Nanny That Lives Next Door

DESCRIPTION: The singer takes Nan next door to "a wild beast show" where she is almost killed by a bear: it gets only the false bun of her hair. He proposes. She would prefer a man to a lad. He says he'd be her lad first and then her man. He's been happy with her.
AUTHOR: Joe Wilson (source: FolkSongAndMusicHall)
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (broadside "Nanny That Leeves Next Door," Poet's Box (Glasgow), according to Greig/Duncan4); FolkSongAndMusicHall dates it c. 1866
KEYWORDS: courting escape hair humorous animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 884, "Nanny That Lives Next Door" (2 texts)
Woods-KindFriendsLendAnEar, pp. 89-90, "Glasgow Nell" (1 text)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "Lass that leeves next door"
Roud #6137
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (tune)
NOTES [72 words]: This may not seem "humorous" but the intent is clearer from the chorus: "For she stole my heart while sittin and knittin' The time that I sat smokin' and spittin' And ever sin syne my heart's been a flittin' For Nannie that lives next door" (Greig/Duncan4 884A). - BS
The "wild beast show" motif seems to be rare outside the Greig/Duncan versions. I wonder if two songs have combined. But the humor in the music hall versions is clear.
Last updated in version 7.2
File: GrD3884

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