OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH
7. Edward (Child 13)
Although 'Edward' in the version from which it is named stands at or near the head of English balladry in beauty and power, it is neither very old — Percy's print of 1765 is the earliest record of it — nor very frequent in tradition — Child knew but two versions and a fragment — nor, apart from the Percy and Motherwell versions, a very notable ballad. Percy had his version. Child's B, from Sir David Dalrymple; and the skill and dramatic power of its structure, especially its revelation of the whole meaning of the story in the final stanza, has occasioned doubt of its being really a "popular," i.e., a folk ballad, at least in this version.* The only record of it in modern England is in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society iii (1938) 205-6, where Miss A. G.
[* Professor Archer Taylor, Edward mid Svcn i Roscngaard (University of Chicago Press, 1931), has analyzed all the versions — English, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and American — and concludes that the Percy-Dalrymple form is not the original form, though he thinks that the ballad originated in Britain and traveled to Scandinavia. Later, Professor Bertrand H. Bronson (SFLQ iv [1940] 1-13 and 159-61 ) argues with considerable force that the Percy version is a form of conscious art, especially in its climax, where it is revealed that the murder was devised by the mother. To these it might be added that in no other version is it the father that has been killed ; commonly it is a brother, and frequently on no other provocation than his having cut down a bush. The Scandinavian texts are numerous but generally late; Olrik mentions a "comic" text in a manuscript of the 1640's and a parody of it printed as a broadside in 1794, but the other Scandinavian texts were taken down in the nineteenth century.]
Gilchrist gives a seven-stanza text as sung in a Cheshire "Soul-Caking," that is, the Cheshire form of the St. George mumming. In this country it has been found in Virginia (TBV 120-9, SharpK I 50-2, SCSM 183-4), Tennessee (SharpK i 47-8), North Carolina (SharpK 1 46-7, 49, 53), South Carolina (SCSM 181-2), Florida (FSF 248-50), Mississippi (FSM 70-2), Texas (in a release of the University of Texas News Service dated March 24 [1941?]), the Ozarks (OMF 207-8, OFS i 124-6), Ohio (BSD 23-4), and California (CFLQ V 310-11 ). Most of the texts, both from the English-speaking and from the Scandinavian countries, end with a series of bequests, a feature which this ballad shares with 'Lord Randal,' 'The Two Brothers,' and 'Lizzie Wan.' Many texts, the Scandinavian especially, have various ways of saying "never" when the son is asked when he will return from exile — or death.
A. 'Edward.' Contributed by Professor Fletcher Collins, Jr., of Elon College, Alamance county, in 1941 and printed here with his permission.
1 'How* comes that blood all over your shirt?
My son, come tell it to me.'
'It is the blood of my little guinea pig —
O mother, please let me be.
It is the blood of my little guinea pig —
Oh mother, please let me be.'
2 'Your guinea pig's blood is not so red.
My son, come tell it to me.'
'It is the blood of my little hunting dog
That played in the field for me.
It is the blood of my little hunting dog
That played in the field for me.'
3 'Your dog lies yonder, O my son,
And this it could not be.'
'It is the blood of my old roan horse
That pulled the plow for me.
It is the blood of my old roan horse
That pulled the plow for me.'
4 'How come that blood all over your shirt?
My son, you must tell to me.'
'It is the blood of my little brother Bill
Who I killed in the field today.
It is the blood of my little brother Bill
Who I killed in the field today.
5 'And what will you do when your father comes home ?
My son, come tell it to me.'
'I'll put my feet in the bottom of a boat
I'll put my feet in the bottom of a boat
And sail across the sea.
And sail across the sea.'
B ^ 'Dear Son.' Contributed by Miss Jewell Robbins (later Mrs. C. P. Perdue) of Pekin, Montgomery county, some time before 1925, from her manuscript collection of songs.
1 'Dear son, dear son, come tell to me,
What did you kill your brother for?'
'He cutted down that hazel-nut bush
That once would 'a' made a tree.'
2 'Dear son, dear son, come tell to me,
What will you do with your children three ?'
'I'm going to leave them to bear you company
Till I sail over the sea.'
3 'Dear son, dear son, come tell to me,
What will you do with your wife?'
'I'm going to take her on yonders big ship
To bear me company.'
C^ No title. One of the songs collected in the summer of 1945 by Professors W. Amos Abrams and Gratis D. Williams from Pat Frye of East Branch, Yadkin county. See the headnote to 'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight' G.
1 '. . . blood is that on your knife?
My youngest son, come tell this to me.'
'It is the blood of my old horse
Who's plowed the fields for me me me,
Who's plowed the fields for me.'
2 'It is too red for ye* old horse's blood.
IMy youngest son, come tell this to me.'
'It is the blood of my old dog
Who runs the deer for me me me.
Who runs the deer for me.'
3 'It is too red for ye* old dog's blood.
My youngest son, come tell this to me.'
'It is the blood of my little brother
Who's walked the roads with me me me,
Who's walked the roads with me.'
4 'What did you and your little brother fall out about?
My youngest son, come tell this to me.'
'For cutting down my hazel** nut bush,
Which might 'a' made a tree tree tree,
Which might 'a' made a tree.'
5 'What will you do when your father finds it out?
My youngest son, come tell this to me.'
'I'll step my foot in yonders boat
And sail across the sea sea sea.
And sail across the sea.'
6 'When will you ever return back?
My youngest son, come tell this to me.'
* So the manuscript. Probably meant to give Frye's pronunciation of "your."
**Of all the versions in SharpK only No. 8H, 51 refers to the "hazel-nut tree." All others have "holly-bush."
And there the text as reported ends. Whether Frye was tired of singing it or the reporters simply forgot to finish this last stanza the editor does not know.
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7. Edward (Child 13)
'Dear Son.' Contributed by Miss Jewell Robbins (later Mrs. C P. Perdue) now of Gastonia. She learned this song from her grandmother, Mrs. Belinda Morton, born in Moore county of English parents.
For melodic relationship cf. *SharpK i 49, No. 8B, measures 1-4.
Scale: Hexatonic (4). Tonal Center: b-flat. Structure: mm1n (2,2,4) = bar form. Observe how the main melodic element of measures 5-6 is combined to form the penultimate measure.
'Edward.' From Dr. W. A. Abrams' recording of the singing of Horton Barker from Chilhowie, Virginia, September 14, 1941. The same singer sang this song again to the present editor, who visited the blind singer in Virginia in the summer of 1952. The title is that given by this singer. The recording of Pat Frye's singing referred to in II, 43 was not found. The textual variants should be noted.
For melodic relationship cf. ***SharpK i 47-8, No. 8D. Our version is very closely related to Sharp's, especially in the variations. They are practically identical in the second stanza, where both are melodically different as well as shorter than the first. As in the Sharp version the singer alternates these two stanzas ABAB. A like relationship will be found (measures 3-10) with SCSM 405, version B, and BT 103.
Scale: Mode II, plagal. Tonal Center: e. Structure: abcddi (2,2,2,2,2).
Text as sung by Horton Barker
3 How come that blood on your knife, dear son?
Oh, dear son, tell me!
It is the blood of the guinea grey hound
That ran the deer for me, me, me,
That ran the deer for me.
4 How come that blood on your knife, dear son?
Oh, dear son, tell me!
It is the blood of my youngest brother
Who went away with me, me, me.
Who went away with me.
5 And what did you fall out about?
Oh, dear son, tell me!
Because he cut a little apple bush
That soon would've made a tree, tree, tree,
That soon would've made a tree.
6 And what will you do now, dear son?
Oh, dear son, tell me!
I'll set my foot into yonder ship
And I'll sail across the sea, sea, sea,
And I'll sail across the sea.
7 And when will you come back, dear son?
Oh, dear son, tell me!
When the sun sets in beyond the sycamore tree,
And that will never be, be, be,
And that will never be.
8 And what will become of your dear little boy?
Oh, dear son, tell me!
The world to wander in up and down.
For he never shall know of me, me, me.
For he never shall know of me.
9 And what will become of your wife, dear son?
Oh, dear son, tell me!
Sorrow and trouble all of her life,
For she'll see no more of me, me, me.
For she'll see no more of me.
10 And what will you leave to your mother, dear son?
Oh, dear son, tell me!
The curse of God I leave to you
For bringing this trouble on me, me, me.
For bringing this trouble on me.