"Jug of Punch" - original of "Toor a Loor" in Edgar Lee Masters' "Fiddler Jones" ?

Here's a song Redhad Sammy could have stepped it off to much better than "An Irish Lullaby" (and it more likely would have been around in Menard County when Masters visited in 1914) - it's in O'Neill - link here for sheet music (in D, yea!) ... ... perhaps a 19th-century English theater song that got into the oral tradition ... O'Neill's "1850" has it as a Dmaj fiddle tune, and there are modal versions around by 20th-cetntury Irish bands including Altan ... nonsense words vary but one has "Toor a loor ..." formula prominently in the chorus ... music and words at Digital Tradition with MIDI file

Background in Mudcat Cafe thread ... with Lyrics from Davidson's Universal Melodist, Vol. 1 (London: G. H. Davidson, 1853), page 426:

THE JUG OF PUNCH
Sung by Mrs. Fitzwilliam, in Buckstone's drama of the "Green Bushes."

1. As I was sitting in my room,
One pleasant ev'ning in the month of June,
I heard a thrush singing in a bush,
And the tune he sang was a jug o' punch.
Tooraloo, tooraloo, tooraloo, tooraloo,
A jug o' punch, a jug o' punch,
And the tune he sang was a jug o' punch.

... and so on ...

This was a very popular stage show, and it toured extensively in America, according to a New York Public Library exhibit "Touring West: 19th-century Performing Artists on the Overland Trails" at http://legacy.www.nypl.org/west/index.html ... mentions play

Female performers trained in ballet or pantomime were often cast as the title characters in dramas about Native American women who sacrificed themselves for their people. John Baldwin Buckstone's The Green Bushes (1851) and various dramatizations of James Fenimore Cooper's 1829 The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish were popular touring vehicles throughout the United States and England. Such plays constituted the American equivalent of the nationalist operas and ballets popular in European theaters.

Also: recitals, e.g. Gottschalk, Jenny Lind, Ole Bull, Gilbert & Sullivan, chatauquas ... well-known actress Fanny Fiztwilliam played Nelly O'Neil, an Irish girl, and had a couple of very popular songs. Fairly detailed reminiscence, mentions songs, in Baily's Magazine - F.G. "Empty Thrones" vol. 69, p. 134.

(Another song from the same play was "Green Bushes," which was collected by Cecil Sharp, set to music by Percy Grainger (among others) and beautifully sung by John McCormack.)

Versions of "JUg of Punch" on YouTube ...

"Jug of Punch" Clancy Brothers & Robbie O'Connell - PBS show in 1988



Also on YouTube are several Irish and Irish-American versions including - of course - the Kingston Trio ... also the Dubliners and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh w/ Altan ... and a ballad version very very simple accompaniment by Lucia Comnes on vocals and fiddle, and Gawain Mathews on guitar, at a club in Fairfax, Calif.



And a hammed-up version at the 2007 New York Renaissance Faire ...




Kuntz in Fiddler's Companion says it was in O'Neill at the turn of the century. He has this:

JUG OF PUNCH [1] (Cruisgin/Cruiscin an Dige). Irish, Reel. D Aeolian (Brody): D Dorian (Mulvihill, O'Neill/Krassen): D Dorian/Mixolydian (Armagh Pipers): D Major/Mixolydian (O'Neill/1850 & 1001). Standard tuning. AABB. The word ‘punch', first recorded in English in 1669, derives from a Hindi word, panch, meaning ‘five’, because of its five ingredients: spirits, water, lemon-juice, sugar and spices. Sources for notated versions: Kathleen Collins [Brody]; Brendan Mulvihill (Baltimore, Md.) [Mulvihill]. Armagh Piper’s Club (Play 50 Reels), 1982; No. 11, pg. 7. Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983; pg. 153. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 78, pg. 21. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 160. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903/1979; No. 1542, pg. 285. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 758, pg. 132. Vallely (Play Fifty Reels with the Armagh Pipers Club), 1982; 11. Cló Iar-Chonnachta, CICD 148, Mick Conneely – “Selkie” (2001). FFS 002, Pete Cooper - "The Wounded Hussar." Nimbus NI 5320, Tommy Peoples - “Fiddle Sticks: Irish Traditional Music from Donegal” (1991). Ossian OSS, John Rea - "Traditional Music on the Hammered Dulcimer." Shanachie 29002, "Kathleen Collins" (1976). Shanachie 34017, Paddy Carty - "Traditional Music of Ireland." Shanachie 79067, The Boys of the Lough - "Farewell and Remember Me." Front Hall 09, How To Change a Flat Tire‑ "A Point of Departure." Paddy Glackin & J. Jackson - "The Hidden Ground." Jimmy Power - "Irish Fiddle Player."