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Lyr Req: Lass of Islington

25 Apr 98 - 04:29 AM (#26491)
Subject: bawdy song prostitute takes john to court
From: JB

I'm looking for a song I heard years ago. A prostitute takes a customer to court for non-payment, but it's couched in terms of "renting a cellar for the night". The man complains that he barely used the space, etc. but the judge finds for the lady in question. Not an urgent request, but any info would be appreciated.

25 Apr 98 - 01:48 PM (#26503)
Subject: RE: bawdy song prostitute takes john to court
From: Bruce O.

Closest I can come is:

From Pinkethman's Jests, 1720. The songs in his songbook were almost all taken from Pills to Purge Melancholy.

A strummelling two-handed harlot, grenadier-height and limbed like a bacon-faced Dutchman, accused a little diminutive tailor once of a rape.
The magistrate he was brought before ordered the fellow's purse to be taken from him and given her, bidding her be sure to keep it; and so diamissed her
As soon as she had turned her back, he bid the little nit-cracker follow her and take it from her again: upon which she quickly returned to make her complaint that, like an impudent rogue as he was, he would have robbered her of the purse.
"But I hope,' says the magistrate, 'you didn't let him.'
'Let him! No,' says she, 'I think not! 'Slife, I'd have tore his eyes out first.'
'Very well,' answered he, 'pray let me see if the money be all safe.' So, taking the purse, he returned it to the owner, and bid 'em give the whore forty lashes-with this instruction: 'If you had defended your honesty as well as you did your money, you had never been ravished, you whore, you.'

25 Apr 98 - 03:35 PM (#26504)
Subject: RE: bawdy song prostitute takes john to court
From: Bruce O.

J. W. Ebsworth in 'Roxburghe Ballads', VIII, p. 810, desribes a more complicated two part song, c 1740, "Country John's Ramble to London", where the prostitute tricks him and he goes to prison for a year. In the scond part he gets out and turns the tables, and she is sent to Bridewell to beat hemp (as a Mill-doll).

26 Apr 98 - 02:52 AM (#26528)
Subject: RE: bawdy song prostitute takes john to court
From: JB

Such a wealth of song info! Both songs sound interesting, but neither is exactly on target. As I remember, the whore complains to the judge that she rented her cellar for the night to this gentleman, but he refused to pay her. The gentleman replied that he didn't really use her cellar and should not have to pay. She replied that there were two hogsheads (barrels) by the door, why didn't he just roll them on in? And the judge finds for the lady.

26 Apr 98 - 03:05 PM (#26562)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE LASS OF ISLINGTON
From: PKD on Teesside

I think you want "The Lass of Islington". I don't know where it comes from; I seem to have known it for 30 years or so.

Cheers

Paul


THE LASS OF ISLINGTON

There was a lass of Islington, as I have heard them tell,
And she did with a vintner meet, who liked this maid full well.
"Sir, if I lie with you one night, as you propound to me,
I do expect that you would prove both courteous, kind and free.

"And for to tell you all in short, it will cost you five pounds."
"A match, a match", this vintner cried, "and so let this go round."
But when he had laid with her one night, her money she did crave.
"Oh stay", quoth he, "one further night, and your money you shall have."

This maiden made no more ado, but to a justice went,
And unto him did make her moan, who did her case lament.
She swore she had a cellar let out to a vintner in the town,
And how that he did disagree five pounds to pay her down.

The justice straight then sent for him to ask the reason why
That he would pay this maid no rent, to which he did reply:
"Although I hired a cellar of her, and possession it was mine,
"I never put anything into it, save one small pipe of wine."

This maiden, being ripe of wit, then did reply again:
"There were two butts more at the door. Why didn't you roll them in?"
The justice hearing of her case, then did give order straight
That he the money should pay down; she should no longer wait.

But when her money she had got, she stuck it in her purse
And clapped her hand on the cellar door, and swore it was never the worse,
Which made the people all to laugh, to see this vintner fine
Outwitted by a country girl, all about his pipe of wine.

26 Apr 98 - 03:33 PM (#26564)
Subject: RE: bawdy song prostitute takes john to court
From: Bruce O.

That looks like it's close. There's a version in DT. For the copy of 1684-6, and an early copy with music and a traditional version see ZN2496 in my broadside ballad index. Two version of the original tune in ABC are B477 and 478 on my website, too wwww.erols.com/olsonw

26 Apr 98 - 06:31 PM (#26577)
Subject: RE: bawdy song prostitute takes john to court
From: Bruce O.

The form of the licensing statement on the broadside puts it in the first half of 1684. Too many w's above. www.erols.com/olsonw

27 Apr 98 - 05:09 AM (#26582)
Subject: RE: bawdy song prostitute takes john to court
From: JB3

Thanks that's it! I'm now JB3 because there are 2 other JBs in Mudcat.

27 Apr 98 - 01:47 PM (#26621)
Subject: RE: bawdy song prostitute takes john to court
From: dick greenhaus

One of the nicer aspects o the Digital Tradition is its search capability: if you search for cellar, the one you're seeking is the seventh on the list

27 Apr 98 - 07:52 PM (#26673)
Subject: RE: bawdy song prostitute takes john to court
From: Bob Bolton

G'day all,

Interesting how a good story / song survives. The story in this song is (was) found in a long yarn / joke about a pregnat girl taking a lawyer to court for " making use of her property - to wit; storing his goods in her cellar and failing to take proper care to clear it, so that it now was full, to her detriment".

Many of the lines above occur in the example I saw in 1970 - when someone at the firm for which I worked left in the photocopier the original of a typed sheet they had copied. I guess that makes this into Xeroxlore - but unrecorded as, unfortunately, I can no longer find the original photocopy.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

27 Apr 98 - 10:08 PM (#26690)
Subject: RE: bawdy song prostitute takes john to court
From: Bruce O.

Bob, If you're interested in that kind of thing take a look at Alan Dundes and Carl Pagter's 'Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire', American Folklore Society, 1975. 220 pages of psuedo tests, applications, tales, cartoons. The Lucy and Charlie Brown cartoon is one of my favorites, and for tales it hard to beat #49, 'Coho Salmon Experiments in Lake Michigan'.

28 Apr 98 - 10:57 AM (#26742)
Subject: RE: bawdy song prostitute takes john to court
From: Bruce O.

Jeannie Robertson's version (traditional) is on Prestige International's 13006, 'Scottish Ballads and Folk Songs'. Sedley's version (that in DT) is not a traditional text. The songs is also without music in 'Philomel; being a select collection of only the best songs', 1744, and repeated in an expanded edition as vol. 1 of 'The Comic Miscellany', 1756. Sedley mentioned the book of 1744, but didn't give its title. His attribution of the original tune to Wm. Byrd is undoubtably wrong. The tune was mentioned in 1593, long before Byrd's variations appeared in the Fitzwiliam Virginal Book.