Bonny Hodge

DESCRIPTION: Hodge leaves his plow for a kiss from Dolly who is milking her cow. Dolly flirts but refuses. The impatient cow kicks over the stool and pail. Impatient Hodge says he'll go to Betsy. Dolly calls him back, they kiss, and go off to be married by a parson.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1841 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 616)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage wedding request rejection farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 214-215, "Dolly and Hodge" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 17)
Roud #1285
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 616, "Bonny Hodge" ("As Dolly sat milking her cow"), J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840
LOCSinging, as101460, "Bonny Hodge" ("As Dolly sat milking her cow"), W. S. Fortey (London), no date
NOTES [156 words]: "Bonny Hodge" includes elements of "Roger and Dolly" (II) and "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" (II). "Bonny Hodge" begins, "As Dolly sat milking her cow, Young Hodge he by chance came that way"; "Roger and Dolly" (II) begins, "As Dolly was milking of the cows, Young Roger came tripping it over the plain." The relevant verse of "Tom, the Piper's Son" begins, "As Dolly was milking her cow one day Tom took his pipe and began for to play"; the verse continues, "So Doll and the cow danced 'The Cheshire Round,' Till the pail was broken and the milk ran on the ground"; in "Bonny and Hodge", the cow "kicked the stool, milking pail down and all." "Bonny Hodge" is also reminiscent of "Roger the Ploughboy" which starts, "Young Roger the plow boy was a crafty young swain And as he went whistling o'er the plain" he met Sue "walking along with the pail on her head"; she rejected his advances, then accepted them, and "soon they got married." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT214

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