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Broadside ballad entitled 'The Auld Pair O' Tawse' |
CommentaryThis ballad begins: 'Weel dae I remember when I was but a bairn, / The lickings that I used to get when I did ony hairm; / For mother she was very strict, though loving, kind and good, / She made me aye behave mysel', as a guid bairnies should. . . ' Below the title we are told that 'This popular song can always be had at the Poet's Box, 224 Overgate, Dundee'. A 'tawse' was a leather strap that was used to punish badly behaved children. This light-hearted ballad is written from the perspective of a nostalgic adult, fondly remembering the times when his mother used to physically chastise him for his errant behaviour. When a person was raised in this manner, it was said that they were 'brought up by hand'. The character considers the various methods and instruments of punishment that his mother used on him, and concludes that the 'Auld Pair o' Tawse' was the reprimand that made him feel 'glad'. Many broadside ballads such as this one are held in the National Library of Scotland's collection. 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(19b)
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