Widdicombe Fair (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to a fair at Widdicombe (or Coldingham, Ratcliffe or Monaghan). There he meets with a jolly beggar and his wife. The singer then lists all the pairs of beggars he's met at the fair
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Tait's Magazine)
KEYWORDS: commerce begging moniker wife husband nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "DONNYBROOK FAIR"
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 289, "A-Going to the Fair" (1 text plus assorted fragments in appendices, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 28-29, "Craigbilly Fair" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 50, "Widdecombe Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COUDFAIR DONNYBRK*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 40, "The Beggars of Coldingham Fair"
Roud #666
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Under the Greenwood Tree" (form) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Beggars of Coldingham Fair
The Beggars of Ratcliffe Fair
Beggars of Coudingham Fair
Monaghan Fair
Widdliecombe Fair
NOTES [121 words]: Variants of this song are used as the chorus for "Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair I)." It lacks, however, the plot about the horse, so I've separated them. - PJS
Looking at this, I can't help but think there is a cumulative version somewhere in its ancestry. But I haven't found it. Some of the versions, such as that of the McPeake family, also feel a bit like "Dame Durden."
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 265-267, prints a piece, "The Humours of Donneybrook Fair" (listed as by Charles O'Flaherty), which looks as if it might be a recomposed version of this -- but it's much too wordy to be traditional. - RBW
Chambers's source is "Tait's Magazine, [vol] x. [p] 121." - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: K289

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