Get Up & Bar the Door- McKeen (NS) 1950 Creighton
Get Up and Bar the Door [Child 275 ]
Creighton's notes:
The Nova Scotian variant is practically identical with Child, A, except for the chorus, which is mentoned in his notes as "common in the north of Scotland from time immorial. This ballad furnished Prince Hoare with the principal scene in his musical entertainment of "No Song, No Supper, " produced in 1790, and long a favourite on the stage. (Musical Museum, 1853, IV, 292.)
See The Oxford, Song Book, vol. 1, where it is given as Mr. John Blunt. Also Cox, pp. 516, 517; Davis, pp. 495,496; Library of Congress recording; Greenleaf and Mansfield, p. 41; Gardner and Chickering, pp. 371,372; Barry, pp. 318-321'
Get Up and Bar the Door- Sung by Mrs. E. H. McKeen, Sherbrooke, NS. Collected by Helen Creighton, pre-1950.
1. It fell about the Martinmas ime,
And a gay time it was then O,
That our guid wife had puddings to make,
She boiled them in a pan, O.
CHORUS: For the barring of door weel, weel, weel,
For the barring of the door.
2. The wind blew hard fae north to south
And it blew across the floor O,
Says oor guidman to oor guidwife,
"Get up and bar the door O." Cho.
3. "My hands are in the husseyskep, [1]
Guidman as ye may see O,
If it shouldna be barred these hunner's years
It'll no he barred by me O." Cho.
4. So they made a paction between them twa,
They made it firm and sure O
That the one who should speak the foremost word
Should rise and bar the door O. Cho.
5. And by there came twa gentlemen
At twelve o'clock at night O,
And they could find out neither hoose nor ha',
Nor hae nor candle light O. Cho.
6. "Now whether is this a rich man's hoose
Or whether it is a puir O?"
But ne'er a word would ane of them speak
For barring of the door O. Cho.
7. Says ane unto the tither,
"Here man, take ye my knife O,
While ye cut off the auld man's beard
I'll kiss the auld guidwife O." Cho.
8. "But there's nae water in the hoose,
And what shall we do then O?"
"What ails ye at the Pudding-bree,
That boils into the pan O? " Cho.
9. Then up jumps our guid-man
And an angry man was he O,
"Ye kissed me wife before me face
And sca'd me with pudding-bree O." Cho.
10. Then up jumps our guidwife
And made three skips across the floor O,
"Guidman ye spoke the foremost word,
Ye'll rise and bar the door O." Cho.
1. She was making puddings.