Go No More a-Rushing (Riddle Song)

Go no more a-rushing, maids, in May
Go no more a-rushing, maids, I pray
Go no more a-rushing, or you'll fall a-blushing
Bundle up your rushes and haste away.
You promised me a cherry without any stone
You promised me a chicken without any bone
You promised me a ring that has no rim at all
And you promised me a bird without a gall.

How can there be a cherry without a stone?
How can there be a chicken without a bone?
How can there be a ring without a rim at all?
How can there be a bird that hasn't got a gall?
When the cherry's in the flower it has no stone;
When the chicken's in the egg, it hasn't any bone;
When the ring it is a-making it has no rim at all
And the dove it is a bird without a gall.

DT #847
note: From Barrett (1891); tune appears in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book
with the same title.
RG
Apr98