Annotation:Poor Catholic Brother

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POOR CATHOLIC BROTHER. AKA - "Catholic Brother (The)," "Dear Catholic Brother," "Hunting of Arscott of Tetcott (The)." Irish, Slow Air. A Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The title is from a Thomas D'Urfey ballad called "The Catholic Brother," whose first two stanzas go:

Dear Catholic brother are you now come from the Wars,
So lame of your foots and your Face full of Scars;
To see your poor Shela who with great grief was fill'd,
For you my dear Joy when I think you were kill'd.
With a Fa la, la.

O my shoul my dear Shela, I'm glad you see me,
For if I were dead now, I could not see thee;
The Cuts in my Body, and the Scars in my Face,
I got them in Fighting for her Majesty's Grace.

See note for "annotation:Dear Catholic Brother" for more on this ancient tune.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 631, p. 158.

Recorded sources:

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