" (1 text)
Hubbard, #89, "The Roving Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2849
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(263b), "The Roving Bachelor" ("Come all you roving batchelors"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 15(267b), Harding B 11(3350), Harding B 25(1668) [many lines illegible], "Roving Bachelor" (see NOTES)
Bodleian, Harding B 15(267a), "The Roving Batchelor" ("Come all you roving bachelors"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(3942), Harding B 17(263a), "The Roving Batchelor[!]"; Harding B 11(1548), Harding B 11(3348), Firth c.26(23), 2806 c.16(268), 2806 c.16(301), Harding B 25(1670), 2806 c.17(370)[many lines illegible], Firth c.20(61)[some lines illegible], "[The] Roving Bachelor" (see NOTES)
NOTES: While the "Harding B 15(263b)" and "Harding B 15(267a)" broadsides are clearly the same song and share some lines they have recognizably different sets of verses.
The "Harding B 15(263b)" set includes distinctive verses beginning "For when you think you have them won your business is not well begun," "If she be a beauty her servant you must be," "How she 'll torment you afterwards of boasting of her bachelors," and "And for to meet a virtuous girl I know not where to find one."
The "Harding B 15(267a)" set includes distinctive verses beginning "The fairest of women kind has ne er a fault but two," "Take my advice be ruled by me and single earn your bread," and "For they are such a foolish mind and heed not things of any kind."
Both sets end with the story of the man who would rather be hanged than marry, though the verses differ.
Thompson-Pioneer is closer to the "Harding B 15(263b)" set, including its version of the man going to be hanged, but has its own set of incomplete but distinct verses. - BS
In regard to the reference to Samson and Aristotle, both statements are a little glitchy. Aristotle's wife died young but does not seem to have been a burden on him. I incline to think the Aristotle reference is actually to Socrates and his alleged shrew of a wife, Xanthippe. (I say "alleged" because Socrates was poor, disorganized, stand-offish, and a lousy husband; odds are that Xanthippe was a far better wife than the stories about her imply.)
As for Samson -- he had woman troubles, but not really with his wive(s), because he never actually married. His first love, the Philistine woman, ended up being married to another (Judges, chapters 14-15), and his relationship with Delilah (Judges 16) was an even worse failure.... - RBW
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The Indifferent LOV[ER]
OR,
The Roving Batchel[or.]
To a Pleasant new Tune, Sung in the last new Comedy, called Amphytri[on.]
FOr Iris I sigh and hourly Dye,
but not for a Lip nor a languishing Eye;
S[he's fickle and false]
and there we agree,
Oh! these are the Vertues that captivate me:
We ne[ither believe what]
either can say, and neither believing, we neither betray.
(2)
'Tis civil to swear and say things of Course,
We mean not the taking for better for worse,
When present we love, when absent agree,
I think not of Iris nor Iris of me;
The Legend of Love, no Couple can find,
So easie to part, and so easily joyn'd.
(3)
I like not that Lover who'll whimpering stand,
And wait a whole day to kiss Celias fair hand,
No Beauty i' th' Town, tho' ten times as fair,
Can ever, can ever with Celia Compare:
How happy am I, who hourly find,
Those fair as his Celia, as Iris kind.
(4)
I am still in the Fashion, or Mode-a-la-France,
I think not upon her, unless by a chance,
Iris when present I fancy the best,
When absent I praise her no more then the rest:
Iris and Phillis to me are all one;
So soon I can love, and as soon can have done.
(5)
I can love for an hour, fair Celia and then,
I am Cloy'd of the Bliss, and Love Iris agen,
Till tyered of Happiness I do depart,
Go the next way and give Phillis my Heart:
Till Cleo appears, whose delicate Eye,
For an hour or two makes me languishing lye.
(6)
I love all I see when just in the fit,
Yet can in a Moment my Mistriss forget,
Now Languish, now Love, now sigh and com-plain
Now love her, now hate her, and love her again.
I admire the Charms in Celias fair face,
Till Phillis appears to take up her place.
(7)
But of all the Beauties were ever admir'd,
Whose Company many fond Fops have desir'd,
Whose every Charm in their Faces so takes,
That several Coxcombs have dy'd for their sakes;
I never see any whose faces could Charm,
So much by their Smiles or Frowns for to harm.
(8)
If Iris Loves me, then I can Love her,
If she loves me not, then I can prefer,
Another before her; Or her 'fore another,
For I can Love one as well as the other;
My passion to all alike I'll discover,
And always remain an indifferent Lover.
FINIS.
Printed for Ch. Bates, at the White-Hart in
West-Smith-Field.