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Broadside ballad entitled 'Bonnie Lass o' Broughty Ferry' |
CommentaryVerse 1: 'A something's birrin through my head, / An' at my heart's a hurlie burlie; / At times I think I'm halflins dead, / An' whiles I laugh an' whiles I'm sury. / I kenna fu' to gie't a name, / That's dung me in this tirrie-wirrie; / Gin it be love, she's a' the blame - / The Bonnie lass o' Boughty Ferry'. The broadside was published by the Poet's Box, Overgate, Dundee, and at the foot of the page, we learn that the publisher also runs a postal service for songs. This ballad is a fairly conventional love song, narrated by a man who vows to wed the girl of his dreams despite the scorn of his parents. It is written in a variety of Scots that is marked as an north-east dialect by the presence of 'Fat' meaning 'what', and 'fu' meaning 'how'. These pronounciations are not common to west coast varieties of Scots. 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(39a)
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