Certainly related to all those rambling soldiers & sailors -- tho iirc it is a matter of some dispute as to which of those preceded which -- but sfaics appears to predate those. Also related to those kings, dukes, squires & such who go off disguised as beggars or tinkers, screwing young women all over the place, as in The Barley Straw, some variants of the Beggar/Gaberlunzie Man, &c.

But where you find much connection with Polly On The Shore, though, Al -- which is about a pressed seaman dying in battle who seems to me to have little in common with these seductive rambling servicemen?

My question still stands -- what has a sieve-maker to do with the discourse anyhow?

~M~