Diana Kitty Annie Maria

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves the pride of Glasgow Green, Diana Kitty Annie Maria. She is pretty and rich and dances wonderfully. He plans to marry in three weeks. They will have a boy named for him and three girls: Diana Kitty Annie [that is, "and"] Maria.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1269(172b))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage beauty money dancing humorous children wordplay
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 737, "'Twas in the Month of June" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Roud #13666
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(135), "Diana Kitty Anna Maria" ("Being in the bloyming [sic] spring when the black bird did sinn [sic]"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
NLScotland, L.C.1269(172b), "Diana Kitty Annie Maria" ("T'was in the month of June, when the birds were in full tune"), Poet's Box (?), 1884
NOTES [88 words]: Greig/Duncan4 entries are fragments; broadside NLScotland L.C.1269(172b) is the basis for the description.
The broadside texts have five eight-line verses and a four-line chorus. That seems a long way to go to reach the last line play on "Annie" or "Anna" and "and a," especially for a non-dialect story. One of the Greig/Duncan4 fragments blows the "joke" by having -- as one of its two surviving lines -- the chorus end "She's my darling Dinah Katie and Maria"; the other fragment does not have the heroine's name at all. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: GrD4737

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