Villikins and his Dinah

"Villikins and his Dinah"
Early sheet music cover
Song by Frederick Robson
Published	1853
Composer(s)	Unknown, sometimes attributed to "John Parry"
Lyricist(s)	Traditional with additions, possibly by E.L.Blanchard

"Villikins and his Dinah" (Laws M31A/B, Roud 271) is a stage song which emerged in England in 1853 as a burlesque version of a traditional ballad called "William and Dinah". Its great popularity led to the tune being later adopted for many other songs, of which the best known today is "Sweet Betsy from Pike".

"Villikins and his Dinah" is based on "William and Dinah", a folk ballad extant from at least the early 19th century which was still being sung and collected in the early 20th. The theme of the ballad is the traditional one of lovers parted by parental interference who then commit suicide and are buried in one grave.

"Villikins and his Dinah" was a parody of this. It became a major hit in 1853 when sung by actor Frederick Robson at London's Olympic Theatre in a revived one-act farce, The Wandering Minstrel. The comic version follows the traditional ballad closely, but exaggerates its naivety and subverts its pathos by telling the lovers' story in urban slang.

Burlesques of serious works were in great vogue on the London stage at the time and the tragi-comic song became a sensation. Its popularity grew the following year when it was adopted by the Anglo-American entertainer Sam Cowell, who took it into a broader range of venues. From the theatres it made its way to music-halls and saloon bars, and by 1855 it was among the most popular songs of the day, played repeatedly on barrel organs in the streets. By then the song had already spread to Australia and North America.

Musically, variations of the "Villikins and his Dinah" tune can be identified by the characteristics of their first few measures. They begin with an introductory tonic, which rises into an outline of the tonic's major triad and ends by repeating the fifth.