Captain Ward- Rev. War Soldier (VT) pre1823- Flanders A
[From: Flander's Ancient Ballads (reprinted earlier from Vermont Folk-Songs & Ballads - page 244). The introduction was written by Coffin.
R. Matteson 2014]
Captain Ward and the Rainbow
(Child 287)
"Captain Ward and the Rainbow" gives an account, probably accurate, of the efforts of the king to capture John Ward of Kent sometime between 1604 and 1609. Ward and a Dutch accomplice named Dansekar had become pirates about 1604 by persuading the crew of one of the King's ships to follow them in a career of buccaneering. Ward was captured and hanuged before 1610, but evidently not until he had defeated a ship called The Rainbow sent to take him. TheRainbow was the name of one of Drake's boats at Cadiz in 1587, and "the three lost jewels" that the King feels would have brought proud Ward to him (see Child) were the Earls of Essex and Cumberland and Lord Mountjoy, all dead by 1606.
Phillips Barry, British Ballad's from Maine, 358-63, devotes a good bit of discussion to the British and American versions of the story. His C text tells of the eventual capture and hanging of Ward and may recall the final undoing of the pirate who had previously eluded his King. More common, though, is the escape ending which is pretty much like that on "Sir Andrew Barton" (Child 167 /250). At any rate the King's ship is always The 'Rainbow' whether successful or routed, and Ward, if he escapes in the ballad' was later to be hanged.
Both Flanders texts are similar to The Forget-me-not Songster version printed by Turner and Fisher in Philadelphia and by Nafis and Cornish in New York. This form of the song was also included in The Pearl Songster (New York) and in The Forecastle Songster (New York, 1849) and is not unlike the seventeenth-century Child version. Flanders A leaves off the lines about "the three lost jewels" who might have captured Ward. Flanders B is poorly recalled. See Coffin, 154-7 (American) and Greig and Keith, 239-40 (Scottish) for a start on a bibliography. Barry, op. cit., 251-8, prints a sampling of the songster versions cited above and a Coverly (Boston) broadside.
A. "Captain Ward and the Rain-Bow." This song is copied literatim et punctatim from The Green Mountain Songster, compiled by a Revolutionary soldier of Sandgate, Vermont, in 1823. The booh is now in the possession of Harold Rugg, assistant librarian of the Dartmouth College Library. Printed in Vermont Folk-Songs & Ballads, 242. H. H. F., Collector 1931
Captain Ward and the Rain-Bow
Come all you jolly seamen bold, that live by tuck of drum,
I'll tell you of a rank robber, now on the seas is come,
His name is called Captain Ward, as you the truth shall hear,
There's not been such a robber found out this hundred years.
He wrote a letter to our King on the fifth of January,
To see if he would take him in and all his jolly company,
To see if he would accept of him and his jolly seamen bold,
'Twas for a ransom, he would give two thousand pounds in gold.
O he's deceived the King of France, likewise the King of Spain,
And how should he prove true to me, for he proved false to them?
O no, O no, then says our king, no such a thing shall be,
For he hath been a rank robber and rover on the sea.
Well then, my boys, says Captain Ward, we'll put to sea again,
To see what shipping we can take, on the coast of France or Spain:
O there they spied a lofty ship a sailing from the west,
Laden with Silks and Sattins, and Cambrics of the best.
Then they bore down to her straightway, they thinking no such thing,
They robb'd them of their merchandize, and bid them tell their king;
Now when our king did hear of it, his heart was griev'd full sore,
To think his shipping could not pass as they had done before.
The King he built a worthy ship, a worthy ship of fame,
The Rainbow was she called, the Rainbow was her name;
He rigged her, and freighted her, and sent her to the sea,
With a hundred and fifty mariners to bear her company.
They sailed east, they sailed west, but nothing could espy-
At length they came to the very spot where Captain Ward did lie:
Who is the owner of that ship, the Rainbow then did cry?
O here I am, said Captain Ward, let no man me deny.
Why lie you here, you ugly dog, you cowardly wanton thief?
What makes you lie at anchor, and keep our king in grief?
You lie, you lie, said Captain Ward, so true as I hear you lie,
For I never robb'd an Englishman, as Englishman but they.
As for these worthy Scotchmen, I love them as my own,
My greatest joy and heart's delight's to pull the French and Spaniards down;
Why say thou so, you bold robber, we'll soon humble your pride,
And then they fir'd with their great guns, and gave Ward a broadside.
Fire on, fire on, said Captain Ward, I value you not a pin,
If you are brass on the outside, I am good steel within;
Fight on, fight on, said Captain Ward, the sport well pleases me
And if you fight this month or more your captain I will be.
They fought from eight in the morning, till twelve o'clock at night
At length the royal Rainbow began to take her flight;
Go home Says Captain Ward, go tell your King from me,
If he reigns king upon dry land, I reign king on the sea.