Bold Robbington- Marston (Maine) 1926
[From British Ballads from Maine, 1929; Barry, Eckstorm, Smyth, Version A. Cf. Michigan A (Gardner). Barry's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
CAPTAIN WEDDERBURN'S COURTSHIP (Child 46)
Mrs. Marston's spirited and tuneful version of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" came as a surprise; for it was regarded as among the songs unlikely to be picked up in Maine. There is some condensation of stanzas at the beginning, and in stanza 7 "claw, would be a better reading than "scroll," while Melchizedek is a more likely person to be a "priest unborn" than King Belshazzar. The first line, wiih its mention of "a strawberry lane,' seems to have been influenced by the Maine text of "The Elfin Knight." Mrs. Marston cannot sing, so we are unable to give an air for this text.
A. "BOLD ROBBINGTON." Sent in, 1926, by Mrs. Annie V. Marston, west Gouldsboro, Maine, who learned it in 1867, when a girl of 14, from Alan Brooks of Charleston, who later went west and died there.
1. As I walked out one evening down by a strawberry lane,
It was there I saw Bold Robbington, the keeper of the game.
It is true I loved that handsome maid, and if it was not for the law,
I would take that fair maid round the waist and lay her next the wall.
2. "Oh, hold your tongue, you silly man, and do not me perplex,
Before that you can lie with me, you must answer questions six;
Six questions you must answer me, and I will put them all,
Then you and I in one bed shall lie, and you lie next to the wall.
3. "O what is rounder than a ring? What is higher than a tree?
What is worse than a woman's tongue? What is deeper than the sea?
What bird flies far the broad sea across ? And where does the first dew fall?
Then you and I in one bed shall lie, and you lie next to the wall."
4. "This world is rounder than a ring; Heaven is higher than a tree,
The devil is worse than a woman's tongue; Hell is deeper than the sea;
The gull flies far the wide sea across, and there is where the first dew falls,
So you and I in the bed shall lie, and you lie next to the wall.
5. "O hold your tongue, you silly man, and do not bother me,
Before that you with me can lie, you must answer questions three,
Three questions you must answer me, and I will put them all,
Then you and I in the bed shall lie, and you lie next to the wall."
6. "You must get for me a winter fruit that in September grew,
You must get for me a silk mantle that never web went through,
A sparrow's thorn, a priest unborn, that shall make us one and all
Then you and I in the bed shall lie, and you lie next to the wall."
7. "My father has a winter fruit that in September grew,
My mother has a silk mantle that never web went through;
A sparrow's thorn is easily found, for there is one on every scroll,
Belshazzar was a priest unborn, so you lie next to the wall."
8. "For my breakfast you must get me a cherry without any stone,
And for my dinner you must get me a chicken without any bone,
And for my supper you must get me a bird without any gall,
Then you and I in one bed shall lie, and you lie next to the wall."
9. "Oh, when the cherry is in the bloom, I am sure it has no stone,
And when the chicken is in the egg, I am sure it has no bone;
The dove it is a gentle bird, and it flies without a gall,
So you and I in the bed shall lie, and you lie next to the wall."
10. She found her Willie so manfully did Mary's heart enthrall,
He took this young girl by the waist; but she didn't lie next to the wall.