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Villikins and His Dinah

[ Roud 271 ; Master title: Vilikins and His Dinah ; Laws M31A/B ; G/D 2:2111 ; Ballad Index LM31 ; Bodleian Roud 271 ; DT VILDINAH ; Mudcat 14252 , 71174 ; trad.]

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Freda Palmer of Leafield, Oxfordshire sang Villikins and Dinah to Mike Yates in 1975. This recording was included in 1988 on the Veteran Tapes cassette The Horkey Load Vol. 1, in 2005 on the Veteran anthology of English traditional folk singers, It Was on a Market Day—Two, and in 2018 on her Musical Traditions anthology Leafield Lass. Mike Yates noted:

In 1832 the broadside printer James Catnach issued a trade list of the songs that he printed. One song was titled William and Dinah, versions of which still occasionally turn up in Britain and America. However, in 1853-54, an actor named Robson produced a parody on the song, which he called Villikins and Dinah. According to the antiquarian writer John Ashton: “This ballad (i.e. Villikins and Dinah) was, during its run, as popular as any street song I remember. It had been forgotten, when Robson, that prince of genuine comic actors, introduced it into the farce The Wandering Minstrel, and it fairly took the town by storm.” (John Ashton, Modern Street Ballads. 1888. p. 98) Several broadside printers issued Villikins and Dinah on their sheets and a facsimile can be seen in Leslie Shepard’s The History of Street Literature (Newton Abbot. 1973. p. 172).

Frank Hinchliffe sang Wilkins and Dinah at his Sheffiled home to Mike Yates and Ruairidh and Alvina Greig in 1976. That day’s recordings were released in the following year on his Topic album of traditional songs from South Yorkshire, In Sheffield Park. Ruairidh and Alvina Greig noted:

Most people have heard the old stage song Villikins and His Dinah, and nearly everyone must have sung its tune to other words of one sort or another. The song which it parodies is called William and Dinah, a ballad often printed on broadsides, and in existence at least since 1832 when it was included in James Catnach’s trade catalogue. Curiously, this once widely popular song has only rarely been reported from tradition. Frank’s hero is not called William, but his song is a version of the original, and his tune is not the one made popular by Robson, the Victorian actor and comedian, creator of Villikins.

Lyrics

Freda Palmer sings Villikins and Dinah

There was a rich merchant in London did dwell,
He had but one daughter a very fine girl.
Her name it was Dinah, just sixteen years old
She’d a very large fortune of silver and gold.

As Dinah was walking in the garden one day,
Her papa stepped up to her and quickly did say
“Go dress yourself, Dinah, in costly array
And you shall have a husband both gallant and gay”.

“O papa, O papa, I have made up my mind,
To marry just now I don’t feel inclined.
To you my large fortune I’ll freely give o’er
If you’ll let me live single a year or two more.”

“Go, go, boldest daughter,” her parent replied,
“If you don’t give consent to be this young man’s bride,
We’ll give all your fortune to the nearest of kin,
And you shan’t reap the benefit of one single pin.”

As Villikins was walking in the garden one day,
He found his dear Dinah lying dead by the way,
With a cup of cold poison that stood by her side.
‘Twas the benedict that stated by poison she died.

He kissed the cold corpse as she lay on the ground,
He called her his lover although she’s no more.
Then he drank up the poison like a true lover brave.
Now Villikins and Dinah lie both in one grave.

Twelve o’clock the next night in a tall poplar tree,
The ghost of young Dinah her parents did see,
Arm in arm with young Villikins and both looking blue,
Saying, “We shouldn’t have been poisoned if it hadn’t been for you.”