SCARBOROUGH FAIR
“Scarborough Fair” is a traditional English fair, and is also a traditional English ballad.
The song tells the tale of a young man, who tells the listener to ask his former lover to
perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam
and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her
back. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover a series of
equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.
In “Scarborough Fair” the herbs may be a veiled message for the girl where the man is
explaining why she should come back to him (if she overcomes the five impossible
tasks). Parsley, used to this day as a digestive aid, was said to take away the bitterness,
and medieval doctors took this in a spiritual sense as well. Sage has been known to
symbolize strength for thousands of years. Rosemary represents faithfulness, love and
remembrance, and the custom of a bride wearing twigs of rosemary in her hair is still
practiced in England and several other European countries today. Thyme symbolizes
courage, and during the medieval era, knights would often wear images of thyme on their
shields when they went to combat. The speaker in the song, by mentioning these four
herbs, wishes his true love mildness to soothe the bitterness that is between them,
strength to stand firm in the time of their being apart from each other, faithfulness to stay
with him during this period of loneliness and, paradoxically, courage to fulfill her
impossible tasks and to come back to him by the time she can.
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Remember me to one who lives there.
For once she was a true love of mine.
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt.
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Without any seam or fine needlework,
and then she’ll be a true love of mine.
Tell her to wash it in yonder dry well,
parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
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Simon & Garfunkel………..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jj4s9I-53g