But that is exactly the problem. Ambiguity is in the eye of the beholder.
The song Barbara Allen has a documented history of over 300 years. There are
777 versions in my index, and lots more I haven't entered yet. As far as I
know, not once in all that time has there been any hint of a double meaning.
No singer has been shy to sing it to a collector. No collector or publisher
has had qualms about publishing it. Samuel Pepys nicknamed one of his best
friends Barbara Allen. Again, as far as I know, there aren't even any bawdy
parodies (but the leading expert on bawdy songs will be able to tell us, as
I know he's listening). So who thinks it is ambiguous?
One of the biggest professional sins an anthropologist can commit (I
suggest) is to project his/her meanings on the people s/he is studying. One
of the biggest sins ballad scholars can make is to project their meanings
into the past without evidence.
The case with Molly Malone is less clear-cut, and I don't know the situation
in Ireland, but the quip 'Tart with the cart' is an excellent piece of
Dublin wit but cannot in itself, alone, be taken literally as evidence of
the dubious reputation of poor Molly. I would lay money the original song is
above suspicion, being merely a  combination of the costermonger and
sentimental Irish formulae so popular at the time. As I mentioned before, in
my experience in England the song is parodied for its triteness not for its
innuendo, and again I have never found anyone who even hinted at a double
meaning.
Incidentally, I have a theory that any song which has a ghost in the last
verse like this is a fake-traditional song. I can't think of any real
traditional songs which have this lame ending. Can anyone else?
Steve Roud

-----Original Message-----
From: DS LR Surv Lt Col C M St G Kirke <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 22 September 1999 01:32
Subject: RE: Moral balladry


>I wish I could agree, as I like to see the clean and straightforward side
to
>things.  However, I believe that one must accept that, language being what
>it is, words that CAN have double meanings will be taken as such - not
>necessarily openly and up front, but certainly the possiblity of the less
>salubrious meaning will come to the hearers (if their culture has equipped
>them to identify it) even if thereafter they reject it as irrelevant.
>
>And, to repeat quite unnecessarily - it is a well trodden social
>anthropological principle that ambiguity is powerful.
>
>Charles.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: steve roud [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: 22 September 1999 03:21
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Moral balladry
>
>
>Is this stuff about Barbara Allen a joke?
>It is so easy to jump to silly conclusions on the basis of imagined
internal
>meanings, but the temptation should be resisted. The use of the word
>'Scarlet' is no proof (or even any hint) of sexual looseness.
>'Scarlet Town' was a slang term for Reading (pronounced 'Redding'), in
which
>Barbara was born in many versions, and it is given as that in numerous
>British slang dictionaries.
>Even if is wasn't 'Scarlet' was also used in numerous other slang phrases
>with no sexual meaning, so why should this one have that meaning? There is
>nothing else in the song which hints at it - or is dying of a broken-heart
>not allowed in a love song? If we are desperate to find hidden meanings in
>all songs, or to find more street-walker songs, or whatever our current
>obsession is, it is extremely easy to make statements which cannot be
>disproved, but which have no substance.
>Try this one: There is a 19th century song called 'Cock up your Beaver',
As
>we know that 'cock' is slang for a penis, and 'beaver' is slang (at least
in
>some circles) for female pubic hair; this song is clearly an extremely
dirty
>song. The fact that a 'beaver' was a type of hat, which could be 'cocked'
>doesn't matter, there must be a hidden meaning to it. The spurious
>explanations for nursery rhymes which are so popular in Britain, and I
>presume in the US (such as the Ring-a-Roses/Plague story) are built on
>similar assertion-without-foundation techniques.
>Try not to read your modern preoccupations into the past.
>Steve Roud
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: J L Speranza <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: 20 September 1999 18:54
>Subject: Moral balladry
>
>
>>Re Molly Malone, B Olson writes: "There's a tradition in Dublin that the
>>Molly Malone of the [ballad] was a prostitute, and the bronze statue of
her
>>is generally known as the 'tart with the cart' to match the 'floozie in
the
>>jacuzzi', the statue-cum-fountain of Anna Livia in O'Connell Street".
>>
>>The lyrics are not fresh in my mind, but is there a connotation that Ms
>>Malone was a 'lady of the street', if that's the word? In which case, it
>>would certainly make for an interesting interpretation (or commonplace of
>>mush balladry, it seems), as there are a few ballads dealing on the
>subject.
>>My favourite being the ENGLISH ballad, Barbara Ellen.
>>
>>In the case of Ms Ellen (or Allen, for Childers) there is conclusive
>TEXTUAL
>>(internal) support. Notably, she hailed not from Dublin's fair city, but
>>SCARLET town, and there's the suggestion that she, besides making the guys
>>in the town cry 'well-a-day', she had the disease standardly associated
>with
>>mediaeval pros, viz. syphilis, or some similar venereal disease. This
>>provides the best literal interpretation for Jemmy lying in his grave 'for
>>love of cruel Barbara Ellen'.
>>
>>'Cockles & Mussels' is reprinted in the Oxford Songbook. My first
>>acquaintance with it came, though, from the use Dennis Potter makes of it
>in
>>his play, 'Pennies from Heaven' (London: Faber) - where a character plays
>it
>>in the piano in a London pub to the annoyance of the clients (He played it
>>badly, admittedly).
>>
>>In looking up in the Oxford Thesaurus for synonyms of 'prostitute' (in
>>trying to think for a better subject title to this post), I come across
>>'moll'.  What more evidence do I need? :)
>>
>>Good luck in your reserach, and keep us informed.
>>
>>Best,
>>J L Speranza
>>Buenos Aires, Argentina.
>>[log in to unmask]
>>
>>* * * * * * *
>>B Boock writes: "I found the text in 'A Hundred Irish Ballads'. The text
>>begins, 'In Dublin's fair city where the girls are so pretty...'. It has
>>only three stanzas and is called 'Cockles & Mussels'. The author of the
>song
>>is not known. I would like to know how old it is and if there is any
>>additional information about poor [Ms] Malone whose ghost is doomed to cry
>>out 'cockles and mussels' as she did all her lifetime long.
>>
>>



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