A minor mondagreen

[Laurence Horn]

On Dec 7, 2011, at 5:07 PM, David A. Daniel wrote:

> I learned this as a child with the only lyrics that make sense: "I have been to see my wife, she's the joy of my life, she's a young thing and cannot leave her mother." So, either these two are betrothed, and the girl is, like, 12 or less, and Billy Boy considers her his wife (because they are betrothed) but has "to go and see her" because she's a young thing and still lives with her mother, or they are actually married, but the child-wife has to stay at home with her mother until age X (whatever that might be), so Billy Boy still has to go and see her even though she is his wife and she "bids him enter" and "makes him cherry pie". Or, Billy Boy is fantasizing the whole deal and has actually been out behind the barn with his goat, but that seems a bit too sophisticated for the genre. I suspect (but of course can't prove and think it would be interesting for someone - but not me - to try) that the "seek a wife" has snuck in fairly recently because: How can Billy Boy already h!
> ave a wife who is too young to leave her mother? OMG there is some nasty perversion, or some unspeakable hillbilly practice, being hinted at here, so we'd better change the lyrics so that he is a kid in love with someone who is also a kid and he is "seeking a wife" but of course they haven't done anything yet, heaven forbid. Personally, I always thought Billy Boy was probably, like, 30 years old or more, and had gone ahead and married someone he couldn't legally do, sort of like Elvis and Priscilla...
> DAD
> 
> 

Well, some versions do specify the age of Mrs. Billy (or Mrs.-Billy-to-be, as the case may be), but I'm not sure it helps.  Here are, supposedly, the lyrics of the original Child ballad:
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/c/child/billy_boy_english.html

Note the last verse:

How old is she, Billy Boy, Billy Boy, 
How old is she, charming Billy? 
Three times six and four times seven, twenty-eight and eleven, 
She's a young thing and cannot leave her mother.

Or, from what looks like a reputable source, as Version F of Child Ballad 12 (Lord Rendal), 
http://71.174.62.16/Demo/LongerHarvest?Text=LoHa_1_3f

9   How old is she, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
How old is she, charming Billy?
Twice six, twice seven, three times twenty and eleven,
She's a young thing and cannot leave her mammy.

Of course all this might just mean Billy Boy is too young to add.

LH
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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.
> 
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org