Captain Wedderburn's- Fish (NH) 1940 Flanders B
[From Flanders; Ancient ballads; 1966. Notes by Coffin follow. Fish's family of her father's side were some of the earliest settlers in New Hampshire in the 1600s.
R. Matteson 2014]
Captain Wedderburn's Courtship
(Child 46)
"Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" tells an old tale of the ingenious suitor who must answer riddles to obtain his maid. The situation, as one can easily learn from Child's notes, I, 414 f., goes well back into the Middle Ages. The riddles used are known without the situation at least as far back as the fifteenth century. But the ballad combining the two is relatively modern and urbane-probably no earlier than the 1600's. The American texts are clustered in the northeast, close to the Child versions, and, according to Phillips Barry who includes the song in British Ballads from Maine, 93-99, probably from an Irish source. The
song is rare in England, but not long ago was easy to discover in Scotland.
There are three complications concerning the riddle portion of the ballad. First, it has been general practice by scholars to assume the popular riddle lyric, "I Gave My Love a Cherry," to be a portion of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship." Even where the music is similar and the informant calls the lyric "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" this seems a dangerous practice, and it is far more likely that the riddle lyric is not only older than the ballad but attached itself to the ballad while maintaining an independent tradition of its own. "I Gave My Love a Cherry" is known all over America and the British Isles and, unless fused into the "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" pattern, should be treated as a separate song. Second, the riddles can also be found in a nursely song called "The Four Brothers" or "Perry Merry Dictum Dominee." This song is also more popular than the Child ballad, has been confused with the ballad by scholars and informants alike, and tells a love story quite different from the ballad tale. Its popularity in this country was no doubt stimulated by its inclusion in such songsters as MacCaskey's Franklin Square Song Collection and Mother Goose's Melodies during the post-Civil War period. Third, in New England, it has been common practice for Child 1, "Riddles Wisely Expounded," and 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" to intermingle. The fragments from Mrs. Sullivan and Mrs. Hough printed here under Child I, Version F below, and the lyrics given by Barry, op. cit., 95-98, offer illustrations of the confusions. The problem with citations for further study, was touched in the headnote to Child I above. Sufifrce it to say here that once a song has lost its situation and been reduced to mere riddling ir has really lost its identity too and will drift easily.
The Flanders A text follows the normal English pattern in that the couple marries before the "girl lies next the wall." However, this is not always the case in Scotland and America. As with B-F, such formalities need not be observed. The B text, with its footnote, offers a good example of what an informant may change in a song on re-rendering it. C-F are riddle fragments. And the "Perry Merry Dictum Dominee" texts (I and II), at the end of the "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" variants, offer adequate illustration of the nursery rime as it is known in this country.
Bibliographical references to "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship," "I Gave My Love a Cherry," and "Perry Merry Dictum Dominee" can be had through the listings in Coffin, 59-60. Each song is treated separately there. Dean-Smith, 100, confusing "Perry Merry Dictum Dominee" and the "I Gave My Love a Cherry" lyric, gives English citations. And Greig and Keith, 33-36, opens up the Scottish tradition of the song. Child's remarks, I, 414 f., on old nursery rimes are also useful.
The relationship of riddling to courtship, discussed in the headnote to Child 2, should be recalled here.
The five tunes for Child 46 are parts of three groups: 1) the Burditt tune, which may be a distant relative of BCI group A; 2) the Burditt, Richards, and Fish tunes, which are themselves fairly diverse, but which definitely belong to BCI group A; and 3) the Norcross tune, which is part of BCI Appendix (to Child 46) group C. For the Burditt tune, BCI group B is also a possibility, especially his tune No. 20 on Page 371.
Mrs. Fish sang "Captain Washburn's Courtship" on November 8, 1940, and again on July 9, 1941. The tune given here was transcribed from the 1941 version. Both times she changed a number of words and phrases from the first recording, although the stanza arrangement and the detail remained the same. Below is a listing of the substitutions made in the later versions:
Line 1: Brave Captain Washburn sailed the sea
3: He was a brave and hearty lad
5: He had sailed to every shore
6: And every foreign land
10: So I have heard them say
13: He said, "Lady fair, will you be my bride (wife). . . ."
17: This lady fair was a worthy dame
25: Now for my breakfast I demand
27: And for my dinner I desire
31: Before I'll consent to be your wife
32: And lie next to the wall.
33: Now this brave-hearted sea captain
37: So he stood up before his wife
39: Saying, "I can grant of your desires all. . . ."
Saying, "I will grant all of your desires. . . ."
41: Now when a chicken is in the egg
42: I'm sure it has no bone.
43: When a cherry is in bloom
Mrs. Fish also sang a text of "Perry Merry Dictum Dominee." See Version I under that heading after Version F of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship." Structure: A B B A (4,4,4,4); Rhychm D (note the S/4 and, 5/4 measures); Contour: arc; Scale: major; t.c. C. Tr. B.
[music]
B. Captain Washburn's Courtship As sung by Mrs. Lena Bourne Fish of East Jaffrey, New Hampshire. H. H. F., Collector; July 27, 1940
Now Captain Washburn sailed the sea,
Through tempest, storm, and gale.
He was a shrewd and hardy lad
And was never known to fail.
He had sailed to Africa
And many a foreign strand
But at last he decided to take a wife
And bide in his native land.
Then the Captain did a-courting go,
Or so I've heard they say,
And dressed himself all in his best
In the merry month of May.
He said, "Lady fair, will you marry me
And come at my beck and call,
For when we go to bed at night
You must lie next the wall."
This lady was a worthy dame
But hard to court, they say.
She answered him quite scornfully
In the merry month of May.
"There are three things that I desire,
And you must grant them all
Before I will lie in your bed
At either front or wall.
"Now for my breakfast I desire
A chicken without a bone,
And for my dinner I demand
A cherry without a stone,
And for my supper I must have
A bird without a gall
Before I consent your bride to be
And sleep next to the wall."
Now this brave hardy sea captain
Was wise, so it seems plain.
He surely had much wisdom learned
As he sailed the raging main.
So he stood up before his love
As brave as brave could be.
"I can surely grant you your desire,
So you my bride must be.
"When the chicken is in the egg,
It surely has no bone;
And when a cherry is in bloom,
I'm sure it has no stone.
The dove it is a gentle bird
And flies without a gall,
So, Iady fair, make up Your bed
And you lie next the wall."