A DESCRIPTION OF VARIATION IN THE TRADITIONAL BALLAD OF AMERICA
A DESCRIPTION OF VARIATION IN THE TRADITIONAL BALLAD OF AMERICA
Any description of ballad variation, and particularly a description concerning the Child ballad in America [7], must deal with three interwoven forces: personal factors, general trends of folk art, and print. Of the three, perhaps the personal factors are the most interesting. Certainly they have by far the most widespread influence. Forgetting, contamination of one ballad by stanzas from another, use of a cliche to fill in forgotten material, desire for more dramatic effects, tendency to rationalize unbelievable situations, use of localisms, invention of new story matter, misunderstanding in the oral transmission of a phrase, and the adaptation of old words to a modified or new tune, are all means by which the individual singer may
change a ballad. [8]
Whether such changes are ever done consciously is a matter of some dispute. A. K. Davis, in the introductory remarks to his Virginia collection [9] , prints a statement that many singers do purposefully vary their material. Quoting a Miss Flauntleroy, he notes,
Some ballad singers, probably most ballad singers, . , . would regard the slightest deviation in words or tune hardly short a crime, while others, of less exact memories or less strict ideals, sometimes sing unimportant words or lines differently, and even vary the melodies, which is even more confusing.
MacKenzie, however, offers a passage in opposition in his Quest of the Ballad.
I have laid constant stress on my belief that no ballad-singer ever makes a conscious or deliberate change in the phraseology of his song and so far, at least, as my own experience goes, there is not a shred of evidence against this belief. [10]
That Miss Flauntleroy is almost certainly correct is not of paramount
importance here. The point is that variation does occur. And, with respect
to this variation the general nature of folk narrative art is somewhat paradox-
ical. There are constants, and there are definite trends. The central or
climactic dramatic situation, the outline of the plot, the stanzas with par-
ticularly vivid passages, the figures of speech, the imbedded cliche, all tend
to hold the story and the text firm. While an inclination to move away from
diffuseness toward concentration upon a single part of a single incident and
the desire to universalize the material often opposes these factors. 11 Thus,
where the trends can operate with aid from personal factors, masses of detail,
archaic phraseology, commonly recurring situations, and the excess material
sometimes found at the beginning and end of the songs, the constants are
2* 3
4. British Traditional Ballad in North America
frequently overridden. However, it must not be forgotten that such over-
riding does not invariably, nor even consistently happen.
The force of print on the ballad is difficult to estimate. 12 In the first place,
printed broadsides, chapbook texts, songster versions, etc. are no longer
ballads to be safely studied as a part of folklore. For even if the editor has
been careful to retain the language and phraseology of a text received by
him from oral tradition, a fact seldom likely and almost never ascertainable,
one of the essential ingredients of the ballad has been eliminated when the
song is circulated on paper. 13 In the second place, the question "Can a ballad
be reborn from print ?" must be answered. That is, can a song that has gone
from oral tradition into print return to oral tradition and be considered a
folk song f There seems no reason that it cannot. Almost all collectors 14 have
taken this stand. Jn addition, there is ample evidence that a number of folk
songs have not only been reborn from print, but have had their origin on
paper. 15 In the third place, although a ballad that enters print were never
reborn, it may still influence oral versions of the story through any one of
the personal factors. A singer reading or hearing recited or sung a printed
version of a text he knows in fragmentary form may "fill" or vary his text
accordingly. And, in the last place, the poet who adapts a specific popular
ballad to his sophisticated ends, as did Burns, Hamilton, Scott, Swinburne', 16
and others, may find his song reentering oral tradition 17 and perhaps in-
fluencing the original song that has continued on in oral tradition.
Keeping all these points in mind, then, one can easily see that the press can
mould the history of traditional texts to a great extent. A song and its story
may be preserved from the normal forces of folk art for many years before it
reenters oral tradition. What become unusual events and expressions are
retained intact, while the new version in turn gives birth to a series of strik-
ingly similar texts. 18 Editorial modifications, such as sentimentalized endings
and moralizing, may be inserted and return with the song to the folk. Some-
times such an interim in print will be the only thing to preserve the song
from complete extinction. Barbara Allen is not nearly so well known in
Britain as it is in this country because of its popularity in nineteenth century
American songbooks.
Perhaps Phillips Barry's rediscovery 19 of the Child Ad version of Riddles
Wisely Expounded summarizes the whole subject the most graphically. Here
a British broadside was freely translated into German by Herder, used by
Goethe in an opera, 20 re-translated into English, and thence went back into
oral tradition to be picked up a half-century or more later in Maine.
Variation itself is not a simple subject, and, especially in America, there
are a great many types of ballad alteration. It seems best to divide my dis-
A "Description of Variation 5
cussion into two parts: textual variation and story change. The former,
which, shall be taken first, involves those changes that do not affect the
story, either as to plot or mood, but rather create the minor differences that
distinguish the variants, and often the versions, of individual ballads. 21 This
partition of the subject can then be carried further to distinguish verbal
variations, refrain movement and degeneration, phrase-idea movement,
stanza changes, in addition to corruption by means of lines, phrases, names,
cliches, motifs and the like.
The most obvious sort of ballad change centers about the simple altera-
tions of words and phrases. Any composition travelling from mouth to
mouth, from generation to generation, from country to country is bound to
suffer from a certain amount of verbal corruption and degeneration. This is
particularly true when the word or phrase is slightly strange or out of the
ordinary. The church, St. Pancras, in Lord Lovel can be found as St. Pancreas,
Pancry, Pancridge, Panthry, Pankers, Patrick, Bankers, Peter, Varney,
Varner, Vernoys, Vincent, Rebecca, Francis, King Patsybells, etc. 22 The
place to which James Harris asks the carpenter's wife to go in Child 243
varies from Sweet Willie, sweet tralee, and Tennessee to Italy, the deep blue
sea, and calvaree. 28 The brown girl becomes the Brown girl, merry green lea
becomes Merry Green Lea, the "burial in the choir" becomes "burial in
Ohio", Beelzebub becomes belchy bub, a cuckold becomes a cockle-comber,
virgins become Virginnins, "so bonny 0" becomes "siboney-o", colleens be-
come golis, etc., etc. And in one puritanical text of Sir Lionel** Old Bangum
"swore by blank (sic) he had won the shoes".
These variations on the word level can be traced to a number of sources
besides the obvious one of oral degeneration. Rationalization and localiza-
tion also exercise influence in such situations. The former process, which I
shall discuss later on the story level, is simply the means of transposing an
unbelievable, illogical, or outmoded phrase or situation to something more
plausible. Barry in connection with, the "plant burden" of The Wife Wrapped
in Wether's Skin 25 points out that the old charm against the devil "juniper,
gentian and rosemary" has been made "more sensible" so that the names of
the plants have become the names of persons in American texts: "Jennifer
June and the rosymaree", 26 "Jinny, come gentle, Rose Marie", "Gentle
Jinny, fair Rose Marie", etc. 27
Localization is the process of adapting the vocabulary and material of a
song to a certain locality. In Earl Beck's lumberjack version of The Farmer's
Curst Wife** the husband is a woodsman instead of a farmer, while the York-
shire bite has become a New Hampshire bite in Maine. 29 With respect to this
characteristic method of varying words and phrases, names of local heroes
6 British Traditional Ballad in North America
are frequently inserted into tie stories in the place of men long dead and
long unknown. Lord Randal becomes Johnnie Randolph in Virginia and
West Virginia where the illustrious Randolph family lived, 30 and Captain
Charles Stewart, U.S.N. sets out to capture Andy Barton in a large number
of northern American texts. 31 Barbara Allen is made a poor blacksmith's
daughter and her lover the richest man in the world in one New York
village, 32 while the whole scene of this same ballad shifts to a prairie locale
in another cowboy version. 33
The meanings of individual words often suffer in transmission to the
extent that the result is pure nonsense. It is not unusual to find singers
standing loyally by such phrases as "he buckled his belt down by his side and
away they went bluding (bleeding) away", 34 "up spoke a pretty little parrot
exceeding (sitting) on a willow tree", 35 and cc he mounted a roan (her on), she
a milk-white steed, whilst himself upon a dapple gray". 36 However, some of
the variations manage to remain within the limits of sense, even if they give
at best a ludicrous picture. Lord Thomas in a Virginia text of Child 73 cut
off the brown girl's head and "stowed (stoved) it against the wall", 37 while
he "rattled low (loud) on the rein (ring)" before Eleanor's house in an Indiana
version. 38 A few times the corrupted text will make almost as good sense as
what we know as the original. For example, when in Child 84 "all her friends
cried out amen (amain) unworthy Barbara Allen" 39 or when Lord Randal
drinks poisoned ale (eels) 40 little is lost to the person who does not know the
original.
It is true, however, that such word and phrase changes do frequently
destroy rimes.
Down she sank and away she swam,
First place she found herself was in the mill pond (dam). 4X
Rime is never sacred to the folk, but, oddly enough, destruction of it seems
to occur most often when the whim of some singer, has overridden a cliche
or set phrase. In a West Virginia text of Lord Thomas and Fair Annet.
He called together his merry men all
And dressed himself in black (white),
And every town that he rode through
They took him to be some knight. 42
Artistically, of course, black is a more satisfactory color than white, but it
is an obvious superimposition. A similar change occurs in a text of Fair
Margaret and Sweet William.
Lady Margaret died for pure love,
Sweet William he died for sorrow.
Lady Margaret was buried on the east of the church
And Sweet William on the west.
A Description of Variation j
Here the last two lines have been altered completely and the east-west
arrangement has replaced the obvious today-tomorrow motif. 43 Examples
similar to these can be found by the dozens in any collection of American
folk songs. However, before dropping the subject, it might be worthwile to
note the representative rationalization made, in all likelihood, by a printer
unfamiliar with the ballad commonplace "weep for gold and fee" that is to
be found in the deMarsan broadside of James Harris.
Says he, "Are ye weeping for gold, my love,
Or are you weeping for fear (fee),
Or are you weeping for your House Carpenter
That you left and followed me . ?44
A part of the ballad frequently affected by such verbal variations is the
refrain. Often long since antiquated, in garbled Latin, or bordering on
nonsense to begin with, refrains are ripe for the forces of variation to work
upon. The "juniper, gentian, and rosemary" line mentioned earlier is illu-
strative, as is the simple "the bough was bent to me" portion of The Twa
Sisters which can be found as "the bough were given to me", "bow down you
bittern to me", "and a bow 'twas unto me", "bow your bends to me", and
any number of other similar lines. "Rosemary and thyme" becomes "rivers
and seas are merry in time", "every rose grows merry in time", "every rose
grows merry and fine", and so forth. Changes seem to increase in direct pro-
portion to the amount of meaning that is lacking to the lines.
Refrains cross from one song to another with a certain regularity, and the
reasons for such transposition are not hard to understand. As refrains
generally carry none of the story and at most set the mood for the song in
which they appear, exchange and substitution come naturally. The "juniper,
gentian, and rosemary" line occurs in a Michigan Farmer's Curst PPife 45 aad
in a Maine Captain Wedderburn's Courtship 4 * ; while Belden expresses the
opinion that the whole "rosemary and thyme" series found in The Elfin
Knight and in a few texts of The Twa Sisters may belong to the same original
burden. 47 Riddles Wisely Expounded can also be seen with a plant refrain in
the Child Collection. 48
But crossing over is not confined to the refrains alone. Perhaps the most
important body of ballad variation falls under this heading. Names, phrases,
lines, cliches, whole stanzas and motifs wander from song to song when the
dramatic situations are approximately similar. 49 Sometimes this infiltration
from one ballad to another is so complete and of such long standing that we
cannot tell in which song a specific line, etc. originated. Thus Fair Ellen or
Fair Eleanor may be the heroine of almost any song, and if she is most
commonly found in Lord Thomas and Fair Annet she also appears frequently
8 British Traditional Ballad in North America
in James Harris and ia Earl Brand. 5 ** Lord Barnard, Barbara (Allen), Sweet
William, and Lady Margaret are always possible names for any ballad
character, and it should cause no more than moderate surprise to find Lord
Thomas called Jimmie Randolph in some Virginia texts. 51
In the same fashion certain lines and expressions (although not standard
cliches) will travel from one song to another. One southern text of Little
Musgrave and Lady Barnet tells how Lord Barnard "cut off her (his wife's)
head and threw it against the wall", just as Lord Thomas invariably does
in Child 73 , 52 A Tennessee ballad relates that Lord Thomas "rose one morning
and dressed himself in blue" in the usual manner of Sweet William in
Child 74.^ And the remark of the murderess to Young Hunting's body in a
Virginia text: "y ur clothes are not a bit too fine to rot in the salt sea" is
reminiscent of Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight^
The cliche itself is even more likely to cross from ballad to ballad. Stock
lines, phrases and even stanzas crop up in similar situations regardless of
story, often serving as a means for the singer to cover his lagging memory.
Gerould has discussed this characteristic of folk poetry in some detail in The
Ballad, of Tradition^ so that the listing of a few typical American examples
will suffice here. A person who goes on a journey dresses in red and green or
gold and white (see Child 73, 99, 243, and others); a man receiving a letter
smiles at the first line and weeps at the next (see Child 58, 65, 84, 208, 209);
roses and briars grow from lover's graves (see Child 7, 73, 74, 75, 76, 84, 85);
a person tirls the pin at a door, and no one is so ready as the King, etc. to let
him in (see Child 7, 53, 73, 74, 81); a story begins with people playing ball
(see Child 20, 49, 81, 95, 155); etc. These and many similar and soon recogniz-
able lines crop up in every part of the country and appear in almost any song
with the proper story situations. Some of them derive from ancient folk
beliefs, and usually they are strong enough to control the plot, in such cases
being retained even in the face of common sense. 56
At the same time whole stanzas cross under much the same circumstances
as do cliches. When Lady Isabel tells a cock not to crow too soon as she is
being courted by the elf-knight, we know that somewhere this song and
Child 248 have come together. 57 Similar corruptions, a great number of which
have been indexed at the back of this paper, result in the Edward-ending on
the Vermont Twa Brothers^ and on the Appalachian Lizie Wan: The Lass
of Roch Royal and its familiar ic who will shoe my pretty little feet" lines is
undoubtedly the greatest traveller of all. Stanzas from this ballad can be
found in twenty-odd American songs in which someone parts from his or her
love. 60
Motifs, too, are exchanged among the ballads. Many of these are almost
A Description of Variation o,
common enough to be considered cliches, while others are unique to one
ballad although they have entered similar songs and often trace back to
some particular folk custom. With the former class can be included such
situations as the lover's interrupting his love's funeral (see Child 65, 75, 84,
85, 87) ; the lover's opening the casket to kiss his love (see Child 74, 75, 84,
85); a man's taking a girl on his knee to hear an explanation, etc. (see Child
54, 73, 81); a lover's ignoring his parents' advice to stay home (see Child 73,
99, 114); a lover's remarking he or she loves one person's finger better than
another's whole body (see Child 73, 81, 88); a man's answering a call last,
although he is usually the first one down (see Child 100 and no); the use of
a palmer as a source of information (see Child 114 and 141); and a man's
changing clothes with a beggar (see Child 17 and 140). These motifs occur
almost universally throughout the American versions of the respective
ballads, and the contamination, if it occurred as we suppose it did, must
have taken place far back in history.
Certain motifs can be traced back to the tradition of one ballad alone,
however. When these dramatic patterns appear in a new story we know in
what direction the contamination has moved. In this general group go such
motifs as the bowl in which the murderer plans to place his victim's blood
(from Lamkin, but also found in Sir Hugh in Virginia, North Carolina,
Missouri, and other southern states, and perhaps in Maine and Michigan
where it may have degenerated into the "dish of heart's blood" that occurs
in some texts of Barbara Allen) f 1 the leaning against a tree to bear a child
(from Cruel Mother, but also found in a Maine song that contains a trace of
Jamie Douglas) ; 62 as well as the "clothes being too fine to rot in the sea" and
"the cutting off a head and throwing it against the wall" themes that have
been discussed earlier.
Even when lines, phrases, and dramatic patterns do not cross from song
to song they can often be found to change position within the versions and
variants of an individual ballad. Much of this shifting is incidental, but once
in a while it assumes some importance with respect to dramatic mood. For
example, the fact that William rises and dresses himself in blue the morning
after the dream rather than the morning of the wedding 63 makes little
difference to the Fair Margaret and Sweet William story. However a the
dramatic emphases of Barbara Allen and Sir Hugh are definitely changed
when the first stanza tells of the slighting toast or contains the request of
the boy to be buried with his Bible at his feet in the manner of certain North
Carolina texts. 64
As a final consideration, stanza change should be inspected as an important
part of ballad variation. Almost all ballads have one of two basic types of
IO British 'Traditional Ballad in North America
stanza: the four-line ^630463 structure or the A4(refrain)A4(refrain struc-
ture. Modifications of these main classes occur and occur frequently (for
example, the A4E4A4B4 form), but they are really no more than modifica-
tions. However, memory may cause the four-line structure of the ballad
stanza to vary substantially. Barry points out that,
. . . there are three common forms of the ballad-type of melody. In the first the
rhythmical scheme provides for the repetition, twice, of the final syllable of the fourth
line of each stanza, followed by the repetition of the last line entire. In the second . . .
the scheme requires that the final syllable of the fourth line be repeated but once, be-
fore being followed by the repetition of the whole line. The third form calls for the
repetition of the last two lines of each stanza. The irregularity of the ballad stanza,
imitated by Coleridge on the precedent of examples in Percy's ReliqiAes, is a minor
accident, not of folk tradition, but of literary tradition. The early collectors did not
record the music. Now it is well known that, though music will carry a singer over
spots where his memory of the text is weak, the attempt to recite will leave gaps, due
to the loss of occasional lines, gaps which the reciter or the collector will try to bridge
by running parts of two stanzas into one. The result will be the intrusion into the
text of stanzas of five or six lines, instead of four, of the sort so common in the early
records of popular ballads. 65
Concrete illustration of such variation can be provided from a Virginia
version of Toung Beiclan. Here the stanza :
Then up stept the brisk young porter.
"There's a lady standing at your gate,
And oh! she is so fair to see.
She got more gold about her clothing
Than your new bride and all her kin. 66
appears and in five lines covers material that usually, and with full detail,
takes twelve.
The porter went unto his master,
And bowed low upon his knees.
"Arise, arise, my brisk young porter,
And tell me what the matter is",
"There's a lady standing at your door,
And she does weep most bitterly.
I think she is as fair a lady
As I would wish my eyes to see.
"She has more gold on her forefinger,
Around her waist is diamonds strung,
She has more gold upon her clothing
Than your new bride and all her kin, ,
A Description of Variation H
The same process without the change of stanza length occurs in the second
of the following stanzas from The Two, SisUrs. Here repetition is replaced by
additional narrative; the first stanza is typical of the song.
The millier picked up his drab hook,
Bow down.
The millier picked up his drah book,
The bow has been to me.
The millier picked up his drab book
And fished her out of the brook.
True to my love, my love be true to thee.
The millier got her a golden ring,
Bow down,
The millier pushed her back,
The bow has been to me.
The millier was hung by his mill gate,
For drowning my poor sister Kate.
True to my love, my love be true to thee. 68
The second part into which I have divided my discussion of ballad varia-
tion deals with story change. Story change, that is the alteration of the
actual plot or basic mood of the ballad, is an extremely important, interest-
ing, and oddly neglected field. Moreover, as new songs are often created and
as the ways of folk art are very graphically revealed through this process, a
study of ballad story is extremely rewarding.
As was the case with textual variation the subject can be discussed under
major headings based on the forces that operate to change the story of a
folk song. Such headings would include the elimination of action, develop-
ment toward lyric, loss of detail through forgetting; fragmentation; conven-
tion and cliche; localization; the effect of literalness; rationalization; senti-
mentalization; moralization; manner of use; secondary growth; new ballads
which rise from the old; and mergers. I will discuss them separately. Never-
theless, the close relationship of all these forces (and in particular the first
three) cannot be overemphasized. They tend to work together and supple-
ment one another, and in my discussions of individual ballads under the
respective headings the fact that the other forces are also at work should not
be forgotten.
As has already been stated, the folk song in its travels from mouth to
mouth always tends to concentrate more and more on the climax 69 of its
story and to focus on but one unstable situation. A trend of this sort means
that in the more recent versions, as so many of the American texts are, the
real story will become confused and some of the remaining details baffling
1 2 British Traditional Ballad in North America
to even the singer himself. Then the way has been made easier, of course, for
all the other forces of variation so that in some cases the thing will "snow-
ball". Good examples of such concentration upon climax with the subsequent
omission of antecedent and sometimes postcedent events are extremely
numerous in the Child as well as the American collections. The Hunting of
the Cheviot, The Twa Brothers, Fair Annie, The Broomfield Hill, Mary Ha-
milton, Lizzie Lindsay, Lady Alice?* Edward, and Sir Lionel, among others,
offer fine illustrations.
Child iS, Sir Lionel, originally relates the following event.
A knight finds a lady sitting in (or under) a tree, who tells him that a wild boar has
slain (or worried) her lord and killed (or wounded) thirty of his men. The knight kills
the boar, and seems to have received bad wounds in the process. The boar belonged
to a giant, or to a wild woman. The knight is required to forfeit his hawks and leash
and the little finger of his right hand (or his horse, his hound, and his lady). He refuses
to submit to such disgrace, though in no condition to resist j the giant allows him time
to heal his wounds, and he is to leave his lady as security for his return. At the end of
the time the knight comes back sound and well, and kills the giant as he has killed the
boar. , . The last quarter of the Percy copy would, no doubt, reveal what became of
the lady who was sitting in the tree, as to which the traditional copies give no light. 71
In America the narrative, at best, retains the ride in the forest, a brief pro-
posal, and the all-important fight with the boar. The more conventional and
unbelievable, and so less dramatic, action has been forgotten. In this par-
ticular example, the loss of the rest of the story has contributed to a change
of mood in the song, so that Old Bangum and the Boar is a rather jovial off-
spring of a dignified romance.
The Hunting of the Cheviot, that long and complicated poem of poaching,
reprisal, individual combat, and general battle has become no more than a
two-stanza narration of a brutal struggle between two great earls in Ten-
nessee. 72 And, in truth, that is the essence of the entire story. It is interesting
to note in this connection how much of the compression is artistically satisfy-
ing. By passing off the less dramatic elements and concentrating on the
essentials, the folk frequently unconsciously increase the poignancy and
unity of effect in their stories. Davis notes, in speaking of Fair Annie, that
. . . the thirty-one stanzas of the Child text have been reduced to thirteen in the
Virginia version without the loss of a single essential detail. 70
The development of the New World Child ballads toward lyric is often
the result of the elimination of action. Such elimination of action may
eventually cause lyric poetry to evolve. If this be the case, a development
occurs from pure narrative to dramatic narrative to dramatic lyric narrative
to lyrical narrative to pure lyric. 74 It does not seem, however, that ballad
A Description of Variation 1 3
ever progresses further than the dramatic lyric narrative stage. In these
songs there is always an initial emphasis on situation, only a secondary one
on the emotional mood. The narrative itself is still too close in tradition
to the lyrical result for pure lyric to emerge.
The Maine version of Mary Hamilton offers adequate illustration of this
point. Here the story of the illicit love affair, the birth and murder of the
baby, the Queen's subsequent anger, and the burning at the stake of the
guilty girl has become a lyrical lament by the dying Mary Hamilton in which
she rues her life and lot. No story is told, but one is in evidence, nevertheless,
and a good deal of narrative is implied. The emphasis is on the situation.
Yestre'en the queen had four Maries,
This nicht she'll hae but three;
There was Mary Beaton, an' Mary Seaton,
An' Mary Carmichael an' me.
Last nicht I dressed Queen Mary,
An' pit on her braw silken goon,
An* a' thanks I've gat this nicht
Is tae be hanged in Edinboro toon.
little did my mither ken,
The day she cradled me,
The land I was tae travel in,
The death I was tae dee.
They-ve tied a hanky roon me een,
An' they'll no let me see tae dee:
An' they've pit on a robe o' black
Tae hang on the gallows tree.
Yestre'en the queen had four Maries,
This nicht she'll hae but three:
There was Mary Beaton, an' Mary Seaton,
An' Mary Carmichael an' me. 76
Of the same general lyric-narrative sort are the southern text of The Death
of Queen Jane** 1 with its touching refrain "the Red Rose of England shall
flourish no more"; the versions of The Elfin Knight where only the statement
of tasks, first by the man and then by the girl, remains; 78 the texts of the
Cherry Tree Carol that are little more than heavenly prophecies of the life
of Jesus, 70 and the Lizzie Lindsay fragments that are merely lover's requests
to "go to the highlands with me". 80
The Maine Rantin Laddie, however, represents a slightly different change
of the same general nature, as does the West Virginia Braes of T arrow. In the
14. British Traditional Ballad in North America
former, a story of a girl who bears a nobleman an illegitimate child and is
eventually rescued by him from her family, only the situation is retained and
the song has become a sort of lullaby through the addition of two "hush,
a-by" stanzas.
Aft hae I played at the cards an* dice
For the love o* a rantin' laddie, O,
But noo I maun sit in the ingle neuk,
An' by-lo a bastard babbie O.
Sing hush-a-by, an' hush-a-by,
An' hush-a-by-lo babbie, O,
O hush-a-by, an* hush-a-by,
An* hush-a-by, wee babbie O.
Sing hush-a-by, an* hush-a-by,
An' hush-a-by-lo babbie, O,
O had your tongue, ma ain wee wean,
An A gae a sook o' the pappie, O. 81
In the latter, we find a poem based on the traditional ballad returning to
popular circulation. The lyrical embellishments and sophisticated versifica-
tion superimposed by the individual poet upon the folk song are still very
much in evidence, and stanzas such as the following are heard in oral tradi-
tion:
Fair was thy love, fair, fair indeed thy love,
In flowery bands thou didst him fetter;
Tho* he was fair and well beloved again,
Than me he did not love thee better. 82
Such a sophistication represents more than a development toward lyric, of
course, but the influence of the poet on folk song in both textual and narrative
aspects is a separate study and can not be given more than passing attention
here.
Closely related to the elimination of action and this development toward
lyric is loss of detail. Loss of detail differs, as a force in ballad variation,,
from these two other processes in that it does not derive from concentration
on the climax of the story, but rather is a result of forgetting and omission.
Even when a song does not compress the particular action or event, fre-
quently the story will change because of lapses of memory which occur at
key points. In this way a ballad may eventually degenerate to nonsense or
become so vague that the story Is impossible to follow.
The Queen of Elf an 9 s Nourice tells of a girl who is abducted by fairies that
she may wet-nurse an elf-baby just after her own child is born. In keeping
A Description of Variation 1 5
with, the usual practice, she can expect to be returned as soon as this elf-
bairn can use his legs. In the Wisconsin text of the song, 83 we are told of the
cow-like elf-call asking the girl to come below the sea and nurse the baby,
and we are given the dialogue in which the elf-king asks her why she mourns.
But the speakers are not clear, the change in setting is not revealed, and the
details of the story cannot be followed unless the plot is previously known.
The result, to the untutored, thus becomes a series of confusing lines on the
general subject of fairy abduction. Certainly the singer who knows only the
American lines has no idea of the traditional tale, and were a suitable ex-
planation to present itself the story might easily be resolved into a new form.
This occurrence can be seen in a text of Lamkin** in which the story has be-
come so abbreviated that only the baby is slain, and so it is his blood that
is caught in the silver bowl.
The most graphic examples of loss of detail result when the ending of a
ballad is forgotten. In a Virginia version of James Harris the ballad con-
cludes without the shipwreck, although the wife does rue her decision to run
away. The reason for this finish is obviously nothing but the omission of the
sinking and Hell stanzas. However, the fact remains that the new form of
the story with the indefinite ending has become as real as the original forms
and in its indefiniteness is ready to be sentimentalized or even localized. In
The Twa Sisters texts from the south printed by Henry Perry and Cox 85 the
omission of the robbery of the miller causes the story to end in a rescue of
the girl. Whether the happy endings sometimes found in this song owe their
existence to a similar fragment or not is a matter of conjecture. Nevertheless,
there is the possibility. For, along similar lines, in connection with this same
song, the earlier omission of the harp motif has caused a series of changes
and developments that have resulted directly or indirectly in more than a
dozen American plot arrangements.
It is not uncommon, moreover, to find a fragment of a ballad existing as
a song in its own right. The "shoe my foot" lines of The Lass of Rock Royal
are often sung by themselves, 86 and the common American form of Bessy
Bell and Mary Gray is but one stanza long and appears without story as a
nonsense rime.
Betsey Bell and Mary Gray,
They were two bonnie lasses;
They biggit a brig on yonder brae
And thichet it o'er with rashes. 87
Such fragments are usually the most catchy and melodic portions of the
ballad and stay in the mind easily and long after the story has disappeared.
Sometimes loss of detail combines with the other forces of degeneration
1 6 British Traditional Ballad in North America
to produce extremely corrupt and nonsensical songs much as the Texas
Negro Boberick Allen and the "sea-captain" text of the American Brown
Girl. In the former instance the old love tale has not only become fragmentary,
butBoberick is a man. In this version the girls can't see why "I" (the singer)
follow him. He goes to town and back attempting to see "me" follow him,
but he can't because "I was away somewhere". In the latter, a sea-captain,
Pretty Polly, and Miss Betsy are involved in a unique triangle love affair
in which the lovers, the story, and the dialogue are only clear in their utter
confusion. Such abortionate offspring are unusual, but they do graphically
illustrate the "road downhill". 88
Alterations of the ballad story also result from the forces of convention
and cliche working independently or together on the plot usually, how-
ever, after loss of detail has served to make the story incomplete. It is,
perhaps, difficult to realize the power that convention and cliche have in
folk narrative unless we keep reminding ourselves of the manner in which
they have often overcome common sense within the text itself. In a New-
foundland version of Fair Margaret and Sweet William Lady Margaret goes
to her family after seeing William and his bride on the street below, her
window and asks her mother and sister to make her bed and bind her head
because she feels ill. These are conventional lines and yet add a scene to the
story that other texts do not have. In the Canadian Andrew Lammie, be-
cause the same sort of cliche :
mother dear, make my bed,
And make it soft and bonny,
My true love died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow. 89
entered the song the lover dies before the girl, although much of the drama
of the original story depends on the fact that she dies first. 00 And, finally,
the ending on the southern Appalachian Lady Maisry, in which the hero
is so late that he can only stop the girl's funeral, kiss the corpse, and die him-
self, is in direct contradiction of the dramatic failure in the final few seconds
of the rescue in the other texts. 91 In both these last two cases it is almost
certain the cliche ending became attached after the regular conclusion had
d ropped off.
Somewhat similar story changes occur where literalness and localization
are given the opportunity to function. In the North Carolina and Georgia
versions of the American Brown Girl a literal interpretation of the famous,
Oh am I the doctor that you sent for me ?
Or am I the young man whom you wanted to see ?
has resulted in the lover's becoming a physician.
A Description of Variation ij
There was a young doctor, from London he came,
He courted a damsel called Sarah by name. 92
And when a particular ballad story is closely paralleled by a local event or
series of events, new names, new localities, new dramatic situations, and
even new endings are likely to enter the old song. Barbara Allen and Lord.
Randal have already been used to illustrate the first two points, and a West
Virginia Gypsie Laddie** will serve the same purpose for the last two. The
traditional story of the noble lady who forsakes all comforts to flee with her
gypsy lover has become a tale about "Billy Harman whose wife had gone off
with Tim Wallace, Harman's brother-in-law. Wallace was very ugly and
the wife very pretty. She never came back; he did". The new story mentions
the local streams the "War" and the "Barranshee", and the woman's name
is Melindy. Although the singer of this text could not recall the final stanza,
we are told the husband in pursuit inquired if the wife "had gone that road",
but on receiving a negative reply returned home. Thus, the meeting with
the elopers and the subsequent scorning of the husband were left out be-
cause in the local event the lovers were not overtaken.
Rationalization is one of the most powerful of all the forces that work on
ballads. In Britain and America as belief in ghosts, fairies, and other spiritual
characters dwindles, everyday substitutes are provided, so that an elfin
knight becomes a gypsy lover and later an illicit lover or even the lodger,
while a mermaid is replaced by a mortal, if mysterious, sweetheart. So
strong is such rationalization that most of our modern versions of the old
ghost, witch, etc. ballads have lost all or nearly all traces of the super-
natural. 94 Thus James Harris gener?lly appears today as a triangle love tale
between three mortals, the harp motif has nearly vanished from The Twa
Sisters, and Sir Hugh's body seldom speaks miraculously from the well. 95
Of course, certain ballads are still completely retained in their supernatural
form, but these are usually out and out ghost stories or religious tales like
The Suffolk Miracle or The Cherry Tree Carol that would not survive if
rationalized. But, on the whole, the devil, the elf, the mermaid, and the like
have left or are leaving the songs. Barry's explanation of the Croodlin Doo
evolution of Lord Randal demonstrates the trend.
The secondary form of "Lord Randal", that is, "The Croodlin Doo" (Child J, Kc,
L, M, N, 0), presents the situation of a child, questioned by the mother, telling how
his step-mother has poisoned him with "wee fishes", or "a four footed fish". There
is no absurdity, from the point of view of folklore, of mother and stepmother appear-
ing in the same ballad. "The Croodlin Doo" furnishes a unique example in English of
the spirit of a dead mother returning to comfort a child abused by a cruel stepmother.
... As the belief in ghosts faded, or perhaps for other reasons, the apparent absurdity
of the situation in the ballad made necessary the finding of a villain who would not
1 8 British Traditional Ballad in North America
have to wait for the mother's death. Child Ka, Kb. . . and R. . . give folk ration-
alization. . . and have introduced the grandmother in place of the stepmother, 96
The attitudes held by individuals toward the material often shape ballad
stories with respect to mood. Morality, sentimentality,, and comedy are in-
serted under individual circumstances by individual singers, printers, and
other persons who contact folk material. Not infrequently their revisions
and additions survive. A conventional stanza will often appear at the finish
of Barbara Allen or James Harris warning "ye virgins all" to "shun the fate
I fell in", and sometimes a whole song will be revised to point a moral. In a
Wisconsin version of The Two. Corbies, two crows plan to eat a newly-born
lambkin that lies by a rock. A passing bird, overhearing the scheme, hurries
to warn the helpless animal to flee, and the song closes with the following
last lines:
God grant that each lambkin that is in our flock
Be told of his danger as he lies hy the rock. 97
Other variations are closely allied to such moralizing. For example, Belden
points out that the "naked woman" lines have been left out of a Missouri
text of Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight and two misplaced verses inserted in-
stead. 98 Squeamishness and religious scruples continually haunt the American
folk singer. The incest themes of The Cruel Brother, The Twa Brothers, and
Lizie Wan have vanished or are rapidly vanishing. Vance Randolph and
Ruby Duncan both report informants who were reluctant to sing Our Good-
man?* And many a collector has been hindered by the fact that the "old
love songs" are too frivolous. Likewise, the desire for justice, reflected in
the ending of The Sweet Trinity in which the enraged crew throws the captain
overboard 100 seems to show a Christian dissatisfaction with some of the
stories of the traditional songs.
The sentimentalization of narrative material is common too. The lover
who reforms and apologizes in the American Brown Girl, the trooper in The
Trooper and the Maid who promises to return and marry the girl, the gallant
refusal of the cabin boy in The Sweet Trinity to sink either his mates or the
girl he loves no matter how treacherous the captain, the husband in The
Farmers Curst Wije who welcomes his shrewish mate back from Hell, the
girl who turns against her lover after he slays her father in Earl Brand, and
the other incidents of the same sort are typical of what can happen to many
objective and cold Child ballads in America.
Not all ballad versions are taken as seriously as those that become senti-
mentalized. Sir Lionel, as already noted, has become a jocular jingle from an
originally elaborate romance, and The Three Ravens has lost all the beauty
of the cynical Scotch and moving English texts. Print is, of course, a frequent
A Description of Variation 1 9
cause of such degenerations. In The Soldier's Wooing series (the American
Erlinton 101 ) the callousness of the girl who, as her father and lover battle,
refuses the former's offers to permit the marriage and to give the couple
a 10,000 dowry and holds out for more money has been traced by Barry
to an English broadside. 102 But print is not the only factor. The following
comment was made about the conclusion of Lord Thomas and Fair Annet in
Newfoundland.
Just imagine when they were all laying in one grave, and the trump sounded for
the Judgment Day, and they was all scrabbling for their bones, if Lord Thomas
should get one of the brown girl's legs. 103
When the situations in a traditional song become ludicrous to the singers,
the story cannot resist for long, and if parodies do not provide an outlet, as
in the case of Lori Lovel* the original text must suffer. 105
The purpose for which a song is sung may also serve to modify the story
and mood of a particular ballad. The use of traditional texts in dramatic
presentations, in children's games, as lullabies, and as play-party or dance
accompaniments has shaped and fashioned a large number of texts. The
Maid Freed from the Gallows is given detailed consideration in this respect
by Reed Smith in his South Carolina Ballads where he traces the develop-
ment of this story through Virginia Negro dramas, New York children's
games, and West Indian cante-f able revisions. 106 William Newell and Botkin
both discuss Barbara Allen as an evening dance song, 107 and Arthur Hudson
notes that a Mississippi version of Sir Hugh that was used to sing children
to sleep was rendered with the bloody stanzas omitted. 108
The secondary ballad 109 offers a problem in story change different from
any of those we have faced so far. Usually the direct result of a broadside,
a sophisticated poet's tamperings, or a printer's text, these songs share a
mutual ancestory with the Child texts, but are at the same time no longer
versions of the traditional ballad. The Rich Irish Lady (see Child 295) and
The Torkshire Bite (see Child 283) are the most graphic American illustra-
tions, although The Squire of Edinburgh Town (see Child 221), The Half-
Hitch (see Child 31), High Barbaree (see Child 285), and The Soldier's
Wooing (see Child 8) are also popular. 110
The Brown Girl> in Child, is the story of a young man who becomes
attached to a girl, but sends her a letter saying he will not marry her be-
cause she is so brown. She becomes proud. Later, he is sick or lovesick and
sends for her to cure him with affection. She takes her time in going and
mocks him when she arrives. Revengefully she returns his troth by stroking
his breast with a white wand and promises to dance on his grave. The
American stories, in which the sexes are reversed, the brown color and the
2O British Traditional Ballad in North America
white wand lost, and the "Are you the doctor?" stanzas found, derive in-
directly from the Child tale through a broadside adaption that was popular
in England under titles such as The Bold Soldier and Sally and Billy. The
Torkshire Bite goes back, not to the Child Crafty Farmer story, but to one
of a number of parallel traditions 111 that existed in Britain during the eigh-
teenth century. Child, in speaking of the latter song, states that,
This very ordinary ballad has enjoyed great popularity and is given for that reason
as a specimen of its class. There is an entirely similar one in which a Norfolk . . .
farmer's daughter going to market to sell corn is substituted for the farmer going to
pay his rent. . . . Another variety is of a Yorkshire boy sent to a fair to sell a cow. 113
He also mentions ballads about "a country girl beset by an amorous gentle-
man" who mounts the villain's horse and makes off with his valise" and
about "a gentleman, who, having been robbed by five highwaymen that
then purpose to shoot him, tells them that he is the Pretender, and is taken
by them as such to a justice".
In a somewhat like way the broadside alterations of Geordie have largely
supplanted the older texts of the ballad and become what may be considered
the primary form of the song in popular circulation. Most American versions
of the story derive from The Life and Death of George of Oxford, a broadside
undoubtedly based on a local situation in which the hero was hung. The
happier finish of the traditional story is not common today. 113
However, it is not necessary to go to broadsides and parallel traditions to
find new ballads growing out of an older series of songs. One of the most
important things about the study of story change is the light such pursuits
throw on the birth of new works. If enough forces operate or a force of
sufficient strength operates, on a tradition, a story may be created that will
begin a ballad sequence in its own right. Thus, Henry Martin has risen from
Sir Andrew Barton and Giles Collins and Clerk Colmll have come from the
older Johnny Collins story of Child 85. 114 Henry Martin appears to be the
result of the omission of the chase and capture from Sir Andrew Barton^
while Giles Collins and Clerk Colmll show the Johnny Collins ballad split
into two parts, each of which has become a separate story,
If subtraction and division create new narratives, so does addition. Child
has noted that the entire Edward ballad is frequently added to other songs.
More or less of Edward will be found in four versions of The Two. Brothers and two
And the same junction, probably brought over from England already com-
plete, was discovered by Mrs. Flanders in Vermont. 116 In like fashion The
Death of Queen Jane lends its funeral to the Duke of Bedford and The Maid
Freed from the Gallows enters numerous badman tales. 118
Footnotes 21
Thus we have a description of the major forces of variation that work
upon the Child ballad in America. From the facts few, very few, conclusions
can be drawn, because any attempt to go beyond extreme generalities is
bound to cause trouble. Every word, line, phrase, stanza, and story that
circulates creates its own individual history.
With this warning in mind, then, we had best merely say that variation
is most likely to occur where vagueness and confusion exist, that in America
the change in society and the distance in history of so many ballad events
has presented ideal circumstances for change, and that new versions and
variants arise from a combination of factors and processes and seldom from
one force of variation operating alone. But where we speak more specifically
and say that the traditional ballad entering America tends to become more
sentimental and moral, we must recall that in a Texas variant of Child 95
the prisoner is hung on rather than freed from the gallows 119 and that
Captain Wedderburn is not said to marry the girl he seduces in the New
England versions of Child 46. When we note that these British songs become
more compact and often more generalized in meaning, we cannot forget the
mergers and additions that have served to expand certain texts. Rationaliza-
tions and localizations do occur in America with greater frequency than ever
before, but at the same time supernatural figures, archaic customs, unknown
places, and unknown characters are retained faithfully in many texts. It is
true that sometimes there is a striving for artistic effect and often an over-
lapping of motifs and even lines in the New World, but many more times the
traditional simplicity and integrity is retained. And if forgetting, merging,
and loss of detail work with their customary power, songs can also be found
that are word for word like their British ancestors. A few are even longer. 120
To say more than this seems to me foolhardy. It becomes an attempt to
define human nature.
FOOTNOTES
7 All Child versions are not older than their American parallels. See Barry's discussions of
this point (at every opportunity) in British Ballads from Maine, especially pp. looff. in
connection with Child 49.
8 Jane Zielonko, op. cit., discusses much of this material in her "Conclusion" and gives
some very helpful lists on pp. 115 and 117.
9 A. K. Davis, op. **., p. 36.
10 W. R. MacKenzie, Quest of the Ballad, p. 189.
11 A comparison of the Child A version of James Harris (243) with any of the American
House Carpenter texts will demonstrate these points.
13 See H. M. Belden, op. cit., Headnotes for references to the influence of print on the Child
ballads. Belden makes a great deal of this point and often hypothesizes on the subject.
See also my discussion of Erlinton (8).
22 British Traditional Ballad in North America
18 A traditional ballad is usually considered to have the following qualities, the lack of any
of which destroys the form: a narrative of plotted action with only the climax event or
events given; a tendancy to focus on one climax of one unstable situation; absolute im-
personality; and an oral, folk tradition.
11 See the arguments by Barry and Henry concerning this point in JAFL, XLV, p. 8. Lord
Lovel and Barbara Allen (see my discussions under Child 75 and 84) also support such a
stand.
15 For example, see James Bird, which was written by Charles Miner and printed in his paper
The Gleaner at Wilkes-Barre, Pa. in 1814. Refer to Belden, op. cit., 296, as well as Mary
0. Eddy, Ballads and Songs from Ohio, 267 and Franz Rickaby, Ballads and Songs of the
Shanty-Boy, 221. Another example is Toung Charlotte, which was written by Seba Smith
and published by him in The Rover, II, 4t :i 5? 2Z 5 under the title A Corpse Going to a Ball.
See Barry, BFSSNE- XII, 27.
16 Robert Burns' Red. Red Rose; William Hamilton's Braes of T arrow; Sir Walter Scott's
Lochinvar; and Swinburne's experiments (see C. Hyder's article in PMLA, XLIX, p. 295 ff.)
are cases in point. Note should also be made of The Twa Corbies text from Indiana (JAFL,
XLV 3 p. 8) which traces back to Cleveland's Compendium, 1859, and Allan Cunningham.
Check also the discussion of Burns' use of folk song in MLR, VI, p. 5Hff.
17 William Hamilton's Braes of T arrow was found in West Virginia by Cox, op. cit., p. 137.
It is almost identical textually to the poem, but quite abbreviated.
18 These new versions are, of course, quite subject to the forces of variation in their archaisms,
strangeness, etc.
19 BFSSNE, XII, p. 9 and my discussion of Story Type C under Child i.
20 Die Fischerin. See the song sung by Vater, Nicklas, and Dortchen,
21 With respect to this point Zielonko, op. cit.; HFLQ, IV, #3, p. 41 ff.; Barry's work in
JAFL, BFSSNE, and British Ballads from Maine; SFLQ, I, #4? P- 25& 5 and the other
books and articles cited in Footnote 3 should be consulted.
22 For additional information concerning this sort of change and the reactions of individual
singers to specific word alterations, see Shearin's article in Sewanee Review, XIX, 317.
See also JAFL, LIX, 263 ff. There is a doctoral dissertation, Place Names in the English
and Scottish Popular Ballads and Their American Variants^ done at Ohio State in 1947 by
W. Edson Richmond.
23 See Reed Smith, South Carolina Ballads, p. $7ff. and JAFL, XL VII, p. 338 for further
examples.
24 Davis, op. cit., 130.
26 Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 324.
26 Belden, op. cit., Child 2776.
87 Barry, British Ballads from Maine, Child 277 A B. For further information, see Randolph,
op. cit., I, p. 75.
28 Earl Beck, Songs of the Michigan Lumberjacks, p. 107.
29 Barry, British Ballads from Maine, p. 412.
30 Davis, op. dt., p. 105 and Cox, op. cit., p. 24.
81 Barry, British Ballads from Maine, p. 256.
82 Harold Thompson, Body, Boots, and Britches, p. 379.
33 Jules Allen, Cowboy Lore, p. 74.
84 Davis, op. tit., p. 90. See also W. Va. School Journal and Educator, XL VI, p. 83.
36 Ibid., p. 1 88.
86 Cox, op. cit., p, 1 8.
Footnotes
37 Davis, op. cit., p. 216.
38 Brewster, op. cit., p. 44.
39 Cox, op. cit., p. 97.
41 Brewster, op. cit., p. 44.
42 Cox, op. **., p. 48,
43 Brewster, op. cit., p. 77 and the footnote on that page.
44 Broadside (imprint: de Marsan, List 5, #9) *& & Alfred Harris Collection, John Hay
Library, Brown University. Reprinted by Barry, British Ballads from Maine, pp. 38off.
45 Gardner and Chickering, Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan, p. 373.
46 Barry, British Ballads from Maine, p. 322.
47 Belden, op. cit., pp. 16 and 92.
48 F. J. Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, iB.
49 See "An Index to Borrowing in the Child Ballads of America** which is affixed to the end
of this study.
50 For example, see the Sharp-Karpeles, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians,
p. i4ff. and Davis, op. cit., p. 440 ff.
61 See Sharp-Karpeles j op. cit., p. 17; Davis, op. cit., p, 182; and the Maude Minish Mss. in
the Houghton Library, Harvard University; among others for illustrations. Also check
the discussion in the Zielonko Master's Thesis under Child 68.
53 Quotation from Davis, op. cit., p. 301. Refer also to Cox, op. cit., p. 95 and Sharp-Karpeles,
op. cit., p. 170.
53 Mellinger Henry, 29 Beech Mt, Folk Songs, p. 16.
54 Davis, op. cit., p. 189-
55 Gordon Gerould, The Ballad of Tradition, p. ii4ff.
66 This point is discussed later in this paper. See p. 16.
57 From the Minish Mss.
58 Vermont Historical Society, Proceedings, N.S., VII, p. 102.
59 Sharp-Karpeles, op. cit., p, 89.
60 See my discussion under Child 76.
61 See Barry's explanation of this motif in JAFL, LII, p. 74 which is reconstructed in the
discussion of Child 93 in this paper. Also refer to Davis, op. cit., p. 405; Belden, op. cit.,
p. 71 ; and Sharp-Karpeles, op. cit., p. 224 for Sir Hugh examples, and to Gardner and
Chickering, op. cit., p. 51 and Barry, British Ballads from Maine, p, 198 for Barbara
Allen examples.
62 See Barry, British Ballads from Maine, p. 470.
63 Sharp-Karpeles, op. cit., p. 135.
64 Ihid., pp. 187 and 222.
65 Barry, British Ballads from Maine, p. 128.
66 Davis, op. cit., p. 160,
67 Ibid., p. 164.
68 Ibid., p. 102.
69 See Zielonko, op. cit,, p. 117 for a discussion.
70 See the discussions referred to in Footnote 3 by Bayard and by Parker, and summarized
under Child 85 in this paper, for information on the Clerk Colvill and Johnny Collins
ballads.
71 See Child, op. cit., I, p. 208.
2 4 British Traditional Ballad in North America
72 Mason, op. cit., p. 15. In connection with his J version of Child 293, Davis reveals similar
compression.
73 Davis, op. cit., p. 177.
74 Compare the remarks of L. K. Goetz in Volkslied und Volksleben der Kroaten imd Serben
on the same subject.
76 It should be noted that Barry, British Ballads -from Maine, p. 259 and Child, op. cit., V,
p. 299 both state that this tradition of Child 173 has been subject to sophisticated cor-
ruption. However, the Maine text used here is pure.
76 Barry, British Ballads from Maine, p. 258.
77 Scarborough, A Songcatcher in the Southern Mountains, p. 254. See my Story Type B under
Child 170.
78 See Sharp-Karpeles, op. cit., p. i.
79 JAFL, XLV, p. 13 See my Story Type E under Child 54.
80 Barry, British Ballads -from Maine, p. 297 See my Story Type B under Child 226.
81 Ibid., pp. 303- 4.
83 Cox, op. cit., p. 138.
85 Henry Perry, A Sampling of the Folk Lore of Carter County, p. 98 and Cox, Traditional
Ballads Mainly from West Virginia, p. 6.
86 See, for example, Davis, op. cit., p. 263 ff.
87 Itid., p. 434.
88 See fTFLS, X, 149 or VII, in for the Barbara Allen text and JAFL, XLV, 54 for the
Brown. Girl text. Also see Reed Smith, op. cit., p. 64 where he discusses the "Poor Anzo"
Lord Randal in his chapter The Road Downhill.
89 See MacKenzie, Ballads and Sea-Songs from Nova Scotia, pp. 60 and 124.
90 See Child, op. cit., 233. Note also that the fragmentary nature of the text has undoubtedly
been a factor here.
91 Scarborough, op. cit., p. 137.
92 Sharp-Karpeles, op. cit., Child 295, texts A and F, on pp. 295 and 298. The quotation is-
from text F, stanza i.
93 Cox, Folk Songs of the South, p. 133 (Child 200, the D text). This song was said to have
been composed by Henry Mitchell. However, at best, he adapted The Gypsy Laddie.
94 On the other hand, however, the mysterious disappearance of the wife that is implied by
the West Virginia account is left out of the West Virginia song because the ballad does
not (at least in the text used) go beyond the husband's pursuit.
95 See the Story Types in this study for examples of supernatural material surviving in
these and other ballads.
9e Barry, British Ballads from Maine, p. 71. See also his discussion of Lamkin cited in Foot-
note 6 1.
<" JAFL, XX, p. 154.
88 Belden, op. cit., p. 7.
99 Randolph, op. cit., I, p. 183 and Ruby Duncan, Ballads and Folk Songs in North Hamilton
County, p. 102.
100 Shoemaker, Mountain Minstrelsy, p. 132.
101 See my discussions under Child 7 and 8 in this study.
102 JAFL, XXIII, p. 447.
103 Gardner and Chickering, op. cit., p. 20.
Footnotes 25
104 See Davis, op. cit.j p. 2585 Cox, Folk Songs of the South, p. 78; Belden, op. cit., p. 54; and
Cox, Traditional Ballads Mainly from West Virginia, p. 28.
105 The refrain is an excellent indicator of this change in mood. Compare the American
"dillum, down, dillum, kimmy ko" with the Child "blow thy home, good hunter" in Sir
Lionel.
106 See Reed Smith, op. cit., Chapter VIII.
10? William Newell, Games and Songs of American Children^ p. 78 and Benjamin Botkin,
American Play-Party Song, p. 58.
108 Hudson, op. cit., p. 116.
109 This expression has not been fully accepted by folk scholars. However, meaning "songs
directly derived from Child ballads", the term has the value of definiteness for a discussion
of this sort. But I do realize that exact classifications on the derivative level are almost
impossible to make.
110 These are representative titles. The songs appear under many other names.
111 See also The Maid of Rygate (Greenleaf and Mansfield, Ballads and Sea-Songs of New-
foundland^ p. 47) which is discussed as Story Type C under Child 283 in this paper.
112 Child, op. ctt.y V, pp. 1289.
113 However, see discussion under Child 209 in this work. For the discussion of a somewhat
similar tradition see Barry's essay on Sir James Ross/ Rose in British Ballads from Maine.,
p. 290.
114 s ee the discussions of Child 167 and 85 respectively in this work for the scholarship that
uncovered these facts.
115 Child, op. cit., I, p. 167.
116 Vermont Historical Society, loc. cit.
117 See Flanders, Vermont Folk Songs and Ballads, p. 219 and Barry, BFSSNE, II, p. 7.
118 See Hudson, op. >., p. 113 and John Lomax, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads^
P- *59-
119 See Child 95 in this work, Story Type D.
130 See The Whummil Bore (JAFL, XX, p. 155), Child 27.