Harvest Home Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer toasts the master of the house, his health and prosperity, and the mistress; listeners are urged to drink up. Cho: "So drink, boys, drink! And see that you do not spill/For if you do, you shall drink two, for that is our master's will"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: farming harvest ritual drink party nonballad worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "HARVEST SONG II"
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #14, pp. 190-191, "Suffolk Harvest-Home Song" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 150-151, "Harvest Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 591, "Harvest Home - To the Children of the House"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 591, "Harvest Home - To the Master"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 591, "Harvest Home - To the Mistress 1"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 591, "Harvest Home - To the Mistress 2"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 591, "Harvest Home - To the Mistress 3" (5 texts)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 66-67, "The Harvest Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #21, "Harvest Home Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MILLDEE3*
ADDITIONAL: Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 67, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, pp. 128-129, "(We've plougher, we've sowed)"; "(Here's a health unto our Maister)"; "(Now we've drunk our Maister's health)" (3 short texts, the latter two at least, and possibly all three, being this)
Roud #310
RECORDINGS:
Tony Wales, "The Woodcutter" (on TWales1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All of a Row" (theme, floating lyrics)
NOTES [51 words]: This was sung as part of a harvest-supper ritual; each person's cup would be filled as the song was sung around the table. Variants salute other rural occupations, such as woodcutting (cf. the Wales recording). This can be distinguished from other harvest-home songs by the "Drink, boys, drink" chorus. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: RcHaHS1

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