Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me

DESCRIPTION: The girl asks the soldier to marry her. He says that he lacks suit, shoes, whatnot. She runs off to the craftsmen and fetches him everything he mentions. Now well-equipped, he tells her that he already has a wife at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren) -- but see NOTES for a likely citation from 1819
KEYWORDS: courting lie request rejection soldier dialog
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(West),Scotland(Bord)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Randolph 65, "Soldier, Soldier, Marry Me" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 50, "Soldier, Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 261-262, "Soldier Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 7, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 7, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 89, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 96, "Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 73-75, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 90, "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 103, "Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 254-257, "Soldier, Soldier" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 66-67, "Soldier, Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 78, "Soldier, Will You Marry Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 61, "The Gallant Soldier" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #56, "Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me?" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 30-31, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 305, "Soldier, Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 109, pp. 224-225, "Dutchman, Dutchman, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 159, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 51, "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 157-158, "Soldier, Will You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 160, "Soldier, Will You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #68, "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 104, "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #30, "Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 52-53, "Soldier, Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 344, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 237, "Soldier, Soldier" (notes only)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 61, "Lazy John"; p. 67, "Soldier, Soldier" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, SOLDMARR*
Roud #489
RECORDINGS:
Charles S. Brink, "Soldier Won't You Marry Me" (in BayardCollection, video 08 ("Charles S. Brink #6" starting at 07.17))
Colin Keane, "Soldier, Soldier" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
Amy Michels, "Soldier John" (Piotr-Archive #162, recorded 05/10/2022)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me" (on NLCR10)
Russ Pike, "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (AFS, 1941; on LC02)
Roxana Robinson, "Soldier, Soldier" (Piotr-Archive #695, recorded 10/01/2023)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Soldier Will You Marry Me" (Columbia 15589-D, 1930)
Miriam "Mimi" Wright, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me Now?" (Piotr-Archive #352, recorded 11/09/2022)
NOTES [361 words]: The Amy Michels text is an interesting variant which, as usual, ends with the soldier saying he can't marry the girl, but says it is because of all the fine clothes rather than having a wife at home.
The "Lazy John" cited in SongsOfAllTime is genuinely this song, not the pop-folk song about a man toiling in the sun on for poor pay while envying the comfortable Lazy John, who seems to loaf in the shade all day.
On Mudcat, Jonathan Lighter pointed out a very interesting item from an old American play:
She Would Be a Soldier (also known as "The Plains of Chippewa"), by M. M. Noah (Mordecai Manuel Noah, 1785-1851). The play can be found on Project Gutenberg, taken from Representative Plays by American Dramatists: Vol 1, 1765-1819, but the original cover reads
SHE WOULD BE A SOLDIER
OR THE
PLAINS OF CHIPPEWA;
AN HISTORICAL DRAMA,
in three acts.
By M. M. Noah.
Performed for the first time on the 21st of June, 1819.
New York
1819.
In Act I, Scene II (near the end of the act) we find these lines:
LENOX. And so, then, you admire a military life?
ADELA. Oh, I'm in raptures with it! I am a perfect female Quixote, and would relinquish a thousand dandy beaux for one brave fellow; and, therefore, Lenox, don't be surprised, if you should see me going about from tent to tent, chaunting the old songs of
"Soldier, soldier, marry me,
With your fife and drum."
[STAGE DIRECTION: Christine suddenly appears in the background and surveys the party with astonishment.]
CHRISTINE. Heavens! what do I see? Lenox, and with a female so affectionately?
LENOX. Your spirits charm me, dear Adela, and revive those feelings for you, that time has impaired, but not destroyed. But come, let us in and see your worthy father.
Which obviously hints that the song was known from 1819 or earlier -- the more so since Noah seems to have no idea of how people actually talk and instead is trying to write at the level of a graduate thesis. To use nine consecutive words of no more than two syllables seems to be beyond his powers except when quoting someone else.
But with just two lines, much as it sounds like this song, I don't think we can consider the matter quite proved. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: R065

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