silvasurfa <eric....@bigpond.blah.com> wrote:
I remember that song from Guides... we only ever sang a version of it with
a chorus that went:
Oh Sir Roger do not touch me,
Oh Sir Roger do not touch me
Oh Sir Roger do not touch me,
As she lay beneath the lily white sheets with nothing on at all.
And every time you sang that chorus you had to drop one word from the
end of the "Oh Sir Roger" line, leaving the same amount of silent beats
before starting the next line.
The darndest things amuse 11 year old girls.
They amuse other people, too. Here is part of John Aubrey's (16251697)
brief life of Sir Walter Raleigh:
"He loved a wench well; & one time getting up one of the Mayds of
Honour up against a tree in a Wood ('twas his first Lady) who seemed
at first boarding to be somewhat fearfull of her Honour, & modest, she
cryed, sweet Sir Walter, what do you me ask? Will you undoe me? Nay,
sweet Sir Walter! Sweet Sir Walter! Sir Walter! At last, as the
danger & the pleasure at the same time grew higher, she cryed in the
extasey, Swisser Swatter Swisser Swatter." [Spelling is Aubrey's.]
This anecdote went the rounds (thanks to Sir Walter himself, probably), &
found its way into a catch composed by Henry Purcell:
Sir Walter enjoying his damsel one night,
He tickled & pleas'd her to so great a delight,
That she could not contain t'ward the end of the matter,
But in rapture cried out,
O sweet Sir Walter! O sweet Sir Walter! O sweet Sir, sweet Sir Walter!
O switter swatter switter swatter....
It was recorded by the Deller Consort years ago & is a delightful piece. I
think it would have been fun if one had been able to hear the Girl Guides
singing Purcell by the fire.
Tom Parsons
...@panix.com | The sound of laughter has always seemed to me
| the most civilized music in the universe.
http://www.panix.com/~twp | Peter Ustinov