Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
(a hill in the deep forest green)
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
(tracing of sparrow on snow-crested brown)
Without no seams nor needle work,
(blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain)
Then she'll be a true love of mine.
(sleeps unaware of the clarion call)
Tell her to find me an acre of land,
(on the side of a hill a sprinkling of leaves)
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
(washes the grave with silvery tears)
Between the salt water and the sea strand,
(a soldier cleans and polishes a gun)
Then she'll be a true love of mine.
(sleeps unaware of the clarion call)
Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather,
(war bellows blazing in scarlet battalions)
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
(general order their soldiers to kill)
And gather it all in a bunch of heather,
(and to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten)
Then she'll be a true love of mine.
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Remember me to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine.
NOTES
Simon and Garfunkel made this old folk song a
pop hit in the 1960's on the soundtrack to The
Graduate and the album, "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary
& Thyme." They combined the song with, "Canticle,"
and turned it into an anti-Vietnam war song.
Here is some more information on the song:
(From http://www.geocities.com/paris/villa/3895/)
A Dedication to Sandra from Bert, July 10, 1999
The history of Scarborough and its fair
This English folk song dates back to late medieval
times, when the seaside resort of Scarborough was an
important venue for tradesmen from all over England.
Founded well over a thousand years ago as Skarthaborg by
the Norman Skartha, the Viking settlement in North
Yorkshire in the north-west of England became a very
important port as the dark ages drew to a close.
Scarborough and its surroundings
Scarborough Fair was not a fair as we know it today
(although it attracted jesters and jugglers) but a huge
forty-five day trading event, starting August fifteen,
which was exceptionally long for a fair in those days.
People from all over England, and even some from the
continent, came to Scarborough to do their business. As
eventually the harbor started to decline, so did the
fair, and Scarborough is a quiet, small town now.
The history of the song
In the middle ages, people didn't usually take credit
for songs or other works of art they made, so the writer
of Scarborough Fair is unknown. The song was sung by
bards (or shapers, as they were known in medieval
England) who went from town to town, and as they heard
the song and took it with them to another town, the
lyrics and arrangements changed. This is why today there
are many versions of Scarborough Fair, and there are
dozens of ways in which the words have been written
down.
The lyrics
The following lyrics comprise most of the more
well-known verses as they are commonly sung. A small
handful of them were sung by Paul Simon and Art
Garfunkel on their 1966 album 'Parsley, sage, rosemary
and thyme,' which popularized the song. Paul Simon
learned the song from Martin Carthy, a famous folk
singer in the UK, while he was on tour there. Despite
using his arrangement of the song, Simon didn't even
mention Carthy´s name in the credits of the album.
Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme Remember me to one who lives there For once she was a true love of mine Have her make me a cambric shirt Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme Without no seam nor fine needle work And then she'll be a true love of mine Tell her to weave it in a sycamore wood lane Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme And gather it all with a basket of flowers And then she'll be a true love of mine Have her wash it in yonder dry well Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme where water ne'er sprung nor drop of rain fell And then she'll be a true love of mine Have her find me an acre of land Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme Between the sea foam and over the sand And then she'll be a true love of mine Plow the land with the horn of a lamb Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme Then sow some seeds from north of the dam And then she'll be a true love of mine Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme And gather it all in a bunch of heather And then she'll be a true love of mine If she tells me she can't, I'll reply Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme Let me know that at least she will try And then she'll be a true love of mine Love imposes impossible tasks Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme Though not more than any heart asks And I must know she's a true love of mine Dear, when thou has finished thy task Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme Come to me, my hand for to ask For thou then art a true love of mine
Explanations of the lyrics
The narrator of the song is a man who was jilted by his
lover. Although dealing with the paradoxes he sees
himself posed to in a very subtle and poetic manner,
this was a folk song and not written by nobles. The
courtly ideal of romantic love in the middle ages,
practiced by knights and noblemen, was loving a lady and
adoring her from a distance, in a very detached manner.
There was hardly a dream and sometimes not even a wish
that such love could ever be answered.
As a version of the song exists which is set in Whittington Fair and which is presumed to be equally old, it is puzzling why the lieu d'action of the song eventually became reverted to Scarborough. A possible explanation is that this is a hint from the singer to his lover, telling how she went away suddenly without warning or reason. Scarborough was known as a town where suspected thieves or other criminals were quickly dealt with and hung on a tree or à la lanterne after some form of street justice. This is why a 'Scarborough warning' still means 'without any warning' in today's English. This would also account for the absence of any suggestion of a reason for her departure, which could mean either that the singer doesn't have a clue why his lady left, or perhaps that these reasons are too difficult to explain and he gently leaves them out.
The writer goes on to assign his true love impossible tasks, to try and explain to her that love sometimes requires doing things which seem downright impossible on the face of it. The singer is asking his love to do the impossible, and then come back to him and ask for his hand. This is a highly unusual suggestion, because in those days it was a grave faux-pas to people from all walks of life for a lady to ask for a man's hand. Yet it fits in well with the rest of the lyrics, as nothing seems to be impossible in the song.
The meaning of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
The herbs parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, recurring
in the second line of each stanza, make up for a key
motive in the song. Although meaningless to most people
today, these herbs spoke to the imagination of medieval
people as much as red roses do to us today. Without any
connotation necessary, they symbolize virtues the singer
wishes his true love and himself to have, in order to
make it possible for her to come back again.
Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
Parsley is still prescribed by phytotherapists today to
people who suffer from bad digestion. Eating a leaf of
parsley with a meal makes the digestion of heavy
vegetables such as spinach a lot easier. It was said to
take away the bitterness, and medieval doctors took this
in a spiritual sense as well.
Sage (Salvia officinalis)
Sage has been known to symbolize strength for thousands
of years.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Rosemary represents faithfulness, love and remembrance.
Ancient Greek lovers used to give rosemary to their
ladies, and the custom of a bride wearing twigs of
rosemary in her hair is still practiced in England and
several other European countries today. The herb also
stands for sensibility and prudence. Ancient Roman
doctors recommended putting a small bag of rosemary
leaves under the pillow of someone who had to perform a
difficult mental task, such as an exam. Rosemary is
associated with feminine love, because it's very strong
and tough, although it grows slowly.
Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
According to legend, the king of fairies dances in the
wild thyme with all of the fairies on midsummernight;
that's the best known legendary appearance of the herb.
But the reason Thyme is mentioned here is that it
symbolizes courage. At the time this song was written,
knights used to wear images of thyme in their shields
when they went to combat, which their ladies embroidered
in them as a symbol of their courage.
This makes it clear what the disappointed lover means to say by mentioning these herbs. He wishes his true love mildness to soothe the bitterness which is between them, strength to stand firm in the time of their being apart from each other, faithfulness to stay with him during this period of loneliness and paradoxically courage to fulfill her impossible tasks and to come back to him by the time she can.