The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #4260   Message #1622425
Posted By: GUEST,PRKJ
07-Dec-05 - 11:44 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Reynardine: Info?
Subject: RE: Origins: Reynardine: Info?
Here are the verses published in The Forget Me Not Songster, Nafis & Cornish, New York, undated. My copy has 1872 penciled on the flyleaf. It's a little handbook containing about 80 songs.

Rinordine

One evening as I rambled
Two miles below Pomroy,
I met a farmer's daughter,
All on the mountains high;
I said my pretty fair maiden
Your beauty shines most clear,
And upon these lonely mountains
Im glad to meet you here.

She said, young man, be civil
My company forsake,
For to my good opinion,
I fear you are a rake;
And if my parents should know,
My life they would destroy,
For keeping of your company,
All on the mountains high.

I said, my dear, I am no rake
But brought up in Venus' train,
And looking out for concealments
All in the judges' name;
Your beauty has ensnared me,
I cannot pass you by,
And with my gun I'll guard you,
All on the mountains high.

This pretty little thing,
She fell into amaze;
With her eyes as bright as amber,
Upon me did she gaze;
Her cherry cheeks and her ruby lips,
They lost their former dye,
And then she fell into my arms;
All on the mountains high

I had but kissed her once or twice,
Till she came to again;
She modestly then asked me,
Pray, sir, what is your name
If you go to yonder forest
My castle you will find,
Wrote in ancient history;
My name is Rinordine.

I said, my pretty fair maiden,
Don't let your parents know,
For if ye do, they'll prove my ruin
And fatal overthrow;
But when you come to look for me
Perhaps you'll not me find,
But I'll be in my castle;
And call for Rinordine

Come all ye pretty fair maidens,
A warning take by me,
And be sure you quit night walking
And shun bad company;
For if you don't you'll surely rue
Until the day you die,
And beware of meeting Rinor,
All on the mountains high

The punctuation is something I couldn't have dreamed up. The last verse looks like a standard caution that was tacked onto the ballad story, particularly noticeable as shift away from the first-person narration of the other verses.