minstrel: carol lyric double meanings

[L Joseph]

--- Lisa and Ken Theriot <lnktheriot at cox.net> wrote:
> Though there are many folk songs with double
> meanings, I think most of
> the wassailing songs are just a bunch of the lads
> looking for some free
> food and drink, often suggesting that the listeners
> are better off
> financially than the poor singers ("O Maid, with
> your silver-headed pin"
> contrasted with the singers' wooden bowls).  

"The New Oxford Book of Carols" confirms this. I also
did a web search under the title "Somerset Wassail"
and found mention of a custom whereby the wassailers
serenade the apple trees, Somerset being a producer of
hard cider. Nothing more salacious or political than
that.

Jehanne de Wodeford 

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"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid." --Frank Zappa

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