MtheGM, OK, I withdraw "the staple". The fact remains that many of our cherished old folk songs are known to have been created for commercial interest, and even a much larger number can be thus suspected. Non olet.

Some songs display a charming opalescence between real and faked/calculated naïveté, often understood as irony even by "ordinary folks". Ye olde times were not as olde as 19th century romantics wanted them. (Child was perfectly aware of that, but still a child of his time.)