{"id":7342,"date":"2020-12-02T12:33:05","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T12:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=7342"},"modified":"2025-12-18T07:10:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T07:10:58","slug":"mother-says-i-mustnt","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/mother-says-i-mustnt\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother says I mustn’t"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1872<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>GW Hunt<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN21505<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>George Leybourne<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
Kisner, Mrs Norma 1960 USA Arkansas
Modern performances<\/strong>
Angela Lansbury<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From Axon Ballad no. 84<\/strong>\n\nI fell in love with a pretty girl, \nA few short years ago, \nAll sorts of weather, hail or rain,\nTo court I would go; \nI'd long and site with love until\n'Twas time to be away,\nAnd when I'd ask a parting kiss,\nShe always used to say:\n\n\"Oh, mother says I mustn't, mother says I mustn't, \nOh George, please George, not just yet awhile;\nMother says I mustn't, mother says I mustn't,\nOh! George, no George, not just yet\"<\/em>\n\nI, waiting, kept, at last one day,\nI thought I'd know my fate,\nI sunk upon my knees in quite\nAn agonising state;\n\"Selina say you'll have your George,\nAnd when shall we be wed?\"\nI longed to hear my love's reply,\nAnd this is what she said:\n\n[Spoken: Well, George, dear, you're very kind, but we could never live on 200 a year, so until you are worth at least 500 per annum, darling \u2013 mother says:]\n\nFrom then I went to work, by Jove!\nI left no stone unturned,\nUntil five hundred pounds a year\nAt last I really earned;\nSelina heard how things had changed,\nAnd when we met one day,\nShe seemed so pleasant \u2013 and at last,\nShe lovingly did say:\n\n[Spoken: You remember George, dear, what I said when you asked me some time ago, well George, dear, as you have so improved in circumstances, suppose you ask me now, Georgie Porgy, darling? Well says I upon consideration, you're very kind but:]\n\nGive me the girl who loves a man,\nAnd loves him for himself,\nWhose first consideration, is not\nWhat he's worth in pelf\nAll sordid minded damsels, who\nMay worship golden dross,\nMay they be old maids till they die,\nAnd will never feel their loss.\n\n[Spoken: So you ladies who don't want to be old maids, mind you don't once too often say:]\n\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A Music Hall song written by GW Hunt<\/a> and sung by George Leybourne<\/a>, remembered almost a century later by a traditional singer in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was relatively widely printed in broadsides and songsters on both sides of the Atlantic in the 19th century. I have been unable to access the original sheet music, but the lyrics above are taken from a contemporary broadside which gives the singer and the publishers – so it seems pretty official!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
You can hear Mrs Kisner sing it here in the Max Hunter collection<\/a> and Angela Lansbury sing a snatch of what might be the “ladies’ version” in the film A lawless street <\/em>(1955)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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