"The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" is an Irish execution ballad written in the
Newgate
Newgate was one of the historic seven gates of the London Wall around the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times. Newgate lay on the west side of the wall and the road issuing from it headed over the River Fleet to Mid ...
The song is in ''The Festival of Anacreon'', with tune direction "To the hundreds of Drury I write." It is also listed in Colm Ó Lochlainn's ''Irish Street Ballads'' and
Frank Harte
Frank Harte (14 May 1933 – 27 June 2005) was a traditional Irish singer, song collector, architect and lecturer. He was born in Chapelizod, County Dublin, and raised in Dublin. His father, Peter Harte, who had moved from a farming backgroun ...
's ''Songs of Dublin''.
Donagh MacDonagh
Donagh MacDonagh (22 November 1912 – 1 January 1968) was an Irish writer, judge, presenter, broadcaster, and playwright.
Personal life
MacDonagh was born in Dublin on St Cecilia's Day in 1912. He was still a young child when his father Th ...
gives the following sleeve note 'One of a group of Execution Songs written in Newgate Cant or Slang Style in the 1780s, others being ''The Kilmainham Minuet'', ''Luke Caffrey's Ghost'' and ''Larry's Ghost'' in which, as promised in the seventh stanza of the present ballad, Larry comes "in a sheet to sweet Molly"!' The Newgate Cant or Slang Style is not unique to Dublin and all the cant and slang is to be found in Partridge's ''A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English'' (1937). Nubbing cheat or Nubbin chit is cant for the gallows, while Darkmans is cant for night. Joyce, working out of Thomas Dekker's ''The Gul's Hornbook and The Belman of London'' (1608), wrote:
White thy fambles, red thy gan
And thy quarrons dainty is.
Couch a hogshead with me then.
In the Darkmans clip and kiss.
Writing in "Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes (1536-1896)" (published 1896), John S Farmer asserted that neither the song's date nor its author were definitely known. He gave 1816 as an approximate date, and wrote "According to the best authorities, Will Maher, a shoemaker of Waterford, wrote the song. Dr. Robert Burrowes, Dean of St. Finbar’s Cork, to whom it has been so often attributed, certainly did not." In ''Ballads from the Pubs of Ireland'', p. 29, James N Healy attributes the song to a William Maher (Hurlfoot Bill), but doesn't note when Maher lived. However, the song is attributed to a 'Curren' in ''The Universal Songster'', 1828, this possibly being the witty barrister John Philpot Curran or JW Curren.
Text
The Newgate cant in which the song was written was a colloquial slang of 18th-century Dublin, similar to the thieves' cant still used in London (an example of the London use is seen in the 1998 film'' Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels''). This is only one of a group of execution songs written in Newgate Cant or slang style somewhere around 1780, others being ''The Kilmainham Minuet'', ''Luke Caffrey's Ghost'' and ''Larry's Ghost'', which, as promised in the seventh verse, "comes in a sheet to sweet Molly".
A French translation of the song called ''La mort de Socrate'' was written by
Francis Sylvester Mahony
Francis Sylvester Mahony (31 December 1804 – 18 May 1866), also known by the pen name Father Prout, was an Irish humorist and journalist.
Life
He was born in Cork, Ireland, to Martin Mahony and Mary Reynolds. He was educated at the Jesuit ...
, better known as "Father Prout" for Fraser's Magazine, and is also collected in ''Musa Pedestris, Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes 536―1896', collected and annotated by John S Farmer.
Melody
The tune is not an Irish one, but stems from the first line of an English song, ''The Bowman Prigg's Farewell''. The British Union-Catalogue of Early Music (BUCEM) lists four single sheet copies with music, all tentatively dated c 1740, and there is another copy in the Julian Marshal collection at Harvard. However, the tune ''To the Hundreds of Drury I write'' is in the ballad opera ''The Devil of a Duke'', 1732, Air No 4 ''Bowman Prig'' is mentioned in song No 22 of the ballad opera ''
The Fashionable Lady
''The Fashionable Lady'' is a 1730 comedy play by James Ralph.
It premiered at the Goodman's Fields Theatre in Whitechapel with a cast that included William Giffard as Meanwell, James Lacy as Drama, Thomas Smith as Whim and Anna Marcella Giffa ...
'', 1730, but this may not be a reference to the song. "Bowman Prigg" is a cant term for a pick-purse.
The melody and first verse of ''To the Hundreds of Drury I Write'' are in
John Barry Talley
John Barry Talley (born July 22, 1943 ) was a musical director at the United States Naval Academy.
Early life and education
Talley grew up on a farm near Princeton, Kentucky. While attending high school, he studied piano at Bethel College and u ...
's ''Secular Music in Colonial Annapolis'', 1988. ''The Night Before Larry Was Stretched'' is just possibly a reworking of, or may at least have been inspired by ''To the Hundreds of Drury''.
Recordings
*The song provides the narrative basis for the film ''
O'Donoghue's Opera
''O'Donoghue's Opera'' is an Irish film starring Ronnie Drew and his bandmates in The Dubliners. The film is a mock opera, based on the ballad "The Night That Larry Was Stretched". filmed in 1965 with members of
The Dubliners
The Dubliners were an Folk music of Ireland, Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personn ...
; "The Night Before Larry was Stretched" was performed by
Johnny Moynihan
John Moynihan (born 29 October 1946, Phibsboro) is an Irish folk singer, based in Dublin. He is often credited with introducing the bouzouki into Irish music in the mid-1960s.
Music career
Sweeney's Men
Known as "The Bard of Dalymount", he w ...
.
*The song was recorded by
Frank Harte
Frank Harte (14 May 1933 – 27 June 2005) was a traditional Irish singer, song collector, architect and lecturer. He was born in Chapelizod, County Dublin, and raised in Dublin. His father, Peter Harte, who had moved from a farming backgroun ...
for the album '' Dublin Street Songs'' (1967). As in this recording, the last line of each verse is often performed spoken for effect.
*
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...
recorded the song for 1996's ''Common Ground – Voices of Modern Irish Music''.
*Recorded by The Wolfe Tones for ''Irish to the Core'' (CD-S-52033).
See also
*
List of Irish ballads
The following are often-sung Irish folk ballads and folk songs. The songs are arranged by theme under the categories "Politics and soldiering" and "Non-political" and are not necessarily contemporary to the events to which they relate.
Songs ma ...
*
List of songs about Dublin
This is a list of songs about Dublin, Ireland, including parts of the city such as individual neighborhoods and sections, and famous personages, arranged chronologically.
18th century
*" The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" - about the night be ...