Continuing the trawl into the depths of traditional bawdy material we come across a theme that has remained popular in a variety of forms for many centuries. Most of you will be familiar with the seduction sequence of verses in which a seducer gradually moves from placing his hand on a girl’s toe ever upwards to explore the rest of her anatomy. In recent times it has evolved into various forms two of which were popularised by The Yetties in Dorset and both of these appeared on the same 1969 album, Fifty Stones of Loveliness:
1) Bound for BaltimoreIt is based on the song We Parted on the Shore of 1906, by Harry Lauder according to Kilgarriff, but the three singers who sang it for me all claimed it dated back to The Boer War.
‘I touched her on the toe and the crew began to roar,
Oh, oh, up she goes, we’re bound for Baltimore.
No more, no more, no more, will I go to sea no more,
Ill-I-o, ill-I-o, and we parted on the shore’
2) I Touched Her on the ToeThis accumulative theme has a much longer pedigree; a version The Corn Grinds Well or The Derbyshire Miller was printed with tune by William Chappell in his Popular Music of the Olden Time p.750 if only in fragmentary form, but a fuller version Matthew the Miller can be found in Frank Purslow’s The Wanton Seed p.75. Another version, Billy Gillery, is given in Dave Harker’s John Bell’s Song Collection p.204. This no doubt derived from an 1838 chapbook version entitled Billy Go Leary, or I clapped my hand on her thigh, a Very Celebrated Flash Song.
‘I touched her on the toe, that’s my share,
That’s my toe a tapper, you can go there,
Toe a tapper, love my dear,
The more I love my nigger draw near.’
‘I clapp’d my hand on her toe, what’s that my deary?The same formula is also widely used in sea shanties, perhaps the best known being a version of A-Roving.
That is my broad toe, Billy Go Leary.
Oh as I kissed her, I cuddled her dearly,
Oh as I kissed her, I cuddled her dearly.’
‘I touched that maid upon the toe,But also check out the Danish shanty in Folk Music Journal Vol. 7, no.4, p.480, Very well done, Jim Crow.
Mark well what I do say,
I touched that maid upon the toe,
She said, “Young man, you’re far too low,”
I’ll go no more a-roving with you fair maid.’
‘I put my hand upon her toe,Incidentally Bound for Baltimore is far better known as a Danish / German shanty than as a British one.
Very well done, Jim Crow-ho-ho!
Victorio, Victorio,
Very well done, Jim Crow!’
Other borrowers of the theme abound e.g., in More Rugby Songs p.116.
‘I laid my hand upon her toe,Which is possibly related to Yo-ho, Yo-ho, a song that utilises the tune of When Johnny Comes Marching Home.
She said, “Young man, you’re rather low,”
With your hand, with your hand,
With your H-A-N-D hand.’
‘I put my hand upon her toe, yo-ho, yo-ho,For an earlier version of the formula we can turn to the song Gently Johnny My Jingalo collected by Sharp, which appears in its unexpurgated form in Reeves’ The Idiom of the People p.113.
I put my hand upon her toe, yo-ho, yo-ho,
I put my hand upon her toe,
She said, “Young man, you’re much too low,
Stick it in, stick it out, stop muckin’ about,”
Yo-ho, yo-ho.’
‘I put my hand all on her toe,It then progresses (not accumulatively) through knee, thigh, billy, breast to head. This is the version I remember singing in the folk clubs in the ‘60s, but Sharp collected another version Fair Maid of Wickham, and there are versions in the Greig/Duncan collection, Vol. 7, p.263.
Fair maid is a lily O,
I put my hand all on her toe,
She says to me, “Do you want to go?”
Come to me quietly,
Do not do me injury,
Gently Johnny my jingalo.’
Some versions of Mademoiselle from Armentieres employ the formula, and I’m certain there must be many more in more recent bawdy song e.g., the WWII RAF song How Ashamed I Was, a version of the song given above from More Rugby Songs.
‘I touched her on the toe, how ashamed I was x 2Before we move on to the very early relatives it is worth mentioning related songs such as the shanty Pump Away and Roll Me Over in the Clover from WWII, which employ a similar progression, but the progression up the girl’s body is limited due to the necessity of having to rhyme with the first ten numbers e.g.,
I touched her on the toe, she said, “You’re mighty slow,”
Lord God Almighty, how ashamed I was.’ From Bawdy Ballads & Dirty ditties of the Wartime RAF p50.
‘This is number two and my hand is on her shoe,This must have been sung from the girl’s viewpoint originally but I have heard it sung both ways.
Roll me over, lay me down and do it again,
Roll me over in the clover,
Roll me over, lay me down and do it again.’
Most of these songs should be classified as different songs unless they are related in some other way than simply employing the formula, e.g., having a similar chorus or tune. The formula used here should be rightly referred to as a motif, which can be transferred and adapted from one song to another in much the same way as other motifs, such as the ‘broken token’ motif, in which a long-absent returning lover reveals his identity to his sweetheart by showing half of a broken token they had shared at parting.
The earliest use of the motif I can find, though the probability is that there are much earlier examples, is in Thomas Heywood’s play of 1608 The Rape of Lucrece. It is sung by Valerius, with the help of Horatius Cocles and the Clown, who turns Tarquin’s vile crime into a ribald catch. The critic, Lamb, tells us it is ‘a pointed example of the way in which the dramatists of the period pandered to the tastes of the less refined among their audiences’. The catch is often quoted as a predecessor of A-Roving but is seldom printed so here it is in full:
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Val. Did he take fair Lucrece by the toe, man? Hor. Toe, man? Val. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha ha, man! Hor. And further did he strive to go, man? Clown. Go,man? Hor. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha, man, fa derry derry down, ha fa derry dino! Val. Did he take fair Lucrece by the heel, man? Clown. Heel, man? Val. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha, man! Hor. And did he further strive to feel, man? Clown. Feel, man? Hor. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha, man, ha fa derry, &c. Val. Did he take the lady by the shin, man? Clown. Shin, man? Val. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha, man! Hor. Further too would he have been, man? Clown. Been, man? Hor. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha, man, ha fa derry, &c. Val. Did he take the lady by the knee, man? Clown. Knee, man? Val. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha, man! Hor. Farther than that would he be, man? Clown. Be, man? Hor. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha, man, hey fa derry, &c. Val. Did he take the lady by the thigh, man? Clown. Thigh, man? Val. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha, man! Hor. And now he came it somewhat nigh, man. Clown. Nigh, man? Hor. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha, man, hey fa derry, &c. Val. But did he do the tother thing, man? Clown. Thing, man? Val. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha, man! Hor. And at the same had he a fling, man? Clown. Fling, man? Hor. Ay, man. Clown. Ha ha ha ha, man, hey fa derry, &c. |
A century later in 1707 Thomas D’Urfey gave us another use of the motif entitled Pillycock. In the 1719 edition of Pills to Purge Melancholy Vol.4, p.311, he gave an extra verse so this is the version given here:
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Pillycock came to my Lady’s toe, And there the Whoreson began to go; Had he Feet, ay marry, had he? And did he go, ay marry did he? Chorus: So bolt upright and ready to fight, And Pillycock he lay there all night. Pillycock came to my Lady’s Heel, And there the Whoreson began to feel; Had he Hands, ay marry had he? And did he feel, ay marry did he? Pillycock came to my Lady’s Shin, And there the Whoreson began to grin; Had he Teeth, ay marry had he? And did he grin, ay marry did he? Pillycock came to my Lady’s Knee, And there the Whoreson began to see; Had he Eyes, ay marry had he? And did he see, ay marry did he? Pillycock came to my Lady’s Thigh, And there the Whoreson began to fly; Had he Wings, ay marry had he? And did he fly, ay marry did he? Pillycock came to my Lady’s ---- And there the Whoreson began to hunt; Had he Hounds, ay marry had he? And did he hunt, ay marry did he? Pillycock came to my Lady’s Quilt, And there the Whoreson began to tilt; Had he a Lance, ay marry had he? And did he tilt, ay marry did he? |
Whilst these two early variations of the theme are clearly different songs, there appears to be another link in that D’Urfey’s seems to cater for different voices to take different parts of the verse, as in Heywood’s.
As with all of these articles we are interested in adding information to the above. If you know of other similar songs that would add to our knowledge please send them to the editor and he will append them to the article, or for that matter any comments on the articles themselves.