Four Old Whores

DESCRIPTION: Two, three, or four whores, sometimes from Baltimore, Winnipeg, or Mexico, compare the size of their vaginas with extravagant boasts.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: bawdy bragging contest humorous lie nonballad whore
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England,Scotland) US(MA,MW,NE,NW,So,SE,SW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 6-11, "Four Old Whores" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 121-123, "Four Old Whores" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 28, pp. 167-168, "All Night Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 182, "You're a Liar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 1, "You're a Liar" (1 text)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 16, "Three Old Whores from Winnipeg" (1 text)
DT, OLDWHORE OLDWHOR2*
Roud #5666
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailors' Wives" (theme of comparison of body parts)
cf. "The Winnipeg Whore" (subject of Winnipeg Whores)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Three Old Whores
Three Old Whores from Mexico
Three Old Whores from Winnepeg
NOTES [83 words]: Technically, this is not a ballad in that it tells no story. The women merely top each other's boast. - EC
Legman, in The Horn Book (pp. 414-415) connects this with "A Talk of Ten Wives on their Husbands' Ware," which occurs in the Porkington manuscript of about 1460 and was published by Furnivall in 1871. On this basis he regards this as "the oldest surviving erotic folksong in English." But the only verse Legman quotes is clearly modern, so the identification must be considered unproved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM006

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