Lyr Req: Broomfield Hill (#43, from Dr. Faustus)

Subject: Lyr Req: BROOMFIELD HILL (#43, from Dr. Faustus)
From: Roberto
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 12:46 PM

BROOMFIELD WAGER, as sung by the group Dr Faustus, in Wager, Fellside FECD189, 2005. It is from the version sung by Gordon Hall, but there are changes. I can't get some words at the 6th stanza, and I'm not sure in many other different points here and there, among them, the last verse. Please, help correct and complete this transcriprion. Thank you. R
P.S. - I think both cds by Dr Faustus, First Cut (2003) and Wager (2005) are very good, worth listening to.

One wager, one wager, I'll lay unto you
One hundred bright nobles to your ten
That if me you'll follow to the bonny Broomfield Hill
A maiden you never shall return

One wager, one wager, I'll lay back to you
Your hundred bright nobles to my ten
That I will go a maiden to the Bonny Broomfield Hill
And a maiden will come back again

So when this bold knight and his lady so bright
Had made a true tryst at the broom
The one did go early that fine May morning
And the other that same afternoon

And the maiden then sat at her mother's bower door
And there she is making a moan
Saying - Whether shall I go to the bonny Broomfield Hill
Or shall I bide me at home?

For if I should go to the bonny Broomfield Hill
Then will my maidenhead be gone
But if I bide me at my mother's bower door
Then my true love will think me foresworn

Then up spake a witch woman,
Who had been hiding ...
Saying - Well may you go to the bonny Broomfield Hill
And still come a maiden home

For when you reach the bonny Broomfield Hill
You will find your love asleep
With a fine silver belt around his neck
And its brother. all round his feet

For your love he has gone to the bonny Broomfield Hill
The weather being mild and warm
And when he got weary, he sat himself down
And went asleep on the lawn

Take you a blossom from off the green broom
The broom that smells so sweet
And place it all on his white collar bone
And place the twigs at his feet

Then take off the ring from your soft white hand
And place it on your true love's thumb
That when he awakes from his slumber so deep
He'll know you've been at his command

When the maiden she came to the bonny Broomfield Hill
She found her love asleep
With a fine silver belt around his neck
And its brother all round his feet

Then she took the blossom from off the green broom
The blossom that smells so sweet
And she laid it on his white collar bone
And placed the twigs at his feet

Three times she's danced from the soles of his shoes
And stroked down the hair of his head
And three times she's kissed his ruby lips
As he lay asleep on his green bed

Then the ring from her finger she tenderly drew
And placed it on her true love's thumb
Saying – Love, buy this token when you awake
You'll know I've been at you command

When the knight woke from his slumber so deep
And spied his love's ring on his thumb
He knew that she had been at his command
And the tryst wager she had won

Oh, where were you, my milk white steed
That have cost me so dear
That would not watch and waken me
When there was a maiden here?

I stamped with my feet, master, and made my reins ring
I stamped and I made my reins ring
With no kind of earthy thing could I wake thee
Till the maiden was past and gone

O where were you, my great grey-hawk
That I have loved so dear
That would not watch and waken me
When there was a maiden here?

I flapped with my wings, master, and made my bell ring
I flapped and I made my bell ring
With no kind of earthy thing could I wake thee
Till the maiden was past and gone

And where were you, my little painted page
As draws my meat and my fee
That would not watch and waken me
Till the maiden had skipped off the lea?

I prodded and shook thee and shouted aloud
And now I have this to say
That if you lay still when a-bed at night
Then you'd not sleep through the day

To the maiden he cried – If I'd not been asleep
Of you I'd have had my will
For it's you I'd have killed and your red blood have spilled
And the crows would have all had their fill

You hard-hearted young man, how can you say so?
Your heart must be hard as stone
That you would murder your lover so long
And let the winds blow her upon

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: dr faustus' broomfield hill (#43)
From: Stewie
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 10:32 PM

Roberto,

It sounds to me that the missing lines may be:

Then up spake a witch woman clear and loud
Who had been hiding alone


Your transcription sounds fine to me. The only places I hear differently are:

Stanza 8: For your love he has RUN

'Slumber' sounds plural to me wherever occurring - 'Slumbers'

13: Three times she's danced ROUND the soles of his shoes

14: Saying, love, BY this token

17/1: no 'and': ... feet, master, made my reins ring

19/1: no 'and': ... wings, master, made my bell ring

21/3: That if YOU'D LIE still when a-bed at night

23/3: ... your LOVE OF so long

Hope the above is of some help.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: dr faustus' broomfield hill (#43)
From: Roberto
Date: 24 Jul 05 - 01:41 AM

Thank you very much, Stewie. R