"Little Gold Fiddle" Cante-Fable
Added 2018-07-21 16:10:15 +0000 UTCHere is the version of "Little Gold Fiddle" collected by Halpert for a 1942 edition of the Journal of American Folklore (Vol. 55, No. 217; July-Sept. 1942). Halpert's version, called "The Irresistible Captain," is quite lewd. George Gibson says his father probably "cleaned it up" because he enjoyed playing it for family and guests at home. Can any of our members here work out the sheet music notation and tell us how close it is to Gibson's version? https://youtu.be/CoI70-opmL0
Comments
This post is awesome! Thank you for sharing this research!
Jesus-David Jerez-Gomez
2025-03-23 17:02:29 +0000 UTCClifton - Sorry about our emails getting out of sync above. I kept touching the wrong key and stuff was sent off before I'd finished writing. Then I took time out to feed the dog and get some food and missed your next reply. But now we seem to have caught up with each other. Yours - Dave
DAVE ARTHUR
2018-07-22 00:11:19 +0000 UTCClifton - Computers are a bloody nightmare! Or maybe it's just me. I just wrote an answer to your note and suddenly it slid off to the right of the screen and vanished! What I said was, Great! That you had the broadside. It is obviously the origional source of the cante-fable. But it doesn't explain how the cante-fable was disseminated and became popular in various places over the next couple of hundred years. There must, one assumes, have been some intermediate version/source that influenced the later cante-fable version, because there's no way that a number of separate singers/storytellers all got hold of the old ballad independently and turned it into the cante-fable that we now know. The Fiddler's Wife that I know I learnt from Vance Randolph's folktale collection Who Blowed Up the Church House. In that collection and Randolph's other collection Pissing In the Snow are a couple of other cante-fables that I also occasionally tell. If I get round to recording any of them I'll let you see them. But as they are really storytelling with a bit of music I find it difficult to tell them without an audience to work with. Singing to a camera is okay, but I feel that storytelling is a more reciprocal free-flowing improvisatory experience in which the audience is as much part of the performance as the teller. Keep up the good work. I really enjoy the songs and information. Wishing you all that's best - Dave
DAVE ARTHUR
2018-07-22 00:03:37 +0000 UTCDave, see above for the complete lyrics to "The Merchant and the Fidler's Wife" from the broadside you mentioned, dated 1707! I also found this recording from 1958 of Ed McCurdy singing the song: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Merchant-and-the-Fiddlers-Wife/dp/B0142NXYNU" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Merchant-and-the-Fiddlers-Wife/dp/B0142NXYNU</a>
Clifton Hicks
2018-07-21 23:16:43 +0000 UTCOh - One of the tunes used for The Fiddler's Wife was a version of 'Polly Wolly Doodle'
DAVE ARTHUR
2018-07-21 21:40:25 +0000 UTCBe true my love be true, Be true to me till the clock strikes four, And the boat belongs to you. SECOND VERSE: Too late, too late, my own true love, He's got me round the middle, He's got (had) me once, he's got (had) me twice, And you've lost your damned old fiddle. Halpert didn't find a British version but I have reference to a a broadside ballad published by John Phillips entitled 'Merchant and the Fiddler's Wife'. So far I haven't tracked it down, but by the title it would appear to be the ballad orgin of the cante-fable. In his song collection 'Roll Me In Your Arms' Randolph publishes versions under the title 'The Fiddler's Bitch' - very bawdy lines. The idea of censorship in folksong and folktale, whether self censorship as, maybe, in the case of George's father, or academic, or publishing censorship is an interesting area for discussion. I suppose it's all down to the audience you are playing for - men only, family groups, schools, etc., The great NC Jack Tale teller, Ray Hicks, changed his tale of Hardy Hard Ass to Hardy Hard Head when he started storytelling schools.
DAVE ARTHUR
2018-07-21 21:37:01 +0000 UTCIt also appears in "Roll Me In Your Arms: Unprintable Ozark Folksongs and Folklore" by Randolph and Legman, University of Arkansas Press (1992) as, unfortunately, "The Fiddler's Bitch."
Clifton Hicks
2018-07-21 21:24:28 +0000 UTC"THE MERCHANT AND THE FIDLER'S WIFE " [From Pills to Purge Melancholy, published in 1707] It was a Rich Merchant Man, That had both Ship and all; And he would cross the salt Seas, Tho' his cunning it was but small. The Fidler and his Wife, They being nigh at hand; Would needs go sail along with him, From Dover unto Scotland. The Fidler's Wife look'd brisk, Which made the Merchant smile; He made no doubt to bring it about, The Fidler to beguile. Is this thy Wife the Merchant said, She looks like an honest Spouse; Ay that she is, the Fidler said, That ever trod on Shoes. Thy Confidence is very great, The Merchant then did say; If thou a Wager darest to bet, I'll tell thee what I will lay. I'll lay my Ship against thy Fiddle, And all my Venture too ; So Peggy may gang along with me, My Cabin for to View. If she continues one Hour with me, Thy true and constant Wife; Then shalt thou have my Ship and be, A Merchant all thy Life. The Fidler was content, He Danc'd and Leap'd for joy; And twang'd his Fiddle in merriment, For Peggy he thought was Coy. Then Peggy she went along, His Cabin for to View; And after her the Merchant-Man, Did follow, we found it true. When they were once together, The Fidler was afraid; For he crep'd near in pitious fear, And thus to Peggy he said. Hold out, sweet Peggy hold out, For the space of two half Hours; If thou hold out, I make no doubt, But the Ship and Goods are ours. In troth, sweet Robin, I cannot, He hath got me about the Middle; He's lusty and strong, and hath laid me along, O Robin thou'st lost thy Fiddle. If I have lost my Fiddle, Then am I a Man undone; My Fiddle whereon I so often play'd, Away I needs must run. O stay the Merchant said, And thou shalt keep thy place; And thou shalt have thy Fiddle again, But Peggy shall carry the Case. Poor Robin hearing that, He look'd with a Merry-chear; His wife she was pleas'd, and the Merchant was eas'd, And jolly and brisk they were. The Fidler he was mad, But valu'd it not a Fig; Then Peggy unto her Husband said, Kind Robin play us a Jigg. Then he took up his Fiddle, And merrily he did play; The Scottish Jigg and the Horn-pipe, And eke the Irish Hey. It was but in vain to grieve, The Deed it was done and past; Poor Robin was born to carry the Horn, For Peggy could not be Chast. Then Fidlers all beware, Your Wives are kind you see; And he that's made for the Fidling Trade, Must never a Merchant be. For Peggy she knew right well, Although she was but a Woman; That Gamesters Drink, and Fidlers Wives, They are ever free and common.
Clifton Hicks
2018-07-21 21:23:26 +0000 UTC"National Ballad and Song: Merry Songs and Ballads Prior to the Year AD 1800" available in full here <a href="https://archive.org/details/nationalballadso04farmrich" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/nationalballadso04farmrich</a> lists the song as having first appeared in print circa 1707 as "The Merchant and the Fidler's Wife."
Clifton Hicks
2018-07-21 21:22:27 +0000 UTCDave, thanks for your information, I will pass this on to Gibson who's very interested in this piece. I would love to see or hear any recordings you might have of yourself or anyone else doing a similar cante-fable. If you have any other information please share it here or email me: clifhicks@gmail.com
Clifton Hicks
2018-07-21 20:39:33 +0000 UTCBe true to me, be true to me
DAVE ARTHUR
2018-07-21 19:12:06 +0000 UTC
