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Broadside ballad entitled 'Clean Hearthstane' |
CommentaryVerse 1: 'Some people say its jolly a single life to lead, / They only talk for talking's sake and so I never heed; / A single life is very well, it may be gay and free, / But the comforts of a married life are suited best for me.' Below the title we are told that 'Copies of this popular song, can always be had at the Poet's Box, Ovegate, Dundee'. This light-hearted ballad muses on the advantages and disadvantages of married life and life as a bachelor. To support his argument that married life is best, the writer compiles a list of the simple pleasures that domesticity has to offer. Revealingly, however, these pleasures result directly from the hard work of his 'clean and tidy' wife. Indeed, this strong emphasis on a 'clean and tidy' wife providing a warm fire at the hearth recurs throughout the poem, illustrating the patriarchal nature of Scottish society at this time. It is not clear what the connection between the different Poet?s Boxes were. They almost certainly sold each other?s sheets. It is known that John Sanderson in Edinburgh often wrote to the Leitches in Glasgow for songs and that later his brother Charles obtained copies of songs from the Dundee Poet?s Box. There was also a Poet?s Box in Belfast from 1846 to 1856 at the address of the printer James Moore, and one at Paisley in the early 1850s, owned by William Anderson. Early ballads were dramatic or humorous narrative songs derived from folk culture that predated printing. Originally perpetuated by word of mouth, many ballads survive because they were recorded on broadsides. Musical notation was rarely printed, as tunes were usually established favourites. The term 'ballad' eventually applied more broadly to any kind of topical or popular verse.
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Probable period of publication:
1880-1900 shelfmark: L.C.Fol.70(18b)
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