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Broadside ballad entitled 'Come Down and Open the Door, Love' |
CommentaryVerse 1: 'I've been to a party, I've been to a ball, / I've been where there's you can see; / I've been where there's swells, and such pretty girls, / And I've had a jolly good spree. / I've just staggered home, but I've lost my key, / My wife she won't open the door, / I've knocked and I've bawled, at the window threw stones / For over two hours I'm sure.' The ballad was published by the Poet's Box, 182 Overgate, Dundee. This comic song features a very drunk narrator who has been locked out of his house and is trying to persuade his wife to let him back in. The way the song is laid out on the page, incoporating stage directions and spoken interludes, confirms that it was intended for public performance, probably in a music hall. Music halls originated in British taverns and inns in the early nineteenth century, when landlords hired acts to entertain their customers. Soon music halls were being custom-built, and the phenomenon reached its peak in the 1880s. 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(91a)
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