The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #118536 Message #2563768
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
11-Feb-09 - 09:13 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Roguey
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Roguey
This one was nagging me yesterday, so I'm glad that's cleared up. Perhaps the spelling threw me; at any rate I didn't make the connection, though I was listening to Lizzie Higgins singing the thing only last week. The song has a pedigree dating back to the mid C17; the Mustrad article gives some details. The Roud Folk Song Index covers it under two headings at present: Roud 5132 and Roud 8156.
In the DT:
Knaves Will Be Knaves -from D'Urfey, Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719-1720) III, 87 ['A Song: I Went to the Alehouse'].
The Knave -from George Ritchie Kinloch, The Ballad Book, 1827, 82-83.
A Gob is a Slob -Oscar Brand's commercial re-write, c.1949.
Forum discussions:
Lyr Req: Alan Arkin's 'A Knave is a Knave' -basically the Pills text as sung by Alan Arkin, plus the usual modern derivatives copied-and-pasted from the DT.
Bold rogue -'The Rogue ': unprovenanced text.
Other examples:
http://mtrecords.co.uk/articles/mitchell.htm -'The Bold Rogue' from Kevin Mitchell of Derry. He picked up a set of words somewhere (he doesn't specify) and put them to a tune of his own.
http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/Olson/SONGTXT1.HTM#DNTYDCK -transcriptions at the late Bruce Olson's website: 'A Dainty Ducke' (Loose and Humorous Songs from Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, 1868); ' The Kind Mistress, Or, A Good turn done at a time of need' (Pepys Ballads, V, 212, printed by Charles Barnet); text from The New Academy of Complements, Song 249, p 257, 1669. Essentially the same as the later Pills example); text from David Herd, Ancient & Modern Scottish Songs, II, 220, 1776; text from from George Ritchie Kinloch, The Ballad Book, 1827, 82-83; partial text from D I Harker, Songs from the Manuscript Collection of John Bell, 111, 1987.
Pepys 5.212 The Kind Mistress,/ OR, [A]/ Good turn done at a time of need -broadside facsimile.
Additional links:
George Ritchie Kinloch at the Internet Archive
An Index of Poetry in Printed Miscellanies, 1640-1682. - The New Academy of Complements is not available online, but a list of contents can be retrieved from Dr Adam Smyth's database: search for the book title in the 'text' field.
David Herd at the Internet Archive
Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript: Loose and Humorous Songs -facsimile at Google Books.