1851 jest about trad repertoire

[Laurence Horn]

>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?
>
As usual, I don't know from antedates, but I do know this same
quatrain shows up elsewhere in traditional Anglo-American ballads,
e.g. in "House Carpenter", often in slightly different versions, e.g.

Oh twice around went the gallant ship
I'm sure it was not three
When the ship all of a sudden, it sprung a leak
And it drifted to the bottom of the sea

I think it's sometimes "three times around...I'm sure it was not four"

Recorded by Jean Ritchie, Joan Baez, even Dylan...

LH

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