Hi,

I'm doing a study of this ballad on my site and am enlisting the aide of catters to get this study completed. There's quite a bit of information on this ballad and it is known by the following titles, among them: Awake, Awake; Bedroom Window; The Silver Dagger; O Katie Dear; I will put my ship in order.

This is considered a "night visit" ballad and there are a number of related earlier versions. The earliest recognized version is said to be dated circa 1817. I post it here in its entirety:

THE DROWSY SLEEPER
Harding B 28(233) J. Crome; c. 1817

"Awake, awake, ye drowsy sleeper.
Awake, awake! 'Tis almost day.
How can you sleep, my charming creature,
Since you have stole my heart away?"

"Begone, begone! You will awake my mother.
My father he will quickly hear.
Begone, begone, and court some other,
But whisper softly in my ear."

Her father hearing the lovers talking,
Nimbly jumped out of bed.
He put his head out of the window,
But this young man quickly fled.

"Turn back, turn back! Don't be called a rover.
Jemmy, turn back, and sit you by my side.
You may stay while his passion's over.
Jemmy, I will be your lovely bride."

"O daughter, daughter, I will confine you.
Jemmy he shall go to sea,
And you may write your truelove a letter,
As he may read it when far away."

"O father, pay me down my portion,
Which is five thousand pounds, you know,
And I'll cross the wide watery ocean,
Where all the hills are covered with snow."

"No, I will not pay down your portion,
Which is five thousand pounds, I know;
Nor you shan't cross the wide watery ocean,
Where the hills are covered with snow.

"O daughter, daughter, I will confine you,
And all within your private room;
And you shall live upon bread and water
Once a day, and that at noon."

"No, I will have none of your bread and water,
Nor nothing else that you have.
If I can't have my heart's desire,
Single I will go to my grave."

So as I understand it, there is an ancient sanctioned night visit (by the parents) in England called "bundling" and another courting custom called "hand-fasting." Similar sanctioned courting customs are found in Western-Europe and were also brought to the US. The male would visit and be allowed to enter and sleep with the girl as long as they were wearing clothes!!!

The Drowsy Sleeper is an unsanctioned courtship, where the young man wakes the girl who is at her parents house. Romeo and Juliet may be considered a parallel story. Some questions are:

1. Is this the oldest extant broadside?
2. What similar broadsides or ballads led to its creation?
3. How many variant broadsides or print versions are there?
4. What are the oldest traditional versions?

For example, is this fragment from Burns a version, or a related ballad?

No. 357. As I lay on my bed on a night.
Tune: Go from my window, love, do (see No. 307).

As I lay on my bed on a night,
I thought upon her beauty bright,
But the moon by night
    Did give no light
Which did perplex me sore—
Yet away to my love I did go.

Then under her window I came,
I gently call'd her by her name;
Then up she rose,
    Put on her clothes,
And whisper'd to me slow,
Saying:—' Go from my window, love, do.'

'My father and my mother are asleep,
And if they chance to hear you speak,
There will be nocht
    But great abuse
Wi' many a bitter blow:—
And it's Go from my window, love, do.'

Richie