Old Song- Luther Crookshank (MO) 1912 Belden D1
[From: Ballads and Songs, 1940- Belden. His notes follow. This is the first version A1 of the composed ballad. Belden only gives two texts from A-F and the music from the Case version (F) which was printed in the JAF.
B. 'The Silver Dagger.' Secured by C. H. Williams in 1906 from Mary Cross, who found it in Ralls County. An incomplete text, lacking stanzas 4, 8, 9, 10, and 11 of A.
C. 'The Silver Dagger.' From the manuscript ballad book of Ada Belle Cowden' compiled about 1909 and secured for me by Miss Laws of Christian College. Miss Cowden lived at Woodlandville, Boone county. Lacks stanza 4 of A and has telescoped stanzas 2 and 3 into one stanza.
E. No title. Secured by Miss Hamilton in 1912 from Agnes Shibley of the Kirksville Teachers College. The latter part of the song only, beginning 'She wandered fieids and meadows over.'
F. 'The Silver Dagger.' Contributed in 1916 by Mrs. Case, who knew it in her childhood in Harrison County. Text corresponds to A except that it lacks stanza 4
of that text. Printed in JAFL XXX 362-3.
Compare to the 1849 print version ostensibly taken from tradition (Sal Jenkins of Indiana).
R. Matteson 2016]
The Silver Dagger
"Altho from its style and content this seems clearly to be a product of the professional ballad-maker, I know of no ballad print of it either British or American (except No.518 in 'Wehman's series of ballad prints, where it is combined with The Drowsy Sleeper); it is recorded only from traditional singing, and that only from the South and the West. That its conclusion has been incorporated in texts of Bedroom Window has already been noted."
D. 'Old Song.' Secured by Miss Hamilton in 1912 from Luther Crookshank of the Kirksville Teachers college. 'This song was popular. at "parties" and other such social gatherings about thirty or forty years ago, in the rural sections of North Missouri. The writer learned it from his mother, who was reared in Linn county, Missouri' - L. C.'s note. An abbreviated version, four stanzas.
Young men and maids, pray lend attention
To these few lines I am going to write,
And when a lonely youth I mention
She courted a fair and handsome bride.
But when her parents came to know it,
They strove to part them day and night;
To rob her of her precious jewel,
In whom she took such great delight.
Down by the side of yonder river,
Beneath the shade of a tall green tree,
She sat and sighed, 'Oh, shall I ever,
Shall I ever again my true love see?'
She then picked up a silver dagger
And pierced it through her tender heart,
Saying, 'Let this cruel deed be warning
To all true lovers whom they part.'