My lady went to Caunterbury
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See notes in F A Q
My harte of golde as true as ~tele.
As I me lened to a bough
In fayth but yf ye loue my well
Lorde ~o Robyn lough
My lady went to Caunterbury
The ~aynt to be her bothe
She met with cate of Malme~bery
Why ~hepy~t thou in an apple rote
My hart. &c.
Nyne myle to Mychelmas
Our dame began to brew
Mychell ~et his mare to gras
Lord ~o fa~t it ~new
My hart. &c.
For you loue I brake my gla~~e
Pour gowne is furred with blew
The deuyll is dede: for there I was
I wys it is full trew
My hart. &c.
And yf ye ~lepe, the cocke wyll crow
True hart thynke what I ~ay
Jack napes wyll make a mow
Loke who dare ~ay hym nay
My hart. &c.
I pray you haue me now in mynde
I tell you of the mater
He blew his horne agayn~t the wynde
The crow gothe to the water
A.iiii.
My hart. &c.
Yet I tell you mekyll more
The cat lyeth in the cradell
I pray you kepe true hart in ~tore
A peny for a ladell
My hart. &c.
I ~were by faynt Katheryn of kent
The go~e gothe to the grene
All our dogges tayle is brent
It is not as I wene
My hart. &c.
Tyrlery lorpyn the lauerocke ~onge
So meryly pypes the ~parow
The cow brake lo~e, the rope ran home
Syr god gyue yow good morow
My hart. &c.
Finis.
Excerpt of notes from Richard Greene, A Selection of English Carols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962):
The words and first stanza occur in a round or canon in Ravenscroft's Pammelia (1609)....
The nonsense of this delightful piece if free-ranging, and it is hardly to be classified as a 'lying song' as Utley suggests (p. 203). [Reference is to Francis Lee Utley, The Crooked Rib, Ohio State University Contributions in Language and Literature, No. 10. Columbus, 1944.]