Context:

Location: Newport, Shropshire, England (SJ7419)
Year: Col. 1879
Time of Occurrence: Christmas
Collective Name: Morris-Dancers

Source:

Elijah Simpson
Newport Version
Thomas Fairman Ordish Collection, Folklore Society, https://www.vwml.org/record/TFO/1/22/9

Cast:

Text:

{9 [in blue ink]}

{Newport Version}

{Miss Burne. Pyebirch Eccleshall}

No 1. [Note 1]

I open the door as I walk in
To ask your favour for to win
Whether I rise or stand or fall
I do my duty to please you all
But room brave gallants room! & give me room to rise
I come to show you pretty sport this merry Xmas time
Acting well or acting vain,
it is the grandest act on any stage.
But room, brave gallants, room it is required.
Enter in Singuy and show thy face like fire

No 2 [Singuy]

Here I am Singuy, Singuy it is my name
From English ground I sprang
- - ? - - [Note 2]
I search the nations round and round
And if I find King George I give £10,000 pound.

[No 1] [Open the door] [Note 3]

King George he stands right at the door.
He swears he will come in
With his bright sword & buckle(r) by his side,
her swears he'll pierce my skin
Altho' I think he is a cowardly dog
I am afraid he is not stout
He swears he will have his revenge
before he does go out
If you can't believe the words I say
Step in King George and show the way

[X] No 3 [K George]

The dewdrops of yonder mountain.
I am in search of an enemy
and if I find him this sword shall end his life.

No 2 (?) [Singuy]

Pierce me then, thou vile and treacherous dog

(No 3?) [K George]

have I found thee.
I pierce my sword in style.
I'll crop thy wings, thou shall not fly,
this sword shall end thy life

No 1 (?) [Note 3]

Stir up the fire and make a light
To see this awful battle by night

{Fight & death of Singuy? Note 4}

[Singuy]

Enter in that noble soldier bold [Note 5]
Before King George he [Note 6] strikes me cold
I see him coming, I fear am afraid it's too late [!]
Spare me a few moments, consider my hard fate.

No 3

Where is this man before me stands?
I'll cut him down with sword in hand.

Soldier (no 4)

Forbear, forbear, King George,
look down with pity on him and use him as thyself.
Thou shalt not wrong him.

No 3.

Who bist thou? A soldier? [Note 7]

No 4.

A soldier? yes! and a noble soldier bold, and Slasher is my name
With my bright sword & buck(l)er by my side I hope to win this game

No 3

How, (h?)asher? how slasher? How canst thou talk so hot
When there's one in this room thou little thinks thou'st got
That will lash thee & slash thee
as I have told thee once before
And I always gain the Champion wherever I do go [Note 8]

No 4

"How hasher, how slasher? how canst thou talk so hot?"
When my arms are made of iron, my body made of steel
My head is made of beaten brass, no man can make me feel.

No 3

Stand off, thou swaggering dog,
dos'n't thou know [Note 9]
I am the great and valiant George the conquering Hero brave
Who slew the fiery dragon & brought him down to slaughter
And by that means I gained the King of Egypt's daughter. [Note 10]
And dragon is thy enemy
I'll quickly end thy life
I'll crop thy wings, thou shalt not fly,
this sword shall end thy life.

[?No 4]

Strike up, King George it must be so
The horriblest battle that was ever know
The clock struck one, the hour is gone
It is time this horrid battle was had a done

{Fight}

[Unidentified] [Note 11]

King George, King George, what hast thou done?
Thou hast killed and slain my only son!
My only son, my only heir!
Can't you see him bleeding there?

No 3? ...... [George?] [Note 12]

His wounds are mortal:
call for a doctor!
I'll give five pounds for a doctor!
Never a doctor come yet!
I'll give ten pounds for one.

Little Doctor.

Rut, tut, tut!
Here comes a doctor & a doctor so good
And with my hand I'll quench his blood.
I carry ills and pills to suit all diseases
Ladies & gentlemen take my word just as you pleases
I can cure the itch, the pitch, the palsy & the gout
If there is nineteen old ladies we can fetch twenty out.

[Unidentified]

How far have you travelled noble doctor?

Doctor [X]

As far as the fireplace to the bread & cheese cupboard.

[Unidentified]

No further?

Doctor.

Oh yes, over England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany & Spain
And all the parts that thou canst name

Beelzebub.

What's the finest cure thou hast ever done, noble doctor

Doctor.

I once rode ten miles one morning before I had my breakfast
to cure an old lady with the pimly-pam, that couldn't sneeze [Note 13]
I give her one of my small pills that did her good.
She could either sing a song or smoke a pipe
or eat her breakfast as well as any old man the next morning. {To Soldier}
Cup, Jack! [Note 14]
Take one of my nip-naps,
put it in thy tip-taps,
and since thou hast been (a slave) [Note 15]
rise up & fight King George again.

(No 4. Soldier {rising} ?) {Note 16}

O horrible, oh terrible! The like was never seen
As man knocked out of seven senses into seventeen
Out of seventeen into seven score
The like was never seen here nor yet done before.

Doctor.

Ladies & gentlemen you see I have brought this man safe and sound
As well as any man on English ground
I have healed his wounds, I have searched his blood
I have give him one of my small pills & it's done him good.

[Unidentified] ......

How much is your demand, noble doctor?

Doctor.

Ten pounds, but since thou hast been slain, [Note 17] I'll take five.

[No 1?] .....

Who comes next?

Billy Bellzebub.

Here, here, here! Comes one that never came yet
With a big head and a little wit
Although (my wit) it is so small
I think I've enough to please you all.
My name is old Billy Bellzebub
And on my left shoulder I carry a large club
And in my right hand a small dripping pan
So I think myself a jolly old man {Sings}
{[Tune begins here]}
I am a jovial tinker
And have been all my life
So now I think it's time
To seek a fresh young wife
With my rink, a tink, a tink
And a sup more drink
I make your old kettle cry(?) sound
Sound, sound!
I make your old kettle cry sound.
{[Tune begins again]}
They drawed me to the barracks
They drawed me up and down
They drawed me to the barracks
And tied my poor legs so sound.
It is then with a friend we a merry life spend
Which I never did yet; but I vow,
With my rink, a tink, a-tink &c &c
[Note 18]
{[Tune begins again]}
My jacket's all pitches & patches
And on it I give a sly look
My trousers all stitches & statches
- - - - - [Note 19]
{[Tune begins again]}
But it's pitches & patches I wear
Till I can get better or new
[Note 20]
I leave the wide world as I find it
Brave boys, if I'm ragged I'm true
True, true
Brave boys, if I'm ragged I'm true [Note 21]

Notes:

Additional Context

A note stapled to front page says "Miss Burne's Collection. This Newport version is printed in "Shropshire Folklore" p. 483 et sqq. The Eccleshall version is referred to. A.A.G" [i.e. Arthur Allan Gomme]
Other than giving its location and collector, this manuscript and note have no contextual information. However, there is some more information in Charlotte Burne's published text, merged with other material from Eccleshall, Staffordshire:
Charlotte Sophia Burne (1886) Shropshire Folk-Lore: a Sheaf of Gleanings [Vol.3], London: Trübner, 1886, pp.410,482-9,491,650.
The accompanying description in her book states that the Newport text was written down (from memory) for her by chimney-sweep Elijah Simpson in 1879. Family history resources reveal that Elijah was born in 1846 in Newport; therefore aged 33 when he wrote the text down. He died in 1888.
On p.410, Burne talks of "the so-called morris-dancers of the north-eastem quarter [of Shropshire] , in Staffordshire more accurately termed guisers." Given that she uses "The Morris-Dancers' Play" as a page header for her published version, this seems to be the name most appropriate to this text.

The Manuscript

The original manuscript is written in ink, marked up with a few emendations, also in ink. These have been implemented in this transcription. There are a few underlined words, possibly intended to highlight candidates for a Shropshire word-book.
Most speakers are given numeric designations rather than names, but some designations are forgotten or missing and are represented by long dashes or ellipses. Similarly, a couple of forgotten or omitted lines are indicated by rows of dashes. Burne composed her own replacement lines for these in her published text.
There a numerous annotations in pencil in a different hand. Some of these are comments, which are given as footnotes in this transcription. A few annotations indicate stanza breaks in the final song. The rest mostly add character names to the numerical speech designations. These names by and large tally with burne's published text, so either the annotations were were editorial additions prior to publication or they were copied from the book. At least one name - Open the Door - comes from the Eccleshall text. These pencil assignments are retained in this transcription in square brackets, but should be treated with circumspection.
A couple of annotations are in purple pencil in a third hand, probably added by a later scholar. They are footnoted here.
The identities of the scribes are not known, but none of the handwriting is Burne's. All additional matter in the published version has been ignored.

Footnotes

1. [In pencil] "No 1 acts as a sort of 'Peter Quince...' I believe we used to see seven performers."
2. [In ink] Line omitted or forgotten
3. This speech was originally written lower down after "consider my hard fate", but a transposition arrow indicates its position should be before the fight stage direction. The question mark has been struck out in pencil.
4. "death of Singuy" struck out and alternative stage direction added in pencil "Singuy in wounded"
5. [Pencil sidenote] "Cannot divide these speeches properly". It is unclear which speeches this refers to, but appears to be the lines after "this sword shall end his life" and before "Where is the man before me stands?"
6. [In pencil] "i.e. K. George"
7. "bist" is underlined in ink and is pointed to in the right hand margin by a drawing in ink of a hand pointing left.
8. "The Champion" underlined in ink and pencil sidenote: "a confusion with prize fights!"
9. A smudged "I am" inserted in pencil appears to have been erased.
10. A large saltire cross spanning this an the neighbouring lines has been added in pencil in the margin.
11. [Marginal note in pencil "The father speaks here the name is not given" [A second marginal note in another hand in purple pencil] "King of Egypt or Father Xmas". N.b. This is the only place in the text where these names are used.
12. [Marginal note in purple pencil:] "?all Quack". Difficult to read and possibly incorrectly transcribed.
13. [Marginal note in pencil] "(i.e. she was bewitched)"
14. [Marginal note in pencil] "Cup = Co'up, a call to cows to 'come up"
15. [Brackets and "Slain?" added as possible alternative word in ink.]
16. [Alternative speech designation and stage direction written underneath in ink, and struck out in pencil] " [Or King George or Solder get up?] "
17. Alternative "a slave" written above "slain", and the pair bracketed together - all in ink.
18. [Addition in pencil] "and a sup more drink, and I'll make your old kettle cry sound"
19. [Added in pencil] "Not out of the last fashion book!"
20. [Line inserted in pencil] "For I find my old worthy my slaver" The inserted line and the next line ("I leave the wide world...") are bracketed together in pencil, with the side note "either of these lines but not both"
21. [Marginal note in purple pencil] "ballad"

File History:

2011-02-21 - Transcribed and digitised by the Folklore Society
2024-05-20 - Proof read and encoded by Peter Millington
2024-05-23 - TEI-encoded by Peter Millington

Extras:

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