The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #64234   Message #1049332
Posted By: Martin Graebe
06-Nov-03 - 01:43 PM
Thread Name: Origins: 'the nightingale', laws or child??
Subject: RE: Origins: 'the nightingale', laws or child??
I won't get too picky but Baring-Gould didn't actually collect the song. He had two tunes sent to him, one from Cornwall (EF Stevens 'the air to which sung by the miners in Cornwall 1850' - this is the tune in 'Songs of the West' - ie the usual tune) and the other from Plymouth (similar). In the Ms he quotes Arne's 'Thomas and Sally' as the 'A' version (dating it to 1768) and as his 'B' version gives Bell's version with the note "He has clearly cooked up the words". A strange case of the Pot calling the Kettle black!

Tune iii in the Ms is Arne's - I have seen the book in his library with this in

Martin