Squire Relantman- Moses (NH) 1942 Flanders C
[From Flanders; Ancient Ballads, 1961, notes by Coffin follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Lamkin (Child 93)
Although child printed twenty-six versions of "Lamkin" and although it is still known in British-American tradition, the story of the revengeful mason who murders a woman and child because he has not been paid is much the same wherever it is found. The fact that the crime is so weakly motivated has made scholars suspect much of the plot to be lost. Phillips Barry (see JAF, LII, 70-74) offers an appealing explanation in connection with the "False Linfinn" text (Flanders B) collected in Maine. "The Linfinn" was Irish for "the white man who lives by the Stream," the outcast who was a leper forced to live alone. A cure for leprosy could be had through the blood of an innocent human collected in a silver container, and this fact offers a real motive for the crime. Barry felt that the identification of Linfinn with masonry came later, possibly because Irish masons had a recipe for making cement with blood. However, other scholars have identified the name Lamkin as a Flemish form of Lambert and noted that Flemish masons were well-known in Britain in the Middle Ages. In America, one Virginia informant noted by Arthur K. Davis in his Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Cambridge, Mass., 1929), 357, claimed there had been a love affair between the lady and the mason prior to the opening of the story. Whatever the answer, the crime seems rather extreme as a retaliation for failure to pay a debt.
Flanders A has the false window built by the irate mason (Child E), and A, B, and C contain the offer of the daughter's hand as a bribe (Child F, T, X). In D1, D2, E, and F only gold is proffered. A, B, D1, D2, and F include the basin of blood, and all the Flanders texts find the false nurse or maid executed with Lamkin at the end. These points generally ally the New England tradition printed here with the Child B, C, F group and the material discussed in Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 203-6, although the Flanders H fragment, where the nurse actually lets the murderer in, recalls the Child A story. For other discussions and bibliography, start with Coffin, 94-96 (American); Dean-Smith, 83 (English); and Greig and Keith, 7l-72 (Scottish). The Flanders G text, "Tumkin" (Tom King), with its relationship to Dick Turpin legends, is interesting, if hard to explain.
All of the tunes for Child 93 are members of the same family. The Moses and Delorme tunes are slightly removed from the rest, the Delorme tune being related primarily at the first line. For melodic relationship to the entire group, see FCB4, 74-76 (a11 tunes for Child 93); Sharp 1, 202, 204, 205; EO, 59; DV, 583, No. 26 (B); BES, 201 (especially related to the Delorme tune); and GCM, 313 (distant).
C. Squire Relantman. As sung by Jonathan Moses of Orford, New Hampshire. Learned, from his father. Printed in Ballads Migrant in New England , 104. M. Olney, Collector; July 3, 1942. Structure: A Bu C D C D (2,2,2,2,2,2); Rhythm divergent;
Contour: inverted arc; Scale: anhemitonic pentatonic
Squire Relantman was a fine mason
As ever You see;
He built a fine castle;
Lord Nelson got none.
(Last two lines of each stanza repeated)
Lord Nelson was a-going
For to sail far away;
He told his fair lady
For to keep her own room.
Lord Nelson he started
And he sailed fat away;
Kitchen windows being left open,
Squire Relantman crept in.
"Oh, where is Lord Nelson
Or is he within?"
"He has sailed far away,"
Said this fair maid unto him.
"Oh, where is his lady
Or is she within?"
"She is locked in her chamber,"
Said this fair maid unto him.
"Oh, how can I get to her
Or how can I get in?"
"Stick a pin in her baby,"
Says this fair maid unto him.
Squire Relantman rocked the cradle
While this fair maid she did sing,
And out of his cradle
His heart's blood did spin.
"I cannot please your baby,
I cannot please him on the key;
I cannot please your baby;
You must come down and see."
"How can I come down
So late in ther night
While there's no candles a-burning
Nor no fire light?"
"Although it is late,
So late in ther night,
There is two candles a-burning
And a good fire light."
This lady she started
Her baby for to see;
Squire Relantman he met her
And he brought her upon her knee.
"Oh, spare but my life
Two hours or three.
You shall have my daughter Betsey,
Fair a queen as you've seen.
"Daughter Betsey, daughter Betsey,
Go on the towers so high
And see if your own dear father
Ain't a-riding thereby."
Daughter Betsey, daughter Betsey
Went on the towers so high;
There she saw her own dear father
A-riding thereby.
"O father, onward father,
Oh, ride without speed;
Squire Relantman's killed your own son,
Your fair lady and me."
Squire Relantman was hung
On the gallis so high;
This fair maid she was burned
To a stake there nearby.