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YOU GENTLEMEN OF ENGLAND FARE You gentlemen of England fare Who stay at home free from all care Oh little do you think or know The dangers Seamen Undergo They mile they Toil all on the way They work like Turkish galley slaves Twas on November the fourteenth day When first our Admiral bore away Intending for our native shore The wind at west Southwest did roar Attended by a dismal Sky The seas they ran full mountains high The Very first Land our Ships crew made It proved to be the old rams head Which made us for to rejoice and bound To see our flag staff in plymouth sound But streching oer the fisher noes Thinking to bring our palamoers The tide of Ebb being quite run down The current Strong to the west did run Which made us for to Stomp and Swear Our Goodly Ship She would not wear The wind & the weather Encreasing sore Which drive nine sail of our line on Shore The first was the Duke of north Cumberland The Lion and the antelope The eagle and the weasle too Which caused Elizabeth for to rue She ran stemlong the Lion broke And sunk the orange at one Stroke Now is to Come the worst of all Our largest ship hand the greatest fall The Beat croronation and all her men Were lost and drowned except nineteen Which was the mate with Eighteen more Who in the longboat got on shore The worst of loosing of lifes Is to our sweethearts and our wifes Next to the nation it mus be To loose nine Sail Such Ships as we But Oh! the girl I love I Hope She'll keep and constant prove When I was young and crost in love Which first caused me the Seas to rove My parents they have crewel been Would not let me Enjoy my queen But oh ! ye powers above Help me to the girls I dearly love DT #555 Laws K2 @sea Flanders and Olney. Ballads Migrant in New England Collected from James Copeland of Bridgeport, CT filename[ GENENGLF SOF apr97 |
You Gentlemen of England Fare (Malcolm notes: The DT text is from Flander and Olney's Ballads Migrant in New England (1953); no tune was given in that book, as the text was "received by mail from James Copeland of Brideport, Connecticut". There is, however, a reasonably close version, with tune, in Helen Creighton's Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia (1932). This was noted from Mr. Ben Hennebury of Devil's Island, and I've made a midi from that notation. Mr. Copeland's text was reproduced verbatim, including his (probably accidental) rendering of "coronation" as "croronation". There are two errors in the DT file; in verse 6 line 3, "Beat" should be "great", and in verse 7, line 5 should end at "love", "I Hope" being the first part of line 6. Parts of the text have become garbled in the course of transmission, or require explanation; the information comes from Roy Palmer's Boxing the Compass (2001; formerly The Oxford Book of Sea Songs), where he gives a text called England's Great Loss by a Storm of Wind . Verse 3 line 2: "the old ram's head": a headland to the west of Plymouth, now called Rame Head. line 5: "fisher noes": originally "Fisher's Nose", part of the foreshore at the entrance to Sutton Harbour, Plymouth. line 6: "Thinking to bring our palamoers": in earlier versions, "Thinking to fetch up in Hamose", Hamoaze being a name for the mouth of the River Tamar. Verse 5: The following is the equivalent verse from the set published by Palmer, taken from J. Ashton's Real Sailors' Songs (1891): When we came to Northumberland Rock The Lion, Lynx and Antelope, The Loyalty and Eagle too, The Elizabeth made all to rue: She ran astern and the line broke, And sunk the Hardwick at a stroke. Re. Northumberland Rock, Palmer comments "This line in one version reads: Ashore went the Northumberland." The ballad was made on an historical event. Palmer again: "The outcome of the storm of September (not November) 1691, was less disastrous than the ballad indicates: two ships, the Coronation and the Harwich, were lost, and two more, the Royal Oak and the Northumberland, went aground but were later refloated." ) |
