Why Don't the Boys Propose?

DESCRIPTION: "Why don't the boys propose, Mother, Why don't the boys propose? Here I am nearly twenty-one, Why don't...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong), but see NOTES
KEYWORDS: courting rejection mother | proposal
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 209, "Why Don't the Boys Propose" (1 fragment)
Roud #5250
NOTES [144 words]: Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong connects this song with Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 20, "Why don't the Men Propose?" (1 text). The chorus of that runs
They won't, they won't, they won't, they won't propose,
Mamma, mamma, they won't, they won't propose.
The first verse begins
Why don't the men propose, mamma,
Why don't the men propose?
Each seems just coming to the point,
And then away he goes.
The rest of the song describes how the girl has tried to get them to make their move.
Roud files that as #V13796; there are quite a few versions known from print but few if any from tradition. It seems not unlikely that that piece (which goes back at least to 1860) is the ancestor of this song, but we note that the lyrics are significantly different, and the Devlin fragment has no plot. I think they are likely the same, but I am not quite certain enough to lump them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe209

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