Mautman, The

DESCRIPTION: The mautman arrives to demand his pay, "or maut ye'll ne'er get mair." He says it is very good maut, but she complains of the"unruly crew" that "pierc'd my dochter's barrel." (The answer is that kissing is no sin, else so many would not do it.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: food seduction sex money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XXIX, pp. 86-88, "The Mautman" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (Robert Forrester, Glasgow 2-volume reprint of the 14th edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 100 "The Malt-Man" (1 text)
Roud #5508
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kissing's No Sin (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Behave Yoursel' Before Folk" (theme of avoiding public kissing)
NOTES [108 words]: The Kinloch text of this song seems to be composite; the first part is an argument about seducing an auld wife's daughter, in very irregular meter. It then breaks into a much more regular section stating that "some say kissing's a sin, but I think it's nane ava, For kissing has been in the world When there was but only twa."
The first part is all that is found in Ramsey.
Ewan MacColl has a fragment, "Kissing's No Sin," with only that second part, followed by a part about how lawyers and others go kissing. The latter also appears in "The Hog-Tub." The nature of the dependence is not clear to me given the small number of texts I've seen. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: KinBB29

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