What was the Bonny Blue Bell?

Subject: What was the Bonny Blue Bell?
From: Lesley N.
Date: 22 Apr 00 - 08:19 AM

Cecil Sharp collected "The Sign of the Bonny Blue Bell" in Somerset in 1903. It's related to "I'm going to be married on Sunday" and Kennedy relates it to "Next Monday Morning." I've looked for information on The Bonny Blue Bell and haven't found anything. Mary in Kentucky pointed out that "The sign of the blue bell" also appears in The Blue Bells of Scotland (the line is "He dwelt in merry Scotland at the sign of the Blue Bell.") Anyone have additional information - was it a place (am I alone in thinking this sounds like a "House of the Rising Sun?", an allegory???

Here are the words. The lyrics and midi and more info are at At the Sign of the Bonny Blue Bell (http://www.contemplator.com/england/bluebell.html)

At the Sign of the Bonny Blue Bell

As I was a walking one morning in May
To view the green fields and the meadows so gay,
I heard a fair damsel so sweet she did sing
O I will be married on a Tuesday morning
I heard a fair damsel so sweet did she sing;
O I will be married on a Tuesday morning.

I stepped up to her and thus I did say:
Pray where do you come from and what is your age?
I belong to the sign of the Bonny Blue Bell;
My age is sixteen-which you know very well.
I belong to the sign of the Bonny Blue Bell;
My age is sixteen-which you know very well.

Sixteen, pretty maid, you are young for to marry.
I'll leave you the other four years for to tarry.
You speak like a man without any skill;
Four years I've been single against my own will.
You speak like a man without any skill;
Four years I've been single against my own will.

On Monday night when I shall go there
To powder my locks and to curdle my hair,
There'll be three pretty maidens for me a-waiting;
o I will be married on a Tuesday morning.
There'll be three pretty maidens for me a-waiting;
O I will be married on a Tuesday morning.

On a Tuesday morning the bells they shall ring,
And three pretty maidens so sweetly shall sing:
So neat and so gay will be my golden ring.
O I will be married on a Tuesday morning.
So neat and so gay will be my golden ring.
O I will be married on a Tuesday morning.

Subject: RE: What was the Bonny Blue Bell?
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Apr 00 - 10:45 AM

An Inn. It's also in an earlier version of "The Blue Bells of Scotland"

Subject: RE: What was the Bonny Blue Bell?
From: Lesley N.
Date: 22 Apr 00 - 01:08 PM

Of course I figured it was at least an inn - though I was also thinking something more nefarious like a brothel. It's the phrase "I belong to the sign of the Bonny Blue Bell" that bothers me. I don't think of servants as "belonging" - except in relation to indentured servitude - which would be an American phenomenon and 1850 (the date it was printed) would be too late for that as well. However, "belonging" could have been a common phrase for working some where, so I could be making more of it than I should.

I am looking for more specifics as well - anyone suggestions as to where it is located?

Subject: RE: What was the Bonny Blue Bell?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 22 Apr 00 - 01:27 PM

No specifics, I'm afraid, but to say you "belonged" to a place really just meant that you lived there.  The text doesn't seem to me to suggest a brothel at all.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: What was the Bonny Blue Bell?
From: Sourdough
Date: 22 Apr 00 - 03:45 PM

I do so love the Oxford Unabridged Dictionary:

I looked up "belong". As has been suggested, it does not imply "ownership" necessarily.

"To be connected with in various relations; to form a part or appendage of; e.g. to be a member of a family, society, or nation, to be an adherent or dependent of, to be a native or inhabitant of a place;..."

An example that the editors give that seems to be from what I guess would be roughly contemporaneous with the song is this Shakespearean use of "belong".

1613 — Hen. VIII, v. iv. 3 Good M. Porter, I belong to th' Larder.

Perhaps this helps.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: What was the Bonny Blue Bell?
From: Lesley N.
Date: 22 Apr 00 - 06:10 PM

Thanks for the clarification! Would have made a good story though!

Subject: RE: What was the Bonny Blue Bell?
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 25 Apr 00 - 02:15 AM

The curious thing to me is that this song with this "Bonny Blue Bell" was collected so long after song "Bonnie Blue Flag"--the name is such a distinctive one that one can't help but to think that it is an allusion to "Bonny Blue Bell"--the melody is similar, as well--

Subject: RE: What was the Bonny Blue Bell?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 25 Apr 00 - 04:02 PM

Now I am confused!

In the song, The Bluebells (or Blue Bells) of Scotland, I had always thought bluebells was one word and referred to the beautiful wildflower (bluebell) that's blooming now. I've seen both one word and two words for the title of the song.

Besides the words that Lesley quotes above which say at the sign of the blue bell, there are these words: He dwelt in bonnie Scotland where bloom the sweet bluebells - from Barry Taylor's Tunebook at Lesley's site.

Then another instance of the bluebell flower is: Around us for gladness the bluebells were springing - from The Ash Grove at the DT.

So it appears to me that The Bluebells (or Blue Bells) of Scotland has two titles and at least two sets of lyrics. Bluebell as one word seems to be a flower. When written as two words, maybe it's an inn. And maybe that's where the word "sign" comes in.

I'd love to hear more definitive answers, but in the meantime, I'll always think of the bluebells I got from my grandmother's garden.

Mary

Subject: RE: What was the Bonny Blue Bell?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 11:13 PM

The text of "The Sign of the Bonny Blue Bell" which is related to the "I'm going to be married on Sunday" and "Sixteen on Sunday" appears to be also related in a round about way to "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss". In that thread a version by Rich R has the "bonnie blue" lyric in it.

The subject is related and appears in Dr. Joyce's- Ancient Irish Music No. 17. The words of "The Sign of the Bonny Blue Bell" appear in a braod side circa 1850.

Subject: RE: What was the Bonny Blue Bell?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 28 Aug 02 - 12:29 AM

I'm Going to be Married Next Sunday (or, often, Monday Morning) is Number 579 in the Roud Folk Song Index. As for broadside editions, there are several copies at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads; for example:

I shall be married on Monday morning Printed c.1845 by Williamson of Newcastle: Harding B 11(1654). No "Blue Bell" to be seen in it, though; maybe it's in others.

I'd forgotten all about this old thread. Sixteen Come Sunday / Fly Around My Little Miss, isn't really related, incidentally.