She Was Poor But She Was Honest (I)

DESCRIPTION: A mock lament in which the village maid seduced goes to London to become a prostitute. While her customers prosper, she becomes a pox-ridden streetwalker burdened with piles. The moral: the rich takes their pleasures while the poor get the blame.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous sex children poverty hardtimes disease
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(SW)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 128-132, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest I" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 69-70, "She was Poor, but She was Honest" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 162-163, "It's the Syme the Whole World Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 108, "She Was Poor, But She Was Honest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 200-201, "It's The Syme the Whole World Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 15-16, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 27, "It's The Syme The Whole World Over" (1 text)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 88-80, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest" (1 text, which appears to have been updated to reflect more recent British conditions)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 56-58, "It's the Sime the 'Ole World Over" (2 texts, 1 tune; the first a fairly normal version, the second an adaption in which Joe Johnson murders Sally Carter)
cf. FolkSongAndMusicHall, "She was poor but she was honest"
DT, SYMEOVR5*
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 62-63, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9621
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Was Poor But She Was Honest (II)" (tune & meter)
cf. "It's the Sime the 'Ole World Over (II)" (tune)
NOTES [195 words]: The Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag text is described as "fortified in part by H.L Mencken and a contributor to The American Mercury."
Waites & Hunter say, "This is probably one of the most successful anonymous songs in the world. The tune repeats throughout the verses and the chorus, and is therefore exceptionally easy to pick up."
Jon Roche points out to me that Maurice Disher wrote (on p. 46 of "Victorian Song") that he first heard an "unprintable" song with the "She was poor but she was honest" line before any of the collections cited here. "My memories of it belong to the Grey Brigade of London volunteers after the South African War." But I can't use that as a date, partly because Disher is imprecise as to date and partly because I can't prove it's the same song.
The famous songwriting team of R. P. Weston and Bert Lee (for whom see "Goodbye-ee") rewrote this song to be clean enough for the music hall stage. I could argue either way about whether it's the same song. But I don't think the rewrite is really traditional -- that is, I don't think traditional singers would distinguish it from its dirtier ancestors. So I'm not going to try to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: EM128

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