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Help[Facts] Re: Looking for the meaning of "Bocephus" or "Bocephas"
in reply to a message by Warren
Already suggested. Further Information (https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=68478), the name comes from a book by Albert Bigelow Paine titled The Arkansas Bear: a tale of fanciful adventure (1898). The complete book can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg. In the book, the proper name of the boy Bo is Bocephus--long before Brasfield's dummy was a log in the woodcarver's bin. (In case you're wondering, the bear's name is Horatio.)
The book inspired a song popular in the 1920s:
"There was a little boy whose name was Bo
He went into the woods when the moon was gettin' low
Where he met a big bear who was hungry for a snack
And the folks are still awaitin' for Bocephus to come back
Oh, Bo became the teacher of the kind and gentle creature
Who could play upon the fiddle in a very skillful way
And they wandered off together and will never ever sever
Bocephus and the fiddle and the big black bear."
The book inspired a song popular in the 1920s:
"There was a little boy whose name was Bo
He went into the woods when the moon was gettin' low
Where he met a big bear who was hungry for a snack
And the folks are still awaitin' for Bocephus to come back
Oh, Bo became the teacher of the kind and gentle creature
Who could play upon the fiddle in a very skillful way
And they wandered off together and will never ever sever
Bocephus and the fiddle and the big black bear."
This message was edited 10/23/2018, 1:36 PM
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Replies
Interesting discussion. It seems thegriffon has found a likely source of the name used by Hank Williams Sr., and I only want to add that the name Bocephas is also used in the 1964 film 'Your Cheatin' Heart,' starring George Hamilton as Hank Williams Sr. In the film, Hamilton is longing to see his son, and calls a boy he meets at a fishing hole Bocephas.
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