Jack Sell Your Fiddle

DESCRIPTION: "'Jack, sell your fiddle and buy your wife a gown.' 'I wouldn't sell my fiddle for all the wives in town.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: music fiddle commerce
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 104, "Jack, sell your fiddle and buy your wife a gown" (1 short text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 267, "John, come sell thy fiddle" (1 text, filed under "Jacky, come give me thy fiddle")
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #91, p. 86, "(John, come sell thy fiddle)"
Roud #19623
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rattlin' Roarin' Willie" (lyrics)
NOTES [63 words]: There is disagreement over whether this is the original of "Rattlin' Roarin' Willie" or the reverse. Another interesting question is whether the earliest form has Jack/John sell his fiddle or give it away. My guess would be that "Jack/John come sell thy fiddle" is the earliest, because this could produce both "Rattlin' Roarin' Willie" and "John come give me thy fiddle." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC104A

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