Nothing Else to Do (I)

DESCRIPTION: On a nice day the singer skips work and "went to see my sweetheart, As I'd nothing else to do." They go for a walk, he kisses her -- having nothing else to do -- and proposes. She says, "perhaps I may my dear, When I've nothing else to do."
AUTHOR: unknown (New-Comic-Songster attributes the music to J. L. Hatton)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #5)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage questions humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "NOTHING ELSE TO DO"
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 143, "Nothing Else to Do" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 157)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 62, "As I'd Nothing Else to Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 67 and #5/64, p. 25, "Nothing Else to Do" (1 text); #19, pp. 60-61, "As I'd Nothing Else to Do" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #31, p. 55, "As I'd Nothing Else to Do" (1 text)
Roud #1265
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, Music A-1875, "As I'd Nothing Else to Do" ("'Twas a pleasant summer's morning"), Lee & Walker (Philadelphia), 1860-1869 (with tune)
NOTES [82 words]: A reference to this song -- or one closely related to it -- in an 1870 novel shows that it was well enough known to be mentioned in passing as an "ould song": "... isn't that the very thing the ould song advises us: 'Sure 'tis then I will get married, Whin I've nothing else to do, Whin I've nothing else to do; An 'tis then I will get married, Whin I've nothing else to do'?" (Source: (anonymous),In re Garland: a Tale of a Transition Time, (London, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 84) - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: WT143

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