Lyr Req: Cambric Shirt (#2, from Dr. Faustus)

Subject: Lyr Add: CAMBRIC SHIRT (#2, from Dr. Faustus)
From: Roberto
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 11:00 AM

PLease, a check to this transcripton. It is from the first cd of the group Dr Faustus (Tim van Eyken, Robert Harbron, Banji Kirkpatrick, Paul Sartin), The First Cut, Fellside FECD177, 2003. The version of the ballad (The Elfin Knight, Child n°2) is from the singing of Mrs Humphrys, Essex, also published on Bushes and Briars, Folk Songs collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams, edited by Roy Palmer, first published in 1983. Thank you. R

Come buy me, come buy me a cambric shirt
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
Without any seams and good needlwork
If you woud be a true lover of mine

And wash it all out in yonder well
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
Where water ne'er dropt nor drop never fell
If you woud be a true lover of mine

And hang it all out on yonder thorn
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
That never blew blossom since Adam was born
If you woud be a true lover of mine

Well, now you have asked me questions three
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
Twice as many I'll ask of thee
If you woud be a true lover of mine

So buy me, oh, buy me, an acre of land
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
Between the sea water and the sea sand
If you woud be a true lover of mine

And plough it all over with one ram's horn
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
And sow it all over with one peppercorn
If you woud be a true lover of mine

And harrow it over with one bramble bush
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
And cut it all down with one royal rush
If you woud be a true lover of mine

And make me a wagon with hair and lime
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
With six jenny wrens for my harvest home
If you woud be a true lover of mine

And stack it all up in an old shoe sole
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
And thresh it all up in a mouse's hole
If you woud be a true lover of mine

And fan it all up in an oyster shell
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
And stack it all up in a goose's quill
If you woud be a true lover of mine

And then go to market your corn to sell
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
And bring home the money as I may a-tell
If you woud be a true lover of mine

And when you have done and finished your work
Tell me a riddle and sing me a rhyme
Only then come home for your shirt
If you woud be a true lover of mine

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: dr faustus' cambric shirt (#2)
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 11:41 AM

They seem to have changed the refrain lines from the version from Mrs Humphreys, who sang Savoury, says [sage], rosemary and thyme and Then you shall be a true lover of mine. The general sense is the same with some minor and a few major changes. I don't have the Dr.Faustus recording, but what you have looks plausible. Would you like me to give the Mrs. Humphreys' version?

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: dr faustus' cambric shirt (#2)
From: Roberto
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 12:11 PM

No, thanks Mick, I have the book (Bush and Briars). The verse I'm less sure of is "With six jenny wrens for my harvest home". R