| Author | Topic: Add: Songs of Shepherds | |
| dmcg | Posted - 11 Aug 04 - 11:04 am | |
Songs of Shepherds in rustical roundelays, Formed in fancy and whistled on reeds, Sung to solace young nymphs upon holy days, Are too unworthy for wonderful deeds; Sottish Silenus to Phoebus the genius, Was sent by dame Venus a spong to prepare; In phrase nicely coin'd And verse quite refin'd; How the states divine hunted the hare. Stars quite tir'd with pastimes Olympical, Stars and planets that beautiful shone, Could no longer endure men only shall Swim in pleasures and they but look on; Round about horned Lueina they swarmed, And her informed how minded they were, And each god and goddess, To take human bodies, As lords and ladies to follow the hare. Light God Cupid was mounted on Pegasus Drawn from the Muses by kisses and prayers; Stern Alcides upon cloudy Caucasus, Mounted a centaur that proudly him bears; Postillion of the sky, Light-heel'd Mercury, Made his courser fly fleet as the air; While tuneful Apoolo The chase did follow, And whoop and hollow, boys, after the hare. Three brown bowls to the Olymipical rector, The Troy-born boy presents on his knee; Jove to Phoebus carouses in nectar, And Phoebus to Hermes, and Hermes to me; Wherewith infused, I piped and I mused, In language unused, their sports to declare; Till the house of Jove, Like the Spheres did move; Health to those who love hunting the hare. Source: Sabine Baring Gould, 1895, Old English Songs from English Minstrelsie | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 11 Aug 04 - 11:08 am | |
I must admit I much prefer the version of 'Hunting the Hare' on the Martyn Wyndham-Read recording 'Maypoles to Mistletoe' which I have transcribed below. Not only do I find the database version pretentious, the mixing of the Greek and Roman diety is most irritating! Well, O! the yelping of hounds a-skelping, Along the cover and out at the back, O! the galloping!, O! the walloping! O! the cry of the galloway (?) jack! Off like a feather he floats on the heather, Blackberry calling the tune in his track, Spot and Spider and Beauty beside her, Then Red Rake and the rest of the pack. And now they've lost him, and now they've found him, And now they're winding him round by the stack, Hark the horn! To the heights we follow And cheer and holloa and forward and back! Ne'er such a frisker and faker of whisker Nor bustle that's brisker than yonder old jack One more double across the stubble And he's in trouble and tossed by the pack. And bay and grey are away to the stable And jovial hunters the table attack And its meat we're munching and oats they're crunching And bales they empty and bottles we crack. Here's to the masters and them other bastards Who steady the ready and screw up the slack Here's to the 'hundred', our glasses a-jingle With joy come mingle, and Here's to the pack! Edited By dmcg - 11-Aug-2004 04:47:44 PM | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 11 Aug 04 - 04:09 pm | |
The second set of words was written by A P Graves (though "them other bastards" is a later interpolation, of course). There are several other sets of lyrics, in both English and Welsh, set to the same tune and dealing with hunting. The tune appears to derive from the old Room for Cuckolds. Discussion and various texts and tunes at Mudcat: Hunting the Hare | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 11 Aug 04 - 04:51 pm | |
Thanks Malcolm. The Mudcat link shows a couple of places where I haven't transcribed things quite correctly - or maybe Martin Wyndham-Read used slightly different words. In any case, refer to the Mudcat thread for the lyrics as Graves wrote them. | ||