Reginald De Koven’s tremendously popular operetta Robin Hood came out in 1890, and for three decades after that was one of the operettas most often revived on the American stage. Here, from the beginning of Act II, is a song sung by Will Scarlet and the outlaws at the beginning of Act II, as recorded by the Imperial Quartet in 1915.
The lyrics are as published in the musical score:
A tailor there dwelt near old Sherwood edge
Who was deft with an old crossbow.
One day as he sat on his window ledge,
Came a-winging a jet-black crow.
He perched near by, and to caw began,
They heard him a-near and far.
It takes nine tailors to make a man,
So a ninth of a man then you are.
The tailor grew wroth and exceeding fierce
Crying, Wife, bring my old crossbow.
And he shot then a shaft that was aimed to pierce
To the heart of that jet-black crow.
He killed his favorite pig outright,
The crow cried, and flew afar.
It takes nine tailors to make a man,
So a ninth of a man then you are.
Curiously, when the libretto was published on its own, the lyrics were somewhat different.
A tailor there dwelt near old Sherwood’s edge,
Who was deft with an old cross-bow;
One day, as he sat on his window ledge,
That way came a jet black crow.
He perched on an oak and to caw began—
One could hear him a’near and far:
“It takes nine tailors to make a man;
A ninth of a man, sir, you are.”
The tailor, he waxed exceeding fierce,
Crying: “Wife, bring my old crossbow.”
And a cloth yard shaft he dispatched to pierce
The heart of that jet black crow.
But he killed his fav’rite pig as it ran.
While the crow screamed and flew afar:
“It takes nine tailors to make a man;
A ninth of a man, sir, you are.”
With the limited research we were willing to put into it, we were not able to determine which set of lyrics was the earlier one; but since the recording is from fifteen years after the operetta premiered, we suspect it represents the final version.
The Internet has determined that the phrase “It takes nine tailors to make a man” is a corruption of “It takes nine tellers to make a man,” “tellers” meaning tolls of a funeral bell, the number being determined by the sex of the deceased. This is the sort of explanation elementary-school teachers are fond of. Dr. Boli does not believe it. He has never found any reference to different numbers of bells ringing for different sexes except in the context of attempting to explain this old proverb. If you wish to convince him that this was true, you will have to find in an old book a reference to “nine tellers” indicating that a man has died in a context that does not mention the proverb “It takes nine tailors to make a man.”
The Lateral Cut 