Struggle for the Breeches, The

DESCRIPTION: Husband: "You are inclin'd I now do find the breeches for to wear." Wife: "No, dear, not I, but I will die or I will have my share" They trade ("comic"?) insults without resolution.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Poet's Box broadside "Struggle For The Breeches," according to Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness accusation bragging dialog humorous nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1286, "The Struggle for the Breeches" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 268-271, "The Struggle for the Breeches" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 419)
Roud #1316
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.20(157), "The Struggle for the Breeches" ("About my wife I mean to sing a very comic song"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 16(262a), Firth c.26(237)[some illegible lines], "[The] Struggle for the Breeches"
Murray, Mu23-y4:026, "Struggle For The Breeches," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(45a), "Struggle for the Breeches," unknown, c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Britches" (theme) and references there
NOTES [133 words]: Greig/Duncan7 quoting Bell Robertson [1841-1922]: "That was a song that was thought funny when I was a girl." - BS
On August 27, 1591, Robert Bourne entered a ballad into the Stationer's Register entitled "A pleasant ballad of a combat between a man and his wyfe for the breches" (so Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), #323, p. 36). Similarly, Francis Grove on November 26, 1619 registered "A woman would weare the Bruhes" (sic.) (Rollins #3001, p. 257). The chronological gap is large enough that a direct connection between these and the modern song seems unlikely, but the title shows how old the general idea is. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: GrD71286

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