Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FOGGY DEW (trad. English)
From: Alice
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 12:07 PM

Posted back in '97 but still not in the DT.

The Irish one (A wan cloud... Foggy Dew) is now in the DT, and Lesley has purchased the old book to make the midi. Lesley, can you do the midi for this one, too?

Alice

Subject: RE: Women's Song Circle
From: Alice
Date: 05-Oct-97 - 10:55 PM

I have an old songbook called "The Home and Community Song Book", ©1931, sponsored by Better Homes In America Inc, and National Recreation Association. In it is written, "The publications in this series comprise books of music for use in private and public schools, in homes, and for large and small groups of people who come together to sing."... the purpose of "Better Homes in America, Inc., Honorary Chairman, Herber Hoover, To put knowledge of high standards of house building, home furnishing and home life within the reach of all citizens. To encourage general study of the housing problem and problems of family life. To promote the improvement of homes and to extend knowledge of the ways and means of making home life more attractive and happier through the development of home play, home art, home reading, and home music." The purpose of the National Recreation Association was "That every child in America have a chance to play. That everybody in America, young or old, shall have an opportunity to find the best and most satisfying use of leisure time."

In this book I found two songs called "The Foggy Dew", which are completely different in lyrics and tunes than the two Foggy Dew songs that we usually hear. One is English and one is Irish.


THE FOGGY DEW
English

One night as I lay in my bed
As I lay fast asleep,
My pretty love seemed to come to my head
And bitterly she did weep.
She wrung her hands and she tore her hair,
Crying, asking what shall I do?
For they say the love that men-folk bear
Dries off like the foggy dew, dew dew,
More swift than the foggy dew.

Watch on, dear love, the lee long night,
And the morning will be here.
Then rise, pretty maid, and don't be afraid,
Men love, be it mist or clear.
So dry your eyes and kiss me, dear,
As once you used to do,
For the only cold that you must fear,
Is the chill of the foggy dew, dew, dew,
Is the chill of the foggy dew.

She dried her eyes, and the gay sun shone,
And the world grew green in the blue,
For the last of the foggy dew was gone
The last of the foggy dew.
But love was there in the mist and shine,
The old love, wonder, and new.
O fie! Pretty maid, to let eyes like thine
Be dimmed by the foggy dew, dew, dew,
By fear of the foggy dew.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 12:27 PM

Is the tune the same?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: Alice
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 12:34 PM

Same as what, Sorcha?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 12:53 PM

Same as the Foggy Dew that "everybody" knows------

FA B2, AF B2, etc........(the one Eugene O'Donnell plays)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: Alice
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 01:55 PM

No, that was the point of my message,

"In this book I found two songs called "The Foggy Dew", which are completely different in lyrics and tunes than the two Foggy Dew songs that we usually hear."

Alice

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 02:53 PM

Hmmm, Alice. How can we make it so you can submit the tune? Is there somebody here who speaks Mac who can guide Alice through the process of making a MIDI?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FOGGY DEW (from Cecil Sharp)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 03:16 PM

This text was first published in Folk Songs from Somerset, vol.I (1904; ed. Cecil Sharp & Rev. Charles L. Marson), with the remark, "Mr. Marson has re-written the words, retaining as many lines of Mrs. Hooper's song as were desirable.".  The book was intended for a "genteel" readership, so references which risked offending the sensibilities of the time were often removed.  James Reeves (Idiom of the People, 1958) says:

"In fact no more than six of the twenty-seven lines are more or less as dictated by the two sisters at Hambridge, in the winter of 1903.  This harmless composition, reminiscent of William Morris in his more sentimental vein rather than of any folk song original, completely suppresses the real situation and eliminates the essential spirit of the song.  Sharp appears to have thought that in this case Marson went a bit too far, for he did not reprint The Foggy Dew in any of his later publications."

This is the song as Lucy White and Louie Hooper actually sang it (from Sharp's ms., reprinted by Reeves):

One night as I lay on my bed,
As I lay fast asleep,
A pretty maid came to my bedside;
Most bitterly she did weep.

She wrung her hands and tore her hair,
Crying, asking what shall I do?
Come into my bed my fair pretty maid.
For fear of the foggy dew, dew, dew,
For fear of the foggy dew.
So there they laid all that long night.
Till daylight did appear;
Come rise, pretty maid and don't be afraid,
For the foggy dew is gone, gone, gone
For the foggy dew is gone.

I never told her all her faults
And I never do intend so to do,
But there's many a time I've rolled her in my arms,
For fear of the foggy dew, dew, dew,
For fear of the foggy dew.

Sharp collected a number of versions, many more complete than this one.  The song was widely popular in England, and was regularly printed on broadsides in a number of forms.  It dates back at least as far as 1689, when a broadside entitled The Fright'ned York-shire Damosel, or, Fears Dispers'd by Pleasure was published by J. Millet.  Robert S. Thomson goes into the song's genealogy in some detail in his article, The Frightful Foggy Dew (Folk Music Journal vol.4 no.1, 1980)

There's an article by Bruce Olson in the same issue, incidentally.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: Alice
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 06:17 PM

Malcolm, now that you post it, I recall seeing that version or one like it.

Joe, I could sing it into an mp3 and post it in the driveway.com folder. Got alot to do today, will have to wait for that. Maybe someone in England who can do a more "authentic" job of it than I, could sing it for us.

Alice

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 09:06 PM

Alice:

If you have the staff-notation and can scan it, you're welcome to send it me for transcription to midi (gif format is easiest; PM me for email address); or I might be able to get it at the City Library later in the week -I think there's a copy of FSFS there.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: The Lighthouse
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 09:18 PM

Anyone referring to the Irish Foggy Dew:

It was down the glen one Easter morn to a city fair rode I

About the 1916 uprising in Dublin?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 09:34 PM

The Foggy, Foggy Dew (not to be confused with the Irish Foggy Dew)is often sung to the second half of Ye Banks and Braes of Bonnie Doon.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: Alice
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 09:54 PM

I sent a gif of the music to Malcolm and he will be sending it to Alan for addition to the tunebook.

Alice

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 10:15 PM

I've done the midi (and embedded both sets of -first verse- lyrics in it) but Alan's going to be busy with the Olympics for the next few weeks, so it will take a while to appear at the Mudcat Midi Site.

And, Lighthouse; didn't you read what Alice said earlier?  Completely different song...

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: The Lighthouse
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 10:46 PM

A hundred thousand pardons Malcolm. Forgive me for being human in an oversight! Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 11:32 PM

I daresay you'll get over it, even if you have to do it twice.  <BG>

Malcolm

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FOGGY DEW (Katherine Tynan, 1907)
From: p.j.
Date: 11 Sep 00 - 06:46 PM

One of my favorites of the Irish version is by Katherine Tynan c. 1907:

Oh lovely is London with gold in store
But mournful I tell you true
Are her streets to me, for I'm longin' sore
For Ireland's foggy dew

The sun he shines so fierce and fine
All day from skies of blue
With never a mist to dim his shine
But I'd rather the foggy dew

The maids go a-milkin' in pastures gray
In the meadow the hay lies new
Then the sky and the corn at the dawn of day
Turn yellow in the foggy dew

Mavrone! I'd give all the wealth of this place
If mine it were to do
That I might feel upon my face
Sweet Ireland's foggy dew

I like to sing this one in places where it feels a little too politically charged to do the Easter Uprising words. In any event I think it's a beautiful melody, and I like the fact that it's a song which has had many lives with different words.

pj

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: Alice
Date: 11 Sep 00 - 09:31 PM

Thanks for that, pj. There is another version of lyrics I prefer to sing to that tune, too (the rebel tune). I learned it from an old John McCormack recording. "Oh, down the glen I went one morn, a lovely maid I spied."

Alice

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Foggy Dew - English
From: The Lighthouse
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 12:13 AM

Malcolm Smart guy like you missed the sarcasm!!! Didn't you read what I wrote???? Wait a minute - thats your line!