“Jolly Good Ale and Old (Back and Sides Go Bare)”
Description
With chorus, "Back and sides go bare, go bare, Both hand and feet go cold...." The singer laments his sad state: "I cannot eat but little meat, My stomach is not good." He discusses his lack of clothing. But he, and his wife, revive for ale.
Notes
This has a literary look, and has been attributed to William Stevenson. But there appear to be variant forms. In the 1575 version in _Gammer Gurton's Needle_ (found in Ault), there are only four stanzas, and the singer's wife is Tib. The version in the Harvard Classics has eight stanzas and gives the wife's name as Kit. Unfortunately, though the Harvard version occurs in a number of anthologies in my library, none of them state their source! (Maybe they stole it from each other.)
The Gammer Gurton version, if I read Ault correctly, was also found in a play, "Diccon of Bedlam." A play of this name was registered 1562-1563 -- though, if it was printed (not all things registered went to the press), no copies seem to have survived.
The "back and sides go bare" chorus seems to have been quite popular; in this index, see also "Let the Back and Sides Go Bare." Granger's Index to Poetry, if I read this right, cites six different poems with this first line. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "Let the Back and Sides Go Bare" (chorus)
References
- HarvClass-EP1, pp. 190-192, "Jolly Good Ale and Old" (1 text)
- DT BACK&SID*
- ADDITIONAL: Norman Ault, _Elizabethan Lyrics From the Original Texts_, pp. 41-42, "Of Jolly Good Ale and Old" (1 text)
- BI, DTbcksid