{"id":13324,"date":"2021-10-31T10:59:14","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T10:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=13324"},"modified":"2021-10-31T15:55:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-31T15:55:18","slug":"tiddle-a-wink-the-barber","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/tiddle-a-wink-the-barber\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiddle-a-wink the barber"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Tiddly wink the barber<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1877<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>John Read<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN20452<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>John Read<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
unknown, England : Suffolk : 1918<\/code>
Bentall, Brenda; England ; 1970
Scott, Harry; England : Bedfordshire 1950-69<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From anonymous broadside (Crampton Broadside Collection, British Library<\/a>)\n\nNow Mr. Tomkins had a son who kept Barber's shop\nAnd being queer could not go there, so a note to his son did drop,\nSaid he young knave I want a shave, I also really think\nThere is not one shaves like my son, whose name Is Tiddle-a-Wink.\n\nTiddle-a-Wink, Tiddle-a-Wink, Tiddle-a-Wink, the barber,\nTiddle-a-Wink, Tiddle-a-Wink went to shave his father,\nBut he made a slip and cut his lip, which made the father roar,\nThe father knocked poor Tiddle-a-Wink bang upon the floor.<\/em>\n \nThe blood then flowed from Tomkins' and very soon he found,\nWhere he used to put an ounce of meat there was room to put a pound;\nThe doctor he was quickly fetched, to sew it up did try.\nHe looked so queer they were all in fear, when the doctor said he must die.\n\nSaid he, I think this Tiddle-a-Wink has caused his father's death;\nThen Tiddle-a-Wink with fear did blink, could scarcely catch his breath:\nThe father died, the son he tried some poison for to take,\nBut this they stopped and on him dropped, for making this sad mistake.\n\nNext morn before the magistrate poor Tiddle-a-Wink they took.\nThere his history to relate, and like a leaf he shook;\nHis solicitor he soon set him free, and when the people, they\nAsked how the old man met his death; others they would say:\nSpoken. - Oh, haven't you heard? don't you know? why-\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Written, composed and performed by John Read<\/a> in the late 1870s, also popular in the USA at that time, where  Tony Pastor sang it as part of a theatrical burlesque The Canal Boat Pinafore<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Jan. 11, 1878; The Standard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
It is another of Read’s songs whose chorus is remembered in children’s nursery rhymes.  Iona and Peter Opie described it as a little jeu d’esprit, known to children from one end of Britain to another<\/em>, and give the children’s version as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tiddly Wink the Barber 
Went to shave his father, 
The razor slip 
And cut his lip, 
Tiddly Wink the Barber<\/p>Iona and Peter Opie (1959)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n