> Folk Music > Songs > A Kiss in the Morning Early / The Shoemaker’s Kiss / So Green As the Leaves

A Kiss in the Morning Early / The Shoemaker’s Kiss / So Green As the Leaves

[ Roud 3807 ; G/D 1:50 ; Ballad Index KinBB15 , OLcM075 ; VWML HAM/3/14/21 , HAM/4/26/10 ; trad.]

Katherine Campbell: Songs From North-East Scotland Colm O’Lochlainn’s: More Irish Street Ballads Frank Purslow: Marrow Bones James Reeves: The Everlasting Circle

Frank Purslow and John Pearse sang The Shoemaker’s Kiss in 1960 on their Folklore album of bawdy “English folk songs Miss Pringle never taught us”, Rap-a-Tap-Tap.

John Roberts and Tony Barrand sang So Green As the Leaves in 1971 on their first album, Spencer the Rover Is Alive and Well. They noted:

Also know as The Shoemaker’s Kiss, this song was collected by H.E.D. Hammond in Dorset, in 1906 . [VWML HAM/3/14/21] It was printed on a broadside (penny song sheet) more than 50 years before that. The shoemaker’s kiss is equivalent to Young Rambleaway’s attentions to Nancy—at least the wrench of this tale knew where her deceiver was to be found.

Niamh Parsons sang A Kiss in the Morning Early in 2002 on her Green Linnet album Heart’s Desire. She noted:

I first heard this sung by Mick Hanly who rearranged the version found in Colm O’Lochlainn’s book More Irish Street Ballads. The words have been in my book for 15 years. Thanks to Alph Duggan for finding the song again for me.

Paul Marsh sang The Shoemaker’s Kiss in 2005 on the Dorset half of the Forest Tracks album Folk Songs From Hampshire and Dorset. He noted:

Marrow Bones p.92. From William Bartlett In Wimborne Union, 1905 [VWML HAM/4/26/10] .

This song has a sexual theme. Purslow states: “This song was printed by the Seven Dials song-sheet merchants about 1840, and is probably much older. The refrain “so green as the leaves” is not just word spinning; this imagery is quite common in British Folk Song, and this symbolic phrase would have received immediate recognition from the Elizabethans. It was Polonius who said of his daughter, Ophelia, “She Is a green girl” (Hamlet). The adjective is still in common use, of course, but has lost much of its original significance.”

Michelle Burke sang A Kiss in the Morning Early on her 2014 album Step Into My Parlour.

Granny’s Attic sang A Kiss in the Morning Early at the Falcon Mews, Bromyard, in July 2014:

Lyrics

John Roberts and Tony Barrand sing So Green As the Leaves

There was an old lady who lived in the West,
    So green as the leaves they are green, green, green, green
    So green as the leaves they are green
And she had a fine daughter that never was kissed,
    And you know very well what I mean, mean, mean, mean,
    You know very well what I mean.

Now one morn she rose and she put on her clothes
And away to the shoemaker’s shop she did go.

“Shoemaker, shoemaker, have you got any shoes?
“Oh yes, my fair creature, I think I’ll fit you.”

So into the shoemaker’s shop she did trip,
My God! How he caught her and he kissed her sweet lips.

When forty long weeks they was over and done
This pretty fair maid had a fine, bonny son.

“Oh daughter, oh daughter, how came you by this?”
“Oh mother, dear mother, ’twas the shoemaker’s kiss.”

Niamh Parsons sings A Kiss in the Morning Early

’Twas early one morning a fair maid arose
And dressed herself up in the finest of clothes.
And off to the shoemakers shop sure she goes
For a kiss in the morning early.

The cobbler arose and he soon let her in,
His arm and his hammer were neat as a pin
And he had the will for to greet her so slim
With a kiss in the morning early.

“O cobbler, o cobbler, ’tis soon we’ll be wed
And nestling together in a fine feather bed.
So give me two shoes with two buckles of red
For me kiss in the morning early.”

The maid hid the shoes in the back of her waist,
She praised his good cobbling and shoemaker’s taste.
And home to her father she mournfully faced
For it was in the morning early.

“O Father, o Father, I’ve got me a man
And he is the one I would wed if I can.
As handsome as ever in leather did stand
For me kiss in the morning early.”

The father was thinking and thinking again
For to wed her to riches and have them for him
Who knows but it might be a prince or a king
That she met in the morning early.

Who knows but if might be a jobber from town
Or a wealthy sea captain who sails the world round
A man with some thousands and thousands of pounds
That she met in the morning early

So the father was smiling, his daughter embraced,
And touching the buckles he drew back in haste.
He spied the red shoes that were tied round her waist
For it was in the morning early.

“O daughter, o daughter,” he started to shout,
When he did discover what she was about,
God knows ’twas none but that old cobbling clout
That she met in the morning early.