Bold Dickie- Marston (MA-ME) 1933 BFSSNE, Barry
[My title. Fragment from BFSSNE, Vol. 6, 1933, Phillips Barry, editor- his notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
ARCHIE O' CAWFIELD.
(Child, 188)
This interesting fragment of the old border ballad is most closely related to Child's F-text; compare stanzas 15- 16 in ESPB., III,494-but it is from a better tradition. The air to Child F (JAFL, VIII, 256) is unlike Mrs. Marston's. Captain Charles L. Donovan of Jonesport, Maine recognized Archie o' Cawfield as printed by Child, but said the text was not as he had heard it: the wrong person was freed. He thought it was called The Knight of Pythias.
In the secondary form of this ballad (Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth, British Ballads from Maine, pp. 393-400), the hero is John Webb, who had something to do with violating the Currency Act of 1738, in the interest of cheap money. In 1739, one Webb put in circulation in Maine counterfeit five-pound Rhode Island bills, which were neyertheless accepted (Prince Society Publications, IV, 123, 132). In 1754, John Webb of Danvers, formerly of Salem, was pilloried and imprisoned as a common cheat (Essex Institute Historical Collections, XLIII, 89-90, cf. XLII, 845).
P. B.
[Bold Dickie] Text and air from Mrs. Annie V. Marston, West Newton, Massachusetts, formerly of West Gouldsboro, Maine, February, 1933.
1. "Bold Dickie, Bold Dickie, Bold Dickie," said he,
You're the damnedest rascal I ever did see!"
If you'll return the locks and keys.
It's little Tom Archer whom we'll set free."
2 "Oh no, oh no," Bold Dickie, said he,
"Oh no, oh no, that never can be;
For the iron will do our horses to shoe,
And a blacksmith rides in our company."