Ellen Taylor

DESCRIPTION: The singer waltzed with Ellen Taylor one night. She's gone to Margate for the summer. He fantasizes that, once he finishes his apprenticeship in three years, they will marry, open a shop, and they'll drive out with the children on Sundays.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Hindley; note that Hindley prints the text in a section of broadsides apparently printed c.1836)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage dancing humorous apprentice
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 204, "Ellen Taylor" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 380)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Hindley, The Life and Times of James Catnach, Ballad Monger (London, 1878 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 274-275, "All Round the Room" (1 text)
Roud #1282
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(80a), "Ellen Taylor" or "All Round the Room" ("All round the room I've danced with Ellen Taylor"), unknown, no date
NOTES [78 words]: The Hindley and Bodleian text are not identical but are close enough to show that this is a stage piece mixing prose and song in dialect ("She was an hangel!"; "But if Ellen should refuse me, oh, crikey! what a pity!"). Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames only has the four verses -- no prose -- so that the details of shop ownership, riding out on Sunday, and description of Ellen are lost, but the idea of the fantasy based on three hours of dancing is preserved. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT204

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