Nottamun Town (Nottingham Fair)
DESCRIPTION: The narrator goes to Nottamun Town, meets odd and mad people, and sees impossible and paradoxical sights: "In Nottamun town, not a soul would look up, not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down to show me the way to fair Nottamun town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 18(687)
KEYWORDS: madness nonsense paradox
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 6, "Fair Nottiman Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 446, "Nottingham Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 302-305, "Nottingham Fair" (3 texts, 1 tune)
SharpAp 191, "Nottamun Town" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 69, "Nottamun Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 105-106, "[Nottamun Town]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 5, "Nottamun Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 8-9, "Nottamun Town" (1 text, 1 tune, called "Nottamun town" in the header though "Nottalin Town" in the notes and Index)
DT, NOTTMUN*
Roud #1044
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(687), "The Old Gray Mare" ("As I was a going to Nottingham fair"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Harding B 18(214), "The Gray Mare"
LOCSinging, sb30373a, "The Old Gray Mare" ("As I was a going to Nottingham fair"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb20153a, "The Gray Mare"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Black Phyllis" (lyrics)
cf. "Paddy Backwards" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Nottalin Town
Notes: There were several episodes of mass insanity in Europe, probably caused by ingestion of ergot, a mold found on rye with hallucinogenic properties. - PJS
I have also heard this song explained as the effects of the delirium caused by the plague. Compare also the song "Black Phyllis," which uses some of the same words and which appears to be about syphilis.
The problem with both the ergot and plague hypotheses is that the sufferer would be rather unlikely to survive. Several of the outbreaks of ergotism arose because of the conditions of the Little Ice Age, which caused many bad harvests and forced people to use old flour or non-cereals to make bread.
Possibly a better theory is that people were eating poppy products to *avoid* ergotism. This too could lead to hallucinations.
Frances Stonor Saunders, Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman, Faber and Faber, 2004, pp. 8-9, describes the symptoms: "Bread was also made from poppyseed, which had the effect of producing a 'drugged and paranoid' state. This was surely preferable to the effects of eating bread made with mouldy or contaminated grain, which could lead to ergotism (St Anthony's Fire), a disease which attacked the muscular system and induced painful spasms. Eventually, the contracting muscles cut off circulation of the blood to the extremities, which became gangrenous. One of the side-effects of ergotism was mind-bending hallucinations -- nature's gift, perhaps, to sufferers, who would otherwise have had to watch their limbs fall off in a state of sober despair."
Saunders, p. 141, also mentions that extreme hunger could produce hallucinations. And hunger was of course very common during the Little Ice Age.
Jean Ritchie thinks the song is from a mummer's play and not intended to be understood.
This song merges almost continuously with "Paddy Backwards," and there are probably fragments which might go with either song. - RBW
Broadsides LOCSinging sb30373a and Bodleian Harding B 18(687) are duplicates.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20153a and Bodleian Harding B 18(214) are duplicates.
Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 18(687) and LOCSinging sb30373a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: WB2006
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