Now I Am a Big Boy (I)

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little boy My mother kept me in, But now I am a big boy, Fit to serve the king." "I can fire a musket, I can smoke a pipe, I can kiss a big girl At ten o'clock at night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: youth mother family
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 358, "Now I Am a Big Boy" (2 texts, both fragmentary, and the "A" text appears to be "Shady Grove")
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 73, "When I was a little boy" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose, p. 27, note 5, "(When I was a little boy)"
ST R358 (Full)
Roud #7623
NOTES [33 words]: The Opies think this a prototype for a wide variety of self-identification songs. That there are many such is obvious, but it's hard to tell which are related, let alone which is the original. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: R358

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