41 The Suffolk Miracle
(Child 272)
For the range and antiquity of the story of this ballad, see Child's beadnote. Of the English form of it Child knew only broadside prints, some of them going back to the seventeenth century; and the texts recovered from tradition in modern times seem all to go back to these broadsides. It has been found as traditional song in Maine (BBM 314, a fragment), Vermont (BFSSNE V 7-9, NGMS 86-9), Massachusetts (BFSSNE v 9-10), Virginia (TBV 482-4, SharpK I 264-6), West Virginia (FSS 152-3), Tennessee (SharpK i 262-3), North Carolina (SharpK i 261-2, 264), Florida (FSF 315-16), and Arkansas (OFS I 179-80). 'Nancy of Yarmouth' (no. 61, below) has points of similarity in its story but is by no means the same ballad.
'Richest Girl in Our Town (Lucy Bound).' Our text is one of the songs collected in 1945 by Professors W. Amos Abrams and Gratis D. Williams from Pat Frye of East Bend, Yadkin county — concerning whom see the headnote to 'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight' G, above. It has suffered a good deal by oral transmission. The "Lucy Bound" of line 10, apprehended apparently by the singer as the girl's name, comes from the phrase "loosen these bonds, love, that we have bound"; "the massy dear" of line 26 is what is left of "the messenger" of the broadside; the "safeguard" of line 29, which makes little sense as it stands, seems to have been remembered in the wrong place from an earlier stanza of the broadside where "her mother's hood and safeguard too" are among the things by which the girl recognizes that her ghostly visitant is authorized to bring her home from her uncle's. The verse seems to be intended as rhymed couplets, but is a good deal broken.
1 The richest girl in our town
To the poorest man was tightless bound.
2 When her old father found it out
He sent her off full forty miles
To stay twelve months and a day
Till her love ... lay in the clay.
3 One night when she was going to bed —
She was undressing of her head —
She heard a dead and doleful sound:
'O Lucy Bound, I am so tight bound !'
4 She dressed herself in her richly tire
To ride behind her heart's desire.
As she got up behind him
They rode more swiftly than the wind.
5 As they rode upon their way
She kissed his Hps as cold as clay;
As they rode on to the tavern gate
He did complain how his head did ache.
6 There was her handkerchief ; she pulled it off
And bound his head was all a-bound,
Sayin, 'Get thee down, go safe to bed.
And I will see those horses fed.'
7 As she knocked at her father's door
It's 'Who comes there?' her father says.
'It is your daughter that you've sent for,
You sent for her by the massy dear.'
8 It made the hair rise on his head
To think she'd rode behind a dead ;
And he did hurry and no safeguard
Straight to that grave and undo.
There was her handkerchief, for very well knew.
For there it hung so well in view.
9 If this ain't a warning to old folks still,
Never hinder young ones from their will.
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41. The Suffolk Miracle [Music from Volume 4]
(Child 272)
'Richest Girl in Our Town' ('Lucy Bound'). Sung by Pat Frye. From previous recording of Dr. W. A. Abrams in 1945, no place given.
Here is a counterpart to the Hauser version of 'The House Carpenter' (40J), only in this case the melody, as recorded, takes in not only the first two lines of stanza 1, but also all of the second stanza. This, however, is all the recording contains. Any of the remaining stanzas of four lines each could possibly start with the up-beat in the fourth measure, as the second stanza actually does in the recording. Or, it could begin with the up-beat to the first measure and end with the eighth measure. The latter would seem preferable. Since the recording stops with the conclusion of the second stanza, no definite decision can be
made. Both are possible.
Something should be said with reference to the analysis given below. It is only too evident that the whole melody is built from the material of the first two measures. Following this, we would arrive at an analysis like this: aa1a1 a1a1a1, which would state the simple fact mentioned above. It would, however, not give any idea how the individual variations of this primary idea were used and so it was decided to mark the first subsidiary phrase b, realizing full well, that it actually is a1. But the chosen procedure should give a clearer picture of the structure.
For melodic relationship cf. *SharpK i 261, No. 37A, measure 1 with up-beat.
Scale: Hexachordal, plagal. Tonal Center : f. Structure : abb1a1b2a2 (2,2,2,2,2,2) for the whole melody. If eight measures are considered as suggested above, this would be: 1) aba12a1, and 2) abb1a. Circular Tune (V).