Part 1

Produced by Dave Fawthrop

YORKSHIRE DIALECT POEMS

By F.W. Moorman

(1673-1915) and Traditional Poems

Compiled with an Historical Introduction by F. W. Moorman (Professor of English Language, University of Leeds)

London Published for the Yorkshire Dialect Society by Sidgwick and Jackson, Ltd., 1916, 1917

To The Yorkshiremen Serving their Country in Trench or on Battleship I respectfully dedicate this collection of Songs from the Homeland

Contents: Preface to Etext Edition Preface Preface (To the Second Edition) Introduction Poems A Yorkshire Dialogue between an awd Wife a Lass and a butcher . Anonymous An Honest Yorkshireman. Henry Carey From "Snaith Marsh" Anonymous When at Hame wi' Dad Anonymous I'm Yorkshire too Anonymous The Wensleydale Lad Anonymous A Song 1. Thomas Browne A Song 2. Thomas Browne The Invasion: An Ecologue Thomas Browne Elegy on the Death of a Frog David Lewis Sheffield Cutler's Song Abel Bywater Address to Poverty Anonymous The Collingham Ghost Anonymous The Yorkshire Horse Dealers Anonymous The Lucky Dream John Castillo The Milkin'-Time J. H. Dixon I Niver can call Her my Wife Ben Preston Come to thy Gronny, Doy Ben Preston Owd Moxy Ben Preston Dean't mak gam o' me Florence Tweddell Coom, stop at yam to-neet Bob Florence Tweddell Ode to t' Mooin J. H. Eccles Aunt Nancy J. H. Eccles Coom, don on thy Bonnet an' Shawl Thomas Blackah My awd hat Thomas Blackah Reeth Bartle Fair John Harland The Christmas Party Tom Twistleton Nelly o' Bob's John Hartley Bite Bigger John Hartley Rollickin' Jack John Hartley Jim's Letter James Burnley A Yorkshire Farmer's Address to a Schoolmaster George Lancaster The Window on the Cliff Top W. H. Oxley Aar Maggie Edmund Hatton T' First o' t' Sooart John Hartley Pateley Reaces Anonymous Play Cricket Ben Turner The File-cutter's Lament to Liberty E. Downing A Kuss John Malham-Dembleby Huntin' Song Richard Blakeborough Spring F. J. Newboult Heam, Sweet Heam A. C. Watson Then an' Nae E. A. Lodge Owd England Walter Hampson. Love and Pie J. A. Carill I's Gotten t' Bliss George H. Cowling A Natterin' Wife George H. Cowling O! What do ye Wesh i' the Beck George H. Cowling

Traditional Poems Cleveland Lyke-wake Dirge 1 Cleveland Lyke-wake Dirge 2 Sir Walter Scott's version A Dree Neet The Bridal Bands The Bridal Garter Nance and Tom The Witch's Curse Ridin' t' Stang Elphi Bandy-legs Singing Games Stepping up the green grass Sally made a pudden Sally Water, Sally Water Diller a dollar Hagmana Song Round the Year New Year's Day Lucky-bird, lucky-bird, chuck, chuck, chuck! Candlemas On Can'lemas, a February day A Can'lemas crack If Can'lemas be lound an' fair, February Fill-Dike February fill-dyke Palm Sunday Palm Sunday, palm away; Good Friday On Good Friday rist thy pleaf Royal Oak Day It's Royal Oak Day, Harvest Home and the Mell-Sheaf We have her, we have her, Here we coom at oor toon-end, Weel bun' an' better shorn Blest be t' day that Christ was born, Guy Fawkes Day A Stick and a stake, Awd Grimey sits upon yon hill, Christmas I wish you a merry Kessenmas an' a happy New Year, Cleveland Christmas Song A Christmas Wassail Sheffield Mumming Song Charms, "Nominies," and Popular Rhymes Wilful weaste maks weasome want A rollin' stone gethers no moss Than awn a crawin' hen Nowt bud ill-luck 'll fester where Meeat maks The Miller's Thumb Miller, miller, mooter-poke Down i' yon lum we have a mill, Hob-Trush Hob "Hob-Trush Hob, wheer is thoo?" Gin Hob mun hae nowt but a hardin' hamp, Nanny Button-Cap The New Moon A Setterday's mean I see t' mean an' t' mean sees me, New mean, new mean, I hail thee, Eevein' red an' mornin' gray Souther, wind, souther! Friday Unlucky Dean't o' Friday buy your ring An Omen Blest is t' bride at t' sun shines on A Charm Tak twea at's red an' yan at's blake A gift o' my finger Sunday clipt, Sunday shorn A Monday's bairn 'll grow up fair A cobweb i' t' kitchen, Snaw, snaw, coom faster Julius Caesar made a law A weddin', a woo, a clog an' a shoe Chimley-sweeper, blackymoor The Lady-bird Cow-lady, cow-lady, hie thy way wum, The Magpie I cross'd pynot,(1) an' t' pynot cross'd me Tell-pie-tit The Bat Black-black-bearaway The Snail Sneel, sneel, put oot your horn, Hallamshire When all the world shall be aloft, Harrogate When lords an' ladies stinking water soss, The River Don The shelvin', slimy river Don

Original Transcriber's Note:

This is a mixture of the First and Second editions as noted.

The name of the author has been inserted after every title, so that it will be included when poems are copied individually.

The footnotes have been renumbered and placed at the bottom of each individual poem.

The sequence of the poems in the second edition has generally been adhered to, and the contents list has been built on this basis. The Indexes have been omitted because of the lack of pagination in etext. Computer searches also make them redundant,

Dave Fawthrop

Preface

Several anthologies of poems by Yorkshiremen, or about Yorkshiremen, have passed through the press since Joseph Ritson published his Yorkshire Garland in 1786. Most of these have included a number of dialect poems, but I believe that the volume which the reader now holds in his hand is the first which is made up entirely of poems written in "broad Yorkshire." In my choice of poems I have been governed entirely by the literary quality and popular appeal of the material which lay at my disposal. This anthology has not been compiled for the philologist, but for those who have learnt to speak "broad Yorkshire" at their mother's knee, and have not wholly unlearnt it at their schoolmaster's desk. To such the variety and interest of these poems, no less than the considerable range of time over which their composition extends, will, I believe, come as a surprise.

It is in some ways a misfortune that there is no such thing as a standard Yorkshire dialect. The speech of the North and East Ridings is far removed from that of the industrial south-west. The difference consists, not so much in idiom or vocabulary, as in pronunciation--especially in the pronunciation of the long vowels and diphthongs.(1) As a consequence of this, I have found it impossible, in bringing together dialect poems from all parts of the county, to reduce their forms to what might be called Standard Yorkshire. Had I attempted to do this, I should have destroyed what was most characteristic. My purpose throughout has been to preserve the distinguishing marks of dialect possessed by the poems, but to normalise the spelling of those writers who belong to one and the same dialect area.

The spelling of "broad Yorkshire" will always be one of the problems which the dialect-writer has to face. At best he can only hope for a broadly accurate representation of his mode of speech, but he can take comfort in the thought that most of those who read his verses know by habit how the words should be pronounced far better than he can teach them by adopting strange phonetic devices. A recognition of this fact has guided me in fixing the text of this anthology, and every spelling device which seemed to me unnecessary, or clumsy, or pedantic, I have ruthlessly discarded. On the other hand, where the dialect-writer has chosen the Standard English spelling of any word, I have as a rule not thought fit to alter its form and spell it as it would be pronounced in his dialect.

I am afraid I may have given offence to those whom I should most of all like to please--the living contributors to this anthology--by tampering in this way with the text of their poems. In defence of what I have done, I must put forward the plea of consistency. If I had preserved every poet's text as I found it, I should have reduced my readers to despair.

In conclusion, I should--like to thank the contributors to this volume, and also their publishers, for the permission to reproduce copyright work. Special thanks are due to Mr. Richard Blakeborough, who has placed Yorkshiremen under a debt, by the great service which he has rendered in recovering much of the traditional poetry of Yorkshire and in giving it the permanence of the printed page. In compiling the so-called traditional poems at the end of this volume, I have largely drawn upon his Wit, Character, Folklore, and Customs of the North Riding.

F. W. Moorman

1. Thus in the south-west fool and soon are pronounced fooil and sooin, in the north-east feeal and seean. Both the south-west and the north-east have a word praad--with a vowel--sound like the a in father--but whereas in the south- west it stands for proud, in the north-east it stands for pride,

Preface (To the Second Edition)

The demand for a second edition of this anthology of Yorkshire dialect verse gives me an opportunity of correcting two rather serious error's which crept into the first edition. The poem entitled "Hunting Song" on page 86, which I attributed to Mr. Richard Blakeborough, is the work of Mr. Malham-Dembleby", whose poem, "A Kuss," immediately precedes it in the volume.

The poem on page 75, which in the first edition was marked Anonymous and entitled "Parson Drew thro' Pudsey," is the work of the late John Hartley; its proper' title is "T' First o' t' Sooar't," and it includes eight introductory stanzas which are now added as Appendix II.

Through the kindness of: Fr W. A. Craigie, Dr. M. Denby, and Mr. E. G. Bayford, I have also been able to make a few changes in the glossarial footnotes, The most important of these is the change from "Ember's" to "Floor" as the meaning of the word, "Fleet" in the second line of "A Lyke-wake Dirge." The note which Dr. Craigie sen't me on this word is so interesting that I reproduce it here verbatim:

"The word fleet in the 'Lyke-wake Dirge' has been much misunderstood, but it is certain1y the same thing as flet-floor; see the O.E.D. and E.D.D. under. FLET. The form is not necessarily 'erroneous,' as is said in the O.E.D., for it might represent ,the O.N. dative fleti, which must have been common in the phrase a fleti (cf. the first verse of 'Havamal'). The collocation with 'fire' occurs in 'Sir Gawayne' (l. 1653): 'Aboute the fyre upon flet.' 'Fire and fleet and candle-light' are a summary of the comforts of the house, which the dead person still enjoys for 'this ae night,' and then goes out into the dark and cold."