The Old Quaker- Rowell MSS (MI) c.1883 Gardner C
[From Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan- by Emelyn- Elizabeth Gardner and Geraldine Jencks Chickering, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press: 1939.
Rowell manuscript: Mr. E. W. Rowell, of Ithaca, has a manuscript book of songs which was examined through the aid of Mr. Rowell's brother, a shoe repair man in Kalkaska. The songs in this book were written there before and during 1883 and 1884 by Mrs Mary Fisher Rowell, Blanchard, Michigan, a stepmother of E. W. Rowell.
R. Matteson 2017]
176 THE QUAKER SONG
For discussion of an Irish folk song somewhat similar to this dialogue song see Barry, JAFL, XXIV, 341-342. For a text and references see Mackenzie, p. 380. See also Brewster, JAFL, XLIX, 247, and Eddy, Nos. 119 and 120.
The Old Quaker- From the Rowell manuscript, c. 1883
1 "O where are you going, you sober old Quaker?
Hi-hum for toddy O.
0 where are you going, you sober old Quaker?
Hi-hum for toddy O."[1]
2 "I am a-courtmg some fair creature.
Ha, ha, ha, ha!
And can you tell me how to win her?
Ha, ha, ha, ha!"
3 "Tell her that you truly love her,
That you'll die before you leave her."
4 "I had a ring worth forty shilling,
And thou can wear it if thou are willing."
5 "I want none of your rings or money;
1 want a man that will call me honey."
6 "I call you honey and dearie
If thou wilt be my charming Mary."
7 "I knew that that would be the fraction,
For that is just a Quaker's actions."
8 "If thou didst know how I did love thee,
Thou wouldst not so answer me."
9 "Go away, you sober old Quaker,
"For I'm a jolly Prespertain[2]."
10 "I'll be a Prespertain;
I'll be of thy religion."
11 "I would not have you in my church, sir,
For you wear a dirty shirt, sir."
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1. This refrain is repeated in alternate stanzas.
2. Presbyterian