Annotation:We'll Wed and We'll Bed

Back to We'll Wed and We'll Bed

---

WE'LL WED AND WE'LL BED. AKA and see "Dublin Bay." English, Country Dance Tune (12/8). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The tune and dance instructions ("Longways for as many as will") were published in London by John Young in the Second Volume of the Dancing Master [1], 1st edition, 1710. It was included in all editions of Young's volume, ending with the fourth and last of 1728. The song "We'll wed and we'll bed" by Thmomas D'Urfey, was set to a tune by English composer Henry Purcell, and appeard in the stage production The Wonders in the Sun, or the Kingdom of the Birds

She:
Oh Love if a god thou wilt be,
do justice in favour of me
For yonder approaching I see, A man with a beard, who as I have heard,
Has often undone poor maids who have none
With sighing, and toying,
And crying and lying,
And such kind of foolery.


He:
Fair maid by your leave,
my heart does receive,
Strange pleasures to meet you here.
Pray tremble not so,
nor offer to go –
I’ll do you no harm, I swear!
I’ll do you no harm, I swear!


She:
My mother is spinning at home,
My father works hard at his loom,
And here we a-milking are come.
Their dinner they want, pray gentlemen don’t
Make more ado on’t, nor give us affront.
We’re none of the town
Will lie down for a crown.
Then away, sir, and give us room!


He:
By Phoebus, by Jove,
By honour, by love,
I’ll do ye dear sweet no harm.
You’re fresh as a rose,
I want one of those.
Ah, how such a wife would charm.
Ah, how such a wife would charm.


She:
And can you then like the old rule,
Be conjugal, honest and frugal,
And marry and look like a fool?
For I must be plain, all tricks are in vain,
There’s nothing can gain, the thing you’d obtain
But moving, and proving
By wedding, true loving -
My lesson I’ve learnt at school.


He:
I’ll do’t by this hand,
I’ve houses, I’ve land,
Estate too in good freehold.
My dear, let us join.
It all shall be thine –
Besides a good purse of gold.
Besides a good purse of gold.


She:
You make me to blush, now I vow.
Oh Lord, shall I too baulk my cow?
But since the late oath you have swore –
Your soul shall not be in danger of me.
I’d rather agree, of two to make three.
We’ll wed and we’ll bed,
There’s no more to be said
And I’ll ne’er go a-milking more.


He:
I’ll do’t by this hand,
I’ve houses, I’ve land,
Estate too in good freehold.
My dear, let us join.
It all shall be thine –
Besides a good purse of gold.
Besides a good purse of gold. [2]

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources:

---