Five Hundred Years of the Maid Freed from the Gallows- Smith 1928
[From Reed Smith; South Carolina Ballads, 1928. Footnotes renumbered, moved to the end. Music to be added someday :)
Not thoroughly proofed, readable. He claims that the ballad was composed before Chaucer's time but offers no proof. Long agrees, "Reed Smith's assertion that it originated 'before Chaucer's pilgrimage,' has long been discredited" ("The Maid" and "The Hangman" p. 65).
R. Matteson 2015]
VIII. FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OF THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
Reed Smith - 1928
THE Maid Freed from the Gallows"-or "The Hangman's Tree," as it is known in America - is one of the oldest, most typical, and most interesting of the ballads. There are thirteen versions in Child[1], and analogues exist in large numbers in Sicilian, Spanish, Faroese, Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, German, Esthonian, Wendish, Russian, Little-Russian, and Slovenian, as well as in Scottish and English. It has wide currency in America, and has been reported from practically every state where ballads have been collected. It is especially common in the South, and is easily the favorite of all the traditional ballads among the Negroes.
So manifold are the changes it has undergone throughout its far-flung career in oral tradition that its history is particularly interesting, and is worth being set forth in some detail.
The situation that the ballad story is based on is clear even from a hurried reading (or hearing). The girl has been condemned to die, presumably for the loss (or theft) of a golden (or silver) ball or comb or key. In the foreign forms of the ballad, the victim has usually fallen into the hands of corsairs or pirates, who demand ransom, but none of the English or American versions account for the situation in this way. As the condemned girl stands with the rope around her neck, she sees a cloud of dust in the distance and hopes it is one of her relatives coming to her rescue. Her whole family connection arrives, one after the other, but none can or will help her til the climax is reached and her truelove comes and saves her. In a few versions the situation is reversed. It is the man who stands condemned and his sweetheart who rescues him.
A version quoted by professor Kittredge and described as having been brought over to Virginia before the revolution, has rare simplicity and impressiveness of language, with a tune admirably matching these qualities.
THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS [music]
"Hangman, hangman, howd yo hand,
O howd it far and wide!
For theer I see my feyther coomin,
Riding through the air.
Feyther, fether, ha yo brot me gold?
Ha yo paid my fee?
Or ha yo coom to see me hung
Beneath teh hangman's tree?"
I ha naw brot yo goold,
I ha naw paid Yo fee;
But I ha coom to see yo hung,
Beneath the hangman's tree."
[And so on for mother, sister, and so forth, through the climax of relatives, till the truelove or sweetheart comes]:
"Hangman, hangman, howd yo hand,
O howd it wide and far!
For theer I see my sweetheart coomin,
Riding through the air.
"Sweetheart, sweetheart, ha yo brot me goold?
Ha yo paid my fee?
Or ha yo coom to see me hung
Beneath tha hangman's tree?"
"O I ha brot yo goold,
And I ha paid yo fee,
And I ha coom to take yo froom
Beneath the hangman's tree."
In the British version of practically the same age, communicated [from Parsons] to Bishop Percy in 1770 (Child A), the judge is addressed directly, instead of the hangman, and the relatives appear to be particularly hardhearted.
"O good Lord-Judge, and sweet Lord Judge,
Peace for a little while!
Methinks I see my own father,
Come riding by the stile.
"Oh father, oh father, a little of your gold,
And likewise of your fee !
To keep my body from yonder grave,
And my neck from the gallows-tree."
"None of my gold now shall you have,
Nor likewise of my fee;
For I am come to see you hanged,
And hanged you shall be."
Throughout its long career, this ballad has held its original form surprisingly well. of course its framework, of three stanzas and repeat, is very simple and peculiarly well suited both to being easily remembered and to group singing. It is a striking instance of incremental repetition, in which the same words are repeated in a set of stanzas, with just enough change or addition to advance the story one step. This gives the familiar "leaping and lingering" effect, as it has been called by professor Gummere. As soon as tire first three stanzas have been heard, the ballad audience can join in and sing the rest of it ad infinitum, till all the heroine's hardhearted relatives have arrived, one after the other, followed by the truelove by way of climax.
But while the structure of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" has not changed, its tone and setting have. "Other times, other manners " applies with peculiar force to ballads.
From them one can readily learn the company they have kept. Contemporary English versions bear the title of "The prickly Bush," or "The Briery Bush," from a fourth stanza, which is added to and repeated with the original framework of three. In Sharp's One Hundred English Folksongs this additional refrain stanza reads:
"O the briery bush,
That pricks my heart so sore;
If I once get out of the briery bush
I'll never get in any more.
This additional lament of the girl adds a lighter lyrical touch, which is more characteristic of folk-songs than of ballads. A Kentucky version from Wyman and Brockway's Lonesome Tunes opens thus:
"Hanqman, hangman, slack up your rope,
O slack it for a while,
I looked over yonder and I see paw coming,
He's walked for many a long mile'"
"Say Paw, say Paw, have you brung me any gold,
Any gold for to pay my fine?"
"No sir no sir, I've brung you no gold,
No gold for to pay your fine,
But I'm just come to see you hanged,
Hanged on the gallows line."
"Oh you won't love and it's hard to be be loved,
And it's hard to make up your time,
You have broke the heart of many a truelove,
True love, but you won't break mine."
And this from a North Carolina mountaineer's variant:[2]
"Hold up your hand O Joshuay," she cried,
"Wait a little while and see,
I think I hear my own father dear
Come a-rambling over the sea."
Each of these versions bears its autobiography on its face, and might say with that other ancient wanderer, Ulysses, "I am part of all that I have met." Reading between the lines) one could almost reconstruct the different backgrounds and social environments in which they received their present form' It is this fact which makes the study of oral tradition so fascinating and at the same time so difficult. As was said earlier, sometimes the r6les of maid and truelove are interchanged, and it is the girl who rescues the man. This is the case in an Australian version, called "Johnnie Dear," which, however, was learned in this country[3]. It closes:
"Hold up your head, dear Johnnie!
Hold it up for a while!
I think I see your sweetheart a-coming,
Walking many a mile."
"Have you brought me gold, dear sweetheart?
Have you brought me fee?
Or have you come for to see me hung
Upon this Tyburn tree?"
"I have brought you gold, dear Johnnie,
I have brought you fee,
And I've come for to take you home
Away from this Tyburn iree!"
AMONG THE NEGROES
"The Hangman's Tree" is a favorite among the Negroes[4], probably because of its marked dramatic quality and because its repetitive framework of stanzas is so easily remembered. In fact, the structure of many of the Negro revival hymns and spirituals is strikingly like that of this ballad. In them, as in it, the unit of repetition is easily grasped, and the rest of the song is swung around the pivotal words contributed by different singers. Take, for instance, these typical Negro hymns:
Save Me, Lord Save Me
1. I called to my father,
My father hearkened to me.
And the last word I heard him say
Was, save me, Lord, save me.
2. I called to my mother, etc.
3 and following. I called to my sister, brother, preacher, leader, children, etc.
GOING TO SHOUT ALL OVER GOD'S HEAVEN
I got a robe, you got a robe,
All God's chillun got a robe!
Will I get to Heaven, going to put on my robe,
Goin' to shout all over God's Heav'n.
I got a crown, etc.
and following. I got a shoes, a harp, a song, etc.
HE'D BE THERE
1. "I think I heard Brother Johnson say
He'd be there."
[All shout ] "Brother Johnson! "
"I think I heard Brother Johnson say
He'd be there."
[All shout]
"Brother Johnson! "
" I think I heard Brother Johnson say
He'd be there."
[All shout] "Brother Johnson !"
2. "I think I heard Sister Barbridge say," etc,
3 and following. " I think I heard " the names of as man)/
of the congregation as there are time and desire to include.
RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
Go and tell mv disciples,
Go and tell my disciples,
Go and tell my disciples,
Jesus is risen from the dead.
Go and tell Sister Mary and Martha, etc.
_3_ and following, Go and tell poor sinking perer, the Roman Pilate, poor doubting Thomas, the weeping mourners, etc.
One of the most interesting of the Negro variants of "The Hangman's Tree" is the South Carolina one given in full below. It refers to the scarlet tree instead of the gallows-tree, and specifically names a golden ball as the cause of the impending tragedy.
"Hangman, hangman, hold your hand
A little longer still;
I think I see my father coming
And he will set me free.
"Oh father, father, have you brought
My golden ball and come to set me free?
Or have you come to see me hung
Upon the Scarlet Tree?"
"I have not brought your golden ball,
Or come to set you free;
But I have come to see You hung
Upon the Scarlet Tree."
A Negro version from Virginia opens: [7]
" O hangman, hold your holts, I pray,
O hold your holts awhile,
I think I see my grandmother
A-coming down the road."
And this, also, is from a Negro Virginia version:[8]
"O hangerman, hangerman, slack on your rope,
And wait a little while,
I think, I see my father a-coming
And he's traveled for many a long mile."
From St. Helena Island[9] just off the coast of South Carolina, a complete Gullah[10] Negro variant was recently recorded.[11] It follows the usual triad pattern. The air and the first three stanzas are as follows:
THE HANGMAN'S TREE
[music]
Hangman, hangman, swing yer rope!
Jus' tarry a little while,
For yon-der comes my mother.
Jus' tarry a little while
dear mother, dear mother,
An have you any gol'?
"Oh no, my chil'!
Oh, no, my chil'!
Fo' hang-in' you shall be hung."
In regard to the dramatic quality of "The Hangman's Tree" and the ballads in general, it was earlier remarked how naturally they could be turned into little dramatic scenes or plays that would almost act themselves.[12] There are three instances on record, all from Virginia, of exactly this having taken place among the Negroes in connection with "The Hangman's Tree." The most interesting account is that given by an eye-witness in a letter written in 1913.[13]
It was a long time ago - probably twenty-five years - at the colored schoolhouse, as a part of the closing exercises of the school. We young people always attended these exercises if possible, because we were sure of being highly entertained. This particular play I remember better than any other I ever saw there because we thought it so very funny, though plainly intended to be so very sad. They had on the stage a rather crude representation of the upper part of a scaffold. A rope the size of a man's wrist was thrown over the cross-beam, an end being tied around the neck of a most dejected-looking girl, and the other end held in the hand of a middle-aged man of sternest aspect. She alone did any singing. The apparently endless procession of relatives recited their parts very glibly, until at last, when her "truelove" arrived, he sang his part, and then the lovers ended play with a joyous duet. I did not know then that it was a ballad.
With this incident may be compared the statement of the lady who communicated a west Virginia variant[14]: "When I was a little girl I used to play it."
A strange mixture of song and story, akin to the cante-fable form, has been recorded from the Negro lore of Jamaica. One version motivates the situation through the plotting of an enraged stepmother:[15]
There was a man have two daughter. One of the daughter belongs to the wife an' one belongs to the man. An' the wife no love for the man daughter, so they drive her away.
An' she get a sitivation at ten shillings a week, an' the work is to look after two horses an' to cut dry grass for them.
An' every night she put two bundles of dry grass in the 'table.
An' the mother was very grudgeful of the sitivation that she got.
An' one night she carry her own daughter to the pastur' an' they cut two bundles of green grass. An' they go secretly to the horse manger an' take out the dry grass an' put the green grass in its place.
So the horse eat it, an' in the morning they dead.
An' the master of that horse is a sailor.
The sailor took the gal who caring the horse to hang her.
An' when he get to the 'pot a place to hang her he take this song:—
[music]
"Mourn, Saylan, mourn oh!
Mourn, Saylan, mourn;
I come to town to see you hang, hang, you must be hang.
"An' the gal cry to her sister an' brother an' lover, a', they give her answer:
[music]
"Sis-ter, you bring me some silver?" "No, my child, I bring you none."
[music]
"Brother, you bring me some gold?" "No, my child, I bring you none."
"Lover, you bring me some silver?" "Yes, my dear, I bring you some."
"Lover, you bring me some gold?" "Yes, my dear, I bring you some.
"I come to town to see you save, save you mus' be saved."
An' the lover bring a buggy an' carry her off an' save her life at last.
An' the mumma say: "You never better, tuffa."[16]
Jack Mantora me no choose any.
From Andros Island, Bahamas, comes another Negro version, likewise in cantefable form, mingling prose narrative and singing.[17] It is very generally known throughout the islands. The beginning and end will suffice to give its flavor.
Now, dis was a king had one daughter. He sen' her to school in anoder countree, an enchanted lan'. He [she] been deah to school. Fall in love wi' a schoolboy name of Jack. Jack belongin' to dat same place. After get through her edication, she went back home. Now, she become a beeg woman, time to beco'engaged. De princess son want to be engaged to her. She won't accep' io her [him]. All de high majorities she would n' accep' to none. One day more'n all, she went out for a walk. In walkin' she pick up a gold-watch. She turn back home, she say, "o mommer! look whit a beautiful present I picked ,rp!" So her mother did n't stan'. She make de-alarm. She say dat she steal it. Dat de revenge 'cause would n' cote none of dese high people. In dose days dey don' put you to jail for stealin', dey hang. Dey make de gallows ready to be hung. - Dey took her down where dey had de gallers rig. An' deah she stud up.
[Then follows the singing to the relatives one after the other, as in the other cantefabler, till the truelove comes.]
An' when he got to de place where was de gallers rig, he roll down one bag of gol'. He had two double team, - one wi' gol', one wi' silver. An' he took her down an' pay her one bag o' gol'. An' as she jump in de carriage, I was right alongside, an' I dart, knock me right he,re to tell you dat little lie.
In three English variants,[18] likewise, the ballad has become a tale that mingles prose and verse. The most dramatic of the three is from Yorkshire.' It is called "The Golden Ball." A man gives a golden ball to each of two lasses, and if either loses the ball she is to be hanged. The younger, while playing with her ball, tosses it over a park paling; the ball runs away over the grass into a house, and is seen no more. Then the usual drama is acted out, the words of the girl being in verse, the rest of the narrative in prose.
Now t' lass was taken to York to be hanged. She was brought out on t' scaffold, and t' hangman say, "Now, lass, tha must hang by t' neck till tha be'st dead." But she cried out:
1. " Stop: stop !
. . . .
I think I see my mother coming.
. . . .
2. "Oh, mother, hast brought my golden ball,
And come to set me free? "
. . . .
. . . .
3 " I've neither brought thy golden ball,
Nor come to set thee free,
But I have come to see thee hung,
Upon this gallows-tree."
[Then the hangman said], " Now, lass, say thy prayers, for tha must dee."
4. "Stop, stop! . . .
. . .
I think I see my father coming.
. . .
5. "O, father, hast brought my golden ball,
And come to set me free?"
. . .
. . .
6. "I've neither brought thy golden ball,
Nor come to set thee free,
But I have come to see thee hung,
Upon this gallows-tree."
[The maid thinks she sees her brother coming, her sister, uncle, aunt, cousin. The hangman then says:
"I ween't stop- no longer, tha's making gam of me. Tha must be hung at once." But now she saw her sweetheart coming through the crowd, and he had over head i' t'air her own golden ball-
7. "Stop, stop! . . .
. . . .
I see my sweetheart coming,
. . .
8. "Sweetheart, hast brought my golden ball,
And come to set me free? "
. . .
. . .
9. "Aye, I have brought thy golden ball,
And come to set thee free;
I have not come to see thee hung,
Upon this gallows-tree."
The last development of all, which ends many a ballad's strange eventful history, is when it loses its identity as a song and becomes a children's game. All that then remains is a dramatic skeleton of the original story, portrayed through simple action and appropriate gestures by children at play. Version F of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows," in Child, is a fragment that has reached this stage. A curious mixture of game and song was also observed in one of the slums of New York City in 1916.[20]
It was known to the children as the game of "The Golden Ball."
A prose dialogue, acted out, preceded the singing:
"Father, father, may I have my golden ball?"
"No, you may not have your golden ball."
"But all the other girls and boys have their golden balls."
"Then you may have your golden ball but if you lose your golden ball, you will hang on yonder rusty gallery."
"Father, father, I have lost my golden ball."
"Well, then, you will hang on yonder gallery."
"Captain, captain, hold the rope.
I hear my mother's voice.
Mother, have you come to set me free,
Or have you come to see me hang
On yonder rusty gallery."
'No, I have come to see you hang
On yonder rusty gallery."
[In the second stanza, the same dialogue is repeated, with the sister taking the mothe's place.]
"Captain, captain, hold the rope;
I hear my baby's voice.
Baby, have you come to set me free,
On yonder rusty gallery?"
Da, da." (Gives him the ball.)
[Sometimes the last stanza ends, after the ballad fashion, with the sweetheart:]
"Captain, captain, hold the rope:
I hear my sweetheart's voice
Sweetheart have you come to set me free,
On yonder rusty gallery."
"Yes, I have brought your golden ball,
And come to set you free;
I have not come to see you hanged
On yonder rusty gallery."
In the game of "The Golden Ball," the wheel of the ballad has come full circle. Composed before Chaucer's pilgrimage, sung in England and Scotland during the spacious times of Queen Elizabeth, recorded by the antiquarian scholar Bishop Thomas Percy in the days of George III, just before the American Revolution, scattered over most of the countries of Europe, crossing the Atlantic with the early settlers and still lingering in out-of-the-way places in both America and Great Britain, the ballad of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" has in the end become a rustic English talera Negro cantefable in the Bahamas and the West Indies, a playlet at a Negro school commencement, and a children's game in the slums of New York City. A long life and a varied one!
__________________________________________
Footnotes
1 F. J. Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, II, 336-355. Child's
thirteen versions are derived as follows:
A. Percy: communicated April 7, 1770.
B. Motherwell.
C. Notes and Queries, 1883; communicated 5o or 6o years previously.
D. Skene MSS, taken down in North or Northeast Scotland, 1802, 1803.
E. Buchan's MSS.
F. Notes and Queries, 1882, "as sung 40 years ago."
G. Notes and foteries, rB8z.
Ha. Baing-Gould's Appendix to Henderson's notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Countries of England and the Border, 1866; a Yorkshire story called " The Golden Ball," mixing prose narrative and verse.
Hb. Newcastle-on-Tyne story of a golden ball; prose, up to execution, then verse.
Hc. A Cornish story of mixed prose and verse.
I. Scotch Ballads, material for Border Minstrelsy.
J. Communicated by Dr. George B. Hill, May 10, 1890, as learned forty years
before from a schoolfellow who came from the north of Somersetshire and sang it in
the dialect of that region.
K. "The Prickly Bush," a recent English version from Somersetshire, containing a fourth refrain stanza:
Oh, the prickly bush, the prickly bush,
It pricked my heart full sore;
If ever I get out of the Prickly bush,
I'll never get in any more.
L. A fragment.
M. A North Carolina version described as " an old English song brought over to Virginia before the Revolution."
2 Campbell and Sharp, p. 106, A and B, Compare Cox, p. 118.
3. Robert W. Gordon in Adventure, July 23, 1926,pp. 189, 190.
4 Miss Dorothy Scarborough describes "na q.rJ,"r- ..*rut N;d. variants in
On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs, Harvard. University press, 1925, pp. 35-43, 293, 294.
5 Submitted by Mr. S. B. Love, of Richmond, Va.
6 Pages 144- 147.
7 Smith, p. 118.
8 Ibid., p. 119.
9 St. Helena has a population of approximately 6000 Negroes and 60 white people. The Penn School, founded during the War between the States, was the first school for Negroes in the South supported by Northern funds. It has been brought to a high degree of efficiency by Miss Rossa B. Cooley, who went there in 1903. It dominates the island settlement, and has had a tremendous influence upon it - so much so that the St. Helena Negroes are considerably above their racial average in most ways.
10 For a discussion of the origin, dialect, etc.,of the Gullah Negroes, see the writer's monograph, "Gullah," Bulletin of the University of South Carolina, November, 1926.
11 Elsie Clews Parsons, "Folk-Lore of the Sea Islands, South Carolina," Memoirs
American Folk-Lore Society, xvi (1923), 189, 190.
12 See above, p. 10.
13 Smith, p. 119.
14 Cox, p. 115.
15 Its local name is "Saylan." see Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story, David Nutt, London, 1907, pp. 58 ff. Another version is given by Martha W. Beckwith in "The English Ballad in Jamaica." PMLA vol. XXXIX no. 2, pp. 475, 476.
16 You never better: you will never be good for anything.
tufa, with Italian imitates spitting, a sign of contempt.
17. Elsie Clews Parsons, "Folk-Tales of Andros Island, Bahamas," Memoirs, American Folk-Lore Society, xiii, 152-154.
18 Child, Ha, Hb, Hc.
19 Child, Ha. Compare the closely resembling version, also from York, related under the title "The Golden Ball," in Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, David Nutt, London, 1894, pp. 12-15.
20 G. L. Kittredge, "Ballads and Songs," J. A. F. L. IXXX, 319.
____________________________________
Ballad texts p. 119; Smith, South Carolina Ballads, 1928
THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
(Child, No. 95)
Campbell and Sharp give four texts and four tunes; Cox gives seven texts; Sharp gives one text with tune. For additional American references, see Cox's head-note, p. 115; and for English references, Sharp, Notes, pp. xxiv, xxv. The usual American title for this ballad is "The Hangman's-Tree," or "The Ropeman." For an account of its extended career in oral tradition, see above pp. 80-94.
"The Hangman's Tree." Communicated by Reed Smith, who heard the ballad in West Virginia in the summer of 1902. He was working with a surveyor's crew ten miles from the railroad in the mountains. One night, he heard one of the axemen singing a peculiar minor air. This man could neither read nor write and had lived in McDowell county all his life. As minors always have a strange fascination for amateur musicians, the young surveyor hummed the tune over several times till he learned it. It look no
special effort to remember the words; they practically "learned themselves." Several years later, he found that this song, picked up so casually and accidentally in West Virginia, is an excellent American variant of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows."
[music]
1 "Slack your rope, hangs-a-man,
O slack it for a while;
I think I see my father coming,
Riding many a mile.
2 "O father have you brought me gold?
Or have you paid my fee?
Or have you come to see me hanging
On the gallows-tree ?"
3 "I have not brought you gold;
I have not paid your fee;
But I have come to see you hanging
On the gallows-tree."
4. "Slack your rope, hangs-a-man,
O slack it for a while;
I think I see my mother coming,
Riding many a mile.
5. "O mother have you brought me gold?
Or have you paid my fee?
Or have you come to see me hanging
On the gallows-tree? "
6. "I have not brought you gold;
I have not paid your fee;
But I have come to see you hanging
On the gallows-tree."
(And so on for brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc.)
7 "Slack your rope, hangs-a-man,
O slack it for a while;
I think I see my truelove coming
Riding many a mile.
8 "O truelove have you brought me gold?
Or have you paid my fee?
Or have you come to see me hanging
On the gallows-tree ?"
9 "Yes I have brought you gold;
Yes, I have paid your fee;
Nor have I come to see you hanging
On the gallows-tree."
B. "The Scarlet Tree." Communicated by Mr. W. R. Dehon, of Summerville, S. C., in 1913. Mr. Dehon learned it from the singing of a colored nurse many years ago. "The name of the nurse was Margaret," he writes. "She belonged to my Uncle, the Rev. Paul Trapier, then rector of St. Michael's Church, Charleston, who was living then, about 1856 or 1857, in my Great-
Grandfather's house, known as the 'N. R.' house on Meeting Street next south of the Scotch Church. It was when visiting at this house that we as children used to hear Margaret recite 'The Hangman's Tree'."
1 "Hangman, hang man, hold your hand
A little longer still;
I think I see my father coming
And he will set me free.
2. "Oh father, father, have you brought
My golden ball and come to set me free,
Or have you come to see me hung
Upon the Scarlet Tree?"
3. "I have not brought your golden ball,
Or come to set you free;
But I have come to see you hung
Upon the Scarlet Tree."
(So on through the family till the lover comes.)
3 "I have brought your golden ball;
I come to set you free;
I have not come to see you hung
Upon the Scarlet Tree."
C. "The Hangman's Tree." A variant from Richland County, S. C.
D. "The Sorrow Tree." A variant from Greenville County, S. C.
E. "The Ropeman." Communicated by Mrs. Iola Cooley King, of Williamston, S. C., in 1913.