Are you going to Scarborough Fair?Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme,Remember me to one who lives there,She once was a true love of mine.
So begins the old Simon and Garfunkel song “Scarborough Fair,” borrowed from the Elizabethans, and a fine lot they were. What seems on the surface to be a perfectly innocent folk song turns out to be riddle of devilish complexity. Nevertheless, we as herbalists are in a prime position to figure it out.
Let’s reconstruct:
First, the hero of the song gets a third party to take a lengthy message to his ex-lover who lives in another town. In this message, he instructs her to perform 5 impossible tasks as prerequisites to getting him back – everything from sewing a shirt with no seams to finding him some land between the sand and the sea.
So much for the idea that this is a straightforward love song. Have her make me a cambric shirt, indeed. Does he love her, or is he kissing her off?
Pondering this question, the modern herbalist noticed that in between all this dictatorial preaching was the refrain, “parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.” Aha! Perhaps there is the clue to his meaning.
Here’s how the song ends:
If she tells me she can’t, I’ll reply,Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme,Let me know that at least she will try,And then she’ll be a true love of mine.
Love imposes impossible tasks,Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme,Though not more than any heart asks,And I must know she’s a true love of mine.
Dear, when thou hast finished thy task,Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme,Come to me, my hand for to ask,For then thou art a true love of mine.
In short, it seems like all she has to do if she wants him back is perform a few garden-variety, herculean tasks
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