Billy Barlow (II)

DESCRIPTION: William Barlow "come[s] before you with one boot and one shoe." He arouses the wonder of the girls, is given free entrance to the races, and is more unusual than any animal in the circus. He hopes some young lady will accept him as a beau
AUTHOR: Words: Sam Cowell (source: FolkSongAndMusicHall)
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (source: FolkSongAndMusicHall)
KEYWORDS: talltale courting clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 253-255, "Billy Barlow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beautiful-Bells-Songster, p. 19, "Mr. Billy Barlow" (1 text)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "Billy Barlow"
Roud #24161
NOTES [406 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety notes this as a comic song performed as far back as 1842, and popular enough to parody during the administration of Franklin Pierce (1853-1857). Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety also notes that Edgar Allen Poe refers to his ex-publisher as "Billy Barlow," implying that, by 1840, the name was already used for a buffoon.
Joy Hildebrand brings to my attention Sam Cowell (1820-1864), who performed as Billy Barlow. From the dates, it looks like Billy probably predates Cowell. But Hildebrand speculates that Cowell might have converted Billy into a character in the "Cutty Wren" type song "Billy Barlow (I)." So far, this is just speculation -- but it makes some sense.
Cowell was successful enough that a chapbook was printed, bearing the proud advertisement "SAM COWELL'S SONG-BOOK, Containing all his best Copyright Songs, for SIXPENCE." The songs listed on the cover include "The Ratcatcher's Daughter, Alonzo the Brave, Billy Barlow, Richard III, La Somnambula, Mazeppa, Aladdin, The Forty Thieves, The Merchand of Venice, Lord Lovel, Hamlet, and Othello. Evidently, when he wasn't playing Billy Barlow, he was parodying Shakespeare.
The Barlow character was certainly known in popular consciousness. There was a Civil War general by the name of Francis C. "Frank" Barlow. He was known as a ferocious disciplinarian, who gave little evidence that he was a competent officer in battle -- at the Battle of Gettysburg, e.g., he moved his division of the XI Corps to a position far in front of the rest of the Union line, where it was assaulted on all sides and ruined. The first day at Gettysburg was a disaster for the Union side, and while there were a lot of reasons for this, I think the singles most important one was Frank Barlow's handling of his division. Yet he continued to be employed, because senior officers liked the way he beat his soldiers into line. With the men, however, he was not at all popular. A man in Leopold von Gilsa's brigade of Barlow's division wrote this of him around the time of Gettysburg: "With Barlow banished to the Antipodes, our happiness would have been complete.... As a taskmaster he had no equal. The prospect of speedy deliverance from the odious yoke of Billy Barlow filled every heard with joy" (see Tagg: Larry Tagg, The Generals of Gettysburg: The Leaders of America's Greatest Battle, Da Capo Press, 1998, p. 126).
Last updated in version 7.1
File: Beld253

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