Scarborough Fair- ballad singer (York) c.1860 Kidson
[From Frank Kidson's "Traditional Tunes," 1891, pp.43; 172. Bronson's 2.1. Edited version by Kidson from Strather's version published in Mercury Leeds in 1883 as taken from Sam Hayes a ballad singer from Whitney. Kidson referred to the informant only a a "ballad singer" and didn't mention Strather's version.
Child reports: Mr Frank Kidson has given a copy of 'Scarborough Fair,' with some better readings, as sung "in Whitby streets twenty or thirty years ago," in Traditional Tunes, p. 43, 1891.
In 2002 Kloss discovered more information about Kidson's two additional texts and this one (see info by him at bottom of this page). Kidson's text was a response from a query made by Kidson in the Leeds Mercury for a version he knew as 'The Lover's Test." Kidson only knew one stanza and gave that in the query. A response was made by Mr. Samuel Stather from Beverly (see Leeds Mercury, 25.8.1883, Local Notes and Queries CCXLI, available at BNCN, Gale DocNr. BC3201777770) with the text of complete version he had heard "some twenty years ago, an old man named Sam Hayes singing this ballad in Whitby streets" [ref. Kloss].
It seems likely that MacColl used the text from Kidson's arrangement possibly along with a version he collected from Anderson in 1947 as his version which he sang and included in "Singing Island" credited to Anderson.
R. Matteson 2018]
"Scarborough Fair." Text from "Traditional Tunes" 1891 as published by Frank Kidson, no informant named. It was taken from Mr. Samuel Stather of Beverly who got it from Sam Hayes, 'a ballad singer' in Whitby, Yorkshire. Hayes was heard sing the ballad about 1860. Edited by Kidson.
"Oh where are you going?" "To Scarborough fair,"
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
"Remember me to a lass who lives there,
For once she was a true love of mine.
"And tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Without any seam or needlework,
And then she shall be a true love of mine.
"And tell her to wash it in yonder dry well,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Where no water sprung nor a drop of rain fell,
And then she shall be a true love of mine.
"Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Which never bore blossom since Adam was born,
And then she shall be a true love of mine.
"O, will you find me an acre of land,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Between the sea foam, the sea sand,
Or never be a true lover of mine.
"O, will you plough it with a ram’s horn,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
And sow it all over with one peppercorn,
Or never be a true lover of mine.
"O, will you reap it with a sickle of leather,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
And tie it all up with a peacock’s feather,
Or never be a true lover of mine.
"And when you have done and finished your work,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
You may come to me for your cambric shirt.
And then you shall be a true lover of mine."
_______________________________
Scarbro Fair- original text from Samuel Stather of Beverly published in the Leeds Mercury.
Oh when are you going to Scarbro Fair,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme.
Remember me to a lass that lived there,
For once she was a true lover of mine.
And tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Without a needle, or thread, or ought else,
And then she shall be a true lover of mine.
And tell her to wash it in yonder well,
Where water ne’er sprung nor a drop of rain fell.
And then she shall be a true lover of mine.
And tell her to hang it on yonder stone
Where moss never grew since Adam was born,
And then she shall be a true lover of mine.
And when she has finished and done her work [repeat]
She can come unto me and married we’ll be.
The Reply
Oh when are you going to Scarbro' Fair,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme.
Remember me to a lad that lived there,
For once he was a true lover of mine.
And tell him to buy me an acre of land,
Between the wide ocean and yonder sea sand,
And then he shall be a true lover of mine.
And tell him to plough it with a ram’s horn,
And sow it all over with one peppercorn,
And then he shall be a true lover of mine
And tell him to reap’t with a sickle of leather,
And bind it up with a peacock's feather,
And then he shall be a true lover of mine.
And when he's finish'd and done his work (repeat),
He can come unto me for his cambric shirt.
____________________________
From Jurgen Kloss 2002:
In 1891 Kidson included two versions of "Scarborough Fair" in his Traditional Tunes, an important and influential "Collection of Ballad Airs, Chiefly Obtained in Yorkshire And The South Of Scotland; Together with Their Appropriate Words From Broadsides And From Oral Tradition". This book only "appeared in a subscription edition of only two hundred copies" (Palmer 1986, p. 151). He noted that the first variant, "including the tune, used to be sung by a ballad singer in Whitby streets twenty or thirty years ago, and is still remembered in the district" (pp. 42-4). Here he simply reported the information made available by Mr. Stather in the Leeds Mercury eight years ago but for some reason he failed to give him appropriate credit and - once again - didn't even mention the name the singer. Kidson was "often vague when writing of informants" (Palmer 1986, p. 160) and in this case the reason may have been the simple fact that the text had first been printed in a newspaper:
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"Oh where are you going?" "To Scarborough fair,"
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
"Remember me to a lass who lives there,
For once she was a true love of mine.
"And tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Without any seam or needlework,
And then she shall be a true love of mine.
"And tell her to wash it in yonder dry well,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Where no water sprung nor a drop of rain fell,
And then she shall be a true love of mine.
"Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Which never bore blossom since Adam was born,
And then she shall be a true love of mine.
"O, will you find me an acre of land,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Between the sea foam, the sea sand,
Or never be a true lover of mine.
"O, will you plough it with a ram’s horn,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
And sow it all over with one peppercorn,
Or never be a true lover of mine.
"O, will you reap it with a sickle of leather,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
And tie it all up with a peacock’s feather,
Or never be a true lover of mine.
"And when you have done and finished your work,
Savoury sage, rosemary, and thyme;
You may come to me for your cambric shirt.
And then you shall be a true lover of mine."
Both tune and text were clearly edited by Frank Kidson before publication. The tune is for the most part identical to the first of the two he had sent to Professor Child in 1884 (Bronson I, 2.17). The text is based on the one supplied by Mr. Stather. But Kidson surely used "Whittingham Fair" from Stokoe's and Bruce's Northumbrian Minstrelsy as the basis for his corrections. This can easily be seen from the use of the phrase "true love of mine" instead of "true lover of mine" in the first four verses. The latter was common in all available variants of this song family. The "true love" can only be found in the text published in that book. Some other phrases - for example in verses 2 and 4 - are also closer to "Whittingham Fair" and in turn to "Cambrick Shirt" from Gammer Gurton's Garland. That text had been of help to Stokoe and Bruce when they were correcting Thomas Hepple's original words but one may assume that Kidson knew it, too.
Other verses of Kidson's text show the influence of his own four-verse fragment, especially "tie" instead of "bind" in stanza 7 and the line "never be a true lover of mine". He also dropped the verses 5 and 6 of Mr. Stather's original text. The waiving of the latter was a good idea because the use of the messenger only makes sense when the two protagonists are in different places so that he can shuttle between them. But on the other hand Kidson really disimproved the whole song by introducing a big blunder into the text. In the second part the girl is speaking not to the messenger but directly to her suitor: "O, will you" [...]" is used instead of "Tell him [...]". Perhaps the poor guy had arrived at the fair immediately after his spokesperson to hear the girl's answers himself. But I assume that he tried to create a text representing both common variants, in the first half the one with the messenger and in the second half the "decapitated" version á la "Cambrick Shirt".
In fact this way of conflating these two types of the song is completely misleading and "inauthentic". No traditional singer would have done that. But strangely, Ewan MacColl later borrowed the whole text - including this irritating blunder - for his own version of "Scarborough Fair", the one that he claimed to have collected from old Mr. Anderson from Middleton-in-Teasedale, Yorkshire. He only replaced "savoury" with "parsley" to get the standard refrain. It seems it wasn't much he had learned from his informant, perhaps a tune and fragmentary words. Why MacColl then relied on Kidson's doctored text is a little difficult to understand but I presume he thought it was genuine. Even Professor Child believed that. In the the Additions and Corrections of Volume 4 of his English and Scottish Popular Ballads (p. 440) he points out accurately all the differences between the text in Traditional Tunes and the earlier variant sent to him by Mr. Kidson. But in fact what he lists there are only Kidson's own editorial changes.
The problem here is not that Kidson has doctored the text. It is well known that he was "much more interested in the melodies" of the songs (Gregory 2010, p. 222, also p. 234) but on the other hand often very critical or even dismissive about the words. In the Traditional Tunes they were regularly censored, sometimes because he thought them indecent or other times because he simply didn't like what his informants had sung (see f. ex. pp. 60, 72, 117, 139,152). But in case of "Scarborough Fair" he not only indulged in sloppy editing but also failed to note that he had changed the original words and deliberately obscured his original source.