Bonny Black Hare, The

DESCRIPTION: A hunter goes out to shoot at the bonny black hare (hair), meets a willing maid, and beds her until his "ramrod is limber" and he cannot fire more.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(347))
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex hunting
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "BONNY BLACK HARE, THE"
Greig/Duncan7 1427, "The Bonnie Black Hare" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 9-10, "The Bonny Black Hare" (1 text, from a broadside, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 42-43, "The Bonny Black Hare" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, BLACKHAR*
ADDITIONAL: Roger Elbourne, Music and Tradition in Early Industrial Lancashire 1780-1840 (Totowa, 1980), p. 76, "The Bonny Black Hare" (fragment)
Julie Henigan, "Ozark Ballads as Song and Story," article in _Missouri Folklore Society Journal_, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 159-185; pp. 167-168, "The Bonny Black Hare" (1 text)
Roud #1656
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Bonnie Black Hare" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(347), "Black Hare" ("One morning in summer by the dawn of the day"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Moorhen"
NOTES [15 words]: Legman's notes link this broadside ballad to the older Scottish "The Bonnie Muir Hen." - EC
Last updated in version 6.8
File: RL042

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