Thirty Bright Guineas Was to Be Your Fee

DESCRIPTION: "Thirty bright guineas was to be your fee, Right fal de diddle al de diddle dee; Other thirty and married ye shall be Wi' your firl a tirl a right Fal de diddle al de diddle dee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: marriage money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1791, "Thirty Bright Guineas Was to Be Your Fee" (1 fragment)
Roud #12993
NOTES [214 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
A real stretch. Is this couplet all that's left of "The Old Man Outwitted," a broadside "supposed by Mr Halliwell to date about the middle of the eighteenth century," [Leigh] which has the same general plot outline as "The Old Miser." That broadside includes the following lines: "'Here's thirty bright guineas I'll freely give thee If you can contrive to take him to sea" [lines 49, 50], "And that very minute you bring her to town, That moment I will pay thee five hundred pound. Nay that is not all, for to finish the strife, I'll freely agree for to make her your wife" [lines 131-134]; all lines are spoken by the old man but the first lines are spoken to the sea captain paid to arrange the impressment of the hero, while the second are spoken to the hero to arrange for the rescue from supposed impressment of the daughter.
See Egerton Leigh, editor, Ballads and Legends of Chesire (London, 1867 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 66-74, "The Old Man Outwitted"; Broadsides Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(31a), "The Fortunate Lover" or "The Old Man Out-Witted" ("Let all loyal lovers which around me do stand"), Diceys or Marshall (London), no date; also Harding B 3(77), "The Fortunate Lover" or "The Old Man Out-Witted" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81791

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