Gladly, the cross-eyed bear

Subject: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: masato sakurai
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 05:52 AM

This is a mondegreen of "gladly the cross I'd bear." The hymn containg the line is
KEEP THOU MY WAY. However, the line in question at the CyberHymnal is "Kept by Thy tender care, gladly the cross I'll bear." With which word is the hymn sung in church?

~Masato

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Mark Clark
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 09:19 AM

I remember my father, who grew up and attended church in a very small rural town, joking about the cross-eyed bear when I was very small. I think he must have sung it with I'd as a boy.

He used to say the population of that little community never grew because every time a baby was born, someone had to leave town.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Mark Clark
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 10:23 AM

I see others have capitalized on this well-known mondegreen. Jon Carroll believes Gladly is the most frequently mentioned of all mondegreens.

It's interesting that a Google search for “gladly-the-cross-i'd-bear” yields over two hundred hits, none of which identifies an actual hymn. All the links are references to the joke and mention a supposed hymn with the title “Gladly The Cross I'd Bear.” My guess is that the oft-quoted mondegreen makes reference to a hymn that doesn't exist by that title but seems as though it should. Masato's reference to the line in “Keep Thou My Way&rdequo; probably quotes the lyrics correctly. My dad probably picked up the joke along with everyone else and enjoyed telling it in the first person.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: masato sakurai
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 10:55 AM

Thank you, Mark. I searched for the original, but the hymn isn't found in any of my hymnals (I have more than 10). A song index says it is contained in Sankey et al.'s Sacred Songs, which I don't have. I know "the cross-eyed bear" is such a celebrity that Linda Causton wrote The Adventures of Gladly, the Cross-eyed Bear.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 11:50 AM

I thought it was 2gladly my cross I'd bear", but I don't know the source.
Giok

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Susan of DT
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 10:53 PM

(dick greenhaus here)
After this is settled, how about "Lead On, Thou Kinky Turtle"?

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Mark Clark
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 11:27 PM

Heh, heh. Dick, I liked that one.

I remember many years ago we got a note on stage requesting Father-In-Law. We were all puzzled and couldn't figure out what the fan was asking to hear. Our mandolinist stepped to the mic and explained that we had a request but couldn't decipher it and asked for a clarification. From the audience a voice shouted “You know… Father-in-law we'll know all about it…

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 12:11 AM

I really wish you'd stop using those fussy html tags that don't work in slightly older browsers. I can often barely read your messages for all the "“" and "”" tags liberally spread throughout the text. A simple """ does the job for both left and right quotes, and is pretty well universally readable. I wouldn't have mentioned it, though it's been annoying me for a long time, but that "…" was the last straw. I had to look it up in a manual. Why not just type in three periods, for heaven's sake?

Users of IE will have no idea what I am talking about; on the whole, though, it's best only to use html to express things that may not otherwise be consistently interpreted by different browsers; but only if the code is more reliable than the keyboard symbol. One of the first lessons in web design I learned was that, if a tag can't be relied upon to work uniformly, you don't use it.

Nothing personal; but you're about the only one round here who uses those tags, so I'm afraid you get the flak.

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Little Robyn
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 12:42 AM

My Mum used to say 'Gladly my cross-eyed bear' too. Maybe it's an antipodean thing???
Robyn

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Mark Clark
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 01:32 AM

Sorry, Malcolm. Which browser and version do you use? The entire ISO-8859-1 character set (commonly called Latin-1) is supported by HTML and has been for many years. Perhaps your browser simply hasn't implemented the associated entity names.

What does your browser render for the following?

“…”

Perhaps only the numeric codes are supported by your browser.

      - Mark

NB: Your Web experience will be enhanced by the use of a more current browser. If your Internet connection is too slow to make downloading a new one feasible, perhaps I can download a new one for you and mail it to you on a CD. Let me know by PM if you'd like that.

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 03:57 AM

The big horse song?

Big horse, big horse you're mine.

Giok

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Micca
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 06:01 AM

possibly only for UKers!! any "Perishers" fans will know that Baby Grumplins Teddy is called "Gladly", because "of that hymn we sometimes sing, Gladly my cross-eyed bear"

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 07:35 AM

The Perishers

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 11 Aug 03 - 07:01 AM

I thought Wellington's birthday was 25 Oct (same as the Duke of the same name)? Andwhen did he stop wearing that oversize bolwer with the eye-holes?

Steve

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Peterr
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 10:34 AM

Still can't work out father-in-law, but it may come to me in the wee small hours.
A friend once told me she can't listen to 'Sweet Thames Flow Softly' without imagining all those foggies creeping on the river. But then she was also puzzled by the line in 'Farewell to Tarwathie'

With our shipbumper full, we will homeward repair

She knew what a bumper on a car was, but...

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Mark Clark
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 02:27 PM

Here is a link to Father-In-Law in the Digital Tradition database.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: Burke
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 02:36 PM

I wonder if we're beginning to unearth some kind of folk myth here? The cross-eyed bear makes a good story & it sure seems like it must be the name of some hymn. In looking at my Google results I see references to the lyrics misheard from "Glady the cross I bear" and "Gladly the cross I'll bear" but my favorite is the one that says "that fine old hymn 'Gladly The Cross I'd Bear'" It looks to me like someone needs to write the hymn to provide the backstory.

father-in-law - Farther along (we'll know all about it)
Lead On, Thou Kinky Turtle - Lead on, O King Eternal

Subject: RE: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
From: marthabees
Date: 15 Aug 03 - 10:02 PM

Slight thread drift here....

I was accompanying a visiting soloist for church and could barely breath after awhile due to suppressing at first giggles, then laughter.

Her solo went thusly: Sea horse, sea horse, sea horse just now we spray........

(Seal us, seal us, seal us just now we pray......)

I'm afraid I've never been able to sing/play/hear that song with out that warble-y alto's voice running through my memory.

Martha in Tallahassee