The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #129987   Message #2928555
Posted By: Jim Dixon
15-Jun-10 - 05:41 PM
Thread Name: Tune Req: Drawing Near to the Merry Month of May
Subject: Lyr Add: DRAWING NEAR TO THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY
Here's another version. Note that the writer implies more verses could be added as needed; one for each member of the family being serenaded:

From Memoirs of Seventy Years of an Eventful Life by Charles Hulbert (Providence Grove, Near Shrewsbury: Printed by the author, 1852), page 107:

With feelings of indescribable pleasure, I still call to my remembrance various customs and scenes familiar to my early years. Still present is the delight with which I hailed the approach of May-day morning, when a select company of the musical Rustics of Worsley, Swinton and Eccles, would assemble at midnight to commence the grateful task of saluting their neighbours with the sound of the Clarionet, Hautboy, German Flute, Violin, and the melody of twenty voices. On this occasion the leader of the band would commence his song under the window or before the outer door of the family "he delighted to honour" with

O rise up Master of this House, all in your chain of gold,
  For the summer springs so fresh, green and gay;
I hope you'll not be angry at us for being so bold,
  Drawing near to the merry month of May.

О rise up Mistress of this House, all in your gown of green,
  For the summer springs so fresh, green and gay;
Your countenance so lovely, you are fitting for a Queen,
  Drawing near to the merry month of May.

О rise up Master Hulbert, and take your pen in hand,
  For the summer springs so fresh, green and gay;
For you are a famous scholar as we do understand,
  Drawing near to the merry month of May.

Rise up Miss Mary ––, so beautiful and fair,
  For the summer springs so fresh, green and gay;
The beauty of Fair Rosamond cannot with you compare,
  Drawing near to the merry month of May.

In this strain, including some encomiums or happy allusion to the various qualifications of all the other branches of the family the whole were saluted: after which a purse of silver or a few mugs of good ale were distributed among the company; thus they proceeded from house to house, tilling the air with their music and happy voices, till six o'clock in the morning.