English & Other 200. The Gypsy Laddie
CONTENTS:
[upcoming]
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c. 1770 Mansfield manuscript
Last night I lay in a well made bed
And my good Lord beside me
The night I maun lie in a Tenants Barn
Whatever may betide me
Come to your Bed to your ain johnny Faa
Come to your bed to your Dearie For I vow & swear by what passd yestreen
My lord shall ne'er come near me
Ill make a hap for my Johnny Faa
Ill make a hap for my Dearie
And Ill gie him a' the coat gaes round
For my lord shall nae mair stir me When our good Lord came hame at E'en He spear'd for his fair Lady The taen they cried & the tother replyd She's away wi' the Gypsey Laddie
Gar saddle to me the black black steed
Gar saddle & mak him ready
For I will niether eat nor sleep
Till I see my fair Ladie We were fifeteen well made
men Altho we were nae bonny And we were a' put down fair ane The Earle o Cassillis Lady
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Dated c. 1868; Barry BBM; F. Broadside in the Williams Collection of Irish Broadsides, Public Library, Providence, R. I.
Dark-Eyed Gipsy, O
I When Charley came home late at night
Enquiring for his lady, O,
She's gone, she's gone, says his own servant man,
And she's followed the dark-eyed Gipsy O.
2 Go, saddle me my milk-white steed,
The brown was e'er so speedy O,
That I may ride the length of the night
Till I find but the dark-eyed Gipsy O.
3 So Charley rode thus through the length of the night
Till the next morning early O,
It's then he met with gay old man
And he both wet and weary O.
4 Where have you been my gay old man
Where have you been so early O?
Or did you see a fair lady,
And she following the dark-eyed Gipsy O?
5 I have been east, I have been west,
I have been north and southwards O,
And the fairest lady I e'er did see,
Was following the dark-eyed Gipsy O.
6 Then he rode east and he rode west,
He rode north and southwards O,
Until he met with his own wedded wife,
And she following the dark-eyed Gipsy O.
7 Will you forsake your houses and lands,
Will you forsake your children O,
Will you forsake your own wedded lord
And follow the dark-eyed Gipsy O.
8 What do I care for houses or lands,
What do I care for my children O?
What do I care for my own wedded lord,
While I follow the dark-eyed Gipsy O.
9 Then she took the garment that she wore
And wound it as a head-dress O,
Saying, I'll eat the grass and drink the dew
And I'll follow the dark-eyed Gipsy O.
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59. [The Draggletail Gipsy O]
Sharp MSS.,3601482, Sung by Farmer King, East Harp
tree, August 25, tgo4.
aI
Last night you slept on a goose feather bed
With the sheets turned down so bravely O
And to night you must sleep on the cold open field
Along with thc gipsy laddie O
60. "The Gypsie Laddie"
Ord, 1930, p. 411. From the north of Scotland.
1. There were three gipsies all in a row,
And O but thcy sang bonnie, 0;
They sang so sweet and so comPletc
That they charmed the hearts of our ladies, O,
z. Lord Cassils' lady came downstairs
With all her rnaids behind her, O;
With a bottle of red wine into her hand
For to treat the gipsy laddies, O.
3. She's treated them all to a glass of rcd wine,
Likewise a little ginger, O;
And one of them stepped her behind,
Stole thc gold ring from hcr finger, O:
4. Says, "Ye'll tak aff your bonnie silk dress,
Put on e tartan plaidie, O,
And ye'll travel on a' the lee lang day
And follow the gipsy laddie, O."
5. "Tll tak afr my bonnie silk dress,
Put on a tartan plaidie, O,
And I'11 travel on a' the lee lang day
And follow my gipsy laddie, O."
6. "surely you've got gold in store,
And surely you've got treasures three,
And surely you've got all that you want,
And three bonnie boys to emuse you wi'i"
7. "O yes, I have got gold in store,-
- O yes, I have got treasures three,
O yes, I have got all that I want,
And I'vc three bonnic boys to strlusc ll;l
8. "Last night I lay on a well-madc bed,
Wi' my guid lord beside me, O;
This night I'll lie in a tcnant's barn
Wit a' the gipsies around me, O."
9. Lord Cassils he camc home at night,
A<aliing for. his ladY O;
The ane denied, but the other replied,
"Sh's awa wi'the gipsy laddies, Ol"
10. "Gae saddle to me my bonnie black steed:
Mak haste, mak haste, mak ready, O,
For I will neither eat nor drink
Till I bring back mY lady, 0."
11. He rode east and he rode west,
Till he came to Yonder bogie, O,
And the bonniest lassie that ever he saw
She was following the gipsy laddies, C
12. There's sixteen o' ye, wcll-made men,
Although yc are na bonnie, O,
And ye wili a' high hangld be
For stealing Lord Cassils' lady, O.
61. [The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies]
Sharp MSS., 478/. Sung by William Nott, Meshaw; January 5, 1905.
O why will you leave your houses and land
And why will you leave your money O
O why will you leave your new wedded life
For to follow the draggle tailed gipsies O
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Roxburghe Collection, III. p. 683.
Publications, Volume 34
By Ballad Society
The Gipsy Laddy: Johnny Faa
"The Gipsy said—
'And so at last we find my tribe,
And so I set thee in the midst,
And to one and all of them describe
What thou said'st, and what thou dids't,
Our long and terrible journey through;
And all thou art ready to tee and do
In the trials that remain;
I trace them the vein and the other vein
That meet on the brow and part again,
Making our rapid mystic mark.'"
--- The Flight of the Duchess.
The present English version of the ballad elsewhere known as 'Johny Faa' is probably of earlier date than any printed copy of the Scottish version, which appeared in the fourth volume of Allan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany, 1740, the first edition, pp. 175-177. (All, or nearly all, of the songs in the final vol. iv. are of English origin, indisputably; many of them by Tom D'Urfey, and were not home-grown). It was adopted by David Herd in 1769 for his single vol. of Scottish Songs, p. 88; and in vol. ii. p. 54 of the better known edition, 1776: with trifling alterations. It again re-appeared in James Johnson's Scots' Musical Museum, No. 181, vol. ii. p. 189, 1788; probably at the suggestion of Robert Burns. We give it here from the text published by Allan Ramsay.
[Tea-Table Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 175, 1740.]
Johny Faa, The Gypsie Laddie.
I. The Gypsies came to our good Lord's gate, ['yett.']
And wow but they sang sweetly;
They sang sae sweet, and sae very complete,
That down came the fair lady.
II. And she came tripping down the stair,
And a' her maids before her;
As soon as they saw her well-fa'r'd face, [= favour'd.]
They coost the glamour o'er her. [=caat, p. 151.]
III. "Gae tak frae me this gay mantile,
And bring to me a plaidie;
For if kith and kin, and a' had sworn,
I'll follow the Gypsie laddie.
IV. "Yestreen I lay in a well-made bed,
And my good Lord beside me;
This night I'll lie in a tenant's barn,
Whatever shall betide me."
V. "Come to your bed," says Johny Faa,
"Oh come to your bed, my deary;
For I Tow and I swear, by the hilt of my sword,
That your Lord shall nae mair come near ye."
VI. "I'll go to bed to my Johny Faa, [S. M. Mus. omits. ]
I'll go to bed to my deary;
For I Tow and swear by what past yestreen,
That my Lord shall nae mair come near me.
VII. "I'll mak a hap to my Johny Faa, [Morieon omits vii. ]
And I'll mak a hap to my deary;
And he s[hall] get a the coat goes round, [Cf. Waller's Girdle. ]
And my Lord shall nae mair come near me."
VIII. And when our Lord came home at e'en,
And speir'd for his fair Lady, [Scotch, asked.]
The tane she cried, and the other reply'd,
"She's awa' with the gypsie laddie."
IX. ''Gae, saddle to me the black, black steed,
Gae, saddle and make him ready;
Before that I either eat or sleep,
I'll gae seek my fair Lady."
X. And we were fifteen well-made men,
Although we were na bonny;
And we were a' put down for ane, [Herd reads, "but ane"]
A fair young wanton Lady.
Finis.
In 1788, sixty-four years later, in the similar version furnished to James Johnson, Tht Scots' Musical Museum reads in final line 'Tht Earl of Cassilis' lady.' Burns annotated it, '' The people of Ayrshire begin this song 'The Gypsies cam' to my Lord Cassillis' yett.' They have many more stanzas in thia eong than I ever saw in any printed copy."—Religues of R. Burns, p. 265, 1813.
Alterations and injurious interpolations were made by Motherwell, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and other editors (see p. 154 post).
The dance tune,'Ladie Cassilles's Lilt,' suitable to the T.-T. Misc. version, is in the Skene MS., the date of which was at first assumed to be earlier than 1635.
This interesting ballad is fairly supported by tradition; but there are discrepancies in minor details. Some who have claimed precise knowledge of places and date, scarcely proved their case. We venture to assign the event to 1632 or 1633: the present two-fold ballad is nearly a century later.
The heroine, Lady Jean Hamilton (afterwards Countess of Cassillis), was born on the 8th of February, 1607. She was daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Hamilton, and believed to have responded to the love of John Faw or Faa. She kept company with him in the woods of Tyningham, near Dunbar; but was forced, by command of her parents and the importunities of the wealthier man, to marry the 'grave and solemn' John, sixth Earl of Cassillis, "a most rigid and austere Presbyterian." He resided at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire.
There was a legendary attribution of knighthood to the lover, naming him Sir John Faa. He was sent abroad at the time of Lady Jean's marriage. He probably was connected with the gipsies named Faa, who became celebrated long afterwards. So early as 15th February, 1540-41, under the Privy Seal of James V., one 'Johnnie Faa, Lord and Erie of Littel Eyipt,' was furnished with a writ, establishing his authority, 'conform to the lawis of Egipt,' over his tribe of so-called Egyptians; and calling on all sheriffs and persons in authority in Scotland to ' assist him in executions of justice vpon his company and folkis.'
This ancestral connection with the gipsy tribe must have given to the lover of Lady Jean Cassillis a claim on any lingering members of the race; proscribed, banished, and almost exterminated though they were by reactionary judgments at the hands of a persecuting and bigotted municipality, on pretence of punishment, for contumaciously abiding in Scotland after an Act of Parliament had been passed in 1609 or 1693, ordaining that all gipsies were to be expelled from the realm. An intermediate 'Capitaine Johnne Faa,'husband of Ellen Faa, with seven of his tribe, were summarily put to death in January, 1624. Here begins the embroilment caused by identity of name. Three John Faas are distinct; and there is conclusive evidence of several Faas of good repute in the neighbourhood at the time of the wedding. (See James Maidment's Scottish Ballads; also Joseph Eitson's note on the Faa gipsies in 1677, Scottish Songs Class Fourth, 1794, with reference to McLauriu's Remarkable Cases, p. 774, and Alex. Pennecuik's Description of Tweed-dale, p. 14, 1715.)
The main facts appear to be these: The former lover returned from abroad and, taking advantage of the husband's absence, came to Culzean Castle, disguised as a gipsy or wandering pedlar. (Compare the ballads of ' The Jovial Pedlar ' and 'Jovial Tinker' in previous vol. vii. pp. 49 and 79.) He came bringing merchandize or trinkets, fit for his assumed character, and accompanied by faithful friends, who were not necessarily gipsies any more than himself, but bearing the outward marks in stained skins and foreign garments, A rigid watch was kept by hireling servants, perhaps as bitterly puritanical as their master. But, by bribes and pertinacity gaining admittance, John Faa won the ear of the lady, his renewed avowal of love being seconded by the promptings of her own heart. She had endured unwillingly the abhorred caresses of her Calvinistic spouse. She eloped with the man whom she loved, abandoning her home and her two infant daughters, fleeing into poverty and ultimate ruin. There had been 'a glamour' cast on her; but such bedazzlement has formed the excuse, whenever a wife or daughter sacrificed her honour for the lure of sensual passion.
In her lonely vigil she had dreamed of this, having prepared to yield before the temptation came. Remembrance of her early lover by contrast awoke detestation of her tyrannic master, whose love for her was worse than hate. It needed no magic spell, no gipsy enchantment, no hypnotizing or mesmeric passes, no charlatanrie of electro-biology in modern babble; no rhythmic chaunt of the 'most aged crone alive,' or anything beyond the eloquence of her constant lover to rouse her from lethargy. Love was conqueror, and Love is best; 'Love is the only good in the world.1
"So, trial after trial past,
Wilt them fall at the very last
Breathless, half in trance
With the thrill of the great deliverance
Into our arms for evermore;
And thou shalt know, those arras once curled
About thee, what we knew before,
How Love is the only good in the world:
Henceforth be loved as hearts can love,
Or brain devise, or hand approve."—(Cf. motto, p. 149.)
Their flight lay in the darkness, crossing the Boon-water by the 'Gipsies' Steps' (still so called), distant a half mile from the Castle (according to William Paterson). The husband came home unexpectedly, perhaps from Edinburgh; (certainly not from his certified attendance at the Westminster assembly of Divines, for that journey was much later, in 1642). He followed and recaptured the lady. With summary vengeance he hanged John Faa and his companions on the Dule Tree, on a little knoll near the house, compelling her to witness the tragedy from a window. "There were seven gipsies in the gang!" (the same number, it was reported, at the execution of the former John Faa in 1624).
She was committed to a virtual imprisonment for life, in a tower at Maybole. The sculptured heads thereon are traditionally reputed to represent the slaughtered gipsies.
'' Eight heads carved in stone below one of the turrets are said to be the effigies of so many of the gipsies." .... "The head of Johnie Faa himself is distinct from the rest, larger and more lachrymose in the expression of the features. Some windows in the upper flat of Cassillis Castle are similarly adorned."—Picture of Scotland, by Robert Chambers, 1826. Compare the New Statistical Account of Scotland.
A portrait of Lady Cassillis is preserved at Culzean, engraved in Constable's Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany, being a new series of The Scots' Magazine, vol. LXXX. of the entire work, November, 1817. It shows her with some claim to beauty, of the Sir Peter Lely's order, but certainly with weakness and irresolution of character, fair, graceful, and ringletted.
C. K. Sharpe attached no importance of corroboration to the tapestry at Culzean, misrepresenting such an elopement as that with the gipsies, "wrought with her needle by way of penance"; a man and a woman on a white horse surrounded by attendants.
A specious objection to the story of the abduction is this: The sanctimonious spouse, Henry, Earl of Cassillis, wrote two letters after his wife's death, describing her praisefully. One of them is addressed to Robert Douglas, minister at Edinburgh: "Right Reverend, I finde it so harde to digest the want of a dear friend, such as my beloved yoke-fellow was." (Wodrow MSS.) In the Eglinton letter she is mentioned as his "dear bed-fellow." Such men bewail the "dear departed shade" after they have treated her body harshly during lifetime. Hypocrisy is engrained deeply. Cruelty to a wife does not disqualify the survivor from displaying mock affection and mock-piety.
"Eh ! gai, gai, gai, de profundis ! Ma femme a rendu 1'arae.
Eh! gai, gai, gai, de profundis! Qu'elle aille en Paradis.
"A cette firae si chere, le Paradis convient;
Car, suivant ma grand'-mere, de 1'enfer on revient
"Dieu! faut-il lui survivre? Me faut-il la pleurer?
Non, non; je veux la suivre—pour la voir enterrer."—Beranger.
The Lady Jean died at peace, and her husband had avowedly been to see her:—
"She has made a glorious and happie change, manifesting in her speeches bothe a full submission to the onelie absolute Soveraine, and a sweet sense of his presence in mercie, applying to her selfe mania comfortable passages of God's worde, and closing with those last words, when I asked what she was doing, her answer was, sheewas ' longing togoehome.'—Cassillis, 14 December, 1642."
The next day he wrote the other letter, to Lord Eglinton, inviting him to the funeral of the lady, from Cassillis, to "our burial-place at Mayboille," or May bole. It begins: "My noble Lord. It hath pleaseit the Almightie to tak my deir bed-fellow frome this valley of teares to hir home (as hir Best, in hir last wordis called it)."—Wm. Paterson's Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire, p. 13, 1847. This was the sixth Earl of Eglinton, Alex. Seton, who died in 1661.
Mystery clings to 'Johny Faa.' According to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe there was a separation of the Lady Jean Cassillia from her husband, a mensa et tftoro, tantamount to a divorce. They never cohabited again; her two daughters, Margaret and Catherine, had been born before the abduction or flight. She died in December, 1642, and the widower married again, his second wife hearing him a son. This son was mistakenly assigned by Professor Aytoun to the first wife, Lady Jean. Aytoun yields no faith to the identification of the Faa legend with the Cassillis family, saying that "the story has no real foundation; but that it was a malignant fiction, possibly trumped up to annoy [Gilbert] Burnet, who had many enemies" (Aytoun's Ballads of Scotland, vol. i. p. 182, 1858). This is the conjecture of John Finlay (see his Scottish Ballads, ii. 38, 1800). It is preposterous, and has been refuted bv James Maidment, thus: "There was no occasion on the part of Gilbert Burnet's enemies to resort to underhand defamation of this kind. They boldly attacked him; and the pasquils and lampoons were circulated without the slightest scruple. Neither was he a person of such nervous sensibility as to be at all put about by any scandal concerning his, wife's mother" (Maidment's Scottish Ballads and Songs, ii. 184, 1868); Burnet having married Lady Jean's elder daughter Margaret. She was born before 1630. "She bestowed her hand, and what was better her purse, upon the busy, intriguing inmate of Hamilton Palace." Thus she, in 1671 or 1672, when "in the last stage of antiquated virginity" (according to C. K. Sharpe), was married clandestinely to Gilbert Burnet, the first of his three wives. Two servants of the officiating minister, the Rev. Patrick Graham, were the sole witnesses of the wedding, at Glasgow. Bishop Burnet, in his Own Times, declared that on the previous day he had delivered to her a paper, relinquishing claim on her wealth; he being thirteen years her junior, born in 1643. This was meant to avoid the charge of being mercenary, but it was not efficacious. Not until three years later was the marriage revealed. "Upon the publishing of it, she retired to Edinburgh, condoling her own case and her present misfortunes" (Law's Memorials). She bore no children, lived separately from her ubiquitous husband, and died before 1686, when the future Bishop of Sarum married in Holland a second wife, Mary Scott, a wealthy Dutch lady of Scotch extraction, who died of small-pox in 1698; to be succeeded, a few months later, by a third wife, Elizabeth Berkeley, a widow, nee Blake (1661-1709), whom he survived until 1715. Like Margaret, Elizabeth was childless, but Burnet had ten children by Mary.
Lady Jean Cassillis's second daughter, Lady Catherine Kennedy (bora eircd 1630-31), was married to William Lord Cochrane, who in 1679 predeceased his father, Baron Cochrane of Dundonald (earlier known as Sir William Cochrane, Knt., of Cowdon; elevated to the peerage 26 December, 1647, and advanced to the dignity of first Earl of Dundonald, and Lord Cochrane of Paisley 12th May, 1669: he died in 1686, and was succeeded by Catherine's son, John, the second Earl, who died in 1690).
Lady Jean's husband, the all-potent 'John of the Kennedie clan,' held power over life and limb, over soul and spirit of his retainers. Short shrift to any who stood in his way, whether gipsies or henchmen. Andrew Sympson in his Description of Galloway, 1684 (published in 1828), tells that—
"'Twixt Wig ton and the town of Ayr,
Port-Patrick and the Craives of Cree,
No man need think for to byde there,
Unless he court with Kennedie."
Untenable is the late Harvard claim advanced for Allan Ramsay as author of ' Johny Faa.' Peter Cunningham (in Songs of England and Scotland, ii. 346, 1835) misrepresented it as having been printed in the first vol. of Tea-Table Miscellany, 1724; instead of it being in the supplementary vol. iv. of English gatherings, 1740. Little or nothing, or worse than nothing, has been gained from the crowd of interpolators since the time of Burns. William Motherwell (his 'Gipsy Davy'), R. H. Cromek, John MacTaggart, John Martin, the painter, etc., were more or less utterers of base coin. C. K. Sharpe's version was "taken down from the recitation of a peasant in Galloway" (Edinburgh Magazine, p. 309, 1817). It is better than the others, but no less evidently a modern fabrication. Utterly vulgarised is Motherwell's MS. version, from the recitation of Agnes Lyle (Kilbarchan, 27 July, 1827), Lady Jean complaining,
"But this night I maun lye in some cauld tenant's barn,
A wheen blackguards waiting on me."
After having been long sought, she is found "in bonnie Abbey-dale, drinking with Gipsy Davy." In Martin's version he is called "Georgie." With indistinct remembrance of a stall copy, the garrulous reciters lengthened the ballad, introducing the 'wan water from old songs for 'bonny Doon,' and travestying the story until all romance died out of it Such is the system of latter-day 'traditional recitation." Incredibly idiotic are the perversions of 'Charlotte Sophia Burne, 1885; of Margaret Reburn; of Newton Pepoun, Massachusetts; and Mrs. Helena Titus Brown, of New York (in 1790). R. Morison printed, "Of courage stout and steady," to rhyme with " Wanton Lady."
Direct transcripts of two series of MSS. formerly belonging to George Kinloch (chiefly in his handwriting) were in the possession of the present Editor. 'The Egyptian Laddy,' alias John Faa, is in John Hill Burton's handwriting, 13J stanzas, with two breaks. The other version agrees with our text of pp. 149, 150, except this rationalized variation :—
"And we were fifteen weel-made men,
Although we were sae many,
Yet we were a' put down but one
For a fair young wanton Lady."
(This "but ane" accords with David Herd's reading, to make it identify the narrator as a survivor.) George Kinloch's MS. Note refers to '' Sir John Faa, as 1 think, of Dunbar, who had been previously betrothed to the lady, who was afterwards forced by her relations to marry Lord Cassillis." Kinloch also relates this anecdote, concerning the Earl of Glencairu's taunt to Lord Cassillis :—
"The late Earl of Glencairn married the daughter of a Hugh McWhanle, an itinerant Piper in the neighbourhood of Ayr, and had by some lucky chance succeeded to an immense fortune; and at an election dinner in Ayr, where Lord Cassillis and Lord Glencairn were present, Lord Cassillis, with an appearance of friendship, asked Gleneairn, 'How is your father-in-law, honest manp Is he still as fond of playing the pipes as formerly?' Lord Glencairn instantly answered, ' 0! still as fond as ever ; when I came off this morning I left him playing Johnie Faa' This Lord Cassillis took so high that it required the interposition of friends to prevent serious consequences."—Kinloch MS.
'The Egyptian Laddy' version (John Hill Burton's) attempted to localize the ahduction to the 'Corse,' the ancient seat of the Forbeses of Craigevar; from the close vicinity of which the reciter of this ballad came. (Such was the common trick among ' traditional reciters,' and it accounts for many discrepancies or variations.) The Lady repulses Johny Faa's endearments, after the flight across the ' wan water.' He promises to abstain from touching her; she keeping herself unstained while awaiting the expected rescue. Evidently modernized, it begins, "There came Egyptians to Corsefield yetts" (anglice 'gates'). It follows the four early stanzas of T.-T. Misc., and then continues (with a hiatus, the lost words, being here suppplied in brackets):—
"When they came to the wan water, I wite it was na bonny;"
[She maun set down her feet, and wade, her feet mair white than any].
"'Yestreen I this wan water rade, and my good lord rade by me;
The night I maun cast oil my shoon and wade; the Black bands wading wi' me.
"'Yestreen I lay in a weel-made bed, and my good lord lay wi' me;
The night I maun lie in a tenant's barn, and the Black bands lying by me.'
"'Come to your bed,' says Johnie Faa, come to yer bed, my dearie!
And I shall swear, by the coat that I wear, my hand shall ne'er gae nearthee.'
"'I will never come to yer bed, I will never come near ye;
For I think I hear his horse's foot that was once call'd my dearie.'"
[He renews his invitation and promise. She repeats her refusal, and declares that 'I think I hear his bridle ring, that was once called my dearie.' Next follows, as on p. 150, et. viii. "When our Good Lord," etc., ending thus: ]
"Yestreen we were fifteen good armed men; tho' black we were, nae bonny; Yet the night we a' ly slain for ane: It's the Lord o' Corsefield'a Lady."
The most unblushing fabrication is that by John MacTaggart, twenty-two stanzas, in his Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopaedia, p. 284, 1824 ; wherein everybody is forgiven, after much vulgarity, all end merrily with a dancing bout.
Kobert Burns supplied the annotation on p. vi. of the Index to vol. ii. of The Scots' Musical Museum, viz. "The gypsies cam' to our gude lord's yett.—Neighbouring tradition strongly vouches for the truth of the story." Burns had special ways of learning these traditions, being an Ayrshire man, and closely connected with Maybole; where Lady Jean Cassillis may have been imprisoned (See pp. 152, 153).
The tune of Johnny Faa now bears the name of Wae's me for Prince Charlie! from it having been used in 1815 by William Glen, to suit the words of his Lament, "A wee bird cam' to our hall door." (The music is in John Muir Wood's Songs of Scotland, Balmoral edition, 1887, p. 28.)
There was seven Gypsies all in a gang,
They were brisk and bonny, O!
They rode till they came to the Earl of Castle's house,
And there they sung most sweetly, O!
The Earl of Castle's lady came down, [= cassillis]
"With the waiting-maid be[fore] her, 0! [text. beside.' ]
As soon as her fair face they saw,
They [cast] their [glamour o'er her, 0 !] [See Note, P. 157.]
They gave to her a nutmeg brown,
And a race of the best ginger, 0!
She gave to them a far better thing,
'Twas the ring from off her finger, 0! [£y.
She pull'd off her high-heel'd shoes,
They was made of Spanish leather, 0!
She put on her Highland brooges,
To follow the Gypsey Laddy, 0! [text, Loddy,'Pa,nm.]
[' 0! come with me,' says Johnnie Faw,* [See Note, below.
0! come with me, my dearie, 0!
For I vote and swear, by the hilt of my sword,
Your lord shall no more come near ye, 0!
[' Here, take from me this gay mantle,
And bring to me a, plaidie, 0!
Tho' kith and kin and all had sworn,
T 'II follow the Gypsie Laddie, 0 1'
[' Yestere'en I lay in a well-made bed,
And my good lord beside me, 0!
This night I'll lie in a tenant's barn,
Whatever shall betide me, 0 ." [C- K gharpe.B doubtful version.
[' Oh! hold your tongue, my hinny, my heart,
Oh! hold your tongue, my dearie;
For I vow and swear, by the moon and the stars,
That thy lord shall nae mair come near ye.']
\_Note.* — Sere might come in three stanzas, of the Northern version, recovered by John Martin; agreeing with the version of 1740, reprinted on p. 149-150, stanzas v, iii, and iv. ; here added; perhaps also stanzas vi, and vii, although they are eminently Scottish. The original of the whole must have been sung in the North Countrie. Had the London printers grown shame-faced, and afraid of naughtiness? For how long were they so punctilious P Otherwise, why did they omit the genuine stanzas, equivalent to those we here italicise within brackets ?]
At night when my good Lord came home,
Enquiring for his Lady, 0!
The waiting-maid made this reply,
"She's following the Gypsey Laddy, 0!"
"Come, saddle me my milk-white steed,
Come, saddle it so bonny, 0!
As I may go seek my own wedded wife,
That's following the Gypsey Laddy, 0!"
"Have you been East, have you been West,
Or have you been brisk and bonny, 0!
Or have you seen a gay lady,
A-following the Gypsey Laddy, 0!"
He rode all that summer's night,
And part of the next morning [early], 0!
At length he spy'd his own wedded wife;
She was cold, wet, and weary, 0!
"Why did you leave your houses and land,
Or why did you leave your money, 0!
Or why did you leave your good wedded Lord,
To follow the Gypsie Laddy, 0?"
"0! what care I for houses and land,
Or what care I for money, 0!
So as I have brew'd, so will I [ha' drank]; y. • return.'
So fare you well, my honey, 0!"
There was seven Gypsies in a gang,
And they was brisk and bonny, 0!
And they're to be hanged all on a row,
For the Earl of Castle's Lady, 0 I [,-.„. caasiiiii.
[In White-letter, a single narrow slip, set up by Southerners, probably as a page of some Chap-book ' Garland of Smigs ' for circulation in the northern counties. Date circd 1720, not earlier. No printer's name or woodcut. Gross are the blunders made through misunderstanding the Scotch words. Thus 'Laddy' became ' Loddy'; 'yett' in third line is rendered ' house' instead of gate. In the eighth line by a stupendous misprint we find " They called their Grandmother over,0!" instead of the true line, "Theycast their glamour o'erher, 0!" This casting glamour, or exercising a spell to bewilder her and control her will, is the chief ingredient in the Gipsy's witch-cauldron. But the lover's genuine eloquence is the white-magic: pleadings of passion would be sufficient to mislead an impressionable and beautiful woman, whose brief married life had been lonely and unhappy As in the 'Flight of the Duchess' (compare p. 149), the spectator knew that the gipsy was "bewitching my Lady." The Eoxburghe stanzas 8th and 10th are not found elsewhere. The abruptness of the finale, the sacrifice of all the band " for ane, a fair wanton lady, is genuine.]
[Roxburghe Collection, III. 604. See Note, at foot of the page.]
----------------------
Gipsy Countess
Three gipsies stood at the Castle gate,
They sang so high, they sang so low,
The lady sate in her chamber late,
Her heart it melted away as snow,
Her heart it melted away as snow.
They sang so sweet; they sang so shrill,
That fast her tears began to flow.
And she laid down her silken gown,
Her golden rings and all her show,
All her show &c.
She plucked off her high-heeled shoes,
A-made of Spanish leather, o.
She would in the street; with her bare, bare feet;
All out in the wind and the weather, O.
Weather, O! &c.
Source: Songs of the West by S. Baring-Gould.
----------------
"Wraggle Taggle Gypsies- O" Sharp, C (ed), 1916, One Hundred English Folksongs, Boston, Oliver Ditson Co
Sharp wrote:
Compare this song with "The Gipsy Countess" (Songs of the West, no 50, 2d ed.) and "The Gipsy" (A Garland of Country Song, no 32). A Scottish version of the words is in Ramsey's Tea-Table Miscellany (volume iv); see also "Gypsie Laddie," in Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs (volume ii, p. 95, ed. 1791). In Finlay's Scottish Ballads (1808) the ballad appears as "Johnnie Faa," and in Chambers Picture of Scotland, a valiant effort is made, after the manner of Scottish commentators, to provide the story with a historical foundation.
The tune is in the AEolian mode. I have noted no less than eighteen variants.
There were three gypsies a come to my door,
And downstairs ran this lady, O!
One sang high and another sang low,
And the other sang bonny, bonny, Biscay, O!
Then she pulled off her silk finished gown
And put on hose of leather, O!
The ragged, ragged, rags about our door,
She's gone with the wraggle taggle gypsies, O!
It was late last night, when my lord came home,
Enquiring for his a-lady, O!
The servants said, on every hand,
She's gone with the wraggle taggle gypsies, O!
O saddle to me my milk-white steed,
Go and fetch me my pony, O!
That I may ride and seek my bride,
Who is gone with the wraggle taggle gypsies, O!
O he rode high and he rode low,
He rode through woods and copses too,
Until he came to an open field,
And there he espied his a-lady, O!
What makes you leave your house and land?
What makes you leave your money, O?
What makes you leave your new wedded lord?
To go with the wraggle taggle gypsies, O!
What care I for my house and my land?
What care I for my money, O?
What care I for my new wedded lord?
I'm off with the wraggle taggle gypsies, O!
Last night you slept on a goose-feather bed,
With the sheet turned down so bravely, O!
And to-night you'll sleep in a cold open field,
Along with the wraggle taggle gypsies, O!
What care I for a goose-feather bed?
With the sheet turned down so bravely, O!
For to-night I shall sleep in a cold open field,
Along with the wraggle taggle gypsies, O!
---------------------
From: 'Chambers's Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts, Vol 16' William and Robert Chambers (eds.), Edinburgh, 1847
ANECDOTES OF THE SCOTTISH GIPSIES.
One of the earliest anecdotes of the Scottish gipsies is that of "Johnnie Faa, the Gipsy Laddie," who eloped with the lady of the Earl of Cassilis. This story rests on tradition, and on an old ballad; the facts, so far as they can he gathered, are thus related in the "Picture of Scotland." "John, the sixth Earl of Cassilis, a stern Covenanter, of whom it is recorded by Bishop Burnet that he would never permit his language to he understood but in its direct sense, obtained to wife Lady Jean Hamilton, a daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Haddington, who had raised himself from the Scottish bar to a peerage, and the best fortune of his time. The match seems to have been dictated by policy; and it is not likely that Lady Jean herself had much to say in the bargain. On the contrary, says report, she had been previously beloved by a gallant young knight, a Sir John Faa of Dunbar, who had perhaps seen her at her father's seat of Tyningham, which is not more than three miles from that town. When several years were gone, and Lady Cassilis had brought her husband three children, this passion led to a dreadful catastrophe. Her youthful lover, seizing an opportunity when the Earl of Cassilis was attending the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, came to Cassilis Castle, a massive old tower, on the banks of the Doon. He was dis¬guised as a gipsy, and attended by a band of these desperate out¬casts. The countess consented to elope with her lover. Ere they had proceeded very far, however, the earl came home, and immediately set out in pursuit. Accompanied by a band which put resistance out of the question, he overtook them, and captured the whole party at a ford over the Doon, still called the ' Gipsies' Steps,' a few miles from the castle. He brought them back to Cassilis, and there hanged all the gipsies, including the hapless Sir John, upon ' the Dule Tree,' a splendid and most umbrageous plane, which yet nourishes on a mound, in front of the castle gate, and which was his gallows in ordinary, as the name testifies—
'And we were fifteen weel-made men,
Although we were na bonnie;
And we were a' put down for ane—
A fair young wanton lady.'
The countess was taken by her husband to a window in front of the castle, and there compelled to survey the dreadful scene—to-see, one after another, fifteen gallant men put to death—and at last to witness the dying agonies of him who had first been dear to her. The particular room in the stately old house where the unhappy lady endured this horrible torture, is still called ' The Countess's Room.' After undergoing a short confinement in that apartment, the house belonging to the family at Maybole was fitted up for her reception, by the addition of a fine projecting staircase, upon which were carved heads, representing those of her lover and his band; and she was removed thither, and con¬fined for the rest of her life—the earl, in the meantime, marry¬ing another wife. One of her daughters was afterwards married! to the celebrated Gilbert Burnet. The effigies of the gipsies oh the staircase at Maybole are very minute; the head of Johnnie Faa himself is distinct from the rest, large, and more lachry¬mose in the expression of the features." Such is the story; but whether the hero, who is here called Sir John Faa of Dunbar, was himself of gipsy blood, as the ballad bears, and as tradition asserts, or whether he was merely in such intimacy with the gipsies as to obtain their aid in the adventure, cannot be decisively ascertained. It may be mentioned, however, that the colony of gipsies long-established in Yetholm, in Roxburghshire, always claimed to be of the same stock with the Faws or Falls, a family of respecta¬bility settled in East-Lothian, and of which the hero of the ballad may have been a scion, holding some rank in Scottish society, and yet keeping- up a connexion with his outcast kindred.
----------------
RAGGLE-TAGGLE GYPSY-O (John Reilly)
As posted by Malcolm Douglas: John Reilly's set is fully transcribed in the sleeve notes for The Bonny Green Tree (Topic 12T 359, 1978) by Tom Munnelly, who recorded him. It is as follows (I omit most of the punctuation):
There was three of the gypsies came to our hall door
They came brave an' bol-del-o
But there's one sang high and the other sang low
And the lady sang The Raggle-Taggle Gypsy-o
It was upstairs, downstairs the lady ran
She took off her silk so fine and put on a dress of leather-o
And it was the cry all around our door
She's away with the Raggle-Taggle Gypsy-o
It was late last night when the lord came in
Inquirin' for his lady-o
And the servin' girls took from hand to hand
She's away with the Raggle-Taggle Gypsy-o
You come saddle for me my milk-white steed
My bay one is not speedy-o
And sure I will ride and I'll seek my bride
That's away with the Raggle-Taggle Gypsy-0
O for he rode east and he rode west
Half the south and the east also
Until he rode to the wide open field
It was there he spied was his darling-o
Sayin Are you forseekin' your house or land?
Are you forseekin' your money-Oo?
Are you forseekin' your own wedded Lord?
An' you're goin' with the Raggle-Taggle Gypsy-o
What do I care for my house or land?
Neither for my money-o
Or what do I care for my own wedded Lord?
I am goin' with my Raggle-Taggle Gypsy-0
It was ere last night you'd a goose-feather bed
With the sheets pulled down so combley-o
But tonight you'll lie in the cold open field
All along with the Raggle-Taggle Gypsy-o
What do I care for my goose-feather bed
With the sheets pulled down so combley-o?
But tonight I'll lie on a cold barren floor
All along with my Raggle-Taggle Gypsy-o
Sayin' You rode high when I rode low
You rode woods and valleys-o
But I'd rather get a kiss of the yalla gypsy's lips
O than all Lor' Cash's of money-o
--------------
THE GYPSY ROVER (The Whistling Gypsy)
(Leo Maguire)
1. The gypsy rover come over the hill,
Bound through the valley so shady;
He whistled and he sang 'til the green woods rang,
And he won the heart of a lady.
CHORUS:
Ah-di-do, ah-di-do-da-day,
Ah-di-do, ah-di-day-dee;
He whistled and he sang 'til the green woods rang,
And he won the heart of a lady.
2. She left her father's castle gate,
She left her own true lover;
She left her servants and her estate,
To follow the gypsy rover.
3. Her father saddled his fastest steed
Roamed the valley all over;
Sought his daughter at great speed,
And the whistling gypsy rover.
4. He came at last to a mansion fine,
Down by the river Clayde;
And there was music, and there was wine,
For the gypsy and his lady.
5. "He's no gypsy, my father," said she,
"My lord of free lands all over;
And I shall stay till my dying day
With my whistling gypsy rover."
Words and music by Leo Maguire
©1951, Walton's Piano & Musical Instrument Galleries
Notes: Many folkies mistakenly regard this as a traditional song. Though it is clearly based on the "Gypsy Davy" family of songs (Child Ballad #200), it is actually a modern composition by Irish songwriter Leo Maguire...Tommy Makem performs this on Newport Folk Festival 1960, vol. 1 (VRS) 9083)
THE WHISTLING GYPSY
(Leo Maguire)
1. The gypsy rover come over the hill,
Down thro' the valley so shady;
He whistled and sang 'til the green woods rang,
And he won the heart of a lady.
CHORUS:
Ah-di-do, ah-di-do-da-day,
Ah-di-do, ah-di-day-dee;
He whistled and he sang 'til the green woods rang,
And he won the heart of a lady.
2. She left her father's castle gate,
She left her fair young lover;
She left her servants and her state,
To follow the gypsy rover.
3. Her father saddled up his fastest steed
He ranged the vallies over;
He sought his daughter at great speed,
And the whistling gypsy rover.
4. He came at last to a mansion fine,
Down by the river Claydy
And there was music, and there was wine,
For the gypsy and his lady.
5. "He's no gypsy, father dear,
But lord of these lands all over;
I'm going to stay till my dying day
With my whistling gypsy rover."
-----------------
SEVEN YELLOW GYPSIES Dolores learned this song "from Paddy Doran and John Reilly, both travelling people from Northern Ireland". The notes further say that it has some similarities with one of Child's versions from Co. Meath.
From: Malcolm Douglas
This really does emphasise yet again the importance of people quoting sleevenotes, particularly where sources are concerned, when asking about songs they have heard on records. Without that information, much time may unnecessarily be wasted by people trying to help.
John Reilly had two distinct versions of the song, only one of which I know. Paddy Doran had a different one, three verses of which (I don't know if there were any more) appear in Paddy Tunney's book The Stone Fiddle. The text above would seem to be a much-altered collation. John Reilly died in 1969; did Dolores learn directly from him or from recordings?
The place name would be Strabally, according to the Doran set as quoted by Paddy Tunney.
---------------------------
SEVEN YELLOW GYPSIES as sung by DOLORES KEANE on Claddagh's Choice, an anthology of Irish traditional music, Claddagh CC40/65. In the fourth stanza, the town mentioned sounds to me like Strathberry, but I'm sure it is something else. Thanks. R
There was seven yellow gypsies all in a gang
There was none of them lame or lazy-O
Sure the fairest one is among them all
She is going with the dark-eye gypsy-O
Oh will you come with me, me pretty fair maid?
Will you come with me, me honey-O?
Sure I wouldn't give a kiss of the gypsy laddie's lips
Not for all of Cashill's money-O
Oh saddle for me me pretty white steed
Saddle him up so bonny-O
So that I may go and find me own wedded wife
That she's going with the dark-eye gypsy-O
Oh she rode west but he rode best
Until he came to Strabally
When who shall he find but his own wedded wife
She is going with the dark-eye gypsy-O
Oh will you come with me, me pretty fair maid?
Will you come with me, me honey-O?
Sure I wouldn't give a kiss of the gypsy laddie's lips
Not for all of Cashill's money-O
Oh what will you do to your house and your land?
What will you do to money-O?
Oh what will you do with your two fine beds
Now you're going with the dark eye gyspsy-O?
Oh what will you do to your fine feather bed
With the sheets turned down so bonny-O?
Oh what will you do with your own wedded lord
Now you're going with the dark eye gyspsy-O?
Oh what do I care for me house and me land?
What do I care for me money-O?
And what do I care for me to fine beds
Now I'm going with the dark eye gyspsy-O?
Last night I lay on a fine feather bed
With the sheets turned down so bonny-O
But tonight I lay on a cold barn floor
With seven yellow gypsies to annoy me-O
Oh will you come with me, me pretty fair maid?
Will you come with me, me honey-O?
Sure I want toget a kiss of the gypsy laddie's lips
Than you and all your money-O
-----------------
The Gypsy Laddies- Jeannie Robertson
Three gypsies cam tae oor hall door
And oh, but they sang bonny oh
They sang so sweet and too complete
That they stole the heart of our lady oh.
For she cam tripping down the stairs,
Her maidens too before her oh,
And when they saw her weel faured face
They throwed their spell oot owre her oh.
When her good lord came home that night
He was askin for his lady oh,
But the answer the servants gave tae him,
"She’s awa wi the gypsy laddies oh”.
Gae saddle tae me my bonnie, bonnie black,
My broon it’s ne’er sae speedy oh.
That I may go ridin this long summer day
In search of my true lady oh”
But it's he rode east and he rode west
And he rode through Strathbogie oh
And there he met a gey auld man
That was comin through Strathbogie oh
For it's "Did ye come east or did ye come west
Or did you come through Strathbogie oh
And did ye see a gey lady?
She was followin three gypsy laddies oh"
For it's "I've come east and I've come west
And I've come through Strathbogie oh
And the bonniest lady that ere I saw
She was followin three gypsy laddies oh"
For the very last night that I crossed this river
I had dukes and lords to attend me oh.
But this night I must put in ma warm feet an wide,
An the gypsies widin before me oh.
Last night I lay in a good feather bed,
My own wedded lord beside me oh.
But this night I must lie in a cauld corn barn,
An the gypsies lyin aroon me oh.
For it’s “Will you give up your houses and your lands,
An will you give up your baby oh?
An it's will you give up your own wedded lord
An keep followin the gypsy laddies oh?”
For it's “I'll give up my houses and my lands
An I'll give up my baby oh
An it's I will give up my own wedded lord
And keep followin the gypsy laddies oh”
For there are seven brothers of us all,
We all are wondrous bonnie oh
But this very night we all shall be hanged
For the stealin of the earl’s lady oh.
Although this ballad is known far and wide, some singers think it is about a particular Scottish woman who lived in the 1600s, Lady Jean Hamilton of Culzean Castle in Ayrshire. Her husband was the Earl of Cassillis. In England the ballad is sometimes called ‘The Raggle Taggle Gypsies’, and in the USA some singers make it happen on a ranch and call the villain who tempts the woman away ‘Blackjack Davie’.
'The Gypsy Laddies'
Sung by Jeannie Robertson.
From The Muckle Sangs (Scottish Tradition Series vol 5)
--------------------------
Daggle tailed gypsies O Music Note (Music Score Available)
Roud No. 1
Collected From Giles, George
Location Filkins
County Oxfordshire
Collected By Carpenter, James Madison
Alternative Title Child 200 Gypsy laddie Draggle tailed gypsies O
Tune Carpenter, James Madison
Date
Source Primary James Madison Carpenter Collection AFC 1972/001, MS pp. 05146- 05147; Disc: AFC 1972/001, MS p. 07161
Source Secondary Wiltshire Gazette 3 May 1928 p 3
Recording
Song Lyrics
Verse 1
There were seven gypsies all in a row,
And they were brisk and bonny O
They all went down to New Castle gate,
And there they sang so merily O.
Verse 2
And there they sang so neat complete
Till downstairs came the lady O,
With a blanket all round her shoulders she threw,
I'll follow with the daggle tailed gypsies O.
Verse 3
At ten o'clock her lord came home,
Inquiring for his lady O
The servants turned round with the best of reply,
She's gone with the daggle tailed gypsies O.
Verse 4
The lord went out and called to his groom,
Saying, 'Bridle two horses and saddle O,
And you'll ride high, and I'll ride low,
We will ride until we find her O'.
Verse 5
And as we were going through a wide open field,
And there I saw my Polly O.
There were seven yellow gypsies all of a row,
And one of them was my lady O.
Verse 6
"O Polly dear, why came you here
Why came you far to ramble O
What made you come in the wide open field,
Along with the daggle tailed gypsies O.
Verse 7
Oh what care I for house or land,
Or what care I for money O,
Or what care I for a new wedded love,
I'll follow with the daggle tailed gypsies O.
Verse 8
O what cares I for house or land,
Or what cares I for money O,
I'll eat of the grass and I'll drink of the dew,
And I'll follow with the daggle tailed gypsies O.
Print Song Lyrics
Notes
Note 1
The manuscript has the following note: "George Giles, Church House, Filkins, Gloucestershire. Learned tune from an old street singer, 60 years ago. Never saw in print."
Note 2
Disc 130A has the following note: "Though this version does not match JMCs transcription exactly, ascription is probably correct."
Note 3
Reproduced with permission by the Library of Congress. Many thanks to Gwilym Davies who pointed me towards this item in the Carpenter Collection.
Note 4
Williams, Alfred: Some Wiltshire folk-lore: our roots in Aryan speech
In this article in the Wiltshire Gazette Williams promotes a view of the linkages between English and Aryan folk lore based on his experiences while serving in the Army in the Punjab. He briefly cites this version of the song, based on the first line of Verse 1:
There were seven gypsies all in a row,
Transcribed and edited by Chris Wildridge, 2011.
---------------------
Songs and Ballads of the West: A Collection Made from the Mouths of the People
By Baring Gould, 1892
L. Gypsy Countess. The melody of the first part from James Parsons, as well as the words, the second melody from John Woodrich. Three more verses in the original I have been unable to admit or lack of room.
The Scottish ballad of "Johnny Faa" first appeared in Allan Ramsay’, “Tea Tab]: Miscellany," 1724, from which it was taken into Herd's and Pinkerton‘s Collections, Johnson's Museum, and Ritson's Scottish Songs. All these turn on a story —utterly unhistorical--that Lady Jean Hamilton, married to the grim Covenanter, John, Earl of Cassilis, fell in love with, and eloped with, Sir John Faa, of Dunbar, who came to her castle disguised as a gipsy along wit some others. She was pursued, and Faa and his companions where_hung. venture to suggest that the Jacobites took an earlier ballad of a gipsy girl married to an Earl, and adapted it to serve as a libel on Lady Burnet's wife. Such things were done-ballads were utilised for political purposes, and D'Urfey did the same. If this be so, then the existence of the earlier part of the ballad, and the variation in our second part of “Johnny Faa" versions also from Peter Cherton, shoemaker, Oakfor, near Tiverton; William Setter and George Kerswell, Two Bridges, Dartmoor. But some of these are taken from the broadsides which are reproductions of "Johnny Faal' Mr. Robert Browning composed on this theme his poem "The Flight of the Duchess," having heard a beggar woman sing the ballad. Mrs. Gibbons tells me that as she remembers the ballad as sung by her nurse sixty years ago, it was the sto of the girl going back to her brothers. For a very full account of the "Johnny Faa" ballad see Child's “English and Scottish Ballads," No. 200. He is of opinion that the ‘Engliih ballad of the gipsies who carried off the lady is derived from of an earlier ballad, of which our Devonshire Gipsy Countess is a no doubt corrupted version. In Parsons‘ ballad there was no division into parts. We have separated the parts so as to give both melodies.
The Gypsy Countess Part 1
1. There came an Earl a riding by,
A gipsy maid espyed he;
"O nut-brown maid, from green wood glade,
O prithee come along with me!"
"In greenwood glade, fair Sir," she said,
I am so Blythe, as bird so gay,
In thy Castle tall, in bower and hall,
I fear for grief I'd pine away."
2. “Thou shalt no more be set in stocks,
And trump about from town to town,
But thou shalt ride in pomp and pride,
In velvet red and broidered gown?
“My brothers three no more I'd see,
If that I went with thee, I know."
They sing me to sleep, with songs so sweet,
They sing as on our way we go."
3 "Thou Shall not be torn by thistle and thorn,
With thy bare feet all in the dew.
But Shoes shall wear of Spanish leather
And silken stockings all of blue."
“I will not go to thy castle high.
For thou wilt weary soon.
I know, of the gipsy maid, from green-wood glade,
And drive her forth in rain and snow."
4. “All night you lie neath the starry sky
In rain and snow you trudge all day,
But thy brown head, in a feather bed,
I When left the gipsies, thou shalt lay.”
“I love to lie ’neath the starry sky,
I do not heed the snow and rain,
But fickle is wine, I fear to find
The man who now my heart would gain?
5 “I will thee wed, sweet maid," he said,
“I will thee wed with a golden ring,
“Thy days shall be spent in merriment;
For us the marriage bells shall swing."
The dog did howl, and screech’d the owl,
The raven croaked, the night-wind sighed;
The wedding bell from the steeple fell,
As home the Earl did hear his bride.
[verses 11 and 12 missing]
Gypsy Countess Part 2
1. Three gypsies stood at the castle gate,
They sang so high, they sang so low,
The lady sate in her chamber late,
Her heart it melted away as snow,
Away as snow
Her heart it melted away as snow.
2. They sang so sweet, they sang so shrill,
That fast her tears began to flow,
And she laid down her golden gown,
Her golden rings, and all her show,
All her show &c
3. She plucked off her high-heeled shoes,
A-mde of Spanish leather, O
She would in the street, with her bare, bare feet;
All out of the wind and weather, O.
Weather, O ! &c
4 She took in her hand but a posie,
The wildest flowers that do grow.
And down the stair, went the lady fair,
To go away with the gypsies, O!
The gyspies O! &c
5 At past midnight her lord came home,
And where his lady was would know.
All servants replied on every side,
"She's gone away with the gipsies O!"
The gipsies O! &c
6 Then he rode high, and he rode low,
He rode through hills and valleys O,
Until he spied his fair young bride
Who'd gone away with the gipsies O,
The gipsies O! &c
7 O will you leave your house and lands,
Your golden treasures for to go,
Away from your lord that weareth a sword.
To follow along with the gipsies, O!
The gipsies O! &c
8 O I will leave my house and lands,
My golden treasures for to go.
I love not my lord that weareth a sword,
I'll follow along with the gipsies O!
The gipsies O! &o:
9 'Nay, thou shalt not!‘ then he drew, I wot,
The sword that hung at his saddle bow.
And once he smote on her lily-white throat,
And there her red blood down did flow
Down did flow, &c
10 Then dipp'd in blood was the posie good,
That was of the wildest flowers that blow.
She sank on her side, and so she died,
For she would away with the gipsies 0!
The gipsies O!
For she would away with the gipsies 0!
-----------------------------
The Western Antiquary: Or, Devon and Cornwall Notebook, Volumes 7-8; edited by William Henry Kearley Wright- 1888.
“The Gipsy Countess" is a long ballad in two parts, or perhaps two ballads connected. Both are found in broadsheets, but the first in an entirely re-cast form. It consists of a dialogue between an earl and a gipsy maid, whom he persuades to become his countess, but she has great misgivings at heart. In the broadside She is made to say :—
“ Oh ! how can a poor gipsy maiden, like me
Ever hope the proud bride of a noble to be? etc."
the very metre is altered. Here is one of the verses of the original :—
“ I ’11 take you up, I’ll carry you home,
I’ll set you in a room so high.
I 'll put a safeguard over you there,
That ne'er a gipsy shall cotne nigh."
The second part tells how her three brothers came under the castle and sang one night.
Then her heart ached. and she came downstairs :—
“ They sang so sWeet, they sang so shrill
That fast her tears began to flow,
And she put off her silken gown,-
ller golden rings and all her show."
She runs away. At past midnight her lord comes home, finds she is gone, girds his sword to his saddle-bow, and rides after. As she refuses to return, he cuts her down with his sword.
There are two Scottish ballads which are variants of this, and pretend to concern a Lady Casillis who ran away with Johnny Faa, who came in the disguise of a gipsy, for which he, not she, suffered. As Bishop Burnet was related through his wife to the Casillis family, this ballad, in its Scottish form, was sung by the Jacobites who hated Burnet. But I cannot help thinking that the original ballad related to a gipsy becoming a countess and then feeling him well for the wandering life, and running away; and that all the ballad of Lady Casillis and Johnny Faa, if there be any truth in the story of her elopement, which is doubtful, is a more recasting of an earlier ballad to suit the incident. As it is, in the broadsides the ballad assumes various forms.
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Folk songs from Somerset gathered and edited with pianoforte accompaniment
edited by Cecil James Sharp, Charles Latimer
No. 9. WRAGGLE-TAGGLE GIPSIES O.
Words and Air by Mrs. Overd of Langport.
I have noted four variants of this ballad in Somerset. The words were in each case more or less fragmentary, and Mr. Marson has had a difficult task to piece them together.
The song is a portion of a larger ballad known by the title " The Gipsy Countess." Under that heading a version, in two parts, is published in Songs of the West. Mrs. Overd's tune is a variant of "The Gipsy" in A Garland of Country Song. In the note appended to that song Mr. Baring Gould states that the tune was originally taken down to the words of "The Gipsy Countess."
A Scottish version of the song is in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, vol. IV, and is reprinted in the first volume of Brimley Johnson's Popular British Ballads. See also "Gypsie Laddie" in Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, vol. II, p. 95 (1791), and "Gipsy Davy" in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, p. 360 (1827). In Finlay's Scottish Ballads (1808), the title is "Johnie Faa "; this version is reprinted in Whitelaw's Scottish Ballads (1875), where may also be found a long extract from Chambers's Picture of Scotland, dealing with the historical aspect of the story.
Mr. Frank Kidson reminds me that a variant of the Scottish version is printed on broadsides as "The Gipsy Laddie."
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The Metropolitan, Volume 43, 1845
GIPSY BALLAD.
THE GIPSY COUNTESS.*—A DUET.
BY MRS. CHAWFOKD.
On! how can a poor Gipsy maiden like me
Hope to keep the proud heart of a noble like thee?
To some bright jewell'd beauty thy vows will be paid,
And thou wilt forget her, the poor Gipsy maid.
Earl.
Away with that thought! I am free, I am free
To devote all the love of my spirit to thee;
Young rose of the wilderness, blushing and sweet,
All my heart all my fortunes I'll lay at thy feet.
By yon bright moon above!
Gipsy. That can change like man's love;
Earl. By the sun's constant ray!
Gipsy. That night's tears chase away;
Earl.
Oh! never by me shall thy trust be betrayed,
I will love thee for ever, my own Gipsy maid.
Gipsy.
Go, flatterer, go; I'll not trust to thine art,
Go, leave me, and trifle no more with my heart!
Go, leave me to die in my own native shade,
And betray not the heart of the poor Gipsy maid.
Earl.
I have lands and proud dwellings, and all shall be thine;
A coronet, Hilda, that brow shall entwine;
Thou shalt never have reason my faith to upbraid,
For a countess I'll make thee, my own Gipsy maid.
Then fly with me now;
Gipsy. Shall 1 trust to thy vow?
Earl. Oh, yes! corae away;
Gipsy. Wilt thou never betray?
Earl.
No, never by me shall thy trust be betrayed,
And to-morrow Til wed thee, my own Gipsy maid!
• From an old legend.
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From English Songs and Ballads by T. W. H. Crosland (London: Grant Richards, 1902), page 51:
THE GYPSY COUNTESS
There come seven gypsies on a day,
Oh, but they sang bonny, O!
And they sang so sweet, and they sang so clear,
Down cam the earl's ladie, O.
They gave to her the nutmeg,
And they gave to her the ginger;
But she gave to them a far better thing,
The seven gold rings off her fingers.
When the earl he did come home,
Enquiring for his ladie,
One of the servants made this reply,
"She's awa with the gypsie laddie."
"Come saddle for me the brown," he said,
"For the black was ne'er so speedy,
And I will travel night and day
Till I find out my ladie.
"Will you come home, my dear?" he said,
"Oh will you come home, my honey?
And by the point of my broad sword,
A hand I'll ne'er lay on you."
"Last night I lay on a good feather-bed,
And my own wedded lord beside me,
And to-night I'll lie in the ash-corner,
With the gypsies all around me.
"They took off my high-heeled shoes,
That were made of Spanish leather,
And I have put on coarse Lowland brogues,
To trip it o'er the heather."
"The Earl of Cashan is lying sick;
Not one hair I'm sorry;
I'd rather have a kiss from his fair lady's lips
Than all his gold and his money."
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Notes given Child by Baring Gould; Taken down from an old and illiterate hedger [James Parsons], son of a more famous singer. Neither could read or write. The father died some years ago.
Another version beginning after verse 13 from a blacksmith [Woodrich] but his follows teh stall copy.
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Songs and Ballads of the West: A Collection Made from the Mouths of the People
By Cecil James Sharp
L. Gypsy Countess. The melody of the first part from James Parsons, as well as the words, the second melody from John Woodrich. Three more verses in the original I have been unable to admit or lack of room.
The Scottish ballad of "Johnny Faa" first appeared in Allan Ramsay’, “Tea Tab]: Miscellany,’ r724, fromJ which it was tal'ten into Herd's and Pinkerton‘: Collections, Johnson's Museum, and Ritson's Scottish Songs. All these turn on a story —utterly unhistorical-that Lady Jean Hamilton, married to the grim Covenanter, ohn, Earl of Cassilis, fell in love with, and eloped with, Sir ohn Faa, of iJunbar, who came to her castle disguised as a gipsy along wit some others. She was pursued, and Faa and his companions where_hung. venture to suggest that the Jacobites took an earlier ballad of a _gipsy girl married to an Earl, and adapted it to serve as a libel on Lady ‘ ' Burnet's wife. Such things were done-ballads were utilised for political purposes, and D'Urfey did the same. ' ' ' of the ballad, and the variation in our second part of “Johnny Faa" Versions also from Peter Cherton, shoemaker, Oakfor , near Tiverton; William Setter and George Kerswell, Two Bridges, Dartmoor. But some of these are taken from the broadsides which are reproductions of "Johnny Faal' Mr. Robert Browning composed on this theme his poem "The Flight of the Duchess," having heard a beggar woman sing the ballad. Mrs. Gibbons tells me that as she remembers the ballad as sung by her nurse sixty years ago, it was the sto of the girl going back to her brothers. For a very full account of the "Johnny Faa" ballad see Child's “English and Scottish Ballads," No. 200. He is of opinion that the ‘Engliih ballad of the gipsies who carried off the lady is derived from of an earlier ballad, of which our Devonshire Gipsy Countess is a no doubt corrupted version. In Parsons‘ ballad there was no division into parts. We have separated the parts so as to give both melodies.
The Gypsy Countess Part 1
There came an Earl a riding by,
A gipsy maid espyed he;
"O nut-brown maid, from green wood glade,
O prithee come along with me!"
"In greenwood glade, fair Sir," she said,
I am so Blythe, as bird so gay in thy Castle tall, in bower and hall,
I fear for grief I'd pine away."
2. “Thou shalt no more be set in stocks,
And trump about from town to town,
But thou shalt ride in pomp and pride,
In velvet red and broidered gown?
“My brothers three no more I'd see,
If that'l Went with thee,l trow. "
They sing me to sleep, with songs so sweet ,
They sing as on our way we go."
3 "Thou Shall not be torn by thistle and thorn,
With thy bare feet all in the dew.
But Shoes shall wear of Spanish leather
And silken stockings all of blue."
“ I will not go to thy castle high.
For thou wilt weary soon.
I know, of the gipsy maid, from green-wood glade,
And drive her forth in rain and snow."
4 “All night you lie neath the starry sky
In uin and snow you trudge all day,
But thy brown head, in a feather bed,
I When left the gipsies, thou shalt lay.”
“I love to lie ’neath the starry sky,
I do not heed the snow and rain,
But fickle is wine, I fear to find
The man who now my heart would gain?
5 “I will thee wed, sweet maid," he said,
“I will thee wed with a golden ring,
“Thy days shall be spent in merriment;
For us the marriage bells shall swing."
The dogdid howl, and screech’d the owl,
The raven croaked, the night-wind sighed;
The wedding bell from the steeple fell,
I a As home the Earl did hear his bride.
[verses 11 and 12 missing]
Gypsy Countess Part 2
1. Three gypsies stood at the castle gate,
They sang so high, they sang so low,
The lady sate in her chamber late,
Her heart it melted away as snow,
Away as snow
Her heart it melted away as snow.
2. They sang so sweet, they sang so shrill,
That fast her tears began to flow,
And she laid down her golden gown,
Her golden rings, and all her show,
All her show &c
3. She plucked off her high-heeled shoes,
A-mde of Spanish leather, O
She would in the street, with her bare, bare feet;
All out of the wind and weather, O.
Weather, O ! &c
4 She took in her hand but a posie,
The wildest flowers that do grow.
And down the stair, went the lady fair,
To go away with the gypsies, O!
The gyspies O! &c
5 At past midnight her lord came home,
And where his lady was would know.
All servants replied on every side,
"She's gone away with the gipsies O!"
The gipsies O! &c
6 Then he rode high, and he rode low,
He rode through hills and valleys O,
Until he spied his fair young bride
Who'd gone away with the gipsies O,
The gipsies O! &c
7 O will you leave your house and lands,
Your golden treasures for to go,
Away from your lord that weareth a sword.
To follow along with the gipsies, O!
The gipsies O! &c
8 O I will leave my house and lands,
My golden treasures for to go.
I love not my lord that weareth a sword,
I'll follow along with the gipsies O!
The gipsies O! &o:
9 'Nay, thou shalt not!‘ then he drew, I wot,
The sword that hung at his saddle bow.
And once he smote on her lily-white throat,
And there her red blood down did flow
Down did flow, &c
10 Then dipp'd in blood was the posie good,
That was of the wildest flowers that blow.
She sank on her side, and so she died,
For she would away with the gipsies 0!
The gipsies O!
For she would away with the gipsies 0!
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And she put off her silken shoes
That were of Spanish leather O,
All forth for to go in the rain and snow,
All forth in the stormy weather,
And down the stair came the lady fair
To go away with the gypsies O.
" Come saddle my horse, come saddle my mare,
And hang my sword to the saddle bow,
That I may ride for to seek my bride
That is gone away with the gypsies O."
They saddled his horse, they saddled his mare
And hung his sword on his saddle bow
That he might ride for to seek his bride
That was gone away with the gypsies O.
" What makes you leave both house and lands,
What makes you leave your money O,
What takes you abroad from your wedded lord
To follow along with the gypsies O?"
" Oh I want none of your house and lands
And I want none of your money O,
Neither care I for my wedded lord,
I will follow along with the gypsies O"
" Last night you slept in a feather bed
Rolled in the arms of your husband O,
And now you must sleep on the cold, cold ground
And walk along in the rain and snow."
" I care not to sleep in a feather bed
Rolled in the arms of a husband O.
Far rather I'd sleep on the cold, cold ground
And walk along in the rain and snow."
" Nay, that shall not be, I swear," said he.
He drew his sword from his saddle bow,
And once he smote on her lily-white throat
And then her red blood down did flow.
For she u'ould 'av lay with the gipsles I)!
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This fascinating piece of folklore from 'Anecdotes Of The Scottish Gipsies'; a long article on Scottish Gypsies, presumably written by Robert Chambers, though none of the articles are attributed.
It was published in Chambers Miscellany, Vol 16, 1847.
Jim Carroll
"One of the earliest anecdotes of the Scottish gipsies is that of " Johnnie Faa, the Gipsy Laddie," who eloped with the lady of the Earl of Cassilis. This story rests on tradition, and on an old ballad; the facts, so far as they can be gathered, are thus related in the " Picture of Scotland." "John, the sixth Earl of Cassilis, a stern Covenanter, of whom it is recorded by Bishop Burnet that he would never permit his language to be understood but in its direct sense, obtained to wife Lady Jean Hamilton, a daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Haddington, who had raised himself from the Scottish bar to a peerage, and the best fortune of his time. The match seems to have been dictated by policy; and it is not likely that Lady Jean herself had much to say in the bargain. On the contrary, says report, she had been previously beloved by a gallant young knight, a Sir John Faa of Dunbar, who had perhaps seen her at her father's seat of Tyningham, which is not more than three miles from that town. When several years were gone, and Lady Cassilis had brought her husband three children, this passion led to a dreadful catastrophe. Her youthful lover, seizing an opportunity when the Earl of Cassilis was attending the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, came to Cassilis Castle, a massive old tower, on the banks of the Doon. He was dis¬guised as a gipsy, and attended by a band of these desperate out¬casts. The countess consented to elope with her lover. Ere they had proceeded very far, however, the earl came home, and immediately set out in pursuit. Accompanied by a band which put resistance out of the question, he overtook them, and captured the whole party at a ford over the Doon, still called the ' Gipsies' Steps,' a few miles from the castle. He brought them back to Cassilis, and there hanged all the gipsies, including the hapless
Sir John, upon ' the Dule Tree, a splendid and most umbrageous' plane, which yet flourishes on a mound, in front of the castle gate, and which was his gallows in ordinary, as the name testi¬fies—
'And we were fifteen weel-made men,
Although we were na bonnie ;
And we were a' put down for ane—
A fair young wanton ladie.'
The countess was taken by her husband to a window in front of the castle, and there compelled to survey the dreadful scene—to see one after another, fifteen gallant men put to death—and at last to witness the dying agonies of him who had first been dear to her. The particular room in the stately old house where the unhappy lady endured this horrible torture, is still called ' The Countess's Room.' After undergoing a short confinement in that apartment, the house belonging' to the family at Maybole was fitted up for her reception, by the addition of a fine projecting-staircase, upon which were carved heads, representing those of her lover and his band; and she was removed thither, and con¬fined for the rest of her life—the earl, in the meantime, marry¬ing another wife. One of her daughters was afterwards married to the celebrated Gilbert Burnet. The effigies of the gipsies on the staircase at Maybole are very minute; the head of Johnnie Faa himself is distinct from the rest, large, and more lachrymose in the expression of the features." Such is the story; but whether I lie here, who is here called Sir John Faa of Dunbar, was himself of gipsy blood, as the ballad bears, and as tradition asserts, or whether he was merely in such intimacy with the gipsies as to obtain their aid in the adventure, cannot be decisively ascertained. It may be mentioned, however, that the colony of gipsies long established in Yetholm, in Roxburghshire, always claimed to be of the same stock with the Faws or Falls, a family of respecta¬bility settled in East-Lothian, and of which the hero of the ballad may have been a scion, holding some rank in Scottish society, and yet keeping up a connexion with his outcast kindred.