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Broadside ballad entitled 'Cockles and Mussels. Aliv, O' |
CommentaryVerse 1 and chorus: 'In Dublin's fair city lived a maiden so pritty, / Her name it was Molly Malone, / And though streets broad and narrow she wheeled her wheelbarrow, / Crying Cockles and mussels! alive, alive, O / Alive, alive O! alive, alive, O! / Crying Cockles and! alive, alive, O!' This ballad was published by the Poet's Box, Dundee. This is a version of a song that is still widely known today. The chorus is taken from the street cry of Dublin fishmongers from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The character of Molly Malone has now entered Dublin folklore, but it is not known whether she really existed and if she did, whether she was actually a fishmonger or rather, as some have speculated, a part-time prostitute. Although known worldwide, the song has become Dublin's anthem and is mentioned in James Joyce's novel of the city, 'Ulysses'. 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(82a)
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