REQ: Polly Oliver variant - Old Pretender?

Subject: REQ: Polly Oliver variant - Old Pretender?
From: Lesley N.
Date: 15 Jun 99 - 10:38 AM

I recently created a midi of Polly Oliver - and the source wrote that there was "an old song" using the same tune that is a parody of the Old Pretender

It only had two lines:

As Perkin one morning lay musing in bed
The thought of three kingdoms was much in his head...

(Perkin was a nickname used for The Old Pretender in the 1715 Uprising.)

Has anyone heard of such a thing?

As always - thanks!

Subject: RE: REQ: Polly Oliver variant - Old Pretender?
From: GUEST,anne in handforth
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 03:35 PM

Dear Lesley N.,
               Do you have the original words to Polly Oliver, where she is refered to as "sweet Polly Oliver", who "cut her hair close and stained her face brown and went as a soldier to fair London town"?.
               I would be grateful for any information that you may have.
       Kind Regards,
                   Anne W.

Subject: RE: REQ: Polly Oliver variant - Old Pretender?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 03:58 PM

Penny S posted the words you are looking for 05 Apr. 00 in thread 20034: Sweet Polly
What leads you to think these are the original words? Not in Bodley Ballads of 1805-1819. (Don't know myself, just looking for information)

Subject: RE: REQ: Polly Oliver variant - Old Pretender?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 05:14 PM

Those words are the re-write by the poet A.P. Graves, as I mentioned in the earlier thread. The earlier song on which he based it can be found in quite a number of editions at the Bodleian, mostly as Polly Oliver's ramble[s]. Chappell mentions the "Perkin" parody, but doesn't go into detail. Neither shall I; it's time to go to the pub.