“The Silk Merchant's Daughter (I)”

Description

A girl's parents send her lover away. She dresses in men's clothes and follows him. Their ship sinks. In a lifeboat, she is chosen by lot to be killed for food; he is to kill her. (She reveals herself); they spot (land or a ship) and all are saved

Same tune

• MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)

Cross references

• cf. "The Ship in Distress" (plot) and references there
• cf. "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39]" (tune)

Broadsides

• Bodleian, Harding B 11(3744), "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" ("As I was a-walking up New London street", unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 25(1778), "The Silk Merchant's Daughter"

Recordings

• Tom Lenihan, "To Fair London Town" (on IRTLenihan01)

References

1. Laws N10, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter"
2. Doerflinger, pp. 296-298, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (2 texts, 1 tune)
3. Greenleaf/Mansfield 25, "The Castaways" (1 text, 1 tune)
4. Ord, pp. 63-64, "The Merchant's Daughter Turned Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
5. Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 1, "To Fair London Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
6. Randolph 43, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
7. JHCox 99, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (fragments of a text with narration of the plot as recalled by the informant)
8. BrownII 107, "The Silk-Merchant's Daughter" (2 texts)
9. Hudson 35, pp. 148-149, "The Silk-Merchant's Daughter" (1 text)
10. Brewster 43, "The Silk-Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, which Laws describes as "almost completely rewritten"; the boy goes to sea to avoid the girl)
11. SharpAp 64, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
12. Gardner/Chickering 64, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text)
13. DT 441, SLKMRCHT
14. Roud #552
15. BI, LN10