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"Dame Durden" is a song from the repertoire of the Copper Family of Rottingdean,
Sussex.
"Dame Durden" is a name for a housewife; in Dickens's Bleak House (1853), when Esther Summerson takes over the household keys, she is nicknamed "Dame Durden". She’s also the title character of a popular song played by Gabriel Oak in Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd. The song is from oral tradition and is not often printed. It seems to be the kind of song sung just for the fun of the words and melody. Alfred Williams, who collected folk songs in Wiltshire in the early 20th century, published it in Folk songs of the Upper Thames (1923). His comment is: "The song of Dame Durden enjoyed great popularity throughout the South of England, at harvest homes and other village festivals and it may still be heard at a few of the inns bordering the Thames. I obtained my copy of Thomas Dunn, Stratton St Margaret."It appears in the Roud Folk Song Index as #1209. It was printed in The Universal Songster, or, Museum of Mirth (1823) and The Copper Family Song Book (1995). It was recorded by Bob and Ron Copper on Songs of Courtship (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 1) (1968) and on A Song for Every Season (1971), Bob and John Copper on Coppersongs 3: The Legacy Continues (1998), The Young Coppers on Passing Out (2008), Maddy Prior and June Tabor on Silly Sisters (1976), The Mellstock Band on Songs of Thomas Hardy's Wessex (1995) and The Millen Family on Down Yonder Green Lane (2000). |