The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #39703   Message #564330
Posted By: Barbara
03-Oct-01 - 02:20 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: gamekeepers, bonny may -june tabor?
Subject: Lyr Add: While the Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping
Some of the lyrics are pretty hard to decipher from the album. I used the Copper Family's songbook (similar words, different tune) as an aid when I couldn't tell what she was singing. Here's the June Tabor version:

WHILE THE GAMEKEEPERS LIE SLEEPING
(trad)

Oh, I got a dog and a good dog too,
And I keeps him in my keeping
For to catch those hares that run by night,
While the gamekeepers lie sleeping

My dog and me went out one night
For to learn some education
Up jumps a hare and away she bolts
Right into some large plantation

She had not run so very far
'Fore something stops her running
"Oh, Aunt Anne!", she loudly cries,
"Half a minute, your uncle's coming!"

Oh, I took out my little pen knife
And quickly I did paunch her
She turned out one of the female kind,
And that and I, I caught her!

I picks her up and I strips her down
And I puts her in my keeping
I says to me dog, "It's time to be going now
While the gamekeepers lie sleeping"
Away me and my dog did go
back into the town
We took that hare to a lab'ring man,
We sold it for a crown

We went into some public house
And there we got quite mellow
We spent that crown and another one, too
Don't you think I'm a good hearty fellow?

Repeat 1st verse

Blessings,
Barbara