The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #1239 Message #4209032
Posted By: Lighter
29-Sep-24 - 05:12 PM
Thread Name: Origins: She Had a Dark and a Rovin' Eye
Subject: RE: Origins: She Had a Dark and a Rovin' Eye
It's pretty surprising to discover that the earliest printed version of the song in its modern form was in "The Week-End Book" (1924), a miscellany of prose, poetry, music, and puzzles, edited for a sophisticated readership by Vera Mendel and Francis Meynell. John Goss, English baritone and bon vivant, was the music editor and may have contributed the song, which is decsribed as a "sailor's forebitter."
The tune given is the familiar one.
THE FIRE SHIP
As I strolled out one ev’ning out for a night’s career, I spied a lofty fire ship, and after her I steered; I hoisted her my siganals which she very quickly knew, And when she see’d my bunting fly, she immediately hove to-o-o.
She’d a dark and a rolling eye, And her hair hung down in ringalets, [sic She was a nice girl, a decent girl, But one of the rakish kind.
O Sir, you must excuse me for being out so late, For if my parients knew of it, then sad would be my fate, [sic My father he’s a minister, a true and honest man, My mother she’s a Methodist, and I do the best I can.
She’d a dark and a rolling eye, etc.
I took her to a tavern and I treated her to wine, Little did I think she belonged to the rakish kind; I handled her, I dandled her, and found to my surprise, She was nothing but a fire-ship rigged up in a disguise. [sic
She’d a dark and a rolling eye, etc.
The concluding stanza or stanzas are understandably missing.
It's doesn't make too much sense for the singer to recognize the woman as a "fire-ship" in line two only to be surprised in stanza three. It makes even less sense for him to wittingly accompany a "fire-ship."
"Siganals," "see'd," and "parients" suggest (truly or as parody) a mannerism of some 19th century music-hall performances.