Keach i' the Creel- Anon. (NH) Flanders c.1940s
[From Flanders, a fragment with no informants name and no date- since Olney was the collector for flanders I'll guestimate the date as the 1840s. Here are her notes from Ancient Ballads 1966:
This farcical song is of relatively recent date and does not seem to have been known in Britain before the early 1800's. The story, as a fabliau, is much older, having been included invarious collections and jest books of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The usual plot involves a young maid whose beauty captivates a clerk. To win her, in spite of her jealous guardians, the lover has his brother build him a ladder. He enters the girl's home by being lowered down the chimney in a basket. After he is in bed with the girl, the mother and father come to investigate but are told by the girl that she is merely prayinq with a large book in her arrns. The mother accidentally falls into the basket and is pulled up and down the chimney by the brother.
The song is still popular in Scotland, but is now unknown in England and extremely rare in the States. Phillips Barry,British BaIIad's from Maine, 336, found a fragment in New Brunswick, and Norman Cazden, The Abelard Folk' Song Book (New York, 1958) II, 10, has a complete text from New York [George Edwards]. The Flanders text gives two of the stanzas that
open the srory and one in which the mother is tossed about. The roughing up of the mother seems to be the portion of the song that lasts best.
For bibliograPhical references of which there are almost none that are not Scottish, see Coffin, 150-1 (American); Dean-Smith, 82 (English); and Greig and Keith, 230-3 (Scottish).
The Keach i' the Creel (Child 281)- As sung in northern New Hampshire. Name of singer withheld by request. M. Olney, collector. Structure: A B C D (2,2,2,2); Rhythm C; Contour: undulating; Scale: hexachordal t.c. A. For mel. rel. see possibly BES, 337. Footnote on the title; Keach: catch; creel: baskeL
The Keoch i' the Creel- Anon. c. 1940s
"How shall I get to your bedroom door?
How shall I get to your bed,
When your father locks his doors at night
And the keys lie under his head?"
"Go get you a ladder nicely made,
Three score feet and three;
Place it up the chimney top
And down in the creel come to me."
This young man was on the chimney top;
He gave the creel a heil;
She broke three ribs against the creel
And her head went ca-but against the wall.
To my right fal-der rol,
O raddle duddle dull,
And her head went ca-but against the wall.