Below is the raw OCR text of the title page, index and correspondence about the manuscript titled Sailing Ship Shanties by Long John Silver [pseud. of Stan Hugill] which was done in Aberdovey, Merioneth, Wales in 1956-1957. The full manuscript should have the uncensored texts of all the shanties later bowdlerized in Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas.
If you would like to verify the text below, please download the PDF of the scanned pages.
SAILING SHIP SHANTIES
As Sung At The Latter End Of The
Nineteenth Century And At THe Beginning Of The
Twentieth Century.
Collected By
LONG JOHN SILVER
(Stanley J. HUGTLL)
Aberdovey, Herioneth^Jjdfef
1 9 5 6-7
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^ják:
S &*n*A i«i^ /v«s. tu>fc -feyt SEA æk^:
-j^£ uflEg ^ v/g^ .*
S\X 1956. SADDLING SHIP SHANTIES Timme Arse-ole,Bung-olerol (The Gals o' Chile) Capstan, Hogeye Man (cont) Two versions are given., as well as odd verses: Sally Brown American and Scandinavian Sailors. Serafina Halyard shanty. Popular in Liverpool windbags in saltpetre SPICERS TUFFSTUFF Three Yarns For the "bah^s at the "breast, 3k Copperhill St, 3k Copperhill St. , Touched upon only lightly and with great modesty in his in- to "buy for me, or perhaps you may he so kind as to do this 34 Copper Hill St., 34 Copper Hill St. , J*i V" it:■ . d [ taio j. . " ■ I x/oy ■ II and like you I am sure that Grecian, Phqgriecian,Carthaginian, 34 Copper Hill St. , I was shipmates with a Blackball sailor ( of the'Seventies) I have just received your "postcript" and interesting *.iP II1H isqgoO »£ e'-H Friday 8 June 1956 •2 printed collections a|r my disposal* and do not actually
ji = Music can be found in various shanty books.
37
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C hr- c^uU ^ '¿~oL ^ *~~**>j)
4Tuvi^»,
- v 3^x,
d? in*£dU-M-, /{? (P^C-CVW/
s A 1L I 1 6 SHIP SHAKTIIS ,
m
Pag©
1;4, Introductory notes. .Remrks on odd couplets.*
t xr, ""lo. BO, RAY, Mi, FAH,SOE..
|J>f 2 RATCLIFFE HIGHWAY (text and notes to p.f)
*5** 44,BLOW THE MAH DOWN (I*) T
$ BLOW THE MAH DOM (II.)
tZZ* 6 RIO GRANDE
:°5> THE HOPE YE MAN (2nd text and notes to p.g)
”7“ § SACRAMENTO (text to p.f)
153 15
ISf%#il6
<02019
1*3 @ 20
££>&§ ; note
7dC. 9 BREMEN SAILOR
#OC.lO CAN*T YE DANCE THE POLKA ? (text to p.ll
154^12 A-ROTIN* (AMSTERDAM MAID) (text to p.13
. »Si£ 13«-PORTLAND STREET (text to p.14)
lOZSiUk JAMBOREE (text to p.15)
ABEL BROWN mi SAILOR (text to p.16)
SALLY BROWN (extra verses on p.l)
WHISKY JOHNNY
SLACK AWAY YER REIFY TAYGKLE
Tffil BUMBOY
CHEERILY MAH (text to p.21)
£00. 21g. CE, AYE, RIO (text to p.22)
132.22 HOME, HOIS (text to p.23}
1031 24. BLOW YE ?JINDS (3rd text to p.25)
IO32L.250.TBE LIVERPOOL G3SIS
. »033 25£,PADDY LAY BACK
J03f 26 PADDY DOYLE *S BOOTS
I03S26^JOHN BROWN’S BODY
26pTEH FIRE SHIP ~
(ill 2? HAUL AWAY JOE
f02^ 27* JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO
l\S*2*?bDIXIE ("Woodpecker”)
174^8 YAW, YAW, YAW
|0$G2d*D® LET MS LONEk SUSAN
t 21C29 "INCHES” SONG 7
I0373O FIRS DOWN BELOW
|03IPO4^BXLLY BOY
' ^ 4*. 32 THE BOSON’S WIFE V
* do m JOHHHy mob ,y
wV
voe
fte
snu
(6) Ser2ii>i4,
//
dVp- .
$
^•^AaA,
As sung at the latter end of the nineteenth
and "beginning of the twentieth centuries.
$ iji v r.i
The following baifcdy themes wei*'common to many shanties, in fact
those listed here cover the 2QQEZ3X field fairly well. Any one of
the following themes, if suited to the music, would be fitted to
another shanty and others would be adjusted and made to fit. Shanties
in which these themes were interchangeable are :
Roll the Cotton, The Blackball Line, Santiana, Clear the
Track, Bunch o' Roses, Blow the Man Down, Suth Australia, A Long
Time Ago, Whiskey Johnny, Mobile Bay, Storm along, Rio, Boney and The
Hogeye Man.
Many shanties consisted of various stanzas unlinked
in theme, and in these an odd verse or so would be ’obscene’, others
would contain merely ’bad words' mainly used as adjectives. Sailor
John called a spade a spade, and apart from 'nauticalisms* rarely
indulged in double entendre • Unlike shore songs, £XKJPQSXXXXSX
ISKSXiXXXKXKBXBXIfijmax very few of his shanties were suggestive or
symbolic.
Odd couplets found in many shanties:
Sally Brown (Shallow Brown, Shenandoah) I love yer daughter,
Wisht I wuz in bed with (a f- ing of ) the Old Man’s daughter.
When I wuz a young man in me prime,
I'd shag them nigger (yeller) gals two at a time.
Poretops’l halyards’, the mate he will roar,
Lay along smafctly ye son-o-a-whorel
Them Liverpool (Gloucester, little brown) gals ain't got no
drawers,
They cover their things wid whisps(bits) o' stasaw.
Them Liverpool gals I do adore,
But I’d sooner shag a little black (brown) whore.
A hand -over-hand song sung to the rising and falling of the tonic
solfa scale was:
Do, ray, me fah, so ,lad, ti, doh,
What makes me fart I do not know.
Popular in Liverpool ships in the saltpetre
tfcode(Chile) ,From Mike O’Rourke,1926
Rumper la(the) cola., popular with seamen in
South America trading ships signifying
sodomy.
4 iXUffSSKXXXs Maggie May; Porehitter and Capstan. Twenties of the
nineteenth century, Learnt in the twenties
of this century. Liverpool associations,
also Bristol Channel and Glasgow versions
'John L*s'.. Long woollen undergpnts hamed
after similar panjfs worn "by John L. Sullivan
the harefist "boxer.
(^ ■ SAltpetre Shanty
Anchor capstan, Popular in Liverpool ships
in the saltpetre trade (About I860 onwards)
Prom Mike Sennit,1920)
BL6w the Man Down ; Halyard shanty, about 185©, the Western Ocean
packet ships, Paradise Street was the Sailorto'
Of Liverpool, Sung in imitative Irish brogue.
Version I
.. couplets taken from Ratcliffe Highway fmrebitter.
Introductory verse was^Z----^ X
Come all^ye"young seamen an' listen to me, \
I'll ,s±hg ye a song all about the salt sea; [
it tain't very short, nor it ain't veryS
n, long, L
'Tis of a flying fish sailor just home from
Hong Kong.
(These would constitute two verses in Blow the Man
Two 5-ther versions T5fi8Pgil£SBlnoFi8i‘ft€W]a>aller
were usually 'clean'•
7) - Blow the Man Down II. The Milkmaid. These words also sung to
y All Bound to Go, Goodbye Fare-ye-well and Rio
It stems from the shore folksong about the Milkmaid.
In Rio the chorus ran:
'Way for Rio! aye Rio !
'Stead o' milkin' her cow, she wuz milkin'
An' we're bound for the Rio Grande.
her boy,
^KThe Hogeve Man : Capstan, possibly from Negro railroad gangs,
/ or Negro crews of barges known as 'Hogeyes*
Used in America about 1850. Collectors suggest
word 'Hogeye' has filthy meaning,my contention
is that they have got the word mixed up with
'deadeye' meaning 'anus', as well as a
sheaveless block through which lanyards of
rigging ran in wooden shipsl No clean words
Come Down to Hilo. to this shanty, stanzas also used to Johnny
. *1 ^jr*7Îl
Oh. I won't wed a nigger, ho I'm damned if I do,
He's got jiggers in his "bollocks and his assole t
etc.
The last of the two versions given was oftBB sung to
Red^lRoses
NOTES: Mains'l aback .. skirts up.
Deadeye... anus
Two blocks... said when two opposite blocks of a tackle come
together as it is hauled t aut.
Shatch.. a certain type of block, pudenda.
Bale down the hatch. ..links this shanty with the Mobile
Bay hoosiers or cotton stowers.
Caulk a crack... pay a seam in the deck with hot pitch;
sexual intercourse.
Shift tacks., to go from one side of wind to other, hence
to shift position.
Cotch ..catch, nigger pronunciation
Bowsprit,., same as '¡jibboom, penis.
Bunch^r Blood
Sacramento
Capstan, 181+9> California goldrush, possibly from
earlier Negro song. Poster's song Camptown Races
either came from same source or from sailors,
or else sailors copied from Poster. No one knows
for sure.
Drunken Sailor: Stamp an' go dong, later date, hand-over-hand.
probab&grylrishi Most verses in print were sung, but here
I give some ^g?e that were the most popular with
seamen.
(i®,
Can't ye dance the P3>lka?Capstan shanty. Air is that of Irish
song Larry Doolan Western Ocean packets. Note
Negro phrase 'rock *n' roll'.
A-rovin
or Amsterdam : Pumps and capstan. Date of origin-doubtful.
But doubt if Elizabethan as has been suggested.
Rather high: an expression used when a ship is being sailed too
near the wind.
Snatch: a block, pudenda.
Marline-spike., metal spike for splicing wijce, penis.
~y Portland Street :
ambo ree , capstan
Capstan., from shore song The Devil's Song
, (Jinny keep yer arseole warmi) Whip Jamboree
Johnny git yer oatcake done.
9
This shanty upsets theory by collectors that choruses
of shanties were always 1 clean'. See my S.from 7 C8s
/Tip,Abel Brown the Sailor : Hand-over-hand, doubtful origin, strangely
(^ / enough sailors never sang Bollocky Bill. Abel Brown is A.B.
Capstan Shaity, about 1820, from Gulf ports or
(more likely) the West indies. Verses in print were
sung,I only give the bawdy ones. ( I gave you three
verses )
Whiskey Johnny
Some collectors put this as Elizabethan, but I
doubt this very much. Several Versions,
some 'clean*, some humorous. I give the bawdy
'Crabfish' version, given in Percy’s Reliaue_a.
Slack Away yer Reéf.v Tackle
Possible naval origin, rather old,
forebitter, but used at pumps .
Bunt: the centre of a square -sail,
belly, womb.
The Shaver or The Bumboy
Same tune as Paddy on the Railway, may
have come from American railroad gangs (tu
that is) Only shanty I know dealing
with pederasty.
Brown.. the act of sodomy
Horn.. erect penis .
Cheerily Man
.. Possible seventeenths century, probably £he
SXSS1X oldest of existing shanties. There is one
clean version for ^atting anchor, but normally
dirty version sung. Also used by shore gangs
for working cargo,particularly lumber*
Packet . .V.D.
Stern-on., from the rear.
Oh Aye Rio
Capstan shanty. Words also sung to Sjapandersheka,
see Harlow and Laura Smith (Music of the Waters)
Same story as Inky Pinky Parle Vous ,Snapoo.
And Skiboo (Crossing the Rhine")""
Up the bunt..in the family way.
0 222 Sjl
Home
Capstan and forebitter. See Oak and the Ash variants,
and Bell Bottomed Trousers.
Blow Ye Winds
Tune and many sets of verees hark back to seventeenth
century. One version The Baffld Knight (Percy Rellques
In the wind., as ship passes from one tack to another
sails shake, all of a flurry.
Odd verees from shanties in which other verses clean.......
Liverpool Girls capstan shanty -Last two verses.
Paddy Lay Back . One verse (capstan and forebitter)
Paddy Doyle's Boots. Bunting Shanty .One verse
John Brown* s Body Capstan.. Used by English, German,
Two verses.
The Fire Ship .. a forehitter, couplets
often used for Can't Ye Dance ffhe Polka?
Of seventeenth century vintage,
penultimate and last verse
Haul Away,Joe. Sheet shanty
(one verse)
Johnny Come Down to Hilo
(1st verse)
(%) Sixie
Ranzo»Blow Bovs,Blow and Whiskey Johnny all had odd
dirty verses, hut since much same as others given elsewhere
no need for them here.
Two
Capstan shanty. American Civil War. SMM Verses
Yaw,Yaw.Yaw ,Imitative Dutch or Low German song sung at pumps.
Do Let Me Lone Susan.«.. Negro, only version in print, from
Harding,West Indian Seaman, in the thirties
Popular in ships with chequerboard crews,i.S.
Black and White watches
Pump Away..Pumping Song of Anatomical progression, its ddscendant
Army song 'Roll me over in the clover*
Pi Down Below Pumps, (Two verses)
Billy Boy Shore versions from eighteenth^ century.
Capstan. (Three verses)
Ball o' Yam.. Some say a shore song, hut I feel the sailors
had it first. Balls of Yarn are seamanlike affairs,
They made 'em up under fo'c(slehead in dirty
weather^ making yarns into sounyam and told tales
of ship s_they'd heen in , hence sailor expression
which came ashore 'Spin a yam'* ^
irst Came _he Bosun's Wife (not) in S.from 7 C's) Probably naval,
sung aboard merchant ships in dogwatches.
One verse from sheet shanty Johnny Bowker A shanty of Negro origin
Derby Ram Capstan and pumps (complete version) seamen’s bersion
of shore song Old Tup., very ancient.
Bollocky Randy Dandy 0 l Capstan song, American origin.
Miss Lucy Long.. Learnt in Trinidad in 1931» West Indian capstan.
Rum and Sugar trade, Broomielaw,Glasgow Sailortown
trade to Chile(l870s-90s). Has survived,in fragments,
among steamboat sailors of Lamport and Holts,P,S*N.C.
Prom old Irish sailor in twenties I learnt it.
Sailorman Colombo.. Pairly modern. Learnt from Yankee seaman in 3os
Harlow, I notice, gives a version.
-
I' ' “ ' “ ‘ ' ' ‘
to do a ¿job oh the tops'l yard one dark night off Cape Horn.
During the procedings the Mate,firom the poop, heard the sailor
shouting Something unintelligahle from aloft. ••
he stammered. The mate not understanding a word yelled hack:
Aloft there ! Can't savvy a word! .. If yer can't
spit it out sing yer trouble...
(2) In Scandinavian and German ships the foremast is called a
'fock* and all the gear appertaining to it HEX is prefaced "by
the word ’fock’, i.e. focksegel, fockstag (forestay) etc.
A Squarehead captain having lost his foremast by the board,
put into Hull, and made inquiries as to having a new foremast. His
English warn't so good. To some waterfront character he queried,
Joo savvy where me get a good fock?
und Ah vill get a gross and bagin (main and mizen mast) white
Ah'm here. Dat is de cheapest Pock XH33Q£ in ail de seven seas!
(3). A deepwater skipper bade his wife goodbye saying he was
sailing with the tide. After he had gone his wife's lover appeared.
They used to sing a little ditty, softly, to makesure all \vas safe
window, and the wife of the skipper HXKgX would'let him in. Howver
After he had turned in the lover, as usual and not realising the
skipper hadn't sailed, came tapping on the window.
A sailor who stuttered fcather badly was ordered aloft
B-b--b«s b-low there ! S-s-s-lack the r-r-r-r
and the sailor came back with:
Slack away yer reefy tackle, reefy tackle, reefy tackl<
Slack away yer reefy tackle, me bollocks are ¿jammed!
(Every sailin ship man knew this
Yes, says the character»plenty to be had around here.
How much would dees cost mieh?
Oh, says the chap, about a pound.
A pound, says our Dutchman, a pound, dat is gut..
on this night the
xxnaxxHtJoaan&xiaDrtxxftBd^^
ww -f* a c a-P + 1 sar c§ cs vi m* 4* 1a ^ tur Q y*v> n r>n> c* rr •
And the skipper wants his rest,
So stop that tapping at the pane.
But this time the lover thought she was joking, "because
he felt sure the skipper had sailed, so he tapped again.
This time, however, the skipper took a hand:
Stp that tapping at the window(he sang)
S^op that tapping at the pane,
For the "bahy does the sucking
And the skipper does the fucking
Sp stop that tapping at the pane.
(This is a sort of Anglo-Saxon Fenéstg^-iied^ or window song found
on the Continent. TVhjjLhni%he first time it is sung
in falsetto, the second in "basso-profundo. Sorry I can’t get thh
tune across to you!)
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--------——^
Aberdovey,
Merioneth
June Ift,I966
Dear Gershon,
Thanks for your interesting letter* First let me say how
pleased I am that Beverley has overcome her illnessj secondly,
it is with great excitement that I receive your news of the - .
editorship of The Journal of Erotic Folklore - just your ctip-cteeal
You refer to me and T.V. - well, in fact I've finished the series'-
at last (thirteen weeks!) and quite enjoyed it in the main.
Ah-ha 1 sez you, he will now he a free agent - hut, sez I,
I'm not. Actually I'm more howed down with trahajo now than ever
I've heen. Let me ennumerate - (a) I'm engaged in a second hook
(part of a twelve volume Folk Series of Britain) -pub. Herbert
Jenkins - to he ready for printers hy Aug.31 st .this year, (b)
loutledge have dedided to reprint S.from the 7 G's. so I am going
through it for errata , (c) I am about to proof-read SAILORTQWN, to
he published in Jan.,I§67 (late pwing to printer trouble, as it
is in the Autmn list) All this on top of my normal work!
^""
However, I have got together all the notes that I sent with
the original shanties (trusting that you still have the words of
•) an& have added TWO NEW SHANTIES of Ratcliffe Highway interest.
0 ____ As for bawdy nautical yams, these, not having heen related
hy me for many years, are how rusty in my mind..I've sort of kicked
'em out as useless ballast down through the years! But I give
you three which may he of use. Please check all my type since I've
sort of dashed this stuff offlin between times, and the grammar
and syntax is fairly lousy I note.
Hope this will keep you happy for the immediate future, hut
laterJS will mull matters over and see what I can turn up that may
be of interest to you.
Hope you are well and tell B. to keep on the health orbit
Yours
wading through
since I'm sMil
Stan Hugill
Aberdovey,
Merioneth,
Wales. G.B.
May 6.1966
Dear Gershon,
At last the hook Merry Muses has arrived - and I am pleased
with it.
Fancy a Hungarian Yank being so adept at all those 'orrible
Scottish dialect phrasesI
Yes, it is an excellently edited work, and although I’ve
merely dipped into it as yet, I’m sure I'm going to enlarge my
folksong knowledge from its pages.
Now how are you getting on ?.. or I should say how is Beverly
progressing? I hope she got over the operation well and that she
is making good recovery, and that your own relative stresses are
easing. Illness is one thing that puts everything else in the
background, and, unfortunately, man is X35KXX25XX prone to all sorts
of 'vapours'.
I*m busy at present on the new seasong book for Herbert Jenkins
trying to make it as different as possible from my opus. Im swelling
the SEASONG historical aspect, in order to achieve this.
My book on the pubs and whorehouses of SAILORTOWN should be
out about September, I believe, although I've had no proper date
yet. I've had a letter from Routledge saying they are thinking of
re-pfiiblishing S.from the 7 Os. Good !
but years ago a Scottish
sai
supposed to have been said by Burns,in a state of inebriation,
to a Scottish guardian of the law. So much for what it's worth l
Now tell Beverley to keep her pecker up, and to both of you
Ma name is Rabbie Burma, Ah come fa' Leith,
Ah've lost the key 08 me erse-ole,
Kind rega]
Stan Hugill
Shanties from the Seven Seas, liltedJ\by Stan Htt&lkl-. London: Rout-
ledge/ New York: L. P. Dutton.» 1961. 63s./
THE QUESTION of expurgation, which this last, Ibffi^est and best of the
sea-shanty collections brings prominently to therore, will he^dis-
cussed later in this review. More important is, the fact of rls
l/ence.*ziseE0Bze Stan Hugill is himself a shantyman, ’the last of the
shaniymen,’ he admits ,za:d;ifey and his tremendous repertory aMxBHgaidtjr
is here dis-
played practically Complete, enlarged and augmented — for the first
time in any shanty-collection — with a rich sampling of the similar
songs of other sailors: French, German, and Scandinavian. All the
Esngs^zia shanties, in all languages, are also given with their mu-
sic, /either from Mr. Hugill’s own singing (and in his own handsome-
notated credited
ly mannered musical s cript, though this is nowherezjas:H±±0XB&/in the
volume), or from Authoritative foreign collections, such as those of
Oapt. Hayet for France and (Schnurrhahn) for German.
actually
*of its having/been put down on paer and published, before it
would be — really and truly this time, and no mistake — too late.
lust aside from the foreign examples, Mr. Hugill’s shanty book is
over times as large as that of any of his predecessors: giving
the astonishing total of sea- shanties in English, as against
all together in the three best American col-
lections: those of (1924,repr. 1948), Miss Col-
cord (192x, repr. 1938) and Mr, Doerflinger, none of whom had fee sfxz
the extraordinary advantage of being shantyaeauthentic shanty singers
themselves, in the days of sail, as does Mr,. Hugill.
As to the expurgation of Mr. Hugill’s texts — beeause they
all are expurgated, and rigorously, as with every other shanty col-
lection ever published in English, though,zasxhEzsaysyzhexhasxajanxgEd
tHzsa;±ixB±0SBEzk0xthBx®XBd in this case, the publishers’ courage has
allowed Mr. Hugill to sail closer to the wind than anyone before.
Even so, there is not much left of this very important aspect of the
shanties, and nothing whatever in which functional or interpretive
modern criticism can get its teeth, except the evident fact (never a
secret in any shanty collection) that sailing men ashore haabe a hard
time courting proper young ladies and teMdto roll into bed with whore:
losing most of ssffi their money, and often their clothes and health in
the process. Only the deep! and powerful "Go to Sea No More,” with
which the Hugill volume ends, is left more or less as it was sung,—
(a variant text will also be found in Doerflinger), but it speaks vol-
umes. As to the rest, I have before meijias I write,jfetaH all the stan-
zas, full songs, and other material omitted from Shanties of the seven
Seas, supplied to me very kindly by Mr. Hugill, for my own collection,
in progress, of the unexpu gated folk-ballads of the English language.
I am able, therefore, to speak, with knowledge of cause.
cUT*",
troduction, Mr. Hugill leaves an opening for the future,work that we
may hope for from him, in the statement:
omits happens to be
What thiszsfcasa not say is that Mr. Hugill/is a ranking translator
from the Japanese, and has95oSiatechnical translation work of the
greatest sfcsfcEHB®a®S3BZHBXBBeh difficulty, on such abstruse and un-
likely subjects, for instance, as railfcoad-tie specifications and
the technique of Japanese folklnristic paper-folding art (origami).
His offer he to follow up his work on English language and other
European shanties with a volume, or even a monograph, on the shan-
ties of the Oriental sailors, who, as he points out, are »the ate.»*1
should certainly find some taker among the learned societies. All
that exists in English, anywhere approaching such a subject, is
EmbreS’s Japanese Peasant Songs (American Folklore Society|lemoirs,
No.38, published in 1944)
not be asked- - he
dxmys Actually, Mr. H. should/be shanghiaed and forced to produce
this vsimaBEcpromised volume on Oriental shanties, that not only no
e
one else in the Occident in going to produce, but most improbably
anyone in the Orient either. ItzKfcBHMxfcBziiBtBxdzifexBaBHBfczlaBXBSiB
pijHS±ZEdxfao»2izStxBkE>H2istzi3BXBmpfeas Authentic sr± folksingersz who saas-
have themselves mad® published their repertories are rare birds in
folksong studies, if any other, have in faet, ever existed besides
Mr. Hugill. To. combine, asMbeHdoes, £narily large and
completely authentic repertory, with competent/scholarship7 an in-
ternational and comparative paiHixofzxiBwfolkloristic pxzxfcxBlzxi®®:*
catholicity,- ye*™pvOi. -and musicianship,
and thexflrst-hand experience^on which to base authoritativeiby
his iRfeaaapss&iar descriptf^iiiLand interpretive keying of the songs to
the saziiKgxmsnlBxiifazxingEr shantying siB^ESsssad sailors* lives, .
is to combine^ everything that is required for A'j contribution/to^Sve^V*".
folksong hisypry, completeness and profusi/uiior which this
his the only/eqtse on Record the hisotry of folksong litealiture in
English*
Hugill
feasly foice
oiMgould \care
Should 1
to produce
S-agroi shangha,
every t> ‘
to turn his hand/t<
fed if necessary, and
rfcher foil
We w
ong book he
not.see his
LEG!
and I will reimburse you later?
I am writing to Mr. Checkley(Canada) as Bonn
as possible- he may have some Nova Scotian stuff. By the way
I intend to add some illustrations to this work of mine -
to show how the songs were sung at work- as I am something
of a marine artist. In this perhaps £our friend Robert Ash
and I may have something in common. Should I write £o him ?
One more little' question before "clewing up" -
Will I ever see }a eopy of y»ur the work, the volume with the
shanties in , wlm you have published it ?
A ’With all best wishes and glad to be of use,
Yours sincerely
' -
8.^. Hugill
P.s. Keep writing and querying I belAieve we both have
something to give each other $
SHANTY BOOKS
CBONE,Capt. David W., CAPSTAN BARS Porpoise Press, Edinburgh, 1931
Q try^L^) BULLEN,Frank T, , and W.F. ARNOLD. SONGS OF SEA LABOUR,
Orjiheus Music Publ.Co
London 1914
(Vywu-,2*^ DAVIS J. ,and FERRIS TOZER , SAILOR SONGS or 1 CHANTIES ' ,
Boosey and Co. Ltd.,London,1887.
JOURNAL OF THE FOLK SONG SOCIETY. . I899-I93I... Many shanties,
^ " tunes,words an<^ variants.
)PATTERSON,J.E. THE SEA'S ANTHOLOGY..Shanties without tunes,
\ ------- G.H. Doran, New York,1913
SAMPSON, John, THE SEVEN SEAS SHANTY BOOK. Boosey and Co. ,Ltd
London 1927.
( SHARP,Cecil J. ENGLISH FOLK-CHANTEYS, Simpkin Marshall Ltd.,
Schott and Co.Ltd. »London, 1914.
SMITH,L. A. MUSIC OF THE WATERS. .Kegen,Paul,Trench & Co. London
—----- 1888
) SMITH,C.FOX, A BOOK OF SHANTIES, Methuen & Co.,Ltd. London
1927
TERRY,R.R., THE SHANTY BOOK (2 parts),J.Curwen & Sons, Ltfi,
London,1931. _ ^
C J W tf&LLt CejJt.WfJ3. LcaiC~$ Stf AV71SS, ISSwvvy,
Aberdovey,
Merioneth. Wales.
Aug.9th.1959 X
Dear Gershon,
Just a short note hoping that it reaches you in your new
(or old) abode.
Many thanks for the French Shanty Book. It contains several
sea songs I am unfamiliar with. Here too is a reference to
DEEBY SAM which might be of interest.
H Tracing its origin we find that in the 8th century a
scholar at Charlemagne’s court,by the name of Notker,
wrote a poem about two brothers who disputed each otherSs
claim to a ram. They exaggerated its value until it attained
gross proportions."
No, you didn’t tell me you were being ’evicted’ I
Won’t lengthen this any further in case it doesn’t reach
you. By the way the Print Strike is over, but it has postponed
my opus until next Spring.
Bye-bye,
Aberdovey,
Merioneth.
#l/l/6I
Dear Gershon,
Many thanks for your copious,heartening and profundo
( this in allusion to the ’deep thinker’) letter. I’m not
answering all your suggestions and queries this time - and I know
you’ll excuse me.’ You see I am being fairly inundated with mail
from all sorts and types of people who apparently have seen
proof copies and say some pretty nice things about it ( one
from The British Council,another from - pf all people - Brooke
Bonds Tea -educational section J) These and many others I have
to answer; the last week or so I've been glued to the typewriter
answering mail and sending off notes to people who want to
know the publishing date. However I must say that I’m glad
you,on first perusal,like the book, and I hope you get your
’nautical’ review in first - and By the Great Hook BlockJ that
poem was some ode(or saga?) -I’m sticking the sheet in the
fron£ of my copy of the book. And after your advice I feel
ready to meet any critics - the pterodactyls are advancing
outwards instead of inwards ....
Give me time .... and I’ll answer all your queries re
shore-songs^etc mentioned. I’m rather glad you think it out-
doerflinger's Doerflinger . I rather fancy he thinks he’s the
best.mahn. Wish I’d have had the bit about the Dutch John B’s
Body before I published...
Will make some enquiries about Welsh long-players -
don’t know any myself.
Will yarn about the Jap folk-songs some other time.
Glad you like the charograjiliy - the first attempts
were lousy but I progressed stubbornly, and I am rather pleased
myself with the results. Do you like the line-drawings ?
Keepimg me fingers crossed for Friday,
Chin-chin,
Stan Hugill
. a
)f - £IBu 8 re?) ; ' - ; .1
34 Copper Hill St., r ’j • l.
vi'L eifioa aaeooim'
Aberdovey,
Merioneth»* o fie ,hi xioio;; ^Iiee-
)U
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4 II’ew aqiui'ieft
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«3 2
...
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a hiiA .smra Dari ^exli ©veiled
Wales.G.B. :i; 5881 a I •
xts/ir ..'V'- ,h9fio|iT’'‘d • eiew ani/3 oxi3 am
Iliia seiKiiq eeniriC e/U e?
Deri (neminBiioiexa) aeiBgl't'i Haw:
f t©« H ' * ' ii. i*. t " :Ji .."•C i?*,
' Desr
...woled ii . sin at-• _ I ..■"'■ -r-I
¡.i Thankscfor’your _letter; .instead,.Qf dashing off a postcard
as suggested I’ve decided to type you, a rather lodger script - you
see 1% off/on my Xmas ..holiday next week,and-obviously, will not
have any time to get down to midrcroscopic Jap jhotostats! " Nevertheless
if you send them in the. Hew Year X will endeavour to translate to
the best of my ability,although,my sight XKX isn’t anything to boast
about - but I dd* have a magnifying glass ¿-J Your sense of sin is
entirely unjustified,payment quite satisfactory to me has been in
the guise of books,information,etc.,so don’t worry. If on the other
hand you are one -of those people whcftnust ease your conscience
we’ll have to find some compromise ( but certainly not the full
-quote-"word-rate we once discussed") at some later date. Just send
me the stuff early in the New Year, I*11 have a bash - if I can SEE
it - and we’ll see what transpires .....
Now about "The Matter,the Swabber,the Boatswain and so on.."
Your version is very interesting to me. The fact that it is
to be found in a book of 1669, as a song.upsets a theory that has
been handed around for years among the sea-song’authorities* that
this ditty was composed by Shakespeare to suit his play and was not
a sea song of the period. Proof has been found that many of the songs
found in Shakespeare’s works were songs actually sung by the people,
but some, this one for example, are attributed to his pen. I think
this version ( New Acj#ademy,ect.) is a bit different to Shakespeare’s.
Prom what I remember of it the girls' names are slightly different,
and the penultimate line is not the same. Now I feel it is not from
OTHELLO but from "THE TEMPEST" - a work in which Shakespeare really
went to town and got down to nautical research, turning out lines
which pass even the most pedantic nautical critie. This song has
been discussed in nautical literature and one writer even suggests,
without proof/that it may have been a CAPSTAN SHANTY -Ca working
song that is, as opposed to a SEA SONG,for leisure). The writer
declaring- and I agree - that the last line "Then to sea boys,and
let her go hang!" smells as tarry as any’modern* shanty. Incidentally
this is the only sea song HHaXNSX^XKlXXSSXSSH35XXi5X before the
early ninteenth century 2B00£ that even remotely smells of a shfcnty...
the fifteenth,sixteenth,seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have
produced nothing. Sir Maurice Bowra,0xon,undertook for my benefit
to do some research in ancient Greek,but produced only two sea-songs,
no work-songs. I'm afraid the past will not give up its shanties,
Roman, Saxon,Tudor, etc seaboys all mast have sung at capstan and
halyard and at oars in the birems, triremes,tquinquaremes.etc*
Perhaps we’ll have some'success some day l * i
Yes you are right about early merchantmen carrying ” -
guns and powder«and.so forth, even as late as I860 in.the.China
seas for fear of pirates, and when the guns were abandoned, even the
they painted the guneports tb make the Chineee pirates still
believe they had guns. And Blackwall frigates (merchantmen) had
gunners and topmen, and bosun’s pipes, just like the King’s Navee,
but working songs -shanties- were never sung in the Navy,- every
job of work was done to the bosun's pipe or numbers^ Jolly Jack
was a silent piper... he only sang sea-songs in his watch below...
. the songs known as FOREBITTERS from'the practice of sitting
„• .on thei(f ore -bitts when' singing them* j • o .".’I i '■ ^ "■
r t Li Isn’t'/the Fre jus: tragedy a terrible affair' Someone
deserves a keelhauling, goo? *; oh .... c svsri
We are all better here now, having got over our colds
and looking forward to the hols. , ; r .ic ' r . 'io J -
- f:: oYours in, haste and friendship ' jv I < '
ni ■ eu ‘ : • ’¿'is d0. -■ t i •- r - ei'”i ': I ; _
II . now ¿*aot«p@fe5uo ii, ooi
tjaoalA 303;', *•••? dJ "''X—•
i n: :or -
[Iqaii A" - ea n'iv,. !. .
ZS.if - • . YXfii Keo
Kind regards to the '’missus*'.,
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* .
Aberdovey,
I8th.June ,1956 i Merioneth.
Dear Mr. Legman,
Many thanks for Telegram and letter -
my apologies for not having answered before, but I have only
just arrived back frtom my perambulations in Liverpool and
London and I'm afraid neither telegram nor letter were
forwarded - this I'm forced to admit being a sleepy village.*
But the main thing is I'm so glad you've
received the shanties intact - and is my TENSION relieved !
There is the possibility I may have one or two more odd bits
to give you at a later date, and of course I will be only £oo
willing to ansv/er any questions re the shanties.
The collectors’7 idea that obscene shanties
qre lost is of course quite ridiculous. It would still be
possible to produce hundreds of seafaring men who could give
nearly all, if not all, the stanaas of,say, A-ROVIN*,BLOW THE
MAN DOWN,THE BOSUN'S WIPE,DIXIE,SALLY BROWN,ABEL BROWN,-etc.,
Some of the others may be more difficult to find, but an odd
verse or so even of these would be still found - such as the
"Sally(or Jinny) in the garden shellin' peas" theme of HOGEYE.
I have discovered in some cases that the versions have passed
from the old shellback into the college boy and other "intellectual
hands, andlsung to different tunes appear at many Rugby Game "do’s"<
Naturally, as everyone knows, people "pick up" a dirty song
much quicker and remember it much better than they do "decent
songs’^ and songs which are traditionally handed down are much
more certain to be preserved when they are dirty than when
they are clean - this is a PACT overlooked by collectors -
'they don’t look in the right places or at least if theytf do ,
they don't mix with the right people.' 0,
Please keep to the nom-de-^jime of Long
John Silver (I once acted the part-one leg and‘all- in
amateur theatricals. ) when mentioning me.' I would like to
give you something of my history but then again it would
make it too apparent in print as to who I am !l will tell
you that I am a younger- man than you think and only got into
Sail at its latter end. I have sailed in American, German and
British squareriggers (I was in the last of the Britishers
and claim to be the Last Shantyman) and also in New Zealand
and Australian schooners, and of course in steamers, oh, and
in one or two deep-sea yachts. I’ve collected orally shanties
in sail, in steam and in the West Indies ( wheret was the
typical beachcomber of fiction) from 1923-1939 - and since
then have collected from jsuany pen-friends throughout the
world and from printed sources. In my first voyage to sea
and later with Irishmen from the Colonies Trade (Australia
and New Zealand emigrant sailing-ships). Also with a seaman
who had been shanghaied on a whaler. Prom these men, mainly
Liverpool and New York Irish I learnt my shanties, as well as
from a coloured native of Barbadoes, a wonderful shantyman
who had served in Bluenose(Nova Scotia)»Yankee and Limejuice
(British) sailing vessels. Also many of the tunes and cleaner
versions I learnt from my father - a seaman himself. It
was these men who gave me the great interest I have always had
for shanty collecting. They were of the Old School, many of
the Irish being illiterate making their mark with a cross
when they signed on a ship.Of course numerous other shipmates
have helped - mmny of them still alive and kickin'.
Naturally - although I wiah to help you as
mush as possible- as I am citing all these shipmates and others
and the circumstances in which I obtained my shanties from
them in my coming work, I'm afraid - unless your work is
published much later I find it difficult to give you much
detail in this direction. I have not even contacted a publisher
as yet.’ And of course anonymity, not only of myself but others
JLiving - makes things much more difficult. We shall have to
discuss this further. Even in the giving of you many of my
desk sources, if perchance your book should be published
before mine,I would be cutting my own thr®3Lt * You see I
have spent many years in this research work. In cases where
I refer to certain shanty books I can give you all these sources
and if you wish the earlier (clean) verses of say,PADDY LAY BACK
wtc. I will send you these. The majority of the shanty books
do contain music - but, here again,halr-a-dozen of the songs
I've given you, have never, even in a camouflaged form,seen
the light of print, so their music is only in my head.’ These
"new*' shanties are the nucleus and, of course, the main reason
for me trying to publish another shanty book. In regard to a
your question re "original forms ¡bn the seventeenth and eig£eenth
centuries", ^ it is a well known fact that nothing in print
has turned up before the eighteen thirties (Doerflinger)
although I have discovered an I8II reference. Before this is
a blank. Obviously - not as shanties- odd §§§&§§§ stanzas are >>
to be found in earlier works, like the Crabfish (WHISKY JOHNNY)^
(Masefield gives it in his SAILOR'S GARLAND,London )
Re the AMSTERDAM MAID query - Several collectors have made the.
statement thatlthe words (but which set ?) are to be found in
the drama of tihe Elizabethan writer Thomas Heywood (Rape Of
Lucrece) I hhve not had the chance to verify this.
Perhaps you can give me a set of|numbered
questions next time you write, and I'll see what i can do- for
I DO want to help you. By the way I wrote to Doerflinger at
the address you gave me but he has not answered. Capt. Dolo
however,turned up trumps . He gave me several of Hayet's clean
versions and a&so gave me a shop to contact to get a record
of his shanties (¡PATHE ,price about 8700 f) I wrote but
the shop failed to answer. Later I may write to him and ask him
text of the "Bosun’s Wife". Thanks.*
First and foremost the words would just about fit my §*Q
tune, hut although the third verse seems related, the full
theme is not the same- in mine various wives are sung about
not just"the girl he nearly wed". This version seems
an army song, but then again it is possible that it
went the way of much nautical stuff - slang, idioms and
1914-
song - during the^I9I8 War; the merchant seaman joined
up as a"Terrier" and gave a wealth of mich material to
the Army, the latter,from recent Army Slang Dictionaries,
apparently nowadays claiming it as $St@$£9@&& its own •
brain-child.
It would be easy to change the word seamen to "Swaddies2
(How far this word of Indian origin meaning a soldier goes
back I cannot say) and introduce^ ^gf'Regiment" ins tead
of"Two Matlows". Both the Navy and Army have Magazines,
the word Battleship was probably in the original, whilst
the inclusion of APES may even suggest that it was a
Soldier and Sailor song combined emanating from both
services stationed laibthe Rock of Gibraltar (hence the Apes.*)
A
But I don’t think it is quite the same song as mine,
although it may have stemmed from it, or both may have
emanated from a similar source. The barrel of SNirffP may
give it antiquity .’
34 Copper Hill St.,
Aberdovey,
Merioneth, Wales.
* a. v. nox
ui-io'ini. . : yO’«i'':a •
tnr iiH'iulJ ^^unoO,iUjJoe.A.C .*1».
, x'ooli .7 tasoilYO ^oiii/oO
* . : Ai;- 7_ ■ . ' ■; ,::
*7/ 30th. Obti. ,1959
f t . 9
Dear G-ershon,
Hemos aqui de nuevo i which I believe is the way a
Spanish clown shouts MHere we are again J"
I hppe you are well installed in your maisonette with
your ;}ug of wine,loaf o’ bread, thou (I hope Mrs Legman doesn't
take umbrage at this familiar form !) and that book,or potential
book of cantos del mar obscaena ( and de terra )(( all my own
home-made Latin or something)) beside you in the wilderness
of Cagnes. Find enclosed the address you rquire - got it from
"Daily Mirror " ,the editor of same taking quite a while to
give it me, hence the reason I have not written afore now.
Thos Cook sent me one of the letters I wrote to you
while you where over here,must have been lying in their vaults
quite a while and not burnt in the fire which overtook them
some time ago. Nothing of interest in it f©r you 3CX now.
Yes I've seen Ashton's book, a good book for sea songs
but not much of an authority on shanties.
Of course I know of Finger's book ( a pamphlet I believe
ia the right description) but I've hot seen it. Niles is quite
true about sailors altering decent shore sailor songs, and
in particular "Nancy Lee", but his remark about limericks I
feel is untrue. The only true sailor song - and this is a
shanty really - XX containtog limericks is one I collected
from a Swedish source, and now in my book, called "The Limerick
Shanty", which runs....
"There was a £oung man from the West,
Who courted a lady with zest,
So hard hqlcaressed her,to his bosom he pressed her,
- That he broke three cigars in his vest.
Ch.
Oh, the elephants walk around,
And the band begins to play,
And all the gals of Bombay town,
Wltere dressed in the rig of the day".
That volume of British Army Songs sounds interesting, with
I should surmise, many songs that have stemmed from sailor sources.
Haven't much news,hence the brevity o£ this epistle.
Yours
P.T.O
_ , _ , ,/ivoMsfw
•j ®am* . _p , . , : Oil»
... j — The source of our information was
Mr, D.A,South,County Librarian,
Derbyshire County Library,
County Offices, Matlock,
EKiOOffigg. Derbyshire. ”
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Friday $ June
erb manuscript collection of
arrived safely, all present
i a rough table-of-contents,
r© to say, or you wish to an-
f or page.
eeply — how really profoundly
owing me access to these truly
ien under the impression for
i has been increased by things
V collectors, that «the sea
ar as they were obscene, bo-
rn has ever included them#« I
®re premature and erroneous,
ft, or sheaf of the most fas-
t preserved — by you — but
ms, for the greater part, and
4?W" ^<€m- -^Lw, »
■&VLWW:|
•agments and misremerabered lives#
je, and his publisher {who is
tberK! ) could hardly have been
missed, and god knows what will
>ee and records made for him
¡ling men, like Capt.fayluer.
tals, and I am desperately .and
also the amount of work that
ir of songs. 1 don*t actually
Ig you. words- are truly insni-
ls. to want to find you all kinds
fould like, and send them along
as a xoks® or a «mil part 'of the gratitude l feel, but the
damnable part—as you know—is that the books you went, in
French, just are not so easy to be hadl Especially not the
"LeBlhor" volume that you would especially prize. But we
must not lose heart—It will turn up for- you: that is a
promise, end I will see io it that it comes truei
How l*d like to ask you for some historical and other
details. This is of the greatest importance» as 1 see it.
The title-page makes a blanket reference to "the latter end
of the nineteenth century and,,the beginning of the twen-
tieth century." It would make ray work too easy, I suppose,
if this allowed me to "det#" every single song you have
sent as "ca.1900," and I suppose this is too vague anyhow,
as others might construe this as meaning twenty years each
Wdear Mr. Buglll,
Tour superb manuscript collection of
«Sailing Ship Shanties" has arrived safely, all reseat
and accounted for. Herewith a rough table-of-contents,
against which anything I have to say, or you wish' to an-
swer, my be keyed by title or page.
First let m say how deeply — how really profoundly
grateful 1 am to you for allowing me access to these truly
remarkable- texts, I have been under the impression for
years (since 1940), and this has been increased by things
said to m by famous folklore collectors, that "the sea
shanties are all lost, insofar as they were obscene, be-
cause no published collection has ever included them," I
see now that these laments were premature and erroneous,
and that a whole slew, or raft, or sheef■ of the most fas-
cinating have not only been preserved — by you — but
in full and.annotated versions, for the greater part, and
not is the usual pathetic fragments and misremembered lines,
MriDoerflinger had the chance, and his publisher (who is
the publisher of ’»Forever Amber" } could hardly have been
prudish, but the chance was missed, and- god knows what will
eventually become of the tapes and records made for him
by the fine old American sailing men, like Capt.Tfeyluer.
But now, here arc the materials, and I aia desperately end
forever grateful! There is also the amount of work that
went into this whole chapter of songs. I don*t actually
know how to go about thanking you. Words- are truly insuf-
ficient, my first thought is to want to find you all kinds
of books of songs that you would like, and send them, along
as a token Of a small part of the gratitude I feel, but the
damnable part—as you know—is that the books you want, la
French, just are not so easy to be had! Especially not the
"LeBlhor" volume that you,would especially prize. But we
must not lose heart—it will turn up fox you: that is a
promise, end I will see io It that it comes true!
How l«d like to ask you for some historical and other
details. This is of the greatest importance, as 1 see It,
The title-page makes a blanket reference to "the latter end
of the nineteenth century and,, the beginning of the twen-
tieth century." It would make my work too easy, 1 suppose,
if this allowed me to "date" every single song you have
sent as "ca.1900," and I suppose this is too vague anyhow,
as others might construe this as meaning twenty years each
ttta ’tr„
Actually, therefore, can you give so» exact year,
or brace of years, about which or within which these song*
you have sent can be correctly dated? I refer of course
to the actual year, or period of collecting. Would it be
indiscreet (as the French say) to ask for just the one
autobiographical detail — you will understand that it has
taken quite so» restraint on lay part not to ask more in
the past, as you are quite an intriguing correspondentIt--
of when you ©ailed, and even perhaps on what nationalities
of skip'©, Wheth©r"1895~1905" or ”1900-1915” or whatever?
Your work certainly suggests a strength and vitality un-
usual in a ms of an age to have sailed that far back. You
are to be congratulated in any case! But when??
If special songs can actually be recollected as of a
special voyage or date, even within five years, that would
be of exceptional interest. I believe in "placing” every
item of folteong in its framework of "d&te-and-loeality" £
and even a shipping line is a locality, in the best sense.
About further-back historical dating, I as utterly
at se© (!forgive the pun, unintentional) about the sources
of the data you give. For 19th century materials, I hake~
it you use some combination of the "internal evidence” of
the”boats” and lines referred to; the nautical phraseology,
then in use, etc. (though this latter must certainly be
rather difficult to "time-bind” as words go far far back,
without proving that so do the songs using them!) Or you
may have heard given songs from singers originally who
said—as I have heard people *ay~-”Now this yere song I
heerd from Joe McHarrlty: a one-legged feller he was, cans
across in *72 from Kildarej he knowed more songs than a
black dog has fleas, with chuñes for every damned one of *cí*"
That too is real and unralstakea'ble evidence.
But for the historical tracings that mount back fur-
ther than what you caa know or have seen, or what our best
informants can thenselves have seen (or remembered or heard;
we must have recourse to printed sources. And folklore re-
viewers are absolutely merciless In their insistence on
knowing what the printed historical source Is for any
statement a person makes about the age of a song, tale, or
other piece of folklore. I have often wondered why they
accept the reality of the existence of NAP0H01?, when you
consider that there Is not a single photograph of him,and
it is all therefore what is called "hearsay.” But at least,
there are printed sources. Otherwise, no Napoleon, eh wot!?
I am myself just a tyro as far as shanties go—you
understand this of course. I do not even have the usual
know whoa yofi mean when you refer offhand to "Taylor and
Harris" or to Sampson*s "Seven Seas chanty Booh." About
the only sources i have even handled of this hind have
been Doerflinger’s recent booh, as you know, and Hiss Jo-
anna Colcord’s (now Mrs .Bruno’s) "Roll and Go" and Dolph’s
"Sound off" (All American works,by the way.) Would you
have the mercy to enlighten my ignorance and tell bib the
names of the best and standard worhs of English shanties:
Just7-author, title and date* would be more than enough,
and do they give the music? Because printing the music is
a vital and essential part of my publication plans, and
getting hold of authentic music is of greatest importance,
I assume some of these published collections give
references to "original" forms in printed song boohs of
the 17th and early 18th century, but for which and how
many of these songs do such elOar tracings exists? The
"Whiskey Johnny" i did observe myself to be connected
with "The Sea Crab" in Bp.Percy*© Polio -Manuscript (as
first published by FuraiveXl in 186?, extra volsKe)and
the text dates from 1620 for that manuscript. (It Is
fascinating that Masefield notes this relation: in what
book of his was that, won’t you tell me?) But in the case
of the "Amsterdam Maid," bow do we know that this dates
back in both melody and many of the words to Elizabethan
times? Hotf? Is your shanty history connected up with
those datings in other chapters: the actual information
is lacking to me here, and frankly it worries me some-
what, as a big European folk-song archive reviewer would
take the bleeding akin off you or me if we made such a
statement and could not back it up with "gude black prent-'1'
The only one here (aside from "Whisky J.") tvhere the sour*«
is clear in this ms. is "Blow Ye Winds," where reference
is made to Percy*® "Baffl’d Knight” and where, in any
case, the opening smacks profoundly of 17th century style
But what about the others? I*d appreciate your helping as
here, as much as your files, sources, and memory can.
Again, and to close, let me thank you so very vary
much for the work yog have done on this—both of recol-
lecting and Just plain typewriting--and the trouble and
care you have gone to, to get the texts safely to me. In
over twenty years now of folksong collecting, NO ONI has
ever given so much and so generously of such off-trail
material, let alone "all at oneej” and material which in
itself tells such a tale of manly men, their attitudes
toward life, women, and their work. Thank you from the
heart
Sincerely yours