The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127151 Message #2834237
Posted By: Lighter
09-Feb-10 - 01:20 PM
Thread Name: Should folk songs be sung in folk clubs?
Subject: RE: Should folk songs be sung in folk clubs?
For pedants like MtheGM and myself only:
The earliest printing of "BA" seems not to have occurred till ca1690, or about twenty-five after Pepys heard it.
No conclusion may be drawn, but that may be a long time to wait for either a truly well-known anonymous song or a popular stage song to get into print. Did Mrs. Knipps write it herself? If word-of-mouth currency began about 1665, and was at first restricted to a relatively limited social circle, it might well have taken the ballad a long time to come to the attention of the printer.