No. 276: The Friar in the Well
[There are no known US or Canadian traditional versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Footnotes appear at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A-B (Changes for A b- A c and B b- B c found in End-Notes.)
5. End-Notes
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 276. The Friar in the Well
A. Roud No. 116: The Friar in the Well (12 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: 276. The Friar in the Well (Bronson's music examples and texts)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A a-A c and B a- B c)
Child's Narrative: 276. The Friar in the Well
A. a. 'The Fryer well fitted,' etc., Rawlinson Ballads, 566, fol. 63, 4.
b. 'The Fryer well fitted,' etc., Roxburghe Ballads, II, 172; Ebsworth, Roxburghe Ballads, VII, 222.
c. 'The Fryer and the Maid,' Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to purge Melancholy, "I, 340, 1707," III, 325, 1719.
B. a. 'The Friar and Fair Maid,' Buchan's Manuscripts, II, 351.
b. 'The Friar,' Kinloch Manuscripts, VI, 97.
c. Kinloch Manuscripts, V, 60.
The broadside, A a, b, is found in many other collections: Pepys, III, 145, No 143; Crawford, No 94, etc. (see Ebsworth). B, the Scottish ballad (an improvement on the English), is without doubt derived from print, but not directly from A a, b. In B the maid feigns to be afraid of her master, as in A c, not of her father. From Halliwell's Notices of Fugitive Tracts, p. 37, No 49, Percy Society, vol. xxix, we learn that The Royal Garland of Protestant Delight, London, 1689, has a ballad with the title 'The witty lass of Somersetshire, or the fryer servd in his kind,' with an "answer," in the last stanza of which 'the inn-keeper, her master,' laughs at the fryer's disaster.
The tune of 'The Friar in the Well' occurs in The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1686: Chappell's Popular Music, p. 274. Munday, in his 'Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington,' Act iv, Scene 2, 1598, refers to the 'merry jest ... how the friar fell into the well, for love of Jenny, that fair bonny belle.' A reference of Skelton's in his Colyn Cloute[1] carries the story, and almost certainly the ballad, back to the first quarter of the sixteenth century.
The copy in Kinloch's Ballad Book, p. 25, was compounded by the editor from B b, c.
A maid, solicited by a friar, says that she
*But when the freare fell in the well
He coud not syng himselfe therout
But by the helpe of Christyan Clout.
(vv. 879-91.)
fears hell-fire; the friar reminds her that if she were in hell he could sing her out. She stipulates for money in advance; while the friar is gone to fetch some, she hangs (spreads) a cloth before (over) a well. The money in hand, she calls out that her father (master) is coming; the friar runs to hide behind the cloth (a screen), and falls into the well. The friar cries for help; he is left to sing himself out. Extricated after a sufficient cooling, he asks his money back, but is told that he must pay for fouling the water.
This story, one might safely say, is not beyond the "imaginary forces" of any Western people, but an open well inside of an English house is at least of unusual occurrence, and if we find something of the kind to our hand in an Eastern tale of similar character, a borrowing seems more plausible than an invention. There is a considerable class of tales, mostly Oriental, in which a chaste wife discomfits two or three would-be seducers, bringing them to shame and ridicule in the end. In some, she exacts or receives money from her suitors at the outset; in some, an allegation that her husband is coming is the pretext for her concealing them. An example in English is 'The Wright's Chaste Wife,' by Adam of Cobsam, edited for the Early English Text Society, in 1865, by Dr. Furnivall. In this, three men successively are tumbled through a trap door into an underground room. But in the Persian Tútí Náma, or Book of the Parrot, of Nakhshabí, the wife lays a bed over a dry well, her suitors are invited to sit on it, and they fall in; and here, it is not extravagant to suppose, we may have the remote source of the trick in our ballad. [2]
There is a French ballad of the same general type: 'Le lourdaud moine,' Tarbé, Romancero de Champagne, II, 135; 'Le moine Nicolas,' Bujeaud, II, 284. A monk, enamored of a married woman, is appointed to come to her while her husband is away; he is told to lay off his frock, which she secures, and she takes money which he has brought. He is then sent to the door to see if the husband be coming, and is locked out. He asks to have his frock and money returned; she will keep them for her husband. The convent jeer at him when he comes back: 'Dieu bénisse la commère qui t'a joué ce tour-là!'
'Munken i Vaande,' a rather flat Danish ballad from a Manuscript of the 16th century, tells of a monk who knocks at the door of a woman whom he has been courting, and calls to her to keep her word; she tells her husband to slip under the bed, and lets the monk in; the monk hands the woman gold rings which he had promised; the goodman comes out and gives him a beating; the monk leaps out of the window and goes to his cloister; his superior asks why he has been away; he has been shriving the farmer's wife, and it has nearly cost him his life.
Footnotes:
1. For the class of tales referred to, see von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, III, xxxv f., LXXXIII f.; Reinhold Köhler, in Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur, VIII, 44-65; Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, II, 289-310.
2. For the class of tales referred to, see von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, III, xxxv f., LXXXIII f.; Reinhold Köhler, in Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur, VIII, 44-65; Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, II, 289-310.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
A reference of Skelton's in his Colyn Cloute (w. 879 tf.) carries the story, and almost certainly the ballad, back to the first quarter of the sixteenth century. The Scottish ballad (B) is an improvement on the English. The tale appears to be of Oriental origin. It is also represented in English by 'The Wright's Chaste Wife,' by Adam of Cobsam.
Child's Ballad Texts
'The Fryer well fitted,' etc.- Version A a; Child 276 The Friar in the Well
a. Rawlinson, 566, fol. 63, 4.
1 As I lay musing all alone,
fa, la, la, la, la
A pretty jeast I thought upon;
fa, la, la, la, la
Then listen a while, and I will you tell
Of a fryer that loved a bonny lass well.
fa, la, la, la, la
fa, la, la, lang-tre-down-dilly
2 He came to the maid when she went to bed,
Desiring to have her maidenhead,
But she deny d his desire,
And told him that she feard hell-fire.
3 'Tush,' quoth the fryer, 'Thou needst not doubt
If thou wert in hell I could sing thee out:'
'Then,' quoth the maid, 'Thou shalt have thy request;'
The fryer was glad as a fox in his nest.
4 'But one thing,' quoth she, 'I do desire,
Before you have what you require;
Before that you shall do the thing,
An angel of mony thou shalt me bring.'
5 'Tush,' quoth the fryer, 'we shall agree,
No mony shall part my love and me;
Before that I will see thee lack,
I'le pawn the grey gown from my back.'
6 The maid bethought her of a wile
How she the fryer might bequile;
While he was gone, the truth to tell,
She hung a cloth before the well.
7 The fryer came, as his covenant was,
With money to his bonny lass;
'Good morrow, fair maid!' 'Good morrow!' quoth she.
'Here is the mony I promised thee.'
8 She thankt the man, and she took his mony:
'Now let us go to 't,' quoth he, 'Sweet hony:'
'O stay,' quoth she, 'Some respite make,
My father comes, he will me take.'
9 'Alas!' quoth the fryer, 'where shall I run,
To hide me till that he be gone?'
'Behinde the cloath run thou,' quoth she,
'And there my father cannot thee see.'
10 Behind the cloath the fryer crept,
And into the well on the sudden he leapt;
'Alas,' quoth he, 'i am in the well!'
'No matter,' quoth she, 'if thou wert in hell.
11 'Thou sayst thou couldst sing me out of hell,
Now prithee sing thy self out of the well:'
The fryer sung with a pittiful sound,
Oh help me out, or I shall be dround!
12 'I trow,' quoth she, 'your courage is coold.'
Quoth the fryer, I was never so foold,
I never was serv d so before.
'Then take heed,' quoth she, 'Thou comst there no more.'
13 Quoth he, For sweet Saint Francis sake
On his disciple some pitty take:
Quoth she, Saint Francis never taught
His scholars to tempt young maids to naught.
14 The fryer did entreat her still
That she should help him out of the well;
She heard him make such pittious moan
She helpd him out, and bid him be gone.
15 Quoth he, Shall I have my mony again,
Which thou from me hast beforehand tane?
'Good sir,' said she, 'There's no such matter;
I'le make you pay for fouling my water.'
16 The fryer went all along the street,
Droping wet, like a new-washd sheep;
Both old and young commended the maid
That such a witty prank had plaid.
---------------
'The Friar and Fair Maid'- Version B a; Child 276 The Friar in the Well
a. Buchan's Manuscripts, II, 351.
1 O hearken and hear, and I will you tell
Sing, Faldidae, faldidadi
Of a friar that loved a fair maiden well.
Sing, Faldi dadi di di (bis)
2 The friar he came to this maiden's bedside,
And asking for her maidenhead.
3 'O I would grant you your desire,
If 'twerena for fear o hell's burning fire.'
4 'O hell's burning fire ye need have no doubt;
Altho you were in, I could whistle you out.'
5 'O if I grant to you this thing,
Some money you unto me must bring.'
6 He brought her the money, and did it down tell;
She had a white cloth spread over the well.
7 Then the fair maid cried out that her master was come;
'O,' said the friar, 'Then where shall I run?'
8 'O ye will go in behind yon screen,
And then by my master ye winna be seen.'
9 n in behind the screen she him sent.
But he fell into the well by accident.
10 Then the friar cried out with a piteous moan,
O help! O help me! or else I am gone.
11 'Ye said ye wad whistle me out o hell;
Now whistle your ain sel out o the well.'
12 She helped him out and bade him be gone;
The friar he asked his money again.
13 'As for your money, there is no much matter
To make you pay more for jumbling our water.'
14 Then all who hear it commend this fair maid
For the nimble trick to the friar she played.
15 friar he walked on the street,
And shaking his lugs like a well-washen sheep
End-Notes
A. a, b. The Fryer well fitted, or,
A pretty jest that once befell,
How a Maid put a Fryer to cool in the well.
To a merry tune.
a. London. Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright.
b. Printed for W. Thackeray and T. Passinger.
a. 31,3, 73, 82,3, 91,3, 104, 124. qd. for quoth.
73. qd. he.
82. too't.
83. Oh.
101. did crept.
162. Drooping.
b. 54. my grey.
73. quoth she.
101. fryer crept.
102. on a.
113. sung on.
122. never was.
142. she would.
152. Which from me thou.
162. Dropping.
c. The variations are insignificant until we come to 83; from that point this copy (which is abridged) runs as follows:
83. 'Nay, stay a while, some respite make;
If my master should come he would us take.
9. 'Alas,' quoth the maid, 'my master doth come!'
'Alas!' quoth the fryer, 'where shall I run?'
'Behind yon cloth run thou,' quoth she,
'For there my master cannot see.'
10. Behind the cloth the fryer went,
And was in the well incontinent.
'Alas,' quoth he, 'I'm in the well!'
'No matter,' quoth she, 'if thou wert in hell.
111,2. 'Thou saidst thou could sing me out of hell, I prithee sing thy self out of the well.
Sing out,' quoth she, t with all thy might,
Or else thou'rt like to sing there all night.'
113,4. The fryer sang out with a pitiful sound,
Oh help me out, or I shall be drownd!
143,4. She heard him make such pitiful moan
She hope [ = holp] him out and bid him go home.
153,4. Quoth the fryer, I never was servd so before:
'Away,' quoth the wench, 'come here no more.'
161,2. The fryer he walkd along the street
As if he had been a new-washd sheep.
Sing, hey down a derry, and let's be merry,
And from such sin ever keep.
The fa la burden is not given.
B. b. Apparently a revised by Kinloch.
42. sing for whistle.
72. then wanting.
101. a wanting.
152. sheet for sheep.
c. 1. Listen and I will you tell
Wi a falaldirry, falaldirry
How a friar in love wi a lassie fell.
Wi a f alee and latee and a lee-tiddle-tiddle-tee
7. The lassie cries, My master comes!
Wi a falaldirry, falaldirry
The friar cries, Where shall I run?
Wi a f alee and latee and a lee-tiddle-tiddle-tee
8. 'O you'll do you in below this cloth;
Wi a falaldirry, falaldirry
That you be seen I wad be loth.'
Wi a f alee and latee and a lee-tiddle-tiddle-tee
10. The friar cries, I 'm in the well!
Wi a falaldirry, falaldirry
'I care na tho you were in hell.
Wi a f alee and latee and a lee-tiddle-tiddle-tee
11. 'You said you w[a]d sing me out of hell;
Wi a falaldirry, falaldirry
Sing yoursell out o the well.'
Wi a f alee and latee and a lee-tiddle-tiddle-tee
12. 'If you'll help me out, I will be gone,
Wi a falaldirry, falaldirry
Back to you I'll neuer come.'
Wi a f alee and latee and a lee-tiddle-tiddle-tee
She helped him out, and he was begone;
Wi a falaldirry, falaldirry
Back to her he never came.
Wi a f alee and latee and a lee-tiddle-tiddle-tee
15. The frier he gaed up the street,
Wi a falaldirry, falaldirry
Hanging his lugs like a washen sheet.
Wi a f alee and latee and a lee-tiddle-tiddle-tee
2-6, 9, 13, 14, wanting.