Cobbler's Jig, The

DESCRIPTION: A cobbler proposes to Kate. When she rejects him he sets his journey man and boys a mending, he drowns his sorrow at the ale house.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (source: Frank-JollySailorsBold); the tune is older
KEYWORDS: courting rejection commerce drink bachelor
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Frank-JollySailorsBold 122, "The Cobbler's Jig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 277-278, "The Cobbler's Jigg" (1 tune, with the text starting "Cold's the wind and wet's the rain")
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, "The Cobbler's Jig" (1 tune)
Roud #837
NOTES [176 words]: The chorus is
"Besides my all and my derry derry down, Besides my all and my dear o, With my ring ting ting ting A toodle doodle ding dong O she was but mr dear O"
"This folksong text has not been encountered in any other manifestation .... Miraculously, it seems to be the long-lost lyrics of an early 17th-century song, 'The Cobbler's Jig.' ... Almost two centuries after the (sic.) Playford introduced the air to print in England, Chappell evidently wanted to reunite the words and music of 'The Cobbler's Jig' in his Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time (published 1855), but reports that he was unable to do so because he did not know and could not find the English lyrics" (Frank-JollySailorsBold p. 259). - BS
I must confess to being less than convinced that these are actually the words of the song Playford printed. When confronted with "miraculous" preservation, one must always wonder if it is "preservation" or reconstruction!
Steve Roud has a number of texts for this tune, but I believe most of them are a different text. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: FJSB122

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