Week After the Fair (I), The (Jock and Meg)

DESCRIPTION: Meg has no pity: John is hung over from drinking for a week at the fair with "dandy Katie" while she was left at home. John says Meg drinks also and carried on at home that week; he got her out of jail. He proposes they don't drink until New Year.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1843 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(295))
KEYWORDS: infidelity drink dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #7, p. 2, "Jock and Meg" (1 text fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 585, "Jock and Meg" (10 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #5162
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(295), "Week After the Fair" ("O John! what's this ye've done John?"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also 2806 c.14(34), Johnson Ballads 1678, 2806 c.14(183), Harding B 17(330a), "[The] Week After the Fair"
Murray, Mu23-y1:022, "The Week After The Fair," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(142b), "The Week After the Fair," unknown, c.1845; also L.C.Fol.178.A.2(111), "The Week After the Fair"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John and Meg
NOTES [152 words]: Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(142b): "This ballad is structured as an exchange of recriminations between a husband and wife while both are suffering from hangovers earned at their local agricultural fair. The local fair is a significant symbol of community in Scottish literature, and fairs are often portrayed as bawdy, drunken, knockabout occasions where prevailing notions of morality and respectability are forgotten."
Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(111): "This is the story of a couple who spent all their money and pawned most of their goods so that they could enjoy the Paisley fair to its full extent. Now the event is over, they are left quarrel about their decisions and behaviour but promise to start economising, but only until New Year! Both partners seem to have had romantic affairs during this period also, but they remain unconcerned about this as a couple." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3585

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