Quaker's Wooing- Douglass (NY) c.1850 Thompson
[From: A Pioneer Songster: Texts from the Stevens-Douglass Manuscript of Western New York; 1841-1856 by Harold W. Thompson, Edith E. Cutting. Thompson's notes follow.
This version has the full ten stanzas and probably originated from an early unknown print.
R. Matteson 2017]
41. The Quaker's Wooing
This humorous account of an unsuccessful courtship is widely known and, according to Newell, was often sung as a children's game, two children taking the parts of the lady and the Quaker. There is much variation in the wording and in the stanzaic order as well as in the nonsense refrain. Various reasons are suggested in different versions for the lady's brusque denial of her suitor. For instance, in the first stanza of the versions in Eddy and Sandburg the Quaker begins his courtship by explaining that he has been forsaken by his true love; in Gardner and Chickering (B) he says that his father sent him. Thompson, in a New York version, has a final stanza in which the suitor shows a little more spirit:
Yes, my dear Miss, there's no doubt of it —
As good fish in the sea as ever caught out of it.
Douglass is a little longer than any other version examined except Gardner and Chickering (C), which also has 10 stanzas. Douglass line 2 is made clearer by comparison with the corresponding line in Mackenzie: "Not for pleasure nor for sporting."
Tunes may be found in Newell and in Mackenzie.
The Quaker's Wooing
1. he) Madan I have com a courting
Hum hum hi ho hum
More for pleasure than for sporting
Hum hum hi ho hum
2. she) I'll go away tis my desire
Fal liddle li dum diddle lalla da
For you may sit and count the fire
Fal liddle li dun diddle lalla da
3. He) I've a ring worth forty shillings
Hum hum hi ho hum
Thou shalt have it if thou art willing
Hum hum hi ho hum
4. She) What care I for gold or money
Fal liddle li dum diddle lalla da
I'll have a man that will call me honey
Fal liddle li dum diddle lalla da
5. He) Madam I know thou art tall and slender
Hum hum hi ho hum
And i know thy heart is tender
Hum hum hi ho hum
6. She) Yes I know you are flatterer
Fall liddle li dum diddle lalla da
But I never will marry a quaker
Fal liddle li dum diddle lalla da
7. He) Must I give up my religion?
Oh dear oh dear me
Must I be a Presbyterian?
Oh dear oh dear me
8. She) Cheer up cheer up my loveing brother
Fal liddle li dum diddle lalla da
If you cant catch one fish catch another
Fal liddle li dum diddle lalla da
9. He) Must I leave without a token
Oh dear oh dear me
Must I leave with my heart broken
Oh dear oh dear me
10. She) Run right home and tell your daddy
Fal liddle li dum diddle lalla da
That I never will you marry
Fal liddle li dum diddle lalla da