John Dory [Child 284]

DESCRIPTION: John Dory gets a horse and sets out for Paris. There he meets King John. He offers to bring King John "all the churles in merie England" in return for a pardon. Dory is overtaken by one Nicholl of Cornwall, who takes him prisoner after a sharp battle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft, Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: ship royalty pardon battle foreigner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1350-1364 - Reign of John II of France (the only French king named John who lived during the Hundred Years' War)
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 284, "John Dory" (1 text)
Bronson 284, "John Dory" (7 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 284, "John Dory" (4 versions: #1a, #1b, #1e, #2)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 1, "John Dory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 1, "John Dory" (1 text, 1 tune; from Chappell; #1 in the first edition)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 133, "John Dory" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 67-68, "John Dory" (1 text plus excerpts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1c}
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 93-96, "John Dory" (1 text, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #1d, #3, #1c}
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 197-199, "John Dory" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed_, _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822, (available on Google Books) No. IX/p. 8, "The Courteous Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822, (available on Google Books) No. I/p. 1, "John Dory" (1 text, 1 tune)
C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 16, "John Dory" (1 text)
ST C284 (Full)
Roud #249
NOTES [180 words]: In addition to the citation from Ravenscroft, we find a reference to this song in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle; Act II, scene iv, line 35 reads, "Would I had gone to Paris with John Dory" (so Wine, p. 327; KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, who does not number the scenes, makes it Act II, line 247 on p. 92; KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, makes it Act II, line 241 on p. 45). (For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men.")
Fowler, p. 32, points out that Child's presentation somewhat misrepresents Ravenscroft's tune, in which all the lines are repeated, i.e.
As it fell on a holy-day (As it fell on a holy-day), holy-day,
And upon a holy tide-a (And upon a holy-tide-a), tide-a,
John Dory bought him an ambling nag (John Dory bought him an ambling nag), ambling nag....
There is a fish, Latin name Zeus astralis, informally known as the "John Dory." It is apparently carnivorous, approaching its prey cautiously and colored so as to resemble seaweed. I do not know if the name is in any way connected with this song. - RBW
Bibliography

Fowler: David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968
KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway: Francis Beaumont, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, edited by Michael Hattaway, New Mermaids, 1969; second edition, 2002 (I use the 2013 paperback edition)
KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner: Francis Beaumont, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, edited by Sheldon P. Zitner, The Revels Plays, 1984 (I use the 2004 Manchester University Press edition)
Wine: M. L. Wine, editor, Drama of the English Renaissance, Modern Library, 1969

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C284

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