The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #55255   Message #857939
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
03-Jan-03 - 03:33 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Limbo
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Limbo
I've only heard a short clip of her recording so far, but I'd say that it's basically the set noted by George Gardiner from James Brooman at Upper Faringdon, Hampshire, in 1908. It's been published in Frank Purslow's Marrowbones (EFDSS 1965) and Roy Palmer's Everyman's Book of British Ballads (1980, reprinted in 1998 by Llanerch Press as The Book of British Ballads).

The song appeared on broadsides during the 19th century, and there are examples at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads. The most legible seems to be:

The rakes complaint in limbo Printed between 1819 and 1844 by J. Pitts, Printer, and Toy Warehouse, 6, Great st. Andrew Street, 7 Dials [London]. Harding B 11(3214)