The Cambric Shirt- Stevens (NL) 1959 Peacock B
[From Kenneth Peacock's Songs of the Newfoundland Outports. This variant was collected in 1959 from Mrs. Clara Stevens of Bellburns, NL, by Kenneth Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, p.7-8, by The National Museum Of Canada. Kenneth Peacock noted that this variant corresponds to variants F to L in Child and is widespread in North America.
Below are some info from David Gregory. The refrain evolved from "Savory, Rosemary and Thyme."
R. Matteson 2014]
Kenneth Peacock's Songs of the Newfoundland Outports (excerpt)
David Gregory. Athabasca University
The largest and most varied of the various collections of Newfoundland vernacular songs, Kenneth Peacock's three-volume Songs of the Newfoundland Outports, was first published in book form in 1965.
One other important source singer that Peacock found on the Northern Peninsula in 1959 was Mrs. Clara Stevens of Bellburns. He found a fair degree of overlap between her repertoire and the songs he had already recorded from other informants in the area, since she sang him versions of "Barbara Ellen", "The Banks of the Ayr", "The Cambric Shirt", and "The Yorkshire Boy". But she also knew children's songs, comic songs, and such poetic lyrics as "The Girl I Left Behind Me", "Green Grows the Laurel" and "The Lovely Irish Maid". The other ballads that she sang included "Fair Marjorie's Ghost" (Child # 74 "Fair Margaret and Sweet William"), "Johnny of Hazelgreen" (Child # 293), "The Rosy Banks of Green" and "The Soldier Maid".
The Cambric Shirt - Variant B Clara Stevens 1959 (Collected by Kenneth Peacock)
As I rovèd out on one fine summer's morn,
Early rose grow merry and dine,
I met with a man whose name it was John,
He said he would be a true lover of mine.
Oh, first you must make me a cambric shirt,
Early rose grow merry and dine,
Without any seam or needle work,
And then you will be a true lover of mine.
Oh, next you must wash it in yonder well,
Early rose grow merry and dine,
Where never a peck of rain water fell,
And then you will be a true lover of mine.
Oh, next you must hang it on yonder thorn,
Early rose grow merry and dine,
Where never sprung blossom since Adam was born,
And then you will be a true lover of mine.
Now, here are three questions you have asked me,
Early rose grow merry and dine,
And here are three more I'm going to ask thee,
Before you can be a true lover of mine.
Oh, first you must get me an acre of land,
Early rose grow merry and dine,
Between the salt water and the sea strand.
And then you will be a true lover of mine.
Oh, next you must plough it with one pig's horn,
Early rose grow merry and dine,
And sow it all over with one grain of corn,
And then you will be a true lover of mine.
Oh, next you must crush it in one mouse-hole,
Early rose grow merry and dine,
And knock it all out with a shoemaker's awl,
And then you will be a true lover of mine.
Now, when you have done your job of work,
Early rose grow merry and dine,
Just come unto me and I'll give you your shirt,
And then you will be a true lover of mine.