Child 7A. The Lady and the Dragoon (see also British Version, headnotes)
[I have followed Bronson by listing "The Lady and the Dragoon," ballads usually titled "The Bold Soldier" in the US and Canada, as Child No. 7, Appendix. It's also separated in many indexes (Traditional Ballad Index and Keefer's online Folk Song Index). Bronson, following Barry, says the earliest texts are Restoration broadsides titled "The Master-piece of Love Songs" and a metric reworking of this titled, "The Seamans Renown in winning his fair lady" (See these two versions in my collection under British Versions; attached pages). Bronson was not accurate about the Restoration ballads. In his article " 'The Lady and the Dragoon': A Broadside Ballad in Oral Tradition," David Mason Greene says[1]:
It has been generally supposed that "The Master-Piece of Love-Songs" sired the other broadside. Though there is no certain proof at hand, all indications are that the reverse is true. In the first place, it is unlikely that either ballad appeared before 1675. Both stipulate that they are to be sung to the tune of "A Week before Easter."
My research[] corroborates Greene's statement, "The Seamans Renown in winning his fair lady," a blackletter broadside attributed to Joseph Martin[2], was printed by William Thackeray in 1670 while "The Master-piece of Love-songs," a rewrite of the earlier "Seaman's Renown," was printed by his son[3], Thomas Thackeray, at the Angel in Duck Lane, London in 1695.
Barry in British Ballads from Maine dates The Bold Soldier (Soldier's Wooing) in the US back to the Revolutionary War but provides no evidence that it existed then. Since a broadside version was printed by the Merriams in the 1800 Brookfield, Massachusetts songster The Echo: or, Columbian Songster, 2d ed., pp. 150-152, the ballad dates surely to the late 1700s. As a broadside it was printed c.1810 as The Bold Soldier: together with Sweet Pig of Richmond Hill, by Nathaniel Coverly at the corner of Theater Alley, Boston. Collected versions in the US date back to the Civil War period.
From the UK and US print revisions of the late 1700s and early 1800 come the traditional versions. For details see British Versions (Headnotes).
The categorization of these "maid elopes and is pursued by father" ballads has been difficult for Child and other collectors. Child 7 (Earl Brand; Douglas Tragedy); Child 8 (Erlington); The Braes of Yarrow ballads as well as the Bold Soldier/Dragoon and the Lady ballads all share a common theme. The king's daughter of the daughter of a wealthy man of high social standing is eloping with and sometimes marrying a man from a lower social class. When her father learns of this tryst he (usually accompanied by his men or bold sons) sets out to kill her daughter's lover. The Bold Soldier/Bold dragoon broadside and ballad have little to do with the ballads of either Earl Brand or Erlington and are related only through the "daughter elopes and is pursued by father" theme.
In a 1910 JAFL article, Phillips Barry listed a version under the Child No. 8, Erlinton heading. Mary O. Eddy included three versions from Ohio of "A Soldier" (Bold Soldier) under the Earl Brand heading. Following Barry, Brewster categorizes his version from Indiana under Child 8, Erlinton, because of the "happy ending." Since Child hesitates to separate 7. Earl Brand and 8. Erlinton, certainly a case could be made for including related ballads as an appendix under either. These and the other related ballads titled "The Bold Soldier" and "Lady and the Dragoon" are found here in appendix- 7A. The Lady and the Dragoon which is under the "Child 7- Earl Brand" heading (see left hand column- attached pages).
There are a number of offshoots, which I'm including here after Randolph (Ozark Folksongs, 1946), included "White River Shore as his C version of "Valiant Soldier." The offshoots properly would fall under "New River Shore" title as found in Canada (Nova Scotia 1919) and the US. A "New River Shore" version was published as early as 1866 in the US and there's also a cowboy version titled the "Red River Shore." For more information, see my short article below: 6. Classification of Related Ballads.
According to Cazden, the "Bold Soldier" ballads are also related to Child No. 214, "The Braes of Yarrow," (See Cazden's article, Bold Soldier of Yarrow) and "Locks and Bolts."
R. Matteson 2011, 2014, 2018]
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Footnotes:
1. From the JAF article "The Lady and the Dragoon": A Broadside Ballad in Oral Tradition- David Greene, 1955.
2. This attribution was made in Roxburghe ballads, Volume 7 by William Chappel/Ebswoth (Ballad Society)
3. David Greene suggests Thomas Thackery is William's son: "The Lady and the Dragoon": A Broadside Ballad in Oral Tradition, 1955.
[Click to play: The Lady and the Dragoon: Richard Matteson Solo Guitar 1992]
CONTENTS:
1) Date
2) Titles
3) Contents (Attached page)
4) Contents Recordings & Info (Attached Page)
5) Regarding Classification (Greene)
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1. DATE: According to Cazden (1955): The numerous versions of "The Bold Soldier" stem from broadsides of before the eighteenth century. "Seaman's Renown" broadside is dated 1670 (several sources) London, while the "Master-piece of Love-Songs" (Bold Keeper) is dated 1695 (several sources). The print revisions of Bold Keeper date to 1790 (Jolly Dragoon) in the UK and and in the US the "Bold Soldier" is dated 1800 in the Echo, or Columbian Songster (MA).
One early version in the US is "A Soldier of Late" from a manuscript by William A Larkins of Illinois dated 1866. Another, the offshoot, "New River Shore," was submitted by William H Landreth in Frank Moore's Anecdotes, Poetry and Incidents of the War: North and South: 1860-1865 (published in 1866.)
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2. TITLES
The Master-piece of Love Songs
The Bold Keeper (Early Broadside Title)
The Seamans Renown in winning his fair lady
Seamans Renown
The Keeper and the Lady
New River Shore (Brown Collection)
Green Briar Shore (Sharp 1916)
Red River Shore
Dear Jewell (Randolph- variant of Red River Shore)
Lady and the Dragoon
Bold Soldier
Jolly Soldier
Valiant Soldier
Soldier's Wooing
A Little Soldier (Cas Wallin)
A Soldier (Mary O. Eddy)
I'll Tell You of a Soldier
Young Soldier (Randolph)
The Poor Soldier
The Yankee Soldier (Brown Collection)
The Rich Lady from London (Brown Collection)
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3. CONTENTS (Attached pages):
1) Recordings & Info 7A. Lady & the Dragoon
Attached pages (articles)
2) US Versions: Child 7A. Lady & the Dragoon
3) British Versions- 7A. Lady & The Dragoon
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4. ATTACHED PAGES: (See: Recordings & Info )
1) The Lady and the Dragoon: Roud Index Listing #321
2) "The Lady and the Dragoon": A Broadside Ballad in Oral Tradition- David Greene
3) The Bold Soldier of Yarrow by Norman Cazden
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5. Regarding Classification of Related Ballads: "The Lady and the Dragoon"
David Greene 1957: Of the traditional ballad which Cecil Sharp designated as "The Lady and the Dragoon," the headnote to its versions in The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore (Durham, 1952), II, 287, says:" This old broadside ballad-- it goes back at least to the seventeenth century-- bears some resemblance in its central shape to 'Earl Brand' (Child 7) and 'Erlinton' (Child 8)."
Phillips Barry also notes the resemblance to "Erlinton," and remarks, "The tragic [sic] old ballad of 'Erlinton' seems to have left a successor in this humorous song" (BBM p. 381). Barry says the oldest text is from the seventeenth-century broadside "The Master-Piece of Love Songs"; Arthur K. Davis, Jr., lists his Virginia variant in an appendix to "Earl Brand"; Mary O. Eddy places her three Ohio versions under the title of "Earl Brand." Brewster lists an Indiana version, "The Soldier's Wooing," as a version of Child 8, Erlinton.
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6. Classification of Related Ballads: Matteson 2011
Cecil Sharp designated related versions of "The Bold Soldier" under his master title, "The Lady and the Dragoon." Bronson and I have added it as an appendix, 7A to Child's No. 7: Earl Brand. In the US the title is "Bold Soldier," not the "The Lady and the Dragoon" as dragoon is the English word for soldier. For early English versions see the seventeenth-century broadside "The Master-Piece of Love Songs" and "Seaman's Renown," both are found in this collection under English Versions (attached).
One branch of this ballad is the "New River Shore" (first collected in 1864 from a Confederate Soldier) or "Red River Shore." Randolph was the first collector to include versions of "New River Shore" under his "Valiant Soldier (Bold Soldier)" heading. The version he collected from Charles Ingenthron, "White River Shore," in 1940 has elements of both ballads. Randolph also includes as his D version, Dear Jewell a variant of Red River Shore. In the 1931 Bulletin, Phillips Barry pointed out the relationship of "Low River Shore" with Child 8 (Erlinton) and "The Soldier's Wooing." The various Shore titles include Sharp's 1917 "Green Briar Shore," which Sharp listed as a separate ballad. The Shore ballads are sometimes mixed with stanzas from other ballads such as "The Wagoner's Lad" and the opening line "At the foot of yonders mountain" is found in some versions of "Pretty Saro." Of this branch are a subsection of ballads which are cowboy songs, first published in 1926 by Dobie as "On Red River Shore." Related songs like the Carter Family's "Girl on the Greenbriar Shore" have lost the entire ballad story and are now merely a song, not a ballad.
As well as being an Appalachian ballad and cowboy song, the "Red River Shore" has been done as a ballad by the Kingston Trio in 1965. Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz71OswhdzM. It's likely the "Red River Shore" inspired Bob Dylan's original composition of the same title.
R. Matteson 2011, 2014, 2018]