Betsy Bell

DESCRIPTION: "Oh my name is Betsy Bell, in the Overgate I dwell, Nae doubt you're wondring fit I'm daein' here, Well, I'm lookin' for a man... and anything in breek will dae wi' me." Betsy describes lads she has pursued without success; she'll keep trying despite age
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Stewart Family)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 41, "Betsy Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BETSYBEL
ADDITIONAL: Chris Wright, "'Forgotten Broadsides and the Song Tradition of the Scots Travellers" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, p. 83, "I Wonder What's Adee Wi' a' the Men!" (reproduction of a Poets Box broadside)
Roud #5211
RECORDINGS:
Belle Stewart, "Betsy Bell" (on Voice10)
Belle, Sheila, and Cathie Stewart, "Betsy Bell" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
NOTES [62 words]: It appears that this is primarily a possession of the Stewarts of Blair. In earlier versions of the Index, I wondered if it was composed by someone in their family. It turns out it was not, being derived from a Poets Box broadside. But the Stewart version is significantly different, and the broadside doesn't indicate the tune, so possibly the Stewarts remade the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: DTbetsyb

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