The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #172027   Message #4162244
Posted By: Steve Gardham
12-Jan-23 - 02:21 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: The Two Parsons
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Two Parsons
Joe and Ray have solved this one quickly.

Re The Parson and the Clerk I mentioned earlier, there are 2 songs with this title, one from tradition given in Peter Kennedy's Folk Songs of Britain and Ireland, but this only mentions a verse with bell ringing and is not related. However the other a rare 19th century broadside in the Madden collection has the same story in which the bell-ringing is replaced by the parson and clerk giving coughs instead of bell pulls, the outcome being the same. It has an extra moral on the end though, which is if the parson can boast of having that many of his parishioners he shouldn't complain when his wife has been at the same game.