Lyr Req: Merrily Kissed the Quaker

Subject: Merrily Kissed the Quaker
From: GUEST,Mimsey
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 07:55 PM

Hi, folks, got another:

It's a fiddle tune, purportedly about the Quaker being off somewhere else, so when the Quaker's wife goes to church (maybe I have it backwards!) she merrily kisses somebody....?

"The Quaker's Wife" in the archives here has a strong resemblance to what I'm looking for, but the chorus substitutes "danced" where I think "kissed" ought to be; also, the story isn't what I was hoping to get.

I bet you guys know something!

Thanks,
Mimsey

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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merrily Kissed the Quaker
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 09:08 PM

Did you see the version in the thread of Nov. 1998? A short traditional version is to be published any day now in Vol. 8 of 'Then Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection'. {I have it, but can't divulge it prior to publication.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merrily Kissed the Quaker
From: IanC
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:31 AM

Hi

Being a Quaker, I've always had an interest in this song and the associated set of dance tunes, so I've done quite a lot of research over the years.

The song is apparently based in the idea that quakers, being actively pacifists, can't retaliate whatever you do to them and, being fundamentally puritans (at least in the late C17th and C18th) were disinclined to dance or take part in what they regarded as sexual activities in public (though early Quaker women danced naked in the streets in London, saying that - like Eve - they no longer needed clothes as they were in "The Kingdom").

I think there are more complete versions of the song than any I've seen here, but the original idea probably came from inventing words "and merrily danced the quaker's wife, and merrily danced the quaker" which fitted the original tune (rather like a lot of the nonsense words associated with dance tunes such as "shave the donkey" or "chase me charlie").

None of the songs are very good, nor have I ever heard them sung by anyone. There is a nursery rhyme called "The Baker's Wife" which has words similar to the first verse of "The Quaker's Wife" and may be the original of the song.

As far as I can gather, the original tune probably began life as an English or Scottish single jig called "Let Mary Live Long" and the song sung to it may have been a broadsheet called "The Quakers Wanton Wife". I can't find any more detailed information about this ballad so can't be sure it is the same one.

The tune "Merrily Danc'd The Quaker" seems to be known from 1755 at least. No reference to Quakers would be possible before about 1660 when they were given this nickname by an English judge. Also, it is unlikely that the song title originally came from Scotland as Quakers are comparatively rare there.

Quakers were hated intensely by the Presbyterians, who took over the official Scottish church ... so intensely that the English Presbyterians (who are now called "The Pilgrim Fathers") hanged Quakers in Massachusetts simply for being Quakers.

The Irish version of the tune is a double jig, 2 or 3 part. Since you can't sing the song to it, though it has the title, it seems near certain that it is derived from the simpler English/Scottish version.

"Kissed" or "Danced" in the song are, by the way, interchangeable.

If anyone has any further information or can correct anything I've said, I'll be very grateful.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merrily Kissed the Quaker
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 09:23 AM

Versions of "The Quaker's Wife" have been used for all manner of songs over the years; in the DT, see Robert Burns'  Nine Inch Will Please a Lady  for one such.  There are also a couple at the  Bodleian Library Broadside Collection:

Bailie Nicol Jarvie'[s] journey to Aberfoil, To the tune of: Quaker's wife
Mr. O'Muff's misfortunes; To the tune of: Merrily dance the Quaker's wife

"Let Mary Live Long" was specified as the tune for a great many broadsides, but the only version of that tune that I've seen, at Bruce Olson's  Tunes for 16 and 17th Century Broadside Ballads  doesn't seem to bear any particular resemblance to the "Quaker" family.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merrily Kissed the Quaker
From: radriano
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 10:35 AM

I have heard that the term "merrily kiss the Quaker" is a metaphor for drinking booze, specifically poteen. Anyone know about this?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merrily Kissed the Quaker
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 10:34 PM

Can anyone post me a copy of the lyrics of 'Merrily Kissed the Quaker' which tells the story of how Sir Henry Browne Hayes abducted Mary Pike the Quaker.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merrily Kissed the Quaker
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 12:00 AM

See  http://www.warrenfahey.com/eccentrics/sfp-17-sirhenry.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merrily Kissed the Quaker
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 06:17 AM

Is it also associated with Morris tunes? Quite a few Morris tunes and associated dances are introduced by the dances singing a verse. I guess this is to remind the musicians what tune they needed to play? Merrily Kissed the Quaker is one of these I think.

Cheers

L in C

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merrily Kissed the Quaker
From: GUEST,MV
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 07:59 AM

Early Quaker women dancing naked? Surely not. Are you sure that wasn't one of the other non-conformist groups like The Ranters? Anyone interested in Quakers this is a great resource:-

http://www.quaker.org/


MV

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merrily Kissed the Quaker
From: Paul Burke
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 07:53 PM

MV- if you're really interested in this, read the 1970s historian Christopher Hill. Just google, you'll get a whole library.

Yes, the Quakers were a political, rather would-be-violent, radical, Hippy-ish group before the defeat of the religious left in the Restoration.