No. 95: The Maid Freed from the Gallows
[The most influential and well-known US version is Leadbelly's "Gallis Pole" which was covered by Fred Gerlach in 1970 then by Led Zepplin- who titled it "Hangman." Where Leadbelly learned the song is, as far as I know, unknown. He possibly learned and arranged it from James "Iron Head" Baker. His first recording, a 1935 version for LOC, is fairly straight and conventional. After that he made a series of recordings featuring extended guitar riffs played on his twelve-string guitar and ad-lib vocals. Listen: Huddie Ledbetter The ballad was first recorded in 1920 by Bentley Ball, a concert baritone in NYC who in his real life was typewriter salesman from Ohio. According to a source at WFMU, Bentley collected songs in rural states which making calls on clients. His "The Hangman's Tree" on Columbia A3084, was called a North Carolina minstrel song. The ballad has been widely recorded beginning in the 1920s and has been sometimes mixed with stanzas from other songs. The most frequent hybrid was recorded in 1926 by Charlie Poole as "The Highwayman." Poole's version is a mixture of the ballad text with a local blues about a gambler who is sent to prison which is usually titled "Poor Boy," "Coon Can," or "The Roving Gambler."
* * * *
The ballad exists in a number of forms: 1) Cante-Fable form as taken from African-Americans in the US and the Caribbean, 2) The Golden Ball form, as found in Child F-H and a number of US versions, 3) The Prickly Bush form as found in the British Isles as in Child B and C, 4) The Standard Ballad form as found in Child A and many US versions (15 stanzas) and 5) The Highwayman form (Charlie Poole 1926) an aberrant form which has ballad stanzas attached to or mixed with other songs (See also: Poor Boy, Hang Down Your Head and Cry; Endurance; and John Hardy Blues).
The Golden Ball form, exemplified by Child H a, was taken from Baring-Gould's Appendix to Henderson's Notes on the Folk Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, 1866, p. 333, Yorkshire, where it was attached to a tale about a lass being hung for losing a golden ball. A dozen or so US versions have this motive for the hanging; a golden ball, golden comb, silver cup or golden cup is either a stolen or missing. The "Golden Ball" or rarely "golden key" (see Child F, G, and Hb) versions provide this motive while the standard version give no reason for the maids predicament. In the US these versions were taken from both black and white informants and I estimate they pre-date the 1866 Yorkshire text. There are several articles that give information about the "Golden Ball" versions including The Gallows and the Golden Ball: An Analysis of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (Child 95) by Ingeborg Urcia in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 79, No. 313 (Jul.- Sept., 1966), pp. 463-468 (found attached to my Recordings & Info page). The most detailed article is the Prickly Bush by A. G. Gilchrist and Lucy E. Broadwood; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 5, No. 19 (Jun., 1915), pp. 221-239. Scarborough uses Gilchrist's article to postulate that the golden ball symbolizes the maid's virginity. When she loses the golden ball it can only be rescued by her lover. Kittredge gave a version of the golden ball from NYC, 1916 in his Ballads and Songs article (JAFL, 1917). In his article "The Golden Ball and the Hangman's Tree" Tristram P. Coffin makes further hypotheses about the maid and the golden ball-- that the maid is on the gallows because she is either pregnant or lost her virginity and that the golden ball (or balls) represent a form of contraceptive.
In his book, The British Traditional Ballad in North America, Tristram Coffin (first edition 1950), identifies ballad 7 types (A-G) which include the types I've mentioned above. In her 1971 book, "The Maid" and "The Hangman," Eleanor Long has grouped the text into five different groups. Group A, which included Child A, asks the executioner to hold or stay his hand (in the first line). Group B, the largest group, asks the executioner to "slack the rope." Group C asks the executioner to wait and is subdivided into three sub-groups. Group D asks the executioner to "hold the rope." Group E includes the "golden ball" versions.
* * * *
A similar but different ballad "Derry Gaol" or "The Streets of Derry" (Laws L 11; Roud number 896), has been included by Brosnon as an Appendix (see the Appendix, 95A, following this ballad on left hand column). The plot is: a young man marches through the streets of Derry "more like a commanding officer / Than a man to die upon the gallows tree". As he mounts the gallows, his true love comes riding, bearing a pardon from the Queen or sometimes the King. See the study, "Derry Gaol" From Formula to Narrative Theme by Eleanor R. Long Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung, 20. Jahrg. (1975), pp. 62-85 attached my Recordings & Info page.
* * * *
Child mentions and discusses a number of foreign analogues. Here's one not given by Child (see Barry BBM, 1929) from "Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus: a collection of Old-Irish glosses, Scholia prose and verse."
Old Irish Verse: V. Broccan's Hymn dated c. 850 (dated later than the early part of the ninth century)
To view: http://www.archive.org/stream/thesauruspalaeoh02stokuoft#page/345/mode/1up
Translation: The king of Leinster bestowed a silver brooch on his poet as the reward of his art. He took it home to his house with him and gave it into the hand of the bondmaid to take care of. The poet's wife took it from her (and cast it) into the sea for evil to the bondmaid. The poet asked the brooch of the bondmaid The poet came to kill the bondmaid because the brooch was not found with her. Then Brigit came to the poet's house, and she was grieved at the maltreatment of the bondmaid.
So she prayed to God that the brooch might be manifested to her. Then an angel of God came to her and told her to cast the nets into the water, that is into the sea, and a salmon would be caught in them with the brooch in its inside.
Some European analogues provide a simple motive for the maid at the gallows. In Child's headnotes (below) he says: In many others, both from northern and southern Europe, a young woman has fallen into the hands of corsairs (buccaneers or pirates); father, mother, brother, sister, refuse to pay ransom, but her lover, in one case husband, stickles at no price which may be necessary to retrieve her.
As pointed out by Eleanor Long (who quotes Prohl and Gruner-Neilson) in her 1971 book, The Maid and the Hangman, it is doubtful that the British/North American ballads are "derived directly" from these "northern and southern Europe" analogues. I concur and believe that in most cases foreign analogues are different ballads that have originated separately from a similar event (a hanging) which produces similar emotions and conflicts that show "collective consciousness" of all people. Hangings were, at one time, public events that drew crowds of people. The ballad of John Hardy in West Virginia was about a hanging. On January 19, 1894, the Wheeling Daily Register published the following story: “John Hardy, for killing Thomas Drews, both colored, was hung at 2:09 p.m. today. Three thousand people witnessed his death. . ."
Certainly the event of a public hanging would be sung about in many nations all over the world. Saving the accused from the gallows is a common international motif.
* * * *
Brewster in 1940: Hungarian versions are given in Buday and Ortutay (No. 38 "Az aspis kigyo") and Bartok, Hungarian Folk Music (No. 157).
In Bartok's version called "Feher Anna," Anna's brother Lazlo is imprisoned for stealing horses. Anna sleeps with Judge Horvat to free him, but is unsuccessful in sparing his life. She regales the judge with 13 curses (see Bob Dylan's version, "Seven Curses" also Judy Collins adapted it in 1963 titling it “Anathea”).
* * * *
The fact that the maid sometimes is a man may be due to the "folk process" but the sex of the accused varies so often that it is inconclusive which sex would be found in the original ur-ballad. Some collectors in the US have theorized that since few women have been hung in the US that the maid sometimes was changed to a man on the gallows to fit in with local norms.
* * * *
The oldest extant documented version is Child 95 A which was contained in a letter from Rev. Parsons of Wye sent to Bishop Percy in 1770 (Percy Papers; see the original letter below). A US version sent by Backus in North Carolina from Yorkshire descendants was dated before the Revolution (1776) and predates the Parsons version. Long (1971) gives 1650-1700 as the approximate date of the ur-ballad in the British Isles.
According to Barry (1929 BBM): The earliest record of a romantic theme conforming to the situation in the foregoing Negro cante-fables, as well as in the "Golden Ball" form of "The Maid Freed from Gallows," is found in the ninth century Irish tale of the "Distressed Handmaid" (see translation above). Long (1971) traces the setting back to Greek and Roman mythology and the tale of Admetus and Alcestis of fifth century B.C.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Found at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Texts A-H (I, J and K are given in "Additions and Corrections." A US version, The Hangman's Tree, is also found in "Additions and Corrections.")
5. Endnotes
6. From "Additions and Corrections"
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 95. The Maid Freed from the Gallows
A. Roud No. 144: The Maid Freed from the Gallows (334 Listings)
B. The Maid Freed from the Gallows- Krappe 1941
C. The Gallows and the Golden Ball: An Analysis by Ingeborg Urcia 1966
D. Folktales; Ashey Pelt and the Three Golden Balls- 1895)
E. Prickly Bush: Notes on Children's Game-Songs Gilchrist & Broadwood 1915
F. De Tale Ob De Gol'en Ball- Owen 1893
G. Hangman's Tree- Scarborough 1925
H. Brown Collection- Maid Freed from the Gallows
2. Sheet Music: 95. The Maid Freed from the Gallows (Bronson's music examples and texts)
3. US & Canadian Versions
4. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A-K with additional notes)]
Copy of the original document showing the end of "When I was a Maid" and the beginning of "Oh Good Lord Judge (Child 95A- Maid Freed From the Gallows)."
Child's Narrative: The Maid Freed From the Gallows
A. Communicated to Bishop Percy, 1770 [in a letter from Rev. Parsons: As to the trouble of transcribing, it was nothing. I am sure you cou’d not have read my Scrabbled originals, which were taken down from the mouth of the Spinning wheel if I may be allowed the Expression.]
B. 'The Broom o the Cathery Knowes,' Motherwell's MS., p. 290.
C. Notes and Queries, Sixth eries, VII, 275, 1883.
D. Skene Manuscripts, p. 61, stanzas 19-24: 1802-03.
E. 'Lady Maisry,' Buchan's Manuscripts, 11,186; 'Warenston and the Duke of York's Daughter,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 190, stanzas 16-22.
F. Notes and Queries, Sixth Series, VI, 476, 1882.
G. a. 'The Golden Key,' Notes and Queries, Sixth Series, VI, 415.
b. The same, p. 269.
H. 'The Golden Ball.'
a. Baring-Gould's Appendix to Henderson's Notes on the Folk Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, 1866, p. 333.
b. Notes and Queries, Sixth Series, X, 354, 1884.
c. Mrs. Bacheller, of Jacobstown, North Cornwall gave Rev. S. Baring-Gould the following version of the tale, taught her by a Cornish nursery maid, probably the same mentioned at the place last cited.
[I. Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy, No. 127, Abbotsford. Sent to John Leyden, by whom and when does not appear.
J. Communicated by Dr. George Birkbeck 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. Mr. Heywood Sumner, in English County Songs, by Lucy E. Broadwood and J.A. Fuller Maitland, p. 112. From Somersetshire.]
D, E form the conclusion of a ballad which belongs to the series of 'Mary Hamilton,' or 'The Queen's Mary,' and give an entirely wrong turn to that distressful tragedy.
F had become a children's game, the last stage of many old ballads: see the notes. In G and H the verses are set in a popular tale, and a characteristic explanation is furnished of the danger which the heroine has incurred: she has lost a golden key, or a golden ball, which had been entrusted to her. See, again, the notes.
All the English versions are defective and distorted, as comparison will show. In many others, both from northern and southern Europe, a young woman has fallen into the hands of corsairs; father, mother, brother, sister, refuse to pay ransom, but her lover, in one case husband, stickles at no price which may be necessary to retrieve her.
We will begin with the best ballad of the cycle, the Sicilian 'Scibilia Nobili,' communicated to Nuove Effemeridi Siciliane, Nuova Serie, I, 528, 1874, by Salvatore Struppa, as sung by a peasant woman in the neighbor hood of Marsala, 151 verses.[1] Tunisian corsairs, learning of the marriage of the king's daughter, fit out a strong force, and when they are near port change caps, to pass for Christians. They knock at Scibilia's door, and, on her refusing to open, her husband being a-hunting, burst the door in, and carry her on board ship. Her husband goes to the shore weeping, and offers her captors her weight in gold; they will not give her up for a shipful. He begs to be allowed a word with her: why has she let herself be carried off, and who will nurse her boy? She refuses to eat, drink, or sleep. The sailors fall asleep, and Scibilia drops into the sea. They take silk ladders to recover her; she weeps always. (It would be superfluous to do more than point to the fact that the story is not well compacted, or altogether rational, as we have it.) The lady, turning to a sailor, says, Can you tell me how the wind is? If north or south, I will go to my father. No opposition is made by the pirates, who had but just now refused a shipful of gold for her. "My dear father, will you ransom me?" "For how much, my dear daughter?" "Three lions, three falcons, and four pillars of gold." "I cannot lose so much money: how much better lose you!" She is urged by her captors to eat and drink, but will not eat, drink, or sleep, for her boy is starving. She again makes for the coast, weeping ever, and the foregoing scene, from the inquiry as to the wind, is repeated with mother, brother, sister. All say it is better to lose her than so much money. She finally tries her husband, who answers, Better lose all this gold; it is enough if you are not lost. And after three days the father died. "And let him die; I will dress all in red." And after three days the mother died. "And let her die; I will dress all in yellow." And after three days the brother died. "And let him die; I will dress all in green." And after three days the sister died. "And let her die; I will dress all in white. And if my dear husband dies, I will dress in black."
Spanish.
A. a, 'La Donzella,' Die Balearen in Wort und Bild geschildert, II, 263 (privately printed by the Archduke Ludwig Salvator, Leipzig, 1871, a book which I have not been able to obtain), Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 231; b, Briz, Cansons de la Terra, IV, 15, from a Majorcan revista. B. 'Lo Reseat,' Briz, IV, 13. C. 'La Cautiva,' Mild, Romancerillo, p. 257, No 261. In A a maid, who is embroidering a handkerchief by the seashore, lacking silk, hails a vessel, and asks if they have any. She is invited to come aboard and see if they have what she requires. She falls asleep, and the sailors put off. This beginning is like that of another very common ballad. The maid is wakened by the singing of the sailors, and asks them to put into the port where her father is. What follows corresponds to the English ballad. "Father, will you ransom me? The Moors offer me for sale." "Dear daughter, how much do they ask?" "I am yours for a hundred crowns." "Daughter, I will not pay a penny for you." The scene is repeated with mother, brother, and sister, all of whom make the same answer as the father, and then with the lover; but his reply is, I would not give you up for all the world.
The first five stanzas of A are wanting in B, which begins, accordingly, at the point where the maid asks to have the ship put about. The sister is omitted in B, as also in A b. C is shortened still further, beginning with the appeal to the father, and omitting both sister and brother.
Färöe.
'Frísa Vísa,' communicated by Hammershaimb, with other ballads, to the Antiquarisk Tidsskrift, 1849-51, p. 95. Frisian pirates are carrying away a maid. She weeps and beats her hands, and cries, Wait, my father will ransom me; he will ransom me with his castles; he will not let me perish in Friesland. The father answers, I have only two castles; neither of them can I give up for thee; indeed thou mayst perish in Friesland. The Frisians are starting off again. The maid begs them to stop; her mother will redeem her with her kirtles. But the mother says, I have but two kirtles, and neither of them can I give up for thee; indeed thou mayst perish in Friesland. Once more the Frisians are about to put off. The maid says her lover will redeem her with his ships. The lover loyally responds, I have only two ships; both will I gladly part with for thee; thou shalt not perish in Friesland. It appears from a note of Hammershaimb that the ballad might be extended indefinitely by the maid's calling upon brother, sister, and friends to redeem her with their respective valuables.[2]
Icelandic.
A ballad briefly mentioned at p. 20 f of the volume of the Antiquarisk Tids skrift, before cited. The Frisians call out, Bear the Danish maid to the ships! 'Bide, Frisians, bide; my kinsfolk will redeem me.' Upon the sixth appeal, to her lover, the maid is ransomed.
Swedish.
'Den Bortsålda,' the same ballad as the Färöe and the Icelandic, with an absurd introductory stanza, in which the maid is said to have been sold into the heathen land by her parents fora bit of bread; whence the title. A. a, Afzelius, No 15, I, 73;[3] b, Hofberg, Nerikes Gamla Minnen, p. 256, No 5. B. Afzelius, I, 134. C. Rancken, Nagra prof af folksång, p. 6, No 2, with collation of three other copies. D. Eva Wigstrom, Folkdiktning, I, 62, No 29. E. Oberg, in Aminson, Bidrag, I, 23. F. Axelson, Vesterdalarne, p. 174, No 2, three stanzas, the rest said to be "entirely like" the Afzelius copies, which differ considerably. A maid is in the hands of sea-rovers, and they are on the point of rowing off with her. She wrings her hands, and calls to them to wait a while. She sees her father coming, who will redeem her with his oxen, and so she shall escape going to the heathen land to pine away. The father says he has but oxen two: the one he shall be using, the other he shall keep lata sta; and she will not scape going to the heathen land. The sailors lower their oars. The maid wrings her hands, and calls to them again to wait; she sees her mother coming, who will redeem her with her gold caskets. The mother says she has of gold caskets but two: the one she shall be using, the other shall let stay. The maid sees her sister, who will redeem her with her gold crowns. The sister has but two gold crowns, one of which she shall be using, the other will let be. The maid sees her brother, who will redeem her with his foals. The brother has but two foals: the one he shall be using, the other he will let be, and she will not scape from going to the heathen land to pine away. Then the maid sees her true-love coming, and calls to him to redeem her with his gold rings. "Of gold rings," he says, "I have no more than twelve: with six I shall redeem thee, six thou shalt have thyself; so thou scapest going to the heathen land to pine away."
This is the story in A, and the chief variations of the other copies are in the things which the maid proposes to her kindred and her lover to redeem her with, and the number of these which they profess to have. The spuriousness of the introductory stanza, in which the girl is said to have been sold into the heathen land for dire need, is evident. The family have two oxen, two gold caskets, two gold crowns, two foals; or even houses, gold caskets, gold chains, mills, more than five, B, and no doubt everything handsome about them. In D the father is even a king. B, F lack this beginning. C concludes with a permissible imprecation on the part of the lover:
'Cursed be thy father, cursed be thy mother,
Cursed be thy sister, and even so thy brother!'
In Danish the ballad occurs in manuscripts, and has been printed as a broadside: Bergström's Afzelius, II, 63.
German
A. Grater's Idunna und Hermode, 1814, p. 76, communicated by Abrahamson, one of the editors of the Danske Viser, as learned by him from a maid-servant of his mother, in Sleswig, not long after 1750. B. 'Liebesprobe,' Kretzschmer-Zuccalmaglio, II, 54, No 22, "from North Germany," apparently a little retouched. C. 'Des Liebsten Liebe die grosste Liebe,' Hoffmann und Riehter, p. 43, No 23, Silesia. D. 'Loskauf,' Erk's Liederhort, p. 136, No 40, Saxony. E. 'Das losgekaufte Madchen,' Erk und Irmer, ir, 52, No 53, Saxony. F. 'Loskauf,' Erk's Liederhort, p. 138, No 40 s , Brandenburg. G. 'Schipmann,' Reiffenberg, p. 138, West phalia. H. 'O Schipmann,' Reiffenberg, p. 10, No 5, Westphalia. I. 'Loskauf,' Uhland, p. 267, No 117, Westphalia. J. Koliler, in Anzeiger fur deutsches Alterthum, VI, 268, from Friedrich Kind in "Abend-Zeitung, 1819, No 164, Kind's Erzählungen, 1822, p. 77," Auserwahlte Unterhaltungen, Wien, 1827, I, 20. 'Die Losgekaufte,' in Kretzschmer, I, 181, is rewritten; 'Loskauf,' in Simrock, No 39, p. 90, is made up from a variety of copies. Several of the versions come very near to one another, especially C-F, nor is there any noteworthy difference in the story of the whole series, save a single point in the last three. A maid whom seamen are carrying off begs them to stop or put back to land; she has a father who will not abandon her. She begs her father to part with coat, house, hat, watch, or bull, to save her from drowning; the father refuses. Then, as before, she successively and vainly entreats her mother to redeem her with gold chain, ring, apron, gown, or silver trinkets; her brother with silver buckles, hat, horse, sword, or coat; her sister with apron, dress, shoes, green wreath, or pearl wreath. Two of the four relatives are wanting in H, I, J. All of her blood refusing to ransom the maid, she calls upon her lover to sacrifice sword, horse, ring, golden hill, to save her, or, in H, I, J, to sell himself to the oar, and the lover is ready in every case. The redemption is not from slavery in a foreign land, but from drowning.
Esthonian.
The ballad is known all over Esthonia, and a copy composed of two closely resembling versions is given by Neus, Ehstnische Volkslieder, p. 109, 'Die Ausgeloste.' A girl, taken captive in war, asks that the boats may put in, in order that she may find some one to buy her off. She appeals first to her mother, who might redeem her with the best of three aprons which she possesses, one of which is of gold web, another of silver, an other of brass. A daughter, answers the mother, is a thing of to-day and to-morrow; my aprons are for life. Her father is next asked to ransom her with the best of three bulls which he owns, which have a horn of gold, silver, and brass respectively. His daughter is his for two days, his bulls for life. The brother is entreated to save her by the sacrifice of the best of his three horses, which have severally manes of gold, silver, and brass. His sister is his for two days, his horse for life. The sister is asked to part with the best of her three wreaths, which are of gold, silver, brass, for an only sister's sake. A sister is hers for a month or two, her wreath, for life. Finally the maid turns to her true- love, who has three hats, one of brass, one of silver, one of gold, and entreats him to devote the best to her redemption. How long lasts a hat? he exclaims. A couple of days; but my betrothed for life! Another copy of the same ballad is given by Neus in Dorpater Jahrbücher, V, 228.
The ballad is equally popular in Finland: 'Lunastettava neiti,' Kanteletar, 1864, p. 283, No 26, p. 285, No 27, ed. 1840, III, 181, 137, 273 f; Rancken, Nagra prof, p. 9.
In various Slavic ballads the man and maid change parts, and the man is ransomed by the generosity of his mistress when his kinsfolk have failed him.
Two "Wendish ballads, Haupt and Schmaler, A, No 74, B, No 75, I, 107 ff, begin, like the popular German ballad 'Der Schäfer und der Edelmann,' with a shepherd's being thrown into prison by a nobleman for wearing a costume beyond his rank, and proud words be sides. He sees his father coming, A, and asks him to pawn half a hundred sheep and get him out. The father prefers his half hundred sheep. He sees his mother coming, and asks her to pawn two cows and release him. She prefers her cows. He sees his brother coming, and asks him to pawn his horse. His brother prefers his horse. He sees his sister coming, and asks her to pawn a fine gown, but the gown again is much dearer in his sister's eyes. He sees his love coming, and asks her to pawn her coral necklace for his ransom, which she does, and he is released. In B he writes to father, mother, and sister to ransom him; they all tell him that if he were good for anything he would not be in prison. His love flies to him and ransoms him.[4]
Russian.
Čelakowský, II, 106,[5] Sakharof, IV, 171, No 13. A young man in prison writes to father and mother for ransom; the whole family will have nothing to do with malefactors and robbers. His love, when written to, calls to her women to get her gold to gether, all that shall be needed to free him.
Little-Russian.
Golovatsky, I, 48, No 8. An imprisoned youth writes to his father, Wilt thou ransom me, or shall I perish? How much must he give? Forty saddled horses. Better he should perish. He writes to his mother; she must give forty oxen with their yokes. She declines. He writes to his love; she must furnish forty geese with their goslings. I will spin, she says, spin lustily, buy geese, and ransom thee. No 7, I, 46, is to the same effect, but lacks the close.
Slovenian.
'Rodbina,' 'Kinship,' Vraz, Narodne Pěsni ilirske, p. 141.[6] A hero in prison asks his father to release him; the three horses he must give are too much. He asks his mother; the three castles she must give are too much. He asks his brother; the three rifles he must give are too much. He asks his sister; the three fair tresses she must sacrifice are too much. He asks his love; she must give her white hand. Not too much is my white hand, she says; easy to give for thee hand and life besides.
A Little-Russian ballad in Waclaw z Oleska, p. 226, and a Polish in Waldbrühl's Balalaika, p. 504, have the same theme, Love stronger than Blood (woman's love here), but do not belong with the pieces already cited as to form.
Footnotes:
1. Liebrecht was the first to call attention to this Iliallad-cycle, Zur Volkskunde, p. 222, repeating, with enlargement, an article in Zeilschrift fur deutsche Philologie, IX, 53. He gives the Sicilian text, and a Balearic and a Färöe, presently to be noticed, with translations, and points out other parallels. Reifftrscheid made additions in his Westfalisehe Volkslieder, p. 10, p. 138 ff. I have not at hand the Effemeridi for 1874
2. "Legen kan nu fortsasttes videre" might imply that the ballad was used as a game; but it is presumable that the author would have been explicit, had he meant this.
3. Translated by George Stephens in the Foreign Quarterly Review, XXVJ, 31.
4. In the same collection, No 297, 1, 297, there is no refusal on the part of the kindred, but what they offer is insufficient, and the maid succeeds by outbidding them. So in some of the corresponding German ballads, as Hoffmann und Richter, Nos 9, 10; Erk's Liederhort, Nos 51, 51, 51b; Elwert, Ungedruckte Reste alien Gesangs, p. 43, = Liederhort, 51c; Longard, p. 22, No 11; Fiedler, p. 141. In Ulmann's Lettische Volkslieder, 1874, p. 168 (cited by Reiffenberg), 'Der losgekaufte Soldat,' a conscript writes to father, mother, brother, sister, to buy him off, and they devote horses, cows, lands, dowry, to this object, but do not succeed. His mistress sells her wreath and frees him.
5. Goetze, Stimmen des russischen Volks, p. 150; Wenzig, Slawische Volkslieder, p. 151.
6. Translated by Anastasius Grim, Volksliedcr aus Krain, p. 30.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
All the English versions are defective and distorted. In many others, both from northern and southern Europe, a young woman has fallen into the hands of corsairs; father, mother, brother, sister, refuse to pay ransom, but her lover, in one case husband, stickles at no price which may be necessary to retrieve her. The best ballad of the cycle is the Sicilian 'Scibilia Nobili' (Salomone-Marino, Leggende pop. siciliane in Poesia, No. 29). There are very numerous versions in Finnish and Esthonian, and numerous variations on the theme occur in Russia and elsewhere.
Child's Ballads Texts
['O Good Lord Judge']- Version A; Child 95 The Maid Freed From the Gallows
Communicated to Percy, April 7, 1770, by the Rev. P. Parsons, of Wey, from oral tradition.
1 'Oh good Lord Judge, and sweet Lord Judge,
Peace for a little while!
Methinks I see my own father,
Come riding by the stile.
2 '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.'
3 'None of my gold now you shall have,
Nor likewise of my fee;
For I am come to see you hang'd,
And hanged you shall be.'
4 'Oh good Lord Judge, and sweet Lord Judge,
Peace for a little while!
Methinks I see my own mother,
Come riding by the stile.
5 'Oh mother, oh mother, a little of your gold,
And likewise of your fee,
To keep my body from yonder grave,
And my neck from the gallows-tree!'
6 'None of my gold now shall you have,
Nor likewise of my fee;
For I am come to see you hangd,
And hanged you shall be.'
7 'Oh good Lord Judge, and sweet Lord Judge,
Peace for a little while!
Methinks I see my own brother,
Come riding by the stile.
8 'Oh brother, oh brother, a little of your gold,
And likewise of your fee,
To keep my body from yonder grave,
And my neck from the gallows-tree!'
9 'None of my gold now shall you have,
Nor likewise of my fee;
For I am come to see you hangd,
And hanged you shall be.'
10 'Oh good Lord Judge, and sweet Lord Judge,
Peace for a little while!
Methinks I see my own sister,
Come riding by the stile.
11 'Oh sister, oh sister, a little of your gold,
And likewise of your fee,
To keep my body from yonder grave,
And my neck from the gallows-tree!'
12 'None of my gold now shall you have,
Nor likewise of my fee;
For I am come to see you hangd,
And hanged you shall be.'
13 'Oh good Lord Judge, and sweet Lord Judge,
Peace for a little while!
Methinks I see my own true-love,
Come riding by the stile.
14 'Oh true-love, oh true-love, a little of your gold,
And likewise of your fee,
To save my body from yonder grave,
And my neck from the gallows-tree.'
15 'Some of my gold now you shall have,
And likewise of my fee,
For I am come to see you saved,
And saved you shall be.'
--------------
'The Broom o the Cathery Knowes'- Version B; Child 95 The Maid Freed From the Gallows
Motherwell Manuscript, p. 290, from the recitation of Widow McCormick; learned in Dumbarton.
1 'It's hold your hand, dear judge,' she says,
'O hold your hand for a while!
For yonder I see my father a coming,
Riding many's the mile.
2 'Have you any gold, father?' she says,
'Or have you any fee?
Or did you come to see your own daughter a hanging,
Like a dog, upon a tree?'
3 'I have no gold, daughter,' he says,
'Neither have I any fee;
But I am come to see my ain daughter hanged,
And hanged she shall be.'
4 'Hey the broom, and the bonny, bonny broom,
The broom o the Cauthery Knowes!
I wish I were at hame again,
Milking my ain daddie's ewes.
5 'Hold your hand, dear judge,' she says,
'O hold your hand for a while!
For yonder I see my own mother coming,
Riding full many a mile.
6 'Have you any gold, mother?' she says,
'Or have you any fee?
Or did you come to see your own daughter hanged,
Like a dog, upon a tree?'
7 'I have no gold, daughter,' she says,
'Neither have I any fee;
But I am come to see my own daughter hanged,
And hanged she shall be.'
8 'Hey the broom, the bonnie, bonnie broom,
The broom o the Cauthery Knowes!
I wish I were at hame again,
Milking my ain daddie's ewes.
9 'Hold your hand, dear judge,' she says,
'O hold your hand for a while!
For yonder I see my ae brother a coming,
Riding many's the mile.
10 'Have you any gold, brother?' she says,
'Or have you any fee?
Or did you come to see your ain sister a hanging,
Like a dog, upon a tree?'
11 'I have no gold, sister,' he says,
'Nor have I any fee'
But I am come to see my ain sister hanged,
And hanged she shall be.'
12 'Hey the broom, the bonnie, bonnie broom,
The broom o the Cathery Knowes!
I wish I were at hame again,
Milking my ain daddie's ewes.
13 'Hold your hand, dear judge,' she says,
'O hold your hand for a while!
For yonder I see my own true-love coming,
Riding full many a mile.
14 'Have you any gold, my true-love?' she says,
'Or have you any fee?
Or have you come to see your own love hanged,
Like a dog, upon a tree?'
-----------
['Prickly Bush' or 'Hold up thy hand, most righteous judge'] Version C; Child 95 The Maid Freed From the Gallows
Notes and Queries, Sixth Series, VII, 275, 1883: communicated by the Rev. E. Venables, Precentor of Lincoln, as sung by a nurse-maid from Woburn, near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, "between fifty and sixty years ago."
1 'Hold up thy hand, most righteous judge,
Hold up thy hand a while!
For here I see my own dear father,
Come tumbling over the stile.
2 'Oh hast thou brought me silver or gold,
Or jewels, to set me free?
Or hast thou come to see me hung?
For hanged I shall be.
3 'If I could get out of this prickly bush,
That prickles my heart so sore,
If I could get out of this prickly bush,
I'd never get in it no more.'
4 'Oh I have brought nor silver nor gold,
Nor jewels, to set thee free;
But I have come to see thee hung,
For hanged thou shall be.
* * * * *
5 'It's I have brought thee silver and gold,
And jewels, to set thee free;
I have not come to see thee hung,
For hanged thou shall not be.'
6 'Now I have got out of this prickly bush,
That prickled my heart so sore,
And I have got out of this prickly bush,
I'll never get in it no more.'
---------------
[Gallow-Tree] Version D; Child 95 The Maid Freed From the Gallows
Skene Manuscripts, p. 61, stanzas 19-24: taken down in the north or northeast of Scotland, 1802-03.
1 . . . . .
'O had your hand a while!
For yonder comes my father,
I'm sure he'l borrow me.
2 'O some of your goud, father,
An of your well won fee!
To save me [frae the high hill],
[And] frae the gallow-tree.'
3 'Ye'se get nane of my goud,
Nor of my well won fee,
For I would gie five hundred poun
To see ye hangit hie.'
4 . . . . .
'O had yer hand a while!
Yonder is my love Willie,
Sure he will borrow me.
5 'O some o your goud, my love Willie,
An some o yer well won fee!
To save me frae the high hill,
And frae the gallow-tree.'
6 'Ye'se get a' my goud,
And a' my well won fee,
To save ye fra the headin-hill,
And frae the gallow-tree.'
-----------
['Warenston and the Duke of York's Daughter'] Version E; Child 95 The Maid Freed From the Gallows
Buchan's Manuscripts, II, 186, stanzas 16-22.
1 'Hold your hands, ye justice o peace,
Hold them a little while!
For yonder comes my father and mother,
That's travelld mony a mile.
2 'Gie me some o your gowd, parents,
Some o your white monie,
To save me frae the head o yon hill,
Yon greenwood gallows-tree.'
3 'Ye'll get nane o our gowd, daughter,
Nor nane o our white monie,
For we have travelld mony a mile,
This day to see you die.'
4 'Hold your hands, ye justice o peace,
Hold them a little while!
For yonder comes him Warenston,
The father of my chile.
5 'Give me some o your gowd, Warenston,
Some o your white monie,
To save me frae the head o yon hill,
Yon greenwood gallows-tree.'
6 'I bade you nurse my bairn well,
And nurse it carefullie,
And gowd shoud been your hire, Maisry,
And my body your fee.'
7 He's taen out a purse o gowd,
Another o white monie,
And he's tauld down ten thousand crowns,
Says, True-love, gang wi me.
-----------
['Green Gallows-Tree'] Version F; Child 95 The Maid Freed From the Gallows
Notes and Queries, Sixth Series, VI, 476, 1882: "sung in Forfarshire, forty years ago."
1. Stop, stop, . . .
. . . . .
I think I see my father coming,
. . . . .
2 'O hae ye brocht my silken cloak,
Or my golden key?
Or hae ye come to see he hanged,
On this green gallows-tree?'
3 'I've neither brocht your silken cloak,
Nor your golden key,
But I have come to see you hanged,
On this green gallows-tree.'
* * * * *
4 'I've neither brocht your silken cloak,
Nor your golden key,
But I am come to set you free
From this green gallows-tree.
--------------
['Hangman'] Version G; Child 95- The Maid Freed From the Gallows
a.Notes and Queries, Sixth Series, VI, 415, 1882.
b.The same, p. 269.
1. HANGMAN, hangman, stop a minute,
. . . . .
I think I see my father coming,
. . . . .
2 'Father, father, have you found the key,
And have you come to set me free?
Or have you come to see me hanged,
Upon this gallows-tree?'
* * * * *
3 'I have not come to see you hanged,
Upon the gallows-tree,
For I have found the golden key,'
. . . . .
--------------
['Golden Ball'] Version H; Child 95 The Maid Freed From the Gallows
a. Baring-Gould's Appendix to Henderson's Notes on the Folk Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, 1866, p. 333, Yorkshire,
b.Notes and Queries, Sixth Series, X, 354, 1884.
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.'
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.'
7 'Stop, stop! . . .
. . . . .
I see my sweet-heart coming,
. . . . .
8 'Sweet-heart, 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.'
----------
[Gallows- Tree'] Version I; Child 95 The Maid Freed From the Gallows
Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy, No. 127, Abbotsford. Sent to John Leyden, by whom and when does not appear.
1 'Hold your tongue, Lord Judge,' she says,
'Yet hold it a little while;
Methinks I see my ain dear father
Coming wandering many a mile.
2 'O have you brought me gold, father?
Or have you brought me fee?
Or are you come to save my life
From off this gallows-tree?'
3 'I have not brought you gold, daughter,
Nor have I brought you fee,
But I am come to see you hangd,
As you this day shall be.'
* * * * *
4 'I have not brought you gold, true-love,
Nor yet have I brought fee,
But I am come to save thy life
From off this gallows-tree.'
5 'Gae hame, gae hame, father,' she says,
'Gae hame and saw yer seed;
And I wish not a pickle of it may grow up,
But the thistle and the weed.
6 'Gae hame, gae hame, gae hame, mother,
Gae hame and brew yer yill;
And I wish the girds may a' loup off,
And the Deil spill a' yer yill.
7 'Gae hame, gae hame, gae hame, brother,
Gae hame and lie with yer wife;
And I wish that the first news I may hear
That she has tane your life.
8 'Gae hame, gae hame, sister,' she says,
'Gae hame and sew yer seam;
I wish that the needle-point may break,
And the craws pyke out yer een.'
----------
['Hold up, hold up your hands so high!'] Version J; Child 95 The Maid Freed From the Gallows
Communicated by Dr. George Birkbeck 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. Given from memory.
1 'Hold up, hold up your hands so high!
Hold up your hands so high!
For I think I see my own father
Coming over yonder stile to me.
2 'Oh father, have you got any gold for me?
Any money for to pay me free?
To keep my body from the cold clay ground,
And my neck from the gallows-tree?'
3 'Oh no, I've got no gold for thee,
No money for to pay thee free,
For I've come to see thee hangd this day,
And hang d thou shalt be.'
4 'Oh the briers, prickly briers,
Come prick my heart so sore;
I ever I get from the gallows-tree,
I'll never get there any more.'
* * * * *
5 'Oh yes, I've got some gold for thee,
Some money for to pay thee free;
I'll save thy body from the cold clay ground,
And thy neck from the gallows-tree.'
6 'Oh the briers, prickly briers,
Don't prick my heart any more;
For now I've got from the gallows' tree
I'll never get there any more.'
--------
'The Prickly Bush'- Version K; Child 95 The Maid Freed From the Gallows
Mr. Heywood Sumner, in English County Songs, by Lucy E. Broadwood and J.A. Fuller Maitland, p. 112. From Somersetshire.
1 'O hangman, hold thy hand,' he cried,
'O hold thy hand awhile,
For I can see my own dear father
Coming over yonder stile.
2 'O father, have you brought me gold?
Or will you set me free?
Or be you come to see me hung,
All on this high gallows-tree?'
3 'No, I have not brought thee gold,
And I will not set thee free,
But I am come to see thee hung,
All on this high gallows-tree.'
4 '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.'
5 'Yes, I have brought thee gold,' she cried,
'And I will set thee free,
And I am come, but not to see thee hung
All on this high gallous-tree.'
'Oh, the prickly bush,' etc.
-----------
End-Notes
B. The title, 'The Broom o the Cathery Knowes,' is not prefixed to the ballad, but is given in the Index.
54. Changed by Motherwell to many's the mile, as in 1.
12. Hey the broom, &c.
C. This version, which the Rev. E. Venables has also communicated to me in manuscript, was tagged on to a fragment of 'Hugh of Lincoln.'
After 4: "Mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, etc., succeed. At last comes the own true love, who replies."
B. 23,4. Restored from stanza 5.
F. "It was sung in Forfarshire forty years ago by girls during the progress of some game, which I do not now distinctly recollect. A lady, at the point of being executed, cries Stop, stop! I think I see my father coming. Then, addressing her father, she asks," as in stanza 2; "to which the father replies," as in stanza 3. "Mother, brother, sister, are each addressed in turn, and give the same answer. Last of all the fair sinner sees her lover coming, and on putting the question to him is answered thus," as in stanza, 4; "whereupon the game ends." W.F. (2), Saline Manse, Fife.
G. a. Before stanza 1: "I think the title of this ballad is 'The Golden Key.' The substance of it is that a woman has lost a gold key, and is about to be hung, when she exclaims, as in stanza 1. Then follows " stanza 2. After 2: "Father, mother, brother, sister, all in turn come up, and have not found the lost key. At last the sweet-heart appears, who exclaims triumphantly," as in stanza 3. "I write this from memory. I never saw it in print." H. Fishwick.
b. "A lady writes to me, My mother used to hear, in Lancashire and Cheshire, a ballad of which she only recollects three lines:
And I 'm not come to set you free,
But I am come to see you hanged,
All under the gallows-tree.
The last line was repeated, I believe, in every verse." William Andrews.
H. a. The verses form part of a Yorkshire story 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.
"Now t' lass was taken to York to be hanged. She was brought out on t' scaffold, and t' hangman said, Now, lass, tha must hang by t' neck till tha be'st dead. But she cried out, Stop, stop," etc., stanzas 1-3.
"Then the hangman said. Now, lass, say thy prayers, for tha must dee." Stanzas 4-6 follow. The maid thinks she sees her brother coming, her sister, uncle, aunt, cousin. The Hangman then says, "I wee-nt 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 it' air her own golden ball. So she said," as in stanzas 7-9.
b. Miss Kate Thompson, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, had when a child frequently been told the story of The Golden Ball by a woman who was a native of the Borderland. A rich lady possessed a golden ball, which she held in high esteem. A poor girl, her servant, had to clean this ball every day, and it was death to lose it. One day when she was cleaning the ball near a stream it disappeared. The girl was condemned to die, and had mounted the scaffold. The story was all in prose up to the execution, when the narrator broke into rhyme:
'Stop the rope! stop the rope!
For here I see my mother coming.
'Oh mother, have you brought the golden ball,
And come to set me free?
Or are you only here to see me die,
Upon the high, high gallows-tree?'
The mother answers that she has only come to see her die. Other relatives follow, and last of all comes the lover, who produces the ball, and the execution is stopped. Miss Thompson adds that two Northumbrian servants in her house remember the story so.
-----------
Additions and Corrections
Note: There are two footnotes in Additions and Corrections, moved at the end.
[From Vol. 4]
P. 349 b. Add: Antonovitch and Dragomanof, Historical Songs of the Little-Russian People, Kief, 1874, I, 102, No 34; Chodzko, Les Chants historiques de l'Ukraine, p. 72. A Cossack writes to his father from prison, begging to he ransomed. 'How much?' asks the father. 'Eight oxen to every house, with their plows.' If he must give so much, the son will have to die. The son writes to his mother. 'How much do they ask?' 'Eight milch-cows, with their calves.' At that rate he will have to die. He writes to his love. 'How much must be paid?' Seven hundred ducks from each house.' She would rather part with all she has than let him die.
------------------------------
[From Vol. 3]
P. 346. Mr. Alfred Nutt has communicated to the Folk-Lore Journal, VI, 144, 1888, the outline of a ballad in which, as in some versions of the European continent, the man has the place of the maid. But this may be a modern turn to the story, arising from the disposition to mitigate a tragic tale. The ballad was obtained "from a relative of Dr. Birbeck Hill's, in whose family it is traditional. Mother, father, and brethren all refuse him aid, but his sweetheart is kinder, and buys him off." For the burden see C 6, which, as well as B 12, might better have been printed as such.
1 'Hold up, hold up your hands so high!
Hold up your hands so high!
For I think I see my own mother coming
Oer yonder stile to me.
Oh the briars, the prickly briars,
They prick my heart full sore;
If ever I get free from the gallows-tree,
I'[ll] never get there any more.
2 'Oh mother hast thou any gold for me,
Any money to buy me free,
To save my body from the cold clay ground,
And my head from the gallows-tree?'
3 'Oh no, I have no gold for thee,
No money to buy thee free,
For I have come to see thee hanged,
And hanged thou shalt be.'
Struppa's text of 'Scibilia Nobili' is repeated in Salomone-Marino's Leggende p. siciliane in Poesia, p. 160, No 29. The editor supplies defects and gives some varying readings from another version, in which Scibilia is the love, not the wife, of a cavalier. — Mango, Calabria, in Archivio, I, 394, No 75 (wife). — 'La Prigioniera,' Giannini, No 25, p. 195, two copies, reduces the story to four or five stanzas. The sequel, No 26, p. 197, is likely to have been originally an independent ballad. It is attached to 'Scibilia Nobili,' but is found separately in Bernoni, XI, No 3, 'La Figlia snaturata,' Finamore, Archivio, I, 212, 'Catarine.'
347 b. 'Frísa vísa' is reprinted by Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi, p. 268, No 34. The editor expressly says that the ballad is used as a children's game, like the English F. So also are Danish A, and a Magyar ballad of like purport, to be mentioned presently.
348 b. Danish. A, in Kristensen's Skattegraveren, 'Jomfruens udløsning,' II, 49, No 279, 1884; B, III, 5, No 3, 1885. From tradition. Both versions agree with the Swedish in all important points, and the language of B points to a Swedish derivation.
349 a. Ransom for maid refused by father, mother, brother, sister, and paid by lover: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I, 50, No 11; II, 245, No 7. (W. W.)
34 9 b, 514 a. Man redeemed by maid when abandoned by his own blood: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I, 250, No 26; Servian, Vuk, III, 547, No 83; Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 254, No 61, p. 352, No 96. (W.W.)
In a Slovak ballad in Kollar, Národnie Zpiewanky, II, 13, translated by Herrmann, Ethnologische Mittheilungen, col. 42 f., John, in prison, writes to his father to ransom him; the father asks how much would have to be paid; four hundred pieces of gold and as many of silver; the father replies that he has not so much, and his son must perish. An ineffectual letter to mother, brother, sister, follows; then one to his sweetheart. She brings a long rope, with which he is to let himself down from his dungeon. If the rope proves too short, he is to add his long hair (cf. I, 40 b, line 2, 486 b); and if it be still too short, he may light upon her shoulders. John escapes. Nearly the same is the Polish ballad translated in Waldbrühl's Balalaika, which is referred to II, 350 b.
A fragment of a Szekler ransom-ballad is found in Arany and Gyulai's collection, III, 42: Herrmann, as above, col. 49. Another form of love-test is very popular in Hungary, of which Herrmann gives eight versions. In one of these, from a collection made in 1813, Arany and Gyulai, I, 189 (Herrmann's IV), the story is told with the conciseness of the English ballad. A snake has crept into a girl's bosom: she entreats her father to take it out; he dares not, and sends her to her mother; the mother has as little devotion and courage as the father, and sends her to her brother; she is successively passed on to sister-in-law, brother-in-law, sister; then appeals to her lover, who instantly does the service. This is the kernel, and perhaps all that is original, in versions, I (of Herrmann), col. 34 f., contributed by Kalmany; II, 36 f., contributed by Szabó; V, col. 38, Kalmany, Koszorúk az Alföld vad Virágaioból, I, 21, translated into German by Wlislocki, Ungarische Revue, 1884, p. 344; VIII, col. 39, Kálmány, Szeged Népe, II, 13. In Herrmann, VI, col. 38, Kálmány, Koszorúk, II, 62; VII, col. 38 f., Kálmány, Szeged Népe, II, 12; and III, col. 37 (a fragment), young man and maid change parts. In I, III, V (?), VI, VII, the father says he can better do without a daughter (son) than without one of his hands, and the youth (maid) would rather lose one of his (her) hands than his (her) beloved.[1] In I the snake has been turned to a purse of gold when the maid attempts to take it out; in II, according to a prose and prosaic comment of the reciter, there was no snake, but the girl had put a piece of gold in her bosom, and calls it a yellow adder to experiment upon her family; in VII, again, there is no snake, but a rouleau of gold, and the snake is explained away in like manner in a comment to VIII. Even the transformation in I is to be deprecated; the money in the others is a modern depravation.
A brief ballad of the Transylvania Gipsies, communicated and translated by Wlislocki, Ungarische Revue, 1884, p. 345 f., agrees with the second series of those above. A youth summons mother and sister to take a reptile from his breast; they are afraid; his sweetheart will do it if she dies. A very pretty popular Gipsy tale to the same effect is given by Herrmann, col. 40 f.
A Roumanian ballad, 'Giurgiu,' closely resembling the Magyar I, VII, from Pompiliu Miron's Balade populare romane, p. 41, is given in translation by Herrmann, col. 106 ff.; a fragment of another, with parts reversed, col. 213.
A man, to make trial of his blood-relations, begs father, mother, etc., to take out a snake from his breast, and is refused by all. His wife puts in her hand and takes out a pearl necklace, which she receives as her reward: Servian, Vuk, I, No 289, Herzegovine, No 136, Petranovic, Serajevo, 1867, p. 191, No 20; Slavonian, Stojanovic', No 20. (W. W.)
There are many variations on this theme, of which one more may be specified. A drowning girl given over by her family is saved by her lover: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, II, 80, No 14, 104, No 18, 161, No 15, 726, No 11; Servian, Vuk, I, Nos 290, 291; Bulgarian, Dozon, p. 98, No 61; Polish, Kolberg, Lud, 1857, I, 151, 12a. Again, man is saved by maid: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I, 114, No 28; Waclaw z Oleska, p. 226. (W. W.)
------------------------------
[Vol. 4 Part 2]
P. 346, HI, 516 a. Add 'Leggenda Napitina' (still sung by the sailors of Pizzo); communicated to La Calabria, June 15, 1889, p. 74, by Salvatore Mele; Canto Marinaresco di Nicotera, the same, September 15, 1890. A wife is rescued by her husband.
347 b. Swedish. 'Den bortsålda,' Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 22, No 6, a, b, c.
349 b, 514 a, III, 516 b, and especially 517 a. A wounded soldier calls to mother, sister, father, brother for a drink of water, and gets none; calls to his love, and she brings it: Waldau, Böhmische Granaten, II, 57, No 81.
[Add version I]
I. "Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy," No 127, Abbotsford. Sent to John Leyden, by whom and when does not appear.
1 'Hold your tongue, Lord Judge,' she says,
'Yet hold it a little while;
Methinks I see my ain dear father
Coming wandering many a mile.
2 'O have you brought me gold, father?
Or have you brought me fee?
Or are you come to save my life
From off this gallows-tree?'
3 'I have not brought you gold, daughter,
Nor have I brought you fee,
But I am come to see you hangd,
As you this day shall be.'
* * * * *
4 'I have not brought you gold, true-love,
Nor yet have I brought fee,
But I am come to save thy life
From off this gallows-tree.'
5 'Gae hame, gae hame, father,' she says,
'Gae hame and saw yer seed;
And I wish not a pickle of it may grow up,
But the thistle and the weed.
6 'Gae hame, gae hame, gae hame, mother,
Gae hame and brew yer yill;
And I wish the girds may a' loup off,
And the Deil spill a' yer yill.
7 'Gae hame, gae hame, gae hame, brother,
Gae hame and lie with yer wife;
And I wish that the first news I may hear
That she has tane your life.
8 'Gae hame, gae hame, sister,' she says,
'Gae hame and sew yer seam;
I wish that the needle-point may break,
And the craws pyke out yer een.'
[Add version J]
J. Communicated by Dr. George Birkbeck 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. Given from memory.
1 'Hold up, hold up your hands so high!
Hold up your hands so high!
For I think I see my own father
Coming over yonder stile to me.
2 'Oh father, have you got any gold for me?
Any money for to pay me free?
To keep my body from the cold clay ground,
And my neck from the gallows-tree?'
3 'Oh no, I've got no gold for thee,
No money for to pay thee free,
For I've come to see thee hangd this day,
And hang d thou shalt be.'
4 'Oh the briers, prickly briers,
Come prick my heart so sore;
I ever I get from the gallows-tree,
I'll never get there any more.'
* * * * *
5 'Oh yes, I've got some gold for thee,
Some money for to pay thee free;
I'll save thy body from the cold clay ground,
And thy neck from the gallows-tree.'
6 'Oh the briers, prickly briers,
Don't prick my heart any more;
For now I've got from the gallows' tree
I'll never get there any more.'
["I do not know any title to this song except 'Hold up, hold up your hands so high!' It was by that title that we called for it."]
Julius Krohn has lately made an important contribution to our knowledge of this ballad in an article in Virittäjä, II, 36-50, translated into German under the title 'Das Lied vom Mädchen welches erlöst werden soll,' Helsingfors, 1891. Professor Estlander had previously discussed the ballad in Finsk Tidskrift, X, 1881 (which I have not yet seen), and had sought to show that it was of Finnish origin, a view which Krohn disputes and refutes. There are nearly fifty Finnish versions. The curse with which I ends, and which is noted as occurring in Swedish C (compare also the Sicilian ballad), is never wanting in the Finnish, and is found also in the Esthonian copies.
--------------------------------
P. 346, 111, 516 a, IV, 481 b. Italian. Maria Carmi, Canti pop. Emiliani, Archivio, XII, 189. Brunetina, after she has been rescued by her lover, is informed, while she is dancing at a ball, that her mother is dead. Bury her, she replies, I will dress in complete red, and she goes on dancing. So of her father. But when told that her lover is dead, she says she will dress in complete black, and bids the music stop, for she wishes to dance no more. 'La Ballerina,' Nigra, No 107, p. 469, is no doubt the last half of this ballad corrupted at the conclusion. The woman will not stop dancing for the reported death of father, mother, brother, sister, husband, but when told that her boy is dead asks the players to cease, her legs are broken, she can dance no more.
In 'Leggenda Marinesca' (di Catanzaro), La Calabria, October, 1893, VI, 16, a wife (or perhaps an affianced young woman) is ransomed from pirates by her husband (or betrothed), after father, mother, and brother have refused. If her father, mother, brother, should die, she would deck her hair, dress in red, yellow, or white, bid the guitar strike up, and dance; but if her true-love died, she would put on black, cut her hair, and throw the guitar into the sea.
349. Mr. Kaarle Krohn, of the University of Helsingfors, has favored me with the following study of the very numerous Finnish and Esthonian versions of this ballad, incorporating therein the researches of his father, Julius Krohn, already referred to at IV, 482 a. (Estlander's discussion, which I had not seen, "Sången om den friköpta," occupies pp. 331-356 of the tenth volume of Finsk Tidskrift.)
I. The West Finnish versions, dispersed over West and East Finland and Ingria. These are in the modern metre, which came into use hardly before the end of the seventeenth century, and it is in the highest degree probable that they were learned from the Swedes. About thirty copies known. Specimen, Reinholm's collection, H 12, No 76, from the Nystad district northward from Abo, in Southwest Finland; J.K., p. 11.[2]
Prevailing traits: 1. The maid is sitting in a little room, less frequently in a ship's cabin or a boat. 2. The father has three horses. 3. The mother has three cows. 4. The brother has three swords. 5. The sister has three crowns, or, in copies from further east, where crowns are not used for head-gear, three silk kerchiefs. 6. The lover has three ships, or almost as often three castles (mansions). There are variations, but rarely, as to the objects possessed, and sometimes exchanges, but only two cases are of importance. In one copy from the extreme of Southeast Finland, the father has three oxen, which seems to be the original disposition, the change to horses coming about from the circumstance that oxen are seldom employed for ploughing in Finland. In four copies from the most eastern part of Finland the sister has three sheep, perhaps owing to the influence of the East Finnish versions. 7. The imprecations and benedictions at the end occur regularly. May the horses be knocked up or die at ploughing-time; may the cows die, dry up, etc., at milking-time; the swords shiver in war-time; the crowns fall off or melt at wedding or dance (the silk kerchiefs tear, fade, spoil with wet); and on the other hand, may the ships sail well, do well, make money at trading-time; the castles rise, flourish in time of destitution, of bad crops. Etc.
II. The later Esthonian versions, Esthonia and Livonia, in modern metre, of more recent origin, probably, than in Finland. About twenty copies known. Specimen, J. Hurt, Vana Kannel, II, 365, No 367. Lilla is sitting in the little room in weary expectation. She sees her father walking on the sea-beach. 'Dear father, beloved father, ransom me!' 'Wherewith ransom you, when I have no money?' 'You have three horses at home, and can pawn one.' 'I can do better without my Lilla than without my three horses; the horses are mine for all my life, Lilla for a short time.' In like fashion, the mother is not willing to sacrifice one of her three cows, the brother one of his three swords, the sister one of her three rings. But the lover, who has three ships, says, I can better give up a ship than give up my dear Lilla; my ships are mine for a short time, but Lilla for all my life. Lilla breaks out in execrations: may her father's horses fall dead when they are ploughing in summer, may her mother's cows dry up in milking, her brother's swords shiver in war, her sister's rings break in the very act of marrying; but may her true-love's ships long bring home precious wares.
Prevailing traits: 1. Lilla; in some copies from East Livonia, Roosi. 2. Little room; quite as often prison-tower. 3. The father has horses, the mother cows, the brother swords, as in the West Finnish versions. The independency of the Esthonian ballad is exhibited in the sister's three rings. It must, as far as I can at present see, have been borrowed directly from the Swedish, not through the medium of the Finnish. The lover has always three ships, and it is often wished that these ships may sail well in storm and in winter. The maledictions occur regularly, as in the example cited. There are some divergences as to the items of property, mostly occasioned by the older Esthonian version: thus, the father has sometimes oxen or corn-lofts, the brother horses, the sister brooches.
III. The older Esthonian versions, disseminated in Esthonia and Livonia, and also among the orthodox Esthonians beyond Pskov. These are in the old eight-syllable measure of the runes (and of Kalevala). More than a hundred copies have been obtained.
a. Best preserved and of most frequent occurrence in the island of Osel. Twenty copies. Specimen from J. Hurt's manuscript collections. Anne goes into the cow-house and soils her cap. She proceeds to the sea-beach to wash her cap. Ships come from Russia, from Courland. Anne is made captive. She weeps, and begs that the ship may be stopped; she wishes to take a look homewards. Her father has three oxen, one of which has silver horns, another copper, the third golden, but he will give none of them for her. Her mother has three cows, with silver, copper, golden udders; her brother, three horses, with the same variety of manes; her sister, three sheep, with wool of the three sorts; a neighbor's son, three lofts full of wheat, rye, barley. She wishes that the oxen may die in ploughing-time, the cows in milk-time, the horses at wooing-time, the sheep at wool-time; but may the corn-lofts of the neighbor's son grow fuller in the direst famine-time.
Prevailing traits: 1. The maid's name is Anne. 2. The pirates are Russians (10 times), Poles (6), Courlanders (2), Swedes (1), Germans (1), English (1). 3. The father has commonly oxen; the mother, cows always; the brother, almost always horses; the sister, sheep, six times, oftener than anything else; the lover, ordinarily corn-lofts. 4. The cursing occurs ten times. There are in a few cases exchanges of the sorts of property (thus, the father has corn-lofts, the sister has brooches, each four times), and in two instances the lover is omitted. The ballad has perhaps been affected by another (see II, 347 f.) in which a girl receives information that she has been sold by her relations: by her father for a pair of oxen (25 cases) or for a horse (18), by her mother for a cow, by her brother for a horse (24) or for a pair of oxen (14), by her sister for a brooch; and she curses all that they have got by the sale.
b. Less perfect and not so well preserved on the Esthonian mainland. About 100 copies, more or fewer. Specimens, Neus, p. 109, No 34, Hurt, Vana Kannel, I, 166, No 103, II, 310, No 442.
Prevailing traits: 1. The name of the maid, Anne, and the introduction linked to it, are often dropped, especially in the southeast of the Esthonian district, and a passage about a young conscript who wishes to be bought off from serving is substituted. The maid, whose brothers have hidden away, is pressed instead of them, and sent into service. As she is driven by the house of her parents in the military wagon she entreats her guards not to make sail! 2. The kidnapper is most frequently a Russian, then Pole, Swede, less commonly German, Courlander. In the northeast of the Esthonian district, on the border of Ingria, Karelian, four times. 3. The father often keeps the oxen, but almost as often has horses; the brother, in these last cases, has seldom oxen, generally horses as well as the father. The alteration is in part owing to the same material occasion as in the West Finnish versions; sometimes an influence from the ballad of the maiden who has been sold by her relatives may be suspected (in which ballad it is not easy to say whether the oxen belong originally to father or brother). Frequently the father has corn-lofts, the lover, to whom these would belong, having dropped out. The mother has almost always cows; in the northeast, on the Ingrian border, three times, aprons. The brother has generally horses, five times oxen, with other individual variations. The sister has preserved the sheep only four times; eight times she has brooches, and in one of these cases the ballad of the maid sold by her relatives is blended with ours, while in the remainder the influence of that ballad is observable. In six cases she has rings, perhaps under the influence of the later Esthonian versions. In the southeast she has chests seven times, and in most of these cases the lover has the rings. Other variations occur from one to four times. The lover has his corn-lofts nine times. Eight times he has horses, and in half of these instances he has exchanged with the brother, or both have horses. Twice he has ships, through the influence of the later Esthonian versions; or rings, in which cases the father ordinarily has the corn-lofts. 4. The imprecation in the conclusion is but rarely preserved.
IV. The East Finnish versions. Diffused in Ingria, East Finland, and Russian Karelia. In the old rune-measure, about forty copies. Specimen, Ahlqvist's collection, from East Finland, No 351: see J.K., p. 11.
Prevailing traits: 1. The maid is in a boat on the Neva. 2. The kidnapper is a Russian. 3. The father has a horse, the mother a cow, the brother a horse, the sister a sheep (each with an epithet). 4. The imprecation is almost without exception preserved. This version arose from a blending of the West Finnish, I, the older Esthonian, III, and the ballad of the maid sold by her relatives. This latter occurs in West Ingria in the following shape: The maid gets tidings that she has been sold. The father has received for her a gold-horse (may it founder when on the way to earn gold!), the mother a portly cow (may it spill its milk on the ground!), the brother a war-horse (may the horse founder on the war-path!), the sister a bluish sheep (may wolf and bear rend it!). In some copies the father or the brother has oxen (may they fall dead in ploughing!), as in the Esthonian ballad, from which the Ingrian is borrowed. The sister's sheep instead of brooch shows perhaps the influence of the older Esthonian ballad of the maid begging to be ransomed, or it may be an innovation.
The ballad of the maid sold by her family occurs in West Ingria independently, and also as an introduction to the other, and has been the occasion for the changes in the possessions of the relatives. North of St. Petersburg the combination is not found, though it has left its traces in the course of the spreading of the ballad from Narva to St. Petersburg.
The maid's sitting in a boat may come as well from the older Esthonian as from the West Finnish version, although it is more common in the latter for her to be sitting in the "little room." The Russian as the kidnapper is a constant feature in the older Esthonian version, but occurs also three times in the West Finnish (once it is the red-headed Dane, in the copy in which the oxen are preserved). Besides Russian, the kidnapper is once called Karelian in West Ingria, often in East Finland, and this denomination also occurs in Northeast Esthonia. The influence of the older Esthonian versions is shown again in some copies preserved in West Ingria which are not mixed up with the ballad of the maid that has been sold; the mother having three aprons in two instances, as in some Northeast Esthonian copies.
The river Neva as a local designation is preserved in East Finland, and shows that the version in which it occurs migrated from Ingria northwards. In the course of its migration (which ends in Russian Karelia) this version has become mixed with the West Finnish in multiform ways. The prelude of the East Finnish has attached itself to the West Finnish, notwithstanding the different metre. The trilogy of the latter has made its way into the former, and has spoiled the measure. It is no doubt owing to the influence of the Western version that, in North Ingria and Karelia, the brother, more frequently the lover, has a war-sword, the lover once a sea-ship, or the brother a red boat or war-boat.
Finally it may be noted that in those West Ingrian copies in which the ballads of the maid sold and the maid ransomed are blended the ransomer is a son-in-law, and possesses "a willow castle" (wooden strong-house?), the relation of which to the castle in the West Finnish version is not clear.
If we denote the West Finnish versions by a, the older Esthonian by b, the ballad of the maid sold by her family by c, the status of the East-Finnish versions may be exhibited thus:
In West Ingria, b + c + a.
In North Ingria, b + c + a + a.
In Karelia, b + c + a + a + a.
That is to say, there has been a constantly increasing influence exerted by the West Finnish versions upon the East Finnish Ingrian versions, and reciprocally. This circumstance has caused it to be maintained that the East Finnish versions were derived from the West Finnish, in spite of the difference of the metre.
353 a. F was communicated by Rev. W. Findlay: Findlay Manuscripts, I, 100.
353. H. c. Mrs. Bacheller, of Jacobstown, North Cornwall (sister of Mrs. Gibbons, from whom 78 H was derived, see IV, 474 b), gave Rev. S. Baring-Gould the following version of the tale, taught her by a Cornish nursery maid, probably the same mentioned at the place last cited.
"A king had three daughters. He gave each a golden ball to play with, which they were never to lose. The youngest lost hers, and was to be hung on the gallows-tree if it were not found by a day named. Gallows ready, all waiting to see the girl hung. She sees her father coming, and cries:
'Father, father, have you found my golden ball.
And will you set me free?'
'I've not found your golden ball,
And I can't set you free;
But I am come to see you hanged
Upon the gallows-tree.'
The same repeated with every relationship, brother, sister, etc.; then comes the lover:
'Lover, lover, have you found the golden ball,'
etc.
'Yes, I have found your golden ball,
And I can set you free;
I'm not come to see you hung
Upon the gallows-tree.'"
354, IV, 481 f.
K. 'The Prickly Bush,' Mr. Heywood Sumner, in English County Songs, by Lucy E. Broadwood and J.A. Fuller Maitland, p. 112. From Somersetshire.
1 'O hangman, hold thy hand,' he cried,
'O hold thy hand awhile,
For I can see my own dear father
Coming over yonder stile.
2 'O father, have you brought me gold?
Or will you set me free?
Or be you come to see me hung,
All on this high gallows-tree?'
3 'No, I have not brought thee gold,
And I will not set thee free,
But I am come to see thee hung,
All on this high gallows-tree.'
4 '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.'
The above is repeated three times more, with the successive substitution of 'mother,' 'brother,' 'sister,' for 'father.' Then the first two stanzas are repeated, with'sweetheart' for 'father,' and instead of 3 is sung:
5 'Yes, I have brought thee gold,' she cried,
'And I will set thee free,
And I am come, hut not to see thee hung
All on this high gallous-tree.'
6 '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.'
In this version, a man is expressly delivered by a maid, contrary to the general course of tradition. So apparently in J, IV, 481, as understood by Dr. Birkbeck Hill.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Vol. 5, part 2]
P. 346 f., III, 516 a, IV, 481 a, V, 231 a. Michele Barbi, Poesia popolare pistoiese, p. 9, found a fragment of Scibilia Nobili at Pian dagli Ontani under the name of Violina, and Giannini's 'Prigioniera' (III, 516 a), otherwise 'Mosettina,' under the name 'Violina,' 'Brunetta,' etc.
The following copy was communicated by Mr. W.W. Newell, as derived from Miss Emma M. Backus, North Carolina, who says: "This is an old English song in the Yorkshire dialect, which was brought over to Virginia before the Revolution. It has not been written for generations, for none of the family have been able to read or write." Miss Backus adds that the pronunciation indicated is by no means that which is ordinarily used by the people who sing this ballad. It will, however, be noted that the Yorkshire dialect is not well preserved.
The Hangman's Tree
1 'Hangman, hangman, howd yo hand,
O howd it wide and far!
For theer I see my feyther coomin,
Riding through the air.
2 'Feyther, feyther, ha yo brot me goold?
Ha yo paid my fee?
Or ha yo coom to see me hung,
Beneath tha hangman's tree?'
3 'I ha naw brot yo goold,
I ha naw paid yo fee,
But I ha coom to see yo hung
Beneath tha hangman's tree.'
4 'Hangman, hangman, howd yo hand,
O howd it wide and far!
For theer I see my meyther coomin,
Riding through the air.
5 'Meyther, meyther, ha yo brot me goold?
Ha yo paid my fee?
Or ha yo coom to see me hung,
Beneath tha hangman's tree?'
6 'I ha naw brot yo goold,
I ha naw paid yo fee,
But I ha coom to see yo hung
Beneath tha hangman's tree.'
7 'Hangman, hangman, howd yo hand,
O howd it wide and far!
For theer I see my sister coomin,
Riding through the air.
8 'Sister, sister, ha yo brot me goold?
Ha yo paid my fee?
Or ha yo coom to see me hung,
Beneath tha hangman's tree?'
9 'I ha naw brot yo goold,
I ha naw paid yo fee,
But I ha coom to see yo hung
Beneath tha hangman's tree.'
10 'Hangman, hangman, howd yo hand,
O howd it wide and far!
For theer I see my sweetheart coomin,
Riding through the air.
11 '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?'
12 Oh I ha brot yo goold,
And I ha paid yo fee,
And I ha coom to take yo froom
Beneath tha hangman's tree.'
34. hangmens.
43. mither.
52. Or ha.
53. hang.
54, 84, 114. gallows tree.
123. An.
124. the.
348 b. German. Böhme, in his edition of Erk's Liederhort, I, 277, adds a copy, from singing, dated 1878, 'Die Losgekaufte,' No 78 e.
349 f., 514 a, III, 516 b. A young man in prison bought out by his sweetheart, father, mother, etc., refusing help: Little Russian, Romanov, I, 63, No 2; Croatian, Valjavec, p. 303, No 19, 'Junak vu Madjarski vuzi;' Great Russian, Jakuskin, p. 147 f.; Ruthenian, Kolberg, Pokucie, II, 226 f., Nos 418, 420. Woman rescued by lover from Tatar who was about to kill her, the blood-relations declining: Romanov, I, 53, No 105. 514 a. In Nesselmann's Littauische Volkslieder, No 119, p. 96, and Bartsch's Dainu Balsai, I, 147, No 107, II, 202, No 321 (from Bezzenberger, Litauische Forschungen, p. 17, No 27), we have a ballad of a youth who does not get release from confinement though his blood relations lay down handsomely for him, but in the end is freed by his sweetheart with a trifle of a ring or a garland. In Bartsch, I, 63, No 53, a girl who has been shut up nine years is let alone by her father and her brother, but liberated by her lover; II, 296, Ulmann, Lettische Volkslieder, p. 168, relations make an attempt to buy off a conscript, without success, but his sweetheart effects his release by selling her garland. Silly stories all.
-------------------------
Additions and Corrections Footnotes:
1. The "white hand" in the Slovenian ballad, II, 350, is hard to explain unless there is a mixture of a prison-ballad and a snake-ballad.
2. This reference is to the article by Julius Krohn mentioned at IV, 482 a.