Blood on the Lily-White Shirt- Phelps (FL) 1950 Morris B
[From Folksongs of Florida; Morris, 1950. Morris' notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
The few American survivals of this ballad are lacking in vigor. It is barely known outside the South, where the variants follow much the same pattern- Fratricide is finally confessed to a mother, who, through persistent questioning, learns that the one brother killed the other over a "willow sprout" or a "hickory bush that might have been a tree," The Florida variants retain the narrative method of question and answer for their plot development, and have retained the suspense element; but the effective climax in which the implicated mother receives "the curse of Hell" as a legacy from her son is completely lost. For a significant study of this ballad, which was undertaken with the purpose of establishing a possible archetype, see Taylor, Edward and Sven i Rosengard, A study in the dissemination of a ballad. Bronson in SFQ, IV, 1-13, traces the "down-hill" trek of the "Edward" ballad.
EDWARD
(Child, No. 13)
B. "The Blood on the Lily-White Shirt." Text obtained by Miss Phelps, Carbur, from the singing of her sister, Miss Elsie Phelps, Carbur.
"What's that blood on your lily-white shirt?
My son, come tell it to me."
"It is the blood of an old gray mare
That roamed these woods with me."
"What's that blood on your lily-white shirt?
My son, come tell it to me."
"It is the blood of an old gray hound
That trailed along with me."
"What's that blood on your lily-white shirt?
My son, come tell it to me."
"It is the blood of my own dear brother;
We fought over a hickory nut tree."
"What are you going to do when your father comes home?
My son, come tell it to me."
"I'll put my foot on board a ship,
And sail across the sea."
"'What are you going to do with your own true love?
My son, come tell it to me."
"She can put her foot on board another ship
And sail along by me."