Notable [but no-one seems to have noted it above, or any of the many other threads about all this that I have found] is that the Watersons' first "Take thou no scorn to wear the horn" verse does not appear in any of the traditional versions there cited. I once thought I would try to write an article for OUP's Notes·&·Queries or some such on how a verse from Shakespeare's As You Like It (I once played Amiens, who sings it in the play) should have fused into this traditional but ongoing ritual. Unable to find any annotations in any edition of AYLI I consulted, I rang Norma Waterson to explain what I was working on & ask her where they got the verse from. "Oh, no problem," she said; "we got it from As You Like It and thought it sounded good there."

So ~ question answered, and one scholarly article that never got written. But it had better be known that that verse used in that song is no older than the Watersons' rendition: just as, according to a post a bit back [Folkiedave 19 Apr 08], Mike Waterson appears to have written the 'man created...works debated' jingle himself.

~Michael~