Another of Seafarers, describing Evil Fortune

DESCRIPTION: "What pen can well report the plight Of those that travel on the seas?" They spend stormy nights in winter. Winds blow them onto rocks and shoals. The singer hopes for a "happy end" to the voyage and hopes to live safely at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Halliwell, Early Naval Ballads of England, according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs), but probably from the late sixteenth century; see NOTES
KEYWORDS: sailor travel hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 5, "Another of Seafarers, describing Evil Fortune" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads IV, pp. 6-7, "Another of Seafardingers, describing Evill Fortune" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2497, folio 47
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Praise of Seafaring Men, in Hope of Good Fortune" (also found in Sloane 2497; they perhaps were intended to go together)
NOTES [114 words]: Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads says this is in MS. British Library Sloane 2497, folio 47. Since the British Library has not yet digitized this manuscript, I can't verify this directly. It appears that the manuscript was written in the late sixteenth century; there are several items in it dated c. 1592. For more background, including the list of contents, see the notes to "In Praise of Seafaring Men, in Hope of Good Fortune" -- which appears on the same page of Sloane 2497; it has been suggested that they are answers to each other.
There is of course no hint at all that this is traditional; it appears Palmer just lifted it from Stone without really looking at what he had done. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PaSe005

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