Rap At The Door, A

DESCRIPTION: A rake visits a girl but his reputation as womanizer has preceded him. He gets no sympathy from her for a supposed injury. She says her parents would beat her if she introduced him. She will not be his next victim. He feels slighted but not heart-broken.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: courting dialog humorous nightvisit father mother rake
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 363-364, "Indifference" or "A Rap at the Door" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #139, pp. 1-2, "Rap at the Door" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 780, "Open the Door" (3 fragments, 3 tunes)
ST GrD4780 (Partial)
Roud #6124
NOTES [114 words]: Greig: "We have at one time or another got bits of this song along with a record of the tune; but in default of a complete copy we have fallen back on the version given in Logan's Pedlar's Pack of Ballads."
This ballad shares the text, but not the meaning, of the following lines with "A-Growing" [Laws O35]: "The trees are high, the leaves are green, The days are past that we have seen." In this song the woman sings these lines gleefully.
The insults to the rake in the text are not sufficiently hinted at in the description. For example, "O young man, I value you not, Altho' the hangman had your coat ... And yourself in a bottomless boat, With the Devil to row you ashore." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4780

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