C.R.Baskervill (1924), pp.263-268

Context

Location: town: 
Swinderby
SK8662
Time of Occurrence: 
Crismas
Collective name: 
[Not given]

Source

Source author: 
C.R.Baskervill
Source title: 
Mummers' Wooing Plays in England
Source publication: 
Feb.1924, Vol.21, No.3, pp.263-268

Cast

Fool
Noble Sergant / [Sergeant]
Youth / [Recruit]
Lady Bright and Gay / Bucksome Nell / [Lady]
Roger {Ploughman} / [Husbandman]
Bucksome Jones / [Dame Jame]

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 33,418.

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."

Peter Millington'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.