Seventeen Come Sunday- J. Hiscock (Hamp) 1908 Hammond
[From The Wanton Seed: More English folk songs from the Hammond & Gardiner Collection by Frank Purslow, Henry Edward Denison Hammond, Robert Francis Frederick Hammond - 1969 - p. 137. This is the standard "Seventeen" broadside revision text.
R. Matteson 2018]
Seventeen Come Sunday- sung by James Hiscock of Bartley, Hampshire, 1908
As I walked out one May morning
One May morning so early,
Twas there I spied a fair pretty maid,
Just as the sun was rising.
With my ru-rum-day
Fol -the- riddle-day,
Rite-fal-lal-Hddle - li - do.
Her stockings white, her shoes was bright.
And her buckles shone like silver,
She had a dark and a rolling eye,
And her hair hung down her shoulder .
"Where are you going, my fair pretty maid?
Where are you going, my honey?"
She answered me very cheerfully,
"On an errand for my mammy. "
"How old are you, my fair pretty maid?
How old are you, my honey? "
She answered me very cheerfully,
"I am seventeen come Sunday."
"Will you take a man, my fair pretty maid,
Will you take a man, my honey?"
She answered me very cheerfully,
"I dare not for my mammy."
Will you come down to my mammy's house,
When the moon shines bright and clearly?
I will come downstairs and let you in,
And my mammy shall not hear me. "
I went down to her mammy's house,
When the moon shone bright and clearly,
She came downstairs and let me in,
And I laid in her arms till morning.
"Now soldier will you marry me?
Now is your time or never,
For if you do not marry me,
I am undone for ever. "
Now she is with her soldier bright,
Where the wars they are alarming,
A fife and drum is her delight,
And a pint of rum in the morning.