Context:

Location: Swinderby, Lincolnshire, England. (SK8662)
Year: Perf. 1842
Time of Occurrence: Crismas
Collective Name: [Not given]

Source:

C.R.Baskervill
Mummers' Wooing Plays in England
Modern Philology, Feb.1924, Vol.21, No.3, pp.263-268

Cast:

Text:

[Fool.]

In comes I to view this noble room to act most bravely
let this room be large or small or of great desarter
wee wish to act in all our acting parts
as for any further abstence a las for him i crave
and after mee comes a soldier fine and brave

[Sergeant.]

In am a noble sergant
arrived here just now
my orders is to list all men
that follows the cart and plough
likewise all other trades
that wishes to advance)

[Fool.]

I am a fool comes to see you dance

[Sergeant.]

You fool come to see me dance

[Fool.]

Yes

[Sergeant.]

faith i can sing

[Fool]

I can neither dance sing nor say
but if you begin to sing i shall go away

[Sergent.]

Good people give attention
and listen to my song
I will tell you of a young man
before the time be long
he is almost brokenhearted
the truth i do declare
for beaty as enticed him
and drawn him in a snare.

[Recruit.]

Behold those drooping wings than hangs over my pate
pity my condition and dont me disdain
pray fales girl i am in Pain

[Sergeant.]

O come tell me youth this maid provd false
with all her vows and flattering oaths betrayd
did her soft smothering speech ingage you to believe
did she swear vows and then deceive

[Recruit.]

the heavy pain that i feel and bad enough to boy that is my part
but i care little about no nor i nor never did

[Lady.]

Behold the lady bright and gay
her fortune and her charms
so scornfull i was thrown away
into that lubeys harms)

[Recruit.]

I dont like your song maddam

[Lady.]

You dont like the truth sir)

[Recruit.]

Would you wish to offend me)

[Lady.]

Would you have me tell a lie

[Recruit]

get out of my sight you sausy baggage
Now since you have been so scornfull
the truth to you i will tell
i will list for a solger
and bid you farewell)

[Sergeant.]

If these be is thoughts maddam
pray let him go
he never means to marry you
he will prove your overthrow
when poverty begins to pinch
as once perhaps hit may
he will list for a soldier
and from you run away

[Lady.]

I thank you kind sir
for the good advice you gave
i never mean to marry him
wilst on this earth i live
i never mean to marry Him
as you may understand
you may list for a soldier
into some foreign land)

[Sergeant.]

Come you lads that his bound for listing
come and do not be afraid
you shall have all kinds of liquor
liquewise kiss the pritty maid)

[Recruit.]

Now kind sir i like your offer
time away shall sweetly pas
dash me if i will greive any longer
for a proud and sausy lass.

[Sergeant.]

Ten guineas i will give you bounty
if along with me you will go
your hat it shall be drest like mine
Likewise cut a gallant show

[Lady.]

So now my love has listed
and enterd volunteer
I never will greive for him
nor for him shed one tear
I never will greive for him
I will let him to now
I will have a nother sweetheart
and with him i will not go

[Fool.]

I will give your gold i will give the pirl
if thou can fancy me my girl)

[Lady.]

It is not your gold will me entice
to leave of roving to follow your advice
for I do never attend atall
to be at any young mans call

[Fool.]

O go you proud and sausy dame
if you had been true i should been the same
i make no dought but i can find
as hansome a fair one to my mind

[Lady.]

Stop stay young man you seem in haste
as though you thought your time should waste
let reason rule your roving mind
and perhaps in time i shall prove more kind)

[Fool]

So now my sorrows is over and past
joy and comfort is found at last
the girl that use to say me nay
she comforts both night and day
day and night
she is my joy and hearts delight
Come right me down the powers above
that first created a man to love
I have a dimond in my eye
where all my Joy and comfort lie)

[Husbandman?]

Madam if though will consent to marry me
I have got gold and silver
and that will please the
thou shall have a servant maid
to wait at thy command
and we will be married and married out of hand)

[Lady.]

O roger you are mistaken
a damsel i reside
I am in no such haste
as to be a ploughmans bride
I live hopes to gain a farmers son)

[Husbandman?]

If that be it good Mistress
I will come no more i have done
you may take your farmers son
and wed with all my heart
although my name be roger
i can follow the plough and cart)

[Fool.]

Stand ougt you sausy clown
let me lady and i have a bit of a sing together
Maddam as i walkt down the dale
one morning very soon
drest in my best aparrel
liquewise my cloughted shoes
for as I have comd a woing
to the my bucksome nell
if thou loves me as I love the
thou loves the person well.

[Lady.]

Go get your horses drest
weel fed with corn and hay
put on your best aparrel
and then stop on this way)

[Fool.]

O no me troth not i
i have neither come to sit not chat
i have other fish to fry
I need not tarry long
before i get a wife
here is bucksome jones
she is verry well nown
she loves me as her life

[Dame Jame.]

I do my dear)

[Lady.]

Why talk the of jones
cant i please the as well
for she as got no money
and I am bucksome Nell
for i have got forty shillings
and that is a glorious thing
it will a lass a swettheart
as i am bucksome Nell)

[Fool.]

If thou as got forty shillings love
wich i suppose you may
we will no longer tarry
than the next quarter day
for I have got fifty more love
and that a cow will buy
so we will shake hands in wedlock bands
so sing rare be Nell and I
So now we will provide for a weding diner as quick as we can
We will have a long tald cabbage
a barly pudding a salt red erring
a limb of a larck and a louce to roast
we will have a farding loaf
and of a that cut a good thumping toast
wee will have a joval corant
and the fiddle shall merryly play
so edge about

[All sing.]

So now our sport is ended
you have heard our voices sing
I hope you are well contented
and god save the Quenn
I wish you a merry crismas
and a happy new year
and what you please to my box
and a jug of your best beer.

{[Exit Fool.])}

[The Rest.]

Good Master and good Mrss
now our fool is gone
we make it in our buisiness
to follow him a long
we thank you for Sivility
that you have shown us here
so i wish you all your health,
and a happy new Year

Notes:

Published from a small collection of Lincolnshire plays in British Museum Additional MS 24,546, fols.46-47.

Baskervill's notes:

"The Swinderby Play is written as prose in a clear bu unsteady hand. The names of the speakers are omitted throughout, but the paragraphs and particularly the curved marks indicate the changes of speakers. The heading is in a different hand, apparently not that of the other titles supplied in the volume. The play is unique in the fact that it is made up of distinct units. Between the brief and conventional introduction and the conclusion there are three different wooing dialogues: first that combined with the motive of the recruiting sergeant; second that found in 'The finishing Song' of the Bassingham Men's Play; and third, a variant of 'Young Roger of the Mill' found in none of the other wooing plays."

Indexer's notes:

Baskervill added speech designations in square brackets throughout. These names were evidently chosen from analogy with other texts present in the collection - e.g. Husbandman. In some cases these character names are probably not what the actors themselves may have called them.

File History:

1999-07-24 - Entered by Peter Millington
2021-01-15 - TEI-encoded by Peter Millington
2022-06-30 - Missing Std.IDs added by Peter Millington

Extras:

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