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Broadside ballad entitled 'A Wee Drappie Mair' |
CommentaryVerse 1: 'One night as I was dandering alang the South Street, / I gead in to the twa brewers my whistle for tae weet; / When I a lassie that I ne'er saw before drew anower her chair, / Saying come awa my lad, an' tak a wee drappie mair.' The broadside was published by the Poet's Box, 182 Overgate, Dundee. At the foot of the sheet a mail order service for songs is advertised. This ballad draws on familiar Scottish themes for its story and its humour. It is narrated by a man who is seduced by an attractive woman and by his own weakness for drink, and who is then robbed by the woman after the drink has sent him to sleep. The punchline is that although the woman has stolen his 'siller' or money, she has at least left him ' a wee drappie mair'. 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(40a)
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