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The Parson and the Maid
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The Friar in the Well
The Friar in the Well / The Parson and the Maid
[
Roud 116
; Master title: The Friar in the Well
; Child 276
; Ballad Index C276
; VWML HAM/4/26/14
, HAM/4/28/3
; Bodleian
Roud 116
; Wiltshire
865
; trad.]
A.L. Lloyd sang The Parson and the Maid in 1956 on the Riverside album English Drinking Songs, which was reissued on CD on the Topic label in 1998. He commented in the liner notes:
The notion is prevalent among folksingers that the most goatish of men are millers and clerics. In the past, poor men were often at the mercy of the grasping miller and the crafty monk, and, by way of revenge, country singers have delighted in fantasies which end in those two enemies being brought down by their own lusts. This song, earlier known as The Monk and the Maid, came to Suffolk from the north east of England. The tune is of Scottish origin, a variant of the well-known drinking song, Andro Wi' His Cutty Gun.
Martin Carthy sang The Friar in the Well on his 1982 album Out of the Cut. His tune for this song is related to Over the Hills and Far Away. John Kirkpatrick played concertina and Howard Evans trumpet. Martin Carthy commented in the record's sleeve notes:
The Friar in the Well is a randy monk willing to go to any length to have his holy end away. He is well and truly unglued by the shrewdness of his 16-year-old prospective victim and his own enthusiasm. The tune is one of the crockery-ware type.
This rather long video from Barnsley Acoustic Roots Festival 2012 shows Brass Monkey performing The Friar in the Well, The King's Hunt, Soldier, Soldier / The Flowers of Edinburgh, Willie the Waterboy, and Happy Hours:
The New Scorpion Band sang The Friar in the Well in 2004 on their CD The Downfall of Pears. They noted:
Collected by Henry and Robert Hammond in 1906 from Mr J. Penny of Poole [ VWML HAM/4/26/14 ] and Mr F. Stockley of Wareham [ VWML HAM/4/28/3 ] . The first mention of this story comes from the first half of the sixteenth century, and the ballad was evidently popular in Elizabethan times. In The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntingdon, Anthony Munday refers to the “merry jests” of the Robin Hood tradition, including:
As how the friar fell into the well,
For love of Jenny, that fair bonny belleJohn Playford's English Dancing Master, first printed in 1651, included the tune The Maid Peept Out at the Window or The Frier in The Well. Playford's cheerful 6/8 melody is in fact not dissimilar to our Dorset version from two hundred and fifty years later, and could be used for the same words with some minor adaptations.
Lyrics
A.L. Lloyd sings The Parson and the Maid | Martin Carthy sings The Friar in the Well |
---|---|
Oh listen, my lads, and I'll tell you the tale |
Now there was a friar as I been told Chorus (after each verse): |
Says she, “I grant you your desire |
“Oh no,” she says, “for you know very well, |
Then says the maid, “You'll have your request.” |
“Very well,” says the girl, “you can do this thing: |
He brought the money, and did it down tell; |
So she got a sheet, you know very well, |
But the fair maid cried that her father was come; |
Then cries the girl so crafty and cunning, |
Behind the screen the parson crept |
And the friar called out with a pitiful sound, |
“You said you'd whistle me out of hell, |
So she hauled him out and she bid him be gone, |
Now all who heard commend the maid |
“And,” says the friar, “I never was treated so, |
Acknowledgements
Wolfgang Hell transcribed The Friar in the Well from Martin Carthy's singing.