The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #22877   Message #871888
Posted By: Joe Offer
21-Jan-03 - 08:35 PM
Thread Name: Penguin: Streams Of Lovely Nancy
Subject: RE: Penguin: Streams Of Lovely Nancy
Seems like we should have more information on this song. Here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index.

Streams of Lovely Nancy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer (a sailor?) describes the "streams of lovely Nancy", a mountain with a castle, his beloved (who lives in the castle), a river, and a ship. He ends by addressing all "streamers"; he will write to his love, "For her rosy lips entice me..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905
LONG DESCRIPTION: In this extremely confused song, the singer (probably a sailor) describes the "streams of lovely Nancy", a mountain with a castle, his beloved (who lives in the castle), a river, and a ship from the Indies. He ends by addressing all "streamers" (tin-miners washing ore?), saying he will write to his love, "For her rosy lips entice me, with her tongue she tells me 'No'/And a angel might direct us right, and where shall we go?"
KEYWORDS: love rejection lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West,South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd (The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs), p. 98, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 294-295, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart (Faber Book of Ballads), p. 149, "The Streams of lovely Nancy" (1 text)
SHenry H520, p. 259, "The Strands of Magilligan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOVNANCY* (erroneously titled "The Steams of Lovely Nancy" [this has been corrected-JRO])

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cursor Mundi" (14th century religious poem, sharing images)
cf. "The Ploughboy (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Streams of Nantsian
Faithful Emma
Notes: All versions of this song seem to be equally mysterious. Lloyd quotes A.G. Gilchrist as speculating, with evidence, that this song is actually a relic of a hymn to Mary. -PJS
Margaret Dean-Smith offers the speculation that "streams/streamers" refer not to flowing waters but to "streamers," who worked in tin mines. If that helps. - RBW
File: VWL098

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