... and (sighs of relief from all) positively my last word for the moment.
I'm not quite (quite - ha!) finished yet, but I think I'm close enough to
see where I'm going.
What follows is a somewhat optimistic summary of what I hope will emerge.
When (if) it finally crystallizes, I'll post a simple note so anyone who
wants a copy can mail me backchannel.
Till, then, silence ...
SUMMARY
In the late nineteenth century, a song called "Green grow the rushes O"
appears in print for the first time. There are six distinct but closely
related versions of this song, five from England and one from Scotland. (In
one of these versions, the counting terminates at eight.)
The Dorset version seems to be the closest to a hypothetical oral original,
and is certainly the one in which the puzzle elements - who are the
lily-white boys? - are the most intriguing.
Versions of these texts are found in America.
Yet another variation appears as "The Dilly Song", drawing on some lines of
"Green grow the rushes O", but introducing other elements, most notably the
Dilly Bird singing the Gilly Song.
In what follows, I'll attempt a collation of the various interpretations
given to the lines of "Green grow the rushes O", and the variant versions of
the lines which can be found.
Also included are various texts:
The Dorset and Scottish versions of "Green grow the rushes O"
The Dilly Song
The New Dial (related but distinct)
. and other more marginal texts.
I've also reproduced several explications found on the Web, and several
threads from folk discussion groups.
Most of this material is - I won't say easily, but - available on the Web.
The only mariginally original contribution on my part is the suggested link
to the "Tom o' Bedlam" songs, and the afterlife of "Green grow the rushes O"
in the work of the poets W.H.Auden and Charles Causley.
Robin Hamilton
|