A-Roving

“The Maid of Amsterdam”, also known as “A-Roving”, is a traditional sea shanty. The song may date to the Elizabethan or Jacobean era, and versions have been found in Great Britain, Denmark, and France. Its origin is sometimes given as Thomas Heywood’s play The Rape of Lucrece,  published 1608 and first performed around 1630. This opinion was held by, and may originate with, John Masefield who wrote, “The words of the solo are scarcely fitted for quotation, but those who wish to know what they are like may consult Thomas Heywood’s play of ‘Valentinian’, where a song almost identical, is given at length.” — noting in a later article that Valentinian was a mistake and Lucrece was meant. The song referenced by Masefield is probably the one beginning “Did he take fair Lucrece by the toe man? —Toe man. —I man. —Ha, ha, ha, ha man.”  However, the relationship between Heywood’s song and “The Maid of Amsterdam” is contested by some experts, including Stan Hugill.[3] The author of the notes for Sharp Sea Shanties writes, “It too has an amorous encounter with anatomical progression but there, to put it simply, all similarity ends. The presence of a common entertaining theme line does not prove a connection except possibly in the idea itself.” The tune and lyrics of a version entitled “Lee-gangway Chorus (a-roving)” but opening with the familiar “In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid” was included in Naval Songs (1883) by William A Pond.  Between 1904 and 1914, the famous English folklorist Cecil Sharp collected many different versions in the coastal areas of Somerset, England, perhaps suggesting that the song was particularly popular there.