A Book of Nursery Songs and Rhymes/The Task

by Sabine Baring-Gould

For works with similar titles, see The Task.

For other versions of this work, see The Elfin Knight.

NURSERY SONGS

I. THE TASK

 

Will you buy me, my lady, a cambric shirt?
Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine (antienne);
And stitch it without any needle-work?
O and then you shall be a true lover of mine.

O and you must wash it in yonder well,
Whilst every grove, etc.
Where never a drop of water in fell.
O and then, etc.

O and you must hang it upon a white thorn,
Whilst every grove, etc.
That never has blossomed since Adam was born.
O and then, etc.

O and when that these tasks are finished and done,
Whilst every grove, etc.
I will take thee and marry thee under the sun.
O and then, etc.

Or that ever I do these two and three,
Whilst every grove, etc.
I will set of tasks as many to three,
O and then, etc.

You must buy for me an acre of land,
Whilst every grove, etc.
Between the salt sea and the yellow sand,
O and then, etc.

You must plough it o'er with a horse's horn,
Whilst every grove, etc.
And sow it all over with one pepper-corn,
O and then, etc.

You must reap it, too, with a piece of leather,
Whilst every grove, etc.
And bind it all up with a peacock's feather,
O and then, etc.

You must take it up in a bottomless sack
Whilst every grove, etc.
And bear it to the mill on a butterfly's back,
O and then, etc.

And when that these tasks are finished and done,
Whilst every grove, etc.
O then will I marry thee under the sun,
And then thou shalt be a true lover of mine.