The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #137331 Message #4024118
Posted By: GUEST,JeffB
16-Dec-19 - 02:29 PM
Thread Name: Is High Barbaree a traditional song?
Subject: RE: Is High Barbaree a traditional song?
I'm afraid I don’t quite catch your drift Steve. I mean only to say that it seems probable to me that our modern ‘High Barbary’ was inspired by, or was a conflation of, two related ballads, one of 1590 and the other of 1609 (but not published until 1611). To repeat my post in different words - the first, based on a real event (according to the publisher) has apparently not survived: the second (by Capt Jennings)was written as a continuation of the story. We do not know what he wrote, but we do know that later in the century a broadside of 24 verses on the same subject was published under the title ‘The Saylors Only Delight’. This might be the ballad of 1590 possibly combined with Jennings's composition, or it might be something else entirely. I should have said that some of its verses are very close to the modern song. It can be seen on the Bodleian Ballad website.