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The Hunt Is Up
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The Hunt Is Up
The Hunt Is Up
[ Roud V18819 ; William Gray / trad.]
The King's Hunt Is Up is a poem by William Gray of Reading († 1557) printed in Ernest W. Dormer, Gray of Reading: a 16th-century controversialist and ballad writer (Reading, 1923). The University of Toronto's Representative Poetry Online notes:
This ballad, by one of the most popular professional ballad writers of the reign of Henry VIII, is referred to in The Art of English Poesy (1589): “And one Gray, what good estimation did he grow unto with the same king Henry … for making certain merry ballads, whereof one chiefly was The Hunt is up.” The abbreviation “Hunt's up” was at first used of the song sung or played on the horn to awaken huntsmen in the morning, and then extended (as in Shakespeare) to mean any song intended to arouse in the morning.
Swan Arcade sang The Hunt Is Up with a few minor variations from Grey's poem in 1973 on their eponymous album Swan Arcade.
The Albion Dance Band recorded The Hunt Is Up at a dance held in Olympic Studios in September 1976 with Shirley Collins and Eddie Upton singing. This was published in 1977 on their album The Prospect Before Us and later on Shirley Collins' anthology Within Sound. The original album's liner notes commented:
A tune for dancing known as early as the first part of the 16th century. The verses sunge here come from the time of Henry VIII. A “hunt's up” came to be the name given to any tune intended to arouse in the morning. The old Christmas good luck visiting custom in Cumberland, Westmorland and the Isle of Man was known as “hunsupping”, doubtless due to the combination of music, cacophany and the unsociable hours of the visit.
The Wilson Family sang The Hunt Is Up on their 2009 CD A Grey Lock or Two. They noted:
Reputedly written by some sycophant at the court of Henry VIII. The song appears in a 17th century chapbook and is printed in Sedley’s Seeds of Love which includes the verse “the hunt is up, the hunt is up and now it’s almost day, and he that's a-bed with another man's wife, it's time to get away”. The writer probably lost his head for that verse and thus remains anonymous!
Jon Boden sang The Hunt Is Up as the 2 July 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. Muzza added his home recording of The King's Hunt to YouTube in June 2011:
Lyrics
William Grey's poem The King's Hunt is up | Swan Arcade sing The Hunt Is Up |
---|---|
The hunt is up, the hunt is up, |
The hunt is up, the hunt is up, |
The east is bright with morning light, |
The east is bright with morning light, |
Behold the skies with golden dyes |
Behold the skies with golden dyes |
The horses snort to be at the sport, |
The horses snort to join the sport, |
The sun is glad to see us clad |
The sun is glad to see us clad |
Awake all men, I say again, |
Awake all men, I say again, |
The Albion Dance Band's The Hunt Is Up | Jon Boden sings The Hunt Is Up |
The east is bright with morning light, |
The east is bright with morning light, |
Chorus (repeated after each verse): |
Chorus (repeated after each verse): |
The horses snort to be at sport, |
The horses snort to be at the sport, |
Arise all men! |
The sun is glad to see us clad |
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Garry Gillard for transcribing Jon's verses