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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2019
Invective, ridicule, and insult are not uncommon ingredients in folk songs, and since songs containing these elements usually make us laugh, we speak of them as satirical. Sometimes the satire springs from a strong sense of social injustice, as it did with singers like Aunt Molly Jackson and Woody Guthrie. More commonly it arises from personal motives, such as a desire to annoy. This is a progress report on local songs—particularly those attributed to Larry Gorman—in Maine, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
The author's thanks are due to the Coe Research Fund Committee of the University of Maine, and to the Research Committee of Indiana University, for financial assistance while collecting the material on which this paper is based.
2. Greenway, John, American Folksongs of Protest, Philadelphia, 1953, passim.Google Scholar
3. Checkering, Geraldine J., “The Origin of a Ballad,” Modern Language Notes, L. 1935, 465–568.Google Scholar
4. Doerflinger, William M., Shantymen and Shantyboys, New York, 1951.Google Scholar See particularly his chapter nine, “Satirists of the Sawdust Country,” pp. 253-69.
5. For further information on Larry Gorman, see my article, “The Life and Work of Larry Gorman: A Preliminary Report,” Western Folklore, XIX, 1960, 17-23.
6. From the singing of John B. Stymiest of Tabusintac, New Brunswick, as recorded by Louise Manny for the Lord Beaverbrook Collection of New Brunswick Folksong.
7. For a collection of these cante-fables about Larry Gorman, see my article, “Larry Gorman and the Cante-Fable,” New England Quarterly, XXXII, 1959, 226-237.
8. Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy and Smyth, Mary W., Minstrelsy of Maine, Boston and New York, 1927. P. 113.Google Scholar
9. Doerflinger, , op. cit., p. 215.Google Scholar
10. See my article, ‘“Ben Deane’ and Joe Scott: A Ballad and its Probable Author,” Journal of American Folklore, LXXII, 1959, 53-66.
11. From the singing of Fred McMahon of Chatham, New Brunswick, as recorded by Louise Manny for the Lord Beaverbrook Collection of New Brunswick Folksong.