| Clare County Library | Songs of Clare |
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The Codfish (Roud 149) 
Vincie BoyleMount Scott, Mullagh Recorded November 2003
Carroll Mackenzie Collection |
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Oh there was a little man and he had
a little horse, He rode and he rode till he came to a brook ‘Fisherman, fisherman, fisherman,’ said
he, ‘Yes sir, yes sir, yes sir,’ said he, He caught the little codfish by the backbone, When he got home, sure he couldn’t find a dish, The wife she got up in the middle of the night, She sat in the pot for to make what she had, ‘Oh husband, oh husband, the devil is in the
po, One caught the poker, and the other caught the broom, They kicked him in the belly, and they kicked him in
the side, |
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"First appearing in print in Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscripts in 1643 as 'The Sea Crabb', this is claimed to be one of the oldest surviving songs in English. As old as the song is, it was reported 363 years earlier as a tale, in an account of a traveller in Russia, possibly in 'The Book of Marco Polo', though it was said to be Italian rather than Russian. The earliest text describes the wife as being pregnant - hence her desire for crab - and it presents us with a scene of high farce by having the creature hanging from her nether parts, reaching out and grabbing the rescuing husband’s nose, thus: 'Alas', quoth the good man, 'that ever I came hither, It has appeared in print on several occasions, though often heavily censored, either by the singer or by the collector. Pregnancy as a reason for the wife’s request for seafood survived right into the early twentieth century when Cecil Sharp noted the song from the exuberant Mrs Overd from Langport in Dorset in 1904. Its consistency as a text is underlined by the verse: 'Oh husband, oh husband, the devil is in the po, 'Oh husband, oh husband, I pray thee come hither, We recorded an extremely bawdy version from Wexford
Traveller, ‘Pop’s’ Johnny Connors and an American
collector once wrote that Seamus Ennis sang a similarly bawdy one at
a house party in New York, but we’ve never been able to find a
recording of it. As 'The Lobster', it was, and possibly still is, a
popular favourite during boozy sporting nights out and was included
in several published collections of rugby songs." See also: |
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