Dame Durden
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English
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
Dame Durden kept five servant maids
To carry the milking pail;
She also kept five labouring men
To use the spade and flail.
Chorus:
`Twas Moll and Bet and Doll and Kit,
And Dolly to drag her tail;
It was Tom and Dick, and Joe and Jack,
And Humphrey with his flail.
And Joe kissed Dolly, and Jack kissed Kitty,
And Humphrey with his flail;
And Kitty she was the charming girl
To carry her milking pail.
Dame Durden in the morning so soon
She did begin to call;
To rouse her servants, maids and men,
She did begin to bawl.
Chorus
`Twas on the morn of Valentine
When birds began to tweet,
Dame Durden and her maids and men
They all together meet.
Chorus
"Dame Durden" is a song from the repertoire of the Copper Family of Rottingdean,<br> Sussex.<br> "Dame Durden" is a name for a housewife; in Dickens's Bleak House (1853), when<br> Esther Summerson takes over the household keys, she is nicknamed "Dame Durden".<br> She’s also the title character of a popular song played by Gabriel Oak in Hardy’s<br> Far From the Madding Crowd.<br> The song is from oral tradition and is not often printed. It seems to be the kind<br> of song sung just for the fun of the words and melody. Alfred Williams, who<br> collected folk songs in Wiltshire in the early 20th century, published it in<br> Folk songs of the Upper Thames (1923). His comment is:<br> "The song of Dame Durden enjoyed great popularity throughout the South of England,<br> at harvest homes and other village festivals and it may still be heard at a few of<br> the inns bordering the Thames. I obtained my copy of Thomas Dunn, Stratton<br> St Margaret".<br> It appears in the Roud Folk Song Index as #1209.<br> It is printed in<br> The Universal Songster, or, Museum of Mirth (1823) and<br> The Copper Family Song Book (1995).<br> It was recorded by<br> Bob and Ron Copper on Songs of Courtship (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 1)(1968)<br> and on A Song for Every Season (1971),<br> Bob and John Copper on Coppersongs 3: The Legacy Continues (1998),<br> The Young Coppers on Passing Out (2008),<br> Maddy Prior and June Tabor on Silly Sisters (1976),<br> The Mellstock Band on Songs of Thomas Hardy's Wessex (1995) and<br> The Millen Family on Down Yonder Green Lane (2000).<br>
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