Lyrics
A Warm Enough Christmas	    
copyright Daniel D. O’Byrne 24th December 2022

Prices rising, not surprising eggs are getting rarer
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two
Look it’s snowing, oven’s glowing, turkeys run for cover
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two

Here now for me and for you
A warm enough Christmas may do
A warm enough Christmas may do

Extra layers, football players diving in the desert
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two
Noses dripping, Messi’s skipping. Had his Christmas early
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two

Here now for me and for you
A warm enough Christmas may do
A warm enough Christmas may do

Phones are ringing, choirs are singing “In the Bleak Mid-winter” 
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two
Uncle’s funny saving money turning off the heating
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two

Here now for me and for you
A warm enough Christmas may do
A warm enough Christmas may do
A warm enough Christmas may do [repeat]

A Warm Enough Christmas (Christmas 2022)

This recording was made in May 2014 for The 100 Ballad Project: Hit Songs and their significance in Seventeenth Century England: https://www.dhi.ac.uk/projects/100ballads/ Recording used with permission.
The vocalist is Vivien Ellis, and the fiddle player is Giles Lewin.
The ballad sheet pictured is contained in The Hailstone Ballad Collection at York Minster Library.
It was printed in Newcastle, tune: 'Flying Fame' (AKA 'Chevy Chase') Date not known.
The ballad tells the exemplary story (known as 'Roman charity') of a woman, Pero, who secretly breastfeeds her Father, after he is imprisoned and sentenced to death by starvation. It's of Roman origin, often represented in art, especially in the Baroque period.
There are artworks depicting this scene in British collections, including York, Derby, and the National Portrait Gallery.
In Prof Chris Marsh's 100 ballad project, he identifies 'A Worthy Example' as one of the 100 most popular ballads of the C17th century, based on sales. It was popular from the 1590's through to the eighteenth century.
There are 7 different copies of the ballad in the English Broadside Ballad Archive, all printed in London, the earliest dating from 1611.
A search of Bodleian Ballads Online yields 6 results for 'A Worthy Example', all printed in London, except one printed in Newcastle, part of the Douce Collection (Francis Douce 1757-1834, antiquarian, collector of ballads, Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum). 
The ballad made its way to America by 1794, with copy in Library of Congress: https://picryl.com/media/a-worthy-example-of-a-virtuous-wife-in-a-most-affecting-and-truly-striking
The Bodleian and Hailstone copies seem to be from the same Newcastle printer, and are similar, but not identical. This places the ballad in the North of England, and can contribute to scholarship and understanding of Northern/regional repertories.

A Worthy Example Of A Virtuous Wife

This ballad is from Broadside Ballads Online archive at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It was printed between 1858-1885 by various London printers including Catnach Press, Bloomsbury.  Here is a link to a facsimile in the library: http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/05000/01809.gif
This digital resource has around 35,000 street ballads available online, possibly the world's largest collection, and an important source for research.
This anonymous ballad is in the voice of The Dodger, a London cutpurse who says he is the original of Dickens' Artful Dodger, and the model for cartoons by George Cruikshank (the first illustrator of Oliver Twist).
The subtitle is 'Fare-ye-vell my Vitechapel Boys', meaning 'Fare-Ye-Well my Whitechapel Boys', in the street dialect of the time, and this dialect peppers the ballad. The Bodleian library holds 13 different copies of this ballad, so it must have been quite popular. Ballads were sold for a penny on the streets by ballad sellers, who sang, and often also wrote them. One of these versions says the ballad was performed by Sam Cowell, a famous music hall artist of the time, who presumably dressed up like Cruikshank's illustration, which is the image for this Soundcloud.
In the ballad, The Dodger is bidding his cronies farewell, because he's 'going away to Australia - but not at my own expense', meaning that he has been found guilty of pickpocketing, and will be transported to Australia for 7 years - putting a humorously defiant spin on his unfortunate situation, in that the journey will not be at his 'own expense'. He was fortunate not to be executed by hanging, which was common at the time.
In the song, The Dodger asks what the difference is between the 'vipes' (handkerchieves) he has stolen, and crimes committed by more 'well-to-do' criminals, referencing fraud scandals of the time, connected with Crystal Palace, Railway shares, and the Royal British Bank.
To explain some of the terminology, for instance, the word 'fence', in the chorus. Wiki says: 'A fence, also known as a receiver, mover, or moving man, is an individual who knowingly buys stolen goods in order to later resell them for profit. The fence acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the behaviour of the thief in the transaction. This sense of the term came from thieves' slang tracing from the notion of such transactions providing a defence against being caught. The term remains in common use in all major dialects of modern English, all of which spell it with a "c" even though the source word in some dialects (particularly American English) is now spelled defense.'
'Bobby' is a slang term for a member of London's Metropolitan Police derived from the name of Sir Robert Peel, who established the force in 1829. 'Beak' is a slang term for magistrate.
None of the ballad sheets mention the tune for this song. People would have heard the seller sing the ballad and recognised the tune, as the same tunes were put to use again and again for new ballads. The tune I have chosen is 'The Shores of Amerikay' AKA 'Star of the County Down'. This is a well-known traditional Irish dance-tune, and a melody used for songs of emigration. The distinctive form of this ballad, with its 'fare-ye-well' chorus, suggests that this might have been the original tune.
This is one of the songs I sang in The Clerkenwell Ballad Walk, for Baroque At The Edge Festival Jan 7-10th 2021 Hear the podcast: https://anchor.fm/bate/episodes/The-Clerkenwell-Ballad-Walk-eok5bj

The Dodger, tune: 'Shores of Amerikay'

Singer, choirleader, arts & health researcher

A Worthy Example Of A Virtuous Wife

Vivien Ellis

Related tracks