| Author | Topic: Add: The Spider | |
| dmcg | Posted - 28 Mar 03 - 08:43 am | |
Spider, The It was one summer's morning, As I lay on my bed, I spied an ancient spider, A-spinning of her thread. She wove it in a sunny beam, As clear as glass might be; The oldest nun that ever spun Ne'er spun so fine as she. The first that came into the net. A silly fly, was slain; The next that came, a hornet bold, Soon broke the net in twain. And so I ofttimes wonder why Are poor men brought to shame, While rich men live in vanity, And all men praise their name. O if I had but Agur's wish, And it might come to me, That I were neither poor nor rich, How happy I should be! For riches are but vanity, I heard the wise man cry, And when you think to hold them fast, Away from you they fly. If rich men would advis-ed be, And stewards would be just, And to their tenants frank and free, When they are put in trust; The hump from off the camel's back Would easily be shaven; The camel pass the needle's eye, The rich man enter heaven. Source: Broadwood, Lucy, 1893, English Country Songs, Leadenhall Press, London Notes: Lucy Broadwood wrote:
This is given as one of the songs from Derbyshire, mainly added because someone in Mudcat was looking for songs from Derbyshire. I suspect the 'part' re-written by the Reverend Canon must be in the majority. "Agur's wish", for example, refer's to chapter 30 of the book of Proverbs. Some of the relevant verses are:
Database entry is here. | ||
| MMario | Posted - 28 Mar 03 - 02:23 pm | |
Thank you! | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 28 Mar 03 - 02:52 pm | |
Roud 1372. Unsurprisingly, the only example listed. | ||
| Phil Taylor | Posted - 30 Mar 03 - 11:34 am | |
Don't you wish that early collectors could have refrained from re-writing songs? Or at least preserved the original. There seems to be very little connection here between the first verse and a half and the pious moralising of the remainder. By the way, the key should be Dm, rather than F, and the abc has "The Wassail Bough" as the main title. | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 30 Mar 03 - 12:07 pm | |
Key and title fixed - Thanks, Phil. | ||