Bluegrass Messengers

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"