A Lady Gay- Stockton (TN) 1916 Sharp C
[My title, replacing the generic child title. From Cecil Sharp; English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians; Sharp/Campbell I, 1917; also Sharp/Karpeles I; 1932. The 1932 Edition notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
No. 22. The Wife of Usher's Well.
Texts without tunes:—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 79. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xiii. 119; xxiii. 429; xxx. 305; xxxix. 96. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 88.
Texts with tunes:—E. M. Leather's Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, p. 198. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 278 and 576.
See also The Cruel Mother (No. 10), Tune B. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 5. Texts A and B are remarkable in that the children cite the mother's 'proud heart' as the reason that has caused them to 'lie in the cold clay', a motive which is absent from other English and Scottish versions.
Sharp diary 1916 page 267. Monday 4 September 1917 - Rocky Fork:
Went off early in search of Jeff Stockton on Hogskins Creek. Made a muff shot first & called on Mrs Henry Stockton but afterwards ran Jeff to earth next door. Turned out to be a very fine singer who gave me 17 songs. Stopped from 10 — 3.30 dining with him his wife & daughter at 12 — not so bad a business as usual. Then home and wrote out most of my songs before bed time. Packed ready for early start to Alleghany in the morning.
C. [A Lady Gay] Sung by Mr. T. JEFF. STOCKTON at Flag Pond, Tenn., Sept. 4, 1916
Mode 4, b (no 2nd).
1. There was a lady gay
And children she had three.
She sent them a way to the western country
To learn all grammaree.
2 They hadn't been gone but a very short time,
Scarcely three weeks and a day,
Till death came along through them dark woods
And swept them all away.
3 There is a King in the Heavens all bright,
He used to wear a crown.
I hope he'll send me my three babes to-night
Or in the morning soon.
4 The beds was fixed in the back wall room,
Spread over with clean sheets,
And on the top was a golden cloth
That they might rest and sleep.
5 The table was set in the dining-room,
Spread over with cakes and wine.
Go sit down, my three little babes,
And eat and drink of mine.
6 Take it off, take it off, dear mother, said they,
Take it off, I say again,
For we'll not be here till the break of day;
My Saviour will call us away.
7 Rise up, rise up, said the oldest one,
I think it's almost day.
See my Saviour standing by
To welcome us three home.