Recordings & Info 27. The Whummil Bore
[The plot is related to the parlor song, "The Keyhole in the Door" attributed to Eugene Field in 1879. The Davis US versions and other versions may be based on the "Keyhole in the Door," not "Whummil Bore."]
CONTENTS
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Folk Index
4) Child Collection Index
5) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
6) Excerpt from: The Interdependence of Ballad Tunes and Texts
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud number 3722; The Whummil Bore (5 listings)
Alternative Titles
Eighteen Lang Years (1906 collected in Wisconsin)
King Orfeo (Davis)
Traditional Ballad Index: Whummil Bore, The [Child 27]
DESCRIPTION: A servant has waited on the king for seven years without ever seeing the princess. One day, peering through a hole in the wall (the whummil bore), he sees her being dressed. He greatly enjoys the sight, but can't stay long.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825
KEYWORDS: clothes servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 27, "The Whummil Bore" (1 text)
Bronson 27, "The Whummil Bore" (1 version)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 437-438, "The Whummil Bore" (notes plus the "With my glimpy" chorus)
Davis-More 14, pp. 89-91, "The Whummil Bore" (1 text)
DT 27, WHMLBORE
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #354, "The Whummil Bore" (1 text)
Roud #3722
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Keyhole in the Door" (plot)
NOTES: Bertrand Bronson discusses origin of this piece in "The Interdependence of Ballad Tunes and Texts" (first printed in the California Folklore Quarterly, II, 1944; see now MacEdward Leach and Tristram P. Coffin, eds, The Critics and the Ballad. The relevant discussion is on pages 89-91.
Bronson states that "'The Whummil Bore' appears to me a by-blow of a serious romantic ballad." He then notes a melodic similarity to "Hind Horn" (Child 17), as well as a similar subplot, and proposes that "Hind Horn" is the source for "The Whummil Bore."
The existence of the Virginia text found in Davis seems very suspicious, and I considered the possibility that it is actually some other song (either "Hind Horn" or "The Keyhole in the Door"). But it's much too clean for the latter, and -- though fragmentary -- too full for the former. Call it a curiosity. - RBW
Folk Index: The Whummil Bore [Ch 27]
[There are no listings of Whummil Bore here, only The Keyhole in the Door]
Rt - Keyhole in the Door
The Keyhole in the Door [Me II-W 9]
Rt - Never Make Love No More; Whummil Bore
Feaster, J. K.. Morris, Alton C. / Folksongs of Florida, Univ. Florida, Bk (1950), p149/# 75 [1934-39]
Neal, Riley. Logsdon, Guy (ed.) / The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing and Other Songs.., U. Illinois, Bk (1989), p253/#54 [1968/08]
Wilson, Jim. First I'm Going to Sing You A Ditty. Rural Fun and Frolics, Topic TSCD 657, CD (1998), trk# 22 [1960/11]
Coffin: A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
27. THE WHUMMIL BORE
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 437 (trace) / JAFL, XX, 155.
Local Titles: None used.
Story Types: A: A servant of the King tells of the only time he has seen a certain lady nude. He looked at her through a small hole while her maids were dressing her. Among other things, he tells how sad she looked, of the "tike" that was biting her shoe, and of the beauty of her hair, the rings on her hands, and her bosom. In a wistful close, he remarks that he can never
know more of this lady.
Examples: JAFL, XX, 155.
Discussion: This American version is close to the Child text, although it is longer and has different details. The ballad is extremely rare in this country. Barry, Brit Bids Me, 437 reports that a Maine sea-captain recognized the motif and the chorus.
Excerpt from: The Interdependence of Ballad Tunes and Texts
by Bertrand H. Bronson
California Folklore Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Jul., 1944), pp. 185-207
Sometimes related tunes suggest or lend confirmation to a suspected connection between ballads. A case in point is Child's no. 27, "The Whummil Bore." Child introduces it with the dubious remark: "This ballad, if it ever were one, seems not to have been met with, or at least to have been thought worth notice, by anybody but Motherwell." As the piece is very short, it may be quoted here:
1. Seven lang years I hae served the king,
Fa fa fa fa lilly
And I never got a sight of his daughter but ane.
With my glimpy, glimpy, glimpy eedle,
Lillum too tee a ta too a tee a ta a tally
2. I saw her thro a whummil bore,
And I neer got a sight of her no more.
3. Twa was putting on her gown,
And ten was putting pins therein.
4. Twa was putting on her shoon,
And twa was buckling them again.
5. Five was combing down her hair,
And I never got a sight of her nae mair.
6. Her neck and breast was like the snow,
Then from the bore I was forced to go.
This appears to be an example of pawky fun at the expense of high romance, like "Sir Eglamore," "The Twa Corbies," (26) or "Kempy Kay" (33). For this sort of thing there is, of course, high precedent in Chaucer's "Sir Thopas," to name but one out of multitudes. "The Whummil Bore" appears to me a by-blow of a serious romantic ballad. The evidence of its tune indicates where its affiliations lie. Here is Motherwell's tune:
THE WHUMMIL BORE (Motherwell, 1827, App., No. 3)
Sev - en lang years I have served the king, Fa, fa, fa - lil - ly, And I
ne'er got a sight of his doch - ter but ane With my glimp-y glimp-y
glimp - y ee - die, Lil - lum too a tee too a tal - ly.
If the order of the first and second phrases is reversed, the result is a fairly close parallel to Miss Minnie Macmath's tune for "Hind Horn" (17), amounting almost to identity in the third phrase. The Motherwell tune, flown with insolence, repeats its third phrase with variation, and ends with a fifth phrase which would supply an equally appropriate termination for the Macmath
tune, which in fact seems to have forgotten its proper conclusion:
HIND HORN (Child, I, 503, and V, 413)
She gave him a gay gold ring, Hey lil - le lu and how lo_ lan, But
he gave her a far bet -ter thing,Wi my hey down and a hey did-die down-ie.
Child, incidentally, did not miss the fact that some versions of "Hind Horn" contained a curious reference to Horn's seeing his love through some small aperture, e.g., an augur bore, or a gay gold ring, and conjectured that the detail was borrowed from "The Whummil Bore," where it manifestly comes in more appropriately. He did not, however, suggest that a much greater obligation lay in the opposite direction, which to me appears altogether probable. "Hind Horn" is an ancient and honorable ballad, and its tune, in one variety or another, is well established and consistently associated with it.