I know! I've been rooting around and most sources on the web seem to agree it's an Irish song, but I've not found anything yet about the date. The link I provided gives "Flashes of Merriment" as a source, and according to the BL catalogue a book of "humorous fireworks" (by Jeremy Squib, Engineer) was published under that name around 1770. But is that too early for a song that contains lines such as:
Each joint was as strong as an iron beam, And the springs were a compound of clockwork and steam
To say nothing of the macabre, Terminator-ish vision that it ends with?
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Date: 2010-09-13 04:43 pm (UTC)Each joint was as strong as an iron beam,
And the springs were a compound of clockwork and steam
To say nothing of the macabre, Terminator-ish vision that it ends with?