Last Saturday night young Nancy laid sleeping
Last Saturday night young Nancy laid sleeping
And into her bedroom young Johnny went a-creeping
With his long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to his knee
He said: Lovely Nancy, may I come to bed to you?
He said: Lovely Nancy, may I come to bed to you?
She smiled and replied: John, I'm afraid you'll undo me
With your long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to your knee
His small clothes fell from him and into bed tumbled
His small clothes fell from him and into bed tumbled
She laughed in his face when his breeches he fumbled
With his long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to his knee
My breeches fit tight, love, I cannot undo them
My breeches fit tight, love, I cannot undo them
She smiled and replied: John, you must take a knife to them
With your long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to your knee
My knife will not cut, love, it ain't worth a cinder
My knife will not cut, love, it ain't worth a cinder
She smiled and replied: John, there's two on the window
With your long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to your knee
He picked up the knife and he unrest his breeches
He picked up the knife and he unrest his breeches
The knife it was sharp and it cut through the stitches
With his long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to his knee
All the night long how they rolled and they tumbled
All the night long how they rolled and they tumbled
Before daylight i' the morning Nancy's nightgown he crumpled
With his long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to his knee
Now nine monthe being past, it fell on a Sunday
Now nine monthe being past, it fell on a Sunday
A child it was born with a knife-mark in the window
With a long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to his knee
abc | midi | pdf
Source: Folksongs of Britain and Ireland - Edited by Peter Kennedy
Notes:
Collected from Harry Cox, Catfield, Norfolk, rec. P Kennedy, 1953: EFDSS LP 1004: Nancy and Johnny
Kennedy notes:
Sally my dear, shall I come to bed to you
She laugh and reply: I'm afraid you'll undo me
O Sally, my dear, why I will not undo you
She laugh and reply: You may come to bed to me
Sally, my dear, I cannot undo my breeches
She laugh and reply: Take a knife and rip stitches
O Sally, my dear , I cannot undo them
She laugh and reply: There's a knife in the window
Now he took off his breeches and into bed tumbled
I leave you to guess how the young couple fumbled
These five verses, noted by Cecil Sharp from a Somerset singer, were followed by three verses of Blackbirds and Thrushes. This same association of the two songs was also heard from Harry List in Suffolk. Needless to say Cecil Sharp, when he published Sally my Dear, wrote that the words 'had of necessity to be somewhat altered', and a completely rewritten text was published in his Somerset collection and also in the selected edition of English Folk Songs, vol. II, 1921. The words of the original Knife in the Window song therefore remained unpublished until they were included under Hares on the Mountains in Reeves: 1958.
The fusion of Knife in the Window and Blackbirds and Thrushes/Hares on the Mountain, would appear to be widespread. Roy Palmer (Everyman's Book of English Country Songs) publishes a Berkshire version, which whilst quite similar to Sharp's unexpurgated set has a first verse of:
Now if maidens were sheep, love and they fed on the mountains
Now if maidens were sheep, love and they fed on the mountains
Then all the young men they would go and feed with them
Sing fal the ral i do, sing fal the ral day
Roud: 329 (Search Roud index at VWML) Take Six
Laws:
Child: