XPost: uk.music.folk   
   From: NO_SPAM_asale@ft.newyorklife.com   
      
   On Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:25:41 +0100, Jack Campin - bogus address   
    wrote:   
      
   >And one obvious cult from exactly your period is that of Little St Hugh   
   >of Lincoln, subject of the ballad "Little Sir Hugh", which claims the   
   >Jews murdered him around 1255 to make his blood into biscuits.  St Hugh   
   >was one of the most enduringly popular saints in the English canon, only   
   >displaced when Reformation Britain decided to go after witches & Gypsies   
   >instead of Jews & heretics.   
      
   I don't have any information dating the actial song before about 1750.  Of   
   course, the story is very likely from shortly after Hugh's death.   
   Interesting back story there - Hugh was a commoner, not a Sir and was named   
   for Saint Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln.  Saint Hugh was credited with great   
   benevolence and strong opposition to any persecution of the Jews.   
      
   The Blood Libel has resulted in great slaughter and of 19 Jews in this   
   event.   
      
   Tacking elseways, there are many recent or undated songs, the story of   
   which, like this one, goes back quite a ways.   
      
   King John and the Bishop ("before 1685") relates a story which, per Child,   
   dates to 850 CE and may go back to early Coptic times.  (I like this as a   
   rare compliment to Good King John.  Maybe he only got a bad press from   
   political rivals.  After all, he was left running the place while Richard   
   was off spending & drinking and playing crusader and playing with boys.)   
      
   When do all them Robin Hood songs originate?   
      
   Thais is a brand new song as we know it (c.1923) but St. Thais was 4th   
   century CE in Alexandria.  Her story has been told and retold as tale,   
   poem, opera, novel, farce ever since.   
      
   I don't know that The Devil and Bailiff was collected or printed before   
   1950 (Kennedy) but the tale has remained in tradition in Ireland until a   
   couple of years ago.  And often in Norway.  It dates to Chaucer (The Friars   
   Tale)   
      
   Lastly, I also know a non-period song dealing with a mason.  But maybe some   
   form of it does go back - songs/broadsides listing professions are very   
   old:   
      
   "My Husband's a Mason"   
      
   My husband's a mason, a mason, a mason,   
   A very fine mason is he.   
   All day he lays bricks, lays bricks, lays bricks.   
   At night he comes home and lays me.   
   	Tra la la,"   
   At night he comes home and lays me.   
      
   My Husband's a butcher, a butcher, a butcher,   
   A very fine butcher is he."   
   All day he stuffs sausage, stuffs sausage, stuffs sausage.   
   At night he comes home and stuffs me.   
   	Tra la la;   
   At night he comes home and stuffs me.   
      
   a miner   
   he bores holes   
      
   a pilot   
   he flies planes   
      
   a jockey   
   he rides horses   
      
   a carpenter, carpenter, carpenter   
   he pounds nails   
      
   a glazier   
   he blows glass   
      
   a farmer   
   he forks hay   
      
   As printed in _The Erotic Muse._  Cray writes that it can be traced   
   to the early 18th century - and the puns were probably old then.   
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   	       I am Abby Sale - in Raleigh, North Carolina   
      
   	                    Skate free or die!   
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)