Scarborough Fair- Richard Hutton (York) 1913 Sharp
[From: Sharp Ms.: CJS2/10/2868 at the Full English Digital Archive; also Bronson I, 2.2. In 1916 Cecil Sharp published one more "Scarborough Fair" in his One Hundred English Folk Songs (No.74, p. 167, notes pp. xxxvi-xxxvii).
R. Matteson 2018]
38. "Scarborough Fair", from Cecil Sharp, One Hundred English Folk Songs For Medium Voice, 1916, No.74, p. 167
Where are you going? To Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to a bonny lass there,
For once she was a true lover of mine.
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Without any needle or thread worked in it,
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell her to wash it in yonder well
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Where water ne'er sprung nor a drop of rain fell.
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell her to plough me an acre of land
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Between the sea and the salt-sea strand,
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell her to plough it with with one ram's horn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And sow it all over with one peppercorn,
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And tie it all up with a tom-tit's feather.
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell her to gather it all in a sack,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And carry it home on a butterfly's back.
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Sharp had collected a tune with three verses in 1913 from Richard Hutton, aged 65, Goathland, Yorkshire (Karpeles, Sharp Collection I, No 1B, p. 2; Sharp Ms.: CJS2/10/2868 at the Full English Digital Archive; also Bronson I, 2.21):
Where are you going to Scarboro' Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to a bonny lass there,
For once she was a true lover of mine.
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Without any needle or thread worked in it,
For once she was a true lover of mine.
And tell her to wash it in yonder spring,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Where water never run nor a drop ran through
For once she was a true lover of mine.
He kept Mr. Hutton's tune more or less intact for publication, there were only some minor adjustments. But the original text was of course a little bit too short and he added four verses from "other traditional versions" (Sharp 1916, Notes, p. pxxxvii). In fact there were borrowed from Mr. Huxtables version of "The Lover's Tasks" - published by Sharp in 1906 in the third volume of the Folk Songs From Somerset (No. LXIV, pp. 26-7) - and then reworked to fit the others. But for some reason he refrained from reviving the dialogue between the two protagonists. Instead all stanzas start with "Tell her" and to be true it sounds a little strange when the girl is asked to "plough me an acre of land". This kind of sloppy editing simply makes no sense. Sharp only turned a short fragment into a longer fragment without taking into account what the song was all about. But of course it is known that he - just like Kidson - was more fond of the tunes than the words.