I should also point out the the American version, probably by Rosinna Emmet, wasn't derived from the Scots version, but from a broadside copy of "Pretty Peggy of Derby, O". She didn't seem to know the old tune, so her version was supplied with a new one. More particularly, the "Fennario' version is only in Sharp and Karpeles' 'English Folk Songs from the Southerrn Appalachians', A version, and the tune there is slightly altered from that in the book of 1880. And the Irish (and Scots) tune "Pretty Peggy of Derby, O" has not been collected with any American version of the song. The American version can be distinguished by that very lame line 'The Captain fell in love with a lady like a dove', and in another verse wherre Peggy is offered a ride in a buggy, carriage or the like, which is not in British Isles versions.
|