7H. She's like the Swallow (The Alehouse)
She's like the swallow that flies so high
[One of the most popular and enduring English folk songs from Canada, "She's Like the Swallow," is a song that's similar to, or based on, the c.1686 broadside, "The Constant Lady and False-Hearted Squire" and borrows also from the "Died for Love" ballads which have a similar theme[1]. Curiously, there has been little or no mention in indexes or song notes that a version of the song was collected by H.E.D. Hammond from Henry Way of Stoke Abbott, Dorset in May of 1906. This first extant version was collected a number of years before the Canadian versions.
The basic "She's Like the Swallow" theme is about a maid who loses her love and dies of a broken heart. Her lover abandoned her and he has a heart of stone. He says she is foolish to think he could love only her alone. The most remarkable and unique aspect of this ballad is the series of similes in the first stanza which show the maid's supernatural persona. She's like the:
1) swallow that flies so high,
2) river that never runs dry;
3) sunshine on the lee shore.
Yet despite these remarkable qualities the maid has lost her love--and he loves her no more. Her false lover is despicable even in the corrupt Canadian stanzas that end "The world was meant for every one" instead of the original, "I took delight to hear her moan." In the second extant version, sent in by Newfoundlander Richard Bugden, he wrote "The cad" next to a stanza describing her lover's false behavior. It's this blind love for her false lover that causes her to die-- the reason: "this fair maid's heart was broke."
Here's the first Canadian text of "She's Like the Swallow," collected[2] in 1930 by Maud Karpeles:
She's like a Swallow- sung by John Hunt, Dunville in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
1 She's like the swallow that flies so high [sim. to Fair and Tender Ladies][3]
She's like the river that never runs dry,
She's like the sunshine on the lee shore.
I love my love and love is no more. [sim. to Sharp's "I Love my Love"]
2 'Twas out in the garden this fair maid did go, [Stanza 12 "Constant Lady"]
Picking the beautiful prim-e-rose;
The more she plucked the more she pulled
Until she got her whole a-per-on full.
3 It is out of those roses she made a bed, [stanza 15 "Constant Lady"]
A stony pillow for her head.
Now this fair maid she lay down, no word did she say
Until this fair maid's heart was broke.
4 There are a man on yonder hill, [broadside "Brisk Young Sailor"]
He got a heart as hard as stone.
He have two hearts instead of one.
How foolish must that girl be [stanza 17 "Constant Lady"]
For to think I love no other but she.
5 For the world was not meant for one alone, [stanza 17 "Constant Lady" cont'd]
The world was meant for every one.
* * * *
'Twas out in the garden this fair maid did go
Beside the ballad in blue text I wrote some sources. This is made up of 1 stanza that is original (or based on various traditional commonplace lines), 3 stanzas of "Constant Lady" and 1 stanza of Brisk Young Sailor (the stanza also found in other similar ballads[4]):
12. The Lady round the meadow run,
"And gather'd flowers as they sprung;
Of every sort she there did pull,
Until she got her apron full.
15. The green ground served as a bed,
And flowers, a pillow for her head;
She laid her down, and nothing spoke:
Alas! for love her heart was broke.
There is a man on yonder hill,
He has a heart as hard as steel,
He has two hearts instead of one,
He'll be a rogue when I am gone.
17. "Did she think I so fond could be,
That I could fancy none but she?
Man was not made for one alone;
I took delight to hear her moan."
Clearly it's similar to, or based on, "Constant Lady" and related to Died for Love. There are four other recognized traditional texts of She's Like A Swallow-- and most of the other texts are longer. The first stanza of Hunt's text is unique but parts of it are found similarly in tradition:
Line 1. the swallow is found Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies and a somewhat similar line "if I had wings like that swallow flyin'," is found in Robertson's 'What a Voice."
Line 4. I Love my Love - Sharp EFSSA.
The first stanza has been used as a chorus. Usually it's the first and last stanza although one informant indicated it should be sung after every verse. Hunt's version has an unusual jump from 3rd person narrative to first person narrative in the last line:
1 She's like the swallow that flies so high [3rd person narrative]
She's like the river that never runs dry,
She's like the sunshine on the lee shore.
I love my love and love is no more. [1st person narrative]
After the shift to 1st person in the last line, the 2nd stanza begins in 3rd person: "'Twas out in the garden this fair maid did go." This obvious corruption is mitigated by a shift to 3rd person for the last line:
1. She's like the swallow that flies so high,
She's like the river that never runs dry.
She's like the sunshine all on the lee shore,
She loves her love but she'll love no more.
This last line was collected in 3rd person in other versions. Karpeles changed the text she collected when she arranged it for publication. She eliminated the 4th stanza found similarly in Brisk Young Sailor, "All Down in the Meadow", Sharp MS and James Punt's "False Lovyer," which was corrupt being only three lines:
4 There are a man on yonder hill,
He got a heart as hard as stone.
He have two hearts instead of one,
. . . . .
Karpeles also eliminated the 5th stanza with a corrupt last line which she probably didn't recognize as stanza 17 of "Constant Lady":
5 How foolish must that girl be
For to think I love no other but she.
For the world was not meant for one alone,
The world was meant for every one.
She then repeated the first stanza. Here's the result[5] which she published twice in 1934:
1 She’s like the swallow that flies so high,
She’s like the river that never runs dry,
She’s like the sunshine on the lee shore,
I love my love and love is no more.
2 ’Twas out in the garden this fair maid did go
Picking the beautiful prim-e-rose;
The more she plucked the more she pulled
Until she got her a-per-on full
3 It is out of those roses she made a bed,
A stony pillow for her head,
She laid her down, no word did say
Until this fair maid’s heart did break.
4 She’s like the swallow that flies so high,
She’s like the river that never runs dry,
She’s like the sunshine on the lee shore,
I love my love and love is no more.
The original 4th stanza of the text is also part of "Love has Brought Me" a ballad also similar to, or based on, "Constant Lady." Here's the 5th stanza of False Lovyer (Brought Me to Despair) taken from Vaughan Williams MS as sung by James Punt of East Horndon, Essex on 23 April, 1904:
V. O yonder he stands on yonder hill,
He's got a heart as hard as steel,
He's gained two hearts in the room of one
And he'll be a true lover when I am gone.
Now compare to Hunt's 4th stanza:
4 There are a man on yonder hill,
He got a heart as hard as stone.
He have two hearts instead of one,
. . . . .
Since this "two hearts" stanza (found also in Brisk Young lover broadside) is part of the "Constant Lady" tradition, it becomes clear that "She's Like a Swallow" is also part of the Constant Lady tradition with only the first stanza being original. Even the first stanza, by it's last line, conveys the loss of her lover which is the main theme of the Constant Lady and Died for Love songs. It should be noted that an earlier slightly different yet parallel ballad of four stanzas, "A Forlorn Lover’s Complaint" (As I walked forth one summer's day) was composed by lutenist Robert Johnson, about 1611[6]. Forlorn Lover had a two stanza chorus. The concluding stanza is very similar to stanza 15 of "Constant Lady":
When she had fill'd her Apron full,
Of such green things as she could cull,
The green leaves serv'd her for a Bed,
The Flowers were the Pillows for her head:
[Chorus] Then down she laid, ne'er more did speak;
Alas ! Alas ! with Love her heart did break.
"The Deceased Maiden Lover," c. 1628
Shortly before Johnson died his four stanza ballad was lengthened and printed as the broadside "The Deceased Maiden Lover," which appeared with another broadside "The Faithlesse Lover." Both were printed on a single sheet by "the Assignes of Thomas Symcocke" c. 1628. Stanza 17 of Constant Lady found in "She's Like the Swallow" appears to have been taken from "The Faithlesse Lover." Although both 1628 broadsides are different than Constant Lady, they are similar enough to suggest that "Constant Lady" was influenced by, or is a rewrite of "The Deceased Maiden Lover," and "The Faithlesse Lover."
* * * *
The English Variant
Although "She's Like the Swallow" is clearly of English origin, Canada has claimed the ballad as one of its unique folk songs, not realizing that the first stanza used to identify the song was collected by H.E.D. Hammond from Henry Way of Stoke Abbott, Dorset in May of 1906. Way's identifying stanza is also mixed with stanzas from "Constant Lady" but begins with standard "Deep in Love" stanzas. Here's Henry Way's identifying stanza:
She's like the swallow that flies so high,
She's like the river that never runs dry.
She's like the sun that's on the sea shore,
I've losed my lover and I'll love no more. [Henry Way, 1906]
Way's text sheds light on the Canadian text, that would be confirmed with a later Canadian version. The first part of the last line of John Hunt's iconic first stanza is a corruption. Hunt's "I love my love and love is no more" should simply be "I lost my lover and love is no more." This is confirmed in the 1951 Canadian version. This may be a minor detail, yet it should be considered in future performances as well as from a historical perspective. In 1906 Way's "She's Like the Swallow" stanza had no significance and was probably considered a variation of unknown origin. Today it means only that the "She's Like the Swallow" stanza was not created in Canada but rather was brought there by British settlers. Here's Way''s text in full:
"The Alehouse." Sung by Henry Way of Stoke Abbott, Dorset in May 1906. Collected by H.E.D. Hammond.
1. Oh, once wore my apron low,
My love followed me through frost and snow;
But now my belly's got up to my chin,
My love passes by and says nothing.
2. There is an alehouse in yonder town,
Where my false lover goes, sits him down,
He takes a strange lass on his knee,
And don't you think that's a grief to me?
3. It's a grief to me, I'll tell you why,
[Because she has more gold than I ;
Her gold will waste, her beauty blast,
Poor girl, she'll come like me at last.]
4. Then on the meadow poor girl she run,
A-picking the flowers so fast as they sprung;
And some she picked, and some she plucked
Till at last she gathered her apron full.
5. She made her bed with flowers so sweet,
And a stony pillow laid under her head
And laid herself down and nevermore spoke,
Until he tender heart; it was broke.
I'm glad, I'm glad, I'm glad," said he,
"To think she was so fond of me."
6. She's like the swallow that flies so high,
She's like the river that never runs dry.
She's like the sun that's on the sea shore,
I've losed my lover and I'll love no more.
Way's version begins like a standard version of "The Alehouse," a version of the Died for Love family which is Roud 60. After the first line of stanza 3, Way forgets the rest of stanza 3 (I've filled in the last three lines) and immediately goes into stanzas of the Constant Lady (see stanzas above) which are sometimes found in the UK as an ending for Died for Love.
Way's stanza 5 corresponds to Hunt's stanza 3. The last two lines of Way's stanza 5 represent a partial stanza similar to Hunt's corrected last stanza which begins, "How foolish must that girl be." Way is missing the "two hearts" stanza and gives his "She's Like the Swallow" stanza at the end. Unfortunately Way's version is missing the connecting stanza(s) which would have provided more information about the "She's Like the Swallow" stanza's position in the traditional ballad.
The Canadian texts in this study are taken from "She’s Like the Swallow": Folksong as Cultural Icon by Neil V. Rosenberg-- an excellent study with accurate details on the Canadian variants. However, it should be noted that the English variant was not mentioned and Rosenberg's analysis did not mentioned that the "Constant Lady" was the source broadside or that the "two hearts" stanza was found in the Brisk Young Sailor broadside as well as other sources with at least one from a similarly related ballad-- Love has Brought Me to Despair[7]. Rosenberg only source of the ballad's history was Peacock who attributed "She's Like the Swallow" to the last two stanzas of Robert Johnson's ballad but neither Rosenberg or Peacock were unable to draw any conclusions. Clearly "She's Like the Swallow" is based on "Constant Lady" and not "Forlorn Lover" despite the similarity of the two parallel prints. The notes in the 1971 Faber and Faber edition of Karpeles "Folk Songs from Newfoundland" do provide one source of the "two hearts" stanza but don't mention "Constant Lady." Neither source mentions that the identifying stanza was collected in Dorset almost 30 years before Karpeles discovered it in Newfoundland.
* * * *
In 1951 a new text surfaced in response to A.R. Scammell's column in Atlantic Guardian "Folk Songs and Yarns[8]." After Scammell reprinted Karpeles’s 1934 text he received a letter from Richard Bugden, a Newfoundlander who lived Toronto. According to Cahill[9], Bugden wrote: "there are a couple of other verses and wonder[ed] if anyone knows them" and included the following text:
1 She’s like the Swallow that flies so high
She’s like the river that never runs dry
She’s like the waves beating on a lea shore
I’ve lost my love and I’ll love no more.
2 ’Twas out in the garden this poor girl went
A-picking the flowers that there was spread
The more she picked, the more she pulled,
Until she gathered her apron full
3 And out of the flowers she made her bed,
A snowy-white pillow all for her head.
She laid herself down and nevermore spoke
Alas, poor girl! her heart was broke.
4 Her heart was broke and her corpse lay cold:
It was unto her true love I told it so.
I’m glad, I’m glad, I’m glad, said he,
That she had thought so much of me.
5 A man is not born for one alone,
He takes a liking for many a one.
She’s like the sunshine on the lea shore
I’ve lost my love and I’ll love no more.
6 And when I go home I’ll write a song,
I’ll write it wide and I’ll write it long,
And every line I’ll shed a tear,
And every verse recall, my dear[10].
Bugden's text showed some variation of Karpeles' stanzas 1 and 5 and introduced new text in his stanzas 4 and 6. Burden's 4th stanza compares to stanza 16 of "Constant Lady":
16. But when I found her body cold,
I went to her false love, and told
What unto her had just befell:
"I'm glad," said he, "she is so well."
Bugden's stanza 6 is from the related ballad, Sailor Boy (Sweet William). Here's text from Mrs. W.A. Fisher published in 1909 in Heart Songs (National Magazine, Boston, The Chapple publishing company):
7 "Now, I'll go home and write a song,
I'll write it true, I'll write it long,
On every line I'll shed a tear,
On every verse, 'Fare you well, my dear'."
This borrowing from ballad in the larger family of ballads related to Died for Love can be expected. Just as borrowing "two hearts" from the same-source ballad, Love has Brought Me to Despair can also be expected.
* * * *
Kenneth Peacock discovered a version in Isle aux Morts on Newfoundland's south coast in June of 1959. His informant Mrs. Wallace Kinslow, "had learned it when she was ten years old from 'an old Englishwoman' who, like her parents, had settled in the community in the nineteenth century[11]." Peacock recorded two versions from her--the second was the longest at 5 stanzas which provided no real new text. She sang the "She’s Like the Swallow" stanza as a chorus but did not record it that way. Her tune resembled Hunt's but had a narrower compass and was major instead of modal. Kinslow's version was the first collected that changed the last line of the first stanza to 3rd person, so that it appears:
She’s like the swallow that flies so high,
She’s like the river that never runs dry,
She’s like the sun shines on the lee shore,
She lost her love and she’ll love no more.
Later during the summer of 1959, Peacock found that one of his top informants Aunt Charlotte Decker also knew the song. Although she only knew the opening stanza at the time[12], Aunt Charlotte and her husband managed to piece together six stanzas. The only significant change was found in the "two hearts" stanza which now had become:
She climbed on yonder hill above
To give a rose unto her love
She gave him one, she gave him three
She gave her heart in company.
When Peacock published Decker's version as his A version he added a "Died for Love" stanza he collected from Mrs. Walters:
"When I carried my apron low
My love followed me through frost and snow,
But now my apron is to my chin,
My love passes by and won’t call in."
The last extant traditional text was collected in 1961 by Edith Fowke from Albert Simms, a native of McCallum Harbour, Hermitage Bay, on the south coast, who had settled in Toronto. Simms told Fowke he and his sister had learned it as children[13]. Simms text was four stanzas and his fourth stanza was less corrupt and closer to text from the antecedent, "Constant Lady":
4. Her heart was broke and her corpse lay cold.
Straight on to her false lover was told.
"How foolish, how foolish this girl must be
To think I loved no one but she."
Compared to the Constant Lady's fist half of stanzas 16 and 17:
16. But when I found her body cold,
I went to her false love, and told
17. "Did she think I so fond could be,
That I could fancy none but she?
The five[14] extant variants seem to have come from a common source on the south coast of Newfoundland. No extant traditional versions have been found in Canada or elsewhere since 1961.
R. Matteson 2017]
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Footnotes:
1. The relation between "The Constant Lady and False-Hearted Squire" and "Died for Love" songs is a long one. The first extant version of "Brisk Young Sailor" (Brisk Young Lover) titled "The Lady's Lamentation for the Loss of her Sweetheart," from the Manchester Central library and dated c.1775, has as its ending, stanzas of "Constant Lady." Although they are distinct and separate ballads, the borrowing has continued and "Constant Lady" has influenced a number of related songs and ballads.
In turn 1686 broadside Constant Lady appears to have been derived from two earlier broadsides printed on a single sheet by the Assignes of Thomas Symcocke" c. 1628: "The Deceased Maiden Lover" and "The Faithlesse Lover."
"Dink's Song," a different song that has a relationship with Died for Love, begins with the simile: "Ef I had wings like Norah's dove/I'd fly up the river to the man I love."
2. As pointed out later in the headnotes, the text Karpeles actually printed was different from what she collected. The collected version had 5 stanzas with the 1st, 4th and 5th being corrupt. The exact source of stanza 1 is unknown however its lines resemble several songs. Stanzas 4 and 5 were not properly arranged in quatrain stanza form.
3. This "swallow" example is Belden B titled "Warning" from C. H. Williams, Bollinger County, 1906: from "I wish I were some little sparrow/One of those would fly so high." The blue text in brackets I have added. The last line is found similarly ("I love my love and well he knows") in several songs from the extended Died for Love family.
4. The stanza being found in some versions of Brisk Young Sailor and also in "All Down in the Meadow"(a Sharp MS) and in James Punt's "False Lovyer," a version of "Love Has Left Me in Despair."
5. Karpeles published the ballad twice in 1934: Folk Songs from Newfoundland. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press and Fifteen Folk Songs from Newfoundland. London: Oxford University Press. The piano arrangement in Fifteen Folk Songs was done by Vaughan Williams.
6. This date has not been verified-- Johnson died in 1633. The exact relationship of "Deceased Maiden Lover" and Johnson's "A Forlorn Lover’s Complaint" (As I walked forth one summer's day) has yet to be determined. It's also possible that before he died Johnson borrowed four stanzas from "Deceased."
7. Jame's Punt's version was collected by Vaughn Williams in 1904. Curiously the stanza was published in the JFFS in 1906 attributed to a different informant.
8. From "She’s Like the Swallow": Folksong as Cultural Icon by Neil V. Rosenberg.
9. "Guardian Angles." Atlantic Guardian by Brian Cahill, 1951.
10. Ibid. Reprinted by Rosenberg,
11. Peacock's comment from "She’s Like the Swallow": Folksong as Cultural Icon by Neil V. Rosenberg.
12. Reported in greater detail in "She’s Like the Swallow": Folksong as Cultural Icon by Neil V. Rosenberg.
13. Ibid.
14. Rosenberg reports 6 but two are from the same informant, Mrs. Wallace Kinslow, who was recorded twice.