> A.L. Lloyd > Songs > Pretty Polly

The Knife in the Window / Nancy and Johnny / Pretty Polly

[ Roud 32572 ; Ballad Index RL033 ; VWML CJS2/10/1266 ; DT KNIFWIND ; Mudcat 127487 ; trad.]

Harry Cox sang Nancy and Johnny to Peter Kennedy in Catfield, Norfolk, in 1953. This recording was released in 1965 on his eponymous EFDSS album, Harry Cox. It was also included in 2000 as The Knife in the Window on the Rounder CD reissue of the Caedmon anthology Songs of Seduction. The accompanying booklet commented:

When Cecil Sharp published O Sally, My Dear [VWML CJS2/10/1266] , a version of this song, he wrote that the words had “of necessity to be somewhat altered” and a completely rewritten text was published in his Somerset collection and also in the Select Edition of 1921. They first saw print when James Reeves included them in his The Idiom of the People and The Everlasting Circle in 1958 and 1960.

Ewan MacColl sang O Sally My Dear in 1958 on his and Isla Cameron’s Riverside album English and Scottish Love Songs. A.L. Lloyd noted:

There is an old ballad theme known from Spain to the Balkans. which concerns an amorous duel between a witch and a warlock. The man pursues the woman, and as fast as she changes herself into a hare, a fly, a tree, and a bed. in order to escape him, he transforms himself into a greyhound, a spider, an axe, and a coverlet, in order to catch her. The English analogue (The Two Magicians, Child #44) has almost disappeared, but a number of broken-off fragments, transformed into lyrical songs, still survive vigorously. One such is the widely known Hares on the Mountains. Another, less often heard, is O Sally My Dear, which Cecil Sharp found some 50 years ago, at Bridgewater, in Somerset.

A.L. Lloyd sang Pretty Polly on Topic’s 1966 theme album of traditional erotic songs, The Bird in the Bush. He noted:

A zestful anthem, this one, of little sentiment but much satisfaction. A good time is had, and the girl is pleased with the baby. The song is the very reverse of these joyless sterile pieces made in barrack rooms, passed round in rugger dressing-rooms, and bawled my the mock-hearty company who wear their male supremacy like a jockstrap. In sundry forms the song is well-rooted in East Anglia (Harry Cox has a good version). Cecil Sharp noted a slightly jumbled specimen at Bridgwater, Somerset (“may be a comedy of sexual impotence” says James Reeves, quaintly).

Bill Whiting sang The Knife in the Window in his home in Longcot, Berkshire, in 1972 to Mike Yates. This recording was included in 2001 on the Musical Traditions CD of songs and music from the Mike Yates collection, Up in the North and Down in the South. Mike Yates noted in the album’s booklet:

A song that has survived best in East Anglia and the south west. Cecil Sharp, who collected at least eight versions of it, called it Sally My Dear and also found it associated with the song Hares on the Mountain (see Cecil Sharp’s Collection of English Folk Songs edited by Maud Karpeles, Vol. 1, pp. 430-36) which Bertrand Bronson suggested was derived from the ballad The Two Magicians (Child 44). In 1980 I collected a similar version—minus the Hares on the Mountain verse—from the Appalachian singer Dan Tate, and this version was included on the double cassette Crazy About a Song—Old-Time ballad singers and musicians from Virginia and North Carolina (Vaughan Williams Memorial Library 007). Other recordings include those by Louie Hooper, Jeff Wesley and Alec Bloomfield, while those by Dickie Lashbrook and Harry Cox on Rounder 1778 are the only others on CD.

Ernest Austin from Bentley, Essex, sang Hares on the Mountain / The Knife in the Window in a recording made by Tony Engle at Bentley, Essex in November 1973. This recording was published in 1974 on the Topic anthology Flash Company and in 2010 on the Veteran anthology The Fox & the Hare where John Howson noted:

Interestingly a similar combination of these two songs can also be found in Roy Palmer’s book Everyman’s Book of English Country Songs taken from a recording of Bill Whiting in Berkshire. The first two verses come from a popular song which is sometimes attributed to Samuel Lover (1797-1855), who included it in his novel Rory o’ More but it probably predates this and it has been suggested that it is related to the ballad The Two Magicians (Child 44). A more complete version of Hares on the Mountain can be heard sung by Northamptonshire singer Jeff Wesley on VTC7CD It Was on a Market Day—Two. The rest of Ernest Austin’s song is the Knife in the Window which Cecil Sharp collected in Somerset in 1906 as Sally My Dear—he wrote that the words “had of necessity to be somewhat altered” and his uncensored version was not published until 1958. Harry Cox of Catfield, Norfolk sang a full version to Peter Kennedy, which can be heard on RCD1778 Songs of Seduction and the words can be found in Kennedy’s book, Folksongs of Britain and Ireland.

Martin Simpson sang Pretty Polly in 1976 on his Trailer album Golden Vanity.

Jack Stannard from Bedfield, Suffolk, sang Knife in the Window in a recording made by John Howson in 2000. It was included in 2011 on the Veteran anthology CD of traditional folk music, songs and stories from England and Ireland, Stepping It Out Again!. John Howson noted:

This song, which is related to Hares on the Mountain was obviously popular in East Anglia; in fact most of the versions in the Roud database, with the title Knife in the Window, are from Norfolk and Suffolk. Cecil Sharp also noted it down in Somerset in 1906 under the title Sally My Dear, but he altered the words as he felt that the subject matter was somewhat unsavoury. His unedited version was eventually published in 1958. Jack’s version tells the complete story and his last line, with the baby being born with ‘two’ knives in the window, is unusual. Peter Kennedy recorded other full versions from Harry Cox of Catfield, Norfolk, Alex Bloomfield of Benhall. Suffolk and Harry List at Sweffling, Suffolk. Keith Summers also recorded it from Charlie Whiting of Southolt, Suffolk which is not far from where Jack Stannard lives. A version recorded in Essex sung by Ernest Austin is included on VT135CD The Fox & the Hare which interestingly has both the Knife in the Window and the first two verses of Hares on the Mountain combined.

Mick Ryan and Paul Downes sang The Knife in the Window in 2013 on their WildGoose CD When Every Song Was New. Mick Ryan noted:

Every once in a while, the club, which met on Fridays, would decamp en-masse to the small village of Longcott, near Farringdon, Oxfordshire, on a Saturday evening, for a session. At some point in the evening the cry would go up, “Give us Knife in the Window, Bill!” Whereupon a very elderly gentleman called Bill Whiting would get up and give us this song, a very local, and unique as far as I know, version of the widely known Hares on the Mountain. It felt, somehow, important to me to be getting a song from a field singer. Whether there is really any difference between the ‘field’ and the ‘revival’ singer now seems to me less clear, and less important, but I still have an affection for the song.

Molly Evans learned Lovely Polly from the singing of A.L. Lloyd and sang it in 2015 on her debut EP Molly Evans.

Belinda Kempster and Fran Foote sang Knife in the Window on their 2019 CD On Clay Hill.

Eliza Carthy sang Knife in the Window on her 2023 album Conversations We’ve Had Before. She noted:

David [Delarre] and I, with our friend Tasha, demoed this in sessions at my storage unit in Whitby for a mooted second Wayward Band album but originally, I learned it from Neill MacColl during the filming of Thomas Vinterburg’s Far From the Madding Crowd. Neill had to teach the young wayward soldier how to sing this at his wedding, so the girls could file out with their titters and disapproval behind their hands. I loved, and pinched it.

Lyrics

Harry Cox sings Nancy and Johnny / The Knife in the Window

Last Saturday night young Nancy laid sleeping,
And into her bedroom young Johnny went a-creeping,
With his long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to his knee.

He said, “Lovely Nancy, may I come to bed to you?”
She smiled and replied, “John, I’m afraid you’ll undo me
With your long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to your knee.”

His small clothes fell from him and into bed tumbled,
She laughed in his face when his breeches he fumbled
With his long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to his knee.

“My breeches fit tight, love, I cannot undo them.”
She smiled and replied, “John, you must take a knife to them
With your long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to your knee.”

“My knife will not cut, love, it ain’t worth a cinder.”
She smiled and replied, “John, there’s two on the window
With your long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to your knee.”

He picked up the knife, and he unlaced his breeches.
He un’ressed his breeches, and into bed he tumbled
With his long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to his knee.

All the long night how they rolled and they tumbled.
Before daylight i’ the morning Nancy’s nightgown he crumbled
With his long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to his knee.

Now nine months being past, it fell on a Sunday,
A child it was born with a knife-mark in the window
With a long fol-the-riddle-i-do right down to his knee.

A.L. Lloyd sings Pretty Polly

“Pretty Polly, pretty Polly, it’s I’ve come a-wooin’;
Pretty Polly, pretty Polly, it’s I’ve come a-wooin’.”
She says, “Creep and crawl through the window then and let’s get doin’
And lay your leg over me, over me, do.”

“Oh, my britches is tight and I cannot undo ’em,
My britches is tight and I cannot undo ’em.”
“There’s a knife on the window sill, love, take it to ’em,
And lay your leg over me, over me, do.”

Well the knife it was got and the britches cut asunder,
The knife it was got and the britches cut asunder;
And then they went to it like lightning and thunder,
Cryin’, “Lay your leg over me, over me, do.”

About forty weeks after, the fine baby come bawlin’,
About forty weeks after, a fine baby come bawlin’;
But she never regretted that creepin’ and crawlin’,
And cryin’,“Lay your leg over me, over me, do.”

Bill Whiting sings Knife in the Window

Now if maidens were sheep, love, and they fed on the mountains,
Now if maidens were sheep, love, and they fed on the mountains,
Then all the young men they would go and feed with them.
Sing fol-the-ri-li-do, sing fol-the-rol-day.
Then all the young men they would go and feed with them.
Sing fol-the-ri-li-do, sing fol-the-rol-day.

“Oh Molly my true-love, may I come to bed to you?”
“Oh yes”, she replied, “you can come to bed with me.”

“Now the door it is bolted and I cannot undo it.”
“Oh now”, she replied, “you must put your knee to it.”

So I put my knee to it and the door flew asunder
And upstairs I went, like lightning and thunder.

“Now your small things are tight, love, and I cannot undo it.”
“Oh now”, she replied, “there’s a knife in the window.”

Now her small things fell off her and I into bed tumbled,
And I’ll leave you to guess how we young couple fumbled.

Ernest Austin sings Hares on the Mountain / Knife in the Window

If maidens were hares and they fed on the mountains,
If maidens were hares and they fed on the mountains,
Why then the young men they would all go a-hunting.

Chorus (after each verse):
Sing fal la ral, la rul, Jack fal la rol day.

If maidens were blackbirds and built in the bushes,
If maidens were blackbirds and built in the bushes,
Why then the young men they would all go a-nesting.

“Oh Polly my love may I come to bed to thee,
Oh Polly my love may I come to bed to thee?”
“Oh no,” she replied, ‘I’m afraid you’ll undo me.”

“Oh no,” he replied, “Love I will not undo thee.”
“Oh no,” he replied, “Love I will not undo thee.”
“Oh then,” she replied, “You may come to bed to me.”

“The door it is barred love, I cannot undo it.
The door it is barred love, I cannot undo it.”
“Oh then,” she replied, “You must put your knee to it.”

He put his knee to it, the door flew asunder,
He put his knee to it, the door flew asunder,
Then upstairs he run, just like lightning and thunder.

“My small clothes are tight love, I cannot undo them,
My small clothes are tight love I cannot undo them.”
“Oh then,” she replied, “There’s a knife in the window.”

His small clothes were off and he into bed tumbled,
His small clothes were off and he into bed tumbled,
And I’ll leave to you to guess how that young couple fumbled.

When eight months were over and nine months asunder,
When eight months were over and nine months asunder,
She said, “Do you remember the knife in the window?”

Jack Stannard sings Knife in the Window

It was early one morning when poor Polly was sleeping.
When into her bedroom a soldier came creeping.

Chorus (after each verse):
Singing fal-da-ral-doddle Jack fal-da-rol-day

“My dearest Polly can I come to bed with you?”
She smiled and replied, “I’m afraid you’ll undo me.”

“My dearest Polly I will not undo you.”
She smiled and replied, “Then you can come to bed with me.”

“My clothes they fit tight love, I can not undo them.”
She smiled and replied, “Then you must take a knife to them.”

“My knife it won’t cut love, for it ain’t worth more than a cinder.”
She smiled and replied, “There’s a knife on the window.”

His tight clothes fell off him, and into bed tumbled.
I’ll leave you to guess how the young couple tumbled.

Now if maidens were like moorhens, they would build in the rushes,
Look how the young men they could use their short brushes,

Three month had been over, poor Polly was weeping.
For she knew she had got it by snoring and sleeping.

Six months had been over, nine months came asunder.
The baby was born with two knives on the window.