Ripest Apples- William Davis (Som) 1906 Sharp MS
[From: Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) (CJS2/9/1125). Unusual ending-- perhaps reworked to make Sharp's last stanza of "Oh No John."
R. Matteson 2017]
"Ripest Apples," sung by William Davis of Porlock Weir, Somerset on 7 September, 1906.
Ripest apples soon does a rotten
Young woman's beauty soon does decay[1],
You pick a flower all in the morning
Until at night it withers away.
Madam I'm a come a-courting
O madam I have house and land;
If I don't follow a world full of treasure
If I could only get a handsome man
So I tucked[2] her up in that very Live chamber
And there we laid all on the bed
And there we laid all cuddled together
And the very next morning, I made her my bride.
1. unclear in MS.
2. past tense of "tuk" means "took"