Subject: Lyr Add: COME SIRRAH JACK HO (Thomas Weelkes)
From:
Artful Codger
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 09:48 PM
Come, Sirrah Jack, Ho!
by Thomas Weelkes (c.1575-1623)
1. |: Come, Sirrah Jack, ho!
Fill some tobacco,
Bring a wire / And some fire!
Haste, haste away, / Quick I say!
Do not stay! / Shun delay!
For I drank none good today. :|
|: I swear that this tobacco
Tis perfect Trinidado.
By the very, very Mass
Never never never was
Better gear than is here
By the rood, for the blood,
It is very very good, tis very good. :|
2. |: Fill the pipe once more,
My brains dance Trenchmore*. [a very energetic dance]
It is heady / I am giddy.
My head and brains, / Back and reins*, [= kidneys]
Joints and veins / From all pains
It doth well purge and make clean. :|
|: Then those that do condemn it,
Or such as not commend it,
Never were so wise to learn
Good tobacco to discern;
Let them go pluck a crow,
And not know as I do
The sweet of Trinidado, Trinidado. :|
Source: The Oxford Book of English Madrigals, ed. Philip Ledger; Oxford University Press, 1978.
Someone many years back told me that this madrigal was specifically about the wacky weed one often encounters in Trinidad. Is there truth to this allegation?
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sj