Isaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project

Verses in Vogue with the Vulgar

Mary, marry John,

This comic song was called “Advice,” written by Charles Dibdin for A Tour to the Land’s End (1798). It is based on the truism that people will believe what they want to believe, regardless of the advice they get. The nature of the dialogue probably made this an amusing stage piece. It had a limited life in print, and appeared in two songsters between 1807 and 1811 (Roud; R. Keller, Early American Songsters).

Additional Metadata

Date

1810-1814

Place of Publication

Boston.

Publisher

Coverly, Nathaniel, 1775?-1824, printer.

Subjects

Remarriage
Older women
Humorous songs

First Line

Old Mary, her poor husband dead.

Identifiers

BIB ID: 276478
OCLC Control No.: (OCoLC)ocm80581102
OCLC Control No.: (OCoLC)ocn191457354
Ford, W.C. Thomas ballads, 166
AAS General Catalog URL: http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=276478
View larger image

Physical Dimensions

29 x 21 cm.

Transcriptions

View transcription using TEI
Download TEI XML

Related Items

Woodcut for Mary, marry John,
Sheet Music for "Advice"
Sheet Music for "Advice" Part 2
Sheet Music for "Advice" Part 3
Woodcut for The silver key, or A fancy to truth and a warning to youth : Shewing the benefit of money, and the contempt of the poor, under the term of a silver key

Citation

“Mary, marry John,,” Isaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project, accessed September 23, 2023, https://www.americanantiquarian.org/thomasballads/items/show/87.