NAME: Lyke-Wake Dirge, The
DESCRIPTION: A warning to those not yet dead. Those who gave to the poor shall receive as they have given; those who have not will pay the penalty. "This ae nicht, this ae nicht, ilka nicht and alle -- Fire and sleet and candlelicht, and Christ receive thy soule"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: death funeral lament religious Hell
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
OBB 33, "A Lyke-Wake Dirge" (1 text)
DT, LYKEDIRG
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #278, "A Lyke-Wake Dirge" (1 text)
Roud #8194
NOTES: De la Mare quotes Sidgwick to the effect that sleet means not falling water but salt (the token of eternal life) -- or perhaps is an error for "fleet."
Malcolm Douglas gave the following information about the tune to the Ballad-L list in 2008 (slightly edited, mostly for formatting reasons):
"The tune Hans Fried got from Peggy Richards [which was recorded by the Young Tradition[ was written by Sir Harold Boulton, and first appeared in his _Songs of the North_(Vol I, c.1885) set to the text (slightly edited) from Scott. It had changed a bit in detail by the time it got to The Young Tradition, but not fundamentally. _Songs of the North_ was immensely popular (at least 23 editions) and there would seem to be a decent chance that Peggy Richards (described as 'old') had learned it at school, or directly from print.
"It is *just* possible that a tune that may perhaps have been traditionally associated with the text survives. A song ('The Silkstone Disaster', written by Rowland Kellett) appeared in 'English Dance and Song' (XXXIII No 2 Summer 1971), set to a tune described as 'The Yorkshire Lyke-Wake'. Kellett noted that it was played as a funeral march in the Yorkshire Dales, but didn't say where, when or from whom he had got it. It bears no resemblance to Boulton's melody, but the words would fit.
"Some years later, the same tune (though slightly variant and in a different key) turned up in Blowzabella's tunebook 'Encyclopedia Blowzabellica'. There, it was titled 'Lyke Wake Dirge' and described as 'traditional' (but with a query if I remember correctly). No source was identified, and it's unclear whether the change of name is significant or not." - RBW
File: OBB033
===
NAME: Lynchburg Town
DESCRIPTION: Usually a comic song about a farmer's troubles with wife, horse, merchants, prices, machinery, and anything else that comes along. Chorus: "I'm going down to town, I'm going down to town, I'm going down to Lynchburg town, toting my tobaccer down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: farming humorous wife
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
BrownIII 415, "Lynchburg Town" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 2 excerpts, and mention of 2 more, all with the "Lynchburg Town" chorus, but "A" and "B" have verses from "Raccoon" and "Possum Up a Gum Stump and "D" and "E" are partly "If I Had a Scolding Wife" ("Lucy Long (I)"); only "C" seems to be truly "Lynchburg Town"); also 480, "Hard Times" (1 text, massively composite: Chorus from "Lynchburg Town" and verses from "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" and the "White Folks Go to College" version of "Hard to Be a Nigger")
Warner 181, "Lynchburg Town" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 145, "Goin' Down to Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 192, "Hawkie Is a Schemin' Bird" (1 text, with the "Hawkie" first stanza, a chorus from "Lynchburg Town," and verses such as "Went up on a mountain To give my horn a blow" and "Climbed up on a mountain... To sweeten Liza Jane")
Lomax-FSNA 260, "Lynchburg Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LYNCHBRG*
Roud #3444
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Highballers, "Going Down to Lynchburg Town" (Columbia 15096-D, 1926)
The Highlanders [Lonnie Austin, Roy Harvey, Charlie Poole, Odell Smith, Lucy Terry], "Lynchburg Town" [instrmental] (Paramount 3171, 1929) [May also have been issued under Poole's name with the same record number]
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Lynchburg Town" (Brunswick, unissued, 1928)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lebeck Town
File: Wa181
===
NAME: Lyttle Musgrave: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: M. and I. Goo-goo Eyes, The
DESCRIPTION: Recitation about logging life, with musical chorus, "Just because that jack makes goo-goo eyes, They piled them logs clear up into the skies." The singer discusses what happens when the train comes to collect the logs
AUTHOR: Ed Springstad
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: logger work train recitation
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Rickaby 25, "The M. and I. Goo-goo Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Even Rickaby, who prints this piece, says of it, "Here lies the Song of the White Pine woods, sans originality, sans meaning, sans everything." Which about sums it up. Rickaby's final comment is, "This is Arkansaw Springstad's own work, composed at the time when _Just because She made those Goo-goo Eyes_ was popular. He could sing only the chorus for me, and could not recall quite all of the final stanza. Perhaps it is just as well."
"Just Because She Made dem Goo-goo Eyes," by John Queen and Hughie Cannon, came out in 1900,  if I read Spaeth correctly. - RBW
File: Rick101
===
NAME: M'Dermott's Farewell
DESCRIPTION: A young man on the Limeric city quay is bound for America. "For want of wages and employment, home and country I must flee." He thinks of his parents and sweetheart left behind. He hopes "fortune [will] smile upon me" so he can return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration farewell America Ireland nonballad family
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 79, "M'Dermott's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OLcM079
===
NAME: M'Ginty's Meal and Ale: see M'Ginty's Meal-an-Ale (File: DBuch72)
===
NAME: M'Ginty's Meal-an-Ale
DESCRIPTION: A pig escapes and wreaks havoc. Chorus: "They war howlin' in the kitchen like a caravan o' tinkies, An' some wis playin' ping-pong... Up the howe or doon the howe there never wis sic jinkies As M'Ginty's meal-an-ale far the pig gaed there tae see."
AUTHOR: George Bruce Thomson
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: animal humorous game
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
DBuchan 72, "M'Ginty's Meal-an-Ale" (1 text)
DT, MEALNALE*
Roud #2518
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Roxburgh Castle" (tune)
cf. "Sheelicks" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
M'Ginty's Meal and Ale
File: DBuch72
===
NAME: M'Pherson's Farewell: see MacPherson's Lament (File: K348)
===
NAME: Ma Grun War 'n Gelynen: see The Holly Bears a Berry (File: K091)
===
NAME: Ma Petite Marguerite (My Little Marguerite)
DESCRIPTION: French. The singer say, Little Marguerite, I am leaving to sail on the waves around the world but I will love you until I die. She says she will cry a thousand tears waiting for his return; all is useless; she would prefer them both lost at the same time.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting separation dialog love
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, p. 558, "Ma Petite Marguerite" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea558
===
NAME: Mac and Shanahan
DESCRIPTION: Miko Mac and Shanahan are tracked to Newtown by bloodhounds and taken by Black and Tans. They refused to give their comrades' names. They are executed by shooting "in the Ennis Road." The pride of West Clare, they are buried in Doonbeg.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution manhunt burial patriotic IRA
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1920-1921 - The Black and Tan War
Dec 22, 1920 - Commandant Willie Shanahan of the West Clare Brigade of Republican Police and Captain Michael McNamara of Doonbeg Company IRA are executed by the Black and Tans (source: Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan).
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 25, "Mac and Shanahan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5221
RECORDINGS:
Nora Cleary, "Mac and Shanahan" (on IRClare01)
Tom Lenihan, "Mac and Shanahan" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES: "The Black and Tans" (for which see "The Bold Black and Tan") were a special English constabulary recruited to quell Irish violence. They failed, and in fact contributed to the brutality.
It will tell you something of the violence of the period that none of the six histories I checked (including three devoted specifically to this period, one of which is largely a catalog of atrocities) mentions any of these events. - RBW
File: RcMacASh
===
NAME: Mac's and the O's, The
DESCRIPTION: "When Ireland was founded by the Mac's and the O's, I never could learn..." but the singer lists all the various great family names of Ireland. Some specific names are mentioned, but most are simply references to clans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: nonballad wordplay Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H484, p. 176, "The Mac's and the O's" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 79, "The Mac's and the O's" (1 text)
Roud #4812
NOTES: Even when a specific character is named in this song, it is often a legendary figure such as Finn MacCool. A handful, however, are historical, such as Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone, whose name is naturally connected with O'Donnell (for these two, see the notes to "O'Donell Abou").
The final stanza refers to women, and most of these, interestingly, are women of song, e.g. Eileen Aroon and Kathleen Mavourneen. - RBW
File: HHH484
===
NAME: MacAfee's Confession: see McAfee's Confession [Laws F13] (File: LF13)
===
NAME: MacDonald's Camp
DESCRIPTION: "One evening last fall when we felt well inclined, We hired with D. A. MacDonald to work at the pine." MacDonald pushes so hard that "He brought bread seven miles and he got it there hot." The loggers are described, and Caldwell called "no use at all."
AUTHOR: reportedly Jack Caldwell
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: work logger lumbering moniker
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke-Lumbering #17, "MacDonald's Camp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4469
File: FowL17
===
NAME: MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39]
DESCRIPTION: The singer tries to woo a woman of Glencoe, but she says she is loyal to MacDonald, gone to war these ten years. He suggests that MacDonald may have forgotten her; she says she will remain single even so. He then reveals himself as MacDonald
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 1641)
KEYWORDS: courting disguise separation reunion
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES: (21 citations)
Laws N39, "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe)"
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 247-248, "Donald and Glencoe" (1 text)
Ord, pp. 65-66, "Donald's Return to Glencoe" (1 text, tune referenced)
Randolph 126, "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe" (1 fragment)
FSCatskills 25, "Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 87, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 86, "Glencoe" (1 text)
Smith/Hatt, pp. 67-69, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text)
Peacock, p. 579, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 60, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 35, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 129, "Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 56, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 70-72, "Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 68, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text)
O'Conor, p. 136, "McDonald's Return to Glenco" (1 text)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 52-53, "Donald of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H655, p. 319, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 113-115, "The Banks of Glenco" (2 texts, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 28, "The Lass o' Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 464, PRIGLENC*
Roud #515
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1641, "Donald's Return to Glencoe," G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also 2806 c.14(133)[many illegible words], Firth c.17(300)[some illegible words], Harding B 11(932), Firth c.14(158), Firth c.14(160), Harding B 19(109), 2806 c.18(89), Harding B 16(324a), Firth b.26(11)[a few illegible words], Firth b.25(226), Firth b.27(454), Harding B 16(323b), 2806 c.15(174), "Donald's Return to Glencoe"; Firth b.27(462), "Donand's Return to Glencoe" ["Donald" in the text]
LOCSinging, as202320, "Mc'Donald's Return to Glenco," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb30347b, "Mc'Donald's Return to Glenco"
Murray, Mu23-y4:036, "Donald's Return to Glencoe," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(206), "Donald's Return to Glencoe," unknown, c. 1840; also L.C.Fol.70(73a), "Donald's Return to Glencoe," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c. 1875
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Silk Merchant's Daughter (I) [Laws N10]" (tune)
cf. "The Lass o Glencoe" (lyrics)
SAME_TUNE:
The Silk Merchant's Daughter [Laws N10] (File: LN10)
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging as202320: H. De Marsans dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: LN39
===
NAME: Machine-Guns They Rattle
DESCRIPTION: "Machine-guns they rattle, Jack Johnsons they roar, I don't want to fight With these Fritz any more. Take me over the sea, Where the Germans they can't get at me, Oh, my, I don't want to die, I want to go home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: war cowardice homesickness
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 143-144, "Machine-Guns They Rattle" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES: Although this piece is probably a parody, Meredith and Anderson report a shearer's parody of it. - RBW
File: MA143
===
NAME: Machiner's Song, The: see The Threshing Machine (I) (File: K231)
===
NAME: Mack McDonald: see Casey Jones (I) [Laws G1] (File: LG01)
===
NAME: MacPherson's Farewell: see MacPherson's Lament (File: K348)
===
NAME: MacPherson's Lament
DESCRIPTION: MacPherson tells how a woman betrayed him to the Laird o' Grant. He challenges all to a duel in defense of his honor. He breaks his fiddle, "the only friend I hae," rather than see it in bad hands. A rider is coming to reprieve him, so he is hanged early
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #114)
KEYWORDS: execution betrayal reprieve fiddle outlaw
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 16, 1700 - Execution of James MacPherson
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Kennedy 348, "MacPherson's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 443, "M'Pherson's Farewell" (1 text)
MacSeegTrav 88, "Macpherson's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 163-169, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts plus a fragment, with the "C" fragment containing parts of "MacPherson's Lament"; 3 tunes; the tune for the "MacPherson" portion is not given)
Silber-FSWB, p. 205, "MacPherson's Farewell" (1 text)
DT, MACPHER* MACPHER2* MCPHERST
ST K348 (Full)
Roud #2160
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy MacBeath, "MacPherson's Lament" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
Davie Stewart, "MacPherson's Rant" (on Voice08)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "MacPherson's Rant" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
MacPherson
NOTES: Legends about MacPherson's death are many. The basic one has it that he played this tune before his death and offered the fiddle to anyone who could play it back for him. None could, so he broke the fiddle rather than leave it in incompetent hands. The (ruins of) the instrument are now said to be in the MacPherson clan museum in Inverness-shire.
That MacPherson was a freebooter seems almost certain -- but only spite could have hung him for his deeds; most of Scotland was the same way!
The earliest reported version of this piece seems to have been Burns's, but (given the variations), it seems certain that several traditional forms are older. - RBW
File: K348
===
NAME: MacPherson's Rant
DESCRIPTION: "I've spent my time in rioting, Debauch'd my health and strength... But now, alas! at length, I'm brought to punishment direct." MacPherson laments that he is to be hanged, blames the Laird of Grant and Peter Brown, and tells people to live well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: punishment execution betrayal outlaw
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 16, 1700 - Execution of James MacPherson
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ord, pp. 444-445, "M'Pherson's Farewell" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1339, "I spent my time in rioting, debauch'd my health and stength" (?)
Roud #2160
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "MacPherson's Lament" (subject)
NOTES: Often treated (e.g. by Roud) as a variant of the now-better-known "MacPherson's Lament," the two have so little in common that it seems certain that the two are separate. There is, at the very least, a great deal of editing (by Burns?) separating the two.
This piece, which can be told from the other by the first line in the description, is much poorer poetry; nonetheless, it is generally held to be older. I doubt it's traditional by origin; it reads like a moralizing broadside. - RBW
File: Ord444
===
NAME: MacTavish is Dead: see McTavish is Dead (File: PHCFS122)
===
NAME: Mad Maudlin: see Tom a Bedlam (Bedlam Boys) (File: Log172)
===
NAME: Mad Trapper of Rat River, The
DESCRIPTION: The Mounties learn that a trapper has gone mad; he shoots one and flees. During the manhunt, he kills another Mountie, then a third, but is surrounded and shot dead. Credit is given to the Mounties: "They always get their man"
AUTHOR: Probably Wilf Carter
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1934 (recording, Wilf Carter)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Two Indians report to the Mounties that a trapper has gone mad; the Mounties visit him, but he shoots one and flees. A manhunt ensues; in the process, he kills another Mountie, backtracks and escapes. Eventually he kills a third, but is surrounded and shot dead. Credit is given to the Mounties: "They always get their man"
KEYWORDS: madness fight violence crime homicide death police
FOUND_IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Wilf Carter, "The Capture of Albert Johnson" (Bluebird [Canada] B-4966, c. 1934)
Stanley G. Triggs, "The Mad Trapper of Rat River" (on Triggs1)
NOTES: Trapper Albert Johnson was hunted and killed by Mounties (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) in the 1930s.
Triggs reports this ballad as widespread in western Canada "from the Rockies to the coast." - PJS
File: RcTMTORR
===
NAME: Madam, I Have Come A-Courting: see The Quaker's Courtship (File: R362)
===
NAME: Madam, Madam, You Came Courting
DESCRIPTION: When the girl comes courting the boy agrees to "entertain you If you will not call me names." She spurns his wealth: "All I want is a fancy man." He says she can look to the trees to keep her warm "when nights are cold and frosty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 121, "Madam, Madam, You Came Courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #542
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Wheel of Fortune" (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (theme)
NOTES: Creighton-Maritime: "Although a different song, this is very like 'The Quaker's Courtship'"; Creighton's song is "Wheel of Fortune" with roles reversed. Nevertheless, though I find no lines shared with that group of songs it is close enough that it may belong there. - BS
Roud, indeed, lumps them -- but logic says that this is rewritten, and hence should be split. - RBW
File: CrMa121
===
NAME: Madam, Will You Walk: see The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)
===
NAME: Mademoiselle from Armentieres
DESCRIPTION: The mademoiselle "hasn't been kissed [or other appropriate verb] for forty years." The soldiers complain about her or cajole her to do their laundry; they complain about their superiors (and their relations with the lady?) and grouse about army life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1919
KEYWORDS: bawdy soldier humorous nonballad
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1914-1918 - First World War, during which this ballad clearly arose
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 513-515, "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 440-442, "Hinky Dinky, Parlee-Voo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 331-333, "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 38, "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 557-560, "Hinky Dinky Parley-Voo?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, pp. 152-153, "Hinky Dinky Parlay-Voo!" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHJohnson, pp. 110-111, "Hinky Dinky" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 277, "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 344-345, "Madamoiselle from Armentieres"
Roud #4703
RECORDINGS:
Benny Bell, "Hinky Dinkey Polly Voo" (Cocktail Party Songs 101, n.d.)
Bell Record Quartet, "Hinky Dinky Parlez Vous" (Bell 285, 1924 - but it's possible this is Benny Bell's post-WWII recording for his similarly-named label)
Broadway Quartet, "Hinky Dinky Parlez Vous" (Banner 1382/Regal 9678, 1924)
Jan Garber & his Orch. "Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo" (Victor 19405, 1924)
Happiness Boys [Billy Jones & Ernest Hare]  "Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo" (Columbia 132-D, 1924)
Lawrence Loy & Wilbur Waite, "Hinky Dinky Parlez Vous" (Columbia 20638, 1949)
[Billy] Murray and [Ed] Smalle, "Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo" (Victor 19388, 1924)
Sweet Violet Boys, "Hinky Dinky Parley Voo, Part 1/Part 2" (Vocalion 03281, 1936; this number was also used for Part 1 only, with the reverse side another song; Part 1 is also on Conqueror 9067, 1938; Columbia 20283/Columbia 37704, 1947. Part 2 was also issued as, "Hinky Dinky Parley Voo #2", Vocalion 03327, 1936; Columbia 20284/Columbia 37705, 1947)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (approximate tune)
cf. "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" (approximate tune)
cf. "Johnny, Fill Up the Bowl" (approximate tune)
cf. "Snapoo" (approximate tune; theme)
cf. "The Little Red Train" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
What's Become Of Hinky Dinky Parlez Vous? (What Has Become of Hinky Dinky Parlez Voo?) (Al Bernard & J. Robinson, Cameo 572, 1924; Carl Fenton & his Orch., Brunswick 2618, 1924; Billy Jones, Vocalion 14817, 1924); Billy Jones & Ernest Hare, OKeh 40128, 1924)
NOTES: Both plot and tune of this song show a relationship with "Snapoo" (indeed, they sometimes mix, and Roud lumps them); it is reasonable to ask which came first and which influenced the other. As both appear at about the same time, however, it is effectively impossible to settle the matter.
Fuld has extensive notes about the origin of this song, with some interesting folkloric twists; the legends, while possible, are not convincing. - RBW
File: RL513
===
NAME: Mag's Song: see The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child) (File: R725)
===
NAME: Magdalen Green, The: see Down By the Magdalen Green (File: MorU016)
===
NAME: Magdalene's Lament, The
DESCRIPTION: "As I cam in by Tanzie's wood... Four-and-twenty o' Geordie's men Kiss'd me against my will." The girl recalls flirting happily in a tavern, "But now I'm in the correction-house And whipped to my turn." She hopes to be released and marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: seduction sex prison abuse whore
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kinloch-BBook III, pp. 12-13, "The Magdalene's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #8153
NOTES: Traditional? I don't know. Kinloch of course does not list sources.
The term "Magdalene" for a reformed prostitute is of course a reference to the Biblical Mary Magdalene ("maudlin"). But while Mary of Magdala was a follower of Jesus, from whom he "cast seven demons" (Mark 16:9), there is no reason to think she had formerly been a prostitute; Luke 7:37-50 describes a reformed prostitute wiping Jesus's feet with her hair, but never calls her Mary. John 12:1-8 has Mary wipe his feet -- but this is Mary of Bethany, not Mary of Magdala!
Not that this matters; while Kinloch calls the song "The Magdalene's Lament," the word "magdalene" is not used in the song. - RBW.
File: KinBB03
===
NAME: Magelhan
DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Original was a capstan (gangspill) shanty. The Magelhan/Magellan is the name of the ship. The verses (or at least the translation) are mostly good natured complaints about work and the captain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Baltzer's _Knurrhahn_ (reprint))
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage ship
FOUND_IN: Germany
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 191-192, "Magelhan" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rolling Home" (adaptation of text)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Magellan
NOTES: Hugill included this with the versions of "Rolling Home" stating that this was the original shanty from which the German version of "Rolling Home" was derived. - SL
File: Hugi191
===
NAME: Maggie C, The
DESCRIPTION: Maggie C is "built by George E Saville a man of high degree." Nevertheless, she is unstable. Everyone laughs at the effort to get to the dock. The owner says "It's that blooming Saville's fault" but Saville claims "No better boat's afloat"
AUTHOR: Victor La Pierre, Annandale, P.E.I.
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: ship humorous
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 47-48, "The Maggie C" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12471
File: Dib047
===
NAME: Maggie Goddon: see Peggy Gordon (File: Gil127)
===
NAME: Maggie Gordon: see Peggy Gordon (File: Gil127)
===
NAME: Maggie Howie
DESCRIPTION: Michael Lee tells of courting Maggie Howie of Napanee; she wore his ring, but refused to marry him; her parents disapprove. He kills her with an axe, flees to the woods, is captured and jailed. He states his guilt and his readiness to be tried and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1957 (recording, Mrs. Tom Sullivan)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage rejection violence crime execution homicide punishment death family lover prisoner
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: c. 1887: Maggie Howie murdered by Michael Lee
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #3838
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Tom Sullivan, "Maggie Howie" (on Ontario1)
NOTES: Despite the last verse of the song, Michael Lee was not hanged, but instead found to be criminally insane, and confined in a special wing of Kingston Penitentiary until his death. Maggie Howie's ghost is said to haunt the offices of the local newspaper, which stands on the spot where the murder occurred. - PJS
File: RcMagHow
===
NAME: Maggie Hunter, The
DESCRIPTION: The Maggie Hunter leaves Oswego bound for Toronto, but runs into a gale. Various crew members do their best, but the ship is lost, with only bits recovered. Six months later, the cook's body  is found. Listeners are told to remember whenever a storm blows
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (recording, C. H. J. Snider)
KEYWORDS: corpse death drowning ship disaster storm wreck moniker cook sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct. 13, 1876 -- telegram to ship's owner announces the coming ashore of the Maggie Hunter's cabin work
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #3841
RECORDINGS:
C. H. J. Snider, "The 'Maggie Hunter'" (on GreatLakes1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Persian's Crew" (subject, tune)
NOTES: Snider said he learned the song in July of 1947. Fowke reports that it was widespread in the Prince Edward County area (where the cook's body came ashore) in the 1880s, but has not been reported elsewhere. - PJS
File: RcTMagHu
===
NAME: Maggie Lauder
DESCRIPTION: Maggie meets a piper, Rab the Ranter, and encourages him to strike up a tune while she dances. He does, and she praises his work; he says, "It's worth my while to play indeed When I hae sic a dancer." She encourages him to ask for her if he comes again
AUTHOR: Francis Sempill? (c. 1616-1682)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1794 (Ritson); reportedly written 1642
KEYWORDS: music dancing
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #5625
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:002, "Maggie Lauder," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
NLScotland, S.302.b.2(094), "Maggie Lauder," Simms and McIntyre (Belfast), probably 1825; also APS.3.84.2, "Maggy Lawder," Charles Pigott (London), after 1825 (with many distortions in the lyrics)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Northumberland Bagpipes" (theme)
SAME_TUNE:
Cornwallis Burgoyned (broadside of 1781; see Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 25)
The Joyful Widower (Scots Musical Museum, #98)
NOTES: One can only suspect that more than piping and dancing lies behind this song. This, indeed, may explain its rarity in the older collections; it sounds like a hidden story of something extremely indelicate. (The National Library of Scotland site, in fact, claims that Maggie ended up pregnant. The NLScotland broadsides do not show this, however.) 
Habbie Simpson, to whom Rab the Ranter is compared, was a historical person, living in Kilbarchan (near Paisley) in the late sixteenth century; it may be significant that the father of Francis Sempill, Robert Sempill (c. 1595-c. 1665; not to be confused with another Scots poet named Robert Sempill, 1530?-1595), composed Simpson's elegy, _The Life and Death of the Piper of Kilbarchan, or the Epitaph  of Habbie Simpson_ (c. 1640).
There is a broadside text (not a song) about Simpson at NLScotland L.C.1270(019), "Habbie Simpson and his Wife,"  unknown, c. 1845.
I don't know if Maggie and Rab are historical. - RBW
File: NSMagLau
===
NAME: Maggie Mac: see The Cumberland [Laws A26] (File: LA26)
===
NAME: Maggie May
DESCRIPTION: The sailor returns home and soon falls in with Maggie May. She takes him to her room, gets him drunk, and walks off with his money (and clothes). Maggie is arrested and transported to Australia
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1906 (recording, John W. Myers)
KEYWORDS: whore robbery sailor transportation
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(West)) Australia
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Hugill, pp. 404-408, "Maggie May" (4 texts, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 307-311]
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 30-31, "Maggie May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 6-7, "Maggie May" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAGGIMAY*
Roud #1757
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Maggie May" (on LastDays)
J. W. Myers, "Goodbye Maggie May" (Oxford 11582, c. 1906)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] (plot) and references there
File: FaE030
===
NAME: Maggie of Coleraine
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Coleraine; it is the home of beautiful Maggie. He recalls meeting her by the Bann, and the various places he courted her. He hopes he will soon be able to meet her again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H657, p. 242, "Maggie of Coleraine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9480
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Teddy O'Neill" (tune)
File: HHH657
===
NAME: Maggie Was a Lady: see Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)
===
NAME: Maggie, The: see The Wreck of the Maggie (File: LLab080)
===
NAME: Maggie's Secret
DESCRIPTION: "Oh! many a time I am sad at heart." Boys come to court Maggie "but I tell them they needn't come wooing to me." Her secret is that she loves a sailor: "my heart is over the sea." His mother guesses her secret and approves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 15(180a))
KEYWORDS: courting love separation mother sailor
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, pp. 143-144, "Maggie's Secret" (1 text)
Roud #12886
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(180a), "Maggie's Secret", H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(1663), Firth b.26(257), "Maggie's Secret"
File: OCon143B
===
NAME: Magherafelt Hiring Fair: see Tam Buie (Tam Bo, Magherafelt Hiring Fair) (File: HHH748)
===
NAME: Magic Glass, The
DESCRIPTION: "I went one night with a high-priced thirst to loaf in a booze bazaar." The singer, glancing at himself in the mirror, sees a "cringing bum" -- then looks again and it's gone. The bartender says that the "Magic Glass" lets men see what they might become
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: drink warning
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 130, "The Magic Glass" (1 text)
Roud #9586
NOTES: Dean's version ends with the bartender explaining the Magic Glass -- but one has to suspect that the full song goes on to have the singer swear off drinking. Though what *I'd* like is to know why a bartender would be so foolish as to install a glass that would scare off his customers. Obviously some people would approve -- but those people aren't going to become bartenders!
File: Dean130A
===
NAME: Magilligan
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Mary and their beautiful home country of Magilligan. He recalls carving their names in a bench, and drinking together. They watch a ship sail away, but again agree never to leave Magilligan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love home emigration
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H52a, pp. 244-245, "Magilligan" (1 text, 1 tune, the latter derived from O'Neill on the basis of Henry's statement that the tune is "The Wearing of the Green")
Roud #2965
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune) and references there
File: HHH052a
===
NAME: Magpie's Nest, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer praises his love, saying if he was a king he would make her queen and set her down in the "magpie's nest" -- a cottage alongside the River Shannon. He says he's never seen anyone more lovely than "the little Irish fairy in the magpie's nest."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (recorded from Aunt Jane Kelly)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer praises his love, saying if he was a king he would make her queen and set her down in the "magpie's nest" -- a cottage alongside the River Shannon. He says he's never seen anyone more lovely than "the little Irish fairy in the magpie's nest." Chorus: "Shiddly-idle-daddle-diddle-dadle-diddle-didle-dum/I would l'ave you down to rest in the magpie's nest"
KEYWORDS: love beauty dancetune lyric nonballad lover
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kennedy 182, "The Magpie's Nest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2127
RECORDINGS:
Aunt Jane Kelly "The Magpie's Nest" (on FSB1, FSB2CD)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cuckoo's Nest (I)" (tune)
cf. "The Cuckoo's Nest (II)" (tune)
cf. "Around the Hills of Clare" (tune)
cf. "Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor)" (lyrics)
NOTES: This shares the tune and structure with both versions of "The Cuckoo's Nest," the latter of which sometimes incorporate "dowdling" (mouth music) as here. However, "The Cuckoo's Nest" is almost inevitably bawdy or erotic, while "The Magpie's Nest" is invariably clean, so I split them. For completeness, though, better check them out. - PJS
File: K182
===
NAME: Maguire's Brae
DESCRIPTION: "Have you ever stood on the Carn street.. And viewed those hills with their limpid rills..." The singer has traveled widely, but never seen a place so fair. "Though here today in the U. S.A. I toil on a foreign strand," he wishes he were still at home
AUTHOR: Words: James O'Kane
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration homesickness
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H747, pp. 214-215, "Maguire's Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH747
===
NAME: Maid and the Horse, The
DESCRIPTION: A maid walking in the cold meets three men riding. She tells one that she craves the thing that "sits between your two legs" to make her warm. He gets off his horse. She gets on his horse and rides off. He goes after her until she threatens to shoot him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(83))
KEYWORDS: sex escape trick bawdy horse rake
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 214-215, "The Maid and the Horse" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #1624
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(83), "The Crafty Maid" ("Come listen awhile and I will sing you a song"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Johnson Ballads 323, Harding B 25(441), "The Crafty Maid's Policy"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lovely Joan" (plot)
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" [Child 43] and references there
NOTES: There is another broadside at Bodleian as "The Crafty Maid" [Come all you lads and lasses ..."] in which a farmer's daughter is hiding a rabbit between her legs to keep it warm and a lord "buys that between her legs"; unsatisfied with the rabbit he takes her to a justice who resolves the dispute in favor of the farmer's daughter.
There is yet another broadside at Bodleian as "The Frolicsome Maiden or The Gentleman Outwitted" which combines both Crafty Maid stories: it is a cold morning; she does offer to go with him in exchange for what is between his legs; he is unsatisfied by the outcome and takes her to a justice who rules in her favor.
Roud seems to consider these all as #1624.
Cf. "Handsome Shone the Dairymaid" [Crawfurd 115] (theme) in E. B. Lyle _Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads and Songs_ (The Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh, 1996) which is similar to "Lovely Joan." - BS 
File: Pea214
===
NAME: Maid and the Magpie, The
DESCRIPTION: The sailor goes to sea, leaving his girl and the magpie. The girl spends time with the parson, and tells the bird she prefers him. The lonely sailor hurries home; the bird reveals the truth. Neither sailor nor parson want the girl thereafter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: bird infidelity sailor clergy humorous
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond)) Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 44-45, "The Maid and the Magpie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1532
RECORDINGS:
Cyril Poacher, "The Maid and the Magpie" (on Voice06)
NOTES: I have not found a broadside but evidence that there is one is that there is a broadside parody: Bodleian, Harding B 11(2273), "The Maid and the Dustman. A popular parody on the 'Maid & magpie'" ("Once there was a maid who was thought very shy"), unknown, n.d. The parody description: The maid's lover is a tailor; she said they'd marry when he "signed the pledge again." She "hook'd it with the dustman" when her pa goes to church. The girl talks all day to the dustman [instead of the magpie]. When the tailor is asleep the girl goes to the dustman but they are interrupted by her mother. The tailor gets drunk and returns home to find the girl gone. He complains to her parents [instead of the magpie] who tell him about the dustman. The take her to court and she puts the blame on the dustman, who disappears; the bird reveals the truth. Neither tailor nor dustman want the girl thereafter "and she's got no one to cuddle, so she sleeps by herself." - BS
File: MA044
===
NAME: Maid and the Palmer, The [Child 21]
DESCRIPTION: A woman comes to a well, where she meets a man who asks of her a drink. She says she can offer him none because her leman/husband is away. The man tells her that she has no leman, and goes on to tell of her sins
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious adultery
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Child 21, "The Maid and the Palmer" (2 texts)
Bronson's (21 in addenda), "The Maid and the Palmer" (2 versions in addenda)
Leach, pp. 106-107, "The Maid and the Palmer" (1 text)
OBB 99, "The Maid and the Palmer" (1 text)
PBB 3, "The Maid and the Palmer" (1 text)
TBB 37, "The Maid and the Palmer" (1 text)
 Niles 15, "The Maid and the Palmer" (1 text, which Niles identifies with Child 21, but the fragment is so short that it could equally be part of Child 20)
DT 21, MAIDPALM MAIDPAL2*
ST C021 (Full)
Roud #2335
RECORDINGS:
John Reilly, "The Well Below the Valley" (on Voice03)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (subject)
cf. "See the Woman at the Well" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Samaritan Woman
The Well Below the Valley
Jesus Met the Woman at the Well (?)
Seven Years
NOTES: For the story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, see John 4:5-26 - RBW
File: C021
===
NAME: Maid Freed from the Gallows, The [Child 95]
DESCRIPTION: A (woman) is about to be hanged. If she could pay her fee, she would be freed. One by one, father, brother, (and other family members) come to see her hanged, refusing to ransom her. Then her sweetheart arrives to rescue her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1770 (Percy collection, according to Child)
KEYWORDS: execution love rescue
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland,England(North,South,West)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Bahamas Jamaica
REFERENCES: (44 citations)
Child 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (11 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Bronson 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (68 versions+2 in addenda, but the last four main entries are "Gallows" [Laws L11], and some of the fragments may be also)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 206-213, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts plus assorted folktale versions)
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 15-41, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (8 texts plus a fragment, 8 tunes, but of the texts, only "A," "B1," and "B2" are 'The Maid Freed" [Child 95]; the remaining six are "Gallows" [Laws L11]
Belden, pp. 66-67, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #54}
Randolph 24, "Hold Your Hands, Old Man" (5 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes) {A=Bronson's #41, D=#61, E=#12, F=#50}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 45-47, "Hold Your Hands, Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 24E) {Bronson's #12}
Eddy 18, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Gardner/Chickering 50, "The Golden Ball" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}
Davis-Ballads 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (24 texts plus a fragment, 5 tunes plus a variant entitles "Maid Freed from the Gallows," "The Hangerman's Tree, or Freed from the Gallos," "The Maid Saved," "Hangsman"; 9 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #9, #26, #42, #46, #40}
Davis-More 29, pp. 221-228, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (3 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes;  the two longest texts, AA and DD, both contain floating material, in the case of "D" probably from "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum)" [Laws H2])
BrownII 30, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts, 5 excerpts, 1 fragment, plus mention of two more, as well as one mixed text, M, probably a combination of this with "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum)" [Laws H2])
Chappell-FSRA 15, "Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #34}
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 35-42, (no general title; one version is listed as "Hangman, Slack on the Line")  (3 texts plus 3 excerpts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
Hudson 17, pp. 111-114, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more; the "D" text is mixed with floating verses from prison songs)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 284, (no title) (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 196-200, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (2 texts plus an excerpt, with local titles "The Hangman's Son" and "Hangman, Hold Your Rope"; 2 tunes on pp. 408-409) {Bronson's #37, #38}
Brewster 17, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 295-300, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 44, "The Hangman's Song" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #35}
Fuson, pp. 113-114, "The Hangman's Song" (1 text, with an introductory verse related to "In the Pines," ending "I have done no hanging crime")
Cambiaire, pp. 15-16, "The Hangman's Song" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 131, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts)
Warner 105, "Hang Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 86-87, "Jimmy Loud"; pp. 88-90, "Hangman" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
SharpAp 28, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (11 texts, most of which appear to be fragments though it's often hard to tell with this song, 11 tunes){Bronson's #30, #33, #9, #42, #6, #25, #58, #31, #39, #32, #15}
Sharp-100E 17, "The Briery Bush" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #49}
Niles 39, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 14, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #30}
Sandburg, p. 72, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}; p. 385, "Hangman" (1 short text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #64}
Scott-BoA, pp. 14-15, "The Sycamore Tree"; pp. 207-208, "Hangman, Slack on the Line" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 282-383, "Prickle-holly Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 139-141, "[Hangman, Slack Up Your Rope]" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {second tune is Bronson's #36, with differences}
Ritchie-Southern, p. 27, "The Hangman Song" (1 text, 1 tune) {approximately Bronson's #36, but Bronson's transcription, from  recording, is noticeably different}
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 822-824, "The Hangman's Tree" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}
TBB 5, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows (The Hangman's Tree)" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 13, pp. 31-33, "The Hangman's Song" (1 text)
JHCox 18, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (7 texts)
JHCoxIIA, #9, pp. 38-39, "Slack Your Rope" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #27}
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 41-42 "Hangman, Hangman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer, p. 74, "The Highwayman" (1 text, with a significant mixture of unrelated material from songs such as "The Roving Gambler"); p. 80, "Hangman, Hangman, Slack the Rope" (1 text, a fairly normal American variant)
Darling-NAS, pp. 69-71, "The Hangman"; "Gallows Pole" (2 texts, the first "modernized" by Darling)
Silber-FSWB, p. 211, "The Gallows Pole" (1 text)
DT 95, HANGMN1* HANGMAN2*
Roud #144
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "Young Maid Saved from the Gallows" (AFS 204 A2, 1934)
Bentley Ball, "Gallows Tree" (Columbia A3084, 1920)
Roy Harvey, Jess Johnston & the West Virginia Ramblers, "John Hardy Blues" (Champion 16281, 1931; on StuffDreams1) [see NOTES]
Fred Hewett, "The Prickle Holly-Bush" (on Voice03)
Harry Jackson, "The Hangman's Song" (on HJackson1) (in this version the true love pays the hangman to ensure that the hanging will take place)
Lead Belly, "The Gallis Pole" (Musicraft 227, rec. 1939)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Prickly Bush" (on ESFB1, ESFB2)
Walter Lucas & the people of Sixpenny Handley, Dorset, "The Prickle Holly Bush"  (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741) {Bronson's #20}
[Asa] Martin & [Bob] Roberts, "Hang Down Your Head and Cry" (Conqueror 8207, 1933) [see NOTES]
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "The Highwayman" (a heavily modified version; Columbia 15160-D, 1926; on CPoole03); "Hangman, Hangman, Slack the Rope" (a more normal version; Columbia 15385-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Almeda Riddle, "Hangman Tree" (on LomaxCD1705)
Jean Ritchie, "Hangman" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #36?}
Julia Scaddon, "The Prickelly Bush [The Pricketty Bush]" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Sarah Anne Tuck, "The Pricketty Bush (The Maid Freed from the Gallows)" (on FSBBAL1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Gallows" [Laws L11] (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Golden Ball
The Prickilie Bush
The Gallows Pole
Granny and the Golden Ball
NOTES: This very popular ballad is identical in plot with "Gallows" [Laws L11], and lumping editors will lump them; individual collections should be checked carefully.
Scarborough notes that southern Blacks turned this song into drama -- in a rather depressing way: The magical ball could be used to turn a Black girl into a pretty White. - RBW
The Martin & Roberts recording is a weird mishmosh: one verse that sounds like it's from the "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home" family, one from this song, and one more or less from "Roving Gambler." I put it here because that middle verse is most explicitly from here, whereas the others are vaguer.
The Roy Harvey, recording, meanwhile, is equally weird; the tune is from "John Hardy," all right, but the lyrics are "Maid Freed from the Gallows." Don't ask me what's going on. - PJS
File: C095
===
NAME: Maid from the Carn Brae, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the other girls described in songs -- the girl in the Galway shawl, the girl from the County, Down, etc. -- but "she was queen alone, The maid from the Carn Brae." No amount of searching will reveal another such girl
AUTHOR: James O'Kane
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty music
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H704, p. 241, "The Maid from the Carn Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9478
NOTES: Curiously, the singer in this song makes no attempt to court the girl; he just describes her as irresistable. - RBW
File: HHH704
===
NAME: Maid from the County Tyrone, The
DESCRIPTION: Far from the city live Michael Murphy and his beautiful daughter. The singer praises her beauty at great length, and desires to wed her though she is only a farmer's daughter. If she agrees to marry, he will cease rambling and live in the country with her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty home
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H528, p. 246, "The Maid from the County Tyrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13335
File: HHH528
===
NAME: Maid from Tidehead, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a young lumberjack tell how "I long once again for the Maid from Tidehead." He describes their parting and decides to return to Restigouche: "No more will I roam from the Maid of Tidehead"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: love separation logger reunion
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Manny/Wilson 31, "The Maid from Tidehead" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi031 (Partial)
Roud #9187
NOTES: The Restigouche River is in the central Miramichi area of New Brunswick. Tide Head is on that river near Chaleur Bay. - BS.
File: MaWi031
===
NAME: Maid Gaed to the Mill, The
DESCRIPTION: "The maid's gaed to the mill by night, sae wanton... That she should hae her corn ground, mill and multure free." The miller's man obliges her. When she has a child "Her mother baid her cast it oot." "Her faither baid her keep it in," and she does.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (SCMacCollSeeger01)
KEYWORDS: sex childbirth bastard mother father miller money
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, MAIDMILL*
Roud #2575
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Maid Gaed to the Mill" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
File: RcTMGTTM
===
NAME: Maid Gathering Mushrooms, The: see Gathering Mushrooms (File: RcTGMus)
===
NAME: Maid I Am In Love, A: see The Maid in Sorrow (Short Jacket) [Laws N12] (File: LN12)
===
NAME: Maid I Left Behind, The: see The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)
===
NAME: Maid in Bedlam, A
DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a woman in Bedlam lamenting. She went mad when friends sent her lover  away. In some versions, she reproaches him with this but continues to love him. In others, he returns and rescues her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1787 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: madness betrayal love rescue
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) US(MW)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Sharp-100E 41, "Bedlam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan, pp. 187-188, "Bedlam City, or The Maiden's Lamentation" (1 text, part of the longer entry "Tom a Bedlam")
Gardner/Chickering 65, "A Maid in Bedlam" (1 text, very possibly from print)
BBI, ZN670, "Come maidens all and pity me"; ZN3182, "Young maidens all, pray pity me, and think of my extremity"
ST ShH41 (Partial)
Roud #605
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Through Moorfields" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(602), "The Fair Maid in Bedlam" ("It was down in Moorfields, as I walked one day"), J. Marshall (Newcastle), 1810-1831; also Harding B 22(65), "The Distracted Maiden"; Firth c.18(138), Firth c.12(229), "Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam"; Firth b.26(457), Harding B 11(1116), "The Fair Maid in Bedlam" 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Tom a Bedlam (Bedlam Boys)" (theme)
cf. "Gramachree" (tune)
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10] (theme of a maid in Bedlam)
NOTES: Bethlehem Hospital ("Bedlam") was the first hospital in London for patients with mental illnesses. It was for men, I believe; Magdalene Hospital ("Maudlin"), established somewhat later, was for women. - PJS
Roud has at least three numbers meeting the general description for "A Maid In Bedlam" (Roud #605). The #605 broadsides are listed above. Their description is: The singer, wlking in Moorfields, hears an inmate girl complain that her parents had her apprentice lover sent to sea which "has distracted my brain." The sailor returns and bribes the porter and rescues her. They marry and he gives the "unworthy parents" a tongue-lashing.
Roud #575 is represented by the following broadsides. Their description is: The singer hears "a Maid in Bedlam" rattling her chains and complaining that her lover's parents had him sent to sea. She prays that if she die she might claim "a guardian angel's charge, around my Love to fly" She tells what she would do were she a flower garland, nightingale, or eagle, to be with her lover.
Bodleian, Harding B 14(34), "The Maid in Bedlam" ("One morning, very early, one morning in the spring"), Fowler (Salisbury), 1770-1800; also Firth c.18(139), "The Maid of Bedlam"
Roud #968 is represented by the following broadsides. Their description is: The singer hears an inmate maiden complain that Billy is her love and they are separated by her parents. She thinks of flying to his side and seeing him die on the battlefield. She sees him coming "in the cloud With guardian angels standing round him"
Bodleian, Harding B 28(92), "Bedlam City" ("Down by the side of Bedlam city"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth c.18(140)[some lines illegible], 2806 c.18(197)[only the first verse and chorus are legible], Harding B 28(273), Harding B 25(155), 2806 c.17(26), Firth c.19(186), "Bedlam City"
The following broadside, only slightly modified from the Roud #968 broadsides above, has been, according to its printer, "altered from the vulgar ballad."
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 26, "Bedlam City" ("Down by Bedlam I walk'd one ev'ning"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838
There are at least three similar broadsides not yet assigned a Roud number.
In one "Amelia's Complaint": Amelia's is in chains because her father sent her sailor away where, she thinks, he was slain. Her mind wanders as she cannot make ouut what approaches. She prays to die.
Bodleian, Harding B 25(43), "Amelia's Complaint, in Bedlam for the Loss of her Sailor" ("Young women with attention listen to what I mention"), G. Pigott (London) , n.d.
In another "Amelia's Complaint": Amelia's lover is imprest to fight in the war She prays that the war will end. If he is slain she'll be undone forever. She'll be true."
Bodleian, Harding B 25(41), "Amelia's Complaint for the Loss of Young Edward" ("Young lovers all awhile attend")[some words illegible], J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840
In "Pity a Maiden": "They" have imprest Billy and sent him over the sea. If he returns she will be free of Bedlam and her chains. She thinks of being with Billy and sends him a letter by a friend saying that she hopes they will meet again.
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(246), "Pity a Maiden" ("Pity an innocent maiden in Bedlam I lay confin'd"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819 
Opie-Oxford2: "In 1675 the Old Bethlem Hospital was moved to Moorfields" - BS
File: ShH41
===
NAME: Maid in Sorrow, The (Short Jacket) [Laws N12]
DESCRIPTION: A girl dresses as a sailor and goes to sea to seek her true love. The captain finds her attractive and wishes she were a girl. She puts him off, pointing out that there are handsome girls ashore. Only as she is leaving the ship does she reveal her sex
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing ship sea
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Laws N12, "The Maid in Sorrow (Short Jacket)"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 46, "Short Jacket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 327-328, "Blue Jacket and White Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 78, "A Maid I Am In Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner 1, "Cabin Boy"; 48, "Cabin Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 164, "The Maid in Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 444, SHORTJKT* SHORTJK2*
Roud #231
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Short Jacket and White Trousers" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd3)
Mrs. Stan Marshall, "Maid I Am in Love" (on MRHCreighton)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
A Maid That's Deep in Love
File: LN12
===
NAME: Maid of Aghadowey, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his time by the Banks of the Ban, where he met a beautiful girl. Her parents are "dead against me," but he begs her to be true to him, and says that he would give her all his riches if he had any
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation father mother
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H673, p. 429, "The Maid of Aghadowey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7958
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Bann (I)" [Laws O2] (plot)
NOTES: This song is similar in plot to Laws O2, "The Banks of the Bann," and also takes place by the Bann. Some have tentatively equated the songs. But songs of parents opposing lovers are common, and songs set by the Bann are common; there is no reason there shouldn't be two such. There is no lyrical similarity that I can see. Different songs, in my book. - RBW
File: HHH673
===
NAME: Maid of Altaveedan, The
DESCRIPTION: "I met her on the brow of Altaveedon Hill, The lambs were calling after her to stay there." He describes the hills and her, saying "There's a head of gold far lovelier than yon hill." Her beauty has enraptured the singer; he will wander no more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H603, p. 239, "The Maid of Altaveedan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9474
File: HHH603
===
NAME: Maid of Altibrine, The: see The Holly Bough/The Maid of Altibrine (File: HHH111)
===
NAME: Maid of Amsterdam, The: see A-Rovin' (File: EM064)
===
NAME: Maid of Australia, The: see Oxeborough Banks (Maids of Australia) (File: FaE044)
===
NAME: Maid of Ballydoo, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a maid. He asks if she were Helen, or Aurora, or "Flo the queen of May." He takes her to Hilltown and gets her drunk so that "she soon forgot the vows she made." He recalls now "when I first composed these verses" sitting at his loom.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (OBoyle)
KEYWORDS: seduction weaving drink
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OBoyle 15, "The Maid of Ballydoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3477
NOTES: O Boyle: "Ballydoo is a small townland between Hilltown and Mayobridge [in County Down]...." - BS
I have a recording of this made by David Hammond and released on "Irish Folk Songs: The Clancy Brothers, David Hammond and Families" (Excelsior/Madacy, 1994). Most of the material on this disc was previously released in 1959, but I cannot verify that this song was, so I am forced to use O Boyle as the earliest date. - RBW
File: OBoy015
===
NAME: Maid of Ballyhaunis, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Mary, saying that her beauty has ensnared him. He begs her to love him, but notes that his father has told him they may not marry. He asks her to come away with him "to the land of ships," where they will be happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1831 (Hardiman _Irish Minstrelsy,_ according to OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: love courting father
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H483, p. 427, "The Maid of Ballyhaunis" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-More 45, "Mary of Ballyhaunis" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 157, "Maid of Ballyhaunis" (1 text)
Roud #7960
NOTES: This strikes me as far too intricate to be a genuine traditional song; the evidence strongly implies that it originated in a broadside. - RBW
File: HHH483
===
NAME: Maid of Ballymore, The
DESCRIPTION: Markie Bawn loves the heiress "maid of Ballymore." If he wants to marry, she says, he must have her parents' consent. He puts on his shoes, has her mother's consent, and they marry. "A happier couple were never saw before"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (recording, Mary Ann Carolan)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage mother
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #2991
RECORDINGS:
Mary Ann Carolan, "The Maid of Ballymore" (on Voice06)
NOTES: Ballymore is in County Kerry. - BS
File: RcMaiBal
===
NAME: Maid of Belfast Town, The
DESCRIPTION: "In Belfast town of high renown, There lives a comely maid." The singer approaches her and asks her to come away with him. She rejects him because of a vow made seven years before. Now, "each night I dream, rave and complain" because she refused him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1826 (according to Leyden)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection separation
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Leyden 26, "The Maid of Belfast Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1193)[some words in last verse illegible], "The Maid of Belfast" ("In Belfast town of high renown there l[i]ves a comely maid"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(2279), "The Maid of Belfast"; Harding B 11(337), "The Belfast Maid"
NOTES: Among other classic [Roman] references here: "Diana fair cannot compare, Or Venus from the tide, Or Dido sure that virgin pure, That for Aeneas died ...." See the notes to "Sheila Nee Iyer" for some traits of the "hedge school master" school of Irish ballad writing. - BS
Someday, someone should do a study on why Diana (Greek Artemis) became so noted for beauty in British tales (see, e.g., "The an-Yard Side" [Laws M28], "The Beaver Brig," and "The Fair of Balamina"). She was not one of the three goddesses who competed for the title of "the Fairest" in the Judgment of Paris. that was contested between Hera (Roman Juno), Aphrodite (Roman Venus), and Athena (Roman Minerva). That contest of course was won by Aphrodite, leading to the Trojan War.
Not every account says that Aphrodite was born of the sea-foam; Homer simply calls her the daughter of Zeus and Dione. But Hesiod tells of her birth from the sea-foam after the gonads of Ouranos were cast into the ocean after his castration by his son Chronos (Hesiod, _Theogony_, lines 185-195); indeed, the name "Aphrodite" is in these lines falsely equated with Greek "aphros," "foam."
Aphrodite was of course the mother of Aeneas, which lead smoothly into the story of the latter, and his betrayal of Dido, which is a major theme of Virgil's _Aeneid_, which I would assume is the major source for most of the material here. - RBW
File: Leyd026
===
NAME: Maid of Bonnie Strathyre, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer wants nothing better "than to herd the fine cattle on bonnie Strathyre" with "Mary, the pride of Strathyre." He dances with Mary, and Flora with Colin. Others can go to the lowlands, or soldier far away, but he'll stay home with Mary
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: love farming dancing Scotland nonballad animal
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 53, "The Maid of Bonnie Strathyre" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: McBride: "The song originates in the beautiful vale of Strathyre in Perthshire.... It would seem to be a very localised ballad and it must have been imported by migratory workers who traversed between Insihowen and Scotland." - BS
File: McB053
===
NAME: Maid of Bunclody, and the Lad She Loves So Dear, The: see The Streams of Bunclody (File: BroaTSoB)
===
NAME: Maid of Burndennet, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, fair (are the) vales of (my) own native soil," particularly Burndennet, where a beautiful girl lives. The singer praises her beauty and describes their courting. Though their rivals sneer, their love will emerge victorious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H96a+b, pp. 230-231, "The Maid of Burndennett" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7982
NOTES: Curiously, although Sam Henry lists only one source for this song, he preserved two texts -- each of four verses, but only two and a half verses in common, with a different order, and with substantial differences even in the common material. The differences are just what one would expect from oral tradition -- but with only one listed source, and no other versions known, one must suspect editorial tampering. - RBW
File: HHH096
===
NAME: Maid of Carrowclare, The: see Killyclare (Carrowclare; The Maid of Carrowclare) (File: HHH298)
===
NAME: Maid of Castle Craigh, The
DESCRIPTION: When the singer left Ireland to fight in the wars he had loved his "Maid of Castle Craigh" but thought she did not love him. Somehow, in the three years passed, he learned "that I had won thy gentle heart." The war is over and he has returned to her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)d
KEYWORDS: love war separation return Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 72, "The Maid of Castlecraig" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 146, "The Maid of Castle Craigh" (1 text)
File: OLcM072
===
NAME: Maid of Colehill, The: see The Flower of Corby Mill (File: HHH612)
===
NAME: Maid of Craigienorn, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the Maid of Craigienorn, whom he sees as he rambles. He begs her to come away. She refuses; she has another love and will not leave her parents. He says her love has abandoned her. The ending is confused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection abandonment beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H500, pp. 359-360, "The Maid of Craigienorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6880
NOTES: The first several stanzas of this are your standard guy-sees-girl/guy-hits-on-girl/girl-says-leave-me-alone ballad. Then we get a John Riley-like scene in which he says her love has abandoned her. (And how, given that the singer has never seen her before, does he know?) Then there seems to be a section from the woman's viewpoint, and another in which she is revealed as a Protestant, and another in which the singer complains about England's laws and wishes the couple happiness.
There seems little doubt that the ending of this song is confused. I would guess at least three other songs have contributed. But it's hard to identify them from the small fragments extant. - RBW
File: HHH359
===
NAME: Maid of Croaghmore, The
DESCRIPTION: The well-born young man falls in love with the maid of Croaghmore. He describes her beauty, says he would make her queen if he were king, and promises to serve for her hand as Jacob served Laban. Her parents say she is too young
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection father mother beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H522, pp. 355-356, "The Maid of Croaghmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6878
NOTES: One wonders what was wrong with this wealthy young man, that the girl's parents refused to wed her to him (the song says she was nineteen, so hardly too young!).
The story of Jacob serving Laban for fourteen years to win the hands of Rachel and Leah is told in Genesis 29:15-30.
The song refers in the third verse to the Duke of Cumberland. Sam Henry explained that this was the same Duke of Cumberland (Williams Augustus, 1721-1765) who destroyed the Jacobite cause at Culloden. I can see no basis for this assertion. - RBW
File: HHH522
===
NAME: Maid of Culmore, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the harbour and women of Culmore. He recalls the girl he loved, who cried bu "sailed down Lough Foyle and away from Culmore." He wishes a storm would bring her back. He will follow her and seek her in America
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation ship emigration
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H687, p. 302, "The Maids of Culmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2493
File: HHH687
===
NAME: Maid of Don, The: see The Haughs o Newe (File: Ord193)
===
NAME: Maid of Dunmore, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a maid whose sweetheart is fighting the French with Nelson. He asks her to leave Dunmore and live with him in Ireland. She refuses. He "picked up my alls and left for Ireland, And left that fair maid in Dunmore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: love sailor war separation courting rejection Ireland
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Manny/Wilson 83, "The Maid of Dunmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 47-48, "The Lass of Dunmore" (1 text)
ST MaWi083 (Partial)
Roud #9177 and 3668
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lass of Dunmore
NOTES: This hits so many familiar themes that it sounds like it ought to be a version of something else (compare, e.g., "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32] and "The Banks of Clyde (I)") -- but I can't locate a true parallel. - RBW.
File: MaWi083
===
NAME: Maid of Dunysheil
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Dunyshiel, "the place where my true love does dwell." He recalls meeting her at Rasharkin Fair. He must leave for Nova Scotia, but as long as he is away, "my heart shall be with the Maid of Dunyshiel."
AUTHOR: Paddy McGuckian
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting emigration separation
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H530, p. 298, "The Maid of Dunyshiel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6894
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29] (plot) and references there
File: HHH530
===
NAME: Maid of Erin's Isle, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the sun does set down in the west when his daily journey's o'er.... With ruby wine I'll fill my glass... And I'll drink a health to my sweetheart, she's the maid of Erin's isle." He praises Mary's beauty, and vows to love her as long as he lives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad wine
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H57b, p. 228, "The Maid of Erin's Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7978
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:002, "The Maid of Erin's Isle," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
File: HHH057b
===
NAME: Maid of Fainey, The
DESCRIPTION: "There was a maid of Fainey, of youth and beauty bright, Who had scores of sweethearts to court her day and night...." She loves her father's servant. They break a ring, then he flees. Her father threatens him. The end is confused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: brokentoken courting love father separation
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 167-168, "The Maid of Fainey" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAIDFAIN
Roud #3353
File: MA167
===
NAME: Maid of Faughan Vale, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a beautiful girl near Faughan Vale. He asks her about the road, and then admits to being besotted with her. She tells him she is engaged to another, and they will soon sail for America. He laments his fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty courting rejection emigration
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H167, p. 369, "The Maid of Faughan Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6885
File: HHH167
===
NAME: Maid of Lismore, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Kathy from Lismore, going to sell turkeys at Dungarvan. She pays for drinks. He claims to be rich. They sleep until the market closed. The price for turkeys falls. Now he claims poverty. She is ruined and would have him "hung or transported"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2283))
KEYWORDS: seduction lie drink commerce poverty bird food
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #9284
RECORDINGS:
Martin Reidy, "Lismore Turkeys" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2283), "The Maid of Lismore" ("One day as I chanced to go roving"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 b.9(111), 2806 c.8(187), 2806 c.8(257)[some words illegible], 2806 c.15(12)[some words illegible], 2806 b.11(135), "The Maid of Lismore"
NOTES: The places mentioned -- Lismore, Dungarvin and Cappoquin (where they stopped) -- are in County Waterford. It's about three miles from Lismore to Cappoquin, and about 11 miles farther to Dungarvan. - BS
File: RcMaLism
===
NAME: Maid of Magheracloon, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that the man who courted her on the hills of Magheraclon, "behind yon hawthorn tree," no longer courts her. "Oh he's not to blame, the fault's my own ... I gave my love to another young man." Now she is broken-hearted.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1970 (Morton-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity rejection love
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Morton-Ulster 21, "The Maid of Magheracloon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 6, pp. 9,102,157, "The Maid of Magheracloon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2486
NOTES: Magheracloon is a parish in County Monaghan.
Morton-Maguire: "The song seems to be very well known in Co. Fermanagh." - BS
File: MorU021
===
NAME: Maid of Monterey, The: see Mustang Gray (The Maid of Monterey) (File: FT09)
===
NAME: Maid of Mourne Shore, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer ask is he will ever again see the region of Mourne. He goes to his sweetheart, and begs her to love him lest he go over the sea. She says she loves a sailor and will remain true to him. The singer sadly prepares to emigrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection sailor emigration
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H34b (+tune in H27a), pp. 371-372, "The Maid of Mourne Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MOURNESH*
Roud #2946
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Maids of Mourne Shore" (on IRRCinnamond03)
Martin Reidy, "Maid of Moorlough Shore" (on IRClare01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Foggy Dew" (II) (version on IRClare01) (tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Banks of Moorlough Shore
The Moorlough Shore
The Mourne Shore
File: HHH034b
===
NAME: Maid of Mullaghmore, The: see The Shamrock Shore (The Maid of Mullaghmore) (File: HHH20a)
===
NAME: Maid of Newfoundland, The
DESCRIPTION: The beauties of the maid are compared with the flowers, jewels, women of other lands, etc. The singer tells us that he met her in Labrador and will go far away if he cannot have her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: love beauty exile
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 118, "The Maid of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 372-374, "The Maid of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle2, p. 21, "The Maid of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 71, "The Maid of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAIDNEWF
Roud #4412
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "The Maid on the Shore" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
NOTES: The song has a formulaic introduction by the singer who evokes the Muses to help sing praises to his beloved. - SH
File: Doy21
===
NAME: Maid of Prairie Du Chien, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell, noting "There's nothing doth my footsteps detain But the beautiful maid of Prairie du Chien." He offers marriage; she rejects him. He hopes she will turn to him "when lovers get scarce." He wishes he were a soldier far away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love rejection
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, p. 201, "The Maid of Prairie Du Chien" (1 text)
Roud #7947
NOTES: Belden notes, correctly, that Prairie du Chien is in southwestern Wisconsin, where the Wisconsin River joins the Upper Mississippi. But he fails to note that it was the site of Fort Crawford, founded in 1816, which at the time was the northwesternmost point of functional United States control of the Midwest (to be superseded in 1819 by the founding of Camp New Hope, which eventually was moved to the site of Fort Snelling at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers).
If Belden's informant was correct about when he learned it, the song must have dated back to at least 1850 or so. In that case, it seems quite likely that the singer was intended to be a soldier at Fort Crawford; the girl may have been a local Indian, though by 1850 there were a fair number of Europeans in the area. - RBW
File: Beld201
===
NAME: Maid of Rygate, The: see The Highwayman Outwitted [Laws L2] (File: LL02)
===
NAME: Maid of Seventeen, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer steps up to a beautiful girl and says that she entices him. She answers that she is only seventeen, and knows nothing of courting. He offers her a lesson in the subject. She says he should not visit her; she will return in a week
AUTHOR: Hugh McWilliams (source: Moulden-McWilliams)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1831 (according to Moulden-McWilliams)
KEYWORDS: love courting youth beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H144, p. 270, "The Maid of Seventeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831 (Portrush,1993), p. 11, "The Maid of Seventeen"
Roud #2958
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Maid of Seventeen" (on IRRCinnamond02)
File: HHH144
===
NAME: Maid of Sweet Gartheen, The: see  (File: HHH594)
===
NAME: Maid of Sweet Gartine, The: see  (File: HHH594)
===
NAME: Maid of Sweet Gorteen, The: see The Maid of Sweet Gurteen (File: HHH594)
===
NAME: Maid of Sweet Gurteen, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells the praises of the beautiful Maid of Gorteen. His father opposes the match; she is only a serving girl. The father locks her up; when the singer still professes his love, he has the girl sent away. The ending is confused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Harding B 11(2292))
KEYWORDS: love separation father beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
SHenry H594, p. 430, "The Maid of Sweet Gorteen" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 22, "The Maid of Sweet Gurteen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 375-376, "The Maid of Sweet Gartheen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 85, "The Maid of Sweet Gartine" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 31, "The Maid of Sweet Gorteen" (1 text)
ST HHH594 (Partial)
Roud #3025
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2292), "Maid of Sweet Gortein," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also 2806 b.11(146), "Maid of Sweet Gortein"; 2806 b.11(271), Harding B 11(2721), "The Maid of Sweet Gorteen"; 2806 c.8(263), Harding B 11(2290), Harding B 11(2291), 2806 c.15(200)[many illegible words], 2806 b.9(277), 2806 b.9(234), Harding B 19(39), "The Maid of Sweet Gurteen"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Suffolk Miracle" [Child 272] (theme)
NOTES: Child would have liked this; the plot is "The Suffolk Miracle" ("The Holland Handkerchief"), minus that ghost he so despised. It's not clear how this song is supposed to end; the Sam Henry texts gives hints that the lovers would reunite, but they never do.
Peacock's version has a clear stopping point ("So now my song is ended"), but again, no resolution; it leaves the singer wandering, seemingly between England and Ireland, still coming back to where he found her. Similarly Manny/Wilson, save that he is in Florida. - RBW
File: HHH594
===
NAME: Maid of Tardree, The
DESCRIPTION: In this confused song, the singer falls in love with a  girl, who also says she loves him. But then he falls in love with another girl. But his "first expectations were blighted." He prepares to emigrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love emigration
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H733, p. 342, "The Maid of Tardree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6872
NOTES: There is no doubt in my mind that this song is damaged somehow. But I can't guess how. - RBW
File: HHH733
===
NAME: Maid of the East, The: see There Was a Lady in the East (File: Pea726)
===
NAME: Maid of the Logan Bough, The: see The Foot of the Mountain Brow (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)
===
NAME: Maid of the Mountain Brow: see The Foot of the Mountain Brow (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)
===
NAME: Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe, The: see The Foot of the Mountain Brow (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)
===
NAME: Maid of Tottenham, The: see Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl) (File: K176)
===
NAME: Maid on the Shore, The (The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain) [Laws K27]
DESCRIPTION: The captain sees a pretty girl on the shore, and vigorously entreats her to come aboard. At last she does, but then sings captain and sailors to sleep. She robs captain and sailors, then rows back to shore -- using the captain's sword for an oar!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1859 (Journal from the Ocean Rover)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction trick escape robbery magic shore feminist
FOUND_IN: US(MA,NE,NW,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (16 citations)
Laws K27, "The Maid on the Shore (The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain)"
Bronson (43), "The Broomfield Hill" -- the appendix includes 6 versions (#25-#30) which are this song
Belden, pp. 107-109, "The Maid on the Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 731-732, "The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 403, "The Sea Captain" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 28, "The Maiden who Dwelt by the Shore" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #29}
Peacock, pp. 296-297, "The Maid on the Shore O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 28, "The Sea Captain" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #27, #30}
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 158-159, "The Maid on the Shore (The Sea Captain)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #29, perhaps slightly modified}
Creighton-Maritime, p. 41, "The Sea Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 49, "The Sea Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 19, "The Sea Captain" (2 texts, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 75, "The Maid on the Shore" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 136-137, "The Maid on the Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 73, "The Maid on the Shore" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #29}
DT 322 (43?), MAIDSHOR* MAIDSHR2*
Roud #181
RECORDINGS:
Frankie Armstrong, "The Maid on the Shore" (on BirdBush2, Armstrong1)
Omar Blondahl, "The Maid on the Shore" (on NFOBlondahl04)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" [Child 43] (plot) and references there
cf. "Drimindown" (tune)
File: LK27
===
NAME: Maid Peeped Out at the Window, The: see The Friar in the Well [Child 276] (File: C276)
===
NAME: Maid Who Sold Her Barley, The: see Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw) (File: ShH60)
===
NAME: Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a beautiful maiden, "brighter than Venus." He courts her; at last they set a wedding day. But she breaks off the engagement; she has "another more kinder." He laments; he or she or both set out for another country
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: love rejection emigration beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H43, p. 394, "The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair"; H575, pp. 394-395, "The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OLochlainn 6, "The Maid With the Bonny Brown Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 39-40, "The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair" (1 text)
Roud #3032
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lough Erin's Shore (I)" (tune)
cf. "The Bonnie Wee Lass of the Glen" (tune)
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] (tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lass with the Bonny Brown Hair
File: HHH024
===
NAME: Maiden City, The
DESCRIPTION: Derry is the Maiden City, threatened in 1688. Her defenders shouted "No Surrender" and vowed Derry "should be a Maiden still." She rejected "a Kingly wooer" and her defenders won a terrible battle. "The Maiden on her throne boys, Shall be a Maiden still"
AUTHOR: Charlotte Elizabeth (source: Hayes)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland patriotic
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OrangeLark 39, "The Maiden City" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL:Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol I, p. 278, "The Maiden City"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject: The Siege of Derry) and references there
NOTES: For background on the Siege of (London)derry, see the notes to "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" as well as "No Surrender (I)."  - RBW
File: OrLa039
===
NAME: Maiden in the Garden, The: see Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)
===
NAME: Maiden of Drumdurno, The
DESCRIPTION: "Busy baking for her bridal, Durno's maiden lilts wi' glee." A stranger taunts her for baking too slowly. She wagers she can finish baking before he can build a road. He, the devil in disguise, wins the wager. She flees and turns to stone to escape him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: cook food wager marriage trick Devil
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 434-435, "The Maiden of Drumdurno" (1 text)
NOTES: According to Ord, this is a poetic version of a legend regarding the "maiden stone of Bennachie." The tall stone, said to bear the marks of a fleeing girl, is reported to have been created when the condemned girl cried for help. Rather than obtaining rescue from the tempter, she was turned to stone.
The legend may have arisen naturally. The song, I think, is a purely modern composition. - RBW
File: Ord434
===
NAME: Maiden Pined by Derry's Walls, A
DESCRIPTION: A maiden starving in Derry tells "her 'Prentice Boy lover" not to weep for her: live free or die "not like a popish slave." The message is repeated in Derry by a young wife and mother to her husband, and by a widowed mother to her son.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: battle death starvation Ireland patriotic husband lover mother wife
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 32, "A Maiden Pined by Derry's Walls" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Slave" (tune, according to OrangeLark)
NOTES: See "No Surrender (I)" and references there for information about the 1688-1689 Seige of Derry. - BS
Also "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry." It's perhaps worth noting, in light of the girl addressing her "'Prentice Boy." that it was the apprentices of the town who were first credited with closing Derry's gates. - RBW
File: PrLa032
===
NAME: Maiden Sat a-Weeping, A: see As Sylvie Was Walking (File: VWL014)
===
NAME: Maiden Who Dwelt by the Shore, The: see The Maid on the Shore (The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain) [Laws K27] (File: LK27)
===
NAME: Maiden's Grave, The
DESCRIPTION: "What is that crucifix gleaming so whitely, Here in the desert standing so brave? Let us go softly, let us go lightly, To read its inscription, 'The Maiden's Grave.'" No one, save the cross that marks the grave, knows who she was or how she died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Deseret News)
KEYWORDS: death burial nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 135-136, "(The Maiden's Grave)" (1 text)
NOTES: Reportedly based on an incident of 1904, when the Central Pacific railroad was realigning its tracks. This involved moving one grave of a woman whose history was not know. - RBW
File: Burt135
===
NAME: Maiden's Lament (I), The
DESCRIPTION: The girl laments that her parents have denied her poor lover's proposal of marriage. She bids farewell to parents, friends and foes. "Come all you fair maids like me a-dying, It's now I'm taking my last farewell." She believes her death is near.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Karpeles-Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation dying father mother death poverty
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 82, "The Maiden's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2305
File: KaNew082
===
NAME: Maiden's Lament (II), The: see I Never Will Marry [Laws K17] (File: LK17)
===
NAME: Maiden's Lament (III): see Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme) and related songs (File: FSWB163)
===
NAME: Maiden's Lamentation, The: see A Maid in Bedlam (File: ShH41)
===
NAME: Maiden's Prayer, The: see The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)
===
NAME: Maidens of Sixty-Three (The Old Maid)
DESCRIPTION: "When I was a girl of eighteen years old... I was taught to expect wit, wisdom, gold, and nothing less would do for me." She rejected a youth as too poor, a duke as too old, etc. By  her forties, the suitors were fewer; at (63), she begs for anyone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1911 (Grieg)
KEYWORDS: courting oldmaid rejection
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H679, pp. 255-256, "Maidens of Sixty-Three" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDMD53*
Roud #5643
NOTES: Sort of a combination of "My Thing Is My Own" with "The Old Maid's Song." - RBW
File: HHH679
===
NAME: Maidin Luan Chincise
DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The speaker laments that while Leinster and Ulster rose in rebellion, Munster did not.
AUTHOR: Micheal Og O Longain (1766-1837) (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (Toibin's _Duanaire Deiseach_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rebellion
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule 
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 102, "Maidin Luan Chincise" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The description is, verbatim, Moylan's.
Moylan states that his text is not O Longain's original, but a version from tradition. - BS
This is one of those "technically correct" laments: There were lots of hot spots in Ulster in 1798. In Munster, outside of Dublin, there wasn't much -- except in Wexford. Wexford is right on the borther with Munster, but there were few spontaneous uprisings in Munster. But Munster was a backwater. Had the Ulster rebels held together until the French came, or the Wexford rebels raised more of Leinster and moved on Dublin, they might have succeeded. Had Munster risen but all else stayed the same, the effect would simply have been to increase the bloodshed: The British would have pacified the northeast, then concentrated all their forces in the south. - RBW
File: Moyl102
===
NAME: Maids of Australia: see Oxeborough Banks (Maids of Australia) (File: FaE044)
===
NAME: Maids of Culmore, The: see The Maid of Culmore (File: HHH687)
===
NAME: Maids of Downhill, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls wandering by Magilligan strand to Downhill. He describes the shore, the old castle, the fields, the girls. He complains that the famous poets never mentioned Downhill. He would rather be here than anywhere else in the world
AUTHOR: Frances Heaney ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H809, p. 162, "The Maids of Downhill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13462
File: HHH809
===
NAME: Maids of Mourne Shore, The: see The Maid of Mourne Shore (File: HHH034b)
===
NAME: Maids of Simcoe (Ontario)
DESCRIPTION: The singer urges the girls to remember the loggers while waiting at home with the farmers. He remarks sarcastically on the dangers farmers face. The boys head for (Quebec) to party, then for home. (In some texts a girl at an inn falls in love with him)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: logger separation
FOUND_IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 241-242, "The Maids of Simcoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby 16, "Ye Maidens of Ontario" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 76-77, "Ye Maidens of Ontario" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe241 (Partial)
Roud #3289
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Union Boy" (tune, floating verses)
NOTES: There are two places in Ontario called "Simcoe." Arthur Lant, of New York (who sang the version found in Doerflinger), thought it referred to Simcoe *county* (on the southeastern corner of Georgian Bay, and extending down to Lake Simcoe). The town of Simcoe, which is farther from the logging regions, is in Norfolk County in southern Ontario, a short distance from Lake Erie and almost due north of Erie, Pennsylvania.
Fowke reports that this song "is descended from an old English broadside, 'Ye Gentlemen of England, or The Stormy Winds Do Blow.'" - RBW
File: Doe241
===
NAME: Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man
DESCRIPTION: Examples of why young women should not marry old men. A girl married at sixteen, and has lived an unsatisfactory life. Details are given of the old man's various performance problems. The girl notes that she eventually found solace with a young man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1791 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: age marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North,South,Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US(Ro) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Kennedy 207, "Never Wed a' Auld Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 60, "An Old Man He Courted Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 156, "Maids When You're Young, Never Wed An Old Man" (1 text)
Gilbert, p. 72, "Don't Wed an Old Man" (1 text)
DT, NOWEDOLD*
Roud #210
RECORDINGS:
Sam Larner, "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" (on SLarner02)
Jeannie Robertson, "Maids When You're Young [Never Wed a Auld Man]" (on FSB2, FSB2CD); "An Old Man Came a Courting Me" (on Voice01) 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "An Old Man Came Over the Moor (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)"
cf. "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man"
cf. "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man"
cf. "No Balls at All"
cf. "My Husband's Got No Courage In Him"
cf. "A Bird in a Gilded Cage"
cf. "The Whirly Whorl"
cf. "The Old Bachelor (I)"
cf. "The Burnt-Out Old Fellow [An Seanduine Doighte]"
cf. "Le Mari de Quatre-Vingt-Dix Ans (The Ninety Year Old Husband)"
cf. "Roll Me From the Wall" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Scant of Love, Want of Love
NOTES: In their notes to Sam Larner's recording, MacColl & Seeger cite a version from the appendix to the 1791 edition of Herd's "Scottish Songs," which they call a "remarkably close parallel to Mr. Larner's." Without seeing it, I'm hesitant to assign "EARLIEST DATE," but that has the ring of certainty about it rather than careless lumping. - PJS
I'm assured by others that they're the same, and have adjusted the Earliest Date accordingly (the more so as every other version is rather recent). But I'm leaving the comment here because, well, I still haven't seen it. - RBW
File: K207
===
NAME: Maighre an Chuil Orbhui
DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer's wife was stolen and replaced by a fairy woman without his knowledge. In Dublin he meets his real wife whom he eventually recognizes. He joins his real wife.
AUTHOR: Colla Mac Seain (source: O Boyle, citing O'Reilly's _Irish Writers_)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (OBoyle)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage reunion disguise supernatural wife
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OBoyle 16, "Maighre an Chuil Orbhui" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: O Boyle summarizes the text in English but does not translate it. The description follows the summary. He says, at the end, that "the song does not tell us the fate of [the] fairy wife and children."- BS
File: OBoy016
===
NAME: Mail Boat Leinster, The
DESCRIPTION: On October 10, 1918, "the Dublin Mail Boat Leinster was sunk in the Irish Sea" by a German submarine. "The passengers, their life-belts on, unto the boats repair, While cries for help do rend the skies in sad and wild despair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1946 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor war
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 10, 1918: World War I. Leinster with 680 passengers sunk "by torpedoes fired by a German submarine U 123 .... Of the total of 757 aboard 501 were lost" (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 32)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, p. 35, "The Mail Boat, Leinster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7344
NOTES: Ranson: Tune is "Poulshone Fishermen" on p. 102. - BS
File: Ran035
===
NAME: Mail Day: see Every Mail Day (File: Wa173)
===
NAME: Mail Day Blues: see Every Mail Day (File: Wa173)
===
NAME: Maine-ite in Pennsylvania, The
DESCRIPTION: "I landed safe in Williamsport in a lumberman's rendezvous, 'Twas there I hired with Jacob Brown as one of winter's crew." The singer serves six months in the wild country, talking of the waters and the great variety of animals
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: logger work river animal humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Rickaby 19, "The Maine-ite in Pennsylvania" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Rick089 (Full)
Roud #7739
NOTES: This is a very strange little song: After one verse about hiring out, which could come from another lumbering song, the singer describes the territory in which he worked. But this description is so exaggerated as to be funny -- "the wild ferocious rabbit"? And Caribou are an arctic mammal. - RBW
File: Rick089
===
NAME: Mains O' Fogieloan, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer hires on in May at Turra as the lowest labourer at a Fogieloan farm. The foreman and second, kitchen maid and other labourers are named. Times in town are described with drink, fiddlers, and street dealers. He'll be back next May at a hiring day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1974 (recording, John MacDonald)
KEYWORDS: farming drink fiddle moniker nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #5148
RECORDINGS:
John MacDonald, "The Mains O' Fogieloan" (on Voice05)
NOTES: Turra [Turriff, according to the notes] and Fogieloan [Aberchirder] are in Aberdeenshire. - BS
File: RcMaoFog
===
NAME: Mainsail Haul
DESCRIPTION: The sailor, broke, goes to a boarding-master and signs up to serve on the "Oxford." He comes aboard to find "sailors... from every nation"; "There wasn't one man that could understand another." At last he jumps ship or is paid off (with the entire crew!)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sailor poverty humorous foreigner
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Doerflinger, pp. 117-122, "Mainsail Haul" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ST Doe117 (Partial)
Roud #653
NOTES: According to Doerflinger, the Black Ball Line ran the _Oxford_ on the transatlantic packet run from her launching in 1836 until 1850. - RBW
File: Doe117
===
NAME: Mairin Ni Ghiobhalain
DESCRIPTION: Tradesmen, with their tools, come to fix "a new foundation In Maureen from Gippursland" to stop her leak: a blacksmith, saddler, baker, tailor, ploughman and timberman. Each fails. Finally, a big tinkerman, with a soldering iron, fixes her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (_The Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society_, according to Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers012)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: radesmen, with their tools, came to fix "a new foundation In Maureen from Gippursland" to stop her leak: a blacksmith with hammer and anvil, a saddler with needle and thread, a baker with flour and soda, a tailor with cloth and scissors, a ploughman with horse and plough, and a timberman with an axe. Each work "until his sides was sick and sore, And after all his labour she leaked In the place where she leaked before." Finally, a big tinkerman, with a soldering iron, "rosined her, he soldered her ... but after all his labour she never leaked In the place where she leaked before"
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy tinker
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #7269
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bryan, "Marie from Gippursland" (on IRTravellers01)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Auld Mairin's Gibberlin
Mairins Gibberlin
NOTES: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01 includes the complete text of a "version entitled 'The Jolly Weaver', described as an old Ulster weaving song ... to be found in _The Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society_ of 1906...."; the tradesmen in that text are a weaver with his shuttles and jacks, a sailor with his compass, a mason with his hammer, trowel and plumb-line, and a ploughman "with two ploughshares in his hand." In addition he refers to "a fragment entitled 'Mairins Gibberlan,' described as 'decidedly objectionable', included in _The Greig Duncan Folk Song Collection_ [vol 7]."
There are many examples in traditional song of tradesmen's use of tools of their trade as code for sexual activity. See, for example, "Donnelly," "Anything (II)," "Bill Wiseman," "The Bonny Black Hare," "Coachman's Whip," "Cruising Round Yarmouth," "The German Clockwinder," "The Jolly Tinker (III)," "The Long Peggin' Awl," "Miller Tae My Trade" and "The Thrashing Machine (I)." - BS
File: RcMaNiGh
===
NAME: Major and the Weaver, The [Laws Q10]
DESCRIPTION: The weaver comes home suddenly, forcing the major (who is visiting his wife) to hide under the bed. The weaver goes out wearing the major's breeches, containing money and a watch. He claims the same right to the breeches as the major has to his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: seduction trick bawdy humorous hiding
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws Q10, "The Major and the Weaver"
Flanders/Brown, pp. 91, "Lie Low" (1 fragment, 1 tune, a single stanza which can only tentatively be identified with this song)
DT 522, WEAVWIFE
Roud #1005
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
NOTES: The Copper text of "The Little Cobbler" appears to have cross-fertilized with this piece; the two are similar in plot, and the Copper version shares some words as well. But the extreme versions are distinct.
This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
File: LQ10
===
NAME: Major Andre's Capture [Laws A2]
DESCRIPTION: The young gentleman, John Paulding, escapes from a British prison and helps capture Major Andre. American general Benedict Arnold escapes and leaves Andre to be executed. "And every one wished Andre clear, and Arnold in his stead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1817 (New American Songster)
KEYWORDS: betrayal execution war prison
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 2, 1780 - Execution of Major Andre
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws A2, "Major Andre's Capture"
Eddy 114, "Major Andrews' Execution" (1 text)
Scott-BoA, pp. 84-86, "The Ballad of Major Andre" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ANDREXEC
Roud #798
NOTES: The story of Benedict Arnold and John Andre perhaps demonstrates why the American Revolution lasted so long: Neither side could really get its armed forces organized or find good officers to put in charge. In the case of Arnold, that very nearly cost the Americans deeply.
Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) was one of the best American officers of the Revolutionary War; he was the key figure, e.g., in the first great battle of the war, at Saratoga (Ketchum, p. 404, reports that he "managed to be everywhere when needed" and lists him first among those responsible for the victory. For references, see the Bibliography at the end of this note).
What he didn't have was political clout. A bullet in the knee during the attack on Quebec had lamed him (Marrin, p. 80), which should have made him a hero -- but his victories were never properly recognized in Congress, and there were questions about his financial dealings (Lancaster, p. 243; Ferguson, pp. 217-218; Marrin, p. 228, describes how easily he fell into debt once he left field command, and Weintraub, p. 206, says he actually faced a court-martial, though he didn't suffer any real punishment). After being passed over for promotion too many times (allegedly on the grounds that his state of Connecticut had too many generals already; Weintraub, p. 206), he turned to the British. (There may have been more to it than that; Cook, p. 328, writes of how he was making profit off the black market as early as 1778, and in 1779 he married as his second wife Peggy Shippen, who was half his age and came from a family with Tory sympathies.) Within weeks of his wedding, he was making covert contacts with the British (Marrin, pp. 228-229) -- though he wanted a high price (10,000 pounds!) for his betrayal. This initial proposal was rejected.
Meanwhile, the British had their eyes on West Point. The Saratoga offensive had been intended to slice the northern colonies in two, but had failed. But they could achieve much the same end by capturing West Point, a narrow point in the Hudson River valley. If it were in British hands, they would be able to control the whole Hudson, and prevent contact between New England and the mid-Atlantic colonies (Marrin, p. 229). West Point was perhaps the most strategic point in the whole state of New York.
In 1780, Benedict Arnold asked George Washington to give him control of the West Point fortifications. Washington didn't want to waste Arnold on a post where so little action was expected.He would have preferred to give Arnold charge of his left wing -- an important field command. But Arnold had a pretty good argument: His lame knee had been hit again at Saratoga (Lancaster, p. 221; Marrin, p. 140; Ketchum, p. 403 tells how, after being hit, his horse went down and his leg was broken), and he simply wasn't the same physically. He claimed that field command was too strenuous (Marrin, p. 230).
I've read that he asked for command of West Point under British orders (e.g. Marrin, p. 229), but Cook implies that he had not yet gone over to the British. The other possibility is that he was toying with the British, giving them a certain about of information but not really doing anything to support their cause (this seems to be the situation described on p. 207 of Weintraub). The only thing that is sure is that he would be serving the British soon -- and being called upon to do more than just release a little stale intelligence. If he wanted a traitor's fee, he had to do something that would really help win the war. In short, he had to work out a deal. Which meant talking to John Andre.
Andre (1751-1780) was, according to Marrin,p. 227, "a remarkable person... [H]e was a gentle, lovable man who wrote poetry and enjoyed putting on plays for brother officers. Always cheerful and polite, he had a way of making others want to be his friend." Washington Irving wrote of him "The character, appearance, deportment, and fortunes of Andre had interested the feelings of the oldest and sternest soldiers around him, and completely captivated the sympathies of the younger ones.... Never has any many, suffering under like circumstances, awakened a more universal sympathy even among those of the country against which he practiced" (Walsh, p. 4).
Even George Washington, who had him executed, later said, "He was more unfortunate than criminal, and there was much in his character to interest, while we yielded to the necessity of rigor, we could not but lament it" (Walsh, p. 6). Yet Walsh, on the very same page, notes pointely that "he made a blundering failure of his supremely important mission" and calls it "an incredibly inept performance." And he declares, on p. 7, that Andre was "Not at all the open, accomodating personality he seemed, he was as I see it one of the most calculating of individuals, keenly aware of his peculiar power to impress and fascinate."
Andre was eventually appointed the adjutant of the British commander Henry Clinton, and as such acted as British intelligence chief -- which in turn made him the liason with Arnold.
Arnold by this time was working to weaken the West Point defences (Marrin, p. 230), but the British would need a plan of the fortifications and other details if they were to take adcantage of these weaknesses. (According to Walsh, p. 72, the British even hoped to capture George Washington, which would make the blow doubly severe.) To this point, Arnold had been using a go-between by the name of Joseph Stansbury (Weintraub, pp. 206-207), who helped furnish Arnold's lodgings. But this information could hardly be sent by coded letter. Arnold was using what is called a "book code," which forced him to dig through a volume looking for a code for each word. It took forever (Kippenhahn, pp. 45-46, says that Arnold eventually switched to a dictionary, which made things a little faster, but still too slow -- and not especially secure). For a long description, with drawings, that sort of manual encoding was simply impossible. Someone had to physically collect the plans. Andre was the logical candidate. (Walsh, p. 73, says that Andre was under orders not to carry any papers. ItÕs hard to imagine how anyone could have considered this a viable idea.)
On September 20, 1780, the British ship _Vulture_ dropped Andre off for a meeting with Arnold. Andre was in uniform at this time (Walsh, p. 26). But they didn't just exchange plans; they also talked until four in the morning (Cook, p. 329). Caught in the fire of American guns, the _Vulture_ slipped a short distance downstream, leaving Andre behind (Walsh, pp. 79-81, who adds that the ship suffered some minor damage but no casualties). It left Andre behind, what's more, with the tide going against him; rowing to the ship was out of the question (Walsh, pp, 74-75). The ship in fact didn't go far, but apparently far enough to be out of sight from where Andre and Arnold were meeting (Walsh, p. 82). Walsh also reports (though I supect it is only his conjecture) that Arnold expected a tightening of security, making it impossible for Andre to simply go back to the ship (p. 85). Plus George Washington was in the vicinity, so everyone was especially vigilant,
Andre was close to neutral ground, but either he or Arnold apparently decided he had no choice but to return to the British lines on land, through the American positions. A British sympathizer outfitted him with civilian clothes, and Arnold gave him a pass with a false name (Walsh, pp. 32, 85; he quotes the passes, with the name "John Anderson," on pp. 87-88). It was at this point that Andre became, formally, a spy. Worse, he was an ignorant spy; he needed a guide (Walsh, p. 90), and the guide chose a long and, as it turned out, dangerous route. They were soon stopped by a patrol, and ended up making an unexpected stop for the night (Walsh, pp. 94-95). When they set out the next morning, they were again stopped, though they were allowed to proceed soon after. Later, they encountered an American officer who actually knew Andre's appearance (Walsh, p. 96), but managed to slip by him. Finally Andre left the guide behind and set out on the last leg of his journey. It was then that he was caught.
Sergeant John Paulding (1758-1818) was almost as romantic a figure as Andre; twice captured by the British, he had twice escaped to return to his regiment (Walsh, pp. 99-100, tells how, in his latest escape, he had pretended to be a British soldier and stolen a rowboat to get away. Thus Paulding, we note, was guilty of the very crime for which Andre was hung -- more guilty than Andre, in fact, since Andre was merely out of uniform but Paulding wore a Hessian uniform coat). A force led by Paulding found Andre, seemingly by accident, and captured him with the plans  to West Point in his boots. (Walsh, p. 30, says they were actually inside his stockings. One wonders what sort of state they were in by the time the authorities saw them.)
According to Marrin, p. 231, the men who captured Andre were robbers as well as militia; this seems to have been based on Andre's own statement that they probably would have let him go had they found any money (so Walsh, p. 37, while noting that Paulding denied it). But Andre had no cash to give them, so they searched him closely  and found the plans. Andre, it should be noted, was taken on "neutral ground," between the lines, so it was formally proper for him to be out of uniform (Walsh, pp. 40-41). Possessing the papers was another matter.
Unfortunately, the papers did not reveal Arnold as the traitor. Lt. Colonel John Jameson, into whose command Andre fell, sent a message to Arnold describing Andre's capture (Cook, p. 330). Arnold managed to flee and make it to the _Vulture_ (Marrin, p. 232). Still, with Arnold gone, the West Point plans safe in American hands, and the whole plot revealed, the fortifications were safe.
Andre was captured September 23. Once he realized his predicament, made no secret of his situation; he seems to have hoped for leniency.  He was tried before a court of six major generals and eight brigadiers (Walsh, p. 17, but don't take that as too impressive -- the Colonial Congress made far too many generals; those 14 officers would have been majors and colonels in a proper army -- assuming they were promoted that far; many were not worthy of the rank). Walsh, p. 46, says that Washington wanted the Court Martial to return a verdict quickly. So the trial was very speedy; neither side called witnesses, and Andre had no lawyer or counsel. Andre was tried and convicted as a spy on September 29. All 14 judges signed the paper recommending death (Walsh, p. 48). Washington approve the order and scheduled Andre to be executed at once (Walsh, p. 54) -- though he delayed the sentence for a day during negotiations with the British.
General Clinton tried to have Andre's execution postponed. But the American rebels wanted blood, and were not very courteous anyway (note, e.g., their refusal to parole the British soldiers after Saratoga). Walsh, pp. 55-57, described what amounts to mutual blackmail concealed as a prisoner exchange: Clinton threatened American prisoners, and the Americans would accept no less a prize than the betrayal of Arnold. Neither side would give in on the crucial point, and so Andre went to the gallows on October 2; he was denied a firing squad (Cook, p. 331).
The ballad's praise of Andre and dislike of Arnold seems to reflect widespread opinion. Even the men who condemned and hanged Andre respected him; one called him his brother; Lancaster reports (p. 248) that "Unnumbered Americans" felt deeply about his execution. Lafayette, one of the men who condemned him, called him a "charming man" and said he deeply regretted the sentence (Walsh, p. 61). George III gave his mother and sisters pensions, and made his brother a baronet. Arnold, by contrast, was hated in America and despised in Britain.
By contrast, it was Arnold's incompetence which had caused the whole thing to fail: He talked too long, and he refused to make sure Andre made it home. Had it not been for his failures, the capture of West Point would have gone off as planned.
Despite his failure, Arnold was well rewarded for his treachery: a British brigadier's commission, six thousand pounds in cash, pensions for his family, and land in Canada (Marrin, p. 234). Walsh, p. 73, say that the offer made to him was for six thousand pounds in cash, plus a brigadier's commission, with the total payout rising to twenty pounds if West Point fell -- and that Arnold held out for at least ten thousand pounds, even if things fell through. Andre supposedly agreed during their conference -- but since Clinton never approved Andre's deal, Arnold was paid only the previously promised six thousand.
Arnold proved unable to use the rewards of his treachery; troops refused to serve under him, and in the end he lost most of his ill-gotten gains in bad business deals (Marrin, p.236).
Walsh does consistently try to change the image of Andre, painting him as a manipulative schemer who lied, e.g., about the girl he claimed to be in love with (Walsh, p. 60), and accuses him of briefly losing his composure upon being sentenced to death (p. 61. One wonders what Walsh would do is suc a situation). He credits Andre's ability to make a good sketch of himself to the major's repeated use of himself as a subject (p. 62). It really does seem to be the picture of a man grasping at straws to find a reason to condemn Andre.
This was, incidentally, one of the last major events of the American Revolution in the north. The British navy at this time was at a rather low ebb; you would never know that it was the fleet that, 25 years later, would win Trafalgar. Despite their theoretical naval superiority, the British were in effect fighting two wars, one from New York and one from Charleston. And, by this time, most of the effort was going into Charleston. Had Arnold's treachery succeeded, the war in the north might have heated up again -- but Arnold failed.
Spaeth (_A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 24) refers to a song called "Sergeant Champe" which has this precise plot, and which was published in 1780 to the tune of "Barbara Allen," but I have never encountered his title in tradition.
>>BIBLIOGRAPHY<<
Cook: Don Cook, _The Long Fuse: How England Lost the American colonies 1760-1785_, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995
Ferguson: E. James Ferguson, _The American Revolution: A General History 1763-1790_, revised edition, Dorsey Press, 1979
Ketchum: Richard M. Ketchum, _Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War_, Henry Holt, 1997
Kippenhahn: Rudolph Kippenhahn, _Code Breaking: A History and Exploration_, English translation/adaption by Kippenhahn and Ewald Osers, Overlook Press, 1999
Lancaster: Bruce Lancaster (with a chapter by J. H. Plumb), _The American Revolution_ (originally published as _The American Heritage Book of the Revolution_, 1971), Houghton Mifflin, 1987
Marrin: Albert Marrin, _The War for Independence: The Story of the American Revolution_, Athenaeum, 1988
Walsh: John Evangelist Walsh, _The Execution of Major Andre_, Palgrave/St. Martin's Press, 2001
Weintraub: Stanley Weintraub, _Iron Tears: Amerca's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775-1783_, Free Press, 2005 - RBW
File: LA02
===
NAME: Major Andrews's Execution: see Major Andre's Capture [Laws A2] (File: LA02)
===
NAME: Major, The
DESCRIPTION: Dublin 1798: "The Major" supported Orange "hangman hacks," "told informers what to swear," tried to prevent his Jemmy's execution and finally converted to Methodism. All "who have their catechism well" agree "whene'er he dies [he] will go to hell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1810 (Cox's _Irish Magazine_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: violence death nonballad political police
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 165, "The Major" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Downs" (character of Major Sirr) and references there
cf. "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet" (characters)
NOTES: Moylan: "The Major of the title was Town-Major Sirr, chief of the Dublin police, captor of Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Thomas Russell... The Jemmy referred to ... was Sirr's creature, Jemmy O'Brien.... In 1800 he [O'Brien] killed a man near Steevens' Lane in a fit of temper, was convicted of the crime and was sentenced to hang. Sirr tried [unsuccessfully] to 'fix' the trial.... In later life Major Sirr turned to religion and became a Methodist."
For more about Major Sirr see "Henry Downs," "Edward" (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)," "The Man from God-Knows-Where" and the notes to "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (II). For more about Jemmy O'Brien see "Hevey's Mare," "Jemmy O'Brien" and "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet." - BS
The _Oxford Companion to Irish History_ gives Sirr's dates as 1764-1841. He came from a firmly loyalist family; his father Joseph would for a time be Dublin's Town Major (roughly equivalent to police chief). Henry joined the army at about 14, ending his service in 1791. He went into business in Dublin in that year, but was appointed Town Major in 1796. He held that office until it was abolished in 1808, and retained the title even after that; he continued to serve as a magitrate until 1826. He reportedly became very interested in Irish antiquties late in his life. - RBW
File: Moyl165
===
NAME: Majuba Hill
DESCRIPTION: The singer sighs for "my militia man That sleeps on Majuba Hill" She met her man on Clifton Street on Sunday night and "I let him have his will" He sailed away. She heard a Banshee cry and dog moan one November night and at dawn had news he was dead.
AUTHOR: Hugh Quinn (1884-1956) (source: Hammond-Belfast)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (_Rann Magazine_ Summer 1952, according Roud)
KEYWORDS: grief courting sex battle parting death lover soldier
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Feb 26, 1881 - Boers defeat the British at Majuba Hill ("By the second Boer War the battle cry was 'Remember Majuba!'""). (source: "The Battle of Majuba Hill -The First Boer War 1881" at Books on Hector MacDonald site)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hammond-Belfast, pp. 38-39, "Majuba Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hammond-Belfast: The song "recalls the garrison town of Belfast in Victorian times when streets like Clifton Street were thronged with soldiers and female admirers on a Sunday night." - BS
The opening conflict of the (first) Boer War came on December 20, 1880, at Bronkhorstspruit, when "264 officers of  the 94th Regiment (Connaught Rangers), marching from Lydenburg to Pretoria, were halted on the march by a Boer  commando and ordered to turn back. The lieutenant-colonel in command was given two minutes to reply to the demand. He refused to surrender and was killed by the Boers' opening shots." Most of the other British soldiers were killed as well. (See Byron Farwell, _Queen Victoria's Little Wars_, pp. 244-245).
The British commander on the scene, Sir George Pomeroy Colley, wanted both revenge and glory. He found neither. He suffered a nasty and unneccessary defeat at Laing's Nek (Farwell, p. 246),then for some reason decided that the Commander in Chief needed to escort a mail wagon; he took with him only six companies. He suffered heavily in a running battle, and then found himself confronted by an entrenched Boer position. At least he had the sense not to attack that; instead, he headed for high ground; his force by this time, according to Farwell, consisted of 490 soldiers and 64 sailors.
Colley's forces reached the position at night, but -- despite the entreaties of his subordinates -- did not order his men to entrench.
On February 26, 1881, at Majuba Hill (properly Amajuba Hill, the Hill of Doves), The British forces were routed and  Colley himself killed (see Fred R. van Hartsveldt, _The Boer War_, Sutton, 2000, p. 4). Van Hartesveld, p. 5,  adds that the British took no heavy weapons up the hill, and perhap were exhausted, and the slope of the hill was such that it was hard to defend with small arms.
The Boers lost one (Farwell, p. 250) or two men killed (see Thomas Pakenham, _The Boer War_, Random House, 1979, p. xxix), and perhaps five wounded. British loses were 93 killed, 133 wounded, 58 taken prisoner.
A more conservative government might have kept up the fight; losses were still relatively slight. But the liberal goverment of Gladstone was not imperialist; it gave the Boers something analogous to Home Rule: Internal self-direction as long as they accepted nominal British authority and did not insist on an independent foreign policy (van Hartesveldt, p. 5).
Majuba Day would become something of a holiday to the Boers -- at least until Boers under Cronje surrendered on that day in the second Boer War (see Eversly Belfield, _The Boer War_, Leo Cooper, 1993, p. 88).
"If one were forced to say, as in a school examination paper, at what exact moment in history the mighty British Empire began to crumble, it would perhaps not be far wrong to point to that Sunday afternoon in February 1881 when British soldiers, fleeing from Boer farm boys, ran down the steep slopes of Majuba Hill" (Farwell, p. 252). - RBW
File: Hamm038
===
NAME: Make Me a Cowboy Again: see Cowboy Again for a Day (File: FCW116)
===
NAME: Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor
DESCRIPTION: Possibly about life in the south (Atlanta?) and the singer's desire to return or a meeting between the singer's lover and girl. Chorus: "Make me a pallet on your floor (x2),  Make it soft, make it low, so my good gal won't know Make me..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (version copyrighted by W. C. Handy)
KEYWORDS: nonballad separation loneliness home return floatingverses sex infidelity
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
BrownIII 291, "Cornbread When I'm Hungry" (2 fragments; the "A" text combines "Moonshiner" with "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor"; "B" mixes "Moonshiner" with what appears to be a minstrel song)
Handy/Silverman-Blues, pp. 190-192, "Atlanta Blues (Make Me One Pallet on Your Floor)" (1 text, 1 tune, loosely based on this song)
Darling-NAS, pp. 292-294, "Lovin' Babe" (1 text, composite of floating verses including this one)
DT, PALLTFLR*
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Ain't No Tellin'" (OKeh 8759, 1930; rec. 1928; on MJHurt01, MJHurt02); "Pallet on the Floor" (on FOTM)
Merline Johnson (the Yas Yas Girl) "Pallet on the Floor" (Bluebird B-7166, 1937)
Grandpa Jones, "Fix Me a Pallet" (King 1069, 1952)
Virginia Liston, "Make Me a Pallet" (OKeh 8247, 1925)
Stripling Brothers, "Pallet on the Floor" (Decca 5367, 1936)
Ethel Waters, "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor" (Columbia 14125-D, 1926)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Chilly Winds" (floating lyrics)
File: Handy190
===
NAME: Make We Merry Both More and Less
DESCRIPTION: "Make we mery bothe more and lasse, For now is the time ofd Christimas." All who come to the feast are enjoined to bring some entertainment: A song, a sport, etc. "If he say he can nought do... But to the stokkes then let him go."
AUTHOR: unknown (contemporary tune by Martin Shaw)
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1504 (Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: carol Christmas food party nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
OBC 172, "Make We Merry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stevick-100MEL 98, "(Make We Myrie Bothe More and Lasse)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Brown/Robbins, _Index of Middle English Verse_, #1866
NOTES: Very possibly not traditional, but widely quoted -- and many of the pieces in the Hill manuscript *are* traditional, so I included it. - RBW
File: OBC172
===
NAME: Making My Will (Father Abdey's Will)
DESCRIPTION: The singer, who is dying, leaves his entire estate to his wife. The estate is detailed in exquisitely rhymed, exquisitely monotonous detail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: dying bequest lastwill
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 14-16, "Making My Will (Father Abdey's Will)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAKEWILL*
Roud #4676
File: FO014
===
NAME: Malahide Fishermen, The
DESCRIPTION: On a calm November 18 "four brave seamen ... took their nets and line." Neptune, Boreas, and Death conspire to "rise an awful squall" and they "were lost here in Fingal" The four are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1943 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck fishing
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ranson, pp. 14-15, "The Malahide Fishermen" (1 text)
OLochlainn-More 56A, "The Malahide Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Malahide is in the Fingal administrative area on the County Dublin coast, north of Dublin city. - BS
File: Ran014
===
NAME: Malbrouck
DESCRIPTION: French language: "Malbrouck s'en va-t-en dguere-re/Marlborough he's gone to war." Marlborough is slow in returning home; he is dead and in his tomb. Details of his funeral are given
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1896 (Trebucq)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nobility death burial funeral
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1650-1727 -  Life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
1701-1714 - War of the Spanish Succession, pitting France and Spain against Britain, Austria, and many smaller nations. Marlborough made a reputation by winning the battles of Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), and Oudenarde (1708) (he fought a draw at Malplaquet in 1709)
FOUND_IN: France
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Kennedy 108, "Malbrouck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 202-205, "Molly Brooks" (1 tune plus dance figures)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 231-233, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow -- (Malbrouk -- We Won't Go Home till Morning! -- The Bear Went over the Mountain)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (tune) and references there
NOTES: For the history of this tune, see the entry on "We Won't Go Home Until Morning."
It should be noted that this song has nothing to do with the historical Marlborough.
Chase describes "Molly Brooks" as an American "wearing-down" of Marlborough. Hence the classification of his dance piece here rather than under one of the other Malbrouck tunes. - RBW
File: K108
===
NAME: Mallard, The
DESCRIPTION: "I have et, and what have I et, I have et the toe of a mallard." And so forth, through foot, heel, leg, etc., culminating in the entire bird. "And," we are assured, "good-a meat was the mallard."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1889
KEYWORDS: bird food cumulative nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 299, "The Mallard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 16-17, "The Mallard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1517
RECORDINGS:
Henry Mitchelmore, "Most Beautiful Leg of the Mallard" (on Voice07)
Bunny Palmer et al, "The Mallard" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Herring" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Mullard
File: K299
===
NAME: Mally Leigh
DESCRIPTION: An extravagant description of Mally's beauty and its effect on men. Men turn aside to see her; a countess "pines" for her; nobles "each one thocht his Kate or Moll a drab to Mally Leigh." Even royalty is not immune (but she is true to the man she loves)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: beauty courting
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 176-178, "Mally Leigh" (1 text)
Roud #6130
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Mally Lee
NOTES: Generally held to commemorate one Mally Sleigh, who is said to have married Lord Lyon Brodie in 1725. I know of no supporting evidence except widespread belief; Ford cites a manuscript of the song "subsequent to 1760." If Sleigh (or Brodie) had any subsequent influence on history, I do not know of it. - RBW
File: FVS176B
===
NAME: Malone
DESCRIPTION: Pat claims Mick Malone borrowed half-a-crown and "never brough it back." He won't lend him more because Malone "well knows how to borrow But he don't know how to pay." If Pat catches Malone he'll "stop his dirty tricks ... I'll give him cause to moan"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: accusation nonballad money thief
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #16689
RECORDINGS:
Mikeen McCarthy, "Malone" (on IRTravellers01)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Half Crown
NOTES: The repeated lines here are "A half-a-crown is a half-a-crown, Of course it's two and six." - BS
Every time I read this, I'm reminded of the Blind Blake song "Jones." The feel of the lyrics is much alike, but the item stolen is different (money versus girlfriend), and of course they're very different in style. I guess it just shows how certain emotions exist across cultures. - RBW
File: RcMalone
===
NAME: Mama Don't 'Low
DESCRIPTION: "Mama don't 'low no banjo playin 'round here... Well, I don't care what mama don't 'low, Gonna play my banjo anyhow...." Mama forbids all sorts of things, from jazz playing to motorcycle riding, but the singer is not discouraged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (recording, Charlie Jackson)
KEYWORDS: music mother nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
BrownIII 452, "Mama Don't Allow No Low Down Hanging Around" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 21, "Mama Don't 'Low" (1 text)
DT, MAMADONT
Roud #11793
RECORDINGS:
Allen Bros., "No Low Down Hanging 'Round" (Bluebird B-5448, 1934)
Connie Boswell & her Swing Band, "Mama Don't Allow It" (Decca 747, 1936)
Smilie Burnett, "Mama Don't Like Music" (Perfect 13011, 1934)
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "Mama Don't Like No Music" (Bluebird B-5855, 1935)
Charlie Jackson, "Mama Don't Allow It" (Paramount 12296, 1925)
Riley Puckett, "Mama Don't Allow No Low Down Hanging Around" (Columbia 15261-D, 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny and Jane" (lyrics)
NOTES: The Brown text is very distinct from the common, bluegrass/jazz-type arrangements of this piece; the first verse and chorus are"
Well, I get up in the morning,
See no rain;
Looked in the pantry,
See the same old thing.
Mama don't allow no low down hanging around.
Chorus:
Mama don't allow it,
Sister don't care.
Papa don't 'low it,
Won't have it here.
Mama don't low no low down hanging around.
But the ending is familiar: "Well, I don't care What your mama don't 'low, Gonna have fun anyhow." Clearly the same song, with the popular texts presumably a modern adaption. - RBW
File: FSWB021
===
NAME: Mama Don't Allow No Low Down Hanging Around: see Mama Don't 'Low (File: FSWB021)
===
NAME: Mama Sent Me to the Spring: see Jumbo (Mama Sent Me to the Spring) (File: BrII142)
===
NAME: Mama Told Me: see Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)
===
NAME: Mama, Have You Heard the News: see Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)
===
NAME: Maman Donne Moin un Pitit Mari: see Mamman Donne Moi  un Pitit Mari (Mama Gave Me a Little Husband) (File: ScNF123B)
===
NAME: Mamma, Mamma, Have You Heard?: see Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)
===
NAME: Mamma's Goin' to Buy Him a Little Lap Dog (Come Up Horsie)
DESCRIPTION: Lullaby: "Mama's goin' to buy him a little lap dog/Put him in his lap when she goes off...Go to sleep and don't you cry/Mamma's goin' to buy you some apple pie" Cho: "Come up horsie, hey hey (2x)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (recording, Vera Hall Ward)
KEYWORDS: food lullaby nonballad animal dog horse
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Vera Hall Ward, "Mamma's Goin' to Buy Him a Little Lap Dog" (on NFMAla1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Hush, Little Baby" (theme, lyrics)
File: RcMGtBHL
===
NAME: Mamman Donne Moi  un Pitit Mari (Mama Gave Me a Little Husband)
DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Maman donne moin un pitit mari. Bon Dieu, quel un homme comme li pitit! Mo mette le couche dans mo lite, Bon Dieu, comme li si t'on pitit!" Mama gave me a little husband. My god, he's tiny! ... The cat mistakes him for a mouse."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: husband wife foreignlanguage animal
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 21-22, "Maman Donne Moin un Pitit Mari" (1 fragment, 1 tune);  p. 123, "Mamman Donne Moi  un Pitit Mari" (1 short text with loose English translation)
NOTES: Scarborough, in transcribing her first text, notes that Creole French "is no more like correct French than Negro dialect is like ordinary English. The songs are difficult to capture...." I suspect she is trying to say, "I've no idea what this means." If she, who had contact with the informants, did not, I'm not even going to try until we get a better text.
Although Scarborough's second fragment does not make it clear, one suspects that the girl's complaint is not with her husband's height but with, um, certain other dimensions. - RBW
File: ScNF123B
===
NAME: Mammy in the Kitchen
DESCRIPTION: "Mammy in the kitchen cookin' pink beans; Daddie on the ocean dodgin' submarines."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food work war technology
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 497, "Mammy in the Kitchen" (1 text)
Roud #11764
NOTES: Since this was collected in 1919, it clearly refers to World War I and the German submarine blockade of Great Britain. It is said to have been sung by soldiers in France. It's unfortunate that we don't have more of it. - RBW
File: Br3497
===
NAME: Mammy Loves: see All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)
===
NAME: Mammy's Little Boy
DESCRIPTION: "Who all de time a-hidin' In de cotton an' de corn? Mammy's little boy, Mammy's little boy, Who all de time a-blowin' Ol' Massa's dinner horn?" The little boy runs, steals away to the kitchen, fusses; Mammy keeps careful watch 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: lullaby food baby
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 158-159, "Mammy's Little Boy" (1 text)
ST ScaNF158 (Partial)
File: ScaNF158
===
NAME: Man Ain't Nothin' But a Stupid Fool
DESCRIPTION: "Yes, a man ain't nothin' but a stupid fool To think he got a woman all by himself... Well, I say, as soon as his back is turned, You know she cuttin' out with somebody else... Yes, man ain't nothing but a crazy fool To give one woman all his pay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: love infidelity
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 130-131, (no title) (1 text)
File: CNFM130
===
NAME: Man Behind the Plough, The
DESCRIPTION: A defense of "the man that walks behind the plough." He is glad for his sons to be in school, learning to read and write and sporting round at night, but his strength is failing and he needs them to raise food on the farm.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Ives-NewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad age children
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 62-65, "The Man Behind the Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1947
File: IvNB062
===
NAME: Man Behind, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer's father warns, "Don't ever be too forward, lad, but act with modesyt; In battle it's the man in fromt that's always shot... But the general gets the credit, for he's the man behind." Other examples show that it's best to be "the man behind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Collected by Shellans from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: warning humorous soldier clothes food technology
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Shellans, pp. 82-83, "The Man Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 86, "The Man Behind (1 fragment, tune references)
Roud #7358 and 12812
NOTES: Shellans speculates that this might have originated in Vaudeville. I agree that it has that sort of feeling (or, even more, the music hall or comic opera), but I failed to turn up any versions in web searches. (The fact that the title is a very common phrase doesn't help...).
The Pankakes say that their fragment is sung to "The Wearing of the Green." Not so the version in Shellan -- so, at the very least, there has been folk processing. - RBW
File: Shel082
===
NAME: Man from Conner's Crew, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer, a novice "river hog" in the pinewoods, chances the "Hulling Machine" rapids rather than portage his canoe. Caught, he prepares to die, gamely shouting "Halloo" to Conner's crew as he passes them. One of them rescues him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work rescue dying logger worker recitation
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 29, "The Man from Conner's Crew" (1 text)
Roud #4063
NOTES: Beck leaves it up in the air whether this was a recitation or a song to which his informant had forgotten a tune. However, it reads more like a recitation, so I've assigned it that keyword. - PJS
This song is item dC42 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Be029
===
NAME: Man from God-Knows-Where, The
DESCRIPTION: A mysterious stranger joined the men around the fire at Andy Lemon's Inn and rode on into the snow. "Two winters more, then the Trouble Year": the French are defeated. Some time after that the singer sees the stranger hanged at Downpatrick gaol
AUTHOR: Florence M. Wilson (-1946) (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 2000 (Moylan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution Ireland patriotic recitation
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May-June 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
August-September 1798 - A French force under General Jean-Joseph-Amable Humbert lands in Ireland and is defeated.
1803 - Emmet attempts a new rebellion. The revolt is quickly crushed.
Sep 20, 1803 - Robert Emmet is hanged
Oct 21, 1803 - Thomas Russell is hanged
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 161, "The Man from God-Knows-Where" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
cf. "Henry Downs" (character of Major Sirr) and references there
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "She is Far From the Land" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "When He Who Adores Thee"  (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
NOTES: Moylan: "The poem was written in 1918 as a recitation."
Moylan: "Upon hearing of Emmet's arrest, Thomas Russell hurried to Dublin to attempt a rescue." He was taken there by Town Major Sirr. "Russell had been the United Irish organizer in Co. Down. After his conviction for treason he was hanged in Downpatrick on the 21st of October 1803." I am too dense to connect Moylan's dots and make Russell's execution the subject of Wilson's poem. Others, seeing more clearly, make the connection. [Personally, I can connect too many dots -- e.g. an alternate possibility is that Emmet is hanged in 1803, the French are defeated two years later at Trafalgar, and then someone else is hanged the time after that. - RBW] See, for example, "Man from God-knows-where," June 23, 2005, at the Newry Journal site. Also, from the Down County Museum site article on "Thomas Russell" states that Russell was the gaol's most famous prisoner known now to many County Down people as "the man from God knows where" from Wilson's ballad "which generations of school children learnt!"; the museum site has information about Russell's career and documents related to the trial. 
Town Major Sirr is a frequent villain in Dublin incidents after "the Troubles"; see, for example, "Henry Downs," "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald), "The Major" and the notes to "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (II). - BS
File: Moyl161
===
NAME: Man Going Round: see There's A Man Going Round Taking Names (File: San447)
===
NAME: Man in Love, A: see When a Man's in Love [Laws O20] (File: LO20)
===
NAME: Man in the Moon, The: see Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)
===
NAME: Man is Free by Nature
DESCRIPTION: "Why vainly do we waste our time, Repeating our oppression? ... See Gallia's bright example; The glorious scene before our eyes, Let's every tyrant trample.... future ages prove this truth, That man is free by nature"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1796 (_Paddy's Resource_ (Philadelphia), according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: France nonballad patriotic freedom
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 14, 1789 - The Bastille is taken, marking the beginning of the French Revolution
1791-1792 - Thomas Paine publishes _The Rights of Man_
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 12, "Man is Free by Nature" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Glorious Exertion of Man" (subject of the French Revolution)
NOTES: Moylan: "This song may have been written by Thomas Russell." - BS
It does sound like something Russell (1767-1803) might have written, since he was a radical -- reportedly a friend of Wolfe Tone --  hung in the aftermath of Robert Emmet's rebellion. If so, though, he obviously lived to see the promise of the French Revoution drowned in blood. Indeed, it's hard to see how the song could have been published as late as 1796, assuming the author was rational; the Terror had run from 1793-1794, which should have shown how dangerous uncontrolled "populist" movements could be. - RBW
File: Moyl012
===
NAME: Man Killed by Falling From a Horse: see Come All You Young of Wary Age (File: R705)
===
NAME: Man of Burnham Town, The: see The Man of Burningham Town (File: VWL068)
===
NAME: Man of Burningham Town, The
DESCRIPTION: A man of (Burningham) goes to sea; his wife spends her time carousing. He returns to see her out on the town; he sneaks home and sends the maid to announce his arrival. She proclaims her delight, but he beats her with a rope. She promises to reform.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Sharp MS)
KEYWORDS: infidelity marriage warning return abuse humorous sailor
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,Lond)) Canda(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 68-69, "The Man of Burningham Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 195, "The Birmingham Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 123, "There Lived an Old Man in Dover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #665
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Birmingham Man" (on HCox01)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Man of Burnham Town
In Burnham Town
The Man of Dover
File: VWL068
===
NAME: Man of Constant Sorrow
DESCRIPTION: "I am a man of constant sorrow, I have been troubled all my days, I'll bid farewell to old Kentucky, The place where I was born and raised." Singer describes his hard, rambling life, and bids farewell to his lover, country, and friends.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (Richard Burnett's songbook)
KEYWORDS: loneliness farewell rambling train lament lyric hobo
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
SharpAp 167, "In Old Virginny" (4 texts, 4 tunes, with the "C" text being this song; "A" and "B" are "East Virginia (Dark Hollow)" and D is a collection of floaters)
Shellans, pp. 26-27, "Constant Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune, beginning with "Man of Constant Sorrow" but with most of "Fair and Tender Ladies" grafted on at the end)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 113, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 260, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 57, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (1 text)
DT, CONSTSOR* CONSTSR3*
Roud #499
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (Paramount 3289, 1931; on ConstSor1); "I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow" (Vocalion 5208, c. 1927)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Frank Proffitt, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (on FProffitt01)
The Stanley Brothers, "I'm A Man of Constant Sorrow" (Columbia 20816, 1951)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Girl of Constant Sorrow" (structure, tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Girl of Constant Sorrow (File: FSWB128B)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow
Farewell Song
NOTES: The words of this song have the curious characteristic of sounding like floating verses, even though they are not. - PJS
Although Emry Arthur claims to have composed this piece, a significantly different version was found in the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1957. One suspects that, when Arthur claimed authorship, he meant (as many other old-time singers meant) that he put it in shape for collection.
In later years, Richard Burnett was asked about the song. He himself could not remember, at that time, if he had composed it, or copied it, or -- perhaps most likely -- adapted it from something traditional. - RBW
File: CSW113
===
NAME: Man of Dover, The: see The Man of Burningham Town (File: VWL068)
===
NAME: Man of the Earth
DESCRIPTION: "By profession and birth I'm a man of the earth; I burrow in it like a mole." The singer tells of the life of a miner -- often poor, often overworked, often blamed for problems not of his making. He recalls the price paid in blood for "socialised coal"
AUTHOR: Words: Jock Graham / Music: Phyl Lobl (?)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1975
KEYWORDS: mining work nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 204-205, "Man of the Earth" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FaE204
===
NAME: Man of the North Countrie, The
DESCRIPTION: "He came from the North, so his words were few." The singer is happy she married him and moved to Limerick. "I wish that in Munster they only knew The kind kind neighbors I came unto" so that there would be no hatred between South and North.
AUTHOR: T.D. M'Gee (source: Hayes)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855 (Hayes)
KEYWORDS: marriage travel nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Hayward-Ulster, p. 46, "He Came from the North" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol II, p. 46, "The Man of the North Countrie"
Roud #6548
NOTES: County Limerick is in the north-central area of the region of Munster. - BS
File: HayU046
===
NAME: Man on the Flying Trapeze, The: see The Flying Trapeze (File: RJ19069)
===
NAME: Man That Lives, The
DESCRIPTION: "The man that lives must learn to die, Christ will no longer stay...." Listeners are reminded that their bodies will be food for worms; their lives are grass. They are in danger of hell, and one who ends there, "no physic shall him cure."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Leather)
KEYWORDS: death Hell religious nonballad carol
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Leather, pp. 195-196, "The Man That Lives" (1 text, 2 tunes)
ST Leath195 (Partial)
Roud #2110
File: Leath195
===
NAME: Man that Waters the Workers' Beer, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am the man, the very fat man, that waters the worker's beer." The man waters the beer to make more profit (he admits to having "a car, a yacht, and an aeroplane") and to keep the workers in subjection. To this end he even uses poison
AUTHOR: Words: Paddy Ryan / Music: Traditional
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937
KEYWORDS: drink poison worker humorous
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 29, "The Man That Waters the Workers' Beer" (1 text)
DT, WATRBEER*
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES: I was hesitant about including this song, but it is narrative, more or less, and it does seem to have entered tradition. - PJS
Reading this, I can't help but think of the charges filed against the founder of chemistry, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794). According to William H. Brock, _The Chemical Tree: A History of Chemistry_ Norton, 2002 (published in 1992 as _The Norton History of Chemistry_), p. 123, Lavoisier was charged with "having mixed water and other 'harmful' ingredients in tobacco." He went to the guillotine.
To be sure, he was a stockholder of a tax farming company, and this was his real crime (though he did not himself collect taxes). But it was a terrible loss for France, and an even greater loss for chemistry. Much as I sympathize with the British working class, charges such as these are usually oversimplified. - RBW
File: FSWB029
===
NAME: Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer rejoices in the happiness he experienced since he "broke the bank at Monte Carlo." The girls follow him, and he leads a carefree life. He sets out to marry "a madamoiselle [who] with twenty tongues swears she will be true."
AUTHOR: Fred Gilbert
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: gambling money
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 136-137, "The Man That Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-Famous, pp. 124-126, "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 237-239, "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (1 text)
DT, BROKEBNK*
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(90b), "The Man That Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo," unknown, c. 1890
NOTES: This is one of those pieces that is carried entirely by its tune. The words are banal (so much so that a large number of singers instantly rejected it), but it was quite popular in its day (now, thankfully, over).
Gilbert reports that, in 1891, Monte Carlo hired a man to toss money about in the streets of London, describing himself as the man who broke the bank. Fred Gilbert, observing this spectacle, wrote his song.
According to Geller, the man who tossed the money was Arthur DeCourcy Bower, who died poor, but Geller mentions his hiring by Monte Carlo officials as a mere possibility.
NLScotland claims that the song was instead inspired by the success of Joseph Hobson Jagger (died 1892), who reportedly won a million pounds in Monte Carlo in 1875. - RBW
File: SRW136
===
NAME: Man Who Wouldn't Hoe His Corn, The: see The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)
===
NAME: Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man, The: see The Brisk Young Bachelor (File: ShH69)
===
NAME: Man You Don't Meet Every Day, The (A): see Jock Stewart (The Man You Don't Meet Every Day) (File: R476)
===
NAME: Man-of-War Piece, The
DESCRIPTION: "I have kept my true love company For better than three year; He promised that he'd marry me" but he's left on a man-of-war. If he's slain "in heaven I hope his soul will shine through all eternity"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: grief love war parting ship sailor
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 45, "The Man-of-War Piece" (1 text)
Roud #7578
File: GrMa045
===
NAME: Man's a Man for A' That, A
DESCRIPTION: "Is there for honest poverty That hangs his head and a' that... For a' that and a' that, Our toils obscure and a' that, The rank is but the guinea stamp, The man's the gowd for a' that." Praising equality, with a final prediction that all will be brothers
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST_DATE: 1800 (Currie)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad freedom 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 297, "A Man's A Man For A' That" (1 text)
DT, MANSAMAN*
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "For A' That and A' That (I)" (stanza form, lyrics)
SAME_TUNE:
A Tidy Suit for A' That (Broadside Bodleian Firth B.26(289))
George the Fourth is Coming Down (by John Mayne; see Christoper Sinclair-Stevenson, _Blood Royal: The Illustrious House of Hanover_, Doubleday, 1980, p. 180)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
For A' That And A' That
Is There for Honest Poverty
NOTES: Reported to be based on "The Bard's Song" in "The Jolly Beggars," and written in 1795, making it one of the last of Burns's "big" pieces. On the other hand, Ord has a song ("For A' That and A' That," p. 196) which looks like a model and which he calls an "old bothy song." And there is still another song "For a' that an' a' that" credited to Burns in the _Scots Musical Museum_ (#290). Clearly the history of the song is complicated. - RBW
File: FSWB297A
===
NAME: Mananitas
DESCRIPTION: Spanish: Title means "Early morning." The singer wishes for sun, moon, and stars to help him court, or separate from Marianita. Chorus: "Ya viene a maeciendo Ya la lus del dia nos vio, Ys dispierta amiga mia, Mira que ya amanecio."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: courting separation Mexico foreignlanguage
FOUND_IN: Mexico
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, pp. 292-293, "Mananitas" (1 text plus free translation, 1 tune)
NOTES: The accentuation of the chorus is left as an exercise for the Spanish-speaking reader. - RBW
File: San292
===
NAME: Manassa Junction: see The Battle of Bull Run [Laws A9] (File: LA09)
===
NAME: Manchester Angel (II), The: see The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)
===
NAME: Manchester Angel, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl in Manchester and promises to marry her. She sleeps with him; his regiment prepares to march. She begs to go with him; he refuses. She offers to buy his discharge; he refuses. She vows to enter a nunnery until he returns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding Harding B 28(14))
KEYWORDS: courting sex army parting dialog soldier
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,North))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 66-67, "The Manchester Angel" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MNCHESTR*
Roud #2741
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Manchester Angel" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(14), "In Coming Down to Manchester," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(2306), Harding B 25(1206), "The Manchester Girl"; Harding B 28(249), Harding B 25(1801), Firth c.14(196), Harding B 11(2388), Harding B 11(3575), Harding B 15(301a), Harding B 15(301b), Harding B 16(254a), "Soldier's Farewell to Manchester"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging)" [Laws O33]
cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7]
cf. "William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I)" [Laws N8]
cf. "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9]
cf. "High Germany"
cf. "The Jacket So Blue (The Bonnet o' Blue)" (theme)
cf. "Oh! No, No" (lyrics)
NOTES: [According to A.L. Lloyd,] "The Angel Inn is said to have stood in the Market Place adjoining Market Sted Lane, Manchester."
Given the large number of ballads with this plot, I was tempted to lump this with one of the others. However, it has enough unique elements, in my judgment, to warrant a separate listing. -PJS
Although most of the elements of this song are duplicated elsewhere, the combination is unique. So is the (frequently Dorian) tune. So I agree with Paul: This piece is unique. There is another song with this title in Sam Henry, but it is distinct (and fragmentary). - RBW
File: VWL066
===
NAME: Manchester Canal, The: see The Calabar (File: HHH502)
===
NAME: Manchester Martyrs (I), The
DESCRIPTION: Colonel Kelly and another man come to Manchester "to free old Ireland from her tyrant's chain." They are jailed. Allen, Larkin and O'Brien stage a rescue. They are taken, found guilty, and hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: execution prisoner rescue political England
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 11, 1867 - Kelly and Deasy are arrested and rescued a week later by 30 Fenians
Nov 24, 1867 -  Three of the ambushers are hanged (source: _The Manchester Martyrs_ on the Gorton Local History Group site)
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 76, "The Manchester Martyrs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3029
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Allen, Larkin and O'Brien" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "The Smashing of the Van(I)" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "God Save Ireland" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
NOTES: OLochlainn-More: "The Manchester Martyrs were Allen, Larkin and O'Brien, all three hanged in revenge for the accidental shooting of Constable Brett in the attempted rescue of Kelly and Deasy, two Fenian Leaders in 1867." - BS
We should probably note that Kelly and Deasy, while in British custody, were not really in danger of execution. Thomas J. Kelly, who had been proclaimed chief executive of the Fenian's Irish Republic, and one Captain Timothy Deasy were simply being transported from court to prison, but they were "rescued" anyway on September 18.
In the course of the  "rescue," a police sergeant, Charles Brett, was killed. William Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien were convicted of the murder and executed on November 23. The three men came to be known as the "Manchester Martyrs." A later rescue attempt also failed, but managed to kill a dozen bystanders.
Nonetheless, both sides blamed the other, increasing Anglo-Irish tensions. The incident also increased rebel recruiting, despite the fact that the Irish had committed the initial crime and the fact that the British followed the law throughout.
For additional background, see the notes to "The Smashing of the Van (I)."  - RBW
File: OLcM076
===
NAME: Manchester Martyrs (II), The: see The Smashing of the Van (File: PGa050)
===
NAME: Mandalay
DESCRIPTION: "By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea, There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks of me." The soldier, in London, seeing the dirt and the squalor, thinks with longing of the green land and the girl on the road to Mandalay
AUTHOR: Rudyard Kipling
EARLIEST_DATE: 1890 ("The Scots Observer")
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuld-WFM, p. 415, "On the Road to Mandalay"
NOTES: I had to think long and hard about whether to put this song in the Index. It is, of course, composed. It has not been found in oral tradition. But it has been extremely popular, and has been set to music at least twice (once by Oley Speaks, in 1907, and again by Peter Bellamy, to an adaption of "Ten Thousand Miles Away"; the latter version will probably be more familiar to folk fans).
I finally decided to include the piece because it is so familiar, and used in so many contexts, and is one of the "folkiest" of the works of Kipling, who was probably closer to the average lower-class Englishman than any other poet.
It originally appeared in the Scots Observer in 1890, and was published as one of the _Barrack-Room Ballads_  (1892).
I am going to opine, also, that this reveals the nuances in Kipling's beliefs, which few realize. Kipling was an imperialist; he believed in the White Man's Burden. But he did NOT think white men were superior to other "races"; in this song, the white man falls in love -- but does the girl? Or does she simply do what she must to survive? (Compare Gunga Din -- "a better man than I am.") In this sensitivity, Kipling was far ahead of the imperialists of his time (though hardly modern).
The geography here is rather confused, as in various stanzas it appears to be looking from Mandalay, Rangoon, Moulmein, and the road to Mandalay (from Rangoon).
Mandalay was one of the key cities of British Burma (modern Myanmar), on the Irrawaddy (now the Ayeyarwady) where the Myitnge flows into the river. The main road from Rangoon also passes through the town. It was (and is), therefore, the main city of inner Burma. The "old flotilla" sailed the Irrawaddy from Rangoon to Mandalay.
The chorus seems to be set in or near Rangoon, where the "sun comes up like thunder" from across the bay (though the far side of the bay is not China but part of Burma -- Moulmein, in fact. From Moulmein, the apparent setting of the song, the sun *sets* over the bay). - RBW
File: Fuld415
===
NAME: Mandi Went to Poov the Grais: see Mandi Went to Poove the Grys (File: K349)
===
NAME: Mandi Went to Poove the Grys
DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer goes to put horses out to graze; a policeman is after the family. The farmer tries to impound the horses; the aunt chases them around the haystacks and steals some hay. Finally the policeman tells them to move on
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (recorded from Frank Copper)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer goes to put horses out to graze; a policeman is after the family (the daughter remarks, "It's just as Father said; we can't get away"). The farmer tries to impound the horses; the aunt (or the singer) chases them around the haystacks (or srikes the policeman) and steals some hay. Finally the policeman tells them to move on
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage horse family police Gypsy migrant
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 349, "Mandi Went to Poove the Grys" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 129, "Mandi Went to Poov the Grais" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #852
RECORDINGS:
Peter Ingram, "Mandi Went to Poove the Girl" (on Voice11)
NOTES: This song was apparently widespread among English Travellers. "Mandi" = I; "poov(e) the grys (grais)" = put the horses to grass. It was common practice for Travellers to camp in an unauthorized place, then let their horses into a farmer's field after dark with the intention of retrieving them before dawn. Often as not, they were caught and the horses impounded. - PJS
File: K349
===
NAME: Manila Bay
DESCRIPTION: "You have heard about he battle over in Manila Bay, How the Yankees met the Spaniards, fought them on the first of May. Our commander's name was Dewey...." Dewey is praised and Spanish boasting ridiculed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Spain battle war navy
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbor
May 1, 1898 - Battle of Manila Bay. Dewey's fleet destroys the entire Spanish fleet in the Philippines
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 238, "Manila Bay" (1 text)
Roud #6623
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (theme) and references there
NOTES: This has more than the usual amount of American bluster. It is certainly true that Dewey won a decisive victory and did it at the cost of only eight minor injuries to his men (the Spaniards suffered nearly 400 casualties and lost their entire fleet). However, the Spanish knew the American fleet was much superior -- hence their desperate but unsuccessful efforts to prevent war. - RBW
File: BrII238
===
NAME: Manley Pankey
DESCRIPTION: "Here I stand in the jail house door, Here I'll stand no more. Goodbye to my mother And friends forevermore. My mother she did warn me, She warned me when I 'as young, 'I'll raise you up for the gallows; My son, you will be hung.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: mother warning homicide gallows-confession
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 292, "Manley Pankey" (1 text)
ST BrII292 (Full)
Roud #6636
NOTES: According to the notes in Brown, Pankey was a laborer and musician who murdered his employer, a farmer named Curry. As usual, the song is described as sung by the condemned man before his execution. However, the editors can provide no precise dates or real details, and the song is a scrap with no circumstantial details at all. - RBW
File: BrII292
===
NAME: Manning, The Pirate: see Bold Manan the Pirate [Laws D15] (File: LD15)
===
NAME: Mantle of Green, The: see The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)
===
NAME: Mantle So Green, The [Laws N38]
DESCRIPTION: The well-dressed girl refuses the singer's offer of marriage; she is pledged to Willie O'Reilly, whose name is embroidered on her fine mantle. He tells her O'Reilly died at Waterloo; seeing how she grieves, he reveals that he is O'Reilly in disguise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1859 (Journal from the Ocean Rover); before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(417))
KEYWORDS: love disguise separation grief
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,MA,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES: (20 citations)
Laws N38, "The Mantle So Green"
Belden, pp. 151-152, "The Mantle of Green" (1 text)
Randolph 94, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 24, "Famed Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 56, "Fain Waterloo" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 93-94, "Her Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune, expanded by Ritchie from a traditional fragment)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 87, "The Mantle of Green" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 555-557, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-Labrador 130, "Mantle of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 30, "Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 29, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 91, "Round Her Mantle So Green (Willie O'Reilly; Famed Waterloo)" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 7, "The Mantle so Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 188, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 33, 214-215, "As I Was A-Walking" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
SHenry H76, pp. 314-315, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 38, "Mantle So Green" (1 text)
Ord, pp. 155-156, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 122-123, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 463, MANTLGRN
Roud #714
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Her Mantle So Green" (on IRMBarry-Fairs, and not the same as the next item)
Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman, "Her Mantle So Green" (on Barry-Gorman1); "Her Mantle So Green" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
Robert Cinnamond, "Willie Slain at Waterloo" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Marie Hare, "Round Her Mantle So Green" (on Miramichi1) (on MRMHare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(417), "The Mantle So Green," J. Moore (Belfast), 1846-1852; also Firth c.14(212), 2806 c.15(246), "The Mantle So Green"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(85a), "The Mantle So Green," unknown, c.1890
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32] (theme and some lines)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
William O'Roley
NOTES: Ord, in his remarks on this song, notes that green was considered an unlucky color for clothing. I'm not sure what significance that might have. - RBW
See the notes to "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32] for Mackenzie's discussion of Laws N36 as source for "The Mantle So Green" [Laws N38] and "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32].
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Mantle of Green" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
File: LN38
===
NAME: Many Say I Am Too Noisy
DESCRIPTION: "Many say I am too noisy, But I know the reason why, If they only felt the glory They would shout as loud as I." "Hallelujah, bound for glory... I have crossed the River Jordan, Now I'm safe in Beulah Land." "...In his ranks I still remain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 602, "Many Say I Am Too Noisy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7549
File: R602
===
NAME: Many Thousand Go: see Many Thousand Gone (Auction Block) (File: FJ030)
===
NAME: Many Thousand Gone (Auction Block)
DESCRIPTION: The freed slave rejoices to be done with abuse: "No more auction block for me... Nor more pint of salt for me... No more peck of corn for me... No more driver's lash for me..." (etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867
KEYWORDS: slavery freedom
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) US(SE)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 30-31, "Auction Block" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 279, "Auction Block" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 238-239, "Many Thousand Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, p. 71, "Many Thousand Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, p. 577, "Many T'ousand Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 238, "Many Thousands Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, p. 83, "Many Thousand Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 101-102, "Many Thousand Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 353-354, "Many Thousand Go (No More Auction Block)" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 296, "Many Thousand Gone" (1 text)
ST FJ030 (Partial)
Roud #3348
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "No More Auction Block" (on PeteSeeger31)
File: FJ030
===
NAME: Maple Leaf Forever, The
DESCRIPTION: "In days of yore, from Britain's shore, Wolfe, the dauntless hero came.... The Maple Leaf, our emblem dead, The Maple Leaf forever, God save our Queen, and heaven bless The Maple Leaf forever." In praise of the heroes and people of Canada
AUTHOR: Alexander Muir
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867
KEYWORDS: Canada patriotic nonballad
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sept 13, 1759 - Battle of Quebec. Forces under Wolfe capture Quebec and firmly establish British rule in Canada, although Wolfe is killed
1812 - Battle of Queenston. British forces under Brock repel an American invasion, although Brock is killed
1867 - Canadian Confederation formed
FOUND_IN: Canada
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 111-113, "The Maple Leaf Forever" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAPLFREV
NOTES: The story goes that Alexander Muir (1839-1906) was out walking in the fall of 1867 when a maple leaf floated down and stuck to his sleeve. It proved hard to brush off, and the phrase "the maple leaf forever" sprang to mind. Eventually he turned it into a song celebrating the new dominion of Canada.
Muir's song was a bit optimistic; the proud dominion he envisioned ("from Cape Race to Nootka Sound") did not exist at the time he wrote, and would not until 1949, when Newfoundland (which includes Cape Race) entered the Confederation. Nor did Nootka Sound enter the dominion until 1871, when British Columbia joined Canada.
The song has proved popular in British Canada, but its complete neglect of Quebec has kept it from any official status.
For background on the Battle of Quebec, see the notes to "Brave Wolfe" [Laws A1]. For Queenston, see "Brave General Brock" [Laws A22] and "The Battle of Queenston Heights." The issue of Canadian confederation led to quite a few songs, especially in Newfoundland; "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove" is typical. - RBW
File: FMB111
===
NAME: Maple on the Hill
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the maple on the hill "Where I sat with my Geneva long ago." Now, as he is dying, he bids her, "Don't forget me, little darling, when they lay me down to die"; he must "leave you and that maple on the hill."
AUTHOR: Gussie L. Davis
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Recording, Vernon Dalhart); said to have been written 1880)
KEYWORDS: death separation
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, MAPLHILL
Roud #4333
RECORDINGS:
Callahan Brothers, "Maple on the Hill" (Melotone 6-06-57, 1936)
Vernon Dalhart, "We Sat Beneath the Maple on the Hill" (Vocalion 5044, 1926)
(Tom) Darby & (Jimmie) Tarlton, "Maple on the Hill" (Columbia 15591-D, 1930)
Farmer Sisters, "Maple on the Hill" (Vocalion 03104, 1935)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Maple on the Hill" (Vocalion 5158, 1927)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Maple on the Hill"  (Bluebird B-6065/Montgomery Ward M-4710, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-4969, 1936; RCA Victor 20-3241, 1948)
Holland Puckett, "The Maple On The Hill" (Gennett 6532/Supertone 9186, 1928)
Posey Rorrer & The North Carolina Ramblers, "As We Sat Beneath The Maple On The Hill" (Edison 20005/Ed 52414/CYL: Edison 5615 [as by Posey Rorer's North Carolina Ramblers], 1929; rec. 1928)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "The Maple On The Hill" (Perfect 5-12-59, 1935; Conqueror 8638, 1936)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling (I)" (floating lyrics)
SAME_TUNE:
Crowder Brothers, "New Maple on the Hill" (Conqueror 8782, 1937) (Oriole 07-02-63, 1937) 
Dixie Reelers, "Answer to Maple on the Hill - Part 2"
Dixon Brothers, "Answer to Maple on the Hill - Part 1" (Bluebird B-6462, 1936)
Dixon Brothers, "Maple on the Hill - Part 3" (Bluebird B-6630, 1936)
Dixon Brothers, "Maple on the Hill - Part 4" (Montgomery Ward M-7170, 1937)
Wade Mainer, "Maple on the Hill - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6293, 1936)
Wade Mainer & Zeke Morris, "Maple on the Hill, Part 2" (Bluebird B-6293, 1936)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "Maple on the Hill - Part 3" (Bluebird B-6293, 1936)
Prairie Ramblers, "Maple on the Hill - Part 2" (Perfect 6-09-60, 1936)
Prairie Ramblers, "Maple on the Hill No. 4" (Melotone 7-09-51, 1937)
Don Weston, "Maple on the Hill Is Gone" (Decca 5421, 1937)
NOTES: The Dixon Brothers had an "Answer to Maple on the Hill" and at least two additional "parts" to the song. Mainer's Mountaineers also had a "Part 3." What did the guy do, come back as a ghost?
This song has rarely if ever been collected in tradition, but its popularity with old-time singers (see the recording list and the "Same Tune" knock-offs) eventually made me decide to include it here. - RBW
[Ten] recordings by old-time singers between 1927 and 1936 -- yes, it absolutely belongs in. I call that "being collected from tradition," albeit in a roundabout way. - PJS
File: DTmaplhi
===
NAME: Maple Sweet
DESCRIPTION: "When you see the vapor pillar lick the forest and the sky, You may know the days of sugar making then are drawing nigh." "Oh, bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble goes the pan." A mention of the sights and sounds of the syrupping season
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Linscott)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Linscott, pp. 238-239, "Maple Sweet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3737
File: Lins238
===
NAME: March of Intellect, The
DESCRIPTION: "Let schoolmasters bother their brain In their dry and their musty vocation; But what can the rest of us gain By meddling with such botheration?" Examples of people that work very well without esoteric knowledge: must the tailor know Conic Sections?
AUTHOR: Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) ? (attribution by O Lochlainn in OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1802 (printed by Hicks, according to OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 52, "The March of Intellect" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: O Lochlainn's attribution to Oliver Goldsmith is difficult to assess. I'm fairly sure that the song he refers to is Tony Lumpkin's song from Act I of _She Stoops to Conquer_, beginning
Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain
With grammar, and nonsense, and learning;
Good liquor, I stoutly maintain,
Gives _genus_ a better discerning....
But the song simply calls for drink and roast fowl -- no conic sections mentioned. Did the song go into oral tradition and get modified? If so, why are there no other mentions? Or was it written somewhere along the way, perhaps by the printer Hicks?
If Oliver Goldsmith did write this, it may have been a sarcastic comment on his own experience; Barnhart and Halsey's _The New Century Handbook of English Literature_ (revised edition, 1967) comments of him that his career was "a record of almost unbroken failure in everything that he tried to reach by study or effort: he tried law, medicine, the church, and teaching, and failed in all of them; the only thing he succeeded in was literature, which he did not study and for which he had no technical preparation."
The _Handbook_ adds that "Facts meant little to him." - RBW
File: OLcM052
===
NAME: March of the Men of Garvagh
DESCRIPTION: "We're marching, marching thro' Garvagh town, We're ready to fight for queen and crown, If any man won't we'll knock him down." The singer sees the marchers come by, led by "fighting Phil," and her (?) heart beats loud
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H17b, p. 180, "March of the Men of Garvagh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13540
NOTES: The Henry text appears to be composite; the first verse is a marching song (perhaps of Ulstermen opposed to Home Rule late in the reign of Victoria?), while the second and third appear to be the song of a girl in love with one of the marchers.
Garvagh, in county (London)derry, almost due south of Coleraine, was the site of some sectarian violence on July 16, 1813 (sometimes referred to as the "Battle of Garvagh," though it sounds more like a riot) -- but 1813 is during the reign of George III, so there is no reason to mention the queen. - RBW
File: HHH017b
===
NAME: Marche des Animaux, Le (The Animal Market) 
DESCRIPTION: French. "One day I go to the market to buy a cock. My cock goes coquelicou, cou, cou." Cumulative for: "My chipmunk, my horse, my cow, my pig, my ewe, my goose, my hen." Chorus: "Jamais je n'en serais jaloux"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage cumulative humorous nonballad animal
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, p. 18, "Le Marche des Animaux" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Had a Little Rooster" (theme and structure)
NOTES: Re "Mon suisse" as "My chipmunk": or does "suisse" in this case really mean Swiss which goes "souisse-souisse-souisse"? or a play on swine=suide? - BS
File: Pea018
===
NAME: Marching Down to New Orleans: see Marching Down to Old Quebec (File: R519)
===
NAME: Marching Down to Old Quebec
DESCRIPTION: "We're marching down to (old Quebec/New Orleans), Where the drum is loudly beating, The 'Merican boys have won the day And the (British) are retreating." The soldier describes marching, and his plans to go home/to New Orleans/to visit a girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: playparty soldier war battle floatingverses courting rejection Canada
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1775-1776: American attack on Canada. The chief battle of the campaign was fought outside Quebec on December 31, 1775
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Although a peace had already been signed, word had not yet reached Louisiana, which Pakenham sought to invade. Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen easily repulse Pakenham
FOUND_IN: US(NE,MW,So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 519, "We're Marching Down to Old Quebec" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 57-59, "Marching Down to Old Quebec" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R519 (Full)
Roud #735
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Pink" (floating verses)
NOTES: The history behind this song is somewhat confusing. Although America in its early years coveted Canada, and sent troops northward during the War of 1812, Americans never successfully attacked Quebec (for their unsuccessful Canadian campaigns, see, e.g., "The Battle of Queenston Heights").
If the song refers to an actual event, it probably dates to the invasion of Canada by Montgomery and Benedict Arnold in 1775. Montgomery captured Montreal, and rendezvoused with Arnold to attack Quebec, but the assault of December 31, 1775 was repulsed. Montgomery was killed and hundreds of Americans killed, wounded, and captured.
As it turned out, both British and Americans sang about the invasion of Canada, with Americans lauding the capture of Montreal (which they obviously did not manage to retain) and the British celebrating the defense of Quebec.
This confusion may explain why the song was transferred to New Orleans, which was American property and where Jackson did repel a British army (for which see "The Battle of New Orleans" [Laws A7]).
The Randolph version of this piece has more than a little connection with "Little Pink," and may even be the same song -- but at this point it's hard to tell; I've heard a "Little Pink" variant which goes in a completely different direction.
Roud tosses the whole family in with "Coffee Grows." - RBW
File: R519
===
NAME: Marching On
DESCRIPTION: "Old Abe's in the White House, taking a snooze, Gen'ral Grant is a-busting his gut with his booze... but let's keep marching on." Complaints about life in the Union army: Lincoln freed the Blacks but not the soldiers, the rebels keep coming back, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sept 23, 1862 - Abraham Lincoln issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which on Jan 1, 1863 will free all slaves in Confederate-controlled areas
Sept 19-20, 1863 - Battle of Chickamauga (calld "Chickamaugie" in the song). Braxton Bragg's reinforced Confederate army routs most of William S. Rosecrans' Federal force, which is saved only by a desperate stand by George H. Thomas. Although the most decisive victory the Confederates ever won, it is the last Rebel victory of the war, and will be avenged a few months later at the Battle of Chattanooga
Feb 1, 1865 - Thirteenth Amendment, which finally prohibits slavery, proposed by congress (It was declared ratified on Dec 18)
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Warner 130, "Marching On" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARCHON*
Roud #7475
RECORDINGS:
Frank Proffitt, "Old Abe" (on Proffitt03)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (tune & meter)
cf. "Pass Around the Bottle" (lyrics)
NOTES: This song implies that Grant, who was unquestionable a heavy drinker in his younger days, continued his alcoholic ways during the Civil War. Most observers agree, however, that he *did not* drink during the war. Grant was by no means a brilliant general, but at least he was stubborn enough to keep fighting until he won the war. - RBW
File: Wa130
===
NAME: Marching Round the Gum Stump (Marching Round the Fodder Stack)
DESCRIPTION: "Marching round the gum stump, The gum stump, the gum stump, Marching round the gum stump, Rolly roly oh!" "If you want a sweetheart, A sweetheart, a sweetheart, If you want a sweetheart, Choose one and play."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 591, "Marching Round the Gum Stump" (1 text)
Roud #7676
NOTES: I have this vague feeling that this is based on, or at least incorporates fragments of, a wren song. But I can hardly prove it.... - RBW
File: R591
===
NAME: Marching Round the Levee: see Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)
===
NAME: Marching Song of the First Arkansas
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we're the bully soldiers of the 'First of Arkansas,' We're fighting for the Union, we are fighting for the law, We can hit a Rebel further than a white man ever saw..." The soldiers tell how they will show their prowess by defeating the Rebels
AUTHOR: Words: Capt. Lindley Miller?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle Black(s) slavery freedom soldier derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 1, 1863 - Effectiveness date of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in the portions of the U.S. not then in Federal hands
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-CivWar, p. 38, "Marching Song of the First Arkansas (Negro) Regiment" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, MARARKAN*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Marching Song of the First Arkansas" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES: The Union first began enlisting Black troops (informally) in 1862. By the end of that year, four regiments were raised, only to have Lincoln shut them down. After the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, however, Lincoln allowed the formation of (segregated) "colored" regiments.
In the end, over a hundred and fifty such regiments were raised. Their performance was mixed -- but this was probably the fault of the (white) officers rather than the Black troops. A large fraction of the officers in the "Colored" regiments were soldiers who had given up on promotion in the white army, and shifted to the "Colored" troops to get ahead.
The "Colored" troops had other reasons for bad morale; their pay was much lower than their white counterparts, and their equipment less good. And soldiers from both sides looked down on them.
A large fraction of the "Colored" regiments were raised from free Northern blacks, but some were taken from freed slaves. If anything, the soldiers of these regiments fought better than their free kindred. - RBW
File: SCW38
===
NAME: Marching Song of the First Arkansas (Negro) Regiment: see Marching Song of the First Arkansas (File: SCW38)
===
NAME: Marching Through Georgia
DESCRIPTION: Sundry boasts, mostly too optimistic, about Sherman's march to the sea: "How the darkeys shouted when they heard the joyful sound.... Yes, and there were Union men who wept with joyful tears... While we were marching through Georgia."
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST_DATE: 1865 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 15, 1864 - William T. Sherman splits his army (which had conquered Atlanta on September 1) into two parts. One, under Thomas, is to defend Atlanta, while Sherman takes nearly 60,000 men on the "March to the Sea"
Dec 10, 1864 - Sherman's forces reach Savannah
Dec 21, 1864 - Sherman captures Savannah
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Australia
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 126-129, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 34, "The Battle Cry of Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune, composed of equal parts of this song and "The Battle Cry of Freedom")
Dean, pp. 119-120, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text)
Silber-CivWar, pp. 78-79, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-CivWar, pp. 207-208, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 278, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 349, "Marching Through Georgia"
DT, MRCHGRGA*
ST MA034A (Full)
Roud #9596
RECORDINGS:
[Byron G.] Harlan & [Roba] Stanley, "Marching Through Georgia" (CYL: Edison 8606, 1904) (Columbia 1776, 1904) (Victor 4217, 1905)
J. W. Myers, "Marching Through Georgia" (Victor 4289, 1905)
Pete Seeger & Bill McAdoo, "Marching Through Georgia" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Golden Gullies of the Palmer" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Workingmen's Army" (tune & meter)
cf. "Coxey Army" (tune)
cf. "Marching to Cuba" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Marching to Cuba (File: BrII237)
The Workingmen's Army (Greenway-AFP, pp. 59-60)
Coxey Army (Greenway-AFP, pp. 62-63)
NOTES: Although Work can hardly be blamed for his cheerful view of the March to the Sea, it was in fact little better than terrorism. Sherman's expressed goal was to "make Georgia howl," and he certainly succeeded; a region some fifty miles across was devastated. (Sherman was, in fact, reviving the chevauchee, the method by which the armies of the Middle Ages destroyed their enemies' agricultural base).
Even if there had been Union men in the region before, there were none left afterward.
"Marching Through Georgia" has been called "the most hated song in the south."
The one other person who hated the song was none other than Sherman himself; he reportedly said, "If I had thought when I made that march that it would have inspired anyone to compose the piece, I would have marched AROUND the state."
Sherman became the most hated man in the south for the rest of his life. It's ironic to note that, when Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the last real southern army to Sherman, Sherman gave such generous terms (to Johnston and anyone else willing to take them) that the North instantly repudiated them. There were loud calls for his removal -- as being too soft! - RBW
File: MA034A
===
NAME: Marching to Cuba
DESCRIPTION: "We're going down to Cuba, boys, to battle for the right, We're going to show the Spaniards that we Yankee boys can fight... While we are marching to Cuba." The victories at Manila Bay and Santiago are briefly mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Spain battle war navy soldier derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbor
May 1, 1898 - Battle of Manila Bay. Dewey's fleet destroys the entire Spanish fleet in the Philippines
May 19, 1898 - The Spanish fleet enters Santiago Bay
July 2, 1898 - The Spanish fleet at Santiago, acting under orders from Madrid, sails out into the teeth of the American fleet and is destroyed
July 10, 1898 - U. S. troops attack Santiago
July 17, 1898 - U. S. troops capture Santiago
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 237, "Marching to Cuba" (1 text)
Roud #6622
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching Through Georgia" (tune) and references there
cf. "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (theme) and references there
NOTES: The editors of Brown were able to identify this with a piece "Marching to Cuba" credited to Josie M. Galloway, with words by J. H. Dohrmann. Since, however, it is instantly obvious that the tune is "Marching through Georgia," the authorship claims must be treated as slightly dubious.
The military figures mentioned in this song include:
Dewey - George Dewey (1837-1917), commander of the U. S. Navy's Asiatic Squadron from early 1898, he won the Battle of Manila Bay at slight cost: The Spanish lost their entire fleet, the Americans didn't have a single sailor killed
Sampson - William Thomas Sampson (1840-1902), who led the Board of Inquiry into the _Maine_ explosion. He was appointed to command the North Atlantic squadron during the War, and hence was responsible for the blockade of Santiago harbor. His direct involvement in the Battle of Santiago was limited as he was not in the immediate presence  of the enemy when the Spanish sortied
Hobson - Richmond Pearson Hobson (1870-1937) helped close Santiago harbor by sinking the collier _Merrimac_ as a blockship.
Schley - Winfield Scott Schley (1839-1909) commanded the Flying Squadron of the fleet blockading Santiago. When the Spaniards attempted to break out, Schley was the senior officer present -- a fact which later led to severe arguments with Sampson over who deserved credit for the victory. - RBW
File: BrII237
===
NAME: Marching to Pretoria
DESCRIPTION: Shanty version sung to the Pretoria tune, though with changed verses, which Hugill says he had to camouflage to print. Cho: "We are marchin' to Pretoria, oh gloria, Victoria. We are marchin' to Pretoria, Victoria rules the waves!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1954 (recording, Joseph Marais and Miranda)
KEYWORDS: shanty army travel Africa food
FOUND_IN: South Africa Britain
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Hugill, p.425, "Pretoria" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. ???, "Marching to Pretoria" (1 text)
DT, MARPRET
NOTES: I was surprised not to find this in the index already, considering how common I thought was. From what I could find it dates or at least refers to the Boer or Zulu war. - SL
It is not in the Index because it's not really found in tradition. As best I can tell, it was fixed up by Joseph Marais and Miranda, based on a South African original, and the adaption has been sung very widely at camps -- typically on hiking expeditions. But only starting in the 1960s.
This is the first time I've met the sea version, which may be an alternate adaption.
It would be very interesting to find the earliest version of this, to know the setting (including which Boer War it dates from).
The opening conflict of the (first) Boer War came on December 20, 1880, at Bronkhorstspruit, when "264 officers of the 94th Regiment (Connaught Rangers), marching from Lydenburg to Pretoria, were halted on the march by a Boer commando and ordered to turn back. The lieutenant-coloonel in command was given two minutes to reply to the demand. He refused to surrender and was killed by the Boers' opening shots." Most of the other British soldiers were killed as well. (See Byron Farwell, _Queen Victoria's Little Wars_, pp. 244-245).
Britain was defeated again early the next year, on February 26, 1881, At Majuba Hill, British General George Pomeroy Colley took his force onto high ground, but failed to create a defensive position; his forces were routed and Colley himself killed (see Fred R. van Hartsveldt, _The Boer War_, Sutton, 2000), p. 4.
Rather than keep up the fight, the British negotiated, A year later, the Pretoria Convention would end the war. "It gave the South African Republic independence subject to a vague assertion of British suzerainty whatever that might mean" (van Hartsfeldt, p. 5).
In the second (1899-1902) Boer War, Pretoria would again be key -- and the site of a lot of marching. On October 30, 1899, after their victory at Lombard's Kop, the Boers marched a number of British prisoners through Pretoria (see Eversley Belfield, _The Boer War_, pp. 20-22).
On March 13, 1900, Frederick Singh Roberts captured Bloemfontein, then prepared to march on the Boer capital of Pretoria. He set out on May 3 and arrived June 5 (Belfield, pp. 95-100). This did not end the war -- there would be two more years of guerrilla fighting, in which world opinion turned against England and the international situation became ever more complicated. But it was nearly the end of the direct military phase (and it earned Roberts an earldom and the command of the British army), and at the time it was thought it would end the conflict; the soldiers must have thought they were making the last big push.
Thus, a march to Pretoria could have been bad news for Britain or for the Boers, depending on the war and the situation. Or it could be about something else. - RBW
File: Hugi425
===
NAME: Marden Forfeit Song: see Green Grow the Leaves (File: Leath206)
===
NAME: Margaret Gray
DESCRIPTION: Margaret Gray and her baby bid farewell to Robert Gray as he goes to work in the field. They agree to meet at a neighbor's house. She becomes lost in the woods. Her baby dies. Long after, she finally finds her way home.
AUTHOR: Julia C. R. Dorr
EARLIEST_DATE: 1872 (Lippincott's)
KEYWORDS: baby separation death love
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 19-26, "Margaret Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FlBr019 (Partial)
Roud #5440
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Margery Gray -- A Legend of Vermont (author's title)
NOTES: Flanders and Brown claim this piece was well-known in Vermont, and indeed they seem to list two informants. But it doesn't appear to have turned up in any other collection.
Julia Caroline Ripley Dorr (1825-1913) was successful enough as a writer to earn a place in the _Dictionary of American Biography_, but I checked eight anthologies without finding a single word she had written. _Granger's Index to Poetry_, which cites some 300 anthologies, lists a few of her poems -- but not one of those 300 volumes includes this piece. Given how wordy this poem is, it's perhaps not surprising. - RBW
File: FlBr019
===
NAME: Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run)
DESCRIPTION: "Oh the smartest clipper you can find, Oh hey, oh ho, are you 'most done? Is the (Margot Evans) of the (Blue Cross) line, So clear the track, let the bullgine run!" The singer describes the fast passage of the ship, and hopes Liza Lee will marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Terry)
KEYWORDS: sailor work ship courting nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 29, "The Bullgine Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, p. 99, "Clear the Track" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 18-19, "Clear the Track, Let the Bulgine Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 344-347, "Clear the Track, let the Bulgine Run" (2 texts, 2 tune) [AbEd, pp. 258-259]
Sharp-EFC, VI, p. 7, "Clear the Track" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 317, "Clear the Track and Let the Bullgine Rune" (1 text)
DT, MARGOEVN*
Roud #810
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Eliza Lee
NOTES: Hugill, following Sharp, claims this is sung to the tune similar to "Shule Agrah" (Lomax says they're the same), though it's not any variant I've ever heard.
Colcord thinks that explains the strange combination of bullgine engine (railroad engine) and low-backed car: Someone from the _Margot Evans_ (the ship in her version, though Hugill has a _Wild Cat_ or similar) heard Irish sailors singers sing it, and adapted it.
The _Margot Evans_, according to Colcord, was a packet running apparently from Mobile to New York.
Personally, I think the whole song needs a lot more historical study. - RBW
File: LoF029
===
NAME: Margot, La
DESCRIPTION: French shanty. Chorus: "Oh hisse! et ho! Tire larigot, Hourra pour la Margot!" "With a heave an'a ho! Blow the flute boys, O! Hurrah for La Margot!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Hayet, _Chansons de bord_)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: French shanty. Chorus: "Oh hisse! et ho! Tire larigot, Hourra pour la Margot!" "With a heave an'a ho! Blow the flute boys, O! Hurrah for La Margot!" Translation is vague, verses seem to refer to Margot as both a ship and a woman and has thinly disguised bawdy lyrics, and several of the repeating words in both the verses and chorus can have different meanings
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty bawdy
FOUND_IN: France
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 398-400, "La Margot" (2 texts-English & French, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Le Bihor
File: Hugi398
===
NAME: Mari de Quatre-Vingt-Dix Ans, Le (The Ninety Year Old Husband)
DESCRIPTION: French. The singer's father marries her to a ninety year old man. When she complains, her father said that her husband is rich. She would rather have a man that satisfies her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage age marriage dialog father husband
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 298-299, "Le Mari de Quatre-Vingt-Dix Ans" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" and references there
File: Pea298
===
NAME: Maria
DESCRIPTION: "I wonder where Maria's gone (x3). Ear-lye in the morning." "Guess she's gone and I can't go (x3), Ear-lye in the morning." "Yonder she comes and howdy-do (x3), Ear-lye in the morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); *1907 (JAFL20)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 66-67, "[Maria]" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 258, "Maria's Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3625
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning)" 
NOTES: The similarity to "The Drunken Sailor" will be obvious even from the lyrics -- but since the theme of the song is different, the chorus is absent, and the tune somewhat modified, I decided to classify these as separate songs. Presumably at some point someone put new lyrics to the "Drunken Sailor" melody. - RBW
The 1917 version collected by Sharp -- in Hindman, KY, where many of the Ritchies attended the settlement school --  has a rather different melody; perhaps the words and earlier melody came first, then someone switched tunes to "Drunken Sailor." - PJS
File: JRSF066
===
NAME: Maria and Caroline: see The Folkestone Murder (File: K320)
===
NAME: Maria Barberi
DESCRIPTION: "'Tis not for me to speak aloud On lofty themes. I tell As one among the lowly crowd How young Maria fell." "Swift as a flash a glittering blade Across his throat she drew. 'By you,' she shrieked, 'I've been betrayed." She apparently avoids conviction
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: homicide revenge betrayal
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: April 1895 - Maria Barberi kills Domenico Cataldo, apparently because he would not marry her
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, p. 55, "(Maria Barberi)" (1 text, probably a fragment)
File: Burt055
===
NAME: Maria Bewell
DESCRIPTION: Fifteen year old Maria's stepfather comes to her bed one night and asks to sleep with her. She begs him not to; he persists. Finally his desire is too strong; he lies in wait for her and kills her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Eddy)
KEYWORDS: incest homicide  rejection father
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1832 - Murder of Maria Buell by Ira West Gardner. Gardner was later hung, though details of the sentencing were lost in a fire
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Eddy 120, "Maria Bewell" (1 text)
ST E120 (Full)
Roud #4116
NOTES: This song is item dF44 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: E120
===
NAME: Maria Marten
DESCRIPTION: Maria tells her mother she is going to meet William at the red barn. They are to be married next day in Islip. Maria is never seen alive again. After eleven months her mother dreams the body will be found buried in the red barn. The body is found there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1972 (recording, Freda Palmer)
KEYWORDS: courting homicide dream mother corpse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Aug 11, 1828 - William Corder is executed for the May 1827 murder of Maria Marten (source: NLScotland commentary to broadside L.C.Fol.70(71b))
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #215
RECORDINGS:
Freda Palmer, "Maria Marten" (on Voice03)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Murder of Maria Marten" (subject) and references there
File: RcMariaM
===
NAME: Maria's Gone: see Maria (File: JRSF066)
===
NAME: Marian Parker (I) [Laws F33]
DESCRIPTION: Pretty schoolgirl Marian Parker and her family are preparing for Christmas when the girl is kidnapped from school. "Young Hickman" is arrested and tried after the body is found
AUTHOR: Bill Barrett?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Al Craver [Vernon Dalhart]; also copyrighted in that year, but the Dalhart recording was probably made in 1927; collected by Brown as early as 1930)
KEYWORDS: homicide corpse trial abduction
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 14, 1927 - Kidnapping and murder of twelve (eleven?)-year-old Marian Parker
Dec 17, 1927 - Discovery by her father of the girl's mutilated body
Oct 19, 1928 - Execution of William Edward Hickman for the murder
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws F33, "Marian Parker"
BrownII 254, "Marian Parker" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 68-70, "Little Marian Parker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt, pp. 65-66, "(Marion Parker)" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT 731, MARPARK1
Roud #781
RECORDINGS:
Al Craver [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart] & Charlie Wells [pseud. for Carson Robison], "Little Marian Parker" (Columbia 15218-D. c. 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Marian Parker (II)" (subject)
cf. "Marian Parker (III)" (subject)
cf. "Edward Hickman (Marian Parker IV)" (subject)
NOTES: Laws lists a total of four Marian Parker ballads (the others are dF56, dF57, and dE49, "Edward Hickman"). This one, popularized by Vernon Dalhart, begins "Away out in California lived a family bright and gay. They were planning for their Christmas not very far away...."
The 1928 printing, credited to Bill Barrett (though I wonder if Carson Robison may not have been involved), titles the song "Little Marian Parker." - RBW
File: LF33
===
NAME: Marian Parker (II)
DESCRIPTION: Marian Parker, "a sweet little darling," is "lured away from school" so that the kidnapper (unnamed) can demand a ransom. Her father finds her mangled body. The ballad concludes with moralizing stanzas
AUTHOR: John McGhee?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: abduction homicide death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 14, 1927 - Kidnapping and murder of twelve (eleven?)-year-old Marian Parker
Dec 17, 1927 - Discovery by her father of the girl's mutilated body
Oct 19, 1928 - Execution of William Edward Hickman for the murder
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 255, "The Murder of Marian Parker" (1 text)
Roud #4126
RECORDINGS:
John McGhee, "The Marion Parker Murder" (Champion 15427=probably Gennett 6362)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Marian Parker (I)" [Laws F33] (subject)
cf. "Marian Parker (III)" (subject)
cf. "Edward Hickman (Marian Parker IV)" (subject)
NOTES: This is item dF56 in Laws's Appendix II. Laws lists a total of four Marian Parker ballads (the others are F33, dF57, and dE49, "Edward Hickman"). This one, with no details and an extremely sticky tone, begins "In a home out in Los Angeles Lived a sweet little darling so fair. 'Twas a pleasure her loved ones to be, But her loved ones her joy no more they'll share." - RBW
File: LdF56
===
NAME: Marian Parker (III)
DESCRIPTION: Marian and her sister set out for school. Edward Hickman tells her her father had an accident, and kidnaps her. He demands a $1500 ransom. Her father brings the money, but finds her dead body. The song blames Hickman but does not tell his fate
AUTHOR: Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Andrew Jenkins)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution trial abduction mother
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 14, 1927 - Kidnapping and murder of twelve (eleven?)-year-old Marian Parker
Dec 17, 1927 - Discovery by her father of the girl's mutilated body
Oct 19, 1928 - Execution of William Edward Hickman for the murder
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 256, "Little Marion Parker" (1 text)
Roud #4127
RECORDINGS:
Blind Andy [pseud. for Andrew Jenkins], "Little Marian Parker" (OKeh 45197, 1928) [The flip side is also a Marian Parker ballad, "Edward Hickman"]
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Marian Parker (I)" [Laws F33] (subject)
cf. "Marian Parker (II)" (subject)
cf. "Edward Hickman (Marian Parker IV)" (subject)
NOTES: This is item dF57 in Laws's Appendix II. Laws lists a total of four Marian Parker ballads (the others are F33, dF56, and dE49, "Edward Hickman"). This, one of two by Andrew Jenkins and appearing in the Brown collection, has the opening stanza, "Now little Marion (sic) Parker, She left her home one day, She started to the schoolhouse, Her heart was light and gay." - RBW
File: LdF57
===
NAME: Marie Madelaine (Son Petit Jupon -- The Little Dress of Gray)
DESCRIPTION: French: The singer is her father's only daughter, and he sent her to sea in her little dress of gray. A sailor courts her and asks to kiss her. She is afraid of what her papa would do. He points out that her father is far away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: Quebec love courting sea father foreignlanguage
FOUND_IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scott-BoA, pp. 294-296, "Son Petit Jupon" (2 texts (1 English, 1 French), 1 tune)
File: SBoA294
===
NAME: Marigold, The: see The Royal Oak (File: VWL091)
===
NAME: Marina Girl: see (references and notes under) Way Down the Old Plank Road (File: ADR94)
===
NAME: Mariposa
DESCRIPTION: The steamer Mariposa, loaded with general cargo and sheep, runs on shore at Grassy Point, Labrador. "A portion of her cargo is gone up and down the shore, Honestly and hardly earned by the people of Labrador"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Leach-Labrador)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck sea humorous theft
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 27, 1895 - Mariposa, sailing from Montreal to Liverpool sinks in the Strait of Belle Isle at L'Anse Au Clair (source: Northern Shipwrecks DataBase)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Leach-Labrador 79, "Mariposa" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab079 (Partial)
Roud #9980
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Mayflower" (theme)
cf. "The Teapots at the Fire" (theme)
cf. "The Middlesex Flora" (theme)
cf. "The Irrawaddy" (theme)
NOTES: Leach-Labrador: "The general attitude toward wrecks was summed up for me by one man, who said, 'If the good Lord sees fit to wrack a vessel, we hope it'll be hereabouts; we can use anything on board.'" - BS
File: LLab079
===
NAME: Maritime Memories of Wexford
DESCRIPTION: "Tis often I dream of the old Wexford fleet," "golden memories" of the end of the nineteenth century. "Ah! those were the days of the sailing ship, days of a rare old sport, When the Devereux flag was carried on the ships that sailed from our port"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: sea ship commerce lyric nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, p. 10, "Maritime Memories of Wexford" (1 text)
File: Ran010
===
NAME: Mark Murphy
DESCRIPTION: Mark Murphy from Avondale "could fight and farm and swing his arm and drive this world along, But the only thing he left undone was to try and hold his tongue." He bragged once too often about his boxing and was shown up by a boxer he said he could beat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: bragging fight humorous
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 103-104, "Mark Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12454
NOTES: Avondale is inland at central eastern Queens, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: Dib103
===
NAME: Marksman, The
DESCRIPTION: In '45 the singer fell in love with a maid who wore the Orange and Blue. He inquired of her home: "her index it came from above." Other questions were answered in Masonic code. Bring your sweethearts and "see if yours tells you what my love told me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: courting ritual religious
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 31, "The Marksman" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Inniskilling Dragoon" (tune, according to Orange Lark)
cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (Masonic symbolism: Aaron's rod) and references there
NOTES: Within the Orange Lodges, "Purple Marksman" refers to one of the Master degree, above "Orange" and "Orange Marksman," of the Orange Institution (source: "The Formation of the Orange Order 21st September 1795" in the anti-Orange _Evangelical Truth_ at NIreland.com site).
OrangeLark has no comment on the code. The song says "if you want to know the secret, go search and you'll see." - BS
File: OrLa031
===
NAME: Marriage of Sir Gawain, The [Child 31]
DESCRIPTION: Arthur must fight a huge knight or come back later and say what women most desire. An ugly woman will give the answer if Arthur marries her to one of his knights. Gawain agrees, leaves it up to her to be beautiful by day or night, and lifts the spell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1794 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage shape-changing royalty magic
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 31, "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 13-24, "The Marriage of Sir Gawaine"; pp. 323-330, "The Ancient Fragment of the Marriage of Sir Gawain" (2 texts, the second being the damaged stanzas in the Percy folio and the first being Percy's reconstructed version)
Leach, pp. 118-123, "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" (1 text)
OBB 19, "The Marriage of Sir Gawain [A Fragment]" (1 text)
Niles 18, "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly a form of this ballad but of doubtful authenticity)
DT 31, GAWAIN1
Roud #3966
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Half-Hitch" [Laws N23] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Sir Gaunie and the Witch
NOTES: This story is also found in the fifteenth century romance "The Wedding of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell," viewed by Sir Frederic Madden to be the source of the ballad.
The theme of the "loathly woman" is, of course, common, but certain scholars have tried to link every ballad on this theme (e.g. "The Half-Hitch") to this ballad. The links are usually very dubious. We should note that, apart from the dubious piece in Niles, the only extant version of this ballad is the copy in the Percy folio.
On the other hand, the connection between this ballad and "Dame Ragnall" are hard to deny. If this is not a recomposition of that romance, it certainly derives from the same immediate source.
The romance is found in only one manuscript, Bodleian MS Rawlinson C 86, which has lost a leaf containing probably about 70 lines after line 628.
The manuscript is generally regarded as dating from about 1500. The poem itself is probably 50-150 years older -- though the very confused writing makes things harder. I observe that, in the first 60 lines, there the name "Arthur" is spelled "Arthoure," "Arture," "Arthoure" again, "Arthure, and "Arthour."
Several other ballads also derive loosely or from Middle English romance, or from the legends that underly it, examples being:
* "Hind Horn" [Child 17], from "King Horn" (3 MSS., including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "Floris and Blancheflour")
* "King Orfeo" [Child 19], from "Sir Orfeo" (3 MSS., including the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Floris and Blancheflour")
* "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" [Child 300], from "Floris and Blancheflour" (4 MSS, including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "King Horn," and the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Sir Orfeo") - RBW
File: C031
===
NAME: Married and Single Life
DESCRIPTION: Singer warns young people of the perils of marriage, tells them to wait until age 21, and be sure of their sweethearts. "When a man's married he ain't his own man... But when a man's single he can live at his ease..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer warns young people (mostly men) of the perils of marriage, tells them to wait until age 21, and be sure of their sweethearts, who can be deceitful. "When a man's married he ain't his own man...For selling his freedom to buy him a wife...But when a man's single he can live at his ease...he can rove through the country and live at his will/Kiss Polly, kiss Betsy, and he is the same still." He offers healths to the single and married alike
KEYWORDS: age marriage warning drink nonballad bachelor husband
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SharpAp 73, "Married and Single Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARRSING
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bachelor's Hall (I)" (subject)
cf. "Single Life, A (Single Is My Glory)" (subject)
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl" (subject)
cf. "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" (subject)
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)" (subject)
cf. "When I Was Single (II)" (subject)
cf. "Sporting Bachelors" (subject)
NOTES: This has parallel content to a lot of other "stay single" songs, but it's separate nonetheless. - PJS
File: ShrAp73
===
NAME: Married Man (II), The: see I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)
===
NAME: Married Man, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer looks back fondly on seven years of marriage: His wife cares for him (even when he drinks too much), and never questions or scolds. He advises girls to keep this in mind" So, girls, mind you this when you marry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage drink husband wife warning
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H701, p. 501, "The Married Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST HHH701 (Full)
Roud #9465
File: HHH701
===
NAME: Married to a Mermaid
DESCRIPTION: Farmer loves a knight's daughter, the knight has him pressed. At sea the farmer falls overboard. As his comrades look for him he pops up and tells them how he found and then married a mermaid. The sailors wish him well. Choruses of "Rule Britannia."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1870 (Broadside, Bodleian library)
KEYWORDS: sailor mermaid/man pressgang farming marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Harlow, pp. 174-176, "Married to a Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rule Britannia" (tune and chorus)
cf. "The Merman (Pretty Fair Maid with a Tail)" [Laws K24] (theme of marrying a mermaid)
cf. "Down in the Diving Bell (The Mermaid (II))" (theme of marrying a mermaid)
NOTES: This was obviously based on "Rule Britannia," keeping the tune and popular chorus and replacing all the other text. According to contemplator.com it was credited in the "Scottish Student's Handbook" to "A.J.C." and also appeared in Toser's "Sailor's Songs of Chanties." It seems to have been made popular by [music hall performer] Arthur Lloyd (1839-1904) but I could find no indication that he was responsible for the words. One of the Bodleian broadsides state that it was sung to the tune of "The Revelers." - SL
File: Harl174
===
NAME: Married Woman's Lament, A: see I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female) (File: E070)
===
NAME: Marrow Bones: see Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)
===
NAME: Marrowbones [Laws Q2]
DESCRIPTION: An old wife goes to the doctor for a potion to blind her husband. The doctor suggests (eggs and) marrowbones. He says  he wishes to die and asks her to push him off a cliff. As she runs to do so, he steps aside. She drowns; he says he cannot see to help
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1874 (quoted in Mark Twain, _Life on the Mississippi_)
KEYWORDS: suicide trick drugs death
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (30 citations)
Laws Q2, "The Old Wife of Slapsadam (The Wily Auld Carle; The Old Woman in Dover; etc.)"
Belden, pp. 237-239, "Johnny Sands" (2 texts, but only the second, with no letter, is this piece)
Randolph 754, "Johnny Sands" (2 texts, 2 tunes, but the "A" text goes with "Johnny Sands" [Laws Q3] while the "B" text belongs with this piece)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 239-240, "A Cruel Wife" (1 text)
Eddy 30, "An Old Woman's Story" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 13-14, "The Drowning Lady (The Witch Song)" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which might be either "Marrowbones" or "Johnnie Sands")
Linscott, pp. 255-258, "The Old Woman in Dover" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 141, "The Old Woman from Boston" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 55, "The Rich Old Lady" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 261-264, "Eggs and Marrow-Bones" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-Labrador 113, "A Cruel Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 39, "The Rich Old Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 122, "Marrow Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 73, "Marrow Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 109-110,243, "Cheese and Marrowbones" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 182, "The Old Woman's Blind Husband" (2 texts)
Chappell-FSRA 44, "The Old Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster 60, "An Old Woman's Story" (1 text)
Doerflinger, p. 281, "The Wife of Kelso (The Wily Auld Carle)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 51, "The Rich Old Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 274, "The Rich Old Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 130-131, "The Rich Old Lady" (1 text, 1 tune -- with a second verse created by Chase)
SHenry H174, p. 507, "The Auld Man and the Churnstaff" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 70, "The Wee Woman in Our Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 35, pp. 89-90,121,170, "Marrow Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 208, "The Old Woman of Blighter Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 157, "An Old Woman's Story" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 144-145, "There Was an Old Lady" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 173, "Eggs And Marrowbones" (1 text)
DT 344, MARBONES* MARBONE2* MARBONE3* MARBONE4 MARBON5 MARBON6*
Roud #183
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "There Was an Old Lady" (on Barker01)
Harry Cox, "Marrowbones" (on HCox01)
Betty Garland, "Love My Darlin' O" (on BGarland01)
Jimmy Knights, "Marrowbones" (on Voice06)
A. L. Lloyd, "Tigery Orum" (on Lloyd1)
John Maguire, "Marrowbones" (on IRJMaguire01)
Red Mick McDermott, "Marrowbones" (on IRHardySons)
Lawrence Older,  "Woman from Yorkshire" (on LOlder01)
Ken Peacock, "Woman from Dover" (on NFKPeacock)
Wesley Smith, "Cheese and Marrowbones" (on MREIves01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Sands" [Laws Q3]
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Eggs and Marrowbones
Old Woman from Wexford
Dover
NOTES: At one time witches were killed by drowning, and Flanders and Olney connect their fragmentary text (which mentions only the drowning and the husband pushing the wife in) with this phenomenon.
Mark Twain quotes a fragment of this piece in _Life on the Mississippi_.
The Catskills version has a peculiar ending in which the lady swims to the other shore and survives. Much as we would like this to be a feminist touch, it seems more likely that it was a lapse of memory.
Sam Henry had a text in which the man eventually rescued her. Perhaps there was an onlooker around somewhere?
A number of editors confuse "Johnny Sands" [Laws Q3] and "Marrowbones" [Laws Q2]. They obviously have thematic similarity, and probably have exchanged parts. But the "gimmick" is different in each case; there seems no doubt that they are now separate songs. - RBW
File: LQ02
===
NAME: Marseillaise, La
DESCRIPTION: French language: "Allons, enfants de la Patrie! Le jour gloire est arrive!" The listeners are urged to fight for France and freedom, and drive foreigners off French soil
AUTHOR: Rouget de Lisle
EARLIEST_DATE: 1792 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: patriotic France nonballad
FOUND_IN: France
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 302, "La Marseillaise" (1 French text plus English version)
Fuld-WFM, p. 354, "La Marseillaise"
DT, LAMARSEI
Roud #11238
SAME_TUNE:
The Texan Marseillaise (by James Haines; [H. M. Wharton], War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, pp. 191-192)
The Swineish Multitutde (1798 rebel song; cf. Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 173)
NOTES: Summarizing the notes in Fuld:
There are all sorts of ironies associated with this song. To begin with, it wasn't associated with Marseilles; it was published as "Chant de Guerre pour l'Armee du Rhin" (more or less at the far end of France). Even more ironically, the author (Rouget de Lisle, 1760-1836) is reported to have been a royalist, and even to have been imprisoned for his support for the crown.
The song was written in 1792, when France still had a king though it was doing its best to ignore him. France wound up at war with Austria and Prussia. It appears that the association with Marseilles came about because volunteers from Marseilles heard it sung, and then joined in storming the Tuileries (August 10, 1792). - RBW
File: FSWB302
===
NAME: Martha Dexter
DESCRIPTION: Young Martha Dexter and her niece set out to visit the niece's mother. When they come to the river, the water is high and Martha's excitable horse throws her. She drowns. When her body is found at last, the family mourns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: death river drowning horse mourning
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Aug 1, 1824 - Death of Martha Decker near what is now Wilawanna, Pennsylvania
FOUND_IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 417-418, "Martha Dexter" (1 text)
Roud #4134
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballad of the Drover (Death of Harry Dale)" (theme)
cf. "The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water" [Child 216] (theme)
NOTES: This is item dG34 in Laws's Appendix II.
My first reaction, upon reading the first half-dozen stanzas in Belden, was that this is basically a variant of a "Marian Parker" ballad. It has that same cloying feel. But, of course, the song is based on an earlier event, and it takes a different direction at the end. The similarity is presumably due simply to the way semi-professional balladeers treat children. - RBW
File: Beld417
===
NAME: Martha, the Flower of Sweet Strabane: see The Flower of Sweet Strabane (File: HHH224a)
===
NAME: Marthy Wept (Mary Wept and Marthy Moaned)
DESCRIPTION: "Marthy wept and Mary moaned, A-weeoing on a willow tree -- tree -- tree, Don't you know? A-weeping...." "What did you do with my Lord? I left him on the other shore." "What did you do with that sinful man...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Henry, collected from Mrs. Samuel Harmon)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus burial
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 190, "Marthy Wept" (1 text)
Roud #12123
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "We're All Surrounded" (lyrics)
NOTES: The reference to "Martha wept and Mary cried" is presumably a reference to the sisters of Lazarus who mourned over their brother in John 11. The mention of a willow is not directly related to Jesus; the word "willow" is not even used in the King James New Testament. The reference is probably to Psalm 137.
The question, "What did you do with my Lord?" seems to be an allusion to John 20:15. The question "What did you do with that sinful man" isn't ever asked in that form, though there are plenty of warnings to sinners. - RBW
File: MHAp190
===
NAME: Martin Said To His Man
DESCRIPTION: The singer says s/he saw various animals performing various activities, some of which are impossible or unlikely (E.g. "Saw a crow flying low"; "Saw a mule teachin' school"). In some versions, the narrator(s) are drunk, competing to tell the tallest tale.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1609 (Deuteromelia; registered as a ballad 1588)
KEYWORDS: contest drink lullaby nonballad nonsense paradox talltale animal bug
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Kinloch-BBook XIV, pp. 50-54, "The Man in the Moon" (1 text)
Randolph 445, "Johnny Fool" (2 texts)
BrownIII 114, "Kitty Alone" (1 text)
Hudson 128, p. 274, "Old, Blind, Drunk John" (1 text)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 22, "The Bed-time Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 136, "Hurrah, Lie!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, p. 140, "Martin Said to His Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HURRALIE* WHOSFOOL*
Roud #473
RECORDINGS:
Martha Hall, "Kitty Alone" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Gossip Joan (Neighbor Jones)" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Who's the Fool Now?
Old Blind Drunk John
Fooba-Wooba John
NOTES: Referred to in Dryden's 1668 play "Sir Martin Mar-all, or the Feign'd Innocence"  (act IV). It seems to have been very popular in the century prior to that.
The American versions can generally be told by their narrative pattern, "(I) saw a () (doing something)," e.g. "Saw a crow flying low," "Saw a mule teaching school," "Saw a louse chase a mouse," "Saw a flea wade the sea."
The versions under the title "Kitty Alone" are sometimes a mix of this and "Frog Went A-Courting"; the first such text seems to have been in Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784), which has clearly a "Frog" plot but the form (and some of the exaggerations) of this piece.
I'm sure there are some who have argued that the ancient English "Martin Said To His Man" is not the same as the modern American texts. But there is continuity of verses, believe it or not, and the theme never changes. And there is no way to draw a dividing line. - RBW
File: WB022
===
NAME: Martin, Tim, and Dan
DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye hustling chanty boys, a lesson take from me; Work steady in the lumber woods and don't go on a spree." The singer advises saving to buy a farm; he recalls learning to work as a logger. Chorus: "Martin, Tim, and Dan, Barney, Pat, and Sam...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering farming work moniker
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Gardner/Chickering 116, "Martin, Tim, and Dan" (1 short text)
ST GC116 (Partial)
Roud #3698
NOTES: This may be related to some other lumbering song, but with only two verses and an easily-modified chorus, it will be very difficult to identify. - RBW
File: GC116
===
NAME: Martinmas Time
DESCRIPTION: Troop of soldiers forces farmer's daughter to promise she will come to their quarters that night. She arrives in disguise, but the quartermaster sends her away. She leaves her garters and ribbons tied to the gates to prove she'd been there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1911 (Greig)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Troop of soldiers forces farmer's daughter to promise she will come to their quarters that night; she has her hair cut off and dresses in men's clothes. She goes to the soldiers' quarters, asking for lodgings for another troop of soldiers, but the quartermaster sends her away, saying there is no more room. She persists; he gives her money, for "tonight there comes a wench." She leaves her garters and ribbons tied to the gates to prove she'd been there, then blows a whistle, saying "you're not for a girl at all," and goes home in triumph
KEYWORDS: sex rape trick soldier cross-dressing disguise
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ord, pp. 308-309, "It Fell About the Martinmas Time" (1 text)
DT, MARTINMA*
Roud #2173
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "Martinmas Time" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2, Briggs3)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" (Child 43) and references there
File: DTmartin
===
NAME: Martyr John: see The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)
===
NAME: Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter) [Laws M16]
DESCRIPTION: The father of a girl secretly sees her giving a ring to her sweetheart. He confines the girl and arrests the singer for robbery. The girl pleads for her lover and, rather than being transported, he is freed. The two marry and settle down
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: ring robbery prison reprieve marriage love
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws M16, "Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter)"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 93, "The Squire's Young Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H30b, pp. 437-438, "Young Mary of Accland (a)"; H721, p. 438, "Young Mary of Accland (b)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 110-111, "Mary Acklin" (1 text)
Mackenzie 40, "Mary Riley" (1 text)
DT 581, MARYRILY
Roud #540
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10] (plot)
cf. "Lady Elspat" [Child 247] (plot)
cf. "The Footboy" (plot)
File: LM16
===
NAME: Mary Alling: see Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)
===
NAME: Mary Ambree
DESCRIPTION: Mary disguises herself to join her lover's regiment. When he is slain, she becomes an officer. She leads her men bravely, but is at last captured when her supply officer betrays her. Threatened with death by the enemy, she reveals her sex and is spared
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy; alluded to by Ben Johnson, 1609)
KEYWORDS: war cross-dressing disguise battle reprieve
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 232-237, "Mary Ambree" (2 text, one from the Folio manuscript and one touched up by Percy for the _Reliques_)
OBB 165, "Mary Ambree" (1 text)
BBI, ZN468, "Captains courageous"; ZN2826, "When captains courageous, whom death could not daunt"
ST OBB165 (Partial)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly)" [Laws N4] (plot)
cf. "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green" [Laws N27] (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green [Laws N27] (File: LN27)
NOTES: "The Female Warrior" and "Mary Ambree" have many points of similarity; I was tempted to classify them as the same ballad. Since, however, the former involves the navy and the latter the army, I have kept them separate. - RBW
File: OBB165
===
NAME: Mary and Sandy: see Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream) [Laws K20] (File: LK20)
===
NAME: Mary and Sweet Caroline: see The Folkestone Murder (File: K320)
===
NAME: Mary and the Soldier: see The Gallant Soldier (Mary/Peggy and the Soldier) (File: HHH473)
===
NAME: Mary and Willie: see Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)
===
NAME: Mary Ann: see The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)
===
NAME: Mary Anne
DESCRIPTION: "Oh fare thee well, my own true love, Oh fare thee well my dear, For the ship is waiting and the wind blows free, And I am bound away to the sea, Mary Ann." The singer compares his pain at parting to that of a mourning dove or a lobster in a pot
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1860 (broadside, LOCSinging as110580)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation love sea floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Canada(Que) US(Ap,MA,SE) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
BrownIII 300, "My Martha Ann" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 142-143, "Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 48, "Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 75, "Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 147, "Mary Ann" (1 text)
DT MARYAN* 
Roud #4438
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1111, "My Mary Ann," A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Firth c.12(366), Firth c.12(368), "My Mary Ann"
LOCSinging, as110580, "Our Mary Ann," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb30400b, "Our Mary Ann"; as109170, "My Mary Ann"; Harding B 15(288b), "My Mary Anne"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76] (lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Ten Thousand Miles
NOTES: Cazden et al report that the distinct subtext of "pretty little foot" group "...was written by stageman Barney Williams to a variant of the traditional tune, ascribed to M. Tyle. It was published as sheet music in Baltimore during 1856...." 
Don Duncan reports of this version, "The melody is clearly related to the version re-popularized by Ian & Sylvia; Revels lists it in their songbook as having been collected by Marius Barbeau from a Canadian who had learned it from an Irish sailor "around 1850."  I&S's "lobster/bluefish" verse is from the Williams version, which apparently was a bit of a spoof; the fourth verse is downright funky:
The pride of all the produce rare,
That in our garden grow'd
 Was punkins, but none could compare
In angel form to my Mary Ann,
In angel form to my Mary Ann.
The Library of Congress has at least three song sheets (that is, I found three, one published in Baltimore and two in New York) in their American Memory 19th century song sheets collection... These have almost identical lyrics to the original, but rather than
repeating the final line of each verse (as the original did) they use the first verse as a chorus.  "Our Mary Ann," by de Marsan in New York... identifies it as a minstrel song."
It is likely that some badly worn down versions of this song are filed with "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)"; the latter song is a catch-all for songs of this type that don't mention Mary Anne or have the Roch Royal plot. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as110580: J. Andrews dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: FJ142
===
NAME: Mary Anne McGuinan
DESCRIPTION: Mary Anne McGuigan: if your "pritties" are good you must spray them again with bluestone. John James leads the dance with her and buys her a blouse of silk. Who will help her fix her house and thresh her oats? She is "swiggin'" her porter.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS:  farming dancing drink humorous nonballad clothes home
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 68, "Mary Anne McGuinan" (1 text)
Roud #17843
NOTES: Each verse is independent of the others and of the chorus. Bluestone is sprayed as a potato fungicide. - BS
"Bluestone" in this case is not lapis lazuli, which is sometimes called by that name, but rather copper (II) sulfate, or chalcanthite, a copper mineral (CuSO4.5H2O), also known as blue vitriol. According to John Emsley, _Nature's Building Blocks_, p. 124, "Copper in the form of Bordeaux mixture(a blue gelatinous suspension of copper sulfate and lime in water) was one of the first agrochemical pesticides, developed to control downy mildew on vines." For another song involving bluestone, see "Sergeant Neill." - RBW
File: TSF068
===
NAME: Mary Arnold the Female Monster
DESCRIPTION: Mary Arnold, for reasons unknown, decides to blind her baby by covering its eyes with beetles held in walnut shells. Her deed is discovered, and she is sentenced to transportation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888 (Ashton)
KEYWORDS: mother children injury disability transportation
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
PBB 101, "Mary Arnold the Female Monster" (1 text)
ST PBB101 (Partial)
File: PBB101
===
NAME: Mary Bowed: see While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks AND I Know Moonlight (or something similar) (File: OBC033)
===
NAME: Mary Dear: see I'll Be There, Mary Dear (File: RcGoMaDe)
===
NAME: Mary Doyle: see The Wreck of the Lady Shearbrooke (File: HHH570)
===
NAME: Mary from Dungloe
DESCRIPTION: The singer is leaving Donegal and Mary from Dungloe for America. "It was your cruel father" that drove him from her but he plans to return. "I wished I was in sweet Dungloe and seated on the grass And by my side a bottle of wine and on my knee a lass"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (OLochlainn)
KEYWORDS: courting separation America Ireland floatingverses father
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn 75, "Mary from Dungloe" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARYDNGL*
Roud #3001
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bowling Green" (floating verse)
cf. "Shady Grove" (floating verse)
NOTES: The Digital Tradition lists this to the tune of "The Star of the County Down." The version I've heard (admittedly from The Irish Rovers) isn't quite that, but it may be a variant. - RBW
File: OLoc075
===
NAME: Mary Had a Baby
DESCRIPTION: "Mary had a baby, oh Lord... People keep a-coming and the train done gone." "What did she name him?" "She named him Jesus." "Where was he born?" "Born in a stable." "Where did they lay him?" "Laid him in a manger"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1953 (R. C. Seeger, American Folk Songs for Christmas)
KEYWORDS: Christmas childbirth Jesus religious
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 375, "Mary Had A Baby" (1 text)
DT, MARYBABY
Roud #11619
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Mary Had a Baby" (on PeteSeeger37, PeteSeeger42)
File: FSWB375B
===
NAME: Mary Had a Little Lamb
DESCRIPTION: "Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow." Surely you know the rest....
AUTHOR: Words: Sarah Josepha Hale
EARLIEST_DATE: 1830 ("Poems For Our Children")
KEYWORDS: animal children
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Randolph 360, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (1 text, 1 tune, with some unusual words in the first verse)
Opie-Oxford2 341, "Mary had a little lamb" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #174, p. 127-128, "(Mary had a little lamb)"
Fuld-WFM, pp. 354-355, "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
cf. Greenway-AFP, pp. 51-52, "Mary's Little Lot" (1 text)
DT, (MARYLAM2* -- if you're broad-minded about what constitutes a version)
Roud #7622
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Had a William Goat" (tune & meter)
cf. "Goodnight Ladies" (partial tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Mary's Little Lot (Greenway-AFP, pp. 51-52)
Mary Had a William Goat (File: San336)
NOTES: Reported to be based on a true story. Which seems likely enough; who would make up something so trite?
The Baring-Goulds report a variant by "modern teenager[s]": The response to "Mary had a little lamb" is "And was the doctor ever surprised!" - RBW
File: R360
===
NAME: Mary Had a William Goat
DESCRIPTION: "Mary had a William goat, William goat, William goat, Mary had a William goat, Its stomach lined with zinc." "One day it ate an oyster can... And a clothesline full of shirts." "The shirts can do no harm inside... But the oyster can."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: parody animal food derivative
FOUND_IN: US Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Sandburg, pp. 336-337, "Mary Had a William Goat" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Peacock, p. 19, "Mary Had a William Goat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4567
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (tune & meter)
File: San336
===
NAME: Mary Hamilton [Child 173]
DESCRIPTION: Mary Hamilton, servant to the queen, is pregnant (by the queen's husband). She tries to hide her guilt by casting the boy out to sea, but is seen and convicted. She is condemned to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1790
KEYWORDS: pregnancy homicide abandonment punishment execution
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1542 - Accession of Mary Stewart
1548 - Mary Stewart sent to France (later married to King Francis II)
1561 - Mary Stewart returns to Scotland
1567 - Death of Lord Darnley. Mary Stewart deposed
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(Ap,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (25 citations)
Child 173, "Mary Hamilton" (27 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's#5}
Bronson 173,  "Mary Hamilton" (12 versions+1 in addenda)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 258-264, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts plus some variants and a verse of "Peter Amberley" they claim floated in from this song, 1 tune plus some cited extracts) {Bronson's #7; the first short excerpt is from Bronson's #6}
Randolph 26, "The Four Maries" (1 fragment)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 79-80, "The Four Marys" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 163-169, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts plus a fragment, with the fragment containing parts of "MacPherson's Lament"; 3 tunes) {B=Bronson's #7}
Davis-Ballads 36, "Mary Hamilton" (2 fragments from the same informant, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Davis-More 32, pp. 245-252, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Leach, pp. 481-483, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 184, "Mary Hamilton"; p. 219,  "Mary Hamilton's Last Goodnight" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 22-23, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 3, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBB 83, "The Queen's Marie" (1 text)
PBB 61, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Niles 51, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gummere, pp. 159-161+334-335, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus 32, pp. 124-126, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Hodgart, p. 138, "Marie Hamilton" (1 text)
DBuchan 33, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Ord, p. 457, "The Queen's Maries" (1 text)
TBB 23, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 117-119, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 49-52, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Silber-FSWB, p. 211, "The Four Maries" (1 text)
DT 173, MARYHAM1* MARYHAM2 MARYHAM3* MARYHAM4*
Roud #79
RECORDINGS:
Jeannie Robertson, "Mary Hamilton (The Four Marys)" (on FSB5 [as "The Four Maries"], FSBBAL2)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Purple Dress
NOTES: Mary Stewart (the French used the spelling "Stuart") became Queen of Scotland when she was eight days old (1542).
Scotland being the chaotic place that it was, she was only a child when she was sent abroad to marry into and be brought up at the court of France (1548). To keep her good company, four well-bred Scots girls were sent with her to keep her company (it should be noted, though, that none of them was named Hamilton). Her husband Francis II died in 1560, however, and Mary Stewart went home.
There she married her cousin, Henry, Lord Darnley. It does not seem to have been an overly happy match, so Darnley might well have engaged in extracurricular activities. In any case, Darnley was murdered in 1567. Soon after, Mary was (forcibly?) married by the Earl of Bothwell; in that same year she was deposed in favor of her son.
Nowhere in her troubled reign do we find reference to a serving girl's pregnancy; one theory has it that the story arose with the troubles of a Mary Hamilton at the Russian court. Another theory, first advanced by Scott, connects it with members of Mary Stuart's court *other than* the four Maries and Lord Darnley.
It also occurs to me that there is the case of the son of George III, who in due time would become George IV. According to Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, _Blood Royal: The Illustrious House of Hanover_ (Doubleday, 1980), p. 118, Prince George at one time "had fallen in love with Mary Hamilton, one of his sisters' governesses." Whether this is relevant depends of course on the earliest date of the song. There are a number of mentions in the early nineteenth century. If we can push it before about 1780, then of course this Mary Hamilton is out of the question. Of course George IV's Mary Hamilton didn't kill her baby, but her affair with the Prince of Wales might have influenced the character in this song.
For extensive discussion of the matter (which is, however, rather more theoretical than practical) see Davis-More, pp. 246-248. - RBW
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "Mary Mild" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
File: C173
===
NAME: Mary Hamilton's Last Goodnight: see Mary Hamilton [Child 173] (File: C173)
===
NAME: Mary Hebrew: see The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)
===
NAME: Mary in the Silvery Tide: see The Silvery Tide [Laws O37] (File: LO37)
===
NAME: Mary L. Mackay, The
DESCRIPTION: About a voyage by the Mackay from Portland to Yarmouth. Driven by a gale, and handled by uninhibited officers, she ran 220 miles in 18 hours. The singer challenges others to best the mark, but admits the voyage was made on the power of Portland rum
AUTHOR: Words: Frederick W. Wallace
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (Canadian Fisherman)
KEYWORDS: ship racing sailor drink storm
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 74, "The Mary L. Mackay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 132, "The Mary L MacKay" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARYMKAY*
Roud #1831
NOTES: This song is item dD50 in Laws's Appendix II.
According to Creighton, Wallace wrote this poem to describe an experience he had aboard the _Effie Morrissey_ in 1913. She believes her informant, Edmund Henneberry, supplied the tune.  - RBW
File: LoF074
===
NAME: Mary Le More
DESCRIPTION: "As I strayed o'er the common on Cork's rugged border" the singer meets Mary Le More, distracted. She tells that her brother and friend Connor have been murdered by soldiers and she has no one to avenge them. When troops appear she screams and runs away.
AUTHOR: George Nugent Reynolds (1770-1802) (see Notes)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.34(174))
KEYWORDS: grief madness rebellion death brother friend soldier
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
O'Conor, pp. 11-12, "Mary Le More" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 366-367, "Mary Le More" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(174), "Mary-le-More" ("As I stray'd o'er the common on Cork's rugged border"), J. Ferraby (Hull), 1803-1838; also Harding B 11(2350), "Mary-le-More"; 2806 c.15(321), "Mary Le More"; Harding B 11(495), "Mary le Moor"; Harding B 25(1223), "Mary-le More"
NLScotland, RB.m.169(007), "Mary Le More," Robert McIntosh (Glasgow), after 1848
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Firth b.27(277), "Mary La More" is almost entirely illegible.
 _The Ballad Poetry of Ireland_ by Charles Gavan Duffy (Dublin, 1845), pp. 119-120, "Mary Le More" makes the attribution to Reynolds. [A claim backed by Hoagland. - RBW]
See another similar broadside Bodleian Harding B 22(166), "Mary Le More" ("Oh! S---s of B---n, your merciless doings") in which Mary's father, Dermot, is killed. - BS
File: OCon011
===
NAME: Mary Machree
DESCRIPTION: "The flower of the valley was Mary Machree," whose beauty is described at length. Her soldier love goes away for many years, leaving her pining on the shore. At last, in the winter, he returns to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(44))
KEYWORDS: love soldier separation reunion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H485, p. 308, "Mary Machree" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 154, "Mary Machree" (1 text)
Roud #3231
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(44), "Mary Machree," Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 15(187a), Firth c.26(239), "Mary Machree"
LOCSinging, sb30316a, "Mary Machree," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
SAME_TUNE:
Come Home to Me, Love (per broadside LOCSinging sb30316a)
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging sb30316a: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: HHH485
===
NAME: Mary Mack (I)
DESCRIPTION: "Oh Mary Mack, Mack, Mack, All dressed in black, black, black...." The singer speaks of love, and engages in a series of unprofitable transactions. Much of the song consists of floating verses, e.g. "I went to the river... And I couldn't get across."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (recording, children of Lilly's Chapel School)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad courting commerce
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 158-159, "(Mary Mack)" (1 text); p. 279, "Mary Mack" (1 tune, partial text)
Roud #11498
RECORDINGS:
Hunter children "Miss Mary Mack" (on JohnsIsland1)
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Mary Mack" (on NFMAla6, RingGames1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Swapping Boy" (plot)
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Went to the River (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Not to be confused with the music hall song of the same title, which involves what sounds to be a shotgun wedding. - RBW
File: CNFM158B
===
NAME: Mary Mahoney
DESCRIPTION: Mary Mahoney is a servant maid in Indiantown. She rejects Archie, a "brisk young mutineer." The landlady resolves to help him and sends him to Newcastle to get jewelry. Mary rejects him again when the "gold" rings prove fake.
AUTHOR: probably Larry Gorman
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous ring
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Manny/Wilson 32, "Mary Mahoney" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi032 (Partial)
Roud #9186
NOTES: Indiantown, now Quarryville, is near the junction of the Renous River and Main Southwest Miramichi River. Newcastle is about twenty miles away, down river, near Miramichi Bay.
Manny/Wilson: "'And THAT'S by Larry Gorman,' he [the singer, Thomas Coughlan] said.... One of Larry's devastating satires, this song is aimed at the 'silly young gaw gaw,' Archie Woodworth, and his unsuccessful love affair.... Sandy Ives ... says several people have doubted Larry's authorship of the song, saying 'It just doesn't sound like him' but we both think it is authentic Gorman." - BS
File: MaWi032
===
NAME: Mary McVeagh
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls being young and handsome and having all the girls follow him. He loved only Mary McVeagh. Now he is old and fat and tired, but has grown rich. He returns to find Mary -- and finds a girl who looks just like her. Her grandmother was Mary
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation return family mother children age
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H773, p. 229, "Mary McVeagh" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Obviously a piece of fiction -- how many old men would actually admit to being nicknamed "Tubby" and confess that they are completely unattractive to women except for their money? - RBW
File: HHH229
===
NAME: Mary Nail: see Mary Neal [Laws M17] (File: LM17)
===
NAME: Mary Neal [Laws M17]
DESCRIPTION: The singer is on trial for kidnapping Mary Neal. She pleads for him and he is released. She steals some of her father's wealth; they marry and set off overseas. After a near-disaster on the ship, they reject her father's offer of land if they return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3843)); "from an Athlone ballad slip of about 1840," according to Sparling)
KEYWORDS: trial emigration love abduction
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Laws M17, "Mary Neal"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 92, "Mary Neal" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 216-217, "Mary Neal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 80, "Mary Nail" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H55, pp. 479-480, "Charming Mary O'Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 38, "Charming Mary Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 582, MARYNEAL
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 321-323, 511, "Charming Mary Neal"
Roud #142
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3843), "Mary Neal and John M'Cann," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 b.11(66), "Mary Neil" ("I am a bold undaunted youth my name is John M'Cann"); 2806 b.11(259), Harding B 15(41b), "Charming Mary Neal"
Murray, Mu23-y1:044, "Mary Neal," James Lindsay Junr (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(063), "Mary Neil," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), c.1875
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10]" (tune)
NOTES: A correspondent of Sam Henry's claimed that this was a true story, with the girl being kidnapped to prevent a fight between two rival suitors. Yet another case where we can't prove it false but can hardly credit it, either.
Michael Harron of County Tyrone offers more substantial details. He reports that the ship involved was the _Charlotte Douglas_, which sank June 9, 1836. Harron has seen newspaper accounts of the ship's voyage, and reports that only three were killed in the wreck. - RBW
File: LM17
===
NAME: Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream) [Laws K20]
DESCRIPTION: Mary falls asleep thinking of Sandy. His ghost appears to her, bidding her to stop weeping; his body lies at the bottom of the sea and he is at rest. He warns her that they will soon meet. The cock crows and the ghost vanishes
AUTHOR: John Lowe
EARLIEST_DATE: 1798 (The Vocal Magazine)
KEYWORDS: dream ghost separation death drowning
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE) Britain(Scotland(?)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Laws K20, "Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream)"
Eddy 83, "Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream)" (1 text)
SHenry H54, pp. 144-145, "Mary's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune -- the latter added by Sam Henry)
JHCox 147, "Mary o' the Dee" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 40, "Mary and Sandy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 246-248, "Mary's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 65, "Mary's Vision" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 481, "Mary's Dream" (source notes only)
DT 562, MARYDREM
ST LK20 (Full)
Roud #713
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(191b), "Mary's Dream" ("The moon had clim'd the highest hill"), T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Firth b.27(534), 2806 c.17(266), Firth b.27(240), Firth b.27(407), Harding B 11(2368), Harding B 11(2369), Harding B 25(1230), Firth b.25(18), Harding B 11(1875), 2806 c.14(49), 2806 c.14(166), Harding B 15(189a), "Mary's Dream"
LOCSinging, as108650, "Mary's Dream," L. & J. L. Appley (New York), 19C
Murray, Mu23-y1:056, "Mary's Dream," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(075), "Mary's Dream," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1875
NOTES: Although traditionally considered a Scots song (there is a version in Scots dialect, possibly by Allan Cunningham), and often found is Scottish song collections, its grip on Scottish tradition is weak -- I wouldn't be surprised if most are ultimately derived from the _Scots Musical Museum_. There are a number of printed versions, but traditional collections are mostly from North America. The author, John Lowe, emigrated to the American colonies shortly before the Revolutionary War, and the song was written in what later became the U.S. - RBW
The commentary for NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(075) for "Mary's Dream": "The lyrics for this ballad were written in 1772 by John Lowe. Lowe was tutor to the McGhie family, and wrote the song for Mary, one of the daughters. She had been engaged to a surgeon named Alexander (Sandy) Miller who was lost at sea." - BS
File: LK20
===
NAME: Mary o' the Wild Moor: see Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21] (File: LP21)
===
NAME: Mary of Ballyhaunis: see The Maid of Ballyhaunis (File: HHH483)
===
NAME: Mary of Sweet Belfast Town
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Mary. He asks why she frowns. Her lover has "gone over the main And I hear he is married." The singer reveals that he is her lover returned after seven years. They marry next morning and settle, with his riches, in Belfast.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: love separation marriage reunion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 70-71, "Mary of Sweet Belfast Town" (1 text)
Hammond-Belfast, p. 55, "Mary of Sweet Belfast Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6535
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
File: HayU070
===
NAME: Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21]
DESCRIPTION: Abandoned Mary comes with her child to her father's door on a bitter winter night. Her father fails to hear or ignores her cries, leaving her all night on the doorstep. In the morning he finds her body. He dies of grief and the child of neglect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 27)
KEYWORDS: death father children family hardheartedness grief
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES: (20 citations)
Laws P21, "Mary of the Wild Moor"
Belden, pp. 207-208, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text plus references to 5 more)
Randolph 72, "The Wild Moor" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 107-108, "The Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 72A)
Eddy 88, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 78, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 335-336, "The Wind That Blew O'er the Wild Moor" (1 text, with local title "Poor Mary"; tune on p. 448)
Brewster 45, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 733-734, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Leach-Labrador 62, "Mary Across the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Mackenzie 61, "The Village Pride" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 132-134, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 466, "When Mary Came Wandering Home" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 548-549, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 35, pp. 81-82, "Mary o' the Wild Moor" (1 text)
JHCox 148, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
JHCoxIIA, #27, p. 103, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DSB2, p. 28, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 481, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (source notes only)
DT 503, WILDMOOR* WLDMOOR1*
ST LP21 (Full)
Roud #155
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "Mary of the Wild Moore" (Montgomery Ward 8667, c. 1941)
Letys Murrin, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (on Ontario1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 27[many illegible words], "Mary of the Moor," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads 1802 View 2 of 2, Harding B 11(3), Harding B 11(2364), Harding B 11(2365), Harding B 11(1501), Firth c.12(443), Harding B 11(4232), Harding B 11(4233), Firth b.25(147), Harding B 15(188b), "Mary of the Moor"; Firth b.27(69), Harding B 26(600), "Poor Mary of the Wild Moor"; Firth b.34(229), Firth c.26(275)[some illegible lines], 2806 c.16(261), 2806 c.14(78), 2806 c.14(13)[some illegible words], "Mary of the Wild Moor[!]"; Harding B 11(2789), Harding B 17(243b), Harding B 25(1538)[some illegible lines], 2806 c.18(252) [some illegible/missing words], "Poor Mary of the Moor"
LOCSheet, sm1882 10438, "Mary of the Wild Moor," Oliver Ditson & Co. (Boston), 1882 (tune)
LOCSinging, sb30333b, "Mary of the Wild Moor," H. De Marsans (New York), 1861-1864; also as108620, as108630, "Mary of the Wild Moor"
Murray, Mu23-y4:018, "Poor Mary of the Wild Moor," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(072), "Poor Mary of the Wild Moor", unknown, c.1860
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fatal Snowstorm" [Laws P20] (theme)
SAME_TUNE:
Robin's Petition (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(1538))
NOTES: Quoted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in chapter 14 of _By the Shores of Silver Lake_. She does not repeat the sad ending, of course. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30333b: H. De Marsans dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: LP21
===
NAME: Mary on the Banks of the Lee
DESCRIPTION: Before the singer leaves Mary to go on the ocean he warns her her not to stay out late on the moors. He writes her a letter but recieves no reply. He returns and brings roses to place on her grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (IRPTunney01)
KEYWORDS: love warning separation death flowers
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OCanainn, p. 56, "The Banks of the Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BNKSLEE*
Roud #6857
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Mary on the Banks of the Lee" (on IRPTunney01)
Sheila Stewart, "The Banks of the Lee" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
NOTES: The description is from the text of "Lovely Banks of Lea" on "Oak - Country Songs and Music," Musical Traditions Record MTCD327-8 (2003) sung by Peta Webb, apparently following the text from Mary Connors. It is longer than Paddy Tunney's. - BS
File: DTbnksle
===
NAME: Mary on the Silvery Tide: see The Silvery Tide [Laws O37] (File: LO37)
===
NAME: Mary Phagan [Laws F20]
DESCRIPTION: Mary Phagan works in a pencil factory. While there she is beaten to death by Leo Frank. An innocent bystander (who happens to be black) is arrested, but then Frank's guilt is established and he is sentenced to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1918 (JAFL XXXI)
KEYWORDS: homicide accusation factory abduction rape execution lie abuse mother corpse Jew
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: April 26/27, 1913 - Rape and murder of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan at the National Pencil factory in Atlanta
Aug 26, 1913 - Leo Frank found guilty of the murder and sentenced to death (although apparently many believed him innocent)
June 22, 1915 - Georgia Governor Stanton commutes Frank's sentence to life imprisonment
Aug 16/17, 1915 - A lynch mob captures Frank and kills him
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Laws F20, "Mary Phagan"
Eddy 110, "Leo Frank and Mary Phagan" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 144, "Little Mary Phagan" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 71-75, "Little Mary Fagan"; "Little Mary Phagan" (2 texts)
BrownII 253, "Little Mary Phagan" (4 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more; Laws lists only three of these as this song, but this appears to be an error)
Cambiaire, p. 104, "Little Mary Fagan" (1 text)
Burt, pp. 61-64, "(Mary Phagan)" (1 text plus 2 long excerpts, 1 tune; one of these versions blames Conley rather than Frank, and is probably a rewrite); also an isolated couplet on p. 123
DT 774, MARYFAG
ADDITIONAL: Leonard Dinnerstein, _The Leo Frank Case_, second edition, University of Georgia Press, 1987, pp. 166-168, "The Ballad of Mary Phagan" (1 text, from JAFL)
Roud #696
RECORDINGS:
Rosa Lee Carson, "Little Mary Phagan" (OKeh 40446, 1925)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Mary Phagan" (Columbia 15031-D [as Al Craver], 1925) (Romeo 332, 1927; rec. 1925)
Charlie Oaks, "Little Mary Phagan" (Vocalion 15099, 1925; Vocalion 5069, c. 1927)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Death of Roy Rickey" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
The Death of Roy Rickey (File: ThBa163)
NOTES: [This] story was later made into a movie, "They Won't Forget," in which Lana Turner made her debut as Mary. - PJS
There was also apparently a later TV movie. Books about the tragedy are commonplace; I have only one (Dinnerstein, cited below), but his bibliography cites at least five others devoted exclusively to the Leo Frank case, and numerous articles.
Laws, for what reason I do not know (it may be just one of the many typos in his work), gives the date of Mary Phagan's death as April 5, and this was used in earlier editions of the Index. McNeil reports April 27, 1913 as the date of Mary Phagan's death. A New York Times story (August 18, 1915) quoted by Brown gives a date of April 26, which -- given that the murder took place overnight -- corresponds to McNeil's date. This is also the date cited in Leonard Dinnerstein, _The Leo Frank Case_, originally published by Columbia University Press in 1968. I use a special edition from "The Notable Trials Library," 1991, which includes Dinnerstein's new preface to a 1987 edition of his book, plus the special article from the March 7, 1982 edition of _The Tennessean_ which details the evidence showing that Leo Frank was innocent.
The whole business seems to have generated a lot of confusion. For example, Laws lists the date of the commutation of Frank's sentence as June 22, but I made a note (from what source, sadly, I do not recall) that it took place in August. Dinnerstein supports the June date. And there is confusion over the date of Frank's murder as well.
The facts in this case are apparently also open to doubt -- mostly due to police incompetence, it appears.
What is certain is that Mary Phagan, who was not quite fourteen, worked in the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta in 1913. (If you're wondering what a thirteen-year-old was doing working in a pencil factory, Atlanta at this time was a very poor area, little more than a big sweatshop; child labor was considered normal -- Dinnerstein, p. 8 -- though it was considered very dangerous to let girls work in such places among grown men. But Mary's mother was a widow, and Mary had to work in the factory to make ends meet. Later, Mrs. Phagan remarried -- but Mary chose to keep working in the factory; she reportedly enjoyed the work (Dinnerstein, p. 11).
While working in the factory, she was murdered.
The body was discovered by night watchman Newt Lee at 3:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 27, 1913 (Dinnerstein, p. 1). He called the police, who found the corpse of a girl covered in sawdust, her cheeks slashed, her fingers out of joint, her head bashed in, and with a strip of her underclothes tight around her neck. Her purse (assuming she had one) had been taken. (Dinnerstein, p. 2). It was clearly murder, and a brutal one; some suspected rape as well. This apparently was based on the testimony of janitor Jim Conley (_The Tennessean_, p. 3), though the physical evidence did not support it. (Support for the theory of rape probably came from the descriptions of Mary Phagan; according to _The Tennessean_, p. 6, she was "a beautiful girl -- four feet, eight inches tall and weighing about 105 pounds. She had long, reddish-blond hair...." Dinnerstein, p. 12, has a photo which does make her quite attractive, though her hair looks rather dark and I would have guessed her to be older than thirteen.)
The police abused and detained watchman Lee (Dinnerstein, p. 14), but finally concluded he was innocent. (Unlike the papers, which at one point declared him unequivocally guilty.)
The police had been so incompetent that plant manager Leo Max Frank called in the Pinkertons (Dinnerstein, p. 4), though they would apparently turn against him under pressure of public opinion (Dinnerstein, p. 20). But they accomplished nothing -- apparently no one even examined the bloody fingerprints found in the area! They did haul in seven suspects -- but couldn't offer any real evidence (Dinnerstein, p. 15).
It didn't help that one of the local papers was a Hearst organ. The _Atlanta Georgian_ devoted over 17,000 column inches to the Phagan case in the first five months after the murder, forcing the other papers to give it attention as well (Dinnerstein, p. 13); naturally public opinion was inflamed! The paper was not actually anti-Frank, but it hardly mattered. The Mayor of Atlanta, under pressure, proceeded to order the police to find the murderer or lose their jobs (Dinnerstein, p. 16).
At the time of the murder only two men were reported to be in the factory -- manager Frank and (Black) janitor Jim Conley. Frank was apparently the last person to see her alive, since she had been paid on the day before her murder (Dinnerstein, p. 3). Doctors would later claim that she was killed at about the time she was given the money (Dinnerstein, p. 37). There was reportedly a trail of blood which began in a room near Frank's office (Dinnerstein, p. 5). Also, there was testimony that Frank was not in his office around the time of the murder (Dinnerstein, pp. 37-38). Frank, who was Jewish (and came from New York; Phagan of course was a southern girl), was arrested on April 29.
A number of witnesses came forward to attack Frank's sexual morality, including one who said Mary Phagan was afraid of him (Dinnerstein, p. 17). This seems dubious -- given the labor shortage in Atlanta, she could have found other work had she been suffering harassment. Accounts differed about whether he hassled other female employees (and, naturally, when one made charges against him, it got bigger headlines in the papers than when someone denied it; Dinnerstein, pp. 30-31). One "rooming house" owner claimed that Frank had tried to secure a room for part of a day (Dinnerstein, pp. 17-18), though an employee, despite pressure from the police, declared unequivocally that this was not so (Dinnerstein, p. 28). There were rumors, seemingly unsubstantiated, of paedophlia or other "perversions" (Dinnerstein, p. 19). I would note, though, that Frank had married as recently as 1910 (Dinnerstein, p. 6). One would think that he would still have been fairly happy with his wife.
Police hauled in a servant of the Franks, and sweated circumstantially incriminating evidence out of her -- but she declared her affidavit false the moment she was released from custody (Dinnerstein, pp. 27-28).
The treatment of Conley is what makes the whole story so peculiar. Notes which proved to be in his handwriting were found by Mary's body (Dinnerstein, p. 21). He was found trying to wash blood from his shirt -- but no one even subjected the blood to scientific examination! (Dinnerstein, p. 21). He had a record of petty crime, and there was eyewitness testimony that he was drinking in the period before the murder (Dinnerstein, pp. 21-22). Under questioning, he changed his story twice, each time adding more evidence against Frank (Dinnerstein, pp. 22-25). His final pre-trial story was that he only helped Frank dispose of the body; he accused Frank of other crimes as well.
Eventually a Grand Jury wanted to indict Conley; county Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey, who clearly wanted to convict Frank, browbeat them out of it (Dinnerstein, p. 29).
Due to the high levels of poverty, and the extremely low levels of education, the population of Atlanta is said to have been very xenophobic. Lynchings were common. People even raised the suggestion of "blood libel" -- that Phagan's killing had been a ritual murder.
When the time came, Frank was placed on trial for murder, and Conley was used primarily as a witness for the prosecution.
Frank hired top-flight defence lawyers (Dinnerstein, p. 37), but they handled the case rather badly. Despite the mob baying for blood, they never requested a change of venue (Dinnerstein, p. 57), which was clearly necessary.
The prosecution treated the matter much more seriously -- among other things, they clearly had gotten to Jim Conley, tidying him up and, based on his behavior on the witness stand, coaching him on how to present his story (Dinnerstein, pp. 40-44). In the court, he gave a dramatic -- though not very reasonable -- account of how Frank had had him dispose of Phagan's body. And the defence could not shake him (Dinnerstein, p. 45), and made little attempt to point up the inconsistencies of his story.
When it came time to present a defence, Frank's attorneys simply tried to show that he had done nothing unusual on the day of the murder (Dinnerstein, p. 48). They did demonstrate quite a few inconsistencies in the times of events as stated by the various witnesses, and showed that Frank's whearabouts were accounted for in most of the two hours around the time the murder was thought to have been committed (Dinnerstein, p. 49), but this does not seem to have carried much weight.
Many character witnesses came forward against Conley, and many spoke for Frank -- but the prosecutor was ready for that, asking them all about Frank's sexual practices (Dinnerstein, p. 51). Every witness denied the insinuations, but it didn't matter; the insinuation that he was some sort of pervert was kept before the jury's mind.
The whole trial took four weeks (Dinnerstein, p. 52). If the account in Dinnerstein is at all valid, the whole prosecution case was little more than a smear campaign. Why the prosecutor was so intent on convicting a man who certainly was not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is beyond me -- anti-Semitism and anti-Yankeeism seem insufficient. But I didn't live in Atlanta in 1913.
The outcome, in Dinnerstein's view, was inevitable; judge and lawyers had been presented with death threats, and possibly the jurors also (Dinnerstein, p. 60). It took the jury only four hours to decide the case (Dinnerstein, p. 55). To prevent riots, the court had been cleared, so there were few people around when the court declared Frank guilty of first degree murder. (Frank would comment, "My God! Even the jury was influenced by mob law" -- Dinnerstein, p 56.) Frank was sentenced to hang the next day, in a proceeding so secret that not even his wife was allowed to be present (Dinnerstein, p. 57).
When the verdict came down, it did much to arouse the nation's Jewish community. In one sense, this helped -- it brought in more money for Frank's legal defence. But it also caused the xenophobic Georgians to suspect some sort of Jewish conspiracy (Dinnerstein, p. 92). Imagine that -- a conspiracy to cause justice to happen! What would George W. Bush have thought?
There was, of course, an appeal -- but the Georgia constitution didn't care about guilt or innocence, or tainted juries; the only grounds for appeal was an error in law or procedure (Dinnerstein, p. 77). (In other words, having bad lawyers was a hanging offense.)
There were good grounds for the appeal. The judge who tried the original case wrote, "I have thought more about this case than any other I have tried. I am not certain of the man's guilt. With all the thought I have put on this case, I am not thoroughly convinced that Frank is guilty or innocent. The jury was convinced. There is no room to doubt that. I feel that it is my duty to order that the motion for a new trial be overruled." (Dinnerstein, p. 79).
Reading between the lines, it appears that the judge thought Frank was guilty, but was willing to give up an innocent life to answer the demands of the crowd. This is, of course, not the first instance of this; Pontius Pilate did it, too.
That left the Georgia Supreme Court. They listened to arguments from the lawyers for four hours, then decided 4-2 not to allow a new trial (Dinnerstein, p. 81).
In the period after the trial, much new evidence came out. The parties finally consulted a scientist, who said that hairs alleged to have been torn from Mary's head during the murder were not hers (Dinnerstein, pp. 84-85); those hairs were important to the prosecution's case, but the scientific evidence was suppressed. Notes found on the murder scene were proved not to have come from Frank's office (Dinnerstein, p. 87), and there was strong evidence that he could not have used the words they contained (Dinnerstein, p. 90). In addition, a number of witnesses changed their story (Dinnerstein, pp. 86-87), with most though not all of them offering new evidence favorable to Frank.
Two separate sources, in fact, gave direct evidence that Conley had committed the murder (Dinnerstein, pp. 102-105). One was a set of letters he had written to a girlfriend (which she later denied having received, seemingly under pressure from the prosecutors), the other hearsay testimony from a minister who overheard a congregant saying that he, not Frank, had committed the murder. The minister didn't know who had made the comments -- but it obviously wasn't Frank!
None of this made any difference. Georgia justice refused to act. Frank's lawyers finally appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Reading the description in Dinnerstein, pp. 109-113, it really sounds as if the Court used a series of quibbles to refuse to intervene -- but refuse they did, on a vote of 7-2, with justices Hughes and Holmes dissenting. (You have to wonder what might have happened had the case come up two years later, after Justine Brandeis joined the court, but this was 1914, not 1916). That left Frank's friends with no recourse but an appeal for clemency.
While that was going on, the lawyer for Jim Conley released a statement admitting that Conley had committed the murder (Conley, who was Black but at least he was a southerner and a by faith if not by behavior a Christian -- had by then received a one year sentence as an accomplice and, in the lawyer's view, could no longer be tried for murder because of double jeopardy. So the lawyer made the statement to try to save Frank; Dinnerstein, p. 114). But such was the climate of the time that those convinced of Frank's guilt thought the lawyer had been bribed; Dinnerstein, p. 115. Georgians by and large dug in their heels and refused to listen to reason.
The appeals for clemency came from all over the country; Dinnerstein, p. 118, counts nine governors (many of them southern), at least seven senators, "scores" of congressmen, and many resolutions by state legislatures. But the Georgia Prison Commission, claiming incredibly that no additional evidence had come in (Dinnerstein, pp. 121-122), and voted 2-1 to deny Frank relief. That left only governor John M. Slayton, whose term came to an end a few days after Frank's scheduled execution (Dinnerstein, p. 123). He spent many days on his decision, apparently knowing that commuting Frank's sentence to life imprisonment would damage his political career and maybe even cause his assassination. (There was apparently no question of pardoning Frank; that would have been too controversial.) Finally Slayton decided to commute the sentence (Dinnerstein, p. 125). In a folkloric touch, his wife is said to have told him, "I would rather be the widow of a brave and honorable man than the wife of a coward" (Dinnerstein, p. 126). He ended up leaving the state for years (Dinnerstein, p. 159. Prosecutor H. M. Dorsey, on the other hand, rode his fame into the governor's mansion.)
Slaton's summary of the case brought forward much more evidence than the actual criminal trial, and showed overwhelming evidence of Conley's guilt (Dinnerstein, pp. 126-129). He also prepared carefully for his ruling, trying to move Frank to a safer location (Dinnerstein, p. 126). He also called out the militia -- wisely, since rioters tried to reach his home (Dinnerstein, p. 132).
It didn't help Frank much; he paid a high price for being left him custody. Although the commutation of his sentence meant that he was moved to a more pleasant prison, four weeks after he arrived, another inmate, William Creen, cut his throat (Dinnerstein, p. 137); he barely survived. (Such was the sickness of the time that letters reached the new governor demanding that Creen be pardoned for his attempted murder; Dinnerstein, p. 138).
About a month later, in a carefully planned act of lawlessness, a mob broke into the prison where he was housed, handcuffed Frank, and hanged him (Dinnerstein, pp. 139-141). This time, there were no mistakes; Frank was dead. At least one witness kicked the body and stomped on his face after he was cut down (Dinnerstein, p. 144). The oak from which he was hung became the site of a perverse sort of pilgrimages (Dinnerstein, p. 145). A local coroner's jury refused to return indictments against men known to have taken part (Dinnerstein, p. 145).
Supposedly the whole incident led to a revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the area (Dinnerstein, p. 150).
It is worth noting that, in this period, Georgia experienced several dozen lynchings per year, and is said to have been the lynching-est state in the Union. In 1915, all but one of those lynched were Black. The one exception was Frank. Whether innocent or guilty, there is no real question that the reason Frank died is that he was a Jewish Yankee living in Marietta, Georgia.
An *innocent* Jewish Yankee. Even if all the other evidence doesn't convince you, in 1982, a witness came forward with evidence that Conley had committed the murder. Alonzo Mann, a boy who had been in the factory, had seen Conley carrying Phagan's body shortly before her murder. He took a polygraph test to verify his story. (See _The Tennessean_, p. 2.) Frank's name was formally cleared in 1986.
A memorial to Mary Phagan was erected in 1915. One speaker went so far as to refer to her as "sainted" (Dinnerstein, p. 136).
Jim Conley's post-Mary career shows how much of a mistake it was to let him off so easily. In 1919, he was injured in an attempt to burglarize a drug store, and was sentenced to twenty years. In 1941, he was arrested for gambling In 1947, he was picked up for drunkenness. He died in 1962 (Dinnerstein, pp. 158-159).
This song, of course, knows nothing of Frank's innocence. It seems to be a pretty good reflection of the murderous mood in Georgia in 1913. It is also a fairly accurate reflection of the story told at the trial: Versions say that Mary worked in a pencil factory, that she went there around 11:00 on the fatal day, that she was clubbed and tied up, that Jim Conley carried her body away, that Newt Lee found her body and was imprisoned for a time, that Mary's mother was wild with grief, that Frank had children who would be left fatherless, and that H. M. Dorsey was the prosecutor.
Few of the sources I've seen credit this song to an author, but Bill C. Malone (_Don't Get Above Your Raisin'_, p. 220) credits it to Fiddlin' John Carson, whose daughter Rosa Lee is credited with the first recording of it. His footnote lists several sources for the murder, but it's not clear how authorship was established. Dinnerstein, p. 121, says that Carson was singing the song at rallies in Georgia in this period -- but his footnote as to sources contains no reference to Carson. It's worth noting that the song was collected and printed in JAFL well before the Carson recording. Nor does the song mention the machinations after his death, nor his lynching. - RBW
File: LF20
===
NAME: Mary Riley: see Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter) [Laws M16] (File: LM16)
===
NAME: Mary Smith, the Maid of Mountain Plain
DESCRIPTION: "Ye maids of Columbia... I beg your attention and now pity me"; he has been wounded by love. He spells out Mary Smith's name to describe her beauty and virtues. He wishes he were Adam and she Eve. He will wander forever if he can't gain her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection wordplay
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H636, p. 235, "Mary Smith, the Maid of Mountain Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9469
File: HHH636
===
NAME: Mary Vickery and Connelly Donnelly
DESCRIPTION: Mary runs way from home. Her father thinks her dead. When a woman's body is found it is thought to be Mary. Conley is arrested for the murder. A jealous woman swears she saw him do it. He is sentenced to life. Mary returns and clears Conley.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: homicide prison trial jealousy lie return pardon hiding
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 819-820, "Mary Vickery and Connelly Donnelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9806
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Return of Mary Vickery
NOTES: "Conley Dabney, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1926 for the supposed murder of Mary Vickery at Williamsburg, Ky., was freed when she returned home on Mar 19, 1927, to clear his name" -- from _Country Music Sources_ by Guthrie T Meade Jr, p. 93 - BS 
File: Pea819
===
NAME: Mary With Her Young Son
DESCRIPTION: "Then Mary took her young son, And set him on her knee, Saying, 'My dear son, tell me, Tell me how this world shall be.'" Jesus responds by foretelling his death and resurrection
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Terry)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Bronson 54, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (Item #31 to this song, in the appendix, is this piece under the title "Mary's Question")
OBC 66, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text (separated into smaller parts, the last being "Mary With Her Young Son"), 4 tunes)
Roud #453
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cherry Tree Carol" [Child 54]
NOTES: The earliest extant version of these stanzas is in Sandys's version of "The Cherry Tree Carol," allowing the possibility that they are an original part of that ballad. But it is certainly not necessary to that ballad -- which is, of course, very episodic.
Of the thirty versions of "The Cherry Tree Carol" in Bronson (not all of which have complete texts), only two have this item in its full form, but many more have a brief section in which Joseph asks the unborn baby about the future. This could well have attracted a separate song on the same theme.
Thus it is equally possible that "Mary With Her Young Son" is a broken-off fragment *or* that it is a separate song grafted in. A. L. Lloyd, in his notes to the recording by The Valley Folk, is noncommittal, and Bronson's treatment is equally noncommittal.
There is, of course, no scriptural basis for any of this; although the adult Jesus repeatedly spoke of his future fate, only the Gospel of Luke mentions any foretellings before his ministry, and even that passage (Luke 2:49, "Didn't you realize that I must be in my Father's house?") is dated to the twelfth year of Jesus's life. - RBW
File: C054A
===
NAME: Mary Wore Three Links of Chain
DESCRIPTION: Floating religious verses with the chorus, "All my sins been taken away, taken away." Sample verses: "Mary wore three links of chain (x3), Ev'ry link bearing Jesus's name." "I don't know but I've been told (x3) Streets of heaven are paved with gold."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad sin floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 543, "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Sandburg, pp. 474-475, "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5027
RECORDINGS:
George Herod, "Sister Mary Wore Three Lengths (Links) of Chain" (on MuSouth07)
Bradley Kincaid, "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (Supertone 9666, 1930)
Dock Reed, "I'm Going Home on the Morning Train" (on NFMAla5)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
cf. "All Night Long" (floating verses)
NOTES: This is probably a religious adaption of "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane."  Since, however, it seems to circulate widely on its own, it gets its own listing.
I sure hope I remember that I split them.... - RBW
File: San474
===
NAME: Mary, She Did Dream a Dream
DESCRIPTION: "Mary, she did dream a dream, As she was floating down the stream. When she woke, she gave a sigh, The grey cat kicked out the black cat's eye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal dream fight
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 190, (no title) (1 fragment)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Gray Cat on the Tennessee Farm" (lyrics)
File: ScaNF190
===
NAME: Mary, The: see Captain Conrod (File: SmHa014)
===
NAME: Mary, the Pride of Killowen
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the fine summer night when he emigrated from Coleraine and Mary. He recalls courting her, and says he will never forget the place or the girl  He blesses the spot they met.
AUTHOR: Andrew Orr
EARLIEST_DATE: 1847 (Derry Standard)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H26b, p. 250, "Mary, the Pride of Killowen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13340
NOTES: In this particular instance, the song's author Andrew Orr did emigrate (to Australia). Whether the rest of the song is historical is not clear; it's interesting that he wrote at least one other song (Ann o' Drumcroon) with the same plot but a different heroine. - RBW
File: HHH026b
===
NAME: Mary, the Pride of the Shamrock Shore 
DESCRIPTION: Henry returns and finds Mary with a squire. The squire is her true love now since her previous sweetheart "is no more." Henry kills the squire in a duel. Mary kills Henry and recognizes him by a private token. She is sentenced to life in jail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(699))
KEYWORDS: courting homicide prison fight return lover
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 630-631, "The Pride of the Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea630 (Partial)
Roud #9797
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(699), "Mary, the Pride of the Shamrock Shore," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also 2806 c.9(26), Harding B 11(2377), "Mary, the Pride of the Shamrock Shore"
File: Pea630
===
NAME: Mary's Ass
DESCRIPTION: The singer mentions Mary, "a beautiful lass, And the song I will sing is about Mary's ass." She rode the beast, a gift from her uncle, regularly. At last it falls, knocking Mary off, and dies. It  is buried, and the bad smell from the Ass Hole described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous animal
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 158-159, "Mary's Ass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3351
File: MA158
===
NAME: Mary's Question: see Mary With Her Young Son (File: C054A)
===
NAME: Mary's Vision: see Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream) [Laws K20] (File: LK20)
===
NAME: Maryborough Miner, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes all the places where he has been digging. At Fitzroy River the boss calls him a loafer, so he burns his office and left. He tells further tall tales, ending "I'm a Maryborough miner, and I'm one of the good old time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: mining work rambling
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 78-79, "The Maryborough Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Murrumbidgee Shearer" (tune, theme)
NOTES: Fahey's version was collected by A.L. Lloyd, and he suspects Lloyd may have retouched it. The notes to Patterson/Fahey/Seal on "The Murrumbidgee Shearer" make this even more explicit: they declare this to be Lloyd's rewrite of that. - RBW
File: FaE078
===
NAME: Maryland! My Maryland
DESCRIPTION: "The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland, my Maryland." The state's heroic history is recalled; the singer wants and expects her to join the Confederacy: "Huzza! She spurns the northern scum! She breathes! She burns! She'll come!"
AUTHOR: Words: James Ryder Randall
EARLIEST_DATE: 1861
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic nonballad derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: April, 1861 - Clashes between Massachusetts troops and the residents of Baltimore
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 130-133, "Maryland! My Maryland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, pp. 60-61, "Maryland, My Maryland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-CivWar, pp. 195-197, "My Maryland" (1 text)
Krythe 9, pp. 142-149, "Maryland, My Maryland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 355-357, "Maryland, My Maryland -- (O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!; Lauriger Horatius)"
ST RJ19130 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Harry Macdonough, "Maryland, My Maryland" (CYL: Edison 2033, c. 1897)
Tandy Mackenzie, "Maryland, My Maryland" (Columbia 80320, n.d.)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and references there
cf. "General Lee's Wooing" (tune, subject)
NOTES: James Ryder Randall was a native of Baltimore. At the time of the Civil War he was teaching English at Poydras College in Louisiana. He wrote this poem on April 26, 1861, after hearing of the Baltimore riot; the piece was published in a New Orleans paper on May 5. Randall hoped it would help encourage Maryland to secede.
Randall's expectations were disappointed; Maryland never joined the Confederacy. The Union could not possibly allow it; the loss of Maryland would place Washington inside Confederate territory. The federal government moved quickly to prevent the state's succession. One side effect of this was the riots in Baltimore that inspired "Maryland! My Maryland."
Chances are, however, that Maryland would not have seceded. Baltimore favored the rebellion, but the rest of the state seems to have been Unionist. A fair number of Maryland citizens went south -- Lee's army contained a Maryland battalion -- but more served in the Northern armies.
The reference to the "patriotic gore / that flecked the streets of Baltimore" is, of course, to the Baltimore riots. "Carroll" is Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. I believe "Howard's warlike thrust" refers to Major John Eager Howard, who led the handful of troops who cut their way out of a British trap at the Battle of Camden (1780).
It should be noted that the sung version of this song does not quite match the written version. In Randall's poem, the internal refrain was not "Maryland, my Maryland"; he used this only in the final line. The internal phrase was simply "Maryland." This was expanded to fit the tune. For a time the poem was sung to the tune "Manormandie," but this was not a success. The "O Tannenbaum" tune is said to have been fitted by a Baltimore girl, Jennie Cary.
Even though Randall's authorship was widely known, a few other names also circulated. Wharton's _War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy_, for instance, credits it to Lamar Fontaine. - RBW
File: RJ19130
===
NAME: Massa Had a Yaller Gal: see Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)
===
NAME: Massa Had a Yellow Gal: see Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)
===
NAME: Massacre of ta Phairshon, Ta
DESCRIPTION: "Phairshon (MacPherson) swore a feud Against the Clan MacTavish And marched into their land...." His small force quickly disperses to chase cattle. He encounters his rival; they exchange insults, and Phairshon is killed
AUTHOR: Aytoun and Martin?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford); reputedly composed 1844
KEYWORDS: feud death humorous
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 287-290, "Ta Massacre of ta Phairshon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13100
NOTES: Said to be based on an extended party joke, and with about that level of quality. - RBW
File: FVS287
===
NAME: Master Had a Bran' New Coat: see Jinny Go Round and Around (File: R272)
===
NAME: Master McGrath
DESCRIPTION: The great Irish greyhound wins the Waterloo Cup, beating Rose, "the pride of all England." (The two dogs discuss their respective countries. The owners bet large sums. The Irish celebrate the fact that their dog was better than an English dog.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: racing dog gambling
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1868, 1869, 1871 - Years in which Master McGrath, a hound belonging to Lord Lurgan, won the Waterloo Cup
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
SHenry H161c, pp. 32-33, "A Ballad of Master M'Gra[th]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 215, "A ballad of Master McGrath" (1 text)
OLochlainn 33, "Master McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 61-62, "A Ballad of Master McGrath" (1 text)
DT, MASMCGR*
Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 16, "The Ballad of Master McGrath" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2604 recorded Oct 4, 1931)
Roud #3041
NOTES: The date and master id (GB-3359) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
File: Hodg215
===
NAME: Master of the Sheepfold, The
DESCRIPTION: Cho.: "The Master guards the sheepfold bin/Comes and calls, is my sheep brung in?/And he's calling...for them all to be gathering in." The Master calls the sheep; the shepherd says some are lost, but the rest will come. The Master goes out and gathers
AUTHOR: Sarah Pratt McLean Greene
EARLIEST_DATE: 1986 (recording, Art Thieme)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Cho.: "The Master guards the sheepfold bin/Comes and calls, is my sheep brung in?/And he's calling, calling...for them all to be gathering in" The Master calls the sheep; the shepherd answers that some are wan, weathered, lost or good-for-nothing, but the rest will come. The Master goes out on the wind and rain path, lets down the bars to the sheepfold, and gently calls the sheep to come in; they do
KEYWORDS: religious sheep
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, SHEEPFOL
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "The Master of the Sheepfold" (on Thieme04) (on Thieme06)
NOTES: Please pardon a personal remark: this song is unlike any other I've heard in the emotional effect it creates from a spare lyric; the only comparison, I think, is with Blind Willie Johnson. - PJS
Although Art Thieme comments that the song, "means different things to different folks," there is little doubt that it comes from the New Testament images of Jesus and the sheep, e.g. John 10:7-16, especiallay v. 14: "I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me." Compare also the parable of the lost sheep (Matt. 18:12f., etc.). - RBW
File: DTsheepf
===
NAME: Master Watch, The: see The Master-Watch (File: Doy77)
===
NAME: Master-Watch, The
DESCRIPTION: While men are preparing for the seal hunt, an old man reminisces in a long nostalgic monologue about the days when he used to go sealing. He dies at the end of his recital.
AUTHOR: Dan Carrol
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Doyle)
KEYWORDS: recitation age hunting
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Doyle2, p. 77, "The Master-Watch" (1 text)
Blondahl, pp. 81-82, "The Master-Watch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small, p. 118, "The Master Watch" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doy77 (Partial)
Roud #4423
NOTES: The author, Dan Carrol (1865-1941), was a wood carver and poet from St. John's. He seems to have published poems mostly in local newspapers and they have a collection of these at the Memorial University of Newfoundland library. - SH
File: Doy77
===
NAME: Masters in This Hall
DESCRIPTION: "Masters in this hall, hear ye news today." The singer announces the good news "brought from oversea" of the birth of Jesus. The shepherds go to visit the child.
AUTHOR: Words: William Morris
EARLIEST_DATE: 1860 ("Antient (sic) Christmas Carols"); the tune is said to be French and to predate the lyrics
KEYWORDS: Christmas religious
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
OBC 137, "Masters in this Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 375, "Masters In This Hall" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #51, "Masters in This Hall." (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Master in This Hall" (on PeteSeeger42)
File: FSWB375C
===
NAME: Matha Grove: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Matin Je Me Leve, Un (One Morning I Get Up)
DESCRIPTION: French. A young soldier is being sent away for six years; he comes to his beloved's chateau to tell her. She despairs; he says other young men of the village will entertain her in his absence. She says they will never take his place in her heart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1956 (recording, Mrs. Louis Amirault & Mrs. Sephora Amirault)
KEYWORDS: courting love farewell parting separation foreignlanguage lover soldier war
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Louis Amirault and Mrs. Sephora Amirault, "Un Matin Je Me Leve" (on NovaScotia1)
File: RcUMJMLe
===
NAME: Matt Hyland
DESCRIPTION: A lord's daughter loves Matt. "But when her parents came to know, They swore they'd drive him from this island." The girl bids Matt flee before he is transported. Eventually her father relents, and she bids him come home to marry her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(344))
KEYWORDS: nobility love separation exile transportation servant
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Morton-Ulster 1, "Matt Hyland" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MATTHYL
Roud #2880
RECORDINGS:
Liz Jefferies, "Matt Highland" (on Voice06)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(344), "Young Mat Hyland," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also 2806 b.9(235), 2806 c.15(139), "Mat Hyland"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Young M'Tyre" (plot)
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" [Laws M6] (plot)
cf. "Henry Connors" [Laws M5] (plot)
cf. "Richie Story" [Child 232] (plot)
cf. "The Kitchie-Boy" [Child 252] (plot)
NOTES: This song has been claimed by Irish and Scottish sources, and I've also heard it sung by English singers. Interestingly, all the versions are very close, suggesting there is some single, recent source. This theory is supported by the ornate language, so atypical of traditional song. But no one seems to know what the source is.
There are several broadsides, at least one dated c. 1825 (though such datings are notoriously unreliable), entitled "Mat Hyland" or "Young Mat Hyland." None match the traditional text commonly sung; they are without exception wordier and poorer poetry. Still, they provide a strong indication that the song originated as a broadside -- though these prints (e.g. in the Bodleian collection) are probably not the original source, as no tune seems to be indicated!
In addition, a manuscript volume called "Songs and Ballads in use in the Province of Ulster...1845" is said by Hugh Shields to contain a version of the song, but I do not know if the dating of the volume is considered reliable. Still, there seems no doubt that the song was in existence by the early nineteenth century. - RBW
File: DTmatthy
===
NAME: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (I)
DESCRIPTION: A child's prayer, asking the apostles for a blessing: "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John / Bless the bed that I lie on / Four bright angels at my bed / Two at the bottom and two at the head / Two to hear me as I pray / And two to bear my soul away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1891 (Baring-Gould); original probably from 1656 (Ady, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,NE)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Flanders/Olney, p. 33, "White Paternoster (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) (1 short text)
Chase, p. 209, "The Bedtime Prayer" (1 text)
Opie-Oxford2 346, "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John" (4 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #548, p. 221, "(Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)"
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #457, "Before Sleeping" (1 composite text, of a number of children's prayers; it may have inspired some later uses of the text.)
ST FO033 (Full)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Go And Dig My Grave" (lyrics)
cf. "The Little Beggar Boy" (floating verses)
NOTES: The first two lines of this piece can be dated to Thomas Ady in 1656 -- but could easily have been used in another context. Similar pieces are common (e.g. Montgomerie-ScottishNR 95 runs "Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Hold the horse till I leap on; Hold it succar, hold it sure, Till I win o'er the misty moor").
I'm not really convinced, e.g., the Chase and Flanders/Olney texts are the same -- but how do you separate two pieces with the same words and no tune? - RBW
File: FO033
===
NAME: Matty Broon's Soo (Tam Gibb and the Soo)
DESCRIPTION: Song with recitation. Tam's wife says they could afford a pig. He goes to buy Matty's sow. Old lovers, they fall to joking; he leaves lightheaded. The sow does not want to follow; when he trips over a stone, it escapes him; he says he likes fish anyway
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1907 (Grieg)
KEYWORDS: animal commerce humorous escape
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H671, p. 22, "Matty Broon's Soo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5879
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(51), "Tam Gibb and His Sow," unknown, c. 1880-1900
File: HHH671
===
NAME: Matty Groves: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Maud Wreck: see The Wreck at Maud (Al Bowen) (File: LSRa272H)
===
NAME: Maurice Crotty
DESCRIPTION: Green hand Crotty understands nothing about sealing. When the Dan reach the seals Crotty boxes with a big one until he is rescued. Crotty is thankful the seal's breath smelled of whisky, else he might have been beaten to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Burke & Oliver)
KEYWORDS: fight rescue hunting ship humorous animal
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Peacock, pp. 73-74, "Maurice Crotty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 74, "Maurice Crotty" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ryan/Small, pp. 86-87, "Maurice Crotty"; p. 88, "The Spring of the Wadhams" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ST Pea073 (Partial)
Roud #6649
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Grandfather Bryan" (tune)
NOTES: According to Ryan/Small, "1852 is generally known and spoken of as the 'Spring of the Wadhams.'" Seals were found very plentiful in the vicinity of the Wadhams, (islands located in Notre Dame Bay S.E. of Fogo Island), and the majority of vessels were caught in a fearful gale of NNE wind which caused great destruction to the fleet." - RBW
File: Pea073
===
NAME: Maurice Hogan's Song
DESCRIPTION: The singer, now sixty-four, compares the happy "dark depression days" of his youth to the go-go girl, T.V., mini-skirt-changed times he sees now. "O how I long for those bright days"
AUTHOR: Maurice Hogan
EARLIEST_DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: age lament nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 75, "Maurice Hogan's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
NOTES: As best I can tell, all the many songs in which old guys complain about young women's casual clothing (and there are many; see the cross-references) come from guys who aren't having the slightest luck with said young women.... - RBW
File: LeBe075
===
NAME: Maurice Kelly
DESCRIPTION: "Maurice Kelly one night when about three parts loaded" is beaten by a ghost. "Twas Kelly's wife dressed up in white to keep him from drinking... he got such a fright he won't stir after night But right after supper goes ... straight off to bed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: fight drink humorous wife ghost
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 78, "Maurice Kelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 122, "Kelly and the Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAUKELLY*
Roud #16894
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Kate and Her Horns" [Laws N22] (gimmck)
File: GrMa078
===
NAME: Mautman, The
DESCRIPTION: The mautman arrives to demand his pay, "or maut ye'll ne'er get mair." He says it is very good maut, but she complains of the"unruly crew" that "pierc'd my dochter's barrel." (The answer is that kissing is no sin, else so many would not do it.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: food seduction sex money
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kinloch-BBook XXIX, pp. 86-88, "The Mautman" (1 text)
Roud #5508
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Kissing's No Sin (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES: The Kinloch text of this song seems to be composite; the first part is an argument about seducing an auld wife's daughter, in very irregular meter. It then breaks into a much more regular section stating that "some say kissing's a sin, but I think it's nane ava, For kissing has been in the world When there was but only twa."
Ewan MacColl has a fragment, "Kissing's No Sin," with only that second part, followed by a part about how lawyers and others go kissing. The latter also appears in "The Hog-Tub." The nature of the dependence is not clear to me given the small number of texts I've seen.  - RBW
File: KinBB29
===
NAME: Maw Bonny Gyetside Lass: see The Gyetside Lass (File: StoR182)
===
NAME: Maw Canny Hinny
DESCRIPTION: "Where hes te been, maw canny hinny? An where hes te been, maw bonny bairn?" The singer tells of all the places she(?) has looked for him, and the people she has talked to. He describes what he has been doing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: questions reunion
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 156-157, "Maw Cann Hinny" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR156 (Partial)
Roud #3168
NOTES: This is a difficult song to describe; it spends to much time talking about people and places that it becomes almost a moniker song. The Stokoe version, at least, has a curious change in mid-song: After seven verses with the same chorus, the last two use two different choruses. - RBW
File: StoR156
===
NAME: Maxwell's Doom: see Ewing Brooks (Maxwell's Doom) [Laws E12] (File: LE12)
===
NAME: May Colven: see Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)
===
NAME: May Day Carol
DESCRIPTION: The singer has been wandering and will return with a branch of may. It is to celebrate the Lord's handiwork (in bringing forth the plants in spring). The singer wishes the listeners well: "God bless you all both great and small And send you a joyful May."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (de la Mare)
KEYWORDS: religious ritual carol
FOUND_IN: US(Ap) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 238-239, "[May Day Carol]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 52, "The May Day Carol"; p. 86, "Cambridgeshire May Song" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, MAYCAROL MAYCAR2
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #18, "Song of the Mayers" (1 text)
Roud #305
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Moon Shines Bright (The Bellman's Song)" (lyrics)
NOTES: The two May carols in Ritchie-Southern are so different that I almost split them. This is a distinct problem with May songs; Roud lumps a great variety (many of them clearly distinct) under his #305. I've split a lot of them, but in the case of the Ritchie songs, I lump them because they have many of the same words plus tunes which, while not identical, look as if they might have come from the same original. - RBW
File: JRSF238
===
NAME: May Day Song: see Padstow May Day Song (File: K086)
===
NAME: May I Go With You, Johnny?: see The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)
===
NAME: May I Sleep In Your Barn To-Night, Mister: see Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight? (File: R841)
===
NAME: May Irwin's Frog Song (The Foolish Frog, Way Down Yonder)
DESCRIPTION: "Way down yonder in Pasquotank, Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to bank, They jump so high they break their shank, The old grey goose went 'yankety-yank.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous talltale
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 189, "Way Down Yonder in Pasquotank" (1 fragment); also 435, "The Dummy Line" (2 short texts; the "B" version is a mixed text that seems to be mostly this with a "Some Folks Say a Nigger Won't Steal" verse)
Roud #15891
NOTES: This is a confusing situation. I have met this chorus only once in tradition, in the form quoted above from Brown. But folkies will know it from Pete Seeger's "Foolish Frog." That is apparently a tall tale concocted by Charles Seeger based on a vaudeville item called "May Irwin's Frog Song." Hence the title I use. Beyond that I cannot trace the piece.
May Irwin was a notable popular singer who was at the height of her powers in the 1890s; In Sigmund Spaeth's _A History of Popular Music in _America__ she is credited with the song, "Mamie, Come Kiss Your Honey Boy" (pp. 265-266), and with popularizing George M. Cohan's  "Hot Tamale Alley"(pp. 282, 339) as well as such songs as "I Couldn't Stand to See My Baby Loose" (p. 347) and  "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose" (p. 285). Her biggest success of all was apparently "May Irwin's Bully Song," written by Charles E. Trevathan; it is indexed as "The Bully of the Town [Laws I14]," though most folk versions are far removed from the May Irwin original  - RBW
File: Br3189
===
NAME: May Morning Dew
DESCRIPTION: Winter is pleasant but summer is coming with memories of old times when "we tripped through the heather" The old house has fallen, garden overgrown, and all the neighbors "like the red rose they are faded from the May Morning Dew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: flowers nonballad family home
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 30-31, "May Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAYMRNDW
Roud #5405
RECORDINGS:
Kitty Hayes, "May Morning Dew" (on IRClare01)
File: DTmaymor
===
NAME: May Pole Song, The: see All Around the Maypole (File: BSoF706)
===
NAME: May Queen, The
DESCRIPTION: "Our Queen up the river And we'll keep her there forever with your yah-yah-yah ... Your Queen down the river ... Our Queen can tumble a pole ... birl her leg ... smoke a fag ... ate a hard bap ... The darkie says he'll marry her Because she is a Queen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (Hammond-Belfast)
KEYWORDS: bragging ritual nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hammond-Belfast, pp. 14-15, "The May Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hammond-Belfast describes Belfast May Day rituals and children's May Queen parades. "The encounters with rival Queens are always exciting and vituperative. Modesty and restraint are not predominant features of the occasion." - BS 
File: Hamm014
===
NAME: Mayn Yingele (My Little Son)
DESCRIPTION: Yiddish: The father comes home to his little boy, whom he sees "only while he sleeps." The mother tells him that he is a fine boy but he misses his father. But father can only be there while the child sleeps; he must work all day
AUTHOR: Morris Rosenfeld
EARLIEST_DATE: 1887
KEYWORDS: work family separation foreignlanguage
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scott-BoA, pp. 290-291, "Mayn Yingele (My Little Son)" (2 texts (1 English, 1 Yiddish), 1 tune)
File: SBoA290
===
NAME: Mayogall Asses, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes a "cavalcade of donkeys" taken to Mayogall. The animals, in all sorts of conditions, are set to carry a load of cabbages to market. The driver convinces the animals to come, where he sells cabbages and animals both
AUTHOR: Words: James O'Kane
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: animal commerce
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H130, pp. 26-27, "The Mayogall Asses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13350
NOTES: When I read this, I get the feeling something has been lost -- it seems completely pointless.
The story of Saul and his father's missing donkeys is told in 1 Samuel 9:3-10:16. - RBW
File: HHH130
===
NAME: Mayor of Waterford's Letter, The
DESCRIPTION: The letter is addressed to the Archbishop of Dublin. It makes the argument for the legitimacy of Henry's claim and ridicules the claim of Lambert, now in the Tower of London. It critisizes the archbishop's silence and asks for reconciliation.
AUTHOR: John Butler (Mayor of Waterford), James Rice, Wm Lyncolle (source: manuscript quoted by Croker-PopularSongs)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1487 (quoted in Dr Smith's _History of Waterford_, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: O thou most noble pastour, chosen by God, Walter, Archbishop of Dublin." The song hopes that the traditional closeness between the people of Dublin and Waterford, "now late broken of thy parte onely," be restored. It claims "that Henry vijth is king" by descent on his mother's side, like Christ, and other kings of England. It claims his marriage to Elizabeth [heir presumptive], "maried both by amiable accord" settles the matter. It recounts his claims, including "bull papall ... affirming theis titles." Of the opposition to Henry "if thow be cause for this perversitie ... We know it not; but certaine we can saie, Thou keepest silence, and said not once nay" The claim of Lambert, "now kept in the Tower of London," is ridiculed. "It is tyme for you to be reconciled ... Correct yourself." "Thinke not in us no malice." 
KEYWORDS: rebellion England Ireland nonballad political religious clergy royalty Jesus
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1485-1509: Reign of Henry VII (associated with Elizabeth of York until her death in 1503)
1487 - Battle of Stoke. Defeat of the forces supporting Lambert Simbel
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 293-312, "The Mayor of Waterford's Letter" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 130-131, "A Letter Sent by the Mayor and Inhabitants of Waterford unto Walter, archbishop of the Citie of Dublin, the Mayor and Citizens of the same, in the time of their Rebellion"  (1 text, excerpted from Croker)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Praise of Waterford" (structure)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs: The texts of "The Mayor of Waterford's Letter" and "The Praise of Waterford" are included in "the collection of some laborious antiquary about the end of the reign of Elizabeth.... 'Ballad royal,' or rhyme royal, was the name given to the measure in which the ballads or songs about Waterford are written: each verse has seven ten-syllable lines with an a/b/a/b/b/c/c rhyme scheme.
"To the end of his reign Henry [VII] was troubled by Yorkist claimants to the throne and by pretenders... In the autumn of 1486 ... came disturbing news of a pretender, claiming to be the young Warwick, who, it was rumoured, had escaped from the Tower. Lambert Simnel, who had been carefully groomed for this impersonation ...." (Source: "The Tudors" by Neville Williams in _The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England_, ed. Antonia Fraser, University of California Press, 1995, p. 171)
Croker-PopularSongs quotes the prose introduction to "The Mayor of Waterford's Letter." It discusses Lambert, "a boy, an organ-maker's sonne, [who] was crowned at Dublin Kinge of England and Lord of Ireland, in the third yere of Henry the 7." The Mayor of Dublin, the governor Earl of Kildare, and Walter, Archbishop of Dublin, then Lord Chanceler of Ireland, were among Lambert's supporters. Among those loyal to Henry VII was the Mayor of Waterford. He sent messages to other mayors to support Henry. In the end "the counterfeit kinge, with his Erle tutor, Walter, Archbishop of Dublin, and many others, wer taken prisoners, and carried to the towr of London...." The Mayor of Warwicke sent a "metrical letter" to the Archbishop of Dublin on October 20, 1487. Croker says "it does not seem improbable that the mayor's metrical letter was sung before Sir Richard [Edgecombe], upon the occasion of his public entertainment by the city of Waterford." - BS
This immensely complex poem (I doubt it was ever a song) is an argument from history supporting the claims of King Henry VII. It is an argument worthy of a very fancy lawyer with a guilty client: There is a lot of stuff thrown out, most of it completely invalid. This is understandable, for the good and simple reason that Henry's only serious claim to the throne was right of conquest over Richard III (prior to his crowning, his highest title had been Earl of Richmond, and even that was a shadow title: He claimed it, but another was in possession of the Earldom).
Henry was descended from King Edward III (died 1377, more than a century before Henry took the throne in 1485), but it was through Edward's third son John of Gaunt, and the claim ran through the Beaufort family, children of a woman who was not even John's wife when they were born; they had been specifically excluded from the succession. What's more, Henry VII's mother Margaret Beaufort was still alive when Henry took the throne, so even if his claims were upheld, she, not he, should have been the monarch. (For background on all this, see "The Rose of England" [Child 166] and "The Vicar of Bray." The essential point is that Henry didn't have supporters because he had a claim to the throne; he had supporters because it is human nature to form factions and he was the only faction head left other than Richard III.) Little wonder, then, that he was troubled by pretenders!
But the song refers to events long before the time of Henry VII. Croker has some note on this, but there is a great deal more to be said.
"Henry [VII]... is king, by grace, of England and Fraunce, and lord of Ireland": King Edward III had claimed the title "King of France," and started the Hundred Years' War to back it up, and although England had lost all French soil except Calais by 1453 (an event which in fact helped provoke the Wars of the Roses and eventually led to Henry VII's taking the Kingdom), the English monarch continued to claim the title for centuries.
"Moses had... commandment, If a man died without issue male": The song links this to the "daughters of Sulphact in Numery 17." Croker correctly refers this to the daughters of Zelophehad in Numbers 27 (also Numbers 26, 37, Joshua 17:3), and wonders about the chapter numbering in earlier Bibles. The easiest explanation is, of course, an error -- or maybe a combination of Numbers 27 with Joshua 17. In the Greek Old Testament, the chapter is still Numbers 27, though the man's name is Salpaad. It's chapter 27 in the Latin Bible also, but the name is "Salphaad," which isn't far from "Sulphact."
"King Henry the First... he passed his traunce without issue male." Henry I of England (reigned 1100-1135), the third and youngest son of William the Conqueror, had dozens of bastard children, but only two legitimate offspring who lived past infancy: Matilda (sometimes called Maud, as in the song) and William of the White Ship. William, his only legitimate son, died in 1120 in the wreck of the ship (see Christopher Brooke, _The Saxon and Norman Kings_, Fontana, 1963, p. 175). At this time, England had no law of primogeniture (until William the Conqueror, the Witan elected the new king, from the royal family of course, and William himself had been succeeded initially by his second son William II Rufus, and then by his third son Henry I, even though the Conqueror's eldest son Robert Curthose was still alive at the time both William Rufus and Henry succeeded. For that matter, William the Conqueror in his lifetime was called "William the Bastard," because he succeeded to the Duchy of Normandy despite being illegitimate). What's more, few thought a woman competent to rule. So when Henry died, there was much debate over the succession. Stephen, the son of William the Conqueror's daugher Adela, was the male heir closest to the conqueror (see Brooke's genealogy of the Norman kings, and Brooke, p. 39).
Stephen (who inherited the title Count of Blois, hence the description "Earle of Bloyes" in the song) proved an absolute disaster; he was too indecisive to rule, especially with many of his barons rallying to Matilda's cause. In theory, he reigned from 1135 to 1154, but there was civil war for much of that time, and in 1153, Matilda's son Henry of Anjou invaded. (The title Henry inherited from his father was Count of Anjou, hence the reference to his "Earldome of Angeoi" in the song.) A peace was patched up in which Henry became Stephen's heir (Brooke, p. 39); he was crowned Henry II in 1154, reigning until 1189. He was called "Fitz Empress" (son of the empress) because his mother Matilda had for a brief time been married to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V (who, however, died in 1125, while she was still young. Matilda lived until 1167, so she was still alive when her son became King).
The statement that Henry's "issue raigned King of England... from sonne to sonne" shows this particular item to be a piece of propaganda. Henry was indeed succeeded by his son Richard I (reigned 1189-1199) -- but Richard had no sons (he was probably homosexual), and the throne then passed to Henry's youngest son John (reigned 1199-1216) rather than Henry's grandson Arthur, the child of the son between Richard and John in age. John was succeeded by his son Henry III (1216-1272) , and Henry by his son Edward I (1272-1307), Edward I by his son Edward II (1307-1327), Edward II by his son Edward III (1327-1377) -- but Edward III was succeeded by his grandson Richard II (1377-1399), who was deposed by his cousin Henry IV (1399-1413), who was the grandson of Edward III's third son John of Gaunt even though there were living descendents of Edward's second son Lionel, Duke of Clarence. Henry IV was succeeded by his son Henry V (1413-1422), and Henry V by his son Henry VI (1422-1461).
Henry VI was ineffectual and eventually went insane; his incapacity eventually caused the Wars of the Roses to break out. He was suceeded by Edward IV (1461-1483, minus a brief interruption due to a revolt in 1470-1471), who was the proper heir of Edward III via Lionel, but who -- far from being Henry VI's son -- was his third cousin twice removed. (To be fair, the song may simply be noting that Henry VI was descended from Henry II entirely in the male line, while Edward IV had two female links in the chain. But in fact Edward IV also had a link in direct male line to Edward III; we'll get to that, too.)
The song finally manages to cover Edward IV's descent, noting that Edward was descended from "Leonell" via "the Duke's daughter of Clarence." Lionel's daughter was indeed name Philippa; her son was Roger Mortimer, his daughter Anne Mortimer, her son Richard of York, and Richard's son was Edward IV.
The song draws from the examples of Henry, Stephen, and Edward IV the ironic conclusion that the "female In England shall succeed for fault of the male." This is by contrast to France, where the Salic Law was held to bar succession in the female line (not only were female ruling queens barred, but the royal title could not be transmitted through a woman; see Desmond Seward, _The Hundred Years War: The English in France, 1337-1453_, Atheneum, 1982, though Seward describes the Salic Law as an after-the-fact discovery). However, these precedents are mostly meaningless, because Stephen and Henry II were elected kings, and Edward IV, while his claim to priority over Henry VI was based on descent from Lionel of Clarence in the female line, was also descended from Edward III's fourth son Edmund of York in the male line, and -- if you treated the Beauforts as illegitimate, as nearly everyone did -- was Henry VI's heir in the male line once Henry's son Edward was disposed of.)
The song then goes on to seemingly claim that Jesus was King of Jerusalem by female line. But there are two genealogies tracing the ancestry of Jesus back to David: One in Matthew 1, the other in Luke 3. These two genealogies cannot be reconciled, leading some to claim that one is a genealogy of Mary -- but this is simply balderdash; both link Jesus to David via Joseph, not Mary.
It is really, really interesting to note that the song eventually, in effect, gives up its claim on behalf of Henry VII, noting that Edward's title "is fallen to our soveraigne ladie, Queene Elizabeth, his [Edward IV's] eldest daughter liniall; To her is com all the whole monarchie." In other words, Elizabeth -- not "the" Elizabeth of a century later, but her grandmother -- is the woman with the real right to the throne. Which lies at the heart of Henry VI's kingship. Keep in mind that, as noted above, Henry's claim in his own right was pitifully weak.
The one thing Henry could do to bolster his claim was to marry into the real Royal Family. Which he did; he married Elizabeth. There was some slight doubt about Elizabeth's legitimacy (which is why Richard III had been able to seize the throne), but there wasn't really much doubt but that she was Edward IV's surviving heir. (And, since all of Henry's children were her offspring, and every monarch of England has been descended from that union, in fact every King of England since has been legitimate heir. It was only Henry VII who had a problem.)
The song goes one to note six supports to Henry's claim: first, "Gode's provision" (hard to prove either way); second, election by the Lords and Commons (meaningless, since parliament was always tossing the crown back and forth during this period); third, Elizabeth's claim to the throne (his single best argument, but it was an argument for her, not him); fourth, right of conquest; fifth, "the old Brittaine storie." Croker is not sure what this refers to; I think it refers to Henry's Welsh ancestry on his father's side; he claimed to be descended from Rhys ap Gruffyd of Deheubarth (see Mike Ashley, _British Kings and Queens_, 2000, originally published as _The Mammoth Book of British Kings  and Queens_, 1998, p. 625), and before that to Cadwallader and maybe even King Arthur (Henry in fact named his oldest son Arthur to support this claim); and finally, Papal sanction (received in 1486, according to Ashley, p. 627 -- but that, again, was easily changed; in all likelihood, if someone overthrew Henry, that someone would quickly earn Papal sanction also).
Thus every one of Henry's claims to the throne cited in the song is rather weak. Everyone knew that Henry had usurped the throne, and had little strength of his own. Even after Bosworth, there were many people with clear prior claims -- a fact which, ironically, would help Henry, since it made it hard for the opposition to coalesce around a particular potential monarch.
Making everyone's problems worse was the matter of The Princes in the Tower (for details on this, see the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]). Edward IV had had two boys, Edward (briefly Edward V in 1483) and Richard, Duke of York. The elder was only twelve when Edward IV died, too young to rule (Edward IV had died while in his early forties), and Edward's brother Richard of Gloucester had convinced the leaders of the realm to set them aside (digging up a claim against their legitimacy to make it look legal).
Early in Richard's reign, the Princes vanished. Literally. Their fate is a complete mystery; we don't know when or how they died, though there seems little doubt that they did. There are some bones which some have thought are theirs -- but the British royal family has refused to dig them up to allow DNA testing. Odds are that the boys were killed by Richard (or, just possibly, by someone in his official family without him knowing about it), but it was done so secretly that, when the time came, Henry VII couldn't prove who did them in; it's even possible he killed them himself. (It seems pretty safe to say that, had they still been alive, Henry would have disposed of them.) But if Henry didn't know where they were, neither did anyone else. Hence the possibility of pretenders.
And all this was in the aftermath of the Wars of the Roses, in which the crown had changed hands seven times (though there were only five kings involved), and every reign had either begun or ended in blood. Henry came to the throne as a result of the Battle of Bosworth on August 22, 1485, where Richard III was killed in a death-or-glory charge. That was late enough in the year that there really wasn't time for another revolt in 1485. But early in 1486, Humphrey Stafford and Lord Lovell rebelled. This revolt was quickly suppressed. (See John Gillingham, _The Wars of the Roses_, Louisiana State University, 1981, p. 247.)
The Stafford revolt had quickly run into the Heir Problem caused by the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. To vastly oversimplify, there were four potential Yorkist heirs after Edward IV and Richard III died: The Princes in the Tower, if they were alive; Elizabeth of York, their older sister; the Earl of Warwick, who was the son of Edward and Richard's brother George of Clarence (who was born after Edward but before Richard); and the Earl of Lincoln, the son of Edward and Richard's oldest sister. The problem with the Princes was that they weren't available. Elizabeth was hardly a possible Yorkist heir since she was married to Henry. The Warwick claim was weak; he was alive and his location known (since he was in Henry's custody), but George of Clarence had been attainted and executed for rebelling against his brother Edward. (And, yes, he was guilty, and no, Richard III had nothing to do with the execution!) It was generally held that an act of attainder barred all heirs from the succession; in any case, it was reported -- we don't know how accurately -- that young Warwick was feeble-minded (see Paul Murray Kendall, _Richard the Third_, Norton, 1956, p. 349. Henry VII would eventually solve the Warwick problem by executing the boy.)
John, Earl of Lincoln was in many ways the best candidate -- he was an adult, male, known to be competent, undeniably legitimate, and with no acts of parliament against him. Richard III had in fact appointed him his heir  (Kendall, p. 350) after flirting with the idea of Warwick. Unfortunately, Lincoln was also junior in the succession to the Princes, to Elizabeth, and to Warwick, assuming their disabilities were eliminated.
As it turned out, the Stafford rebellion threw its support behind Warwick -- but failed in part because they couldn't get their hands on him (see Desmond Seward, _The Wars of the Roses_, Penguin, 1995, p. 315).
The next attempt, in 1487, did better -- not least because it had, or pretended to have, the actual Warwick. This was the first of two significant imposters to arise against Henry: First Lambert Simnel, then Perkin Warbeck.
Lambert was apparently the creation of an Oxford priest named Richard Simons, who passed him off as Warwick (Gillingham, p. 248); Seward, p. 315, agrees with Croker's notes in calling him an organ-builder's son, from Oxford, and Alison Weir, _The Princes in the Tower_, Ballantine, 1992, p. 235, says he was born around 1475 -- the same year that Warwick was born and a bit more than a year after the birth of Richard of York. She notes, however, that she can find no records of a Simnel family in Oxford (or, indeed, anywhere in England at this time); she suspects that even Lambert's "real" name was a pseudonym. Weir, p. 232, says that the original plan was to have him portray Richard of York, the younger of the Princes in the Tower, but the decision to have him portray Warwick was made before Lambert had become well-known.
Henry VII answered by bringing out the real Warwick, but it didn't matter; Lambert was a cause to rally. He earned major support: John of Lincoln (who doubtless intended to use Lambert to get rid of Henry and then intended to take charge himself; Weir, p. 232); Gerald Fitzgerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, the of the family which produced most of the Deputy Lieutenants of Ireland (meaning in effect that he was the ruler of English Ireland -- which, to be sure, was by this time only a small strip on the east coast); and Margaret of Burgundy, another sister of Edward and Richard (Gillingham, p. 249).
It was a situation in which Ireland was unusually crucial in English affairs. The old Duke of York, father of Edward IV and Richard III and grandfather of the Princes in the Tower, had for a time been Lieutenant of Ireland -- and he was unique among Lieutenants in actually doing a good job and treating the Irish fairly; the Irish were firm supporters of the Yorkist dynasty. If Ireland supported a pretender, it meant big trouble for Henry VII; if Ireland rejected the pretender, Henry was probably safe.
And most of Ireland supported Lambert. The Archbishop of Dublin was actually responsible for crowning him "Edward VI" (Seward, p. 316). Hence this song.
Waterford had a strong tradition of loyalty to the crown (a loyalty which had earned it significant privileges), and it stayed loyal to Henry VII, trying to convince the Yorkist Archbishop to come back to the fold -- a not-very-successful quest, obviously. (In fact, it was in many ways a really dumb idea; after all, it was the Tudors who finally really conquered Ireland. And when Henry VIII turned England Protestant, Waterford stayed even more staunchly Catholic than the rest of Ireland, and suffered for it.)
The song argues that an English king could not be crowned in Ireland, but while Ireland had never produced a monarch, English kings *had* been crowned away from Westminster -- e.g. Henry III was crowned at Gloucester (Ashley, p. 531), and Edward IV, although formally crowned at Westminster, had made himself king well before that. Indeed, Henry VII had picked up Richard III's crown at Bosworth. Nor had the Archbishop of Canterbury always been responsible for the coronation; Aldred, Archbishop of York, had crowned William the Conqueror (see Eric Linklater, _The Conquest of England_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 225).
Lambert eventually sailed from Ireland to Lancashire and took an army south (Gillingham, p. 250). We know very little about the resulting Battle of Stoke (June 15, 1487), except that, in the end, Henry VII's forces won; Lincoln was killed and Lambert captured (Gillingham, p. 252). Henry, who rarely showed much evidence of humanity, in this case was merciful and sent Lambert to work in the kitchens (Gillingham, p. 253).
Stoke was the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, though hardly the end of opposition to Henry VII. The people of Northumberland murdered their earl Henry Percy for failing to support Richard III at Bosworth (Kendall, pp. 458-459; contrary to the lies Shakespeare told, Richard III was very popular in the north of England, where he had ruled a sort of palatinate in the final years of Edward IV's reign). Henry VII himself executed Sir William Stanley, the man who had won the Battle of Bosworth for him by killing Richard III! (Kendrick, p. 457; Weir, p 236). He even went so far as to seize the property of his mother-in-law Elizabeth Woodville (Weir, pp. 232-233, who notes the strangeness of the idea of Elizabeth plotting against her own daughter, while noting a theory that she believed Henry VII, not Richard III, had killed her sons. But Weir thinks, and I tend to agree, that Elizabeth did not plot against Henry; Henry degraded her just to get his hands on her money).
And then there came Pretender #2, Perkin Warbeck, who (after some indecision about which member of the Yorkist dynasty to impersonate) decided that he was Richard of York, the younger of the Princes in the Tower. He proclaimed himself in 1491, and managed to get the support of Margaret of Burgundy and others. But by this time, Henry had quite a spy network built; Perkin aroused a lot of interest, but never managed to mount a real invasion; he landed in Cornwall with a few hundred men (Weir, p. 238), but ended up in Henry's custody, tried to escape, and was executed in 1499 (Seward, pp. 320-323). Warwick was executed soon after (Weir, p. 239). Presumably that was after this piece was written; for the story of Warbeck, see "The Praise of Waterford." - RBW
File: CrPS293
===
NAME: Mazlim's Mill
DESCRIPTION: "Now I am a bullock driver and I work for Mazlim's Mill, And pulling timber from Vine Creek I've nearly had my fill." The singer complains about the rain and advises listeners that it's better to "turn your bullock out" than work at the mill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 108, "Mazlim's Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA108
===
NAME: McAfee's Confession [Laws F13]
DESCRIPTION: McAfee, the singer, is raised by an uncle after being orphaned. As a youth he runs away and turns wild. Married to a good woman, he has an affair with Hettie Stout and murders his wife by giving her poison instead of medicine. He is condemned to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: homicide orphan adultery execution
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 28, 1825 - Hanging of John McAfee
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Laws F13, "McAfee's Confession"
Belden, pp. 317-321, "McAfee's Confession" (2 texts plus references to 4 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 133, "McFee's Confession" (2 texts plus a long excerpt, 1 tune)
Eddy 129, "McAfee's Confession" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 138, "McAfee's Confession" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 68, pp. 153-154, "Young McFee" (1 text)
JHCox 37, "McAfee's Confession" (2 texts plus references to 5 more, 1 tune)
JHCoxIIB, #6A-B, pp. 133-136, "McAfee's Confession" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
SharpAp 79, "Macafee's Congession, or Harry Gray" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Burt, pp. 22-24, "McAfee's Confession" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 136, "MacAfee's Confession" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 630, MCAFEECN*
Roud #449
NOTES: Laws lists this as a native American ballad, but there is British influence; Pound notes that her text concludes with a wish by McFee that he had "ten thousand pounds" to bring her back to life. This may be a moralizing addition, but clearly from a British source. - RBW
File: LF13
===
NAME: McCaffery (McCassery)
DESCRIPTION: A young man enlists in the 42nd Regiment; mistreated by his captain and confined to barracks for a trivial offense, he decides to kill the captain. He accidentally shoots his colonel instead, and is tried (at Liverpool Assizes) and hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: army violence crime execution homicide punishment revenge death soldier
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland,England) Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
MacSeegTrav 86, "McCaffery" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MCASSERY
Roud #1148
RECORDINGS:
May Bradley, "Calvery" (on Voice08)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Croppy Boy (I)" [Laws J14] (tune for Voice08)
NOTES: Hall, notes to Voice08, re "Calvery": "The story in the ballad is true in all its essentials. Patrick McCafferty was born in Mullingar, Co. West Meath, and in October 1860 enlisted at the age of seventeen in the 32nd Regiment.... McCafferty was tried at Liverpool Assizes and was hanged in Liverpool in front of Kirkdale gaol on January 11th, 1862. [ref. Roy Palmer, ed., _The Rambling Soldier_ (Alan Sutton, 1985).]" Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 8" - 1.3.03 has a more detailed account. - BS
When I met this song, I was surprised to find a soldier from the 42nd Regiment (the famous Black Watch) being tried in Liverpool; their base is in Perth. The likeliest explanation is that several sources confused the obscure 32nd regiment (which was, improbably enough, the Cornwall Regiment) with the famous 42nd, for which see songs such as "Wha Saw the Forty-Second." - RBW, (PJS)
File: McCST086
===
NAME: McCarthy's Song
DESCRIPTION: McCarthy stops in Pope's Harbour for a bottle at Brian's tavern. He treats all hands and he sleeps it off on the floor. Next morning the landlord wants his money. He staggers to Mrs. Haws who nursed his wounds at no charge. He swears not to return again.
AUTHOR: Michael McCarthy, school teacher at Taylor's Harbour, N.S. (Source: Creighton-NovaScotia)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: drink ordeal landlord
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-NovaScotia 133, "McCarthy's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS133 (Partial)
Roud #1832
NOTES: This song is item dH52 in Laws's Appendix II. - BS
File: CrNS133
===
NAME: McCarty's Widow
DESCRIPTION: "ItÕs just a year ago today I took to me a wife, And ever since sheÕs proved to be the burden of my life." The woman licked McCarty to death, but now that he is married to her, the singer vows she won't beat him. He hopes to beat her until she behaves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: marriage fight
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 93, "McCarty's Widow" (1 text)
Roud #5490
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
McCarthy's Widow
File: Dean093
===
NAME: McCassery: see McCaffery (McCassery) (File: McCST086)
===
NAME: McClenahan's Jean
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the beauty of McClenahan's Jean. When her father learns that they are courting, he vows "that in merriage we ne'er should be buckled thegither." He wants her to wed a rich old man. The singer casts scorn on her potential husband
AUTHOR: David Herbison? (Tune supplied by Sam Henry)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting father beauty lover
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H81, pp. 430-431, "McClenahan's Jean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7959
File: HHH081
===
NAME: McClure, The
DESCRIPTION: McClure sails for Naples with cargo of fish. They are boarded by sailors from a submarine who sink McClure with bombs. The crew are allowed to leave and are rescued by an Italian destroyer who take the Captain and crew of six to Cadiz
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: war sea ship ordeal
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 22/24, 1917 - McClure, out of St John's, captured and bombed by a German submarine off Cape Carbonara, Sardinia (Lehr/Best, Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 76, "The McClure" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LeBe076
===
NAME: McCracken's Ghost
DESCRIPTION: The singer encounters McCracken's ghost at midnight. He recounts the deaths of Irish heroes of the rebellion. He advises: take by force the Reform the English would not yield. You will free "the Green Isle and receive the world's thanks"
AUTHOR: James Hope and James Orr (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1893 (Young's _Ulster in '98_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion England Ireland patriotic ghost
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 112, "McCracken's Ghost" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Joy McCracken (I)" (character of Henry Joy McCracken) and references there
NOTES: It sounds as if this may have been written with reference to Gladstone's unsuccessful proposals for Home Rule. For background, see the notes to "Home Rule for Ireland"; for Henry Joy McCracken, see the notes to "Henry Joy McCracken (I)." - RBW
File: Moyl112
===
NAME: McDonald's (Is Your Kind of Place)
DESCRIPTION: "McDonalds is your kind of place, Hamburgers in your face, (French fries) up your nose, (Catsup) between your toes. The last time I was there, They stole my underwear, McDonalds (is the place for me/is your kind of place)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1984
KEYWORDS: nonballad parody humorous
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 38, "McDonald's" (1 text, tune referenced)
NOTES: I make the assumption that, if I learned a kids's song from a source other than my parents or school, it qualifies as a folk song. This seems to fit that bill.
The Pankakes claim that the tune of this is "Down by the Riverside." Not in the version I know! There is similarity, but they are definitely not the same. But I may not be typical. - RBW
File: PFCF038b
===
NAME: McDonald's Farm: see Old MacDonald Had a Farm (File: R457)
===
NAME: McFee's Confession: see McAfee's Confession [Laws F13] (File: LF13)
===
NAME: McGinty's Model Lodge
DESCRIPTION: The singer is "a kind of overseer in a famous hotel" in Glasgow: "a 'Model' lodging house where working men do stay.... All the fighting men in Glasgow's in MacGinty's model Lodge." He describes the fights over imagined offenses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: fight humorous nonballad worker
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 54, "McGinty's Model Lodge" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: McB1054
===
NAME: McGinty's Wedding: see Sheelicks (File: McCST109)
===
NAME: McKenna's Dream, The
DESCRIPTION: McKenna dreams of Ireland's heroes: Brian Boru, Sarsfield, St Ruth, Billy Byrne from Ballymanus, Reilly "on the hill of Screen," Father Murphy, the pikemen, Napoleon. "I looked around, but could not see One foeman on the plain... So ends McKenna's dream"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1850's (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: rebellion war Ireland dream patriotic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Zimmermann 65, "The McKenna's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 133, "McKenna's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-OISBv2, pp. 48-50, "M'Kenna's Dream" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 279-281, "MacKenna's Dream"  (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 89-92, 513, "MacKenna's Dream"
Roud #2377
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(357), "The Irishman's Vision," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also Firth b.25(357), "The Irishman's Vision"; 2806 b.10(133), "MacKenna's Dream"; Harding B 19(92), Harding B 26(434), 2806 c.8(115), "M'Kenna's Dream[!]"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Rock" (tune, per Zimmermann, Hoagland))
NOTES: Zimmermann: "Donal O'Sullivan ... tells me that towards the end of the last century, at Buncrana, a street-singer would often be brought before the R.M. who asked: 'What is the charge in this case?' The answer would usually be: 'Singing McKenna's Dream, Sir.'"
At the Battle of Clontarf, 1014, Brian Boru defeated a combined force of Vikings and rebels from Leinster, but died in the battle. [For Brian, see "Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave." - RBW]
At the Battle of Aughrim, 1691, the Irish Catholic forces [are finally defeated] and the commander of their French allies, St Ruth dies [see "After Aughrim's Great Disaster" - RBW].
Sarsfield is the Irish commander in 1691 who is on the field at Aughrim and Limerick (cf. "The Jackets Green")
United commander Billy Byrne is hanged in 1799 (cf. "Billy Byrne of Ballymanus")
The Wexford rebels under Father John Murphy defeat the North Cork militia in 1798. Father Murphy is caught and executed later in 1798 (cf. "Father Murphy (I).")
The pikemen fought for the rebels in the 1798 rebellion (cf. "General Monroe").
Reilly "on the hill of Screen" [i.e., Tara]. I don't know the reference, but "Rebels posted on Tara Hill, County Meath, were routed on May 26." (Zimmermann, p. 155) - BS
Although one would expect, from the contents of this song, that McKenna was a well-known Irish patriot, I have not been able to find any suitable candidate to be the dreamer. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte, "McKenna's Dream" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes) - BS
File: Zimm065
===
NAME: McKinley Brook
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the poor conditions in the McKinley Brook logging camp: The buildings leak ("for comfort, as you plainly see"); there is a risk of flood ("for they deserve it well, it's true") and the gambling and bawdy singing rarely stops
AUTHOR: George Calhoun (around 1869?)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: logger work hardtimes flood
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Doerflinger, pp. 220-221, "McKinley Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9426
File: Doe220
===
NAME: McLellan's Son
DESCRIPTION: On April 18 Daniel McLennan is shot accidentally by Tim who claims he was playing carelessly with a gun he did not know was loaded.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt)
KEYWORDS: homicide death friend youth
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Peacock, pp. 831-832, "Young Daniel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt, pp. 72-73, "Mind How You Trifle With a Gun" (1 text)
Mackenzie 151, "McLellan's Son" (1 text)
Roud #1969
NOTES: Peacock quotes Mackenzie in _Ballads and Songs of Nova Scotia_ re "McLellan's Son," his name for the song, that it was "made in commemoration of an accidental shooting ...[circa 1875] in Pugwash [Nova Scotia]" - BS
This is item dG43 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Pea831
===
NAME: McNab's Island
DESCRIPTION: Sergeant John McCafferty marches you "forty hours a day ... in the regular army." "I went down to McNab's Island" to fight Indians but "we got bald-headed And never lost a hair." "I got blisters... bunions...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: army humorous nonballad soldier
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-NovaScotia 134, "McNab's Island" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS134 (Partial)
Roud #1833
NOTES: Creighton-NovaScotia: "McNab's Island includes part of the fortification of Halifax Harbour" - BS
File: CrNS134
===
NAME: McSorley's Beautiful Twins: see McSorley's Twins (File: Dean046)
===
NAME: McSorley's Twins
DESCRIPTION: "Mrs. McSorley had fine bouncing twins, Two fat little devils they were." The parents determine on a grand christening; many come to join the party. As guests get drunk, fights break out; at last "they smothered the two little twins."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: baby humorous party mother father fight twins
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Canada
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Dean, pp. 46-47, "McSorley's Twins" (1 text)
DT, MCSORTWN
Roud #5501
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
McSorley's Beautiful Twins
File: Dean046
===
NAME: McTavish is Dead
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, McTavish is dead and his brother doesn't know it, His brother is dead and McTavish doesn't know it. They're both of them dead and they're lying in bed And neither one knows that the other is dead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1988
KEYWORDS: death
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 122, "McTavish Is Dead" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
MacTavish is Dead
NOTES: Said to have been used as mouth music for dancing. Presumably it is one of the several attempts to provide a lyric for "The Irish Washerwoman" -- in this case, probably just to help remember the tune. - RBW
File: PHCFS122
===
NAME: Me and My Baby and My Baby's Friend
DESCRIPTION: Floating verse song (even the chorus changes): "Me 'n' my baby 'n' my baby's friend Can pick mo' cotton dan a cotton gin." "I got a baby and a honey too." "Boat's up de ribber and she won't come down." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses love work
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 236, (no title) (1 text, which appears more a collection of blues stanzas than an actual song, but verses from songs such as "Boat's Up the River" and "I Got a Gal in de White Folks' Yard")
File: ScaNF236
===
NAME: Me Father Is a Lawyer in England: see My God, How the Money Rolls In; also My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher and The Cobbler (File: EM107)
===
NAME: Me Father's a Lawyer in England: see My God, How the Money Rolls In (File: EM107)
===
NAME: Me Johnny Mitchell Man
DESCRIPTION: A miner's song in "Slavic" dialect, telling how the immigrant has been working in the mines, in bad conditions, for many years. When "Me Johnny Mitchell man" calls a strike, the singer will welcome it
AUTHOR: Con Carbon
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938
KEYWORDS: emigration mining strike labor-movement
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1899 - John Mitchell becomes President of the United Mine Workers of America. He devoted much of his energy to soothing tensions between Slavs and longer-settled workers so that the UMW could effectively strike against the mine owners
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 865-867, "Me Johnny Mitchell Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4757
File: BAF865
===
NAME: Me Old Ragadoo
DESCRIPTION: Michael Chaser was born "with me hands in the pockets of me old ragadoo." At forty he meets Suzy Lagan but claims he won't shame her by taking her to the altar in his old ragadoo. She is fine with that and bids him adieu. He marries someone else.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting clothes humorous
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 77, "Me Old Ragadoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "Me Old Ragadoo" (on NFABest01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Beggarman" (tune, words)
NOTES: Lehr/Best: "A 'ragadoo' is a general name for a tattered garment, presumably with pockets."
This is close enough to "The Little Beggarman" that I could not argue too long if they were considered the same song. Clearly, one is derived from the other. The difference is that this song, in Lehr/Best, actually has a story (having nothing to do with begging). Nevertheless, I would bet that this is the derivative. - BS
File: LeBe077
===
NAME: Me One Man: see One Man Shall Mow My Meadow (File: ShH100)
===
NAME: Meagher's Children [Laws G25]
DESCRIPTION: Two girls, four and six years old, lose their way in the woods and die. It takes a hundred men a week to find their bodies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: children death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Apr 11, 1842 - "Two little girls from Preston Road into the woods did stray"
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws G25, "Meagher's Children"
Creighton-NovaScotia 135, "Meagher's Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 204-205, "Meagher's Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 75-77,248-249, "Lost Babes of Halifax" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 30, "The Lost Babes of Halifax (Meagher's Children)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 347, MEAGCHLD
Roud #1834
NOTES: Manny/Wilson: The initials of the author are disputed. Creighton refers to a copy with initials B.G.V. and Manny/Wilson refers to a copy with initials D.G.B. "An article in the Dartmouth Free Press, by Dr J P Martin, April 12, 1962, says decidedly that the author is Daniel G Blois, of The Gore, Hants County, Nova Scotia." - BS
File: LG25
===
NAME: Measles in the Spring, The: see The Sow Took the Measles (File: LoF015)
===
NAME: Meditations of an Old Bachelor (The Good Old-Fashioned Girl)
DESCRIPTION: "The girls today are different from those I used to know, They never seem contented unless they're on the go." He complains about makeup, short hair, etc.; "Womenly characteristics we loved and prized are few." He wants a "good old-fashioned girl."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: hair clothes courting bachelor
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 57, "Meditations of an Old Bachelor" (1 text)
Roud #7843
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Braw Servant Lasses" (subject)
NOTES: All I can say to the singer is, "You couldn't get a woman back when they *were* modest; why should they want you now when you're old and a grump?"
Despite this sort of whine, it's worth noting that the population of the planet has doubled repeatedly since this grouse was written (1920s?). Evidently most men can adapt to modern women. - RBW
File: Br3057
===
NAME: Meeks Family Murder (I), The [Laws F28]
DESCRIPTION: The Meeks Family (husband, wife, and three children) are lured from home by the Taylors. The parents and two children are killed, but wounded Nellie escapes to report the crime (the song details Nellie's story, and ends before the villains are captured)
AUTHOR: Arthur Wallace
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913
KEYWORDS: homicide family escape
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 11, 1894 - Gus Meeks, his wife, and two children are killed by William and George Taylor (who are suspected of cattle stealing). William Taylor was hanged; George escaped and was not recaptured
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws F28, "The Meeks Family Murder I"
Belden, pp. 404-412, "The Meeks Family Murder" (11 texts, 2 tunes, grouped into types A-E; the "A" group of 3 texts and 1 tune is this song; Belden however believes that A1 and A3 are mixtures of F28 and "The Meeks Family Murder (IV)," which is Belden's "B" group. "C" is "The Meeks Family Murder (V)", "D" is too brief to categorize, and "E" is not traditional)
Randolph 152, "The Meeks Murder" (4 texts, 1 tune; with the "B" and "C" texts being this song; the A text is Laws F30, and D is Laws F29)
Burt, pp. 232-234, "(The Meeks Massacre)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 719, MEEKMUR1*
Roud #2266
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder II" [Laws F29]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder III" [Laws F30]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder IV"
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder (V -- Nellie's Lament)"
NOTES: Belden has detailed notes on the history of this piece; it appears that the Taylors were unsavory sorts, perhaps guilty of cattle stealing, and their employee and tenant Gus Meeks -- given a pardon by the governor -- was going to provide evidence of their financial wrongdoing
The Taylors, knowing they were in trouble, offered Meeks a better job, and convinced him to go along with them, then tried to kill the whole family with axes and burn their bodies. The hay used in the fire, however, was wet, and so Nellie Meeks, once she awoke, was able to escape alive and report the crime.
Both brothers were sentenced to be hanged, but George escaped and no reliable evidence of his later career is available. Folklore, however, attended both George Taylor and Nellie Meeks for many years (e.g. Nellie is said to have borne a "dint" from the blow of the axe to her head for the rest of her life).
To tell this piece from the other Meeks ballads, consider this first stanza:
About a mile from Brownington
At the foot of Jenkins's hill,
Took place this awful murder
By the Taylors, George and Bill.
(Other versions of the song use stanzas of eight lines of this sort.)
This song seems to have mixed heavily with "The Meeks Family Murder IV."
- RBW
File: LF28
===
NAME: Meeks Family Murder (II), The [Laws F29]
DESCRIPTION: The Meeks Family (husband, wife, and three children) are lured from home by the Taylors. The parents and two children are killed, but wounded Nellie escapes to report the crime. The Taylors are captured and sentenced to die
AUTHOR: credited to Marion Anderson (1894)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: homicide children escape execution
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 11, 1894 - Gus Meeks, his wife, and two children are killed by William and George Taylor (who are suspected of cattle stealing). William Taylor was hanged; George escaped and was not recaptured
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws F29, "The Meeks Family Murder II"
Randolph 152, "The Meeks Murder" (4 texts, 1 tune, but Laws considers only the "D" text to be this song; "A" is F30 and "B" and "C" go with F28)
Burt, p. 235, "(The Meeks massacre)" (1 excerpt)
DT 797, MEEKMUR2
Roud #2267
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder I" [Laws F28]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder III" [Laws F30]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder IV"
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder (V -- Nellie's Lament)"
NOTES: For more historical details on this piece, see the notes to "The Meeks Family Murder" (I).
To tell this piece from the other Meeks ballads, consider this first stanza:
'Twas in the lovely springtime,
In the merry month of May,
When Meeks, his wife, and children
Were induced to go away. - RBW
File: LF29
===
NAME: Meeks Family Murder (III), The [Laws F30]
DESCRIPTION: Nellie Meeks recounts her fate. Her family (father, mother, and three children) are lured from home by the Taylors. The parents and two children are killed, but wounded Nellie escapes to report the crime and tell of being an orphan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: homicide family children orphan
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 11, 1894 - Gus Meeks, his wife, and two children are killed by William and George Taylor (who are suspected of cattle stealing). William Taylor was hanged; George escaped and was not recaptured
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws F30, "The Meeks Family Murder III"
Randolph 152, "The Meeks Murder" (4 texts, 1 tune, but Laws considers only the "A" text -- which has the only tune -- to be part of F30; "B" and "C" are F28 and "D" is F29)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 151-153, "The Meeks Murder" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 152A)
Burt, pp. 235-236, "(Nellie's Lament)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 796, MEEKMUR3
Roud #2268
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder I" [Laws F28]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder II" [Laws F29]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder IV"
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder (V -- Nellie's Lament)"
NOTES: For more historical details on this piece, see the notes to "The Meeks Family Murder" (I).
Rumor has it that Nellie (elsewhere called Sadie) Meeks herself sang this variant in the 1890s. One person who claimed to be a family relative denied this, saying that Nellie stayed with her grandmother until she married, gave birth, and died at the age of eighteen.
To tell this piece from the other Meeks ballads, consider this first verse:
We lived upon the Taylor's farm
Not many miles from town;
One night while we were all asleep
The Taylor boys came down.
 - RBW
File: LF30
===
NAME: Meeks Family Murder (IV), The
DESCRIPTION: George Meeks is in prison, but is offered a pardon to testify against the Taylors. The Taylors offer him a job and money to come with him, but then kill him and his family. Nellie escapes and laments being an orphan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1912 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: homicide family children orphan
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 11, 1894 - Gus Meeks, his wife, and two children are killed by William and George Taylor (who are suspected of cattle stealing). William Taylor was hanged; George escaped and was not recaptured
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 404-412, "The Meeks Family Murder" (11 texts, 2 tunes, grouped into types A-E; the "B" group of 5 texts and 1 tune is this song, though Laws lists only three texts -- B1, B3, and either B2 or B4, probably the latter -- as this piece; in addition, some of Belden's "A" texts, which belong to "The Meeks Family Murder (I)", appear to have mixed with this piece. Belden's "D" is too brief to categorize, and "E" is not traditional)
Roud #2269
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder I" [Laws F28]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder II" [Laws F29]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder III" [Laws F30]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder (V -- Nellie's Lament)"
NOTES: For more historical details on this piece, see the notes to "The Meeks Family Murder" (I).
This is item dF49 in Laws's Appendix II.
To tell this ballad from the other Meeks Murder songs, consider this first stanza:
In Milan, Sullivan County,
There lived a family poor,
A father and a mother,
Three children around the door. - RBW
File: Beld408A
===
NAME: Meeks Family Murder (V -- Nellie's Lament), The
DESCRIPTION: The singer laments, "Once I had a mamma, likewise a papa too." She recalls a beautiful, sunny day; the next thing she can remember is a pain in her head and the bodies of her family. Having told her tale, she regrets her fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: homicide family children orphan
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 11, 1894 - Gus Meeks, his wife, and two children are killed by William and George Taylor (who are suspected of cattle stealing). William Taylor was hanged; George escaped and was not recaptured
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 404-412, "The Meeks Family Murder" (11 texts, 2 tunes, grouped into types A-E; the "C" text is this song, while "A" is "The Meeks Family Murder (I)" and "B" is "The Meeks Family Murder (IV). Belden's "D" is too brief to categorize, and "E" is not traditional)
Roud #2270
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder I" [Laws F28]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder II" [Laws F29]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder III" [Laws F30]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder (IV)"
NOTES: For more historical details on this piece, see the notes to "The Meeks Family Murder" (I).
This is item dF50 in Laws's Appendix II.
To tell this ballad from the other Meeks Murder songs, consider the first line above and the chorus:
Sad, sad to be an orphan here,
No more to see my little sisters dear,
They are in heaven, the voices they are still,
The fatal blows were given upon the Jenkins Hill. - RBW
File: Beld407B
===
NAME: Meet Me at the Fair: see Meet Me in Saint Louis (File: R514)
===
NAME: Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis
DESCRIPTION: Louis returns from work to find Flossie not at home. Her note says that life is too slow, and tells him to "Meet me in St. Louis, Louis, Meet me at the fair; Don't tell me the lights are shining Any place but there." A despondent Louis prepares to move
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew B. Sterling / Music: Kerry Mills
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love travel separation abandonment
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1904 - St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition (World's Fair), for which Kerry Mills wrote this song
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 514, "Meet Me at the Fair" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 255, "Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis" (1 text)
Geller-Famous, pp. 241-244, "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7597
RECORDINGS:
Billy Murray, "Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis" (Victor 2850, 1904)
NOTES: Although the song pronounces the name of the town "St. Louie", no St. Louis resident ever uses that pronunciation, and we look upon it with disdain. - PJS
According to Geller, Sterling and a couple of friends visited a bar run by a man named Louis (Louie), and they called his product Louie as well. When Sterling came in, one of the others said, "Another Louie, Louie," and that inspired the idea. - RBW
File: R514
===
NAME: Meet Me in the Bottoms
DESCRIPTION: "Meet me in the bottoms with my boots and shoes, Whoo Lordy mamma, Great God A'mighty...." The singer "got to leave this town now." He notes that he sees both the woman he loves and the woman he hates every day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (recording, Davie Lee)
KEYWORDS: love separation clothes
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 97-98, (no title) (1 text); p. 274, "Meet Me in the Bottoms" (1 tune, partial text)
RECORDINGS:
Davie Lee, "Meet Me in the Bottoms" (on NFMAla6)
NOTES: Despite the fact that Davie Lee's version appears in the series of recordings, "Negro Folk Music of Alabama," he was recorded in Mississippi. - PJS
File: CNFM097
===
NAME: Meet Me in the Moonlight: see The Prisoner's Song (File: FSC100)
===
NAME: Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight
DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on his sweetheart to "Meet me tonight in the moonlight." He bids her come alone and hear his sad story. He is being sent to sea, and they must part. He expresses his hope to return in metaphors of a fine ship, angels' wings, etc.
AUTHOR: Joseph A. Wade
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: separation love
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Randolph 746, "Meet Me Tonight" (3 texts plus a gragment, 1 tune, although the "C" text is probably "The Prisoner's Song (I)")
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 489-491, "Meet Me Tonight" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 746A)
BrownIII 350, "The Prisoner's Song" (7 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 excerpts, and mention of 1 more; "A"-"C," plus probably the "D" excerpt, are "The Prisoner's Song (I)"; "E" and "G," plus perhaps the "H" fragment, are "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight"; "J" and "K" are "Sweet Lulur")
Sandburg, pp. 216-217, "Moonlight" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Belden, p. 494, "Beautiful Light o'er the Sea" (1 text, possibly mixed with something else)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 346-351, "New Jail/Prisoner's Song/Here's Adieu to all Judges and Juries" (1, not collected by Scarborough, of "Judges and Juries," plus 6 texts from her collections: "New Jail," "I'm Going To My New Jail Tomorrow," "New Jail," "Meet Me in the Moonlight," "The Great Ship," "Prisoner's Song"; 3 tunes on pp.449-450; the "A" fragment is probably "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight"; "B" and "D" are "New Jail" types; "C" is too short to classify; "E" is a mix of floating verse, "If I had a great ship on the ocean," "Let her go, let her go and God bless her," "Sometimes I'll live in the white house, sometimes I live in town..."; "F" may well have some Dalhart influence)
Roud #767
RECORDINGS:
Burnett & Rutherford, "Meet Me in the Moonlight" (Supertone 9443, 1929)
Carter Family, "Meet Me by Moonlight Alone" (Victor 23731, 1928) (Perfect 7-01-54/7-05-55, both 1937)
Bradley Kincaid, "I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me" (Vocalion 02686, 1934)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)"
cf. "I'm Dying for Someone to Love Me" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me
NOTES: This song later became merged with a version of "Botany Bay/Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries" to produce "The Prisoner's Song." See notes on that piece also, as they often cannot be distinguished. It doesn't help that that song was built out of traditional materials by Vernon Dalhart (or someone), and the Carter Family patched up a version also.
Belden's "Beautiful Light o'er the Sea" is a curiosity; it doesn't really look like this song -- but two of its three verses go with this song, and the whole theme is very similar. Since I haven't met the "other half" that gave it its title (indeed, it sounds more like a hymn than anything else), it seemed proper to file it here so people will realize that the "half and half" song exists.
Richard Dress informs us that Joseph Augustine Wade (1796?-1845) wrote the lyrics 'Meet me by moonlight alone, And then I will tell you a tale Must be told by the moonlight alone" around 1826. It seems to have been the only thing he ever did of significance; my sources don't even agree on whether his middle name was "Augustus" or "Augustine."
This latter piece can be found as broadside NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(83b) "Meet Me by Moonlight Alone," Poet's Box (Dundee), n.d. - RBW
File: R746
===
NAME: Meeting at the Building
DESCRIPTION: "Meeting at the building Soon be over (with) (x3), Meeting at the building soon be over (with), All over this world." "Preaching at the building...." Continue with shouting, praying, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 354, "Meeting At The Building" (1 text)
Roud #11694
SAME_TUNE:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Praying Time Will Soon Be Over" (on Cotten03) 
File: FSWB354
===
NAME: Meeting of Tara, The
DESCRIPTION: Thousands attend to support O'Connell and Repeal. The counties are represented. Dan appears: 3 cheers for Victoria, 9000 for Repeal. Wellington and Peel would face more men at Tara than at Waterloo. "Come rouse my brave Repealers be obedient to the law"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 19(102))
KEYWORDS: Ireland political
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Aug 15, 1843 - Repeal meeting at Tara (source: Zimmermann)
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Zimmermann 50B, "The Meeting of Tara" (1 fragment)
Healy-OISBv2, pp. 79-81, "The Meeting of Tara" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(102), "Meeting of Tara" ("On the 15th day of August in the year of 43"), J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also 2806 b.9(269), 2806 c.15(118), "The Meeting of Tara"; 2806 c.15(277), "The Tara Monster Meeting"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(065) , "The Tara Monster Meeting," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1843 [? see Notes] 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Glorious Repeal Meeting Held at Tara Hill" and references there
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)"  (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES: The description is from broadside Bodleian Harding B 19(102). A line from the broadside hints that it may date from after October 8 when the Clontarff meeting was abandoned: "Such a grand sight was never seen nor will till times no more."
The commentary for broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(065) states "The meeting at Tara, Co. Meath in the summer of 1843, is now estimated to have been attended by 750,000 people." It is interesting that that version, seemingly a duplicate of Bodleian 2806 c.15(277), is shortened to omit all reference to O'Connell: not only the final five verses but also the lines in the first verse ("On the Royal Hill of Tara, Irish thousands did prevail, In Union's hands to join their hands with Dan, for the Repeal" becomes "On the Royal Hill of Tara, Where thousands did prevail, In union's bonds to join their hands, To sign for the repeal.")
Be skeptical about NLS dating. L.C.Fol.178.A.2(065) has two entries which, when put together, seem the same as Bodleian 2806 c.15(277). "The Irish Girl" half has the printer's information; "The Tara Monster Meeting" half, of course, has no printer information. NLS dates "The Irish Girl" "Probable period of publication: 1860-1890" and "The Tara Monster Meeting" "Probable date published: 1843" - BS
Be skeptical about NLS numbers estimates, too -- 750,000 people was a tenth of the population of Ireland! Robert Kee (p. 208 of _The Most Distressful Country_, which is volume I of _The Green Flag_) mentions this estimate, but notes that it was from _The Nation_ -- which was pro-Irish. O'Connell's estimate was an even more absurd million and a half. A more realistic estimate is a quarter of a million (from Cecil Woodham-Smith, _The Great Hunger_, p. 11).
Nonetheless it is clear that O'Connell faced more people than Wellington at Waterloo. Wellington (who had been Prime Minister from 1828, and in fact granted Catholic emancipation) at Waterloo had faced only about 72,000 men under Napoleon.
"Repeal" was of course O'Connell's basic political platform; he wanted repeal of the Union between Ireland and Great Britain. 
Sadly, the Monster Meetings accomplished little. As Kee writes on p. 209, "The real question was whether the giant had a giant's strength. The closer O'Connell got to his goal the nearer came the moment whenthe question of how exactly he hoped to get Repeal if the government continued to stand firm had to be answered. This critical moment was in fact just seven weeks away."
O'Connell published a platform of reforms he sought, then scheduled another Monster Meeting for Clontarf, where Brian Boru had won his great victory.
The day before the meeting was to take place (October 5), the government decided it didn't trust O'Connell's protestations of loyalty. They banned the meeting. O'Connell could sure have held it anyway. But he stood firm to his principle of loyalty, cancelled the meeting -- and saw his movement all but collapse. He had blinked, and from being distrusted by the British, he now saw himself distrusted by the extreme radicals also.
Shortly after this, the government had O'Connell arrested. He was convicted in a farce trial and was sentences to a fairly brief spell of minimum-security detention. But, by the time he was free to move about again, the potato blight had arrived. Repeal was a fine principle, but what Ireland needed was food; the Liberator perforce spent his last years trying to prod a stubbornly non-interventionist government to provide aid.
The "Iron Duke" is of course the Duke of Wellington, victor at Waterloo, and a former Prime Minister; although his official government role was relatively slight by this time, he had an important role as an advisor to Sir Robert Peel's government and was overjoyed at the ending of the Monster Meetings. Sir Robert Peel himself (1788-1850) was Prime Minister for most of this period; some of his legislation, ironically, was pro-Irish, but he was anti-Whig and anti-O'Connell (and later would earn deserved infamy for his lack of response to the potato famine). Basically he believe in small government -- in all the bad senses. - RBW
File: Zimm050B
===
NAME: Meeting of the Waters, The
DESCRIPTION: "There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet As the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet" The magic of the spot "'twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near" 
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2174))
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad friend river
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
O'Conor, p. 54, "The Meeting of the Waters" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 15, "The Meeting of the Waters" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), p. 269, "The Meeting of the Waters" (1 text)
ST OCon054B (Partial)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2174), "Meeting of the Waters", G Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 11(584), Johnson Ballads fol. 18 View 2 of 2, Harding B 45(23) View 3 of 3, Harding B 11(4323), Harding B 11(4189), Harding B 15(195a), Harding B 17(193a), "[The] Meeting of the Waters"
SAME_TUNE:
The Head of Old Dennis (broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(193a))
NOTES: This is among the most popular of Moore's poems; _Granger's Index to Poetry_ cites four anthologies -- and none of them the usual suspects. - RBW
File: OCon054B
===
NAME: Melancholy Accident, A -- The Death of M. Hodge
DESCRIPTION: "Far distant friends will drop a tear When of this accident they hear." A group of girls visits Betsy Green's school. With bad weather coming, parents gather six girls -- but the horses fall on a slope; Mira is killed instantly; Eliza succumbs weeks later
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: death horse injury disaster wreck
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Gardner/Chickering 126, "A Melancholy Accident -- The Death of M. Hodge" (1 text)
ST GC126 (Partial)
Roud #3701
NOTES: This looks very historical, but it's not really specific enough (or clear enough; it's poor poetry) to allow much hope of dating it. - RBW
File: GC126
===
NAME: Memory of the Dead, The
DESCRIPTION: "Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight? Who blushes at the name?" The listeners are urged to recall the soldiers of the Irish rebellion, and to cherish their values
AUTHOR: Words: Joseph Kells Ingram (1823-1907)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1843 (Zimmermann: "According to _The Nation_, 12 April, 1843, 'The Memory of the Dead' was first sung in a 'Symposium' held on St. Patrick's Day")
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion memorial
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1798 - the 1798 Rebellion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
O'Conor, pp. 48-49, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text)
Zimmermann 51, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 136, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
PGalvin, pp. 39-40, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MEMRYDED*
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 276-277, "The Memory of the Dead"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 505-506, "The Memory of the Dead (1798)" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 63-64, 501, "The Memory of the Dead"
Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 90, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 80-82, "The Memory of the Dead"  (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Orange Yeomanry of '98" (lyrics)
SAME_TUNE:
Easter Week (The Song of 1916) (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 263-264)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Who Fears to Speak of Ninety-Eight?
NOTES: According to Robert Kee in _The Most Distressful Country_  (being Volume I of _The Green Flag_), p. 203, this poem served to rehabilitate Ireland's memory of the 1798 rebellion, which at the time it was published "had been under a polite historical cloud for nearly half a century."
In an irony pointed out by the semi-parody "The Orange Yeomanry of '98," it was initially published anonymously. - RBW
File: PGa039
===
NAME: Memphis Flu
DESCRIPTION: In 1929 people in Memphis are dying from influenza. Doctors say they will control the flu soon, but God shows his power by making them sick too. Influenza, "puts a pain in every bone/a few days you are gone/to a place in the ground called the grave." 
AUTHOR: Words: Elder David Curry/Music: Benjamin Hanby
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, Elder Curry & congregation)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: In 1929 people in Memphis are dying from influenza. Doctors say they will have the flu under control in a few days, but God shows his power by sending the doctors and nurses to sickbeds too. Influenza, "puts a pain in every bone/a few days you are gone/to a place in the ground called the grave." Ch.: "It was God's mighty hand/He is judging this old land...Yes, He killed the rich and poor/And he's going to kill more/If you don't turn away from your shame"
KEYWORDS: disease death religious doctor gods
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1918 - Influenza pandemic kills tens of millions worldwide.
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Elder Curry & Congregation, "Memphis Flu" (OKeh 8857, 1931; rec. 1930; on Babylon)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Nelly Gray" (tune)
NOTES: The 1918 pandemic was the most devastating in [recent] history; smaller outbreaks occurred in later years. Curry may be conflating one of these with the 1918 disease, the symptoms of which were closer to his description than those of "normal" flu. - PJS
File: RcMemFlu
===
NAME: Men Awaiting Trial for the Murders in Phoenix Park, The
DESCRIPTION: The men will be tried for murder on the evidence of the double-dyed informer Carey. He duped them and "pointed out the victims, the men that were to be stabbed"; "let us hope further fair play won't be denied." Carey should be given justice
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: betrayal homicide trial nonballad
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: The Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmermann, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-Labrador)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann, p. 63, "A New Song on the Men Awaiting Trial for the Murders in Phoenix Park" (1 fragment)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(427), "A New Song on The Men Awaiting Trial for the Murders in the Phoenix Park ("In the dark dismal dungeons and the cold prison cell ," unknown, n.d.
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads."
Zimmermann p. 63 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(427) is the basis for the description. - BS
File: BrdMATMP
===
NAME: Men of County Clare, The
DESCRIPTION: Toast "The men of County Clare!" Brian Boru's call to defeat of the Danes, and de Valera's call "to strike for native land" were answered by "the mighty men of Clare". Toast "'Our land a nation free again From Cork to Antrim's shore!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 48, "The Men of County Clare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5237
NOTES: At the Battle of Clontarf, 1014, Brian Boru defeated a combined force of Vikings and rebels from Leinster, but died in the battle.
The song mentions Eamon de Valera. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 6, 1921 established the Irish Free State. The Civil War that followed was between the pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions. De Valera led the ant-treaty faction. (source: _Irish Civil War_ at the Wikipedia site).- BS
For more on Brian Boru, see the notes to "Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave." For de Valera, the Free State, and the Civil War, see e.g. the notes to "The Irish Free State" and "General Michael Collins"; also "The Boys from County Cork." - RBW
File: RcMoCoCl
===
NAME: Men of the West, The
DESCRIPTION: "Forget not the boys of the heather Who rallied their bravest and best When Ireland was broken in Wexford And looked for revenge to the West." The brief success and final failure of the western rising are recounted.
AUTHOR: William Rooney
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (IRClancyMakem03)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland death derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1798 - Irish rebellion
Aug 22, 1798 - 1100 French troops under General Humbert land at Killala Bay in County Mayo. He would surrender on Sept. 8, and by May 23 the Mayo rising had been suppressed with some brutality
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
PGalvin, pp. 30-31, "The Men of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 114, "The Men of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MENWEST*
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Men of the West" (on IRClancyMakem03)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "Eoghan Coir" (tune according to Moylan, which tune we generally index as "Rosin the Beau")
cf. "Rouse, Hibernians" (subject)
cf. "The West's Asleep" (subject)
cf. "The Frenchmen" (subject)
NOTES: The 1798 rising had already been crushed (see the notes on ""The Shan Van Vogt" and "Boulavogue") when French general Humbert landed, largely on his own initiative, in County Mayo (August 1798). A few local peasants rose, and the local British forces were defeated at the "Races of Castlebar."
Castlebar was one of the most ignominous defeats in history: The Loyalists were on the defensive, in prepared trenches; their forces are thought to have been larger, and they had the overwhelming edge in artillery. But their Irish militiamen fled, and the handful of steadier forces could not hold in those circumstances.
Humbert, however, had only three ships, all frigates -- not enough men to do anything of significance. There was supposed to be another French force, under Hardy -- but it was delayed while its commander tried to get the money needed to pay  the troops out of the French government. 
Nor was the country particularly receptive when Humbert landed. Connaught had not rebelled at the height of the 1798 rising; a few French troops could not inspire a real rebellion. Worse still, the recruits he did get were Catholics, with few weapons, poor training, and no contact with the United Irish movement.
Humbert hardly helped his cause by an explosive temper. Nor did he help his cause by having no money; he issued drafts on the "Republic of Connaught," but in a country that had no banks, few even understood the cheques they were given in lieu of payment for what was requisitioned.
It's probably no surprise that Humbert soon had to surrender. He chased around the west of Ireland, and tried to open a way to Dublin, but eventually was trapped between forces led by Cornwallis and Lake; with no reliable troops except his French veterans, he had no choice but to yield to superior force on September 8, 1798. That was the effective end of Humbert's career; indeed, most references I checked don't even list his death date.
(If it matters, Robert Kee's _The Most Distressful Country_, being Volume I of _The Green Flag_, gives a brief account of his later career on page 140: He fell out with Napoleon and went to the United States, participating in the Battle of New Orleans. He participated in Mexico's 1815 rebellion against Spain, then went back to the U.S. where he died in 1823.)
There would be two more French naval expeditions in 1798; for the second, a single ship carrying Napper Tandy, see the notes to "The Wearing of the Green." The third and largest expedition, with Wolfe Tone aboard, is described under "The Shan Van Vogt." -  RBW
"Eoghan Coir" [the listed tune for this piece in some Irish sources] is a poem by Riocard Bairead (1740-1819) (source: "Riocard Bairead" in the _Ar gCeantar and Beyond_ project at the Inver National School site). - BS
File: PGa030
===
NAME: Men's Clothes I Will Put On (I): see William and Nancy I (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)
===
NAME: Men's Clothes I Will Put On (II): see The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II) [Laws N9] (File: LN09)
===
NAME: Men's Clothes I Will Put On (III): see Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)
===
NAME: Merchant and the Beggar Wench, The: see The Beggar Wench (File: K338)
===
NAME: Merchant's Daughter (I), The: see The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)
===
NAME: Merchant's Daughter (II), The: see The Slighted Suitor (File: HHH159)
===
NAME: Merchant's Daughter Turned Sailor, The: see The Silk Merchant's Daughter [Laws N10] (File: LN10)
===
NAME: Merchant's Only Son, The [Laws M21]
DESCRIPTION: A young man's parents send him to America to keep him from marrying a poor girl. He reaches land despite his ship's wreck. He meets a rich girl who offers marriage, but he remains true to the girl at home. The rich girl gives him money to return to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(224))
KEYWORDS: transportation exile courting poverty ship wreck escape return
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws M21, "The Merchant's Only Son"
Ranson, pp. 48-49, "The North Star" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 74, "The Merchant's Only Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 764, MERCHSON
Roud #1019
RECORDINGS:
Martin Howley, "The North Star" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(224), "The Belfast Lovers" ("You lovers all attention pay, the truth I will pen down"), T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Johnson Ballads 1895, "The Belfast Lovers"; 2806 c.8(156), "The Limerick Lovers"; 2806 b.9(65), "The Lovers of Derry"
NOTES: Ranson: Tune is "Thomas Murphy" on p. 98.
Ranson's version makes the lost ship the _North Star_, an historical wreck on the Welsh coast (see "The North Star") - BS
File: LM21
===
NAME: Merchant's Son and the Beggar Wench, The: see The Beggar Wench (File: K338)
===
NAME: Merchants of Fogo, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye toil-warn fishermen ... lend an ear; Beware of those cursed merchants, in their dealings they're not fair; For fish they'll give half value." All local merchants are thieves except the Hodge brothers; "they've showed justice to each man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: greed accusation commerce nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 149, "The Merchants of Fogo" (1 text)
Roud #17749
NOTES: Fogo, on Fogo Island, is up the East Coast about 170 miles north of Saint John's. Greenleaf/Mansfield states "This song with its coarse slander and gossip was made up in praise of the Hodge Brothers [by] ... a man ... hoping to curry favor." Mr Hodge, however, was not impressed. - BS
File: GrMa149
===
NAME: Merchants of the Bay
DESCRIPTION: The merchants of the village of St Peter's Bay are named and characterized: good and bad. "Oh those were spirit stirring times, some twenty years ago" Times have changed for the worse; some remaining moderns are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 23-24, "Merchants of the Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12478
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago)" (tune)
NOTES:  St Peter's is on the north coast of Kings, Prince Edward Island - BS
File: Dib023
===
NAME: Merchants, The
DESCRIPTION: "It's all about the cruel rogues of merchants No pity or love do they show." They live a life of ease and luxury and sell poor goods and show no charity. But death found rich and poor on Florizel and Titanic and will find the merchants too.
AUTHOR: Paddy Dover
EARLIEST_DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness poverty commerce nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 78, "The Merchants" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Florizel and Titanic, of course, are famous Newfoundland wrecks with songs of their own. - BS
It's a sad irony to note that, on the Titanic at least, losses were heavier among the third class passengers (who were down below) than the rich in first class. - RBW
File: LeBe078
===
NAME: Mercy, O Thou Son of David: see references under This Old World (File: DarN259B)
===
NAME: Mermaid, The [Child 289]
DESCRIPTION: A group of sailors see a mermaid (meaning that they can expect a shipwreck). Various crew members lament the families they are leaving behind. The ship sinks.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765?
KEYWORDS: mermaid/man ship sea wreck
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,NE,NW,Ro,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (37 citations)
Child 289, "The Mermaid" (6 texts)
Bronson 289, "The Mermaid" (42 versions)
SharpAp 42, "The Mermaid" (3 texts plus 1fragment, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #17, #41, #24, #14}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 363-368, "The Mermaid" (3 texts plus a fragment and a version from the Forget-me-not Songster, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Flanders-Ancient4, pp. 271-280, "The Mermaid" (4 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {E=Bronson's #39}
Belden, pp. 101-102, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Randolph 39, "The Wrecked Ship" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #42, #40}
Davis-Ballads 48, "The Mermaid" (8 texts plus 4 fragments, the last of which may not be this song; 2 tunes entitled "The Stormy Winds," "The Mermaid"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #22, #12}
Davis-More 44, pp. 344-349, "The Mermaid" (3 texts, 1 tune)
BrownII 48, "The Mermaid" (2 texts)
Chappell-FSRA 23, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Hudson 26, p. 127, "The Mermaid" (1 short text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 189-190, "TheMermaid" (1 text)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 26, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 106-107, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #31}
Blondahl, p. 90, "Black Friday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt, p. 38, "Then Turn Out You Jolly Tars" (1 fragment)
Mackenzie 16, "The Royal George" (1 text)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 34-35, (no title) (1 fragment)
Leach, pp. 673-674, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 404, "The Mermaid" (2 texts, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 71, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 62, "The Mermaid" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 70-71, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 98-99, "Waves on the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 562-563, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 147-149, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 560, "The Mermaid" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, p. 124, (no title) (1 fragment, almost certainly of this song)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 71-73, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 11, pp. 26-27, "Three Sailor Boys" (1 text)
JHCox 33, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Ord, pp. 333-334, "The Mermaid" (1 text plus a fragment)
Silber-FSWB, p. 93, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
BBI, ZN2143, "On a Friday morning we set sail"
DT 289, MERMDFRI* MERMAID3* WAVESSEA* MERMAID5*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #413, "One Friday Morn" (1 text)
ST C289 (Full)
Roud #124
RECORDINGS:
Emma Dusenberry, "The Mermaid" (AFS, 1936; on LC58) {Bronson's #40}
William Howell, "The Mermaid" (on FSBBAL2)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "The Mermaid Song" (on BLLunsford01) {cf. Bronson's #32}
New Lost City Ramblers, "Raging Sea" (on NLCR02)
Ernest Stoneman & His Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers, "The Raging Sea, How It Roars" (Victor Vi 21648, 1928) {Bronson's #20}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(273), "The Mermaid" ("One Friday morning we set sail"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(3641), Harding B 11(3642), 2806 c.17(272), Harding B 11(2228), Harding B 11(2519), Firth c.12(413), 2806 c.17(271), 2806 c.17(275), Harding B 11(2404), Harding B 11(2603), Harding B 11(2403), "The Mermaid"; 2806 c.13(248), Firth c.12(414), Harding B 11(3146), "The Mermaid" or "The Gallant Ship"
LOCSinging, sb20297a, "The Mermaid," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Sinking Ship
Oh, the Lamp Burns Dimly Down Below
The Stormy Winds Do Blo
NOTES: Legend has it that a ship that sees a mermaid will be destroyed. (Some versions say that all aboard are to be drowned as well, but they could hardly drown at the time; else how would anyone know what destroyed the ship?) Ord also notes that it was considered unlucky for ships to sail on a Friday -- and most versions do seem to involve sailing on that day.
One of the verses of this, "three times around went our gallant ship," seems to have circulated independently as a nursery rhyme; see, e.g., Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #862, p. 322. - RBW
Creighton-Maritime moves the locale to New York City: "board bill on Fifth Avenue," "sweetheart in Madison's Square," and the wreck [took place] as "we neared Jersey flats, Sandy Hook was on our lea." - BS
File: C289
===
NAME: Merman, The (Pretty Fair Maid with a Tail) [Laws K24]
DESCRIPTION: The crew is waiting for a breeze to carry them south when a merman appears with a shout. The ship's anchor has stopped his front door! The merman reveals that he is a sailor who was washed overboard. Having married a mermaid, he grew a tail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.26(152))
KEYWORDS: ship mermaid/man
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws K24, "The Merman (Pretty Fair Maid with a Tail)"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 64, "The Pretty Fair Maid with a Tail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 131-133, "The Merman" (1 text)
Ranson, pp. 30-31, "The Merman" (1 text)
DT 564, MERMAN
Roud #1898
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(152), "The Merman", T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Diving Bell (The Mermaid (II))" (plot)
cf. "Change Islands Song" (plot)
cf. "Married to a Mermaid" (theme of marrying a mermaid)
File: LK24
===
NAME: Merner Song, The
DESCRIPTION: In November Billy Merner came to Darlingtown and moved in with the Sargents. At Christmas he got drunk, "raked poor Bessie," and left. No one whose "Head is good and sound ... let Will Merner come back to Darlingtown."
AUTHOR: Wilmot MacDonald
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Ives-NewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: home drink hunting
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 83-87, "The Merner Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1950
File: IvNB083
===
NAME: Merrily We Roll Along: see Goodnight Ladies (File: FSWB258A)
===
NAME: Merrimac (I), The
DESCRIPTION: "The Merrimac she went out; The Yankees wa'n't a-thinking. The fust thing the Yankees knew, the Cumberland was a-sinking... Holler, boys, oh, holler! ... You ought to seen her go down." The Merrimac sinks the Congress also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar navy war ship
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: March 8, 1862 - U.S. frigates Congress and Cumberland sunk by the CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac). The Minnesota runs aground; had not the Monitor arrived the next day, the Merrimac would have sunk that ship also
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 226, "The Merrimac" (1 text, probably fragmentary)
Roud #6569
File: BrII226
===
NAME: Merrimac (II), The: see The Cumberland [Laws A26] (File: LA26)
===
NAME: Merry Bagpipes, The: see The Northumbrian Bagpipes (File: StoR032)
===
NAME: Merry Golden Lee, The: see The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)
===
NAME: Merry Golden Tree, The: see The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)
===
NAME: Merry Green Fields of the Lowland, The: see Old MacDonald Had a Farm (File: R457)
===
NAME: Merry Haymakers, The
DESCRIPTION: In (May), the creatures cavort in the fine weather. Assorted men and women join together to cut the hay and frolic. Several are introduced as they arrive. In addition to cutting the fields, they may find other ways of making hay....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1857 (Bell); c.1720 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(154))
KEYWORDS: farming work love courting
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H697, pp. 278-279, "Tumbling through the Hay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 255, "The Merry Haymakers" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MONTH MAY
Roud #153
RECORDINGS:
Bob & Ron Copper, "The Merry Haymakers" (on FSB3)
Sam Larner, "The Pleasant Month of May" (on Voice05)
Levi Smith, "The Haymakers" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(154), "The Merry Hay-makers" or "Pleasant Pastime, Between the Young- Men and Maids, in the Pleasant Meadows" ("In our country, in our country"), S. Bates (London), [c.1720]; also Mus. 1 c.118(6e)[title and many words illegible], "The Merry Hay-makers"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Month of May
NOTES: For another version see Robert Bell, editor, [The Project Gutenberg EBook (1996) of] Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (1857), "The Haymaker's Song" ("In the merry month of June") - BS 
File: HHH697
===
NAME: Merry Man, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer drinks whisky with friends from morning till night. He hates men too miserly to spend their money on drink. He wants no crying or paid keeners at his wake: everyone should toast his journey. All should sing when carrying his body to the grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(549))
KEYWORDS: death money drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 101-105, "The Merry Man" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(549), "Drinking Song" ("I am a young fellow that loves to be mellow"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819
File: CrPS101
===
NAME: Merry Shanty Boys, The
DESCRIPTION: "We are a band of shanty boys, as merry as can be, No matter where we go, my boys, We're always gay and free." The men go out in the morning to cut the trees, sharpen their axes and relax in the evening, bring the logs to market, and celebrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Rickaby), from a nineteenth-century broadside
KEYWORDS: logger work food nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Rickaby 31, "The Merry Shanty Boys" (1 text)
NOTES: Rickaby prints this, but it appears to be entirely from print. And, despite his comment about its quality, it strikes me as something no shantyman would actually sing. - RBW
File: Rick122
===
NAME: Messenger Song, The
DESCRIPTION: The horse, a descendent of Messenger, reports on its frisky behavior with its handlers. They respond by beating the animal. It breaks down the door and flees; it boasts of its new freedom and its abilities
AUTHOR: John Calhoun?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: horse abuse escape freedom
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Doerflinger, p. 266, "The Messenger Song" (1 text)
Manny/Wilson 33, "The Messenger Song (John Calhoun's Colt)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe266a (Partial)
Roud #4166
NOTES: Messenger was a famous horse of the nineteenth century; Manny and Wilson note that he "was foaled in 1780, imported to the United States in 1788, and died in 1808, leaving a large progeny."
This song is item dH49 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe266a
===
NAME: Met Mister Rabbit
DESCRIPTION: "Met Mister Rabbit one night, All dressed in his plug hat, He turned his nose up in the air, Said, 'I'se gwine to Julia's ball, So good night, possums all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal dancing
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 176, (no title) (1 short text)
File: ScaNF176
===
NAME: Metamorphoses, Les (Metamorphoses)
DESCRIPTION: French. The male magician is trying to seduce the female. She will be game in a pond and he will hunt her.... She will die and go to heaven and he will be St Peter to open the door. She says, Since you are inevitable, you may as well have me as another.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rape seduction shape-changing magic
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf,West)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 788-789, "Je me mettrai gibier dans un etang" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Si tu reviens Dimanche
NOTES: Child, in his notes to The Twa Magicians [Child 44] gives an extensive description of this ballad [in] the French form. He cites 14 sources, often with names that translate along the lines of "Transformations," "The Mistress Won," and "The Pursuit of Love." Incidentally, he notes that the "French ballad generally begins with a young man's announcing that he has won a mistress, and he intends to pay her a visit on Sunday...." 
In that connection, the Brandon [Manitoba] University site for the journal Ecclectica inludes two verses of the ballad, collected in Manitoba, under the title "Si tu reviens dimanche" (If you return Sunday), "The Songs of Their Fathers" by Lynn Whidden, _Ecclectica_, August 2003
Peacock's version is not as complete as Child's summary. The male verses end "par amitie" (by friendship) while the female verses end "Tout ce que t'auras de moi aucun agrement" (what you have of me is without my agreement). She will be game in a pond and he will hunt her. She will be a rose and he will be a fireman to warm her. She will be the moon and he will be a cloud to cover her.  She will become sick and he will be a doctor to cure her. She will die and go to heaven and he will be St Peter to open the door.
 Peacock ends here but, according to Child, "she says, Since you are inevitable, you may as well have me as another; or more complaisantly, Je me donnerai a toi, puisque tu m'aimes tant." - BS
File: Pea788
===
NAME: Methodist Pie
DESCRIPTION: The singer attends a camp meeting and reports on the goings-on. (S)he enjoys food and music greatly. (S)he maintains, "Oh, little children, I believe (x3); I'm a Methodist till I die...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1912 (Perrow)
KEYWORDS: music religious
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 291, "Methodist Pie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 248-250, "Methodist Pie" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 291A)
DT, METHPIE
Roud #7823
RECORDINGS:
Ashley's Melody Men, "Methodist Pie" (Victor 23661, 1932)
Bob Atcher, "Methodist Pie" (Columbia 20482, 1948; rec. 1947)
Gene Autry, "Methodist Pie" (Oriole 8103, c. 1932)
Bradley Kincaid, "Methodist Pie" (Gennett 6417/Champion 15631 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9210/Silvertone 8220, 1928) (Brunswick 420/Supertone S-2018, 1930)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Hard Trials" (floating verses)
File: R291
===
NAME: Mexico, The
DESCRIPTION: Mexico is wrecked on Keeragh rocks when the captain "lost his bearings." Fourteen Fethard men set out to rescue the crew "but their boat was smashed upon the rocks": Nine are drowned; the remaining five get the crew to an island and 12 are rescued.
AUTHOR: John Codd
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Feb 20-21, 1914 - The Mexico wreck
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 28-30, "The Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fethard Life-Boat Crew (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Fethard Life-Boat Crew (II)" (subject)
cf. "The Fethard Life-Boat Crew (III)" (subject)
cf. "Loss of the Life-Boat Crew at Fethard" (subject)
NOTES: February 20, 1914: "Nine members of the Fethard lifeboat were drowned when going to the assistance of the Norwegian steamer _Mexico_.... Eight of the Mexico's crew were saved by the five lifeboat survivors. All but one of the stranded survivors were saved with great difficulty the next day." (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, pp. 52-53) - BS
We note that at least four poems were written about this disaster (see the cross-references); one suspects a campaign to raise money for someone's family. - RBW
File: Ran028
===
NAME: Mhaighdean Mara, An (The Mermaid)
DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic. Blond Mary Chinidh, whose mother is a mermaid, swims Lake Erne forever. She loves blond sailor Patrick.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (recording, Kitty Gallagher) 
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love nonballad supernatural family mother mermaid/man
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 58, "An Mhaighdean Mara" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Kitty Gallagher, "An Mhaighdean Mhara (The Mermaid Song)" [fragment] (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
NOTES: The description follows the translation for "An Mhaighdean Mara" at _Clannad_ on Celtic Lyrics Corner site. - BS
Paul Stamler gives this description of Kitty Gallagher's version, which is however a translation of an excerpt of a fragment: "The singer, Mary Heeney, having swum the Erne, speaks to her girl Maire and (husband?) Patrick. Maire then speaks, saying that her mother was a mermaid." - PHS, (RBW)
File: TSF058
===
NAME: Michael Boylan
DESCRIPTION: Boylan, a United man, is taken prisoner to Drogheda June 3. Dan Kelly swears falsely that Boylan had 10,000 at his command "to assist the French invaders as soon as they would land ... and the jury cried out, Boylan you must die by martial laws"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1798 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: rebellion betrayal execution prison Ireland
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 22, 1798 - Michael Boylan is hanged at the Tholsel, Drogheda. (source: Moylan)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Zimmermann 15, "Michael Boylan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 66, "In Collon I Was Taken" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: "Michael Boylan" has the form of a gallows-confession except that the condemned man is a hero rather than a criminal. We have the usual farewell to an "aged father" and mother and the final request that "good Christians pray for me."
Moylan's account of the event has Kelly, the informer, enraged by Boylan's defection: Boylan was supposed to lead the pikemen to fight on Tara May 23, 1798 but, on that night, he refused to leave his house. - BS
Drogheda, we note, is in County Louth, near the border with Meath, north of Dublin and at the southern edge of Ulster. Collon is about a dozen miles north and west of there, again in County Louth.
Unless Boylan was taken far away from the city where he was tried, the charges against him do sound exaggerated; there weren't that many active rebels in that area. The nearest rebel activity was in County Meath, and that pretty feeble. - RBW
File: Zimm015
===
NAME: Michael Davitt
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the Lords and and the Commons, Bill Gladstone and Bright" passed Coercion "and arrests and evictions are going on still." Davitt, Dillon, Parnell, "Kettle and Brennan, and two hundred more" are arrested. "[T]he land it is ours and we mean to be free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1881 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: prison farming Ireland political
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 80, "A New Song on Michael Davitt" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale" or "The Arrest of Parnell" (subject)
cf. "The Land League's Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland" (subject)
cf. "Erin's Lament for her Davitt Asthore" (subject of Michael Davitt)
cf. "Garryowen (II)" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 40(17))
NOTES: Bodleian, Harding B 40(17), "A New Song on Michael Davitt ("Then up with the flag, raised by Davitt, our head"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 is apparently this ballad but I could not download the image to verify that. It has the tune as "Garryowen." 
"A Coercion Act, I should explain, is defined to be a statute which is not a part of the general law, but applies only to some specified portion of the kingdom. And within the limits to which it applies it arms the police with powers unknown to the ordinary law, and sometimes foreign to the spirit of that law." (source: _The Lighter Side of My Official Life_ by Sir Robert Anderson, 1910 on the Casebook site re Jack the Ripper).
In 1881 Gladstone established "the Irish Coercion Act that let the Viceroy detain people for as 'long as was thought necessary.'" (source: "William Ewart Gladstone" in Wikipedia)
Zimmermann: "A.J Kettle and Thomas Brennan were Land Leagers arrested in 1881.... John Dillon was arrested in May 1881, but was released later on grounds of ill-health." 
Zimmermann p.281: "Michael Davitt, who had been sentenced in 1870 to fifteen years' penal servitude for his share in the Fenian movement and released in 1877, was re-arrested in February 1881. Released in 1882, he was again prosecuted for seditious speeches and imprisoned for four months in 1883 ...." - BS
Considering that Gladstone worked for most of his career trying to improve conditions in Ireland, and passed much relief legislation, and on one occasion lost a confidence vote over a proposal for Home Rule, this is a pretty unfair accusation. It was the Tories who opposed rights for Ireland. Yes, Gladstone at times was forced to clamp the lid down, but it was hardly something he desired. Unfortunately, he inherited an Ireland which was in turmoil over tenants' rights (see, e.g., "The Bold Tenant Farmer"). He also had to contend with the Phoenix Park Murders (see the notes to "The Phoenix Park Tragedy"). The situation was bad enough that any government would have been forced into a crackdown.
John Bright (1811-1889) is a more confusing case: He was a pacifist, but an imperialist, and supported more freedom for Ireland and India, but opposed Home Rule in 1886.
Michael Davitt (1846-1906), having seen his family evicted from their land at five and then lost his arm in an industrial accident at the age of 12 (see Robert Kee, _The Bold Fenian Men_, being volume II of _The Green Flag_, p. 74), started out as a radical, and though he moderated over the years, he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in 1870. Released after half that time, he allied with Charles Stewart Parnell to form the Land League, though they would later fall out violently. He was imprisoned again from 1881-1882, this time apparently for more conservative views. (Altogether he is a very confusing figure, at least to me.) In 1886, he suppored home rule (Kee, p. 119).
His popularity is a bit ironic, given that he was anti-clerical and inclined toward socialist solutions.
For more on Davitt, see the notes to "The Bold Tenant Farmer" and "Erin's Lament for her Davitt Asthore."
John Dillon (1851-1927) came from a wealthy background but spent most of his life campaigning for land reform; he was four times imprisoned despite spending most of the years 1880-1918 in parliament.
For Parnell (1846-1891), see the various songs in the cross-references.
The other imprisoned Land Leaguers, Kettle and Brennan, were not noteworthy enough to show up in hte histories I checked. - RBW
File: Zimm080
===
NAME: Michael Dwyer (I)
DESCRIPTION: "At length brave Michael Dwyer and his undaunted men Were scented o'er the mountains and tracked into the glen." Dwyer and three men are trapped by the British in a house afire. One, wounded, tries to delay the police, but only Dwyer escapes
AUTHOR: Timothy Daniel Sullivan (1827-1914)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion police escape death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: February 15, 1799 - Michael Dwyer escapes from the Glengarry Regiment (source: Moylan)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
O'Conor, pp. 44-45, "Michael Dwyer" (1 text)
Moylan 142, "Michael Dwyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 30, "Michael O'Dwyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
PGalvin, pp. 95-96, "Michael Dwyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5219
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Michael O'Dwyer" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Dwyer (II)" (subject)
cf. "Captain Dwyer" (subject)
cf. "Michael Dwyer's Lament" (subject)
cf. "The Mountain Men" (subject)
cf. "Twenty Men from Dublin Town" (subject)
NOTES: Moylan: "Michael Dwyer was a Wicklow man, a member of the United Irishmen, who fought during the 1798 rebellion, and who waged a guerilla war in the Wicklow mountains for several years afterwards."
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan: "Michael Dwyer (1771-1826) is a genuinely romantic figure in Irish history. An outlaw 'on his keeping' in the Wicklow hills after the rebellion of 1798 he is remembered by the folk is the same light as Robin Hood or Jessie James are in other traditions." - BS
Sullivan is the author of a number of Irish patriotic poems, of which "God Save Ireland" is probably the best-known. Dwyer also attracted the attention of that militant writer, Peadar Kearney, who produced the Irish national anthem "The Soldier's Song," as well as such pieces as "Whack Fol the Diddle (God Bless England)."
As a historical figure, Dwyer was less important; of the five histories I checked, only Robert Kee's _The Green Flag_ mentions him, and only to note that he was a Catholic (unlike many leaders of the 1798 rebellion), and that after the United Irish collapse, he fought on in the Wicklow Mountains until about the time of Robert Emmet's rebellion.
According to the _Oxford Companion to Irish History_, his dates were 1771-1826; he surrendered to the British in 1803 and was transported to Australia. He became High Constable of Sydney in 1815. He does not seem to have been notable in that post (none of my histories of Australia mention him) -- but I find it somewhat ironic to imagine the former outlaw commanding the forces responsible for tracking down outlaws and bushrangers. - RBW
File: PGa095
===
NAME: Michael Dwyer (II)
DESCRIPTION: "Have you heard of Michael Dwyer and his mountain men?' Dwyer fought when "our flag went down And the nation's hope was banished." Ireland won't have Liberty again "till we strike like Michael Dwyer and his mountain men"
AUTHOR: Peadar Kearney (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 2000 (Moylan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nonballad patriotic Ireland
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 143, "Michael Dwyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Dwyer (I)" (subject of Michael Dwyer) and references there
NOTES: Moylan: "Michael Dwyer was a Wicklow man, a member of the United Irishmen, who fought during the 1798 rebellion, and who waged a guerilla war in the Wicklow mountains for several years afterwards." - BS
Peadar Kearny was the author of, among other things, the Irish national anthem "The Soldier's Song," as well as such pieces as "Whack Fol the Diddle (God Bless England)"; for more on him, see the notes to the latter song. It is perhaps no surprise to find him writing in praise of a covert warrior. Dwyer also attracted the attention of T. D. Sullivan, author of "God Save Ireland," who wrote "Michael Dwyer (I)."
As a historical figure, Dwyer was less important; of the five histories I checked, only Robert Kee's _The Green Flag_ mentions him, and only to note that he was a Catholic (unlike many leaders of the 1798 rebellion), and that after the United Irish collapse, he fought on in the Wicklow Mountains until about the time of Robert Emmet's rebellion.
According to the _Oxford Companion to Irish History_, his dates were 1771-1826; he surrendered to the British in 1803 and was transported to Australia. He became High Constable of Sydney in 1815. He does not seem to have been notable in that post (none of my histories of Australia mention him) -- but I find it somewhat ironic to imagine the former outlaw commanding the forces responsible for tracking down outlaws and bushrangers. - RBW
File: Moyl143
===
NAME: Michael Dwyer's Lament
DESCRIPTION: "To Wicklow's Glens he'd started, from Father Murphy parted." Michael Dwyer continues the fight from the mountains. Some 1798 battles and United Men are listed: "Their Cause it could have gained, then, a Liberty for all!"
AUTHOR: Mick Fowler (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 2000 (Moylan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 145, "Michael Dwyer's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Dwyer (I)" (subject of Michael Dwyer) and references there
NOTES: Moylan: "This song ... was written in 1998 by Dublin singer Mick Fowler."
Moylan: "Michael Dwyer was a Wicklow man, a member of the United Irishmen, who fought during the 1798 rebellion, and who waged a guerilla war in the Wicklow mountains for several years afterwards." - BS
For background on Dwyer -- and his eventual surrender to the British authorities -- see the notes to "Michael Dwyer (I)" or "Michael Dwyer (II)." - RBW
File: Moyl145
===
NAME: Michael Finnegan
DESCRIPTION: Of the exploits of Michael Finnegan, constantly urged to "begin again" after a variety of escapades such as the wind blowing his whiskers back into his chin, or growing fat and then growing thin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1971
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 242, "Michael Finnigan" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 201, "Michael Finnigan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MIKFINEG
Roud #10541
NOTES: It perhaps says something about the American education system that this song was forced upon me in grade school, but the schools would never have even contemplated a serious ballad with something resembling actual content.... - RBW
File: FSWB242B
===
NAME: Michael FinnIgan: see Michael Finnegan (File: FSWB242B)
===
NAME: Michael James
DESCRIPTION: "IÕm as happy as can be, Faith, there is merriment in me," because the singer, when he came home, found he was the father of a boy. He had waited ten years for his first child. He will name the boy Michael James, and boasts of how he will care for it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: baby father
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 77, "Michael James" (1 text)
Roud #9566
File: Dean077
===
NAME: Michael O'Brien
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you girls ... A man like me with property free -- how can you pass him by?" He lists his assets. But "the girls won't keep my company, they say my breath is bad ... So I'll take a stroll for the good of my soul and see my neighbor's wife"
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957 (Ives-DullCare)
KEYWORDS: courting bragging humorous nonballad bachelor
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 52-53, 249, "Michael O'Brien" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13990
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bachelor's Hall (III)"
NOTES: Ives-DullCare: "It's worth pointing out that this song exhibits three Gorman hallmarks. First, it is about a man looking for a wife. Second, like 'Bachelor's Hall,' it develops its theme through a list of possessions. And third, it is said to have been made up on someone who had asked Gorman to song someone else." - BS
File: IvDC052
===
NAME: Michael O'Dwyer: see Michael Dwyer (I) (File: PGa095)
===
NAME: Michael Power
DESCRIPTION: "On my road to Dungarvan" Michael Power finds a pistol, holds up a postboy and a dragoon, kills four yeomen on the road, twelve more in Carrick and Carey the hangman. He goes to Fulham barracks where he is convicted and sentenced to be hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (recording, Straighty Flanagan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution trial humorous outlaw
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #8141
RECORDINGS:
Straighty Flanagan, "Michael Power" (on Voice08)
NOTES: Hall, notes to Voice08, describes "Michael Power" as "a humorous unlikely tale of fiction, ... set in the counties of Waterford and Wexford in those dangerous times of 1798." - BS
File: RcMicPow
===
NAME: Michael, Row the Boat Ashore
DESCRIPTION: "Michael, row the boat ashore, (h)allelujah" (x2). Remaining verses tend to be about the difficulty of crossing (Jordan) to heaven: "Jordan's river is chilly and cold, (h)allelujah; Chills the body but not the soul...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen, Ware, Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel river ship work worksong floatingverses shanty
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 75, "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 97, "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (1 text)
DT, MICHAELR
Roud #11975
RECORDINGS:
Jane Hunter & Moving Star Hall singers, "Row, Michael, Row" (on BeenStorm1)
Pete Seeger, "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (on PeteSeeger12) (on PeteSeeger15)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Crossing Jordan River" (floating lyrics)
cf. "All My Trials" (lyrics)
cf. "Is Your Lamps Gone Out?" (lyrics)
NOTES: Seeger dates this Georgia sea islands worksong from the mid-19th century. - PJS
File: DTmichae
===
NAME: Michie Preval
DESCRIPTION: Creole French: "Michie Preval li donne youn bai..." Preval hosts a ball, charging three dollars for admission. The festivities reach the stable, where the horses are "astonished." The prison warden likes it so much that he is tempted to stage his own ball
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage party animal clothes
FOUND_IN: West Indies
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 213-214, "Michie Preval" (1 text plus translation, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 166-167, (no title) (1 text plus literal translation, 1 tune)
NOTES: Lomax and Courlander accent the name of the title character differently, but the plot is the same in both versions of the song. - RBW
File: CNFM166
===
NAME: Michigan-I-O: see Canaday-I-O/Michigan-I-O/Colley's Run I-O [Laws C17] (File: LC17)
===
NAME: Michigania
DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye Yankee farmers who would like to change your lot." The singer lists the problems with life in various parts of the country (from cold Vermont to "the land of Blue Laws" to tax-heavy Massachusetts) and urges listeners to come to "Michigania"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 555-556, "Michigania" (1 text)
Roud #4745
File: BNEF555
===
NAME: Mick Magee
DESCRIPTION: Magee is a dealer in tobacco and tea who does not bother with licenses. Accidentally taking his wares to a police station, he is pursued by the force. He lends his bag to a beggar and lets himself be trapped. Since he has nothing illegal, he is released
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: commerce trick police escape
FOUND_IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H740, pp. 56-57, "Mick Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 74, "Mick McGee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST HHH740 (Partial)
Roud #2764
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Mick McGee
File: HHH740
===
NAME: Mick McGee: see Mick Magee (File: HHH056)
===
NAME: Mick McGuire: see Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down (File: RcLMMSD)
===
NAME: Mick Riley
DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the summer season in the year of seventy-six" the singer fished one summer on Ocean Lark, whose owner is a cobbler in winter. The song claims this cobbler is a cheat and robber and will be so until "he'll find himself in Hell's eternal flames"
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Ives-DullCare)
KEYWORDS: greed thief fishing ship humorous
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ives-DullCare, p. 87, "Mick Riley" (1 text)
Roud #14003
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gull Decoy" (characters)
NOTES: Ives-DullCare: "This song was about the Gull Decoy's son Mick, who, during the off-season, worked as a cobbler." See the notes to "The Gull Decoy" for another example of Gorman's reputed vindictiveness. - BS
File: IvDC087
===
NAME: Mickey's Warning: see Blue Bleezin' Blind Drunk (Mickey's Warning) (File: RcBlBlBl)
===
NAME: Middlesex Flora, The
DESCRIPTION: Bound from London in a storm, "the proud waves did beat her to staves, her name was The Middlesex Flora, and they did sweep our men to the deep." Strangers on the coast pick up the rich cargo. Captain James Bell and the lost crew of thirteen are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1946 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor shore
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1825: "Middlesex Flora of London was wrecked at Dundrum... en route from Barcelona to Belfast.... Twenty four were drowned." (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v2, p. 25; Irish Wrecks Online site)
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 72-74, "The Middlesex Flora" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3810
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(119), "The Middlesex Flora," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mariposa" (theme)
cf. "The Teapots at the Fire" (theme)
cf. "The Old Mayflower" (theme)
cf. "The Irrawaddy" (theme)
File: Ran072
===
NAME: Midnight
DESCRIPTION: "Under this sod lies a great bucking horse. There never lived a cowboy he couldn't toss. His name was Midnight, his coat black as coal, If there's a hoss heaven, please, God, rest his soul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: horse death recitation
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1924 - First appearance of the bucking horse "Midnight" at the Calgary Stampede
1933 - Midnight is retired
1936 - Death of Midnight. This poem was reportedly inscribed on his monument
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 80, "Midnight" (1 text)
File: Ohr080
===
NAME: Midnight Dew, The: see Nine Hundred Miles (File: LxU073)
===
NAME: Midnight Special, The
DESCRIPTION: "Let the Midnight Special shine its light on me; Let the Midnight Special shine its ever-loving light on me." The prisoner describes how he was arrested, the difficult conditions in prison, and a visit from his girlfriend
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Dave Cutrell)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes warning crime police train
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 478-484, "The Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 292, "The Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 26-27, "The Midnight Special"; 217, "Midnight Special" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 91, "The Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 71-75, "The Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 908-909, "The Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, p. 142-143, "Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 55, "Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 71, "Midnight Special" (1 text)
DT, MDNTSPCL
Roud #6364
RECORDINGS:
Jesse Bradley, "Midnight Special" (AFS 218 A1, 1934)
Dillard Chandler, "Gastony Song" (on Chandler01)
Dave Cutrell (known as "Pistol Pete") with McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band, "Pistol Pete's Midnight Special" (OKeh 45057, 1926); McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band (now led by Otto Gray), "The Midnight Special" (Vocalion 5337; c. 1929)
Folkmasters, "The Midnight Special" (on Fmst01)
Frank Jordan & Group, "Midnight Special" (AFS 619 A1, 1936)
Leadbelly & the Golden Gate Quartet, "The Midnight Special" (Victor 27266, 1941; rec. 1940)
Pete Seeger, "The Midnight Special" (on PeteSeeger18) (on PeteSeeger26) (on PeteSeeger43)
Pete Seeger & Big Bill Broonzy, "The Midnight Special" (on BroonzySeeger1) (on BroonzySeeger2)
[Wilmer] Watts & [Frank] Wilson, "Walk Right In Belmont" (Paramount 3019, 1927; on TimesAint04)
Ernest Williams, "Midnight Special" (AFS CYL-11-5, 1933)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jumpin' Judy"
cf. "Mississippi Jail House Groan" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: I seem to recall a legend that, should the light of the Midnight Special shine on a convict, he would soon be freed. I can'r remember where I heard this, though.
Carl Sandburg, on the other hand, believes that the song refers to suicide: That the convict would rather be dead under the wheels of the train than spend another twenty years in prison.
Cohen quotes Mack McCormick to the effect that several versions show localization to an unsuccessful 1923 jailbreak, but offers evidence that the song, or at least pieces of it, are much older. The version he prints, "Pistol Pete's Midnight Special" by Dave Cutrell, has several verses not heard in the common Leadbelly version. - RBW
File: R292
===
NAME: Midnight Train and the 'Fo' Day Train, The: see The Midnight Train (File: San325)
===
NAME: Midnight Train, The
DESCRIPTION: "The midnight train and the fo' day train run all night long (x2) They run till the break of day." "'Twas the same train carried yo' mother 'way, run all night long (x2) It run until the break of day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: train mother
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Sandburg, p. 325, "The Midnight Train" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 240-241, "The Midnight Train and the 'Fo' Day Train" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST San325 (Full)
File: San325
===
NAME: Mighty Bright Light
DESCRIPTION: First verse/chorus: "(It was) a mighty bright light that was shining down." "Oh, tell me who was that light that was shining down?" "King Jesus was the light that was shining down." "My mother saw the light that was shining down...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (recorded by Texas state farm prisoners)
KEYWORDS: worksong chaingang religious
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, p. 101, "(Mighty Bright Light)" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Texas state farm prisoners, "Mighty Bright Light" (on NPCWork)
NOTES: A work song, with the gang joining in on the word "down," perhaps striking the hammer at that point. - RBW
File: CNFM101
===
NAME: Mighty Day (Wasn't That a Mighty Storm)
DESCRIPTION: The story of the Galveston tidal wave. Despite evacuation efforts, many die on land and at sea. Chorus something like, "Wasn't that a mighty day/storm, when the storm winds struck/swept the town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: storm disaster death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 8, 1900 - Galveston hurricane and flood. Some 6000 die
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 728, "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 53, "Mighty Day" (1 text)
DT, MIGHTDAY
Roud #12206
RECORDINGS:
"Sin-Killer" Griffin & congregation, "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm" (AFS 185 B2, 1934; on LC10)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Wasn't That a Mighty Time (Galveston Flood)" (subject, floating lyrics)
NOTES: This song shares many of its lyrics, and even some musical elements, with "Wasn't That a Mighty Time (Galveston Flood)." It is quite likely that the two have common roots. The "feel" of the resulting songs is so different, however, that I list them as separate pieces.
The "popular" version, as recorded by the Chad Mitchell trio, reportedly was touched up somewhat by Bob Gibson. - RBW
In the LC version... the chorus is: "Wasn't that a mighty storm/Wasn't that a mighty storm, great water/Wasn't that a mighty storm/That blew the people away." - PJS
File: BSoF728
===
NAME: Mighty Maulin', A: see Fod (File: LoF213)
===
NAME: Mighty Mississippi
DESCRIPTION: "Way out in the Mississippi valley, Just along the plain so grand, Rose the flooded Mississippi River, Destroying the works of man." The Mississippi River flood of 1927 is described, and the plight of those flooded out detailed
AUTHOR: Words: Kelly Harrell
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Ernest Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: flood river disaster
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 87, "Mighty Mississippi" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MGHTYMSS*
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Mighty Mississippi" (on NLCR02)
Mike Seeger, "The Story of the Mighty Mississippi" (on MSeeger01)
Ernest Stoneman, "The Story of the Mighty Mississippi" (Victor 20671, 1927)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Great American Flood Disaster" (subject)
NOTES: Kelly Harrell wrote this poem but never attempted to record it (shows how different attitudes toward composed songs were back then); it was Ernest Stoneman who took the piece, found a traditional tune for it, and recorded the result. - RBW
And the recording was out within a few months of the disaster -- probably by September, 1927. - PJS
According to Kip Lornell, _Virginia's Blues, Country & Gospel Records 1902-1943_, the recording session was even more timely: It was made May 21, 1927. Stoneman also cut "Jim Hoover's Mississippi Flood Song" in that session, but Victor declined to issue it. - RBW
File: CSW087
===
NAME: Mike
DESCRIPTION: "Section men a-workin' there all side by side." One of them, Mike, boasts of his work on the railroad. He works and fights hard. One day he works in the jimson, picks up a crosstie, is attacked by a snake, and flees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: work railroading animal
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 1869 - Transcontinental railroad complete
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-ABFS, p. 23, "Mike" (1 text)
Roud #15523
NOTES: The chorus of this piece runs, "Damned be the President, My name's Mike, I got a hand in it, I drive the spike." I assume this refers to the famous "driving of the golden spike" (May 10, 1869 in Promontory, Utah), completing the first transcontinental railroad. This is only a guess, though. - RBW
File: LxA023
===
NAME: Milatraisse Courri Dans Bal
DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Militraisse courri dans bal, Cocodrie po'te fanal, Trouloulou! C'est pas zaffaire a tou (x2), Trouloulou!" The mixed-blood woman goes to the dance; a full-blood black "holds the lantern"; the musician is asked what difference it makes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1886 (Cable in Century Magazine)
KEYWORDS: Black(s) dancing foreignlanguage
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 122-123, "Milatraisse Courri Dans Bal" (1 short text plus loose English translation, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF1222
===
NAME: Milking Pails (China Doll)
DESCRIPTION: The child begs, "Mama, buy me a china doll." The mother asks where the money will come from. The child proposes selling Papa's bed. Mama asks where Papa will sleep. The child keeps proposing ideas, each more impractical. Finally Mama ends the discussion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1894 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: commerce children family mother playparty
FOUND_IN: US(So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Randolph 356, "Buy Me a China Doll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 291-293, "Buy Me a China Doll" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 356)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 192, "(Buy me a milking pail)" (1 text)
DT, MILKPAIL
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #75, "Milking Pails" (1 text)
ST R356 (Full)
Roud #3515
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Chiney Doll
NOTES: Randolph's informant claims to have learned this in Oklahoma. I know of only two verified American collections, though: Randolph's, and a version ("Chiney Doll") by Almeda Riddle. Thus American texts, and the "China Doll" wish, may be confined to the Ozarks.
On the other hand, Newell's text, "Milking-Pails" (from England) is so close in form (if not in the object of desire) that the song must be considered ancient, and Gomme has more than a dozen British texts. The British version is a singing game, though the American texts seem to have lost this trait. - RBW
File: R356
===
NAME: Milking Song, The
DESCRIPTION: "Pbroo, pbroo! my bonnie cow! ... Ye ken the hand that's kind to you; Sae let the drappie go, hawkie." The calf is sleeping in the pen, but will come soon. The milk makes visitors glad.
AUTHOR: Robert Jamieson
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: animal food nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 244, "The Milking Song" (1 text)
Roud #3939
NOTES: Ord believes that Jamieson produced this as an imitation, or perhaps an improvement, of an actual milking song. It seems likely enough. I know of no purely traditional collection.
And, no, I have no idea how one pronounces "pbroo"!
Similar milking rhymes are of course common. Baroing-Gould-MotherGoose 490, p. 213, runs
Cushy cow, bonny, let down thy milk,
And I will give thee a gown of silk;
A gown of silk and a silver tee,
If thou will let down thy milk to me.
There is a similar text in Montgomerie-ScottishNR -- #29, "(Bonnie lady, Let down your milk)." - RBW
File: Ord244
===
NAME: Milking-Pails: see Milking Pails (China Doll) (File: R356)
===
NAME: Milkmaid, The (Milking Maid, The): see Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)
===
NAME: Milkman's Lament, The: see Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)
===
NAME: Mill and the Kiln, The: see Tak It, Man, Tak It (I) (File: FVS015)
===
NAME: Mill o Tifty's Annie: see Andrew Lammie [Child 233] (File: C233)
===
NAME: Mill o' Lour, The
DESCRIPTION: "We a' agreed at Martinmas On Mill o' Lour to dwell, They said it was a very fine place, But it turned out not so well." The singer describes how hard it is to work the mill, and the people and teams involved.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: work home horse miller
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 330-331, "The Mill o' Lour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, p. 255, "The Mill o' Lour" (1 text)
Roud #5573
File: FVS330
===
NAME: Mill of Boyndie: see Mullnabeeny (Mill of Boyndie) (File: Ord249)
===
NAME: Mill-Boy of the Slashes, The: see Henry Clay Songs (File: SRW039)
===
NAME: Mill, Mill O, The
DESCRIPTION: "Beneath a green shade I found a fair maid, Was sleeping sound and still." The singer has his way with her, then departs to fight in Flanders. Ten years later, he returns to find that she has a child and knows not the father. He marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #242)
KEYWORDS: sex rape mother children reunion marriage soldier
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 165, "The Mill, Mill, O" (1 text)
Roud #8486
File: Ord165
===
NAME: Mill, The
DESCRIPTION: "Clip, clap goes the mill by the swift running brook, clip, clap, By day and by night is the miller at work, clip clap! He grindeth the corn to make bread for the year, And with plenty of this we have nothing to fear; Clip clap...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Linscott)
KEYWORDS: miller work river nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Linscott, pp. 240-241, "The Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3750
NOTES: Linscott says of this, "This song in transition has lost its music-box characteristics, which are so apparent in the German form." A curious statement, since she never tells us what the German form is. - RBW
File: Lins240
===
NAME: Miller (I), The: see Miller Tae My Trade (File: K218)
===
NAME: Miller and His Sons, The: see The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)
===
NAME: Miller Boy, The (Jolly is the Miller I)
DESCRIPTION: Playparty: "Happy is the miller boy who lives by the mill, The mill turns around with its own free will, Hand on the hopper and the other on the sack, Lady keeps a-going, gents turn back." Other verses about courting, milling, weather
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1719? (Pills to Purge Melancholy) (American version 1916/Wolford)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad miller
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Randolph 518, "The Miller Boy" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownIII 75, "The Miller Boy" (3 one-stanza fragments)
Hudson 153, pp. 300-301, "The Jolly Miller" (1 text)
Cambiaire, p. 137, "The Miller's Boy" (1 text)
DT, OVRHILL5*
Roud #733
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Jolly is the Miller" (on PeteSeeger22) (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
NOTES: Wolford traces this piece back to _Pills to Purge Melancholy_, and Randolph reports that Gomme has English versions. But they don't look like the same item to me. - RBW
File: R518
===
NAME: Miller of Dee, The
DESCRIPTION: The jolly miller "worked and sang from morn till night, no lark more blythe than he." He is happy because "the bread I eat my hands have earned... in debt to none I be." Listeners are urged to follow his example
AUTHOR: probably Isaac Bickerstaffe (see NOTES)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1762 ("Love in a Village"; cf. Chappell)
KEYWORDS: work drink nonballad miller worker
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Kennedy (229), "The Jolly Miller" (1 text, located in the notes)
cf. Chappell/Wooldridge II, p. 124, "The Budgeon It Is a Delicate Trade" (1 tune, partial text)
DT, MILLDEE* MILLDEE2*
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 347-348, "(Song)" (1 short text)
Roud #503
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(278), "Miller of the Dee," W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Harding B 15(200a), "Miller of the River Dee"; Harding B 15(199b), "The Miller of the Dee"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Miller" (subject)
SAME_TUNE:
The Budgeon It Is a Delicate Trade (Chappell/Wooldridge II, p. 124)
The Jolly Grinder (File: DTjollgr)
NOTES: Kennedy makes rather a hash of his notes on this song, observing that it is quite close to "The Jolly Miller," which may derive from the same sources. True enouth. But "The Jolly Miller" is not "The Miller of Dee," and though Kennedy identifies the tune of the latter (correctly) with "The Budgeon It Is a Delicate Trade," "The Miller of Dee" and "The Budgeon" do *not* use the same tune as "The Jolly Miller," at least as transcribed by Kennedy.
"The Budgeon," which Chappell finds in "The Quaker's Opera" in 1728, is in the natural minor; Kennedy's "The Jolly Miller" is in Ionian (major).
Kennedy makes things worse by saying "The Budgeon" is the same tune as "All Around My Hat" -- which again is in Ionian, not natural minor. - RBW
The Bodleian attributes authorship to Isaac Bickerstaffe, though none of the broadsides have that attribution on its face. Opie-Oxford2 352: "This song, a general favourite in Scotland, and of Sir Walter Scott in particular, became well known after it was sung by John Beard in Bickerstaffe's _Love in a Village_. The music of this successful opera, performed at Covent Garden in 1762 ...."
Verse 1 of broadside Bodleian Firth b.25(278) is almost the same as verse 1 of Opie-Oxford2 352, "There was a jolly miller once" (earliest date in Opie-Oxford2 is 1762). - BS
I looked up several editions (Hoagland; RIchard Aldington, _The Viking Book of Poetry of the English-Speaking World_) of the "Love in a Village" text, and it's clearly this song -- but there appears to be only one verse. So Bickerstaffe (1735?-1812?) isn't the whole story; the additional text must have come from another source.
Bickerstaffe, incidentally, is almost as confusing as the piece he wrote, because he was a real person, but shared a name (almost) with Isaac Bickerstaff, who was not. Bickerstaff was a pseudonym adopted by Jonathan Swift in a controversy with John Partridge. Bickerstaff made a claim Partridge was dead, and even wrote an elegy  (1708), provoking an indignant exchange of pamphlets with the very-much-alive Partridge. This was amusing enough that Richard Steele used the Bickerstaff name for a writer of _The Tatler_ Starting 1709). Then Bickerstaffe (with an e) was born a few decades later.- RBW
File: K229A
===
NAME: Miller of Derbyshire, The: see The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)
===
NAME: Miller Tae My Trade
DESCRIPTION: The singer reports, "I am a miller tae my trade... And mony a bag of meal I've made, And mony a lassie I hae laid." He describes one night on which a girl came to his mill and sought his services. (They end up being married)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906
KEYWORDS: miller work seduction bawdy marriage sex work
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Kennedy 218, "The Buchan Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 31, "The Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MILLTRAD
Roud #888
RECORDINGS:
John McDonald, "The Buchan Miller" (on FSB3)
Davie Stewart, "I Am a Miller To My Trade" (on Voice05)
File: K218
===
NAME: Miller's Advice to His Three Sons, on Taking of Toll, The: see The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)
===
NAME: Miller's Apprentice, The: see The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)
===
NAME: Miller's Daughter, The (The Fleeing Servant)
DESCRIPTION: The youth and the miller's daughter find themselves on the hill; she starts to seduce him. He flees to the miller, saying, ""O, I have served you seven long years and never sought a fee, And I will serve you seven more if you'll keep your lass from me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: seduction humorous miller sex rejection
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kinloch-BBook V, pp. 23-24, (no title) (1 text)
PBB 84, "The Miller's Daughter" (1 text)
ST KinBB06 (Full)
Roud #7151
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Waukin' o' the Kilne, The
NOTES: Kinloch has no title for this piece, and of course doesn't list a source -- but I have to think it's traditional, simply because it doesn't make much sense as it stands. If he wants nothing to do with the girl, why does he go walking with her? It seems likely that a stanza is missing -- either one explaining how she trapped him alone, or one along the lines of "The Warranty Deed," explaining why she is desirable only when clothed.
The Penguin version of this apparently comes from A. L. Lloyd, and isn't much more detailed -- but looks to have been tidied up just a little.
This is one of the handful of humorous treatments of male fidelity -- a theme going back to the tale of Joseph and Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39:1-20), and the source of such tragic ballads as "Child Owlet" and "The Sheffield Apprentice." - RBW
File: KinBB06
===
NAME: Miller's Daughters, The: see The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)
===
NAME: Miller's Last Will, The: see The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)
===
NAME: Miller's Three Sons, The: see The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)
===
NAME: Miller's Wife o' Blaydon, The
DESCRIPTION: "The miller's wife o' Blaydon (x2), Sair she bang'd her ain gudeman For kissing o' the maiden." "Yet aye the miller sings and swears... For one kiss o' that bonny mouth He'd freely give up twenty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: miller abuse adultery
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 152-153, "The Miller's Wife o Blaydon" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR152 (Full)
Roud #3167
File: StoR152
===
NAME: Miller's Will, The (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21]
DESCRIPTION: The dying miller, to decide which of his three sons will inherit, asks each boy how much he would charge. The first son would take an honest toll; the second, half; the last, all and swear to the sack. The miller joyfully gives the mill to the last son
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1764 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 5(7))
KEYWORDS: death father children robbery crime bequest lastwill
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (24 citations)
Laws Q21, "The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons)"
Belden, pp. 244-246, "The Miller and his Three Sons" (3 texts)
Randolph 359, "There Was an Old Miller" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 126-129, "There Was an Old Miller" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 91D)
Eddy 61, "The Dishonest Miller" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 98, "The Dying Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 177, "The Miller and His Three Sons" (2 text plus 5 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Chappell-FSRA 106, "The Miller" (1 fragment)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 240-242, "The Miller's Advice to His Three Sons, on Taking of Toll" (2 texts, both called "The Old Miller"; 2 tunes on p. 419)
JHCoxIIB, #18A-B, pp. 163-165, "The Miller and His Sons," "The Miller" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp.234-236 , "The Miller of Derbyshire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 94, "The Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 161, "The Miller's Will" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 56, "The Miller's Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 232, "The Miller's Last Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay, pp.  58-59, "The Miller and His Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 80-81, "The Miller's Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 144-145, "The Miller's Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 546-547, "The Miller's Three Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 155, "The Dishonest Miller" (3 texts plus mention of six more, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 149-151, "The Miller's Will" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 120, "The Miller" (1 text)
BBI, ZN2524, "There was a miller who had three sons"
DT 348, MILLWILL MILLWIL2 MILLWIL3*
Roud #138
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "The Miller's Will" (on Barker01)
Jumbo Brightwell, "The Derby Miller" (on Voice14)
Carson Brothers & Sprinkle, "The Old Miller's Will" (OKeh 45398, 1929; on TimesAint01)
Margaret MacArthur, "New Hampshire Miller" (on MMacArthur01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Miller's Will" (on NLCR04)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 5(7), "The Miller's Advice to His Three Sons, in Taking of Toll," W. and C. Dicey (London) , 1736-1763; also Douce Ballads 4(44), "The Miller's Advice to His Three Sons, in Taking of Toll"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Old Miller Rake
File: LQ21
===
NAME: Millman and Tuplin Song, The
DESCRIPTION: June 18 at Margate, Mary "went to meet her young lover, who a few nights before Said he'd make all things right when they'd meet on that shore." He shoots her and "sunk her body deep down" in the river. He is convicted in 1898.
AUTHOR: Dan Riley
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957 (Ives-DullCare)
KEYWORDS: courting homicide trial lover
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 28, 1887 - Murder of Mary Tuplin by William Millman
1888 - Execution of Millman
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 46-47, 249-250, "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 50, "Young Millman (The Tuplin Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST IvDC046 (Partial)
Roud #9179
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prince Edward Island Murder" (subject)
cf. "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" (subject)
cf. "The Millman Song" (subject)
NOTES: Roud has at least five different numbers for this event:
Roud #1837: Creighton-NovaScotia 140, "Prince Edward Island Murder" [Laws dF59]
Roud #4129: Doerflinger, pp. 285-286, "The Millman Song" (also Ives-DullCare, pp. 180-181, "The Millman Murder Trial") [LawsdF60]
Roud #9179: Ives-DullCare, pp. 46-47, "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (also Manny/Wilson 50, "Young Millman")
Roud #9552: Shea, pp. 174-179, "The Millman Tragedy"
Roud #12463: Dibblee/Dibblee pp. 72-73, "The Murder of Mary Tuplin"
The Ives-DullCare text has the trial in 1898 instead of 1888. That's understandable since the rhyme still holds. [We note that the version in Manny & Wilson has the date right. - RBW] - BS
File: IvDC046
===
NAME: Millman Murder Trial, The: see The Millman Song (File: Doe285)
===
NAME: Millman Song, The
DESCRIPTION: Mary "Cuplon" is pregnant by Millman. The father, rather than admit the deed or marry the girl, murders her and throws her in the river. Her body is found, and Millman is sentenced to death. The singer reminds parents to watch their children
AUTHOR: Attributed to John Calhoun
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968 (Ives-DullCare)
KEYWORDS: homicide pregnancy river trial execution
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 28, 1887 - Murder of Mary Tuplin by William Millman
1888 - Execution of Millman
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 285-286, "The Millman Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 180-181,250, "The Millman Murder Trial" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe285 (Partial)
Roud #4129
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prince Edward Island Murder" (subject)
cf. "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" (subject)
cf. "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Millman Murder Trial
NOTES: This song is item dF60 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Roud has at least five different numbers for this event:
Roud #1837: Creighton-NovaScotia 140, "Prince Edward Island Murder" [Laws dF59]
Roud #4129: Doerflinger, pp. 285-286, "The Millman Song"(also Ives-DullCare, pp. 180-181, "The Millman Murder Trial") [LawsdF60]
Roud #9179: Ives-DullCare, pp. 46-47, "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (also Manny/Wilson 50, "Young Millman")
Roud #9552: Shea, pp. 174-179, "The Millman Tragedy"
Roud #12463: Dibblee/Dibblee pp. 72-73, "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" - BS
File: Doe285
===
NAME: Milwaukee Blues: see Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)
===
NAME: Milwaukee Fire, The [Laws G15]
DESCRIPTION: The "oft-condemned" Newhall House catches fire; passers-by watch in horror as the residents die in the flames. In particular, a servant girl leaps to her death, and a mother watches her son trapped in the fire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922
KEYWORDS: fire disaster death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 1883 - Fire at the Newhall House. At least 63 people die
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws G15, "The Milwaukee Fire"
LPound-ABS, 62, pp. 138-140, "The Milwaukee Fire" (1 text)
DT 682, MILWAUKF
Roud #3255
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Milwaukee Fire" (AFS 4198 B1, 4198 B2, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Robert Walker, "The Milwaukee Fire" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
NOTES: John W. Kelley (who also produced such pieces as "The Bowery Grenadiers") wrote a piece called "The Milwaukee Fire" in 1884, and some sources equate this song with that item. The fire, however, was the subject of a great deal of press coverage, and doubtless produced several pierces. None of the folk sources I have consulted equate the traditional song with the Kelley piece, and so I am holding off until I see better evidence. - RBW
File: LG15
===
NAME: Min Mand Han Var en Sjomand (My Man He Was a Seaman)
DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. Cautionary song, children ask "where is father? He's resting in the grave." Warns girls not to wed a sailor or they'll end up a widow with children. Source doesn't give a chorus, verses may have been repeated as refrains.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Eivind Jartved)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor wife death
FOUND_IN: Sweden
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 529-530, "Min Mand Han Var en Sjomand" (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hugill got this from Sternvall's _Sang under Segel_ (1935) with a note that it was taken from "Eivind Jartved" in 1904. - SL
File: Hugi529
===
NAME: Mind How You Trifle With a Gun: see McLellan's Son (File: Pea831)
===
NAME: Mind Your Eye: see Quare Bungo Rye (File: Log416)
===
NAME: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Burning of the School
DESCRIPTION: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school, We have tortured every teacher, we have broken every rule." The students describe (with many variations) how they overthrew the scholastic regime
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1975
KEYWORDS: rebellion derivative
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 100, "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Burning of the School" (1 text with many variants, tune referenced)
DT, BURNSCHL
ST PHCFS100 (Full)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune)
cf. "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Horror of the Ending of the Term"
NOTES: I wonder if this isn't the most popular folk song in America today. - RBW
File: PHCFS100
===
NAME: Miner Boys, The: see The Cross Mountain Explosion (Coal Creek Disaster) [Laws G9] (File: LG09)
===
NAME: Miner Child's Dream, The: see The Dream of the Miner's Child (File: R859)
===
NAME: Miner, The
DESCRIPTION: The miner goes to work "With his calico cap and his old flannel shirt, his pants with the strap round the knee, His boots watertight and his candle alight His crib and his billy of tea." He works to support his family, and hopes to have money for tobacco
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: mining work family poverty
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 74-75, "The Miner" (1 text, 1 tune -- collected as a fragment inserted into another piece)
Manifold-PASB, p. 43, "The Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 131-134, "The Miner" (1 text, collected as a conflation of "The Miner" and "The Dream of the Miner's Child")
NOTES: Manifold comments, "This is one of the few songs from the later period of gold-mining, after the alluvial gold was finished." In other words, it is a true mining song, not a prospecting song. Such things are not rare in America, of course, but they do seem to be unusual in Australia. - RBW
File: FaE074
===
NAME: Miner's Doom, The [Laws Q36]
DESCRIPTION: Although a miner's life may be happy, the risks are great. This miner is riding back to the surface when the elevator rope breaks. His death causes his wife to die of grief, leaving their three children orphans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: mining death orphan
FOUND_IN: US(MA) Britain(Wales)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Laws Q36, "The Miner's Doom"
DT 544, MINRDOOM*
Roud #1015
RECORDINGS:
 Vernon Dalhart, "The Miner's Doom" (Brunswick 139, 1927; Supertone S-2014, 1930)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Orphan Girl" (the subtext "The Coal Miner's Child" has a plot very like this)
NOTES: Laws lists this as an old Welsh song, and Korson claims to have picked it up from a Welshman in 1925. But I wonder. There seem to be only two known traditional versions: Korson's, which he claims to have heard in 1925 but who did not record it until 1946, and Lloyd's. Thus, apart from Korson's unverifiable claim of a 1925 date, there is no evidence of this song being in circulation prior to Vernon Dalhart's recording. One has to suspect that Dalhart at least contributed to its (bare) survival. - RBW
File: LQ36
===
NAME: Miner's Lifeguard
DESCRIPTION: A union song with religious overtones. The miner is advised to "Keep your hand upon the dollar and  your eyes upon the scales."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: nonballad mining religious labor-movement
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 730, "Miner's Lifeguard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 15-16, "(Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (1 text, plus fragments of assorted parodies, of which this is the first)
Silber-FSWB, p. 138, "Miner's Lifeguard" (1 text)
DT, MNRLFGRD*
Roud #3510
RECORDINGS:
Mary Travers , "Miner's Lifeguard" (on PeteSeeger01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (tune) and references there
NOTES: A parody of "Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad." - RBW
File: BSoF730
===
NAME: Miners' Fate, The [Laws G10]
DESCRIPTION: A cave-in five hundred feet below the ground traps the Pittston miners. There can be no rescue; not even the bodies can be brought out. The families grieve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: mining disaster death family
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 28, 1896 - The Pittstown cave-in
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Laws G10, "The Miners' Fate"
DT 786, MINRFATE
Roud #3261
File: LG10
===
NAME: Minister's Dochter o' Newarke, The: see The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)
===
NAME: Minnie Quay (Winnie Gray) [Laws G20]
DESCRIPTION: Slandered by a young man, sixteen-year-old (Minnie) finds that her parents have turned against her and wish her dead. She drowns herself in Lake Huron
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: suicide family lie drowning
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws G20, "Minnie Quay (Winnie Gray)"
Beck 77, "Minnie Quay" (1 text)
DT 835, MINIQUAY
Roud #8850
NOTES: [Beck notes that] Minnie Quay's tombstone can be found in the village of Forester, on the shore of Lake Huron. [The author of the song is] possibly William J. Smith, of Port Huron, Michigan. - PJS
File: LG20
===
NAME: Minstrel Boy, The
DESCRIPTION: "The minstrel boy to the war is gone, In the ranks of death you'll find him. His father's sword he has girded on And his wild hard slung behind him." The minstrel falls in battle, destroying his harp so that "no chains shall sully thee."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore
EARLIEST_DATE: 1813 ("A Selection of Irish Melodies")
KEYWORDS: soldier harp music death
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 279, "The Minstrel Boy" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 369, "The Minstrel-Boy"
DT, MINSTBOY
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 375, "The Minstrel Boy" (1 text)
Roud #13867
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Minstrel Boy" (on IRClancyMakem03)
Vernon Stiles, "The Minstrel Boy" (Columbia A-2435, 1917)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1037), "The Minstrel Boy", T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also 2806 b.9(243), 2806 c.15(207), Harding B 11(1471), Harding B 16(49c), Firth b.26(434)[some words illegible], Firth b.25(385), Harding B 11(2293), 2806 c.16(197), Firth b.27(457/458) View 1 of 4, Johnson Ballads fol. 26, Harding B 40(2) View 3 of 4[some words cut out], Harding B 19(48), Firth b.26(87)[some words illegible], "The Minstrel Boy"
LOCSheet, sm1879 02687, "The Minstrel Boy", Edw Schuberth (New York), 1879; also sm1882 21694, sm1882 22258, sm1884 25744, sm1885 05300, "The Minstrel Boy" (tune)
LOCSinging, sb30345a, "The Minstrel Boy", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fisherman's Son to the Ice Has Gone" (form)
NOTES: Usually sung, in these days, as an anti-war song, but originally composed as an Irish freedom piece. The music is said to be "The Moreen," though that song is obscure.
This is another of Moore's "big works"; Granger's Index to Poetry cites it from 13 different anthologies. Ironically, I'm not sure it has ever been found strictly in tradition. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30345a: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: FSWB279A
===
NAME: Mione
DESCRIPTION: French cumulative song, in which the singer describes each of the items given by Mione: "If I had the beautiful shoes/stockings/hat/etc. which Mione gave to me...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1919 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad clothes
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 517-518, "Mione" (1 text, badly defective and conjecturally restored)
File: Beld517B
===
NAME: Mirabeau
DESCRIPTION: "You may talk of equine heroes from Ajax to Grand-van-Ur.... But there's one more worthy of song... [is] Johnson's Mirabeau." The horse is far behind at the three quarters mark, but comes on to win
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: racing horse
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 117-118, "Mirabeau" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA117
===
NAME: Miracle Flower, The
DESCRIPTION: A man murders and buries a girl. A flower grows from her grave and blooms the year round. If anybody plucks the blossom, it blooms again right away. The killer comes to see it. The flower it turns to blood in his hands and reveals his guilt
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (Creighton/Senior)
KEYWORDS: homicide flowers supernatural
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 188-189, "The Miracle Flower" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3345
NOTES: [Creighton notes], "Although I have told many singers this story, I have yet to find one who knows the song." [The fragmentary text reads] "And wondered how so fair a flower could bloom and flourish there." - BN
File: CrSe188
===
NAME: Miraculous Harvest, The: see The Carnal and the Crane [Child 55] (File: C055)
===
NAME: Miramichi Fire, The [Laws G24]
DESCRIPTION: A great fire covers an area 42 by 100 miles. In less than a day it burns forest, houses, and towns, killing or wounding vast numbers. There is little for the survivors to do but bury the dead
AUTHOR: John Jardine = Thomas M. Jordan (?)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: fire death disaster
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 1825 - A great series of forest fires sweeps New Brunswick. Popular legend had it that the damage was done by a single fire
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws G24, "The Miramichi Fire"
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 201-202, "The Miramichi Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 62-64,250-251, "The Miramichi Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 34, "The Miramichi Fire" (1 text, 3 tunes)
DT 324, MIRAMICH
Roud #2721
RECORDINGS:
Edmund Doucette, "The Miramichi Fire" (on MREIves01)
NOTES: By the early nineteenth century, with the fur trade moving into the Canadian west, the eastern provinces were turning increasingly to logging as a source of income, sending most of their wood products to England.
This had significant effects on the ecology. As the old forests were cut down, second growth invaded, which was naturally more flammable -- and if the fire grew big enough in one of the clear patches, it could spread to the old growth as well. The result was a constant fire danger.
Although none of the fires was as large as the one described in this song, at least one (the "Great Fire") is said to have burned 400 square miles. Adding a zero to that might perhaps have helped inspire this song. - RBW
Ives-DullCare: "Shortly after [the fire], John Jardine of Black River wrote a ballad about it which he almost certainly had printed and sold. Either he or, what is more likely, later singers put tunes to it.... At the moment ... no tune has a better right than the present one to be called, if not the 'original,' at least the most widespread." - BS
Laws cites the _Bulletin of the Folk-Song Society of the Northeast_ (#11) in attributing this song to Thomas M. Jordan. Obviously Jordan and Jardine are oral variants on each other. Jardine is the more likely; Manny and Wilson have a photograph of John Jardine (obviously in later life). - RBW
File: LG24
===
NAME: Miss Aledo: see Powderhorn (File: FCW070)
===
NAME: Miss Bridget Adair
DESCRIPTION: Bridget Adair is a forty year old spinster. One morning a man comes to her door and said "Miss Bridget, I die for you." She likes his demeanour. Then he gives her silks she had sent him to dye "a beautiful mazarine blue." She cries with disappointment.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 74-75, "Miss Bridget Adair" (1 text)
Roud #6536
NOTES: The Albert Memorial, cited in the song ["It was just as the Albert Memorial struck nine, And Miss Bridget was just out of bed"], was completed 1876 (source: The Victorian Web site). That puts an earliest possible date on the Hayward-Ulster version. - BS
File: HayU074
===
NAME: Miss Brown: see The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B] (File: LP36)
===
NAME: Miss Cochrane
DESCRIPTION: "It was on an Easter Monday which happened of late, Young Marg'ret got ready and set on her way." Her boat blows out to sea and she is drowned. Her body is never found. Her father says he warned her against sailing on Logh Foyle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: death drowning ship father
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H42a, p. 148, "Miss Cochrane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9452
SAME_TUNE:
Eirigh Suas a Stoirin (Kennedy, #34)
File: HHH042a
===
NAME: Miss Dinah
DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was an apple, Miss Dinah was another. And O! what a happy pair we'd make On the tree together." "Oh, I love Miss Dinah so." One day a wind blows them together, then into the water. "Miss Dinah she was raked ashore, But I was never founded"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love courting river drowning rescue
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 127-128, "Miss Dinah" (1 text)
File: ScaNF127
===
NAME: Miss Fogarty's Cake: see Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake) (File: Doyl3062)
===
NAME: Miss Forbes's Farewell to Banff
DESCRIPTION: "Farewell ye fields an' meadows green, The blest retreat of peace and love." The singer tells of the beauties of home, and admits, "I'm loath to leave the scene again." The singer bids farewell, hoping all the while to return
AUTHOR: John Hamilton (died 1814) ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: home love emigration
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 358, "Miss Forbes' Farewell to Banff" (1 text)
Roud #5607
File: Ord358
===
NAME: Miss Gordon of Gight
DESCRIPTION: "O, whare are ye gaun, bonnie Miss Gordon... Ye're gauin wi' Johnny Byron To squander the lands o' Gight awa." "Your Johnny's a man frae England just come, The Scots dinna like his extraction ava... he'll spend a' your rent." 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: warning home money marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 390, "Miss Gordon of Gight" (1 text)
Roud #3891
NOTES: According to Ord, Catherine Gordon of Gight married John Gordon on May 12, 1785. The poet Lord Byron was their son -- but the fears of this song did come true: The Byrons did sell her family estate of Gight. - RBW
File: Ord390
===
NAME: Miss Green
DESCRIPTION: Miss Green courted Sean O'Farrell. He left "for the love of old Ireland" and was greeted in New York by a band; he toasted the Yankees. Tomorrow she will follow him and they will marry. She hopes to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage emigration America Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 47, "Miss Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5236
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" [Laws O15] (tune, according Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
File: RcMisGre
===
NAME: Miss Julie Ann Glover: see Julia Grover (Miss Julie Ann Glover) (File: Lins224)
===
NAME: Miss Liza
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Miss Liza, oh, mah darlin'! -- hoo ah hoo! Gwine away to leave you... Gwin away tomorrow... Ain't you mighty sorry?" "Oh, miss Liza... Comin' back to you... Won't you be my honey?" "Don't you know I lub you?... Don't you want to marry?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting love
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 227, (no title) (1 text)
File: ScaNF227
===
NAME: Miss Lucy Loo
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Bend yer backs take in the slack, roll me over, Lucy. To me way, hay, hay, ho, hu! Bend yer backs take in the slack, roll me over, Lucy. We're rollin down to Trinidad to see Miss Lucy Loo" No story line, verses one line each repeated w/choruses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND_IN: West Indies
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Hugill, p. 397, "Miss Lucy Loo" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 302]
DT, LUCYLOO
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sing a Song, Blow-Along O!" (chorus lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Rollin' Down to Trinidad
File: Hugi397
===
NAME: Miss Mary Belle: see Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)
===
NAME: Miss Mary Jane (Riding in the Buggy, Who Moan for Me)
DESCRIPTION: "Ridin' in the buggy, Miss Mary Jane... Long way from home. Who moan for me...." "Sally got a house in Baltimore... And it's three stories high. "Sally got a house in Baltimore, filled with chicken pie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting home nonballad nonsense
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 117, "Miss Mary Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 259, "Miss Mary Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LoF259 (Partial)
Roud #11595
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Letter from Down the Road" (lyrics)
NOTES: I know it looks like "Old Joe Clark." But it's not. - RBW
File: LoF259
===
NAME: Miss Mary Mack: see Mary Mack (I) (File: CNFM158B)
===
NAME: Miss, Will You Have a Farmer's Son: see Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me) (File: R493)
===
NAME: Misses Limerick, Kerry and Clare
DESCRIPTION: Three girls civilly compare their county's heroes. "The Limerick people, they were never beaten." Kerry and Clare both claim O'Connell, "that great Lib'rator." Limerick also claims O'Connell: "we have his staue as well as ye" and Parnell besides.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 24, "Misses Limerick, Kerry and Clare" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5223
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Misses Limerick, Kerry and Clare" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES: For Daniel O'Connell, see Daniel O'Connell (I) and the myriad songs cross-referenced there; for Charles Stewart Parnell, see notably "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down." - RBW
File: RcMLiKCl
===
NAME: Missie Mouse: see Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)
===
NAME: Mission Song
DESCRIPTION: The workers at the Mission "get the milk skimmed and de relations de cream." The poor get only rags while the Manager is off spending the proceeds in places like Carboneer or Boston.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Leach-Labrador)
KEYWORDS: greed hardtimes poverty worker
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Leach-Labrador 91, "Mission Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab091 (Partial)
Roud #9973
NOTES: Leach-Labrador: "The Mission referred to is the Grenfell Mission at Red Bay.... This is a local gripe song that not at all expresses the feelings of the people in general toward the Mission. I was told that this song was composed ... by a man .. dismissed from his job at the Mission because of misconduct." - BS
File: LLab091
===
NAME: Missionary's Farewell, The
DESCRIPTION: "Yes, my native land I love thee, All thy scenes I love them well... Can I leave thee, can I leave thee, Far in heathen lands to dwell?" The singer rehearses all that (he) would be leaving, but concludes that preaching the gospel is worth it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious separation home
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 641, "The Missionary's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7565
NOTES: Variously, and probably falsely, attributed to William Walker and the Reverend S. F. Smith. - RBW
File: R641
===
NAME: Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues: see The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)
===
NAME: Mississippi Jail House Groan
DESCRIPTION: Singer, in jail, sleeps "with my back turned to the wall." His woman brings coffee and tea -- everything but the jailhouse key. His parents say he has too many women; he looks at his mother, hangs his head, cries; if his woman kills him he's ready to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Rube Lacy)
KEYWORDS: captivity prison floatingverses father lover mother prisoner
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Rube [Reubin] Lacy, "Mississippi Jail House Groan" (Paramount 12629, 1928; on BefBlues1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
 cf. "The Midnight Special" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Again, the narrative in this song just sneaks under the wire as a ballad, but it does. - PJS
File: RcMJHG
===
NAME: Mississippi Sounding Call: see Sounding Calls (File: BMRF572)
===
NAME: Missus in de Big House: see Missus in the Big House (File: CNFM117)
===
NAME: Missus in the Big House
DESCRIPTION: "Missus in the big house, Mammy in the yard. Missus holdin' her white hands, Mammy workin' hard." "Old Marse ridin' all the time, Niggers workin' round. Marse sleepin' day time, Niggers diggin' in the ground."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: work slave discrimination
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Courlander-NFM, p. 117, (no title) (1 text)
Greenway-AFP, p. 96, "Missus in de Big House" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 246-247, "De Black Gal" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss"
NOTES: Metrically, this reminds me very much of "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss." Hard to tell if they are the same without a tune and with only two verses.
The Lomax text does not share the two verses of the Courlander and Greenway versions, but the form and content (contrasting white luxury with Black work and poverty) seem to place the songs together. The Lomax text may be composite anyway; they give no information about its origin. - RBW
File: CNFM117
===
NAME: Mister Boll Weevil: see The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)
===
NAME: Mister Booger: see Johnny Booker (Mister Booger) (File: R268)
===
NAME: Mister Carter
DESCRIPTION: "Mister Cyarter, Mister Cyarter, Won't you be (i.e. buy?) my dawg? He won't bite a sheep But 'e will bite a hog."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: dog nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 110, "Mister Carter" (1 text)
File: Br3110
===
NAME: Mister Costler
DESCRIPTION: Lorn Costler has the mail contract for outports. When he and his engineer, Billy Warren, work, "the day must be fine, the sea must be calm." He "gives out the mail at a terrible rate" in order to leave quickly even with no danger from ice or wind.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: cowardice commerce storm
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 80, "Mr Costler" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The mail route for Costler's ship, The Packet, is along the south coast about 70 miles east of Port-aux-Basques. - BS
File: LeBe080
===
NAME: Mister Finagan: see Molly McGlocklin (File: RcMolMcG)
===
NAME: Mister Frog Went A-Courting: see Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)
===
NAME: Mister Garfield
DESCRIPTION: Song-story about the assassination of President Garfield. Garfield, shot, tells doctor he's badly wounded. He gives dying advice, and hopes to go to heaven. Sheriff arrests Charles Guiteau for the murder; he says "I'll hang on the 6th day of June."
AUTHOR: Unknown, but much of the text may have been written by Anderson Williams
EARLIEST_DATE: 1949 (recording, Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Song-story describing the assassination of President James Garfield. Garfield's been shot; tells doctor he's badly wounded. Preacher asks where he'd like to spend eternity; Garfield says "Heaven." His wife asks if he should die, should she remarry? He tells her, "Don't you never let a chance go by." Sheriff arrests Charles Guiteau for the murder; he says "I'll hang on the 6th day of June." Mrs. Garfield brings her husband roses
KEYWORDS: grief marriage questions violence crime execution homicide punishment death dying wife doctor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 2, 1881 - James A. Garfield is shot by Charles Guiteau, who thought Garfield owed him a patronage job. Garfield had been president for less than four months
Sept 19, 1881 - Death of Garfield
June 30, 1882 - Hanging of Charles Guiteau
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Mr. Garfield" (on BLLunsford02)
J. C. "Jake" Staggers, "Garfield" (on FolkVisions2)
Art Thieme, "Mister Garfield" (on Thieme04)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (subject)
NOTES: Lunsford is usually thought to have written this, but Art Rosenbaum believes it originated in the Black community. - PJS
File: RcMrGarf
===
NAME: Mister MacKinley: see Mister McKinley (White House Blues) (File: LoF143)
===
NAME: Mister McKinley (White House Blues)
DESCRIPTION: "McKinley hollered, McKinley squalled; The doc says, 'McKinley, I can't find the ball.'" Describing McKinley's assassination by Zolgotz, his poor medical treatment, and his funeral. MacKinley is usually said to be "bound to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Charlie Poole)
KEYWORDS: death homicide doctor funeral political humorous
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sept 6, 1901 - President William McKinley is shaking hands at an exhibition when he is shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz, who felt McKinley was receiving too much attention.
MacKinley's wounds should not have been serious, but his inept doctor decided to operate immediately rather than wait for a specialist
Sept 14, 1901 - Death of MacKinley (due more to operative trauma than to his wounds). Theodore Roosevelt becomes President
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 413-425, "Cannonball Blues/Whitehouse Blues" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the first being "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)" and the second the "Cannonball Blues," plus a version of a song called "Mr. McKinley" from _The Week-End Book_, which is so different that I would regard it as a separate though perhaps related song, probably not traditional)
Lomax-FSNA 143, "Mister MacKinley" (sic) (1 text, 1 tune)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 56 "White House Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 228 "White House Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer, p. 73, "White House Blues" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 287, "White House Blues" (1 text)
DT, WHITHOU*
Roud #787
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Buffalo, Buffalo (Death of McKinley)" (AFS 4198 B3, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, "Whitehouse Blues" (Decca 29141, 1954)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "White House Blues" (Columbia 15099D, 1926; on AAFM1, CPoole01, CPoole05)
Riley Puckett, "McKinley" (Columbia 15448-D, 1929)
Swing Billies, "From Buffalo to Washington" (Bluebird B-7121, 1937)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (tune)
cf. "The Cannonball" (words)
cf. "Joking Henry" (tune)
cf. "White House Blues (II)" (structure, tune, words)
NOTES: I know of three derivative versions of this song: one collected in Kentucky in the 1930s, talking about Herbert Hoover (in this collection as "White House Blues (II)"),  a second recorded by country-and-western singer Tom T. Hall in the 1970s, talking about Richard Nixon. Both share the title "White House Blues." The third is ""Governor Al Smith." - (PJS)
McKinley had been unpopular among farmers, most of whom had supported Democrat William Jennings Bryan, and his passing was not much mourned among country people -- thus the jaunty, humorous tone of this song. - PJS
The reference to McKinley's children earning a pension upon their father's death is completely unhistorical; McKinley married Ida Saxton (1847-1907) in 1871, but his two daughters, Katie and Ida, both died in infancy, and Mrs. McKinley was an epileptic and an invalid by the time her husband was elected President. - RBW
File: LoF143
===
NAME: Mister Rabbit
DESCRIPTION: "'Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your tail's mighty white.' 'Yes, bless God, been gettin' out of sight...." Mister rabbit similarly explains its coat, ears, and other physical features
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal questions dialog nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 173-174, "Mister Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 6, "Mister Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 240-242, "Cotton Field Song" (1 text, 1 tune, composite; the final portion goes here and the rest is largely floating verses or unidentifiable; some may go with "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss")
BrownIII 167, "Old Molly Hare (Mr. Rabbit)" (2 texts plus 4 fragments, 1 excerpt, and mention of 2 more; the "C," "D," and "E" fragments, plus probably "B," are "Old Molly Hare," "I" is "Mister Rabbit"; "A" and "G" mix the two)
ST LxU006 (Partial)
Roud #10058
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Hop, Old Rabbit, Hop" [with a couple of verses from "Poor Old Man"] (on Barker01)
Pete Seeger, "Mister Rabbit" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rattlesnake" (theme)
NOTES: Roud links together several rabbit songs under one number: "Mister Rabbit," "Ole Mister Rabbit (I'll Get You Rabbit)," even "Rabbit Hash." All are about rabbits raiding gardens (something they certainly do) and the attempts to punish them for it (rarely successful, even with modern technology). But the forms are quite distinct, so I split them. - RBW
File: LxU006
===
NAME: Mister Squirrel
DESCRIPTION: "One day Mr. Squirrel went up a tree to bed. A great big hickory nut fell upon his head. 'Although I am fond of nuts,' Mr. Squirrel then did say, 'I'd very much rather that they wouldn't come this way.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal food humorous
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 171, "Mr. Squirrel" (1 short text)
File: Br3171
===
NAME: Mister Stormalong: see Stormalong (File: Doe082)
===
NAME: Mister, Please Give Me a Penny
DESCRIPTION: "Mister, please give me a penny, For I ain't got any Pa, Mister, please give me a penny, I want to buy some bread for Ma."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: orphan money begging
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 729, "Mister, Please Give Me a Penny" (1 short text)
Roud #7392
File: R729
===
NAME: Mistletoe Bough, The
DESCRIPTION: In the castle, beneath the mistletoe bough, the lord's daughter prepares to wed young Lovell. The girl, tired of dancing, decides to hide and have Lovell find her. He never does. Years later, her body is found "in a living tomb," trapped in a chest
AUTHOR: Thomas Haynes Bayly?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855 (National Temperance Songster)
KEYWORDS: love marriage game hiding death Christmas
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Randolph 802, "The Mistletoe Bough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 466-468, "The Mistletoe Bough" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 802)
PBB 102, "The Workhouse Boy" (1 text, obviously a)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 481, "The Mistletoe Bough" (source notes only)
DT, MISTLETO*
Roud #2336
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2462), "The Mistletoe Bough," J. Harness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 15(204b), "Mistletoe Bough," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883 (partly illegible); Harding B 11(2464), "Mistetoe Bough," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
SAME_TUNE:
The Vorkhouse Boy (PBB 102, "The Workhouse Boy"; cf. broadside Bodleian Firth c. 16(311), unknown, no date; a  parody in "Dutch" dialect of this song, with very similar lyrics except that the girl is transformed to a boy in a poorhouse per)
Billy Jenkins, or The two houses of parliament (parody per broadside Harding B 11(2462), which also contains the original)
NOTES: Peter Underwood's _Gazeteer of British, Scottish & Irish Ghosts_, pp. 22-23, reports this of Bramshill House near Basingstoke in Hampshire: "An ancient chest in the panelled gallery is said to have been the 'death bed' of a young bride who died on the eve of her wedding." Her ghost is reported to have walked.
Probably unrelated, but a garbled version might perhaps have inspired this song. Alternately, it might come from the same roots as "Ginevra," by Samuel Rogers, which has the same story though the bride is Italian. I do not know the date of "Ginevra," but Rogers lived from 1763 to 1850, so his piece probably predates this.
Incidentally, the _New Century Handbook of English Literature_ (ed. Clarence L. Barnhart with William D. Haley, revised edition, Meredith Publishing, 1967, entry on "Ginevra") say that this story was told of several English castles. - RBW
File: R802
===
NAME: Misty Mountain, The: see Beinn a' Cheathaich (File: K002)
===
NAME: Mitchel's Address: see John Mitchel (File: PGa045)
===
NAME: Mither, I Maun Hae a Man
DESCRIPTION: "Noo mither, I maun tell ye, I'm gaun to be a wife; For I'm sure it's nae pleasure To live a single life." The girl complains of the burdens her mother puts on her, and offers Biblical arguments for marriage, and concludes, "I mean to tak' a man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid mother children marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 148-149, "Mither, I Maun Hae a Man" (1 text)
Roud #5554
NOTES: The girl here does not really quote the Bible, except for paraphrasing "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 9:1, etc.), but her argument is taken largely from 1 Corinthians 7, particularly 7:28, which states that it is no sin for a girl to marry.
The part about the girl being obedient has multiple sources in scripture, including the first part of 1 Corinthians 11 (the key verse here, 11:10, is actually close to making nonsense in Greek, but of course this is clarified -- usually to the detriment of the women -- in most translations). - RBW
File: Ord148
===
NAME: Mo Chraoibhin Aoibhinn Aluinn Og (My Pleasant Beautiful Young Little Branch)
DESCRIPTION: The harper says his true love is "bound and bleeding 'neath the oppressor." Her riches and beauty gone, she is deserted by many "crouching now like cravens" "Arouse to vengeance, men of brav'ry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1845 (_The Spirit of the Nation,_ according to OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: harp nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 85, "Mo Chreeveen Eeven Aulin Og" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OLcM085
===
NAME: Mo Dhachaidh (My Ain Home)
DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Our house by the ferry is surrounded with flowers and birds, protected by the hill from snow. My wife is "the star o' my hame ... the bairnies are singin'" We don't need riches.
AUTHOR: Malcolm MacFarlane
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1908 (Moffat)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lyric nonballad home wife
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
ADDITIONAL:
Alfred Moffat, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands, pp. 48-49 in the soft-cover edition printed c.1960, pp. 92-93 in the hard-cover edition printed c.1908
RECORDINGS:
Malcolm Angus McLeod, "Mo Dhachaidh" (on NovaScotia1)
NOTES: The description is based on Moffat's translation by Alexander Stewart. - BS
File: RcMDMAH
===
NAME: Mo Nighean donn a Cornaig
DESCRIPTION: Singer's fiancee, coming to church, is murdered by ruffians. The wine saved for their wedding is instead drunk at her funeral. The singer wishes he could find those who killed his beloved; he has a sword, and will test the strength of his arm with it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Kennedy-Fraser)
KEYWORDS: grief love sex wedding violence abduction crime homicide revenge beauty death funeral mourning foreignlanguage lament lover wine
FOUND_IN: Scotland(Hebr)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 19, "Mo Nighean Donn a Cornaig [My Dark-Haired Maid from Cornaig]" (1 text in Scottish Gaelic + translation, 1 tune)
Kennedy-Fraser II, pp. 140-145, "A Tiree Tragedy (Mo Nighean donn a Cornaig)" (1 text in Scottish Gaelic + translation, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
My Bonny Cornaig Lassie
NOTES: Flora McNeil, from whom the song was collected, notes that while she had only heard the song in Barra, it may have come from the island of Tiree, where there is a place called Cornaig. - PJS, paraphrasing Kennedy
Kennedy-Fraser, however, has a very different story: Words (not quite the same!) collected in Eigg, with a tune from Eriskay. The source of the tune was one Annie MacNeill.
According to Kennedy-Fraser, the girl's brothers had wanted to kill he lover, but got her instead; "the lover spent the rest of his years making passionate songs to her who had given her life for his own." - RBW
File: K019
===
NAME: Mo-te A-pe Promene Sur La Rue Commune
DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Mo-te a-pe promene sur la Rue Commune, Quand Mo-te a-pe boire un bon berre la bierre. Voila m'o culotte craquet et fais moin assi par terre." A man has a drink of beer and meets and forces the singer to the ground
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 124, "Mo-te A-pe Promene Sur La Rue Commune" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: ScNF124
===
NAME: Moanin'
DESCRIPTION: Leader (preacher): "De trumpet sounds in my soul" (congregation echoes). "I ain't got long to stay here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 579-580, "Moanin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15563
File: LxA579
===
NAME: Moanish Lady: see Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)
===
NAME: Mobile Bay
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "From Liverpool Town we sailed away - CH: John come tell us as we haul away. Outward bound at the break of day - CH. Aye, aye, haul aye - CH." Several verses refer to Mobile Bay and to women. Probably started as a Negro cotton stowing song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938
KEYWORDS: shanty work
FOUND_IN: Britain US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Colcord, p. 118, "Mobile Bay" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 86-87, "Mobile Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 287-288, "John, Come Tell Us As We Haul Away" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 210-211]
Roud #4696
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Stow'n' Sugar in de Hull Below" (some verses)
NOTES: Hugill explains that this was one of a very few shanties that would use two singers for the solo lines, alternating verses. - SL
File: Hugi287
===
NAME: Mochyn Du  (The Black Pig)
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Explains that the black pig is dying, and that now they'll have to do without bacon. Chorus laments the passing of the pig, "Oh, our hearts are very sore...." Based on a Welsh folk song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong foreignlanguage animal food
FOUND_IN: Wales
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 238-239, "Mochyn Du" (2 text-English & Welsh, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Hob-y-derri-dando" (English verses often interchanged with this)
cf. "Cosher Bailey's Engine" (tune)
NOTES: See also notes to "Hob-Y-Derri-Dando." English words often sung to the same tune go "Dave Davy comes from Nevin, an' he's got a little engine, An' he cannot do without it, 'Cos he thinks so much about it. Ch. Wass you effer see (x3) such a funny thing before?" - SL
File: Hugi238
===
NAME: Mockingbird Song: see Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)
===
NAME: Mode o' Wooing, The
DESCRIPTION: "Young men when that they do arrive Between a score and twenty-five... [are inclined] To gang away a-wooing, a woo woo wooing." The singer tells of asking advice on how to court, but the old men's advice is bad. He has better luck asking an old woman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: youth courting questions
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, pp.  106-107, "The Mode o' Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR106 (Partial)
Roud #3151
File: StoR106
===
NAME: Modesty Answer, The: see Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)
===
NAME: Mole in the Ground: see I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground (File: BAF900)
===
NAME: Mole-Catcher, The
DESCRIPTION: The old molecatcher learns that his wife is carrying on with a young farmer. He catches them in the act, and demands ten pounds of the farmer for "tilling my ground." The farmer says that's a fair price, "For that won't amount t'above tuppence a time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905
KEYWORDS: adultery sex trick commerce humorous bawdy
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Kennedy 206, "The Mole-Catcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 268-269, "The Molecatcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 38, "The Molecatcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MOLECATCH*
Roud #1052
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Molecatcher" (on Lloyd1)
File: K206
===
NAME: Moll Boy's Courtship: see Pretty Polly (I) (Moll Boy's Courtship) [Laws O14] (File: LO14)
===
NAME: Mollie and Willie
DESCRIPTION: When Mollie (?) refuses to marry Willie (?), he sets off to be a soldier. She dresses in soldier's clothes and follows him. He tells his fellow "soldier" of his love for Mollie. She starts to cry, and her identity is revealed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love soldier cross-dressing trick reunion
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 98, "Mollie and Willie" (1 text)
ST BrII098 (Full)
Roud #6571
NOTES: The editors of Brown speculate that this is a defective version of "Polly Oliver." I really don't see it. It looks more like "The Banks of the Nile." But the differences in the (disordered) Brown text are large enough that I treat this as a separate ballad until I find something more similar. - RBW
File: BrII098
===
NAME: Mollie Bond: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Mollie Vaughn: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Agnew
DESCRIPTION: The singer is vexed that the Irish are "forced from their nation." He meets Molly Agnew, a poor servant girl. Her rich father had been slain in 1799, and his family driven "to beg, starve or die." She agrees to marry the singer and go to old Scotia.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1854 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(175))
KEYWORDS: marriage rebellion death servant hardtimes Ireland Scotland father
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 30, "Molly Agnew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2750
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(175), "Molly Agnew"[partly illegible] ("On the nineteenth of July, in the year twenty-nine"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1854; also Harding B 17(196b), "Molly Angew"[sic but only in the title][partly illegible]
SAME_TUNE:
The Girl I Love Best (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(196b))
NOTES: The Bodleian broadsides 2806 b.11(175) and Harding B 17(196b) are more complete than Creighton-SNewBrunswick and are the source for the description. - BS
I have to suspect that this is based some other emigration song which lacks the political motif. It reminds me a bit of "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)." - RBW
File: CrSNB030
===
NAME: Molly and Tenbrooks [Laws H27]
DESCRIPTION: In the race between (Molly) and (Ten Broeck), Molly at first takes the lead. Ten Broeck tells his jockey to let him run free, and proceeds to overtake the mare.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: racing horse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 4, 1878 - race between Ten Broeck and Miss Mollie McCarthy (won by Ten Broeck)
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws H27, "Ten Broeck and Mollie"
Thomas-Makin', pp. 126-127, (no title) (1 short text, probably of this song although it does little except describe Ten Broeck)
DT 652, MOLLTEN (MOLLTEN2)
Roud #2190
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Hole in the Wall / Timbrooks and Molly" (AFS 4210 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "Molly and Tenbrooks" (Columbia 20612, 1949)
Sonny Osborne, "Molly and Tenbrooks" (Kentucky 605, n.d.)
The Stanley Brothers, "Molly And Tenbrooks" (Rich-R-Tone 418, 1948)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Timbrook" (subject)
cf. "Old Timbrook Blues" (subject)
cf. "Liza Jane" (lyrics)
cf. "Run Mollie Run" (lyrics)
cf. "Skewball" [Laws Q22] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Run, Molly, Run
NOTES: The "short description" above mirrors the plot as given by Laws. In my experience, however, almost all versions of this song credit Molly, not Ten Broek, as the winner. Of course, many of these texts may have been influenced by the popularized Bill Monroe version, "Molly and Tenbrooks."
Every version of this piece that Laws was aware of came from two articles by Wilgus (both in _Kentucky Folklore Record_, Vol II, #3 and Vol. II, #4). Wilgus reports that "A match race in Kentucky was arranged at $5,000 a side for a three-heat race, all heats to be four miles each. If either horse was distanced in a heat, the other horse was to be declared automatically the winner."
"The July 4, 1878 match race in which the Kentucky thoroughbred Ten Broeck defeated the mare Miss Mollie McCarthy went into the record books as the last four-mile heat race in American turf history."
As it turned out, Mollie led for much of the first race, then staggered and was distanced, ending the contest. Both sides started trading charges: That Ten Broeck had been poisoned, that the state of the track affected the outcome, etc.
Wilgus sees a relationship with "Skewball" [Laws Q22], and the possibility of a relationship cannot be denied. Laws, however, does not note the connection. As Laws makes the observation that the ballad shows "extreme verbal variation," he may have thought that similarities to "Skewball" either coincidence or later grafts. - RBW
File: LH27
===
NAME: Molly and the Baby
DESCRIPTION: "There's a patient little woman here below, And a little kid that ought to have a show, Now I'll give the whiskey up and I'll take a coffee cup With Molly and the baby don't you know." The singer vows to give up drinking for the sake of his family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Aurora Advertiser)
KEYWORDS: drink family promise
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 338, "Molly and the Baby" (1 text)
Roud #7810
File: R338
===
NAME: Molly Ban: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Baun Lavery: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Bawn (II): see The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)
===
NAME: Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36]
DESCRIPTION: Jimmy goes out hunting and shoots his true love (Molly, mistaking her for a swan). He is afraid of the law, but is told that the law will forgive him. At his trial Molly's ghost appears and explains the situation; the young man is freed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1806 (Jamieson)
KEYWORDS: hunting death trial reprieve help ghost
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (27 citations)
Laws O36, "Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear)"
Randolph 54, "Molly Vaughn" (3 texts plus 2 fragments and 1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Eddy 77, "Mollie Vaughn (Polly Band)" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 14, "Molly Baun" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 274-276, "Polly Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 26, "Shooting of His Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 111, "As Jimmie Went A-Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 76, "Molly Bawn" (1 text plus a fragment)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, p. 117, "Molly Vaughn" (1 text, properly titled "The Death of Molly Bender,"  with very peculiar orthography; it looks like it came from a semi-literate manuscript but is said to be from a field recording)
Chappell-FSRA 57, "Polly Bond" (1 fragment)
SharpAp 50, "Shooting of His Dear" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Hudson 32, pp. 145-146, "Shooting of His Dear" (2 texts)
Leach, pp. 700-701, "Molly Bawn" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 26, "Molly Bawn" (1 text)
PBB 92, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 96-97, "Molly Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 196, "Molly Baun Lavery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 206, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text)
SHenry H114, p. 143, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 29, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 1, pp. 1-2,99,154-155, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 330, "Polly Vaughan" (2 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 102, "Mollie Vaughn" (3 texts, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 33, pp. 78-79, "Mollie Bond" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 133-134, "Molly Bawn"; "Molly Bander" (2 texts)
DT 308, POLLYVON POLLVON1 POLLVON2
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 304, "Young Molly Bawn" (1 short text)
Roud #166
RECORDINGS:
Louis Boutilier, "As Jimmie Went A-Hunting" (on MRHCreighton)
Anne Briggs, "Polly Vaughan" (on Briggs1, Briggs3)
Packie Manus Byrne, "Molly Bawn" (on Voice06)
Sara Cleveland, "Molly Bawn" (on SCleveland01)
Seamus Ennis, "Molly Bawn" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
A. L. Lloyd, "Polly Vaughan"  (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
John Maguire, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (on IRJMaguire01)
Maggie Murphy, "Molly Bawn" (on IRHardySons)
Pete Seeger, "Shoo Fly" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
Phoebe Smith, "Molly Vaughan" (on Voice03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(11), "Young Molly Bawn," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also 2806 b.11(131), "Young Molly Bawn"
LOCSinging, as111140, "Polly Von Luther and Jamie Randall," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859 
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Molly Ban
Peggy Baun
Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour
NOTES: Darling compares this to the story of Cephalus and Procris. The standard version is supplied by Ovid in the Metamorphoses (VII.685 and following; it starts on page 174 of the Penguin edition translated by Mary M. Innes). First he tested her love in disguise, and she passed the test. But then she heard a rumor of his unfaithfulness, and set out to watch him. He heard her in hiding, without seeing her, and threw his javelin on the assumption that she was a wild beast. It killed her.
Incidentally, Michael Grant and John Hazel, _Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology: A Dictionary_, article on Cephalus, thinks Ovid's version of the story may conflate legends of two different heroes named Cephalus. In any case, I don't see a particularly strong parallel to the ballad; yes, the hunter kills his lover, but the motivations are very different. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as111140: J. Andrews dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: LO36
===
NAME: Molly Bawn Lowry: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Bonder: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Brannigan: see Polly Brannigan (File: E153E)
===
NAME: Molly Brooks (I)
DESCRIPTION: "Molly Brooks has gone to the isle (x3), And I hope she'll never return (x3), Molly Brooks has gone to the isle, And I hope she'll never return."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad travel
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 529, "Molly Brooks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, p. 274, "Moll Brooks" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment which is placed here by the manuscript title; Roud [#2075] files it with "I Lost My Love and I Dinna Ken Hoo," though it has really only one line in common)
Roud #7642
NOTES: This probably springs from the same roots as Molly Brooks (II), a dance to the tune of "Malbrouk." Since, however, Randolph's version has lost the tune (which in this case is diagnostic), I have classified them separately. - RBW
File: R529
===
NAME: Molly Brooks (II): see Malbrouck (File: K108)
===
NAME: Molly Maguires, The
DESCRIPTION: A song "in praise of Molly's sons." "They can root out all Defenders and plant the Laurel Tree." Seeing them in St Patrick's day finery "while the Ribbon Bands did play" the singer prays "That the Lord may enable Molly's sons to tear down tyranny."
AUTHOR: John Maguire (source: Morton-Maguire)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Morton-Maguire 9, pp. 21-22,103,158, "The Molly Maguires" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2923
NOTES: Morton-Maguire: "Tradition has it that the Molly Maguires were formed in the early nineteenth-century after the Catholic neighbors of a Co. Tyrone widow, Molly Maguire, had successfully foiled an attempt to evict her. The success spurred them to combine to carry out similar defensive action in other areas." Morton continues "I find John's song somewhat confusing for various reasons": The Defenders were a Catholic organization that you would expect to be on the same side as the Molly Maguires but, since there was no great Orange threat in Fermanagh, there could have been conflict between Catholic organizations; on the other hand there was no alliance between the Molly Maguires and the more extreme Catholic Ribbonmen.
Why a "laurel tree"? I don't find any association, for example, between the Liberty Tree and laurel (see "The Liberty Tree," "Ireland's Liberty Tree," "Plant, Plant the Tree" and Zimmermann's discussion of the Liberty Tree: pp. 41-43, 85-86, 255-256). - BS
In classical mythology, and in Roman history, the laurel, or the bay, is associated with victory, and is also said to ward off evil spirits. I don't know of any overwhelming reason to connect that legend with Ireland, but it's probably more likely than a link between "laurel" and "liberty."
The Molly Maguires were not a particularly noteworthy group; I checked seven histories without finding a single mention of them. But they loomed larger in legend. Benet's _Reader's Encyclopedia_ described them as "An Irish secret society organized in 1843. Stout, active young Irishmen dressed up in women's clothes,blackened faces, and otherwise disguised themselves to surprise those employed to enforce the payments of rents. Their victims were ducked in bog-holes, and many were beaten most unmercifully." And this Irish group inspired the American Molly Maguires, which fought against the Pennsylvania coal bosses -- and largely failed. The American Mollies are the chief subject of "Muff Lawler, the Squealer." [Laws E25].
The Mollies, in both their American and Irish forms, inspired sundry other songs -- e.g. there is one by Phil Coulter in the Digital Tradition. Few if any made it into tradition. - RBW
File: MoMa009
===
NAME: Molly Malone
DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of meeting sweet Molly Malone in Dublin, where she sold shellfish from a barrow; her parents were also fishmongers. She dies of a fever; now her ghost wheels the barrow. Chorus: "Singing 'Cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Hoagland; Fireside Book of Folk Songs)
KEYWORDS: death food worker ghost disease commerce
FOUND_IN: US Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 124, "Molly Malone" (1 text)
DT, MOLLYMAL*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 256, "Cockles and Mussels" (1 text)
Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, p. 12, "Molly Malone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16392
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Molly Malone" (on PeteSeeger32)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(82a), "Cockles and Mussels. Aliv, O" (sic.), Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Walnut Girl" (subject)
NOTES: We don't have "peddler" as a keyword -- pity. Meanwhile, I believe this started out as a Tin Pan Alley song? For better or for worse, it seems to have entered tradition -- at least, at every Irish gig I've played, some drunk asks for it. - PJS
Although the Poet's Box broadside is the earliest version I've found, it can hardly be the original; incredibly badly printed (Apart from the title, it can't decide if Miss Malone is Molly or "Melly," and the chorus runs "Alive, alive, O! alive, alive O! Crying Cockles and! alive, alive, O!"), and no tune is indicated. It has to be derivative. - RBW
File: FSWB124B
===
NAME: Molly McGlocklin
DESCRIPTION: The marries Molly McGlocklin. She prefers Finnigan who "his gizzard he broke." Molly mourns; the singer hits her and fights the Finnigans. After the burial she attacks him; he throws her in the grave. HeÕs single now and will dance but won't marry again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2962))
KEYWORDS: marriage fight death funeral burial humorous family
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 42, "Mister Finagan" (1 text)
Roud #5746
RECORDINGS:
Jack Swain, "Finnigan's Wake II" (on NFMLeach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2962), "Pat Finnigan," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 26(37), "Barnaby Finegan"; 2806 b.11(184), "Barnaby Finnegan"
NOTES: Leach (NFMLeach notes) says "Finnigan's Wake" "is a local title; it is more generally known as Molly McGlocklin" - BS
File: RcMolMcG
===
NAME: Molly Put the Kettle On (Polly Put the Kettle On)
DESCRIPTION: "(Molly/Polly/Kitty) put the kettle on, Sally blow the dinner horn... We'll all take tea." Often a fiddle tune with the usual sorts of verses for a fiddle tune
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1841 (Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses food dancetune playparty
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Cambiaire, p. 133, "Jennie Put the Kettle On" (1 text, which looks like a playparty based on this chorus)
Opie-Oxford2 420, "Polly put the kettle on" (2 texts)
Darling-NAS, p. 256, "Molly Put the Kettle On" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #237, p. 153, "(Polly put the kettle on)"
Roud #7899
RECORDINGS:
Leake County Revelers, "Molly Put the Kettle On" (Columbia 15380-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, "Molly Put The Kettle On" (Columbia 15746-D, 1932; on GoingDown)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Pakenham" (form)

SAME_TUNE:
Jennie's Bawbee (so Herd, according to Opie-Oxford2)
NOTES: Opie-Oxford2 re 420: "Around 1810 the song was clearly the rage in London."
The following broadside refers to the original song and quotes it as a chorus.
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4332), "Polly Put the Kettle On" ("I am a merry, happy chap"), C. Sheard (London), 1840-1866 - BS
According to Eric Partridge's _A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English_ (combined fifth edition with dictionary and supplement, Macmillan, 1961), this was a c[atch] p[hrase] from around 1870, since become obsolescent. He attributes it to "the song of Grip, the Raven (Dickens)." Since Dickens was born 1812, the poem would appear to precede him, but he may well have added to its popularity.
The book involved, _Barnaby Rudge_, is based on the anti-Catholic riot of June 1780, but is influenced, e.g., by Sir Walter Scott, so there is no particular reason to think the catch-phrase dates from that era.
Grip is the mentally defiient Barnaby's pet raven, given to phrases such as "I'm a devil," "Never say die," and "Polly, put the kettle on." The latter quote occurs in chapter 17. - RBW
File: DarNS256
===
NAME: Molly Van: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Was a Good Gal: see Row, Molly, Row (Molly Was a Good Gal) (File: BMRF590A)
===
NAME: Molly, Asthore: see Gramachree (File: HHH204)
===
NAME: Molly, I'm the Man: see The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (File: LN40)
===
NAME: Molly, Lovely Molly
DESCRIPTION: Molly hears a voice at her window; it is her old love returned. She bids him leave; he has courted other women. He replies that it was his master's orders which took him away. His ship leaves tomorrow; will she come with him? She agrees to do so
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H557, pp. 478-479, "Molly, Lovely Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9456
NOTES: Some versions of The Cruel Ship's Carpenter [Laws P36] share a title and/or metrical form with this ballad. The plots are so completely different, however, that I would not even have noted the similarity had not there been a note in the Henry collection pointing out the (lack of) common material. - RBW
File: HHH557
===
NAME: Mon Bon Ami Va Venir Ce Soir (My Good Friend Will Come This Evening)
DESCRIPTION: French. The singer's good friend comes to see his, undresses and sleeps in his bed.  Near midnight she says Hello. The singer says thanks for the hello, but had hoped for more. To lead quail to corn, you have to know how to serve it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sex lover
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 300-301, "Mon Bon Ami Va Venir Ce Soir" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: "Quail" -- that is "caille" -- here likely has the same connotation, that is "young woman," in French slang as it does in US slang. See, for example "Suburban slang greets visitors to France" by John Lichfield, June 6, 2001, "In ...verlan -- the ... language of ... French, suburban youth -- there are more than 50 ways of referring to women.  They include "...caille..." from the New Zealand Herald site. - BS
File: Pea300
===
NAME: Mon Cher Voisin (My Dear Neighbor)
DESCRIPTION: French. My neighbor sent me to find a worn out old horse. Let's drink, sharpen our knives and skin it. He soothes the horse: no more demands will be made, no more pulling a master and his luggage.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage execution horse
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 129, "Mon Cher Voisin" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Pawkie Paiterson's Auld Grey Yaud" (theme)
cf. "Poor Old Horse (III)" (theme)
NOTES: The description is based on Alan Mills's translation in Creighton-Maritime. - BS
File: CrMa129
===
NAME: Mona (You Shall Be Free): see Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)
===
NAME: Moncton Tragedy, The: see John Sullivan (The Moncton Tragedy) (File: Dib057)
===
NAME: Monday Morning: see Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)
===
NAME: Monday was my Courting Day, A: see My Wife Died on Saturday Night (File: RcMWDOSN)
===
NAME: Mone, Member, Mone
DESCRIPTION: "Tell-a me who had a rod, Mone, member, mone! Hit was Moses, child of God, Mone, member, mone!" A call-and-answer sermon describing the crossing of the Red Sea, listing the order of those who will go to heaven, and calling for repentance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 578-579, "Mone, Member, Mone" (1 text)
Roud #15562
NOTES: One suspects that this was sort of a preacher's "zipper" text -- any story could be zipped in to replace the Exodus account. But I've never seen this in any other form, so I can't say with certainty. - RBW
File: LxA578
===
NAME: Money
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, money is the meat in the coconut, O money is the milk in the jug; When you've got lots of money You feel very funny, You're as happy as a bug in a rug."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: money food
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, p. 112, "Money" (1 short text (perhaps just the chorus), 1 tune)
File: San112
===
NAME: Money, Money, Oh Sweet Money
DESCRIPTION: "Long time ago I had a beau, He came a-courting me, Because he thought that I had wealth...." The girl tests him by informing him she has no money. He drops her at once. She warns others, "Let them find you're minus of gold And you'll be minus of beaux."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting money abandonment
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 484, "Money, Money, Oh Sweet Money" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7637
File: R484
===
NAME: Moneygran Pig Hunt, The
DESCRIPTION: "There was racing and chasing in old Moneygran," as pigs bid humans catch them and say they are "Home Rulers and Fenians and Orange pigs too."  The "warhawks" pursue, but "the pigs are the winners in old Moneygran."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: Words: 1924 (Northern Constitution); as a song, 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: political racing animal
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H731, pp. 22-23, "The Moneygran Pig Hunt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13345
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnets o' Bonny Dundee" (tune)
cf. "The Bold Tenant Farmer" (subject)
cf. The Barrymore Tithe Victory" (theme)
cf. "The Sow's Triumph Over the Peelers" (theme)
NOTES: Said to be based on an incident from 1876, when law officials were sent to the Mercers estate to collect back rent. The tenants loosed their pigs, and the police tried to catch them.
The song is said to be associated with the Land Leagues, a group arising out of the complex interactions between Britain and Ireland. The election of 1868 brought Gladstone to power, but also gave Charles Stewart Parnell a decisive voice in parliament. In 1870, Gladstone passed a Land Act, but the House of Lords rejected it.
The Irish reaction was the Land Leagues, tenant organizations intended to curb excessive rents. They were basically non-violent, but they did resist pressure from landlords in all sorts of creative ways.
The Land Leagues finally faded in 1881 when Gladstone managed to get a true rent reform bill passed (though at the cost of a Coercion Act used to suppress the worst radicals). For further details, see the notes on "The Bold Tenant Farmer."
The reference to the pigs being "Home Rulers and Fenians and Orange" is an observation on the personal politics of those who wanted relief from rents: They ranged from radical Irishmen (Fenians) to conservatives, often Protestant, who wanted Home Rule, to the Ulster Protestants who wanted to be part of Britain but still needed rent reform. - RBW
File: HHH731
===
NAME: Monk McClamont's "Farewell to Articlave"
DESCRIPTION: In (18)40, the singer prepares to sail for America on the Provincial. The ship being becalmed, he has time to see, and mourn, the land he is leaving behind. He praises the captain and crew of the ship
AUTHOR: Monk McClamont
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: ship emigration farewell
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H65b, p. 166-187, "Monk McClamont's 'Farewell to Articlave'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13542
File: HHH065b
===
NAME: Monk of Great Renown, The
DESCRIPTION: A monk has sex with one or more women until his fellows abruptly put a halt to his misadventures.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex death burial
FOUND_IN: Canada Britain(England) US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cray, pp. 37-42, "The Monk of Great Renown" (3 texts, 1 tune); a piece to a different tune but with the same sort of plot occurs on p. 265 under "Ditties"
Roud #10137
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "The Monk of Priory Hall" (on Unexp1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Horse Shit"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Squire of Great Renown
File: EM037
===
NAME: Monkey and the Baboon, The
DESCRIPTION: "The monkey and the baboon playing seven-up The monkey won the money And was scared to pick it up." "The monkey and the baboon Running a race. The monkey fell down And skint his face." "The monkey... climbed a tree... threw a cocoanut..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal cards humorous floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 180, "The Monkey and the Baboon" (1 text)
NOTES: The stanza about X and Y playing seven-up of course occurs with many protagonists (white man and black, David and Goliath, Adam and Eve); one wonders a little if its use here is not some sort of allegory. - RBW
File: ScaNF180
===
NAME: Monkey and the Elephant, The
DESCRIPTION: "The monkey and the elephant were riding on a rail, The elephant said, 'Oh, monkey, you look so doggone frail.'" Other animals also fight. So do the singer's Mom and Dad. The singer discusses his history of courting. Many verses float
AUTHOR: probably adapted by John Daniel Vass
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (recorded by Shellans from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: courting animal humorous mother father rejection humorous nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Shellans, pp. 48-49, "The Monkey and the Elephant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7330
NOTES: The number of floating lines in this song is high: "If I had a scolding wife," "I went to see Miss Annie, I'll never go no more, Her shoes and stockin's in her hand," and references to courting Cindy. Other  portions feel adapted from traditional song. My suspicion is that this is a rewrite by John Daniel Vass of an assortment of traditional songs. Vass gave his treatment to several other songs, producing items which are long, invertebrate -- and, to my mind, not really very good when considered as a whole. - RBW
File: Shel048
===
NAME: Monkey Married the Baboon's Sister: see The Monkey's Wedding (File: San113)
===
NAME: Monkey Motions
DESCRIPTION: "I act monkey motions, too-re-loo, I act monkey motions, so I do; I act 'em well an' dat's a fact -- I act just like de monkeys act." "I act gen'man motions...." "I act lady motions...." Similarly for children's motions, preachers' motions, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 133, "Monkey Motions" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "What's the Lady's Motion? (Skip O'er the Mountain)" (form)
File: ScaNF133
===
NAME: Monkey Sitting on the End of a Rail
DESCRIPTION: "Monkey settin' on de end uf a rail, Pickin' his teeth wid de end uf his tail, Mulberry leaves un' calico sleeves, All school teachers is so hard to please." Rest floats: The redbird shaking 'simmons down, the singer is tired of sleeping alone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal floatingverses bird food
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 193, (no title) (1 text, with varying stanza forms)
File: ScNF193B
===
NAME: Monkey Turned Barber, The [Laws Q14]
DESCRIPTION: Pat enters the barber's and asks for a shave. A monkey in clothes winks and sets to work. Pat screams with pain; the monkey disappears. The barber enters. Pat accuses his "father" of having cut him. Finally the truth comes out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: animal abuse humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws Q14, "The Monkey Turned Barber"
Belden, pp. 249-251, "The Monkey Turned Barber" (3 texts, but B2 is "The Love-of-God Shave")
Beck 82, "Irishman's Lumber Song" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 239-240, "Wild Irishman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 525, MONKBARB MANKBAR2
Roud #918
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Wild Irishman
NOTES: There is a broadside, NLScotland, F.3.a.13(5), "The Monkey Barber," unknown (Edinburgh), 1825, which tells this story in prose, with rather more substantial detail. It's not clear whether it is the source of this song, or a retelling; I suspect the latter.
File: LQ14
===
NAME: Monkey's Wedding, The
DESCRIPTION: "The monkey married the baboon's sister, Gave her a ring and then he kissed her, He kissed so hard he raised a blister, She set up a yell." Verses, often nonsensical, about the proceedings at the wedding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal wedding nonsense humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
BrownIII 181, "The Monkey Married the Baboon's Sister" (1 short text plus 2 excerpts)
Gardner/Chickering 197, "The Monkey's Wedding" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 241-243, "The Monkey's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 113, "The Monkey's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 180, (no title) (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 68-69, [no title] (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, p. 114, [no title] (1 text)
ST San113 (Partial)
Roud #3123
NOTES: Linscott lists this as being sung to "The Drunken Sailor," and it will fit that tune -- but her tune is not quite the usual "Drunken Sailor." - RBW
File: San113
===
NAME: Montague, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Montague packet left Wexford at ten, With a fine stock of cattle and a fine crew of men, Hee Ho, Heave away, ho." Montague gets stuck in the sand and the cargo is lost: two cows, six sheep, a goat, and a sow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1943 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: sea ship wreck animal
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, p. 27, "The Montague" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7355
NOTES: Possibly Montagu, a Liverpool steamship [which] "struck the bar at Wexford" April 25, 1878 (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 51). - BS
File: Ran027
===
NAME: Montcalm and Wolfe, (Ballad of): see Brave Wolfe [Laws A1] (File: LA01)
===
NAME: Month of May, The: see The Merry Haymakers (File: HHH697)
===
NAME: Months of the Year, The
DESCRIPTION: "January is the first month, the sun goes very low... We shall see an alteration, before the year comes round." The song catalogs the months, describing how farmers spend the time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kennedy 256, "The Months of the Year" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1954
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Calendar Rhymes"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Seasons
File: K256
===
NAME: Monto
DESCRIPTION: "Well, if you've got a wing-o, Take me up to ring-o, Where the waxies sing-o, all the day."  Various people in Dublin set out to accomplish some end or other, fail, and console themselves by asking, "Take me up to Monto."
AUTHOR: George Hodnett
EARLIEST_DATE: 1982 (Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book)
KEYWORDS: whore Ireland political
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
DT, MONTO*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 60-61, "Monto" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Take Me Up to Monto
NOTES: I have never seen definitely-traditional version of this song. But Irish bands seem to sing it without any knowledge of its origin, and the two versions I've seen (Harte's and that in _Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book_) are somewhat different, with the differences being almost always clear errors of hearing, so it possibly belongs here.
The song is intensely political, but you have to know the code to realize what is going on. For starters, "Monto" is Montgomery street, Dublin's red light district. _Soodlum's_ says that 1600 prostitutes once worked there, before it was closed down in 1925.
"Buckshot" Forster ("Butcher Foster" in _Soodlum's_) is W. E. Forster, known as "Buckshot," a one-time British Chief Secretary for Ireland. According to Robert Kee, _The Bold Fenian Men_, being Volume II of _The Green Flag_ (Penguin, 1972, 1989), p. 86, Forster was given his name because, during his tenure, the police were sometimes given buckshot for ammunition, rather than the more dangerous ball cartridges. This was not his decision, however, and he came to have a bad reputation for violence. Forster resigned his post in the 1880s when Prime Minister Gladstone released Charles Steward Parnell from arrest (for this, see e.g. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)"; also "Home Rule for Ireland" and the songs cited under those two).
"Carey" and "Skin-the-Goat" were two of those involved in the deadly Phoenix Park murders of 1882 (for which see especially "The Phoenix Park Tragedy"; also "Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey" and "Skin the Goat's Curse on Carey").
These two mentions would seem to set the song in the mid-1880s. This fits with the mentions of Queen Victoria, who ruled 1837-1901 and who repeatedly visited Ireland (though I doubt she ever weighed eighteen stone even in her later years when she did become stout; she just wasn't tall enough). Countering this is the mention of sending the Dublin Fusiliers overseas, which sounds like a reference to the Boer War which began in 1899; more than 20,000 troops were eventually sent to South Africa. But maybe it's a reference to some other small colonial conflict. There were certainly plenty to choose from. - RBW
File: Hart060
===
NAME: Monymusk Lads, The
DESCRIPTION: "As I cam' in by Monymusk And doun by Alford's dale," the singer goes "to see my Maggie dear." He visits at night, but the auld wife detects him and sounds an alarm. The auld man forces him out; he vows to return when the old man snores
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: nightvisit courting age escape
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ord, pp. 68-69, "Rural Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MONYMUSK*
Roud #5568
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Monymusk Lads" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
File: Ord068
===
NAME: Moody to the Rescue
DESCRIPTION: "Word came down to Derby town in the spring of '59: McGowan's men had smashed the pen & left for the Hill's Bar Mine." Col. Moody finds the miners do not wish to fight on Sunday. Moody says "Things look all right, so where's the fight?" and heads home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1969 (Fowke/MacMillan)
KEYWORDS: mining gold Canada political humorous
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1859 - Ned McGowan's War
FOUND_IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke/MacMillan 5, "Moody to the Rescue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17698
SAME_TUNE:
The Keach i' the Creel (File: C281)
NOTES: In 1856 gold was discovered near on Fraser River (Vancouver Island), and subsequently the area was host to a massive influx of gold-seekers not only from Canada but America, Europe, and even Australia.
In 1859 two American miners were accused of assault by a man named Dixon. The local magistrate at Fort Yale, named of Whannell, put Dixon in jail for safe keeping and issued a warrant for the two Americans. When they were caught they were put into the jail at Hill's Bar, under the jurisdiction of another magistrate, Perrier. Perrier decided he was going to handle the case and sent a constable to Fort Yale to retrieve Dixon. Whannell refused to release Dixon and instead jailed Perrier's constable. When Perrier heard about this, he deputized Ned McGowan and sent him after Dixon and the constable.
McGowan arrived at Hill's Bar with a dozen armed men and arrested Whannell, charging him with contempt of Perrier's court. The exaggerated account of the proceedings that reached the capital indicated that American miners at Hill's Bar had broken into the jail and were attempting to overthrow the British authority. Colonel R.C. Moody and a force of Royal Engineers and marines were sent out. They arrived, arrested McGowan, and charged him with assault on Whannell. The presiding judge, Begbie, fined McGowan five pounds and lectured all parties (and Whannell and Perrier in particular) on the impartiality of British law. American miners were to receive the same treatment under British law as British citizens, and at the same time the American miners had to understand that on British soil they were to abide by local laws.
This incident became known as 'Ned McGowan's War.'
From Fowke/MacMillan - Collected from Patrick Graber of Vancouver in 1970. Graber says he got the words from 92-year-old Henry Hawkins, who said he had heard it fifty years earlier. Hawkins could only recite the words, not the tune and Graber set the words to 'The Keach i' the Creel' (Child 281). Another source, Billy Wardell of New Westminster, said he had heard "old Harry Wiltshire" sing the song in 1927, and claimed the opening line should be "word came down to Sappertown." - SL
File: FowM005
===
NAME: Moon Shines Bright, The (The Bellman's Song)
DESCRIPTION: "The moon shines bright And the stars give a light." Listeners are told to awake that they may hear the life of Jesus and of the passion: "We ne'er shall do for Jesus Christ as he hath done for us." Listeners are reminded that life is short
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(200))
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus death resurrection warning
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond,West))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Leather, pp. 193-194, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
OBC 46, 47, 48, "The Bellman's Song" (1 text, 3 tunes)
DT, BELLMAN*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #80, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text plus sundry loose stanzas)
Roud #702
RECORDINGS:
Jasper Smith, "The Moon Shine Bright" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(200), "The Moon Shone Bright," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Douce adds. 137(66), Douce adds. 137(8), Johnson Ballads 1392C, Johnson Ballads 1485, "The Moon Shines Bright"; Harding B 7(31), "St. John's Day"; Johnson Ballads 2456, "Carol 2" ("The moon shines bright"); Harding B 25(379), "Christmas carol. III. ("The moon shone bright, & the[sic] gave light")
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "May Day Carol" (lyrics)
cf. "Christ Made a Trance (God Made a Trance)" (lyrics)
cf. "Awake Awake (Awake Sweet England)" (lyrics)
cf. "Here We Come A-Wassailing"
cf. "Somerset Wassail"
NOTES: This song in its current form seems to have originated in broadsides. It has some material in common with May carols, but whether the lyrics originated there (so A. L. Lloyd) or moved from this piece to the May songs is not clear.
The initial lines, "The moon shines bright The stars give a light" are found in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, volume II, from around 1744, but this is yet another separate piece:
The moon shines Bright
The Stars give a light
And you may kiss
A pretty girl
At ten a clock at Night.
The Baring-Goulds connect the above item with "Now I Am a Big Boy"; this appears possible but not certain.
A second stanza also occurs in nursery tradition: "God bless the master of this house, The Mistress bless also..." (see Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #423, p. 196).
Ravenscroft also printed a "Bellman's Song"; it is not the same thing.
Bradley  in _The Penguin Book of Carols_ says "This is not, as might appear from its first line, a song about Charlie Chaplin." Don't ask me what that is supposed to mean; I have no clue. - RBW
File: DTbellma
===
NAME: Moonlight: see Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight (File: R746)
===
NAME: Moonlight and Skies
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, come hear my story of heartaches and sighs, I'm a prisoner who's lonely for my moonlight and skies." The singer leaves his girl (daughter?) and sets out on a robbery. His partner is killed and he is taken. He wishes he were free and with the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, Jimmie Rodgers)
KEYWORDS: love separation robbery death prison
FOUND_IN: US Canada(West)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 21, "Moonlight and Skies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13922
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "Moonlight and Skies" (Conqueror 8002, 1932)
Hank & Slim "Moonlight and Skies" (Vocalion 02852, 1934)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Moonlight and Skies" (Victor 23574, 1931/Regal Zonophone [Australia] MR 2200, 1931; rec. 1930)
Stanley G. Triggs, "Moonlight and Skies" (on Triggs1)
SAME_TUNE:
Jimmie Davis, "Moonlight and Skies - No. 2" (Decca 5104, 1935) 
NOTES: This was item #170 in the first edition of Randolph, but was deleted in the second edition. It is item dE36 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Triggs found a logger's version of this song while working in a lumber camp at Salmo, BC; evidently it had already entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Ohr021
===
NAME: Moonlight Attack on Curtin's House
DESCRIPTION: "Moonlighting heroes of late made a raid Down in Castlefarm in John Curtin's place" and shot Curtin and his son. "May those boys that's in jail be home before long." "Not forgetting Thady Sullivan," an assailant shot and killed in the raid. 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1885 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: homicide prison Ireland political
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 13, 1885 - John O'Connell Curtin killed by "Moonlighters" at his farm in Molahiffe, County Kerry (source: Zimmermann)
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 88, "Moonlight Attack on Curtin's House" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The ballad recalls "His grandfather ... brought to the gallows in the year '98 Four dozen of croppies ... For which he was highly rewarded." Zimmermann notes "The Land War [roughly 1879-1885] took a particularly violent form in County Kerry where a secret agrarian organization revived the methods of the Whiteboys and Ribbonmen. John O'Connell Curtin was killed by some of these "Moonlighters."... Curtin was described by _The Nation_ as a staunch nationalist.... The verses were sung at fairs and other gatherings, and much applauded." - BS
File: Zimm088
===
NAME: Moonshine
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you booze fighters, if you want to hear, 'Bout the kind of liquor that they sell around here...." The great power of the product is described: "One drop'll make a rabbit lick a hound dog." The large number of 'shiners and revenuers is mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: drink talltale
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Warner 131, "Moonshine" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 42, "Moonshine" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 230, "Kentucky Bootlegger" (1 text)
ST Wa131 (Partial)
Roud #3126
RECORDINGS:
Fruit Jar Guzzlers, "Kentucky Bootlegger" (Paramount 3113, 1928)
Buell Kazee, "Moonshiner Song" (on Kazee01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Kentucky Moonshiner" (on NLCR08)
Red Fox Chasers, "Virginia Bootlegger" (Champion 15790 [as Virginia Possum Tamers]/Supertone 9492, 1929)
File: Wa131
===
NAME: Moonshine Can, The
DESCRIPTION: Informers report Pat's whiskey still to the Mounties. He is called to court. His still is dumped in the bay. At a neighbor's house a health is drunk to all but the informers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1956 (NFOBlondahl01)
KEYWORDS: drink police
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 75-76, "The Moonshine Can" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 39, "Moonshine Can" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9949
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Moonshine Can" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Blockader's Trail" (subject)
cf. "Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn" (subject)
File: Pea075
===
NAME: Moonshine Informer, The
DESCRIPTION: John Snow "informed on those people for making moonshine" around Bonavista Bay and is driven from town by the women of Southern Bay.
AUTHOR: Moses Harris
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: crime punishment revenge drink
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 79, "The Moonshine Informer" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Southern Bay is near Bonavista Bay on the east coast of Newfoundland. - BS
File: LeBe079
===
NAME: Moonshine Steer, The
DESCRIPTION: Two cowboys come across a still whose owner, thinking they are sheriffs, has fled. They get well and truly drunk, and see a steer with two heads, 12 legs, and 14 tails. At last they manage to give it a drink, and it disappears -- flying, according to them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: drink cowboy talltale
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fife-Cowboy/West 73, "The Moonshine Steer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11202
File: FCW073
===
NAME: Moonshiner
DESCRIPTION: "I've been a moonshiner for sev'nteen long years, I've spent all my money for whiskey and beer, I'll go to some holler, I'll put up my still...." "I'll eat when I'm hungry and drink when I'm dry; If moonshine don't kill me I'll live till I die...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap) Ireland
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
BrownIII 291, "Cornbread When I'm Hungry" (2 fragments; the "A" text combines "Moonshiner" with "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor"; "B" mixes "Moonshiner" with what appears to be a minstel song)
Sandburg, pp. 142-143, "Kentucky Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus 187, p. 189, "Moonshiner" (1 text)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 38, "God Bless the Moonshiners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 134, "Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 229, "Moonshiner" (1 text)
ST San142 (Full)
Roud #4301
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Moonshiner" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Daw Henson, "Moonshiner" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Moonshiner" (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Moonshiner" (on NLCR08)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Country Blues" (words)
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: An early 1960s recording of this song by Bob Dylan, long circulated as a bootleg but released in the 1990s, became justly famous in the folk revival as one of his finest performances, and inspired multiple covers of his version. Listening to the Daw Henson field recording, it seems very likely that this was Dylan's source. - PJS
File: San142
===
NAME: Moonshiner's Dream
DESCRIPTION: "Las night as I lay sleeping I dreamed one pleasant dream...." "Making blockade whiskey And selling at retail; But I woke up sad, broken-hearted In the Fulton County Jail." He laments the conditions, dreams of better, and warns others
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Riley Puckett)
KEYWORDS: prison drink dream
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 355, "Moonshiner's Dream" (1 text)
Roud #11729
RECORDINGS:
Riley Puckett, "The Moonshiner's Dream" (Columbia 15324-D, 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail)" [Laws E17] (theme, lyrics)
NOTES: This shows clear signs of borrowing from "Logan County Jail" or a relative. But the dream motif seems important enough for me to list it separately. - RBW
File: Br3355
===
NAME: Moorlough Maggie
DESCRIPTION: Singer owns sheep, cattle, and ships at sea. He offers each to Moorlough Maggie if she will go with him. She rejects each offer: "Tae gie consent, love, I darna gie Tae herd your sheep high in yon heathery hills"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (recording, Stanley Robertson)
KEYWORDS: love rejection nonballad
FOUND_IN:  Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #12939
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Robertson, "Moorlough Maggie" (on Voice15)
NOTES: I have to suspect this is a fragment of something like "Lizie Lindsay." - RBW
File: RcMooMag
===
NAME: Moorlough Mary
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls meeting Mary in Strabane, and being stricken. He describes how lovely it is to see her. He wishes he had education so he could wed and entertain her. Having no hope of wedding her, he departs Moorlough's banks forever
AUTHOR: James Devine ?
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(223))
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection nonballad shepherd
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
SHenry H173, pp. 250-251, "Moorlough Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 85, "Moorlug Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 59-61, "Moorlough Mary" (1 text)
OBoyle 17, "Moorlough Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2742
RECORDINGS:
Brigid Tunney, "Murlough Mary" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "Moorlough Mary" (on IRPTunney02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(223), "Moorlough Mary" ("The first time I saw young Moorlough Mary"),  H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 c.14(18)[some words illegible], "Moorlough Mary"; Firth b.27(232), "Moorlouch Mary"[text uses "Moorlough Mary"]
NOTES: Credited to James Devine by Sam Henry. Devine's one other song known to me ("The Pride of Glenelly") is a dreadul literary contraption; there is little real evidence that it went into tradition. This song is better-known, and not nearly as pretentious; it makes me wonder if Devine really wrote it. - RBW
Tunney-SongsThunder: "It seems that Mary Gormley or Moorlough Mary was no great beauty at all." Peter Boyle's notes to IRPTunney02: "Local tradition has it that, though they were never married, he [Devine] remained in love with her until they both were very old." - BS
File: HHH173
===
NAME: Moorlough Shore, The: see The Maid of Mourne Shore (File: HHH034b)
===
NAME: Moorlug Mary: see Moorlough Mary (File: HHH173)
===
NAME: Moorsoldaten, Die (Peat-Bog Soldiers)
DESCRIPTION: German: The prisoners, trapped in a concentration camp, carry their spades to work in the moors and bogs. There is no escape; they can only keep working. But the winter (of despair) will eventually end, and they can reclaim their corrupted homeland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: war prisoner hardtimes abuse political foreignlanguage
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Scott-BoA, pp. 354-355, "Die Moorsoldaten (Peat-Bog Soldiers)" (2 texts (1 English, 1 German), 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 307, "Peat Bog Soldiers" (1 text)
NOTES: This is properly a German folksong, but the English translation has become so popular in revival circles that it probably belongs here. - RBW
File: SBoA354
===
NAME: Moose Song, The
DESCRIPTION: Izzie Walters sees a moose. The boys kill it. An informer sees them divide the meat. The magistrate says "Five dollars ... or fourteen days in jail." Next time I'll "pay the squealer b'y to keep his big mouth closed."
AUTHOR: George Croucher?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal police punishment
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 77-78, "The Moose Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9950
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Terry Toole's Cabbage" (plot)
File: Pea077
===
NAME: Moosehead Lake
DESCRIPTION: "In eighteen hundred and ninety-two, Bant Breau and George Elliot they started a crew." Life in the camp, and the various characters there, are described. The singer talks about the combative men and the long hours
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Creighton-Nova Scotia)
KEYWORDS: logger work
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 58, "Moosehead Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 122, "In the Month of October" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1825
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Blue Mountain Lake (The Belle of Long Lake)" [Laws C20] (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This song as found in Lomax shares several verses with "Blue Mountain Lake" (with which Roud lumps it) as well as the "Derry Down" tune, and may well have sprung from the same roots. The overall feeling is just different enough, however, that I have very tentatively decided to keep them separate.
Laws offers another explanation: "Lomax seems to have added some stanzas from [Blue Mountain Lake] to... 'Moosehead Lake.'" - RBW
Creighton-NovaScotia begins "In the month of October eighteen-eight-two, Billy Williams from Bangor he scared up a crew, And forty brave fellows of us he did take, And he landed us over across head Moose Lake" - BS
File: LoF058
===
NAME: More Pretty Girls Than One
DESCRIPTION: Singer is a rambler who likes women; his mother told him to settle down, but he won't. He cries, thinking of pretty girls, and hopes he'll never die; he leaves us this lonesome song: "Every town I ramble around/There's more pretty girls than one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (JAFL)
KEYWORDS: loneliness rambling nonballad lyric floatingverses love separation travel farewell courting parting family
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Randolph 734, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie Blue Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans, p. 10, "Hush, LIttle Bonnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 284, "Bonnie Blue Eyes" (2 text plus 1 fragment and 1 excerpt);  also 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 texts, both mixed; "A" is mostly "Pretty Little Foot" with verses from "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" while "B" is a hash of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," ""More Pretty Girls Than One," "In the Pines," and others)
Cambiaire, pp. 23, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 170, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 192, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 142, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Goodbye" (1 text)
Roud #11505
RECORDINGS:
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (Challenge 423 [as Crockett & Cannon], 1929)
Carolina Tar Heels, "Goodbye My Bonnie, Goodbye" (Victor 21193, 1928, rec. 1927)
The Carter Family, "Bonnie Blue Eyes" (Decca 5304, 1936)
Cranford & Thompson, "Goodbye Little Bonnie" (Supertone 2594, c. 1932)
Woody Guthrie, "More Pretty Gals" (Folk Tunes 150, n.d., prob. mid-1940s)
Ken Marvin, "More Pretty Girls" (Mercury 6366, 1951)
Ozarkers, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (OKeh 45573, 1932)
Prairie Ramblers, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" ((Perfect 6-10-58/Melotone 6-10-58/Conqueror 8713, 1936)
Riley Puckett, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One - Parts 1 & 2" (Decca 5439, 1937)
Ridgel's Fountain Citians, "Little Bonnie" (Vocalion 5389, 1930)
Rutherford & Foster, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (prob. Brunswick, 1930; on KMM)
Arthur Smith Trio, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" Montgomery Ward M-4822/Bluebird B-6322, 1936)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Blue Eyes" (on DownYonder)
Fields Ward and the Grayson County Railsplitters, "Good Bye Little Bonnie" (Gennett, unissued, 1929)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2]" (words, tune)
cf. "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76] and its various offshoots (tune)
cf. "Lonesome Road" (words)
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (theme)
SAME_TUNE:
Dixon Brothers, "Bonnie Blue Eyes - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6691, 1936)
Arthur Smith Trio, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6889/Montgomery Ward M-7155, 1937)
Arthur Smith Trio, "Answer to More Pretty Girls Than One" (Bluebird B-7437/Montgomery Ward M7476, 1938)
Howard Dixon & Frank Gerald (The Rambling Duet), "More Pretty Girls Than One - Part 3" (Bluebird B-7484/Montgomery Ward M-7464, 1938)
NOTES: This song and "Danville Girl" [one of the various forms of Laws H2 - RBW] are siblings. - PJS
And the whole family is rather a mess. "More Pretty Girls Than One" is reasonably well-known. The Silber text "Goodby, Little Bonnie, Goodbye" has been found with this tune. Since both are largely floating verses, we decided to lump them.
Randolph's text also has a similar tune, and it shares the basic form of the Silber text, as well as some lyrics:
""Goodbye, little bonnie blue eyes (x2), I'll see you again, But God knows when, Goodbye, little...." "I'm going on the railroad train... 'Cause I love you, God knows I do." "I'm goin' on the ocean blue...." "Lay your hand in mine...."
Brown's two substantial texts ("A" and "B") are similar: Most of the same verses, but no chorus. Note the absence of the "more pretty girls" verse, which originally caused us to classify separately.
After some discussion, Paul Stamler and I decided to lump the lot, even though it's against our general policy, simply because none of the variations are really well-attested enough to be regarded as independent songs. But it should be noted that almost anything can be grafted onto this stalk.
The "Goodbye, Little Bonnie Blue Eyes" family, which includes Shellans's "Hush, Little Bonnie," is Roud #762. These texts often end with the singer coming back. - RBW
File: CSW192
===
NAME: Moree Spider, The: see The Spider from the Gwydir (File: MA204)
===
NAME: Moreton Bay (I)
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a prisoner. The prisoner, an Irish transportee, describes the various prisons he has been in, ending with Moreton Bay, which had no equal for harshness. He rejoices at the death of the sadistic commander, Captain Logan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1879 (quoted the "Jerilderie Letter" of Ned Kelly; see Hughes, p. 444)
KEYWORDS: abuse prison transportation injury Australia
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1824-1842 - Period during which Moreton Bay served as a prison colony
1830 - Murder of Captain Patrick Logan by an aborigine
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 38-39, "Moreton Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 16-18, "Moreton Bay" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 52-54, "Moreton Bay" (1 text)
DT, MORETONB*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Hughes, _The Fatal Shore: The epic of Australia's founding_, Knopf, 1986, pp. 443-444 (1 text)
Roud #2537
NOTES: According to Robert Hughes, _The Fatal Shore: The epic of Australia's founding_, Knopf, 1986, p. 443, "Between his arrival at Moreton Bay and his violent death there four years later, Logan became a legend among the convicts -- so much so that he was the only commandant of an Australian penal station to have a whole ballad dedicated to him." Specifically this song, which he quotes in full.
Logan (1792-1830) was a Scotsman who joined the 57th Regiment in 1810, coming to Australia in 1825 (Hughes, p. 445). Hughes believe that Logan's brutal regiment was shaped by the experience of the British army, which -- being composed mostly of those who could find no other work -- was controlled largely by the lash.
Hughes, p. 446, reports that "Although the punishment registers for Moreton Bay in Logan's time are lost, it seems clear that Logan habitually worked prisoners in irons, whatever their sentences. He was also a relentles flogger. One sample record... show[s] that from February to October 1828, Logan ordered 200 floggings, for a total of 11,100 lashes."
Few reports of what was going on escaped the colony, since prisoners could not escape and Logan had to endorse any papers that were sent out. It has been speculated that what reports did reach the world were actually leaks intended to make people fear transfer to Moreton Bay (Hughes, p. 447). But at last a manuscript by Thomas Matthew emerged detailing the brutalities (Hughes, p. 449) -- and Logan's caprice in applying them.
Paterson/Fahey/Seal notes that, during Logan's tenure as commander of Moreton Bay, the death rate among the prisoners exceeded ten percent per year; there was a time when it exceeded 3% per month (cf. Hughes, p. 4460. This is not entirely Logan's fault; there was a famine and an epidemic at the time. On the other hand, a pretty good way to kill a sick man is to flog him unmercifully. No wonder prisoners celebrated his death!
Eventually Logan was ordered to India, but he stayed at Moreton Bay for some time to show his successor the ropes (Hughes, p. 450) and to testify to the state of things in Queensland. While waiting for the call to testify, he did some exploring, and waylaid (Hughes, pp. 450-451).
Moreton Bay is located in what is now southern Queensland. The penal colony there was founded in 1824 (though relocated slightly in 1825), and deliberately placed far away from the settled areas of Australia. Moreton Bay was intended for "doubly convicted felons," and it was thought that its remoteness would make it more secure.
Governor Brisbane, who gave his name to the local river and to the town which later arose on the site, wrote that "Port Macquarie [is] for first grave offenses [in Australia], Moreton Bay for runaways from the former, and Norfolk Island as the *_ne plus ultra_" (Hughes, p. 461).
This policy of "security through distance" didn't work; squatters were settling near Moreton Bay by 1840. In 1842, the government gave in and opened the area to settlement.
The list of settlements the prisoner has inhabited seems unlikely. For one thing, Norfolk Island should have been his last stop -- unless he had been on Norfolk Island in its first incarnation. But the island was closed in 1814 and not reopened until 1825, when it was determined that Moreton Bay was not sufficient to handle the die-hards (see manning Clark, _A Short History of Australia_, Pengion, 1963; fourth edition, 1995l p. 54). And convicts sent there were not allowed to leave for at least ten years!
In addition, Norfolk Island (in both its incarnations) was as bad as Moreton Bay (the death rate was prodigious; some men received over a thousand lashes a year, and the most common reason for murders was that men would do anything to be sent to Sydney for trial).
Of the other sites mentioned:
Toongabbie is one of the farming areas near Sydney, and was the easiest, not the worst, of the settlements.
Castle Hill probably refers to Newcastle (which was so called because it was near a Castle Hill); founded in 1821, it was another place destined for incorrigibles, but was close enough to Sydney that it didn't last long.
The reference to Moreton Bay as part of New South Wales is correct; although it is now in Queensland, all the settled regions of Australia, save Van Diemen's Land, were initially called "New South Wales," and Queensland did not become a separate territory until 1859.
The reference to men dying of starvation in Moreton Bay also has its truth; the British were incredibly inept about organizing colonies, and prison colonies were the worst; they didn't even allow plows to till the soil. A crop failure in 1828/1829 caused Logan to cut the minimal rations in half. He also kept prisoners in irons whatever their punishment status; this can only have lowered their productivity
A "triangle" was actually a tetrahedron, three sticks lashed together from which a man was hung to be flogged.
Logan (1792-1830) was assigned to Moreton Bay in 1826, and since he was judge, jury, and tribune, no word came out for some time; Governor Darling (who succeeded Brisbane in 1825) wanted it that way. But eventually a prisoner was brought to Sydney for trial, and though he was hanged, a manuscript he left behind revealed some of the truth.
Logan was assigned to other duties, outside Australia, in 1830. But he stayed on for a time to show his successor the ways of the colony.
During this period, Logan did some private exploration. On one such trip, he became separated from his party. His body was eventually found, partly buried; the physical evidence seemed to indicate that an aborigine had killed him. (Relations with the local natives had turned bad almost instantly, and they killed any intruders they could.) But there isn't much doubt that most of his prisoners would have murdered him given the slightest opportunity.
As with most such historical figures, there have been attempts to whitewash him (see Hughes, p. 444). The attempts strike me as ludicrous.
Paterson/Fahey/Seal notes that this song is usually attributed to Francis Macnamara, but observes that other authors have also been suggested. - RBW
File: FaE038
===
NAME: Moreton Bay (II): see The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)
===
NAME: Mormon Cowboy (I), The
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a Mormon cowboy, is invited to a grand ball. He meets all the girls and enjoys the music. After dancing a few sets, he steps out for rest; later, a fight starts, with gunplay, but is quickly quashed. The cowboy rides off, vowing nevermore to roam
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (recording, Carl T. Sprague)
KEYWORDS: fight dancing music party cowboy
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #11523
RECORDINGS:
Carl T. Sprague, "The Mormon Cowboy" (Victor V-40246, 1929; on AuthCowboys, WhenIWas1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The High-Toned Dance" (plot)
File: RcTMorCw
===
NAME: Mormon Cowboy (II), The
DESCRIPTION: The singer sings "Concerning Archie Barber and his unhappy state." At 22, he marries, but he has "no tool at all" and can't satisfy the girl. Her mother tells her to try him before a female jury. The marriage is annulled; the girl marries a Mormon cowboy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex abandonment cowboy humorous
FOUND_IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Logsdon 3, pp. 38-41, "The Mormon Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Logs003 (Partial)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "No Balls at All" (theme) and references there
NOTES: Logsdon treats this as a version of "No Balls at All." I really don't see it; the lyrics are almost entirely different, the boy is young, the girl puts him on trial before a jury of women, and she goes on to remarry a Mormon cowboy. That surely qualifies as enough reason to split the songs. - RBW
File: Logs003
===
NAME: Mormond Braes
DESCRIPTION: A (lass/lad) laments a lost sweetheart, (who promised to marry but proved fickle). At last (she) says she will find another sweetheart elsewhere. "So fare ye weel, ye Mormond braes, Where after I've been cheerie... Sin I hae lost my dearie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment rambling
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 171-173, "Mormond Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 62-63, "Mormond Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MORMBRAE*
Roud #2171
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Mormond Braes" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(124b), "Fareweel tae Blairgowrie," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: FVS171
===
NAME: Mormons, The
DESCRIPTION: "Some folks talk about the Mormons, and I think it is very sad...." Most people try to make the Mormons look bad for having many wives, but the singer thinks "they have lots of fun, Do the Mormons!" He described the loose Mormon customs
AUTHOR: Herbert W. Taylor?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: marriage wife sin humorous
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 500, "The Mormons" (1 text)
Roud #7638
NOTES: Ordinary Christians viewed Mormons as scandalous because they had multiple wives, and this song portrays a very flirtatious Mormon girl. In fact Mormons, except for being polygynous, were sexually strict; public nudity was unacceptable. And in fact the church had abandoned multiple marriage by the time this song was collected. Today the Mormons' primary difference from Protestant Christianity is their acceptance of several books by Joseph Smith as scripture. There are other theological differences, to be sure (including some over how salvation is achieved) which are of great importance to scholars -- but they generally don't interest ordinary people much, and are not widely published. - RBW
File: R500
===
NAME: Morning After, The
DESCRIPTION: "Sometimes, old scout, in the morning, when the dawn looks cold and gray," the singer ponders life's troubles and wonders 'Is it really worth the while?" He lists various problems. Then he gets serious about the day, for "tomorrow you may die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: nonballad death
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Dean, pp. 131-132, "The Morning After" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, pp. 621-622, "Is It Really Worth the While?" (1 text)
Roud #9588
File: Dean131
===
NAME: Morning Dew, The
DESCRIPTION: "The pink, the lily, and the blooming rose Grow in the garden where my true love goes. The little birds they do rejoice When they think they hear my love Jimmy's voice. O James Machree, I do love you well; I love you better than tongue can tell...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 86, "The Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 148-149, "The Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ148 (Full)
Roud #2307
File: FJ148
===
NAME: Morning Fair: see The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)
===
NAME: Morning of the Fray, The
DESCRIPTION: Frank Gardner leads his gang against a coach at the Eugowra Rocks. The outlaws scatter the escort and take the rich prize. Chorus: "You can sing of Johnny Gilbert, Dan Morgan, and Ben Hall, But the bold and reckless Gardiner he's the boy to beat them all"
AUTHOR: Music supplied by A.L. Lloyd
EARLIEST_DATE: 1984
KEYWORDS: outlaw robbery battle money
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1830 - Birth of Francis Christie in New South Wales. He later took the name Frank Gardiner, and was known as "the Darkie" for his part-Aborigine ancestry
FOUND_IN: Australia?
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 84-85, "The Morning of the Fray" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Hold-Up at Eugowra Rocks" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd10)
NOTES: Although the song implies Gardiner was separate from Gilbert, Morgan, and Ben Hall, in fact Gilbert and Hall were associated with Gardiner's gang. Ben Hall was shot in 1865; Johnny Gilbert met his fate in 1866. Gardiner was eventually taken and imprisoned, but was released and sent into exile after serving ten years of a 32 year sentence. - RBW
File: FaE084
===
NAME: Morrisey and the Russian Bear: see Morrissey and the Russian Sailor [Laws H18] (File: LH18)
===
NAME: Morrisite Massacre, The
DESCRIPTION: "We'll see Morris, Banks, and others, Joseph, Hyrum with the Martyrs, On Mount Zion in great glory With the savior and his army." "Slain by Burton, cruel Mormon," the song tells of the coming joys for the believers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: religious homicide
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 13, 1862 - The Morrisite Massacre
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 121-122, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: The Morrisites are, as best I can tell, an extinct sect, largely because of the actions described in this song. Joseph Morris in 1860 had received a series of revelations; he gathered followers among the Mormons and founded his own community. Being a rather poor organizer, and expecting the second coming at any moment, he was unable to control dissension among his followers.
Eventually some disgruntled followers called on the Utah authorities, who -- being left largely free of federal control due to the Civil War -- moved in quickly to settle the dissident faction. Salt Lake County sheriff Robert T. Burton gave the Morrisites 30 minutes to surrender, then moved in. Burton moved in, killed a few people including Morris and his assistant Banks, and took the rest prisoner.
Burton would be placed on trial in 1879, but was acquitted.
Joseph and Hyrum are, of course, the brothers Joseph and Hyrum Smith, who were slaim by a mob near Nauvoo, Illinois, one of the key events in Mormon history. - RBW
File: Burt121
===
NAME: Morrissey and the Benicia Boy
DESCRIPTION: The Benicia Boy -- Heenan -- challenges Morrissey saying "no man from Ireland before him could stand." They agree to fight for $5200 in North America. Morrissey wins in the eleventh round and takes the championship belt.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: fight gambling sports
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 20, 1858 - American Heavyweight Championship fight between John Morrissey and John C Heenan at Long Point, Canada. Heenan broke his hand during the fight. This is Morrissey's last fight
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
O'Conor, p. 44, "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (1 text)
OLochlainn-More, pp. 252-253, "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (1 text, tune referenced: OLochlainn 26)
Roud #9781
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" [Laws H20] (subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Black" (subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (subject)
cf. "Donnelly and Cooper" (tune)
NOTES: Source: Re historical references--"Troy Boxing -Round Two" by Don Rittner on The Mesh site.  I have not been able to find which Long Point in Canada was the site of the fight. - BS
John Morrissey was born in Ireland in 1831 but was raised in New York and apparently went to California at the time of the Gold Rush. In 1852 he gained fame as a boxer by defeating George Thomson. The climax of Morrissey's career came in 1858 (so _DAB_ and other sources; I've seen a date of 1860 cited), when he defeated champion John C. Heenan and promptly retired. In the years that followed his gambling resort in Saratoga Springs proved very successful, and Morrissey was twice elected to congress. He died in 1878.
In addition to his boxing prowess, he is said to have been a "hatchet man" for the New York Tammany Hall machine. - RBW
America Singing at the Library of Congress American Memory site does not have this ballad but has another about Morrissey and Heenan:
LOCSinging, sb10143a, "The Great Prize Fight Between Morrissey and Heenan, the Benicia Boy, at Long Point, Canada, Oct 20, 1858 for $5000," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue does not have this ballad among its "prizefighting" broadsides. However, among the broadsides at that site, there are many celebrating Heenan. For example:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(229), "Heenan's Challenge to Mace," unbknown, n.d.; also Harding B 19(62), "Heenan's Challenge to Mace"
Bodleian, Firth b.25(587/588), "Heenan and King," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899 [could not be downloaded]
Bodleian, Harding B 13(12), "Sayers' and Heenan's Struggle for the Championship and GBP400," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861
Bodleian, Harding B 13(7), "The Bold Irish Yankee Benicia Boy," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861 [tune: "Irish Molly"]
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2161a, "Coburn's Challange to Heenan," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(234), "Coburn's Challenge to Heenan"
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2705, "The Boxing Match Between Sayers and Heenan," unknown, n.d.
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1448B, "Maugh Bonamalath" or "Charles Heenan, the Champion of the World," W. Pratt (Birmingham), c.1850
Bodleian, Firth c.19(12), "The Fight with Heenan and the Black," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883
Bodleian, Harding B 26(247), "Heenan's Arrival in England," unknown, n.d.
There is a different broadside there for this fight:
Bodleian, Harding B 40(15), "The glorious victory of John Morrissy, of Templemore, Ireland, over the Yankee Buffalo boy, on Long Island, North America," J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 [could not be downloaded]
Morrissey has many fewer but at least two have been collected (see cross-references above)
Broadside LOCSinging sb10143a: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OCon033
===
NAME: Morrissey and the Black [Laws H19]
DESCRIPTION: Morrissey agrees to fight "Ned the black of Mulberry town" for a stake of ten thousand pounds. By the fourteenth round Morrissey is unconscious or nearly, but he is revived and knocks out his opponent in the twenty-fifth round
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: fight
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws H19, "Morrissey and the Black"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 175, "John Morrissey and the Black" (1 text)
Mackenzie 136, "Morrissey and the Black" (1 text)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 186-187,251, "Morrissey and the Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 30-32, "Morrissey and the Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 706, MORRBLK
Roud #1884
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" [Laws H18] (subject)
cf. "Donnelly and Cooper" (subject)
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" [Laws H20] (subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (subject)
cf. "The Napan Heroes" (theme)
NOTES: John Morrissey was born in Ireland in 1831 but was raised in New York and apparently went to California at the time of the Gold Rush. In 1852 he gained fame as a boxer by defeating George Thomson. The climax of Morrissey's career came in 1858 (so _DAB_ and other sources; I've seen a date of 1860 cited), when he defeated champion John C. Heenan and promptly retired. In the years that followed his gambling resort in Saratoga Springs proved very successful, and Morrissey was twice elected to congress. He died in 1878.
In addition to his boxing prowess, he is said to have been a "hatchet man" for the New York Tammany Hall machine. - RBW
Greenleaf/Mansfield says Morrissey was also a Congressman and State Senator for New York.
Ives-DullCare: .".. there is no record of a fight between Morrissey and anyone with a name remotely resembling 'Ned the blackman' from Melbourne or anywhere else." - BS
There had been, however, a tendency to recruit Black boxers in the early nineteenth century (see Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, _Blood Royal: The Illustrious House of Hanover_, pp. 142-143). This was apparently due to the success of one Molineaux, called "The Moor." This may well have been remembered. - RBW
File: LH19
===
NAME: Morrissey and the Russian Sailor [Laws H18]
DESCRIPTION: A Russian sailor in Tierra del Fuego challenges Morrissey to a duel. Morrissey takes on the challenge to uphold the honor of Ireland. The fight, for a large stake, takes 38 rounds, and each knocks the other down, before Morrissey is victorious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: fight patriotic
FOUND_IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Laws H18, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor"
Rickaby 48, "Morrisey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 4-5, "Morrisy and the Russian Sailor" (1 text)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 216-217, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 398-399, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 325, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 135, "Morrissey and the Russian" (1 text)
O'Conor, p. 30, "Morrisey and the Russian" (1 text)
OLochlainn-More, pp. 255-256, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, tune referenced: see OLochlainn 26)
Leach-Labrador 38, "Morrisey and the Russian Bear" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 694, MORRRUSS MORRRUS2*
Roud #2150
RECORDINGS:
Joe Heaney, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (on Pubs1, Voice08)
Johnny McDonagh, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Morrissey and the Black" [Laws H19] (subject)
cf. "Donnelly and Cooper" (subject, tune)
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" [Laws H20] (subject, tune)
cf. "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (subject)
NOTES: John Morrissey was born in Ireland in 1831 but was raised in New York and apparently went to California at the time of the Gold Rush. In 1852 he gained fame as a boxer by defeating George Thomson. The climax of Morrissey's career came in 1858 (so _DAB_ and other sources; I've seen a date of 1860 cited), when he defeated champion John C. Heenan and promptly retired. In the years that followed his gambling resort in Saratoga Springs proved very successful, and Morrissey was twice elected to congress. He died in 1878.
In addition to his boxing prowess, he is said to have been a "hatchet man" for the New York Tammany Hall machine.
There is no record of Morrissey ever fighting a Russian sailor -- and certainly not in Tierra del Fuego! On the other hand, he did fight some very long matches; in 1853 it took Morrissey 37 rounds to defeat James Sullivan.
(That win, incidentally, made Morrissey arguably the American champion; Sullivan in 1849 had beaten Tom Hyer in what the February 2006 issue of _American History_ magazine says was "considered to be the [first[ American championships prizefight") - RBW
O'Conor's last verse refers to other fights. Specifically, "Our hero conquered Thompson, the Yankee Clipper, too, The Benicia Boy, and Sheppard he nobly did subdue."
We have a ballad for "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy", at least.
"Thompson" was George Thompson, California champion, who lost a controversial fight to Morrissey in 1852.
The "Yankee Clipper" refers to Morrissey's controversial victory over Yankee Sullivan to become "Champion of America". See "The Fight at Boston Corners" and "The Great Prize Fight Which Took Place at Boston Corners, Oct 12, 1853" broadsides at the Library of Congress American Memory site.
There is also a broadside "Rough and Tumble, or the Amos Street Fight between Poole & Morrissey" at the Library of Congress American Memory site.
Sources: Biography of John Morrissey on the International Boxing Hall of Fame site; Biography of John Morrissey on the HarpWeek Explore History site; "Yankee Sullivan (James Ambrose)(alias Frank Murray)" at Cyber Boxing Zone site. - BS
File: LH18
===
NAME: Morrisy and the Russian Sailor: see Morrissey and the Russian Sailor [Laws H18] (File: LH18)
===
NAME: Moses Donohoe
DESCRIPTION: "The news from Rome ... our Pope he was in danger." April 29, 1869 Irish volunteers leave Dublin on the Avatuskey. They are rammed in a gale on May 10 and sink, deserted by the crew. Moses Donohue of Killincooley is among those drowned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck soldier war
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 123-124, "Moses Donohoe" (1 text)
NOTES: Did some ship, possibly named _Avatuskey_ -- or some more Polish name -- sail on April 29, 1869 to sink following a collision on May 10, 1869?
Ransom says "I have not been able to check up the correctness of the name 'Avatuskey,' nor have I been able to verify the statement that Irish volunteers went to the defence of the Papal States in 1869." Rome was all that was left of the Papal States in 1869 and it fell to Italy in "The Battle of Porta Pia" on September 20, 1870. Newspapers in Galway and London for the dates may reveal the facts. - BS
We might note that the Papal States were annexed rather than directly conquered by Italy; Porta Pia was more demonstration than battle. Of course, if the Papacy had had an Irish regiment at hand, who knows what it might have tried? - RBW
File: Ran123
===
NAME: Moses in the Bulrushes: see Little Moses (File: R662)
===
NAME: Moses of the Mail
DESCRIPTION: "It was a dark and stormy night, The snow was falling fast, I stood on Thorpbridge Junction Where the reckless Moses passed." Although there is no description of a wreck, the song ends with the dying words of Moses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1954 (MacColl-Shuttle)
KEYWORDS: train death storm
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacColl-Shuttle, pp. 8-9, "Moses of the Mail" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Although the text in MacColl-Shuttle is described as composite, it doesn't make much sense: It is never made clear if there was a serious accident, or if engineer Moses retired after a minor injury, or if the whole thing is just a talltale. The song is said to refer to an actual engineer, Henry "Moses" Poyser, who worked in the 1880s. - RBW
File: MacCS08
===
NAME: Moses Paul
DESCRIPTION: "My kindred Indians, pray attend and hear... This day I warn you of that cursed sin That poor despised Indians wallow in."  The preacher warns Indians against drink, which led Moses Paul to murder; he bids them turn to Christ
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: drink homicide Indians(Am.) religious
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1772 - Execution of Moses Paul, an Indian, for the murder of Moses Cook. 
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 152-153, "(Moses Paul)" (1 excerpted text)
NOTES: Supposed to be based on the words of one Reverend Samson Occom, himself an Indian, who gave the funeral sermon for Moses Paul. Occom correctly noted the poverty in which the Indians lived, and noted the effects of drink -- but rather ruined the effect, I would say, by blaming these faults on Sin. - RBW
File: Burt152
===
NAME: Moses Ritoora-li-ay
DESCRIPTION: A policeman sees a man peddling in the street and hauls him in. A trial ensues in which the court tries to find out if Moses Ri-too-ral-i-ay is Irish. He turns out to be a Jew related to the judge. Moses is released, and the unhappy policeman fired
AUTHOR: (attributed to Brian O'Higgins in the Digital Tradition, but see NOTES)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (recording, Margaret Barry)
KEYWORDS: police Jew humorous trial punishment
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, MOSESRIT*
Roud #5197
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Moses Ritoora-li-ay" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Sergeant's Lamentation" (theme)
NOTES: In the period around the Easter Rising, it was a crime in Ireland to preach rebellion. Apparently many revolutionaries got around this by preaching in Irish (though this raised the possibility that the listeners couldn't understand them!). The police, who were often English and almost always anglophone, were told to learn Irish to try to figure out what was going on.
This didn't work out all that well. (Gee, where have we heard that story before? The Habsburg Empire? Iraq?) The amused Irish created songs like this to celebrate the problem.
Brian O'Higgins wrote a song about this topic, according to Frank Harte. But Harte believes the song on this topic is "The Limb of the Law", found in _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 36-37. Could he have written two such songs? I don't know.
Robert Kee, on p. 48 of _Ourselves Alone_ (being volume III of _The Green Flag_) cites a Sinn Fein speech from 1918 claiming that "there were by then five hundred people in Ireland imprisoned under the Defence of the Realm Regulations on chrages ranging from singing a song written seventy years before to presenting their names in Irish when accosted by a policeman." Unfortunately, he does not cite a precise source. - RBW 
File: DTmosesr
===
NAME: Moss o Burreldale, The
DESCRIPTION: Description of a rowdy gathering of Travellers at the market of Burreldale. A piper's bag bursts, and he's launched into the air; another man plans to fight but his Annie knocks him over, etc. (Some versions describe the participants and their trades)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (collected from Jimmy McBeath)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Description of a rowdy gathering of Travellers at the market of Burreldale. A piper's bag bursts, and he's launched into the air; another man plans to fight but his Annie knocks him over then challenges him to fight some more; a showoff horseman is thrown (I think). Another man challenges a Catholic to fight. Eventually all leave, but vow they will always remember the fracas. (Some versions describe the participants and their trades)
KEYWORDS: bragging fight commerce drink music party moniker worker Gypsy migrant
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 351, "The Moss o' Burreldale" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 127, "The Moss o' Burreldale" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #1876
File: K351
===
NAME: Mossback, The: see The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)
===
NAME: Mossie and His Mare
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mossie was a cunning man, A little mare did buy; For winking and for jinking There was few could come her nigh." After telling how Mossie captures her, various folks are warned against bad behavior; they will be punished "as Mossie catch'd his mare."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: horse humorous warning Jacobites
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 39-42, "Mossie and His Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #234, p. 152, "(Moss was a little man, and a little mare did buy)"
Roud #6104
NOTES: The keyword "Jacobite" may be strange for this song, but Ford's text, after warning "gilpy lasses," "crafty ale wives," "lousy tailors," and "pettyfoggers," turns its attention to "A' ye Whigs about the land, Wha deny our lawfu' King." - RBW
File: FVS39
===
NAME: Most Done Ling'rin' Here: see notes under Run, Nigger, Run (File: R264)
===
NAME: Most Done Suffering: see Rough, Rocky Road (Most Done Suffering) (File: Br3632)
===
NAME: Most Done Traveling: see Rough, Rocky Road (Most Done Suffering) (File: Br3632)
===
NAME: Most Unconstant of Young Men, The: see Two Lovers Discoursing [Laws O22] (File: LO22)
===
NAME: Moth and the Flame, The
DESCRIPTION: Two old sweethearts meet. He says he still loves her; she says she is to be married to another. He tells the fable of the Moth and the Flame to reveal her lover is already married. At the wedding, the fiance kills his wife. The girl turns to her old love
AUTHOR: Words: George Taggart/Music: Max S. Witt
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation homicide wedding adultery
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 818, "The Moth and the Flame" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 156-158, "The Moth and the Flame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-Famous, pp. 155-160, "The Moth and the Flame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7433
NOTES: Should be an opera. - PJS
It comes close. It's based loosely on an 1898 play by Clyde Fitch with the same title. Taggart wrote the words after seeing the play, then sought someone to write the music. - RBW
File: R818
===
NAME: Mother Carey's
DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "The brave west wind it filled our top-s'ls and bore us out-ward bound... for Frisco Town.... Sheet it home- that big main top-s'l, sheet it home- boys, good and true, For we're bound to Mother Carey's, where she feeds her chicks at sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "The brave west wind it filled our top-s'ls and bore us out-ward bound, out-ward bound across the Western, out-ward bound for Frisco Town. Chorus: Sheet it home- that big main top-s'l, sheet it home- boys, good and true, For we're bound to Mother Carey's, where she feeds her chicks at sea."
KEYWORDS: shanty ship travel return
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, p. 192, "Mother Carey's" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hugill: "'Mother Carey's chickens' was a sailor name for stormy petrels, seabirds found flying close to the crests of the great seas of the high latitudes." - SL
The origin and use of this name is the subject of some dispute. Numerous sources agree that Mother Carey's chickens are stormy petrels. Benet's _Reader's Encyclopedia_, in the article on mothers, adds that Mother Carey's goose is "the  great black petrel or fulmar of the pacific." (Interestingly, the centennial edition of _Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable_, edited by Ivor H Evans, has these definitions almost verbatim. I don't know who stole from whom, though.) Both sources also agree that the phrase "Mother Carey is plucking her goose" means that it is snowing.
Eric Partridge's _A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English_ (combined fifth edition with dictionary and supplement, Macmillan, 1961) dates the use of Mother Carey's Chickens as a name for snowflakes to 1861, citing Hotten's slang dictionary. This usage is also supported by the  Simpson/Roud _Dictionary of English Folklore_. Partridge also cites a usage, "faring alike and paying the same, ca. 1820-1850," an lastly notes that Bowen's _Sea Slang_ applies it to "a small gun."
But who is Mother Carey? Barbara G. Walker, in _The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets_, states that the name is an "English sailor's version of Mater Cara, 'BelovedMother' [or 'Dear Mother'], the Latin Sea-goddess." She notes that the French call the petrels the "Birds of Our Lady." Similarly, Benet notes that the French call them "oiseaux de Notre Dame" or "aves Sanctae Mariae."
Walker's equivalence is wrong, I checked four classical dictionaries, and not one mentions "Mater Cara" as a Latin goddess. There is a "[Mater] Matuta," identified in J. E. Zimmerman's _Dictionary of Classical Mythology_ as a "goddess of sea travel," or perhaps of harbors, but Lucretius (_De Rerum Natura_, B. 656) credits Matuta with bringing the dawn; she is also associated with childbirth. In any case, it's obviously a different name.
Of course, Mater Cara as a name for the Virgin Mary -- frequently addressed as the Mother of God in Catholic tradition, and often invoked as an intercessor -- is quote common. But would nineteenth century English sailors be addressing Mary for help? (Indeed, if we're trying Latin for a goddess of sailors, how about "Mater Carina," which can mean "Mother of hulls/keels." I don't believe it, though.)
The real problem with the Mother Carey=Mater Cara equivalence, though, is noted by the Simpson/Roud _Dictionary__: It has no support. We nowhere find references to Mother Carey without her birds.
The Simpson/Roud _Dictionary_ mentions that the name "Mother Carey's chickens" also refers to snowflakes. They speculate that Mother Carey is the Old Woman of the Storms -- the hag who brings foul weather. This strikes me as quite reasonable but beyond proof.
The phrase is certainly famous, though. Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923), best known for writing _Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm_, also wrote a book called _Mother Carey's Chickens_, which was made into a movie in 1938. As best I can tell from reading excerpts, though, it's just a book about chickens. - RBW
File: Hugi192
===
NAME: Mother Dear, Goodbye
DESCRIPTION: "I'll not be long with you, mother, I soon must say goodbye, But, mother, we shall meet again, In God's bright home on high." The singer rejoices that she(?) will join sister in heaven, and taste the joys there; she promises to pray for mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: death mother children
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 177, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: Thomas reports this to have been composed by Anna Messer on her deathbed, and that it was still being sung in 1936, 63 years after Messer's reported death. It's insipid enough to come from a dying girl -- but much too cutesy, I think. - RBW
File: ThBa177
===
NAME: Mother Jones (I): see The Death of Mother Jones (File: Grnw154)
===
NAME: Mother, He's Going Away
DESCRIPTION: Mother: Don't cry for that liar Barney; remember "how he served poor Kate Kearney." Nelly: He's going away; I dreamed of his ghost. Mother: All the better; remember you protested when he courted Jinny M'Cray last week. Nelly: He's going away ...
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1885 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.28(5a/b) view 2 of 8)
KEYWORDS: dialog love separation mother rake ghost
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 71, "Mother, He's Going Away" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(5a/b) view 2 of 8, "Mother, He's Going Away", Richard March & Co (London), 1877-1884 
File: OCon071
===
NAME: Mother, Is the Battle Over?
DESCRIPTION: The boy asks, "Mother, is the battle over? Ten thousand have been slain, they say. Is my father coming? Tell me, Have the rebels gained the day?" The boy sees his mother crying, and assumes his father is dead. At last mother admits the truth
AUTHOR: Henry Werner
EARLIEST_DATE: 1863
KEYWORDS: father battle death
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 243, "Mother, Is the Battle Over?" (1 text)
JHCox 75, "Mother, Is the Battle Over?" (1 text)
DT, BTTLOVER*
Roud #5462
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Does Your Mother Know You're Out" (floating lyrics)
File: R243
===
NAME: Mother, May I Go to Swim
DESCRIPTION: "Mother, may I go out to swim? Yes, my darling daughter. Hang your clothes on a hickory limb But don't go near the water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses clothes nonballad river
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
BrownIII 325, "Mother, May I Go to Swim" (1 text)
Randolph 873, "The Alphabet Song" (6 texts, 6 tunes, the "A" text has this verse)
Opie-Oxford2 360, "Mother may I go and bathe?" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #879, p. 327, "(Mother, may I go out to swim?)"
DT, (DRLDAUGH -- probably a composed song borrowing this stanza)
Roud #3303
RECORDINGS:
May Kennedy McCord, "The Singing Alphabet" (AFS; on LC12 -- the recording cited by Randolph)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Alphabet Songs" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This is primarily a floating verse, but apparently exists also independently (as in Brown), so here it files. Most of the entries listed are songs borrowing the verse.
The Baring-Goulds quote Ditchfield to the effect that this goes back to the sixth century writer Hierocles. The joke may be the same, but I strongly doubt literary dependence. - RBW

File: Br3325
===
NAME: Mother, Mother, Make My Bed
DESCRIPTION: A young woman, dying, sends for her true love. He hastens home, but finds her already dead. He kisses her, and dies the next day. They are buried side by side, and a rose and briar twine over their grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (Vaughan Williams/Lloyd)
KEYWORDS: love death dying magic lover burial
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South)) US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Bronson 65, "Lady Maisry" (13 versions, of which #4, #5, #7, #8, #10, and perhaps #9 and #11 are this piece)
MacSeegTrav 22, "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 71, "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 137-139, "Laidy Maisry" (1 text, which despite the title appears closer to this than to "Lady Maisry," though it lacks the "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" verse)
ST VWL071 (Partial)
Roud #45
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lady Maisry" [Child 65] (floating verses)
cf. "Lord Lovel" [Child 75] (floating verses)
cf. "Bonny Barbara Allen" [Child 84] (floating verses)
NOTES: This ballad shares verses with the cross-referenced titles; it's essentially a composite of floating verses and plot elements. -PJS
The problems with this song are myriad, though enough versions exist that it must be treated as a separate piece (at least; *I* say so; Roud lumps it with "Lady Maisry"). It shares material with many ballads (MacColl & Seeger see contacts with no fewer than ten Child ballads in their version, though some of these are stretched or verses found floating in several Child ballads -- e.g. the contact with "Little Musgrave" is the stanza "The first two miles the little boy walked, and the next two miles he run," which is an element which can float easily).
The real difficulty is, every version seems fragmentary. We don't know why the young woman is dying. If the ultimate source were "Lady Maisry," she is to be executed; if "Lord Lovel," she is dying for love. But neither explanation gains any support from the extant texts, implying that the cause of death was never stated. Paul Stamler suggests the possibility of plague. I doubt we'll ever know.
It is worth noting that Bronson has thirteen tunes listed under "Lady Maisry," and that eight of them (#4-11) belong to his "C" group, and that *all* of the texts of "Mother, Mother" are in the C group, and *every* song in the C group is either "Mother Mother" or a fragment which could be either song. Thus "Mother Mother" in fact appears to have its own distinct tune group. - RBW
File: VWL071
===
NAME: Mother's Admonition, The: see As I Roved Out (I) (Tarry Trousers II) (File: LoF014)
===
NAME: Mother's Malison, The, or Clyde's Water [Child 216]
DESCRIPTION: Willie wishes to visit his lover. His mother bids him stay, and curses him to drown in Clyde if he goes. Willie, trusting in his horse, goes anyway, but his lover's mother bids him away. Returning, he drowns in Clyde; his lover drowns as she seeks him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1800
KEYWORDS: river death love drowning curse horse
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Child 216, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water" (3 texts)
Bronson 216, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water" (14 versions+2 in addenda)
Leach, pp. 572-575, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water" (1 text)
OBB 90, "Clyde Water" (1 text)
DT 216, CLYDWATR*
Roud #91
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Robertson, "The Clattering of the Clyde Waters" (on Voice03)
John Strachan, "Clyde's Water (The Mother's Malison)" (on FSBBAL2) {Bronsons #12.2}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Annan Water"
cf. "Lord Derwentwater" [Child 208] (lyrics)
cf. "Ballad of the Drover (Death of Harry Dale)" (theme)
cf. "Martha Dexter" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Drowned Lovers
File: C216
===
NAME: Motherless Child: see Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child (File: LxU107)
===
NAME: Motherless Children
DESCRIPTION: "Nobody treat you like mother will when mother is dead." (Various surrogate parents are suggested, but the children "have no place to go." "Motherless children have a hard time when mother is gone.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Recording, Blind Willie Johnson)
KEYWORDS: orphan mother nonballad family
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 761, "Motherless Children Sees a Hard Time" (1 text, 1 tune -- a lyric piece, but with enough common lyrics to apparently belong here)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 143-144, "(Motherless Children)" (1 text); pp. 269-270, "Motherless Children" (1 tune, partial text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 58, "Motherless Children" (1 text)
DT, MOTHRLSS*
Roud #16113
RECORDINGS:
Bessemer Melody Singers, "Motherless Children" (Victor V-38606, 1930; Bluebird B-5041 [as Bessemer Melody Boys], 1933)
The Blind Pilgrim, "Motherless Children" (Anchor 380, n.d.)
Carter Family, "Motherless Children" (Victor 23641, 1932; Bluebird B-5924, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-5010, 1936; rec. 1929)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Motherless Children" (on Holcomb2, HolcombCD1)
Joe, John & Janey Hunter & Mable Hillery, "Motherless Child" (on JohnsIsland1)
Blind Willie Johnson, "Mother's Children Have a Hard Time" (Columbia 14343-D, 1928; Vocalion 03021, 1935; rec. 1927; on BWJ02)
Blind Gussie Nesbitt, "Motherless Children" (Decca 7131, 1935)
Joshua White, "Motherless Children" (Banner 32859/Melotone 12786, 1933) (Musicraft 250 [as Josh White Trio], c. 1944)
File: BSoF761
===
NAME: Motherless Children Sees a Hard Time: see Motherless Children (File: BSoF761)
===
NAME: Mountain Dew, The: see Good Old Mountain Dew (File: LxA180)
===
NAME: Mountain Meadows Massacre, The [Laws B19]
DESCRIPTION: A wagon train is attacked by (Mormons disguised as) Indians. They surrender, but are slaughtered the moment they lay down their weapons. The assault is blamed on Brigham Young
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: fight death Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sept 11, 1857 - The assault at Mountain Meadows. All members of the caravan except 17 small children are said to have been killed. John D. Lee, reported to have led the assault, was executed Mar 23, 1877
FOUND_IN: US(NW,Ro,SW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws B19, "The Mountain Meadows Massacre"
Burt, pp. 117-120, "Mountain Meadows Massacre" (1 composite text, 1 tune, plus a loose stanza about the punishment of Lee)
DT 386, MTMDOW
Roud #3240
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lee's Ferry" (character of John D. Lee)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Ballad of John D. Lee
NOTES: Almost from the moment Joseph Smith announced his first revelation, the Mormon Church suffered persecution. After all, they added new sacred scriptures (something no significant sect had tried for roughly 1500 years), and they produced a doctrine of salvation completely unlike anything in orthodox scripture.
And this was even before polygamy became an issue! Gradually, after their colonies headed west; where, in 1833, they became victim of a massacre organized by Missouri's then-Lieutenant Governor Lilburn Boggs (see Fawn M. Brodie, _No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith_, second edition, 1971; I use the 1995 Vintage books edition; pp. 136-137). Moving once again, they had built a city in Nauvoo, Illinois, where leader Smith was lynched. This, even more than the massaacre at Independence, was psychologically very significant; as Wallace Stegner writes (p. 17  of _The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail_, University of Nebraska Press, 1964, 1981), it "made zealots out of men and women who might otherwise have been only die-hards," while  Dale L. Walker, _Legends and Lies: Great Mysteries of the American West_, Forge, 1997, p. 209, observes that it "set in stone the Mormon hatred for the Gentile and gave the Saints a thirst for revenge that found a slaking thirteen years later."
Smith had also established a dangerous precedent of authoritarianism; although Stegner, p. 24, cites Fawn Brodie to the effect that the problems the Mormons had in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois all arose from different causes, he goes on on pp. 25-27 to tell how Smith harassed and persecuted some of his own follower who disagreed with him. It was one of these internal quarrels that resulted in Smith's imprisonment and thus led to his lynching.
Smith was succeeded by Brigham Young (for whom see "Brigham Young"), and his solution was to head farther west, away from the rest of America, to the Great Salt Lake area, which would become the land of Deseret. The reasoning was that no one would want to follow them there; not only was it a remote and inhospitable land, it was at that time Mexican rather than United States territory.
It wasn't far enough. The Mexican War gave the United States control of that land. And whereas Mexican control had been lax (indeed, non-existent), the United States wanted to use the land. They sent the explorer John Williams Gunnison to survey the area. In the process, he met and observed the Mormons in Deseret. And he published a book: _The Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints, In the Valley of The Great Salt Lake: A History of Their Rise and Progress, Peculiar Doctrines, Present Condition, and Prospects, Derived from Personal Observation, During a Residence Among Them_.
The book came out in 1852 (see Sally Denton, _American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 11, 1857_, Secker & Warburg, 2003, p. 65). Denton believes that Gunnison was relatively sympathetic to the Mormons: If left alone, he expected their church to decay due to its internal contradictions. (Obviously he hadn't met many fundamentalists.)
But Gunnison's book changed the whole debate. The Federal governor had made Brigham Young governor of Utah Territory (Denton, p. 66), but it didn't know much about the Mormons. Gunnison's publication made it clear: Mormons were polygamous. It didn't sit well with the regular population.
Gradually the Mormons and the government started heating up their own cold war. In 1853, the Federal Government sent Gunnison on another surveying expedition in Utah. He thought the Mormons would let him work as before. They didn't. Someone shot him down, along with most of his party, at the Sevier River on October 26, 1853 (Denton, p. 87, has no question that it was the Mormons. However, Harold Schindler, _Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God/Son of Thunder_ (with illustrations by Dale Bryner), University of Utah Pres, 1966, 1983 (I use the 1993 paperback edition), p. 202, attributes the deed to "Pahvant braves." Schindler notes several other sources who, like Denton, attribute the crime to Mormons, citing only one contrary source, but it appears to me that all the claims are a bit vague).
This by itself did not cause war between the Mormons and the United States. But as gory details emerged (some of them perhaps exaggerated), the federal government decided it had to act. With the Mormons giving trouble for other reasons, they became the target: By 1857, federal authority had almost ceased to exist in Utah, and the president Buchanan ordered the army to suppress Brigham Young's government (Denton, p. 108; Walker, p. 210). Unfortunately, the army would prove singularly ill-equipped for this task.
As this was going on, discipline among the Mormons was becoming more vigorous, in part because of bad harvests and the unrest they brought; to backslide was to risk death (Denton, pp. 104-107). And in 1857, Brigham Young declared that he would decide which Federal laws were enforced in his domain (Denton, p. 108). As the government became more insistent, Young would make what amounted to a declaration of independence (Denton, p. 113).
To be fair, his authoritarianism "was strongly approved by the Mormons when they found President Pierce [who served 1853-1857] appointing political hacks of bad personal character, prejudiced and quarrelsome, to executive and judicial offices in the Territory" (see Allan Nevins, in _The Emergence of Lincoln, Volume I: Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos 1857-1859_, Scribner's, 1950, p. 317). But Young's declaration was still an obvious attempt to block enforcement of Federal law in Deseret (Nevins, p. 318). Even Schindler, who thinks the whole thing was a case of Federal misinterpretation, admits that Young said, "Give us ten years of peace, and we will ask no odds of Uncle Sam or the devil" (Schindlet, p. 248.
Many think that Young's declaration was just a negotiating ploy. But Young was too smart to run a pure bluff. Young sent out orders to leaders in other communities to count up their arms and prepare to fight (Denton, p. 116); all able-bodied men were drafted into a militia. Many, including John D. Lee, would take this very seriously indeed, calling the instructions "sacred commands" (Denton, p. 117). The stage was set for the Mormon War (or, as it is also known, the Utah War).
Denton's account of what follows is somewhat confusing, because she describes the Mountain Meadows Massacre before she really explains the Mormon War. But the Mormon War is crucial: At the time of the Massacre, the Mormons were threatened with assault from the east, and any "Gentiles" among them might be spies, and any supplies they gave them would not be available during the coming fight. Indeed, even as the Massacre was starting, Brigham Young was negotiating with a federal officer, knowing full well that the U. S. Army was coming -- and that it had a very big supply problem (Denton, pp. 164-165). On September 15, Young declared a scorched earth policy against the Federals. By the end of the month, Mormon guerillas were attacking army outposts (Denton, p. 168)
It was just too bad that one of the wagon routes to California ran right through the heart of Mormon territory.
One of the wagon trains taking the so-called "Southern Trail" through Mormon territory was the Fancher party, bound from Arkansas to California. The Fancher brothers, Alexander and John, had moved to California as early as 1850 and started a ranch (Denton, pp. 95-96). They made several trips to ferry cattle to California. Alexander's 1857 expedition was expected to be their last.
We don't have exact details on the Fancher party, but it included a number of families, and property estimated to be worth over $2500, plus cash on the order of $100,000 (Denton, p. 100; Walker, p. 213). There were at least 30, and perhaps more than 40, wagons in the train. There are estimated to have been about fifty men, forty women, and fifty chldren (Walker, p. 212), and perhaps close to a thousand cattle.
There were several overland routes to California, all difficult due to the dry and deserted nature of the lands west of the Mississippi. The Fancher party from Arkansas could have taken the "California Trail," but instead chose to head up the Arkansas River, then north to meet the Platte at Fort Kearney, following the North Platte to Fort Laramie, then through South Pass to Salt Lake City and down through the Great Basin. The latter part of the route was all Mormon territory -- which meant, on the one hand, that there was water and forage available, but on the other hand, that there were a lot of chances for conflict. (See the map in Denton, pp. 12-13).
The Fancher party hoped to simply pass through Mormon territory, purchasing supplies along the way -- but quickly found that the Mormons closed their doors (Denton, p. 119). We don't know precisely what happened in this period (and, according to Denton, p. 121, most of the reports we do have are somewhat propagandistic). It appears they were forced to resort to eating the cattle they had hoped to use to make their fortunes in California (Denton, p. 123). They circled their wagons at night to guard against attack, even as some Mormons, frightened of the Church's strict regimentation, tried to join them.
Nonetheless, the party almost made it through. Mountain Meadows is in southern Utah; the area is now a national forest, near the town of Enterprise, just east of the Nevada border and almost due north of Saint George, which is on the Arizona border.
They picked a bad place to camp. Mountain Meadows is just what the name implies, a relatively open field surrounded by high rocks on all sides; there are only two exits, and the rocks provided excellent cover for an attack on a train in the meadow (Denton, p. 129). There is water, but the Fancher train inexplicably camped at some distance from it. The camp simply could not be defended for an extended period (Walker, p. 218).
On September 7, 1857, the Fancher Train was attacked by people who apparently were dressed as Indians. Twenty or so members of the expedition were killed or injured in the first assault. The Fancher party then circled their wagons (Denton, p. 128), but they had no water supply, little food, limited ammunition, and no way to escape. When they tried to send out young girls to get water, the attackers shot them (Denton, p. 130). They tried to send out messengers seeking help; the only result of that was that several ended up dead and one returned to the camp wounded (and, according to Denton, pp. 130, 132,  with news that the attackers were Mormons, though it's not clear how she could possibly know this). Those who were left prepared to die; even if one of the messengers made it through, it would be a week or more before rescue arrived.
John D. Lee then came into the camp under a flag of truce. Denton, p. 134, says that he claimed the train needed to appease the Indians, and could survive by surrendering their weapons and cattle. (This even though the local Indians, the Paiutes, were relatively peaceful and ill-armed. The Mormons would later blame them even so. The Indians admit to having taken some of the artifacts, but deny participation in the actual assault. Their actual role remains disputes; Denton seems to think they were not involved, but Walker and others think they were) After much discussion, seeing no alternative, the survivors gave in (Denton, pp. 135-136).
The Mormon leaders, including Lee, broke them up into smaller parties -- and slaughtered them (Walker, p. 221). It was pure and simple murder; the only survivors were children under the age of eight, most of whom saw their parents and older siblings killed before their eyes. Supposedly 121 people were killed (Walker, p. 222). Who gave the order for the murders is not clear -- it may well have been Lee -- but the Mormon soldiers instantly obeyed (Denton, p. 137-143, which gives brutal details of the treatment of the prisoners).
Who was this man who was responsible for what Denton, p. 241, calls "the largest civilian atrocity to occur on American soil" prior to 1995 and the Oklahoma City bombing? (A disputed claim, but it probably does qualify as the largest white-on-white civilian atrocity in that time.) John D. Lee (1812-1877) had joined the Mormon church in 1838 after fighting in the Black Hawk War (Walker, pp. 208-209). He was recruited into the Danites, the society of vigilantes who fought the Mormon's enemies (for other tales of the Danites, see "Old Port Rockwell").
Lee was one of Brigham Young's earliest lieutenants, who gave his allegiance to the prophet at the time when Young's power was still uncertain. Lee was in effect Young's adopted son (Walker, p. 214), for a time signing himself "J. D. L. Young." Despite some minor quarrels (e.g. over a woman both wanted as a wife) he would surely obey the prophet almost without question (Walker, p. 215) -- a significant point in assessing the conflicting blame for the Massacre.
When word of the Massacre came out, the government had to figure out how to respond. There were two basic questions: Who was responsible for the initial attack (Indians or Mormons)? And who was responsible for the Massacre (John D. Lee or someone higher in the church)?
There isn't much evidence. Federal officers took testimony from the surviving children, but all were very young, and many were traumatized; it is very likely that their testimony would today be considered tainted. The Mormon participants reportedly swore vows of secrecy.
Opinions have shifted over the years. The very first investigator was appointed by Brigham Young himself, who had promised the incoming governor that he would look into the Massacre (Denton, p. 182) -- but Young chose as his investigator George A. Smith, was one of those who had helped whip up the people behind the Massacre (Denton, p. 186). Smith's report is so far off the mark that it dates the massacre to September 21-25 rather than September 7-11, and it places almost the entire blame on the Indians (Denton, pp. 186-187).
A non-Mormon investigator, Jacob Forney, set out to investigate further. He recovered 17 children and much property in Mormon hands, and his 1859 report placed the blame squarely in the hands of the Mormons (Denton, pp. 192-194). And, indeed, forensic examination from that day to this show that firearms caused most if not all the deaths, confirming that the Indians were not responsible for the slaughter.
As for what historians have written, the earliest description of the massacre in my library is from J. Franklin Jameson, _Dictionary of United States History 1492-1895_, Puritan Press, 1894 (yes, it was copyrighted a year before the last year it allegedly covered!), p. 433, reports that the emigrants "were brutally murdered at Mountain Meadow, Utah, by a band of Indians, who were incited thereto by Lee, a Mormon fanatic." Note the complete absence of mention of anyone other than Lee!
Nevins, p. 322, reports that "In September, a party of one hundred and thirty-seven California-bound emigrants passing through southern Utah had been all but wiped out by a Mormon-Indian attack in the Mountain Meadows massacre." He as in a footnote, "Neither Young nor the Mormon church approved this murderous attack on the Missouri emigrant train."
Stegner, p. 277, comments, "The massacre of the Fancher party at Mountain Meadows in 1857 may have been, though it probably was not, planned with the knowledge of Brigham Young."
Walker's is the strangest account of all: On p. 216, he tells of the killers sending to Brigham Young for instructions, but then going ahead with the killings -- even as Young sent orders to leave the settlers alone. This makes no sense, unless it was a way for Young to establish plausible deniability. Walker, p. 224, adds that Young certainly knew about the massacre before he officially acknowledged guilt.
Juanita Brooks, probably the most careful historian of the event, admits that we simply can't be certain about what happened; there just isn't enough information.
Yet Denton seems to possess no doubts whatsoever that Mormons did it -- and with the full knowledge of Brigham Young (presenting her arguments on pp. 153-159). This even though she confesses that the local leaders argued long and hard about what to tell him (Denton, pp. 147-148). And the planning seems to have been imperfect; while many of the attackers disguised themselves as Indians, there was no scheme to hide the bodies, except to leave them to the crows and wolves (Denton, pp. 149-150).
(I wonder a bit about Denton's motives. The dust jacket says she is "of Mormon descent" -- but she is not a practicing Mormon. She seems to have a strong prejudice against the church.)
Part of Denton's case seems pretty airtight: The massacre was the action of the Mormons, not the local Indians. Modern examination of the bodies -- though it was quickly halted by Mormon authorities -- seems sufficient to establish this.
The case against Young, though, rests on a very slender basis: The testimony of John D. Lee, published after his death and possibly fiddled with by its editor. There is also a "John D. Lee scroll," which if authentic would seem to confirm his guilt (Denton, pp. 242-243), but all that can be proved about it is that it seems to be the right age.
It is of course possible -- even likely -- that there is additional information in Mormon records, which are not accessible to the public; this would explain why the Mormons seem always to try to quash investigations into the matter. These may even include the journals of John D. Lee, which he reported giving to the church for safekeeping, and which they did not return when asked.
The only conclusion I can make is that it would be very hard to convict Young based on Denton's evidence; at best, he might be labelled an accomplice after the fact. And I would hate to be the prosecuting attorney on that one (even if you ignore the likelihood that Young's followers would have lynched any lawyer who brought the case).
In any case, President Buchanan had offered a near-blanket amnesty for all events of the Mormon War if the Mormons would just back down (Denton, p. 179). Which, for the most part, they did. Buchanan then took away the rights of the military investigators to seek information, stalling any investigation (Denton, p. 202). National dislike of polygamy, and other details, meant that Utah was kept a territory for decades after it had met the normal criteria for statehood, but once the Mormons eliminated polygamy and obtained guarantees of religious autonomy, statehood followed.
Which does not mean that the participants of the massacre were entirely safe. The Mormon church, after all, had every reason to want to clear its name. And once the trasncontinental railroad was completed, it was much easier for journalists and others to head west and see what they could learn. For many years, Brigham Young remained close to John D. Lee (Denton, pp. 209-211), but eventually started to distance himself from Lee and the other leaders of the massacre. Lee and another Massacre leader, Isaac Haight, were excommunicated in 1870 (Denton, p. 214; Walker, p. 224).
Eventually Lee was pushed out of Utah altogether, spending some time with John Wesley Powell as the latter explored the Colorado River. He went on to found and operate Lee's Ferry (yes, the Lee's Ferry of the song of that name; Denton, p. 218). He was forced to sell his property in Utah  (Denton, p. 215).
When, in 1874, the federal government took over direct control of justice in Utah (Denton, p. 219), it was the beginning of the end for Lee. He was arrested in that year. Initially, he stated that the Church, and Brigham Young, had no role in the massacre (Denton, pp. 219, 221).
What happened next is fascinating. Even though Lee had been excommunicated, the Mormon Church provided two lawyers for his 1875 trial. Lee himself had three (Denton, p. 221).
Denton thinks these two groups were at cross-purposes. The church lawyers had as their chief purpose to protect the church. Lee's lawyers wanted to keep him alive -- which would be very hard to do unless they could implicate the church. (After all, Lee had already given a partial confession.)
The 1875 trial was defective in many ways. No testimony was taken from Indians. Many Mormons were subpoenaed; fewer than half appeared. One of those who avoided testifying was Brigham Young (Denton, p. 225). There was conflicting testimony about who did what. Eventually the trial went to the jury, which -- being part Mormon, part Gentile -- deadlocked (Denton, p. 226); the Mormon jurors apparently wanted Lee acquitted, the Gentiles wanted him convicted (Walker, p. 226).
If Denton is right (p. 228), the next step was simply despicable. A new U. S. attorney reached a deal with Brigham Young: Young would supply all needed witnesses to convict Lee -- as long as the attorney didn't do anything which would implicate the greater church. Since even Denton admits there are no records of this deal, we can hardly be sure of it. We can be sure that Lee's church-appointed lawyers withdrew from the case, and that the U. S. attorney would earn a reprimand over the matter (Denton, p. 232). We also know that none of the others we know to have taken part in the massacre was ever brought to trial (Walker, p. 226).
In 1876, Lee's second trial began -- this time with an all-Mormon jury. It was a much briefer trial: Seven prosecution witnesses, all Mormons, all of whom testified voluntarily. The defence called no witnesses at all (Denton, p. 229). Not surprisingly, Lee was found guilty of first degree murder, with the jury needing only three and a half hours to convict. The judge sentenced him to execution (Denton, p. 230; Walker, p. 226); Lee chose a firing squad as a method of execution (Walker, p. 227).
Denton notes the interesting point that, at this time, the Mormons practiced beheading as a means of "blood atonement" -- a sort of release from sin. She thinks that Lee, by rejecting the option of beheading, was stating that he did not think his actions needed atonement. In support of this, we note that Lee would write while in prison, I have been treacherously betrayed and sacrificed in a most cowardly manner by those who should have been my friends" (Walker, p. 227).
(I must admit to extreme disquiet about the whole affair. There can be no doubt that Lee was a mass murderer, and that he defiled the names "Christian," "American," and "human being." So Lee deserved everything the law could do to him, and more. Still, the Mormon practice of "blood atonement" -- ritual beheading -- surely made it easier to induce the attackers to massacre their victims; a church that's run like a Mafia shouldn't be surprised that its people turn into barbarians! Certainly Lee's trial should not have been conducted in Utah, there should have been no Mormons on the jury, and the parties involved should have taken real testimony. If there is a Hell, I can only hope Lee and the prosecuting attorney are confined together....)
Lee would write various statements about his actions as the appeals process worked itself out.  Eventually, he delivered a large manuscript to his lawyer W. W. Bishop; in it, Lee would aim the blame directly at Brigham Young (Denton, p. 237). Lee was executed March 23, 1877 at the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
In an interesting coincidence, Lee predicted before his end that Brigham Young would die within six months of his own execution. On August 23, 1877, Young took sick with an illness that killed him six days later (Denton, p. 238).
Fred W. Allsopp, _Folklore of Romantic Arkansas_, Volume II (1931), pp. 323-324, does not offer a text of this song, but reports the Arkansas belief that the Massacre was "the sequel to the killing in Arkansas of the Mormon Elder, Parley P. Pratt." Pratt had become involved with an already-married women, Elenore McLean. After a long and complicated pursuit across the country, McLean's husband succeeded in killing Pratt near Van Buren, Arkansas. It was extrajudicial -- but it was also popular; the locals had already hauled Pratt before the law on trumped-up charges (Denton, pp. 110-111). The basic reason for the hullabaloo was polygamy, but Denton, p. 112, says that the Mormons viewed it as religious persecution. Hence their particular anger with the Arkansans of the Fancher party.
(Denton does not say so, but this is, I think, an argument against the guilt of Brigham Young. He was too smart a politician to let things like that influence him.)
This song appears to be generally accurate in its details: The Fancher train of "thirty wagons" was attacked by "Lee's Mormon bullets" and by people "In Indian garb and colors." ÒWhile Lee... his word to them did give That if their arms they would give up He'd surely let them live." "When once they had given up their arms... They rushed on them." "Their property was divided Among this bloody crew." The one interesting element is found in what is the final stanza of Burt's and Fife's texts: "By order of their president This awful deed was done... His name was Brigham Young." This, of course, is the point still in dispute -- but this verse has been sung by Mormons themselves!
Sundry references appear in the literature to a song, "The Ballad of John D. Lee." Denton, for instance, has a scrap of it on pp. 209-210. But almost all of her words are found in either the Burt or the Fife text of "The Mountain Meadows Massacre." Until something clearer comes along, I am assuming these are the same song. - RBW
File: LB19
===
NAME: Mountain Men, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer is one of Dwyer's mountain men. The Yeos can't trap us, he says. "The people all bless us, for many a cabin's left safe and secure" We are few but we control the mountains and, while we have strength, "we'll keep the old cause living still"
AUTHOR: William Rooney (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS:  rebellion Ireland nonballad patriotic 
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 146, "The Mountain Men" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Dwyer (I)" (subject of Michael Dwyer) and references there
NOTES: Moylan: "Michael Dwyer was a Wicklow man, a member of the United Irishmen, who fought during the 1798 rebellion, and who waged a guerilla war in the Wicklow mountains for several years afterwards." - BS
"Yeos" = yeomen, the British militia. Contrary to this song, they did catch up with Dwyer -- or, at least, put him under so much pressure that he gave in and allowed himself to be transported. For more details, see "Michael Dwyer (I)" or Michael Dwyer (II)." - RBW
File: Moyl146
===
NAME: Mountain Stream, The: see Where the Moorcocks Grow (The Mountain Stream; With My Dog and Gun) (File: K136)
===
NAME: Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow, The
DESCRIPTION: 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Where the Moorcocks Grow (The Mountain Stream; With My Dog and Gun)
File: K136
===
NAME: Mountaineer's Courtship: see Buffalo Boy (File: LoF162)
===
NAME: Mountains of Mourne, The
DESCRIPTION: The Irishman in London writes home to Mary to tell her of the city. He describes how the local women dress (or, rather, don't dress). He watches the King of England. He wishes he were home with Mary "where the Mountains of Mourse sweep down to the see"
AUTHOR: Percy French (died 1920)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Peter Dawson)
KEYWORDS: love home separation homesickness clothes royalty
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1903 - Visit of King Edward VII to "Erin's Green Shore" (mentioned in the song)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, MTMOURNE*
RECORDINGS:
Peter Dawson, "The Mountains O' Mourne"(HMV [UK] B-3772, 1931; HMV [UK] B-9114, 1940)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Hills of Antrim" (tune, lyrics)
cf. "Canny Newcastle" (plot)
SAME_TUNE:
The Green Hills of Antrim (File: HHH606)
NOTES: The tune is said to be "Carrighdhoun," but it is now much better known under French's title.
Edward VII's visit to Ireland in 1903 had little real effect; five of six histories I checked had no mention of the event (and some other reference apparently had the wrong date, since earlier versions of this Index gave the date as 1905).
But his trip did show an interesting change in Irish attitudes: quite a few radical nationalists were very upset about the visit, but the ordinary people seem to have loved it; Robert Kee (_The Bold Fenian Men_, being volume II of _The Green Flag_, p. 154) calls it an "outstanding success," and cites newspaper accounts of how he was greeted. Compare the song's mention of the singer "cheer[ing] with the rest."
Too bad the Easter Rebellion, and the British over-reaction, did such a find job of messing that up. - RBW
File: DTmtmour
===
NAME: Mountains of Pomeroy, The
DESCRIPTION: A maid meets "her gallant Reynardine, on the mountains of Pomeroy." He is an outlaw "but keeps the flag of freedom safe." She is afraid for him. Her kinsmen would kill him. She leaves "her cruel kin and home" to go to him but drowns in a storm
AUTHOR: George Sigerson (1838-1925) (source: Celtic Lyrics site)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1991 (Tunney-SongsThunder)
KEYWORDS: love drowning storm Ireland patriotic outlaw derivative
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 146-147, "The Mountains of Pomeroy" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Reynardine" [Laws P15] (subject)
NOTES: This version is almost exactly George Sigerson's as quoted at "The Mountains Of Pomeroy" at The Celtic Lyrics site, copyright The Celtic Lyrics Collection 2000-2004. Steve Roud's _Folk Song Index_ reference for "Renaldine" makes it appear that this version is also in Flanders, Ballard, Brown and Barry _The New Green Mountain Songster_.
Pomeroy is in County Tyrone, Ireland. - BS
The description of Reynardine immediately made me think of the resistance fighter Michael Dwyer, who after the collapse of the 1798 rebellion organized a resistance movement in Wicklow, then was transported to Australia after giving up to the British. (For more background, see "Michael Dwyer (I)").  would explain why the girl has to cross the ocean to see him. The problem is that Wicklow is in the southeast of Ireland, Ppmeroy is in Ulster, about ten miles northwest of Dungannon or twice that from Armagh.
On the other hand, Pomeroy is not mountainous. (Fermoy, mentioned in some other versions of "Reynardine," is in south Ireland, on the Blackwater a few dozen miles north of Cork, an is in a much more hilly region.) So I think we have to conclude that this song is not intended to be "real" -- but it may have been meant to remind listeners of both Reynardine and Dwyer. - RBW
File: TST146
===
NAME: Mountsandel
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the "soft sylvan splendour" of Mountsandel. Wandering the land reminds him of childhood. He says that friendships grow in the central town of Coleraine
AUTHOR: George Graham
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H817, p. 169, "Mountsandel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13483
File: HHH817
===
NAME: Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)
DESCRIPTION: A complex family, with no clear dividing line, known by the key chorus line "You shall be free When the good lord sets you free" (or "calls you home"). Verses can be serious or silly ("Oh! there was a moanish lady Lived in a moanish land...")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious nonsense parody humorous floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Sandburg, p. 11, "Moanish Lady!" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 110-112, "Mona (You Shall Be Free)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 254-258, "When de Good Lord Sets You Free" (1 text, 1 tune -- an immense composite containing elements of "Moanish Lady," "Talking Blues," and probably other materials, to the tune of "Mourner, You Shall Be Free")
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 163-164, "Old Marse John" (1 text, 1 tune, with this chorus and sundry floating verses: Ole Marse John and the mule he is riding till it dies; the singer standing on the corner doing no harm; the singer in the henhouse hearing the chicken sneeze); p. 172, "Po' Mournah" (1 fragment); p. 176, "Great Big Nigger Sittin' on a Log" (1 text, with this chorus and floating verses: Jakey hunting coons, the Big Nigger shooting at a hog; an humorous description of an ususual girl); p. 194, "Fragment from Pore Mournah" (1 text); p. 197, "There Was an Old Nigger, His Name Was Dr. Peck" (1 text, which uses this chorus); pp. 224-225, (no title), with this chorus and the "My old mistus promised me" and "Some folks say a nigger won't steal" lyrics; p. 235, with a variant on "Ain't no use me working so hard"
Roud #11685
RECORDINGS:
The Blue Chips, "Oh! Monah!" (ARC 6-09-55, 1936)
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "You Shall Be Free, Monah" (Bluebird B-6694, 1936)
Carolina Tar Heels, "When the Good Lord Sets You Free" (Victor 20931, 1927)
Four Dusty Travelers, "Po' Mourner" (Columbia 14477-D, 1929; on VocalQ2)
Lions Quartet, "Moanin' Lady" (Columbia 1167-D, 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Shout Mourner, You Shall Be Free" (Vocalion 5007, 1926)
Bill & Belle Reed, "You Shall Be Free" (Columbia 15336-D, 1928)
Frank Stokes & Dan Sane, "You Shall" (Paramount 12518, 1927; on Cornshuckers2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Raise a Ruckus" (floating lyrics)
cf. ""Uncle Eph" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Talking Blues" (sometimes sung to a tune similar to this)
cf. "Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Deacon's Calf" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This is a complicated group, and the problem is not lessened by the way editors have handled it. The first three text I indexed, for instance, were all messed with by editors. Sandburg, e.g., derived his "Moanish Lady" from the spiritual "Mourner, You Shall Be Free," but printed only one verse because "the music is too superbly serious to have cheap lines."
It appears, however, to be the same as Spaeth's song about a no-count who hangs around rail yards and sponges off his girl, giving us a whole family of knock-offs.
Fred W. Allsop, in _Folklore of Romantic Arkansas_, Volume II, p. 161, says Moanish Lady "has been heard often in negro barber shops." Whatever that tells us. - RBW
"Moanish Lady" is derived from "Mourner, You Shall Be Free," and so is "You Shall," but the latter is quite a different song, with a different melody, having in common only the derivation.... [The hymn] seems to have spawned quite a few [parodies], mostly in African-American tradition, but even Bob Dylan created one. - PJS
For the moment, I'm still lumping the family. It's just too messy. - RBW
File: San011
===
NAME: Mourner's Comfort, The: see Boundless Mercy (Drooping Souls, No Longer Grieve) (File: Br3528)
===
NAME: Mourning Souls
DESCRIPTION: "Ah, poor souls, why cast you down, And why art thou so sad?" The sinner confesses being bound down by his body and his sins; his soul confesses "its ruined state," it prays to Jesus, and is set free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, p. 466, "Mourning Souls" (1 text)
Roud #7955
File: Beld466
===
NAME: Mouse's Courting Song, The: see Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)
===
NAME: Move, Members, Move
DESCRIPTION: "Move members move Daniel (x4)! Move till I get (there/home), Daniel (x4) Got on my little John shoes, Got on my little John shoes Daniel (x3), Shoes gonna rocka me home Daniel... Who want to buy this land Daniel...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (recording, Rosie Hibler & family)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 230-233, "Move, Members, Move" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10958
RECORDINGS:
 Rosie Hibler & family, "Move Members Move" (on NFMAla2, NFMAfAm)
NOTES: The form of this song, and the references to Daniel, would seem to imply a religious theme. But there are no religious references, and none of the phrases are reminiscent of the Biblical stories of Daniel. - RBW
Despite the fact that Rosie Hibler's version appears in the series of recordings "Negro Folk Music of Alabama," she and her family were recorded in Mississippi. Just thought I'd mention it. - PJS
File: CNFM230
===
NAME: Moving On (The Bug-Out Ballad)
DESCRIPTION: "Hear the patter of running feet / It's the old First Cav in full retreat. / They're moving on; they'll soon be gone." The singer describes the unpleasant conditions in which he is fighting, and the many enemies approaching. He intends to head out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: Korean War
KEYWORDS: soldier war battle escape
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1950-1953 - Korean War
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cray, pp. 412-414, "Moving On" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BUGOUT*
Roud #10360
NOTES: This parody was inspired by Hank Snow's immensely popular recording "Moving On." - EC
File: EM412
===
NAME: Moving Picture Cowboy: see Cowboy Again for a Day (File: FCW116)
===
NAME: Moving-On Song
DESCRIPTION: "Born in the middle of the afternoon In a horse-drawn wagon on the old A5." Wherever travelers stop, they are ordered away -- they lower the price of property, they have no work. "You'd better get born in someplace else, so move along, get along, SHIFT!"
AUTHOR: Ewan MacColl
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1961 (radio ballad, "The Traveling People")
KEYWORDS: Gypsy travel childbirth rejection money
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, MOVEON
Roud #6852
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Stewart, "The Moving-On ong" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
NOTES: Although this is obviously a modern composed song, I was surprised to find what amount to two "field collections" -- by Sheila Stewart and Johnny Connors. Does that make it traditional? It would seem to imply at the very least that it touched a nerve. I am, very hesitantly, indexing it. - RBW
File: RcMovOn
===
NAME: Mower, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a young woman; she has a small meadow needing mowing, it has never been mowed before. He mows all afternoon, but the grass remains standing; she tells him to sharpen his scythe, for the work's not finished
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (recording, Warde Ford)
KEYWORDS: sex virginity farming harvest work
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, THEMOWER
Roud #833
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Mowing of the Hay" (AFS 4200 B2, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
A.L. Lloyd, "The Mower" (on Lloyd 1) (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Next Market Day" (plot) and references there
cf. "One Man Shall Mow My Meadow" (imagery)
cf. "The Wanton Seed"
cf. "Mowing the Hay" (subject)
NOTES: Lloyd remarks that the song "often appeared on 19th century broadsides," but as he gives no further dates I've refrained from citing that as earliest date. - PJS
The more so since this image is quite a common one. - RBW
File: DTthemow
===
NAME: Mowing Machine, The
DESCRIPTION: The cowboy "used to go dashing," "But that was before they invented wire fences And started the cowboys to shoveling hay." He looks back to the good old days, curses the man who invented barbed wire, and requests a "mowing machine" for his tombstone
AUTHOR: Words: "Haywire Mac" McClintock
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1934 (recording, Charlie Marshall)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work technology
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 3, "The Mowing Machine" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter) and references there
File: Ohr003
===
NAME: Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw)
DESCRIPTION: A lawyer asks a pretty woman where she's going: "To my father a-mowing the barley." He propositions her; she scorns him, (telling him to keep his money for his wife at home). (He presses his case; she yields and marries "into a station above her")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1697 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 39(152)); 1699 ("Pills to Purge Melancholy"; a bawdy version)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction marriage rejection lawyer
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Sharp-100E 60, "Mowing the Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 61, "The Maid That Sold Her Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, "Stingo, or The Oil Of Barley, or Cold And Raw" (1 tune)
BBI, ZN499, "Cold and Raw the North did blow"; cf. ZN2294, "Riding down a narrow lane, two or three hours after"
DT, MOWBRLY SOLDBRLY*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 281-282, "The Maid That Sold Her Barley" (1 text)
Roud #922
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Cold and Raw" (on Lloyd1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 39(152), "The Northern Ditty" or "The Scotch-man Out-witted by the Country Damsel", P. Brooksby (London), 1683-1696; also Harding B 39(201)[almost entirely illegible], Douce Ballads 2(168a), Douce Ballads 3(70a), Vet. A3 b.43(13), Harding B 1(86), "The Northern Ditty" or "The Scotch-man Out-witted by the Country Damsel"; Harding B 1(87), Harding B 11(2300), Harding B 11(2301), 2806 c.15(108)[almost entirely illegible], Harding B 26(413), Harding B 11(3867), 2806 b.11(138), Harding B 19(28), "[The] Maid That Sold Her Barley"
NLScotland, APS.4.84.18, "The Northern Ditty" or "The Scotchman Outwitted by a Country Damsel," unknown, 19C 
SAME_TUNE:
The Lusty Fryer of Flanders/Not long ago from hence I went (BBI ZN1898)
The Poor Contented Cuckold/Was e'er man so unfortunate (BBI ZN2731)
Roger's Renown..Fourth and Last Merry Ditty of Cold and Raw/Roger did a letter send (BBI ZN2302)
The Downright Wooing Of Honest John & Betty/Well met my pritty Betty (BBI ZN2778)
A General Summons ..Hen-Peck'd Frigate/Here is a summons for all honest men (BBI ZN1133)
The London Jilts Lamentation/Here is wonderful Strange News (BBI ZN1136)
The Miserable Mountebank/In a market town of late (BBI ZN1403)
The Wealthy Farmers Choice/Near a pleasant shady grove, in prime of summer weather (BBI ZN1863)
Up in the Morning Early (_Scots Musical Museum_ #140, probably a partial rewrite of this piece)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Cold and Raw
Lawyer Lee
The Maid Who Sold Her Barley
NOTES: Although this song is most famous as "Cold and Raw" (see the numerous broadsides using this tune), there are versions which do not use this phrase, so I chose the title "Mowing the Barley." In addition, the "Cold and raw" refrain apparently exists as ain independent nursery refrain; see Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #414, p. 194, "(Cold and raw the north wind doth blow)"
There is a broadside, NLScotland APS.4.84.18, "The Northern Ditty; or The Scotchman Outwitted by a Country Lass," which begins with the words of this song, but the rest sounds like a "Baffled Knight" plot. The photograph of the sheet is largely illegible. - RBW
Sequels or answers arose early. Some of the "Northern Ditty" broadsides listed above have "a second part" (for example, Douce Ballads 3(70a) and Harding B 1(87)). 
See Bodleian, Don. b.13(12), "A third merry ditty of Cold and raw," J. Deacon (London), 1671-1704; Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(187a), "Rogers Renown" or "The fourth and last merry ditty of Cold and raw," J. Blare (London), 1683-1706
Bodleian attributes its "The Northern Ditty" broadsides' authorship to Thomas D'Urfey. I don't find that attribution on the face of any of those broadsides. For information about Thomas D'Urfey see _The Contemplator's Short Biography of Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723)_ at the Contemplations from the Marianas Trench contemplator.com site. - BS
File: ShH60
===
NAME: Mowing the Hay
DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Dublin to hire to mow hay. He is hired by a farmer for one thousand a year. He apparently meets a girl and gets consent of "daddy and mammy." They marry and "Whilst the money it will hold out, We'll make the old-tap-room shake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage farming drink
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #16878
RECORDINGS:
Andy Cash, "Mowing the Hay" (on IRTravellers01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mower" (subject)
File: RcMowtHa
===
NAME: MP that Goes Shilly Shally, The
DESCRIPTION: An MP says he's a good Protestant but does not speak out or vote on critical issues. He won't insist on letting the Bible into school. "He hates the name of 'Orangeman,' 'They go it far too strong; They hit too hard at Popery, And that is very wrong!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland humorous nonballad political religious
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 30, "The MP that Goes Shilly Shally" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lucy Long" (tune, according to OrangeLark)
NOTES: OrangeLark: "An attack on a Parliamentarian who was a Mister Looking-Both-Ways." - BS
This sort of behavior was apparently a significant issue in Ulster.Robert Kee, in _The Bold Fenian Men_ (being volume II of _The Green Flag_), Penguin, 1972, p. 102, talks of the response of William Johnston [for whom see "William Johnston of Ballykilbeg"] to such people: "At [a meeting in 1868] the resentment felt by rank and file Orangemen for the upper-class conservatives was particularly marked. Such conservatives, said Johnston, liked their votes very much but they disliked the name of Orangemen. They had used the Orangemen for thirty years and it was 'now time to put their members of Parliament through their catechism.'" Johnston in fact did so, running for Parliament himself and taking the seat even though neither major party supported him. - RBW
File: OrLa030
===
NAME: Mr. Boll Weevil: see The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)
===
NAME: Mr. Mouse Went A-Courting: see Frog Went A-Courting AND Kemo Kimo (File: R108)
===
NAME: Mr. Woodburn's Courtship: see Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)
===
NAME: Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe
DESCRIPTION: "I am a scrap of a widow" from the Coombe in Dublin. She has had a room and stall, selling fruit, sweets and second-hand clothes, for (35) years. "And where would you see a nate widow like me, Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (OLochlainn)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
OLochlainn, p. 230, "Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe" (1 text)
DT, BIDDYMUL*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 10-11, "Biddy Mulligan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16250
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Biddy Mulligan
Biddy Mulligan the Pride of the Coombe
NOTES: Harte declares this a relatively recent song, made famous by Jimmy O'Dea, who acted the character of Biddy. He does not say that O'Dea wrote the song, but it seems not impossible. - RBW
File: OLoc230A
===
NAME: Mrs. Bond
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, what (shall we have/have you got) for dinner, (Mrs.) Bond? There's beef in the larder and ducks in the pond." Mrs. Bond offers good meat to her customers, and sends the ostler to kill the ducks. They flee him. She at last goes out herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1797 (Juvenile Amusements No. 48, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: food bird commerce
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 62, "Oh, what have you got for dinner, Mrs Bond?" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #822, pp. 306-307, "(Oh, what have you got for dinner, Mrs. Bond)"
Roud #4580
NOTES: Much of this revolves around the duck cry "Dilly, dilly, come and be killed." The Baring-Goulds note that there are actually traditions of such animal calls, though this is the only one I've ever heard quoted in any other context. - RBW
Opie-Oxford2: "'Mrs Bond' was originally 'introduced and sung by Mr Bannister Junior in the character of Jerry Sneak', in Foote's 'The Mayor of Garret' (1763). The song was popular, and was immediately issued by rival music publishers ....'" - BS
File: BGMG822
===
NAME: Mrs. Fogarty's Cake: see Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake) (File: Doyl3062)
===
NAME: Mrs. Greig of Sandlaw
DESCRIPTION: "Twas at a certain firm toon... A braw goodwife ca'd Mrs. Greig Her servant girlies kept in order." After Greig foils many attempts to sneak in a man, the girls create a straw man, which Grieg "slays" with a cudgel. They hope she has learned her lesson
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: sex nightvisit trick disguise hiding
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 247-248, "Mrs. Greig of S--" (1 text)
Roud #5161
File: Ord247
===
NAME: Mrs. McGrath
DESCRIPTION: A sergeant urges Mrs. McGrath to make her boy a soldier. He sails away in fine style. For seven years she waits for him, hoping for word. At last he returns with both legs gone. (She curses the wars.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (OLochlainn)
KEYWORDS: war injury separation soldier
FOUND_IN: Ireland Australia US(MW)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 126, "Mrs. McGrath"; pp. 197-198, "My Son Ted" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Dean, pp. 48-49, "Teddy McGraw" (1 text)
Scott-BoA, pp. 121-123, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 211, "Mrs McGrath" (1 text)
SHenry H131, pp. 84-85, "My Son Ted" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 71, "Mrs McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 179, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 275, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text)
DT, MRSMCGRT*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 285-287, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text)
Roud #678
RECORDINGS:
Seamus Ennis, "Mrs. McGrath" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
Pete Seeger, "Mrs. McGrath" (on BroonzySeeger2) (on PeteSeeger15) (on PeteSeeger44)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(76), "Teddy O'Gra" ("Come all you sons of Hibernia," T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 11(3746), Firth c.12(314), "Teddy O'Gra"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kerry Recruit" [Laws J8] (theme)
cf. "Felix the Soldier" (theme)
cf. "Lovely Jamie" (plot)
cf. "The Wars of America" (plot)
NOTES: OLochlainn: "Known to every true-born citizen of Dublin. In the years 1913-1916 it was the most popular marching song of the Irish Volunteers."
Moylan: "This song of the Peninsular War dates, according to one source, to 1815. The earliest account of it in Ireland seems to be 1876 when Sam Henry's informant learned it in Belfast." 
The final verse of the three Bodleian "Teddy O'Gra" broadsides seems to refer to the Peninsular War or the 1830s First Carlist War (which included Irish volunteers):
A mighty war I will proclaim
Against the King and Queen of Spain,
And I will make them rue the day,
They shot my Teddy's legs away.
Hoagland's text refers to the First Carlist War: "All foreign wars I do proclaim Between Don John and the King of Spain...."
The following note from John Moulden is quoted with permission:
"I note that all the ballad sheets of this song in Bodley or Madden are English printed. To my almost certain knowledge there is not a single one of Irish popular print origin in those libraries, the British Library, Birmingham University Library or any Irish library in either ballad sheet or 8-page song book form. This suggests that the song originated in Britain and diffused to Ireland only early in the 20th century. This is not the only possibility but the one the evidence most strongly suggests.
Actually, it appears that the mid nineteenth-century texts which begin approximately 'Come all of you Hibernian sons' have been substantially altered in the more recent ones; several of the verses at the beginning have been omitted and the 'humour' of the later ones 'enhanced'."
John Moulden is researcher at the "Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change" at National University of Ireland, Galway whose subject is "the printed ballad in Ireland."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Son Tim" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
File: MA126
===
NAME: Mrs. Mullowney Was Three Weeks in Bed Since She Ate the Fipper Stew
DESCRIPTION: "Mrs. James Mullowney gave A party Tuesday night... They say the table fairly groaned...." Mrs. Mullowney "couldn't eat no more... She swooned off on the floor." After recovering, "just mention fippper stew" if you want to be attacked
AUTHOR: presumably Johnny Burke
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: food party doctor humorous
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 125, "Mrs. Mullowney Was Three Weeks in Bed Since She Ate the Fipper Stew" (1 text)
NOTES: Yes, that's "fipper." Presumably for "flipper," since the dish is made of seal.
According to Bob Bartlett (who should know; see his biography under "Captain Bob Bartlett"), "The flesh [of the seal] is by no means disagreeable, though it has a general flavor of fish, which constitutes the seal's chief food" (see p. 54 of _The Last Voyage of the Karluk_, as told to Ralph T. Hale; published 1916; now available with a new introduction by Edward E. Leslie as _The Karluk's Last Voyage_). - RBW
File: RySm125
===
NAME: Mucking o' Geordie's Byre, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the filthy habits of Geordie and his family, and the strange and immense task of cleaning out Geordie's byre. The family's ineptitude and the poorly trained animals result in improbable accidents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1797 (_Scots Musical Museum_, #96)
KEYWORDS: home work animal dancetune
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber)) Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Kennedy 257, "The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 82, "Muckin' of Geordie's Byre" (1 tune)
DT, MUCKBYRE
ST DTMoGB (Full)
Roud #2137
NOTES: This humorous piece has an incredibly complex history, as various poets (including Robert Burns) have taken their hacks at it. The result is so thoroughly mingled that it probably is not possible even to describe the original. - RBW
File: DTMoGB
===
NAME: Muckle Meal-Pock, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am a sturdy beggar loon, weel kent the country through." The rambler describes his life and all work. At last he trades in his pack for "a cuddy an' a cart;" he admits a carrier is "a gentleman compared to the owner o' a pock."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (Ford); before 1850 (NLScotland, L.C.1270(006))
KEYWORDS: begging work travel
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 239-241, "The Muckle Meal-Pock" (1 text)
Roud #13087
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.1270(006), "The Muckle Meal Pock," James Kay (Glasgow), c. 1845; also L.C.Fol.70(34a) [same as the preceding, but with the accompanying text of "Irish Molly, O" cut away]
File: FVS239
===
NAME: Muddley Barracks
DESCRIPTION: The singer accepts the King's shilling to enlist in Muddley Minor regiment. At Muddley Barracks "they cut my hair so close to my head I could hardly wink my eye." Between marching drills, discipline, and meager food he wishes he were back behind the plow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1975 (recording, Jumbo Brightwell)
KEYWORDS: soldier recruiting food ordeal hardtimes hair
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #1735
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "Muddley Barracks" (on Voice20)
File: RcMuddBa
===
NAME: Mudion River
DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on the muses to pay attention as he asks their aid in praising the Mudion River. He admits the virtues of other Irish rivers, but none can compare with the Mudion. Had he money to spare, he would spent it living by the Mudion
AUTHOR: "Master (Mc?)Mullan"
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: river home nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H108b, pp. 169-170, "Mudion River" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #13484
File: HHH108b
===
NAME: Muff Lawler, the Squealer [Laws E25]
DESCRIPTION: Muff Lawler, a member of the Molly Maguires, is accused (of murder). Rather than face the consequences, he offers to turn informant if he can be protected from the remaining Mollies. The deal is struck when the lawyers offer to send him to another county
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: mining reprieve punishment
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1876 - Conviction of Michael "Muff" Lawler on a charge of murder
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Laws E25, "Muff Lawler, the Squealer"
DT 710, MUFFLAWL
Roud #2254
NOTES: The Molly Maguires were an underground group that engaged in terrorist acts against Pennsylvania mine bosses. In their defense, it should be noted that the mine bosses' treatment of their employees also verged on terrorism; the Mollies were just seeking decent conditions. - RBW
File: LE25
===
NAME: Muileann Dubh, Am (The Black Mill)
DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The black mill is moving around and we expect to go dancing. There are many things you wouldn't expect at the black mill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage dancing nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 179, "Black Mill, The" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The translation, as far as it goes, is from the Celtic Lyrics Corner site. Two verses are untranslated: "An cual thu gun robh snaoisean" (apparently something to do with "your faggot was without snuff") and "Tha gobhair is crodh-laoigh ann" (maybe "the goat and calf are there"). If you can translate this please update the entry.
Is the mill here symbolic, in a mythic sense? For a popular starting point for research on the mill as a non-sexual symbol see _Hamlet's Mill_ by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend. - BS
File: CrMa179
===
NAME: Muir Hen, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer bends his bow to fire at the muir hen, but cannot fire. She complains that the young men "do want the pouder." The young man later arrives with "pouder," and twenty weeks later her back grows sore. He still fears a misfire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting pregnancy bawdy hunting
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kinloch-BBook XVII, pp. 65-66, "The Muir Hen" (1 text)
Roud #6859
NOTES: If this song is traditional (as usual with Kinloch, it's not clear), having another version would help greatly. Toward the end, it appears strongly that the girl is pregnant -- but the final stanza seems to contradict this, and even contradict the singer's personal prowess of which he previously boasted:
But I thought my gun would me misgie,
  Whan I had her on my shouther,
Tho' my flint was soft and fired not,
  'Twas an for want o' pouder. - RBW
File: KinBB18
===
NAME: Muir of Culloden, The
DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing of my country, its deep glens and fountains... I'll sing of its battles renowned in story." "On the sixteenth of April, I'll ever remember." The Jacobite leaders disagree and attack half-heartedly; "Cauld lies the lads on the Muir of Culloden."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites battle death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden Muir ends the 1745 Jacobite rebellion
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 293, "The Muir of Culloden" (1 text)
Roud #3777
NOTES: Most songs of the end of 1745 Jacobite Rebellion (at least the ones in English) seem to talk about Bonnie Prince Charlie. This is a genuine exception; it is almost entirely about the tragic Battle of Culloden, which not only destroyed the Jacobite army but, ultimately, the Highland culture.
Going into the Battle of Culloden, the Jacobites under Bonnie Prince Charlie had had, on paper, complete military success, winning the battles of Prestonpans, Falkirk, and Clifton. But they had done this by picking their battles very carefully. They had had one chance -- the March on London -- to win the Rebellion, and Charlie's officers (though not Charlie himself) had chickened out. That gave the government time to bring home more troops, and gradually they were forced back into Scotland. Then into the Highlands. Then to Culloden.
And after them came William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-1765), the third son of George II (and the second son to survive infancy). Cumberland's record in wars in Europe shows that he was no general, but he inflicted ferocious discipline and understood butchery very well; massacres don't require brainpower.
And his army had the Highlanders outnumbered two to one, with their backs almost to the sea. At Culloden, there was little room left to maneuver.
The battle plan was ill-executed. In essence, it was supposed to be a surprise Highland charge. But the ground was bad, Lord George Murray (Charlie's chief military advisor) had his doubts, and what should have been a night attack came in, without much weight, when the Hannoverians were awake, well-fed (the Jacobites were thirsty and famished), and able to bring their artillery to bear. The result was a slaughter -- caused not by the hesitation of some of the troops, as in the song, but by the tactical problems in implementing the plan.
"Lochiel" is Donald Cameron, Lochiel of Cameron (1695-1748, the "Young Lochiel," even though he was middle-aged, because his father was in exile as a Jacobite), the first great chief to come to Charlie's support.
Drummond is William MacGregor of Drummond (Bahaldy), another early supporter of Charlie.
Lewis Gordon was responsible for raising most of the troops from the Aberdeenshire area.
The argument these three presented was, in a sense, sound: The Highlanders would have been depressed and would have deserted had the Jacobite army retreated. You wonder, though, if they weren't motivated partly by the fear of British retribution. Lochiel, e.g., died in exile in France, and the British would later execute his brother. - RBW
File: Ord293
===
NAME: Muirsheen Durkin: see Good bye Mursheen Durkin (File: OLcM036)
===
NAME: Mulb'ry Bush: see Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (File: Lins038)
===
NAME: Mulberry Disaster
DESCRIPTION: A storm-tossed ship is blown near Mulberry. The crew abandon ship. One of the boats overturns, drowning five of its seven passengers. The rest of the piece is devoted to mourning for the lost sailors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: death sea storm wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 12, 1800 - date of the Mulberry Disaster (according to the song)
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 114-117, "Mulberry Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune); cf. also the fragment about Calais Pond on page 119
ST FO114 (Partial)
Roud #4678
NOTES: For a song so long, and so specific as to place and date, this is surprisingly unspecific about the actual people involved -- a moniker song without the monikers! This makes it hard to determine actual historical details. - RBW
File: FO114
===
NAME: Mulcahey's Gone Away: see Mulcahy's Gone Away (File: Dean083)
===
NAME: Mulcahy's Gone Away
DESCRIPTION: "The hero of my humble song was once a mighty man, A shining light in his neighborhood, the chief of all his clan." Mulcahey, a politician, loses his office and disappears. His family laments as they seek for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: family separation
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 83, "Mulcahey's Gone Away" (1 text)
Roud #9570
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mulcahy's Home Again" (character?)
cf. "Mulcahy's Sister Kate" (character?)
NOTES: Dean has three songs about Mulcahy/Mulcahey, and they present a bit of a conundrum -- and not just because he can't decide how to spell the name! None of them seem to appear in any other source. The feel of the three is very similar, so I suspect some sort of stage origin.
It appears, adding them up, that Mulcahy was a big man in some sort of Irish neighbourhood. Then he was given some sort of a patronage job, presumably for turning out a large Irish vote for a particular candidate. It is not clear whether he was fired or simply let go when another administration came in.
The Irish community in Minnesota is large enough that such a story might be possible here. But it frankly souns much more like New York City to me -- local bosses were much more important there. My out-of-the-blue speculation is that this might come from some sort of musical show telling, indirectly, of the fall of Boss Tweed. But that is a lot of speculation based on very little data. - RBW
File: Dean083
===
NAME: Mulcahy's Home Again
DESCRIPTION: "I come with news tonight, me boys, just listen for a while." The singer tells of his amazement that Mulcahy has returned home. The famous Mulcahy has had enough of politics and has decided to return to his roots
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: reunion
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 78, "Mulcahy's Home Again" (1 text)
Roud #9567
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mulcahy's Sister Kate" (character?)
cf. "Mulcahy's Gone Away" (character?)
File: Dean078
===
NAME: Mulcahy's Sister Kate
DESCRIPTION: "You have heard me sing of a hero bold, Mulcahy was his name, And, faith, he had a sister, too, that was noted for her fame." Kate Mulcahy is tall, red-haired, and apparently unmarried at 28; she cooks at a boarding house
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: cook sister
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 76-77, "Mulcahy's Sister Kate" (1 text)
Roud #9565
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mulcahy's Home Again" (character?)
cf. "Mulcahy's Gone Away" (character?)
NOTES: As it stands in Dean, nothing much happens in this song, which seems to be about an old maid. Possibly the singer is courting her to get her money? But Dean's version has only two verses; I suspect a Stage Irish song; either Dean has forgotten some of the lyrics, or they made sense in the context of the drama.
For more on the story, see the notes to "Mulcahy's Gone Away." - RBW
File: Dean076B
===
NAME: Muldoon, the Solid Man
DESCRIPTION: "I am a man of great influence... I came when small from Donegal, in the Daniel Webster I crossed the sea." Hard work has brought the singer success. He promises the listeners he will "use you decent... I'm a solid man." He tells of his social sucess.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: emigration work
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 102-103, "Muldoon, the solid Man" (1 text)
Roud #3355
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "I'll Lay You Doon, Love," presumably on the basis of the chorus ("So come with me and I'll use you decent, I'll get you drunk and I'll fill your can...."). But that is a song of seduction, while this is a song telling of prosperity. They seem clearly separate to me, though there may be some cross-influence.
The song mentions General Grant. This require a date after 1862 (when Grant became a general and fought his first significant battles) and hints at a date before 1868 (when he was elected President).- RBW
File: Dean102
===
NAME: Mule
DESCRIPTION: "The mule he is the funniest sight; he's made of ears and dynamite." "Some folks don't treat mules with respect; they say he has no intellect." "The mule attends to his own biz; He don't look loaded, but he is."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Annie E. Franklin)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. XX, "" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and refences there
File: MHAp225
===
NAME: Mule Skinner Blues
DESCRIPTION: "Good morning, Captain, Good morning, shine... Do you need another mule skinner out on your new road line?" About the hard life on the road work gang, waiting for water, and dealing with a mule
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, Jimmie Rodgers)
KEYWORDS: work loneliness animal floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 152, "Mule Skinner Blues" (1 text, 1 tune, with one stanza of "T for Texas" thrown in for fun)
Silber-FSWB, p. 129, "Mule Skinner Blues" (1 text)
Roud #3437
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "Mule Skinner Blues" (OKeh 05638, 1940)
Maddox Bros. & Rose, "New Muleskinner Blues" (4-Star 1240/4-Star 1288, n.d. but post-WWII)
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "Mule Skinner Blues" (Bluebird B-8568, 1940; RCA Victor 20-3163, 1948)
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, "New Muleskinner Blues" (Decca 46222, 1950)
Sonny Osborne, "Mule Skinner Blues" (Kentucky 605, n.d.)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel #8)" (Victor 23503, 1930; Bluebird B-6275, 1936; RCA Victor 20-6205 [as Jimmie Rodgers w. the Rainbow Ranch Boys], 1955)
Pete Seeger w. Jerry Silverman & Sonny Terry, "Muleskinner Blues" (on HootenannyTonight)
NOTES: A "skinner" is a teamster.
To the best of my knowledge, every known version of this goes back to Jimmie Rodgers ("Blue Yodel #8"). I doubt the song can truly be considered traditional. - RBW
To add to the fun, the Lomaxes tacked part of another Rodgers piece, "T for Texas," onto the end of this one. Given that neither song has much of a plot, it can be hard to separate the resulting hybrids. - PJS, RBW
File: LoF152
===
NAME: Mule Skinner Blues (II): see T for Texas (Blue Yodel #1) (File: LoF152A)
===
NAME: Mule Skinner's Song
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I drove three mules for George McVane, And I drove them three miles on a chain. Nigh one Jude and the middle one Jane, And the one on the stick she didn't have no name."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: animal harvest work
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, p. 400, "Mule Skinner's Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
File: San400
===
NAME: Mule, The (Never Take the Hindshoe from a Mule)
DESCRIPTION: "A story come down from old Mathuslam... You'll make a great mistake... If you bother around the hind parts of a mule. So never tickle a mule when he's reposing; If you disturb his peaceful slumbers, you're a fool...."  Thus the practical advice continues
AUTHOR: Sam Devere
EARLIEST_DATE: 1882
KEYWORDS: animal humorous parody
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
FSCatskills 108, "The Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MULESONG*
Roud #4601
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door" (of which this is a parody)
NOTES: Written as a parody of the popular song "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door" (by Edward Harrigan and Dave Braham). As the original was written in 1880, it didn't take long for the parodists to start. - RBW
File: FSC108
===
NAME: Mullaghdoo
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls how "Hugh Fulton, once my comrade dear, Pursuing fortune, left his home"; Hugh is now in Nova Scotia. The singer is lonely at home now that Hugh is far away. When he left, Hugh asked that they play Auld Lang Syne for Mullaghdoo
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H2, pp. 215-216, "" (1 text, 2 tunes -- Sam Henry's different transcriptions of the same original)
DT, MULLGDOO*
NOTES: An unusual emigration song, told by one of those left behind. - RBW
File: HHH002
===
NAME: Mullinabrone
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees two lovers saying goodbye. He is going to America; she fears he will forget her. At last she can stand it no longer; she buys passage to America. At first she cannot find him, but meets him eventually; they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation emigration reunion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H242, p. 483-484, "Mullinabrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2494
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "You Lovers All" (plot)
cf. "My Father's Servant Boy" [Laws M11] (plot)
cf. "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29] (lyrics)
NOTES: The lyrics of this song often overlap those of "Erin's Flowery Vale," and the first part of the plot is also the same. But this is somewhat less, um, flowery, and it also has a proper ending, which "Erin's Flowery Vale" (as defined by Laws) does not. There probably is kinship, but perhaps the most likely explanation is that both split off from the same roots; they aren't really the same song any longer. - RBW
File: HHH242
===
NAME: Mullnabeeny (Mill of Boyndie)
DESCRIPTION: "When I was young and in my prime, Guid-fegs, like me there wisna mony." The singer recalls his success at a young age: A good fee, fine clothes, and the attention of the ladies. He wishes he were back in the days when his old hat was new
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: farming age clothes
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 249, "Mill of Boyndie (Mullnabeeny)" (1 text)
Roud #5576
NOTES: Ord explains that the name "Mullnabeeny" is local dialect for "Milne of Boyndie" -- yet calls his version "Mill of Boyndie." - RBW
File: Ord249
===
NAME: Mulroy Bay
DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks about the hills of home, where he spent his happy childhood. "I'll soon be coming back to the place, To the sweetheart that I met so many years ago" at Mulroy Bay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1986 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: love home return reunion nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 55, "Mulroy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Mulroy Bay is in Donegal. - BS
File: McB1055
===
NAME: Munro's Confession: see The Murder of Sarah Vail [Laws F9] (File: LF09)
===
NAME: Munro's Tragedy: see Donald Munroe [Laws J12] (File: LJ12)
===
NAME: Murder of Alan Beyne, The
DESCRIPTION: A young man is to be hanged for the murder of Alan Beyne. He repeatedly protests his innocence, but judge and jury condemned him. Just before the sentence is carried out, a rider rides up, and proves to be Beyne. The singer is saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: execution punishment reprieve mother homicide
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So) Australia
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 243-245, "The Murder of Alan Beyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ALANBANE*
Roud #2974
RECORDINGS:
Almeda Riddle, "Alan Bain" (on LomaxCD1707)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Alan Bane
Alan Bain
NOTES: Said to be based on an actual event of the 1860s. - RBW
According to the notes in Lomax, W. K. McNeil says this originated in Australia. McNeil tends to be right a lot. - PJS
File: MA243
===
NAME: Murder of Alfreda Pike, The
DESCRIPTION: Out walking, Alfreda Pike, sixteen, is overtaken and her throat is cut. If the murderer is found he'll be lynched. Alfreda is buried at Harbour Grace.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: homicide burial
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 5, 1870 - murder of Alfreda Pike in Harbour Grace by Constable Furey
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 821-822, "The Murder of Alfreda Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9810
NOTES: Constable Furey, who had been involved in the murder investigation, made a death-bed confession, more than 50 years later. Evidence of the confession was lost until revealed in a book by Jack Fitzgerald published in 1997. Source is an excerpt from _The Hangman is Never Late_ by Jack Fitzgerald on the Creative Book Publishing site. Creative Book Publishing is in St. John's, Newfoundland - BS
File: Pea821
===
NAME: Murder of Ann O'Brien, The: see James MacDonald [Laws P38] (File: LP38)
===
NAME: Murder of Charles Stacey, The
DESCRIPTION: Charles Stacey goes out on a Sunday morning and meets three drunks -- one of whom had lost his girlfriend to Stacey. The three ruffians wait till Stacey and the girl return from church, then shoot him. Stacey shoots back at one, then dies and is buried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: homicide courting revenge burial
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 173, "The Murder of Charles Stacey" (1 text)
Roud #4119
NOTES: This song is item dF47 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: R173
===
NAME: Murder of Dennis Somers, The: see Murder of Young Somers (File: GrMa153)
===
NAME: Murder of F. C. Benwell, The [Laws E26]
DESCRIPTION: J. R. Birchell is condemned to die for murdering F. C. Benwell. He had tried to pretend innocence in the trial; the attempt failed. His wife bids him farewell, and he is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1918
KEYWORDS: homicide execution
FOUND_IN: US(MW,Ro) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws E26, "The Murder of F. C. Benwell"
LPound-ABS, 65, pp. 148-149, "The Death of Bendall" (1 text, joined with "Charles Guiteau")
Burt, p. 228-229, "(J. R. Birchell)" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 135-136, "The Murder of F. C. Benwell" (1 text)
DT 732, MURBENW*
Roud #2255
RECORDINGS:
Lamont Tilden, "The Murder of F. C. Benwell" (on Ontario1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES: According to Spaeth, "J. R. Birchell killed F. C. Benwell in the swamps near Blenheim, Ontario, and then wrote the account of his own execution...." As, however, no date is offered, and the same story is told about every "Charles Guiteau" variant, the reader is advised to take this with a grain of salt. - RBW
File: LE26
===
NAME: Murder of Grace Brown, The: see Grace Brown and Chester Gillette [Laws F7] (File: LF07)
===
NAME: Murder of James A. Garfield, The: see Charles Guiteau [Laws E11] (File: LE11)
===
NAME: Murder of John Codman, The
DESCRIPTION: "What sad and awful scenes are these Presented to your View." The crimes of Mark and Phillis, slaves who murdered their master, "appear as black as hell." The two are condemned for "poys'ning" their master, and are condemned to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: slave homicide poison punishment execution
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 18, 1755 - Execution of the slaves Mark and Phillis for their role in the poisoning of their owner John Codman of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A third slave, Phoebe, was acquitted
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 154-155, (no title) (1 excerpted text)
File: Burt154
===
NAME: Murder of John Dugar, The
DESCRIPTION: John Dugar and Charles Robisher quarrel. Dugar murders Captain Charles. Dugar reaches Liverpool and tries to take ship, but is overtaken by a detective. He is tried and condemned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: homicide escape trial punishment execution fight
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 172-173, "The Murder of John Dugar" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FO172 (Partial)
Roud #4681
NOTES: Helen Flanders's informant, W. B. Morton, believed that this murder took place in Digby, Nova Scotia, although his text (which is complete on the face of it but badly confused) seems to point to County Clare in Ireland - RBW
File: FO172
===
NAME: Murder of John Love, The
DESCRIPTION: Broadside. "Again the murderer's ruthless hand Has stained with blood our happy land!" "Three brothers bent on crimes and blood... Have murdered Love, their nearest friend." "The gallows now must end our days, And we must walk in unknown ways."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: homicide punishment execution friend brother gallows-confession
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 17, 1825 - Hanging of brothers Isaac, Israel, and Nelson Thayer for the murder of John Love, to whom they owed money
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, p. 77, (no title) (2 excerpts)
File: Burt077
===
NAME: Murder of Laura Foster, The [Laws F36]
DESCRIPTION: Laura Foster's fiance and his new sweetheart kill her and bury her. Her parents find the body, and it is agreed that she has been murdered. In the Brown texts, at least, the fate of the murderer is not mentioned
AUTHOR: Thomas Land?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: homicide corpse family
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1866 - Murder of Laura Foster by Thomas C. Dula (and his new sweetheart Ann Melton). Dula apparently killed Foster because he had contracted a venereal disease from her
May 1, 1868 - Dula is hanged for the murder.
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Laws F36, "The Murder of Laura Foster"
BrownII 302, "The Murder of Laura Foster" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Roud #1935
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Clark, "The Ballad of Laura Foster" (on LegendTomDula)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Tom Dooley" [Laws F36A] (plot)
cf. "Tom Dula's Lament" (subject)
NOTES: Laws does not name an author for this ballad, but the attribution to Thomas Land (a Confederate veteran) seems to have been well known to Brown's informants, and the poetry has the stilted feel of a composition which, at the time of collection, was still close to its composed origins.
For background to this song, see the notes to "Tom Dooley." - RBW
John Craig, the source for [Sheila] Clark's version, learned it from his great-grandmother, Zora Church Lee. He describes the ballad as having been "taken from a popular local account" written by Land. So it sounds like Land wrote the story in prose, which was then made into poetry by an unknown author. Clark's song retains the stilted feel Bob mentions. - PJS
File: LF36
===
NAME: Murder of Maria Marten, The
DESCRIPTION: William Corder has Maria Marten meet him at the red barn before they go to Ipswich to be married. He murders her and buries the body in the red barn. Her body is discovered by following her mother's dream. Corder is tried and sentenced to be hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 14(239))
KEYWORDS: courting homicide dream gallows-confessions mother
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Aug 11, 1828 - William Corder is executed for the May 1827 murder of Maria Marten (source: NLScotland commentary to broadside L.C.Fol.70(71b))
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, MARMARTN*
Roud #215
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 14(239), "Murder of Maria Marten, by William Corder" ("Come all you thoughtless young men a warning take by me"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also Firth c.17(110), Firth b.25(379), "Murder of Maria Marten by W. Corder"; Firth c.17(111), "Murder of Maria Martin by W. Corder" 
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(71b), "The Murder of Maria Marten by W. Corder," unknown, c.1845
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Maria Marten" (subject)
NOTES: Description based on broadside Bodleian, Harding B 14(239). Roud assigne the same number to "Maria Marten"; the texts are clearly different and told from a different point of view. This is a gallows confession.
There is a sequel broadside -- Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2416, "A copy of verses, on the execution of Wm. Corder, for the murder of Maria Marten, in the Red Barn, Polstead," unknown, no date -- in which he is executed August 11. The commentary to Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(71b) states that a "broadsheet published in London by James Catnach about this crime sold over one million copies."
Hall, notes to Voice03 for "Maria Marten": "The story captured the popular imagination through its additional representation in the melodrama, _Murder In The Red Barn_, played by countless amateur and touring companies."
Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 3" - 19.8.02: "[Marten's] three illegitimate children - to different fathers - and her possible criminal activities with Corder became overshadowed by the myth that grew up around her death. Indeed, research now suggests that her mother's 'supernatural dreams' were motivated not so much by psychic phenomena as by her own criminal knowledge and probable association with Corder." 
A note for _The Haunting of William Corder_ on the Alistair Ferguson site: "The true-life murder of Maria Marten, upon which John Latimer's famous [Victorian] melodrama 'Maria Marten; or The Murder in the Red Barn" is based, has been adapted several times over the years. This is my version of the story."
There are references at IMDB [Internet Movie DataBase site] to movies from 1902 (_Maria Marten: or, The Murder at the Red Barn_), and 1935 (_Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn_). - BS
The Digital Tradition lists this has been collected from one Joseph Taylor (initially in 1908), who sang a three-verse fragment to the tune of "The Star of the County Down"/"Dives and Lazarus." - RBW
File: BdTMoMM
===
NAME: Murder of Marian Parker, The: see Marian Parker (II) (File: LdF56)
===
NAME: Murder of Mary Tuplin, The
DESCRIPTION: June 1887. Mary leaves home "her lover for to see Down by the river Margaret." Her jealous lover shoots her "through her brain," ties a rope with a stone around her waist "and dashed her in the tide." Her body being found, Willy Millman is hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide trial
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jun 28, 1887 - Murder of Mary Tuplin by William Millman
1888 - Execution of Millman
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 71-72, "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12463
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Prince Edward Island Murder" (subject)
cf. "The Millman Song" (subject)
cf. "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (subject)
NOTES: Roud has at least five different numbers for this event:
Roud #1837: Creighton-NovaScotia 140, "Prince Edward Island Murder" [Laws dF59]
Roud #4129: Doerflinger, pp. 285-286, "The Millman Song" (also Ives-DullCare, pp. 180-181, "The Millman Murder Trial") [LawsdF60]
Roud #9179: Ives-DullCare, pp. 46-47, "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (also Manny/Wilson 50, "Young Millman")
Roud #9552: Shea, pp. 174-179, "The Millman Tragedy"
Roud #12463: Dibblee/Dibblee pp. 72-73, "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" - BS
File: Dib071
===
NAME: Murder of McBriars, The
DESCRIPTION: McBriars, "master of an Orange Lodge," stops for whisky at a tavern and proclaims his Orange loyalty too loudly. He is killed "by Papish schemes" and "three villains" "He was an old and feeble man not able to resist" Thousands attend the funeral.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1860 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: homicide funeral drink political
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Zimmermann 99, "The Murder of McBriars" (1 text, 1 tune)
OrangeLark 14, "The Murder of McBriars" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Zimmermann: "McBriars is said to have been killed in the early 1860's." - BS
File: Zimm099
===
NAME: Murder of Miss Wyatt, The: see Henry Green (The Murdered Wife) [Laws F14] (File: LF14)
===
NAME: Murder of Pearl Bryan, The (Pearl Bryan V)
DESCRIPTION: The Setters take on the Peal Bryan story: "A horrible crime was committed Soon was brought to light; For parents to look on their headless girl, What a sad and terrible sight." Jackson's insanity plea fails; he is to be executed; Walling's trial awaits
AUTHOR: adapted by James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial execution punishment
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Feb 1, 1896 - Discovery of the headless body of Pearl Bryan, killed along with her unborn child by Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky
Mar 20, 1897 - Execution of Jackson and Walling
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 131-135, "The Murder of Pearl Bryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt, p. 32, (no title) (1 excerpt)
ST ThBa131 (Partial)
Roud #500
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jealous Lover (I), The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C]" [Laws F1], particularly the "B" subgroup of Pearl Bryan ballads
cf. "Pearl Bryan I" [Laws F2]
cf. "Pearl Bryan III" [Laws F3]
cf. "Pearl Bryan (IV)"
NOTES: Thomas's version is rather a curiosity, since she learned it from Jilson Setters decades after the murder but he never updated the song. There is no evidence that it ever circulated in tradition.
Roud lumps this with Laws F1(B). But while it's just possible that that song inspired Jilson Setters, this is not a version of the Laws ballad. But my guess is that the song was inspired by the piece which Burt excerpts, since both songs end with a stanza about Pearl and her head being reunited in heaven.  - RBW
File: ThBa131
===
NAME: Murder of Sarah Vail, The [Laws F9]
DESCRIPTION: John Monroe, a married man with two children, seduces Sarah Vail, who bears him a child. He takes woman and child on a trip, murders them, and hides their bodies. When his crime is discovered, he is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: homicide pregnancy children corpse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 31, 1868 - Murder of Sarah Vail and her child
Feb 1870 - Hanging of John Monroe
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws F9, "The Murder of Sarah Vail"
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 89, "Munro's Confession" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 760, SARAVAIL
Roud #2258
File: LF09
===
NAME: Murder of Susan Newham, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come friends and relations, I b id you adieu, The grace is now open to welcome me through." The singer admits, "I killed Susan Newham as you have heard tell," bids his friends not to mourn, and looks forward to seeing her in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution reunion gallows-confession
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, p. 178, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: According to Burt, J. B. Crane was a schoolteacher in Hangtown, California, who became enamored of his student Susan Newham. She rejected him, and he murdered her in 1854. Crane reportedly surrendered to the police, but was captured by vigilantes and hung. - RBW 
File: Burt178
===
NAME: Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey, The
DESCRIPTION: "Kilmainham's blood is avenged" by the murder of James Carey on board the Melrose. "So traitors all beware I say, And innocent blood don't take away, For vengeful hands shall you repay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: betrayal homicide revenge Africa
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: The Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmermann, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-Labrador)
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann, p. 63, "A New Song on the Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey" (references only)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(452), "A New Song on The Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey ("In a far off land, 'neath an African sun "), unknown, n.d.
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES: Per notes to broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(452): "Carey, James, 1845-1883 "
Zimmermann p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads."
Zimmermann p. 63 notes that, in the chorus of this broadside, the executed men have become "those martyrs brave." 
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(452) is the basis for the description.
Double-dyed: "Dyed twice; thoroughly or intensely colored; hence; firmly fixed in opinions or habits; as, a double-dyed villain." (Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) at the Online Dictionary site) - BS
File: BrdMDDIJ
===
NAME: Murder of the Gibbons Children, The: see The Ashland Tragedy (III) [Laws F27] (File: LF27)
===
NAME: Murder of the King of Scots, The: see Earl Bothwell [Child 174] (File: C174)
===
NAME: Murder of Thomas Walsh, The
DESCRIPTION: "It's a sad and cruel tragedy I am going to relate, Happened near Willow City in North Dakota state." Harmless old Thomas Walsh is found dead. Sheriff Billy Pitts arrests William Ross, who is convicted and bids a sad farewell
AUTHOR: Thomas Cave?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial execution punishment
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 5, 1903 - Discovery of the murdered body of farmer Thomas Walsh
Mar 6, 1903 - William Ross executed (in Ohio) for the murder of Ross
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 82-83, (no title) (1 text)
File: Burt082
===
NAME: Murder of William Funston, The
DESCRIPTION: William Funston is murdered near Trillick. The Catholic Maguires are arrested for the crime. "Two purged Orangemen named Smith and Armstrong" are paid to swear against them. McGrory implicates Armstrong. The singer hopes they will be acquitted.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial accusation lie political
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Morton-Maguire 52, pp. 147-148,175, "The Murder of William Funston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2935
NOTES: The song says the murder occurred near Trillick town on March 9, fair-day of Irvinestown, County Fermanagh. Morton-Maguire: "... such happenings are likely to take place when inter-religious tension is high in this country, so perhaps we can suggest sometime during the 1910s or 1920s as the possible date of this particular incident. At such times each side of the religious divide will tend to think the worst of those on the other side." Funston himself was, according to the song, an Orangeman. - BS
File: MoMa052
===
NAME: Murder of Young Somers
DESCRIPTION: "When the news it did come in, Sebastopol was taken, (there was rejoicing in the city, and drinking, and young Somers was murdered.)" Somers is knifed to death by accident; "(the man who stabbed Somers ... was after another man)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: fight war death drink
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 9, 1855 - Fall of Sevastopol following an 11 month siege
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 153, "Murder of Young Somers" (1 fragment)
Peacock, pp. 823-824, "The Murder of Dennis Somers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17750
NOTES: Peacock believes the murder took place in St John's. - BS
File: GrMa153
===
NAME: Murder Song
DESCRIPTION: A rich lady asks poor Willie to marry. She gives him 15000 pounds for their passage to a country where he can be a gentleman. He throws her in the deep. A wave reveals the corpse. Good Friday her ghost testifies against him and he is sentenced to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: execution trial homicide river gallows-confessions ghost
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 90, "Murder Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB090 (Partial)
Roud #2769
NOTES: Well, almost a gallows-confession. The last verse is truncated but has his parents standing by for the execution on April 29, but -- while the ballad starts with a hope that the listeners will pray for him -- he doesn't get to repeat that request at the end.
Creighton-SNewBrunswick: "The place name may be Lipper or Lifford; it was difficult to make out." I repeat that here because it may help connect this tale with some other ballad or some specific murder. - BS
My obvious conjecture would be "Liffey." But that doesn't really help -- though obviously a lot of Irish emigrated to America, so it could connect with the emigration theme. Nor does the April 29 date, though of course that could have been garbled. - RBW
File: CrSNB090
===
NAME: Murdered Boy, The: see The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)
===
NAME: Murdered Brother, The: see Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)
===
NAME: Murdered by a Brother [Laws F12]
DESCRIPTION: A brother takes his sister sailing. He denounces her adulterous liaison and announces that he will be avenged. He has already drowned her lover; now he drowns her and sails back alone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: homicide adultery sea
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Laws F12, "Murdered by a Brother"
DT 758, MURDBRO
Roud #1932
File: LF12
===
NAME: Murdered Girl, The: see The Wexford Girl [Laws P35] AND The Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5] AND  The Jealous Lover [Laws F1] (File: LP35)
===
NAME: Murdered Pedlar, The
DESCRIPTION: "Vouchsafe thine aid, ye wondrous nine... A tragic scene transpired of late, The truth of which I will relate." "A Jewish pedlar was shot down, Ah, by a wretch called Warren Wood." "Hiram Williams was the peddlar's name." Wood is sentenced to hang
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution punishment Jew
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Aug 19, 1853 - Warren Wood robs and attempts to murder Hiram Williams (Williams survived long enough to identify a photograph of Wood)
Jun 20, 1864- Wood is hanged for murder
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 79-80, "(The Murdered Pedlar)" (1 text)
File: Burt079
===
NAME: Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come young and old attention give and lend a listening ear" as the singer tells of "a gay and sprightly youth who lived in Berlin Town." Henry Green becomes enamored of beautiful singer Mary Ann Wyatt, marries her, then murders her, and confesses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Bulletin of theFolk Song Society of the Northeast)
KEYWORDS: homicide marriage execution poison
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1845 - Murder of Mary Ann Wyatt Green (February) and execution of Henry Green (September)
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 8-11, "The Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)" [Laws F14] (subject, plot)
NOTES: This rather rare broadside on the Mary Wyatt/Henry Green story can be distinguished from the more common ballad "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)" by the lines quoted in the description and by its length.
According to Burt, Mary Ann Wyatt was a performer in a troupe which staged temperance dramas. Her appearance so excited Henry Green that he joined the troupe to court her. They were married in February 1845.
The marriage was so sudden that Green felt compelled to publicize it with a sleighing party for his friends, at which a former love told him that she had once wished to marry him. Wyatt felt sick the next day, and Green went to get some medicine. He shoved more and more down her throat, and she died by poison. 
Burt claims that there are seven different songs written about this story, but cites only this, parts of the Laws ballad, and a single stanza of a third (which might, however, be part of the Laws piece). - RBW
File: Burt008
===
NAME: Murphy in the Cupboard
DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Molly McClare. He finds her kitchen door open and hides in a cupboard. She returns kissing Murphy. When Murphy also has to hide in the cupboard he reveals he is Molly's husband. The singer locks Murphy in and leaves with the key.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1980 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: love humorous hiding husband wife
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 81, "Murphy in the Cupboard" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
File: LeBe081
===
NAME: Murrumbigdee Shearer, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come, all you jolly natives, and I'll relate to you Some of my observations -- adventures, too, a few." The singer tells of the stations he has visited to ask for work. Denied employment, he has stolen and even burned the place. He ends up in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Paterson, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes prison
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 192-193, "The Murrumbidgee Shearer" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maryborough Miner" (tune, theme)
File: PFS192
===
NAME: Murty Hynes
DESCRIPTION: Poor Bermingham is evicted from his farm for failure to pay rent. Murty Hines takes the farm but is persuaded by the Land League to give it up. The people celebrate. "Give three cheers for the Land League and nine for Murty Hines"
AUTHOR: T.D. Sullivan (1827-1914) (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: poverty Ireland political
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 14, "Murty Hynes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9757
NOTES: Formed in 1879, the Irish tenant farmers' Land League fought evictions and spearheaded land reforms through Parliament. - PJS
For other songs and more information on the League, see "The Moneygran Pig Hunt" and "The Bold Tenant Farmer."
Sullivan is the author of a number of Irish patriotic poems, of which "God Save Ireland" is probably the best-known. - RBW
File: OLcM014
===
NAME: Mush a Doody: see The Jug of Punch (File: K278)
===
NAME: Music Alone Shall Live
DESCRIPTION: German: "Himmel und Erde mussen verghen, Aber die musici (x3) Bleiben bestehn." English: "All things shall perish from under the sky, Music alone shall live (x3), Never to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: nonballad music
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 412, "Music Alone Shall Live" (1 text)
DT, MUSICALN*
NOTES: The English translation given here, be it noted, is not really equivalent to the German, which might better be rendered along the lines of "Heaven and earth must pass away, But music (x3) still shall remain." - RBW
File: FSWB412A
===
NAME: Muskrat: see Rattlesnake (File: LoF083)
===
NAME: Musselburgh Field [Child 172]
DESCRIPTION: "Two goodly hosts" meet on Musselburgh Field. The Scots enter the battle confident, but are defeated heavily. The English narrator describes the contingents defeated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: battle nobility
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 10, 1547 - Battle of Pinkie (Pinkie Cleuch, Musselburgh). English armies defeat the Scots
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 172 "Musselburgh Field" (1 text)
Roud #4003
NOTES: The song claims that the battle of Pinkie was fought in "the fourth yeere of King Edwards raigne" -- but in fact 1547 was the first year of the reign of Edward VI (reigned 1547-1553). Other such errors occur in the song (e.g. the battle is dated to the twelfth of December, not the tenth of September); apparently the piece (which surely originated as a broadside) went through several stages of imperfect tradition.
Pinkie was the final major ballad of the Anglo-Scottish border wars; by the time the Scots were fully recovered, Elizabeth was Queen of England and the Scottish monarchs were her heirs; James VI, in particular, was very careful not to offend Elizabeth.
Pinkie was the final battle of a long campaign between the English and Scots over the fate of the infant Queen Mary, who came to the throne at the age of eight days (1542) and instantly found herself a pawn in the contest between England and France.
In 1543, the English under Henry VIII pressured the Scots into negotiations, and the result was a draft treaty to wed Mary to Prince Edward (the future Edward VI). The Scottish parliament, however, rejected the treaty. There followed the so-called "Rough Wooing"; Henry sent in his armies in 1544 (burning Edinburgh) and 1545, but the latter was heavily defeated at Ancrum Moor.
A quiet period followed, with continued skirmishing but no big battles. That changed after Henry VIII died in 1547. Now, with Edward VI King of England, the desire to take over Scotland was even stronger.
The battle of Pinkie itself resulted when the English Lord Protector, the Duke of Somerset, let an English army in the direction of Edinborough. The Earl of Arran gathered a Scots army -- but, as was often the case, the Scottish army was not really a unified force, but a collection of individual armies; the English won an easy victory.
Pinkie scared the Scots, but did not convince them to marry their Queen to Edward; instead, they shipped her off to France the next year. - RBW
File: C172
===
NAME: Musselman
DESCRIPTION: "When the summer winds blow And the buttercups grow... Where the wild curlew flies, Jimmy's favorite lies, An honest and trustworthy horse." Describes the beloved horse Musselman, how it raced and how people greeted it, and its grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1975
KEYWORDS: horse racing burial
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 222-223, "Musselman" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FaE222
===
NAME: Must I Go Bound
DESCRIPTION: The singer laments, "Must I go bound and you go free." (S)he hears someone sing "that marriage was a pleasant thing," but "My marriage day soon turned to woe." The singer's spouse has scorned/abused the singer; the singer hopes for revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage abuse betrayal
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H218a/b, p. 386, "Must I Go Bound" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Died for Love (I)" (theme)
cf. "Yon Green Valley" (lyrics)
cf. "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
NOTES: This, like "My Blue-Eyed Boy,"  is so close to "The Butcher Boy" that I almost listed them as one song. But where "The Butcher Boy" is relatively coherent, this is little more than a lament composed of floating verses (e.g. from "Waly Waly") and the complaint "I heard (a shepherd//fair maid) sing That marriage was a pleasant thing, [but] My (marriage/wedding) day soon turned to woe." So I've listed them separately -- but there may well be intermediate versions.
For further discussion, see the notes to "The Butcher Boy." - RBW
File: HHH218
===
NAME: Must I Go to Mississippi?
DESCRIPTION: "Must I go to Mississippi? Must I go or must I stay? Must I go all broken hearted? Oh, my heart shall break in two." "Who will shoe your foot...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry, collected from Mrs. Nathan Hicks)
KEYWORDS: travel floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 24, "Must I Go To Mississippi?" (1 text, of three verses, of which the last two are "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?")
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?" (lyrics)
NOTES: Although two-thirds of the Hicks version are from "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot," the first verse is separate. I'm splitting the songs on the odd chance that the "Must I Go to Mississippi" verse is part of something else. Though it is unlikely to matter unless we find more text. - RBW
File: MHApp024
===
NAME: Must I Go to Old Virginia?: see East Virginia (Dark Hollow) (File: JRSF134)
===
NAME: Mustang Gray (The Maid of Monterey)
DESCRIPTION: "There was a brave old Texan, his name was Mustang Gray." When the Mexicans invaded Texas, he was taken prisoner. "He wore the yoke of bondage through the streets of Monteray. A senorita loved him...." and turned him loose
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: love battle prisoner rescue
FOUND_IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Thorp/Fife IX, pp. 104-111 (23-24), "Mustang Gray" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 49, "Mustang Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 395-396, "Mustang Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 190-191, "Mustang Gray" (1 text)
DT, MUSTGRAY*
Roud #4035
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Turkish Lady" [Laws O26] (plot)
cf. "Young Beichan" [Child 53] (plot)
SAME_TUNE:
The Dying Soldier Boy ("Upon Manassa's bloody plain a soldier boy lay dying" -- words by A. B. Cunningham) (War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, pp. 347-348)
NOTES: Thorp/Fife notes that this song takes two forms: "In Hewitt's original aria interest is focused on the senorita and her heroic deed. The texts most current in Western American oral tradition... bring the American soldier-cowboy into central focus...."
The piece seems to have drawn its title from the 1847 novel _The Volunteer, or The Maid of Monterrey_, by Ned Bluntine.
The song has been variously credited to John Hill Hewitt, Tom Grey, and James Lytle. Thorp/Fife considers Hewitt (a well-known composer) to be the most likely candidate.
As "Mustang Gray," this song is item dB28 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: FT09
===
NAME: Mustering Day: see The Mustering Song (File: FaE158)
===
NAME: Mustering Song, The
DESCRIPTION: The station owner gathers the crew for mustering day. The workers head out to gather the herd when the old man is thrown into a tree and dies. The next day, the singer sees the man's ghost in his usual place, smoking his usual clay (pipe)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1894 (The Queenslander)
KEYWORDS: ghost death horse boss Australia
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 158-159, "The Mustering Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 80-81, "Mustering Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 226-227, "The Mustering Song" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning)" (tune & meter)
File: FaE158
===
NAME: Mutlah, The
DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "Our good ship she heeled over and sank upon her side, And left her chains and anchors all in the Eddy-tide Outside the sunken Cooneys, where the Mutlah went aground, All with her general cargo, she for Halifax was bound"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Apr 16, 1877 - "The ... Mutlah ... went ashore at Glynn Point, Poulshone mear Courtown Captain Faraquar, one passenger and ten of fourteen crew were drowned.... the survivors described the captain as drunk...." (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 45)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, p. 127, "The Mutlah" (1 text)
File: Ran127
===
NAME: Muttonburn Stream, The
DESCRIPTION: "Muttonburn Stream, It's not marked on this world's map... A wee river in Ulster." It has wondrous qualities: "a wee dunt" in it makes washing clean, "it cures all diseases" including fatness or lean, a good place to fall after a drinking party.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recorded by Richard Hayward)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad talltale
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Morton-Ulster 10, "The Muttonburn Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 6, "The Mutton Burn Stream" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2602 recorded Oct 4, 1931)
Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 81-82, "The Muttonburn Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2896
NOTES: Morton-Ulster: "The Muttonburn Stream is to be found near Carrickfergus."
"Castle Hyde" takes glorification of a locality to an extreme. "The Groves of Blarney" takes it to the next stage by parody. "The Muttonburn Stream" completes the transformation by making a tall tale.
The date and master id (GB-3353-1) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
File: MorU010
===
NAME: My Auld Breeks, air the Corn Clips: see Robin Tamson's Smiddy [Laws O12] (File: LO12)
===
NAME: My Aunt Jane
DESCRIPTION: "My Aunt Jane she took me in" and gave me tea from her shop. "She's awful smart" and bakes rings in an apple tart. She "has a bell on the door A white stone step and a clean swept floor, Candy apples, hard green pears, Conversation lozenges"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (Hammond-Belfast)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hammond-Belfast, p. 12, "My Aunt Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hammond-Belfast: "Probably the best-loved of all Belfast songs." - BS
The practice of baking prizes (such as coins or rings) into cakes is well-attested, even if it is today remembered mostly because J. R. R. Tolkien mentioned it in _Smith of Wooton Major_, but it seems somewhat improbable to find it in the contest of a Belfast tea-shop; how did Aunt Jane afford such thing? - RBW
File: Hamm012
===
NAME: My Bark Canoe
DESCRIPTION: An Ojibway (Chippewa) song. The singer reports, "Through the night I keep awake, Upon the river I keep awake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) nonballad river
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke/Johnston, p. 34, "My Bark Canoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4539
File: FJ034
===
NAME: My Beautiful Muff
DESCRIPTION: A young lady goes out in her muff, which is "my own, and I'll wear it, So don't you come near it, You'll spoil it, you'll tear it, My beautiful muff." A young man greets her and plies her with wine. She sleeps. Her muff is ruined. Young ladies are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1956
KEYWORDS: bawdy clothes seduction wine
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 247-248, "My Beautiful Muff" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1402
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(51), "My Beautiful Muff" (unknown, n.d.)
File: MA247
===
NAME: My Beauty of Limerick
DESCRIPTION: Patrick is across the sea but thinks of his "beauty of Limerick" waiting at home. He promises "to go back to old Ireland when money I'd save." He sleeps with her ribbon under his pillow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: love separation Ireland nonballad money return
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 38, "My Beauty of Limerick" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9752
File: OLcM038
===
NAME: My Blue-Eyed Boy
DESCRIPTION: Floating verses on the subject of lost love, usually borrowed from "The Butcher Boy" and/or a "Pretty Little Foot" variant. The wide and deep grave carved with a turtle dove may also be present. Identified by the line "Bring me back my blue-eyed boy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love beauty separation death suicide
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So) Ireland
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions, of which #11 appears to belong here)
Belden, pp. 478-480, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (4 texts, though "D" is a fragment, probably of "Tavern in the Town" or "The Butcher Boy" or some such)
Randolph 759, "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (3 short texts, 1 tune)
BrownIII 257, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (2 text, though the second is rather distantly related)
Brewster 85, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 102, pp. 212-213, "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (1 text)
SHenry H482, pp. 391-392, "Bring Me Back the Boy I Love"; H692, p. 392, "Never Change the Old Love for the New" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, BLUEYEBY
Roud #60
RECORDINGS:
Brier Hopper Brothers, "Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy" (Champion 16692, 1933)
Carter Family, "Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy to Me" (Victor V-40190, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4741, c. 1935; Bluebird B-6271, 1936)
Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy"  (Columbia 15577-D, 1930; rec. 1929)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
cf. "Must I Go Bound" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Died for Love (I)"
cf. "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
NOTES: This is so close to "The Butcher Boy" that I almost listed them as one song. But where "The Butcher Boy" is relatively coherent, this is little more than a lament composed of floating verses and the complaint "Bring me back my blue-eyed boy." So I've listed them separately -- but there *are* intermediate versions. Sandburg, for instance, has once (p. 324, "Go Bring Me Back My Blue-Eyed Boy," with the suicide theme intact, so I list it with "The Butcher Boy" -- but it has this chorus). -- RBW
File: R759
===
NAME: My Bonnie Irish Boy: see The Bonny Young Irish Boy [Laws P26] (File: LP26)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Laddie's Lang, Lang o' Growing: see A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Laddie's Young (But He's Growing Yet): see A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean
DESCRIPTION: The singer laments that his bonnie is across the waves, and implores that someone "bring back my bonnie to me." He asks the winds specifically to carry her. (He dreams she is dead.) (He rejoices that the winds have blown his bonnie to him.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1881 (Hills's "Student Songs")
KEYWORDS: love separation sea reunion
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 143, "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 381, "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean"
DT, MYBONNIE*
RECORDINGS:
Ella Fitzgerald, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Decca 28375, 1952)
Haydn Quartet, "Bring Back My Bonnie to Me" (Victor A-123, 1900)
Leake County Revelers, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Columbia 15227-D, 1928)
Ella Logan, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Brunswick 8196, 1938; Columbia 36313, 1941)
Mobile Strugglers, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (on AmSkBa)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (tune)
cf. "The Cowboy's Dream" (tune)
cf. "Tom Twist" (tune)
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)" (tune)
cf. "Shine Your Buttons With Brasso" (tune)
cf. "Shaving Cream" (tune)
cf. "Bring Back My Johnny to Me"
SAME_TUNE:
Tom Twist (File: FlBr171)
My Children Are Seven in Number (Greenway-AFP, p. 166; on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
Bring Back My Neighbors to Me (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 119)
Yuck! Cats (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 67)
Come Up, Dear Dinner, Come Up (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 121)
My Body Has Tuberculosis (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 131)
Zekey Looked into the Gas Tank (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 133)
My Barney Lies Over the Ocean (Nora Bayes, Columbia A-2678, 1918; Louis Winsch, Pathe 22061, 1919; Ada Jones, OKeh 1218, 1919; Billy Murray, Victor 18530, 1919)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
My Bonnie
Bring Back My Bonnie to Me
NOTES: Fuld notes an 1882 printing of this song allegedly written by H. J. Fulmer (Charles E. Pratt). This text, however, disagrees with the 1881 printing, and Fuld suspects that Pratt is responsible only for the adaption.
The song obviously has spawned a number of parodies and borrowings. It itself, however, seems relatively constant, and the parodies are all recent. It thus seems likely that the song is fairly recent, and that most known versions derive from the 1881 printing.
It has been theorized that this is a derivative of the song we index as "Bring Back My Johnny to Me."  The tunes aren't the same, but there are similarities, and a few lyrics also cross, as well as the theme. But there is no evidence of an intermediate form; it seems nearly certain that there was a deliberate rewrite somewhere along the line. - RBW
File: DTmybonn
===
NAME: My Bonnie Light Horseman: see The Bonnie Light Horseman (File: HHH122a)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Love is Young: see A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Sailor Boy: see The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Wee Hen
DESCRIPTION: The singer had a fine hen; it laid two eggs a day. But it went out to seek food and was killed. The owner will punish the killers; "I wasna half so sorry the night my husband died." She invites others to the funeral
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: chickens death burial
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H94, p.17 , "My Bonnie Wee Hen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9054
File: HHH094
===
NAME: My Bonny Black Bess (I) [Laws L8]
DESCRIPTION: Dick Turpin gives a detailed account of Black Bess's speed and beauty and the good use to which he put them. He once robbed a horseman and sped to town, arriving so quickly that he appeared to have an alibi when the horseman at last arrived in town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: robbery horse outlaw
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1735 - Dick Turpin comes to the attention of the authorities as a robber
April 1739 - Hanging of Dick Turpin (by then retired from highway robbery; he was captured after getting drunk and shooting the landlor'd cockerel)
FOUND_IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws L8, "My Bonny Black Bess I"
Randolph 167, "Bonnie Black Bess" (3 texts, 1 tune, but Laws assigns only Randolph's "C" text to this piece; the others belong with Laws L9)
Fife-Cowboy/West 7, "Bonny Black Bess" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "B" text is this piece while the "A" text is Laws L9)
LPound-ABS, 69, pp. 155-157, "My Bonny Black Bess" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 369, "My Bonny Black Bess" (1 text)
DT 569, BLCKBES3
Roud #1904
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:027, "Poor Black Bess," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Black Bess (II)" [Laws L9]
cf. "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10]" (subject)
NOTES: This is much the more literary of the Turpin/Black Bess songs; based on the evidence in Laws, I am not convinced it is actually a traditional song. The following stanza will demonstrate this point and serve to distinguish the piece from Laws L9:
Let the lover his mistress's beauty rehearse,
And laud her attractions in languishing verse;
Be it mine in rude strain but with truth to express
The love that I bear to my bonny Black Bess.
Peter Underwood reports that the hoofbeats of the ghost of Black Bess (presumably with Turpin aboard) have been heard at the "Woodfield" estate in Bedfordshire, where Turpin was said to have had a safe house.
Which just shows the power of folklore, since Black Bess apparently never existed (for this and the rest of Turpin's history, see the notes on "My Bonny Black Bess (II) (Poor Black Bess; Dick Turpin's Ride)" [Laws L9]).
The Murray broadside lists this as to the tune of "Poor Dog Tray." I would assume that's supposed to be "Old Dog Tray." Though the tune I know isn't even vaguely similar. - RBW
File: LL08
===
NAME: My Bonny Black Bess (II) (Poor Black Bess; Dick Turpin's Ride) [Laws L9]
DESCRIPTION: Dick Turpin bids farewell to the horse that served his so well, making his exploits possible and finally carrying him from London to York in a single day. Now the hounds are on his trail and he cannot escape; he shoots Bess and waits to die himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: robbery horse punishment outlaw
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1735 - Dick Turpin comes to the attention of the authorities as a robber
April 1739 - Hanging of Dick Turpin (by then retired from highway robbery; he was captured after getting drunk and shooting the landlor'd cockerel)
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Laws L9, "My Bonny Black Bess"
Randolph 167, "Bonnie Black Bess" (3 texts, 1 tune, with the "A" fragment and "B" text belonging here; the "C" text is Laws L8)
BrownII 122, "My Bonnie Black Bess" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 130, "My Bonny Black Bess" (1 text text plus 1 fragment and an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 126, "Dick Turpin's Ride" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 7, "Bonny Black Bess" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text is this piece while the "B" text is Laws L8)
Ohrlin-HBT 12, "Bonny Black Bess" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 422, BLCKBESS* BLCKBES2 BONNBESS*
Roud #620
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "My bonny black Bess" (AFS 4212 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Lawrence Older,  "Bonnie Black Bess" (on LOlder01)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb30428b, "Poor Black Bess," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 
Murray, Mu23-y1:027, "Poor Black Bess," James Lindsay Jun (Glasgow), 19C 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonny Black Bess (I)" [Laws L8]
cf. "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10]" (subject)
SAME_TUNE:
Poor Dog Tray (per broadsides LOCSinging sb30428b, Murray Mu23-y1:027)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Bonnie Black Bess
NOTES: This is much the more popular of the Black Bess songs; to distinguish it from Laws L8, consider the following stanza:
When blindness did guide me, I left my abode;
When friends proved ungrateful, I took to the road.
For to plunder the wealthy and relieve my distress,
I bought you to aid me, my bonny Black Bess.
Although Dick Turpin was real, most of the exploits attributed to him are false. There was, almost certainly, no Black Bess, and the twelve hour race to York was not undertaken by Turpin. Logan reports that the feat was performed by one "Nevison or Nicks, who plundered a traveler at four o'clock in the morning on the slope at Gadshill, and was in the bowling-green at York... at a quarter before eight in the evening."
David Brandon, in _Stand and Deliver: A History of Highway Robbery_, also mentions "a highwayman named Harris" making the trip to Yorkshire.
Patrick Pringle, in _Stand and Deliver: Highwaymen from Robin Hood to Dick Turpin_, has more details on this, devoting a whole chapter to "Who Rode to York?" He notes that it was perfectly possible to cover the London-to-York distance (about 190 miles) in a day -- if one could change to fresh horses along the route. The improbable element of "Turpin's Ride" is the idea of doing it on *one* horse.
Did such a journey happen? There are reports that it did. Daniel Defoe writes of a robber named Nicks (Nix?) who accomplished the feat in 1676. There is a 1668 report of a robber named "Swift Nicks," though it isn't known if it is the same guy.
The other fellow, Nevison, is historical, though there is a lot of uncertainty about him. His name was probably William, but this is not certain. He did most of his work in Yorkshire, and was executed in 1684 or 1685.
The link between Nevison and Nicks is tenuous. According to Brandon, p. 82, Nevison earned the nickname Nicks because he had ridden to York as fast as Old Nick. Right.
So how did this semi-legendary feat come to be associated with Turpin? As far as popular culture is concerned, there is no question but that the responsibility must be pinned on William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882), who made it a major element of his first major novel, _Rookwood_ (1834).
Ainsworth's long account is mostly out of his own head, but it's thought that the seeds of the legend came to him from his family. Could they have gotten it from one of these songs? Or did these songs get it from Ainsworth? It is unlikely, now, that we will ever be able to answer that question. Some of the details of the song, however, do appear in _Rookwood_ -- e.g. Ainsworth claimed that Bess leapt the Hornsey tollgate, perhaps inspiring the line "no toll bars could hold you." He also gave us a Turpin/Bess death scene -- though Turpin merely lingered as the horse died; he didn't shoot her.
The one part of the story that's true is that Turpin, late in his career, transferred from the London area to Yorkshire, though it was not at the end of his career. What follows is mostly condensed from Pringle with some material from Brandon.
Turpin was born probably in 1705 (others say 1706), in Essex, the son of an innkeeper. Apprenticed to a butcher, he married and went into business around 1726. But several sheep turned up missing near his establishment in Waltham Abbey. Apparently forced out of the Guild of Butchers, he took to a life of open crime.
For a time, he was associated with a brutal group of poachers and robbers known as "Gregory's Gang"; large rewards were put on their heads in 1735, but Turpin escaped when the others were taken. He turned to highway robbery. He worked with various companions, the most noteworthy being Tom King (died 1737 -- possibly killed by Turpin himself as they struggled with people who were attempting to apprehend them).
Turpin by that year had a price of 200 pounds on his head. But he disappeared.
In fact he had moved to Yorkshire, and was calling himself John Palmer. He lived a relatively honest life -- but in October 1738, in a fit of mindless brutality, he shot his landlord's gamecock (hence, apparently, the ballad claim that he was taken for "shooting of a dunghill cock").
The charges need not have been fatal, but in a comedy of errors, a sample of his handwriting came to the attention of his old schoolteacher, who supposedly recognized it. Turpin was eventually convicted of horse-stealing and sentenced to hang.
The date of Turpin's hanging is uncertain; generally dated to April 7, 1739 (so, e.g., Pringle and Brandon), but the day may have been April 6 or April 10.
There is little evidence in the historical record of the sort of nobility of character found in many of the songs about him.
Peter Underwood reports that the hoofbeats of the ghost of Black Bess (presumably with Turpin aboard) have been heard at the "Woodfield" estate in Bedfordshire, where Turpin was said to have had a safe house.
The reign of Queen Anne (1702-1712) was considered the heyday of the English highwayman -- probably because the amount of travel was increasing, so there were more targets, but there was no effective national constabulary. Turpin of course came after that time; he was arguably a victim of the reforms that the previous banditry had inspired. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30428b: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: LL09
===
NAME: My Bonny Blooming Highland Jane: see Highland Jane (File: HHH477)
===
NAME: My Bonny Bon Boy: see Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)
===
NAME: My Bonny Boy: see The Bonny Boy (I) (File: FSC037)
===
NAME: My Bonny Breeden
DESCRIPTION: "She was born 'mong the wild flowers that bloom in our valley, and like those same flowers she grew lovely and fair." The singer praises the beauty and grace of the girl, and prays that the powers may guard her
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Doey
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H512, p. 225, "My Bonny Breeden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7973
File: HHH512
===
NAME: My Bonny Brown Jane
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls courting a girl with a "false flattering tongue." He courts Jane, but another earns her love. He enlists in the army "to fight for my queen in a far country." Lonely at night, he prays "for her welfare; what can I do more?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection soldier floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H613, p. 396, "My Bonny Brown Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7000
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Comely Young Dame" (on IRRCinnamond02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5]" (lyrics)
cf. "The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass)" (theme)
NOTES: This has many lyric similarities to "William and Nancy," and also a bit of "The False Bride." But the ending about enlisting as a soldier makes the song distinct. - RBW
File: HHH613
===
NAME: My Bonny Laboring Boy: see The Bonny Laboring Boy [Laws M14] (File: LM14)
===
NAME: My Bonny Lad
DESCRIPTION: "Ha' you seen owt of my bonny lad?... He's gone along wi' a stick in his hand/He's gone to row the keel-o" "Yes, I ha' seen your bonny lad; 'twas on the sea I spied him/His grave was green, but not wi' grass/And you'll never lay beside him"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (recording, Isla Cameron)
KEYWORDS: navy separation death sailor
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #204
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "My Bonny Lad" (on Briggs2, Briggs3)
Isla Cameron, "My Bonny Lad" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
NOTES: This sounds like a fragment, but in fact the story is complete, although squeezed down to bare essentials. - PJS
File: RcMBL
===
NAME: My Bonny Light Horseman: see The Bonnie Light Horseman (File: HHH122a)
===
NAME: My Boy Billy: see Billy Boy (File: R104)
===
NAME: My Boy Willie: see Billy Boy (File: R104)
===
NAME: My Boyfriend Gave Me An Apple
DESCRIPTION: "And five o'clock is striking, Mother may I go out My true love is waiting for me without." He brings apples, pears, and six-pence that she "kiss him on the stairs" She rejects apples and pears and gives back sixpence after he kisses her on the stairs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (Hammond-Belfast)
KEYWORDS: playparty food money
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hammond-Belfast, p. 11, "Five O'Clock is Striking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12986
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Six O'Clock Bells Ringing
NOTES: Hammond-Belfast: "A skipping game." - BS
File: Hamm011
===
NAME: My Cabin Home Among the Hills
DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of his cabin in the Virginia hills, where his "mammy" used to sing to him. His mother tells him she's going away "to another home way down in Tennessee." She promises to write, and to someday come home. She never does
AUTHOR: unknown (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Asa Martin)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness promise farewell home parting separation death slavery mother
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #17214
RECORDINGS:
Recordings: Asa Martin, "My Cabin Home Among the Hills" (Champion 16769, 1934; Champion 45067, 1935; rec. 1931; on KMM)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
NOTES: I included both the keywords "death" and "slavery", because the song is ambiguous: it doesn't make clear whether the singer's mother has died or been sold. I'd bet on the latter, though. - PJS
The counter-argument being that she promised to write, and most slaves were illiterate. Many states, in fact, made it illegal to teach slaves to read and write (though some managed to learn anyway). - RBW
File: RcMCHAtH
===
NAME: My Cabin in the Hills
DESCRIPTION: "Oh! please just one peep At my cabin in the hills Where the pine trees sway And the hound dogs bay To the notes of the whippoorwill." The singer wants to see Ma knitting Pa's socks and Pa tending his gun, and recalls the sounds of home
AUTHOR: Robert Louis Stevens?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad clothes hunting animal bird
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 173, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: This is the sort of thing that you feel you ought to know from somewhere else. But that's just because it's based on so many "home" themes; I can't find its like elsewhere. - RBW
File: ThBa173
===
NAME: My Charming Coleraine Lass
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a beautiful girl by the banks of the Bann. He asks her to come away with him. The sit by the river and talk. They set a wedding day and are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting river beauty marriage
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H616, p. 464-463, "My Charming Coleraine Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9460
File: HHH616
===
NAME: My Charming Kate O'Neill
DESCRIPTION: "The first place that I saw my love, 'twas on a summer's day, She was going to her father's as I passed Red Bay." The singer, a young sea captain, praises her beauty but must go away, for "there's another young man, she intends his bride to be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection marriage sailor travel
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H767, pp. 370-371, "My Charming Kate O'Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6886
NOTES: The notes to Henry/Huntington/Herrmann list no other versions of this song, and I can't recall any myself. But there are many lines reminiscent of "The Lowlands of Holland," and the meter is also similar. Sam Henry reports that this is about an actual girl "who captivated the hearts of young Glensmen eighty years ago" (i.e. c. 1855-1860). One wonder if the composer didn't take some inspiration from "The Lowland of Holland." - RBW
File: HHH767
===
NAME: My Charming Lass from the County Mayo
DESCRIPTION: "The daughters of Erin are famed the world over, For wit and for beauty and charms of their own," but the singer loves one girl from Mayo above all others. He praises her beauty extravagantly 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: beauty love
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 115, "My Charming Lass from the County Mayo" (1 text)
Roud #9581
File: Dean115
===
NAME: My Crime Blues
DESCRIPTION: Singer is on trial for murder, soon to be sentenced, but pleads his innocence. He calls for his lover to come for his trial, so that when he is condemned she can wipe his tears away. The jury finds him guilty; the judge sentences him to the electric chair
AUTHOR: Almost certainly Ed Bell
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, Ed Bell)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness accusation crime execution homicide law punishment trial death lover judge
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Barefoot Bill [Ed Bell] "My Crime Blues" (Columbia 14510-D, 1930; [1929]; on RoughWays1)
File: RcMyCrBl
===
NAME: My Dad's Dinner Pail
DESCRIPTION: "Preserve that old kettle so blackened and worn, It belonged to me Father before I was born." The singer recalls carrying the pail, and seeing his father; he is sure Father shared with those in need
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan (?) / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST_DATE: 1883 (from the musical Cordelia's Aspirations)
KEYWORDS: nonballad food father
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Canada
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 70, "My Dad's Dinner Pail" (1 text)
Roud #5257
NOTES: According to Sigmund Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 191, "Harrigan, Hart, and Braham [produced] perhaps their best show, _Cordelia's Aspirations_, [in] November, 1883. In it the Mulligans were almost disrupted bythe social climbing of Mrs. Mulligan, and Annie Yeamans, as Cordelia, had one of her greatest comedy scenes when she took a stiff drink under the impression it was poison. The best of the songs was My Dad's Dinner Pail...."
For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
File: Dean070A
===
NAME: My Dame's Crane
DESCRIPTION: "My dame had a lame tame crane. My dame had a crane that was lame. Pary, Mistress Jane, man my dame's lame tame crane Fly and re-turn again?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (Baring-Gould-MotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #755, p. 284, "(My dame hath a lame tame crane)"
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 233, "My Dame's Crane" (1 text)
DT, LAMECRN* LAMETAME*
Roud #13622
NOTES: Reported to have originated in England in the seventeenth century. - RBW
File: DTlamecr
===
NAME: My Dancing Day
DESCRIPTION: "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day, I would my true love did so chance To see the legend of my play To call my true love to my dance." The story of the life of Jesus is repeated, with each stage being a reason why the true love should come to the dance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1833 (Sandys)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus dancing
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
OBC 71, "My Dancing Day" (1 text, 2 tunes)
DT, DANCEDAY*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #90, "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" (1 text)
NOTES: It would appear that this song is known only from Sandys (I've heard of broadside copies, but have yet to see one that predates Sandys). It is thus arguable that it is not a folk song, and should not be included.
There are, however, strong hints that it is much earlier than Sandys; the _Oxford Book of Carols_ argues that it is from the sixteenth century or earlier, and Bradley in the _Penguin Book of Carols_ think it medieval. The latter claim rests on pretty slender evidence (Bradley argues that the third line about seeing "the legend of my play" implies an origin in one of the mystery play cycles, and cites a claim from the _New Oxford Book of Carols_ that it is resembles elements of Cornish play cycles of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries).
The evidence that it is old is, however, very strong -- the language sounds as if it predates Sandys, and the mention of the Harrowing of Hell hints at a date prior to the Anglican reformation. The _Oxford Book of Carols_ suggests that the original was secular (which seems not unlikely -- probably a dance song). This might well explain the mix of popular legend and learned theology ("Then I was born of a virgin pure, Of her I took fleshly substance" reminds me, at least, of the Christological controversies of the early church.)
The theme of calling one's love to a dance is probably from the secular source, but there are four New Testament uses of the Greek word _orcheomai_, "to dance": Matt. 11:17, 14:16, Mark 6:22, Luke 7:32. Two of these uses (Matt 14:6, Mark 6:22) refer to the daughter of Herodias dancing before Herod Antipas and clearly would not be the source for this imagery. But the other two refer to children or musicians calling out their friends/playmates to dance, making it a very relevant image for evangelism. (The English word "to dance" is also used in Luke 15:25, in the partying at the return of the prodigal son. this is somewhat less relevant, since the Greek word is _choros_, the song/dance of the Greek chorus -- but a reader of the English Bible would not know that).
The individual verses are more biblical; they also have strong ties to the creeds. In the references below, "NC" refers to the Nicene Creed (created by the church in stages starting at the Council of Nicaea in 325, though the final version had to await the Council of Chalcedon over a century later) while "AC" is the "Apostle's Creed" (which is certainly not Apostolic; it seems to come mostly from the Roman church, starting with Marcellus and Rufinus, and reached its final form in the eighth century; see Henry Bettenson, _Documents of the Christian Church_, second edition, Oxford, 1963.
"Then I was born of a virgin pure": AC; Matthew 1:18-25. (Luke also says that Mary was a virgin at her marriage, but does not explicitly state the idea of the virgin birth. Of course, the phrase "virgin pure" is sometimes taken to refer to the Immaculate Conception, and the notion that Mary herself was born of some sort of parthenogenesis, but there is no Biblical hint of this)
"Of her I took fleshly substance": John 1:14; NC; cf. Gal. 4:4
"In a manger laid and wrapped I was": Luke 2:7, 12, 16. There is no scriptural warrant for saying an ox and ass were present.
"Then afterward baptized I was, The Holy Ghost on me did glance": Matt. 3:16-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:22-23, John 1:29-34
"Into the desert I was led... The devil bad me make stones my bread": Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13
"The Jews... loved darkness rather than light": not an explicit quotation, but compare John 12:44-46, Matt 6:23; the treatment of Jesus as light is common.
"For thirty pence Judas me sold": According to Matthew 26:15, 27:3-9, Judas sold Jesus for "thirty of silver" (so literally, hence modern renderings "thirty pieces of silver"). That would be a lot more than thirty pence in today's money, but early silver pennies might have a value roughly comparable to the price paid to Judas. This is perhaps more evidence that the song is early.
"Mark whom I kiss": Matt 26:48-49, Mark 14:44-45, Luke 22:47-48.
"Before Pilate the Jews me brought": AC; NC; Matt. 27:1-2, Mark 15:1, Luke 23:1, John 18:28fff. It was in fact the high priests, not the Jewish population as a whole, who handed Jesus over (so all four Gospels, though John uses the word "Jews" in fairly close proximity to the description of Jesus being handed over to the Romans)
"Where Barabbas had deliverance": Matt 27:16-26, Mark 15;7-15, Luke 23:18, John 18:40
"Then on a cross hanged I was": Too many references to list; see e.g. Mark 15:25; AC; NC
"Where a spear to my side did glance": John 19:34
"There issued forth both water and blood": John 19:34. (The word used is perhaps best translated "lance-head"; sometimes used as a medical instrument)
"Then down to Hell I took my way": The Harrowing of Hell is non-Biblical. There is, in fact, no real Biblical explanation of what Jesus was doing during the roughly 36 hours between his death and resurrection. It is, however, mentioned in the Catholic texts of AC (the Methodists and some other denominations suppress this)
"And rose again on the third day": Again too many references to list; cf. e.g. Mark 16:6; AC; NC
"Then up to Heaven I did ascend": Acts 1:9-11; AC; NC. - RBW
File: OBC071
===
NAME: My Dark-Haired Maid from Cornaig: see Mo Nighean donn a Cornaig (File: K019)
===
NAME: My Darling Blue-Eyed Mary: see Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)
===
NAME: My Darling Ploughman Boy: see The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)
===
NAME: My Dear Irish Boy
DESCRIPTION: "My Connor, his cheeks are as ruddy as morning...." The girl describes her love. But "The wars are all over, and lonely I've waited, I fear that some envious plot has been laid." Though hope is almost lost, she wanders to look for her "dear Irish boy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(157))
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier rambling
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H142, p. 294, "My [The] Dear Irish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 57, "The Dear Irish Boy" (1 text)
Roud #1555
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(157), "Dear Irish Boy," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Harding B 11(1219), Harding B 11(819), Harding B 11(2269), Firth c.26(168), 2806 b.11(185), Harding B 26(121), "[The] Dear Irish Boy"
LOCSinging, as101620, "The Dear Irish Boy," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Dear Irish Maid
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging as101620: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: HHH142
===
NAME: My Dear Old Comrade Soldiers
DESCRIPTION: "My dear old comrade soldier of this our native shore, I'm glad to have the honor of greeting you once more." The singer recalls the difficult careers of soldiers, hopes for pensions, and prays that God inspire current leaders
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier reunion nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 89-91, "My Dear Old Comrade Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Civil War soldiers held reunions through the 1920s and even into the 1930s; this (not very good) piece presumably came out of one of those gatherings. - RBW
File: ThBa089
===
NAME: My Dear, I'm Bound for Canaday: see My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady (File: GrMa154)
===
NAME: My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady
DESCRIPTION: "My dear I'm bound for Canady; Love Sally we must part." Sally asks Willie to stay; "you'll find employment here" but he leaves St John's; he will marry her within three years. But the song ends "every honest decent young man Don't leave his girl behind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: love parting unemployment hardtimes Canada father mother betrayal
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 154, "My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady" (1 text)
Leach-Labrador 85, "Bound for Canada" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 82, "My Dear, I'm Bound for Canaday" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #4411
NOTES: To understand this song, it is important to recall that Newfoundland did not become part of Canada until after World War II. - RBW
File: GrMa154
===
NAME: My Dearest Dear
DESCRIPTION: "My dearest dear, the times draws near When I and you must part, And no one knows the inner grief Of my poor aching heart." The (girl) wishes that they could stay together; (s)he promises to love (him) till (s)he dies, and begs that he write to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love separation lyric nonballad parting
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions, of which #18, #20, and #22 perhaps go here)
Belden, pp. 484-486, "Banishment" (1 text)
Randolph 18, "Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?" (8 texts, 5 tunes; the "B," "D," "F," and "H" versions are of this sort) {F=Bronson's #18}; 760, "I Love You Well" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune) 
Davis-Ballads 21, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (of the various texts in the appendices, at least "G"  seems to belong here) {Bronson's #20}
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 314-317, "The Time Has Come, My Dearest Dear" (2 texts; 1 tune on p. 440)
Brewster 90, "The True Lover's Farewell" (1 text, which despite the title appears closer to this song than that)
SharpAp 77, "My Dearest Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 40, "My Dearest Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, p. 112, "When You and I Must Part" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 52-53, "Time Draws Near" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 108, "Winter's Night" (1 text, 1 tune, beginning with lyrics from this song but with final verses more characteristic of "The Storms Are on the Ocean")
Sandburg, pp. 126-127, "The Lover's Lament" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
DT, (REDREDR2)
Roud #3601
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
A-Roving on a Winter's Night
NOTES: This is basically a lyric piece assembled from all sorts of floating materials. The first two lines are characteristic; what follows can come from almost anywhere. Doc Watson sings a version which combines parts of this song (notably the verse "A-roving on a winter's night") with portions of "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose"  (see DT REDREDR2). - RBW
File: SKE40
===
NAME: My Emmet's No More
DESCRIPTION: "Despair in her wild eye, a daughter of Erin" played the harp and "sang Erin's woes and her Emmet no more." She accuses "tyrants and traitors" and the "proud titled villains" who cowered before him before they murdered him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor) ; beginning 19C (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution patriotic Ireland separation love
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 20, 1803 - Robert Emmet (1778-1803) is hanged
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
O'Conor, p. 143, "My Emmet's No More" (1 text)
Zimmermann 25, "My Emmet's No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 156, "My Emmet's No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(204b), "My Emmet's No More", unknown, n.d.; also 2806 b.10(16), "My Emmet's No More"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Robert Emmet" (subject) and references there
NOTES: For the sad background of this typically Irish story, see the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet." - RBW
File: OCon143A
===
NAME: My Fairey and My Forey: see Have You Any Bread and Wine (English Soldiers, Roman Soldiers) (File: Lins040)
===
NAME: My Faith Looks Up to Thee
DESCRIPTION: "My faith looks up to thee, Thou lamb of Calvary." "Oh let me from this day Be wholly thine." The singer asks for strength and guidance, and asks, "O bear me safe above."
AUTHOR: Words: Ray Palmer (1808-1887) / Music: Lowell Mason (1792-18720
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Methodist hymnal)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 100-102, "My Faith Looks Up To Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14038
File: CJns0100
===
NAME: My Faither Was Hung for Sheep-Stealing: see The Cobbler (File: R102)
===
NAME: My Far Down Cailin Ban
DESCRIPTION: Sean meets a lass who invites him "'longside the Cailin Ban" in her cart. She invites him in to meet her father and have tea. Her father falls asleep. He slips his arm around her waist. He has travelled over Erin's Isle and has never seen such a beauty
AUTHOR: Shaun O'Nolan (1871-1945) (source: Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1975 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting Ireland father beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 36, "My Far Down Cailin Ban" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5231
NOTES: Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan: The author was "described in his publicity as 'Shaun O'Nolan, The Wicklow Piper.' The protagonist is a piper named Sean going from Donegal to Tandagree. Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan: "Irish geography does not seem to have been a strong point with him, for when he wrote that couple in the ass and cart jog along from Donegal to Tandragee in County Armagh he can hardly have been aware that the distance involved is over ninety miles!" - BS
File: RcMFDCBa
===
NAME: My Father Gave Me
DESCRIPTION: "My father gave me when he was able A bowl, a bottle, a dish and a ladle, A bowl sir my father gave me" up to "... Twelve bowls, twelve bottles, twelve dishes, twelve ladles, eleven bowls ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: cumulative nonballad gift
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, p. 20, "My Father Gave Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1505
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Counting Song
A Bowl, a Bottle, a Dish and a Ladle
File: Pea020
===
NAME: My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold (Seven Long Years)
DESCRIPTION: "My father dear, so far from here, has given me good advice, He told me to quit my rambling ways And settle down for life." The rest of the family gives equally good advice. Father gives a lump of gold, but it cannot save the son from hell. Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: family father mother rambling loneliness poverty separation bequest lastwill
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Belden, pp. 259-260, "Prentice's Drinking Song" (1 text)
Randolph 834, "My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 102, "Seven Long Years" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3605
File: R834
===
NAME: My Father Gave Me an Acre of Ground: see The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)
===
NAME: My Father Had an Acre of Land
DESCRIPTION: "My father had an acre of land, Hey ho, sing ivy, My father had an acre of land, With a bunch of green holly and ivy." He farmed it in impossible ways: "plowed it with a team of rats," "rolled it with a rolling pin," "thrashed it with a hazel twig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1842
KEYWORDS: farming nonsense paradox
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Kennedy 300, "My Father Had an Acre of Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 51-78, "The Elfin Knight' (12 texts plus 3 fragments, not all from New England; 8 tunes; mostly of Child #2, but the "N" text, which has no tune, appears to be this song)
Opie-Oxford2 158, "My father left me three acres of land" (1 text)
Roud #12
RECORDINGS:
Bob & Ron Copper, "My Father Had an Acre of Land" (on FSB4)
Charlie Potter, "Sing Ivy" (on Voice14)
Tony Wales, "Sing Ivy" (on TWales1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Elfin Knight" [Child 2] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Team of Rats
Sing Ivy
Sing Ovy, Sing Ivy
NOTES: This song is sometimes listed as a variant of "The Elfin Knight" [Child 2], and in fact they share many ideas and some lyrics. However, the crucial element of "The Elfin Knight" is the dialog, whereas this is a song of impossible deeds. The should be kept separate. - RBW
File: K300
===
NAME: My Father Left Me Three Acres of Land: see My Father Had an Acre of Land (File: K300)
===
NAME: My Father Was a Gambler: see Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World) (File: R146)
===
NAME: My Father Was Born in Killlarney: see Don't Run Down the Irish (My Father Was Born in Killlarney) (File: MCB224)
===
NAME: My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me)
DESCRIPTION: "My father's a hedger and ditcher, my mother does nothing but spin, They say I'm a pretty young girl But the money comes slowly in." The girl laments, with variations on a theme, that "there's nobody coming to marry me, Nobody coming to woo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1806 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(39))
KEYWORDS: love courting oldmaid
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE) Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, p. 189, "Naebody Comin' to Marry Me" (1 text)
BrownII 185, "Nobody Coming to Marry Me" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 181, "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, both very mixed; "A" has the first verse of "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England,"; the second is "Me father is a hedger and ditcher, and the third and the chorus are from "The Cobbler"; the "B" text is also clearly mixed though the elements are less clear)
Roud #846
RECORDINGS:
Mary Ann Carolan, "My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher" (on Voice20)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(39), "Nobody Coming to Marry Me" ("Last night the dogs did bark"), Laurie and Whittle (London), 1806; also Harding B 25(1371)[many illegible words], "Nobody Coming to Marry Me"
NOTES: At first glance, the "Hedger and Ditcher" stanza (which is the first in Brown though not in  Ford) seems unrelated to the rest, but it seems likely to be a reference to the girl's inadequate dowry. There is every likelihood that this is a stage song; most of the (rather unhelpful) references in Brown are to printed and popular versions.
Roud lists many more versions, but many are of what I would consider separate songs (e.g. "My Father's a Lawyer in England," which often goes with "My God How the Money Rolls In").
It's just possible that there is a link to British politics in here somewhere. In the years around 1910, the Liberal government of H. H. Asquith was trying to pass a variety of reforms, and had them vetoed by the House of Lords. The Liberals eventually tried to pass a law restricting the veto power of the Lords. Which, naturally, the Lords vetoed.
Asquith tried various tricks. He called a general election on the issue, and won it -- barely. He tried to persuade the King (originally Edward VII, then George V after Edward's death) to appoint, or at least threaten to appoint, enough liberal peers to override the overwhelming conservative majority (probably at least 75%; some put it at 90%) in the Lords.
The Lords opposed to the reform measure were known as the "Ditchers," because they would die in the last ditch. Those willing to go along with the change were, for whatever reason, known as "Hedgers."
In the end, the reform law was passed by the Lords, very grudgingly. The large majority of the Lords did not attend (nothing unusual about that -- a quorum in the Lords was three peers, though the body had over 500 members). Over 100 Ditchers voted against. Fewer than 100 peers voluntarily voted for. 37 lords led by Lord Curzon, who opposed the bill, finally voted in favor -- better to lose the veto than dilute the Lords. The final vote was 131 to 114.
It had taken two years, and it brought down Unionist (conservative) leader Arthur Balfour, who had been strangely quiet the whole time -- a critic of the period might well have said he "does nothing but spin."
I don't really think the two are connected, but it *is* an interesting parallel. For more on the whole incident, see "Home Rule for Ireland" and "A Loyal Song Against Home Rule"; also Robert K. Massie, _Dreadnought_, pp. 640-662 -- the chapter entited "The Budget and the House of Lords." - RBW
The broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(39) notes: "(Intended as a Companion to the second appearance of Miss Bailey's Ghost, Just Published) Sung by Mrs Jordan, with Unbounded Applause at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane." That "No rest in the grave: or The second appearance of Miss Bailey's ghost" is a parody of "Nobody Coming to Marry Me" : "Nobody coming to bury me," etc. [the latter found in Bodleian Harding B 17(219a) - RBW] - BS
File: BrII185
===
NAME: My Father's Gone to View That Land
DESCRIPTION: "My father's gone to view that land, To view that land, to view that land, My father's gone to view that land, To sing that cheering song." "It takes a saint to view that land." "My (mother/brother/sister/children/neighbor)'s gone to view that land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuson, p. 209, "Our Father's Gone to View That Land" (1 text)
ST Fus209 (Partial)
Roud #13937
File: Fus209
===
NAME: My Father's Gray Mare: see The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)
===
NAME: My Father's Old Sou'wester
DESCRIPTION: "My father's old sou'wester He wore in days gone by ... Those happy days of old." "When I was but a lad" my father wore his old hat wherever he went.  When he died he said "Go take that old sou'wester hat And wear it for my sake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955 (Doyle)
KEYWORDS: death lastwill fishing sea hunting work nonballad father clothes
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Doyle3, pp. 42-43, "My Father's Old Sou'wester" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 118, "Old Southwester" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 57, "My Father's Old Sou' Wester" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SOUWESTR*
Roud #4422
File: Doyl3042
===
NAME: My Father's Servant Boy [Laws M11]
DESCRIPTION: The girl's father plans to have her marry a gentleman. She chooses instead to flee with her sweetheart. They find a captain who will bring them to America, and are supported by an Irishman till the boy can find a job. Despite poverty, the girl is happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage emigration poverty
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws M11, "My Father's Servant Boy"
SHenry H198, pp. 481-482, "My Father's Servant Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 78, "My Father's Servant Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 39, "My Father's Servant Boy" (1 text)
DT 578, SERVNTBY
Roud #1910
RECORDINGS:
Maggie Murphy, "My Father's Serving Boy" (on IRHardySons)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 238, "The Servant Boy" ("You lovers all both great and small attend unto my theme"), J. Catnach (London) , 1813-1838; also Firth c.18(207), Harding B 11(2595), Harding B 11(3453), Harding B 25(1752), Harding B 11(1471), "The Servant Boy"; Harding B 11(2998), "Answer to the Philadelphia Lass"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "You Lovers All" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Mullinabrone" (plot)
NOTES: The broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2998), "Answer to the Philadelphia Lass," W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), c.1840 is on the same sheet as "Philadelphia Lass" ("It was on a summer's morning, all in the month of May"), another title for "Mary in Search of Her Lover"; that packaging makes it seem, to me, unlikely that our ballad was ever known elsewhere as "Answer to ...." On the other hand "Philadelphia Lass" may have been in tradition by that title 
[see: Bodleian, Harding B 11(4257), "Mary in Search of her Lover," W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle) , 1832-1842; also Firth c.13(233), "Mary in Search of her Lover"; Harding B 11(2997), Harding B 11(2998), "[The] Philadelphia Lass" ] - BS
File: LM11
===
NAME: My Fine Sailor Boy: see The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)
===
NAME: My First and Last Courtship: see I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)
===
NAME: My Flora and I: see Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)
===
NAME: My Flora and Me: see Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)
===
NAME: My Foot Is in the Stirrup
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells Molly he is going to find a new girlfriend (in rather more coarse language), promising he will do his "plowing in some cleaner, greener land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy parting
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, p. 275, "My Foot Is in the Stirrup" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh Lily, Dear Lily"
cf. "Old Paint"
cf. "Sweet Willie"
cf. "The False Lover Won Back" [Child 218]
File: RL275
===
NAME: My Friends and Relations
DESCRIPTION: "My friends and relations they live in the nations,They know not where their cowboy has gone." The poor cowboy "might have lived long in this world... If my cruel friends could have left me alone." But now he wanders the world
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Coolidge, "Texas Cowboys")
KEYWORDS: cowboy rambling exile separation family
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 2, "My Friends and Relations" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16240?
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, floating lyrics) and references there
File: Ohr002
===
NAME: My Gallant Brigantine: see The Gallant Brigantine [Laws D25] (File: LD25)
===
NAME: My Generous Lover
DESCRIPTION: False Jimmy deceives an innocent young woman into yielding to him; she says, "My generous lover, you're welcome to me", but the generosity is all hers. She leaves her home; he leaves the country, telling her not to allow any other to love her; she regrets
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1960 (recording, A. L. Lloyd)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness seduction sex abandonment lover
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 225-227, "The First Time I Saw My Love" (1 text)
ST RcMGL (Full)
Roud #1996
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "My Generous Lover" (on Lloyd1)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Pretty Peggy
NOTES: The alternate title "Pretty Peggy" should not be confused with "Pretty Peggy-O", a version of "Bonnie Lass of Fyvie". The young woman's name does not appear in this song. - PJS
Huntington's version of this (Roud #1996, for which he currently lists only this song) has a rather simplified plot, in which the man's faithlessness is not clear and the sexual element is very muted (I didn't see it until Paul's description brought it out). I tie the two versions together based on the key line "My generous lover, you're welcome to me."
Huntington says he has not seen any other versions in print, and I must admit that I haven't seen any either. Huntington is reminded of "Logie o Buchan," and I get the same feeling. But they are definitely separate songs.
A point of interpretation: I believe the key line "you're welcome to me" does not mean "let's do something dirty" but "you will always be welcome home to me, whatever my family thinks of you." - RBW
I don't agree; the context makes the offer explicitly sexual. Not something dirty; she's offering her heart and body in sexual love, and he proves unworthy of the offer. - PJS
File: RcMGL
===
NAME: My Gentle Colleen Bawn
DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Colleen Bawn for 16 months. He is rich and "her friends all kindly welcomed me" He loses his money and is told "They'd forced my own colleen to wed An old man for his gold" He asks why "in our own dear land ... They wed for money"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting marriage money
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 24, "My Gentle Colleen Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4391
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.7(21), "Tipperary Mans Courtship ," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867 ; also 2806 b.9(7), "For 16 Months I Courted Her"
LOCSinging, as113780, "Tipperary Mans Courtship," unknown, 19C; also as104070, "For 16 Months I Courted Her" 
NOTES: Broadsides LOCSinging as113780 and Bodleian 2806 c.7(21) are duplicates, [as are] LOCSinging as104070 and Bodleian 2806 b.9(7). - BS
File: OLcM024
===
NAME: My Geordie O, My Geordie O: see Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)
===
NAME: My Girl from Donegal
DESCRIPTION: The singer is setting out for America. He tells those around him of his parting from beautiful Aileen Oge, with whom none can compare. He wishes he could stay, but no money is to be had. When he becomes rich, he will marry Aileen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration love separation beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H4, pp. 190-191, "My Girl from Donegal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13547
File: HHH004
===
NAME: My Girl's from USC
DESCRIPTION: Various stanzas about how the singer's girl, whose college or fraternity is usually identified, satisfies the singer. Example: "My girl's from USC, She fights for chastity, Fights ev'ryone but me, I love her so."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: courting sex bawdy
FOUND_IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cray, pp. 357-359, "My Girl's from USC" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #10402
File: EM357
===
NAME: My God, How the Money Rolls In
DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, "My God" describes the various illegal or dubious occupations of family members, e.g. "My sister she works in a (cathouse/laundry), My father makes synthetic gin, My mother she takes in washing, My God, how the money rolls in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous family
FOUND_IN: Australia Canada Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Cray, pp. 107-109 (related songs to p. 114), "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 381, "My Sister She Works in a Laundry" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 68, "Me Father's a Lawyer in England" (1 text, 1 tune -- seemingly a composite text with a different chorus and some floating verses, e.g. from "The Cobbler")
Gardner/Chickering 181, "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, both very mixed; "A" has the first verse of "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England,"; the second is "Me father is a hedger and ditcher, and the third and the chorus are from "The Cobbler"; the "B" text is also clearly mixed though the elements are less clear)
Silber-FSWB, p. 31, "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (1 text)
DT, MYGODHOW MYGOD* (MONTSARG*)
Roud #10143
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (tune) and references there
cf. "Please, Don't Burn Our Shithouse Down"
cf. "The Cobbler"
cf. "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (words)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Poor Tailor's High Relations
NOTES: This is one of the most commonly found of bawdy songs, virtually ubiquitous in the English-speaking world. - EC
On the off chance you didn't know, the tune is "My Bonnie." And I've even heard clean versions.
It's possible that "Me Father's a Lawyer in England" is a separate song, or at least a separate subtext -- but the versions I've seen are mixed enough that splitting them based on a single key line seemed rather extreme. - RBW
File: EM107
===
NAME: My Good Old Man
DESCRIPTION: Wife asks husband where he is going. He says, grumpily,"Out" (or the like). She asks about supper. He: Eggs. She: How many? He: A bushel. She: They'll kill you. He: Then I'll haunt you. She: You can't haunt a haunt
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: dialog wife husband shrewishness hardtimes ghost
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Randolph 426, "The Best Old Feller in the World" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 325-327, "The Best Old Feller in the World" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 426A)
BrownII 191, "The Good Old Man" (2 texts)
SharpAp 230, "The Good Old Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 12-14, "[My Good Old Man]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 88 "Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme (The Old Drunkard and His Wife)" (1 text, in French with English translation, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 344, "Where Are You Going, My Good Old Man" (1 text)
Kennedy 64, "Yr Hen wr Mwyn [The Gentle Old Man]" (1 text in Welsh + translation, 1 tune)
DT, GDOLDMAN
Roud #240
RECORDINGS:
Cleoma Breaux & Joseph Falcon, "Le Vieux Soulard et sa Femme" [in Cajun French] (Columbia 14301D, 1928; on AAFM3)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Tam Buie (Tam Bo, Magherafelt Hiring Fair)" (form)
NOTES: The plot of this song varies widely, as does the final line ("My good old man," "The meanest man in the world," "The best old fellow in the world," "Best Old Soul in the World"). But the format is constant: First the wife asks a long, involved question, e.g. 
Where are you going, my good old man?
Where are you going, my honey, lovey dove?
Where are you going, my good old man?
Best old man in the world.
Then the man replies (spoken, not sung) in the shortest set of monosyllables possible.
The final element, about the ghost, disappears in many versions.
Kennedy's Welsh text doesn't look that much like the English versions to me, at least in terms of plot; it may be an analog rather than a version of the same song. But it's filed here rather than include it in a separate entry, which it does not deserve in an English-language index. - RBW
File: R426
===
NAME: My Good-Looking Man
DESCRIPTION: The singer warns other girls against good-looking men. When young, she saw a good-looking man and set about to marry him. Now she sees him with another woman. When he claims to have been in church, she beats him until he flees
AUTHOR: John Morgan ?
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1368))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage infidelity abuse
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
FSCatskills 42, "My Good-Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 182, "My Good-Lookin' Man" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 302-303, "My Good-Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 30, "Good Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 83, "My Good Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 7, "My Good-Looking Man" (1 text)
DT, GOODLOOK*
Roud #3340
RECORDINGS:
Nonie Lynch, "My Good Looking Man" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1368), "The Good Looking Man," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
SAME_TUNE:
Nice Young Girl (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1368))
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1368) has the author as J. Morgan. - BS
File: FSC42
===
NAME: My Grandfather Died: see The Swapping Boy (File: E093)
===
NAME: My Grandfather's Clock: see Grandfather's Clock (File: RJ19076)
===
NAME: My Grandfather's Cock
DESCRIPTION: An ode to Grandfather's amazing sexual equipment.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: death bawdy
FOUND_IN: US(SW) Britain Australia
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cray, pp. 270-271, "My Grandfather's Cock" (2 fragments)
DT, GRANDCCK*
File: EM270
===
NAME: My Grandma's Advice: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: My Grandmother: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: My Grandmother Lived on  Yonder Green: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: My Grandmother Lived on Yonder Little Green: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: My Grandmother's Advice: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: My Grandmother's Chair: see Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)
===
NAME: My Gray Haired Irish Mother
DESCRIPTION: Barney thinks of his childhood in Ireland and how blessed him when he left. He imagines her sorrow: "Your old Irish mother is waiting for you And when friends and companions will turn and desert you There's a place Barney darling at the old home for you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #2617)
KEYWORDS: homesickness separation Ireland nonballad mother home
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
John McGettigan and his Irish Minstrels, "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" (on USBallinsloeFair)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "There's No One Like Mother to Me"
NOTES: "There's No One Like Mother to Me" and "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" are clearly related but clearly distinct. The question is: which is the original and which the derivative? 
The tunes are closely related though the rests in "There's No One Like Mother To Me" are filled with text in "My Gray Haired Irish Mother."
The theme of both songs is: an expatriot remembers his childhood in a "cottage far over the sea" and recalls especially the mother that blessed him with tears on her cheeks.
"There's No One Like Mother to Me" has two verses and a chorus. "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" has five verses and no chorus.
Here is the first verse of "There's No One Like Mother to Me"
Sadly I'm thinking tonight
Thinking of days long gone by
Memories of childhood so bright
Come back like a dream with a sigh
I'm thinking of friends and of home
In that cottage far over the sea
Oh no matter where-ever I roam
There is no one like mother to me.
and the first two verses of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother"
How sadly I'm thinking tonight of my sire-land
Thinking of scenes and of days long gone by.
Memories of childhood so bright and so airy
Come rushing back to me with many's a sigh
I'm thinking of one whom I left far behind me
In that little thatched cottage far over the sea
Oh the one only cried Barney every noon and morning
Darling won't you come back to me.
The pattern is repeated in the remaining verse of "There's No One Like Mother to Me" and the third and fourth verses of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother."
We have sheet music dated 1885 for "There's No One Like Mother to Me" (LOCSheet sm1885 25967, by Gussie L Davis). The version recorded in 1936 by The Carter Family is almost identical to that original (source: _Country Music Sources_ by Guthrie T Meade Jr, p. 324; the Bluegrass Lyrics site)
The John McGettigan recording of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" in 1929 demonstrates that the songs co-existed. - BS 
File: RcMGHIM
===
NAME: My Handsome Gilderoy: see Gilderoy (File: RL040)
===
NAME: My Handsome Sailor Boy
DESCRIPTION: "As I roved out one evening down Water street I took my way." Mary Jane hopes to meet MacDonald, her true love, but is told he's gone to Halifax "for money." Her mother and father tell her to forget MacDonald but she will go to Halifax to be his bride.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting separation sea father lover mother
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 566-567, "My Handsome Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea566 (Partial)
Roud #9795
NOTES: Peacock says "Despite the fact that Mary Jane roves down Water Street in St John's (or Halifax) and MacDonald lives in Halifax, this song does not seem to me to be of Canadian origin. It is probably a British song with Canadian referents." Water Street is hardly a street name found only in Halifax or St John's - BS
File: Pea566
===
NAME: My Happy Little Home in Arkansas
DESCRIPTION: "'Tis a pretty little cottage where the grass is ever green... Come and see me, neighbors, come today... 'Tis the finest country found, I will show you all around In my happy little home in Arkansas." Praises of the farming conditions in Arkansas
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Stockard, History of Lawrence, Jackson, Independence, and Stone Counties, Arkansas)
KEYWORDS: home farming
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 868, "My Happy Little Home in Arkansas" (1 text)
Roud #7537
File: R868
===
NAME: My Harding County Home
DESCRIPTION: "Not so many years ago I left old Buffalo, The place that I have always loved the best.... I'm yearning today For my Harding County home out in the west. The singer recalls the beauties of home; "As I wander down Broadway," he hears a coyote call him home
AUTHOR: Tex Fletcher
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (recording, Tex Fletcher)
KEYWORDS: home travel
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 67, "My Harding County Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Tex Fletcher, "My Harding County Home" (Flint 1782, 1948)
NOTES: "Buffalo" here refers not to the city in New York State but to the county seat of Harding County, South Dakota.
Although this began life as a commercial recording, it does have some oral tradition behind it; the author's son tells me of a "kitchen table" recording he has of his father singing it. - RBW
File: Ohr067
===
NAME: My Heart's Tonight in Texas [Laws B23]
DESCRIPTION: A rancher's daughter and her lover must part; the girl's father is sending her to England in hopes that she will marry a nobleman. Eventually an earl proposes to her, but she will marry none but her Texas Jack
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: separation love
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Laws B23, "My Heart's Tonight in Texas (By the Silvery Rio Grande; Texas Jack)"
DT 841, HRTEXAS*
Roud #635
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
By the Silvery Rio Grande
Texas Jack
NOTES: A piece called "Down by the Silvery Rio Grande" was published in 1913 as by Dave Weisberg, R. F. Roden, and Charles Speidel. I have not seen it. - RBW
File: LB23
===
NAME: My Home in Fermoy
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "those bright golden hours I spent long ago in my home in Fermoy" "far away o'er the wide spreading ocean": school, the Blackwater, Castlehyde, and the Angelus bells. He hopes to return but knows that many he left behind have died.
AUTHOR: Kate Dowling (source: OCanainn)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (according to OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: home travel return Ireland nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OCanainn, pp. 104-105, "My Home in Fermoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OCan104
===
NAME: My Home in Sweet Glenlea
DESCRIPTION: Singer travels to South Africa, Hindustan, Java, and Palestine, thinking all the time "the fairest was Glenlea." After an earthquake in San Francisco, he writes home for money. He returned, is met by a great crowd, marriess and lives happily in Glenlea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: parting travel return marriage Africa America India Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OCanainn, pp. 62-65, "My Home in Sweet Glenlea" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OCanainn: "[The singer] thinks it was written by a man called Cronin, who probably never ventured further from home than an occasional trip to Macroom." - BS
Presumablly shortly after the 1906 San Francicso earthquake. Such a late date also has the advantage that the singer would have heard of some of those places. The mention of South Africa might have been suggested by the Boer War. - RBW
File: OCan062
===
NAME: My Home Is on the Mountain
DESCRIPTION: The singer expresses a hope and a prayer to be reunited with mother: "I want to see my mother, O can't you call her here? / It wouldn't seem so hard to die to have my mother near...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: religious reunion death
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
FSCatskills 78, "My Home Is on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC078 (Partial)
NOTES: Cazden et al know of no other collections of this lyric, although the melody is similar to the familiar hymn tunes "Imandra" and "Milton."
They file the piece among "religious songs," but it feels a bit like a Civil War "dying soldier boy" song. - RBW
File: FSC078
===
NAME: My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains
DESCRIPTION: "I'm going back to North Carolina (x3), I never expect to see you any more." Repeat with "I'm going to leave here Monday morning," "How can I ever keep from crying," "I'm going across the Blue Ridge Mountains."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (JAFL)
KEYWORDS: love home separation farewell nonballad parting
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Warner 124, "I'm Goin' Back to North Carolina" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 42, "My Home's Across The Smokey Mountains" (1 text)
BrownIII 278, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (1 text plus a fragment)
DT, HOMSMOK
ST Wa124 (Full)
Roud #7686
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, Garley Foster, Dock Walsh & Doc Watson, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Frank Bode, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (on FBode1)
Carolina Tar Heels, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Victor V-40100, 1929)
Carter Family, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Decca 5532, 1938/Decca X2184, n.d.)
Delmore Brothers, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Bluebird B-8247, 1939)
Kelly Harrell, "I'm Going Back to North Carolina" (OKeh 40505, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (AAFS 3155 B2) 
Poplin Family, "My Home Is Not In South Carolina" (on Poplin01)
Pete Seeger, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (on PeteSeeger25)
Arthur Smith, "Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Bluebird B-7221, 1937)
Jack Wallin, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (on Wallins1)
File: Wa124
===
NAME: My Home's Across the Smokey Mountains: see My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (File: Wa124)
===
NAME: My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains: see My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (File: Wa124)
===
NAME: My Home's in Montana
DESCRIPTION: "My home's in Montana, I wear a bandana, My spurs are of silver, my pony is gray. While riding the ranges my luck never changes, With my foot in the stirrup I gallop for aye." The cowboy sketches the life of a horseman following cattle in the wilderness
AUTHOR: Words: Christine Turner Curtis (?)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 ("Singing Days" series)
KEYWORDS: work cowboy nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Ohrlin-HBT 1, "My Home's in Montana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 247, "My Home's in Montana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 30-31, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, with four verses that are clearly "Streets of Laredo" but an opening that is "My Home's in Montana")
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "The Unfortunate Rake" (tune, floating lyrics)
NOTES: This was apparently composed (based on elements of "The Streets of Laredo") as a cowboy song suitable for young people. There are reports of versions from Montana, possibly unprintable. See the notes in Ohrlin for the background.
Larkin's text may be a "missing link": It's largely "Streets of Laredo," but it starts with the "home in Montana" half-verse. - RBW
File: Ohr001
===
NAME: My Horses Ain't Hungry: see The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)
===
NAME: My Husband's a Mason
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how her (husband/father/boyfriend) works all day at his trade and then comes home and plies his trade upon her, e.g. "My husband's a mason... All day he lays bricks... At night he comes home and lays me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1949
KEYWORDS: work sex bawdy incest
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cray, pp. 55-61, "My Husband's a Mason" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Used to Work in Chicago" (theme)
NOTES: In some of Cray's versions the final sexual act ("lays me/screws me/drives me/etc.") is replaced by the euphemism "drinks tea." One wonders what peculiar impulse drove anyone to sing such an explicit song and then use such a silly euphemism.
Although Cray's versions are all modern, he traces the device back to the 1707 edition of _Pills to Purge Melancholy_. - RBW
Why would anyone sing the euphemistic version, Bob asks? Because in the right company, it's even funnier when the listeners make the connection themselves. - PJS
File: EM055
===
NAME: My Husband's Got No Courage in Him
DESCRIPTION: (Two women meet); one laments, "(My) husband's got no courage in him." She describes all she has done to encourage his "courage," but all attempts have failed. (Even now she still has her maidenhead.) (She hopes he dies so she can find another)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1701 (broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(053))
KEYWORDS: wife husband sex disability
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Kennedy 213, "Rue the Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 171, "The Husband With No Courage In Him" (1 text)
BBI, ZN2114, "Of late it was my chance to walke"
DT, NOCOURAG* NOUCOURG2
Roud #870
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(053), "My Husband Has No Courage In Him," unknown, 1701
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids, When You're Young"
cf. "What Can a Young Lassie"
cf. "The Jolly Barber Lad" (theme)
cf. "The Old Man from Over the Sea"
File: K213
===
NAME: My Irish Jaunting Car (The Irish Boy)
DESCRIPTION: "I'm Larry McHugh, a boy so true, I belong to the Emerald Isle." He tells how the girls "Think it a trate to take a seat and be drove in my jaunting car." He offers rides to all, and guidance on the best places to buy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: technology travel nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H592, p. 41, "My Irish Jaunting Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13464
NOTES: Not to be confused with the much more common "The Irish Jaunting Car." - RBW
File: HHH592
===
NAME: My Irish Molly-O
DESCRIPTION: The singer, (a Scotsman,) is in love with Molly. Her parents oppose the match (because he is not Catholic). Unable to win his love, he is ready to die (and makes preparations for burial). (Common versions often lose the plot, and simply speak of courting)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1842 (Joyce, The Native Music of Ireland)
KEYWORDS: love separation death courting
FOUND_IN: US(MA) Ireland Australia Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Ord, p. 131, "Irish Molly, O" (1 text)
FSCatskills 62, "My Irish Molly-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 177-178, "Irish Molly-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 52, "Irish Molly O" (1 text)
DT, IRSHMOLL*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 214-215, "Irish Molly"
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 186-187, 512, "Irish Molly"
Roud #2168
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1787), "Irish Molly, O!" ("As I walk'd out one morning all in the month of May"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(2121), Firth b.28(35) View 2 of 2[some words illegible], Johnson Ballads fol. 114, Harding B 11(4209), Harding B 17(140b), Johnson Ballads 2582, Firth c.26(181), Harding B 20(257), Firth c.26(137), 2806 c.15(243), Firth c.14(204), 2806 b.11(252), "Irish Molly, O[!]"; Johnson Ballads 340, "Irish Molly!"
LOCSinging, as106290, "Irish Molly, O," Harris (Philadelphia), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(006), "Irish Molly, O," James Kay (Glasgow), c. 1845; also L.C.178.A.2(256), "Irish Molly O," unknown, c. 1860
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Often Think of Writing Home" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
The Lass of Swansea Town (Swansea Barracks) (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2071) )
I Often Think of Writing Home (File: RcIOTOWH)
File: FSC062
===
NAME: My Irish Polly: see The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)
===
NAME: My Johnny
DESCRIPTION: Basically a lament for Johnny, who apparently died and was buried at sea. "We're homeward bound today ... We'll drink and play (etc) but always think of Johnny" Chorus: "In the middle of the sea, my boy is floating free, so far away from me, my love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Richard Runciman Terry, _The Shanty Book_)
KEYWORDS: foc's'le shanty lament farewell
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 539-540, "My Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Rather slow and sentimental for a shanty, but Terry's source said it was used at the capstan. - SL
File: Hugi539
===
NAME: My Johnny Was a Shoemaker
DESCRIPTION: "My Johnny was a shoemaker But now he's gone to sea." He will be a captain "Of a bold and galliant crew And then across the sea he'll roam All for to marry me ... And when I am a captain's wife I'll sing the whole day long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging as202550)
KEYWORDS: courting separation sailor nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 44, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOHNSHOE
Roud #1388
RECORDINGS:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(366), "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Harding B 18(670), "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker"
LOCSinging, as202550, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb20295b, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker"
NOTES: Broadsides LOCSinging as202550 and Bodleian Harding B 18(366) are duplicates. 
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20295b and Bodleian Harding B 18(670) are duplicates.
The description is from broadside LOCSinging as202550.
Broadside LOCSinging as202550 and Bodleian Harding B 18(366): H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OLcM044
===
NAME: My Jolly Shantyboy
DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a girl praising her shantyboy and lamenting that her parents dislike him. She is advised to marry a drygoods clerk rather than "throw herself away." But "If I had my will I'd love him still, my jolly shantyboy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: love logger mother father separation
FOUND_IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke-Lumbering #55, "My Jollu Shantyboy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #4383
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Laboring Boy" [Laws M14] (tune, theme)
NOTES: Fowke considers this a reworking of "The Bonny Laboring Boy" [Laws M14], and this is nearly certain; it's absolutely certain that it's derived from a song of that type. I thought about lumping them, as I did with "The Railroad Boy." But this song is so defective (only two stanzas) that we cannot tell its final outcome; I think it has to remain separate until we find a version with an ending. - RBW
File: FowL55
===
NAME: My Laddie Sits Ower Late Up
DESCRIPTION: "My laddie sits ower late up, My  hinny sits ower late up.... Betwixt the pint pot and the cup." The singer calls Johnny home to his bairn, lamenting the money he wastes: "When I cry out, 'Laddie, cum hame,' He calls oot again for mair beer."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: home drink wife husband
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, p. 192, "My Laddie Sits Ower Late Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR192 (Full)
Roud #3181
File: StoR192
===
NAME: My Lagan Love
DESCRIPTION: "Where Lagan stream sings lullaby, There blows a lily fair." The singer admits the girl "has my heart in thrall. No life I own, nor liberty, For love is lord of all." The singer recalls the girl's life in the bogs and her sweet songs
AUTHOR: Joseph Campbell
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (recording, John McCormack)
KEYWORDS: love beauty courting nonballad bug music
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, LAGANLUV*
Roud #1418
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "My Lagan Love" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wake of William Orr" (tune)
NOTES: According to the notes on IRMBarry-Fairs, this art song entered the traditional repertoire (to the extent it did) as a result of a pop recording by John McCormack in 1910. - RBW
File: DTlaganl
===
NAME: My Last Farewell to Stirling
DESCRIPTION: The convict bitterly prepares to leave Stirling for Van Dieman's Land. He laments the pheasants he will not disturb, the rabbits he cannot hunt. He bids farewell to his (Jeannie), and hopes she will find another love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: love separation transportation hunting poaching
FOUND_IN: Australia Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Manifold-PASB, p. 23, "My Last Farewell to Stirling" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FAREWLST
Roud #5160
File: PASB023
===
NAME: My Last Gold Dollar
DESCRIPTION: "My last (gold/ole) dollar is gone (x2), My whiskey bill is due an' my board bill too...." "Oh darling, I'm crazy about you... and another girl too..." "Oh darling, won't you go my bail?..." "Oh darling, six months ain't too long...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (American Mountain Songs)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes prison courting drink
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Randolph 671, "My Last Gold Dollar" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 381-382, "My Last Gold Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 671A)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 112, "My Last Gold Dollar" (1 single-stanza fragment)
Lomax-FSNA 149, "My Last Ole Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 130-131, "My Last Old Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDOLLAR*
Roud #4310
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "The Last Gold Dollar" (on BLLunsford01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (floating lyrics)
cf. "New River Train" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Six Months Ain't Long" (lyrics)
NOTES: We might note that the line "last gold dollar" had a slightly different meaning in the nineteenth century. During the Civil War, the Union government issued both gold-backed and unbacked ("greenback") dollars. The greenbacks were, not surprisingly, treated with less respect and discounted. A man who spend his last gold dollar might still have money -- but only the less valuable greenbacks.
Of course, since the song is often sung "My last OLD dollar," that may be just a bit of excessive historical analysis. - RBW
File: R671
===
NAME: My Last Ol' Dollar: see My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)
===
NAME: My Last Old Dollar: see My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)
===
NAME: My Last Ole Dollar: see My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)
===
NAME: My Li'l John Henry: see Little John Henry (File: LoF300)
===
NAME: My Little Dear, So Fare You Well: see Farewell, Sweetheart (The Parting Lovers, The Slighted Sweetheart) (File: R756)
===
NAME: My Little Four-Leaf Shamrock from Glenore, The: see The Shamrock from Glenore (File: HHH034)
===
NAME: My Little German Home Across the Sea
DESCRIPTION: "How I love to think about the days so full of joy and glee, But they never will come back again to me." The singer recalls home and family in Germany, but now mother and father are dead and he cannot return home. He wishes he could
AUTHOR: George S. Knight ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915 (Pound); reportedly copyrighted 1877
KEYWORDS: home Germany family mother father separation emigration
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 870, "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 536-538, "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 870A)
Rorrer, p. 91, "I Left My German Home" (1 text)
Roud #7429
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "I Left My German Home" (No known Columbia release; recorded 1930)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (Edison 51909, 1927)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
NOTES: This piece is probably based on Will S. Hays's "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane;" it uses the same melody for the verse, although the chorus is missing. "Log Cabin" of course gave us an assortment of other parodies, including "The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim." - RBW
File: R870
===
NAME: My Little One's Waiting for Me
DESCRIPTION: "In the dell where the brook's gently flowing, On the bench by the old willow tree... My little one's waiting for me." The singer describes how he happily goes home from work (or wherever) to home and the "little one"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love home nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 850, "My Little One's Waiting for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7450
File: R850
===
NAME: My Little Organ Grinder: see The Organ Grinder (File: EM341)
===
NAME: My Little Yaller Coon
DESCRIPTION: "My little yaller coon Done got back here so soon, Dat I ain't yet got De big fat coon For de 'tater an' de pone, To eat in de light of de moon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food animal
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 179, (no title) (1fragment)
NOTES: Scarborough considers this a song about eating raccoons. Given the coon's diet, I rather doubt it was ever considered a delicacy; I wonder if there isn't something else going on here. - RBW
File: ScaNF179
===
NAME: My Lone Rock by the Sea
DESCRIPTION: "Oh tell me not the woods are fair Now spring is on the way." The singer admits the beauty of the land, "But ask me, woo me not to leave My lone rock by the sea." He describes the beauties of life by the shore
AUTHOR: Charlie C. Converse
EARLIEST_DATE: 1857 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: home sea nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 842, "My Lone Rock by the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7447
NOTES: According to Spaeth, this tune later supplied part of the melody for "Aloha Oe." And Randolph's source noted its connection to "these fool 'Hawaiian' songs." - RBW
File: R842
===
NAME: My Long Journey Home: see Two Dollar Bill (Long Journey Home) (File: CSW177)
===
NAME: My Lord 'Size
DESCRIPTION: "The jailor for trial had brought up a thief" as lawyers look for work and gawkers look for sensation -- when the notice the body of Lord 'Size. Witnesses are sought and questioned. The jury is trying to reach a verdict when the body comes to life 
AUTHOR: Words: John Shield
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: humorous trial judge lawyer
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 142-144, "My Lord 'Size" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3164
NOTES: According to Stokoe, this "is commemorative of an unlucky accident that actually occurred to one of Her Majesty's Judges of Assize, Baron Graham, about the year 1810." Though, in 1810, the King was George III and it wouldn't have been Her Majesty's Judge....
The whole thing reminds me very much of the Barrister's Dream in _The Hunting of the Snark_, though such courtroom jokes are common in English literature (see, e.g., _The Pickwick Papers_). - RBW
File: StoR142
===
NAME: My Lord Knows the Way
DESCRIPTION: "My Lord knows the way through the wilderness -- all I have to do is follow (x2). Strength for today is mine all the way, and all I need for tomorrow; My Lord knows...."
AUTHOR: Sidney E. Cox
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
FSCatskills 81, "My Lord Knows the Way" (2 texts, tune under #80; sung as a medley with #80, "Heavenly Sunlight (Heavenly Sunshine)")
ST FSC081 (Full)
File: FSC081
===
NAME: My Lord, What a Morning: see When the Stars Begin to Fall (File: LoF237)
===
NAME: My Lord, What a Mourning: see When the Stars Begin to Fall (File: LoF237)
===
NAME: My Love is a Rider: see The Bucking Broncho (The Broncho Buster) [Laws B15] (File: LB15)
===
NAME: My Love Is Like a Dewdrop: see Farewell He (File: FSC41)
===
NAME: My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose
DESCRIPTION: "My love is like a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June, My love is like a melody that's sweetly sprung in June." The singer promises to love "Till all the seas gang dry" and return to his love though his voyage takes him "ten thousand mile"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: love nonballad separation return beauty
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 140, "My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose" (1 text)
DT, REDREDRO*
Roud #12946
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. McGrath, "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
NOTES: The irony of this song, of course, is that Burns himself was about as constant as -- well, we won't go into that....
I don't know if this song ever did much in tradition, but it's certainly one of the more often-printed of Burns's poems (printed, e.g., as item CXC in Palgrave's _Golden Treasury_). - RBW
File: FSWB140C
===
NAME: My Love Is on the Ocean: see Farewell He (File: FSC41)
===
NAME: My Love is so Pretty
DESCRIPTION: The singer waxes lyrical in his love's praise -- telling how she turns everyone's heads with her straight, slender figure, "mouth always twittering," and "cheeks like cauliflower." He joyfully prepares for his wedding.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage nonballad youth
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 7-9, "My Love is so Pretty" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FO007 (Partial)
Roud #4677
File: FO007
===
NAME: My Love John: see The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)
===
NAME: My Love Lays Cold Beneath My Feet
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls telling tales by the fire. She says she would comfort her love if he appeared. But "My love's laying so cold beneath my feet." She says that he promised to marry her and no other, "but don't my love lay so cold beneath my feet"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: early 1960s (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: love death burial separation
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacSeegTrav 61, "My Love Lays Cold Beneath My Feet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2513
NOTES: When Paul Stamler indexed this book, he despaired of this piece as a conglomerate. MacColl and Seeger couldn't classify it with anything, either.
Caroline Hughes seems to have been one of those unusual people who could gather together lines from all sorts of songs and produce a relatively coherent result. I strongly suspect this is the result of such a process; of the six opportunities for rhyme in the song, only three actually do rhyme, and always with the same word (e.g. "feet" is rhymed with "feet"), and stanza one has an aabc rhyme while stanza 3 is abab. (There are no rhymes in stanza two).
Most such songs have a dominant element, and we would classify them there. This song simply does not. It is, as best I can tell, absolutely unique. So I think we have to classify it separately, a de facto composition of Caroline Hughes. - RBW
File: McCST061
===
NAME: My Love She's but a Lassie Yet
DESCRIPTION: "My love, she's but a lassie yet (x2), We'll let her stand a year or twa, She'll no be half sae saucy yet!" Singer tells of a hard courtship, calls for more drink, and concludes, "The minister kisst the fiddler's wife, He couldna preach for thinkin' o't."
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #225); cf. (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book of c. 1744)
KEYWORDS: courting love youth
FOUND_IN: Scotland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 226, "My Love is but a Lassie Yet" (1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 523, "My love, she's but a Lassie Yet" (3 texts)
DT, LUVELASS*
ST MCB226 (Full)
Roud #8979
NOTES: The verse, "We're all dry wi' the drinkin' o't... The minister kisst the fiddler's wife, He couldna preach for thinkin' o't" precedes Burns; it appeared (in a more English version) in the _Pretty Songs of Tommy Thumb_ in 1744 (see Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #23, p. 37). Whether there is more to the piece than that I do not know. - RBW
Opie-Oxford2: "This song fragment ... had all the while quietly been residing in the English nursery. where it appeared about 1744.... Burns also borrowed the title 'My Love, she's but a Lassie yet'. The tune appears in Walsh's _Caledonian Country Dances_ (c.1740), and in Johnson's _Twelve Country Dances_ (1749) under the title 'Foot's Vagaries', as well as in the _Museum_." - BS
File: MCB226
===
NAME: My Lovely Irish Rose
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls leaving Mary, his "lovely Irish Rose," and sailing to America. "The strangers' land is fair to see, the strangers too are kind," but he'd rather be home. Nothing compares with Mary and "those many happy days spent with my Irish Rose"
AUTHOR: Fred Kearney (source: McBride)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: love emigration farewell home separation America Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 51, "My Lovely Irish Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: McBride: "This song is common all over Ireland thanks mainly to recordings of it done on 78 rpm records in the 1930' and 40's." - BS
File: McB1051
===
NAME: My Lovely Nancy: see Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)
===
NAME: My Lovely Sailor Boy: see The Sailor and His Bride [Laws K10] (File: LK10)
===
NAME: My Lovin' Father (When the World's On Fire)
DESCRIPTION: "My lovin' father, When the world's on fire, Don't you want God's bosom For to be your pillow? Hide me, oh thou, in the rock of ages, Rock of ages, cleft for me." (Similarly with mother and perhaps other relatives)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 637, "My Lovin' Father" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST R637 (Full)
Roud #4225; also probably 5119
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "When the World's On Fire"  (Victor V-40293, 1930/Montgomery Ward M-4229, 1933)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "This Land Is Your Land" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Charlie Monroe's Boys "(New) When the World's On Fire" (Montgomery Ward M-7574, 1938) 
NOTES: The version of this recorded by the Carter Family, or one of its relatives, is probably the tune-source for Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." - RBW
File: R637
===
NAME: My Lowlands Away: see Lowlands (My Lowlands Away) (File: PBB100)
===
NAME: My Lula Gal: see Bang Away, Lulu (I) (File: EM173)
===
NAME: My Lula Lou
DESCRIPTION: "On the banks of the noble Cumberland I spent many happy hours Wandering there with my Lula Lou, Kentucky's sweetest flower." "She buckled on my sabre there." "The fatal shot has done its work"; now he waits for her to join him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation love
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuson, pp. 124-125, "My Lula Lou" (1 text)
ST Fus124 (Partial)
Roud #16367
NOTES: The ending of this song, at least as found in Fuson, is confused: The boy is shot, "and fainted and fell, and fell as dead," but "to-day his heart faints for your voice." - RBW
File: Fus124
===
NAME: My Lulu
DESCRIPTION: "My Lulu hugged and kissed me, She wrung my hand and cried, She said I was the sweetest thing That ever lived or died." The singer praises Lulu and threatens any who court her. (He will follow her anywhere, but she deserts him)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation abandonment floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Sandburg, p. 378, "My Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 178, "Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 182-184, "Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST San378 (Full)
Roud #3435
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Pig at Home in the Pen" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: I suppose this could be a clean version of one of the "Bang Away, Lulu" songs, but the scansion appears slightly different. - RBW
File: San378
===
NAME: My Ma Was Born in Texas
DESCRIPTION: "My ma was born in Texas, my pa in Tennessee," and the singer was born as they moved to California. He left home to become a cowboy. He married a girl; she proved to have seven children. He caught her with another man and shot him; he is sentenced to life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity homicide prison punishment
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fife-Cowboy/West 33, "My Ma Was Born in Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4808
NOTES: This was collected by Edith Fowke in Lakefield, Ontario. Don't ask me how it got there. - RBW
File: FCW33
===
NAME: My Mammy Don't Love Me
DESCRIPTION: "My mammy don't love me, She won't by me no shoes, Won't give me no corn-licker, Won't tell me no news." The man asks what he has done: "killed nobody, I've done no hanging crime." She(?) says that a man who mistreats her will treat others the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes drink crime punishment execution
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 314, "My Mammy Don't Love Me" (1 text)
NOTES: The text in Brown is so short as to be almost meaningless; is it the story of a wild woman separated from her husband? Of a wild boy? It may well include floating material which adds to the confusion. - RBW
File: Br3314
===
NAME: My Mammy Stoled a Cow
DESCRIPTION: "Steal up, young ladies, My mammy stoled a cow. Steal up, my darlin' chile, My mammy stoled a cow." "Stoled that cow im Baltimo', My mammy stoled a cow." "Steal all around, don't slight no one, My mammy stoled a cow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: dancetune theft animal
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 116, "My Mammy Stoled a Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Scarborough claims that the reported theft in this song is "used merely as an excuse to bring in the directions of stealing up in the dance." - RBW
File: ScaNF116
===
NAME: My Mammy Told Me (Don't Marry No Girl You Know)
DESCRIPTION: "My mammy told me long years ago, 'Son, don't you marry no girl you know. Spend all your money, sell all your clothes, Then what'll become of you the Lord only knows."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: marriage warning
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 316, "My Mammy Told Me" (3 short texts)
File: Br3316
===
NAME: My Man John: see The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)
===
NAME: My Martha Ann: see Mary Ann (File: FJ142)
===
NAME: My Mary Ann: see Henry and Mary Ann (Henry the Sailor Boy) (File: HHH037)
===
NAME: My Maryland: see Maryland! My Maryland (File: RJ19130)
===
NAME: My Minnie Ment My Auld Breeks: see Robin Tamson's Smiddy [Laws O12] (File: LO12)
===
NAME: My Mither She Feed Me: see The Bed-Making (File: Ord199)
===
NAME: My Mother and Your Mother
DESCRIPTION: "My mother and your mother Were hanging out clothes; My mother came to your mother And snipped off her nose."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid)
KEYWORDS: mother clothes fight
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #581, p. 234, "(My mother and your mother)"
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 240, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES: The text given here is sort of a reconstruction of something I vaguely remember. It's sort of an infant game; on the last line, the speaker grabs the listener's note between index and middle fingers and pretends to cut it off as with a scissors.
At least, that's what I remember. The Baring-Goulds have a different version of the rhyme ("My mother and your mother Went over the way, Said my mother to your mother, It's chop-a-nose day"), and their version of nose-chopping is two-handed.
Henry's informant had a very different version: Instead of nose-chopping, Mother #1 merely PULLED Mother #2's nose. Curiously, Henry's informant also claimed that there was more to the song.
Incidentally, while actually chopping off the nose was not common in history, slitting the nostrils as a punishment for crime is well-attested. - RBW
File: MHAp240A
===
NAME: My Mother Bid Me: see Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)
===
NAME: My Mother Said (Gypsies in the Wood)
DESCRIPTION: "My mother said that I never should Play with the gypsies in the wood. The wood was dark; the grass was green; In came Sally with a tamborine." "I went to the sea -- no ship to get across... Sally tell my mother I shall never come back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1870 (Kilvert, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: playparty Gypsy mother separation floatingverses
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 362, "My mother said that I never should" (1 fragment)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #603, p. 240, "(My mother said that I never should)"
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, third edition, 1928 (type reset 1953), p. 535, ("My Mother said that I never should") (1 short text)
Roud #13187
NOTES: The second verse of this, of course, floats in part; I have no idea whether it was originally integral to this song, which is thought to be quite old though the Baring-Goulds claim it was not published before de la Mare. (The Opies, of course, found an earlier reference in Kilvert). - RBW
File: BGMG603
===
NAME: My Mother Said that I Must Go
DESCRIPTION: "My mother said that I must go To fetch my father's dinner, o. Chappit tatties, beef and steak, Two red herrings, and a bawbee bake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: mother father food nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 145, "(My mother said that I must go)" (1 text)
File: MSNR145
===
NAME: My Mother Was a Lady
DESCRIPTION: Two (drummers) come to a hotel for dinner, and harass the waitress. Eventually she bursts out, "My mother was a lady... I came to this great city To find a brother dear...." One drummer knows her brother, and offers to marry her
AUTHOR: Edward B. Marks
EARLIEST_DATE: 1896 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: family servant brother separation marriage
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
LPound-ABS, 107, pp. 218-220, "The Two Drummers" (1 text)
DT, MTHLADY
Roud #2982
RECORDINGS:
Mack Allen [pseud., for Vernon Dalhart], "Mother Was a Lady" (Harmony 721-H, 1928)
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Supertone 9628, 1930)
Ted Chestnut, "My Mother Was A Lady" (Champion 15524 [as Cal Turner]/Supertone 9180 [as Alvin Bunch], 1928)
Jerry Colonna, "My Mother Was a Lady" (Columbia 35371, 1940)
Walter Dalton, "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Perfect 12468, 1928)
Morgan Denmon, "The Two Drummers" (OKeh 45306, 1929; rec. 1927)
Warde Ford, "My mother was a lady (Brother Jack)" (AFS 4201 A1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Beatrice Kay & the Elm City 4, "My Mother Was a Lady" (Columbia 35460, 1940)
Jimmie Rodgers, "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Victor 21433, 1928; Bluebird B-5482, 1934; Victor 23193, n.d.; rec. 1927)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Two Drummers" (on AKStorm01)
Frankie Wallace [pseud. for Frankie Marvin], "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Domino 0261, c. 1928)
NOTES: "Drummer" = "salesman." - PJS
File: LPnd217
===
NAME: My Mother-In-Law
DESCRIPTION: Dialect song. The singer grumbles "My life is all troubles... I'd rather be sent off to jail or to Congress Dan live all my life mit my mother-in-law." He complains of her ugliness. He claims she beats him. He says he married his wife, not her family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: family abuse humorous
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 395, "My Mother-In-Law" (1 text)
Roud #4650
File: R395
===
NAME: My Mother's Last Goodbye
DESCRIPTION: Charlie "left my dear old homestead and went away to sea" after his parents tell him "let no false pride make you forget the loving ones at home," When he returns his parents have died. "My gold it had no joy for me for all its joys was fled"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1980 (recording, James McDermott)
KEYWORDS: rambling return separation death gold father mother
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 20, "Darling Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9705
RECORDINGS:
James McDermott, "My Mother's Last Goodbye" (on Voice12)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "There's No One Like Mother to Me" (subject)
File: RcMMoLaG
===
NAME: My Name is Ben Hall
DESCRIPTION: "My name is Ben Hall, from Murrurundi I came; The cause of my turn-out you all know the same... I was forced to the bush my sorrows to drown." Hall recalls his skill as a robber, and toasts his imprisoned companions
AUTHOR: Tune fitted by J. S. Manifold
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: abuse outlaw police Australia
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Manifold-PASB, p. 47, "My Name is Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Hall" (subject)
cf. "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (subject)
cf. "The Death of Ben Hall"  (subject)
cf. "Streets of Forbes" (subject)
NOTES: Based on something found in Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_, but significantly modified by Manifold. The result probably does not qualify as original. For background, see the several other Ben Hall songs. - RBW
File: PASB047
===
NAME: My Name is Death: see Death and the Lady (File: ShH22)
===
NAME: My Name is Donald Blue: see Whiskey Is My Name (Donald Blue) (File: HHH835)
===
NAME: My Name is Edward Gallovan
DESCRIPTION: Edward Gallovan from Wexford courts Mary Riley. He tells her they will sail to America with 20 pounds she has saved. He kills her intending to use her money to escape. The body is found. He is convicted and executed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: courting execution homicide trial gallows-confessions
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 92, "My Name is Edward Gallovan" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB092 (Partial)
NOTES: Creighton-SNewBrunswick calls this "The Wexford Girl" though the singer's title is "My Name is Edward Gallovan." Creighton then goes on to make this an instance of "The Wexford Girl." Except that Wexford, probably Ireland, is mentioned and that a man murders a woman I see no connection. - BS
Nor I; there are several things here which remind me of other songs (the obvious example being the first line, which may have come from "The Flying Cloud"; the only other reference to the murderer calls him "James"). But "The Wexford Girl" is not one of those songs. Roud nonetheless lumps them. - RBW
File: CrSNB092
===
NAME: My Name is Edward Kelly
DESCRIPTION: The early adventures of Ned Kelly, told in the first person. He turned to robbing when his sister was harassed by police. He has escaped all attempts to catch him. He hopes to die in battle like Donahue rather than be treated like a government slave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Manifold)
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia escape abuse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 112-114, "My Name is Edward Kelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 64-65, "My Name is Edward Kelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 91-93, "My Name is Edward Kelly" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Ye Sons of Australia" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Song (Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly)" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject)
cf. "Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Stringybark Creek" (subject)
cf. "The Kelly Gang Were Strong" (subject)
NOTES: This song dates itself to Kelly's twenty-fourth year. Despite his hope to die in battle, he was captured and executed the next year. - RBW
File: FaE112
===
NAME: My Name Is John Johanna: see The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)
===
NAME: My Name is Laban Childers
DESCRIPTION: A song of a volunteer who served in the First World War. He describes how troops were assembled and trained, with many local young men leaving their homes and work. His friend Martin Borders is killed. He says he will not forget
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: war soldier work separation death
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 99-100, (no title) (1 text)
File: ThBa099
===
NAME: My Name is Morgan (But It Ain't J. P.): see Bill Morgan and His Gal (File: RcBMAHG)
===
NAME: My Name is Yon Yonson
DESCRIPTION: "My name is Yon Yonson, I come from Visconsin, I work in the lumber mills there, Ven I valk down the street, all the people I meet, say, 'Hello, vot's your name?' and I say...." and repeat until someone rebels
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (Songs for Pickin' and Singin')
KEYWORDS: humorous cumulative
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
ADDITIONAL: Walker D. Wyman, _Wisconsin Folklore_, University of Wisconsin Extension (?), 1979, pp. 71, ("My Name is Yon Yonson") (1 text)
NOTES: The form quoted in the description does not appear to be original. Wyman's version is not in dialect (I've quoted Leisy's text, even though I've never heard a Norwegian who could pronounce "th" but could not pronounce "w"; it's either or neither). Also. Wyman's last line is simply "All the people I meet Ask how I came to be there." I suspect the latter form would not have been remembered had not someone "circularized" the poem. But since no author is known, there are variant texts, and Leisy has a tune, this *might* be a folk song. So here it is. - RBW
File: xMNIYY
===
NAME: My Name's Been Written Down
DESCRIPTION: "How'd you know your name been written down? (x2) On the wall, oh, it's been written down. (x2) Oh, the angel told me, been written down. (x2) Well, the Lord told me, been written down. (x2) Ain't you glad your name been written down. (x2)" Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 67-68, (no title) (1 text); pp. 244-245, "My Name's Been Written Down" (1 tune, partial text)
File: CNFM067B
===
NAME: My Old Brown Coat and Me: see The Old Brown Coat (File: R791)
===
NAME: My Old Hammah: see Take This Hammer (File: FR383)
===
NAME: My Old Horse Died
DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of disasters: horse dies, mule goes lame, storm blows house away, earthquake swallows wreckage, land is repossessed. He dies, but wife & kids are comforted, because he was insured with Banker's Life [Insurance Co.]
AUTHOR: Words: advertisement; tune "Chicken Reel" (trad.), set by Dock Boggs
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963 (recording, Dock Boggs)
KEYWORDS: death disaster storm humorous family horse animal
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dock Boggs, "My Old Horse Died" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Roud #11580
NOTES: Does this belong [in the index]? It's certainly narrative, and it has entered the repertoire of old-time revival performers. Toss-up, but I say yes, if only for the novelty of the thing. And most traditional performers were far les picky about including non-traditional material in their performances than their revival heirs. - PJS
File: RcMOHD
===
NAME: My Old Kentucky Home
DESCRIPTION: "The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home; 'Tis summer, the darkies are gay...." The song lists the troubles of the poor tired slave (soon to die? far from home?), "Weep no more, my lady... We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home far away..."
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1853 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: home slave exile age
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Dean, p. 72, "My Old Kentucky Home" (1 text)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 134-138, "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-CivWar, pp. 217-218, "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 246, "My Old Kentucky Home" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 384-385, "My Old Kentucky Home"
DT, KENTYHOM
ST RJ19134 (Full)
Roud #9564
RECORDINGS:
George Alexander, "My Old Kentucky Home" (Oxford 3354, n.d.)
Climax Quartet, "My Old Kentucky Home" (Columbia 512, 1900)
Ford Hanford, "My Old Kentucky Home and Old Black Joe [medley] (Victor 18767, 1921)
Harry Macdonough, "My Old Kentucky Home" (Victor 636, 1900)
Standard Quartette, "My Old Kentucky Home" (CYL: Columbia 2248, rec. 1894)
NOTES: Spaeth (_A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 114) reports that the text of this song was derived from a poem called "Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night." - RBW
File: RJ19134
===
NAME: My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night: see My Old Kentucky Home (File: RJ19134)
===
NAME: My Old Pinto Pal
DESCRIPTION: The singer declares "I'm headin' once more for the prairie;" he longs for and recalls the joys of cowboy life. But his pinto pal is old; he decides to set the tired horse free, for it is "dearer to me than a gal," and "not once have I known you to fail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy freedom
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 89, "My Old Pinto Pal" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ohr089
===
NAME: My Old Sow's Nose: see The Sow Took the Measles (File: LoF015)
===
NAME: My Ole Mistus Promised Me
DESCRIPTION: "My ole mistus promised me When she died she'd set me free." "Good mornin', John. Howdy." "She lived so long her head got bald...." Rest involves her mistreatment: "My old mistus killed a duck, Didn't give me nuffin' but de bone to suck." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: slave hardtimes work freedom death age floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 417, "My Ole Mistus Promised Me" (1 text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 223-224, "My Ole Mistis" (1 short text, with a "Johnny get de hoecake" chorus, 1 tune); there are sundry related texts with the "My ole mistus/marster" stanza on the nect several pages
Roud #11723
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Raise a Ruckus" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Old Marse John" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Way Down Below" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: The initial stanzas, about the promise of freedom at the owner's death, is common and supplies the heart of several songs. But all seem to be distinguished by their choruses. It is possible that this is one of the elements that went into the Lomax conglomeration "Old Marse John" -- but it's such a kitchen sink that proof is impossible. - RBW
File: Br3417
===
NAME: My Pappy He Will Scold Me: see Chickens They Are Crowing (File: R541)
===
NAME: My Pappy's Whiskers: see Father's Whiskers (File: FSWB241A)
===
NAME: My Parents Raised Me Tenderly: see The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)
===
NAME: My Parents Reared Me Tenderly (I -- The Soldier Boy)
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how his parents brought him up and sent him to school. He works for a time, but -- influenced by drink -- enlists in the army. He learns the drill, but also finds he will have to serve at least twenty years. He hopes eventually to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink family money loneliness separation army war
FOUND_IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H466, pp. 79-80, "My Parents Reared Me Tenderly" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1018-1019, "The Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8003
NOTES: The first two lines, "My parents reared me tenderly I being their only son But little did they ever think I'd follow the fife and drum", are in common with "The Bold Deserter" and the first line with "The Girl I Left Behind (I)" [Laws P1A/B]. There is no other connection with those ballads. - BS
The reference to serving the Queen found in Peacock (not in the Henry version) forces us to the reign of either Anne (reigned 1702-1714) or Victoria (1837-1901); there was no standing army in the time of Elizabeth.
Enlistment was still for life early in Victoria's reign, but the references to the wars inclines me to think that -- if the reference to serving the Queen is original -- the reign of Anne is meant, since Victoria's reign was relatively peaceful (at least in Europe) while Anne's reign corresponded almost exactly with the War of the Spanish Succession, with British troops in Flanders (mostly under Marlborough) the whole time. - RBW
File: HHH466
===
NAME: My Parents Reared Me Tenderly (II): see The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)
===
NAME: My Pony
DESCRIPTION: "One morning bright and early, so early, so early, My shining boots my pride, Out near Miss Anna's cottage... where she could see me ride." Hoping to impress Anna, the singer spurs his pony, which throws him in the dirt. Anna laughs at him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting horse humorous animal
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 464, "My Pony" (1 text)
Roud #7606
File: R464
===
NAME: My Pretty Little Pink: see Little Pink (File: San166)
===
NAME: My Pretty Maid (I): see Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)
===
NAME: My Pretty Maid (II): see Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)
===
NAME: My Pretty Quadroon
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a slave, mourns for his lost Cora, "my pretty quadroon." His master had been kind, but coveted Cora, and when the slave grieves, the master sells the singer down the river. He contemplates suicide until he hears the trumpets of the Union army
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, "Beverly Hill Billies")
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer, a slave, mourns for his lost Cora, "my pretty quadroon". His master used to be kind, so much so that the singer "had not...a wish to be free" The master covets Cora, and when the slave tears his hair in grief, the master turns hard, and sells the singer down the river. He contemplates suicide, but hears the trumpets of the Union army and regains hope.
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness sex separation slavery lover Civilwar jealousy
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 79, "My Pretty Quadroon" (1 text)
Roud #4965
RECORDINGS:
Beverly Hill Billies, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Brunswick 441, 1930)
Bud & Joe Billings (Frank Luther & Carson Robison), "My Pretty Quadroon" (Victor V-40282, 1930)
Dixieland Swingsters, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Bluebird B-8109, 1939)
The Happy Chappies, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Columbia 2252-D, 1930)
Jim & Ken, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Champion 16812, 1934; Champion 45074, c. 1935)
Light Crust Doughboys, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Vocalion 02992, 1935)
Carson Robison Trio, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Banner 773/Challenge 785/Conqueror 7593/Jewel 6024/Romeo 1388, 1930) (Broadway 8280, n.d.; Crown 3140, 1931)
Texas Jim Lewis, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Decca 5990, 1941)
Vagabonds, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Victor 23849/Bluevird B-5072/Montgomery Ward M-4307, 1933)
NOTES: In the tortured stratification of racism, a "quadroon" was someone whose ancestry was one-fourth Negro -- hence, someone with fairly light skin, and therefore of high status in the African-American community. This song was enormously popular in minstrel shows and vaudeville, well into the twentieth century. But I can't for the life of me remember the author. - PJS
The description here seems to be that of the original poem, or perhaps a Civil War adaption. As it circulates in oral tradition, however, the details can be lost and it may become a lament simply for a girl lost (perhaps by death). - RBW
File: Be079
===
NAME: My Ramblin' Boy
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the "ramblin' boy" with whom he traveled, who stuck with him in all conditions. On a cold night in a hobo jungle, the ramblin' boy dies. The singer speculates that he will still be rambling in the afterlife
AUTHOR: Tom Paxton
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: rambling death friend
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 61, "My Ramblin' Boy" (1 text)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Ramblin' Boy
NOTES: Like several other Tom Paxton songs, this has not really entered oral tradition, but it certainly has a strong place in the repertoire of professional folksingers, who ramble more than most. I *have* seen it listed as traditional -- and by people who really should have known better. - RBW
This shouldn't be confused with versions of "Wild and Wicked Youth" that are called "Ramblin' Boy". - PJS
File: FSWB061
===
NAME: My Rattlin' Oul' Grey Mare
DESCRIPTION: "I am a jolly carter and a jolly good soul am I. I whistle and sing from morn till noon, all troubles I defy." The singer described how "my rattlin' mare and I" work together. He does not overburden the horse, and she does her work well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: horse work nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H664, p. 41, "My Rattlin' Oul' Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1400
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Country Carrier
File: HHH664
===
NAME: My Rolling Eye: see Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)
===
NAME: My Sailor Boy (A Sailor Boy in Blue)
DESCRIPTION: "My boy he is a sailor, A sailor boy in blue, I know he has my heart, And I hope he will prove true.... And soon he will return again To his own dear Mary Jane." She describes the gifts her has promised to bring her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation gift love
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H759, p. 288, "My Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 49, "My Bonny Boy in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5238
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Bonny Boy in Blue" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (theme)
NOTES: Sort of a cross between "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" and "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" - RBW
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 49: "It is possible, even likely, that he [Tom Lenihan] learned it from the American recording of Nan Fitzpatrick which she made when she joined forces with the very popular Frank Quinn. Fn 144: Frank Quinn and Nan Fitzpatrick with violin, banjo and piano accompaniment 'My Bonny Boy in Blue' on Columbia Records, 33477-F. Matrix (w) 113025. 'Connamara Dan' is on the reverse side." - BS
File: HHH759
===
NAME: My Scolding Wife: see The Scolding Wife (I) (File: R397)
===
NAME: My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel
DESCRIPTION: "O how I long for solid roads In the merry month of June ... How jolly I will feel A-spinning down to Rustico On my seventy-six geared wheel." The singer lists his favorite stops on the way to Mary's "big front door" at Rustico.
AUTHOR: Mary Fleming? Ambrose Cosgrove?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (Ives-DullCare)
KEYWORDS: courting technology
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 25-26, "My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 151-152,251, "My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12477
RECORDINGS:
John O'Connor, "My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel" (on MREIves01)
NOTES: Dibblee/Dibblee: Maybe "seventy-six geared wheel" refers to a geared bicycle built in 1876.
The Rusticos are on the north coast of Queens, Prince Edward Island.
Dibblee/Dibblee claims the author is Mary Fleming, the Mary of the song. Ives-DullCare claims the author is Ambrose Cosgrove.
Ives-DullCare speculates that "seventy-six" "is probably a then-current way of referring to a bike's power (a derivation involving gear-ratio and wheel size, perhaps), Mr Cosgrove is saying that he's riding the last word in bikes.... [The] distance [was] some forty miles, and not all of it first-class highway." - BS
File: Din025
===
NAME: My Sins Are All Taken Away (I): see Free at Last (File: FSWB368A)
===
NAME: My Sins Are All Taken Away (II): see All My Sins Been Taken Away (File: Ch085)
===
NAME: My Sister Don't Love Me
DESCRIPTION: "My sister don't love me; She will not take me in Just because I'm teachin' She must live above sin; What need I to fear when Thou art near? Thou carest, Lord, for me." Similarly with mother, brother, and presumably other ungrateful relatives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Henry, from "Aunt" Martha Hardwick)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad mother brother sister
FOUND_IN: US((Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 191, "My Sister Don't Love Me" (1 text)
NOTES: New verse: "My sister don't love me, Because I'm a jerk, Who insists on saying, I know better than you do, And won't listen, Because I've misread the Bible so thoroughly." The only thing I'm sure of about this song is, I don't want to be around anyone who would sing it and mean it!
File: MHAp191
===
NAME: My Sister She Works in a Laundry: see My God, How the Money Rolls In (File: EM107)
===
NAME: My Size Is Small
DESCRIPTION: "My size is small, My heart is large, God bless the girls, I love them all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 243, (no title) (1 short text)
File: MHAp243A
===
NAME: My Son Ted (I): see Mrs. McGrath (File: MA126)
===
NAME: My Son Ted (II): see The Wars of America (File: LoF017)
===
NAME: My Stetson Hat
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises his hat: "Stained with alkali, sand, and mud, Smeared with grease and crimson blood, Battered and bent from constant use, Still you have stood the darned abuse." "You've been a good pal... You dirty old gray Stetson hat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Hoofs and Horns)
KEYWORDS: clothes cowboy nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 83, "My Stetson Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier's Joy" (tune)
File: Ohr083
===
NAME: My Sweet Farm Girl
DESCRIPTION: "My sweet farm girl, she's my joy and pride (x2)." Double-entendre song; singer describes his girlfriend and her abilities to do chores around the farm while the singer "keeps her garden free from bugs and weeds."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Carolina Tar Heels)
KEYWORDS: sex farming work bawdy nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster, "My Sweet Farm Girl" (Vocalion 02780/Conqueror 7942, 1934)
Carolina Tar Heels, "Farm Girl Blues" (Victor 23516, 1931)
New Lost City Ramblers, "My Sweet Farm Girl" (on NLCREP3, NLCRCD1)
NOTES: Individually, the verses of this song can be regarded as "clean" -- enough so that I didn't notice the bawdiness on casual hearing. But the overall effect of the song (which may conclude, "She loves her daddy Because I'm long and hard") is very salacious. - RBW
File: RvMSFG
===
NAME: My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine
DESCRIPTION: "Once I had a sweetheart, noble, brave, and true... Out on the high seas he sailed... Anchored at Havana... Down went the Maine.... Rouse ye, my countrymen, rouse... Strike down the cowardly fiends Who slaughtered the crew of the Maine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: disaster ship death love separation
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbor
April 25, 1898 - Congress declares war on Spain
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 689, "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (1 text)
BrownII 236, "The Battleship Maine" (2 texts)
DT, SWTMAINE
Roud #6621
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "On the Shores of Havana" (theme)
cf. "The Spanish War" (theme)
cf. "Manila Bay" (theme)
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (theme)
cf. "Marching to Cuba" (theme)
NOTES: When the Cubans rose in revolt against inept Spanish rule, the U.S. government -- spurred on by William Randolph Hearst's newspapers -- decided it should be involved. The U.S.S. _Maine_ was dispatched to pressure to the Spanish. (The _Maine_, it should be noted, was not a battleship; originally designed as an armored cruiser, it lacked the coal capacity for that role and wound up as an unsatisfactory battleship/cruiser hybrid.)
When the _Maine_ blew up with a large loss of life, Hearst and his minions pounced quickly. Never mind that the Spanish had nothing to gain from destroying the ship. Never mind that the most likely cause of the disaster was an internal explosion. Spain had to be punished!
The Spanish did all they could to avoid war; after brief delays to save face, they gave in to every American demand. The Americans would have none of it. On April 11, President McKinley asked for a declaration of war; on April 25, he received it. Americans set out to "free" Cuba and the Philippines. (The Philippines, in particular, were so thoroughly "freed" that they soon rose in revolt and did not achieve independence until 1947.) "Remember the Maine," went the battle cry.
The U.S. army was pitifully bad; the vast majority of its losses in the war were caused by disease and supply problems -- but so dreadful were the Spanish forces that by the end of the summer both the Philippines and Cuba were under U.S. control. In December the Spanish were forced to accept the humiliating Treaty of Paris, and the war ended. The U.S. was now an imperialist power -- and all because of songs like this one and Hearst's headlines. - RBW
File: R689
===
NAME: My Sweetheart's a Mule in the Mines
DESCRIPTION: "My sweetheart's a mule in the mines, I drive her without any lines, On the (bumpers/dasher) I sit and tobacco I spit All over my sweetheart's behind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: animal mining work humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 65, "My Sweetheart's a Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 864-865, "My Sweetheart's the Mule in the Mines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, p. 127, "My Sweetheart's the Mule in the Mines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 27, "My Sweetheart's The Mule In The Mines" (1 text)
DT, MYSWEETM*
Roud #4756
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "My Sweetheart in the Mines" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon" (tune)
File: LoF065
===
NAME: My Sweetheart's Dying Words
DESCRIPTION: The dying girl says, "Dear Charlie dear, don't grieve for me... For when I'm dead and leave this world, I'll pray for you and the other girl." Recalling his love, she dies. "Twas then I realized she'd been true." He says he will never marry the other girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal death
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 169, "My Sweetheart's Dying Words" (1 text)
Roud #6581
NOTES: Really smart, Charlie: Betray one, then betray the other because the first one is dead. You sound like a corporate CEO testifying to congress about where the missing ten billion dollars went.... - RBW
File: BrII169
===
NAME: My Tra-La-La-Lee
DESCRIPTION: In this formula song, the singer successively feels the girl's heel, calf, knee, thigh, etc., has sex, and is told in the last line "Boy, I'm a whore, and you've got the C-L-A-P."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy whore sex disease
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 126-127, "My Tra-La-La-Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The melody in its last phrase owes much to "Home on the Range." - EC
File: RL126
===
NAME: My True Love's Gone A-Sailing
DESCRIPTION: "My true love's gone a-sailing right o'er yon western main"; she promises to remain a maid till he returns, even though his absence leaves her uneasy. An old man comes courting her, but she stays true. She wishes she could see her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation sailor money age
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H160 p. 292, "My True Love's Gone A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3820
NOTES: This looks very much like a Riley ballad to me, but the confused ending makes it impossible to be certain. - RBW
File: HHH160
===
NAME: My Warfare Will Soon Be Ended
DESCRIPTION: "My warfare will soon be ended, My trouble is almost done, My warfare is almost ended, And then I am going home." "God bless the holy people, The Presyterian two (?) Those shouting Methodists (?) And the praying Baptists too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 294, "William Shackleford's Farewell Song As Sung by Shackleford" (1 text)
ST BrII294 (Full)
NOTES: Brown's informant described this as the last words of William S. Shackleford (for whom see the notes on the song with the same title). But it is clearly a generic hymn. Shackleford, a lay preacher, may have sung it at the gallows, but he probably did not originate it; both verses are attested in other religious songs. - RBW
File: BrII294
===
NAME: My Welcome: see Rye Whiskey; also The Rebel Soldier (File: R405)
===
NAME: My Wheelie Goes Round
DESCRIPTION: "My wheelie goes round (x2), And my wheelie casts the band, It's not that my wheelie has the wit, It's my uncanny hand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 173, "(My wheelie goes round)" (1 short text)
Roud #5882
NOTES: It probably goes without saying that this refers to a spinning wheel, not a bicycle or motorcycle or the like -- but I'm saying it just in case. - RBW
File: MSNR173
===
NAME: My Wife Died on Saturday Night
DESCRIPTION: "My wife died on Saturday night, Sunday she was buried, Monday was my courting day, and Tuesday I got married." "Round and round, up and down, everywhere I wander, Round and round, up and down, looking for my honey." That's all, folks.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage wedding death burial floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Eddy 153 (last of several "fragments of Irish songs" - 1 fragment, which could be this or "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)")
SharpAp 202, "A Monday was my Courting Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3619
RECORDINGS:
Dr. Humphrey Bate & his Possum Hunters, "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (Brunswick 271, 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (on NLCR07, NLCRCD2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)" (floating verse)
cf. "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (floating verse)
NOTES: A fragmentary song, really just floating verses and a dance tune. But it's indexed because, compact though it may be, that first verse tells a coherent story. - PJS
This verse, to be sure, is shared with "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)." But the rest goes in different directions.
To add to the confusion, there is a nursery rhyme (Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #131, p. 106):
I married a wife on Sunday,
She began to scold on Monday,
Bad was she on Tuesday,
Middling was she on Wednesday,
Worse she was on Thursday,
Dead was she on Friday,
Glad was I on Saturday night,
To bury my wife on Sunday.
The Baring-Goulds also compare the well-known poem of "Solomon Grundy." - RBW
File: RcMWDOSN
===
NAME: My Wife Went Away and Left Me
DESCRIPTION: Abandoned by his wife, the singer appeals to her to come back. She replies that she will come back "When the grocery man puts sand in the sugar, The milkman makes milk out of chalk, Boys stay home with their mothers...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment humorous husband wife
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Rorrer, p. 78, "My Wife Went Away and Left Me" (1 text)
Roud #3686
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "My Wife Went Away and Left Me" (Victor 21520, 1927; on KHarrell02)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "My Wife Went Away and Left Me"  (Columbia 15584-D, 1930; rec. 1928; on CPoole03)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Things Impossible" (lyrics)
NOTES: Rorrer reports that this song bears similarities to a song by Charles D. Vann called "Then My Darling I'll Come Back to Thee." It is not clear whether they are the same song, though, or whether that song merely influenced this.
There are several sourthern versions of this song, and there is an English song with common lyrics, "Things Impossible." These two are surely derived from the same original, but the setting is different; the English song is an appeal to marry, the American a plea to a woman to reunite with her ex-love. Possibly Vann rewrote the English text and created the popular American version. I separate them; Roud lumps them. - RBW
File: RcMWWALM
===
NAME: My Worry Sure Carryin' Me Down
DESCRIPTION: Opening recitation describes the singer's hard life in prison. The song begins with the lament, "Lord, my worry sure carryin' me down... Sometimes I feel like, baby, committin' suicide." The singer is failing, "goin' down slow, somethin; wrong with me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes loneliness disease suicide nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 133-135, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune)
File: CNFM133
===
NAME: My Yallow Gal
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my daddy was a fool about a yallow gal." "God knows I'm a fool about a yallow gal." The singer describes the various things (walking, talking, having sex), but the consistent result is "I didn' get nothin' from my yallow gal"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: love courting sex
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 245-246, "My Yallow Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11657
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Yaller Gal" (theme)
File: LxA245
===
NAME: My Young Love Said to Me: see She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day) (File: K165)
===
NAME: My Youthful Days
DESCRIPTION: "My youthful days I freely wasted In drinking brandy and such pastime, And other joys which I have tasted Have made me sail to a foreign clime"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: drink travel exile
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 105, "My Youthful Days" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2780
NOTES: The current description is all of the Creighton-SNewBrunswick fragment. - BS
File: CrSNB105
===
NAME: Na Leannain Bhriotacha (The Stuttering Lovers)
DESCRIPTION: Birds fly into a poor man's corn. His daughter follows. A fisherman's son follows her. They kiss. The poor old man finds them: "If that's the way ye're minding the corn I'll mind it myself in the morn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (sheet music "arranged by Herbert Hughes," according to Bruce Olsen)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous bird father farming
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 12, "The Stuttering Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune); 12A, "Na Leannain Bhriotacha" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9669
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Stuttering Lovers" (on IRClancyMakem02)
NOTES: OLochlainn-More: Translated as "Na Leannain Bhriotacha" to Gaelic by Father Tomas O Ceallaigh.
The fourth line of each verse mimics stuttering (for example, "I'll mind it myself in the m-m-m-m-m-morn"). The effect is preserved in the Gaelic (for example, "Rachad na bhfiel me f-f-f-f-fein")
IRClancyMakem02 cover notes: "'The Stuttering Lovers' ... was collected and arranged by Herbert Hughes."
John Moulden pointed me to the late Bruce Olsen's Roots of Folk website which has been moving and I can no longer find. Fortunately John quoted a good part of the reference. He pins down the IRClancyMakem02 reference for Hughes to 1906 sheet music. Olsen then refers, for a source, to "English MS Harleian 6057, c 1632." No stuttering in this version, but the same repetition pattern. The birds fly into the corn. "The little boy ...spiede his dame In the middle of all the green and kisses her. "'It's enough to tempt a woman,' quote she, 'That never knew man before." The old man finds them making love, chases the boy away, and he'll keep the birds to himself tomorrow. - BS
File: OLcM012
===
NAME: Nabob, The
DESCRIPTION: "When silent time, wi' lightly feet, Had trod on thirty years, I sought again my native land Wi' mony hopes and fears." The singer finds a new generation in the land; all is changed. He misses the old, asking the forgiveness of his old friends' children
AUTHOR: Susanna Blamire (1747-1794)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: age return home
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 361-362, "The Nabob" (1 text)
Roud #4592
File: Ord361
===