| Download Midi File Lesley Nelson-Burns |
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| This melody appears in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book with this same title. Barrett also notes the song was still sung (in the 1890s) in the countryside, and that it was probably sung to the same words three hundred years before.
It also appears in the Crampton collection of broadsides.* |
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, Bundle up your rushes and haste away. 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. 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? 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. |
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Other riddle songs at this site |
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Related Links |
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| From English Folk-Songs See Bibliography for full information. *Steve Roud's Broadside Ballad Index |
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