The Lass of Roch Royal
(Child 76)
North Carolina shares with many other regions of the United States a fondness for the "Who will shoe my pretty little foot" motive in love songs. These songs are separately considered in Vol. Ill, nos. 250, 253, 254, 302, 307. Only West Virginia [1] shares with it the distinction of preserving a genuine version of the ballad. See Cox's headnote in FSS and Combs's text in FSMEU. Both of these are variants of one version, most nearly allied to Child's D; and so are the two texts from North Carolina, both of which were secured by Miss Maude Minish before she became Mrs. Sutton. All four of the texts are clearly variants of one version, yet no two are identical. It is an interesting exercise in the ways of oral tradition to compare the four. One stanza — stanza 2 of A and the "chorus" of B — of the North Carolina texts is not found in any of the versions in Child nor in those from West Virginia. It is found, however, in some of the fragmentary folk lyric in North Carolina and elsewhere; see 'The Storms Are on the Ocean,' in volume III.
A . 'The Storms Are on the Ocean.' Taken down on Buck Hill in Avery county in 1917 from the singing of "an old lady who lived up there and who varied her household duties with work in the mica mill at Plumtree. . . . She sang it for me one night after a day's 'supervision' of the Buck Hill school had left me a little tired. ... It was not till she sang of the exchange of rings that I realized that here in mutilated form was some traditional ballad and I wrote it down by the light from a 'lightard' knot in the fireplace. . . . There is very little record of where or how she learned this ballad. She wasn't very sure, but thought a Mrs. Carpenter had taught it to her, and it was commonly known in that section. I have never found the ballad elsewhere, though I have often heard the four verses that begin it, sung to various banjo tunes." This note was evidently written before Miss Minish found the B text.
1 'Oh, who will shoe your little foot,
And who will glove your hand,
And who will kiss your ruby lips,
When I'm in a foreign land?
2 "The storms are on the ocean,
The sea begins to roll;
The earth may lose its motion
Ere I prove false to thee.'
3 "Papa can shoe my little foot,
And mama can glove my hand,
And friends can kiss my ruby lips,
Till you come home again.'
4 'Your papa can shoe your little foot,
Your mama can glove your hand,
But no one can be your babe's father
While I'm in a foreign land.'
5 'Oh, if I had a sailing ship
And men to sail with me,
I'd go today to my true love
Who will not come to me.'
6 Her father gave her a sailing ship
And sent her to the stand. [2]
She took her baby on her lap
And turned her back on land.
7 She had not been at sea three months,
I'm sure it was not four, [3]
Till she had landed her sailing ship
Right at her true love's door.
8 The night was black and the wind blew cold
And her lover was sound asleep,
And the baby in poor Annie's arms
Began to cry and weep.
9 Long she stood at her true love's door
And jingled at the ring.
At last his mother rose from bed,
But would not let her in.
10 'Oh, don't you recall,' poor Annie said,
'When we sat down to dine.
We stripped the rings from our fingers,
And the best of the rings was mine?'
11 'Go way, go way, you bad woman.
Go away from the door in shame.
For I have got me another love
And you can go back home.'
12 Her true love rose from out his bed
And to his mother said:
'I dreamed fair Annie and her child
Stood right beside my bed.'
13 'There was a woman at the door
With a baby in her arms.
But I wouldn't let her in the house
For fear she'd do you harm.'
14 Oh, quickly, quickly rose he up
And fast ran to the stand,^
And there he saw his fair Annie
A-sailing from the land.
15 And 'hey, Annie,' and 'hi, Annie,'
And 'Annie, speak to me.'
But the louder he cried 'Annie'
The louder roared the sea.
16 The wind grew loud and the sea grew rough
And the ship was broke in twain.
And soon he saw his old true love
Come floating o'er the main.
17 He saw his baby in her arms,
Both tossed upon the tide.
He wrung his hands and fast he ran
And plunged into the tide.
Footnotes:
1. Among the songs using the 'Who will shoe my pretty foot' formula reported by Randolph from the Ozarks one (OFS i 120, from Arkansas) retains enough of the ballad story to be reckoned a version, I suppose. Only five and a half stanzas are given, but the informant's account of the story involved shows that it comprised most of the plot of the ballad. Morris's Florida text (FSF 278) does not tell the story.
2. Combs's text has here "sand," but Cox's reading "strand" is clearly right.
3. The first two lines of this stanza have crept in from 'The House Carpenter,' i.e., 'James Harris.' They are not found in the other three texts.
B. 'An Old Love Song.' Just when Mrs. Sutton got this text does not appear, but evidently it was after she heard A, for in the notes to that text she says that she has never found the ballad elsewhere. She got it from Jim Harris of Caldwell county, whom her father designated as a "jackleg preacher," living in "the Richlands, ... a cove dropped down off the side of the Blue Ridge— poor, lonely, barren, but indescribably beautiful. . . . His wife is a poet. He told me she was. . . . She writes of religion — a harsh covenanting type, and her husband preaches of eternal damnation. The thing he liked about the old ballad was the death its heroine met. 'The wages of sin,' he said darkly."
1 'Oh, who will shoe my little feet?
And who will glove my hand?
And who will kiss my ruby lips,
When you're in a foreign land?'
Chorus [1]: The Storms are on the ocean,
The sea begins to roll,
The earth may lose its motion
Ere I prove false to thee.
2 'Papa can shoe your pretty little foot.
And mama can glove your little hand,
And I will kiss your ruby lips
When I come home again.'
3 I will get me a bonny boat
And sail on the salt, salt sea;
For I must go to my own true love,
For he will not come to me.'
4 She took her young son in her arms
And to his door she has gone.
She knocked and cried and knocked again
But answer she got none.
5 'Go open the door, my old true love,
Go open the door, I pray,
For your young child that's in my arms
Will be dead before it's day.'
6 'Away, away, you bad woman,
For here you cannot stay.
Go drown yourself in the ocean deep,
Or hang on the gallows tree.'
7 'Oh, have you forgot, my old true love,
When we sat at the wine?
We changed the rings from our fingers,
And I can show you mine.
8 'And have you forgot, my old true love.
The oath that you swore to me?
The oath that was strong, and bound us both
For the years that are to be?'[2]
9 When the cock he crowed and the sun come up
And through the bhnds did creep,
Then up he got, her own true love,
And loudly he did weep.
10. 'I dreamed a dream of my old true love.
She lives across the sea.
I dreamed she stood at my own front door
A-weeping piteously.'
11. Oh, he went down to the salt, salt sea
And looked across the foam.
He saw the boat of his own true love
A-tossin' toward her home.
12 He called her name and he stretched his arms;
He begged her sore to stay.
But the more he sobbed and the more he wept
The boat was further away.
13 The wind blew hard and the sea got rough;
It tossed the boat ashore.
His own true love the waves washed up;
Her babe was seen no more.
14 Her pretty cheeks were ashy gray,
And golden was her hair.
But cold as clay was her rosy lips;
No breath of life was there.
15 The first that he kissed was her revely[3] cheek.
The next that he kissed was her chin,
But the last of all her cold clay lips.
That had no breath in them.
1. Dr. Brown notes on the manuscript: "Sung after the first verse and every third verse thereafter."
2. Dr. Brown notes: "I suspect the poet wife of this last line. It does not ring true."
3. This word has appeared earlier, in the C text of 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William.' Mr. Brewster in a letter to me suggests that it may be a corruption of "raddled," perhaps through such intermediate forms as "raddledy," "ruddledy."
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22. The Lass of Roch Royal (Child 76) [Music]
A. 'The Storms Are on the Ocean.' Sung by Mrs. L. H. Palmer. Recorded at Senia, Powder Mill Creek, Avery county, August 26, 1939. The singer gave the title as 'Lass of Rock Royal.' The melodic variations are taken from a second recording (XIV AI-4), the textual variations will be found below. For others cf. BB 44-5.
Scale: Mode III. Tonal Center: b-flat. Structure: aa^a^bc (2,2,2,2,2) = ab (6,4). The second phrase is internally incremented.
3 My father will shoe my pretty little feet,
My mother will glove my hands,
And he will kiss my sweet little lips
When he comes from the foreign lands,
When he comes from the foreign lands.