I Am a Friar of Orders Grey

DESCRIPTION: "I am a friar of orders grey, And down the valley I take my way, I pull not blackberry.... Good store of venison fills my scrip. My long bead-roll I merrily chant, Wherever I go no money I want." The friar lives a better life than baron or knight
AUTHOR: John O'Keeffe (1747-1833) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (various Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: clergy food money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 167-168, "I am a friar of orders grey" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 348-349, "The Friar of Orders Grey"
Roud #13782
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 862, "Holy Friar," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 16(113b), "The holy friar," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Johnson Ballads 526, "The holy friar," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Firth c.26(44), "The holy friar" J. Cadman and H. Andrews (Manchester/Leeds), 1850-1855; also Firth b.25(595/596), "The Holy Friar," W. Oroyno (Nottingham), n.d.; also Harding B 11(2992), "Holy Friar," unknown, n.d.; also Firth b.26(436), "The Holy Friar," Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850; also Harding B 18(247), "Holy Friar, a humorous song," G. S. Harris (Philadelphia), n.d.
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Holy Friar
NOTES [189 words]: This strikes me as a real curiosity: A song about friars which was very popular in the broadside press -- at a time when the Catholic Church was still the subject of widespread distrust in England.
The Grey Friars were the Franciscans, whose rule was less strict than, say, the Benedictines or Carthusians. So it makes some sense that this merry monk was a Franciscan.
There is a piece, "The Friar of Orders Gray," in Percy's Reliques (Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 242-246). It is not this, though there might well be some cross-suggestion.
Thomas G. Duncan, editor, Late Medieval English Lyrics and Carols 1400-1530, Penguin Books, 2000, #142, p. 171, "Ther was a frier of order gray, Inducas, Who loved a nonne full meny a day" is almost certainly unrelated.
Shakespeare, "Taming of the Shrew" IV.i, lines 145-146 or so, quotes "It was a friar of orders grey, As he forth walked on his way." There is no way to tell what piece it refers to. That doesn't appear to be a citation of either song, though it might be another allusion. It has some similarities to the Percy piece; Percy would link them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: KSUC167B

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