Captain Wedderburn's- Coombs (NL) 1930 Karpeles B
[Not a local title. From Maud Karpeles, “Folksongs from Newfoundland” 1934, version B.
R. Matteson 2014]
The ‘Lost Voices’ of Maud Karpeles, “Folksongs from Newfoundland”
by Glenn Colton
In September 1929, Maud Karpeles of the English Folk Dance and Song Society arrived in Newfoundland for the first of two pioneering expeditions. A disciple of Cecil Sharp and friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Karpeles was a central figure in the British folk revival and later co-founder of the International Folk Music Council. She had initially planned to visit the island with Sharp as early as 1918, however that trip was cancelled due to funding concerns and Sharp’s untimely death foiled similar plans seven years later. Undaunted, she undertook the challenge alone, notating more than 200 tunes from singers in forty outport communities in one of the earliest Newfoundland folksong expeditions of its kind.
B. Captain Wedderburn's Courtship. Sung by Mrs. K. M. Coombs at Portugar Cove, Trepassey Bay, 4th August, 1930
One of fair Scotland's daughters
Went out to take the air.
She met a bold sea-captain
A-walking those fields so fair.
He said unto his servant man:
If it was not for the law,
I'd have this maid by my side laid
Beneath the stuccoed wall.
You must get me for my breakfast
A fish without a bone,
And for my dinner you must get
A cherry without a stone,
And for my supper you must get
A bird without a gall,
Before I'll comply with you to lie
Beneath the stuccoed wall.
When a fish it is for sporned[1]
In it there is no bone,
And when a cherry's in blossom
In it there is no stone,
The dove she is a gentle bird,
She flies without a gall,
So you must comply with me to lie
Beneath the stuccoed wall.
You must get for me some of the fruit
That in November grows,
You must get for me a new slip
Bound with never thread worn through it,
A sparrow's horn and a priest unborn
For to wed us at our call,
Before I'll comply with you to lie
Beneath the stuccoed wall.
My father has some of the fruit
That in November grows,
My mother has a new slip
Bound with never thread worn through it,
A sparrow's horn is easy got,
There's one on every claw,
But the priest unborn I cannot call,
So I'll leave this stuccoed wall.
1. "spawned" as fish eggs.