The song of the boerman (Dutch, 16th, 17th century, songbooks)

In his comedy Boere-Klucht (1612) Samuel Coster introduces a 'Lietge' that has been identified as a parallel text of the well-known Antwerps Liedboek 35 'Een boerman hadde eenen dommen sin'. This article examines these texts, together with three other (17th century Dutch) parallel texts. It is argued that there is evidence of at least three lines along which the song of the boerman has been transmitted in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century songbooks.