The Mallard Song is an ancient tradition of All Souls College, Oxford

All Souls College, Oxford

The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....

. It is sung once a century in a ceremony in which the Fellows parade around the College with flaming torches, led by a "Lord Mallard" who is carried in a chair, in search of a giant mallard

Mallard

The Mallard , or Wild Duck , is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia....

 that supposedly flew out of the foundations of the college when it was being built in 1437. The procession is led by an individual carrying a duck — originally dead, now just wooden — tied to the end of a vertical pole. The ceremony was last held in 2001, with Martin Litchfield West

Martin Litchfield West

Martin Litchfield West is an internationally recognised scholar in classics, classical antiquity and philology...

 acting as Lord Mallard. His predecessor as Lord Mallard was Cosmo Lang

Cosmo Lang

William Cosmo Gordon Lang, 1st Baron Lang of Lambeth GCVO PC was an Anglican prelate who served as Archbishop of York and Archbishop of Canterbury . His rapid elevation to Archbishop of York, within 18 years of his ordination, is unprecedented in modern Church of England history...

, who presided over the centenary ceremony in 1901.

The song

The words of the song are as follows:

The Griffine, Bustard, Turkey & Capon

Lett other hungry Mortalls gape on

And on theire bones with Stomacks fall hard,

But lett All Souls' Men have ye Mallard.

CHORUS:

Hough the bloud of King Edward,

By ye bloud of King Edward,

It was a swapping, swapping mallard!

Some storys strange are told I trow

By Baker

Richard Baker (chronicler)

Sir Richard Baker was the English author of the Chronicle of the Kings of England and other works.-Life:He was probably born at Sissinghurst in Kent, the grandson of Sir John Baker, the first Chancellor of the Exchequer. He entered Hart Hall, Oxford, as a commoner in 1584...

, Holinshead

Raphael Holinshed

Raphael Holinshed was an English chronicler, whose work, commonly known as Holinshed's Chronicles, was one of the major sources used by William Shakespeare for a number of his plays....

 & Stow

John Stow

John Stow was an English historian and antiquarian.-Early life:The son of Thomas Stow, a tallow-chandler, he was born about 1525 in London, in the parish of St Michael, Cornhill. His father's whole rent for his house and garden was only 6s. 6d. a year, and Stow in his youth fetched milk every...

Of Cocks & Bulls, & other queire things

That happen'd in ye Reignes of theire Kings.

CHORUS

The Romans once admir'd a gander

More than they did theire best Commander,

Because hee saved, if some don't foolle us,

The place named from ye Scull of Tolus.

CHORUS

The Poets fain'd Jove turn'd a Swan,

But lett them prove it if they can.

To mak't appeare it's not att all hard:

Hee was a swapping, swapping mallard.

CHORUS

Hee was swapping all from bill to eye,

Hee was swapping all from wing to thigh;

His swapping tool of generation

Oute swapped all ye wingged Nation.

CHORUS

Then lett us drink and dance a Galliard

in ye Remembrance of ye Mallard,

And as ye Mallard doth in Poole,

Lett's dabble, dive & duck in Boule.

CHORUS