> Eliza Carthy > Songs > Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr: An Old Man Came Courting

An Old Man Came Courting Me

[ Roud 210 ; Ballad Index K207 ; trad.]

Sam Larner sang Maids When You're Young, Never Wed an Old Man in a recording collected by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger between 1958 and 1960 on his Folkways album Now Is the Time for Fishing. The accompanying notes commented:

The miseries of marrying an old man have frequently provided a theme for Scots songs, as instance by What Can a Lassie Do wi' an Auld Man?, Auld Rob Morris, Auld Robin Gray, and Carle Cam' O'er the Craft. They are not quite so common in the English tradition and Sam Larner's song may well be an anglicised version of a Scots song. In the appendix to the 1751 edition of Herd's Scottish Songs there is a fine version, a remarkably close parallel to Mr Larner's, and Edith Fowke has recently collected an even fuller version from Mrs. O.J. Abbott of Ottawa.

Other versions: Kidson, p. 90; JFS Vol. II, p. 273

Jeannie Robertson sang An Old Man Came Courting Me live on August 13, 1967 in The Angus Hotel, Blairgowrie, Perthshire, at the Festival at Blairgowrie. The album sleeve notes commented:

Among the many songs of warning to young maidens never to wed an old man, this is perhaps the most popular and widespread of all. Versions are known throughout the English-speaking world.

Peggy Seeger sang this song in 1968 on the Critics Group's album The Female Frolic, where it is classified as Canadian.

Eliza Carthy learned An Old Man Came Courting from the singing of Jeannie Robertson and sang it in 1993 on her and Nancy Kerr's eponymous first album Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr. The record's sleeve notes commented:

An Old Man Came Courting is from the singing of Jeannie Robertson, possibly the greatest traditional singer in the British isles.

Lucy Ward sang this as Maid When You're Young in 2011 on her CD Adelphy Has to Fly. It was nominated for best traditional track at the BBC Folk Awards 2012. In this video, she sang it at Gate to Southwell Folk Festival in June 2010:

A cunning linguist in the Mudcat Café thread falorum and dingorum noted that

“Falorum” is the genitive plural of the Latin “phallus” and should be more correctly spelled “phallorum”.

“Dingdorum” is the genitive plural of the Latin “dingdus” which transmuted over the centuries to the the more modern “dong”.

Of course, it is immediately obvious to any Latin scholar than the use of the genitive plural case is grammatically wrong, and that the line in Maids When You're Young should read “He's got no phallum, he's lost his dingdum”, i.e. the accusative singular case would have been more correct.

Lyrics

Eliza Carthy sings An Old Man Came Courting

Well an old man came courting me, hey do a darity
An old man came courting me, me being young
An old man came a-courting me, fain would he marry me
Maids when you're young never wed an old man

Chorus (after each verse):

For he's got no falorum, faliddle-i-orum
Got no falorum, faliddle-i-day
Got no falorum, and he's lost his dingdorum
So maids when you're young, never wed an old man

When that we went to church, hi do a darity
When we went to church, me being young
When that we went to church, he left me in the lurch
Maids when you're young, never wed an old man

When that we went to tea, hi do a darity
When we went to tea, me being young
When that we went to tea, he started teasing me
Maids when you're young never wed an old man

When that we went to bed, hi do a darity
When we went to bed, me being young
When that we went to bed, he neither done nor said
Maids when you're young never wed an old man

When that he went to sleep, hi do a darity
When he went to sleep, me being young
When that he went to sleep, out of bed I did creep
Into the arms of a jolly young man

And I found his falorum, faliddle-i-orum
I found his falorum, faliddle-i-day
I found his falorum and he's got my dingdorum
So maids when you're young never wed an old man

An old man came courting me, hi do a darity
An old man came courting me, me being young
An old man came a-courting me, fain would he marry me
Maids when you're young never wed an old man

Acknowledgements

Transcribed by Kira White.