For Tonight We'll Merry Merry Be

[rymenhild]

At an SCA event a few months ago, my roommate Aviva heard a folksong that sounded oddly familiar.

Landlord fill the flowing bowl
Until it doth run over
Landlord fill the flowing bowl
Until it doth run over
For tonight shall merry-i be
For tonight shall merry-i be
For tonight shall merry-i be
Tomorrow I'll be sober.

There appear to be several variants of this song (called, variously, "Three Jolly Coachmen" or "Landlord, Fill The Flowing Bowl"), as well as "Farewell to Grog", a version with different lyrics in honor of the United States Navy removing alcohol from its list of standard rations in 1862.

All hands to splice the main brace, call,
But splice it now in sorrow
For the spirit-room key will be laid away
Forever, on tomorrow.
For tonight we'll merry, merry be,
For tonight we'll merry, merry be,
For tonight we'll merry, merry be,
Tomorrow we'll be sober.

Of course, the reason Aviva and I are both highly amused by this song is that it is clearly the source of a traditional English Purim song (scroll down to "Wicked Man") on which we were both brought up:

Oh once there was a wicked wicked man,
And Haman was his name, Sir.
He would have murdered all the Jews,
Though they were not to blame, Sir.
Oh today we'll merry merry be
Oh today we'll merry merry be
Oh today we'll merry merry be
And nosh some hamentashen.

The original is definitely better, I must say, although I have to admire the authors/active bearers of "Wicked Man" for having the chutzpah to rhyme "Ahashverosh" with "scare us".

Here's to the man who drinks dark ale
And goes to bed quite mellow.
Here's to the man who drinks dark ale
And goes to bed quite mellow.
He lives as he ought to live
Lives as he ought to live
Lives as he ought to live
For he's a jolly good fellow!

Happy Purim, everyone!

Comments

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

My favorite line was always Mordechai's, and the one reason I still like that song: "If guns were but invented yet, that Haman I would shoot, sir".

Doesn't get much better than that for anachronism.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Anachronism in Purim songs is rather appropriate, I think. It's not as if there aren't any anachronisms or general weirdnesses in the Megillah itself. (I will refrain from identifying anachronisms/general weirdnesses, as I'm not quite sure which details are which. navelofwine would know.)

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Certainly. They just happen to be one of my favorite sorts of appropriate things to find in Purim songs. They leave me with happy thoughts of time machines. (Also of the Purim themes the choir at my parents' shul used to come up with... Think the Shma-na-nas, and the Mamas and the Tates, to start with.)

[scazon.livejournal.com]

The rhyme in the Wicked Man song isn't Ahashverosh, it's supposed to be Ahasuerus, according to the English pronunciation, which does rhyme with "scare us". I don't know why they put it in the Hebrew.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. How very odd that we always sang it with the Hebrew pronunciation.

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure what the English pronunciation is. We never used it.

[obopolsk.livejournal.com]

That's very cool! Thanks for sharing it.

But it did have the unfortunate effect of making me even sadder that I'm not at home for Purim. I'll have to sing to myself as I work on the newspaper late tonight.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

If you're situated where I think you are, you could always go to Hillel. A quick Internet check reveals that there are about five different events there tonight.

[obopolsk.livejournal.com]

There are at least 5 events there, but I'm stuck at the newspaper, which is a time sink, and I probably won't be out before 1 AM at least. But I think Chabad might be having its Purim party in the newspaper building, so maybe I can sneak some food out. :)

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

Fascinating!

[navelofwine.livejournal.com]

I think there's also a version about two young maids who find a sleeping Scotsman and decide to find out what he wears under his kilt. I haven't been able to find the lyrics on the net, though.

[sdelmonte]

So I heard this song at a filksing last night, and Googled to find the lyrics to show Batya, and the first thing that came up was this. Seven years after the original post. Weird but funny.

[rymenhild]

Ha! I seem to recall reading somewhere that Google knows who we are and sends us results likely to be relevant to us (so, blog posts at blogs we read regularly would come up). But even so, it's odd Google would send you to Dreamwidth instead of LJ!