Drowsy Sleeper- E. Franz (NY) 1939 Thompson
[From Body, Boots And Britches; by Harold Thompson 1939.
R. Matteson 2016]
Drowsy Sleeper - sung by Eleanor Waterbury Franz of Dolgeville, NY before 1939.
The conventionally cruel parents appear in the song known at Dolgeville as Drowsy Sleeper:
"Awake, awake, you drowsy sleeper!
Awake, awake, and listen to me!"
"O who is that at bedroom window,
A-weeping there so bitterly?"
"It's me- it's me, your own true lover,
It's me- it's your own true Willy;
And now, Mary, rise and ask your mother,
If you my wedding-wife can be.
And if she says no, pray come and tell me.
Then I will no longer trouble thee."
"O no, O no, I dare not ask her,
For she lies in her chair at rest
With a silver dagger at her side, love,
To pierce the one that I love best."
"O now, Mary, go and ask your father
If you my wedding-wife can be
And if he says no, pray come and tell me,
And I will no longer trouble thee."
"O no, O no, I dare not ask him,
For he lies in his chair at rest,
With a silver dagger at his side, love,
To pierce the one that I love best.
"O now, Willy, go and court another.-"
"O I can climb the highest tree, love,
Or I can rob the richest nest,
Or I can court the fairest maiden
But not the one that I love best."
O then he plunged that silver dagger,
And he pierced unto his aching heart.
"Sing[1], farewell, sing farewell, Mother, Father,
We both must part."
And then she plunged that bloody dagger
Unto her lily-white breast,
"Sing farewell, Father, Mother;
Now we are both at rest.
1. Saying