The low back’d car (William Rhys-Herbert)

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• (Posted 2024-01-25)  CPDL #78885:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-01-25).   Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 510 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: The low back’d car
Composer: Samuel Lover
Arranger: William Rhys-Herbert
Lyricist: Samuel Lover
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1904 J. Fischer & Bro.
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

When first I saw sweet Peggy,
’Twas on a market day:
A Low Back’d Car she drove, and sat
Upon a truss of hay.
But when that hay was blooming grass,
And deck’d with flowers of spring,
No flower was there that could compare
With the lovely girl I sing.
As she sat in the Low Back’d Car,
The man at the turnpike bar,
Never ask’d for his toll,
But just rubbed his owld poll,
And look’d after the Low Back’d Car.

In battle’s wild commotion,
The proud and mighty Mars,
With hostile scythes, demands his tythes,
Of death, in warlike scars;
But Peggy, peaceful goddess,
Has darts in her bright eye,
That knock men down in the market-town,
As right and left they fly;
As she sits in the Low Back’d Car,
Than battle more dangerous far,—
For the doctor’s art
Cannot cure the heart,
That is hit from the Low Back’d Car.

Sweet Peggy, round her car, sir,
Has strings of ducks and geese;
But the scores of hearts she slaughters
By far outnumber these;
While she among her poultry sits,
Just like a turtle-dove,
Well worth the cage, I do engage,
Of the blooming god of Love!
As she sits in her Low Back’d Car,
The lovers come from afar,
And envy the chicken
That Peggy is pickin’,
As she rides in her Low Back’d Car.

I’d rather own that car, sir,
With Peggy by my side,
Than a coach and four, and gold galore,
With a lady for my bride;
For the lady would sit forninst me,
On a cushion made with taste,
While Peggy would sit beside me,
With my arm around her waist,—
As we rode in that Low Back’d Car,
To be married by Father Mahar,
Oh! my heart would beat high
At her glance and her sigh,—
As we rode in the Low Back’d Car.