The song goes back to at least the 30s, and was sung by the standard folksingers of the 50s, the Pete Seegers, the Burl Ives. It's fun to listen in the earlier version that the young woman "gave him the mitten" in rejection. I remember seeing it occasionally in PG Wodehouse, of one young man telling another that the engagement is apparently off. That would usually be "handed you the mitten."
The origin is unknown but goes back at least 200 years to Britain, with suggestions that it came from a French custom of a young man giving a woman a pair of gloves as an engagement present, symbolising two hands holding each other. Were she to break off the engagement, however, she would return one of the gloves to announce it. As there was a similar custom in Scandinavian countries of returning a single glove to break off an engagement, it might support that idea. Plus I just like it.
Tyminski's version is quite dark, and the young man's exit threatening, even chilling. I don't know that other versions also have that.
That IS a more interesting explanation. When you first used the phrase "gave him the mitten", I immediately thought she'd slapped his face.
ReplyDeleteWhich seems right, and may have been the subtext of the gloves. Hands, from a man, has a suggestion of where he is going to put them. This will vary widely from culture to culture, but I think it is there, and always hints at more than holding hands. There was a Victorian(?) line that she who bestows a kiss has already set the terms for giving you the "final favor." I was only thinking in terms of etymology, or whatever the equivalent is for phrases. But metaphors only last in a culture if they express the additional meanings, at least a bit. I'm glad you pointed that out, because that is what "poetic layers" are all about.
ReplyDeleteIt's a new one on me. I thought I was fairly familiar with Jeeves, but if I've ever run across this expression I've forgotten it. From now on I'm sure I'll remember!
ReplyDeleteWodehouse is a treasure-trove of slang.
There’s a possibly-related tradition about sending a glove — or, older, a gauge — as a means of one man challenging another. If you went as far as slapping them with it, it was a death-duel being invoked. Perhaps this is an allied tradition by which a woman, in her privilege, can reject a man with similar force but without provoking a duel.
ReplyDelete