Oxford City [Laws P30]

DESCRIPTION: A servant asks a lady to wed; she put him off on the grounds that they are too young. When he sees her dancing with someone else, he poisons her wine. Feeling ill, she asks him to take her home. He reveals that both have drunk poison; they die together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(230a))
KEYWORDS: courting death poison homicide wine suicide
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Britain(Scotland,England(All)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws P30, "Oxford City"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #137, pp. 2-3, "In Oxford Town" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 210, "In Oxford Town" (4 texts, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 83, "Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 212-213, "Poison in a Glass of Wine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 317, "Around the Grove as I Was Walking"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 12, "Twas Near Fleet Street" (2 texts)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 46-47, "Jealousy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 44-45, "Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 15, "Worcester City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 329, "Poison in a Glass of Wine" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 74, "Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 36, "The Poisoned Cup" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #128, "Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 18, "Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 92-93, "In Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 54, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 508, OXFJEAL*
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 119, "Oxford City" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Roud #218
RECORDINGS:
Garrett & Norah Arwood, "Poison in a Glass of Wine" (on OldTrad2, FarMtns3)
Gerald Aylward, "Wexford Girl" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Bill Bundy, "Poison in a Glass of Wine" (Unissued test pressing, 1928; on KMM)
Mary Doran, "Oxford City" (on FSB7)
Louie Fuller, "Young Maria" (on Voice13)
Roscoe Holcomb, "True Love" (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Bride Judge, "In Yorkshire City" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Glass of Wine" (on NLCR06)
Stanley Brothers, "The Little Glass of Wine" (Rich-R-Tone 423, rec. c. late 1947) (Columbia 20590, 1949) (Rich-R-Tone 1056 [as "Little Glass of Wine"], rec. 1952)
Joseph Taylor, "Worcester City" (on Voice03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(230a), "Oxford City" ("It's of a fair maid in Oxford city"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(2899), Harding B 17(229b), Johnson Ballads 245, Harding B 16(195c), Harding B 16(195b), Harding B 16(195a), Firth c.13(280), Harding B 11(2004), Harding B 25(1438)[some words illegible], 2806 c.19(29), Harding B 11(161), Firth b.34(220), Harding B 11(2064), Harding B 11(2901), Harding B 11(298), Firth c.18(57), Harding B 11(2900A), Harding B 11(2900), "Oxford City"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maria and William" (theme: poison in a glass of wine)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jealous Lover
Jealousy
File: LP30

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