Crockery Ware

DESCRIPTION: A merchant wants to lay with a girl one night. She puts dishes on a chair near her bed. In the dark he breaks the dishes and chair and wakes her mother. She calls the police and he has to pay for the crockery ware and broken chair.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Long)
KEYWORDS: sex trick bawdy humorous mother rake nightvisit courting lover police
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) US(MW)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "CROCKERY WARE, THE"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 679, "Pretty Polly and Her Crockery Ware" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #66, "The Crockery Ware" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-MarrowBones, p. 19, "The Crockery Ware" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 257-258, "Crockery Ware" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 119, "Old Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 129-130,243-244, "The Crockery Ware" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 11, "A Young Man Lived in Belfast Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 9, "A Young Man Lived in Belfast Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 138-139, "Crockery Ware" (1 text)
DT, CROCKWAR CROCKRY*
ADDITIONAL: William Henry Long, _A DIctionary of the Isle of WIght Dialiect, And of Provincialisms used in the Island_ (Reeves & Turner, London, 1886), pp. 163-164, "The Crockery Ware" (1 text)
Roud #1490
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "A Young Man Lived in Belfast Town" (on Abbott1)
Everett Bennett, "Crockery Ware" (on PeacockCDROM)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(37), "Crockery Ware," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Frolicksome Farmer" (theme: the hazards of sex in the dark)
NOTES [34 words]: At least one source claims that the Crockery Ware wasn't just random pottery but the chamber pot. Not sure I believe it; that sounds awfully messy.
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the Long copy.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Pea257

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