{"id":9937,"date":"2021-03-26T16:39:29","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T16:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=9937"},"modified":"2025-06-26T08:48:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T08:48:26","slug":"bulls-wont-bellow-the","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/bulls-wont-bellow-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulls won’t bellow, The"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>When my Jane comes back
The ferrets and weasels
Trouble at the farm<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1877<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Tom Hanley, WH Phillips<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN3558<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>George Lewis, Sam Torr<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Westaway, Bill; England : Devon 1950
Glew, Ernest; England : Sussex 1959
Robinson, E. England : Yorkshire 1960s\/70s?<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The cows won't milk and the bulls won't roar<\/strong> (Jolly Little Lewis version)\nWritten and composed by WH Phillips. Sung with immense success by Jolly Little Lewis, the Great Comedian and Clown<\/em>\nFrank Kidson Collection: Broadsheet at VWML<\/a>\n\nOnce I was as happy as the birds upon the tree, \nAnd as lively as the tiny fish that swim beneath the sea; \nI could sing a jolly little song, and dance right merrily, \nYes, and work like a Turk in the dairy! \nBut now the time has gone and I am left forlorn,\nFor Father and Mother turn\u2019d contrary; \nAnd they sent away the Girl, that they knew I loved so well\nMy dear rosy cheek'd little Mary. \n\nThe Cows won't milk, and the Bulls won't roar; \nThe Cocks won't crow, and the Pigs won't snore; \nThe Ducks won't quack, and the Hens won't lay, \nAnd  I\u2019ve gone crack'd since Mary went away<\/em>\n\nNow Mary you would like to know, work'd at our little farm,\nAnd around me like an angel there, by gum, she placed a charm: \nWe would  ramble down the country lanes while walking arm in arm, \nAnd she'd  trip by my side like a fairy \nYes all the way along she'd twit a funny song\nI often took her for our pet canary, \nAnd her voice would sound as strong, as a wheel without grease on\nAnd the Cows they would chorus with Mary. \n\nNow since my Mary's gone away, I don't mind telling you \nI don't know what I talk a -bout, and don't know what I do: \nAnd the people say I'm off my chump, by gum I think it true \nFor in my head I don't feel gradely; \nFor of her I dream all night, and wake up in a fright, \nAnd commence to cry just like a little baby: \nThe pillow then I squeeze, for it seems to give me ease, \nAnd I kiss it and fancy it\u2019s Mary \n\nThe bulls won't bellow<\/strong> (Sam Torr's version)\nFrom reproduction of the Howard and Co (1880?) sheet music in Garratt 60 years, <\/em>\"Written and composed by T Hanley\"\n <\/strong>\nI used to be as happy as the little birds above\nAs lively as the little lambs at play\nBut now I'm broken hearted for I've lost the girl I love\nWith a swell from town she's lately gone away\nWe worked upon one farm, and my spirits she would charm\nWhen she would chant a very pretty song\nBut ever since the day that my false love went away\nThe farm, and all upon it, has gone wrong.\n\nThe bulls won't bellow and the cows won't low\nThe hens won't cackle, and cocks won't crow\nThe turkeys won't gobble, and the ducks won't quack\nAnd never, never will do till my Jane comes back.<\/em>\n\nThere's something wrong with everything since Jane has gone away\nAnd I'm doing nothing else but fret\nThe cat with her back to the fire sits on the hearth all day\nAnd the poor old sheep-dog's nose is never wet\nThe pigs won't curl their tails; the ducks won't eat the snails\nThe gander now won't come home to be fed\nAnd the poor old billy-goat has a big lump in his throat\nAnd a hogshead full of tears the sow has shed.\n\nThe hens have got the whooping cough, and will not leave their coop\nThe canary is in the moult and will not eat\nThe donkey's got bronchitis, and the tomcat's got the croup\nThe geese have all got chilblains in their feet\nThe ferrets and the weasels are all down with the measles\nAnd the wool is coming off the sheep\nThe bull has got the tic, and the cow her calf won't lick\nAnd the horses have the nightmare when they sleep.\n\nTo see the weeping willows, they all seem full of grief\nThey seem to moan and shake their heads like me\nThere's a sympathising look on every cabbage leaf\nAnd a nod of pity, too, from every tree\nAt night I dream of Jane, that she's come back again\nAnd I'm whistling as I used to do\nBut when I awake, how I shiver and I shake\nWhen I find my dreams of pleasure are not true.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Two very similar songs, both describing the deleterious effect of unhappy romance on farming livestock, were sung in the 1880s. (The words have parallels as you can see above, to me the music of the chorus at least seems very similar\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
George ‘Jolly Little’ Lewis (18??-93) was  a Music Hall manager and comedian, active between the mid-1860s and his death in 1893 . He came from a Music Hall family – his brother performed under the name Little Levite<\/em>, and his wife Julia Bullen was a serio-comic. He sang his version of the song with the title The cows won’t milk and the bulls won’t roar<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 Aug. 26, 1877; The Era <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
As far as I can see, Lewis’s version of the song was always credited to WH Phillips<\/a>, as in this notice in The Era<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Feb. 16, 1879;  The Era <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Sam Torr<\/a> sang his version under the title The bulls won’t bellow <\/em>or When my Jane comes back<\/em>. The sheet music and various other sources credit it as being written and composed by T Hanley:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Feb. 2, 1879; The Era<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In 1877  T Hanley was also credited with writing Oh Jo<\/em> “a new comic song” for Sam Torr ( The Era<\/em>, Oct 28). Michael Kilgariff, the great archivist of the halls suggests this is Ted Hanley (1868-1927), a writer and comedian who according to Era <\/em> reports first appeared on stage in 1895. I would suggest he was probably too young to have written the song in the late 1870s. Far more likely to be Tom Hanley, a writer\/performer from Sheffield who later appeared at least once at the Leicester Music Hall managed by Sam Torr. Tom Hanley was sometimes billed as a ” Yorkshire dialect reciter”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Sept. 12, 1880; The Era <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Its not clear how two performers, both of whom at various times threatened court action against anyone who would steal their songs, ended up singing such similar pieces. It’s likely that they did know of each other, as they were managed by the same theatrical agent HJ Didcot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A song collected from several traditional singers in the second half of the 20th century\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
 <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
You can hear a fragment of Bill Westaway singing it, as collected by Peter Kennedy, in the British library Sound archive<\/a><\/strong> at 7.08<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n