"Early One Morning" is an English folk song with lyrics first found in publications as far back as 1787. A broadside ballad sheet in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, dated between 1828 and 1829 has the title "The Lamenting Maid" and refers to the lover leaving to become a sailor. The now well-known melody was first printed by William Chappell in his publication National English Airs c.1855-1859. The melody may be derived from an earlier song "The Forsaken Lover". Chappell wrote in his later Popular Music of the Olden Time:
If I were required to name three of the most popular songs among the servant-maids of the present generation, I should say, from my own experience, that they are Cupid's Garden, I sow'd the seeds of love, and Early one morning. I have heard Early one morning sung by servants who came from Leeds, from Hereford and from Devonshire, and by others from parts nearer to London. The tune... was, I believe first printed in my collection.... from one of the penny song-books collected by Ritson, and it is curious that scarcely any two copies agree beyond the second line, although the subject is always the same - a damsel's complaint for the loss of her lover.
Lyrics
Early one morning, Just as the sun was rising, I heard a young maid sing, In the valley below. CHORUS: Oh, don't deceive me, Oh, never leave me, How could you use A poor maiden so? Remember the vows, That you made to your Mary, Remember the bow'r, Where you vowed to be true, Chorus Oh Gay is the garland, And fresh are the roses, I've culled from the garden, To place upon thy brow. Chorus Thus sang the poor maiden, Her sorrows bewailing, Thus sang the poor maid, In the valley below. Chorus Another version: Early one morning just as the sun was rising, I heard a young maid sing in the valley below. Oh, don't deceive me, Oh, never leave me, How could you use A poor maiden so? Remember the vows that you made to me truly, Remember how tenderly you nestled close to me. Gay is the garland fresh are the roses I've culled from the garden to bind over thee. Here I now wander alone as I wonder Why did you leave me to sigh and complain. I ask of the roses why should I be forsaken, Why must I here in sorrow remain? Through yonder grove by the spring that is running, There you and I have so merrily played, Kissing and courting and gently sporting, Oh, my innocent heart you've betrayed. Soon you will meet with another pretty maiden, Some pretty maiden, you'll court her for a while. Thus ever ranging turning and changing, Always seeking for a girl that is new. Thus sung the maiden, her sorrows bewailing Thus sung the maid in the valley below Oh, don't deceive me, Oh, never leave me, How could you use A poor maiden so?
Arrangements
The folk song is used in a number of well known folk-song arrangements, for example by the English composers Benjamin Britten and Gordon Jacob along with the Australian composer Percy Aldridge Grainger. Its melody forms the opening bars of the "Radio 4 UK Theme" by Fritz Spiegl, which was played every morning at the switch-on of BBC Radio 4 from late 1978 until April 2006. The melody was also adapted by Sir Francis Vivian Dunn as a military slow march called "The Globe and Laurel", created for the Band of the Royal Marines in 1935. The melody is one of the main themes of the "Nell Gwyn Overture" by Edward German.
Recordings
Sarah Brightman, on The Trees They Grow So High.
Eva Cassidy, on Somewhere.
Hayley Mills and Nancy Olson sang the song in the 1960 Disney film Pollyanna.
Jim Moray sang the song in his album Sweet England.
Nana Mouskouri on Quand tu chantes.
Television and film appearances
The song has also been used in a number of television programmes and films.
Each episode in the first two series of the television series The Adventures of Robin Hood was introduced with scene-setting rhymes sung to the tune of "Early One Morning".
In the 1959 WWII thriller Libel starring Canadian actor Paul Massie, British actor Dirk Bogarde, and British-American actress Olivia de Havilland, it featured heavily as part of an ever twisting plot.
The song was sung in the movie, Pollyanna.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation children's programme The Friendly Giant, which aired from 1958 to 1985, used an instrumental version of "Early One Morning" as its introductory and closing theme performed on recorder by Bob Homme, with harp accompaniment by John Duncan.
The song became Frank Spencer's choice of song in the BBC situation comedy Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.
In the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Early One Morning" was used by the First Evil as a trigger to make the vampire Spike kill humans again; one of the episodes is called "Never Leave Me", a line from the song.
In the TV comedy series Will & Grace, Advise & Resent, Will Truman plays the opening to the song on a bread stick whilst waiting for his blind date to arrive.
It was used in at least three episodes of Bonanza. Adam Cartwright sang the song in the episode entitled "The Wooing of Abigail Jones" on 3/4/1962. Almost a year later, on 24 February 1963, Julia Grant sang it again in the episode entitled "The Actress". Then on 4 April 1965, Hilda Brunner sang it to Howard Meade while playing harpsichord in the episode entitled "Dead and Gone".
Elizabeth Montgomery performed the song in a 1970 episode of Bewitched in which her character, Samantha, was transported back to 16th Century England and entertained King Henry VIII while strumming a lute.
Nicholas Hawell, playing the character of George Arthur, sang this at his initiation ritual as a new student at the Rugby school, in the last episode of the 1971 BBC television production of Tom Brown's Schooldays.
Tessa Peake-Jones, playing the character Mary Bennet sang this song in the 1980 production of Pride and Prejudice.
