Proud Pedlar, The

DESCRIPTION: A pedlar offers his pack of gold to sleep with a lady. She accepts. He asks her to return his pack. She refuses. He tells her husband he had borrowed her mortar to grind spice with his pestle and she kept his Pack. The husband has her return it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1750 (_Roxburghe Ballads, v. iii p. 656, according to Farmer)
KEYWORDS: adultery sex gold husband wife commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 265, "The Pedlar" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Stephen Farmer, editor, Merry Songs and Ballads, Prior to the Year 1800 (1897), Vol I, pp. 247-250, "The Proud Pedlar"
Roud #5852
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cluster of Nuts" (theme: cuckolded husband settles dispute/bet between his wife and her lover)
NOTES [11 words]: The sexual symbolism of mortar and pestle grinding spice is clear. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD265

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