The Courting Case (Courting Cage)
Courting Case, The
DESCRIPTION: Man comes courting a woman. She reminds him that she told him never to return. He offers her his "very fine house," his "very fine farm," his "very fine horse," etc.; (she rejects them all because he is a gambler/drunkard/whatever).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: gambling courting dialog money rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Lomax-FSNA 104, "The Gambling Suitor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 361, "The Courting Cage" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 3, "The Courting Cage" (2 texts)
BrownSchinhanV 3, "The Courting Cage" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Chappell-FSRA 120, "The Drunkard's Courtship" (1 text)
Hudson 52, pp. 167-169, "O Madam, I Have a Fine Little Horse" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 304-307, "Kind Sir" (2 texts, one, "The Courting Cage," coming from Randolph; 2 tunes on pp.436-437)
SharpAp 177, "The Courting Case" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 173, "The Wooing" (2 texts, the "A" text being this and "B" being probably "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)")
Chase, pp. 146-147, "The Gambling Suitor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 76-77, "The Girl Who Never Would Wed" (1 text, in which the girl never gives in, but the verses place it here)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 118-119, "The Drunkard's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COURTCAS COURTNG*
Roud #361
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "The Drunkard's Courtship" (on Barker01)
Loman D. Cansler, "The Lovers' Quarrel" (on Cansler1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Keys of Canterbury" (theme)
cf. "Sweet Nelly My Heart's Delight" (plot)
cf. "Geordie's Courtship (I Wad Rather a Garret)" (plot)
cf. "Bachelor's Hall (III)" (theme)
NOTES: In most versions of this song, the man says he has, or is, a "courting cage," which (presumably because it sounds so strange) is sometimes changed to a "courting case." But I wonder if, by any chance, the original was a "courting cake," which, according to Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 39, is a "kind of sandwich cake traditionally made by girls for their boyfriends." This might explain much about the strange first line of the song -- if only we could explain how a Yorkshire term came to be used in an American song (the song seems to be almost entirely American; there is at least one Canadian version, but I know of none from the British Isles).
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This version from Michigan in 1860 introduces a different form where the suitor offers a farm and farm animals. After he is rejected he hopes she'll freeze. This is usually called "The Courting Case" but Randolph called it, "The Courting Cage." A number of versions have been collected in the US where it is also found in the Appalachians.
"The Wooing" was sung in 1934 by Mr. E. W. Harns, Greenville, who learned the song in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, about 1860. From Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan, 1939, version A.
1 "Madam, I have come to marry you
And settle in this town;
My whole estate is worth
Ten thousand pounds.
Which I will will to you,
If you will be my bride."
2 "O that's enough for me,
I don't desire you."
3 "O madam, I have a very fine house,
All neat and rectified,
Which you may have at your command
If you'll but be my bride."
4 "I know you have a very fine house
Besides a clever barn,
But you're too old to think to hold
A bird with a single yarn."
5 "O madam, I have a very fine horse,
Whose face is like the tide,
Which you may have at your command
If you'll but be my bride."
6 "I know you have a very fine horse,
Which you keep in yonders barn,
But his master likes a glass of wine
For fear his horse might learn."
7 "O madam, I have a very fine field,
Full fifty acres wide,
Which you may have at your command
If you'll but be my bride."
8 "I know you have a very fine field
And a pasture at the foot,
And if I had you, I'd turn you in,
For I'm sure a hog would root."
9 "O madam, you are a scornful dame
And very hard to please,
And when you get old and pinched with cold,
I swear I hope you'll freeze."
10 "And when I get old and pinched with cold,
'Twon't be you'll keep me warm;
I'll be single and be free
And stay as I was born."
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The Courting Case- From English Folk Songs in the Southern Appalachians, Sharp.
Collected from Mrs. Lawson Gray, VA 1918
O Sir, I see you come again
Pray tell me why it's so;
When I left you in Gordonsville
I told you to come no more.
O madam, I have come again,
I'll tell you why it's so :
When I left you in Gordonville,
I told you I was coming once more.
O madam, I have a very fine house,
It is new erected fine;
It all can be at your command
If you will be my bride.
Kind sir, I know your very fine house,
And also very nice yard;
O who will stay with me at night
When you are at playing of cards?
O madam, I don't play cards at night,
I never thought it was right;
If you will consent and marry me
I won't stay out one night.
Kind sir, I know what that is said for,
It's just to take me in;
When you get me at your command
You'll drink and gamble again.
O madam, I have a very fine field,
It's sixty acres wide;
It all can be at your command
If you will be my bride.
O sir, I know your very fine field,
And also very nice fruit;
When I come in, I'll turn you out,
Fur you know that hog will root.
O madam, I have a very fine horse,
His pace is like the tide.
If you will consent and marry me
O you may have him to ride.
O sir, I know your very fine horse,
Thee horse that knows no harm ;
His master loves to drink and gamble,
And I'm 'feared his horse might learn.
O madam, you have red, rosy cheeks,
And I have got my land;
O madam, you have your coal-black hair.
O keep them and be damned.
O sir, I have my red rosy cheeks,
And you have got your land;
O sir, I have my coal-black hair,
And they are another man's.
---------------------------
Brown Collection Volume 3, 1952 Edited Belden and all,
3. The Courting Cage
So called in the Ozarks, according to Vance Randolph (OASPS 216-19), though he confesses that he does not know what a courting cage is (in OFS iii 361-3. where he gives a Missouri version, he suggests that it is a corruption of "court engaged"). In Virginia it is called 'The Courting Case' (SharpK 11 249-51) or 'Kind Sir' (SCSM 305-6) or 'The Drunkard's Courtship' (FSV 232-4). Chappell calls his North Carolina version (FSRA 199-200) 'The Drunkard's Courtship.' It has heen found also in Mississippi (FSM 168-9), Indiana (SFLQ v 182-3). and Michigan (BSSM 417-19).
A. 'Kind Sir, I See You've Come Again.' Taken from Miss Jewel Robhins of Pekin, Montgomery county, in 1922.
1. "Kind Sir, I see you've come again,
Pray tell me what it's for.
For when we parted on yonders hill
I told you to come no more, more, more,
I told you to come no more."
(repeat thus the last line of each stanza)
2. 'Oh, Miss, I fall down at your feet,
Your mercy I implore;
If one to me he granted not
I'm lost for evermore.'
3. 'Oh, Sir, I know just what you want;
You want to take me in.
And if I will agree to marry you
You'll drink and gamble again.'
4. 'Oh, Miss, it's a thing I never did do
And I never did think 'twas right.
If you'll agree to marry me
I'll never lie out one night.'
5. 'Oh, Sir, I think you're might bold
To make that over again;
For do you think I'm simple enough
To marry a barrel o' gin?
6. 'Kind Sir, I think you'd hetter go,
Your staying here is vain;
You're only troubling me very much
And giving yourself great pain.'
7. 'Oh, Miss, I have a very fine horse —
He paces like the tide —
That you may have at your command
Whenever you choose to ride.'
8. 'Oh, sir, I know your very line horse;
He paces like a tide.
I know his master loves to drink,
And I can't he his bride.'
9. 'Oh, miss, I have a very fine house
And also very fine yards.'
'But who will stay with me at night
When you are playing cards?'
10. 'Oh, miss. I have a very fine orchard
And also very fine fruit
That you can have at your command
If you will he my bride.'
11. 'Oh, sir, I know your very fine orchard
And also very fine fruit;
But when I come in and turn you out
You know a hog- will root.'
12 'Oh, miss, you are a hard old jade
And very hard to please;*
And some cold night when you're alone
I hope to God you'll freeze!'
* The manuscript has here "freeze," no doubt by anticipation of the line below.
B. 'If You Will Only Be My Bride.' Contributed by J. B. Midgett of Wanchese, Roanoke Island, probably in 1920. With the tune.
1. 'Kind miss, I have a very fine ship,
She plows the ocean wide.
And she can be at your command
If you will only be my bride, bride,
If you will only be my bride.'
2. 'Kind sir, I know you have a very fine ship,
And she plows the ocean wide.
And she can be at my command;
But I will not be your bride, bride.
But I will not be your bride.'
3. 'Then, kind miss, I have a very fine farm,
It is fifty acres wide.
And it can be at your command
If you will only be my bride, bride,
If you will only be my bride.'
4. 'Kind sir, I know you have a very fine farm
That's fifty acres wide.
And it can be at my command ;
But I will not be your bride, bride,
I will not be your bride.'
5. 'Now, kind miss, I have a very fine horse,
He paces like the tide.
And he shall be at your command
If you will only be my bride, bride.
If you will only be my bride.'
6. 'I know, kind sir, you have a very fine horse
That paces like the tide;
He knows the way to the old grog* shop.
For his master paces him there, there.
For his master paces him there.'
7. 'Kind miss, I have a very fine house
That stands in yonder yard.
And it shall be at your command
If you will only be my bride, bride.
If you will only be mv bride.'
8. 'Kind sir, I know you have a very fine house
That stands in yonder yard.
But who is going to stay with me at night
When you are out playing cards, cards,
When vou are out playing cards?'
9. 'Kind miss, I never did play cards,
I never thought it right.
But if you'll consent to marry me
I'll stay with you at night, night,
I'll stay with you at night.'
10. 'Sence you are so quarrelsome.
So thundering hard to please.
When you get old and pinched with cold
I hope to God you'll freeze, freeze,
I hope to God you'll freeze!'
11. 'When I get old and pinched with cold
It won't be you to keep me warm;
I'll get somebody I love much better
And lie closer in his arms, arms,
And lie closer in his arms.'
[*tavern, where you can buy (grog) alcohol]