“The Priest and the Nuns”
Description
Pumping Shanty. A priest goes to France and finds seven nuns lying sick in the convent yard. He claims to be a doctor with a cane/stick that will cure them. He treats all the nuns and says he'll call again. choruses of "Ho, ho ho" and "Hal-ler-al-le-re."
Notes
The pattern of text and choruses is reminiscent of "Able Brown the Sailor" even though the words are completely different and for a shanty, rather tame. Harlow gives no notes or history on this, though it would be easy to imagine much coarser versions. - SL
References
- Harlow, pp. 166-167, "The Priest and the Nuns" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Roud #9146
- BI, Harl166