Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)

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Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)

30 Jan 98 - 11:48 PM (#20303)
Subject: Nipperkin and a brown bowl
From:

There's a song called "Good Luck to the Barley Mow" in the database that ALMOST looks like what I'm looking for, but the version I've always heard sung has the words "nipperkin and the brown bowl" (or maybe "a brown bowl") in the chorus. These words are missing from the version in the database. Does anyone have words for my version? Or can anyone point me to a recording?

31 Jan 98 - 01:27 AM (#20306)
Subject: RE: Nipperkin and a brown bowl
From: Jon

I know one that seems to be the one you are talking about. Don't know if it has a chorus, though, but this is what I know.

Okay, here goes:

Here's good luck to the pint pot, good luck to the barley mow
Jolly good luck to the pint pot good luck to the barley mow
Here's the company, slavey, drayer, brewer, daughter, Land Lady, Land Lord, barrel, half barrel, gallon, half gallon, quart pot, pint pot, half a pint, gill pot, half a gill, quarter gill, nipperkin, and the brown bowl.
Here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the barley mow.

That being the final verse (after adding in all the pieces one at a time). Try getting that out without passing out! Almost as silly as Rattlin Bog!

Jon

31 Jan 98 - 03:45 AM (#20311)
Subject: RE: Nipperkin and a brown bowl
From: Alan Ackerman

That's it! Thanks! Actually, I suppose "Here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the barley mow" actually IS the chorus, if there is one.

01 Feb 98 - 11:57 AM (#20386)
Subject: RE: Nipperkin and a brown bowl
From: Bruce Olson

Thats an old song. You can see a pretty old version among the texts from R. Bell's and 'Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry' (1857). I don't have the link memorized. Go to
www.pbm.com/~lindahl/ballads/ballads.html
and there you can click onto a copy of the book.

The Barley-Mow Song

[This song is sung at country meetings in Devon and Cornwall, particularly on completing the carrying of the barley, when the rick, or mow of barley, is finished. On putting up the last sheaf, which is called the craw (or crow) sheaf, the man who has it cries out 'I have it, I have it, I have it;' another demands, 'What have'ee, what have'ee, what have'ee?' and the answer is, 'A craw! a craw! a craw!' upon which there is some cheering, &c., and a supper afterwards. The effect of the Barley-Mow Song cannot be given in words; it should be heard, to be appreciated properly, - particularly with the West-country dialect.]

Here's a health to the barley-mow, my brave boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
We'll drink it out of the jolly brown bowl,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
Cho. Here's a health to the barley-mow, my brave boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
We'll drink it out of the nipperkin, boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The nipperkin and the jolly brown bowl,
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the quarter-pint, boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The quarter-pint, nipperkin, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the half-a-pint, boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The half-a-pint, quarter-pint, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the pint, my brave boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The pint, the half-a-pint, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the quart, my brave boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The quart, the pint, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
Well drink it out of the pottle, my boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The pottle, the quart, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the gallon, my boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The gallon, the pottle, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the half-anker, boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The half-anker, gallon, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the anker, my boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The anker, the half-anker, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the half-hogshead, boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The half-hogshead, anker, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the hogshead, my boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The hogshead, the half-hogshead, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the pipe, my brave boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The pipe, the hogshead, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the well, my brave boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The well, the pipe, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the river, my boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The river, the well, &c.
Cho. Here's a health, &c.
We'll drink it out of the ocean, my boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The ocean, the river, the well, the pipe, the hogshead,
the half-hogshead, the anker, the half-anker,
the gallon, the pottle, the quart, the pint, the
half-a-pint, the quarter-pint, the nipperkin, and
the jolly brown bowl!
Cho. Here's a health to the barley-mow, my brave boys!
Here's a health to the barley-mow!

[The above verses are very much ad libitum, but always in the third line repeating the whole of the previously-named measures; as we have shown in the recapitulation at the close of the last verse.]

The Barley-Mow Song (Suffolk Version)

[The peasantry of Suffolk sing the following version of the Barley-Mow Song.]

Here's a health to the barley mow!
Here's a health to the man
Who very well can
Both harrow and plow and sow!
When it is well sown
See it is well mown,
Both raked and gavelled clean,
And a barn to lay it in.
He's a health to the man
Who very well can
Both thrash and fan it clean!

Lyrics copy-pasted from the source Bruce cited.
-Joe Offer, 14 April 2009-

01 Feb 98 - 07:36 PM (#20422)
Subject: RE: Nipperkin and a brown bowl
From: Dan Duryea

This song is included on the Revels Records CD1094 "wild Mountain Thyme", which is available from Revels, Inc., Cambridge, MA.

03 Feb 98 - 01:51 PM (#20539)
Subject: RE: Nipperkin and a brown bowl
From: Catfeet

I actually learned a version that was slightly different in that it was "good luck to the nipperkin and the brown bowl". The other references to the lucky bowl in the song were always "bonny bowl". The explination that I heard was that it was a song in praise of the oak that aged the beer or wine. This reference to a brown bowl can also be found in several wassailing songs when they speak about beer or ale.

Catfeet

03 Feb 98 - 02:00 PM (#20540)
Subject: RE: Nipperkin and a brown bowl
From: Bert

I always thought it was "round bowl". EMI put out a recording in the mid to late Fifties and that's what it sounded like to us.

08 May 00 - 06:40 PM (#224893)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: good luck to the barleymow
From: SeanM

Should add that for some reason (probably to help with meter), most versions I know start with "Here's good luck to the quart pot", with the callback starting at
"Oh, the quart pot, pint pot, half a pint, gill, quarter gill, nipperkin and the brown bowl,
Here's good luck, (etc.)

Similar songs include "Rattlin' Bog", "Hole in the Bucket", and 20 billion other songs children have used to annoy their elders over the past couple centuries...

08 May 00 - 11:05 PM (#224999)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: good luck to the barleymow
From: GUEST,Meadow Muskrat

A live version of this song is available on Barrand and Roberts Live at Holsteins album.

09 May 00 - 03:29 PM (#225371)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: good luck to the barleymow
From: Richard Bridge

The version of this I know is I think common in Kent (UK) and is similar but not identical. Starts with Pint, of course, but the whole thing is

Those capitalised HALF syllables are sort of barked, which adds a difficult off-cadence because they don't come round symmetrically.

10 May 00 - 06:43 AM (#225707)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: good luck to the barleymow
From: GUEST,bill young

I learnt this song as a student in Liverpool in the sixties. It was broadly as already indicated, finishing with:

The Landlord, the barmaid, the hogshead, the barrel, the half barrel, the ferkin, the PIN, the gallon, the half gallon, quart pot, pint pot, gill pot, any potality, quality, try a little drop more, here's a health, a health to the Barley Mow, oh, oh, oh, rumpetty tum tum tum The pitch was raised on the word pin (= 4.5 gallons) and glasses generally raised in the air at this point!

24 Jun 04 - 09:10 AM (#1213495)
Subject: RE: Origins: The barley mow
From: masato sakurai

From folktrax:

BARLEY MOW, THE - "Here's good health to the " - Cumulative Drinking Song - ROUD#944 - DIXON 1846 - BELL BSPE 1857 pp159-161 West Country (w/o)/ Suffolk (w/o) - CHAPPELL NEA 1838 & PMOT 1858 p745 describes actions in song - LONG DIOW 1886 pp149-50 (w/o) - SHARP-MARSON FSS 5 pp13-15 Charles Neville - SHARP Sel Ed 2 pp126-8 - SHARP-KARPELES CSC 1974 2 pp406-407 Charles Nevill Senr & Jnr, East Coker, Somerset 1908 - WILLIAMS FSUT 1923 pp289-90 #389 Elijah Iles, Inglesham, Wiltsh & David Sawyer, Ogbourne, Wiltsh (w/o) - SHARP-MARSON Somerset V 109 p289 - BROCKLEBANK- KINDERSLEY DBFS 1966 p26 Hammond: J Caddy, Melplash,Dorset - O'SHAUGHNESSEY LLL 1973 (?) p1 Brian Dawson (c): Harry Blackburn, Washingborough, Lincolnsh 1973 - KARPELES CSC 1974 2 #335 pp406-7 - HAMER GGr 1973 pp28-9 Mr Salisbury, Bedfordsh - KENNEDY FSBI 1975 #265 Arthur Smith - PALMER EBECS 1979 #118 pp196-8 Dixon (w) & Chappell (m) - HOWSON SSIS 1992 p30 Harry Chambers, Dennington, Suffolk (w/o) --- MEREDITH- ANDERSON 1967 Australia p70 -- Unknown singer (& ch) Wickham Ford, Gloucestersh 1938: RPL 1755 - Jack FRENCH with ch rec by PK, Blaxhall, Suffolk 1953: RPL 19882/ EMI DLP-7-EG 8288 1960 (45 EP) - Arthur SMITH (+ ch) rec by PK, Blaxhall, Suffolk: 025 & 036 - Gabriel FIGG rec by Joy Hyman, Sussex 1964-5: RPL LP 29821 (16v) - Dick PEARCE rec by PK, Exeter, Devon 1954: 086 - George SPICER rec by PK, Copthorne, Sussex 1956: RPL 23093/ CAEDMON TC- 1225/ TOPIC 12-T-198/ TSCD-663 1998 - rec Lewes Arms, Lewes: TRANSATLANTIC XTRS-1150 1975 - YETTIES Radio 2 14/11/87: CASS-60-0555 (Dorset version with unusual chorus coll at Melplash) - Reg BACON rec by Neil Lanham, Radwinter, Essex: NLCD 5/6 2002 - Beryl COWAN rec by Neil Lanham, Colchester, Essex: NLCD 5/6 2002 (last 3v)

BARLEY MOW, THE - Jig - HAYWOOD #11 p10 (D) -- Tavish McMILLAN (fid) rec Kinross Folk Festival 1975: SPRINGTHYME SPRC 1003/ CASS-1313

24 Jun 04 - 09:19 AM (#1213501)
Subject: RE: Origins: The barley mow
From: GUEST

first recorded use of the term "gallon" is 1342 so it must post-date that.

24 Jun 04 - 09:26 AM (#1213503)
Subject: RE: Origins: The barley mow
From: GUEST

in 1842 the gallon was standardized (In the UK) so I suspect the song date from approximately that era

24 Jun 04 - 09:30 AM (#1213506)
Subject: RE: Origins: The barley mow
From: greg stephens

The song may well date from 1840ish(though I would personally guess a lot earlier). But I really dont see why the folk of England would be eager to sing about an 1842 standardised gallon, but uninterested in say a 1742 unstandardised gallon.

25 Jun 04 - 07:41 AM (#1214091)
Subject: RE: Origins: The barley mow
From: Podger

Not all versions of The Barley Mow mention the gallon so that word shoulnd't be used to estimate the age of the song.

25 Jun 04 - 08:36 AM (#1214111)
Subject: RE: Origins: The barley mow
From: IanC

It's in Ancient Ballads ... originally published by The Percy Society in 1846. The version collected is discussed as part of the traditional harvest celebrations in Devon and Cornwall, so it's certainly earlier than 1840.

Chappell (1859) connects it with one of the Freemen's Songs in Deuteromelia, which would take it back another 250 years or so. However, I can't really see any serious likeness.

:-)

28 Jun 04 - 05:24 PM (#1215783)
Subject: RE: Origins: The barley mow
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Barley Mow is mentioned in Olson's website, from "Thompson's Compleat Collection of Country Dances, vol. 4, ca. 1780.
Some contradancers use the tune Linden Hall.

Nothing to do with the origin, but a nice little verse is inserted into the routine by Billy Leatherbreeks called "Bobobella; or, The Blacky Moor Keelman" (pub. 1870s in "Tyneside Songs, by E. Corvan and G. Ridley et al.), tune for this segment "Dixey's Land."

"..... On, on, wi' yor sprees, let the gam gan on now;
An' end a' yor glories i' the aud Barley Mow.

"Aw wish aw was i' the Barley Mow,
Wiv a quairt o' yell before me now.
Huzza! huzza! huzza! huzza!
For iv a' the places aw ever met,
Thor's nyen can beat aud Sangyet yet.
Huzza! etc.

Chorus
"So drink away mee hearties
Huzza! etc.
Niver say die, for that's all mee aye,
So drink away mee hearties,
Huzza! etc."

27 Feb 07 - 03:58 AM (#1980554)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: GUEST

I think Cyril Tawney used "nipperkin & a RYE bowl"

27 Feb 07 - 06:46 AM (#1980629)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mo
From: Folkiedave

Round

27 Feb 07 - 07:47 AM (#1980663)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Scrump

Cheers Folkiedave - mine's a pint, since you offered :-)

I think one version I remember had "nipperkin, pipperkin and a brown bowl". I guess people kept adding different words to make it even longer and difficult to sing (or listen to).

Whether these measures were actually used I don't know, although I believe a 'nipperkin' meant a small quantity (sometimes assumed to be half a gill, or 1/8 of an English pint), but sometimes just meaning a small amount as in a 'nip'.

27 Feb 07 - 06:43 PM (#1981255)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Bonecruncher

Oxford English Dictionary defines a gill as a quarter-pint, with the proviso that in some parts of UK it is a half-pint.
Same reference defines nipperkin as obsolete, a small measure.
Colyn.

27 Feb 07 - 08:30 PM (#1981330)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Bert

Nipperkin may be obsolete, but it's shortened form 'nip'was in common use in England in the Fifties and was synonymous with 'tot'.

28 Feb 07 - 01:13 AM (#1981474)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Chip2447

I use "fetch in a little drop more" in lieu of the more familiar nipperkin and a brown/round bowl.

"...Here's the quart pot,
pint pot,
haffa pint,
gill pot
haffa gill,
quarter gill,
fetch in a little drop more,
here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the barley mow"

Chip

28 Feb 07 - 05:51 AM (#1981582)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Scrump

Yes, a gill is 'officially' a quarter of a (UK) pint, i.e. 5 fl oz.

But in some parts of the country it is used colloquially to refer to a half pint. I suppose it's a bit like the proverbial 'swift half' which usually implies a slightly larger quantity :-)

A 'nip' does often mean a small quantity or 'tot' as Bert says, but it was also used by brewers to refer to a small bottle of ale (usually a strong one such as Barley Wine or Russian Stout) which was sold in 1/3 pint bottles. Maybe some brewers still use this measure?

Something many people don't know is that the 1/3 pint measure (once common) can still be served legally in pubs, but I don't personally know of any that do this. A recent CAMRA beer festival had 1/3 pint glasses. I hope this idea spreads, because it seems very sensible when attending a beer festival, as you can then try more different ales before you assume the horizontal position :-)

28 Feb 07 - 07:37 AM (#1981629)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Richard Bridge

Yes Scrump, I have always heard and sung "nippikin pippikin and the brown bowl".

No-one objected at Faversham hp fest last year

28 Feb 07 - 10:16 AM (#1981779)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Big Jim from Jackson

John Roberts (Mudcat name: Anglo) and Tony Barrand have a very good version of this song on one of their albums. A search for Golden Hind Records would get you to their catalog, and I'm sure John would respond to a PM.

28 Feb 07 - 11:29 AM (#1981863)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: GUEST,chris

I haven't heard that song for years!
chris

01 Mar 07 - 08:16 AM (#1982641)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Strollin' Johnny

You're so lucky.

02 Mar 07 - 04:58 AM (#1983636)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Lady Nancy

When this was "doing the rounds" a lot of years ago, the words I learned were "... nipperkin, hand-around bowl" but I guess it is sung so quickly you could (almost) sing anything....
LN

02 Mar 07 - 05:12 AM (#1983642)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Scrump

Lady Nancy: "hand-around" sounds like a mondegreen for "and the brown", to me :-)

02 Mar 07 - 09:29 AM (#1983835)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley M
From: greg stephens

"nipperkin and a rum bowl" is what was always sung at the Plough in Galgate in the 60's. I think. Well, maybe half were singing "round bowl". No brown bowls I dont think.

02 Mar 07 - 10:05 AM (#1983882)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Schantieman

nipperkin and the brown bowl
pour on a little drop more

are the versions I know

S

01 Feb 09 - 10:11 PM (#2554939)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: GUEST,Capn'Rob

Forget not "Little Sir John and the Nut Brown Bowl proved the stronger man at last!"
I refer to John Barleycorn. I learned of the measures from Toby Lynch. The song referred to the "Barley Malt" and the the last measure being little brown bowl.

03 Feb 09 - 01:08 PM (#2556308)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BARLEY-MOW (from Cecil Sharp)
From: Jim Dixon

Here's the version from One Hundred English Folksongs by Cecil James Sharp (Boston: Oliver Ditson Company, 1916)—where it appears with musical notation for voice and piano.

THE BARLEY-MOW

1. O I will drink out of the nipperkin, boys;
So here's a good health to the barley mow.
The nipperkin and the brown bowl.
So here's a good health to the barley mow.

2. O I will drink out of the pint, my boys;
So here's a good health to the barley mow.
The pint, the nipperkin and the brown bowl.
So here's a good health to the barley mow.

3. O I will drink out of the quart, my boys;
So here's a good health to the barley mow.
The quart, the pint, the nipperkin and the brown bowl.
So here's a good health to the barley mow.

The song proceeds after the usual manner of cumulative songs, an additional measure being added to each verse. The last verse runs as follows: —

18. O I will drink out of the clouds, my boys;
So here's a good health to the barley mow.
The clouds, the ocean, the sea, the river, the well, the tub, the but, the hogshead, the keg, the gallon, the quart, the pint, the nipperkin and the brown bowl.
So here's a good health to the barley mow.

14 Apr 09 - 09:09 PM (#2611366)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: RowanGolightly

I'm reviving this song, "Good Luck to the Barley Mow" at a Renaissance festival that we're building near Springfield, MO. I learned it years and years ago at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival.

We always taught that the "brown bowl" is that oldest of drinking vesselse; one's own two cupped hands.

Great mystery solved? I hope so.

Rowan of Queen's Gambit

15 Apr 09 - 12:41 AM (#2611448)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Gurney

I've also seen it written somewhere as 'Nipperkin and a Rambeau.'

Just to add a soupcon of confusion.

15 Apr 09 - 03:56 AM (#2611487)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Folkiedave

And I suspect it was really "round bowl".

And whatever version youh have - we had a tradition that if you sing it and fail to get through it correctly then you buy a pint for everyone in the room.

15 Apr 09 - 07:47 PM (#2612040)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Tug the Cox

Folkiedave, you are too kind. Having failed once, and having bought all a pint, and downed their's in one, they should then start again from the beginning, except this time attracting a two pint penalty etc. etc. ad nauseum ( literally!).

16 Apr 09 - 03:54 AM (#2612235)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Penny S.

This is a bit of synchronicity. When I was at college, there was a guy from Derbyshire sang this in the folk club to much admiration. He also sang a version of Yeats "Jester and Princess" and I started trying to track him down last week to find what tune he used. After years of not finding him on the net, he turned up at last, but then also turned out to no longer be where the references showed him. I don't have quite enough chutzpah to go any further.

Penny

16 Apr 09 - 05:11 AM (#2612265)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: IanC

While I've always heard it as "and the brown bowl" I see absolutely no sense in speculating about rambeaus, round bowls and all that other nonsense when the words already make perfect sense. Would somebody like to also speculate as to the meaning of the brown bowl in John Barleycorn (penguin version for example)...

Here's little Sir John in a nut-brown bowl,
And brandy in a glass;
And little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl
Proved the stronger man at last.

Just because you drink beer out of glasses, doesn't mean people always did. Brown is the normal colour of glaze added to the outside of stoneware for most traditional bowls and jugs.

:-)
Ian

16 Apr 09 - 10:34 AM (#2612392)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: MMario

Well - most of the measuements fiven are half the amount of the preivous one (qt, pint, half pint, gill, )
Nipperkin the dictionary says is 1/8 pint (maybe) -

As I learned the song it goes: gill (40z) half-a-gill (2 0z) quarter gill (1 oz) nipperkin (1/2 oz) and a brown bowl. approx 1/4 oz, the amount that can be in the hollow of the flat hand.

16 Apr 09 - 10:57 AM (#2612408)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: IanC

Is a USA pint 16oz then? In the UK a pint is 20oz.

:-)

16 Apr 09 - 11:00 AM (#2612410)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: MMario

Aye. lessee - that would make

gill = 5 oz
half gill = 2.5
quarter qill 1.25
nipperkin .625 oz
brown bowl .3125 oz.......

16 Apr 09 - 11:09 AM (#2612418)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: IanC

I think the Brown Bowl is just what it says ... "Brown Bowl".

16 Apr 09 - 02:46 PM (#2612592)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mo
From: MikeT

When I heard John and Tony sing this song years ago, they would say that the Brown Bowl was what you puked in after you were done drinking the various quantities of ale......

Mike

16 Apr 09 - 07:41 PM (#2612770)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Crane Driver

This is the song from Thomas Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia, published in 1609. Ravenscroft was publishing songs sung in taverns during the Elizabethan period, which were falling out of favour under the new king, James I. That would suggest this was being sung about the mid 1500s, and possibly earlier. I have retained Ravenscroft's spelling, which dates from an age when people had a more relaxed attitude to that sort of thing. I find the suggestion of a connection to the Barley Mow reasonably convincing:

Give us once a drink for and the black bole
Sing gentle Butler balla moy
For and the black bole,
Sing gentle Butler balla moy

Give us once a drink for and the pint pot
Sing gentle Butler balla moy
The pint pot, for and the black bole
Sing gentle Butler balla moy

Give us once a drink for and the quart pot
Sing gentle Butler balla moy
The quart pot, the pint pot, for and the black bole
Sing gentle Butler balla moy

Give us once a drink for and the pottle pot
Sing gentle Butler balla moy
The pottle pot, the quart pot,
The pint pot, for and the black bole
Sing gentle Butler balla moy

Give us once a drink for and the gallon pot
Sing gentle Butler balla moy
The gallon pot, the pottle pot,
The quart pot, the pint pot,
For and the black bole
Sing gentle Butler balla moy

And so on, until:

Give us once a drink for and the tunne
Sing gentle Butler balla moy
The tunne, the butt
The pipe, the hogshead
The barrel, the kilderkin
The verkin, the gallon pot
The pottle pot, the quart pot,
The pint pot, for and the black bole
Sing gentle Butler balla moy

Note it is the black bowl here - the basic mediaeval drinking vessel was of leather waterproofed with pitch. This would presumably predate the brown bowl of glazed earthenware. Ravenscroft prints the 'Balla Moy' of the chorus in italics, perhaps to indicate that he doesn't understand it but is just printing what he heard - it could be a mondegreen for 'Barley Mow', which may well have meant nothing to a city dweller like Ravenscroft.

Or maybe our 'Barley Mow' developed separately, without reference to the 'Balla Moy' - what do you think?

Andrew

17 Apr 09 - 01:49 PM (#2613251)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Crane Driver

Incidentaly the 'pottle' in both Ravenscroft and the West Country version quoted above, was an archaic term for 2 quarts, i.e. a half-gallon.

Andrew

17 Apr 09 - 05:00 PM (#2613392)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Steve Gardham

The general concensus among scholars is that 'Balla Moy' is derived from 'Bell Ami', i.e., good friend. 'Barley Mow' is a derivative of 'Balla Moy'. It eventually at some point may have been attached to celebrations of barley harvesting but originally it had nothing to do with barley directly. It would be interesting to research how far back the pub name 'The Barley Mow' can be traced.

25 Jul 15 - 03:25 AM (#3725980)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Joe Offer

Does "Barley Mow" rhyme with "how" or "hoe"?

Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

Barley Mow, The

DESCRIPTION: Cumulative song toasting successive sizes of drinking vessels, and those who serve them: "The quart pot, pint pot, half-a-pint, gill pot, half-a-gill, quarter-gill, nipperkin, and the brown bowl/Here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the barley mow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia, under the title "Give Us Once a Drinke")
KEYWORDS: ritual drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West)) Australia
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sharp-100E 99, "The Barley Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Thames, pp. 289-290, "The Barley-Mow Song" (1 text) (also Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 389)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 70-71, "The Barley-Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-Peasantry, Song #8, pp. 177-178, "The Mow" (1 text); Song #9, pp. 178-182,246, "The Barley-Mow Song"; p. 246, "Barley-Mow Song, (Suffolk version)" (3 texts)
Bell-Combined, pp. 379-382, "The Barley-Mow Song" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Kennedy 265, "The Barley Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BARLEYMO
Roud #944
RECORDINGS:
George Spicer, "The Barley Mow" (on Voice13)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Good Luck to the Barley Mow
NOTES: The brown bowl is to get sick into.
Sharp cites a reference noting that this was sung after a pre-Christian ritual called "crying the neck". -PJS
It was my understanding (don't know where I heard it) that the "Barley Mow" was a challenge -- if you fail to sing it through accurately and/or in one breath, you have to take another drink and, perhaps, buy a round for the house. Naturally, things tend to go downhill rapidly after the first error.
Ravenscroft's version of this is fascinating, since the final words are not "barley mow" but "balla moy," which (depending on the language) could mean something like "throw to me." Even the English version has its archaic words -- the chorus runs
The Tunne, the Butt, the Pipe, the hogshead, the barrell, the kilderkin, the verkin, the gallon pot, the pottle pot, the quart pot, the pint pot,
for and the blacke bole, sing gentle Butler balla moy,-
And, yes, a pottle is a half gallon. But I know that only because of an Isaac Asimov science essay which sneered at it. RBW
Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 389 omits the "peck" verse between verses 8 and 9. - BS
Last updated in version 2.8
File: ShH99

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25 Jul 15 - 03:46 AM (#3725981)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Reinhard

"Barley Mow" rhymes with "hoe".

25 Jul 15 - 05:23 AM (#3725996)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: MGM·Lion

Doesn't seem to have been mentioned that, as well as the name for a stack of mown barley, "The Barley Mow" is a not uncommon pub name in England. I have always taken it the the one in the song, to which the health is being drunk in all those pots and nipperkins and whevs, served by all these gaffers & slaveys & all, is the name of the house in which such bibulation is occurring.

≈M≈

25 Jul 15 - 10:49 AM (#3726026)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: Steve Gardham

Mike,
See my posting on the 17th Apr.

25 Jul 15 - 10:54 AM (#3726028)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: MGM·Lion

Ah, yes. Thank you, Steve.

23 Jul 17 - 11:02 PM (#3867929)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: GUEST

Seamus Kennedy - The Barley Mow.

13 Apr 23 - 12:57 PM (#4169843)
Subject: RE: Origins: Nipperkin and a brown bowl (Barley Mow)
From: GUEST,Julia L

Just for the record, in New England we speak of the "hay mow" (as the loft in the barn) pronounced "How". "So we sing "barley-mow (how)" wonder why?