English & Other 248. The Grey Cock
CONTENTS:
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Willie O
Len Graham from Newry, Northern ireland: On Autumn Harvest ah011: Old Songs & Bothy Ballads 8: The Little Ball of Yarn Live from the Fife Traditional Singing Festival May 2011.
This rather fine and rare ballad has been collected only a few times. Len first heard this song in the early 1960s from Jimmy McGinley from Ros Ghoill, Co. Donegal. Joe Holmes from Killyrammer, Co. Antrim provided Len with the all important verse five with the cock crowing motif. The drowned sailor, after a seven year absence, appears as a ghost at his true love's bedside in the middle of the night and, as with all ghostly beings, departs before the dawn.
The song appears as a broadside ballad in the nineteenth century and seems to borrow from the older 'night-visit' theme of the ballad - Sweet William's Ghost (Child 77). However, Bronson classifies the ballad along with The Grey Cock (Child 248) which also includes the night visit and cock crowing motifs. Len has recorded the song on Topic 12TS334LP (1976) and on Cranagh CMCD4453 (2010). There are several copies of Willie O in the Bodlean Library collection of Broadside Ballads. Child 77/ 248, Roud 50/ 179.
1: Young Willie sails on board a tender,
And where he's bound I do not know;
Seven long years I've been constantly waiting,
Since he crossed the bay of Biscay O.
2: One night as Mary lay a-sleeping,
A knock came to her bedroom door;
Saying, “Arise, arise, my lovely Mary,
Till you get one glimpse of your lover O.”
3: Young Mary rose, put on her clothes,
And out of her bedroom she did go;
'Twas there she saw young Willie standing,
Aye, and his two cheeks as white as snow.
4: Saying, "Willy dear, where are those blushes,
Those blushes you had many years ago?”
“Oh Mary dear, the cold clay has changed them,
I am only the ghost of young Willie O.”
5: "Oh Mary dear, I must be going,
For now the cocks they're began to crow."
And when she saw him disappearing,
Down her cheeks the tears did flow.
6: "My body lies in the West Indies,
My ghost shall guard you to and fro;
So love, I fear that we are parted,
No more will you see young Willie O."
7: “Had I all the gold and silver
Or all the money in Mexico;
I would grant it all to the King of Erin,
For to bring me back my Willie O.”
c p 2012 Autumn Harvest : www.springthyme.co.uk
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Hours at Home, Volume 11, p.86-87; 1870 [similar to broadside Willy-O]
"But won't you say over the song you sang before I came in? Slowly; I want to hear the words." And here it is—awkward, and tender, and uncanny—just as the poor "swate little cratur" from the County Meath sang it years ago in the town of Ardee. How we should like to hear the whole of her singular history; to know what strange tendency of her nature, or what sad home experience, led her to go forth a wanderer in such miserable companionship! And we wonder whether that plaintive contralto is still heard at the fairs and markets of Louth:"
Come all you maids, both fair and handsome,
Whilst in vain your tears do flow:
'Tis all for the sake of a young man,
He's my charming Willy—O.
Now he's going on board the tender—
Where to find him I don't know;
May kind Providence be his Protector
And grant to me my Willy—O.
As Mary lay sleeping, her true love came creeping
To her bed-chamber door so slow,
Saying, 'Rise, Oh rise up, my charming Mary,
For I'm your own dearest Willy—O.
Mary rose, put on her clothes,
To her bed-chamber door did go;
There she found her true love standing,
And his face as white as snow.
O Willy, dearest Willy, where are the blushes
That you wore some time ago?'
'O Mary dear, the cold clay has changed them,
For I'm but the ghost of your Willy—0!'
This seven long years I'm daily writing
To the Bay of Biscay—O,
Cruel death no answer sent From you,
my charming Willy—0.'
There they stood In deep discoursing
Concerning their courtship, some time ago;
They kissed, shook hands with a sorrowful parting,
Just as the cocks they began to crow.
'Although my body lies in the East Indies,
My ghost shall guard thee to and fro;
And so, my darling, since we're for parting,
I am no more your Willy—O.'"
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From: Old Irish folk music and songs: a collection of 842 Irish airs and songs, hitherto unpublished by Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland by Patrick Weston Joyce (1827-1914); published 1909.
408. THE LOVER'S GHOST.
I learned both air and words at home when I was a boy. The subject is the
visit of a young woman's ghost at night to her living lover : Init she has to depart
at cockcrow. The words are well suited to the sad air: words and air are now
published for the first time. For Mr. A. P. Graves's adaptation see his " Jii.-tih
Song Book," p. 2 1. The air given there, however, is quite different from mine.
" Oh my pretty pretty cock, oh, my handsome little cock,
I pray you will not crow before day ;
And your comb shall be made of the very beaten gold,
And your wings of the silver so grey ! "
But oh, this pretty cock, this handsome little cock,
He crew loud a full hour too soon :
" Oh, my true love," she said, " it is time for me to part.
It is now the going down of the moon ! "
"And where is your bed, my dearest dear . " he said,
" And where are your white holland sheets .-
And where are the maidens, my dearest love," he said,
" That wait on you while you are asleep ? "
"The clay is my bed, my dearest dear," she said,
"The shroud is my white holland sheet ;
The worms and the creeping things are my waiting maids.
To wait on me whilst I am asleep."
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The Bonny Bushes Bright- from Sam Henry's "Songs of the People"
By the bonny bushes bright on a dark winter's night.
I heard a fair maid making moan.
She was sighing for her father, lamenting for her brother,
And grieving for her true lover John
O, Johnnie he was sweet and had promised her to meet,
But he tarried on the way an hour too long.
'He has met with some delay which has caused him to stay.
And I'm weary,weary waiting all alone.'
Johnny comes at last and he found the door was fast,
And he slowly, slowly tinkled to get in.
Then up this maid arose and hurried on her clothes
In order to let young Johnny in.
His sweetheart gave consent and into the room they went,
And these lovers they sat talking of their plan;
Oh John my love, said she, I wish this night to be
As long as when this world first began.
Fly up, fly up, my pretty little cock,
And do not crow 'till the break of day,
And your cage shall become of the very brightest gold,
And your wings of the silvery grey.
This cunning little cock, so cruel as he was,
Flew down and crowed an hour too soon;
You have sent my love away all before the break of day ,
And it's all by the light of the moon.
Then up this maid arose and hurried after him
Saying when will you come back to me?
When the fishes they do fly and the seas they do run dry And
seven moons shine briefly oe'r the lea.
Once I thought my love was as constant unto me
As the stones that lie under the ground
But now that I see that his mind has changed to me
I would rather far live single than be bound.
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The Grey Cock or The Lover's Ghost (JEFDSS VII 97)
A number of lyrical folk songs resent the situation of two lovers disturbed by the early crowing of a cock. Perhaps the origin of these songs is found in this supernatural ballad of the lover returned from the dead. The idea that such revenants must go again 'from the world of pity to the world without pity' when the birds cry at tdawn is an ancient folklore notion tha thas spread from the Orient, through the Balkans, as far west as Ireland. Perhaps it is surprising to find such a rare ballad surviving as late as 1951 in the city of Birmingham, where it was recorded from an English-born singer of Irish descent. The Grey Cock appears as No. 248 in Child's collection, but not in such good shape as here.
THE GREY COCK or THE LOVER'S GHOST
Sung by Mrs Cecilia Costello, Birmingham (M.S. & P.S.-S. 1951)
'I must be going, no longer staying,
The burning Thames I have to cross.
Oh, I must be guided without a stumble
Into the arms of my dear lass.'
When he came to his true love's window,
He knelt down gently on a stone,
And it's through a pane he whispered slowly.
'My dear girl, are you alone?'
She rose her head from her down-soft pillow,
And snowy were her milk-white breasts,
Saying: 'Who's there, who's there at my bedroom window,
Disturbing me from my long night's rest?'
'Oh, I'm your love and don't discover,*
I pray you rise, love, and let me in,
For I am fatigued from my long night's journey.
Besides, I am wet into the skin.'
Now this young girl rose and put on her clothing.
She quickly let her own true love in.
Oh, they kissed, shook hands, and embraced together,
Till that long night was near an end.
'O Willie dear, O dearest Willie,
Where is that colour you'd some time ago?'
'O Mary dear, the clay has changed me.
I'm but the ghost of your Willie O.'
'Then O cock, O cock, O handsome cockerel,
I pray you not crow until it is day.
For your wings I'll make of the very first beaten gold,
And your comb I'll make of the silver grey.'
But the cock it crew, and it crew so fully.
It crew three hours before it was day.
And before it was day, my love had to go away.
Not by the light of the moon or the light of day.
Then it's 'Willie dear, O dearest Willie,
Whenever shall I see you again?'
'When the fish they fly, love, and the sea runs dry, love,
And the rocks they melt in the heat of the sun.'
*Perhaps the phrase should be: 'but I can't uncover' (can't reveal myself).
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The Grey Cock
I must be going, no longer staying
The burning Thames I have to cross
And my feet must be guided without a stumble
Into the arms of my dear lass.
And when he came to his true love's window
He stood on tiptoe upon a stone
And there he rapped at his true love's window,
"Oh, my dear love, are you alone?"
She raised her head from her down-soft pillow
And snowy were her milk-white breasts
Sayin', "Who's there, who's there, at my bedroom window,
"Disturbing me from my long night's rest?"
"Oh, I'm your lover, and don't discover.
"I pray you to rise, love, and let me in
"For I'm fatigued out of my long night's journey.
"Besides, I'm wet unto the skin."
Now this young girl rose and put on her clothing
She went downstairs for to let him in
Oh, they kissed, shook hands, and embraced each other
Until that long night was near an end.
"Oh, Willie, dear, oh my dearest Willie
"Where is that colour you'd some time ago?"
"Oh, Mary dear, the clay has changed me.
"I'm but the ghost of the man you knew."
"Oh, cock, oh, cock, oh my handsome cockerel,
"I pray you not crow until it is day,
"And your wings I'll make of the very best beaten gold,
"Your comb I'll make of the silvery grey."
But the cock, he crew, and he crew so fully;
He crew three hours before it was day
And before it was day, my love had to go away
Neither by the light of the moon or the light of day.
"Oh, Willie dear, oh, my dearest Willie,
"Whenever shall I see you again?"
"When the fish, they fly, love, and the sea runs dry, love,
"And the rocks, they melt by the heat of the sun."
From the singing of A.L. Lloyd in the early 50s, a collection done with Ewan McColl, called "The Scottish and English Popular Ballads"
The Grey Cock (NOT Penguin version)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 01 Oct 02 - 08:17 PM
Oh, it's the "Penguin" version alright, even if recorded before that book was published. You have to remember that Lloyd was one of the editors. This set was recorded a couple of times from Cecilia Costello in Birmingham, 1951: either she sang it slightly differently on each occasion, or Lloyd changed a few words on this particular recording; at all events, one of Mrs. Costello's verses was omitted both in Lloyd's recording and in the Penguin book.
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GREY COCK (2)
Saw you my father, saw you my mother
Saw you my true love John?
He told his only dear that he would soon be here
But he to another is gone.
I saw not your father, I saw not your mother
But I saw your true love John
He's met with some delay that causeth him to stay
But he will be here ere long
When I came to my true love's door
I gently tirled the pin
My true love she arose and she slipped on her clothes
And so softly she let me in
All the forepart of the night
We did both sport and play
And all the last part of the night
She slept in my arms till day
Fly up fly up my bonny grey cock
And crow when it is day
Your breast shall be like the bonny beaten gold
And your wings of the silver grey
The cock he proved false and untrue he was
For he crew an hour too soon
My love she thought it day and she hastened me away
And it proved but the blink of the moon
The wind it did blow and the cocks they did crow
As I tripped over the plain
I wished myself back in my truelove's arms
And she in her bed again
from Sedley, Seeds of Love. His note below: This is a fairly drastic collation of four texts; Herd's (1769), Chappell's and two sets collected by Hammond in Dorset. This was originally a revenant ghost song (cf. The Demon Lover and not the ballad that Child took it to be (no. 248). The final stanza which appears in one of the Dorset versions, is clearly a descendent of the famous Western Wind fragment. The tune is the one usually associated with the Scottish versions, with the variant published by Chappell (who thought it might have been composed by James Hook, composer of The Lass of Richmond Hill
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The time is come, I must be going,
The burning tempest I have to cross,
All over the mountains I've rode with pleasure
This very night I'll be with my lass.
I came unto my true love's window,
I knelt down gently upon a stone.
'Twas through a pane that I whispered slowly,
Saying, "My dear girl, are you alone?"
She rose her head from her soft down pillow,
Snowy was her milk-white breast,
Crying, "Who is there outside my window,
That have deprived me of my night's rest?"
"It's your true love, do not discover,
I pray, love, rise and let me in,
I am fatigued after my long journey,
Besides I'm wet unto the skin."
My love she rose with greatest pleasure,
Opening the door for to let me in,
We kissed, shook hands, embraced each other,
Till that long night were at an end.
When that long night were gone and over,
The cocks they did begin to crow.
We kissed, shook hands, in sorrow parted,
I took my leave and away did go.
My love has skin as the snow in winter,
Her cheeks as red as the rose in June,
Her black sparkling eye like a blazing star,
In a winter's night and it freezes too.
abc | midi | pdf
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Source: Purslow, F, (1968), The Wanton Seed, EDFS, London
Notes:
Frank Purlow's extensive (!) notes follow:
Tune and text from Gardiner H 1014 - Willam Stockley, Locksheath, Titchfield, an almost verbatum recital of the broadside text which, however, is too superior to be the work of a printer's hack. General opinion seems to be that it is a version of the ballad of The Grey Cock - no 248 in Child. The relationship between the versions printed by Child (entitled Saw you my Father?) on the one hand, and the broadside text above and a version printed in "The Penguin Book of English Folk Song" (which seems to be an earlier version of the broadside text from which the supernatural element has not entirely disappeared) on the other, is not at all clear. William Chappell insisted that the version of Saw you my Father? which he printed in his "Popular Music" - and which he says was printed in songsters and on broadsides in the 1770's - pre-dated the Scottish version published by Herd in 1769, which admittedly does sound almost like a burlesque of the much more elegant English version, of which Chappell opines that James Hook wrote the air if not the words. In any case neither in the English or the Scottish version is the slightest supernatural element apparent, in fact in both versions the lover is only too obviously flesh and blood. Child does mention that A. P. Graves in his 3rd edition of his "Irish Songs and Ballads" cites a verse of Saw you my Father? as belonging to a ballad "descriptive of the visit of a lover's ghost to his betrothed." Certainly two verses concerning the cock are common to both Saw you my Father? and The Night Visit Song - but that is all! It seems much more probable to me that the song Graves was referring to was an Irish version of The Night Visit Song. It is significant the Mrs Costello, whose version is printed in the Penguin book, was of Irish descent. Is it not much more likely that the English broadside text, (of which the above is a version), is a reprint of an Irish ballad sheet with the supernatural element omitted, either by the printer or by the singer from which it was probably taken down from dictation; and that Saw you my Father? is an 18th century minor art song (quite probably by Hook) which somehow managed to incorporate two verses from a traditional song - a common enough occurance in those days; and that Mrs Costello had a version of the original Irish song, probably from tradition? To confuse matters still further, reference should be made to The Light of the Moon in "Marrowbones" which also involves a cock's inconsiderate behaviour, but which has nothing to do with Saw you my Father? and only superficially with The Night Visit Song. The idea of the cock's crowing interrupting prematurely a (ghostly?) lover's visit to his sweetheart is wide-spread and is probably very ancient. The Night Visit Song and The Light of the Moon are traditional songs (propagated by broadsides) based on this idea and having no connection with each other. Saw you my Father?, whether of English or Scottish origin, is right outside the canon and has no connection with either apart from the self-concious use of two verses from The Night Visit Song, added to what seem like reshapings of verses from Sweet Willium's Ghost (Child 77)! This precious mongrel was then sung around the 18th century pleasure gardens as "a new song", appropriated by Herd who added some verses of his own composition, and passed off as Scottish. In the circumstances and without being really unkind - Stephen Sedley's collation - in "The Seeds of Love" - of verses from Saw you my Father? with verses from The Light of the Moon is a new confusion we could have done without!
Malcolm Douglas then explored this further:
In the light of further examination, most particularly by Hugh Shields, Purslow's comments on Cecilia Costello's Grey Cock can be seen to be back-to-front; the supernatural elements in her version were added from a quite different song, the 19th century Anglo-Irish broadside ballad Willy O, based in its turn on the earlier (Scottish) Sweet William's Ghost (Child 77, Roud 50). No conclusions, then, can be drawn from Mrs Costello's set as to the age or provenance of the song we have here; though it looks increasingly likely that it is the forms that have no supernatural element which are the earlier, not the other way around.
There has been interplay between Saw You My Father/Grey Cock and the supernatural in other cases; Willie's Fatal Visit (Child 255) incorporates almost all of it as a preamble to the meat of the narrative, in which the luckless Willie is torn to pieces by the ghost of his ex-girlfriend. This seems to have been an editorial collation (Child certainly thought so), and in the rare traditional versions found the preamble has been dropped.
The verse cited by A. P. Graves came from Patrick Weston Joyce, who said that he had learned it in Limerick in the 1840s. Joyce later published text and melody in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, 1909, p.219, as The Lover's Ghost. It is reproduced in Bronson, 248 (12). Graves was actually talking about the verse promising a reward to the cock; his song The Song of the Ghost (Irish Songs and Ballads, repr. in The Irish Song Book, 1897), which incorporates it, is otherwise based upon Sweet William rather than a night-visiting song.
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Mudcat post: I'm afraid I have to disagree that "Willie-O" is derived from "Sweet William's Ghost" (Child 77). The versions of the latter I have found -- including Irish ones from Paddy Tunney (on The Voice of the People, Vol. 3) and Len Graham (on Ye Lovers All, credited to Sandy McConnell of Bellanaleck, Co. Fermagh) -- have nothing specific in common with "Willie-O". The mere theme of the lover's ghostly return is present in many sources, such as "The Grey Cock" (Child 248) and broadsides like "The Nightingale". The broadside that Malcolm posted might have been inspired by any of this (my opinion, but I'll defer to those with more experience).
However, there does seem to be a connection between the later development of this song and Irish versions of "The Grey Cock". (TGC has been a lot more widely known than "Sweet William's Ghost", in any case.) Maud Karpeles prints "The Lover's Ghost (The Grey Cock)" from Matthew Aylward of Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland, with the following verse:
O when will I see you, my love, she cries,
And when will I see you again?
When the little fishes fly and the seas they do run dry
And the hard rocks they melt with the sun.
Len Graham (on Ye Lovers All again) gives "True Lover John" which he got from Joe Holmes of Ballymoney, Co. Antrim. This is a non-ghostly night visiting song containing (perhaps slightly incongruously) the verses about the cock from the ghost song, and the following:
This fair maid she arose and she quickly followed after,
Saying "When will you come to see me?"
"When the fishes they do fly and the seas they all run dry,
And seven moons shine brightly o'er yon lea."
Now, on The Voice of the People, Vol. 3, there's a recording of "Willie-O" by Nora Cleary, which follows the broadside pretty closely, but adds a verse which isn't in that source:
"Oh Willie dear, when will we meet again?"
"When the fishes they will fly and the sea it will run dry
And the rocks they will melt with the sun."
So, it seems that material from "The Grey Cock" (not "Sweet William's Ghost") could be freely added to any song with the appropriate context.
Levana
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Willie-O
Cathal McConnell – The Boys of the Lough, Regrouped, Topic 12TS409, 1980
My Willie sails on board a tender
And where he's bound I do not know
Seven long years I have waited on him
Since he's crossed the bay of Biscay-O
One night as Mary lay a-sleeping
A knock came to her bedroom door
Saying – Arise, arise my lovely Mary
Till you take one last glimpse of your Willie-O
Young Mary rose, put on her clothing
And opened wide the bedroom door
And 't was there he saw her Willie standing
And his two cheeks as white as snow
O Willie dear, where are those blushes
Those blushes you had many years ago? –
O Mary dear, the cold clay has changed them
I am only the ghost of your Willie-O
O Mary dear, I must be going
For now the cocks they've begun to crow
And when she saw him disappearing
It was down her cheeks the tears did flow
O had I great stores of gold and silver
And all the gold in Mexico
I would give it all to the king of England
If he bring me back my Willie-O
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GHOST OF WILLIE-O
My Willie sailed on board a tender
And where he lies I do not know
For seven long years I've been constantly waiting
Since he crossed the bay of Biscay-O
One night as Mary lay a-sleeping
A knock came to her bedroom door
And there she saw her Willie standing
His two pale cheeks as white as snow
O Willie dear where are those blushes
Those blushes I knew long long ago
O Mary dear the wild waves lash them
I am only the ghost of your Willie-O
O Mary dear the dawn is breaking
I fear its time for me to go
I am leaving you quite broken hearted
For to cross the Bay of Biscay-O
Oh if I had all the gold and money
And all the silver in Mexico
I would grant it all to the King of Erin
For to bring me back my Willie-O