{"id":7493,"date":"2020-12-08T12:09:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T12:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=7493"},"modified":"2024-11-26T15:10:18","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T15:10:18","slug":"workhouse-boy-the","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/workhouse-boy-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Workhouse Boy, The"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>The Vorkhouse Boy<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1837<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>unknown<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN29495<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Sam Cowell<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
unknown 1900 England 1900
Modern performances<\/strong>
The Halliard<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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As published in The Champion, March 1837<\/strong>\n\nThe cloth was laid in the Workhouse hall,\nThe great-coats hung 'gainst the white-washed wall,\nThe paupers all were blythe and gay,\nKeeping their Christmas holiday.\nWhen the master he cried with a roguish leer,\nYou'll all get fat on your Christmas cheer;\nWhen, by his looks, one seemed to say,\nI'll have some more soup on this Christmas day.\n                          Oh! the poor Workhouse boy, &c.\n\nAt length all of us, to bed were sent,\nThe boy was missing, in search we went:\nWe sought him above, we sought him below,\nWe sought him in fear, we sought him in woe;\nYe sought him that hour, we sought him that night\nWe sought him in fear, and we sought him in fright,\nWhen a young pauper cried, I know we shall,\nGet jolly well wopt for loosing our pal.\n                          Oh ! the poor Workhouse boy, &c.\n\nWe sought him in each corner, each crevice we knew,\nWe sought down the yard, & we sought him up the flue\nWe sought him in each saucepan, each kettle and pot,\nIn the water butt look'd but found him not.\nAnd weeks roll'd on, we were all of us told,\nThat somebody said he'd been burk'd and sold,\nWhen our master goes out the Parishioners wild,\nCry, there goes the cove that burk'd the poor child.\n                          Oh! the poor Workhouse boy, &c.\n\nAt length the soup coppers, repairs did need,\nThe coppersmith came, and there he seed\nA dollop of bones lay grizzling there,\nIn the leg of the breeches the boy did wear.\nTo gain his fill, the Boy did stoop,\nAnd dreadful to tell he wos boil'd in the soup,\nAnd we all of us say it, and say it with sneers,\nThat he wos push'd in by the Overseers.\n                          Oh! the poor Workhouse boy, &c.<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Mistletoe Bough <\/em>or The Fatal Chest<\/em> (Roud 2336) was a ballad written in 1834 by Thomas Haynes Bayley, a dramatist and songwriter, set to music by Sir Henry Bishop. It retells an earlier story of a macabre Christmas game of hide and seek in which a young woman hides in a wooden box but gets locked in and dies alone, her body only being discovered many years later. It was extremely popular ballad, sold widely in cheap Street literature. It’s still sung regularly by traditional singers.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This parody of The Mistletoe Bough<\/em>, designed to be sung to the same tune, was written very soon after the original’s first appearance in the 1830s. The Vaughn Williams Memorial Library suggests that versions printed in 1836 exist, but the earliest version of The Workhouse Boy<\/em> that I can confirm the date of, was published in the short-lived radical newspaper The Champion and Weekly Herald <\/em>(London) in March 1837. The Champion<\/em> was run by JP and RBB Cobbett, sons of the radical newspaper editor, William Cobbett. It seems unlikely that anyone associated with the paper wrote the song, rather they were probably just republishing a popular satirical song of the time. The song appears without comment, but other articles on the page attack the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) which stipulated that the “able-bodied”should not receive any monies from their parish unless they were in a workhouse. The workhouses were deliberately made to be so awful as to discourage the poor from claiming. Novelists like Charles Dickens and Frances Trollope campaigned for reform and the song itself is not too dissimilar to the story of Oliver Twist…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s difficult to determine who wrote this parody – one broadside listed in the Vaughan Williams Memorial library suggests that it was written by “Mr Flint”, but these publications are not always reliable sources for details like authorship. Several other contemporary sources suggest it was written by “A Parochial Authority”, so unless further evidence emerges, I will stick with author: unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was sung by Sam Cowell<\/a>, in the 1850s. Sam Cowell specialised in drawing humour out of what now feel like tragic ballads. Contemporary printed versions tend to exchange all the W’s in the song for V’s – this was a standard way of suggesting it should be sung in a broadly comic Cockney accent. For ease of singing and reading I have changed them back, but if you want to search for it elsewhere, look for The Vorkhouse Boy<\/em>. Here is a review of Cowell singing it in the Dunfermlin Music Hall in 1853:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Fife Herald\u00a0–\u00a0Thursday 15 September 1853<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The Seven Dials Band sings it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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