The Old Maid's Song

The Old Maid's Song is an American folk song. It recounts the story of a woman whose younger sisters have married, while she has remained a spinster into middle age. During the chorus of the song, the narrator defines a loose criteria for a husband.

The song is derived from the broadside ballad "The Wooing Maid," a song which dates to the seventeenth century.^[4]

Variations

The chorus lyrics vary between different versions of the song. In a version collected in Dover, Vermont in 1919, the chorus is sung:

A linman, a tinman, a tinker, a tailor,

A fiddler, a peddler, a plough-man, a sailor;

Come gentle, come simple, come foolish, come witty,

Don't let me die an old maid, but take me out of pity!^[5]

In another variation heard in Pulaski County, Kentucky and published in 1917 differs slightly:

Come a landsman, a pinsman, a tinker or a tailor,

A fiddler or a dancer, a ploughboy or a sailor,

A gentleman or a poor man, a fool or a witty,

Don't you let me die an old maid, but take me out of pity.^[6]

In "The Wooing Maid," the ballad from which the song is derived, the first two lines of the chorus belong instead to the first verse:

[...]

Come tinker, come broomman:

She will refuse no man.

Come gentle, come simple, come foolish, come witty,

Oh! if you lack a maid, take me for pitty.^[7]

The song is known by many titles, including "Sister Susan",^[8] and "The Spinster's Lament",^[9] "Old Maid's Complaint", "Old Maid's Lament," and "Old Maid's Petition".^[10]

Pete Seeger recorded a rendition of the song for the Smithsonian Folkways label.

References