Heart that Can Feel for Another, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer and Jack Steadfast were messmates who "plough'd half the world ... and many hot battles encountered." Like all seamen, they are "determined to stand by each other"
AUTHOR: W Upton (?) (source: Frank-JollySailorsBold)
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (_The Universal Songster or Museum of Mirth_, vol. 1)
KEYWORDS: virtue battle travel sea ship nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Frank-JollySailorsBold 183, "The Heart that Can Feel for Another" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _The Universal Songster or Museum of Mirth_, vol. 1 (London: John Fairburn, 1825 (available on Google Books)), pp. 240-241, "The Heart That Can Feel for Another" ("Jack Steadfast and I were both messmates at sea") (1 text)
J.E. Carpenter, _The Book of Popular Songs_ (London: G. Routledge & Co., 1858 (available on Google Books)), p. 18, "The Heart That Can Feel for Another" ("Jack Steadfast and I were both messmates at sea") (1 text)
Roud #13785
NOTES [298 words]: "Folk process" and comparative line by line analysis of texts
Frank's text -- compared to Carpenter and Universal Songster is a good place to start if you are interested in "the folk process." Most lines are changed without affecting the meaning. Frank discusses some of that but takes most of the changes for granted. (Frank-JollySailorsBold p. 383). The question, when comparing versions of text is, "when are two lines to be considered 'the same'"?
For example, the print line "And plough'd half the world o'er together" becomes, in Frank, "And had sailed half this wide world together"; I consider those lines "the same."
However, the third of the last four lines printed as
"For sailors, pray mind me tho' strange kind of fish, / Love the girls just as dear as their mother; / And, what's more, they love, what I hope you all wish, / 'Tis the heart that can feel for another."
which Frank has as
"For sailors you know though green kinds of fish / Love the girls as dear as their mother / And the toast that we give is toast that we all wish / Is the heart that can feel for another"
is not so clear to me. I have no problem with the first two and fourth lines being "the same," but the third line introduces a new element: the "toast."
If I am analyzing versions of this song, and comparing them to other songs, is that third line still typical of "The Heart that Can Feel For Another"? Not for me.
If that intrigues you look at the discussion of sources in the NOTES for "Young Riley." In that song, and its descendants, the last line of the first verse may say that the courted woman "appeared to me like some angel bright," or "appeared like the queen of May," or "appeared to me like a lily fair." Each of those lines leads to its own major variation of the song. - BS
Last updated in version 7.0
File: FJSB183

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography