“Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song”
Description
"Wassail! wassail! all over the town, Our (pledge/toast) it is white, our ale it is brown." Health to the master's (animal's) body parts that he be sent a good present. Butler, "bring us a bowl of the best" else "down fall butler, and bowl and all"
Notes
The opening verse seems common to "Somerset Wassail" and "Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song." The rest of the text seems distinct enough to warrant splitting the two.
The Billy Buckingham version on Voice16 includes verses of which this is a typical example:
Now here's a health to my master and to his right eye.
Pray God send our master a good Xmas pies,
And a good Xmas pie that we may all see.
To my wassailing bowl I'll bring unto thee.
The "right eye" is replaced by "right ear," "right arm," "right hip" and "right leg" with gifts of "happy New Year," "good crop of corn," "good flock of sheep" and "a good fatted pig."
Bell's "Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song" ("Wassail! wassail! all over the town") is like Buckingham's except that the body parts belong to named animals rather than "master." For example, "Here's to our mare, and to her right eye, God send our mistress a good Christmas pie." Bell's footnote 46: "the name of the horse is generally inserted by the singer [for 'our mare']; and 'Filpail' is often substituted for 'the cow' in a subsequent verse." (source: Robert Bell, editor, [The Project Gutenberg EBook (1996) of] _Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England_ (1857)). - BS
Cross references
- cf. "Somerset Wassail" (subject, one verse) and references there
Recordings
- Billy Buckingham, "The Waysailing Bowl" (on Voice16)
References
- ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #92, "Wassail, Wassail, All Over the Town [The Gloucester Wassail]" (1 composite text)
- Roud #209
- BI, RcGlWasS