Talk:The Farmer's Boy

From WikiProjectMed
Jump to navigation Jump to search

"Plow" or "plough"?

The lyrics reproduced are quoted verbatim from Bell, Robert (1857). Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England. London: John W Parker and Son. pp. 148–149. which uses the "plow" spelling. A Google search, supported by the collective brains of the Wikipedia Language reference desk suggests that "plough" was the dominant spelling in Britain by that time; a plausible suggestion is that the author deliberately used the archaic spelling to support his contention that it is "a very ancient song". Anyhow, I think it best to retain the spelling used in the source and have today undone User:BobGun's edit which changed "plow" to "plough" in each verse. Alansplodge (talk) 19:52, 27 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]