1851 jest about trad repertoire

[Jonathan Lighter]

This idea of a wrire poking fun at the expected repertoire of a traditional singer so long ago comes as something of a surprise, to me at least.  Perhaps the author had Mrs. Hogg in mind. The source is _Bertie, or Life in the Old Field: A Humorous Novel_, by "Gregory Seaworthy" {George Higby Throop] (Philadelphia: A. Hart, 1851), p. 123:

  We resumed our singing, and ran over the greater part of my aunt's collection of songs; the most of which, I undertake to say, did not date farther back than the fifteenth century.

  This part of the story is set in North Carolina.  The only trad song quoted (p. 43) is "The Mermaid":

                           "Then three times round went our gallant ship,
                         Then three times round went she;
                         Then three times round went our gallant ship,
                         And she sunk to the bottom of the sea!"

  Is this the first mention of that ballad in America?

  JL


---------------------------------
How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger’s low  PC-to-Phone call rates.

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