The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #72395 Message #1246516
Posted By: Joe Offer
13-Aug-04 - 02:19 AM
Thread Name: Origins: tailor's britches (or breeches)
Subject: ADD Version: The Tailor's Breeches
Here's the version from The English Folksinger (Sam Richards & Tish Stubbs, 1979). Tune available on request.
THE TAILOR'S BREECHES
Now ladies and gentlemen, if you'll listen unto me, I'll sing you a song of the North Country. In a village near Whitby town a tailor once did dwell, And women, wine, and company, he loved them quite well.
A dance one New Year's evening the tailor did attend I'm sure that he would ne'er have gone if he had seen the end. The jolly little tailor he will ne'er forget that night For never yet was tailor seen in such a sorry plight.
Oh he danced and he sang and had whisky many a tot, The jolly little tailor was the merriest of the lot. To a lady he was dancing with the tailor then declared If you'll lend to me your petticoats I'll dance like a maid.
Oh his breeches he put off and her petticoats put on. The maid the tailor's breeches she quickly did adorn. The fiddler he played to them a merry merry tune. She danced his money, watch, and breeches clean out of the room.
O bring me my breeches back, the tailor loud did call. O bring me my breeches back, my money, watch and all. All the company there assembled with laughter they did roar When the little tailor's petticoats fell down upon the floor.
O Lord, said the tailor, where ever Thou may be. O Lord, said the tailor, take pity now on me. Well the little tailor didn't know the best thing for to do For his little shirt was far too short to cover all below.
'Twas then the fiddler played a tune for all that he was worth. The tune he played the tailor was the famous Cock o' the North. All the ladies were delighted and they loudly shouted: No When the tailor took his trilby hat to cover Uncle Joe.
When at last the little tailor got out into the street A bevy of fair damsels he chanced for to meet. All the ladies screamed with laughter when the tailor did appear They wished him a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
The poor little tailor those ladies did address Says he: it is not ladylike to laugh at man's distress. Said the ladies to the tailor: Give us no more of that If you call yourself a gentleman why don't you raise your hat?
In that village near to Whitby town there's old men living yet They'll tell you of that famous dance they never will forget. Old ladies too will tell to you the dance they loved the best Was the dance where the tailor he did show his cuckoo's nest.
Now that jolly little tailor from that day unto this Oh women, wine, and company he gave them all a miss. At a dance that little tailor they never more did catch Since the lady pinched his breeches, his money, and his watch.
Notes from Richards/Stubbs:
The Tailor's Breeches (p. 144) Sung by Arthur Wood, Middlesborough, Teesside. Collected by Colin Wharton, 1962. In the archives of the Institute of Dialect and Folk Life studies, Leeds University. Arthur Wood, in his 80s in the early 1960s when he sang to Colin Wharton, claimed the words as his own and the collector notes that this incident happened at a dance in a village near Whitby many years ago. The traditional song about the tailor losing his breeches was known to Thomas Hardy in Dorset years before, and versions of the so have occasionally turned up ever since. None are as detailed or superbly ridiculous as Mr. Wood's version, and our justification for his claim to authorship is that he reworked the existing song in his own, very inventive way. It is not rare to hear of traditional tale being referred to as actual occurences.
These lyrics are very similar to those posted by George Henderson as The Jolly Little Tailor -Joe Offer-