1. The Elfin Knight

THE  MUSIC OF THE BALLADS  OLDER BALLADS — MOSTLY BRITISH

[The Elfin Knight (Cambric Shirt) is best known as the immensely popular Scarborough Fair (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme) popularized in the US by Bob Dylan and several years later Simon and Garfunkel. In 1965 Paul Simon learned the song from Martin McCarthy in London. McCarthy's arrangement was taken from Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger's songbook. According to Alan Lomax, MacColl's source was probably Cecil Sharp's One Hundred English Folk Songs, published in 1916.

Simon and Garfunkel's version combined "Scarborough Fair" with "Canticle" a reworked earlier song with anti-war lyrics. Released in 1966 as the lead track of the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, it was released as a single after being featured on the soundtrack to The Graduate in 1968.

(Listen: Scarborough Fair- Simon and Garfunkel)

Bob Dylan used McCarthy's arrangement for his song, "Girl from the North Country", which appeared on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Nashville Skyline (1969) (together with Johnny Cash), Real Live (1984) and The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration (1993).

Here's my version from Acoustic Music Source Book sung by my niece Kara and below that some standard lyrics:

Listen: Scarborough Fair (Richard Matteson w/ Kara Pleasants)
See: Acoustic Music Source Book; Bill's Music Shelf (Mel Bay Pub.) 2010 by Richard Matteson

SCARBOROUGH FAIR

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to one who lives there,
He once was a true love of mine.

Tell him to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Without a seam or needle work,
Then he'll be a true love of mine.

Tell him to wash it in yonder dry well
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Where water ne'er sprang, nor drop of rain fell
Then he'll be a true love of mine.

Tell him to dry it on yonder grey thorn
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Which ne'er bore blossom since Adam was born
Then he'll be a true love of mine.

Tell him to find me an acre of land
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Between the salt water and the sea strand
Then he'll be a true love of mine

Plow the land with the horn of a lamb
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Then sow some seeds from the north of the dam
Then he'll be a true love of mine

Tell him to reap it with a sickle of leather
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And tie up the sheaves with a rope made of heather
Then he'll be a true love of mine

If he tells me he can't I'll reply
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
"Let me know that at least you will try;"
Then he'll be a true love of mine

"Love imposes impossible tasks,"
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
"Though never more than your own heart asks,
And I must know you're a true love of mine"

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to one who lives there,
He once was a true love of mine.]

'The Cambric Shirt.' Sung by The Elfin Knight (Child 2)

This set of courting riddles, commonly known in this country as 'The Cambric Shirt,' though not very old (the earliest text known to Child was a seventeenth-century broadside), has persisted rather  well both in the old country and in America. It has been reported  from tradition in Ireland, Aberdeenshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland, Sussex, Wiltshire, and Somerset, and in Maine, Vermont,  Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky,  North Carolina (apart from the present collection), Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, and California.

It has two chief types of refrain,  one of which, "rosemary and thyme," undergoes strange transformations on the tongues of singers — none stranger, perhaps, than  the "arose Mary in time" and "Rose de Marian time" of texts A  and B below. The other type, represented in text C below, seems  to be only American. It is recognizable in Child's version J, which  came from Massachusetts, and in texts from Maine, Vermont,   Indiana, Missouri, and Texas, but I have not found it in British texts.

A. 'The Cambric Shirt.' Sent in by Professor W. Amos Abrams, formerly  of the Appalachian State Teachers College, Boone, Watauga county, as  secured from Mary Bost, of Statesville, Iredell county.

1 As I went through Wichander's town,
Arose Mary in time!
I threw my specs to a certain young woman
And told her she could be a true lover of mine.

2 Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Arose Mary in time!
Without seam or needle's work
Before she can be a true lover of mine.

3 Tell her to wash it in a well
Arose Mary in time!
Where water never ran nor rain never fell
Before she can be a true lover of mine.

4 Tell her to hang it on a thorn,
Arose Mary in time!
Where leaves never grew since Adam was born
Before she can be a true lover of mine.

5. As I went through Wichander's town,
Arose Mary in time!
I threw my specs to a certain young man
And told him he could be a true lover of mine.

6. Tell him to clean up one acre of ground,
Arose Mary in time!
Between salt sea and Dace town
Before he can be a true lover of mine.

7. Tell him to plow it with a thorn,
Arose Mary in time!
Plant it all over with one grain of corn
Before he can be a true lover of mine.

8 Tell him to reap it with a pea-fowl's feather,
Arose Mary in time!
Wrap it all up with one stirrup of leather
Before he can be a true lover of mine.

9 Tell him to thrash it against the wall,
Arose Mary in time!
For his life, never let a grain fall,
Before he can be a true lover of mine.

10. Tell him to take it to the mill.
Arose Mary in time!
Every grain a barrel shall fill
Before he can be a true lover of mine.

B. 'Rose de Marian Time.' Recorded by Professor Richard Chase of the  Institute of Folk Music at Chapel Hill in 1936 from the singing of  Mrs. Fannie Norton of Norton, N. C. Similar to A, but the refrain  is "Rose de Marian Time," the first stanza has "yonder town" and  "young lady" instead of "Wichander's town" and "young woman," and  it lacks the odd expression "I threw my specs." Instead of "Between  salt sea and Dace town" it has "Between salt water and sea shore."

There is in the collection another text sent in by Professor Chase in  the same year, a version "edited for teaching." It is not clear from  the manuscript just what the editing consists of, nor whence this version  was procured. The last six of its ten stanzas (without the second and  fourth lines, i.e., the refrain) run as follows:

5 I came back from yonder town —
She sent word to that young man.

6 Tell him to clear me an acre of land —
Between the sea and the salt sea strand.

7 Tell him to plow it with a muley cow's horn —
And sow it all over with one grain of corn.

8 Tell him to reap it with a stirrup leather —
And bind it all up in a chee-chicken feather.

9 Tell him to thresh it in a shoe sole —
And crib it all in a little mouse hole.

10 Tell him when he's done this work —
Come to town and get his shirt.

C. 'The Cambric Shirt.' Two stanzas only, contributed in 1923, by Mildred Peterson of Bladen county.

1. Can you make me a cambric shirt —
Flunia luna lokey slomy —
Without seam or fine needle work?
From a tastum tasalum tenipluni
Flunia luna a lokey slomy.

2 Can you wash it in a well —
Where water never run nor well's never full?

-----------------------

D. Mrs. James York of Olin, Iredell county.  Recorded at Boone, September 14, 1941, by Dr. W. A. Abrams. For additional  titles to those given in BTBNA 30, of. BB 2-3: 'Whittingham Fair'; also  AFM No. 9: 'Parsley and Sage.' The latter is also the refrain of the former.

Scale: Hexatonic (4), plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: aa1 (4,4). Circular Tune (V).

 

B. 'Rose de Marian Time.' Sung by Mrs. Fannie Norton of Norton, Jackson  county. Recorded at Chapel Hill, 1936, by Professor Richard Chase.

1. As you go through yonder town
Rose de Marian Time!

Take this dress to that young la dy
And tell her she is a true lover of mine.

Variant text of stanza 2:

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Rose de Marian time!
Without any seam or seamster's work,
Then she'll be a true lover of mine.

For melodic relationship, of. OSSG 18, No. 8.  Scale: Mode III. Tonal Center: d. Structure: ab (4,4).