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Title
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Maid's wager
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Singer
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Tanner, Charles
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Notes
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Williams, Alfred: Ms / WGS: 'A very old song, perhaps an abridgement of a longer ballad. A characteristic of the oldest pieces however, was their brevity and apparent incompleteness, by reason of which the reader or singer was left to mentally supply the deficiency. The songs where they actually did not express, suggested the situations and the details of the story. Where the pieces occur at greater length it may usually be taken for granted that the originals have been worked upon, developed, and - weakened. Obtained of Charles Tanner, the old Morris dancer of Bampton. Heard also at Lechlade.'
Williams, Alfred: FSUT: 'A very old song, perhaps an abridgement of a longer ballad. A characteristic of the oldest pieces however, was their brevity and apparent incompleteness. The songs, where they actually did not express, suggested the situations and the details of the story. Where the pieces occur at greater length it may usually be taken for granted that the originals have been worked upon, developed, and - weakened. Obtained of Charles Tanner, the old Morris dancer of Bampton. Heard also at Lechlade. The Tanners were a noted family of Morris dancers, and Mr Charles Tanner was one of my best songsters, a naïve and charming old man. He died in 1922, at the age of fourscore years.'
Transcribed and edited by Chris Wildridge, 2010.
