| Author | Topic: Add: Came you Not from Newcastle? | |
| dmcg | Posted - 23 Sep 03 - 09:08 am | |
Came you not from Newcastle? Came you not there away? O met you not my true love Riding on a bonny bay? Why should I not love my love? Why should not my love love me? Wht should I love not my love? Because my love loves me. I have land at Newcastle Will buy both hose and shoone; And I have land at Durham With housen in the toun. Why should I not love my love? Why should not my love love me? Wht should I love not my love? Because my love loves me. Source: Sabine Baring Gould, 1895, Old English Songs from English Minstrelsie Notes: This is taken from the selection of the eight volume work by Baring Gould of the same name, reprinted by Llanerch Publishers. Notes are not given in the selection, but are in the full eight volume work to which I do not have access. Therefore I can give very little information about the origins of this song. This is another of the English Minstrelsie songs that is better known as a dance tune than as the song, in this case Newcastle (English Dancing Master, 1651 edition) Database entry is here. Edited By dmcg - 23-Sep-2003 09:13:28 AM | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 23 Sep 03 - 12:25 pm | |
Roud 8086. Beside the above, Roud currently lists examples in Furnivall & Hales, Percy Folio I 154; Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time, I 339-40; and one, apparently from tradition, in Gwen Polwarth's Come You Not from Newcastle (1972). There is also a set in Moffat and Kidson's Minstrelsy of England, with words written by Frank Kidson, incorporating the fragment from Percy. Chappell writes: "This beautiful and very expressive melody is to be found in The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1690, under the title of Newcastle. In The Grub Street Opera, 1731, it is named Why should not I love my love? from the burden of the song. The following fragment of the first stanza is contained in the folio manuscript formerly in the possession of Bishop Percy, p.95. See Dr. Dibdin's Decameron, vol.3. Come you not from Newcastle? Come you not there away? O met you not my true love, Ryding on a bonny bay? Why should I not love my love? Why should not my love love me? * * * * * It is quoted in a little black-letter volume, called 'The famous Historie of Fryer Bacon: containing the wonderful things he did in his life; also the manner of his death; with the lives and deaths of the two Conjurers, Bungye and Vandermast. Very pleasant and delightful to be read.' 4to., n.d. 'Printed in London by A.E., fro Francis Grove, and are to be sold at his shop at the upper-end of Snow Hill, against the Sarazen's Head:'- 'The second time, Fryer Bungy and he went to sleepe, and Miles alone to watch the brazen head; Miles, to keepe him from sleeping, got a tabor and as pipe, and being merry disposed, sung this song to a Northern tune of Cam'st thou not from NewCastle- To couple is a custome, All things thereto agree; Why should not I then love? Since love to all is free. But Ile have one that's pretty, Her cheekes of scarlet dye, For to breed my delight, When that I ligge her by. Thogh vertue be a dowry, Yet Ile chuse money store: If my love prove untrue, With that I can get more. The faire is oft unconstant, The blacke is often proud; Ile chuse a lovely browne; Come, fidler, scrape thy crowd. Come, fidler, scrape thy crowd, For Peggie the browne is she Must be my bride; God guide That Peggie and I agree.' I have been favoured by Mr. Barrett with a song, 'O come ye from Newcastle?' as still current in the North of England; but, doubting its antiquity, I have not thought it desirable to print it in this collection." Here Chappell prints music and the following text: O come you not from Newcastle, Come you not there away? O met you not my true love, Riding on a bonny bay? Why should I not love my love, Why should not my love love me? * [Why should not I speed after him, Since love to all is free?] " * The last two lines are supplied from a song written to complete the fragment, by the late Mr. George Macfarren." It's unfortunate that Mr Barrett's song -presumably taken from oral currency- was not included. Perhaps the Polwarth example is a form of it. | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 23 Sep 03 - 01:18 pm | |
I bought Gwen Polwarth's Come You Not from Newcastle? when I was a student there in the mid 70s, but its one of those books that have disappeared over the years. Shame. | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 26 Sep 03 - 02:59 pm | |
This song appeared in volume 7 of Baring Gould's English Minstrelsie (xxi-xxii, 86-87). He repeats the information given by Chappell, adding: "The 'Historie of Fryer Bacon' has been reprinted in Thom's Early English Prose Romances, 1858, vol. i. p. 189. According to J. P. Collier the black-letter Historie of Fryer Bacon was printed soon after 1580. [ ............. ] "The song in the Percy folio runs thus - Come you not from Newcastle? Cam*e yee not there away? Met yee not my true loue ryding on a bony bay? Why shold not I loue my loue? Why shold not my loue loue me? Why shold not I loue my loue, gallant hound sedelee? ** And I haue Land att Newcastle will buy both hose & shoone, And I haue Land att Durham will feitch my hart to boone. Why shold not I loue my loue? Why shold not my loue loue me? Why shold not I loue my loue, gallant hound sedelee? ffins. [* n in MS. ** sic.] "For the convenience of modern singers I have made two alterations in the text. For 'Gallant hound sedelee' I have substituted the closing lines of a ballad about which presently, that has practically the same refrain. Also for 'Will feitch my hart to boone,' I have written 'And houses in the Toun,' very poor, I admit, but intelligible to a modern audience. The burden is - Why should I not love my love, Why should not my love love me? &c. "In the 'mad song' of One Morning very Early, attributed to George Syron, a man of colour, in Bedlam, in the middle of last century, a song that obtained enormous popularity, the mad girl is supposed to sing a ballad of which the burden is, 'For I love my love because I know my love loves me.' This is in Vocal Music, circ. 1778, p. 214. There is another beginning to the same song or ballad, 'As through Moorfield I walked one morning in the Spring.' It so appeared in the Lover's Magazine, London, 1740. The air was set to it by Signor Thomaso Giordani, but the tune commonly used was Gramachree Molly, employed for 'Had I a heart for falsehood framed.' The same idea of a burden is found in a folk song taken down by me and Mr. Bussell, and given in Songs of the West. The song there is - I'll weave my love a garland, It shall be dressed so fine; I'll set it round with roses, With lilies, pinks and thyme. "The burden to this is 'I love my love, and I love my love, Because my love loves me.' The tune we recovered to this song is a very early one, but not the same as Came you not from Newcastle? The words of the ballad we obtained are those used up by George Syron for his 'mad song.' The burden in both seems to be derived from a still earlier song that no longer exists." Through Moorfields or The Maid in Bedlam is no. 605 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Cecil Sharp, Lucy Broadwood, Gavin Greig and the Hammond brothers noted versions of it, and it has also been found in the USA. It was much printed on broadsides, and examples can be seen at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads: The distracted maiden Nancy's complaint in Bedlam The maid in Bedlam To the tune of: Grammachree Molly The Loyal Lover is in Songs of the West 188-9. Roud lists it at number 578, along with some further Maid in Bedlam songs from songsters, from oral currency in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, and from Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (I, 1787, no.46 pp. 46-7). SMM also gives texts for Gramachree Molly and Had I a heart for falsehood framed. | ||