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"Miss Lucy Long", also known as "Lucy Long" and other variants, is an American song that was popularized in the blackface minstrel show. A comic banjo tune, the lyrics, written in exaggerated Black Vernacular English, tell of the courtship or marriage of the male singer and the title character. The song is highly misogynistic; the male character dominates Lucy and continues his sexually promiscuous lifestyle despite his relationship with her. "Miss Lucy Long" thus satirizes black concepts of beauty and courtship and American views of marriage in general. After its introduction to the stage by the Virginia Minstrels in 1843, "Miss Lucy Long" was adopted by rival troupes. George Christy's cross-dressed interpretation standardized the portrayal of the title character and made the song a hit in the United States. "Miss Lucy Long" became the standard closing number for the minstrel show, where it was regularly expanded into a comic skit complete with dialogue. Versions were printed in more songsters and performed in more minstrel shows than any other popular song in the antebellum period. In blackface minstrelsy, the name Lucy came to signify any sexually promiscuous pervert. ==Lyrics== Many different "Miss Lucy Long" texts are known.〔Mahar 307.〕 They all feature a male singer who describes his desire for the title character. In the style of many folk song narratives, most versions begin with the singer's introduction:〔Mahar 307–8.〕 Compare this later recorded version by Joe Ayers: For nineteenth-century audiences, the comedy of "Lucy Long" came from several different quarters. Eric Lott argues that race is paramount. The lyrics are in an exaggerated form of Black Vernacular English, and the degrading and racist depictions of Lucy—often described as having "huge feet" or "corncob teeth"—make the male singer the butt of the joke for desiring someone whom white audiences would find so unattractive.〔Mahar 311, quoting Lott.〕 However, in many variants, Lucy is desirable—tall, with good teeth and "winning eyes".〔Mahar 308.〕 Musicologist William J. Mahar thus argues that, while the song does address race, its misogyny is in fact more important. "Miss Lucy Long" is a "'public expressions of male resentment toward a spouse or lover who will not be subservient, a woman's indecision, and the real or imagined constraints placed on male behaviors by law, custom, and religion."〔Mahar 310–1.〕 The song reaffirms a man's supposed right to sexual freedom〔Mahar 309.〕 and satirizes courtship and marriage.〔Mahar 311.〕 Still, the fact that the minstrel on stage would desire someone the audience knew to be another man was a source of comic dramatic irony.〔 The refrain is simple: However, its meaning is more difficult to identify and varies depending on the preceding verse. For example: The verse makes Lucy out to be a "sexual aggressor who prefers 'tarrying' (casual sex, we may infer) to marrying . . . ." The singer for his part seems to be in agreement with the notion.〔Knapp 68.〕 Thus, Lucy is in some way in charge of their relationship.〔 Of course, audiences could easily take "tarry" as either a sexual reference or an indication of a prim and reserved Lucy Long.〔 However, other verses put the power back in the male's hands.〔 For example, this verse makes Lucy no better than a traded commodity: In the Ayers version of the song, Miss Lucy and the male singer are already married. The lyrics further subvert Lucy's ability to control the sexual side of the relationship: The singer later promises to "fly o'er de river, / To see Miss Sally King."〔Quoted in Mahar 309.〕 He is the head of the relationship, and Lucy is powerless to stop him from engaging in an extramarital affair.〔 Lucy's social freedom is limited to dancing the cachucha and staying home to "rock the cradle".〔Mahar 309–10.〕 "Miss Lucy Long and Her Answer", a version published in 1843 by the Charles H. Keith company of Boston, Massachusetts, separates the song into four stanzas from the point of view of Lucy's lover and four from Lucy herself. She ultimately shuns "de gemman Dat wrote dat little song, Who dare to make so public De name ob Lucy Long" and claims to prefer "De 'stinguished Jimmy Crow."〔Quoted in Nathan 39.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Miss Lucy Long」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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