Gossip Joan (Neighbor Jones)

DESCRIPTION: "Good morrow, Gossip Joan, Where have you been a-walking? I have for you, for you for you, for you for you... a budget full of wonders." The wonders are listed: A cow with a calf that cannot eat hay, a duck which died from eating a snail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1720 (Pills to Purge Melancholy)
KEYWORDS: talltale animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "GOSSIP JOAN"
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 672-673, "Good Morrow, Gossip Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, p. 98, "Good Morrow, Gossip Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 34, "Gossip Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 37, "Gossip Joan" (2 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 54, "Gossip Joan" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 41-42, "Gossip Joan" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 262)
Purslow-MarrowBones, p. 37, "Gossip Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 144, "Neighbour Jones" (1 text)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 38-39, "Good Morrow, Gossip Joan" (1 short text, 1 tune; the text may not be original)
ADDITIONAL: Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (London, 1720 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol VI, pp. 315-316, "The Woman's Complaint to Her Neighbor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1039
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Martin Said To His Man" (theme)
NOTES [72 words]: Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO has one verse not in Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames ("My duck has swallowed a snail ...."). - BS
The Civil War general D. R. Jones (David Rumph Jones, 1825-1863), who eventually came to command a division in the Army of Northern Virginia, was known by the nickname "Neighbor Jones." Since none of the sources I checked explained how he came by the nickname, I do not know if it is related to this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Br3144

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