Thanks to Anglo, I now have the text and tune as Dunstan published them, so here they are. Not very different from the Brown recording, apparently:THE PLOUGH-BOY
("Restored" from the Warleggan song [Old Cornwall, No.8, p.38] by Mr. R. Morton Nance, June 12, 1929)
O, come all you fair maids, and tell me your choice;
Say what can compare with the ploughboy's sweet voice,
Who cheering his oxen so gaily doth sing,
He causes the hills and the valleys to ring.
Chorus:
While still you are sleeping we rise in the morn,
To plough for the farmer, that he may grow corn,
With Beauty, Spark, Berry, Goodluck, Speedwell, Cherry
Come whoop-a-long! Jip-a-long! Hark to us now,
For we are the lads that can drive on the plough!
In the heat of the day no work is to do;
Our plough clapped aside for an hour or two,
On banks of sweet wild-thyme we then take our rest,
Where sunshine is tempered with winds from the west.
O, the tradesmen they look so grim and so grand,
As if t'were their trade that supported the land;
But let the plough stand for a very short space,
You'ld soon see those tradesmen to pull a long face.
Had the miller no corn, no meal could he sell;
The mill must stand idle and the miller as well;
The baker no bread for the poor could provide,
And farmer and miller must both starve beside.
And so, now that my song's almost at it's end,
I hope that the ploughboys will ne'er want a friend;
Here's health to them all, as so sweetly they sing,
And health to the farmer and God save the King!
From The Cornish Song Book (Lyver Canow Kernow), Ralph Dunstan, 1929; re-printed 1974. © Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew Ltd. The last two lines of the chorus are indicated to be sung twice.
The unidentified "old English melody" from which the tune was adapted does sound rather familiar, but I can't place it. A midi of the tune is destined for The Mudcat Midi Pages, and menwhile can be heard via the South Riding Folk Network site:The Plough-Boy (midi: vocal line).
Dunstan's arrangement for piano is quite pleasant of its type, so here is a midi of the full score: