LL-L: "Songs" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 10.OCT.1999 (01)

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Songs"

> From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
> Subject: Etymology
>
> they have not offended anyone.  I find them interesting in a scholastic,
> historical and linguistic sense, but, apart from the sexual
> references, they do
> not exactly seem "moral" or "ethical" in today's world, dealing
> with what seems
> to be a gray area between seduction and rape.  Of course, moral
> standards have
> changed, but ...  Anyway,  I now tend to suspect them of being
> less "folksongs"
> than "tavern songs," some type of Renaissance entertainment for a
> carousing male
> audience.

In Scots we have "The Merry Muses of Caledonia", collected, added to, and
sometimes rewritten by Burns, then subtracted from by various bowdlerisers,
then restored as far as possible by modern scholars, usually including a
long poem by Burns describing the gory details of the libel summons he
received for publishing it. I have a copy here but unfortunately hardly a
single verse is suitable for public presentation. They can get quite witty
sometimes:

The modiewark has done me ill
An ablo ma apron haes biggit a hill

[modiewark - mole]

I don't think these songs are quite honest enough to act as a representation
of actual behaviour in those times - I'm sure there have always been young
girls prepared to risk everything for a bit of fun, but in this book it's as
if that's all they ever did!

I think the tradition in England is more enlightening. George Eliot's novel
"Adam Bede" gives quite an detailed account of rural attitudes to sex in
Victorian times, and it seems to be a mixture of insistent seduction by only
a few men relying on the ignorance of the young women involved. In Britain
at least, this sort of thing persisted right up until the 1950s and often
resulted in the parents (whose fault it was for not giving their children
sex education in the first place) simply throwing their daughters right out
of the house and having nothing more to do with them as soon as they
discovered the pregnancy. Anyway, George Eliot's (who was a woman, remember)
book is particularly illustrative of Victorian sexual ignorance not only
because of the story but because of the fact that it got published. In spite
of explicit details of Hetty's failure to menstruate and the subsequent
progress of her pregnancy and the victimisation of the naïve Adam Bede, the
book went right through the (male-dominated) publishing and library systems
without a single person realising that it was heavy censorship material.

The English folksong tradition did undergo a lot of bowdlerisation, and many
of these bowdlerised versions are still with us even although they often
make no sense. A good example is the Somerset song "Oh No, John!" where the
romantic heroine has been instructed always to answer "No" to any suitors
(bowdlerised):

My father was a Spanish captain
Went to sea a month ago
First he kissed me then he left me
Bid me always answer "No"
    Oh, no John, no John, no John, no!

(unbowdlerised):

My husband was a Spanish captain
Went to sea a month ago
First he kissed me then he left me
Bid me always answer "No"
    Oh, no John, no John, no John, no!

In the unbowdlerised version the turning point of the song hinges on
extremely peculiar behaviour on the part of the man, who begs to stay with
her even if her can't be anything to her, then seems to vaguely contradict
himself:

I will stay with you forever
If you will not be unkind
Madam, I have vowed to love you
Would you have me change my mind?
    Oh, no John, no John, no John, no!

Whereas the unbowdlerised version is a logistical tour de force:

Madam, shall I tie your garter
Just a little above your knee
If my hand should wander further
Would you think amiss of me?
    Oh, no John, no John, no John, no!

This sort of innuendo can render bawdy songs rather charming, and a great
tradition of innuendo has been building up in England (not Scotland?) ever
since the middle ages (and is still going from strength to strength if the
BBC's anything to go by - vide French & Saunders' new effort!) so that some
of the bawdiest songs ever sung seem to have escaped censorship simply
because the real meaning is invisible to Puritan eyes. A good example is
"Two Maids went a-Milking", an innocent-looking song in which every line is
bursting at the seams with sexual imagery:

My boys, let us now drink down the sun
And let us now drink down the moon
Take your lady to the wood
If you you really think you should
You may catch her a small bird or two
    Tra-la-la!
You may catch her a small bird or two!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org

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