31 A. The Half-Hitch
[Curiously, although this has been called an "old English ballad," there are no known English antecedents. It has been recovered in America, mainly in the northeast where it can be traced accurately back to the early 1800s and certainly it was present earlier in the 1700s.
This ballad has been collected in the US in Vermont (Flanders, also Sturgis), New York (Thompson), Idaho (Cheney) and Maine (Barry). The versions by Pierce (learned from her father who was born in 1837); Chase (born in 1835) and Atwood (born in the mid-1800s) all date back to 1800s.
It has been attached because of its similar theme to Child 31 (The Marriage of Sir Gawain) by Bronson and collectors Phillip Barry and Helen Flanders. Bronson lists it as 31 A or an appendix to Child 31 in his The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads. Barry in BBM lists it as a secondary form.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
2. Brief (Matteson)
3. Bronson
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: The Marriage of Sir Gawain
A. Roud Number 1887- 31 A The Half-Hitch (21 Listings)
2. US and Canadian Versions
Introduction
Some collectors, including Barry and Flanders, have included the US ballad, "The Half-Hitch" as a version of Child 31: The Marriage of Sir Gawain. Because of the similar theme and association with Child 31 I'm including it here as Appendix 31. Coffin flatly states: "To call 'The Half-Hitch' a form of Child 31 is to stretch the concept of the secondary ballad to its limits."
Brief Description
The theme is similar to Child 31, The Marriage of Sir Gawain: It begins: "A noble lord in Plymouth did dwell." To test her betrothed, a girl pretends to refuse her fiance. Frustrated, he swears an oath promising to marry the first girl he sees. She disguises herself as the ugliest woman possible and makes sure he sees her. She dresses as a beggar "with her petticoats hoisted upon the half-hitch" and an amusing dialogue follows when he proposes - she behaves badly at the wedding feast but reveals herself in bed.