Begone From The Window / Gwra Mos Dyworth An Fenester Words English, Cornish, French REFERENCES Old Cornwall Society Magazine April 1927 p 14 - 15
From singing of Jas Thomas NOTES
" This curious old Chorus is evidently the original of the darkey (*Darky)chorus:-
Go away from the window my lover my dove
Go away from the window! Don't you hear?
Come again some other night
For theres going to be a fight
And the razors will be flying in the air
This however misses the meaning of the song which is kept in an old French one sung in Burgundy:-
Qui frappe,qui frappe
Mon mari est ici
Il n`est pas a la campagne
Comme il l`avait promis-
Parle (voix d`homme)
Quest-ce que tu dis donc la ma femme
Je berce le petit mimi, je berce le petit"
(OCS April 1927) The term Darky or Darkie refers to people who black up their faces in disguise as part of Geese (pronounced geez) or guise dancing and is a tradition still extant in Padstow in 2003.
There has been recent and erroneous linking with the "Black and White minstrels" and some unfounded concerns about racist overtones. The origins of darkie day in fact go back a long way through generations of people disguising themselves so that they could get up to greater mischief back to a point in time where they may have had some significance in pagan ritual.
Whatever the background it has nothing to do with skin colour or the tradition would not have survived the vehement anti slave trade movement in Cornwall. (Merv Davey)