Devil and the School Child- Couch (KY) 1953 Roberts
[From Roberts: In the Pines, 1971. The proud porter gay is the devil. Verses 6 and 7 conform loosely to Child A last two verses:
'The Fause Knight upon the Road'- Version A; Child 3, Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Introduction, p. lxxiv. From Galloway.
8 'I wiss ye were in yon sie:'
'And a gude bottom under me.'
9 'And the bottom for to break:'
'And ye to be drowned.'
The last verse is similar to Child C:
5 ‘I wish you were in yonder well:’
‘And you were down in hell.’
Roberts and Agey's notes follow. Roberts also published it in Sang Branch Setters: Folksongs And Tales Of A Kentucky Mountain Family by Leonard Roberts, published by the American Folklore Society in 1974. According to that book, "It was collected by Mr. Roberts from Jim Couch of Putney, KY, in 1955. Mr. Couch learned it from his father, Tom Couch."
R. Matteson 2014]
A schoolboy meets a false knight (i.e. the Devil in disguise) on the road and by a contest of wits bordering on name-tabu, the lad is able to escape the Devil. The ballad is almost non-existent in later British collections.
In America it has had somewhat more vitality in tradition. Two texts have been recorded from Nova Scotia (BSNS, no. 1, and BFSSNE, XI, 89); two in Maine (BBM, pp. I l-14) from Scotland; one each from Indiana (BSI, no. 2), Virginia (TBv, no. 2), North Carolina (SharpK, no. 2-A), Tennessee (SharpK, no. 2-B), Missouri (BSM, p. 4),and Oklahoma (BFSSW, no. 3, from Scotland). These and a few in JAF and some reprints make up the 18 entries in Coffin (BTBNA). It seems that the homiletic theme of the ballad appealed to the Scottish people and that they carried many texts to their New World settlements in Nova Scotia, Appalachia, and the ozarks. Lawless lists 10 in print. The tenor of the debate between the boy and the Devil remains fairly constant in the texts: Where are you going? To school. What do you carry? My books or my dinner, etc. The text from Maine helps to explain one exchange in my text. If the (fiddle) bow would break? May the end stick in your throat. The fence rail was easier to recall and to use in Kentucky. See Barry's note on the ballad as religious homily (BFSSNE, Ibid.).
This seems to be the only text recorded in Kentucky. It was sung to me by Jim Couch, Harlan county, in 1953. It was printed in UCDG, pp. 147-9, in TSCF, no. 1, and in SBS, no. 1.
SCALE: Pentatonic (g a b d e). MODE: III; plagal. RANGE: d - e, (Major 9th). TONAL CENTER: c. PHRASE STRUCTURE: A B C D (2,2,2,2). MELODIC RELATIONSHIP: This song has the familiar ring of a host of jingle settings and prevalent tunes, including "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (final four measures). Also, cf. SharpK l, p.212, No. 28F for a similarity of melodic contour in a setting of Child No. 28. *The anacrusis was alternated by the performer between the notes G and D.
1. Oh, where are you going there?" said the proud porter gay, [1]
"All alone by the wayside lone?"
"I started to my school," said the child gentleman,
And the game feller's walking alone.
2. "What do you have in your bucket?' said the proud porter gair,
"All alone by the wayside lone?"
"It's vittles for my dinner," said the child gentleman,
And the game feller's walking along.
3. "O won't you give me some?" said the proud porter gay
"All alone by the wayside lone?'
"No, not a bite o' crumbs," said the child gentleman,
And the game feller's walking along.
4. "I wished I had you in the woods," said the proud porter gay,
"All alone by the wayside lone,"
"With a good gun under my arm," said the child gentleman,
And the game feller's walking alone.
5. "With your head broke in two," said the proud porter gay,
"All alone by the wayside lone,"
"O a fence rail jobbed down your neck," said the child gentleman,
And the game feller's walking alone.
6. "Wished I had you in the sea," said the proud porter gay
"All alone by the wayside lone,"
"Good board [2] under me," said the child gentleman,
And the game feller's walking alone.
7. "Your head turned bottom up," said the proud porter gay,
"All alone by the wayside lone,"
"Yes, and you under the bottom," said the child gentleman,
And the game feller's walking alone.
8. "I wished I had you in the well," said the proud porter gay,
"All alone by the wayside lone,"
"But the Devil's chained in Hell," said the child gentleman,
And the game feller's walking alone.
1. The porter represents the devil
2. boat