No. 92: Bonny Bee Hom
[There are no known traditional US or Canadian versions of this ballad. For the related ballad, "Lowlands of Holland," see Appendix 92 A.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Added at the end of Child's narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Texts A-B.
5. End-Notes
6. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 92. Bonny Bee Hom
A. Roud Number 3885: Bonny Bee Hom (5 Listings)
2. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A-B with additional notes)]
3. Sheet Music: 92. Bonny Bee Hom (Bronson texts- music)
Child's Narrative: Bonny Bee Hom
A. 'Bonny Bee Ho'm,' Alexander Fraser Tytler's Brown Manuscript, No 6; Jamieson's Popular Ballads, I, 185.
B. 'The Enchanted Ring,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 169.
A was given from the manuscript by Jamieson "verbatim," that is, with a few slight variations; the first stanza earlier, in the Scots Magazine, October, 1803, p. 700.
For the ring (chain, A 7) that makes a man invulnerable, and that which indicates by the discoloration of the stone that his love is dead or untrue, see 'Hind Horn,' I, 200 f; for the vows in A 3, 4, B 3, 'Clerk Saunders,' at p. 156 f of this volume.[1] The like vows are adopted into a song called 'The Lowlands of Holland,' found in Herd's Manuscripts, I, 97, and inserted in his Scottish Songs, 1776, II, 2; a fragment, but all that concerns us.[2]
1 'My love has built a bony ship, and set her on the sea,
With seven score good mariners to bear her company;
There 's three score is sunk, and three score dead at sea,
And the Lowlands of Holland has twin'd my love and me.
2 'My love he built another ship, and set her on the main,
And nane but twenty mariners for to bring her hame;
But the weary wind began to rise, and the sea began to rout,
My love then and his bonny ship turnd withershins about.
3 'There shall neither coif come on my head nor comb come in my hair;
There shall neither coal nor candle-light shine in my bower mair;
Nor will I love another one until the day I die,
For I never lovd a love but one, and he 's drowned in the sea.'
4 'O had your tongue, my daughter dear, be still and be content;
There are mair lads in Galloway, ye neen nae sair lament:'
'O there is none in Gallow, there 's none at a' for me,
For I never lovd a love but one, and he 's drowned in the sea.'
Footnotes:
1. Also 'Bonny Molly Stewart,' Maidment's Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1859, p. 128, and the Reply to 'Cromlet's Lilt,' Maidment's Scotish Ballads and Songs, Historical and Traditionary, 1868, II, 59.
2. There are six double stanzas in Johnson's Museum, p. 118, to which Steuhouse, IV, 115, adds a concluding one, the fourth of Herd's. "This ballad," Stenhouse was informed, "was composed about the beginning of the last century by a young widow in Galloway, whose husband was drowned on a voyage to Holland." His authority was probably traditional, and all the information except the date, and, to be accurate, the widowhood, is found in the song itself. Motherwell, Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. lxxii, note 37, observes that neither Herd's nor Johnson's copy is so full "as one which may occasionally be met with in stall editions published about sixty years ago:" 1827. Logan, who prints two vulgar versions, or rather perversions, in which a bridegroom is pressed into the king's sea-service on the night of his marriage, Pedlar's Pack, p. 22, says: " A more lengthened version of the same ballad in the Scotch dialect will be found in Book First of A Selection of Scots Songs, Harmonised... By Peter Urbani, Professor of Music, Edinburgh, circa 1794." Christie, I, 236, says that 'The Lowlands of Holland' was sung in his father's family, in Aberdeenshire, as far back as the middle of the last century. Herd's copy is translated by Talvj, Charakteristik, p. 594.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
The talisman in this ballad reminds one of 'Hind Horn' (No. 17); the vows, of 'Clerk Saunders' (No. 69). Similar vows occur in a song - called 'The Lowlands of Holland' (see the Notes).
Child's Ballad Texts
'Bonny Bee Ho'm'- Version A; Child 92 Bonny Bee Hom
Alexander Fraser Tytler's Brown Manuscript, No 6.
1 By Arthur's Dale as late I went
I heard a heavy moan;
I heard a ladie lammenting sair,
And ay she cried Ohone!
2 'Ohon, alas! what shall I do,
Tormented night and day!
I never loved a love but ane,
And now he's gone away.
3 'But I will do for my true-love
What ladies woud think sair;
For seven year shall come and go
Ere a kaim gang in my hair.
4 'There shall neither a shoe gang on my foot,
Nor a kaim gang in my hair,
Nor eer a coal nor candle-light
Shine in my bower nae mair.'
5 She thought her love had been on the sea,
Fast sailling to Bee Hom;
But he was in a quiet chamer,
Hearing his ladie's moan.
6 'Be husht, be husht, my ladie dear,
I pray thee mourn not so;
For I am deep sworn on a book
To Bee Hom for to go.'
7 She has gien him a chain of the beaten gowd,
And a ring with a ruby stone:
'As lang as this chain your body binds,
Your blude can never be drawn.
8 'But gin this ring shoud fade or fail,
Or the stone shoud change its hue,
Be sure your love is dead and gone,
Or she has proved untrue.'
9 He had no been at Bonny Bee Hom
A twelve month and a day,
Till, looking on his gay gowd ring,
The stone grew dark and gray.
10 'O ye take my riches to Bee Hom,
And deal them presentlie,
To the young that canna, the auld that maunna,
And the blind that does not see.'
11 Now death has come into his bower,
And split his heart in twain;
So their twa souls flew up to heaven,
And there shall ever remain.
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'The Enchanted Ring'- Version B; Child 92 Bonny Bee Hom
Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 169.
1 In Lauderdale I chanc'd to walk,
And heard a lady's moan,
Lamenting for her dearest dear,
And aye she cried, Ohon!
2 'Sure never a maid that eer drew breath
Had harder fate than me;
I'd never a lad but one on earth,
They forc'd him to the sea.
3 'The ale shall neer be brewin o malt,
Neither by sea nor land,
That ever mair shall cross my hause,
Till my love comes to hand.
4 'A handsome lad, wi shoulders broad,
Gold yellow was his hair;
None of our Scottish youths on earth
That with him could compare.'
5 She thought her love was gone to sea,
And landed in Bahome;
But he was in a quiet chamber,
Hearing his lady's moan.
6 'Why make ye all this moan, lady?
Why make ye all this moan?
For I'm deep sworn on a book,
I must go to Bahome.
7 'Traitors false for to subdue
Oer seas I'll make me boun,
That have trepand our kind Scotchmen,
Like dogs to ding them down.'
8 'Weell, take this ring, this royal thing,
Whose virtue is unknown;
As lang's this ring's your body on,
Your blood shall neer be drawn.
9 'But if this ring shall fade or stain,
Or change to other hue,
Come never mair to fair Scotland,
If ye're a lover true.'
10 Then this couple they did part,
With a sad heavy moan;
The wind was fair, the ship was rare,
They landed in Bahome.
11 But in that place they had not been
A month but barely one,
Till he lookd on his gay gold ring,
And riven was the stone.
12 Time after this was not expir'd
A month but scarcely three,
Till black and ugly was the ring,
And the stone was burst in three.
13 'Fight on, fight on, you merry men all,
With you I'll fight no more;
I will gang to some holy place,
Pray to the King of Glore.'
14 Then to the chapel he is gone,
And knelt most piteouslie,
For seven days and seven nights,
Till blood ran frae his knee.
15 'Ye'll take my jewels that's in Bahome,
And deal them liberallie,
To young that cannot, and old that mannot,
The blind that does not see.
16 'Give maist to women in child-bed laid,
Can neither fecht nor flee;
I hope she's in the heavens high,
That died for love of me.'
17 The knights they wrang their white fingers,
The ladies tore their hair;
The women that neer had children born,
In swoon they down fell there.
18 But in what way the knight expir'd,
No tongue will eer declare;
So this doth end my mournful song,
From me ye'll get nae mair.
End-Notes
A. 103. To the young that canna
The auld that that mamma.
B. 113. Till they.
124. And stone
Additions and Corrections
P. 317. 'The Lowlands of Holland.' In 'The Sorrowful Lover's Regrate, or, The Low-Lands of Holland,' British Museum 1346. m. 7(40), dated May the 5th, 1776, a threnody in eleven double stanzas. 1, 2 of the copy in Johnson's Museum are 1, 2; Johnson, 3 = 7, 4 = 4, 5 = 6, 6 = 3, and the stanza added by Stenhouse is 9 (with verbal divergences). 'The Maid's Lamentation for the loss of her true love,' Museum 11621. c. 3(39), "Newcastle, 1768?," the fifth piece in The Complaining Lover's Garland, has five stanzas: 1 corresponding to 2 of Johnson, 2 to 5, 5 to 6, 3 to 5 of the Regrate, and 4 to 9, with considerable differences. 'The Seaman's Sorrowful Bride,' Roxburghe, IV, 73, Ebsworth, VI, 444, begins with two stanzas which resemble Johnson, 2, 1. This last was printed for J. Deacon, in Guilt-spur-street, and the date, according to Chappell, would be 1684-95.