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Broadside ballad entitled 'Coal Jock' |
CommentaryThis ballad begins: 'Whaur the mischief am I noo? / Freens, excuse me, for I'm fu', / Fairly stappit tae the muzzle - choker block; / I've been oot an' hae'n a drap. . . ' Below the title we are told that 'Copies of this can be had at the Pox Box, Overgat, Dundee'. 'Freens' means 'friends', 'stappit' is 'full', 'muzzle' means 'face' and 'choker block' means 'chock-a'block'. This light-hearted ballad tells the story of a coal delivery man called Jock. In the opening verses we learn that Jock is a hard-working man who likes a dram. Indeed, the first verse informs us that Jock is so full of drink that his coal cart has left the road. After this amusing mishap, Jock muses about his friends and the state of his relationships with them. The last two verses focus on the minister's doomed attempts to make Jock mend his wicked ways, and Jock's defiant response to the man of the cloth's ministrations. 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(18a)
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