Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters

Subject: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: Gizmo
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 09:57 AM

For a while I have been searching for the lyrics for the tune Bonnie Green Garters which my morris dance side dance to, but to no avail.

My team sings adapted lyrics, Here's to the fellows they're ugly as hell..... but could any one out there help with the original lyrics, if there were any.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: Schantieman
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 10:04 AM

Here's to the ladies, we love them so well,
Though some are regular Tartars!
Here's to their knickers and here's to their bras
And here's to their bonny green garters.

At least, that's what the Southport Swords sing. Is this what you had in mind?

S

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 10:07 AM

Standon Morris sing it as
It's off with their knickers and off with their bras
And off with their bonny green garters.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: Mo the caller
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 10:19 AM

knickers and bras don't sound very 'trad', there must be older versions.
And what is the ugly men version?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: ClaireBear
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 10:38 AM

As I recall, Berkeley Morris sings it thus:

Here's to the lasses, we love them so well,
Though some are regular Tartars!
Here's to their stockings and here's to their shoes
And here's to their bonny green garters.

Here's to the laddies, we love them so well,
Though some are very slow starters.
Off with their baldrics and off with their bells,
But leave their bonny green garters.

(It's been awhile, so I'm not sure about the third line in verse 1. Pretty sure of the rest, though.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: Tradsinger
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 10:41 AM

Here's to our stockings and here's to our shoes
And here's to our bonny green garters.
A pair for me and a pair for you
And a pair for them that comes after

(Gloucestershire Morris Men)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: Gizmo
Date: 20 Dec 06 - 08:38 AM

Hers to the fellows they're ugly as hell
it's hard to stifle our laughter
they whisper sweet nothings and jingle our bells
but we know what they're bloody well after

That's the version we sing (Dacre morris)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: GUEST,Mike Whitaker
Date: 25 Jun 12 - 09:55 AM

*Early* childhood memory, when my father fiddled for the White Rose men in Leeds:

Here's to the ladies we all love so well,
Though some are regular Tartars!
Here's to their stockings and here's to their shoes
And here's to their bonny green garters.

I haven't seen his current side (Hull - Green Ginger Men) in long enough I can't remember if they do it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 25 Jun 12 - 01:02 PM

As a Green Ginger original those are the words we sang c1969.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 25 Jun 12 - 08:20 PM

Tradsinger's version is pretty well what I remember being sung by Gloucestershire Morris and other teams (including from Oxfordshire) dancing Cotswold dances in the Cotswolds...

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: GUEST,Ebor_Fiddler
Date: 26 Jun 12 - 10:37 AM

I strongly suspect that this is related to "Here's to the maiden of bashful sixteen" from an eighteenth century musical, very well known, whose title is on the tip of my tongue. "She stoops to conquer"? The tune used there is now called "Abnalls".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 26 Jun 12 - 03:17 PM

Ebor,
Possibly, the chorus of 'Here's to the Maiden' has some affinity but the phrasing is quite different. Sheridan certainly wrote it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 18 Feb 21 - 08:12 AM

This is the poem by Sheridan
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/here-s-to-the-maiden-of-bashful-fifteen/

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bonnie Green Garters
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 18 Feb 21 - 08:14 AM

And set to music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQwVUo7Tfik