279 A. The Gaberlunyie-Man (Child/Bronson)
I've included commentary from Child, Bronson, Olson, Callendar and Kyle Davis Jr. The difficulty is separating the various Beggar/Gaberlunyie/Beggarman by their titles since 279 (Jolly Beggar), 270-A (Gaberlunyie) and 280 (Beggar-Laddie) have mixed titles and are related in content. In 2001 Bruce Olson wrote this in the Mudcat forum:
'Gaberlunzie' is a corruption of 'ghiberlaun', Scots Gaelic for 'beggar'. The Irish used to have it, but since almost all Irish beggars were lame they just use 'bacah' = lame = beggar, now. [See tune "Maureen na ghiberlaun" on my website. We've been through this on an old thread, but I don't remember what it was called.
Child put the ballad in an appendix to #279, so it isn't a Child ballad (i.e., not "The Jolly Begar"). A. Ramsay printed it without music in 'Tea Table Miscallany', 1724, and W. Thomson gave it with music in 'Orpheus Caledonius', 1725 and 1733. It also appeared with music in John Walsh's 'The British Musical Miscellany', I, p. 50, 1734, with the note (apparently first found there) that 'tune by James V of Scotland'. In 'The Scots Musical Museum' it's song #226 (vol. 3). John Glen, 'Early Scottish Melodies', p. 134, was of the opinion that the tune was no older than the beginning of the 18th century.
Under Recordings & Info see: Two ancient Scottish poems; The Gaberlunzie-man and Christ's Kirk on the Green, with notes and observations by John Callander (1782).
According to Callendar, Gaberlunzie "is compounded of Gaber, Gabber, a Wallet or Bag, and Lunzie, loin, i. e. the man who carries the wallet on his back, an itinerant mechanic, or tinker, who carries in his bag the implements of his trade, and strolls about the country mending pots and kettles.
The Gaberlunzie-man literally signifies the man who bears a bag, or wallet, on his back or loins; a pedlar; Scot, a pack-man."
At the end of Child's Narrative to 279 The Jolly Beggar Child simply says, "The Gaberlunyie-Man' is given in an appendix." The second paragraph of his Narrative says:
We are regularly informed by editors that tradition imputes the authorship of both 'The Jolly Beggar' and 'The Gaberlunyie-Man' to James Fifth of Scotland. 'The Gaberlunyie-Man' was, so far as can be ascertained, first printed in the Tea-Table Miscellany (in 1724), and I am not aware that it is mentioned anywhere before that date. Ramsay speaks of it as an old piece, but says nothing about the authorship. The tradition as to James Fifth is, perhaps, not much older than the publication in either case, and has no more plausibility than it has authority.
The following is the Appendix as given by Child in English and Scottish Popular Ballads:
The Gaberlunyie-Man
Printed in the first volume of Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, 1724, from which it was repeated in Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius, 1725, fol. 43, and Old Ballads, III, 259, the same year; in the Dublin reprint of the Miscellany, 1729, I, 96, the "fifth edition," London, 1730, and the ninth edition, London, 1733, I. 84. The first edition, 1724, being of extreme rarity, if anywhere now to be found, the piece is given here from Old Ballads, which agrees with Orpheus Caledonius except as to the spelling of a single word.
The Gaberlunyie-Man is one of the pieces which were subjected to revision in the Miscellany; "such old verses as have been done time out of mind, and only wanted to be cleared from the dross of blundering transcribers and printers, such as 'The Gaberlunzie-man,' 'Muirland Willy,'" etc. (Ramsay's preface.)
In recited copies, as the "Old Lady's Collection," No 13 (Skene Manuscript, p. 65), and Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 31, the girl is made to come back again to see her mother (or the gaberlunyie-man brings her) 'wi a bairn in her arms and ane in her wame;' but for all that a fine lady, 'wi men- and maid-servants at her command.'
Translated by Herder, II, 264; Bodmer, I, 68; Fiedler, p. 23; Loève-Veimars, p. 356.
1 The pauky auld carle came oer the lee,
Wi many good eens and days to me,
Saying, Goodwife, for your courtesie,
Will ye lodge a silly poor man?
The night was cauld, the carle was wat,
And down ayont the ingle he sat;
My daughter's shoulders he gan to clap,
And cadgily ranted and sang.
2 'O wow!' quo he, 'were I as free
As first when I saw this country,
How blyth and merry wad I be!
And I wad never think lang.'
He grew canty, and she grew fain,
But little did her auld minny ken
What thir slee twa togither were sayn,
When wooing they were sa[e] thrang.
3 'And O!' quo he, 'ann ye were as black,
As eer the crown of your dady's hat,
'T is I wad lay thee by my back,
And awa wi me thou shoud gang.'
'And O!' quoth she, 'ann I were as white
As eer the snaw lay on the dike,
I 'd dead me braw, and lady-like,
And awa with thee I'd gang.'
4 Between the twa was made a plot;
They raise a wee before the cock,
And wyliely they shot the lock,
And fast to the bent are they gane.
Up the morn the auld wife raise,
And at her leasure pat on her claiths;
Syne to the servants bed she gaes,
To speer for the silly poor man.
5 She gaed to the bed where the beggar lay,
The strae was cauld, he was away;
She clapt her hands, cry'd, Waladay!
For some of our gear will be gane.
Some ran to coffers, and some to kists,
But nought was stown that coud be mist;
She danc'd her lane, cry'd, Praise be blest,
I have lodg'd a leal poor man!
6 'Since nathing's awa, as we can learn,
The kirn's to kirn and milk to earn;
Gae butt the house, lass, and waken my bairn,
And bid her come quickly ben.'
The servant gade where the daughter lay,
The sheets was cauld, she was away;
And fast to her goodwife can say,
She's aff with the gaberlunyie-man.
7 'O fy, gar ride, and fy, gar rin,
And hast ye find these traitors again;
For she's be burnt, and he's be slain,
The wearifu gaberlunyie-man.'
Some rade upo horse, some ran a-fit,
The wife was wood and out o'er wit;
She coud na gang, nor yet coud she sit,
But ay she cursd and she band.
8 Mean time far hind outoer the lee,
Fou snug in a glen, where nane coud see,
The twa, with kindly sport and glee,
Cut frae a new cheese a whang.
The priving was good, it pleasd them baith,
To loe her for ay he gae her his aith;
Quo she, To leave thee, I will be laith,
My winsome gaberlunyie-man.
9 'O kend my minny I were wi you,
Illfardly wad she crook her mou;
Sic a poor man she 'd never trow,
After the gaberlunyie-man.'
'My dear,' quo he, 'ye'r yet oer young,
And ha na learnd the beggar's tongue,
To follow me frae town to town,
And carry the gaberlunyie on.
10 'Wi kauk and keel, I'll win your bread,
And spindles and whorles for them wha need,
Whilk is a gentil trade indeed,
To carry the gaberlunyie, O.
I'll bow my leg, and crook my knee,
And draw a black clout oer my eye;
A criple or blind they will ca me,
While we shall be merry and sing.'
32. my dady's, Dublin, 1729, London, 1730, 1733.
Bronson's notes on The Gaberlunyie-Man:
Child has relegated this favorite song to an appendix of "The Jolly Beggar." It is difficult to guess why. The melodic tradition of the two, at any rate, lends no support to this determination, and on the grounds of metrical and stanzaic pattern, as well as of plot, there would seem to be better justification for making the present ballad No. 28o, and reducing Child's 280 to a later redaction of "Gaberlunyie-Man." Indeed, Child himself calls his 280 "a sort of 'Gaberlunyie-Man' with a romantic conclusion."
The present ballad has had a long lifc, both textual and melodic. The earlier melodic tradition first appears in Thompson's Orpheus Caledonius, 1725, and can be followed to the present century. The later tradition cannot be traced before the last century, in fact, Greig's examples are the earliest discovered. But there may be some distant relation between the two groups.
Kyle Davis Jr.'s notes on The Gaberlunyie-Man:
42. THE GABERLUNYIE-MAN (Child, No. 279, Appendix)
Three adjacent ballads in Chiid, "The Jolly Beggar," "The Gaberlunyie-Man," and "The Beggar-Laddie" ( Child, No. 280), are closely related to one another. "The Jolly Beggar," with its seduction and the seducer leaving the girl after revealing himself as a man of rank and property, is the most realistic and ribald of the three; "The Gaberlunyie-Man," with a similar beginning, is rather a romantic elopement with a happy ending; "The Beggar-Laddie," not represented here, is an even more romantic love story, in which the girl voluntarily follows the beggar, to discover that he is a man of property and to become his bride. The problem of classification is a nice one, since "The Gaberlunyie-Man" is almost if not quite as close to "The Beggar-Laddie" as it is to "The Jolly Beggar." Child chooses to print "The Gaberlunyie-Man" as an appendix to "The Jolly Beggar," which it resembles in initial situation but not in outcome or in tone. All points considered, it would seem to the present editor sounder to treat these three beggar songs as separate but related ballads, with "The Gaberlunyie-Man" the middle term equidistant from the other two. Literally, the Scottish term "gaberlunyie" or "gaberlunzie" means beggar's wallet, but by synecdoche it means the beggar himself. Hence the three titles are very close. Child apparently printed "The Gaberlunyie-Man" as an appendix also in part because the text which he gives from Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, 1724, and subsequent reprints, hacl been subjected to a good deal of editorial revision- enough, he may have thought, to bring its traditional character into question. But Child knew that the ballad was in oral tradition because he refers to "recited copies, as the 'Old Lady's Collection,' No. 13 (Skene MS., p. 65), and Motherwell's MS., pp. 31" (V, 115). The fact that Child A of "The Jolly Beggar" comes from "The Old Lady's Collection," and that she knew "The Gaberlunyie-Man" as well, indicates that both ballads had some form of life as distinct and separate ballads in the mind of one singer or reciter. Why Child failed to present the two traditional or "recited" texts available to him and to give them precedence over Ramsay's revised text, as would be customary, he fails to explain. Nor does he attempt to justify his presentation of the ballad as an appendix. He simply states (V, 110): " 'The Gaberlunyie-Man' is given as an appendix." Elsewhere (V, 109) he seems to support Percy in taking to task Horace Walpole for his confounding of this ballad with "The Jolly Beggar."
Can it be that the great Child was guilty of two errors with respect to "The Gaberlunyie-Man": ( 1 ) in relegating it to a position of dependency upon "The Jolly Beggar" and not acording it full status as an independent ballad; and (2) in failing to recognize its genuine traditional character, now widely accepted by scholars? It would seem so.
The traditional claim that King James V of Scotland (1512-42) was the author of both "The Jolly Beggar" and "The Gaberlunyie-Man" is summarily disposed of by both Child (V, 109) and Greig-Keith (pp. 220, 223). This would tend to dispose also of the traditional claim that the ballad chronicles one of King James's adventures in the guise of "the goodman of Ballangeich" (Greig-Keith, p. 223; Ord, p. 377).
The story as given in Ramsay's text is briefly this: An old poor man seeks lodging at a home, and immediately shows much attention to the daughter. He tells her that were she black as her father's hat he would desire to take her with him; she replies that were she as white as the snow, she would go with him. They form a plot, and while the mother sleeps, they flee together. When the beggar's absence is discovered next morning, the mother fears that sornething may be stolen, but is relieved to find nothing gone. She calls for the regular work to commence, and then discovers that her daughter is missing. She sends out searchers, but they are apparentiy unsuccessful. The daughter is happy with her lover, he with her, and in the concluding stanzas he describes how he will win their living and merrily "carry the gaberlunyie on." Ramsay's text ends here, but Child (V, 109) refers to recited copies in which "the girl is made to come back again to see her mother (or the gaberlunyieman brings her) 'wi a bairn in her arms and ane in her wamb;' but for all that a fine lady, 'wi men and maid-servants at her command.'" The ribaldry of "The Jolly Beggar" is completely lacking.
"The Gaberlunyie-Man" has not often appeared in recent times, except possibly in Scotland. Margaret Dean-Smith reports no texts in England, and none seem to have been reported from England since her date of publication. In Scotland, however, both Greig-Keith and Ord find the ballad fairly popular in Aberdeenshire. All recovered texts, including the two North American ones can be traced directly back to Scottish sources.
Greig-Keith (pp. 223-26 and 276-7) print only one text in full, a version the equivalent of twenty four-line stanzas, out of a total of seven versions and fragments collected. They also print five of a total of twelve tunes collected. Four of the five collated texts "have a happy conclusion, relating the daughter's triumphant return with the gaberlunzie man and a 'quiver' fast becoming full" (pp. 24-24). This feature is in accord with the recited texts known to Child.
The oniy other British text to come to light is that published by John Ord in The Bothy Songs and Ballads of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moroy, Angus and the Mearns, Paisley, 1930, pp. 375-77. The single text, with tune, is called "The Beggar Man," and consists of eighteen four-line stanzas, each followed by a nonsense refrain. The ending is the triumphant return of the beggar and daughter to the girl's mother. Of the ballad Ord writes (p. 377): "There are several versions of this well-known ballad, but the one here printed is the most common in the bothies and farm kitchens in the North of Scotland. I have given it preference to the others, as the words are specially adapted to the old bothy air, to which they are set. I heard the song first sung to this air at a Sunday school soiree in the parish of New Byth, Aberdeenshire, upwards of forty years ago."
Only two texts of this ballacl seem to have been recovered from North America, a text published by Barry in British Ballads from Maine, pp. 333-35, and the present Virginia text. Without comment Barry gives his text full footing with the other Child ballads under the title "The Gaberlunyie-Man ( Child 279, Appendix) ." Its local title is "The Beggar's Bride," and the text was written down by Mrs. James McGill of Chamcook, New Brunswick, who was born in Scotland. Her air, which Barry publishes, was noted by George Herzog. The text has thirteen four-line stanzas, each followed by a nonsense line. The similarity of the Barry and Ord texts in placing near the beginning several stanzas which Ramsay places toward the end may indicate that their traditional place was at the beginning and that Ramsay replaced them at the end, perhaps in preference to the traditional happy conclusion.
The Virginia text was contributed by Miss Ruth K. Anderson, of Arlington, Virginia, as sung for her by Mrs. Jay P. Eaton, of Lansing, Michigan, who was born in Scotland. Mrs. Eaton seems to have visited Virginia in the summer of 1935, when the song was collected. "The Beggar Man," as its local title calls it, has fifteen four-line stanzas, each followed by a nonsense line, and is thus the longest text recovered in North America. Since Barry's informant, Mrs. McGill, was a resident of New Brunswick, the Virginia text seems to be the only instance of the recovery of this ballad in the United States. Miss Anderson writes of Mrs. Eaton, the singer:
"Mrs. Eaton was born in Scotland. She was one of a family of fourteen children. Her parents with their children carne to the United States when Mrs. Eaton was about sixteen years old. When I heard her sing this and asked for a copy, she said she had never had a copy, that it was a song she learned in the old country."
The Virginia text does not differ greatly from Barry or Ord, except that it adds more to the conclusion when the beggar returns with the daughter. Virginia 1 and 2 parallel Ramsay, Barry, Ord and Greig 1 and 2. Virginia 3 and 4 parallel Ramsay and Greig 5 and 6. The Virginia text lacks the stanzas which Barry and Ord give near the beginning but which Ramsay places near the end. Virginia 5 parallels Ramsay 7: the two make up a plot. Virginia 6 combines Ramsay 8 and 9: the old wife rises and misses the beggar all in one stanza. Virginia 7 parallels Rarnsay 10: a check is made to see if the beggar has taken anything. Virginia 8 and 9 parallel Ramsay 11 and 12: the daughter is sent for, but it is "the auld man" who goes for her, rather than the Servant girl as in Ramsay. Virginia 10 parallels Ramsay 14 a search is rnade for the beggar. Virginia 10 differs from Ramsay 14, however, in that it leads directly into the happy conclusion. Then follow Virginia stanzas 11 to 15, conciuding the ballad with the return of the daughter "with servants one at every hand." A feature of the Virginia text is that when the beggar reappears, he asks what the mother would give to see her daughter again, and she recognizes him:
"Oh," quay the auld wife, "I little doubt it's ye,
An' I wish I had ye slain."
The daughter then appears with silks and satins such that no other lady in the land can compare with her and blesses the hour when she went away with the beggar man.
There are many changes of language and expression as between the several versions, even when their stanzas closely parallel each other as to action. The Virginia text supplies its quota of new and interesting variants.