Nix My Dolly Pals Fake Away

DESCRIPTION: "In a box of the stone jug I was born, Of a hempen widow the kid forlorn, Fake away... Nix my Dolly Pals fake away." The youth grew up poor but was a successful robber until his "nuttiest lady" betrayed him. He has escaped and continues "merry and free"
AUTHOR: G. H. Rodwell?
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Diary of Charles Rice); supposedly first performed 1839
KEYWORDS: robbery betrayal escape freedom prison
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 128-129, "Nix My Dolly Pals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 219-223, "The sprig of shillelagh" (1 tune, which the notes imply is used for this)
Roud #12735
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Sheppard" [Laws L6] (subject)
cf. "The Sprig of Shillelah" (tune, apparently, according to Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats)
SAME TUNE:
Rush Away (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 36, listed as using the tune "Nix My Dolly)
NOTES [132 words]: Listed by Scott as from "Rodwell's Comic Opera, 'Little Jack Shephard," said to have been based on either Harrison Ainsworth's Rookwood (for which see "My Bonny Black Bess (II) (Poor Black Bess; Dick Turpin's Ride) "[Laws L9]) or Ainsworth's "Jack Shepherd." (Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats lists only Rookwood as a possible source.) For Shepherd himself see "Jack Sheppard" [Laws L6]. Tavern Singing in Early Victorian England: The Diaries of Charles Rice for 1840 and 1850, edited, with an introduction and notes by Laurence Senelick, The Society for Theatre Research, 1997, p. xxiii, says that "From the stage adaptation of Ainsworth's sensation novel Jack Sheppard, also appearing serially in Bentley's, he adapted the slang songs 'Jolly Nose' and 'Nix My Dolly Pals.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 7.2
File: ScES129

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