31. The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter (Child 110)
Ballads of the pastourelle[1] type, with their easy wayside seductions, are not many in the Child canon; 'Crow and Pie' is such a one, and so, outside the Child corpus, is 'The Nightingale.' In the present case the romantic reversal of position at the end of the story takes it pretty much out of the pastourelle category. This ballad was still in tradition in the present century in Aberdeenshire (LL 87-90), Lincolnshire (JFSS iii 222), Winchester (JFSS in 280-1), Somerset (JFSS v 86-90), and in the Isle of Man (JFSS VII 303). It has not often been found in America; the only previous reports of it have come from Newfoundland (BSSN 35-7), Maine (BFSSNE ix 7), and Massachusetts (JAFL xxii 377-8 — as sung by a Scotch laborer in Ireland!). Our text seems to be the only record of its appearance in the Southern states.
'Sweet Willie.' Heard by Mrs. Sutton in Avery county, but she does not say from whom. Stanzas 8 and 13 are echoes from 'Earl Brand,' and stanzas 14-15 are from 'James Harris.' The last line of each stanza is repeated; here indicated only in stanza 1.
1 There was a farmer's daughter
Came triplin' o'er the way.
And there she met a brave soldier
Who caused her to stay, stay.
Who caused her for to stay.
2 'Good morning to you, fair lady,' he said,
'Good morning to you,' said he;
'O I shall die this day,' he said,
'Shall die for love of thee.'
3 'Oh say not so,' the lady she said,
'Oh say not so,' said she,
'That ever such a brave soldier
Should die for the love of me.'
4 He took her by her lily-white hand
And led her to her bower,
And kept her there for many a day;
The poor girl rued that hour.
5 He set his foot in his stirrup;
He was ready away for to ride.
She held his horse by the bridle rein
And stood close by his side.
6 'You have had my love, good sir,' she said,
'You have had my love,' said she,
'And now your name, good sir, I'd know ;
Please tell your name to me.'
7 'My name it is not Jack, sweetheart.
Nor neither is it John,
But when I fight at my Captain's side
He calls me Sweet William, sweetheart.'
8 He mounted on to his milk-white steed
And he led his dappled bay;
He slung his bugle-horn around his neck
And he went a-ridin' away.
9 She followed him to the king's own house,
She jingled at the ring.
There were none so ready as the king himself,
He rose and let her in.
10 'Oh, what will you have, fair lady?' he said.
'Oh what will you have?' said he.
'You have a soldier in your camp
Who has this day handled me.'
11 'What shall I do to him?' the king said,
'Oh what shall I do?' said he.
'He has stolen my heart,' the lady said,
'Pray, sir, let him marry me.'
12 He called up his merry merry men,
By one, by two, by three.
Sweet William, who alius went in front,
Now far behind walked he.
13 He mounted onto his milk-white steed.
Set her on his dapple bay;
He slung his bugle horn around his neck
And they went a-ridin' away.
14 'I could 'a' married a king's daughter,
For she would 'a' married me,
But you follered me to the king's own house.
May curses light on thee!'
15 'If you could 'a' married a king's daughter
You might 'a' let me be.
For there is a shepherd in my father's house
Who likes my company.
16 'Would I had die before this day,'
These words then said she,
'That I am married to a false-hearted man
Who never did want me.'
17 But when they came to the preacher's house
And the marriage rites were done:
'My father is a king,' she said,
'And you're but a squire's son son son
And you're but a squire's son.'
1. For the pastourelle and its relation to balladry, see A. Jeanroy, Les Origines de la Foesie Lyriquc en France an Moycn Age (1904), G. Paris, under the same title (1892; it is a critique of Jeanroy's position from an earlier issue of Jeanroy's book), and W. P. Jones, The Pastourelle (1931, Harvard University Press).