The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #37413   Message #521434
Posted By: toadfrog
05-Aug-01 - 01:52 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Broomfield Wager (4)
Subject: Lyr Add: BROOMFIELD WAGER (4)
This is a good version of a good ballad, and I think good enough to warrant a third version in DT
A pleasantly light-hearted version, I would say.
Questions:

(1) I will work out the tune if it's needed, but I've no formal training and it will be slow and likely not entirely satisfactory. If someone already has the music, would appreciate help.
(2) I heard McColl sing this in 1970, with a verbal introduction which suggested he himself was not quite clear what the song, and especially its invocations of magic, were all about.
(3) In particular, I wonder about "the seal 'o me is abracee." "Abracee sounds Arabic, like "abracadabra," and seems to suggest a reference to magic. Does anyone know whether this would signify more than that to a Scotsman?


BROOMFIELD WAGER (4)

Traditional

There was a knecht and a lady bricht
Set trysts among the broom,
The ane to be there at twelve o' the clock,
And the other one true at noon.

Oh, leeze be the and thoo and a'
And madam will ye do?
And the seal of me is abracee
Fair maiden, I'm for you.


I'll wager you, my bonny lass,
Five hundred pound and ten,
That ye'll no come to the top o' the hill
And come back a maid again.

I'll tak' your wager, bonny lad,
Five hundred pound and ten,
That I'll gang up to the top o' the hill
And come back a maid again.

As she walked up that high, high hill
'Twas at the hour of noon,
And there she saw her true lover,
A sleepin' in the broom.

Nine times she walked around his hied,
Nine times around his feet,
Nine times she kissed his bonny red mou',
And on, but it was sweet.

When he awoke frae his muckle sleep,
And oot o' his unco dreams,
Says he, My freres, where's my true love
That has been here and gane?"

"If ye slept mair in the nicht, maister,
Ye'd wauken mair i' the day.
If he'd awakened frae your sleep
She wouldna' hae gotten away!"

"If ye'd hae waukened me frae my sleep,
O' her I'd taen my will,
Though she'd hae died the very next day,
I would hae gotten my fill."

Oh, greetin', greetin' weht she out,
But lauchin' came she in,
'Twas all for her body's safety
And the wager she did win.

So the wager's laid and the wager's paid,
Five hundred pound and ten,
'Twas a' for her body's safety
And the wager she did win.

Child # 43, As sung by Ewan McColl, The English and Scottish
Popular Ballads, Vol. 2 (Folkways Records FG 3510, 1965)
^^
JWM