The lyrics to this were first printed as The Maypole Song in 1656 from a stage play. William Chappell then married the lyrics with the tune of Staines Morris in his Popular Music of the Olden Time, Vol. 1 (1859, pp. 125-6), saying:
"This tune is taken from the first edition of (Playford's) The Dancing Master. It is also in William Ballet's Lute Book (time of Elizabeth); and was printed as late as about 1760, in a Collection of Country Dances, by Wright.
The Maypole Song, in Actæon and Diana [Robert Cox, 2nd ed., 1656], seems so exactly fitted to the air, that, having no guide as to the one intended, I have, on conjecture, printed it with this tune".
However, Steve Fry says: "I got it from Ashley Hutching's "Morris On"!"
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Come
ye young men, come along,
With your music and your song.
Bring your lasses in your hands
For 'tis that which love commands.
With your music and your song.
Bring your lasses in your hands
For 'tis that which love commands.
Chorus:
Then to the maypole haste away
For 'tis now our holiday
Then to the maypole haste away
For 'tis now our holiday
'Tis
the choice time of the year
For the violets now appear.
Now the rose receives its birth
And the pretty primrose decks the earth.
For the violets now appear.
Now the rose receives its birth
And the pretty primrose decks the earth.
And
when you well reckoned have
What kisses you your sweethearts gave,
Take them all again and more,
It will never make them poor.
What kisses you your sweethearts gave,
Take them all again and more,
It will never make them poor.
When
you thus have spent your time
Till the day be past its prime
To your beds repair at night
And dream there of your day's delight.
Till the day be past its prime
To your beds repair at night
And dream there of your day's delight.
