If U Seek Amy

[Wilson Gray]

_An't_ > _ain't_ : _can't_ > _cain't_, except that "an't" is extinct
and "can't" is standard in AmE.

-Wilson

On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 12:32 AM, Randy Alexander
<strangeguitars at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Randy Alexander <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: If U Seek Amy
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 5:04 PM, Randy Alexander
> <strangeguitars at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 2:54 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
>>> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>>> What to make of the song "If You See K" by R[eginald] Spofforth,
>>>> listed in the _Catalogue of the Allen A. Brown Collection of Music in
>>>> the Public Library of the City of Boston_ (1916)?
>>>>
>>>> http://books.google.com/books?id=MEAQAAAAYAAJ&q=if-you-see-k
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --Ben Zimmer
>>>>
>>>
>>> That's a hard call without at least seeing the lyrics. Â Anyone in
>>> Boston feel like making a trip to their fine public library? Â It's a
>>> great place. Â I spent many happy hours there as an undergrad. Â Their
>>> music collection is fabulous.
>>>
>>> In the meantime, I contacted a BPL librarian (they have a 24hr chat
>>> service). Â She couldn't find anything yet, but said she'd get back to
>>> me by email.
>>>
>>> According to WP, Reginald Spofforth died in 1827, so if he was
>>> deliberately playing on FUCK, that would be quite an early use.
>>>
>>
>> Here's the call number:
>>
>> No. 24 in M.430.1.32
>> If you see K. Catch [for three voices]. (In Catch Club.
>> Original manuscript collection. Vol. 31, p. 49.)
>
> I just received an email back from the Curator of Music at the Boston
> Public Library, following up on this.  She sent me the lyrics:
>
> Voice 1:  If you see K I mean my Kitty my Kitty my Kitty+
>      I mean my kitty I mean my kitty kitty
>       my kitty my kitty my kitty my kitty my kitty+
>     I mean my kitty if you see K I mean my Kitty
>
> Voice 2:  If with the Nymph you dare before next toast I give+
>     Shall be to fit ye next toast I give shall be
>     shall be shall be shall be shall be shall be to fit ye+
>     shall be to fit ye next toast I give shall be to fit ye so
>
> Voice 3.  Mind my Boy see you a’n’t he
>     so mind my Boy see you a’n’t he
>      so mind my boy see you a’n’t he
>      see you a’n’t he see you a’n’t he
>      see you a’n’t he see you a’n’t he
>      see you a’n’t he see you a’n’t he
>      so mind my boy see you a’n’t he
>
> So not only is this definitely a very early (pre-Joycean, even) play
> on FUCK, it also is a play on CUNT "see you a'n't he", although I'm
> not sure what "a'n't" is.
>
> I've sent a request to the curator to see if I can get the song
> scanned because now I see that there seems to be even more in there.
> A "catch" is like a canon or round, where the voices have great
> potential for interrelation (it's a genre that makes use of a lot of
> polyphony).  It seems that the words might fit together in such a way
> to produce some kind of lewd sentence.  For an example of what I'm
> talking about, listen to the second and third pieces here, from PDQ
> Bach's "The Art of the Ground Round":
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkjR3cdXSS8
>
> Until I get another response from BPL (the first one took over a
> year), maybe some of the more creative list members can try to figure
> out how the words might combine into a sentence.
>
> --
> Randy Alexander
> Jilin City, China
> Blogs:
> Manchu studies: http://www.sinoglot.com/manchu
> Chinese characters: http://www.sinoglot.com/yuwen
> Language in China (group blog): http://www.sinoglot.com/blog
>
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--
-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

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