138 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
138 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
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HAL AN TOW
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Celtic traditional
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(music)
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This is a May Day song. The Britons gained the festival of dancing in
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the spring from the Romans. They erected their May Poles to Goddess
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Flora and decorated it on every village green. During the 15th and 16th
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centuries, May Day plays featured Robin Hood's band of outlaws, and the
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marriage ceremony of Robin Hood and Maid Marion which turned these two
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characters into the ritual hero and heroine of the May Day celebrations.
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One of the ancient customs was to bathe the face in the dew of the
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morning with the hope that it would make one beautiful. May Poles were
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noted as late as 1795 in England, though we hope they have made a recent
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re-appearance.
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In his Anatomie of Abuses, published in 1583, Phillip Stubbes wrote
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a graphic and slightly disapproving description of the excesses of May
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Day and its symbol the May Pole: 'Against May, Whitsunday, or other
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time, olde men and wives, run gadding over-night to the woods, groves,
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hills and mountains, where they spend all night in pleasant pastimes;
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and in the morning they return, bringing with them birch and branches of
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trees, to deck their assemblies withal. ... But the chiefest jewel they
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bring from thence is their May-Pole, which they have bring home with
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great veneration. ... They have twentie or fortie yoke of oxen, every
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oxe having a sweet nose-gay of flowers placed on the tip of his hornes,
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and these oxen drawe home this May-Pole (this stinking Ydol, rather),
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which is covered all over with floures and hearbs, bound round about
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with strings, from the top to the bottome, and sometime painted with
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variable coulours, with two or three hundred men, women and children
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following it with great devotion. And this being reared up ... then
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fall they to daunce about it, like as the heathen people did at the
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dedication of the Idols, wereof this is a perfect pattern, or rather the
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thing itself. I have heard it credibly reported (and that viva voce) by
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men of great gravitie and reputation, that of forty, threescore, or a
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hundred maides going to the wood over-night, there have scarcely the
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third of them returned home againe undefiled.'
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[CHORUS]
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HAL AN TOW, JOLLY RUMBLE OH
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WE WERE UP LONG BEFORE THE DAY OH
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TO WELCOME IN THE SUMMER
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TO WELCOME IN THE MAY OH
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THE SUMMER IS A-COMIN' IN
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AND WINTER'S GONE AWAY OH
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TAKE NO SCORN TO WEAR THE HORN
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IT WAS A CREST WHEN YOU WERE BORN
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YOUR FATHER'S FATHER WORE IT
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AND YOUR FATHER WORE IT TOO
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[CHORUS]
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ROBIN HOOD AND LITTLE JOHN
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HAVE BOTH GONE TO THE FAIR OH
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AND WE WILL TO THE MERRY GREEN WOOD
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TO HUNT THE BUCK AND HARE OH
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[CHORUS]
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WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SPAN-IARD
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THAT MADE SO GREAT A BOAST OH
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THEY SHALL EAT THE FEATHERED GOOSE
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AND WE SHALL EAT THE ROAST OH
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[CHORUS]
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THE LORD AND LADY BLESS YOU
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WITH ALL THEIR POWER AND MIGHT OH
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AND SEND THEIR PEACE UPON US
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AND BRING PEACE BY DAY AND NIGHT OH
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[CHORUS]
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--
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another version
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ROBIN HOOD AND LITTLE JOHN
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THEY BOTH ARE GONE TO FAIR O!
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AND WE WILL GO TO THE MERRY GREEN-WOODS
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TO SEE WHAT THEY DO THERE, O!
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AND FOR TO CHASE THE BUCK AND DOE.
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[CHORUS]
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WITH HAL-LAN-TOW. RUMBLE-O!
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FOR WE WERE UP
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AS SOON AS ANY DAY O!
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AND FOR TO FETCH THE SUMER HOME,
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THE SUMMER AND THE MAY O!
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FOR SUMMER IS A COME, O!
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AND WINTER IS A GONE O!
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WHERE ARE THOSE BOLD SPANIARDS
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THAT MAKE SO GREAT A BOAST O!
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WHY THEY SHALL EAT THE GREY GOOSE FEATHERS,
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AND WE WILL EAT THE ROAST, O!
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IN EVERY LAND, O!
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THE LAND WHERE'ER WE GO.
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[CHORUS]
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--
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another version differently titled:
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SUMER IS ICUMEN IN
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dating to 1240, as recorded in the Wessex dialect
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[music]
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SUMER IS ICUMEN IN,
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LHUDE SING CUCCU,
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GROWETH SED, AND BLOWETH MED
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AND SPRINGTH THE WUDE NU
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SING CUCCU!
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AWE BLETETH AFTER LOMB
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LHOUTH AFTER CALVE CU;
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BULLUC STERTETH, BUCKE VERTETH
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MURIE SING CUCCU,
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CUCCU, CUCCU!
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WEL SINGES THU CUCCU
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NE SWIK THU NAVER NU.
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in modern words:
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SUMMER IS COME IN,
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LOUD SING CUCKOO!
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GROWETH SEED, AND BLOWETH MEAD
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AND SPRING'TH THE WOOD NOW
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SING CUCKOO!
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EWE BLEATETH AFTER LAMB,
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LOWETH AFTER CALF [the] COW.
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BULLOCK STRTETH, BUCK VERTETH
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MERRY SING, CUCKOO;
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CUCKOO, CUCKOO!
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WELL SING'ST THOU CUCKOO
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NOR CEASE THOU NEVER NOW.
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--
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