Hi,

I've started 8A. "Oh No, John," "No Sir," "Spanish Merchant's Daughter," "She answered No." The headnotes (15 pages so far) are here: http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/8a-oh-no-john-or-no-sir-.aspx Anyone with additional versions please post them.

Here's a sketch of opening text so far:

["Oh No, John," "No Sir," "Spanish Merchant's Daughter" and the "she answered No" songs are a series of songs[1] where the maid, confronted by a wooer, answers "No" to his advances. The "trick" to the "No" songs is that the wooer eventually asks questions expecting a "No" answer so that he wins over the maid. The humorous "No" courting songs evolved out of a broadsides and print versions from the 1600s and 1700s which eventually became, by the mid-to-late 1800s, the well-known songs "Oh No, John," and "No Sir."

No attempt has been made to include every version[2] of every song or ballad where the maid answers "No." Both Baskervill and Kittredge have provided some older analogs and variants-- but there are more. A number of additional "she answered No" songs are found in the Supplemental Versions Section at the end of these headnotes. A-H are all versions where the maid answers "No" but none are close antecedents of "No Sir," or "Oh No, John." Both A, "Consent at Last[3]" and G, "No, No" sung by Mrs. Wrighten at Vauxhall in the 1770s, are closer to "No Sir," and "Oh No, John" than some of the other "she answered No" songs. The purpose of this study is to show some of the underlying older versions and provide some guidance to differentiate between the more modern versions of the late 1800s and 1900s. That guidance is lacking in Roud 146 which lumps a number of versions of "Madam" with the "No" songs-- a problem complicated in part by past collectors titles[4] and the interchangeability of the choruses. Another important resource, the Traditional Ballad Index, like Roud, does not differentiate between "Oh No John" and "No Sir" and gives no background on the development of the "she answered No" songs. The Brown Collection versions are almost all from recent print, yet no mention of print versions is made in the Brown notes. So into the darkness we go without a torch.

Although listed as an appendix to 8. Madam I Have Come to Court You (Yonder Sits a Lovely Creature), versions of songs where the maid answers "No" to her wooer clearly predate known print versions of "Madam, I Have Come to Court You" which were rooted in the mid-1700s[5]. The end of the first stanza of the earliest version of "Madam" (c.1760), which is titled "Lovely Creature," expects a response of "No" or at least an answer to his intention to court her[6]:

Yonder sits a lovely creature,
Who is she? I do not know,
I'll go court her for her features,
Whether her answer be "Ay" or "no."

There a number early versions from the 1600s with the "No" response to the suitor's inquiries. The first, my Aa, is given by Bruce Olson from "a manuscript version of about 1635-40, in Bodleian MS Ashmole 38 (a collection of single sheets from various sources bound together), is so badly waterstained that most of it is unreadable. Only the first stanza of seven is legible:

"Lady why doth love torment you
May not I your grief remove?
Have I nothing will content you
With the sweet delights of Love."
"Oh, no, no, alas, no."

The lady's answer as a repeated chorus is "Oh, no, no, alas, no." This c.1635 MS is the antecedent of my Ab, "Consent at Last," which appears in Pills to Purge Melancholy, a series commencing in 1700 in Volume III, p. 82, dated 1719, with a tune. It goes as follows (original text):

Consent at Last.

Ladys, why doth Love torment you?
Cannot I your Grief remove?
Is there none that can content you
With the sweet delights of Love
O No, no, no, no, no: O, No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Beauty in a perfect Measure,
Hath the Love and wish of all:
Dear, then shall I wait the Pleasure,
That commands my Heart and all:
O No, &c.

If I grieve, and you can ease me,
With you be so fiercely bent,
Having wherewithal to please me,
Must I still be Discontent?
O No, &c.

If I am your faithful Servant,
And my Love does still remain;
Will you think it ill deserved,
To be favour'd for my pain?
O No, &c.

If I should then crave a Favour,
Which your Lips invite me to,
Will you think it ill Behaviour,
Thus to steal a Kiss or two?
O No, &c.

All Amazing Beauty's Wonder,
May I presume your Breast to touch?
Or to feel a little under,
Will you think I do too much?
O No, &c.

Once more fairest, let me try ye[6]
Now my wish is fully sped,
If all Night, I would lye by ye,
Shall I be refus'd your Bed?
O No, &c.

In this version the suitor has adeptly figured out how to have his way with the lass even with a "No" answer. "Consent at Last" was called the original of the "she answered No" songs by early music authority Bruce Olson[7].

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Richie