Origins:Aboot the Bush Willy/About the Bush Willie

Subject: Lyr Add: ABOOT/ABOUT THE BUSH WILLY/WILLIE
From: Conrad Bladey (Peasant- Inactive)
Date: 04 Mar 00 - 09:18 AM

a cute one....

Aboot the Bush Willy

Aboot the bush., Willy,
Aboot the beehive,
Aboot the bush, Willy,
I'll meet the, belive;

Then to my ten shillings
Add you but a groat,
I'll go to Newcastle
And buy a new coat.

Five and five shillings,
Five and a crown,
Five and five shillings
Will buy a new gown.

Five and five shillings,
Five and a groat,
Five and five shillings
Will buy a new coat.

image
 

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Aboot the Bush Willy the real one!
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Mar 00 - 02:45 PM

Murray on Saltspring contributed the text and notes to DT several years ago. (About the bush, Willie)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Aboot the Bush Willy the real one!
From: Conrad Bladey (Peasant- Inactive)
Date: 05 Mar 00 - 11:47 AM

people should use the actual titles rather than translating them into the kings english the reason being that in the sources that is how they are spelled. If you want to translate a title from dialect use () as an alt title. This makes cross referencing easier.

Conrad

Subject: RE: Origins:Aboot the Bush Willy/About the Bush Willie
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Feb 12 - 06:45 PM

Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

About the Bush, Willy

DESCRIPTION: "Aboot the bush, Willy, aboot the bee-hive, Aboot the bush, Willy, I'll meet thee belyve." "Then to my ten shillings Add you but a groat; I'll go to Newcastle And buy a new coat." The singer describes the prices of clothing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (Bruce/Stokoe)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stokoe/Reay, p. 97, "Aboot the Bush, Willy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #240, pp. 153-154, "(About the bush, Willy)"
DT, BUSHWILI
Roud #3149
File: StoR097

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Subject: RE: Origins:Aboot the Bush Willy/About the Bush Willie
From: GUEST,999
Date: 10 Feb 12 - 01:38 PM

"groat - an old silver four-penny coin from around 1300 and in use in similar form until c.1662, although Brewer states in his late 1800s revised edition of his 1870 dictionary of slang that 'the modern groat was introduced in 1835, and withdrawn in 1887', which is somewhat confusing. Presumably there were different versions and issues of the groat coin, which seems to have been present in the coinage from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Very occasionally older people, students of English or History, etc., refer to loose change of a small amount of coin money as groats. Sadly the word is almost obsolete now, although the groat coin is kept alive in Maundy Money. The word derives from Middle English and Middle Dutch 'groot' meaning 'great' since this coin was a big one, compared to a penny. The similar German and Austrian coin was the 'Groschen', equivalent to 10 'Pfennigs'. The word can actually be traced back to Roman times, when a 'Denarius Grossus' was a 'thick penny' (equivalent)."

Subject: RE: Origins:Aboot the Bush Willy/About the Bush Willie
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Aug 22 - 05:10 PM

This song can be found in:

John Bell, Rhymes of Northern Bards: Being a Curious Collection of Old and New Songs and Poems, Peculiar to the Counties of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, and Durham. (Newcastle upon Tyne: John Bell, M. Angus & Son, 1812), page 240.

Only the spelling is different:

About the bush Willy,
About the bee hive,
About the bush Willy,
I'll meet thee alive.

Etc.

Also in

James Orchard Halliwell, ed., The Nursery Rhymes of England: Obtained Principally from Oral Tradition, 2nd edition (London: John Russell Smith, 1843), page 178.