Get Up and Bar the Door
Get Up and Bar the Door is a medieval Scots ballad about a battle of wills between a husband and wife. It is Child ballad 275. According to Child, it was first published by David Herd.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The song begins with the wife busy in her cooking and other chores. As the wind picks up, the husband tells her to close and bar the door, but she insists that he do it himself. They make a pact that the next person who speaks must bar the door, and the door remains open. At midnight two Gentlemen (some versions say thieves) enter the house and eat the pudding that the wife has just made. The husband and wife watch them, but still neither speaks out of stubborn pride. Amazed, one original version you get the impression the gentlemen wants the to cut of the gentlemens beard however in the other version it is proposed(possibly refers to cutting husbands beard or his throat) and kiss the wife. Finally, the husband shouts "Ye’ve eaten my bread, ye hae druken my ale, and ye’ll mak my auld wife (first version kiss wife) second version a whore!" The wife responds "Ye hae spoke the first word. Get up and bar the door."
In some versions, the husband is named as Johnie Blunt of Crawford Moor.[2] Child notes that the song was used by Prince Hoare to provide one of the principal scenes in his musical entertainment, No Song, No Supper, performed at Drury Lane in 1790.
Among many things, this folk ballad talks about the sense of lasting competition in a relationship. The man tries to maintain his power but the woman refuses because she does not want to be treated like a doormat. The ballad makes the point that being stubborn has no benefits, by being stubborn they lost pudding and subjected their possessions to be stolen.[original research?]
[edit] Recordings
- Martin Carthy - Shearwater (as "John Blunt")
- Ewan MacColl sang it on "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) Volume I" (1956)
- Maddy Prior and June Tabor sang it on "No More to the Dance" as "The Barring
