| Author | Topic: Add: A Beggin' I Will Go | |
| Ed | Posted - 25 Nov 02 - 08:11 pm | |
A Beggin' I Will Go Of all the trades in England The beggin' is the best For when a beggar's tired He can sit him down to rest Chorus: And a beggin' I will go And a beggin' I will go I've a bag for me oatmeal And another for me salt A little pair of crutches Tha should see how I can halt Me breeches thay are nobbut holes But me heart is free of care As long as I've a belly full Me arse it can go bare There's a bed for me where e'er I lie And I don't pay no rent I've got no noisy looms to mind And I am reet content I rest when I am tired I heed no master's bell A man would be mad to be a kong When beggars live so well I've a black patch on my fusti coat And another on my ee But when it comes to tuppeny ale I'll see as well as thee I've bin deef at Dunkinfield And I've bin blint at Shaw And many a reet and willin' lass I've bedded in the straw Source: Harding, M (1980) Folk Songs of Lancashire Manchester, Whitethorn Press Notes: Harding notes: A Lancashire version of a song that appears in Ireland as The Little Beggarman and in Scotland as Tae the Beggin' I Will Go. This version was collected from an old weaver in Delph called Becket Whitehead by Herbert Smith and Ewan McColl. Database entry is here | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 26 Nov 02 - 04:35 am | |
What "Little Beggarman" would the Irish version be? I'm being ignorant yet again but the only know is the one sung to "The Red Haired Boy" which I'm sure is completely unrelated. I know a Scottish version of this, got it from an old Alex Campbell recording. Very different tune... (total drift, must find the Joly Beggarman and seem to remember another - "Let the back and the sides...") Jon | ||
| Ed | Posted - 26 Nov 02 - 09:34 am | |
The Little Beggarman, presumably. Ed | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 27 Nov 02 - 05:07 pm | |
Sorry, looks like I forgot to reply. Thanks Ed. That is the song I thought was not related... Jon | ||
| Ed | Posted - 27 Nov 02 - 05:14 pm | |
No problem, Jon I'm no folk scholar, to say the least, but the relationship seems pretty tenuous to me too. Beyond, Of all the trades a going, sure the begging is the best For when a man is tired he can sit him down and rest and other ocassional phrases, they seem like completely different songs to me too. | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 27 Nov 02 - 06:25 pm | |
Roud 286. It appeared in Richard Brome's play A Jovial Crew, or, The Merry Beggars (1641); and has been current in tradition pretty well ever since. It was reprinted in Pills to Purge Melancholy (edn. of 1719-20) and on broadsides as (usually) The beggars chorus in The jovial crew. Examples can be seen at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads. No relation to The Little Beggarman (Roud 900), beyond a line or two early in some versions, it seems. | ||
| Ed | Posted - 27 Nov 02 - 08:48 pm | |
Thanks for the clarification, Malcolm. I had a feeling that Harding's book (notes anyway) would be problematic... Ed | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 19 Jan 03 - 07:05 pm | |
I have added the version referred to by Malcolm here, based on Roy Palmers' book, "The Sound of History". Edited By dmcg - 19/01/2003 19:08:43 | ||