| Gans kledha da ha dorn yw lel Gwir lowen an golon, Yth aswon Myghtern Jamys fel Pandr' wrello Kernowyon. Yw ordnys le ha prys ankow? ' Verow Trelawny bras? Ottomma ugens mil Gernow a wodhvydh oll an kas. Burdhen 'Verow Trelawny bras? 'Verow Trelawny bras? Ottomma ugens mil Gernow a wodhvydh oll an kas. Yn-medh an Kapten, bew y woos, Gwas jolif yn mysk kans, Tour Loundres kyn fe Karrek Loos Y'n delirvsen dihwans! Ni a dres Tamer, tir dhe dir, An Hevren ny'gan lett, Ha skoodh ryb skoodh, kowetha wir, Piw orthyn ni a sett? Burdhen Devedhys bys yn fos Loundres, Gwel deg dhyn, ni a gri: Dewgh ‘mes, ownegyon oll, dewgh ‘mes! Gwell dus on esowgh hwi!" Trelawny yw avel felon Fast yn kargharow tynn, Mes ugens mil a Gernowyon Godhvos an ken a vynn. Burdhen | With a good sword and a trusty hand A faithful heart and true, King James's men shall understand What Cornish men can do. And have they fixed the where and when? And shall Trelawny die? Here's twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why. Chorus And shall Trelawny live? Or shall Trelawny die? Here's twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why. Out spake the captain brave and bold, A merry wight was he, Though London Tower were Michael's hold We'll set Trelawny free! We'll cross the Tamar, land to land, The Severn is no stay, Then one and all, and hand in hand, And who shall bid us nay. Chorus And when we came to London wall, A pleasant sight to view: Come forth, come forth, ye cowards all! Here are better men than you! Trelawny, he's in keep in hold Trelawny he may die, But twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why. Chorus |
Sung By St Ives Community Choir at Lowender Peran
Sung by Skwardya
Notes
Trelawny was written by Rev Robert Stephen Hawker in 1824 and apparently inspired by the expression “Here’s twenty thousand Cornish men will know the reason why”. He describes it as “the Song of the Western Men – When Sir Jonathon Trelawny, one of the seven Bishops, was committed to the Tower, the Cornish men arose one and all and marched as far as Exeter in their way to extort his liberation”. Trelawny was imprisoned in the tower in 1688 along in with six other bishops for his opposition to King James II policy of granting of Catholic indulgences.
Hawker published the song anonymously in a Plymouth Newspaper in 1826 and allowed it to be taken as a traditional ballad. He later published it in a book of poems called Ecclesia in 1840 and made clear both his authorship, and his delight at the way it had been taken as traditional. He did not set the song to a fixed tune but approved its eventual setting to the tune of a traditional Cornish song called “Wheal Rodney”. The tune comes from a broad European melting pot of similar folk tunes; a version is found in Wales as the song Y Blotyn Du; in Leicestershire as a song with a game about coal dust; as the French Le Petit Tambour; and also the nursery rhyme Grand Old Duke of York.