Polly Vaughan- William Bone (Hants) 1907 Gardiner
[From: Marrow Bones - English Folk Songs From The Hammond and Gardiner Mss. by Frank Purslow - 2013; covered by Tony Rose.
R. Matteson 2016]
Polly Vaughan- Sung by William Bone of Hants, November, 1907.
One Midsummer's evening the sun being gone down,
Young Polly went a-walking by the side of a pond,
She sat under a shady tree a shower for to shun,
With her apron wrapped around her as white as a swan.
Young William went a-hunting with his dog and his gun,
Young William went a-hunting as the evening came on,
Down among those green rushes as the evening came on,
Young William shot his true love in the room of a swan.
He throwed down his gun and away he did run,
Crying, "Father, dear father, can you believe what I've done?
Down among those green rushes as the evening came on,
I shot my own true love in the room of a swan."
"Stay at home, my dearest William, till your trial do come on,
That you may not be banished to some foreign land,
On the day of your trial your father[1] will appear,
With fifty bright guineas if that will you clear."
On the day of his trial young Polly did appear,
Crying, "People, oh! people, let William go clear,
With my apron wrapped around my head as the evening came on,
He shot his own true love in the room of a swan."
1. His "father" is speaking of himself in the 3rd person; in first person it would be "of your trial I will appear." The next stanza Polly appears at the trial.