“Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)”

Description

When a girl's father cannot talk her out of marrying a sailor, the father has the boy pressed. The girl follows in disguise; they wind up in the same bunk. At length she reveals herself. They return home. The girl's father has died; they are married

Notes

[In Sharp's version,] the plot is fragmentary; the girl's father has the boy pressed, and he pledges his undying love. That's all.-PJS

Broadside LOCSinging as200940: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.

The general plot in Karpeles-Newfoundland, Leach-Labrador and the Bodleian "The Lady and Sailor" broadsides agrees but the couple get married, go to "Columbia's [or England's] fair shore" and don't return home. - BS

Cross references

• cf. "There Was an Old Miser"
• cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7]
• cf. "The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy)" [Laws M24]
• cf. "James and Flora (Flora and Jim, The United Lovers)"

Broadsides

• Bodleian, Harding B 19(40), "The Lady and Sailor" ("There was a rich merchant in London did dwell"), W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867 ; also 2806 c.15(59), Firth c.12(252), "The Lady and Sailor"
• LOCSinging, as200940, "The Farmer's Daughter" ("It is of a rich farmer, I dare not tell his name"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864

References

1. Laws N6, "Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)"
2. Sharp-100E 50, "The Bonny Lighter Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
3. SHenry H108a, pp. 329-330, "The Rich Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
4. Creighton/Senior, pp. 146-147, "Disguised Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune, considered "confused" by Laws)
5. Leach-Labrador 35, "The Lady and the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
6. Karpeles-Newfoundland 47, "The Press Gang" (1 text, 1 tune)
7. Gardner/Chickering 62, "The Weaver is Handsome" (2 texts, 1 tune, both short and both starting with variants "I am a young girl and my fortune is sad"; both seem confused and neither contains the complete plot, but "A" at least has the father's feigned consent and the press gang; "B" has the dressing in men's clothes)
8. DT 742, DISGSAIL*
9. Roud #601
10. BI, LN06