The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #103835   Message #2120039
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
05-Aug-07 - 09:43 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Polly and the Sailor (Carolyne Hughes)
Subject: Tune Add: UNTO THE EAST INDIES WE WERE BOUND
No, it isn't. Kennedy himself lists this as an example of Roud 2384, though Caroline Hughes' fragment doesn't appear in the Roud Index at present. The only example that does is from P W Joyce, Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, 1909, 58-9. I don't have a copy of that book, but an abc apparently made from it (no source is credited) is at http://www.sligo-man.com/. I copy it here, with source information added and some errors in the abc corrected.


X:1
T:Unto the East Indies We Were Bound
N:Roud 2384
B:P W Joyce, 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs', 1909, 58-9
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:D
A|\ d2 d B2 G|A2 A F2 D|EFE D2 D|D3-D2|
E2 D E2 F| G2 F G2 A|BAB E2 E|E3-E2
F|A2 F D2 F|A2 F G2 A| Bcd e2 c|d3-d2
c/d/|e2 c dcB|A2 F D2 D|EFG HA2 F|D3-D2||
W:Unto the East Indies we were bound our gallant ship to steer,
W:And all the time that we sailed on, I thought on my Polly dear:
W:'Tis pressed I was from my truelove the girl whom I adore.
W:And sent unto the raging seas where stormy billows roar.
W:
W:Our captain being a valiant man upon the deck did stand,
W:With a full reward of fifty pounds to the first that should spy land:
W:Then up aloft two boatmen go unto the maintop so high--
W:An hour is past, and then at last--"'Tis land, 'tis land!" they cry.
W:


Kennedy also refers to Ashton's Real Sailor Songs, but without a page reference. It isn't obvious which song he means (again, I don't have a copy at presesnt) but in any case his identifications were not always reliable. I wouldn't care to speculate on the strength of two fragments whether or not they are in any way related (though it doesn't seem particularly likely). The Hughes fragment has a vague similarity to the opening of 'The Bold Privateer' (Roud 1000, Laws O32), but that may just be chance.