Don’t You Go A Rushing

Leggi in italiano

The “enigmas” or “riddles” are part of some popular songs in dealing with the supernatural, be it a magical or diabolical creature, and more generally they represent a weapon of defense to avert a danger or obtain a benefit, so in the fairy tales, young people of humble origins obtain advantageous marriages or kingdoms for having been able to solve the enigmas or to have accomplished impossible tasks. However, the risk was very high, even if sometimes they were helped by creatures or magical beings, because the counterpart in case of failure was death (often by beheading). 
The echo of these ancient forms of courtship, turn into a romantic words to make a declaration of love.

I HAVE A YONG SUSTER

The first text dates back to around 1430 (British Museum – Sloane MS 2593, “I have a yong suster”) and is antecedent or at least contemporary to “The Devil’s Nine Questions” found always transcribed in a manuscript of about 1450.

The ballad is also found in many nineteenth-century Nursery Songs with the titles: “Perrie, Merrie, Dixie, Dominie”, “I have four sisters beyond the sea”, “I had Four Brothers Over the Sea”, “My true love lives far from me “, where the overseas sweetheart who sends” enigmatic” gifts is trasformed into the four sisters, the four brothers or the four cousins. In fact, the song lends itself to being a children song, both as a lullaby and as a game – riddle in which the children sing the answers together with their mother.

John Fleagle from Worlds Bliss – Medieval Songs of Love and Death, 2004 

I
I have a yong suster
Fer biyonde the see;
Peri meri dictum domine
Manye be the druries (1)
That she sente me.
Partum quartum pare dicentem,
Peri meri dictum domine (2)
II
She sente me the cherye
Withouten any stoon,
And so she dide the dove
Withouten any boon.
III
She sente me the brere
Withouten any rinde;
She bad me love my lemman (3)
Withoute longinge.
IV
How sholde any cherye
Ben withoute stoon?
And how sholde any dove
Ben withoute boon?
V
How sholde any brere
Ben withoute rinde?
How sholde I love my lemman
Withoute longinge?
VI
Whan the cherye was a flowr,
Thanne hadde it non stoon;
Whan the dove was an ey,
Thanne hadde it non boon.
VII
Whan the brere was unbred,(4)
Thanne hadde it non rinde;
Whan the maiden has that she loveth,
She’s withoute longinge.

NOTES
1) Druries: love-gifts
2) latin words non-sense like perry merry dixie or Pitrum, partrum, paradisi tempore or Piri-miri-dictum Domini
3) Leman: sweetheart
4) Unbred: unborn. in the nursery rhyme “I had four brothers over the sea” they carry: a goose without a bone, a cherry without a stone, a blanket without a thread, a book that no man could read, that is an egg, a cherry tree, a sheep to shear and a typographic matrix to be printed.

I GAVE MY LOVE A CHERRY -Riddle song

The most widespread version in the United States and Canada is a “modernization” of the medieval ballad “I have a yong suster” a romantic turn of words to make a declaration of love!

as a sweet lullady

Doc Watson 1966 (magical voice and amazing guitar)

I
I gave my love a cherry
that had no stone;
I gave my love a chicken
that had no bone;
I gave my love a baby
with no crying,
And told my love a story
that had no end.
II
How can there be a cherry
that has no stone?
How can there be a chicken
that has no bone?
How can there be a baby
with no crying?
How can you tell a story
that has no end?
III
A cherry when it’s blooming,
it has no stone(1);
A chicken when it’s pipping,
there is no bone(2);
A baby when it’s sleeping,
there’s no crying(3),
And when I say I love you,
it has no end(4).
NOTES
1) the cherry blossom is not yet a fruit
2) a freshly fertilized hen’s egg is a hen’s embryo
3) a child who is not yet born is sleeping and therefore can not cry
4) the most beautiful declaration of love ..

GO NO MORE A RUSHING

This song is contained in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (called Queen Elizabeth’s Virginal Book, although in reality Queen Elizabeth never owned the manuscript) a collection of dance music dating back to the early 1600s. It is also found in the Brimington Mummers’ Play script. [Derbyshire, 1862] that the Mummers represented during the Christmas celebrations (see).
With the title “Go no More a-Rushing” the melody was probably already popular at the time of Queen Elizabeth I (composed or arranged by William Byrd) and it is found in various versions in some manuscripts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The “Riddle song” is superimposed with a prelude (as a warning song) in which young girls are discouraged to go alone in the woods to collect rushes / ferns because they could lose their virginity.
Once ago the rushes were spread on the floors of the houses, they made roofs, beds, chairs, pots and fishing nets, cheese-sieves and much more, even today with the rushes they intertwine baskets, hats are made and Bride’s cross for Imbolc.

Reg Hall Archives Jim Wilson of Sussex ♪

I
Go no more a-rushing,
maids, in May
Go no more a-rushing,
maids, I pray
Go no more a-rushing,
or you’ll fall a-blushing(1)
Bundle up your rushes
and haste away.
II
You promised me a cherry
without any stone,
You promised me a chicken
without any bone,
You promised me ring
that has no rim at all,
And you promised me a bird
without a gall.
III
How can there be a cherry
without a stone?
How can there be a chicken
without a bone?
How can there be a ring
without a rim at all?
How can there be a bird
that hasn’t got a gall?
IV
When the cherry’s in the flower
it has no stone;
When the chicken’s in the egg
it hasn’t any bone;
When the ring it is a making
it has no rim at all;
And the dove it is a bird
without a gall(2)
NOTES
1) or “to get a brushing” going on the moor or in the woods to collect stalks and grasses could be very dangerous for the girls because they risked encounters with little recommendable elves see more
2) the dove symbol of peace and love was considered a very pure animal. When we speak of a good person we say that it is “without gall as the dove” because this animal is without a gall bladder.

Don’t You Go A Rushing Maids In May
I
Don’t you go a-rushing, maids in May
Don’t you go a-rushing, maids I say
For if you go a-rushing
They’re sure to get you blushing
They’ll steal your rushes away
II
I went a-rushing it was in May
I went a-rushing maids I say
I went a-rushing
They caught me a-blushing
They stole my rushes away
III
He promised me a chicken without any bone
Promised me a cherry without any stone
He promised me a ring without any rim
He promised me a babe with no squalling
IV
How can there be a chicken without any bone?
How can there be a cherry without any stone?
How can there be a ring without any rim?
How can there be a babe with no squalling?
V
When the chicken’s in the egg it has no bone
When the cherry’s blooming it has no stone
When the ring is melting
It has no rim
When the babe is in the making
There’s no squalling

LINK
http://ontanomagico.altervista.org/captain-wedderburn.html
http://www.presscom.co.uk/talesparts/tales5.html
http://www.joe-offer.com/folkinfo/songs/597.html
http://www.8notes.com/scores/6048.asp?ftype=gif
http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=hes&p=1545
http://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6899
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=9589
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=99125
http://mainlynorfolk.info/cyril.tawney/songs/iwillgivemyloveanapple.html
http://www.1st-stop-county-kerry.com/rushes-in-folklore.html
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/straw-hay-and-rushes-in-irish-folk-tradition-by-anne-o-dowd-art-and-craft-1.2489692
http://www.fondazioneterradotranto.it/2012/10/19/larte-di-intrecciare-il-giunco-ad-acquarica-del-capo-ii-parte/
https://www.cdsconlus.it/index.php/2016/09/29/cultura-e-tradizioni-in-valle-di-comino-larte-del-costruir-fuscelle/
http://www.contemplator.com/england/rushing.html
http://www.folkplay.info/Texts/86sk47rs.htm
http://www.folktunefinder.com/tune/161727/
https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/dontyougoarushing.html