Editing Lavender's Blue (section)

==Origins==
{{wikisource|Diddle, Diddle|Diddle, Diddle: Or, The Kind Country Lovers}}
The earliest surviving version of the song is in a [[broadside (music)|broadside]] printed in England between 1672 and 1679,<ref name=Fresno/> under the name ''Diddle Diddle, or The Kind Country Lovers''.<ref>See also [http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/search/roud/3483 here]</ref> The broadside indicates it is to be sung to the tune of "Lavender Green", implying that a tune by that name was already in existence. The lyrics printed in the broadside are fairly bawdy, celebrating sex and drinking.<ref name=TradMusLib/>

According to Robert B. Waltz, "The singer tells his lady that she must love him because he loves her. He tells of a vale where young man and maid have lain together, and suggests that they might do the same". Waltz cites [[Sandra Stahl Dolby]] as describing this broadside version as being about a girl named Nell keeping the singer's bed warm.<ref name=Fresno/>

Here is the first of ten verses:
<poem style="margin-left:2em;">Lavender's green, diddle, diddle,
{{0|—}}Lavender's blue
You must love me, diddle, diddle,
{{0|—}}cause I love you,
I heard one say, diddle, diddle,
{{0|—}}since I came hither,
That you and I, diddle, diddle,
{{0|—}}must lie together.<ref name=Opie1997/></poem>

Both Waltz (citing [[Eloise Hubbard Linscott]]) and Halliwell have noted the song's association with [[Twelfth Night (holiday)|Twelfth Night]] and the choosing of the king and queen of the festivities of that holiday.<ref name=Fresno/><ref name=Halliwell/>
[[File:The Baby's Opera A book of old Rhymes and The Music by the Earliest Masters Book Cover 11.png|thumb|Lyrics and illustration for "Lavender's Blue" in ''The Baby's Opera – A Book of Old Rhymes and the Music by the Earliest Masters'']]
"Lavender's Blue" emerged as a children's song in ''Songs for the Nursery'' in 1805 in the form:
<poem style="margin-left:2em;">Lavender blue and Rosemary green,
When I am king you shall be queen;
Call up my maids at four o'clock,
Some to the [[Spinning wheel|wheel]] and some to the [[distaff|rock]];
Some to make hay and some to shear [[cereal|corn]],
And you and I will keep the bed warm.<ref name=Opie1997/></poem>

Similar versions appeared in collections of rhymes throughout the 19th century.<ref name=Opie1997/>

===Melody===
<score sound raw>
\header { tagline = ##f }
\layout { indent = 0
  \context { \Score \remove "Bar_number_engraver" }
  \context { \Voice \remove "Dynamic_engraver" }
}

global = { \key g \major \time 3/8 }

melody = \relative c'' { \global \autoBeamOff \set midiInstrument = "celesta"
  \repeat volta 2 { g8 d' d | d c16 b a g | }
    \alternative { {g8 e' e | e4.| } { c8 b a | g4. } } \bar "|."
}

verse = \new Lyrics \lyricmode {
  << { La -- ven -- der's blue, did -- dle, did -- dle! La -- ven -- der's green; }
  \new Lyrics \lyricmode { When I am king, did -- dle, did -- dle! _ _ _ _ You shall be queen. }
  >>
}

classicalGuitar = \relative c' { \global \clef bass \set midiInstrument = "acoustic guitar (nylon)"
  \repeat volta 2 { g8\pp <d' b> <d b> | g,8 <d' b> <d b> | }
    \alternative { { g,8 <e' c> <e c> | g, <e' c> <e c> | } { fis, d' d, | <b' g>4. } }
}

\score { \new ChoirStaff
  <<
    \new Staff \melody \addlyrics \verse
    \new Staff \classicalGuitar
  >>
  \layout { }
}
\score { \unfoldRepeats { << \melody \\ \classicalGuitar >> }
  \midi { \tempo 8=144
    \context { \Score midiChannelMapping = #'instrument }
    \context { \Staff \remove "Staff_performer" }
    \context { \Voice \consists "Staff_performer" }
  }
}
</score>
Source<ref>{{cite book|title=The Baby's Opera|page=17|editor=[[Walter Crane]]|others=engraved by [[Edmund Evans]]|year=1877|publisher=George Routledge and Sons|location=London, New York|url=https://dn790004.ca.archive.org/0/items/babysoperabookof00cran/babysoperabookof00cran.pdf|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>