Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)

Subject: Lyr Add: LISTON'S BEAUTIFUL MAID
From: pavane
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 08:04 AM

Another cat song, but this one is distinctly fishy. Sorry, I don't yet have a tune, and even if we find one to the original Beautiful Maid, it wouldn't fit! Maybe someone knows the answer.

LISTON'S BEAUTIFUL MAID - A POPULAR BURLESQUE PARODY
(Harry Liston) c1820

A fisherman once told me, his souls were too dear
So I fix'd on a beautiful maid
For salmon and shrimps 'twas the wrong time of year
Then I took home my beautiful maid
Here, cook, dress my beautiful maid
Don't spoil it but let it be well done
And I'll dine on my beautiful maid

An ugly black cat observ'd where my tit bit was laid
Fix'd her eyes on my prize, the beautiful maid
And the long-whisker'd thief, while the cook turn'd her back
Ran away with my beautiful maid
Yes, she claw'd up my beautiful maid
Yes, she swore at my beautiful maid
O! pussey, you hussey oh ! what have you done
You've eat up my beautiful maid

Source : Bodleian Ballad Library

I presume that there must be a type of fish which was once called a maid? Otherwise none of it would make sense!

This is apparently a parody of another song on the same slip

THE BEAUTIFUL MAID
(Words, T. Dibdin. Music, J. Braham.)

When absent from her, whom my soul holds most dear,
What medley of passions invade!
In this bosom what anguish, what hope, and what fear,
I endure for my beautiful maid.

In vain I seek pleasure to lighten my grief,
Or quit the gay throng for the shade;
Nor retirement, nor solitude yield me relief,
When away from my beautiful maid.

NHJ

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 11:41 AM

Does anyone know what kind of fishy dish was "a beautiful maid"? Clearly not a Sole, shrimp or salmon.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 11:43 AM

mermaid?
RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: MMario
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 11:55 AM

Alewife?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 12:51 PM

I'm not sure this is the one because I don't know its words or music, but let me tell you. F. Brunnings' Folk Song Index says that there is one song of the same title "The Beautiful Maid" in the songbook *The Musical Gem* (3 vols. in one). Possibly the music is there.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 03:15 PM

MMario – a maid is not a wife!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: MMario
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 03:26 PM

not if hubby is doing his job, no...

okay - according to the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey - a "Fair Maid" is a SCUP which is a STENOTOMUS CHRYSOPS, also known as a Porgy

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: pavane
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 04:10 PM

See - I knew it was a fish

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:29 PM

Not a bad catch, MMario. I wonder what they look like, a modest blushing pink?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: pavane
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 05:14 AM

In Britain, SCUD is another name for the 'horse mackerel' According to this page, Fair Maid at the Exploding Dictionary, a Fair Maid is the European Pilchard, when dried. (Clupea pilchardus)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: pavane
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 05:16 AM

Oh - is see, SCUP is a US fish. (not Scud!). I think the song is likely to be about the UK variety though!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 09:18 AM

The original song would be Thomas Dibdin's THE BEAUTIFUL MAID; you can see sheet music at The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music:

THE BEAUTIFUL MAID. A Favourite Ballad  Words by T. Dibdin, music by J. Braham.  "As sung by Mr. Braham at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden in the Comic Opera of The Cabinet."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: pavane
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 10:53 AM

Thanks Malcolm. And I never did get a reply from my Email to Levy about My Johnny was a Shoemaker. Why do people give contact email addresses when they don't intend to reply? In contrast, Mike Heaney at the Bodley Library has been very helpful.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: pavane
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 10:57 AM

Looking at the sheet music, it WOULD fit. All the text copies I have seen for Beautiful Maid leave out the repeated lines which are shown in the score!

So if anyone would like to transcribe the tune to abc or MIDI format, we will have the tune as well. Another Result!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 11:24 AM

I've found the original "Beautiful Maid" in a songkook: J.L. Hatton & Eaton Faning, eds., Songs of England, vol. 2 (Boosey & Hawkes, n.d., p. 90). Words and melody are the same as those of the one in the Levy Collection; piano arrangement is very similar but not exactly the same. The composer is "Braham," while there is no mention of the lyricist (just a blank).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 02:17 PM

This is the way the verses were sung in the Dibdin/ Braham song:

When absent from her my soul, my soul holds most dear
What Medley of passions, what Medley of passions invade
In this bosom, what anguish, what hope and what fear
I endure for my beautiful Maid
I endure for my beautiful Maid
I endure for my beautiful Maid
In this bosom what anguish, what hope and what fear
I endure for my beautiful Maid
I endure for my beautiful Maid.

Thomas Dibdin (1771-1841) was an illegitimate son of the entertainer and songwriter Charles Dibdin (who wrote Tom Bowling et al.)  He was extremely prolific, having apparantly written some two hundred operas and plays and over two thousand songs; many, like this one, long forgotten.

John Braham (properly, Abraham), 1774-1856, was a renowned tenor and composer, The Death of Nelson being one of his most successful pieces.

It seems unlikely that either this song or its parody ever made it into tradition, or lasted long there if they did.  For what it's worth, I've made a midi from the notation at Levy, which, until it gets to the  Mudcat Midi Pages,  can be heard via the  South Riding Folk Network  site:

My Beautiful Maid

One verse only; I have not transcribed the accompaniment.  In one or two places the image is too indistinct to be absolutely certain of the note values, so there may be one or two small inaccuracies.  In one bar I have omitted a long run of grace-notes which the midi-writing software won't fit in without considerable messing about; I don't feel inclined to spend that much time on it.  The song is fast-paced, so the midi is set to run at 75 rather than 100.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Liston's Beautiful Maid (a cat song)
From: pavane
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 05:00 PM

I only posted it as a 'cat' song! But this has been interesting. Thanks Malcolm