Queen of the May

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a young woman. She says she has come to gather may. He asks to go with her; she refuses, for fear of being led astray. He kisses her; they wander through the meadows as he picks may. Next morning he marries her to preserve her reputation.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Journal from the Bengal)
KEYWORDS: courting love sex marriage wedding
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 190-192, "Queen of the May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 300, "Johnny the Ploughboy" (1 fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 235)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 54-55, "The Queen of May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 53, "As I Walked Through the Meadows" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 58, "As I Walked Through the Meadows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 6, "As I Walked Through the Meadows" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 107, "Queen of the May" (1 text)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 18-19, "The Queen of the May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #35, "Queen of the May" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, QUEENMAY*
Roud #594
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(154), "The Queen of May" ("When the winter is gone and the summer is come"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(299), Harding B 11(2727), Johnson Ballads 3069 , Johnson Ballads 804, Firth c.14(85), Johnson Ballads 1510 View 1 of 2[many lines illegible], "The Queen of May"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Bushes" [Laws P2] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Now the Winter Is Past
The Handful of May
The Plowboy's Courtship
NOTES [203 words]: This reminds me a lot of "Green Bushes" (Laws P2). The imagery is largely the same, and there are reminiscences in the wording. But the end results are different. - RBW
Although it's never made explicit, especially in Cecil Sharp, I know a line of asterisks when I see one! -PJS
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 254-256, has a piece titles "Upon a Summer's-Day" and beginning "Upon a time I chanc'd To walk along a green, Where pretty lasses danced In strife, to choose a Queen." I don't think it's the same piece, but one might have influenced the other.
Note that this is not to be confused with Tennyson's poem "The May Queen" ("You must wake and call me early, Call me early, mother dear; To-morrow'll be the happiest time Of all the glad new-year, -- Of all the glad new-year, mother, The maddest, merriest day; For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.") -- a poem which, it seemed, inspired both Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and his contemporary Julia Margaret Cameron to create photos of "The Queen of the May." Dodgson's was of Alice Liddell herself. That poem appears to have been sung at some stage (it's in Dime-Song-Book #6), but I don't know what tune was used. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SWMS190

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