Old Beggar Man- Henneberry (NS) 1943 Creighton D
[My title. From Creighton/Senior, Traditional Songs from Nova Scotia, 1950, pp. 11-17. On 8-08-1943 Ben Henneberry made a recording (AFS 07142 B) for Creighton on her new recroder lent to her by Alan Lomax of the Library of Congress during the Second World War. You can order the recording from the LOC.
Heneberry was one of Creighton best informants and his son Edmund began contruibuti8ng the family and Devil's Island songs and ballads around that time.
R. Matteson 2014]
Hind Horn [D]
D. Old Beggar Man- Sung by Mr. Ben, Henneberry, Devil's Island. For melody, see Library of Congress recording
1. My love she gave unto me a gold ring,
And if this ring goes bright and clear
In love it will prove unto him sincere,
But if this ring grew pale and dim
His love she was proving false to him.
2. He slipped on board and away sailed he,
He sailed away over to a foreign counteree,
He looked at the ring, it was going dim,
He said that his love had proved false unto him.
3. He slipped on board and back sailed he,
He sailed right home to his own counteree,
And as he was riding out one day
An old beggar man he met on his way.
4. "What news, what news my beggar man,
What news, what news for me to-day?"
"To-day it is your true love's wedding day,
And the squire is invited to give her away. "
5 "Oh you put on my riding rig
And I'll put on your beggar wig,"
"Your riding rig is not fitted for me
And my begger's wig is not fitted for thee. "
6 Oh let it be right or let it be wrong
The beggar's wig he did put on,
"You can walk till you come to yonder gate
Then lean on the staff in a weary a state.
7 "Go beg from Peter and go beg from Paul,
Go beg to the highest to the lowest of them all,
And for money don't take none
Unless you receive it from the bride's own hand."
8. The bride she came tripping it down o'er the stairs
With rings on her fingers and gold in her hair,
And a glass of wine all in her hand
All for to give to the beggar man.
9. He drank it, he drank it, he drank it so free
And into the tumbler the ring slipped he,
"Where did you get it, by sea of by land,
Or did you get it off a drowned man's hand?"
10. "Oh I neither got it by sea or by land
Nor yet did I get it off a drowned man's hand,
But I gained if from my true love in courting so gay
And now I'll return it on her wedding day."
11 The rings from her fingers she all pulled off,
The gold from her hair it all fell off,
Saying, "I'll follow with my true love for ever ever more
If I beg my bread from door to door. "
12. Between the kitchen and between the hall
The beggar's wig he did let fall,
And the gold shone around them among them all,
He was the fairest looking young man in the hall."