{"id":9106,"date":"2021-02-19T17:35:27","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T17:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=9106"},"modified":"2021-04-14T14:00:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T14:00:30","slug":"jack-robinson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/jack-robinson\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Robinson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Jack Robson
The perils and the danger<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1824<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Thomas Hudson \/ unknown<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN1794<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Thomas Hudson, Robert Glindon<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Piper, George W.; USA; 1868-70
Radmore, J England : Devon : South Zeal 1894
Punt, James; England : Essex; 1904
Byers, George J.; Canada : Nova Scotia; 1917
Byers, J.W.; Canada : Nova Scotia; 1960
Henneberry, Ben; Canada : Nova Scotia; 1943

Modern performances<\/strong>
Tim Laycock
Ye Mariners All<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From Thomas Hudson's 6th Collection of Comic Songs (1824)<\/strong> \nTUNE-  College Hornpipe<\/em>\n\nThe perils, and dangers of the voyage pass'd,\nAnd the ship to Portsmouth arrived at last; \nThe sails all furl'd and the anchor cast, \nthe happiest of the crew was Jack Robinson: \nFor his Poll he had trinkets and gold galore\nBesides of prize-money quite a store;\nAnd along wi' the crew he went ashore,\nAs cockswain to the boat Jack Robinson\n\nTol de rol<\/em>, etc\n\nHe met with a man, and said, I say,\nMayhap you may know one Polly Gray ?\nShe lives somewhere hereabouts \u2014 the man said. Nay,\nI do not indeed, to Jack Robinson.\nSays Jack to him, I've left my ship'\nAnd all my messmates giv'd the slip \nMayhap you'll partake of a good can of flip,\nFor you're a civil fellow, says Jack Robinson\n\nIn a public house, then, they both sot down\nAnd talk'd' of admirals of high renown.\nAnd drunk'd as much grog as come to half-a-crown,\nThis here strange man and Jack Robinson;\nThen Jack call'd out the reck'ning to pay.\nThe landlady came in, in fine array.\nMy eyes and limbs ! why here's Polly Gray ;\nWho'd of thought of meeting here ? says Jack Robinson. \n\nThe landlady stagger'd back against the wall, \nAnd said, at first, she didn't know him at all; \nShiver me ! says Jack, why here's a pretty squall; \nDam'me, don't you know me? I'm Jack Robinson\nDon't you know this handkerchief you giv'd to me?\n'Twas three years ago, before I went to sea;\nEvery day I look'd at it, and thought of thee ;\nUpon my soul I have, says Jack Robinson.;\n\nSays the lady, says she, I've changed my state:\nWhy you don't mean, says Jack, that you've got a mate\nYou know you promis'd me -  says she, I couldn't wait\nFor no tidings could I gain of you, Jack Robinson;\nAnd somebody, one day, came to me, and said \nThat somebody else had somewhere read. \nIn some newspaper, as how you was dead.\nI've not been dead at all, says Jack Robinson. \n\nThen he turned his quid, finished his glass, \nHitch'd up his trowsers \u2014 alas! alas! \nThat ever I should live to be made such an ass, \nTo be bilk'd by a woman, says Jack Robinson; \nBut to fret and stew about it much is all in vain,\nI'll get a ship and go to Holland, France and Spain; \nNo matter where to Portsmouth I'll ne'er come back again:\nAnd he was off before they could say, Jack Robinson.\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A number of common British sayings and nursery rhymes have their origins in Music Hall songs, and I did wonder whether the saying “before you can say Jack Robinson”<\/em> came from this song. However, according to Brewer’s dictionary of phrase and fable, it was a saying in common use in the 1700s\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Jack Robinson  <\/em>was written and performed in the 1820s and 30s by Thomas Hudson (1791- 1844)<\/a> a song-writer and performer active in the singing taverns and supper rooms that influenced the early Music Hall in London. Like many of Hudson\u2019s songs this one survived in multiple 19th century broadsheets and songbooks. It was also a popular song in the repertoire of Robert Glindon in the 1840s, see his brief biography below\u2026 It appears in a late 19th-century songster 120 Comic Songs Sung by Sam Cowell<\/em>, which seems to have been published around 15 years after Cowell’s death. I haven’t been able to find any contemporary evidence of Cowell singing the song …<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several of Hudson’s songs were remembered by traditional singers whose songs were picked up by folk song collectors in the late 19th and early 20th century. This song has been relatively widely collected in both England and Canada . For example,  it was collected both by Ralph Vaughn Williams (from the singing of James Punt) and by Sabine Baring Gould (from the singing of J Radmore). It appears in the repertoire of a number of modern performers, as explored in the excellent Mainly Norfolk website<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robert Glindon (1799-1866), like Hudson, was a well-known figure in the Bohemian entertainment venues of 1840s London. By day he was a scenery painter at the Drury Ln, Theatre , and in the evenings he appeared at the Coal Hole and the  Cyder Cellars and many other well-known venues.  He was a songwriter as well as performer, and his best known song was The Literary Dustman.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ye Mariners All sing it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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