Poor Old Robinson Crusoe
DESCRIPTION: "When I was a lad, my fortune was bad, My grandfather I did lose." As in the book, he, Robinson Crusoe, is shipwrecked, lands on an island with gun and sword. He builds a hut, lives there with Friday, until he is rescued by a passing ship.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (Oh poor Robinson Crusoe sheet music, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship wreck
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 25, "Robinson Crusoe" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 162, "Poor old Robinson Crusoe" (1 short text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 455, "Poor old Robinson Crusoe!" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #216, p. 146, "(Poor old Robinson Crusoe)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 156, "Poor Old Robinson Crusoe" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2017, p. 135, "Robinson Crusoe" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #24, pp. 58-59, "Robinson Crusoe" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 10, "Robinson Crusoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5805
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(66), "Robinson Crusoe," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 28(66), "Robinson Crusoe"; Johnson Ballads 2559, "Life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe"
LOCSinging, sb40455b, "Robinson Crusoe," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as203020, as111820, "Robinson Crusoe"
NOTES [113 words]: Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Dafoe and published in 1719. [Based loosely on the actual adventures of a sailor named Alexander Selkirk. - RBW]
The source for the description is broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(66).
Broadside LOCSinging sb40455b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
It should be noted that many of the traditional collections consist of only a stanza or two, along the lines of Alice Kane's:
Poor old Robinson Crusoe,
Poor old Robinson Crusoe,
They made him a coat of an old nanny goat,
I wonder how they could do so. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OO2455
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
The Ballad Index Copyright 2024 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.