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Monty Python

Background To History Lyrics - Monty Python

[PROF. JONES:] Good evening. 

One of the main elements in any assessment of the medieval open-field farming system is the availability of plough teams for the winter plowing. 

Professor Tofts of the University of Manchester puts it like this: 

(A rocking beat starts and a 60s-style folk rock song with some heavy Caribbean influence begins.) 

 

To plough once in the winter Sowing, and again in Lent, 

Sowing with as many oxen 

Sowing with as many oxen 

As he shall have yoked in the plough 

Oh yes 

Oh yes 

As he shall have yoked in the plough. 

Oh yes 

Oh yes 

 

[PROF. JONES:] But of course there is considerable evidence of open-field villages as far back as the tenth century. Professor Moorhead: 

(Dramatic metal chords, reminiscent of British punk or perhaps groups like Black Sabbath.) 

Theeeeeere's ev-i-de-ence 

Theeeeeere's ev-i-de-ence 

There's evidence (evidence) 

Evidence (evidence) 

Evidence (evidence?) 

There's evidence (evidence!) 

 

Evidence of settlements with one long village street, 

Farmsteads, hamlets, little towns - the framework was complete 

By the tiiiiime ... (OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST!) The rural framework was complete 

Rur-al 

frame-work 

wa-as 

com-plete. 

 

[PROF. JONES:] This is not to say, of course, that the system was as sophisticated as it later came to be. I asked the Professor of Medieval studies at Cambridge why this was. 

[PROF. HEGERMAN:] (stuttering) Well, i-it may not have been a - a statutory obligation, but, uh, I mean, uh, a guy who was a freeman whuh - was obliged in the medieval system to... 

[PROF. JONES:] To do boonwork? 

[PROF. HEGERMANN:] That's right. There's an example, ah, from the village rolls, ah, in 1313. 

[PROF. JONES:] And I believe you're going to do it for us. 

[PROF. HEGERMAN:] That's right, yeah... 

(Pop beat sets in, reminiscent of the Beatles in their later period but with some of the spastic quality of a Joe Cocker.) 

Oh it's written in the village rolls 

That if one plough-team wants an oxen 

And that oxen is lent 

Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the loooord's consent. 

Yeah, yeah, 

Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent 

Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent 

Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent 

Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent 

Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent 

(na na na na) 

Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent 

(na na na na) 

Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent 

(na na na na) 

Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent 

Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent. 

 

That was a talk on the open-field farming system by Professor Angus Jones. Some of the main points covered in this talk are now available on a long-playing record entitled "The Ronettes Sing Medieval Agrarian History." 

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Copyright: Song Discussions Is Protected By U.s. Patent 9401941. Other Patents Pending.