A minor mondagreen

[Jonathan Lighter]

I learned "been to seek a wife."

JL

On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 2:53 PM, Dan Goodman <dsgood at iphouse.com> wrote:
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> Poster:       Dan Goodman <dsgood at IPHOUSE.COM>
> Subject:      Re: A minor mondagreen
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>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      A minor mondagreen
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>>
>> Is anyone else familiar with the children's song, "Billy Boy"? There's
>> a verse in which Billy Boy states that he has
>>
>> … been to see Coowife(?)
>> She's the joy of my life
>> But she's a young thing
>> And cannot leave her mother
>>
>> For about 65 years, I've assumed that "Coowife" was one of those
>> fairy-tale names, like "Gawain," that simply exists. On a whim, I
>> googled it and W:pedia'd it and found nothing. Then it struck me that,
>> perhaps, I could find the song.
>>
>> I did find the song, with almost no effort. And there it was:
>>
>> Oh, where have you been,
>> Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
>> Oh, where have you been,
>> Charming Billy?
>>
>> I have been to _seek a wife_,
>>
>> She's the joy of my life,
>> But she's a young thing
>> And cannot leave her mother.
>>
>> The song no longer makes sense. A guy goes to see a girlfriend named
>> "Coowife" too young to leave home and get married? So what? This kind
>> of thing happens all the time.
>>
>> But now, he's merely "*seeking* a wife," presumably some random woman
>> that he has yet to find. Nevertheless, somehow, he *already* knows her
>> well enough to consider her "the joy of [his] life," even though she's
>> too young to get married!
>>
>> Let well-enough alone.
>
> In the version I remember:
>
> I've been to see my wife,
> She's the darling of my life,
> But she's too young
> For to leave her mother.
>
> Not too young to be married, then; but too young to live with her husband.
>  (Which may not make any more sense.)
>
> A verse I learned later, not intended for children:
>
> Did she light your way to bed, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
> Did she light your way to bed, charming Billy?
> Yes, she lit my way to bed,
> But she shook her charming head,
> She's too young for to leave her mother.
>
>
> --
> Dan Goodman
> "I have always depended on the kindness of stranglers."
> Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Expire
> Journal http://dsgood.livejournal.com
> http://dsgood.dreamwidth.org
>
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