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Broadside ballad entitled 'Robin Tamson's Smiddy' |
CommentaryVerse 1: 'My mither men't my auld breeks, / An' wow! But they were duddy, / An sent me to get shod our mare / At Robin Tamson's smiddy. / The smiddy stands beside a burn / That wimples through the clachan; / I never yet gae by the door, / But aye I fa' a lauchin.' The printer and supplier of this broadside are not identified, but at the foot of the page there is an advertisment for songbooks 'sent post free to any address for 7 stamps'. The rituals and risks of courting were popular subjects for ballads. Here the courting theme is used for comic purposes. The ballad is narrated by a young man who uses the opportunity of having his mare shod to woo the blacksmith's daughter. The young couple flee on the back of the mare, pursued by the blacksmith. When he finally catches up with them however, the narrator pacifies the blacksmith by offering his mother in exchange for the blacksmith's daughter, a deal the blacksmith eagerly accepts. 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(42b)
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