The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #6924   Message #864702
Posted By: GUEST,Q
11-Jan-03 - 05:20 PM
Thread Name: Lyr & Origins: Bell Bottom Trousers
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bell Bottom Trousers
Gripper, some are in the Bodleian. Thanks for pointing them out. The "Servant of Rosemary Lane," a readable copy is Johnson Ballads 624, J. Jennings, London. The date, with the newer "s", suggests ca. 1820, although the range given is 1790-1840.

Another ballad, "The Servant Boy," ties the meter to immigration.
Several copies; Harding B11(3453, by Pitts, Seven Dials, 1819-1844, is a clean copy.

The last three verses of "The Servant of Rosemary Lane:"

So we tumbled and tost by the light of the moon,
We rose the next morning all in the same tune,
The very next morning this young man arose,
And drest himself out in his tarpauling cloaths.

Alas! then I cried, O I am undone,
He has left me with child, of a daughter or son,
And if 'tis a girl she shall stay at home with me,
And if 'tis a boy he shall plough on the sea.

With his long quarted'd shoes, check shirt, and blue jacket,
On the quarter deck he shall stand like a bold British tar(?),
So I'll dry up my milk as you shall plainly see,
And pass for a maid in my own country.