Diddle Diddle, or the Kind Country
Lovers
Text: Pepys Collection. Tune: Lavenders Green
is referred to on the 17th century broadsheet
but no printed source is available before E F
Rimbault's
Nursery Rhymes c.1846 when it
appears to have been recovered from aural
tradition.
Chorus: Lavenders Green, Lavenders Blue
You must love me, 'cos I love you.
Call up your maids, set them to work,
Some to make hay, some to the rock,
Some to make hay, some to the corn,
While you and I keep the bed warm.
I heard a bird sing in my ear:
"Maids mill be scarce the next new year
For young men ore too wanton grown,
That they n'er mind which is their own"
Down in the dale where flowers do grow,
And birds do sing all in a row,
A brisk young man met with a maid,
And laid her down all in the shade.
James at The George, Sue at The Swan,
He loves his maid, she loves her man,
There lives a lass over the green,
She sells good ale - know what I mean...
Oft have I been with her in the dark,
But I bane n'er shot at the mark,
But now, my dear, have at thy bum,
For I do swear now I am come.
I will be kind until I die,
Then prithee love my dog* and I
For thee and I now are all one,
And we will lie no more alone
*my dog = a well known euphemism!