Petticoat Lane- George Edwards (NY) 1942 Cazden
[From Folk Songs of the Catskills - Page 164, by Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, Norman Studer- 1982. Their notes follow.
George Edwards 1877-1949 was the leading informant for Cazden in his book Folk Songs of the Catskills (Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht and Norman Studer. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982). Edwards also is found in Notes and Sources for Folk Songs of the Catskills.
[George Edwards was born March 31, 1877 in Hasbrouck, a small place on the Neversink River. George's father, Jehila "Pat" Edwards was a scoopmaker by trade but worked as an unskilled laborer. Pat loved liquor and would sing in bars for free drinks. He died in 1927. George's mother Mary Lockwood was the stable influence in his life. She was a singer, mostly of hymns. She died in 1925. George's cousins were Charles Hinckley and "Dick" Edwards, both singers.
R. Matteson 2014]
PETTICOAT LANE. Most versions of this widely known conversation song bear the title The Cambric Shirt, and it appears in the Child Ballad collection as The, Elfin Knight, #2. The connection seems based more on formal classifications, with an arbitrary precedence given to riddle images whatever their substance, than on a tracing of the actual development of the song strain in tradition. Much commentary has been devoted to the numerous Cambric Shirt forms, largely dealing with the "nonsense" refrains. In discussion by Gilchrist, Sharp, and particularly Broadwood of "herb burthens" and of the transmission of phonemes or word sounds, whether or not the word meanings have remained clear to the singer, the second lines of the stanzas have been reestablished as originally sensible in the form of "Parsley, sage' rosemary, and thyme." Broadwood's analysis may be taken as proven, but her conclusion partakes of a mystical evaluation of the "herb burthen" as a retention of "magic defense" through song. Somehow she seems to have missed the much more direct explanation of the refrain in this song as involving the formula for a love potion.
Only the Rev. Baring-Gould is so obtuse as to have discovered in the variant form "Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine" a veritable meaning for a real word, "antienne," meaning anthem! Along the lines of phoneme retention with change of meaning, a process fully noted in the songs of the Catskill tradition, it may be interesting to comp4re the first (and unique) title line of our text with other openings:
"Did ye ever travel twixt Berwick nnd Lyne?" (Child F); "O, where are you bound? Are you bound to Lynn?" (Boston broadside, 1836, quoted by Barry), "Oh, where are you going? I'm going to Cape Ann" (Flanders); "As I went a'walking up Strawberry Lane" (Shoemaker). A few repetitions of ony of these, following a musical rhythm, with attention to the sound values only and in disregard of the sense, quickly shows the source from which came: "As I walked out in Petticoat Lane." It is even more interesting to note how often the singer rationalizes such half-remembered sound sequences into some kind of fitting sense. No doubt the theme of the pretty fair maid who gave back better than she received from the "superior" young man has proven a favorite in popular tradition, and innumberable plain people have smiled as approvingly over her nimble wit as over his discomfiture. The song is an interesting testimony of popular views of the status of the "fair sex," not often recognized in "educated" literature. Of the many tunes noted for this song, none belong to the family of George Edwards' tune, nor does that tune appear in tradition for other songs. For resemblances in exact wording, it is curious that other than the Child G version, the closest to the Catskill form comes from a lumber camp near Lake George, in New York State (Thompson). The oldest known version was printed about 1670:
Ref. in Coffin 30; see also JFSS I/83, II/212, III/12, 274, #34/287; JFSS VIII/17 Baring-Gould 296; Broadwood. L2; Buchan II/296; Chase 18; Child I #2, V /205, 284; Fowke I38; Gardiner 2L; Gordon 19L5,27i Goss 2; Greig #1; Joyce 259; Kidson 249, L72; Kidson, 5 30; Kinloch 145; Quiller-Couch 43; Sharp I II/4; Sharp 9 95; Sharp 3 26; Sharp 5 167.
1. As I walked out in Petticoat Lane,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
There I spied a pretty fair maid,
Who choosed to be a true lover of mine.
2 "Can you make me a cambric shirt,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
Without any thread or fine needlework,
And you shall be a true lover of mine.
3 "Can you sew it with a gold ring,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
And every stitch a foot between,
And you shall be a true lover of mine.
4 "Can you wash it in yonder well,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
Where water never ran and rain never fell,
And you shall be a true lover of mine.
5 "Can you iron it with a flat rock,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
That never was cold and never was hot,
And you shall be a true lover of mine'.
6 "Can you dry it on yonder thorn,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
That's never borne bud since Adam was born,
And you shall be a true lover of mine."
7 "Now you've asked those questions of me,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
I'll grant the same favor back to thee
Before I become a true lover of yourn.
8 "Can you buy an acre of land,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
Between the salt water and the sea sand,
And you shall be a true lover of mine.
9 "Can you plow it with a buck's horn,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
And seed it down with one ear of corn,
And you shall be a true lover of mine.
10 "Can you reap it with a- penknife,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
And draw it home with three yokes of mice'
And you shall be a true lover of mine'
11 "Can you thrash it with a goose quill,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
And clean it all up through an eggshell,
And you shall be a true lover of mine.
12 "After you've gone and done your work,
Oh, me rose, be married in time,
Come back to me, and I'll make you your shirt,
And you shall be a true lover of mine."