British & other versions 4. Molly Bawn (Polly Vaughn)
[The ballad is said to be of Irish origin[1] and based on an actual accidental shooting that happened there. Bob Askew had ballad chats at C# House and provided the following notes[2]:
"It seems to be based on a true event. Joyce said that it was very popular in mid and southern Ireland in the 19th century. He noted the earliest version in Ireland and felt that it was based on a true event: 'it obviously commemorates a tragedy in real life'. An article in Ulster Folklife (1971) quoted a manuscript from Kilwarlin, Co Down, which named James Reynolds and Molly Bann Lavery, born in Lisburn, and educated in Lurgan. The surnames were local, the Laverys were Catholics and the Reynolds Protestants. No archival evidence has yet been found to prove this, but it is likely that it could turn up."
The article Askew referred to is "Some Songs and Ballads in Use in the Province of Ulster. . . 1845" by Hugh Shields (Ulster Folklife, Vol. 17, 1971). Shields published 19 items in his article, from a manuscript notebook of 102 texts compiled by John Hume, a Presbyterian who lived in Kilwarlin in the north part of County Down[3]. Shields added melodies from old-time Irish singers to some of the ballads.
Of particular importance is one of the traditional versions of Molly Bawn titled, "Molley Bann Lavery." I give it in full here:
"Molley Bann Lavery" pre1845 from John Hume's MS taken down in County Down, Ireland from oral tradition; published by Hugh Shields 1971.
[1st] It's all you young men that carry a gun,
Beware of late fowling at the setting of the sun,
Concerning a young man that happened of late,
That shot Molley Bann Lavery — her beauty was great.
[2nd] He being late fowling he shot her in the dark,
But oh and alas, he did not miss his mark!
With her apron about her he took her for a cran[4],
But oh and alas, it was poor Molly Bann!
[3rd] But when he went to her and found she was dead
Abundance of tears from his eyes he has shed;
He went home to his father with his gun in his hand
Saying, — Father, dear father, I have shot poor Molley Bann.
[4th] It's out bespoke his father, his hairs they were gray,
My son, take my blessing and don't run away.
Stay in your own country your trial to stand
And you will not be condemned by the laws of the land.
[5th] O father, dear father, I must go away
For in this country I never could stay;
I shot Molley Bann Lavery and she was my darling,
The pride of the North and the Flower of Kilwarlin.
[6th] The maids of this country they are all very glad
Since Molley Bann Lavery the beauty is dead,
But gather them together and put them all in a row:
She appears in the middle like a mountain of snow.
[7th] She appeared to her uncle as it were in a dream
Saying, — Uncle, dear uncle, James Reynolds don't blame;
With my apron being about me he took me for a cran,
But oh and alas, it was I, Molley Bann!
[8th] In Lisburn she was born and in Lurgan educated
But oh, in Kilwarlin poor Molley was defeated!
With her apron being about her she was taken for a cran,
But oh and alas, it was poor Molley Bann!
It's a common practice[5] in some counties in Ireland for the last name "Lavery" (also "Lowery") to be left off. Molly Bawn Lavery would sometime be called simply Molly Bawn, her shortened name. In the ballad the name is also frequently shortened when it appears at the end of a stanza. This is true in ballad versions in North America where Molly Bonder is also called, Molly Bon (Bond). Cf. Irish/Australian version by Sloane.
Curiously, the first extant record of the ballad is a print version from Newcastle in 1765[6]. "A Song, call'd Molly Bawn" was published in The Bottle and Frien'ds Garland; Containing Four Excellent New Songs by J. White in Newcastle. John White from York came to Newcastle in 1708 and several years later started printing the newspaper, The Newcastle Courant, there (around 1711)[7]. His father, John White Sr. was the king's printer. John Jr. died in 1769 and his partner Thomas Saint took over the business then. Google shows a printing of the Garland in 1765 [8], fifteen years before the estimated date. There may have been other printings but that one was in 1765 when John White and Thomas Saint were running the business. Here is the first two stanzas:
A SONG, CALL'D MOLLY BAWN
I'll tell you a story
And a story of late
Concerning my jewel
Her fortune was great,
She went out in an evening
And the rain it came on,
She went under the bushes
Herself for to screne.
Her love being out fowling
He shot in the dark
And to his misfortune
he did not miss his mark;
With her apron being about her,
he took her for a swan.
But Oh! and alas!
It was sweet Molly Bawn.
It has been reported online[9] that the ballad was found only once in Scotland! The first report of the traditional ballad came from Robert Jamieson, born in Scotland in 1772 who heard the ballad as a child of five or six[10]. In 1806 he published a traditional version obtained in Aberdeen from the maidservant of Robert Eden Scott (1769-1811), Professor of Moral Philosophy at King's College Aberdeen in 1800[11]. Additionally one of the earliest printings of the ballad is "Mally Bann" which was published in a Scottish chapbook in 1793[12]. It is true, however, that the ballad was never popular in Scotland and is usually found in England and Ireland, where it was very popular in the mid-1800s[13]. Besides the recent version from Norman Kennedy of Aberdeen, it has been collected several times in Scotland by Peter Hall. Here are a few stanzas of the Scottish print:
MALLY BANN. BL 11606 aa 23 (24) J & M Robertson, Glasgow, 1793 and 1799. Item 2 on garland.
1. Jamie Randal went a hunting,
A hunting in the dark;
But to his great misfortune,
He did not miss his mark.
2. His love's apron being about her,
He took her for a swan;
But alas, and forever, alas!
It was sweet Mally Bann.
3. When he came up to her,
And found that she was dead,
Great abundance of salt tears
For his darling he shed.
4. He went home to his father
With his gun in his hand,
Crying, "Dear father, dear father,
I've shot Mally Bann."
There is no question that most versions of this ballad features a revenant visitation[14]: Molly's ghost appearing to her uncle and/or coming to the trial to testify that the shooting was accidental and not murder. The question is: Is it "her ghost" or is it her "in the form of a swan"? The controversial versions where Molly takes the "form of a swan" were collected in the early 1900s Dorset and Somerset[15]. The most important of the "form of a swan" versions was collected by Cecil Sharp from Lucy White in 1903[16] and published in 1905 and in the JFSS in 1906. The last stanza appears:
5 In six weeks' time when the 'Sizes came on
Young Polly appeared in the form of a swan,
Crying: Jimmy, young Jimmy, young Jimmy is clear,
He never shall be hang-ed for the shooting of his dear. [Lucy White, 1903]
This stanza was corroborated five years later by two versions collected from J. Handsford and also Henry Way in the Dorset area. Additionally a version was published by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1905 called "The Setting of the Sun" which had this stanza[17]:
3. In the night the fair maid as a white swan appears,
She says, O my true love, quick dry up your tears,
I freely forgive you, I have Paradise won,
I was shot by my love at the setting of the sun. [collected from J. Lukin but attributed to Sam Fone, 1883]
After looking at the original MS, it's evident that Baring-Gould fabricated the "as a white swan appears" in J. Lukin's MS from "all shining appears" and added it to Same Fone's version. The "form of a swan" as evidenced by the White version along with Baring-Gould's version was written about in great detail by Anne Gilchrist in 1906[18] and later Phillips Barry in 1935[19]. Sharp even commented that "the ballad is the survival of a genuine piece of Celtic or, still more probably, of Norse imagination.[20]"
The three authentic versions where Molly's ghost appears in the "form of a swan" show that it is likely an isolated (Dorset/Somerset) modern interpretation of the ballad. These versions present the possibility that 1) Molly changed into a swan when it got dark and Jimmy shot her for a swan because she changed her form and, 2) that when Molly appears among the girls in a row like a "fountain/mountain of snow" she is in the form of a swan. Details of the swan maiden analogues will be found in the main headnotes.
* * * *
Around the same time in England several versions appeared with the phrase "room of a swan:"
For I bin and shot my true love
In de room of a swan. [Clarence Rook learned c. 1884 near Faversham, Kent.]
"Room of a swan" subsequently appeared in a version by George Smith of Fareham, Hampshire on 25 July 1906 and William Bone of Hants in November, 1907. Two of the most influential "room" version came from Norfolk a dozen years later:
For young Jimmy was a-fowling, was a-fowling alone.
When he shot his own true love in the room of a swan[21]. (Gales; Cox)
In these versions the usage of "room" means "in the place of a swan." A variation has appeared that is found in Make Merry in Step and Song: A Seasonal Treasury of Music, Mummer's Plays by Bronwen Forbes:
1. O come all you young fellows that carry a gun,
I'll have you get home by the light of the sun,
For Jimmy was a fowler and a-fowling alone
When he shot his own true love in the ruse of a swan.
Forbes version is apparently based on one A.L. Lloyd "Norfolk versions" which were similar to Gales 1921 version and also Harry Cox's version. A similar variation is found in the recording English Folk Songs by Audrey Coppard in 1956. She sings a "Norfolk" version based on the Gales/Cox versions. The text was evidently edited from existing Norfolk versions by A. L. Lloyd and Ewan MacColl who helped Coppard with the album. The "room" in the ending has been changed to "ru'."
1. Come all ye young fellows who carry a gun,
I'll have you come home by the light of the sun;
For young Jimmy was a fowler who went a-fowling alone
And he shot his own true love in the ru' of a swan.
* * * *
Some versions have "fawn" instead of "swan." According to Steve Gardham[22]: I've always put the swan/fawn error down to being a confusion. If someone unfamiliar with the long "s" saw fawn on a ballad sheet they might interpret it as fawn. It has to be said that the mistaking fawn/swan is just as likely either way.
The first extant appearance of "fawn" is in The Youths Grievance; or, the Downfall of MOLLY BAWN from My Friend and Pitcher. Lillenhall Library, Belfast, Pamphlet Book 1031, item [9], 1797.
In yonder green bower my love she sat down,
I shot at my darling, which makes me bemoan;
Her apron being about her, I took her for a fawn
But to my great grief 'twas my Molly Bawn.
The first extant appearance of "fawn" in the US is in the 1857 broadside, "Molly Von Luther"[23]:
"My apron being around me, he took me for a fawn,
But oh, and alas! it was I, Polly Von."
* * * *
The ballad has remained in circulation in Ireland where Irish author Patrick Joyce once remarked in 1909[24]: "In the last century this song was very popular in the midland and southern counties. I once heard it sung in fine style in the streets of Dublin by a poor woman with a child on her arm." It has also remained current in areas of England and several recent versions were collected by Peter Hall in Scotland."
Patrick Joyce also said[25], "My version is just as I learned it from the intelligent singers of my early days. The air is the same as "Lough Sheeling" of Moore's song, "Come, rest on this bosom!" It's possible that Thomas Moore's song, "Come Rest in this Bosom," c. 1832 which uses the old harp-melody of "Lough Sheeling," is based on the ballad story of Molly Bawn.
COME, REST IN THIS BOSOM.
Come, rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer,
Tho' the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here:
Here still is the smile that no cloud can o'ercast,
And a heart and a hand all thy own to the last.
Oh! what was love made for, if 'tis not the same
Thro' joy and thro' torment, thro' glory and shame?
I know not, I ask not, if guilt's in that heart,
I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art.
Thou hast call'd me thy Angel in moments of bliss,
And thy Angel I'll be, 'mid the horrors of this, —
Thro' the furnace, unshrinking, thy steps to pursue,
And shield thee, and save thee, or perish there too!
Besides the melody being the same as Joyce's version there are textual similarities that seem to echo the ballad. Even Moore's title is similar for in the ballad Jimmie Randall rests his head on his fallen Molly's bosom and "ten thousand tears he did shed." This is clear in Moore's opening line: "Come, rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer," where stricken deer could be "stricken fawn." Then the line, "I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art." Implying that he knows not what she is- is she human with an animal spirit? And also the line: "And thy Angel I'll be, 'mid the horrors of this," what horrors, being shot by your lover? Moore takes the melody of "Molly Bawn" and he knows the story. Poets are not obvious, at least good ones.
* * * *
The name Molly Bawn has been popular in other songs from the UK. There is a different Irish song, usually titled, "In Carlow Town" (Roud 9500) where "Molly bán" is the central character. A different song titled "Molly Bawn" was composed by Samuel Lover in the one-act opera, "Il Paddy Whack in Italia" in 1841.
R. Matteson 2016]
Footnotes:
1. According to Steve Gardham in a Mudcat Forum post: it is "undoubtedly a northern Irish ballad."
2. Posted in in the Mudcat Forum, May 2016 by Richard Mellish.
3. "The Musical Traditions of Northern Ireland. . ." by David Cooper.
4. "Cran" was the usual Old English word for the crane. According to the 2nd ed. of Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (apparently 1840), it survived for some time in Scotland as a name for the heron.
5. In Special Report on Surnames in Ireland: Together with Varieties and Synonymes by Robert E. Matheson, he explains that the Moira District has these prefixes, Baun or Bawn before the last name. The "Baun" means white (Ban) and Molly Baun/Bawn would be "fair-haired Molly." The name Baun/Bawn attached to the last name would be Baun-Lavery or Bawn-Lavery with Baun being the most common. Several people are known by their prefixes, for example, "Dan Baun-Lavery" was known by the name, "Dan Baun." Both the Lowry and the Lavery names descend from O Labhradha, an ancient name from province of Ulster. The Baun-Lavery and Baun-Lowery names are known in other districts.
6. The Garland, housed at The British Library in London, is not dated and an approximate date of c.1780 was first assessed. Two copies at Google Books are dated 1765.
7. Info from: The Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend, 1887.
8. See footnote 6.
9. "With the exception of one version in Scotland, the song has been found only in England, Ireland, USA, Australia and Canada." [Wiki Commentary]
10. "A lover killing his mistress, a grey-headed old father, and a ghost, seemed very fine things to a child of five or six years old; and I remembered the story long after I had forgot the terms in which it was conveyed." [Popular Ballads and Songs: From Tradition, Manuscripts and Scarce editions, Volume 1 edited by Robert Jamieson, 1806]
11. This information was provided by Jim Brown on the Mudcate Forum: Robert Eden Scott (1769-1811), Professor of Moral Philosophy at King's College Aberdeen from 1800, better known in ballad history as the nephew of Anna Gordon and, in or before 1783, the scribe of the first two manuscripts of her ballads. He lent the original of "Jamieson's Brown MS" to Robert Jamieson in 1799.
12. The contents of Scottish 1793 chapbook are: Logie O' Buchan, Mally Bann, Grigel Maccree, The Young Man's Love to the Farmer's Daughter, and The Braes of Ballanden.
13. In 1909 Irish author Patrick Joyce remarked: "In the last century this song was very popular in the midland and southern counties. I once heard it sung in fine style in the streets of Dublin by a poor woman with a child on her arm."
14. Molly's ghost visits her uncle or the trial or both and testifies that the shooting was an accident.
15. Lucy White's version was from Somerset and two versions collected from J. Handsford and also Henry Way were in Dorset.
16. Collected by Cecil Sharp as sung by Lucy White and Louie Hooper of Hambridge, 1903.
17. Baring Gould's version was published in Songs of the West (the 1905 edition, for which Cecil Sharp acted as musical editor). What's remarkable is Baring-Gould re-wrote the stanzas keeping only the first and half of the second of the four stanzas he collected from Sam Fone of Mary Tavy in Devon, July 12, 1893.
18. Songs Collected in Norfolk by E. J. Moeran, A. G. Gilchrist, Frank Kidson, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Lucy E. Broadwood; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 7, No. 26 (Dec., 1922), pp. 1-24.
19. BFSSNE, Vol. 10, 1935, Phillips Barry editor.
20. Folk Songs from Somerset: Gathered and Edited with Pianoforte Accompaniment edited by Cecil James Sharp, Charles Latimer Marson; 1905.
21. Songs Collected in Norfolk by E. J. Moeran, A. G. Gilchrist, Frank Kidson, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Lucy E. Broadwood; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 7, No. 26 (Dec., 1922), pp. 1-24.
22. Mudcat Forum Discussion posts, May 2016
23. Polly von Luther & Jamie Randall: J. Andrews, Printer, 38 Chatham St., NY LOC dated circa 1857.
24. Old Irish folk music and songs: a collection of 842 Irish airs and songs, hitherto unpublished by Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland by Patrick Weston Joyce (1827-1914); published 1909.
25. Ibid. ]
CONTENTS: (Access individual versions by clicking on the blue highlighted title below, or on the title attached to this page on he left hand column)
1) A Song, call'd Molly Bawn- (NCL) 1765 J. White
2) Mally Bann- (GLA) 1793 Robertson chapbook
3) The Downfall of Molly Bawn- (BFS) 1797 Pamphlet
4) Molly Whan- (LND) c.1802 Pitts broadside
5) Peggy Baun- Maidservant (Aberd) c1803 Scott
6) Molly Bawn- (Cork) c.1834 Haly broadside
7) Molly Baun Lavery- Sloane (Kerry-AU) 1838 Meredith
8) Mally Bann- (London) 1843 Colburn's Magazine
9) Molley Bann Lavery- (Down) pre1845 Hume/Shields
Young Molly Bawn- (Dublin/UK) c.1850 broadside
A True Story- Called Molly Bawn: (Dublin) 1864
Molly Bawn- (Cork) c.1870 P.W. Joyce
Molly Bawn- Joanna Lacy (Wexford) 1875 Kennedy
O cursed be my uncle- C. Rook (Kent) c1884 Sharp
At the Setting of the Sun- Sam Fone (Devon) 1893 Baring-Gould A
Molly Bawn- Hannah Quinn (Cork) 1896 Littell
Shooting of his Dear- Lucy White (Som) 1903 Sharp JFSS
Young Jimmy- Mrs. Glover (Som) 1904 Sharp MS
Molly Bawn Aroo- (Coleraine) 1905 Maud Houston (see also: Huntington, 1926)
At the Setting of the Sun- J. Lukin (Devon) 1905 Baring-Gould B
The Swan- Mrs. J. Hann (Dorset) 1906 Hammond
Young William- George Smith (Hants) 1906 Gardiner
The Swan- J. Handsford (Dorset) 1906 Hammond
The Swan- Henry Way (Dorset) 1906 Hammond
It's of a rich lady- Martha Badley(Som) 1907 Sharp
Polly Vaughan- William Bone (Hants) 1907 Gardiner
Molly Vaughan- MaryAnn Smith (Herefs) 1908 Leather
Polly Bawn - Albert Doe (Hants) 1908 Gardiner
Young William- Mrs. Matthews (Hants) 1908 Gardiner
Molly Bawn- Esther Smith (Heref) 1912 V. Williams
Molly Bawn- Mrs Smith (Heref) 1912 Leather
The Fowler- Walter Gales (Norfolk) 1921 JFSS
Molly Bawn Lowry- McGarry (Derry) 1926 Huntington
Molly Baun- (Dublin) pre1926 Padraic Colum
Molly Bawn Lowry- John Maguire (Ferm) c1926 REC
Young Molly Ban- P. Walsh (Tyrone) 1938 O'Lochlain
Molly Bawn- Joe Healey (Galway) c1938 REC
The Fowler- Harry Cox (Norfolk) 1947 REC
Molly Bawn- Bess Cronin (Cork) c1951 REC
Molly Bawn- Seamus Ennis (Dublin) 1951 Lomax REC
Molly Bawn- John Connell (Cork) 1952 Ennis REC
Molly Bawn- N. Kennedy (Aberd-VT) 1957 REC
Molly Bawn- Packie Byrne (Donegal) pre1958 Palmer
Molly Vaughan- Phoebe Smith (Suffolk) 1969 REC
Molly Bawn- Josie Baker (Clare) 1973 Carroll REC
Molly Bawn- (Dublin) 1977 MacMathúna REC
Polly Vaughan- Walter Pardon (Norfolk) 1978 REC
Molly Bawn- Maggie Murphy (Ferm) 1979 Summers
Molly Bawn- Baoill (Dublin) 1981 MacMathúna REC
Molly Bawn- M. McGonigle (Donegal) 1988 REC
____________________________________
Benjamin Britten's text: 'The Shooting of his Dear' (1958) [Norfolk version based on Gales 1921. Almost the exact text of Jimmy the Fowler- A.L. Lloyd, 1937]
O come all you young fellows that carry a[1] gun,
I'd have you get home by the light of the sun,
For young Jimmy was a fowler and a-fowling alone,
When he shot his own true love in the room of a swan.
Then home went young Jimmy with his dog and his gun,
Saying, "Uncle, dear uncle, have you heard what I've done?
Cursèd be that old gunsmith that made my old gun,
For I've[2] shot my own true love in the room of a swan."
Then out came bold Uncle with his locks hanging grey,
Saying, "Jimmy, dear Jimmy, don't you go away.
Don't you leave your own country till the trial come on,
For you never will be hangèd for the[3] shooting a swan".
So the trial came on and pretty Polly did appear,
Saying, "Uncle, dear uncle, let Jimmy go clear,
For my apron was bound round me and he took me for a swan.
And his poor heart lay bleeding for Polly his own."
Footnotes:
1 Moeran: "your"
2 Moeran: "I have"
3 omitted by Moeran
_________________________
[It's unclear if A.L. Lloyd collected any versions of this ballad. No informant has been named.] He sang Polly Vaughan in a 1951 BBC recording that has been included in the Alan Lomax Collection CD World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: England. He also sang it in the early 1950s on his 78rpm record The Shooting of His Dear / Lord Bateman and on the 1956 Riverside LP Great British Ballads Not Included in the Child Collection. Both of these recordings had the title The Shooting of His Dear. The former was reissued in 2008 on Ten Thousand Miles Away and the latter in 2011 on Bramble Briars and Beams of the Sun; both anthologies are on the Fellside label.
--------------------
Jimmy the Fowler - collected[?] by A. L. Lloyd (Norfolk) from Contemporary Poetry and Prose - Volumes 1-2 - Page 2; edited by Roger Roughton 1937 London and New York [This version is probably taken from Gales 1921 version]
Traditional Country Ballads
(collected by A. L. Lloyd)
Jimmy the Fowler - (Norfolk)
Now all you young fellows that carry a gun,
I'll have you come home by the light of the sun.
For young Jimmy was a fowler, and a-fowling alone,
When he shot his own true love in the room of a swan.
Then home rushed young Jimmy with his dog and his gun,
Crying, “Uncle, dear uncle, have you heard what I've done?
O cursed be that old gunsmith that made my old gun,
For I've shot my own true love in the room of a swan!”
Then out rushed bold uncle with his locks hanging grey,
Crying, “Jimmy, dear Jimmy, don't you run away.
O don't you leave your own country till your trial do come on,
For they never would hang you for shooting a swan.“
Well, the trial wore on and young Polly did appear,
Saying "Uncle, dear uncle, let Jimmy go clear,
For my apron was bound round me, and he took me for a swan.
And my poor heart lay bleedin' all on the green ground!"
_____________
[Similar to Jimmy the Fowler - collected by A.L/ Lloyd (Norfolk) see Contemporary Poetry and Prose - Volumes 1-2 - Page 2 by Roger Roughton - 1937]
From: Make Merry in Step and Song: A Seasonal Treasury of Music, Mummer's Plays by Bronwen Forbes 2009, No informant named, has "ruse of the swan," stanza 5 is unique.
Polly Vaughn (with music)
1. O come all you young fellows that carry a gun,
I'll have you come home by the light of the sun,
For young Jimmy was a fowler and a-fowling alone
When he shot his own true love in the ruse of a swan.
2. As Polly went walking, a rainstorm come on,
She hid under the bushes, the shower for to shun.
With her apron wrapped over her, he took her for a swan,
And his gun did not miss and it was Polly his own.
3. Then home rushed young Jimmy with his dog and his gun,
Crying "Uncle, dear uncle, did you hear what I done?
Cursed be that old gunsmith what made my old gun,
for I've shot my own true love in the ruse of a swan!"
4 Then out rushed bold uncle with his locks hanging grey,
Crying, "Jimmy, dear Jimmy, don't you run away.
O don't you leave your own country till your trial do come on,
For they never would hang you for shooting a swan."
5. Now the funeral of Polly it was a brave sight,
With four and twenty young men, and all dressed in white
They took her to the graveyard and they laid her in the clay,
And they bid adieu to Polly, and all went away
6. Now the girls of this country, they're all glad we know
To see Polly Vaughn a-lying so low.
You could gather them into a mountain, you could plant them in a row
And her beauty would shine amongst them like a fountain of snow.
7. Well, the trial wore on and young Polly did appear,
Saying "Uncle, dear uncle, let Jimmy go clear,
For my apron was bound round me, and he took me for a swan.
And my poor heart lay bleedin' all on the green ground!"
___________________________
A.L. Lloyd sings Polly Vaughan (World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: England) about 1951
Come all you young fellows that carry a gun,
I'll have you come home by the light of the sun.
For young Jimmy was a fowler, and a-fowling alone,
When he shot his own true love in mistake for a swan.
As young Polly went out in a shower of rain,
She hid under the bushes her beauty to gain.
With her apron thrown over and he took her for a swan,
He aimed and he fired, shot Polly, his own.
Well, home run young Jimmy with his dog and his gun,
Crying, “Uncle, dear uncle, have you heard what I've done?
O cursed be that old gunsmith what made my old gun,
For I've shot my own true love in mistake for a swan!”
Well, the funeral of Polly it was a brave sight,
With four-and-twenty young men and all dressed in white,
And they carried her to the graveyard and they laid her in the grave,
And they said, “Farewell Polly,” and went weeping away.
_______________________
Marrow Bones - English Folk Songs From The Hammond And Gardiner Mss. by Frank Purslow - 2013
The supernatural appearance of Polly at her sweetheart's trial, (“with a noise like thunder roared round the room”, to quote a Suffolk text), lends weight to the theory that the song originally had connections with a mythical swanmaiden.
______________________
Macmillan's Magazine, Volume 25; edited by David Masson, Sir George Grove, John Morley, Mowbray Walter Morris.
THE CURRENT STREET BALLADS OF IRELAND BY WILLIAM BARRY.
The minstrel seldom very much dcspairs or threatens to die when deceived, or when the object of his affection is inaccessible. Here is a stanza from “The Western Cottage Maid,” a. popular Munster lyric, in which the reader will perceive how completely naturalized the celebrities of heathenesse are in the productions to which I am referring and kills her on the spot. The moral of the tragic story is contained in the opening verse :—
“Come, all ye wild fowlers that follow the gun,
Beware of late shooting at the setting of the sun.
It is on a misfortune that happened of late,
On Molly Bawn Gowrie, an her fortune was great."
_______________________
Thomas Hardy's Dorset [uses Baring-Gould's version]
By Robert Thurston Hopkins
"Ah!" said the master smith. "Well, well! It is years ago now that I first heard it, when the ships came inside our walls with coal and took away stone. We rarely see a ship in our walls now, but when I was a boy my father and I frequently went down to the quay to repair ironwork aboard the old sailing boats. Those old Devon sailors were the fellows for songs. Upon my soul, I believe sailors no longer sing as they once did. I find a great difference between the old-fashioned charity man and the modern seaman who never sings at his work. The man who sings loudly and clearly is in good health, prompt, and swift to the point, and his heart is as big as parson's barn. The silent sullen fellow may have these qualities—he may have 'em, I say; but then the chap who sings is the happier man."
"But there are some miserable fellows who reckon to be very happy," I said.
At this Govier gave a shrug of his ox-like shoulders, and waved away all such sorry triflers.
"There are such people," said he; "but they are not entertaining. However, you want to get the hang of that song, and though I cannot remember the exact words I have the rhythm of it in my head right enough, and I think it runs like this:
"'Come all you young fellows that carry a gun,
Beware of late shooting when daylight is done;
For 'tis little you reckon what hazards you run,
I shot my true love at the setting of the sun.
In a shower of rain, as my darling did hie
All under the bushes to keep herself dry,
With her head in her apron, I thought her a swan,
And I shot my true love at the setting of the sun.
In the night the fair maid as a white swan appears:
She says, O my true love, quick, dry up your tears,
I freely forgive you, I have Paradise won;
I was shot by my true love at the setting of the sun.'
"You should have heard that song as I heard it on board an old-time schooner, when the ship's company all banged and roared heartily, and shouted in enormous voices. When they came to 'I was shot by my true love' the company would all join together in a great moan, and wag their heads in a most melancholy way. But there are no songs like that now. All this complicated machinery in ships has darkened men's minds and shut out the old songs."
____________________
Joyce (1909) remarks: "In the last century this song was very popular in the midland and southern counties. I once heard it sung in fine style in the streets of Dublin by a poor woman with a child on her arm. Like several other ballads in this book, it obviously commemorates a tragedy in real life. It has been published by Patrick Kennedy in The Banks of the Boro but his copy is somewhat different from mine; and by 'Dun-Cathail' in Popular Poetry of Ireland; but this last shows evident marks of literary alterations and additions not tending to improvement. My version is just as I learned it from the intelligent singers of my early days. The air is the same as "Lough Sheeling (2)' of Moore's song, 'Come, rest on this bosom!' but a different version." One version of the ballad begins:
Come all you young fellows that follow the gun,
Beware of going shooting by the late setting sun;
It might happen to anyone as it happened to me,
To shoot your own true love in under a tree. .... (John Loesberg, Folksongs and Ballads Popular in Ireland, vol. 1, 1979).
Moore's "Come Rest in this Bosom," adapted to the old harp-melody of "Lough Sheeling":
[Lough Sheelin, a beautiful lake about 5 miles in length, and on an average 2 miles in breadth, is the most northern; it is a border-lake on the side of Cavan.]
COME, REST IN THIS BOSOM.
Come, rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer,
Tho' the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here:
Here still is the smile that no cloud can o'ercast,
And a heart and a hand all thy own to the last.
Oh! what was love made for, if 'tis not the same
Thro' joy and thro' torment, thro' glory and shame?
I know not, I ask not, if guilt's in that heart,
I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art.
Thou hast call'd me thy Angel in moments of bliss,
And thy Angel I'll be, 'mid the horrors of this, —
Thro' the furnace, unshrinking, thy steps to pursue,
And shield thee, and save thee, or perish there too!
________________________
Notes by Baring-Gould, 1905:
62. At the Setting of the Sun. This very curious ballad has been taken down twice, from
Samuel Fone by Mr Sheppard, and again by Mr Cecil Sharp from the singing of Louie Hooper and
Lucy White at Hambridge, Somerset, to a different air. Fone had forgotten portions of the
song. The man who mistakes his true love for a swan because she had thrown her apron over her
head as a protection from the rain is tried at the assizes for the murder —
" In six weeks' time when the 'sizes came on,
Young Polly appeared in the form of a swan,
Crying Jimmy, young Jimmy, young Jimmy is clear,
He never shall be hung for the shooting of his dear."
And he is, of course, acquitted.
In Fone's version she appears in dream to her lover as a swan, and comforts him, but the sequel
of the story he could not recall.
The ballad is found in a fragmentary condition in Kent —
" O cursed be my uncle for lendin' of a gun.
For I've bin' and shot my true love in the room of a swan."
And the apparition of the girl says —
" With my apron tied over me, I 'peared like unto a swan,
And underneath the green tree while the showers did come on."
This was heard in 1884, sung by a very old man at a harvest supper at Haverstall Doddington, near Faversham.
The transformation of the damsel into a swan stalking into the Court is an early feature, and
possibly the ballad may be a degraded form of a very ancient piece.
This ballad, arranged as a song with accompaniment by Mr Ferris Tozer, has been published by
Messrs Weeks.
Mr Sharp has given the song to a different air in his " Folk-Songs from Somerset," No. 16.
---------------------
Missing Versions:
Young Jimmy Went A-fowling
Roud Folksong Index (S371177)
First Line: Young Jimmy went a-fowling
Source: Thomas Hardy MSS; 'Fragments of Songs Collected by Thomas Hardy' (VWML LIB/COLL/MPS 50 (31) II/56-67)
Performer: Gapper, Mary
Date: 1820c (?)
Place: England : Dorset
Collector: Hardy, Thomas
------------
Molly Ban Lavery
Roud Folksong Index (S323721)
First Line: Come all you gallant fowlers that handle a gun
Source: Graham, Joe Holmes: Here I am Amongst You (2010) pp.141-143
Performer: Holmes, Joe
Date:
Place: N. Ireland ; Co. Antrim : Ballymoney
Collector: Graham, Len
--------------------
Molly Bawn
Roud Folksong Index (S245155)
First Line: Oh all you young fowlers, of hunting there shun
Source: Ulster Folk & Transport Museum collection (Holywood, Co. Down) No.6831
Performer:
Date: 1968
Place: Ireland : Co. Donegal : Glencolumbkille
Collector: Shields, Hugh
-------------
Molly Bawn
Roud Folksong Index (S245154)
First Line: Come all you young fowlers who handle a gun
Source: Ulster Folk & Transport Museum collection (Holywood, Co. Down) No.6825
Performer: Byrne, Christopher
Date: 1968
Place: Ireland : Co. Donegal : Glencolumbkille
Collector: Shields, Hugh
Molly Baun
Roud Folksong Index (S336635)
First Line: Come all you young fowlers that handle a gun
Source: Peter Hall Sound Collection (copy in School of Scottish Studies and Vaughan Williams Memorial Library)
Performer: Hutchison, Teenie
Date: 1960s - 1980s (?)
Place: Scotland
Collector: Hall, Peter
-------
Molly Bawn Lowrie
Roud Folksong Index (S337051)
First Line: Come all you jolly fowlers that carry the gun
Source: Peter Hall Sound Collection (copy in School of Scottish Studies and Vaughan Williams Memorial Library)
Performer: Lochead, Arthur
Date: 1960s - 1980s (?)
Place: Scotland
Collector: McIntyre, Geordie
------------------------
Molly Bawn
Roud Folksong Index (S245152)
First Line: Story, a story, I mean to relate, A
Source: John McCall MS songbook (Nat Lib of Ireland: John McCall Papers MS 13,849) p.91
Performer:
Date: Late 19th century
Place: Ireland : Co. Carlow | Co. Wexford
Collector: McCall, John
----------------
Molly Bawn
Roud Folksong Index (S245151)
First Line: Come all you young fellows that follow the gun
Source: John McCall MS songbook (Nat Lib of Ireland: John McCall Papers MS 13,849) pp.91, 94
Performer:
Date: Late 19th century
Place: Ireland : Co. Carlow | Co. Wexford
Collector: McCall, John
---------------
My Own Molly Bawn
Roud Broadside Index (B123095)
First Line: Come all you young fowlers that carry the gun
Source: G.R. Axon Broadside Collection (Chetham's Lib., Manchester) item 36
Roud No: 166
Format: Broadside
Printer/Publisher: Pearson (Manchester) No.23
-----------------
Print: "The Morning's Golden Dawn, or Answer to the Dawning of the Day" To Which is Added "Molly Brown'." (Galway: G. Connolly, Ca. 1804 ?). A copy is in the National Library of Ireland, Dublin.