Come All You Jolly Ploughboys (Here's April, Here's May; The Two Brothers)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jolly ploughboys, Come help me to sing." "There once was two brothers... One was a shepherd,,, The other a planter of corn." "Here's April, here's May... It's a pleasure to see the corn grow." The singer praises ploughboys and their life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sumner-TheBesomMaker)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "JOLLY PLOUGHBOY, THE"
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 33, "Ploughboy's Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #22, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 214-215, "Two Young Brethren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sumner-TheBesomMaker, pp. 23-25, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 152-153, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text, 2 tunes)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 25, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #202
NOTES [86 words]: The notes in Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory link this with "The Painful Plow." But the only links I can see is that both are about plowing and have some Biblical references. In this case, the reference to "Two brothers... one was a shepherd, a tender of sheep, And the other was a planter of corn" is obviously to Cain and Abel, from chapter 4 of Genesis.
It seems to me that I have heard a version of this with a religious sort of message, based on the mention of Cain and Abel. But I can't remember details. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: BuDa033

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography