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Rosin the Bow/Rosin the Beau
See Also: "Acres of Clams" and "Rose Connolly"
Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, West Virginia.
ARTIST: from The Good Old Songs We Used to Sing, compiled by J. C. H. (Joel Chandler Harris?), Oliver Ditson & Co., 1867
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Tune 1740; Lyrics published 1867, date back to 1830s.
RECORDING INFO: Rosin The Beau/Bow
Spaeth, Sigmund / Read 'Em and Weep, Arco, Sof (1959/1926), p 37 (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
Ford, Ira W. / Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1965/1940), p 56b
Ford, Ira W. / Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1965/1940), p127a
Ford, Ira W. / Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1965/1940), p392 (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
Kennedy, Peter (ed.) / Fiddler's Tune Book, Hargail, poc (1951), # 99 [1950ca] (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
de Ville, Paul (ed.) / Concertina and How To Play It, Carl Fischer, sof (1905), # 31 (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
Chapple, Joseph Mitchell / Heart Songs, Chappell, Bk (1909), p210 (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
Blood, Peter; and Annie Patterson (eds.) / Rise Up Singing, Sing Out, Sof (1992/1989), p 89 (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
Lomax, John A. & Alan Lomax / Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, MacMillan, Bk (1938), p278
Jackson, Richard (ed.) / Popular Songs of Nineteenth Century America, Dover, Sof (1976), p173 [1838] (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
Fife, Austin E. & Alta S. / Cowboy and Western Songs, Bramhall House, Bk (1982/1969), p 11/# 5 (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
Leisy, James F. (ed.) / Folk Song Abecedary, Bonanza, Bk (1966), P 5 (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
Bailey, Mike. Banjo Newsletter, BNL, Ser (1973-), 1983/03,p23 (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
Bok, Gordon. Gordon Bok, Verve FT 016, LP (1970), trk# 11
Brady, Willie. Come Back Paddy Reilly, Avoca 33-ST-19, LP (196?), trk# 12 (Roison the Bow)
Clancy, Patrick (Pat/Paddy). Come Fill Your Glass With Us, Tradition TLP 1032, LP (1959), trk# 5
Dirks, Mrs. Arthur. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume IV, Religous Songs and Others, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p373/#846C [1931/02/24]
Flanders, Burton. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume IV, Religous Songs and Others, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p371/#846A [1919/09/17] (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow
Fuller, Mark; and Luther Hills. Kennedy, Peter (ed.) / Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, Oak, Sof (1984/1975), #281, p613 [1952]
Herring, Merritt; and Kenny Hall. Jug of Punch, Herring, CD (200?), trk# 13
Hickerson, Joe. Joe Hickerson, Folk Legacy FSI 039, LP (1970), trk# 15
Hildebrand, David & Ginger. Out on a Limb, Hildebrand H101, LP (198?), trk# 4
Ives, Burl. Ives, Burl / Burl Ives Song Book, Ballantine Books, Bk (1963/1953), p270 (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
Keefer, Jane. Banjo Newsletter, BNL, Ser (1973-), 1980/03,p29
Leigh, Bonnie. Down in the Shady Grove, Maywind K56-03, CD (1998), trk# 18 (Lincoln and Liberty (Too))
Leslie, Mrs. John. Pound, Louise (ed.) / American Ballads and Songs, Scribner, Sof (1972/1922), p209/#100 [1915]
Lloyd, A. L. (Bert). English Drinking Songs, Riverside RLP 12-618, LP (1961ca), trk# 11
MacKay, Alex Francis. Lifelong Home, Rounder 7020, CD (199?), trk# 1a
Miller, Rodney & Randy. Castles in the Air, Fretless 119, LP (1975), trk# B.06b
Pointer, Mrs. Joseph (Joe). Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume IV, Religous Songs and Others, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p372/#846B [1940/03/22]
Price, Truman; and Jane Keefer. Songs and Tunes of the Oregon Trail, True West TW C-21, Cas (1991), trk# 7a
Shand, Jimmy (Jimmie). Shand, Jimmy / Over the Hills and Far Away, Pegasus PGN 863, CD (2002), trk# 13c (Old Rosin the Beau/Bow)
Swarbrick, Dave. Swarbrick, Transatlantic TRA 337, LP (1976), trk# A.08b
Turner, John. John Turner's Fiddling Leprechaun, Fiddletree F9125, LP (1983), trk# 1a (Auld Rosin the Beau)
Weissberg, Eric; Singers. Great American Songs - Produced by Robert De Cormier, American Heritage CAH 1201, LP (1969), trk# A.03
OTHER NAMES: "Old Rosin, the Beau," "Rosin the Bow,"
RELATED TO: "Mrs. Kenny," "Acres of Clams," "My Lodging's on the Cold, Cold Ground;" "Straight-Out Democrat;" "Down in the Willow Garden;" Erin's Green Shore
Men of the West; Hedges of County Down; Charlie, the Midnight Marauder; Hayseed Like Me; Cycling Champion of Ulster; Lincoln and Liberty (Too); Mill Boy of the Slashes; Old Hal of/'o the West; Black Rock Pork; 18th Day of November; Paddy's Curiosity Shop ; How the Money Rolls In; When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea; How Ceasar Was Driven from Ireland; He's the Man for Me; Wasp's Frolic; Sherman's March to the Sea; Sawyer's Exit; Save a Poor Sinner Like Me
SOURCES: Ceolas; Folk Index; Cooper Book #338 "Copied...from a MS. evidently written by a skilled fiddler with much musical taste, from Limerick, but the name of the writer nowhere appears" [Joyce]: Hogg (Pa., 1948) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 620, pg. 546. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 56-57 and pg. 127 {discord version} (lyrics included, pg. 56-57). Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Song), 1909; No. 352, pg. 162. Laufman (Okay, Let's Try a Contra, Men on the Right, Ladies on the Left, Up and Down the Hall), 1973; pg. 15. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 15, pg. 122. Wade (Mally's North West Morris Book), 1988; pg. 24. Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40126, Rodney Miller - "Choose Your Partners!: Contra Dance & Square Dance Music of New Hampshire" (1999).
Randolph 846, "Old Rosin the Bow" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Warner 159, "Old Rosin the Beau" (1 text, 1 tune)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 171-175, "Old Rosin the Beau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 5, "Old Rosin the Beau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 281, "Rosin, the Beau" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H698, p. 51, "Old Rosin the Bow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 37-39, "Old Rosin, the Beau" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 100, pp.209-211, "Rosin the Bow" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 202, "Old Rosin The Beau" (1 text)
NOTES: American, Waltz, Air and Contra Dance Tune; Irish, Jig; English, Morris Dance Tune (6/8 time). A Major (Ford, Joyce): G Major (Bayard, Laufman, Mulvihill, Wade). Standard or AEAE. AB (Bayard, Joyce, Wade): ABB (Ford): AABB (Laufman, Mulvihill). The tune is used for a single step in the North-West England morris dance tradition. Bayard (1981) notes the air was known to most fiddlers, fifers, and singers in Pennsylvania, as in many parts of the country. He identifies a melody by James Oswald which appears in his 2nd Collection (1740's, pg. 25) as a 6/8 "Gigg," that is extremely close to "Rosin," and he wonders if this was the ancestral tune for the air, or if Oswald himself was influenced by an older air. Further, he says a tune called "Dumfries House" in Gow's Complete Repository (3rd Ed., Part I, pg. 13) ascribed to John Riddle has a 2nd strain that equals "Rosin the Beau," and a Welsh harp tune in Bennett's Alawon fy Ngwlad also is quite close. The Fleishchmann index (1998) gives that the tune was derived from a 17th century Irish tune in 6/4 meter called "On the Cold Ground;" that tune, however, is English, attributed to Matthew Lock from the play The Rivals. The title appears in a list of standard tunes in the square dance fiddler's repertoire, according to A.B. Moore in his History of Alabama, 1934. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954.
Memoirs of Judge Richard H. Clark edited by Lollie Belle Wylie Atlanta, GA.
Franklin Printing and Publishing Company Geo. W. Harrison, Manager 1898
An entire chapter of this book is devoted to, and entitled, "Rosin
the Beau." Quoted therefrom:
From the beginning and ever afterward during his life, it [Rosin the Beau] was attributed to a man well known in nearly all parts of Georgia, and even in several other Southern States, named Lawrence T. Wilson. It was claimed by him, and from the evidence then all his contemporaries conceded it to him. There was no one to dispute the title with him. He went by the name of "Beau Wilson," and the authorship of this song was supposed to be the cause of this prefix. He was recognized as a professional gambler, and likewise there was no one to dispute this, for wherever there was a gathering and a collection of this class of sports in Georgia, there was Beau Wilson, and he was a conspicuous figure among them. Those who do not know cannot realize the situation then.
The gamblers were a distinct and well-defined class. In summer they traveled from one watering-place to another, and in the winter from one city to another - from race-course to race-course, from legislature to legislature, and even from court to court. They appeared at each place in full force, and did not disguise their purpose. This was the custom even as late as "the war," which scattered them, and they have never rallied in force since. During the war "Beau Wilson" disappeared, and has never since been heard of, except that some time within the four years he died at Shreveport, La. He was born at old Petersburg, Ga., in 1801. He received a good education for the times, and was a man of good presence and good manners. He was popular with his sort, and had many friends outside of them.
...Wilson was inspired to write the song from finding one morning an old fiddler whom he had often met and befriended dead and laid out on the counter of one of the saloons he frequented. He read and sang the verses to his friends, and they persuaded him to publish them. Those verses, as they appear in the music book [The Good Old Songs We Used to Sing, compiled by J. C. H. (Joel Chandler Harris?), Oliver Ditson & Co., 1867], are as follows:
I live for the good of my nation,
And my suns are all growing low,
But I hope that the next generation
Will resemble old Rosin the Beau.
I've traveled this country all over,
And now to the next I will go,
For I know that good quarters await me,
To welcome old Rosin the Beau.
In the gay round of pleasure I traveled
Nor will I behind leave a foe,
And when my companions are jovial
They will drink to old Rosin the Beau.
But my life is now drawn to a closing,
And all will at last be so,
So we'll take a full bumper at parting
To the name of old Rosin the Beau.
I'll have to be buried, I reckon,
And the ladies will all want to know,
And they'll lift up the lid of my coffin
Saying, "Here lies old Rosin the Beau."
Oh! when to my grave I am going,
The children will all want to know,
They'll run to the doors and the windows
Saying, "Here goes old Rosin the Beau."
Then pick me out six trusty fellows
And let them all stand in a row,
And dig a big hole for a circle,
And in it toss Rosin the Beau.
Then shape out two little dornicks,
Place one at my head and my toe,
And do not forget to scratch on it
The name of old Rosin the Beau.
Then pick me out six trusty fellows,
Oh! let them all stand in a row,
And take down the big-bellied bottle
And drink to old Rosin the Beau.
While it is true that Wilson is the author of this song, it is also true that there was an older song, which Wilson must have seen, and from which he got the idea of composing it when he saw his fiddler friend dead. This is evident from the similarity, yet slight subtle difference in name, and that his last two verses are substantially
the same as the older version, and that the tune to his is the same as the tune to the other. That other, and the first, is "Rossum the Beau," and was written by the late Colonel William H. Sparks, the author of "The Memories of Fifty Years," and other literature. I will let Colonel Sparks relate the history of his song in his own
words:
Letter from Colonel W. H. Sparks to W. H. Moore, dated Atlanta, Ga, August 21, 1874:
"My Dear Sir: - I am obliged to you for the little paragraph from the Columbus paper, ascribing to me the authorship of this song, once so popular throughout the country
"It is very true I wrote the lines I send you, and they were the first that were ever sung to the air which became famous.
"I will give you a brief history of the writing, and of the man who inspired them. When I first went to the West in 1825, I was some time in selecting a domicile. Why, it is not necessary for me to state, as the reason and causes for the delay will form a theme for a chapter in the second volume of the 'Memories of Fifty Years.'
"Finally I located in Mississippi and commenced the practice of law. It was in the midst of the noblest people I have ever known. Among these were two equally remarkable, but very unlike. One was a schoolmaster who was quite old, and who had been residing in the neighborhood over forty years. His name was James Rossum. He was
peculiar in his habits. On Monday morning, neatly dressed and cleanly shaven, he went to his duties in the old schoolhouse where two-thirds of his life had been spent, and assiduously devoted himself to the duties of his vocation until Friday evening. On the morning of Saturday he arrayed himself in his best and devoted the day to visiting the ladies of the neighborhood. He was a welcome guest at every house. This habit had continued so long that he had acquired the sobriquet of "Rossum the Beau." The other's name was Cox, who was a rollicking good fellow, and the best vocalist I ever
knew. He was in song what Prentiss was in oratory, and they were boon companions. Both died young. Cox was frequently in my office, and upon one occasion while he was there, Rossum walked by the door, and his age was apparent in his walk. Cox looked at him, and, after a pause, turned to me and remarked in quite a feeling tone, which he could assume at pleasure, and its eloquence was irresistible, 'Poor old Rossum! Some of these sunny mornings he will be found dead, when he shall have a noble funeral, and all the ladies will honor it with being present, I know.'
"Soon after he left the office, and, being in the humor, I seized the ideas and wrote the following doggerel lines. Soon after Cox returned and I handed them to him. He got up, walked and hummed different airs, until he fell upon the old Methodist hymn tune in which they have ever since been sung.
"I have always considered Cox more entitled to the authorship than myself.
"Hundreds of lines have been written to the air by as many persons, and almost as many have claimed the authorship of the lines, but this is of no moment. I claim no merit for my lines, but everything for Cox's singing of them. I have seen him draw tears from the eyes of old and young with the feeling he threw into the song."
Now, soon on some soft, sunny morning,
The first thing my neighbors shall know
Their ears shall be met with the warning,
Come, bury old Rossum the Beau.
My friends then so neatly shall dress me,
In linen as white as the snow,
And in my new coffin shall press me,
And whisper, poor Rossum the Beau.
And when I'm to be buried, I reckon
The ladies will all like to go,
Let them form at the foot of my coffin,
And follow old Rossum the Beau.
Then take you a dozen good fellows,
And let them all staggering go,
And dig a deep hole in the meadow,
And toss in of Rossum the Beau.
Then shape out a couple of dornicks,
Place one at the head and the toe,
And do not forget to scratch on it
Here lies old Rossum the Beau.
Then take you these dozen good fellows,
And stand them all round in a row,
And drink out of a big-bellied bottle,
Farewell to old Rossum the Beau.
It necessarily follows from the evidence that Colonel Sparks's "Rossum the Beau" must have been written at least as far back as 1830. Wilson's must have been written between that time and 1840. I cannot exactly remember when I first heard Wilson's version, but I know it was before April, 1834, for then I first saw the venerable
beau at Albany, Ga., present at a great horse-race, and who was pointed out to me as the author of the song, then so generously sung.
There follows more commentary, including the facts that Sparks was born in Putnam County, GA, in 1800 and Wilson in Elbert County, GA, in 1801. Judge Clark suspected that if the tune was indeed "an old Methodist hymn tune" that the Methodists must have excommunicated it after it became associated with such rowdy, secular words. [John Garst]
Rev. Sawyer's Version "Sawyer's Exit"- Rosin the Bow:
I've travelled all over this world
And now to another I go
And I know that good quarters are waiting
To welcome old Rosin the Bow
To welcome old Rosin the Bow
To welcome old Rosin the Bow
And I know that good quarters are waiting
To welcome old Rosin the Bow
When I'm dead and laid out on the counter
A voice you will hear from below
Saying send down a hogshead of whiskey
To drink with old Rosin the Bow
Then get a half dozen stout fellas
And stack them all up in a row
Let them drink outta half-gallon bottles
To the memory of Rosin the Bow
Then get this half dozen stout fellas
And let them all stagger and go
And dig a great hole in the meadow
And in it put Rosin the Bow
Then get ye a couple of bottles
Put one at me head and me toe
With a diamond ring scratch upon it
The name of old Rosin the Bow
I hear that old tyrant approaching
That cruel remorseless old foe
And I lift up me glass in his honour
Take a drink with old the Rosin the Bow
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