> Cyril Tawney > Songs > I Will Give My Love an Apple
> Tim Hart and Friends > Songs > The Riddle Song

Peri Meri Dixi Domine / I Gave My Love a Cherry / The Riddle Song

[ Roud 330 ; Ballad Index R123 ; MusTrad DB27 ; VWML HAM/4/24/11 , COL/6/30 , COL/6/63 ; Bodleian Roud 330 ; GlosTrad Roud 330 ; DT PERIMERI , RIDDLSNG ; Mudcat 9589 ; trad.]

Cynthia Gooding sang I Will Give My Love an Apple in 1957 on the extended reissue of her 1953 Elektra album of early English folksongs, Queen of Hearts. She noted:

I Will Give My Love an Apple is an early version of the famous Riddle Song, most often sung in this country as I Gave My Love a Cherry. I first heard it sung by the charming English Singers and later found it in Sharpe and William›s Selection of Folk Songs, Vol. I. The beautiful concept of giving oneself as an apple, a palace, etc., is very old to folk music and appears to branch from the Riddles Wisely Expounded (Child No. 21).

The Jeffersons sang I Gave My Love a Cherry in 1958 on their Topic EP Round and Round With the Jeffersons.

Sandy and Caroline Paton sang Perry Merry Dixi Domini in 1960 on their Topic EP of American songs and ballads sung as lullabies, Hush Little Baby. The liner notes commented:

This song has grown out of The Devil’s Nine Questions […]. The Nine Questions (of which a text is preserved in the Bodleian Library in a manuscript written in a hand of about 1450) tells of an encounter between a girl and the Devil. The Devil puts nine questions to her. Unless she can answer them all, she is damned. But she contrives to solve the riddles. Later, this moralising situation was changed into an amorous one. A knight meets a girl in a wood. Unless she answers his riddles, she must yield to him. Later still, the riddle section became detached from the ballad to lead its own life as a lyrical song, usually called I Gave My Love a Cherry. Perry Merry Dixi Domini may represent a form of the riddle song just before it became I Gave My Love a Cherry. The mock-Latin refrain recalls the macaronic carols popular in the 15^th and 16^th centuries, with their mixture of Latin and English text. The present version is reported from Taunton, Massachusetts.

Roy and Val Bailey sang Peri Meri Dixi in 1968 on their album of children’s songs with Leon Rosselson, Oats & Beans & Kangaroos and they sang it in 2010 on Roy Bailey’s album Tomorrow where he noted:

The first children’s album Val and I ever mady was way back in the mix sixties—Oats & Beans & Kangaroos. Three Blind Mice / I Hear Thunder, Carrion Crow and Peri Meri Dixi were all included on that recording with Leon Rosselson playing guitar and/or banjo. This time Henry and Jessica’s dad, Dave [Bailey] plays the guitar on Peri Meri Dixi. If ever I listen to that album I’m shocked by our young voices. I liked the tracks, however, so we’ve had another go, almost 50 years on!

Sandy Denny sang Twelfth of Never in an unreleased studio demo from probably the early 1970s that was included in 2010 on the 19 CD Sandy Denny Box Set. There it is credited to Michael Webster and Neville ‘Bunny’ Livingston, but according to Wikipedia, The Twelfth of Never was written by Jerry Livingston and Paul Francis Webster, with the tune except for the bridge being adapted from The Riddle Song. Anyway, the one verse Sandy sings here is a verse from The Riddle Song.

Cyril Tawney sang I Will Give My Love an Apple as the title track of his 1973 Argo album of traditional love songs from South West England, I Will Give My Love. His version is from Dorset.

Tim Hart and Maddy Prior sang The Riddle Song in 1983 on Tim Hart and Friends’ album Drunken Sailor and Other Kids Songs. This track was later included on their compilation CD Favourite Nursery Rhymes and Other Children’s Songs.

Elle Osborne sang the Riddle Song in 1999 on her CD Testimony.

Keith Kendrick and Sylvia Needham sang The Riddle Song on their 2012 WildGoose album Well Dressed.

Megson sang The Riddle Song in 2002 on their album of children’s folk songs, When I Was a Lad….

Hannah Sanders sang I Gave My Love a Cherry in 2015 on her CD Charms Against Sorrow.

Alden Patterson and Dashwood sang The Riddle Song on their 2015 CD Call Me Home.

Lynne Heraud and Pat Turner sang I Will Give My Love an Apple in 2019 on their WildGoose CD Watching for Winkles. They noted:

A version of The Riddle Song, this one was collected in Essex in the early 1900’s.

Nick Dow sang The Riddle Song on his 2020 album of love songs from the British Tradition, In a Garden Grove. He noted:

The singer Jim Burrows sang this at the Gravel Pits in Sherborne Dorset in 1906 [VWML HAM/4/24/11] . It seems to be based upon the broadside issued at the beginning of the nineteenth century which combined verses from The Boys of Kilkenny subtitled “A favourite Irish song”, with another song called The Riddle. Mr Burrows learned it “from an Irishman”, who was probably an inmate of the workhouse. The Gravel Pits stopped producing gravel in the eighteenth century and became the courtyard of the workhouse. It is now an upmarket housing estate. The pairing of the two songs is quite successful. Various art musicians have separated the two, and sang the song operatically. I shall stick with Mr Burrows version.

It is more than likely Jim Burrows and his Irish friend, were receiving ‘out’ relief, from the Parish. This involved a ten hour day slaving in the Workhouse to earn a small amount of food to eat at home. Not much to sing about! However they managed to our advantage.

Lyrics

Roy and Val Bailey sing Peri Meri Dixi

I have four brothers over the sea,
Peri, meri, dixi, domine
They each sent a present to me,
Petrum, partrum, paradisi, tempore
Peri, meri, dixi, domine

The first sent a cherry without a stone,
The second sent a goose without a bone.

The third sent a blanket without a thread,
The fourth sent a book no one could it read.

[ How could there be a cherry without any stone?
How could there be a goose without any bone?

How could there be a blanket without any thread?
How could there be a book no one could it read? ]

When the cherry is in blossom there is no stone,
When the goose is in the shell there is no bone.

When the wool is on the sheep’s back there is no thread,
When the book is in the press, no one can it read.

Sandy Denny sings Twelfth of Never

How can there be a cherry without no stone?
How can there be a chicken without no bone?
How can there be a story without no end?
How can there be a baby with no crying?

Cyril Tawney sings I Will Give My Love an Apple

I will give my love an apple without e’er a core
I will give my love a house without e’er a door
I will give my love a palace wherein she may be
And she may unlock it without e’er a key.

My head is the apple without e’er a core
My mind is the house without e’er a door
My heart is the palace wherein she may be
And she may unlock it without e’er a key.

I will give my love an cherry without e’er a stone
I will give my love a chick without e’er a bone
I will give my love a ring not a rent to be seen
I will give my love children without any crying

When the cherry’s in blossom there’s never no stone
When the chick’s in the womb there’s never no bone
And when they’re running running not a rent to be seen
And when they’re child-making they’re seldom crying

Tim Hart and Maddy Prior sing The Riddle Song

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 story that had no end
I gave my love a baby with no crying

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 story that has no end?
And how can there be a baby with no crying?

A cherry when in blossom, it has no stone
A chicken when it’s in the egg, it has no bone
The story of “I love you”, it has no end
A baby when it’s sleeping, has no crying

Nick Dow sings The Riddle Song

Now as I was a-walking one morning in June
By a clear crystal river myself all alone
To meet my own true love she lives down in the west
And she embraced me with her head on my breast.

I’ll give my love an apple without any core,
I’ll give my love a room without any door.
I built my love a palace wherein she may be
And she can unlock it without any key.

My head is an apple without any core,
My mind is a room without any door.
My heart is a palace wherein she may be
And she can unlock it without any key.

I will give my love a cherry without any stone,
I’ll give my love a chick without any bone,
I’ll give my love a ring without any rim,
And she can have a baby without any crying.

When the cherry’s in blossom you won’t find a stone,
When the chick’s in the egg you won’t find a bone.
When a young girl’s a-dancing their ring has no rim
And when they’re child-making there’s seldom crying.

The boys of Kilkenny they’re all roving blades,
All their delights is in courting young maids.
I built my love a palace upon yonder green
That’s fit for a duke or a lord or a queen.