The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #32927   Message #3852918
Posted By: Jim Dixon
28-Apr-17 - 03:16 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: A Kiss in the Morning Early
Subject: Lyr Add: THE SHOEMAKER (1868)
Here's the oldest version I can find. Unfortunately, it's only lyrics, no tune. Also, it may be quite different from the song you had in mind:

From Four Books of Choice Old Scottish Ballads, MDCCCXXIII-MDCCCXLIV [edited by T. G. Stevenson], (Edinburgh, 1868), page 55:


THE SHOEMAKER.

"Shoemaker, shoemaker, are ye within?
      A fal a falladdie fallee;
Hae ye got shoes that will fit me so trim,
      For a kiss in the morning early?"

"O fair may, come in and see,
      A fal, &c.
I've got but ae pair, and I'll gie them to thee
      For a kiss in the morning early."

He's tane her in behind the bench,
      A fal, &c.
And there he has fitted his own pretty wench
      With a kiss in the morning early.

Whan twenty weeks war come and gane,
      A fal, &c.
This maid cam back to her shoemaker then,
      For a kiss in the morning early.

"O," says she, "I can't spin at a wheel,"
      A fal, &c.
"If ye can't spin at a wheel, ye may spin at a rock,
For I go not to slight my ain pretty work
      That was done in the morning early."

Whan twenty weeks war come and gone,
      A fal, &c.
This maid she brought forth a braw young son,
      For her kiss in the morning early.

"O," says her father, "we'll cast it out,
      A fal, &c.
It is but the shoemaker's dirty clout,
      It was got in a morning early."

"O," says her mother, "we'll keep it in.
      A fal, &c.
It was born a prince, and it may be a king,
      It was got in a morning early."

Whan other maids gang to the ball,
      A fal, &c.
She must sit and dandle her shoemaker's awl,
      For her kiss in the morning early.

Whan other maids, gang to their tea,
      A fal, &c.
She must sit at hame and sing balillalee,
      For her kiss in the morning early.


Another copy can be found in The Ballad Book edited by George Ritchie Kinloch, (Edinburgh:, 1885), page 35—but that's exactly the same. The phrase "kiss in the morning early" doesn't appear again until More Irish Street Ballads in 1965—at least, not in any book searchable with Google Books.