"Billy Boy," again

[Garson O'Toole]

Erratum: There is a match for "1864"  in Beadle's Dime-Song-Book, No.
10, and the page image displays "July 1864". There is no match for
1964.

> Here is a link to Beadle's Dime-Song-Book, Volume 10. There is no
> clear publication date. GB assigns a date of 1864. WorldCat suggests
> 1863. The is a match in the volume for "July 1964" in a
> self-advertisement that says Beadle's Dime Publications were reviewed
> positively in the North American Review for July 1864.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=RmhMAAAAcAAJ&q=%22three+times%22#v=snippet&
>
> Short link: http://goo.gl/bVFtX
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> How old is she, Billie Boy, Billie Boy,
> How old is she, charming Billie Boy,
>   She's three times six, four times seven,
>   Twenty eight and eleven, etc.
> [End excerpt]
>
> This might be viewed as a sequence: 18, 28, and 39. Perhaps Billy
> Boy's desires were repeated thwarted over a span of many years.
>
> Garson
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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