Come You Not From Newcastle
- Come you not from Newcastle?
Come you not there away?
O met you not my true love,
Riding on a bonny bay?
- Why should not I love my love?
Why should not my love love me?
Why should not I love my love
Since love to all is free?
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- I have land at Newcastle,
Will buy both hose and shoone [shoone:shoes]
And I have land at Durham,
Will fetch my hart to boorne [See note]
- And why should not I love my love?
Why should not my love love me?
Why should not I love my love
Since love to all is free?
Chappell, W., Old English Popular Music, 1893, reprinted 1961, Jack Russell, New York. Pages 188-9. He feels the words date to 1580 even though the first publication of the tune is The Dancing Master, 1650
Note on "fetch my hart to boorne". I don't know what this mean. Boorne is yeast or a boiled wort. Hart generally means a buck or male deer but is also a term used for the bilberry.
The word "not" is omitted from the first verse in the version found in Lilliburlero, A book of songs chosen by Lady Bell, D.B.E., Oxford University Press, 1933.
On the album The Trees They Grow So High Sarah Brightman sings a very slightly different version:
- Why should not I love my love?
Why should not my love love me?
Why should not I speed after him,
Since love to all is free?
-
- (Italics added.)