Broadside ballad entitled 'The Auld Sark Sleeve'

Commentary

This ballad begins: 'A reverend esteemed divine, / Upon a Sabbath day short syne, / While studious, a drawer unlockit, / To get a napkin for his pocket.' A note below the title states that 'Copies of this Recitation can always be had at the Poet's Box, 10 Hunter Street, Dundee', and that the sheet cost one penny. Unfortunately, the sheet is not dated.

This light-hearted ballad pokes fun at a minister who mistakes a sleeve of an old shirt for a napkin or fancy handkerchief. The ballad then moves into the setting of the pulpit, where the minister gives a fire and brimstone sermon to his congregation. However, the power of his sermon is rather diminished by the sight of him using a ragged sleeve of a shirt instead of a handkerchief when mopping his brow and blowing his nose. The end result is a build-up of suppressed laughter among the congregation until they can contain themselves no longer and the church erupts in mirth. The fact that a Church Minister could be ridiculed in print, tells us much about the changing social climate in Scotland at this time.
The Dundee Poets? Box was in operation from about 1880 to 1945, though it is possible that some material was printed as early as the 1850s. Most of the time it had premises at various addresses in Overgate. In 1885 the proprietor J.G. Scott (at 182 Overgate) had published a catalogue of 2,000 titles consisting of included humorous recitations, dialogues, temperance songs, medleys, parodies, love songs, Jacobite songs. Another proprietor in the 1880s was William Shepherd, but little is known about him. Poets? Box was particularly busy on market days and feeing days when country folk were in town in large numbers. Macartney specialised in local songs and bothy ballads. Many Irish songs were published by the Poets? Box ? many Irishmen worked seasonally harvesting potatoes and also in the jute mills. In 1906 John Lowden Macartney took over as proprietor of the Poet?s Box, initially working from 181 Overgate and later from no.203 and 207.

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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