“Unhappy Jeremiah (The Brats of Jeremiah)”
Description
The singer, Jeremiah, takes a wife. But soon she turns her attention from her husband to a lodger. She bears two children, but "they did not look... one bit like Jeremiah." At last she runs off with the lodger, "and left the brats for Jeremiah"
Supplemental text
Unhappy Jeremiah (The Brats of Jeremiah)
Partial text(s)
*** A ***
From Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, Norman Studer, Folk Songs
of the Catskills, #134, pp. 498-499. From the singing of George
Edwards.
I've oft-times heard of married life
And pleasures without equal,
So I resolved to take a wife,
For it only makes a sequel.
Refrain:
Ho di-ding, di-ding dang doe,
Toddle oddle ing dee die doe.
I courted Jane the milliner,
Her parents were my betters,
But then I got enough of her,
When bound in wedlock fetters.
(6 additional stanzas)
Cross references
- cf. "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)" (plot)
- cf. "Hush-a-Bye, Baby" (plot)
References
- FSCatskills 134, "The Brats of Jeremiah" (1 text, 1 tune)
- ST FSC134 (Partial)
- Roud #4610
- BI, FSC134