| Author | Topic: Add: Kitty from Coleraine | |
| dmcg | Posted - 12 Feb 05 - 10:09 am | |
As beautiful Kitty one morning was tripping With a pitcher of milk from the fair of Coleraine When she saw me she stumbled the pitcher it tumbled And all the sweet buttermilk water'd the plain. "Oh what shall I do now 'twas looking at you now, Sure, sure such a pitcher I'll ne'er see again. 'Twas the pride of my dairy! Oh! Barney McCleary, You're sent as a plague to the girls in Coleraine." I sat down beside her and gently did chide her That such a misfortune should give her such pain; A kiss there I gave her and before I did leave her She vowed for such pleasure she'd break it again. 'Twas hay-making season, I can't tell the reason, Misfortune will never come singly 'tis plain. For very soon after poor Kitty's disaster Och! never a pitcher was whole in Coleraine. Source: Singing Together, Autumn 1984, BBC Publications Notes: From Ireland. It is very easy to read sexual allusion into songs where it was not intended, but this one seems very plain to me. I wonder how it came to be included in a book of songs for schools? Edited By dmcg - 12-Feb-2005 10:19:26 AM | ||
| nutty | Posted - 12 Feb 05 - 12:28 pm | |
This broadside of the song in the Bodleian Library is actually dated Apr 4th 1809 HERE | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 12 Feb 05 - 07:14 pm | |
Alfred Moffat (Minstrelsy of Ireland, 4th edn, c.1919, 6-7) prints the song as As Beautiful Kitty (Kitty of Coleraine), with the usual attribution to Edward Lysaght. He notes, however ' "The authorship of this song has been erroneously attributed to Edward Lysaght" (O'Donoghue); it was issued early in the [19th] century by Kelly of Waterford as a chap-book and is to be found in many collections of Irish songs. The air, which has nothing in common with "Kitty of Coleraine; or, Paddy's Resource," to which Moore wrote his song, "Ill Omens," is printed in George Thompson's Irish Airs, vol. ii., O'Farrell's Pocket Companion, Bk. iv., Musical Cabinet, etc.' A P Graves, The Irish Song Book (1894) includes the song as "anon", with a tentative date of "about 1790". He also includes songs by Lysaght (1763-1810). Kitty has also been attributed to Charles Dawson Shanly, but that's a non-starter; he wasn't born until 1811. | ||
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