Face on the Barroom Floor, The

DESCRIPTION: A drunk enters a bar; he tells his story in exchange for drink. He was a painter, but his girlfriend saw a portrait he was painting, and took up with the fellow, then died. The singer turned to drink; he offers to draw her face on the floor, and dies
AUTHOR: Hugh Antoine D'Arcy (1843?-1925)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (New York Dispatch, according to Gardner)
KEYWORDS: drink abandonment death love
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 21-24, "The Face on the Barroom Floor" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 126-127, "The Face on the Bar Room Floor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 82-84, "The Face on the Bar-room Floor" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 271-273, "The Face on the Barroom Floor" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp.46-50, "The Face on the Barroom Floor" (1 text)
Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 231-232, "The Face Upon the Floor" (1 text)
ST JHJ021 (Partial)
Roud #9123
RECORDINGS:
Harold Selman, "The Face on the Bar Room Floor, pts. 1 & 2" (OKeh 45249, 1928)
NOTES [104 words]: Originally titled "The Face Upon the Floor," this qualifies as a folk song only in the sense that certain sorts of people are very fond of quoting it. It has been widely published; Granger's Index to Poetry lists nine citations. Those with strong enough stomach to want to see other works by D'Arcy may consult his collection The Face Upon the Floor and Other Ballads, William G. Hewitt, 1912.
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 273-274, reprints an obituary of author D'Arcy. Don't ask me why, The one interesting thing it tells us is that D'Arcy did not earn royalties on the poem. It doesn't say why. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: JHJ021

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography