I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "no lass can compare" with his "for innocence and native grace" but he won't tell her name. "The Lord and Squire" hope to win her but she loves the singer, and he won't tell her name.
AUTHOR: Thomas Hudson (lyrics), Robert Guylott (music) (source: Hudson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Hudson)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 163-164, "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 442)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Hudson, Comic Songs (London, 1826 (seventh collection, "Digitized by Google")), pp. 29-30, "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name" (1 text)
Roud #1271
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2590), "My Village Fair" or "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name" ("To my village fair no lass can compare"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(2490), "The Lovely Village Fair" or "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""Oh! Breathe Not His Name" (theme of hidden name)
NOTES [108 words]: The original does not include the final verse, as in the Bodleian broadsides, in which the singer promises to reveal the name when they are married.
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1626), "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name" ("Where grow the sweetest of flowers"), unknown, no date; also Johnson Ballads 2627, "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name", and LOCSinging, as105820, "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name" ("Where grow the sweetest of flowers"), W. S. Fortey (London), no date, is a different song, possibly written to capitalize on the popularity of Hudson's original. Hudson's collections include complaints of, and warnings of prosecution for, piracy. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT163

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