Lyr Req: Waits Wassail or Leeds Waits Wassail

Subject: Waits Wassail or Leeds Waits Wassail
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 08 Dec 01 - 09:06 PM

Looking for Waits Wassail or Leeds Waits Wassail lyrics and tune cant remember seeing this before- reference here.

http://www.tayara.com/earlymusic/9900/waits3.htm

Many thanks in advance for your kind assitance...

Conrad

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Waits Wassail or Leeds Waits Wassail
From:
Date: 05 Feb 06 - 05:45 AM

The melody is at http://www.waits.org.uk/music/leeds.htm and the words are those of the standard carol "Here we come a-wassailing".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Waits Wassail or Leeds Waits Wassail
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 05 Feb 06 - 08:09 PM

This is an old and -until now- forgotten thread, and Conrad's old reference is long disappeared. However, I can add to Al's recent comments.

The Yorkshire musical historian and folksong collector Frank Kidson published words and music in one of his 1887 Leeds Mercury articles. 'The most popular wassail song in Leeds', he said, 'is the following:'

God rest you merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Saviour
Was born on Christmas Day
For it is the Christmas time,
And we travel far and near;
So God bless you and send you
A happy new year.

We are not daily beggars
That beg from door to door;
But we are neighbours's children,
Whom you have seen before.
For it is the Christmas time...

God bless the master of this house,
The mistress also,
And all the little children
That round the table go.
For it is the Christmas time...

Call up the butler of this house,
Put on his golden ring;
Let him bring us a glass of beer,
And better we shall sing.
For it is the Christmas time...

We've got a little purse
Made of stretching leather skin;
We want a little of your money
To line it well within.
For it is the Christmas time...

'There are many more verses', wrote Kidson. 'The stretching capabilities of the purse are always strongly emphasised.'

No source is given for the notation at the Waits site mentioned above, and the approximate 1800 date doesn't necessarily refer to the example given (see the contributor's original, rather vague comments at http://www.waits.org.uk/notes&queries/archive2002.htm#Leeds Waits Wassail).

It is, however, much the same in essentials as the example published by Kidson.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Waits Wassail or Leeds Waits Wassail
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 12:54 AM

Searching for "God rest you merry, gentlemen" or "God rest ye merry, gentlemen" at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads yields 30 or so examples of broadsides with songs that begin this way. I only looked at a few of them, and they were more or less the familiar carol whose verse ends "tidings of comfort and joy." An intrepid investigator might want to look further than I did.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Waits Wassail or Leeds Waits Wassail
From: nutty
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 03:45 PM

There's also this . Collected by FW MOORMAN and published in his 'YORKSHIRE DIALECT POEMS' 1916/17

A Christmas Wassail(1)

Here we coom a-wessellin(2)
   Among the leaves so green,
An' here we coom a-wanderin'
   So fair as to be seen.

   Chorus-
      An' to your' wessel
      An' to jolly wessel,
      Love an' joy be to you
      An' to your wessel-tree.

The wessel-bob(3) is made
   O' rosemary tree,
An' so is your beer
   O' the best barley.
      An' to your wessel, etc.

Weare not beggars' childeren
   That begs from door to door,
But we are neighbours' childeren
   That has been here before.
      An' to your wessel, etc.

We have got a little purse
   Made i' ratchin(4) leather skin,
An' we want a little money
   To line it well within.
      An' to your wessel, etc.

Bring us out your table
   An' spread it wi' a cloth;
Bring us out your mouldy cheese
   Likewise your Christmas loaf.
      An' to your wessel, etc.

God bless the master o' this house,
   Likewise the mistress too;
An' all the little childeren
   That round the table go.
      An' to your wessel, etc.

Good master an' good' misteress,
   While you're sittin' by the fire
Pray, think of us poor childeren
   That's wanderin' i' the mire.
      An' to your wessel, etc.

1. From Easther and Lees, Almondbury and Huddersfield Glossary
(English Dialect Society Publications, vol. 39, pp. xvii.-xviii).
2. Wassailing. 3. Wassail-bough. 4. Urchin, hedgehog.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Waits Wassail or Leeds Waits Wassail
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 01:08 AM

http://www.townwaits.org.uk/music/leeds.jpg

Subject: No lyrics there. Just notation.
From: GUEST,999
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 01:09 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Waits Wassail or Leeds Waits Wassail
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 03:54 AM

Just to make things neater, I have found archived copies of the first dead link at The Internet Archive - BLICKY.
The Internet Archive Wayback Machine can be found at http://www.archive.org/web/web.php. Sometimes you can find pages from dead or vanished web sites by pasting the dead link into the Wayback Machine.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Waits Wassail or Leeds Waits Wassail
From: GUEST,#
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 03:27 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph23EXNotMw

It is sung there where the notes refer to it as a piece from the 1600s.