The Grateful Dead: The History of a Folk Story — John Shaqi
The Grateful Dead: The History of a Folk StoryGerould, Gordon Hall
General
The Grateful Dead: The History of a Folk Story
Gerould, Gordon Hall
Dead -- Folklore; Folk literature -- Themes, motives; Grateful dead (Tale)
The Factor's Garland or The Turkey Factor, a tale in English verse,
which may be regarded as a popular ballad, though by no means
as a primitive one. It has often been reprinted as a chapbook or
broadside. The library of Harvard University possesses copies of
no less than eight different editions (see W. C. Lane, Catalogue
of English and American Chap-Books and Broadside Ballads in Harvard
College Library, 1905, nos. 809-815, 2420). An examination of these
shows that they differ from each other in no essential point, though
they vary considerably in statements of time. The British Museum
Catalogue of Printed Books lists seven editions, all different from
those at Harvard, with one possible exception. The popularity of the
story, at one time at least, is thus strikingly illustrated. Another
variant, reported from oral tradition, has been found in North
Carolina. See the paper read by J. B. Henneman before the Modern
Language Association of America on Dec 29, 1906.
Old Wives' Tale.
George Peele, The Old Wives' Tale (1590), published in 1595, Ed. by
Dyce, 1828 and 1861, by Bullen, 1888, and by Gummere in Gayley's
Representative English Comedies, 1903, pp. 349-382. See H. Dutz for
an elaborate discussion of the connection of the play with our theme.
Fatal Dowry.
Philip Massinger (and Nathaniel Field), The Fatal Dowry. First printed
in 1632. Ed. A. Symons, Mermaid Series, 1889, ii. 87-182.
Fair Penitent.
Nicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent, The Dramatick Works of Nicholas
Rowe Esq., 1720, vol. i.
CHAPTER III.
TALES WITH THE SIMPLE THEME AND MISCELLANEOUS COMBINATIONS.
Of the tales enumerated in the previous chapter, over one hundred in
number, all but seventeen fall into well-defined categories as having
The Grateful Dead combined with one or more of three given themes:
The Possessed Woman, The Ransomed Woman, and The Water of Life. Of
these seventeen variants, moreover, only four can be regarded as
having the simple motive of The Grateful Dead; and they are in part
doubtful members of the family.
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