Green Broom

DESCRIPTION: Old broom-cutter tells his lazy son to get to work cutting broom. The boy does, then takes it to market to sell. A lady hears him, and has him brought in, where she proposes marriage to him. They wed, as the lady sings his praises.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1720 (Pills to Purge Melancholy, under the title "The Jolly Broom-Man: Or the unhappy BOY turn'd Thrifty')
KEYWORDS: love marriage work worker courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "GREEN BROOM"
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 104-105, "Broom, Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 88-89, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 93, "Broom Dasher"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 10, "Jack and His Brooms" (2 texts)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 152-153, "The Green Broom" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 422)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 56, "Green Broom" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 65, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #10, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #96, "Green Brooms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #122, p. 2, "The Broom-Cutter"; #124, pp. 2-3, "The Broom-Cutter" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 950, "The Broom-Cutter" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 49, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 223, "Green Brooms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 76, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H147, p. 474, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 82, "Little Girleen With the Curling Poll Would You Buy Brooms" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 32, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #120, pp. 98-99, "(There was an old man, and he liv'd in a wood)" (first half of the song only)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 166, "(There was an old man)" (1 fragment)
DT, GRNBROOM* GRNBROM2*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #139, "Green Broome" (1 text)
Roud #379
RECORDINGS:
Sam Larner, "Green Broom" (on SLarner02)
Sean McDonagh, "Green Brooms" (on FSB3)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(156), "The Green Broom," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 16(108a), Firth b.26(294), Firth b.25(38), Firth c.18(205), "Green Brooms"; Harding B 28(93), "Jack and His Brooms"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jack and His Brooms
NOTES [85 words]: Found in Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to Sharp, and also in Pills to Purge Melancholy. -PJS
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 93 is listed twice: as "Broom Dasher" and "Twas of a Broom Dasher." The "Twas of a Broom Dasher" entry says, "The words are incomplete in the manuscript." The notes to "Broom Dasher" -- with a slightly different text -- says, "It is obvious that these are but fragments." - BS
Not to be confused with "The Broomfield Hill," also sometimes found under the title "Green Broom." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: ShH49

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