Have managed to get a copy of the Mara! version on CD and given it a thorough listen. I think this is pretty close to the whole thing: Little Duke Arthur's Nurse Young Johnny rode out on a May morning With his buckles and bridles ringing And as he rode by the castle wall He's heard a sweet voice singing: "Oh, I'm the little Duke Arthur's nurse And the post do well become me, But I'd give both of me gay gold rings For a sight and a kiss of me Johnny!" "If you're the little Duke Arthur's nurse, You're my sweetheart so bonny, Keep well, keep wealth of your gay gold rings, And you'll get two sights of your Johnny." So he's leaned over his saddle bow And he's give a sweet kiss to her Saying, "You have my heart but another has my hand, So what good can it do you?" She says, "If I have your heart but another has your hand These words have fair undone me. So let's make a time when we'll meet again And then in love you can twine me." "So go you down to yon tavern house With the welcoming light a-beckoning And sure as I'm a woman true I'll come, love, and pay you your reckoning." Well he's spared not the cheer of the Whitby beer, And the wine he's kept on pouring And every glass he's drank to the lass Who was coming to him ere the morning. And he's looked out of the shop window A little before the dawn-o And there come running her brothers three With their naked swords all a-drawn-o. "Oh, landlady, landlady! What shall I do? For me life's not worth a halfpenny, For she that was to lie with me Has sent her brothers to slay me!" She's taken off her petticoat, Likewise her gown and apron; She's taken the kerchief off of her head And she's set young Johnny to the baking. Aye, she give him a suit of the female clothes - He made a pretty fine maiden. And the birds never sang so sweet in the trees As young Johnny sang at the baking. And when they stood in the kitchen door They rattled their swords about 'em And when they stood in the kitchen door So loudly there they were shouting: "Oh, did you have a lodger here last night Who drank till the dawn was beckoning? Then show us the room where the lodger is in For we've come to settle his reckoning." "Aye, there came a stranger here last night, But not to drink 'til the mornin'. He's called for a pint and he paid 'ere he left, He was long gone john 'ere the dawnin'. They stuck the feather beds all around and about, Through the curtains their swords went rakin' And as they ran in and as they ran out, They said, "Ha! Bonnie lass, are ye bakin'?" And one of them being in a very merry mood, To young Johnny set to talkin'. Well, the woman took her foot an' she give him such a kick Sayin', "Git on, Annie, with your bakin'." And aye as the landlady ran in and out, She scolded 'til their ears were achin'. She said, "I have had this many a maid, But none the likes o' you wi' the bakin!" They've turned the house up, they've turned it down, The crockery and platters breakin' And every one of them that left that inn He kissed the bonnie lass at the baking.
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