Twankydillo (I -- The Blacksmith's Song)

DESCRIPTION: Singer toasts the blacksmith, the pretty girl "who kindles a fire all in her own breast," and the Queen. Chorus: "Which makes his bright hammer to rise and to fall/There's the Old Cole and the Young Cole and the Old Cole of all/Twankydillo..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer raises a health to the blacksmith who works at his anvil while the boy blows the bellows; if a gentleman calls with a horse to be shod, the smith can be persuaded to work by giving him drink. Singer also toasts the pretty girl "who kindles a fire all in her own breast," and to "our sovereign the Queen" and all the Royal Family. Chorus: "Which makes his bright hammer to rise and to fall/There's the Old Cole and the Young Cole and the Old Cole of all/Twankydillo, twankydillo...And the roaring pair of blow-pipes, made from the green willow"
KEYWORDS: love work drink nonballad worker royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 138-139, "Twankydillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 135A, "Twankydillo" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 166, "Twanky Dillo" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 373, "Twankydillo")
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 262-263, "Twanky Dillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 286, "Twankydillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #5, "Twankydillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #102, "Twankydillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 24, "Twankydillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TWNKDLLO*
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 139, "(Here's a health to the jolly blacksmith)" (1 short text)
Roud #2409
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twankydillo (II)" (refrain) and references there
NOTES [190 words]: "The aim of the ballad was twofold: praise of the British blacksmith, and the glorification of the beverage manufactured by the British brewer,...' Oh, he who drinks good ale is the prince of good fel-LOWS!'" (source: "The Chronicles of Heatherthorp" in Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes (London, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), December 1869, Vol. XVII, p. 303).
As for the word "Twankydillo", Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs quotes Bunting (1840) about a "song about a goose and a shepherd's dog, arranged by J. Hook. It had a refrain of 'Twankidillo, and he played on the merry bagpipes beneath the green willow.'" The last lines of a couple of Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs verses is "... Twankydillo, A roaring pair of bagpipes made of the green willow." I assume the reference is to Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Mineola, 2000 (Dover reprint of 1840 Dublin edition)), but I haven't yet found it there.
There is a long indecisive thread on "Meaning of Twanky Dillo" at Digital Tradition. - BS
Hammond, in 1906, reported a Dorset song, "The Life of a Shepherd," with the "Twankydillo" chorus. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: K286

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