Lyr Req: The Drover Boy

Subject: 'The Drover Boy'
From: Gin Crewe
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 06:19 PM

Before you ask, yes, I have tried the forum and it won't produce the goods for me!

I am seeking origins and further info about a song which goes:

"Oh I am a merry-hearted drover boy, I'm a herder brave and free,
For my days are passing in a round of joy and there's none so blythe as me"

It's not Australian to the best of my knowledge in case you were wondering: in fact what words I have are in a similar vein to the above and sound to be rather formal English.

Subject: RE: 'The Drover Boy'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 07:34 PM

Hi, Gin - I set the filter for "Drover" and came up with all sorts of Drover songs, but nothing near what you want. I tried a number of other searches, too - and no luck. Can you remember anything else from the song or its background? Where did you hear it.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: 'The Drover Boy'
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 09:02 PM

The song is English and dates back to at least the beginning of the 19th c. Several copies in the Bodleian Library. I will select one and post it.

Subject: ADD: Drover Boy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 09:23 PM

DROVER BOY

I'm a merry hearted mountain drover boy,
And a Switzer brave and free;
My days are pass'd in a round of joy,
And none so blythe as me.
At morn from the hill with right good will
My scrip I fill so gay, O!
My horn I blow with a merry hey ho,
And away goes the drover Boy.
Hey ho, etc.

I'm a captain bold of a troop so fine
As you'd see on a summer's day;
An ill word 'gainst that brave herd of mine
I should like to hear who'd say.
At eve to the spring my kine I bring,
My sweet little flock so gaily, O!
When my horn I blow, you should hear, how they low,
At the call of the drover boy.
Hey ho, etc.

I've a pretty little love like the snow-drop fair,
Whose smile is the soul of glee;
Say an ill word of her, if any dare,
They must answer it well unto me.
At eve with the drove, as homeward I rove
To my little dove so gaily, O!
When my horn I blow, how well does she know,
The call of her drover boy.
Hey ho, etc.

Sounds like a parlor song. Switzer? I doubt if this was ever heard in Switzerland, but it could be an import.

Bodleian Library, Harding B 11(994), J. Harkness, Preston, ca. 1840-1866. Another copy, Catnach, London, ca. 1813-1838.

---

Harding B11(911)

Malcolm may know more about this song.

Subject: RE: 'The Drover Boy'
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 09:41 PM

H. De Marsan broadsides of this song also printed in New York, c. 1860.

Unrelated, a drover boy appears in "The Ups and Downs," a song about the Irish recorded by Steeleye Span, 1973.

Subject: RE: 'The Drover Boy'
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 10:28 PM

A new one on me. It might be a stage song, or possibly a translation of a German piece ("Switzer" does occur in English, but is presumably an imported term).

Drovers were a common sight in the UK a hundred years ago (though there weren't many mountains involved!) but that's all gone now.

(Although the male protagonist in The Ups and Downs / Haselbury Girl / Maid of Tottenham (etc; the last of the 17th century) occasionally comes from Dublin, he usually doesn't (in Pills to Purge Melancholy IV, 179-181, 1719 he came from Highgate). The DT has Stephen Sedley's dogs-breakfast collation at Maid of Tottenham).

Subject: RE: 'The Drover Boy'
From: Wolfgang
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 03:36 PM

It looks like a translation from (Swiss) German by someone who didn't know what to make of the word 'Schweizer'. If you look in the usual dictionary a Schweizer is someone from Switserland.

But here, something else is meant in the original: A very old meaning of 'Schweizer' is 'Senn'/'Sennerhirt'/'Almhirt' a word that has no equivalent in English as far as I know.

The 'Senne' (or:'Alm', 'Alp') is the high meadow in the alps which is covered in snow during the winter months. In spring, when the snow thaws the 'Senn' drives the cattle up to that meadow and stays with the cattle for the summer months. He milks them and sleeps in a small hut near them and only comes back with them in the fall. All summer months he is alone (except for coming down each couple of days for some unavoidable necessities).

An example of a Swiss song using the word 'Schweizer' in this sense is here. The song is quite similar in style and content to the English song above but the original must still be a different song.

'Switser' is the translation (neologism?) for 'Schweizer' in that old sense.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: 'The Drover Boy'
From: JJ
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 09:01 AM

Vaughn Williams wrote an opera called "Hugh the Drover," but I've never heard it and don't know the plot.

Subject: RE: 'The Drover Boy'
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 10:25 AM

This is a bit of thread creep, but John Williamson of Australia sings s song called "The Drover's Boy". It's not the same song you are looking for, but it is a very powerful song and tells a story that needs to be told. You might find it worth your while to check it out.