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Broadside ballad entitled 'The Crocodile' |
CommentaryVerse 1 begins: 'Come list, ye landsmen unto me, / To tell you the truth I'm bound, / Of what happened me whilst I was at sea'. The text before this reads: 'This most wonderful song came out of the Poet's Box, and can only be had there for the price of One Penny. / AIR - End for End Jack'. The Poet's Box was a loose business organisation, which enabled poets to published their work quickly and cheaply, even if anonymously. The Poet's Box in Dundee, produced a prolific amount of literature, some of which was copied from other areas, and some of which travelled to other areas itself. Dundee during the nineteenth century enjoyed a busy dockside trade. As a result travelling and shipping feature quite heavily in the local literature. 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: RB.m.143(134)
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