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Broadside ballad entitled 'Good by my Darling' |
CommentaryThis ballad begins: 'T'is just ten years ago, / Since I left my native home, / And oh how my mother wept, / When last she shook my hand.' The text preceding it reads: 'Copies of this song can always be had at the Poets Box 190 Overgate Dundee. / PRICE ONE PENNY'. These sheets all mainly sold for a penny each regardless of which century they were printed in. This perhaps illustrates the cost effectiveness of the changes made within the printing industry. The sheets were occasionally made more attractive for their price by including two stories or songs. Here, however, the high drama and emotion were perhaps enough to sell this as compelling entertainment. 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(111a)
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