Betrothed, The

DESCRIPTION: "Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout, For... Maggie and I are out." "Maggie, my wife at fifty -- grey and dour and old -- With never another Maggie to purchase...." "A woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.
AUTHOR: Words: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Pioneer/Pioneer Mail, according to The Kipling Society web site)
KEYWORDS: wife rejection drugs
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 171, "Maggie my wife at fifty" (1 fragment)
Roud #25410
NOTES [50 words]: Observe that this was written when Kipling was less than half way to the age of fifty, so he had no personal experience of whether it was worthwhile to stay with a woman until she reached that age. Whether it is funny or not probably depends on how much tobacco has rotted your lungs (and head). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC171B

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