The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #50227   Message #763242
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
10-Aug-02 - 10:51 PM
Thread Name: You blind fool you drunken fool/4 Nights Drunk
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: You blind fool, you drunken fool
My Good Old Man (Roud 240) is, as has been pointed out, not related to Our Goodman (Roud 114, Child 274), and seems to have been found (not infrequently) in tradition in England and the USA only in English language versions. The Sedley set is (as usual) a collation from several different sources; text from traditional sets noted by Sharp and Hammond, and a broadside; tune from Sharp (Captain Lewis, Minehead, Somerset, 1909). Kennedy (Folksongs of Britain and Ireland) prints an example in Welsh, Yr Hen Wr Mwyn, and there is a Manx text, My Henn Ghooinney Mie, with music, in A.W. Moore's Manx Ballads and Music (1896; see Stewie's link above). I don't think I was aware of a French-language version; that's interesting. The story seems to be pretty much the same in all its forms, whatever language they're sung in, and all those I've seen involve eggs!