Cherry Tree Carol- O'Halloran (VA) 1854 collected in 1916 Davis A
[My date. This is the only full text in Traditional Ballads of Virginia, Kyle Davis Jr.; 1929. His notes follow. Davis, whose notes are usually good, doesn't mention the N-Town play No. 15, which is clearly the important source of this ballad.
This is one of several Irish versions collected in the US. See also Sullivan collected by Flanders.
R. Matteson 2012, 2104]
THE CHERRY-TREE CAROL
(Child, No. 54)
The finding of the fragment C in Virginia in 1915 was the first evidence that "The Cherry-Tree Carol" still survived in America or had ever existed here in oral tradition. No other collector had reported it in 1915 (see Bulletin, No. 4, p. 5; also Journal, XXIX, 293 and 294, note). The source of the carol story is to be found in the Pseudo-Matthew's gospel. Chapter XX, which is thus briefly worded by Child: "On the third day of the fight into Egypt, Mary, feeling the heat to be oppressive, tells Joseph that she will rest for a while under the palm tree. Joseph helps her to light from her beast, and Mary, looking up from under the tree, and seeing it full of fruit, asks for some. Joseph somewhat testily expresses his surprise that she should think of such a thing, considering the height of the tree: he is much more concerned to get a supply of water. Then Jesus, sitting on his mother's lap, bids the palm to bow down and refresh his mother with its fruit. The palm instantly bends its top to Mary's feet." Most British versions of the carol alter this original story considerably: the tree is a cherry-tree, as of course it would be in England; Joseph's ill-humored reply is coupled with an insinuation of Mary's infidelity; the babe speaks, not from his mother's lap, but miraculously from her womb, to bring about the miracle which is a rebuke to Joseph; there are additional stanzas prolonging the story and sometimes known independently as "Joseph and the Angel."
In Virginia A, the only Virginia variant that is nearly complete, the first two stanzas are not to be found in any hitherto printed version. From the third stanza onward the ballad proceeds much as the British versions do through Child A 9, B 8, C 7, D 6, of course with differences of detail. The latter portion about the angel, found in all the British versions, is absent from the Virginia version. The other Virginia fragments, B and C, follow Child B and A, respectively, fairly closely. The melody is simple, but captivating. An interesting letter from Miss Martha M. Davis, one of the staunchest Virginia collectors, concerns this ballad. Temporarily residing at Winthrop College, Rock Hill, S. C., she writes, as of February 21, 1921: "A few months ago several of the teachers here went to hear a Negro preacher one night, a picturesque exhorter of the old type. They came back with a marvelous story (to them) of Joseph and Mary Virgin pickin' cherries from a cherry tree, a part of the gospel story according to this preacher. Well, old ballads are often found in strange company." For other Negro utilizations of old ballad material, see Scarborough, Chapter II, and the head-note to No. 27 of this volume. For American texts, see Bulletin, Nos. 4, 5; Campbell and Sharp, No. 13 (North Carolina); Journal, XXIX, 293 (McGill, Kentucky); McGill, p. 62; Pound, Ballads, No. 19; Scarborough, pp. 60-61; For additional references, see Journal, XXX, 297.
A. "Cherry Tree Carol." Reported by Miss Juriet Fauntreroy. Contrihuted by Miss Agnes o'Halloran, of Lynchburg, Va. "sung by her mother (nee Margaret shannahan) of county Clare, Ireland. Campbell County. January 22, 1916. Miss O'Halloran writes: These ancient carols were learned seventy or seventy-five years ago in the south of Ireland, county Clare, where the silver Shannon flows. The neighbors brought their flax spinning wheels and cards and knitting, and whiled away the hours of labor by folk stories and old ballads and carols that took the peculiar coloring of the people's devotion to our Blessed Lady. Both of these carols are equally old and traditional." Mrs. O'Halloran was born in 1834 in the Parish of Cratloe, County clare, but came to Virginia to live before the Civil War. The ballad is therefore Virginian by adoption, as well as by transmission to the daughter in Virginia.
1 "Lie down, Lady Mary,
And take a long sleep,
I am going to Jerusalem [1]
My sins for to weep."
2 Said Mary to Joseph,
mild and so low,
"I'll go along with you, Joseph,
Wherever you go."
3 As Mary and Joseph
Were walking the green,
Said Mary to Joseph,
So mild and serene.
"Joseph, pull me cherry,
I am surely with child."
4 Said Joseph to Mary,
So stubborn and unkind,
"Let the father of your baby
Pull cherries for you."
5 Well, bespoke our blessed Saviour,
In his mother's womb,
"Cherries, bow down,
Till my mother gather of you."
6 The highest of branches
Bowed down to the ground,
Mary gathered cherries
Till her apron overflowed.