Honeymoon, The (By West of Late As I Did Walk)

DESCRIPTION: "By west of late as I did walk," the singer hears two newlyweds. She declares she will not work for him. He says that if she will not work, "I shall the(e) dryve." They fall to fighting. She lands more blows than he. He singer hopes for peace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Aytoun); the manuscript is from no later than the early seventeenth century, and Robbins suggested that a Stationer's Register entry from 1590 refers to thie piece
KEYWORDS: husband wife marriage fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Peter J. Seng, _Tudor Songs and Ballads from MS Cotton Vespasian A-25_, Harvard University Press, 1978, #22, pp. 42-44, "By west off late as I dyd walke" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vespasian A.xxv (67), folio 140
ST PJSe022 (Partial)
Roud #8206
NOTES [115 words]: Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 151, #1740, is "A merye newe ieste of a wife that threst her husband with a flea," registered by Thomas Scarlet on August 15, 1590; Rollins suggests that the printed piece is this item, but I can't prove it.
The form of the text doesn't look much like a folk song to me, but Ritson and Aytoun and others printed it, so I'm including it very tentatively.
For more information about the manuscript British Library Cotton Vespasian A.xxv, see the notes to "The Hawthorn Green."
Last updated in version 6.5
File: PJSe022

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