The Banks of Green Willow- Clements (Hants) 1909
[Songs Collected by George B. Gardiner]
by George B. Gardiner, J. A. Fuller-Maitland, A. G. Gilchrist, Frank Kidson, RalphVaughan Williams, Lucy E. Broadwood, Cecil J. Sharp
Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 3, No. 13 (Jun., 1909), pp. 249-317
[The song with same text and melody is dated 1906 in the Gardiner Collection.
R. Matteson 2012]
32.- THE BANKS OF GREEN WILLOW.
Noted (and corrected from a phonograph record), SUNG BY MR. DAVID CLEMENTS (AGE 80),
by R. Vaughan Williams, Jan., 1909. BASINGSTOKE, HANTS.
1 It's of a sea captain lived near the seaside, oh,
And he courted a lady till she proved by child.
2 "Oh, it's fetch me some of your father's clothes, and some of your mother's money,
That I might go on board of ship with my own dearest honey."
3 We hadn't been on board of ship but six weeks or better
Before she wanted women and could not get any.
4 "Oh, it's hold your tongue, oh you silly girl, oh, it's hold your tongue my honey,
For we cannot get women for love nor for money."
5 He tied a napkin round her head, and he tied it round softly,
And he throwed her right over, both she and her baby.
6. . . . . .
I got out upon the deck for to see my love in the water.
7 Seeing how she doth swim, my boys, seeing how she doth swagger,
She will never leave swimming till she come to some harbour.
8. . . . . .
Oh, she shall have a coffin if ever she is founded.
9 Oh, she shall have a coffin, and the nails shall shine yellow;
And my love she shall be buried in the banks of green willow.
Verses five and nine have been chosen for printing under the music because these were clearest in the phonographic record.
This tune is distinct from Sharp's Folk-Songs from Somnerset, No. I4, and from the versions in the Jourual, Vol. ii, pp. 33-35. -G. B. G.
This tune seems to me to have Scandinavian rather than English characteristics. C. J. S.