Pig and a Posset o' Whey, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer, it seems, would poison her husband, Arthur o' Broadley, with a witch's brew. She wants to be a widow. She likes "the yellow haired lad." Expensive meal will be cheap again and she won't mind if "farmers a' may hang themselves"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: farming poison humorous nonballad husband wife youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1706, "A Pig and a Posset o' Whey" (1 text)
Roud #13525
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dear Meal's Cheap Again" (one verse; see the note below)
NOTES [103 words]: The verse, "The dear meal will be cheap again; The dear meal will be cheap again, The Farmers may go hang themselves; The dear meal will be cheap again" dates back at least to 1813. It is embedded in a medley in W. Beattie, Buchan Poetry. Fruits of Time Parings (Aberdeen, 1873 (Reprint of the 1813 edition ("Digitized by Google"))), p. 63). See "The Ports Are Open" for a discussion of grain prices after the Napoleonic wars. - BS
I'd love to know how getting rid of farmers would lower grain prices. I suppose the claim is that they are jacking up prices, but historically, it has rarely happened that way.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81706

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