The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #38615 Message #1752809
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
04-Jun-06 - 01:44 PM
Thread Name: Tune Req: The Happy Man
Subject: RE: Origins: The Happy Man
The unattributed DT text (link above) is the Adderbury one, with a few small variations of wording (presumably typed from memory?). The Adderbury set doesn't appear in Roud at present.
The text noted by Alfred Williams is also in the DT, at HOW HAPPY IS THE MAN!. It is accurate apart from three typos, and properly attributed, but I may as well add that James Midwinter lived at Aldsworth, Gloucestershire, and that the song appears on page 43 of Folk-Songs of the Upper Thames (London: Duckworth & Co, 1923).
For the record, the errors are: verse 2 line one: omit "the" verse 3 line 4: "trumpets" should be "trumpet" verse 4 line 2: insert "we'll" between "mirth" and "incline".
There is also an unpublished text (no tune) in the Hammond MS collection. It was noted from William Miller at Wootton Fitzpaine, Dorset, in April 1906 (MS ref D367).