"dropped on"

[Joel S. Berson]

Ah, trepann'd -- that verb (2) with unpleasant associations with verb
(1).  When I first encountered it in the 18th century and not in a
surgical context I had to check the OED.

Is it possible that "trepann'd" got altered to "dropped on" from
mishearing combined with verb (2) being not common and not recognized?

Joel

At 2/26/2010 01:32 AM, Robin Hamilton wrote:
>Looking at the material again, it looks as if the phrase George draws
>attention to, "dropped on", may be an artefact of the transmission process
>of the song, and first appears quite late.  So not an authentic antedating
>of earliest recorded use.   :-(
>
>The version which I quoted from in my original post begins:
>
>Come all you gallant poachers that ramble void of care
>That walk out on a moonlight night with your dog, your gun and snare
>The harmless hare and pheasant you have at your command
>Not thinking of your last career out on Van Diemen's Land.
>
>Me and five more went out one night into Squire Duncan's park
>To see if we could catch some game, the night it being dark
>But to our great misfortune we got dropped on with speed
>And they took us off to Warwick gaol which made our hearts to bleed.
>
>(Web cite:
>http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/lloyd/songs/vandiemensland.html
>)
>
>Possibly the earliest version, found as a broadsheet in the Bodeleian
>collection -- Harding B 11(2815) -- has a first stanza which is clearly that
>of the version above, but with a second stanza which differs markedly:
>
>"Van Diemans Land"
>
>Come all my gallant poachers that ramble void of care,
>That walk out by moonlight with your dog gun & snare,
>The lofty hare and pheasants you have at your command,
>Not thinking of your last career upon Vendeman's land.
>
>Poor Tom Brown, from Nottingham, Jack williams, and Poor Joe,
>we are three daring poachers the country do well know,
>At night we were trepann'd by keepers hid in sand
>who for 14 years, transported us unto Vendieman's Land.
>
>At the other end of the chronological spectrum, there's Williams, A: Folk
>songs of the upper Thames, 1923, p 263, 264.   (Web cite:
>http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getfolk.php?id=934 ):
>
>    "Poor Tom Brown, of Nottingham Town"
>
>Verse 1
>
>Poor Tom Brown, of Nottingham Town, Jack Williams and poor Joe,
>They were three daring poachers, the county well does know;
>At night they were trepanned by keepers hid in sands,
>For fourteen years transported unto Van Dieman's Land.
>
>Verse 2
>
>Me and five more went out one night into Squire Duncan's park,
>To see if we could catch some game, the night it being dark;
>But, to our great misfortune, we got dropped with speed,
>They sent us off to Warwick jail, which made our hearts for to bleed.
>
>This looks as if it were constructed by clamping external material onto the
>earlier "Van Deiman's Land", and somewhere along the way, possibly even late
>in the 19thC, "dropped" or "dropped on" got written into the text.  (In the
>above version "we got dropped" would fit HDAS 4a, with "dropped" =
>"discovered".)
>
>So Vaux retains his priority in HDAS DROP 4a.
>
>Teach me to do my homework properly in the first place.
>
>Apologies all round.
>
>Robin
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "George Thompson" <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
>To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 9:56 PM
>Subject: "dropped on" (Non-Standard conjoined subject noun phrases)
>
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail
>>header -----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
>>Subject:      "dropped on" (Non-Standard conjoined subject noun phrases)
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>In a message dated February 24, 2010, Robin Hamilton quotes a poaching
>>ballad called "Hares in the Old Plantation," evidently from the late 18th
>>C:
>>Me and five more went out one night into Squire Duncan's park
>>            To see if we could catch some game, the night it being dark
>>            But to our great misfortune we got dropped on with speed
>>            And they took us off to Warwick gaol which made our hearts to
>>bleed
>>
>>This seems to be HDAS's 4a, "to become aware of, to discover, const. with
>>to or on".  The earliest citation for this sense in HADS is 1812, from
>>Vaux' Memoirs.
>>HDAS's various senses referring to being arrested, (under #5), all date
>>from the very early 20th C.
>>
>>GAT
>>
>>George A. Thompson
>>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>>Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
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