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Broadside ballad entitled 'Cocky-Bendie's Wedding O' |
CommentaryVerse 1: 'In Airdrie town in fifty nine, / The evening being calm and fine; / Both rich and poor they did combine / To hold Cocky-Bendie's wedding O. / In Finnias lane they did agree, / That night to hold the wedding spree; / Then to Coatbrig they march'd wi' glee / To celebrate the marriage O. / Durum doo a doo &c.' This ballad was published by the Poet's Box, which advertises 'NEW SONGS OUT EVERY WEEK'. The town of origin is not specified, but it was probably published in Dundee. This ballad is a lively celebration of the marriage and wedding ceremony of a Lanarkshire couple. Ballads written for and about weddings, containing refences to drink and dancing as well as a few bawdy asides, were quite common. 'Cocky-Bendy's Wedding O' fits easily into this tradition. The final verse suggests that the song may have been written as a toast to and gift for a real couple: 'May health and happiness be his, / In true love and connubial bliss'. 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(59a)
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