King Ethelred & Cheeld-Vean- Thomas (Corn) 1930
[From James Madison Carpenter Collection, JMC/1/2/2/E, p. 04807; also Atkinson 1998, p. 436, see also p. 438, Kloss. A brief excerpt of a bio from Wiki follows.
R. Matteson 2018]
Wiki: Ethelred or Æthelred (c. 966 – 23 April 1016), known as the Unready, was King of the English from 978 to 1013 and again from 1014 until his death. His epithet does not derive from the modern word "unready", but rather from the Old English unræd (meaning "poorly advised"); it is a pun on his name, which means "well advised".
King Ethelred and Cheeld-Vean from Jim Thomas, MS , 14 Union Street, Camborne, Cornwall, England by c. 1930. Thomas, aged over 80 years was formerly one of Cecil Sharp's informants.
[Spoken] In the days when Saxon kings invaded England
Each one taking their sections for to rule
Ethelred father north, Diddimus here in Cornwall
The King approached a cheeldvean (little child) and said:
King Ethelred:
"Good morning, fair maid"
"Good morning, Sir", she said.
"Can you make a shirt without a needle?
Can you sew without a seam?
Can you wash in a well where the water never stream?
Can you dry in a hedge where the sun never shine?"
Cheeld-Vean:
"Yes, Kind Sir, that I can.
"Can you plough with a ram's horn
And harve[1] it with a bushy thorne,
Saw it with a pepper dredge,
In a field without a hedge,
And mow it in a mouse's hole,
And trash it with a shoesole,
Do it all and not complain;
Then come to me again
And you shall have your shirt made."
________________________
1. harvest