> Nic Jones > Songs > Don’t You Be Foolish, Pray
Don’t You Be Foolish, Pray
[ Roud V1569 ; Bodleian Roud V1569 ; DT DONTFOOL ; Mudcat 71593 ; trad.]
Nic Jones sang the courting song Don’t You Be Foolish, Pray in 1970 on his first album Ballads and Songs. His tune is from the third part of Playford’s The Merry Milk Maids. He noted:
The printed broadsides are often accused of stunting the growth of folksongs and of solidifying the words by submitting them to print. True as this is in many case, they also created and diffused a great many songs which possess a deal of charm in themselves.
Don’t You Be Foolish, Pray is a good example of this, probably created by a townsman with his idealised view of rural life. In many instances, songs such as this appealed very strongly to the country singers and were allotted high positions in their repertoires.
GreenMatthews sang Don’t You Be Foolish, Pray on their 2026 album Midsummer Revels. They noted:
Don’t You Be Foolish Pray is a ballad from the early 19th century set to music by Nic Jones which is a charming but rather naive view of the lives of country folk and, as Nic observed in the liner notes to his 1970 album Ballads and Songs, “it was probably written by a townsman”.
Lyrics
Nic Jones sings Don’t You Be Foolish, Pray
Now Hodge met Molly, the Miller’s maid,
Who long his suit denied,
And half inclined, half afraid,
He did stretch his old head and cry:
“Now Molly, while I love you so
Why still our hearts deny?
Come hang it and to the parson go –
And now don’t you be foolish, pray!”
And Molly, with an artful blush
That shamed the rose’s hue,
She cried to Hodge, “I pray you hush
And I pray you speak softly, do.”
“For we will be overheard, I know,
The mill won’t work today.
And so, dear Hodge, let go of my hand,
And now don’t you be foolish, pray!”
And Hodge, thus chided at a stand,
He says, “Well then, goodbye,
I’m going to give young Susan my hand
Since now you do cast off I.”
“Me cast you off?” cries Molly, “No!
The mill won’t work today,
And so, dear Hodge, to church we’ll go,
And now don’t you be foolish, pray!”