Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)

STUDIES - Gabriella Varró: The Theme of Comic Love in Blackface Minstrelsy: The Anatomy of the Grotesque

rope and set me free,/ I will sell myself forever, if you will unmarry me!" (Dennison 120)). Slave marriages terminated by unusual events proved a similarly fruitful topic for songsmiths. "In "Rosa Lee," the mate "cotched a shocking cold"; "Sweet Rose of Caroline" was bitten by a rattlesnake and died; ..."Mary Blane"...[also] suffered a variety of misfortunes ..." (Dennison 110). "Dinah Crow"

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5 from 1849 described the grotesque ending of a nice love affair: One night I ax'd my Dinah, if she wid me would go A sailing cross the ribber for to see my fader Joe; When on de way so happy, so light and so gay, My Dinah she fell over board and on de botom lay /Starr/ In one version of the popular song, "Lucy Neal,"

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6 Miss Lucy, the lover of an Alabama 'nigga' "was taken sick" and died a ludicrous death soon afterwards, because of eating too much corn meal. Minstrel sweethearts, mistresses and wives died various grotesque, sometimes even "funny" deaths. The imagination of songsmiths knew no bounds if love's tragicomic conclusion was the matter at hand. Unlike the suitors of Miss Lucy Neale, Dinah Crow or Mary Blane, other minstrel lovers or husbands did not usually mourn their dead partners too long. "The Ole Gray Goose"

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7 of 1844 pictured this lighthearted spirit of the minstrel black who could not be shaken by any disaster: 1

5 "Dinah Crow" Ethiopian Melody arranged for the Spanish guitar by Henry Chadwick; 1849. 1

6 "Lucy Neal" published by G. Willig in 1844; "Miss Lucy Neale or The Yellow Gal," a celebrated Ethiopian Melody. 1

7 "The Ole Gray Goose" Brown University, Harris Collection, no. 41. Available also in Starr. M1.S8, Afro-Americans before 1863. Cited as the "Gray Goose and Grander" in Dennison 124. 106