The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #123822   Message #2733383
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
28-Sep-09 - 02:28 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Duke(s) a-riding
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Duke(s) a-riding
Verses about a Jew were quite common.

Alice B. Gomme printed a verse from Forest of Dean, Gloucester:

Here comes a Jew a-riding,
With the ransom, tansom, tissimi, O!

And what is your will, sir?
etc.
Then pray take one of my daughters, etc.
They are all too black and browsy, etc.
They are good enough for you, sir, etc.
My house is lined with silver, etc.
But ours is lined with gold, sir, etc.
Then I'll take one of your daughters, etc.

Travelling pedlars, knife-sharpeners, etc., were often Jews or thought to be Jews, in 19th c. England

The number of different verses sung to the tunes of "Duke(s) is almost without limit.

The daughters also may be poor and shabby, dark as gipsies, too proudy, etc.

The 'naughty' verse comes also in this form (Gomme, from Kent):

O naughty maid! O naughty maid!
You won't come out to me?
You shall see a blackbird,
A blackbird and a swan;
You should see a nice young man
Persuading you to come.