“Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)”

Description

The young man comes to the young woman and asks her to wed. He offers her gold, silver, and land. She tells him she is not interested in these; "all I want is a (good young/handsome) man." That being offered, the two agree to marry

Notes

Although several versions listed here mention Quakers in their titles (e.g. Eddy's text, also that printed by Sandburg), their texts make no mention of the Quaker, and so I list them here.

This obviously began life as a ballad, but was collected in New York as a playparty, and Belden also found it as a singing game. - RBW

The text in the Silber-FSWB version is extremely fragmentary, and contains almost nothing of the plot described above. All that happens is that the man and woman meet; she washes her feet and dries them, then he laments young girls' deceiving ways and sings about numbers. - PJS

What Paul describes is fairly typical. The description above is of the fullest texts, but this ballad seems to be unusually good at losing pieces of itself. Often it descends into a purely lyrical piece -- and sometimes it seems to "re-ascend" by taking on a new ending of abandonment.

The existence of the numbers chorus ("Twenty, eighteen, sixteen, fourteen...") seems to be characteristic of a particular, very widespread, sub-version.

It appears likely that we can positively date this song to at least 1822, when John Randolph of Virginia asked a niece if she had heard a ballad with the verse

What care I for your golden treasures?

What care I for your house and land?

What care I for your costly pleasures?

So as I get but a handsome man.

For some reason, scholars have claimed this verse is from "Lord Randal." But it certainly appears to belong here. - RBW

Cross references

• cf. "The Keys of Canterbury"
• cf. "No, John, No"
• cf. "Madam, Madam, You Came Courting" (theme)
• cf. "The Quaker's Courtship" (theme)

Broadsides

• Murray, Mu23-y1:104, "The Wheel of Fortune," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C [an incredible mixture, with the "Wheel of Fortune" verse, though the rest seems an amalgam of thyme songs -- here spelled "time"]; also Mu23-y1:105, "The Wheel of Fortune," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C [even more mixture, with the "Wheel of Fortune" verse, a thyme stanza, a bit of "Fair and Tender Ladies," a "Queen of Heart" verse, and more]

Recordings

• Seamus Ennis, "Dublin City" (on FSB2, FSB2CD)

References

1. Belden, pp. 506-507, "Madam, I Have Gold and Silver" (1 text)
2. Eddy 98, "Spanish Lady" (1 text); Eddy 131, "The Quaker's Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune); possibly Eddy 132, "The Sober Quaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
3. Gardner/Chickering 173, "The Wooing" (2 texts, the "A" text being "The Courting Case" and "B" being probably this piece)
4. Flanders/Brown, pp. 154-155, "Yonder Hill There Is a Widow" (1 text, 1 tune)
5. SharpAp 205, "Come My Little Roving Sailor" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
6. Sharp/Karpeles-80E 55, "Come, My Little Roving Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
7. Sandburg, p. 71, "The Quaker's Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune); also Sandburg, p. 144, "Kind Miss" (1 text, 1 tune, primarily this piece but with one verse of "The Drowsy Sleeper")
8. Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 804-805, "There She Stands, a Lovely Creature" (1 text, 1 tune)
9. SHenry H532, p. 367, "Tarry Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune -- a curious version in which, after all the business about riches and a good young man, the girl finally sends the lad off by saying she has a sailor love)
10. OLochlainn-More 79A, "The Tarry Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune)
11. BrownIII 12, "Madam, I Have Gold and Silver" (1 text, starting with this song but ending with a "Ripest of Apples" verse and ending with a Riley stanza)
12. Hudson 37, pp. 151-152, "Annie Girl" (1 text, which conflates 2 verses of "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4], 2 or 3 of "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)" or "No, John, No: or similar, and 3 verses probably of "Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token)" [Laws N42])
13. JHCox 158, "The Spanish Lady" (1 text)SHenry H641, p. 383, "Ripest of Apples" (1 text, 1 tune, a tiny fragment of two verses, one of which often occurs with this song while the other is associated primarily with "Carrickfergus." The tune is not "Carrickfergus")
14. Creighton/Senior, pp. 199-200, "Quaker's Courtship" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which might be either this or "The Quaker's Courtship")
15. Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 194-195, "Song on Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
16. Silber-FSWB, p. 149, "Wheel Of Fortune" (1 text)
17. Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #290, pp. 168-169, "(Madam, I have come to court you)" (a short text, which might well be "The Quaker's Wooing" with beginning and end lost, but as it stands, it has no Quakers and must be filed here)
18. DT, WHEELFOR* DUBLNCTY* DUBLNCT2 (VANDY2) (DUBLNCI2)
19. ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 48-49, "The Spanish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
20. Roud #542
21. BI, E098