Subjects
Bawdy Songbooks of the Romantic Period
General Editors: Patrick Spedding and Paul Watt
Volume Editors: Ed Cray, David Gregory and Derek B Scott
978 1 84893 029 2: 234x156mm: £350.00/$625.00
One of the popular metropolitan pastimes of the nineteenth century was the singing of ribald songs. These songs, forced off the streets by the Society for the Suppression of Vice, were sung by professional actors and singers in theatres, music halls, gardens and other public venues. But they were also sung by amateurs in cider and coal-hole cellars, coffee-houses and gentlemen’s clubs. Because almost no songbooks survive from the first half of the nineteenth century, this species of popular entertainment has, until recently, been almost completely overlooked in favour of the rural and street ballads which were collected by respectable gentlemen-scholars.
The songbooks of the 1830s and 1840s contain no printed music. Collections like Nancy Dawson’s Cabinet of Choice Songs or Fanny Hill’s Bang-up Reciter were printed in tiny numbers, and on the sly, for ‘flash gentlemen’ and ‘rummy coves’ (so their titles tell us) who were already familiar with the tunes used and with the songs parodied. These booklets were produced in a small format so they could be hidden in a pocket, memorized and then passed around or thrown away.
Collectors have long sought ‘these priceless chapbooks’, but only recently a collection of forty-nine songbooks, amounting to about one thousand individual song texts, has come to light. This reset collection represents almost all of the known songbooks from the period. The reprinting of these songs represents a golden opportunity for scholars interested in popular music, London theatre and music halls, as well as the slang and flash-language of the period.
- reprints extremely rare, newly discovered material
- presents almost all of the known songbooks of the period
- all texts fully reset, with title pages presented in facsimile
- includes a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes and endnotes
Sample pages
Contents
Volume 1: Items published by William West (1834–36)
The Bang-up Songster! A Famous Collection of Flash, Fancy, Friskey, Amatory and Clamatory Staves; The Delicious Chanter, and Exciting Warbler; a Capital Collection of Randy, Rousing, Tear-up, Falre-up Songs; The Flash Chaunter: An Out-and-Out Collection; The Flash Minstrel! A Famous New Collection; The Libertine’s Songster. One of the Best Collections of Songs Ever Printed; The Luscious Songster: a Delicious Cabinet of all that is Amatory, Flash & Funny; The Randy Songster. A Regular Out-and-Out Collection of the most Moving, Licentious, Pathetic, Flash, and Amatory Chaunts, Ticklish Staves, and Lecherous Tit Bits, Ever Before Printed; The Knowing Chaunter, or, Kiddy’s Cabinet!; The Secret Songster, a Capital Collection of Fanciful, Frolicksome, Flash, Friskey, Flare-Up Songs; The Cockchafer. A Choice Selection of Flash, Frisky, and Funny Songs; The Comic Songster, and Gentleman’s Private Cabinet: With a Superior Collection of Funny Toasts; The Frisky Vocalist, and Funny Chaunter. Adapted for Gentlemen Only
Volume 2: Items published by William West (1836–42)
The New Cockolorum Songster with a Collection of Rummy Toasts; The Cuckold’s Nest of Choice, Flash, Smutty, and Delicious Songs, with Rummy Toasts; The Little Icky-Wickey Songster. A New Collection of Delicious and Luxurious Staves; Th[e] Ri-tum Ti-fum Songster: A Slashing, Dashing, Leary, Frisky, and Delicious Collection of Gentlemen’s Songs; The Ticklish Minstrel! A most Bewitching Collection of the Very Best and most Truly Lecherous and Delicious Vocal Tit-Bits Ever Printed; The Gentleman’s Sparkling Songster, Nothing but Regular Good, Slashing, Touching, Irresistible, Amatory Ditties; The Rambler’s Flash Songster, Nothing but Out and Outers, Adapted for Gentlemen Only; The Flash Chaunter, a Slashing, Dashing, Friskey, and Delecious Collection of Gentlemen’s Songs; The Gentleman’s Spicey Songster, a most Bewitching Collection of the Very Best and Truly Delicious Tit-Bits Ever Printed; The Gentleman’s Steeple-Chaser, a Choice Selection of Flash Songs!!!; Nancy Dawson’s Cabinet of Choice Songs, Being a Collection of some of the most Superlative, Amatory, Flash, Luxurious, and Dainty Ditties, Ever Before Printed; The Nobby Songster, a Prime Selection as now Singing at Offleys Cider Cellar: Coal Hole &c.
Volume 3: Items published by M Metford (1833–40) and G K Edwards (1835–6)
The Fal-lal Songster, a Real Tip-Top Budget of Amatory, Drinking, Sporting, and Laughable Songs; The Funny Songster: an Extensive Collection of Flash, Amatory, and Comical Songs; The Rake’s Budget, and Songster’s Tickler, Being a Regular Good Collection of all the most Funny, Flash Amorous, and Sensitive Songs Ever Printed; The Rummy Cove’s Delight: a Pretty Considerable Collection of Queer Staves; The Flash Casket, a Very Curious Collection of Mouth-Watering Parodies, Funny Fakements, &c; The Rum ti tum! A Favourite Collection of Amatory, Bacchanalian and Laughable Songs; The Flash Olio: All that is Funny, Facetious, and Amorous; Capt Morris’s Songs. A Very Capital Collection of Bacchanalian, Amatory, and Double Entendre Songs; The Facetious Songster: A Slap-Up Collection of Favourite New Flash, Amatory and Comic Songs; The Fake Away Songster, a Capital Collection of Regular Good Songs; G K Edwards, Fanny Hill’s Bang-up Reciter, Friskey Songster, and Amarous Toast Master; Fanny Hill’s New Friskey Chanter, and Amorous Toast Master, containing a Slashing Lot of Randy, Friskey, Licentious and Slap-Up Flash Songs; The Gentleman’s Private Songster, Containing an Out-and-Out Colection of the most Amorous, Lucious, Randy, Friskey, Licentious, and Flash Songs, Ticklish Staves, and Lecherous, Slap-Up Tit Bits, Ever Printed
Volume 4: Items published by J Duncombe (1833–5), Smith (1834) and Lovelace & Perkess (1833)
Duncombe, The Convivialist: an Extensive Collection of Humorous, Flash and Love Songs; The Corinthian; an Extensive Collection of Flash Songs, Slang Ditties, and Rum Chaunts; Fun Alive, O! A Capital Collection of Flash, Slang, Comic, and Queer Songs; The Lummy Chaunter: A Plummy Collection of Original and Celebrated Flash Staves; The Out-and-Outer! A Right Up-an-End Collection of Flash & Amatory Songs; The Regular Thing, and No Mistake: or, A Prime Collection of Flash Chaunts; The Swell!!! Or, Slap-Up Chaunter: An Out-and-Out Collection of Flash Songs, Rum Ditties, and Slang Chaunts; The Cove, a Regular Rum Collection of Spreeish Songs; The Rumcodger’s Collection of Prime New Flash & Amatory Songs; Smith, The Flare-up Songster, or Flash Kiddy’s Fancy!; The Black Joke: a New, Funny, Flash and Frisky Songster with Rummy Toasts, &c; Lovelace & Perkess, Tommarroo Songster