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GREY COCK (2) Saw you my father, saw you my mother Saw you my true love John? He told his only dear that he would soon be here But he to another is gone. I saw not your father, I saw not your mother But I saw your true love John He's met with some delay that causeth him to stay But he will be here ere long When I came to my true love's door I gently tirled the pin My true love she arose and she slipped on her clothes And so softly she let me in All the forepart of the night We did both sport and play And all the last part of the night She slept in my arms till day Fly up fly up my bonny grey cock And crow when it is day Your breast shall be like the bonny beaten gold And your wings of the silver grey The cock he proved false and untrue he was For he crew an hour too soon My love she thought it day and she hastened me away And it proved but the blink of the moon The wind it did blow and the cocks they did crow As I tripped over the plain I wished myself back in my truelove's arms And she in her bed again @nightvisit @love @ghost @bird from Sedley, Seeds of Love. His note below: This is a fairly drastic collation of four texts; Herd's (1769), Chappell's and two sets collected by Hammond in Dorset. This was originally a revenant ghost song (cf. The Demon Lover and not the ballad that Child took it to be (no. 248). The final stanza which appears in one of the Dorset versions, is clearly a descendent of the famous Western Wind fragment. The tune is the one usually associated with the Scottish versions, with the variant published by Chappell (who thought it might have been composed by James Hook, composer of The Lass of Richmond Hill filename[ GREYCOC2 TUNE FILE: GREYCOC2 CLICK TO PLAY TUNE FILE: GREYCOC2.2 CLICK TO PLAY SOF |
The Grey Cock, or Lover's Ghost (from The Penguin Book Of English Folk Songs) |