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To: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2001 16:00:27 -700
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From: scarlett <[log in to unmask]>
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How did anyone do research before seachable computer databases? After
searching many folk song databases and examining several indices for
folklore journals, I was about to surrender on finding this song. At
the last moment, I noticed that the web-based collections catalog at
Missouri allows a search by table of contents and chapter headings. I
ran it and "low-and-behold:"
The Comic "Sol" Smith Russell's Songster 1871
R.M. DeWitt Publisher, 33 Rose St. New York
Containing-- including all the popular songs which this great Face-ist
and Sing-ist has made famous-- in all over 200 songs of which the
following 17 First Class songs are set to music expressly for this
work:... There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
p. 166-167.
I attached the text below. The entire discovery was a bit
anti-climactic for me, since I was hoping that the song would give
further insight into local uses of Pottery as a metaphor of social
relationships or Christian Ideology. I can still see how these lyrics
would appeal to a Mormon potter living in Utah in the nineteenth
century. The lyrics can be read in quite a different manner, giving
them a terrific irony beyond the typical Hebrew-Christian use of the
metaphor. Unfortunately for me, however, the song doesn't ever even
deal with the pot, its slip, potting, or potters!
There's Many a Slip, 'Twixt the Cup and the Lip
by Alfred Lee
The text follows:
There's many a slip, 'twixt the cup and the lip,
so says an old proverb well known
'Tis true, I declare, castle building in air
is a weakness to which we are all prone:
Most structures which fancy doth form,
Are built on foundations unsound,
We think fortune kind, but next moment we find
Our hopes have been dashed to the ground.
O'er the ocean of life, safely steer your own ship,
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
O'er the ocean of life, safely steer your own ship,
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip,
For while we are fording lifes stream,
The course may seem clear, although dangers are near
Of a danger 'bout which none would dream.
The moth to the candle will fly,
Thus by a false beacon allured,
So we erring souls run against rocks and shoals
While thinking our safety insured.
O'er the ocean of life, safely steer your own ship,
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
O'er the ocean of life, safely steer your own ship,
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and lip,
no matter how sanguine are we,
'Twill fall from our grasp, though it firmly we clasp
And naught else but the goblet we see.
Doth not that a sound lesson teach,
For such over-confidence shown,
With faith almost blind, our mistakes we ne'er find
till after the nectar hath flown.
O'er the ocean of life, safely steer your own ship,
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
O'er the ocean of life, safely steer your own ship,
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip,
There's nothing for sure under the sun,
We fortune's road wend, think we're nearing the end,
Then find that we've scarcely begun.
For fancy, that will-o'-the-wisp,
Its voteries oft leads astray
The closer we steer, from he right path we veer,
To find our way back as we may.
O'er the ocean of life, safely steer your own ship,
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
O'er the ocean of life, safely steer your own ship,
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
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