Sleepy Merchant, The

DESCRIPTION: The merchant comes calls for a bed and a girl. She gives him a sleeping drug. The next night, he pours out the drug and sleeps with her, but does not leave the gift he promised. Later, he arrives to find her pregnant and gives her his hand in marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The merchant comes to an inn and calls for a bed and a girl. She gives him a sleeping drug, and arises a maiden. The next night, he pours out the drug and sleeps with her, promising her a fine plaid. When he departs, she finds no plaid and curses him. Twenty weeks later, he arrives to find her pregnant. He gives her the plaid and his hand in marriage, and they live happily.
KEYWORDS: sex drugs drink pregnancy trick clothes reunion marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook II, pp. 4-11, "The Sleepy Merchant" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1498, "The Sleepy Merchan'" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #7164
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" [Child 43] (plot)
cf. "Bonny Glasgow Green" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Pedlar's Wife
NOTES [145 words]: Child mentions this song in his notes to "The Broomfield Hill," but writes it off as "a modern ballad" perhaps based on an Italian story.
I allow the possibility; "The Sleepy Merchant" seems a rather disjointed piece, with the first part being a tale of how the girl tricked the merchant into not sleeping with her (as in "The Broomfield Hill") and the second being your standard seduction-pregnancy-and-return sort of song, as in, e.g. "The Broom of Cowdenknows." But the piece feels more traditional than literary, so I've tentatively included it in the Index even though I've never seen its like. - RBW
Greig/Duncan7 1498A provides motivation missing in Kinloch: "A wager wi' him she did lay ... That she wad sleep a nicht wi' him And rise a maid again." There is also a bet in Child 43B "that a maid sha nae go to yon bonny green wood And a maiden return again." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: KinBB02

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