At 03:05 AM 22/9/99, DS LR Surv  Lt Col C M St G Kirke
<[log in to unmask] wrote:
>For amateur athropological association members, this is the latest state of
>an exchange on the Irish song 'Sweet Molly Malone' which is being discussed
>by the 'Ballads' list.  A
>
snip

>Under the surface, there run contradictory currents:
>
>What she sings/trades in is a pun on judicial death ('cockles and mussels'
>is also supposed to be the gargle of the hanged felon)
>
>What she died of may be associated with the consequences of prostitution.

There aren't many sexually transmitted diseases that cause such rapid death
in populations where exposure to the particular bug is common. I'd be more
inclined to suspect that the fever from which "no one could save her" was
something like diptheria or pneumonia . Or maybe she simply chewed on a
crook mussel!
>
>The street where she plied her trade is an ambiguous arena, containing both
>the respectable and sweet and the disreputable and foul - and both street
>traders and prostitutes might easily be imagined crying out for trade.

MMM. Of course both "her father and mother before" were also fishmongers
who pusehd their barrows around the strreets of Dublin crying cockles and
mussels. Does this mean her dad was a prostitute too and that Molly's
arrival involved a rare moment of non commercial relationship between a
male and a female  streetwalker? (Or perhaps that they charged each other
for their respective services?) And, of course, that they too both ended up
on the gallows (given that they, also, "cried cockles and muscles alive
alive oh!).


>
>Is she or isn't she sweet?  Is she or isn't she foul?
>
>There is a power in ambiguity that tugs at the human mind.

This interpretation sounds more like a dose of Benny Hill than a mind
tuggingly powerful ambiguity!
>
>Trying to resolve the ambiguity may just be to ruin the effect!
>
>Charles
>
I always liked this song as a child , without even the slightest hint of
ambiguity!

As to its origins, I would have thought it was more likely to be a sailor's
tune, than an Irish ballad.




Rod Hagen
[log in to unmask]
Hurstbridge, Victoria, Australia
WWW    http://www.netspace.net.au/~rodhagen




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