The Plymouth Tragedy: or, Fair Susan's Overthrow.

BROADSIDE BALLAD.

Published by London: printed and sold by Jennings, [c.1809]

About this Item

A ballad telling a tragic tale of lovers tricked apart by "cruel" and "covetous" parents. Similar ballads often feature an unfaithful and avaricious antiheroine, who suffers a cautionary downfall. Here, however, Susan is a "harmless maid", and it is families who are warned against prioritizing wealth over the happiness of the younger generation. The love triangle between a woman, her husband, and a sailor was a common trope in 17th- to 19th-century ballads, but most had several key differences to this version. The woman was normally the one to prioritize financial gain, unlike Susan, who declares that "No wealth nor riches shall make me disloyal". The sailor was typically a demonic character, sometimes the Devil in disguise, whereas "sweet William" is an honest and faithful man. In most ballads, only the woman dies, while the sailor-demon escapes; both Susan and William perish here. Such entertaining ballads were an outlet for people "to voice tensions, to work over the contradictions of human life" (Gammon, p. 237). The Plymouth Tragedy reflects an exasperation with the requirements on the young, especially women, to conform with their parents' desires at the expense of their own happiness. Vic Gammon, "Song, Sex, and Society in England, 1600-1850", Folk Music Journal, vol. 4, no. 3, 1982. Single sheet (255 x 360 mm), printed in columns. Woodcut vignette. A little nicked at edges, old centre fold reinforced on verso with paper; overall a well-preserved copy of a fragile publication.

Seller Inventory # 174972

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Plymouth Tragedy: or, Fair Susan's Overthrow.
• Publisher: London: printed and sold by Jennings, [c.1809]