I Wish I Wish- Mrs. Oliver (Kent) c.1936 Collinson
[No date given. From: Francis Collinson Manuscript Collection (COL/3/17). Francis James Montgomery Collinson was born 1898 and died 1984. Also in Songs Collected by Francis M. Collinson; Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society; Vol. 5, No. 1 (Dec., 1946), pp. 13-22. (which indicates the date may be closer to c.1940s- during the War however little publishing was done).
R. Matteson 2017]
I Wish I Wish But It's All in Vain- sung by Mrs. Oliver of Bethersden, Kent. Collected by Francis Collinson
I wish, I wish but it's all in vain
I wish I was a maid again;
A maid again I never shall be
Till an apple grows on an orange tree.
____________________________
Songs Collected by Francis M. Collinson; Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society; Vol. 5, No. 1 (Dec., 1946), pp. 13-22
Bio: Mrs. Oliver of Bethersden, Kent, comes from a naturally musical family each member of which played an instrument, either violin, concertina or piano, and all of them self-taught. She played the airs of the tunes to me on the English concertina
and spoke the words to me afterwards. She learned the songs from her father, who knew upwards of a hundred songs. I have noted a number of songs from her in addition to the incomplete one below, including "Blackberry Fold," "The Cottage in the wood," "Mary at the garden gate" and "The sprig of thyme." Mrs. Oliver is a woman of middle age.
I WISH, I WISH
Noted from Mrs. Oliver, of Bethersden, Kent, by Francis M. Collinson.
[music[
1. I wish I wish, but it's all in vain,
I wish I were a maid again:
A maid again, I never shall be
till apples grow on an or-ange tree.
Cp. " Brisk Young Sailor "; very similar tunes to similar words are scattered over the Journal. There is a family likeness between this tune and "She's like the swallow." (Karpeles, Folk-songs from Newfoundland).- R.V.W.
This is the usual last verse of the poignant and widely-spread ballad variously known as "The Tavern in the Town," " A brisk young sailor courted me" or "My true love once courted me " where true-love seems to be used in the old sense of troth plighted (Danish tro-lovet) rather than the constant. See Folk-song Journal, V, pp. 181- 7, for a Westmorland version of five stanzas sung to a fine Dorian air, noted again near Lancaster with two other variants less modal in character, I, p. 252. Mrs. Bowker's five verses were very similar to James Bayliff's Westmorland copy but her last line had the ILancashire dialect form while=until. "But a maid again I never will be While apples grow on a cherry tree." See Frank Kidson's Traditional Tunes for four Yorkshire variants, including one of seven verses. The verse
"I wish my baby, it was born
And smiling on its father's (or nurse's) knee,"
occurs in the allied Scottish song "0 waly, waly up the bank." See also English County Songs for a distinct variant," Sweet William " with the opening: "O father, father, build me a boat," the lover in this case having been lost or missing at sea. The last two lines of this Bewdley singer were emphasised in the old ballad-singer style as he turned to the audience to reiterate in prose " Till apples grows on an orange tree." In this last version two different ballads seem to have been confused, as "O father, father, build me a boat " is properly a lament for "a sailor boy, Jimmy" lost from "a Queen's ship," which I also had from a Westmorland singer to a variant of "The Dark-eyed Sailor."-A.G.G.
See also Folk-songs of the North Country, p. io.-E.A.W.
[music]
1. A brisk young sailor courted me,
He stole away my liberty,
My liberty and my free goodwill,
I must confess that I love him still.
[with] [must be Pretty Polly]
1. He cover'd her up so safe and so sound,
Not think-ing this mur-der would ever be found.
He cover'd her up so safe and so sound,
Not thinking this murder would ever be found.