Gentleman's Daughter- Moran (Ireland) 1954
[Gentleman's Daughter is the title I've assigned this ballad. The title could also be "Young Woodborin." ]
From: Some "English" Ballads and Folk Songs Recorded in Ireland, 1952-1954
by Marie Slocombe
Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Dec., 1955), pp. 239-244
CAPTAIN WEDDERBURN'S COURTSHIP
Sung by Thomas Moran, Mohill, Co. Leitrim,
December, 1954.
Recorded and transcribed by Seamus Ennis
(R.P.L. 22026)
A gen - tle-man's daugh-ter roved down a nar-row lane,
Meet-ing with young Woodborin the keeper of the game;
He says un-to his servant man If on - ly for the law,
I would have this fair one in the bed And she'd be next the wall.
"Go your way, young man," she says, "and do not trouble me
Before you lie one night with me you'll answer questions three
You must get for me three dishes, suppose I eat them all
Before you and I in one bed lie at either stock or wall."
"You must get me for my breakfast a cherry without a stone
You must get me for my dinner a bird without a bone
You must get me for my supper a bird without a gall
Before you and I in one bed lie at either stock or wall."
"When the cherr) is in the blossom it also has no stone,
And when the bird is in the egg it surely has no bone
The dove she is a gentle bird, she flies without a gall,
O so you and I in one bed'll lie and you'll lie next the wall."
"Go 'way, go 'way, young man," she says, "and do not me perplex
Before you lie one night with me, you'll answer questions six
Six questions you must answer me while I set forth them all
O before you lie one night with me at either stock or wall."
"O then what is rounder than a ring or higher than a tree
Or what is worse than women-kind or deeper than the sea
What bird sings best, what tree buds first or where does the dew first fall
Before you and I in one bed lie at either stock or wall."
"Well the globe is rounder than a ring, Heaven's higher than a tree,
The devil's is worse than women-kind, Hell's deeper than the sea
The thrush sings best, the heath buds first and on it the dew first fall
So you and I in one bed'll lie and you'll lie next the wall."
"You must get for me some winter fruit that in December grew
You must get for me a silk mantle that weft it ne'er ran through
A sparrow's horn, a priest unborn, to join us both in twa
Before you and I in one bed lie and you lie next the wall."
'"0 my father he has winter fruit that in December grew
My mother has a silk mantle that weft it ne'er ran through
A sparrow's horn is easy got, there is one in everv claw
And Damocles is a priest unborn, he'll join us both in twa."
THOMAS MORAN
Age 79 at the time of recording and still in good health, was introduced to me (Seamus Ennis) by his nephew, Michael Colreavey, in November 1947. Michael brought me to Moran's house through the winding by-roads of County Leitrim-a townland called Drumrahool, near Mohill. 1 then recorded several items from him for a Radio Eireann broadcast. I departed, saying I would come back some day. I did. In December 1954. The only song I mentioned which Thomas Moran had not heard was "The Golden Vanity". There were very few songs in a long questionnaire for which he could not supply a full text and an interesting tune. Thomas has been a farmer all his life. I suspected from some of the songs he sang that he must have travelled. "No," he said, "I learnt that song from a neighbour who hardly ever crossed a cow-track in his life." "Were you ever in Scotland or in England?" "I was once in England, on a couple of weeks' foolishness." Thomas Moran's songs came to Leitrim in Cromwellian times-the Plantation Period-and exist there today purely because of the gifted memory of those who rarely use pen and paper. Thomas said, jokingly, "The songs came in by these by-roads, and the condition of the roads would not let them out again".
Certain repertoires of folk song in Ireland are greater than Thomas Moran's repertoires which include both Gaelic and English, and both Anglo-Irish ballads and purely Irish songs, but Moran is the one in all my experience who has excelled in preserving the ballads of England, and particularly of older vintage. (Seamus Ennis).