The Ripest Apple- (Tarry Trousers?)
Roud 1049 Love is teasing/Pleasing [related]
Ripest of Apples (ck email)
Carrickfergus no 48
Roud 146 Ripest Apple; 542
Chapbook 1776
Montrose Lines, or, I'll ever love thee more
Woo'd and Married and A'
A New Song
Yonder sits a Handsome Creature
Ripest apples are the soonest rotten
Hottest love is the soonest cold
Young men's love is soonest forgotten
Maids take care be not too bold.
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'Ripe it is the apple, love,' is the song more generally called ' Madam, I am come to court you.'
George Gardiner Manuscript Collection (GG/1/2/62)
Madam I am Come a Courting
First Line:
Performer: Smith, William
Date: Jun 1905
Place: England : Hampshire : Twyford
Collector: Gardiner, G.B.
Roud No: 542
Long gathered apples soon get rotten
Hot as silver[Hottest love] soon gets cold
Young man's words are soon forgotten
Pray, pretty maids, don't be so bold.
---------------
Songs Collected from Sussex
Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) (CJS2/10/1130)
Ripest Apples
First Line:
Ripest apples soon does a rotten
Woman's beauty soon does a gay,
You pick flowers all in the morning
Until at night it withers away.
Performer: Davis, William
Date: 7 Sep 1906
Place: England : Somerset : Porlock Weir
Collector: Sharp, Cecil J.
Roud No: 542
Ripest apples soon does a rotten
Young woman's beauty soon does a [?]
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 why get a handsome man
So I [?] her [up] in that very [?] 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]
---------------
Author(s): Ralph Vaughan Williams, Cecil J. Sharp, G. S. K. Butterworth, Frank Kidson, A.
G. Gilchrist and Lucy E. Broadwood
Source:
Journal of the Folk-Song Society,
Vol. 4, No. 17 (Jan., 1913), pp. 279-324
Published by: English Folk Dance + Song Society
9.-YONDER STANDS A LOVELY CREATURE.
FIRST VERSION.
Noted by Francis Jekyll. SUNG BY MR. MARTIN,
MIXOLYDIAN. FLETCHING, FEB., I909.
Yon - der stands a love ly crea ture, Who she is I do not know;
I'll go and court her for her beau - ty, Let her answ - er yes or no.
SECOND VERSION.
SUNG BY MR. HEYGATE,
Noted by Francis Jekyll. RUsPER, Nov., I9IO.
2 Madam I am come to court you,
If your favour I should gain.
First your hand, love, then your welcome,
Perhaps that I'll not come again."
3 Welcome in, you're kindly welcome,
Welcome in, you're welcome wine.
I had a lovier, a false lovier,
He it was stole this heart of mine."
4 Madam, I have gold and silver,
Madam, I have house and land:
Madam, I have the world of pleasure,
All to be at your command."
5 What care I for your gold or silver,
What care I for house and land ?
What care I for the world of pleasure,
So long as I've got a nice young man ?
297
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6 "Ripest apples soon gets rotten,
Hottest love it soon gets cold;
Young men's words are soon forgotten,
So I pray, young man, don't speak too bold."
7 I once laid my head on a young man's pillow,
Thinking it might be my own:
Now I'm left to wear the willow,
By experience it is well known.
8 After nettles then come roses,
After night then in comes day:
After a false love then comes a true love,
So we pass our time away.
The words were supplied by Mrs. Cranstone.-G. S. K. B.
The following tune comes from the collection of the late Mr. Hammond.
SUNG BY MRS. GREENING,
Noted by H. E. D. Hanmmond. CUCKOLDS CORNER (DORSET).
Pret-ty maid walk-ing in the gar - den who she is I do not kniow,
I'll go court her for her beau - ty let the answ - er be yes or no,
do not know, do not know, who she is I do not know.
yes or no, yes or no, let her answ - er be yes or no.
Miss Gillington prints in her Songs of the Open Road a version obtained from gypsies
(wvords and tune) as " Ripe it is the apple, love." Cf. Mr. Hammond's first tune
with a " Welsh air " which appears as a hymn-tune in the Welsh Calvinistic-Methodist
hymn-book. I have already pointed out (Jorynal, Vol. iii, p. 267) the resemblance
of his second tune to another Welsh traditional air, " Llan
As regards these twvo Welsh tunes, it may be pointed out that they fit a metrical
form characteristic of Celtic poetry-early Irish as wNell as Welsh-represented in
English verse by " Yonder stands a lovely creature," the original type of which,
according to Kuno Meyer (Ancient Irish Poetry, Intro., p. xiii) is the " catalectic
trochaic tetrameter " of Latin poetry, exemplified in the popular song of Caesar's
soldiers
Caesar Gallias subegit
Nicomedes Caxsarem,
Ecce Caesar nunc triumphat
qui subegit Gallias.
and also in the hymn of St. Hilary "in laudem Christi," which, like the tetrameter
quoted, might quite well be sung to the Welsh "Llanilar " or " Peniel" (with re-
petitions) or to any of the four " Lovely Creature " tunes printed above. The song
itself bears traces, I think, of a cultured origin, and may have been a minstrel song.
" William Taylor" is the only other instance I recall of the employment of this
metrical form in English folk-song, though it is found in the west-country carol
" God's dear Son without beginning" (in Rimbault's collection)-which may have
lhad a Latin original.
299
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A scrap of the song, with tune, is used in the children's traditional courtship game,
"Lady on the Mountain."-A. G. G.
See " Twenty, eighteen " in English County Songs, and " The [Lincolnshire] Hand-
some Woman" in Ballad Society's Roxburghe Ballads, Vol. viii, Pt. xxvi, p. 852.
The song is used in " convivial" meetings as a test of sobriety, I have been told.
-L. E. B
--------------------
VT115 words - Veteran recording
Ripest Apples
Ripest apples soon gets rotten,
Hottest love it soon gets cold.
Young man's love is soon forgotten.
Since the girls have been so bold.
Twenty, eighteen, sixteen, fourteen.
Twelve, ten, eight, six, four, two, none.
Nineteen, seventeen, fifteen, thirteen.
Eleven, nine, seven, five, three and one.
Though I never went to college, but I heard the poet say:
Twenty, eighteen, sixteen, fourteen, twelve, ten, eight, six, four, two, none.
(Roud 146). In ‘The Copper Family Song Book - A Living Tradition’ (1995) Bob Copper, while relating to his family's version of this song, says that this was the shortest song Jim (Copper) knew and he had developed a terrific speed in the chorus '…Twenty, eighteen, etc.', and thereby frequently qualified for the free pint of beer offered by the landlord of the local inn to be first man to sing a song. It has been collected extensively in England, Ireland and America including by Cecil Sharp from William Davis at Porlock Weir, Somerset (1906) and William Shepherd at Winchcombe in Gloucestershire (1909). Sam Henry got it from an unknown Northern Irish singer in 1936 and the song was also recorded by Helen Hartness Flanders from Belle Luther Richards in Colebrook, New Hampshire in 1943. Mike Yates also recorded the song from Kentish Gypsy Joe Jones who can be heard on MTCD320 ‘Here's Luck to a Man’.
Song transcribed by John Howson
Song notes: John Howson & Mike Yates
Journal of the Folk-Song Society - Volume 4 - Page 298
https://books.google.com/books?id=nZzWAAAAMAAJ
1910 - Snippet view - More editions
6 "Ripest apples soon gets rotten,
Hottest love it soon gets cold;
Young men's words are soon forgotten,
So I pray, young man, don't speak too bold."
7 1 once laid my head on a young man's pillow,
Thinking it might be my own:
Now I'm left to
0----------------
Report of the Second Meeting of the Folk-Song Society
Author(s): J. A. Fuller Maitland
Source:
Journal of the Folk-Song Society,
Vol. 1, No. 2 (1900), pp. 27-31+43-51
Published by: English Folk Dance + Song Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4433853
Coming now to the contributions of other members, I find the are, of one sort or
another, twenty. Mrs. C. Milligan Fox heads the list as far as numbers go, for she
sends in seven tunes; two Jaobite airs, one of which, ' Prince Charlie's Last View of
Sotland,' has a distinct North of England flavour about it, a Gaelic air without much
character, and some pretty old Irish tunes, one of which, ' The Howlet and the Weazle,'
comes from a printed collection of Irish tunes, 1778, and is little older than that date.
A fine old air from County Roscommon has no words, and the amount of Irish oollee-
tions of airs is so large that it is extremely difficult to- attempt to identify such tunes
as this. I may perhaps be allowed to point out that it is always worth while to give
every detail as to the sources from which the contributions have come, exactly how
they wer heard, and froni whom; this has not been done with these seven airs.
Mr. J. T. N. Lee, who communicates two charming Irish tunes through Mr. A. P.
G rave, is careful to tell us that a rather long tune called ' Rock the Cradle,' which has
evidently Yeen extended since it was first thought of, was played by a farmer's
daughter on a coineertina near Bridgetown, County Clare. Mr. Graves himself tels us
nothing s%.out tile song, I Bold Freney, oh I' except that he attributeis it to about the
late 1748. The tune is clearly much older than that, and has been applied, not with-
out alteruations of its modal character, to a ballad about a highwayman.
The next sonig I have to show you has performed a long journey in getting back
to what I have no doubt is the country of its origin. It oomes from our honorary
memter, Mr. H. C. Mercer, of Philadelphia, and he describes it as a 'Down East'
coast song from the neighbourhood of Portland, Maine. It is called; The Ripest of
Apples,' * and the couplet with which it begins occurs in a good many ballads, such as
'The Jolly Sailor's Wedding,' the fifth verse of which, so Mr. Kidson tells me, runs:
'Ripest apples, soones rotten,
Hottest love, oonest cold;
Too fond maids are easy counselled
Though they're slighted when they're old.'
And in a Norfolk song, 'Twenty, eighteen,' in 'English County Songs.' the last
verse is:
'Ho I the ripest apple is the soonest rotten,
The hottest love is the soonest cold,
Lovers' vows are soon forgotten,
Bo I pray, young man, be not too bold.'
Th adage seems to be used in many different ways, but there is little doubt that
these three verses which Miss Bichel is going to sing to you are but a fragment of
some longer ballad; as they stand, however, they make a very pretty song.
The Ripest of Apples.
'Down East I coast song, from the neighbourhood of Portland. Maine.
0 the ripest of apples, they must soon grow rotten,
And the warmest of love, it must soon[1] grow cold;
And young men's vows they must soon be forgotten,
Look out, pretty maiden, that you don't get controlled.
The seas they are deep,[2]
And I cannot wade them,
Neither nor have I
The wings to fly.
But I wish I could find[2]
Some jolly, jolly boatsman,[3]
To ferry me over,
My love and I.
Oh I wish that me [2]
And my love was a sailin'
As far as the eye
Could discern from the shore.
A sailin' so far [2]
Across the blue ocean,
Where no cares nor troubles
Wouldn't bother us no more.
1. 'Soon,' markedly peculiar, pronounced not unlike the German 'dunn.'
2. Strong accent, dwelling on note.
3. 'Boats,' pronounced in New England coast dialect to rhyme with French 'bottes.'
--------------------
Ripest Apples
Roud Folksong Index (S313733)
First Line: Ripest apples soon gets rotten
Source: Veteran VT 115CD ('As I Went Down to Horsham')
Performer: Hall, Mabs
Date: 1980s
Place: England : Sussex : Horsham
Collector: Yates, Mike / Howson, John
-----------------
Keg Of Brandy
[print]
(Robbie O'Connell)
I'm always drunk and I'm seldom sober
I'm constant rovin' from town to town
Ah, but I'm old now, my sporting's over
So, Molly, a store, won't you lay me down
Just lay my head on a keg of brandy
It is my fancy, I do declare
For while I'm drinkin', I'm always thinkin'
On lovely Molly from the County Clare
For the ripest apple is the soonest rotten
And the warmest love is the soonest cold
And a young man's fancy is soon forgotten
So beware young maids and don't make so bold
Just lay my head on a keg of brandy
It is my fancy, I do declare
For while I'm drinkin', I'm always thinkin'
On lovely Molly from the County Clare
It's youth and folly makes young men marry
And makes them tarry a long, long day
What can't be cured, love, must be endured love
So farewell darling, I'm going away
Just lay my head on a keg of brandy
It is my fancy, I do declare
For while I'm drinkin', I'm always thinkin'
On lovely Molly from the County Clare
--------------
Folk-Songs of the South - Page 466
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1455604461
John Harrington Cox - 1963 - Preview - More editions
5 The ripest apple soon gets rotten, The hottest love it soon gets cold ; A young man's word is soon forgotten, Pray, young man, don't be so bold.
--------------
The Handsom' Woman
Publications, Volume 37
By Ballad Society
English County Songs: Words and Music - Page 91
https://books.google.com/books?id=eUEJAQAAMAAJ
Lucy Etheldred Broadwood, John Alexander Fuller-Maitland - 1893 - Read - More editions
6 " Ho 1 the ripest apple is the soonest rotten, The hottest love is the soonest cold ; Lover's vows are soon forgotten, So I pray, young man, be not too bold." Twenty, eighteen, &c. (Words and tune from Besthorpe, near Attleborough, quoted in
Spin - Volumes 1-4 - Page 11
https://books.google.com/books?id=ZSvaAAAAMAAJ
1962 - Snippet view - More editions
... Come back again and ease my pain Your voice I knew not, Your face I saw not, Oh* John my heart will break in twain." The ripest apple is 99011 rotten, The hottest love is soonest cold , Seldom seen is soon forgotten, true love is timid so be
Ripest Apples
Roud Folksong Index (S219696)
First Line: Ripest apples soon gets rotten
Source: Veteran VT 107 ('Ripest Apples')
Performer: Hall, Mabs
Date:
Place: England : Sussex : Billingshurst
Collector: Yates, Mike
Roud No: 146
-----
Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, London - Volumes 1-10 - Page 28, 1904
“The Ripest of Apples.”
Folk Song, Arranged by A. CORBETT-SMITH.
I HAVE had this little song in my collection for some considerable time, and I regret that I have no note as to where it was collected. It is, I feel sure, of Irish origin, and so far as I remember it is one of those noted in America. In rendering Folk Songs such as this in which the opening verse is repeated at the end I have found it most effective to sing the last verse mezza voce and without accompaniment, merely striking the tonic chord pp at the close.
"Oh, the ripest of apples they must soon grow rotten,
And the warmest of love it must soon grow cold,
And young men's vows they must soon be forgotten;
Look out, pretty maiden, that you don't get controlled.
The seas they are deep, and I cannot wade them,
Nor have I, nor ever, the wings for to fly.
I would that my love were a jolly boatman
To ferry me over, my love and I.
(Third verse, repeat verse 1)
Northumbrian Minstrelsy: A Collection of the Ballads, Melodies, and Small ...
edited by John Collingwood Bruce, John Stokoe 1882
I drew my ship into the harbour
I drew my ship into the harbour,
I drew her up where my true love lay,
I drew her close by up to the window,
To listen what my dear girl did say.
“Who’s there that raps so loud at my window
That raps so loud and fain would be in?"
“It is your true love that loves you dearly,
So rise, dear girl, and let him in.”
Then slowly, slowly, got she up,
And slowly, slowly, came she down ;
But before she got the door unlocked
Her true love had both come and gone.
“Come back, come back, my only true love,
Come back, my aim one, and ease my pain;
Your voice I knew not, your face I saw not,
Oh John my heart will break in twain.”
The ripest apple is soonest rotten,
The hottest love is soonest cold;
Seldom seen, is soon forgotten,
True love is timid, so be not bold.
He's brisk and braw, lads, he's far awa, lads;
He's far beyond yon raging main,
Where fishers dancing and dark eyes glancing,
Have made him quite forget his aim.
-----------------
Classified with No Sir; O No John; also Ripest [of] Apples; The Spanish Lady, and so on; though other examples of these are assigned to number 542 (Madam I am Come to Court You etc) so there is evidently a seriously blurred boundary between the various songs.
Widely found in England, the USA and Canada. Another set with the "twenty eighteen" chorus appeared in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, vol. I no. 3 1934, p.133; noted by Clive Carey from Mrs Hollingsworth and Fred Yeldham, Thaxted, Essex, in 1911; and Brian Matthews recorded another from George Townsend, Lewes, Sussex, in 1960. (Musical Traditions MT CD 304: Come Hand to me the Glass).
-----------------------
The Lincolnshire Handsome Woman.
Publications, Volume 37
By Ballad Society, 1899
The wooer comes to the point, but at first fails to tempt her. "What care I for rings or jewels? What care I for your house or land? What care I for your gold or silver? All I want is an 'andsom' man: An 'andsom' may," etc. Presumably he is not one, for handsome men think too much of their own looks to value feminine beauty supremely. This man can argue and convince, although he be neither young nor handsome.
The Handsom' Woman.
[HE]
"Yonder stan's a hansum woman, who she is I dunnot kuaw,
But I 'll go court hur fur hur beauty, whether she answers me aye or no.
Aye or no: aye or no: whether she answers me Aye or No."
[she.]
"Come sit you down, you 're kindly welcome, [tho' I nev'r see you afore];
Come sit you down, you 're kindly we! come, if that I nev'r shou'd see you no more.
See you no more, see you no more; if that I never should see you no more."
[HE.]
"Madam, I 've got rings and jewels; Madam, I 've got house and land;
Madam, I 've got gold and silver: all shall be at your command.
At your command, at your command, all shall be at your command."
[she.]
"What care I for rings or jewels? What care I for your house or land?
What care I for your gold or silver? All I want is an 'andsom' man.
An 'andsom' man, an 'andsom' man, all I want is an 'andson' man."
[HE.]
"A handsome man will not maintain you, neither will his money flow;
I 'm the man that's got the money, money as makes the mare to go.
The mare to go, the mare to go; money as makes the mare to go."
[she.]
"Wonst I laid my head up' a young man's pillow, and I thought it had been my home;
But now I'm forced for to wear the grey willow, all for the sake of that false young man!
That false young man ! (bis), all for the sake of that false young man."
[HE.]
"The ripest apple will soon grow rotten, the heart of a young man will soon grow cold;
The thoughts of a young man will soon be forgotten; so pray, young woman,
oh! don't be bold. Don't be bold; don't be bold; so pray, young woman, oh! don't be bold."
[woman has the last word, as usual :]
"He took a pail, and I took a pail, and a-milking he went wi' me;
I said nout, and he said nout; but, ma faith ! I think he'll ha' me."
This is the finale. Robert Roberts, of Boston, is a safe authority to follow on old books and Lincolnshire customs: he writes, "To take her pail and go with and her comprehensive reply, " 'Yes, if you please, kind sir,' she said." When he adds, " Then I cannot marry you!" she knows it breaks the implied contract.
-----------------------
Folk-Songs of the South - Page 466
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1455604461
John Harrington Cox - 1963 - Preview - More editions
5 The ripest apple soon gets rotten, The hottest love it soon gets cold ; A young man's word is soon forgotten, Pray, young man, don't be so bold. 159 SOLDIER, SOLDIER, WON'T YOU MARRY ME? American texts have 466 FOLK-SONGS OF
----------------------------------
TWENTY, EIGHTEEN. (Norfolk)
English County Songs
edited by Lucy Etheldred Broadwood, John Alexander Fuller-Maitland
[music ]
1 "Ho! yonder stands a charming creature,
Who she is I do not know;
I'll go and court her for her beauty,
Until she do say yes or no."
[Chorus] Twenty, eighteen, sixteen, fourteen,
Twelve, ten, eight, six, four, two, nought;
Nineteen, seventeen, fifteen, thirteen,
Eleven, nine and seven, five, three, and one.
2 "Ho! Madam, I am come for to court you,
If your favour I may gain;
And if you will entertain me
Perhaps I may come this way again,'
Twenty, eighteen, &c.
3 "Ho! Madam I have rings and jewels,
Madam, I have house and land,
Madam, I have wealth of treasures,
All shall be at your command."
Twenty, eighteen, &c.
4 "Ho! what care I for your rings and jewels?
What care I for your house and land?
What care I for your wealth of treasures?
All I want is a handsome man."
Twenty, eighteen, &c.
5 "Hoi first come cowslips and then come daisies.
First comes night and then comes day;
First comes the new love, and then comes the old one,
And so we pass our time away."
Twenty, eighteen, &c.
6 "Ho! the ripest apple is the soonest rotten,
The hottest love is the soonest cold;
Lover's vows are soon forgotten,
So I pray, young man, be not too bold."
Twenty, eighteen, &c.
(Words and tune from Besthorpe, near Attleborough, quoted in the Musical Herald for September, 1891.)
The following final verse is given in Shropshire Folk Lore, pp. 552, 652:—
"But fare you well, my dearest creatuFe,
Since I have no more to say;"
"O turn again, ycung man, I'll have you,''
But his answer was "Nay, nay!"
----------------------------------------
Brown Collection II
The Ripest Apple
The title line of this occurs in a song of the general character
of 'Waly waly, but love is bonny' reported from Maine (JFSS 1
45) ; otherwise it has not been traced.
'The Ripest Apple.' Reported by I. G. Greer, Boone, Watauga county,
probably in 191 5.
1 The ripest apple the soonest rotten.
The purest love the soonest cold.
A young man's words are soon forgotten ;
Oh, my love, don't be so bold.
2 Let my name be kindly spoken
When I'm far away from you ;
And, although the vows be broken,
I will fondly speak of you.
3 In the past we loved each other,
Loved each other fond and true,
And I know that I shall never
Love another as I loved you,
4 Though I wander on forever
Seeking lands beyond the sea.
Well I know that I shall never,
Never find the like of thee.
--------------
165
The Ripest Apple
'The Ripest Apple.' Sung by Dr. I. G. Greer. Recorded as ms score at Boone.
Watauga county, probably in 1915. The variations from the printed text art
from the ms score.
Scale: Mode III. Tonal Center: c. Structure: abed (2,2,2,2).
see greer
Let My Name be Kindly Spoken.
Copyright, 1877, by S. C. Upham.
Let my name be kindly spoken
When you're far away from me;
And although the vows are broken,
I will fondly speak of thee.
All the scenes of days departed
I'll endeavor to forget;
And if you are broken-hearted,
Think not of the day we met.
Chorus?
Let my name be kindly spoken
When you're far away from me;
And although the vows are broken,
I will fondly speak of thee.
In the past we loved each other,
Loved each other fond and true;
And I'll never find another
That can take the place of you.
Tho' I wander on forever,
Seeking lands beyond the sea,
Well I know that I shall never,
Never see the like of thee.-Chorus.
If the fates should bid me meet you
At some far-off, distant day;
I would fondly kiss and greet you
In the old familiar way.
Tho' the binding link is broken,
It is sweet to part as friends;
And the farewell word that's spoken,
To the heart a sweetness lends.-Chorus.