Greasy Cook, The (Butter and Cheese and All, The Cook's Choice)

DESCRIPTION: The singer keeps company with a cook. One day she is about to send him off with cheese and butter when the master comes in. He hides in the chimney; the fire melts cheese and butter and sets them afire. The master douses him; he flees to a chorus of jeers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(692)))
KEYWORDS: cook courting food humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Newf) US(Ro)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "BUTTER AND CHEESE AND ALL"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 108, "Butter and Cheese and All" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 251-252, "Butter and Cheese" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 914, "A Cook I Went a-Courtin'" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 108-109, "Butter and Cheese and All" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 304 with vocal rendition)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 236-237, "The Cook's Choice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #64, "Butter and Cheese and All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 129, "The Greasy Cook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #85, "Butter and Cheese" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #510
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Greasy Cook" (on HCox01) (on FSBFTX13)
Sam Larner, "Butter and Cheese" (on SLarner02)
Alexander March, "Butter and Cheese" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs Clara Stevens, "Butter and Cheese" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(692), "Cookey's Courtship", "Cupboard Love" or "Butter, Cheese, and All" ("Tis a pity you should teaze me so"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.18(274), "Butter and Cheese"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
NOTES [43 words]: This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: CoSB236

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography