Keeper, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Keeper would a-hunting go." Keeper goes hunting for a doe. In some versions he chases several unsuccessfully.
AUTHOR: Joseph Martin? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd); reportedly written in the 1680s (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "KEEPER, THE"
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 134, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 79, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 52, "The Keeper" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle, pp. 289-290, "The Keeper" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #6, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #113, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune, completely rewritten)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #111, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 680, "The Keeper" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 59, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 338, "The Keeper" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 231, 309, "341, The Keeper" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 74-75, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 64, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 21, "The Keeper" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 19, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 97, "The Keeper" (1 text)
DT, KEEPERGO*
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p.147, "(The Keeper)" (1 text)
Roud #1519
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, Dennis Cook, "The Keeper" (Piotr-Archive #269, recorded 09/27/2022)
Pete Seeger, "The Keeper and the Doe" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02) (on PeteSeeger18)
Erica Warnock, Derek Piotr, "The Keeper" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #460, recorded 01/26/2023, with much prompting by Piotr and very poor pitch)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "En Jaeger Gik At Jage (A Hunter Went Out Hunting)" (general feeling)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Keeper Would A-Hunting Go
Warwickshire
NOTES [194 words]: Most of the song consists of back-and-forth singing of the chorus between two singers. B.J. Orton thinks there is a sexual or magical subtext to this song. I doubt it, myself. -PJS
I have to disagree with Paul; at least one text refers to the Keeper kissing a doe, and another doe "[running] away in a young man's heart." There is surely some sort of hidden meaning. Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd says that their original was "very gross" and required extensive rewriting, though Baring-Gould's standard of morality strikes me as equally perverse. The real question is, how far did Sharp and Baring-Gould separately bowdlerize what they found? Based on Palmer, the original was basically clean, but highly suggestive. Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams reports that the Sharp version was sung in the schools in his bowdlerized version. Palmer says that the original was a late seventeenth century broadside "The Huntsman's Delight or The Forester's Pleasure" by Joseph Martin.
Interesting that such a piece would become extremely popular in school and camp songbooks. I suppose it's because of the chance for a musical "conversation." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: ShH79

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