Author Topic: Add: Sour Grapes


dmcg

Posted - 20 Aug 05 - 10:34 am

A sly old fox one day did spy,
Fal-lal-le-di-do-did-dle-lal-li-day,
Some nice ripe grapes that hung so high,
Fal-lal-le-di-do-did-dle-lal-li-day,
The fruit he'd dearly loved to gain,
But although he tried with might and main,
To reach the fruit was all in vain,
Fal-lal-le-di-do-di-dle-lal-li-day.

The fox his patience nearly lost,
Fal-lal-le-di-do-did-dle-lal-li-day,
His expectations black and cross,
Fal-lal-le-di-do-did-dle-lal-li-day,
Still licked his chops for near an hour,
Till he found the fruit beyond his power.
Then he went and swore the grapes were sour.
Fal-lal-le-di-do-di-dle-lal-li-day.




Source: Singing Together, Autumn 1977, BBC Publications


Notes:

Source given as 'England'.




masato sakurai

Posted - 20 Aug 05 - 11:02 am

From folktrax:

FOX AND THE GRAPES, THE - "A sly old fox one day did spy" - "nice ripe grapes" - ROUD#1609 - PURSLOW MB 1965 p83 Gardiner: Frank Gamblin, Portsmouth, Hampsh 1907 titled by editor: "Sour Grapes"






Jon Freeman

Posted - 20 Aug 05 - 11:18 am

I used to have a book of these fables but I don't remember what happened to it. Found on one website - too many popups to want to link to from here.

Ã??sop. (Sixth century B.C.) Fables.
The Harvard Classics. 1909?14.

ONE hot summer?s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch. ?Just the things to quench my thirst,? quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success. Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: ?I am sure they are sour.?

?IT IS EASY TO DESPISE WHAT YOU CANNOT GET.?




dmcg

Posted - 20 Aug 05 - 12:05 pm

Just in case it is unclear 'PURSLOW MB' refers to 'Marrowbones', published by EFDS in 1965 and edited by Frank Purslow.


The reference number of the Marrowbones version is H868.

Edited By dmcg - 20-Aug-2005 12:20:24 PM




Malcolm Douglas
Posted - 20 Aug 05 - 08:40 pm

Roud 3713 now; there is no entry at 1609 in the current index. Versions also reported from Michigan, Vermont and British Columbia. The song appeared in The Universal Songster III, p. 88; it was written by Thomas Dibdin. There is a broadside edition of c.1799 at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, as performed by Joseph Shepherd Munden at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, in Dibdin's "musical entertainment" The naval pillar, or, Britannia's triumph:

The fox and the grapes

There are also several copies of a later parody:

The blue tail'd fly




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