02. Bowl Away
Click to zoom
No. 2.
Bowl away.
This was the title (I believe) of a song which I remember was sung by a w two women at the end of
Swan Yard opposite Somerset House in the Strand, every evening. They had two or three others also which were
sung in rotation. There was always a considerable crowd of fools idlers, and pickpockets to hear them. There were many such groups in different parts of London and in proportion to the vileness of the songs and the flash manner of singing, xx them was the applause the singers receivd.
I can recollect only a line or two
My smock’s above my knee she did say, she did say
My smock’s above my knee she did say.
My smock’s above my knee, and you may plainly see
You may have a smack at me, Bowl away, Bowl away
Bowl Away.
A Guinea to a Crown I will lay. I will lay.
A Guinea to a Crown I will lay.
A Guinea to a Crown that I beat you up and down
With any Gil Girl in Town Bowl away Bowl away.1
Editor's Notes
1. This stanza appears in the margin of the manuscript version.
Annotations
Place's notes mention that the song was sung by two women at the end of Swan Yard (present day Montreal Place) opposite Somerset House. This is one of several times Place notes songs being sung by women—the gendering of ballad singing was obviously of some interest to him. This is to the west of the area outside St Clement's Church where Place notes women singing "And for Which I'm Sure She'll Go to Hell" and "Sandman Joe."
There are two versions of this ballad that appear in the Madden Ballad Collection at the University of Cambridge: Madden Collection 23 (Country Printers 8), Item no.740; and Madden Collection 21 (Country Printers 6), Item no.128.
The words are similar in each, as follows:
It was in the month of may,
Bowl away, bowl, away —
It was in the month of May, bowl away,
A young man and a maid,
On a mossy bank were laid
And so merrily they played,
Bowl away, bowl away—
So merrily they did play, bowl away.
There is a guinea to a crown he did say,
There is a guinea to a crown he did say,
There is a guinea to a crown,
Before to-morrow noon,
That I bowl you up and down bowl away.
O behold my eye—she did say, she did say,
O behold my rolling eye she did say,
O behold my rolling eye,
Beside my milk-white thigh,
And there's something else thats nigh—
Bowl away—bowl away—
Here is a guinea to a spark she did say,—
Here is a guinea to a spark she did say,
Here is a guinea to a spark
That you do not hit the mark,
For the evening's growing dark, bowl away
There is a guinea to a spark he did say,
There is a guinea to a spark he did say,
That I mean to take them back,
That I mean to take them back,
Let the night be ever so dark, bowl away.
Then I'll lay the money flat she did say,
Then I'll lay the money flat she did say,
Then I'll lay the money flat,
And she laid upon her back,
Then we had another smack, bowl away—
He turned him round aside, well a day well a day
He turned him round aside, well a day well a day,
He turned him round aside,
And on her belly he did ride,
As her legs they are so wide bowl away—
Why the de l's in the man she did say,
Why the devils in the man she did say,
Why the devils in the man,
For his p it will not stand,
Though I rolled it in my hand, bowl away—
When he had spent his store, bowl away,
When he had spent his store, bowl away
When he had spent his store,
Then a man could do no more,
The he da d her for a whore— bowl away.
This ballad is a variant of the song "A Young Man And A Maid" which appeared in Thomas D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy (London, 1719-20) The opening line of D'Urfey's song, "A Young Man and A Maid," is identical to the fourth line of the Madden collection versions. The line "My smock's above my knee" which Place includes doesn't appear in the other printings of "Bowl Away" but is included in D'Urfey's "A Young Man and A Maid." Thus Place's manuscript helps us identify the connection between the two songs.
The tune, provided by D'Urfey, was likely common to both. Based on the distinctive stanza patterns, Bertrand Bronson in "Samuel Hall's Family Tree" (California Folklore Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1942, p. 52) speculates that this could also have been the original tune to "Jack Hall, Chimney Sweep" (see entry on "Sam Hall").
