ADD: A Young Virgin (song about suitors)

Subject: This young virgin (song about suitors)
From: davidharley
Date: 28 Feb 24 - 07:43 AM

Many years ago I heard Peggy Seeger sing a song for which I remember the tune but hardly any of the words. (I don't promise that I've remembered those absolutely perfectly.)

As it popped into my head as today's earworm, I'd be grateful for any information and the full lyric, as the internet has so far failed me completely. If I remember correctly, the first lines were:


'This young virgin, you understand / took a trip to a foreign land'

She then receives offers of marriage from various blokes, introduced as:
'The first/next/last was a [occupation] that came in / he told what a traveller he had been...'

The only occupation I remember for sure, though, is a fiddler:
'...he tuned his fiddle and rosined his bow / but I sang him a song called 'No, sir, no'.

The 'last to come in' was, I think, a sailor:
'he made no delay about making his stand / 'sir, here is my heart and my store and my land'.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

Subject: RE: This young virgin (song about suitors)
From: Helen
Date: 28 Feb 24 - 01:17 PM

She mentions the song in an interview with The Guardian, but it is not on that album, First Farewell

The Young Virgin

"Your new album, First Farewell, is moving and playful. One song, Lubrication, has a lyric about older bodies needing “grease to help ’em do their jobs”. You’re relishing the euphemisms as you sing, aren’t you?

"'I am! Folk is full of raunchy songs but they’re not often sung. I have another song called The Young Virgin, where a woman has 40 lovers who bring along the tools of their trade: a blacksmith’s anvil, the glistening pipe of a druggist, the lance of a doctor,,,'"

The song is not on this list and the song title is not showing in an internet search.

Did you hear her singing it live or was it on an album?

Subject: RE: This young virgin (song about suitors)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Feb 24 - 05:38 PM

"The Young Virgin" isn't in The Peggy Seeger Songbook (Oak Publications, 1998). Neither is "Lubrication." Such a shame.

Subject: RE: This young virgin (song about suitors)
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 01 Mar 24 - 10:03 AM

These courting/suitor songs are quite common in the bawdy canon, and more often than not they contain sexual euphemisms that are almost cliches with the different trades. The Tailor and his 'yard', locksmith and his key, soldier and his rifle, etc.

Subject: RE: This young virgin (song about suitors)
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 01 Mar 24 - 10:06 AM

The one you are after is in Huntington 'Songs the Whalemen Sang' p100. 9 stanzas. with tune in D in jig time. I have over 40 similar pieces, not including songs about individual trades of which there are hundreds.

Subject: RE: This young virgin (song about suitors)
From: davidharley
Date: 02 Mar 24 - 10:14 AM

Thanks, all.

Helen, I've never heard it on an album: I heard Peggy sing it live around 1970 at Shrewsbury Folk Club, where she and Ewan were often booked.

I'm pretty sure she didn't sing 40 verses, but given how firmly the tune is stuck in my head, perhaps she did!

It must have been one of the themes of the evening, as I'm pretty sure they sang the Ballad of the Trades on that occasion, too.

Steve, thanks for the book reference. 9 stanzas sounds nearer my recollection, such as it is...

Subject: ADD: A Young Virgin
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Mar 24 - 05:15 PM

Thanks, Steve.

A YOUNG VIRGIN

I am a young virgin just come on board
And I have as envious a maidenhead
As ever a young man took in his hand
Besides I have forty pounds in land

This young virgin as we understand
Took a trip to a foreign land
Whereas forty young lovers a-roving came
To some of their callings I long for to name

The first was a merchant that came in
He told what a traveler he had been
He boasted how he could handle his pen
He said he could write the best of all men

The next was a doctor that came in
He said what a traveler he had been
He said he had a lance that would open a vein
With pleasure with ease without any pain

The next was a pothecary with his pastle and pills
He said he could cure me of all of my ills
Then he took out his (glister pipe)
And I gave the rogue a mighty wipe

The next was a tailor his (body bent)
I lugged the poor rascal by both of his ears
In short I told him for to be brief
For I never intended to wed with a thief

The next was a fiddler that came in
He told what a traveler he had been
He offered for to play me a jig
I broke his fiddle and tore off his wig

I put his saddle strap out of tune
The people they surrounded the room
The tears were trickling down his face
His fiddle was broke I (potted) his case

The next was a sailor a sailor bold
With his pockets lined with gold
He (waited) not but ended the dispute
Sir here is my heart and maidenhead to boot.

Herald 1817

Huntington's notes: This song may be related to "The Female Robber." See Williams pp 267-268
Some of the symbolism in the song will not bear too close scrutiny, I am afraid. Note well that in the end it is the sailor—of course—who gets the girl.

Source: Songs the Whalemen Sang by Gale Huntington (Barre Publishers, Barre Massachusetts, pp 101-103)

MIDI transcribed upon request [e-mail]

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From the Traditional Ballad Index:

Young Virgin, A

DESCRIPTION: "I am a young virgin just come on board...." The prosperous, available girl is courted by various suitors. Merchant, doctor, apothecary, etc. offer their skills to gain her hand; she rejects each. She gives her love to a sailor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (Journal from the Herald)
KEYWORDS: love courting sailor worker humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 100-102, "A Young Virgin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2034
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Thing Is My Own" (theme)
cf. "I'll Not Marry at All" (theme)
NOTES [21 words]: This really, really reminds me of "My Thing Is My Own." I don't think there is kinship, but I suspect a common inspiration. - RBW
File: SWMS100

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Subject: RE: ADD: A Young Virgin (song about suitors)
From: davidharley
Date: 03 Mar 24 - 09:45 AM

Thanks, Joe! A very similar version to the fragments I remember.

Subject: RE: ADD: A Young Virgin (song about suitors)
From: and e
Date: 03 Mar 24 - 04:48 PM

The Tinker, The Tailor

[Spoken] A modern madrigal [/spoken]

Four jolly men went courting of maiden pure and sweet
A tinker, a tailor, a soldier, and a sailor
Each jolly man laid his heart right at her pretty feet
As he sighed and cried
Be my bride

The tinker said, "You'll find I'm very handy with a screw
"My hammer is mighty tool where there is a job to do
"I'll plug your holes and mend your pipes too
If you will marry me,
If you will marry me.

The tinker, the tailor
The soldier, or the sailor
Which one shall it be?
Oh which one shall it be?

The tailor said, "My needle is the longest in the land
"I'll always fit you like a glove. My style is in great demand
"And when I press your pretty things, I'll do it all by hand
"If you will marry me. If you will marry me."

The tinker, the tailor
The soldier, or the sailor
Which one shall it be?
Oh which one shall it be?

The soldier said, "I'll let you hold my trusty bayonet
"It's never missed a target since I was a young cadet
"It's at your service day & night when duty calls my pet
"If you will marry me. If you will marry me.'

The tinker, the tailor
The soldier, or the sailor
Which one shall it be?
Oh which one shall it be?

The sailor said, "Well blow me down just wait until you've seen
"The gorgeous little periscope upon my submarine
"I'll drop my anchor in your port and swab your deck so clean
"If you will marry me. If you will marry me."

The tinker, the tailor
The soldier, or the sailor
Which one shall it be?
Oh which one shall it be?

The maiden said, "Including other things, I've raised your hopes
"But you can keep your needles, bayonets, tools, and periscopes
"I'm wedded to a cowboy and he showed me all the ropes
"The night he married me. The night he married me."

The tinker, the tailor
The soldier, and the sailor
Are crying woe-is-me
How hard this life can be,
How hard this life can be.

As sung by Charley Drew: For the Connoisseur: Vol. 1 LP.

Transcribed from this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uug_h_21YqE