Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw)

DESCRIPTION: (A man courts a neighbour's daughter by disguising himself as) a tinker. The tinker follows the girl into bed and sleeps with her. (He departs, leaving her with a rich fee, giving his name as Davy Faa/Shaw. Her father seeks a husband for her)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Baring-Gould)
KEYWORDS: disguise seduction sex trick abandonment money father rape tinker bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Bronson 279, "The Jolly Beggar" (37 versions, but #28 is "Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw)")
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #20, pp. 145-146, "Davie Faa" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's Child 279 #28!}
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #87, "The Barley Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 188, "Remember the Barley Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1473, "The Tinker Loon" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, DAVYFAA* BARLSTRW
Roud #118
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tramps and Hawkers" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Barley Straw
NOTES [223 words]: I've never really been sure whether this song involves rape or not. It's clear that the girl gets the worst of it, though.
It will be observed that the only parts of this song that are constant are the tinker and the seduction. No doubt various attempts at bowdlerization account for some of this, but there does seem to be some mixture involved as well. - RBW
I suggest renaming this main entry; as far as I know, only in one version of the song (Jeannie Robertson's) is the man (or the song) named Davy Faa, while "The Barley Straw" or variants thereon seem relatively common. More important, I'd rather avoid confusion with the more common "Davy Faa", aka "The Gypsy Laddie." Also, the tune given in Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland isn't that of "Tramps and Hawkers/Paddy West", and I'm not sure it's been collected from tradition with that tune (Jean Redpath doesn't count.) - PJS
All true, except that the Robertson/Redpath versions seems to be the ones everyone knows. Which is why I used the title I did. And while Robertson's tune is not "Tramps and Hawkers," it has similarities.
Roud lumps this with Child #279, "The Jolly Beggar" (while having a separate item #19112, "The Barley Straw"). So do Porter/Gower. The similarity in plot is obvious. So is the dissimilarity in form. Still, best to see both Roud numbers. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: K188

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