204. Wilkins and His Dinah

204
WiLKiNS AND His Dinah

This song in its burlesque form was often printed and widely
sung in the last century, and has not yet passed out of the repertory
of singers. For a brief note of its two forms, the tragic and the
comic, and its occurrence as traditional song, see BSM 147, and
add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 60-2), Florida
(FSF 339-40), Massachusetts (FSONE 301-3), Kentucky (FSKH
5-7), Missouri (OFS i 331-2), Ohio (BSO 149-51), and Michigan
(BSSM 395-8). It is not always easy to say of a given text

 

OLDER BALLADS — MOSTLY BRITISH 483

whether it is comic or tragic in intention, but most American texts
are pretty certainly consciously burlesque, like the first text given
below.

 

■\'il!ikens and his Dinah.' Contributed by K. P. Lewis of Durham from
the singing of Dr. Kemp P. Battle of Chapel Hill in 1910. The refrain
is of course repeated after each stanza— with appropriate changes of tem-
per in its rendition.

1 It is of a rich merchant I am going for to tell,

Who had for a daughter an uncommon fine young gal.
Her name it was Dinah, just sixteen years old,
And she had a large fortune of silver and gold.

Ri-tooly-li-looly-li-looly-li-lay
Ri-tooly-li-looly-li-looly-li-lay
Ri-tooly-li-looly-li-looly-li-lay
Ri-tooly-li-looly-li-looly-li-lay

2 When Dinah was walking in the garden one day
Her papa came to her and to her did say,

'Go dress yourself, Dinah, in gorgeous array.

And I'll bring you a husband both galliant and gay.'

3 'Oh, no, dearest papa,' the daughter she cried,
'To marry just yet I don't feel inclined.
And all my large fortune I'll gladly give o'er

If you'll just let me stay singuel for one twelvemonth more.'

4 'Go, go, dearest daughter,' the parient he cried.

'If you do not consent to be this here young man's bride

I'll give your large fortune to nearest of kin,

And you shan't have the benefit of one single pin.'

5 As Villikins was walking in the garden around
He spied his dear Dinah lying dead on the ground
With a cup of cold pizon lying down by her side
And a billet dux which said 'twas by pizon she died.

6 He kissed her cold corpus a thousand times o'er,
And vowed she was his Dinah, tho' she was no more ;
Then he drank up the pizon like a lovyer so brave,

And Villikins and his Dinah were both laid in one grave.

7 At twelve the next night, 'neath a tall poplar tree,
A ghost of his Dinah the parient did see

Arm in arm with her Villikins, and both looking blue,
Saying, 'We would not have been pizoned if it hadn't been
for you.'

 

484 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

8 Now the parient was seized of horror of home,

So he packed up his portmanteau around the world to

roam;
But as he was starting he was seized with a shiver
Which shook him in pieces, and ended him foriver.

9 Now, all you young men, don't you thus fall in love, nor
Do by no means disobey your gov-nor ;

And all you young maidens, mind who you clap eyes on ;
Think of Villikens and his Dinah, not forgetting the pizon.

 

'Billikins and his Dinah.' Contributed by Charles R. Bagley in 1913 as
heard from his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Dudley, in Moyock,
Currituck county. Text is much the same as A except that the last
four stanzas of A are represented only by

Now all you young maidens take warning at this

And all you young men mind who you clap your eyes on

This of Billikens and Dinah and the cup of cold pizen.

c

'Miss Dinah.' Contributed by Mrs. Sutton in 1928, she does not say
from whom secured or where, with the music as set down by her sister
Miss Pearl Minish. A reduced version, but with no variants that seem
worth recording.

D

'Robert Lerow and his Dila.' Contributed by Thomas Smith of Zion-
ville, Watauga county, as sung by Miss Pearl Graham in 1915. The
names are changed but otherwise the story runs as in A, including the
appearance of the ghosts and the consequent death of the cruel father.
There is about it, however, no suggestion of burlesque ; it is a straight
and simple tragedy of thwarted love.

 

'Sweet William.' Contributed in 1928 by Mrs. Vaught (who was then
Miss Gertrude Allen) from one of her students in the school at Oak-
boro, Stanly county. A reduced form of four stanzas, but without sig-
nificant variants.

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204

WiLKiNS AND His Dinah

 

'Villikins and His Dinah.' Sung by Mrs. Myra Barnett Miller. Recorded
probably at Lenoir. Caldwell county, August 1939, 1940, or 1941. The singer
called this ballad 'The Silkmerchant's Daughter.' This version is textually like
A except that the names are changed and the nonsense syllables are different.
Malcolm Laws, Jr, mentions this among a number of songs which have been
traced to British broadsides.

 


For melodic relationship cf. ***FSF 339-40; OFS i 331, No. 80A ; **FSONE
301-2, first two measures; BBM 67; TT 51, 'Golden Glove,' first two measures;
*BMFSB 42, fifth measure; PSL 454-5; EAS 15.

 

Scale: Hexachordal. Tonal Center: d. Structure: abcaabca (2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2) =
aa (8,8).

 

'Miss Dinah.' Sung by Miss Pearl Minish. Recorded as ms score at Lenoir,
Caldwell county, in 1928.

 

For melodic relationship cf. **FSF 339-40; EAS 15.
Scale: Irrational, plagal. Tonal Center: d. Structure: abca^ (2,2,2,2).