A-Rovin'

DESCRIPTION: In this cautionary tale, a sailor meets an Amsterdam maid, fondles portions of her body progressively, has sex with her, and catches the pox. She leaves him after he has spent all his money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (College Songs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease sailor warning whore
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,NE,So,SW) Australia Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1479, "A-Rovin', A-Rovin'" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 36-38, "A-Roving" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 87-88, "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 49-52, "A-Roving" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 48-52, 101, "A-Roving" (6 texts plus 3 fragments, 4 tunes; the 5th text is "Go Rowing," a 1916 Norwegian adaptation by Henrik Wergelands taken from Brochmann's "Opsang Fra Seilskibstiden." p.101 is a version of "A Long Time Ago") [AbrEd pp. 46-48]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 66, "A-Rovin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 48-50, "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 178-179, "A-roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXV, pp. 28-29, "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 64-67, "A-Rovin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 124-125, "The Maid of Amsterdam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 56-58, "A-Roving" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 99-103, "Amsterdam" (1 censored text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 80-81, "Maid of Amsterdam (A-Roving)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 125-130, "Amsterdam" [1 fragment, 1 tune, censored by the informant)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 96, "A-roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 128, "In Amsterdam there lived a maid" (1 short text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 156-157, "The Amsterdam Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 76-77, "Maid of Amsterdam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, p. 51, "The Amsterdam Maid" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 168. "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 89, "A-Roving" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 77, "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune, based on Sharp's bowdlerized version)
DT, AROVIN1* AROVIN2*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "A'Rovin" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
[Columbia University], _Songs of Columbia: With Music and Piano-forte Accompaniment_, Taintor Brothers & Co., 1876 (available on Google Books), "A-Roving" (4 verses and chorus with musical notation)
[Northwestern University], _The Northwestern Song Book: A Collection of College and Other Music ..._, George W. Muir, 1879 (available on Google Books), "A Roving" (5 verses and chorus with musical notation)
Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 80, "A-Roving!" (1 text, 1 tune, probably cleaned up as the girl merely causes the man to spend all his money) (part 3, p. 74 in the 1876 edition)
Roud #649
RECORDINGS:
Richard Maitland, "A-Roving" (AFS, 1939; on LC26)
Stanley Slade & chorus: "A'Roving" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
cf. "All Under the New Mown Hay"
cf. "Yo Ho, Yo Ho" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Tickle My Toe" (theme)
cf. "The Girl in Portland Street" (plot, theme)
cf. "Baltimore (Up She Goes)" (theme)
cf. "Ye Wanton Young Women" (theme, chorus lines)
SAME TUNE:
In Lowestoft a boat was laid (Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 165)
NOTES [430 words]: This is a partial formula song in that the sailor begins at the knee, moves up to the thigh, and then to the "snatch." See "Yo Ho, Yo Ho" ("I Put My Hand") for extended treatment of this formula. - EC
Some similar lines are found in Thomas Heywood's "The Rape of Lucrece" (c. 1607), and Shay traces this piece back to that time (Masefield also accepts, and may have originated, this identification), but Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman states that they are not the same song. Hugill also considers any relationship to be most unlikely.
I find it interesting that so many of the earliest datable versions come from colleges, not field collections. These often start with words like
At Number Three, Old England Square, mark well what I do say,
At Number Three, Old England Square,
Miss Nancy, doesn't she live there,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
Is it possible that this is originally a college song that has been "nauticalized"? I will admit to doubting it; the college versions are relatively clean -- he falls in love, they start courting, but his money runs out before he gets anywhere, after which she drops him.
The version collected by Meredith from Wally Marshall has an unusual ending; when the singer places his hand upon the girl's breast, she breaks wind, seemingly causing him to abandon the venture.
In College Songs (1887), there is a song "Rig-a-jig," with verses "As I was walking down the street, Heigho (x4), A pretty girl I chanced to meet...." "Said I to her, 'What is your trade?' ... Said she to me, 'I'm a weaver's maid.'" I suspect dependence, but the song ends after two verses, so it is not clear how it proceeded. Or, rather, I suspect it IS clear but the song has been cleaned up by excision.
Hugill says that some versions end with the sailor aboard a "saltpeter" ship bound around Cape Horn for Chile. A saltpeter ship, not a guano ship? Raw nitrates were taken from the Chilean desert, and served much the same purpose as guano (i.e. to produce nitrates), but raw saltpeter wasn't as "noxious" as the guano. On the other hand, saltpeter was used to try to control sexual urges and diseases (ineffectively, but what matters is that they thought it worked). For background on the nitrates issue, see "Tommy's Gone to Hilo"; also "Chamber Lye." - RBW
Roud assigns #7181 to the Greig/Duncan7 fragment, which changes the sex of the object, viz., "I'll gang nae mair a rovin' wi' you, young man." The fragment of the chorus gives no idea of the rest of the song so I have chosen to lump this text with the common "A-Rovin'." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: EM064

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