Drunken Maidens

DESCRIPTION: (Three/four drunken maidens) come to a tavern and go on a spree. After eating and drinking for hours/days, they run up a tally of (40 pounds). They are forced to give up clothes and riches (and maidenheads?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1750 (Charming Phyllis's Garland); 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: drink party poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 240-242, "The Four Drunken Maidens" (1 text)
Kinloch-TheBalladBook VIII, p. 30, (no title) (1 text, a 3-stanza fragment but almost certainly this piece)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 108-110, "Three Drunken Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #94, "The Drunken Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DRNKMAID* FRDNKMD*
ADDITIONAL: Charming Phyllis's Garland, (British Library), p. 8, "The Four Drunken Maidens" (1 text)
John McColl MSS. (National Library of Ireland), 255, "The Three English Fair Maids" (1 text)
ST Log240 (Full)
Roud #252
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Four Drunken Maidens" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd5), "The Drunken Maidens" (on Lloyd12)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Three Drunken Maidens
Four Drunken Maidens
The Three English Fair Maids
NOTES [107 words]: I believe that there is another version to be discovered in print between the 1750 garland and Logan-APedlarsPack's version.
None of the earlier versions mention maidenheads. This is an "improvement" by Bert Lloyd. The "original" version in Charming Phyllis's Garland contains a fourth verse that would be unprintable even today, but they paid for the drink with their clothes, since it seems that they were not strangers to the sexual act.
There are many more recordings than [are] listed -- most, like Bert Lloyd's, based on Baring-Gould's collected version. Only one other tune has been discovered, by Francis Collinson in the 1850s. - MG
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Log240

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