No. 248: The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father
[The two important articles are "The Grey Cock"- A Drollery Version by Albert B. Friedman (see attached to Recordings & Info page) and Hugh Shields ('The Grey Cock: Dawn Song or Revenant Ballad?' in Ballad Studies, ed. E. B. Lyle, 1976).
According to Malcolm Douglas: Hugh Shields ('The Grey Cock: Dawn Song or Revenant Ballad?' in Ballad Studies, ed. E. B. Lyle, 1976) examines the subject in detail, and points out that the revenant verses here have been borrowed from the Anglo-Irish broadside song Willy-O, a nineteenth century re-working of Sweet William's Ghost (Roud 50, Child 77).
WILLY O! - from Bodleian Ballads, Ballads Catalogue, Firth c12(293) and 2806 c15(136), Dublin, 1867.
Come all you young maidens that's fair and handsome,
While in vain your tears do flow.
For my love I'm daily weeping
He is my charming Willy O.
My love he's gone on board of the Tender,
Where to find him I do not know,
May kind Providence still protect him,
And send me back my Willy O.
Had I the gold of the West Indies,
Or all the silver in Mexico,
I would give it all to the Queen of England,
If she would grant me my Willy O.
As Mary lay sleeping, her true love came creeping
To her bed-chamber door so slow,
Saying rise up, lovely Mary,
For I am your own true Willy O.
Mary rose up and put on her clothes,
To her chamber door did go,
It's there she found her own true love
And his face as white as snow.
Willy dear where is the blushes
That you had some time ago.
O Mary dear the clay has changed them,
For I am the ghost of your Willy O.
Those seven long years I am daily writing
To the Bay of Biscay O,
But cruel death has sent me no answer,
From my charming Willy O.
They spent the night in deep discoursing
Concerning their courtship sometime ago.
They kissed, shook hands with sorrowful parting,
Just as the cocks began to crow.
Although my body lies in the West Indies
My ghost shall guard you to and fro.
So farewell Jewel since we are for parting
Since I'm no more your Willy O.
When she saw him disappearing,
Down her cheeks the tears did flow.
Mary dear, sweetheart and darling,
Weep no more for your Willy O.
According to Phillips Barry, "The Lover's Ghost" must stand as the original of "The Grey Cock." It was remembered by Patrick Weston Joyce (1827– November 1914) circa 1830s from his boyhood in Glenosheen, County Limerick, and first published by Joyce in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs [1909].
The Lover's Ghost- Joyce c. 1830s
“You're welcome home again,” said the young man to his love,
“I've been waiting for you many a night and day.
You're tired and you're pale,” said the young man to his dear,
“You shall never again go away.”
“I must go away,” she said, “when the little cock do crow
For here they will not let me stay.
Oh but if I had my wish, oh my dearest dear,” she said,
“This night should be never, never day.”
“Oh pretty little cock, oh you handsome little cock,
I pray you do not crow before day.
And your wings shall be made of the very beaten gold
And your beak of the silver so grey.“
But oh this little cock, this handsome little cock,
It crew out a full hour too soon.
“It's time I should depart, oh my dearest dear,“ she said,
“For it's now the going down of the moon.“
“And where is your bed, my dearest love,“ he said,
“And where are your white Holland sheets?
And where are the maids, oh my darling dear,” he said,
“That wait upon you whilst you are asleep?”
“The clay it is my bed, my dearest dear,” she said,
“The shroud is my white Holland sheet.
And the worms and creeping things are my servants, dear,” she said,
“That wait upon me whilst I am asleep.”
The ballad text and melody were used to in the parody, "Saw Ye My Hero George," dating back to circa 1780s, which means the ballad was current in the US at that time. In her article, Ballads and Songs for Boston in the War of 1812—the Isaiah Thomas Collection, Kate Van Winkle Keller says, " Some of the older songs have new verses reflecting a change in sensibilities. A transparent example of this is found in "Saw Ye My Hero George," a ballad in which Martha Washington wanders over the battlefield looking for her husband. The first, second and fourth verses date from the 1780s, modeled on an English love song from the 1760s called "The Grey Cock," (Child #248)."
The ballad is similar to other "night visit" songs and has several stanzas in common with the "Drowsy Sleeper" songs. One version, "Sweet Bann Water" taken from Valentine Crawford collected in the Commercial Hotel, Bushmills in September 1937, is a mixture of both. See also the versions from Canada titled "Lover's Ghost."
R. Matteson 2012, 2016]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2.Footnotes (Footnotes are added at the end of Child's Narrative 3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text (Changes to make A b found in End-Notes.)
5. End-notes
6. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column): 1. Recordings & Info: 248. The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father
A. Roud 197: The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father (75 Listings)
Related to Sweet William's Ghost: No. 50: (64 Listings) as "Willy-O"
2. Sheet Music: 248. The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father (including Bronson's music examples and texts)
3. US & Canadian Versions
4. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A a- A b)
Child's Narrative: 248. The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father
A. a. 'The Grey Cock,' Herd's Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 324; Herd's Manuscripts, 1,4; Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, 1776, II, 208.
b. 'Saw you my father?' Chappell's Popular Music, p. 731.
Stanzas 1, 4, 6, 7, are printed in Herd, 1769; the three others are among the "Additions to songs in the former volume" [of 1769], at the beginning of the first volume of the Manuscript; the whole is given in Herd, 1776.
Repeated from Herd, 1776 (with a change or two) in Pinkerton's Select Scotish Ballads II, 155, 1783, and in Johnson's Museum, p. 77, No 76, 1787, 'O saw ye my father?' Stenhouse had not found the verses in any collection prior to that of Herd, but asserts that the song had been "a great favorite in Scotland for a long time past" (1820, Museum, ed. 1853, IV, 81).
"This song," says Chappell, "is printed on broadsides, with the tune, and in Vocal Music, or the Songster's Companion, II, 36, second edition, 1772. This collection was printed by Robert Horsfield, in Ludgate Street, and probably the words and music will also be found in the first edition, which I have not seen." The words, he adds, are in several "Songsters."
Three stanzas from recitation, wrongly attached to 'The Broomfield Hill,' No 43, E, have been given at p. 399 of the first volume of this collection. Much of the ballad has been adopted into 'Willie's Fatal Visit,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 259, the two concluding stanzas with little change. These two stanzas are given by a correspondent[1] of Notes and Queries, First Series, XII, 227, as heard by him in the nursery about 1787. They have been made the kernel of a song by Allan Cunningham, impudently put forward as "the precious relique of the original," Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, 1810, p. 72.
The injunction to the cock is found in 'The Swain's Resolve,' Lyle's Ancient Ballads and Songs, 1827, p. 142:
She cries to the cock, saying, Thou must not crow
Until that the day be worn,
And thy wings shall be made of the silvery gray,
And thy voice of the silver horn.
It is also cited in Graves's Irish Songs and Ballads, London, 188?. 249, No 50, as occurring "in a ballad descriptive of the visit of a lover's ghost to his betrothed," in which the woman, to protract the interview, says:
'O my pretty cock, O my handsome cock,
I pray you do not crow before day,
And your comb shall be made of the very beaten gold,
And your wings of the silver so gray.'
The cock is remiss or unfaithful, again, in a little ballad picked up by Burns in Nithsdale, 'A Waukrife Minnie,' Cromek, Select Scotish Songs, 1810, II, 116 (of which another version is furnished by Lyle, p. 155, 'The Wakerife Mammy'):
O weary fa the waukrife cock,
And the foumart lay his crawin!
He waukend the auld wife frae her sleep
A wee blink or the dawin.
The first stanza of 'The Grey Cock' seems to have been suggested by 'Sweet William's Ghost' (of which the Irish ballad noted by Graves may have been a variety), as again is the case in Buchan's 'James Herries.' The fantastic reward promised the cock in stanza 6 is an imitation, or a corruption, of the bribe to the parrot in No 4, D 23, E 15, F 10, or in No 68, A 10, B 13, C 14, etc.
Of the same general description is 'Le Chant de l'Alouette,' Victor Smith, Chansons de Velay, etc., Romania, VII, 56 (see further note 6 of Smith); 'Le Rendez-vous,' Mélusine, I, 285 ff., Rolland, Recueil, etc., IV, 43, No 196. Again, 'La Rondinella,' Kopisch, Agrumi, p. 80, 1837; 'La Visita,' Wolf, Volkslieder aus Venetien, p. 8; 'La Rondine importuna,' Ferraro, C. p. monferrini, p. 75, No 54; 'Il Furto amoroso ' Gianandrea, C. p. marchigiani, p. 274; 'La Rondinella,' Archivio, VII, 401, No 6. The treacherous or troublesome bird is in French the lark, in one case the cock; in Italian the swallow.
This piece is a variety of the aube (concerning which species see Jeanroy, Les Origines de la Poésie lyrique en France, the third chapter), but is none the less quite modern.
Footnote:
1. 'C,' safely to be identified with John Wilson Croker, says Colonel W. F. Prideaux, who, in Notes and Queries, VI, xii, 223, has brought together most of the matter pertaining to this ballad. If Colonel Prideaux's supposition is well founded, 'The Grey Cock' was known in Ireland in the last century.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
This piece is a variety of the aube (concerning which species see Jeanroy, Les Origines de la Podsie lyrique en France, chapter 3, but is none the less quite modern. There are French and Italian ballads of the same general description. The treacherous or troublesome bird is in French the lark, in one case the cock; in Italian the swallow.
Child's Ballad text
'The Grey Cock'- Version A; Child 248 The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father
a. 'The Grey Cock,' Herd's Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 324; Herd's Manuscripts, 1,4; Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, 1776, II, 208.
1 'O saw ye my father? or saw ye my mother?
Or saw ye my true-love John?'
'I saw not your father, I saw not your mother,
But I saw your true-love John.
2 'It's now ten at night, and the stars gie nae light,
And the bells they ring ding, dang;
He's met wi some delay that causeth him to stay,
But he will be here ere lang.'
3 The surly auld earl did naething but snarl,
And Johny's face it grew red;
Yet, tho he often sighd, he neer a word replied
Till all were asleep in bed.
4 Up Johny rose, and to the door he goes,
And gently tirl d the pin;
The lassie taking tent unto the door she went,
And she opend and let him in.
5 'And are ye come at last? and do I hold ye fast?
And is my Johny true?'
'I hae nae time to tell, but sae lang's I like mysell
Sae lang will I love you.'
6 'Flee, flee up, my bonny grey cock,
And craw when it is day;
Your neck shall be like the bonny beaten gold,
And your wings of the silver grey.'
7 The cock prov'd false, and untrue he was,
For he crew an hour oer soon;
The lassie thought it was day when she sent her love away,
And it was but a blink of the moon.
End-Notes
a. 41. Manuscript Then up.
54. Ed. 1776, sail I.
b. 11. Saw you my father? Saw you my mother.
12. Saw you.
13,4. He told his only dear that he soon would be here,
But he to another is gone.
21,2 = 13,4
23. has met with ... which has caused.
24. here anon.
3. Wanting.
41. Then John he up arose.
42. And he twirld, he twirld at.
43. lassie took the hint and to the.
44. she let her true love in.
5. Wanting.
61. Fly up, fly up.
63. Your breast shall be of the beaming gold.
71. cock he.
72. crowd an hour too soon.
73. day, so she.
74. it prov'd but the.
Notes and Queries, I, xii, 227: 62. But crow not until it be day.
63. And your breast shall be made of the burnishd gold.
Additions and Corrections
P. 390. Add to the French ballads 'Le voltigeur fidèle,' Beauquier, Chansons p. recueillies en Franche-Comté, p. 338.