An outlandish knight…
Right, got it.
…he dreamed a dream…
No, wait – he did what?
This is sometimes catalogued as “The outlandish knight”, confusingly enough, but also crops up under a number of other names; Martin Carthy’s recorded it as “A Cornish young man”. I got the idea and the tune from Andy Turner’s rather fine A Folk Song A Week site; the words are from a broadside on the Bodleian Web site. It’s an odd little song about love, social class and chastity, with a slightly improbable happy ending; I don’t know the significance of the move with the ring and the guinea, and why a kiss is like a stone in a sling remains a mystery. And what our friend(?) the outlandish knight is doing in there is anyone’s guess.
Like Andy, I sang this one unaccompanied; I thought that was how it wanted to be.
Fifty-Two Folk Songs 