The Folk Show Treasure Hunt Song #12

Track 12 "Esteesee"

 Wednesday 26th August @ 9pm

Rick Stuart’s Roots & Fusion / Pure Radio

Online live link: http://www.pureradio.org.uk

The Team:

Ange Hardy (vocals & harp)
Patsy Reid (fiddle, viola & cello)
Lukas Drinkwater (double bass)
Jonny Dyer (piano)
Andrew Pearce (drum kit)

The Song:

‘Matthew, Mark, Luke and John’ (or ‘The Black Paternoster’) is a childhood prayer that is catalogued as Roud Folk Song number 1704.

In a letter to Thomas Poole in 1797 Coleridge wrote: “This prayer I said nightly, and most firmly believed the truth of it. Frequently have I (half- awake and half-asleep, my body diseased and fevered by my imagination), seen armies of ugly things bursting in upon me, and these four angels keeping them off.” 

The Lyrics:

Four angels are here for my keeping
stand Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
how I pray for a weak Esteesee
God bless the bed I lie on.

All in awe as the floor falls beneath me
Stand demons and ghosts at my door
How I pray for God’s angels to keep me
God bless the bed I lie on

I am bound for my horrors and weeping
For my servitude barren and poor
How I pray God have mercy for grieving
God bless the bed I lie on.

Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head;
One to watch and one to pray
two to bear my soul away.

Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head;
One to watch and one to pray
Two to bear my soul away.

Four angels are here for my keeping
stand Matthew Mark Luke and John
how I pray for a weak Esteesee
God bless the bed I lie on. 

Notes From Coleridge:

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Bless the bed that I lie on.
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head; One to watch and one to pray And two to bear my soul away.

- “Black Paternoster”, Roud Folk Song 1704

"During my fever I asked why Lady Northcote (our neighbour) did not come & see me. My mother said, She was afraid of catching the fever. I was piqued & answered “Ah Mamma! the four Angels round my bed an’t afraid of catching it”.

- Coleridge recounting a story about himself at age 6.