Bluegrass Messengers

English Riddle Ballads- Child 46- Edmunds 1985

[Excerpt from: Susan Edmunds, (1985) The English riddle ballads, Durham theses, Durham University; Chapter 5. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7574/

Edmunds included the extant versions in Appendix E at the bottom of this article. She separates "Captain Weddenburn" from "Riddle Song/I Gave My Love a Cherry" and "Perry Merry." Edmunds lumps "Riddle Song/I Gave my Love" with the "Don't you go a-Rushing" variants.

R. Matteson 2014]


CHAPTER SIX: 'CAPTAIN WEDDERBURN'S COURTSHIP' (CHILD 46)

David Fowler called 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship' an 'omnibus'[1], in that it has drawn into itself a wide variety of elements from other songs or from other areas of the oral tradition, such as riddles and tales. The ballad proper first appeared in Scotland in the late eighteenth century, and rapidly became popular in Scotland, Ireland, and later in America; apart from a Newcastle broadside, there are no English texts recorded. The oldest and most persistent component of the ballad, however, is English, and made its first written appearance in the Sloane MS British Museum 2593; this is the riddle song, 'I have a zong suster.'

The Sloane text.
The Sloane MS 2593 is dated at about 1450; it comes from Bury-St.-Edmunds in Suffolk, and R. L. Greene believes it to have been the property of the Benedictine monastery there[2]. As for its origin, R. Hope Robbins identifies the manuscript as a minstrel collection, and groups it with the contemporary manuscripts Bodleian Eng. Poet. e.l and St. John's College Cambridge 259.(3) The small size of the manuscript would make it suitable for carrying (it is about six by four and a half inches). There is a memorandum on

  Johannes bardel debet istum librum the qweche bardel is of . . . dwellyd .... In.

Greene notes that Bardel, Bradel or Bardwell is a name peculiar to the area around Bury-St.-Edmunds, and there was a monk of Bury called Johannes Bardwell, who is mentioned in an inscription in the Bodleian MS. Holkham Misc. 37:
(f.197v)
   Liber dompni Johannis Berdewell monachi sancti E.

Greene also points out a Johannes Bardel described as a 'Knight of St. Edmund' in the Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakeland. The pagination of the MS. shows it to have been a part of a larger volume now lost, since f.2 is also marked f.49. Except for some minor items, everything is written in one hand and in East Anglian language[4]. Of seventy-five pieces, three are in Latin verse and the remainder are in English; Greene selected fifty-seven of them for inclusion in his Early English Carols on grounds of metre. Although no music is included in the MS., the majority of the items seem to be songs; they are in simple, regular metre and bear marks of oral transmission in their simplicity of language and their extensive use of repetition. Child chose two pieces for his ballad collection: 'St. Stephen and Herod' (Child 22) and 'Robyn and Gnndelyn' (Child 115); as Fowler points out, the MS. thus provides a useful demonstration of Child's ballad criteria at work. The two ballads are very different in style and subject matter, the former being a straightforward reworking of the saint's legend, very much on the lines of the carols of St. Nicholas (Greene 315, 316), the latter being an obscure and curious secular narrative describing the death of Robyn and the revenge of Gandelyn, uniquely written in the MS. without line or stanza division, although the structure is plainly that of the four-line 'ballad stanza'. A line which may be an internal or an external burden, or neither, precedes and follows the text:

Robyn lyth in grene wode ybounden

Fowler suggests that while 'Robyn and Gandelyn' stands out as a crucially different type of song from the others in the MS., 'St. Stephen and Herod' was admitted rather for its quaintness of subject-matter, and its inclusion in the category of folk ballad is open to question.(5)

In general, the MS. calls into question a number of the modern habits of categorization into religious and secular, lyric and ballad, folksong and literary song, all of which are mixed in the MS., the only obvious recognition of differentiation being in the manner in which 'Robyn and Gandelyn' is transcribed. It was perhaps regarded as too worn down and obscure to be written in the same manner as the other items; it certainly seems to have been in oral circulation for longer than the others, to judge by its repetitions and its absence of explanations as to the identity of the characters. Certain phrases are part of the stock of folksong, such as line 27:

     Gandelyn lokyd hym est and lokyd west
and lines 25-26;
    There cam a schrewde arwe out of te west
    Pat felde Robertes pryde

This last is reminiscent of 'John Barleycornv, for example in the text recorded by Sharp from Somerset in 1908:

There was three men come from the West
Their frolics for to try.
They vowed and swear and did declare
John Barleycorn should die.[6]

The contents of the MS. as a whole seem more appropriate to the repertoire of a minstrel than to that of a Benedictine monk: they include an apology for a poor voice (lxvii)[7] a drinking song (xxvii) and a number of satirical and amorous lyrics, as well as a corpus of religious carols.

There are a few topical references which can be tentatively dated to the 1360s, and because one of these is to the survival of the Franciscan church in the storm of 1362 at King's Lynn, Greene suggests that this particular item is of Franciscan authorship[8]. One lyric makes a direct reference to the minstrel's trade:

We ben chapmen lyzt of fote,
The fowle weyis for to fle.(liv)

If separate categories for 'folksong' and 'artsong' are imposed, it might be said that 'Robyn and Gandelyn' is the sole folksong among the collection, the rest of the items bearing marks of literary polish or composition. Rather than use such categories, however, it seems reasonable to regard 'Robyn and Gandelyn' as being at a different stage in the same process, the process being the oral intertransmission of material between performer and audience.

A worn down song could be collected by a minstrel or collector, and reworked to make metrical and artistic sense, just as, centuries later, the broadside poets reworked traditional material or, later still, the compilers of modern folksong collections such as Burl Ives and Richard Chase produce edited or composite texts for publication. 'Robyn and Gandelyn', then, was in disrepair, but it need not be assumed that, in transcribing it without line divisions, the scribe considered it to be of a different genre.

In a process of interchange between written and oral transmission and in the absence of external evidence, it is impossible to determine with any certainty what is a newly composed piece, and what is a reworked one. The riddles in the eighteenth century texts of 'Captain Wedderburn' might have been assumed to have been composed along with the ballad narrative, were it not for the chance survival of the Sloane MS. and of the one other fragment which preserves the tradition in writing, the seventeenth century English song-book in the library of the University of Edinburgh (Dc.1.69). It is therefore difficult to say whether the rhyme, 'I have a yong suster' was newly-composed, or already in circulation. It is certainly well-adapted for oral transmission, being so memorably compact in its threefold structure of riddle, question and answer, that it has remained independently almost intact until the present day.

The opening formula of the song, 'I have a. . .' is a common one in such rhymes, both at the time of the MS. and in modern times, being one of the most simple ways of introducing a subject. The formula often heralds a riddle, as it does in the nursery rhyme which is a riddle for a star:

I have a little sister, they call her Peep-Peep,
She wades in the waters, deep, deep, deep;
She climbs the mountains, high, high, high;
Poor little creature, she has only one eye.[9]

A fifteenth century example which does not apparently precede a riddle is the rhyme, 'I have XII oxen.'[10] Two pieces in the Sloane MS. open with the same formula, and share the same style of rhyming repetitions, and the same metre: 'I have a newe garden'[11] and 'I have a gentil cook'[12]. Both of these are sexual metaphors, and both have, in some fashion, lasted in the oral tradition: 'I have a newe garden' in the nursery rhyme, 'I had a little nut tree' [13] and 'I have a gentil cook' in the late eighteenth century text of 'The Grey Cock' (Child 248), which contains a stanza derived from the medieval text. Another sexual metaphor rhyme from the MS. which has not been preserved in later tradition is No. liv, 'I have a poket for the nonys'.

It has been suggested by J. B. Toelken, in the article, 'Riddles Wisely Expounded'[14], that the riddles of 'I have a yong suster' are likewise sexual metaphors, particularly since the fourth and last riddle, which is not really a riddle at all, is concerned with courtship:

She bad me love my lemman withoute longgynge. . .
Quan the mayden hazt that che lovit, che is without longyng. . .

The formula, 'I have a. . . , although often associated with sexual riddles, cannot be taken as a firm indication that this is what is to follow, for it was used also in other contexts, for example to describe a lady in a poem written on the marriage of Joan of Navarre to Henry IV in 140J[l5], which begins:

I have a lady where so she be. . .

The other riddles in the Sloane poem are, to say the least, ambiguous: the 'cherye with-outyn ony ston', the 'dowe withouten ony bon' and the 'brer withouten ony rynde'. The symbolism of these three riddles goes deeper than the surface riddle-structure given in the song's answers, which are: the cherry as a flower; the dove in the egg; the briar when it is 'onbred' (growing).

A poem by D. H. Lawrence, 'Cherry Robbers', demonstrates the use of the cherry with a double association of blood and
fertility:

Under the long dark boughs, like jewels red
In the hair of an Eastern girl
Hang strips of crimson cherries, as if had bled
Blood-drops beneath each curl.

Under the glistening cherries, with folded wings
Three dead birds lie:
Pale-breasted throstles and a blackbird, robberlings
Stained with red dye.

Against the haystack a girl stands laughing at me,
Cherries hung round her ears.
Offers me her scarlet fruit: I will see
If she has any tears.[16]

In fifteenth century England, the symbolism of the cherry was relatively new; the word itself was not recorded, it seems, except in compounds, until the mid-fourteenth century. In continental tradition, however, it was a well-established emblem of Christ's suffering and Mary's grief, a combination of blood, tears and fertility. As early as the seventh century, the Church of St. Maria Antiqua in Rome depicted cherries with spearheads in frescoes, to signify the crucifixion.[17] The use of cherries in paintings of the Holy Family was common in Northern and Southern Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and cherries were depicted in other religious scenes; for example in Bosch's 'Adoration of the Magi' and in Niccolo di Giacomo's 'Woman
taken in Adultery', where a cherry tree is seen close to Christ.

In England, this tradition was absorbed into two plays from the mystery cycles: theLudus Coventriae 'Birth of Christ' (Play XV) and the Wakefield 'Second Shepherds' Play'. [18] In the former, from which the traditional 'Cherry Tree Carol' (Child 54) developed(l 9), Mary, travelling with Joseph and carrying the child, desires some cherries from a nearby tree, and when Joseph fails to oblige her, the tree bows down to give her the fruit. (In earlier sources the fruit differs: the Pseudo-Matthew gospel, for example, gives a date-palm, signifying victory). Associations of fertility mingle with suffering, with a prophetic glance at the crucifixion, which is particularly emphasized in some versions of the 'Cherry Tree Carol'. The same symbolism, though more cryptic, is found in the figurative gifts of the three shepherds at the close of the Wakefield Master's 'Second Shepherds' Play', which are very close to the three riddles in 'I have a yong suster': a bob of cherries, a bird and a ball. These gifts, like the similar group of symbols in Bosch's 'Adoration of the Magi' (a cherry, a bird and a globe) are apparently parallel to the gifts of the Magi; cherries, symbols of blood and death, are like myrrh, the embalming spice; a bird : symbol of the ~ivine, is like the frankincense; the ball, or globe, signifying kingship, is like the gold.[20]

The symbolic association of fruit with the Passion is found also in the poetic tradition; Christ was conventionally described in medieval poetry as the fruit of Mary, as in the fourteenth century poem from the Vernon MS. II, the 'Dispute between Mary and the Cross', where the image is developed to describe the Crucifixion:

Mi fruit I sea
In blodi bleo
Among his fan
Serwe I sea
Pe veines flea
From blodi bon[21]

The Cross, like Mary herself, is here the fruitful tree of life; the Cross ripens the fruit and presses it into wine.

A further association of the cherry is as a miraculous fruit produced in winter, as it is in some texts of 'The Cherry Tree Carol'. This idea, which is taken up in another riddle from 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship', was common in medieval legend: St. Gerald of Monza, for example, who died in 1207, had as his attribute a 'bob of cherries', which he had produced one January for a sick man. The idea was developed in the English romance of 'Sir Cleges' (late fourteenth to early fifteenth century): having given away his wealth, Sir Cleges kneels on Christmas Eve beneath a cherry tree in prayer; miraculously, it bears fruit, which he takes to the king, who in turn sends it as a 'drowry' to a lady. Here, the cherries symbolize the miraculous birth of Christ in midwinter, which in turn calls upon the idea of the Passion and Resurrection.[22] Thus, the cherry calls upon a large number of resonant Christian associations centering on the Passion and Mary. In modern times, only the general associations of fertility, and sometimes blood, remain, as in Lawrence's poem and in the American song, 'The Blue-Eyed Girl', which has the stanza:

The higher you climb the cherry-tree,
The riper grows the berries,
The more you court and kiss them girls,
The sooner you will marry.[23]

In English and American slang, 'cherry' signifies virginity.[24] In its fifteenth century context, however, it seems probable that the religious associations of the 'cherry without a stone' would be connected with the riddle. The answer given in the song, the 'flour', may also be a symbol of Mary or her child.

The third riddle, the 'brer withoutyn ony rynde', reinforces the religious undercurrent, for, although the answer is given rather weakly as a growing shoot, the brier, which can mean either a thorn-tree, or a branch cut from one, and by association the crown of thorns, may also be taken to signify the Cross itself. The Cursor Mundi (c.1400) calls the cross a love-token, 'pat druri dere'[25], and the fourteenth century Legends of the Holy Rood contain the description of the Cross as a tree without bark:[26]

Over the welle stod a tre, ac it bar noper lef ne rynde

oncepts of the Cross as the Tree of Life go back to early Christian times, as in the anonymous fourth century poem, De Pascha[27], which includes fruit among the attributes of the Tree. Drawing on Old Testament descriptions, such as Ezekiel's Tree of Life (17:22-24), Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, describes the tree with fruit, and also birds resting on it, the birds being the souls of the faithful.[28]

The same picture is found in the thirteenth century Ratselspiel from Wolfram von Eschenbach's Wartburgkrieg, where the riddle of the 'Kreuzebaum' describes a great tree in a garden, its roots reaching to Hell, its branches to Heaven, and encompassing the world, with birds singing in its branches; the answer to the riddle identifies the tree as the Cross.[29]

The second riddle of the Sloane text is the 'dove withoute bon', which is an egg. As a gift, the bird was an emblem of the soul, used in many pictures and legends, such as the Life of St. Francis.[30] The dove was associated with the Holy Spirit from earliest Christian times, preserved in the description of Christ's baptism in St. Luke's Gospel.(3:22). However, the dove is an eclectic symbol, whose associations are not restricted to innocence and purity, but can also imply fertility and peace, as in the Noah story (Genesis 8: 8-12). As with other symbols, these two opposite meanings are brought together in the paradoxical figure of Mary, who is described as Noah's 'colvere' in medieval lyric.[31]

Thus the riddle-gifts are not straightforward riddles, but carry with them a weight of religious and amorous symbolism. The song shows a deep intermingling of the concepts of sacred and profane love, an intermingling also reflected in the contents of the MS. as a whole, with its random mixing of secular and sacred pieces. If one has to be placed above the other as regards the intent of the poem, however, the combined iconography of cherry, tree and dove suggests that the religious associations were at this early stage dominant.

The poem was evidently a success in popular terms, and if it was not already a song by 1450 (and it seems probable that it was), it was certainly one by the seventeenth century; as is often the case, there is a complete absence of evidence for the intervening two hundred years. The tradition is divided into two distinct streams, with different tunes and refrains: the stream which is closer to the Sloane text is the group of texts with the dog Latin refrain, 'Perry Merry Dictum Domine', of which the earliest example is only 1838, and the most recent, 1964. Texts are mostly English in the nineteenth century, and American in the twentieth.

'Perry Merry Dictum' Texts.
The song was printed in 1848, in Halliwell's Nursery Songs and Rhymes, and the tradition by this time certainly see~to have centred around children, often the sole preservers of medieval traditions. Two of the earliest orally transmitted versions come from children's source~: the earlier of them, (iii), comes from a document belonging to Miss M. C. Meyer, who taught it to children in Forty Hall Infant School in Kent before l84J. The other (xii), from Oxford, 1860, is from an unusual source connected with children and undergraduates; in a letter to the librarian at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, in 1932, Mr. G. H. Page enclosed a text of the song as he remembered it from his days in the St. John's College choir in the 1860s: it had been sung at a college gaudy, and the older boys in the choir had seized upon it, singing it in true communal style, with a soloist giving the verse line and the others joining in the chorus. Mr. Page supplies block chord harmony and suggests that they sang it in four parts. Despite their background, the choirboys provide one of the least convincing mock-Latin refrains:

  Mere mere victus domine

Both text and tune are fragmented and Mr. Page adds that he never saw the song written down. The sister, or sisters, have by now disappeared, and from 1878, the date of publication of Mason's Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs (which probably did much to popularise and stabilise the song), they are replaced by brothers in most cases, the one exception being text (x) from Stratford-on-Avon (1914).

The text (vi) sent to Notes & Queries in 1866, which is allegedly from 'an aged country-woman', is almost certainly a literary forgery by someone who knew the Sloane text (which was published by Wright in 1856), since this is the only text which is at all close to the medieval song; moreover, the language is most unlike that of the average aged country-woman and includes lines such as:

Whoe'er loved without desire since first true love was born?

Even allowing for the fact that folksongs often employ an idiom foreign to that of normal speech[32], this seems very dubious, the more so as the riddles are identical to the Sloane riddles and unlike any contemporary texts.

Willa Muir believes 'Perry Merry Dictum' to have affiliations with game-song, and she likens it to the widespread one which, in its most archaic form, begins:

We are three Jews
Come out of Spain
To call upon your daughter Jane.[33]

She suggests that this has medieval origins; so too does another game-song close in subject-matter to 'Perry Merry Dictum', the 'Twelve Days of Christmas', which is found in both England and France and may have troubadour origins.

However, there is no direct evidence of 'Perry Merry Dictum' being used as a game-song. Songs which rely on a simple numerical structure are not restricted to gamesongs, or indeed to children: the carol 'The Joys of Mary', in which the numbers vary from five to twelve, was possibly composed as a Franciscan mnemonic.[34] Even more venerable in tradition is the song 'Green Grow the Rushes 0', sometimes known as 'The Twelve Apostles' or 'The Ten Commandments', which probably began life as a Hebrew religious rhyme, each number having religious, and often obscure, associations.[35]

In assigning a separate gift to each of four brothers, or sisters, then, the singers of 'Perry Merry Dictum' were following a well-established habit of traditional song. The riddles themselves had changed a little since the fifteenth century: the dove without a bone became the more mundane chicken; the cherry remained the same; the 'brer' and the 'leman' disappeared, and two different riddles took their place: the blanket without a thread (in the fleece) and the book no man has read (in the press). Both religious and sexual overtones persist, however, for the book is in some cases a Bible, possibly a Protestant reworking of the 'leman,' which would only have a religious meaning in Catholic tradition; the blanket is analogous to the 'mantle without
weft' of 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship', and to the many mantles and cloths made of mysterious material or with mysterious origins in popular tradition, which have medieval origins.[36] The fleece, or the dew on Gideon's fleece, was another traditional religious symbol, again linking the Annunciation with the Incarnation.(37)

The most mysterious feature of the 'Perry Merry Dictum' group is the refrain itself; the words vary slightly (see Appendix E), but none can be translated into anything recognizable. The closest possibility seems to be a refrain from the carol (Greene 374): 'Farce michi, Domine'. Other phrases which may have been in mind are 'Dixit Dominus' and 'Benedictus Dominus'. There are many other examples of parody Latin, or Latin used in absurd contexts, such as the drinking song from Sloane 2593, 'Omnes gentes Plaudite':

I saw myny bryddis setyn on a tre;
He tokyn here fleyt and flowyn away,
With Ego dixi, have good day! ( .. ') XXV111

An example of a complete poem in dog-Latin is the poem attributed to William Drummond, 'Nymphae quae colitis highissima manta Fifaea'[38]. However, all such examples are by authors who understood Latin, and who belonged to an earlier period when Latin was either still used in Church services or still in living memory. The text of 'Perry Merry Dictum' was first recorded in 1838 and the most likely explanation of the mock Latin is as an uneducated gesture to acknowledge the age of the song and to produce an imitation of an archaic Latin refrain.

Niles' text (xiv) bears his usual individual marks in both text and tune, for example in the spelling of the refrain (see Appendix E), but it is probably based on a genuine tradition in Ohio, since it is close to a more reliable text from the same state {xvii).

Tunes in this group are all closely related, except for the fragment from Mr. Page (xii), and this might be a worn-down version of Miss Aimer's tune (x) The tunes are melodically simple, perhaps because of the influence of children, the most rudimentary being that of Charles Muchler (xiii), which is based on the first three notes of the major scale, and which seems, with its monotonous refrain line, to be the musical counterpart of the pseudo-Latin words, imitating the intonation of an ecclesiastical chant. The Mason tune (vii") has the same repetitive refrain, but is embellished with an unexpected and unusual octave leap in the fourth line of text; singers of ballads rarely use the octave as a decoration, but usually as a means of shaping a phrase.
Most decorative of all the tunes in this group, however, is the Oklahoma version (xx), where the basic melody is adorned
with slurred passing-notes (bars 2-4) and the tonal centre of the third line is transposed a tone higher, giving more variety and movement to the tune.

'Riddle Song' Texts.
The second stream of tradition which seems to flow from the Sloane MS. text is the group of texts which are often entitled 'Riddle Song'. The features which distinguish this group from the 'Perry Merry Dictum' types are, firstly, the inclusion of different riddles; the transference from brother/sister relationships to lover relationships; different tunes and, where there are any, different refrains. The fact that the two types are included under separate headings in Mason's Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs, where there is no attempt normally to print more than one version of a song, indicates that the two were regarded as separate songs.

The basic structure, however, is the same, and the riddles of the cherry and the chicken remain unaltered. There has been some borrowing between the two types, as might be expected, and the Mason text (iv) uses the book and blanket riddles from 'Perry Merry Dictum.' Most commonly, however, the third and fourth riddles are the ring (or thimble) without end (or rim) -when it's rolling or melting; and the baby with no crying- when it's sleeping (or 'agetting'). With these riddles, and with the opening formula 'I gave my love', or 'My love gave me', the song moves to the sexual side of the religious-sexual duality it showed in the fifteenth century; it has clearly become a love-song. This is manifested also in a number of developments: firstly, in two American texts (xiii,xxi), the riddle is more explicitly romanticised: the ring becomes a 'story without end', which is 'the story of our love', or 'the story that I love you.' J. B. Toelken, however, finds another 'anatomical referent' here, taking the phrase 'a ring with no end' to be a symbol of female virginity.[39] Secondly, there is the development of an additional riddle sequence: the apple without a core (head); the house without a door (mind); the palace that can be unlocked without a key (heart). This is found intact in (ii,iii,viii and xxii); it is found partially in (vi) where it has a less romantic twist:

I'll get my love a home, wherein she may be,
Where she may be kept fast, without any key.

These additional riddles seem to have made their first printed appearance in broadsides of the early nineteenth century: the Opies mention a song-sheet printed by Pitts in c.1830;[40] and the new riddles are found embedded in an oddly strung together medley of the same title, printed as a slip-sheet by J. Jennings of Fleet Street, who was one of the smaller printers used by Pitts. (See App.E, 'Riddle Song' ii).

At least two other songs are recognizable in this slip-sheet: one of them is the Irish song, 'The Boys of Kilkenny', from which a complete stanza is transplanted:

Kilkenny is a fine place and shines where it stands
The more I look upon it the more my heart's won
Was I at Kilkenny I should think myself at home,
For there I've got a true love, but here I've got none

This stanza immediately precedes the riddle sequence. The opening of the song is an incoherent jumble of lines and phrases from songs of courtship, with a passing reference to 'Bushes and Briars':

Over hills and lofty mountains, long time I have been,
Through bushes and briars by myself alone,
Through bushes and briars, being void of all care,
Over hills and lofty mountains for the loss of my dear,
'Tis not your long absence I value a straw,
But to leave my dearest jewel, the girl I adore,
There's nothing will grieve or trouble my mind
But to leave my dearest jewel sweet Kilkenny behind.

At the end of the riddle sequence, which is perfectly coherent, the song reverts to a jumble of commonplaces:

So you lords and dukes of high renown,
Kings, princes, or emperors, or any of you all,
The King can but love you and I do the same,
I will call you a sheperdess and I'll be your fond swain.

It would seem that the purpose of these extra, transplanted lines was solely to eke out the song to a standard broadside
length; in terms of narrative or poetic content they are as irrelevant as the woodcut of an elegant mansion house at the head of the broadside (unless this was intended as a representation of the 'house without a door' or the 'palace without a key'). No tune is suggested for this version; the words would not fit 'Bushes and Briars', 'The Boys of Kilkenny', or any of the known tunes for the 'Riddle Song' without a great deal of rescanning. Nevertheless, the song evidently found its way into the oral tradition, for the text collected from J. Burrows of Sherborne, Dorset, by Hammond in 1906, not only has the 'apple' riddle sequence, but also two stanzas from a version of 'The Boys of Kilkenny', close, but not identical, to the stanza in the Jennings copy: (viii)

As I was a walking one morning in June
Down by some pleasant riverside by myself all alone
But there is one thing more still runs in my mind
To think I should leave Kilkenny behind

Kilkenny is a fine place it lies in the west
And when I think on it, it lies on my breast,
But now I am in London Obt so far from my home
In Kilkenny I've a true love, but here I have none.

Moreover, although there is no mention of 'Bushes and Briars', the tune taken down by Hammond, a very melodious Aeolian air, is reminiscent of the Essex tune of 'Bushes and Briars' in its leaps of a seventh and the cadences at the end of the second and fourth lines, especially at the end of the second line where the cadence is followed by a rise to the fifth of the scale, also found in the Essex song. This tune would easily fit the broadside text. Thus the broadside 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship' was not the last attempt of the broadside publishers to graft the 'Riddle Song' onto another framework.

The American text (xxii) is almost identical with the broadside copy for the apple sequence, but has no hint of the 'Kilkenny' version, and the tune is not related to any of the others. It seems very likely that a 'Riddle' broadside was the origin of this text.

The riddle of the head as a building is not uncommon; Archer Taylor gives nine examples in his collection of English Riddles from Oral Tradition( 4l), such as this American one:

A large theatre has two windows upstairs, two windows downstairs, a large door with white people, a red stag.

All Taylor's examples are concerned with physical detail; romantic metaphors are perhaps too delicate to survive alone in the oral riddle tradition. One is found in another song, 'The Keys of Heaven', which in some versions contains the stanza:

I 1 ll give you the keys of my heart
That we may marry and never part.[42]

The third major addition to the basic riddle sequence found in this group is the four-line refrain, occurring in four English texts, and which comes from another song:

Go no more a-rushing, maids, in May;
Go no more a-rushing, maids, I pray;
Go no more a-rushing, or you'll fall a-blushing,
Bundle up your rushes and haste away.

Bronson notes that the song, which is printed in Chappell's Popular Music of Olden Time, was found in a manuscript of pieces by William Byrd. 'Rushing' , also called 'rush bearing' is the custom of decorating the church with garlands of flowers and rushes, after a festival procession and a short service; it seems to have been most prevalent in the north of England, and especially in the north west, where Wordsworth had some influence in the preservation of the custom. It occurred annually, usually at the dedication or the patronal saint's day, and the festivities resembled Mayday or Whitsun celebrations. Once again, there is a convergence of religious and sexual connotations, for, as the refrain suggests, 'rushing' took on a euphemistic meaning and appears more explicitly in other songs such as 'The Bonny Bunch of Rushes Green.'[43]

The rush-bearing song, however, does not seem to have become popular in modern times, and so the two songs probably
combined in the Elizabethan period, when it seems that they might both have been dance-songs. Charles Read Baskervill,
in his study of the Elizabethan jig, writes that dance-songs in which a wooer offers gifts to win a wife, enacting the narrative as in a game-song, were in the sixteenth century a popular convention, and the subject of several sixteenth and seventeenth century burlesques.[44] He uses as an illustration the 'Keys of Heaven' song mentioned above.

The earliest 'Riddle Song' text is set to a dance tune, to which the words have been subjugated; this is the text (i) from the mid-seventeenth century song-book belonging to Edinburgh University, which contains songs by J. Wilson, W. Lawes and H. Burman, among others; there is what appears to be a companion MS. in the Bodleian collection (Mus.d.238), in the same hand.[45] The tune printed with Barrett's text(vii) is of the same style and idiom as the seventeenth century tune, and allegedly comes from oral sources, but the first half of the tune is identical to 'Tell me, Daphne', in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book[46]. Since Barrett was an early music scholar as well as a folksong collector, it is possible that there was some borrowing or polishing here, but other tunes from the Fitzwilliam book also appear orally.
 

Nevertheless, in the absence of more complete evidence, it seems possible that the 'Riddle Song' took on its character in the Elizabethan period and as a dance-song, thus swerving away from the medieval tradition which is preserved more closely in 'Perry Merry Dictum' texts. There are two features, however, which link it to the Sloane text where the 'Perry Merry' texts differ: firstly, the final phrase of the last riddle, 'without mourning', or 'without crying', echo the line in the Sloane text, 'Sche bad me love my lemman wythoute longgynge', although this may be pure coincidence. Secondly, the riddle of the oak without
a limb, which occurs in the Baring-Gould text, (v), recalls the 'brer' without bark. It also gives a better rhyme for the last two riddles, since in this case the ring is a 'ring without a rim', and the answer, 'when it's melting'. There may have been a gradual change in the third riddle from 'rynde' to 'rim', followed by a rationalisation which produced a 'ring' riddle. Baring-Gould might himself have been responsible for the introduction of the 'oak' riddle, either by coincidence or by conscious imitation of the
medieval text.

The texts of the 'Riddle Song' group have attracted a wide variety of tunes, some of which are identifiable as belonging also to other songs. The tunes marked A in the Appendix are similar in melodic idiom and shape, but are not directly related, except for the identity between (i) and (vii) which has been already mentioned. Tune B (viii) has also been mentioned as bearing similarities to 'Bushes and Briars'; however, Lucy Broadwood saw a kinship of this tune with a 'Celtic' one from Antrim, while Annie Gilchrist found a resemblance in the opening bars to a version of 'Glenlogie'[49]. This illustrates the difficulty of identifying relationships between tunes; melodic formulae may be so common that they cannot be used alone as evidence of a 'family'; they are merely a part of the melodic apparatus available.

Tune C, however, has more than a passing resemblance to the tune 'The Bold Princess Royal'[50] the two tunes differ only markedly in the last line.

Tunes marked E, like the A tunes, are not directly related, but bear similarities in idiom and in their simple melodic range and habit. The only true 'tune family' for the 'Riddle Song' is the group D; tunes in this group seem to be found only with this song, and have become the standard modern American and English song-book melody. Tunes designated DD have apparently been influenced by D tunes, but are not full members of the family; (xiv), for example, has turned the ABBA form of the tune inside our, with two new and distinctive lines, which end on the dominant, so that the new form is BACD. (xi) looks as if it might have originated as a harmony for the standard D tune.

'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship' Texts.
Neither the 'Riddle Song' nor 'Perry Merry Dictum' seem to have circulated in Scotland, the home of 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship'. The earliest date for the ballad is that of Herd's MS., about 1776 (i), and it seems unlikely that it originated much earlier than this, since it fits in with the vogue for abduction ballads at this time in Scotland (e.g. Child Nos. 222-228). The author of the ballad must have known the riddle sequence, however, since both cherry and chicken (sometimes a capon) riddles are included. They appear in a sequence of three riddles, usually demanded by the lady as meals to be provided by her suitor as a prerequisite to marriage. The new riddle is another bird, the bird without a gall. This may be a play on words, for gall can mean 'rancour', a tumour, a gall bladder, or a swelling on a bird's foot, a term used in hawking. It may have been
introduced into the ballad as a rhyme for the fourth line of the stanza, usually something like 'and you'll lie next the wall', or 'at either stock or wall'. The answer to this riddle is 'the dove she is a gentle bird, she flies without a gall,' which incorporates the first and the third of the meanings of 'gall' listed above. The source of the riddle was possibly the popular German 'Ten Birds Riddle', a rhyme known throughout Germany and included in several of the nineteenth century collections[51]. A number of 'birds' are listed as riddles, the term being used loosely to cover anything that flies, including the bat and the dung-beetle. An example is from the eighteenth century Smiths Greeting:

welcher Vogel ist ohn' ein Zungen, (der Storck
welcher Vogel saugt seine Jungen, (die Fledermaus)
welcher Vogel ist ohne Mut, (die Eul' )
welcher Vogel ist ohne Blut, (die Imm')
welcher Vogel ist ohne Gall, (die Turteltaubel
welcher Vogel singt uber die Vogel all? (Frau Nachtigall [52]

The earliest source known for the 'Ten Birds Riddle' is the fourteenth century Trougemundslied, but this does not include the dove riddle[53]. There are several 'scientific' sources for the idea that a dove has no gall bladder: Isidore of Seville describes doves:

aves mansuetai et in hominum multitudine conversant, ac sine felle.
(gentle birds dwelling among the company of men, but without gall)[54]

The Middle English translation of Bartholomeus Anglicus'
De Proprietatibus Rerum also notes that:
a colvere hap no galle and hurtip nouzt with pe
bylle but hir owne peere.[55]

It seems probable that a translation of the German 'Ten Birds Riddle', or something like it, circulated in Scotland and provided a source for the author of the ballad. Collections of British riddles were not made to the same extent as German collections until recently, and much material must have been lost: the survival of riddling traditions in modern times, especially in Scotland, indicates that there might have been ample material for collection in previous centuries.

The other riddles in the ballad come from a variety of sources, and some may also owe something to the German tradition; as Rohrich has shown,[56] the traditions of Britain and Germany are closely related. Riddles J (a,b,c,d,e) (see App. E) are shared with Child 1 and are probably borrowed from the older ballad. The rest of the J riddles are closer to the 'Ten Birds' type; they involve no spiritual metaphors, but appear to be questions about natural lore, with largely stable answers. However, they also bear resemblances to Old Norse riddle sequences in the Poetic Edda, which unfold an esoteric knowledge in a ritualistic catechism.[57] Even closer are the riddles in Hervararsaga ok Heijreks.[58] Here, convicted criminals have been offered the chance to save their lives by proposing a riddle that the king cannot solve. Odinn, disguised as the convicted thane Gestumblindi, offers a series of riddles which later became a Faroese ballad, the Giturima.[59] In the saga, the riddles are concerned with everyday objects, or natural phenomena, in various degrees of disguise, and in the seventeenth century MSS they include two which are very similar to the ballad riddles J (f-l):

Hverr byggir ha fjoll? Hverr fellr i djdpa dali? ...
Hrafn byggir jafnan i ham fj?llum en dogg fellr jafnan  djupa dali . . .

( What lives on high fells? What falls in deep dales?
The raven lives ever on the high fells, the dew falls ever in the deep dales ... )[60]

This is found also in Voluspa, stanza 19:

padan koma doggvar
paers i dala falla( 61]

(Thence come the dews
which fall in the valleys)

The reference to dew may have picked up poetic resonances also from the medieval Christian symbolism of dew, which is best shown in the lyric, 'I Syng of a Myden that is Makeles':

He cam also stylle ther his moder was
As dew in Aprylle that fallyt on the gras.
He cam also stylle to his moderis bowr
As dew in Aprylle that fallyt on the flour.
He cam also stylle ther his moder lay
As dew in Aprille that fallyt on the spray.[62]

There are two other riddles of this type in the ballad:

'What bird sings first,' and 'What tree buds first?': and it may be that these are also connected with a creation myth. The most common answer to the bird questions (Jg) is 'the cock', and although this corresponds to natural history, cocks are also found with mysterious associations in folkloristic and Norse sources. In the account of a Rus Ship Burial on the Volga in the tenth century, by the Arab Ibn Fadlan,[63] a rooster and a hen are killed and thrown onto the ship with other offerings. The crowing of a red, then a grey cock, in 'The Wife of Usher's Well' (Child 79A) tells the three sons that they must return to the world of the dead; in Voluspa (sts.42-3) a red, a golden and a dark red cock crow to wake combatants for the last battle. The link between all these sources seems to be a passage between life and death, which may have arisen because of the cock's actual function of announcing the passage from night to day. Of the various trees given in answer to the questions (Jk), the yew and the palm-tree both have religious significance : the palm-tree was the original of the cherry-tree in the story of 'The Cherry-Tree Carol', and the yew is the wood of the Cross in the carol 'The Leaves of Lifer,[64] The first tree in Norse mythology was Yggdrasill, the ash, which is described in Voluspa as an evergreen, from which the dews emanate (st. 19); it is occasionally fused with the tradition of the Cross[65]. If the original answer to the tree riddle was the ash, it would have been rationalised out of the text once the 'first tree' was taken to mean the first tree to bud in the spring, rather than the first tree in Creation. Thus, although the evidence is nebulous, it is possible that the bird, the tree and the dew riddles are echoes of Norse mythology, reinforced by Christian associations of dew and holy trees.

The riddle of the 'best bird' (Jf), which occurs in Irish and American texts, may simply be an extension of the 'first bird' riddle - the two often occur together - or it may be derived from the German 'Ten Birds Riddle' tradition, where the bird that sings best is usually the nightingale, as it is in variant (1) from New Hampshire. In the great majority of texts, however, the answer is the thrush.

The third riddle sequence (K), comprising four questions which are relatively constant, returns to the structure of the 'true' riddle in which there is a metaphorical jump. The first two riddles, the winter fruit and the silk mantle without a weft, are both common motifs in medieval legend. The cherry-tree miracle in the romance 'Sir Cleges' has already been mentioned (see P·l69); miraculous fruit of various kinds was particularly popular in Irish saints' lives, such as the lives of St. Ciaran, St. Barrus and St. Berrachus; in Scotland, the story is attached to St. Kentigern, who contrived to find blackberries in December[66]. There are several stories of mysterious mantles, such as the 'Boy and the Mantle' (Child 29), versions of which were known in many European and Scandinavian countries; the concept is very close to the sark made in impossible conditions (see Chapter 2). There is a fragment written on the fly-leaf of the Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D 913, the manuscript which also contains the fragments 'The Maiden on the Moor' and 'The Irish Dancer' , which are believed to have been in the repertoire of a fourteenth century minstrel:

Ichave a mantel i-maket of cloth[67]

This looks as if it might have been the beginning of the same riddle, and, as mentioned above, the formula 'Ichave' may have heralded a sexual metaphor. There are several modern riddles of cloths neither woven nor spun, to which the answers are 'beehive', 'feathers of a cock', or 'moonshine'.[68] One of these has the same formula as the answer to the mantle riddle in the ballad:

Mother had a piece of checkety cloth
It was neither spun nor woven
It had been a sheet for many years
And not a thread had been worn.
- Beehive.[69]

The common riddle formulas 'My father had. . . ' and 'My mother had . . .' have in the ballad become the answers to the riddles, and have been interpreted by J. Barre Toelken, and possibly by the transmitters of the ballad, as sexual metaphors.[70] It may be that this was the original sense of the formulas, which were then extended to non-sexual riddles. The third riddle in this group (Kc), the sparrow's horn, which is its claws and beak, also has a parallel in another riddle:

Itum Paraditum all clothed in green,
The king couldn't read it, no more could the queen;
They sent for the wise men out of the east,
They said it had horns, but wasn't a beast.
~ Parrot.[71]

The text of this was from Lancashire, but it has been noted in other parts of Britain.

The 'priest unborn' riddle (Kd) seems to be a sophistication of the several popular riddles which describe objects such as a silkworm, or, in Russia, a chink in the wall, as being born without parents, or which describe the egg, the bullet and dung as being born 'without a caul'[72]. Scottish texts of the garland tradition describe the priest as a man waiting at the door who was born by a Caesarian operation, either in the normal fashion or by a wild boar. Several heroes in Celtic legend are said to have been born by a Caesarian operation, though without the wild boar[73], and Irish texts of the ballad normally name a specific priest or hero, the most common being Melchisedek (the story from Hebrews VII:3).

Thus it seems that all the riddles in 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship', except those derived from other riddles in the ballad itself (Jf,h,i,j,k1), were not composed for the ballad but taken from existing traditions of varying age.

The narrative of the ballad is, in its early versions, well-polished and in the seven-stress metre which is common enough in folksong, but relatively rare in orally transmitted ballads. It gives rise to lines of comparative complexity, such as this one from (ii), st.2:

'I'm walking here alane' , she says, 'amang my father's trees'

Scottish texts, particularly those grouped by Child as (ii), have a sprinkling of rather anomalous 'ballad commonplaces':
for example, the lady saying that she is walking in her father's land is a defensive remark made by many ballad ladies about to be abducted or wooed (e.g. 'Tam Lin', Child 39; 'Proud Lady Margaret,' Child 47). Her warning that the supper bell will be rung and she'll be 'missed awa' is found in the revenant ballads, such as 'Sweet William's Ghost' (77B st.8) where the dead lover tells Margaret:

The salms of Heaven will be sung,
And ere now I'le be misst away.

Descriptions of the Captain's 'milk-white steed' and the lady's 'middle jimp' (ii, st.6) are also stock phrases. The original setting of the ballad is military, and detailed: the Captain promises the lady 'drums and trumpets always at your command' and takes her to his quartering house in Edinburgh, where she is inspected by his landlady. These details were eroded as the ballad spread, until the narrative, where one exists at all, is a timeless one of a lady walking the lanes, or the woods, and meeting a gentleman who wishes to carry her off.

The eighteenth century was a time of enthusiastic ballad production, when writers of broadsides and garland texts tried self-consciously to compose along the lines of such models as 'Sir Patrick Spens'. There was a vogue for abduction ballads and for fairy ballads, such as 'Tam Lin' (Child 39), which was reworked from older material at this time, and 'The Wee Wee Man' (Child 38). The latter makes an interesting parallel with 'Captain Wedderburn', for it too first appeared among the manuscripts of David Herd, and is based on a fourteenth century poem, but with no indication of oral transmission in the centuries in between. Authors were evidently searching for suitable archaic material, and Herd himself had a strong antiquarian interest, which led him to refurbish some texts, such as his versions of 'Lammikin' (Child 93).[74] His text of 'Captain Wedderburn', while less literary in style than the texts (ii), has some incongruous touches which might perhaps be his own, for example in stanza 4:

And so, my bonny lady - I do not know your name
But my name's Captain Wetherburn, and I'm a man of fame. . .

There is some historical support for the names used in these early versions: the Laird of Roslin was indeed called Sinclair (although the Sinclairs were not still at Roslin in the eighteenth century; the detail is only found in Herd and may be a learned addition). There were real marital links between the Wedderburns and the Sinclairs of Roslin, and the first Earl of Roslin (c.l700) was Alexander Wedderburn. Grissel was a common name in both {and many other) families, but a definite historical source cannot be given. The misreading 'Bristoll1 for 'Rosslyn' in Herd's copy is puzzling, but may be a misprint which exchanged the positions of the two vowels am led to the conclusion that the name should be 'Bristoll'.

However literary its beginnings, the ballad passed effortlessly into the oral tradition and became, according to Motherwell, one of the most popular of ballads in Scotland, particularly in the North East. Willa Muir describes the performance of the ballad, which she identifies as one of Greig's texts[75], at the beginning of the century, by a ploughman in the North East who had asked her, 'Wad ye like to hear an auld song?'. She remarks upon the fact that, although it is not one of the 'great' ballads, it has 'immediately recognisable Ballad characteristics', such as launching straight into the story, and the lack of comment on the action. The performance was in a flat and impersonal tone, not much above the level of a speaking voice.

The ballad preserved a steady tradition throughout the nineteenth century and was still very much in evidence at the beginning of the twentieth, when Greig and Duncan made their collections. In the thirties, Carpenter found fifteen texts in North East Scotland of a very high quality. By the fifties, however, the collections made for the School of Scottish studies found only two texts, one of these a fragment. The other, from Willie Mathieson, who had sung the ballad to Carpenter (xxvii), preserves the eighteenth century text almost intact, omitting only the journey to Edinburgh and the praise of the landlady.

The ballad flourished also in Ireland, following the printing of a broadside version in Cork (iii) in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The broadside text shows certain major variations from the Scottish text which mark all the Irish versions: firstly, the Captain is no longer a high-ranking servant of the King (or Queen), but a gamekeeper, Mr. Woodburn - his name later changes to a variety of different names, some perhaps even referring to real people while the lady remains 'a nobleman's fair daughter'. This of course changes the dramatic situation: the journey to Edinburgh is omitted, leaving only two stanzas - the first and the last of narrative. The riddles remain more or less the same, except that the 'greener than the grass' question is replaced by 'What is rounder than a ring', and the 'best bird' question is introduced. The answer to the 'first tree' question changes from 'cedar' to 'heath'. The conclusion also differs from Scottish texts: instead of the 'little did she think' stanza, a more generalized stanza describes the marriage and comments that 'because she was so clever', the lady enthralls the heart of her husband. This is not entirely logical, as it is the man who has had to exercise his wit in answering her questions, and later versions try to correct this by reversing the genders (L²).

The Irish Folklore Commission found many texts in the twentieth century and the ballad is still in circulation today. There is little variation among Irish texts except for opening lines, where there is a move towards the common 'As I roved out' formula, sometimes causing problems in successive lines as the characters of gamekeeper, girl and observer are liable to be confused. There are also various ingenious corruptions, such as the interpretation of the cherry riddle in (xlv): 'The Kerry land is flat and low, it really has no stone'. The 'roll me from the wall' refrain is found in Ireland also with another song, which uses the refrain as its title, and which describes the courtship of a young girl by an old man.[76]

There is also a cantefable., version of the ballad in Ireland, 'King Connor's Daughter'[77]. Here, the social positions of girl and suitor are further polarised: she is the King's daughter, who has set the riddles as a marriage task, with the usual condition that suitors who give incorrect answers lose their heads. He is Jack, the travelling woman's son, who spends his time conversing with wandering scholars. The riddles are given in two batches: the first three (Ib,a,c) are set one day and answered in the usual way. The questioning is then adjourned until the next morning, when Jack must bring her water to wash in that never fell as rain, or flowed through earth or stone, and a mantle to dry herself on that was never woven or spun. In the morning he collects dew and shows her the sun, as in the independent riddle:

She washed her hands in water
Which neither fell nor run;
She dried her hands on a towel
Which was neither woven nor spun.
(Dew- the sun)[78]

The final two riddles are a horn that has won a hundred battles, and the usual unborn priest riddle: the answer to the former is a bull's horn. Jack marries the princess and becomes King.

Texts from America seem to be all of the Irish type, and there are two specific illustrations of an Irish text crossing the Atlantic: the variant (xii) ,which was sung by a native of Country Down living in Massachusetts, and (lxxii) which was learned from Ann Burke, who emigrated to the United States in the 1920's. It is notable that two of the American singers of the ballad also sang riddle song texts: Dennis Smith (xxxviii) sang the 'Riddle Song' (xxii) and Charles Muchler (xxxvi) sang 'Perry Merry Dictum' (xiii). It is only in America that the three traditions exist side by side.

Most American texts do not show any great variety, and several preserve only the riddle sequences. There is, however, a small group of variants which diverge dramatically from the normal text: three of these seem to be related (xvi, xvii, lxiii), from Newfoundland and the Labrador coast. They are of a markedly nautical nature, the Captain being now a deep sea captain; the bird without a bone has become a fish. All three texts show influence of 'Riddles Wisely Expounded' (Child 1), in that the seducer is evaded, despite the fact that this makes no dramatic sense in one of the texts. In (xvi) there is no narrative introduction and so the riddles are apparently set by the seducer: the answerer concludes:

So I'll not comply with you to lie
Down by the cold stone wall

In (xvii), it is tone of fair Scotland's daughters, who is setting the riddles, but after answering all but the last, that of the priest unborn, the captain gives up:

But the priest unborn I cannot call,
So I'll leave this stuccoed wall.

In (lxiii), the captain answers all the riddles, but the girl recognises him as the Devil, and cries:

'You fly from me, Devil', she says, 'right through that old stone wall'.

The singer of this text, Martin Hocko, actually gave the song the title, 'The Devil and the Blessed Virgin Mary', an explicitness not found in any texts of Child 1, where the girl is never identified. The text is corrupt in places, but dramatically powerful and quite unlike the light-hearted 'Captain Wedderburn' texts. The man lays hands on the girl, making the confrontation more dramatic, and the 'co1d stone wall' has overtones of the graveyard.

The other 'nautical' text, (xlvi), is of a very different character, and seems not to be related to any other. The first three long stanzas are a narrative describing 'Captain Washburn', a 'shrewd and hardy lad', who had sailed to Africa and 'many a foreign strand', but who at last decides to settle in his native country and find a wife. His choice is 'a worthy dame but hard to court they say' and sets the riddles 'quite scornfully'. Another extra stanza is inserted after the giving of the riddles (I) which is purely padding and includes phrases such as 1 as brave as brave could be'; it describes the Captain preparing to answer the riddles. Among the tunes, there are three main groups which are probably related to each other (A, B, c). 'A' tunes are all Scottish; the oldest of them is the Harris tune, which has an unusual inflected seventh (e.g. bar 7) not found in any other tune in the group. The tune can be seen at its simplest in the hexatonic Duncan version (ix), where the distinctive phrase, bars 7-8, stands out clearly as the centre of the melody; it is used also to begin the third line of text (bars (9-10). This phrase occurs in the same form in most 'A' tunes: in the Harris and the Christie tunes (ii) it is less obvious, but the contour remains the same.
A similar motif, perhaps suggested by the same one, occurs in most 'B' tunes, but in a less prominent position, usually in the second full bar. 'B' tunes are mostly American, probably of Irish origin, since Petrie's tune (Bronson 46.23) is included in the group. Tunes marked 'BB' are substantially the same, but rise to the dominant at the end of the first and second lines of text. The most ornamental of the 'B' group is William Gilkie's tune (lvi), but this may be because of detailed notation, such as the mordents.

Group C tunes are in effect 'B' tunes without the above motif: all them sink to the tonic at the end of the first textual line; their range is generally smaller than 'A' or 'B' tunes.

The two 'D' tunes are both from the same period in Aberdeenshire (x,viii) and distinct from any of the others; Keith noted that the air was also used for other songs in the region {see Bronson 46.10). The tune is an attractive one and has been used by 'Steeleye Span' for their recording of the ballad.

Group 'E' is also strongly represented in Aberdeenshire, but is also found in two American versions. It is often hexatonic or in a Dorian/Aeolian mode, and is probably related to the 'major' 'C' group, as the tune contours are very similar.

Of the remaining tunes, only one pair (F) can be regarded as being related to each other, and none of them can be said to have any certain relationship with any of the larger groups. Some can be recognised as belonging also to other songs, such as (xliii), which the singer heard from 'Red' MacDonald in Michigan, and which bears a strong resemblance to the Irish rebel song tune, 'Kevin Barry'.

NOTES TO CHAPTER SIX (CHILD 46)
1. David Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, p. 23.
2. Richard Leighton Greene, The Early English Carols (1977) pp. 306-7.
3. Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Centuries, p.xxvi.
4. Greene, loc.cit.
See also the play 'Wisdom' (Digby 133), probably from Bury Monastery (ed. Baker, Murphy & Hall, EETS 283, 1982), pp.lxviii ff., for 'Language characteristics suggestive of East Anglia': includes the spelling 'ony' for 'any', as in Sloane 2593.
5. Fowler, op.cit., p.4l.
6. Maud Karpeles, ed., Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs, II No.247B.
7. Numbers are from Thomas Wright's edition (See App.E)
8. Greene, op.cit., p.438
9. Iona & Peter Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, No. 402.
10. Robbins, op.cit., No.47.
11. Ibid., No. 21.
12. Ibid., No. 46.
13. Opie, op.cit., No.38l.
14. J. Barre Toelken, 'Riddles Wisely Expounded', Western Folklore XXV (1966) No.1, pp. 1-16.
15. Trinity College Camb. MS 599 fol.205a, 'The Discryving of a fayre lady'.
16. Vivian de Sola Pinto & Warren Roberts, eds., The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence (Heinemann, London 1964) pp. 36-7.
17. Eugene B. Cantelupe & Richard Griffith, 'The Gifts of the Shepherds in the Wakefield "Secunda Pastorum": an Iconographical Interpretation', Medieval Studies XXVIII (1966) pp.328-35.
18. Peter Happe, ed., English Mystery Plays (Penguin, Harmondsworth 1975 'The Nativity' Ludus Coventriae), pp. 230-43; 'Second Shepherds' Play' Wakefield), PP. 265-94.
19. See Mary McCabe, 'A Critical Study of Some Traditional Religious Ballads' (Durham University M.A. Thesis 1980) Chapter 4.
20. See Peter Happe, op.cit., p.671.
A similar group, but without the ball, is seen in Quentyn Massys' painting, 'The Holy Kindred' (1509), the centre of the St. Anne altarpiece in Brussels Museum, where the infant Jesus holds a bird and is offered cherries. Reproduced in Max J. Friedlander, From Van Eyck to Bruegel (Phaidon, London 1956), Pl. 167.
21. R. Morris, ed., Legends of the Holy Rood (EETS 46, 1871) pp.131-48, 11.7-12.
22. W. H. French & C. B. Hale, Middle English Metrical Romances (Prentice Hall, New York 1930), pp.887ff.
23. Leonard Roberts, Sang Branch Settlers; Folksongs and Tales of a Kentucky Mountain Family, p.168, st.2.
24. J. B. Toelken, 'Some Poetic Functions of Folklore in the English and Scottish Traditional Ballads' (Oregon University Ph.D Thesis 1964).
25. Cursor Mundi, ed. R. Morris,(E.E.T.S. London 1874-93) Vol. I line 21372.
26. R. Morris, ed., Legends of the Holy Rood, 1.24
27. De Pascha, printed in Cyprian, Opera (ed. Hartel) 3.3.305ff. Reference from E. Greenhill, 'The Child in the Tree', Tradition X (1954) pp. 350-71.
28. Gregory, Moralium, 19.1. Reference from E. Greenhill, loc. cit.
29. T. A. Rompelman, ed. Der Wartburgkrieg (Amsterdam 1939) pp.207-8.see also Chapter 3, pb2f. on the thorn tree.
30. Beryl Rowland, Birds with Human Souls (University of Tennessee Press, 1978) p.43.
31. Ibid. p.43.
32. See Willa Muir, Living with Ballads, p.15.
33. Ibid., p.24.
34. Greene, op.cit., No.l49.
35. See for example, Broadwood & Maitland, English County Songs,pp.154-9.
36. See p.187 below.
37. See Rosemary Woolf, The English Religious Lyric in the Middle Ages, pp. 286ff.
38. John MacQueen & Tom Scott, eds., The Oxford Book of Scottish Verse (Clarendon, Oxford 1966) No.86.
39. Toelken, 'Some Poetic Functions of Folklore in the English and Scottish Traditional Ballads'.
4o. Opie, op. cit. p.J88.
41. Archer Taylor, English Riddles from Oral Tradition, No.1143-No.1151.
42. E.g. in Olive Dame Campbell & Cecil J Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, No.92A from N. Carolina.
43. James Reeves, The Everlasting Circle (Heinemann, London 1960) pp.118-9.
44. Charles Read Baskervill, The Elizabethan Jig and Related Song Drama (University of Chicago Press, 1929) p.20.
45. For an inventory of the Edinburgh University MS, see J. P. Cutts, Musica Disciplina XIII (1959) pp.169-94. The Bodleian MS was copied by Edward Lowe; see Sotheby's Catalogue, 30 June 1972.
46. J. A. Fuller Maitland & w. Barclay Squire, eds., The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, (1899; reprint, Dover Publications, New York 1963) II p.446.
47. Hammond MS D575 p. 353.
48. Cecil Sharp, Folk Songs of England II (Novello, London 1908) pp.1-5.
49. JFSS III No.ll (1907) pp.114-15; Bronson, Traditional Tunes, p.377.
50. Cecil Sharp, Folk Songs of England II (version from Norfolk), pp.40-41.
51. E.g. Richard Wossidlo, Mecklenburgische Volksuberlieferungen, Bd.I: 'Ratsel1 (wismar 1897) No.170. See also F. Tupper,'The Comparative Study of Riddles', MLN XVIII (1903) p.2, for the possible origin of the Ten Birds Riddle as a Latin literary 'enigma'.
52. Lutz Rohrich, 'Ratsel1ied1 , in Handbuch des Volkslieder I, pp.210-ll.
53. Trougesmundlied , in A1tdeutsche Walder, (ed. Grimm brothers, Neudruck Darmstadt 1966) pp.8-30.
54.Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarium sive originum (ed. Lindsay, 1911) II, xii 7, 61.
55. M. c. Seymour, ed., On the Properties of Thinus: A Critical Text (clarendon, Oxford 1975) I p.61 •
56. Rohrich, op.cit.
57. G. Neckel, ed., Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius Particularly relevant riddle sequences are found in Vaf~ru~nismal (pp.44-55) and Alvfssm~l (pp.l24-9)
58. Hervararsaga ok Hei~reks, ed. Christopher Tolkien (The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise).
59. G~turfma, in V. U. Hammershaimb, Faeroiske Kvaeder II pp.26-31.
60. Christopher Tolkien, op.cit., pp.S0-81. The riddles are peculiar to the H-text.
61. VQlusp~, ed. Sigur~ur Nordal, transl. B. S. Benedikz and J. S. McKinnell, p.36.
62. Carleton Brown, Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century, No. ~\: 'dew' has here the meaning of 'seed'. The folkloric associations of dew, found in such songs as 'The foggy, foggy dew' and 'Dabbling in the dew makes the milkmaids fair', may be loosely related to the religious symbolism. Although the precise connotations of the word in these songs is not clear, there is a general association with sex and fertility.
63. Gwyn Jones, History of the Vikings, pp.425-30.
64. Mary McCabe, op.cit., Chapter 7.
65. E. 0. G. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia, p.43.
66. c. Grant Loomis, 'Sir Cleges and Unseasonable Growth in Hagiology', Modern Language Notes LIII (1938) pp.591-94.
67. Richard M. Wilson, The Lost Literature of Medieval England, p.l69.
68. Archer Taylor, op.cit., Nos.l212a, b.
69. Ibid., No. 11212a: E. Parsons, 'Folklore from Aiken,
s:-Garolina', JAF 34 (1921), pp. 24-37.
70. Toelken, 'Some Poetic Functions of Folklore... '
71. Notes & Queries, 3rd Series IX (1866) p.86.
72. Archer Taylor, op.cit., No. 667.
73. See Alwyn and Brinley Rees, Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales, p.237.
74. See David Fowler, op.cit., p.275.
75. Willa Muir, op.cit., p.J7.
76. Tom Munnelly, Tapes 352/A/2; 272/l. (University College, Dublin).
77. E.g. 'King Connor's Daughter', IFC Vol. 670, pp.185-98 from Mr. Jack Keane, aged 70, Brosna, Co. Kerry.
78. Taylor, op.cit., p.46J (southern USA).

---------------------

APPENDIX E: CHILD 46, 'CAPTAIN WEDDERBURN'S COURTSHIP':

DESCRIPTION OF TEXTS

('Riddle Song' and 'Perry Merry Dictum' texts are treated as separate groups in the Appendix as in Chapter 6.)

'Perry Merry Dictum' texts: Key to Description.
A. I have a young sister far beyond the sea; many are the presents she sent me.
A1. I have four sisters across the sea; each of them sent a present to me:
A2. I have three/four brothers over the sea; each of them sent a present to me:
A3. I have three cousins over the sea who each sent a present to me:
I had:
I have a true love beyond the sea tokens he sends to me:
many the love-

B. She/the first sent a cherry without a stone

C. She/the second sent a dove/chicken/bird without a bone

D. She/the third sent a briar without a rind/thorn
D1. She/the third sent a blanket without any thread

E. She bade me love my leman without longing
E1. The fourth sent a book no man has read

F. How can there be a cherry without a stone? etc.
(Question is repeated for each riddle)
F1. I counted up the presents that my lovers all sent me when they came courting

G. A cherry in the blossom has no stone

H. A chicken/dove/bird in the egg has no bone
A briar when it is growing (onbred) has no rind/thorn
A blanket in the fleece/on the sheep has no thread

J. When the maiden has that which she loves, she is without longing
(When a maiden has her lover, then she loves no more)
J 1. A book in the press no man has read

Description of 'Perry Merry Dictum' Texts
(i) 'I have a )ong suster'
Place: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Date: c. 1440
Source: British Museum MS Sloane 2593
Thomas Wright, Songs & Carols from a MS in
the ·British Museum of the XVth Centur
Wharton Club, London 185 p.33.
Iona & Peter Opie, Oxford Dictionary o£
Nursery Rhtfes pp.386-8 (Facsimile, pl.xvi)
Child I p. 15.
Description: 14 lines
ABC DE F G HI J.

(ii) ('I have a true love')
Place: Scotland
Date: 1838
Source: W. Dauney, Ancient Scotish Melodies, pp.l80-l.
From a friend, who heard it as a child from
an aged relative.
Description: 1 stanza: A5.
Refrain: Par mee dicksa do mee nee. . .
With a rattum, pattum, Para mee dicksa do mee nee.

(iii) 'Four Sisters'
Place: Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Date: c.l843
Source: Document owned by Miss M. C. Meyer; taught
to the children of Forty Hall Infant School,
communicated by her godson, Angus D Van der Bucht.
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Collection, MPS 50 (31) 226-7.
Description: 7 stanzas:
A1 C B F H G D E1 F I1 J1.
Refrain: Perry erri Igdom, do, man soe. . .
Quartom, portom, nearly I lost them,
Perri erri Igdom do, man soe.

(iv) ('Four Sisters')
Place: unknown
Date: 1849
Source: J. o. Halliwell, Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, p. 150.
Child I p.415n.
Description: 7 stanzas:
A1 C B D1 E1 F H G I 1 J1.
Refrain: Para-mara dictum, domine
Partum, quartum, paradise tempum
Para-mara dictum, domine.

(v) ('Four Brothers')
Place: unknown
Date: 1866
Source: Notes & Queries Jrd Series IX (1866) p.401.
Description: 7 stanzas:
A2 B C D1 E F G H I 1 J1.

(vi) 'I had a sister'
Place: unknown
Date: 1866
Source: Notes & Queries Jrd Series IX (1866) p.499.
From J. Warren White, allegedly from 'an aged
cormtrywoman'.
Description: 7 stanzas:
ABC DE F G HI J.

(vii) 'A Paradox'
Place: unknown
Date: 1878
Source: Mason, Nursery Rhymes & Country Songs p.2J
Description: 7 stanzas:
A 2 C E1 D1 F H G J1 I1.
Refrain: Perry, merry dictum, domine
Partum Quartum pare dissentum,
Perry merry dictum domine
Tune: Group A; Bronson 46 (Appendix) 14.

(viii) 'Perry perry wicktum'
Place: unknown
Date: c.1878
Source: Broadwood MS. pp.47-8.
Description: 7 stanzas:
A2 C E1 D1 F H G J1 I1
Refrain: Perry perry wicktum do do me
Partum quartum paradise lostum
Perry perry wicktum do do me

(ix) 'The Riddle'
Place: unknown (s.w. England)
Date: 1895
Source: s. Baring-Gould, A Book of Nursery Songs
and Rhymes pp.78-9 (No. LXIV)
Description: 7 stanzas:
A2 C E1 D1 F H G J1 I1.
Refrain: Perrie-merry-dix, do-mi-ne,
Petsum, Patsum, Paradixi,
Perrie-merry-dixi, domine

(x) 'Pery Mery Winkle Domine'
Place: Stratford-upon-Avon
Date: 1914
Source: Miss Aimers, collected by Cecil Sharp, MS 3022. James Reeves, The Idiom of the People (Heinemann London 1958) pp.73-4.
Description: 7 stanzas:
A1 C B E1 D1 F H G J 1 I 1 .
Refrain: Pery mery winkle domome
Partrum quartum paradise 1ostum,
Pery mery winkle domome
Tune: Group A

(xi) 'Perry Merry Dictum Dominee'
Place: Chicago; heard in Chabanese, Illinois
Date: 1916
Source: Emma Schrader. Heard in c.188o.
JAF XXIX (1916) pp.157-8
Description: 5 stanzas:
A2 B C D1 E1 G H I 1 J1.
Refrain: Perry merry dictum dominee,
Partum quartum pere dicentum,
Perry merry dictum dominee.

(xii) 'I Had a Cherry'
Place: Tebsworth, Oxford
Date: 7 December, 1932
Source: Mr. Geoffrey H. Page, aged 74, in a letter to Douglas Kennedy, recalling the 1860's when he sang in St. John's College choir in Oxford; the song had been sung at a college gaudy and was subsequently picked up by the choirboys.
Vaugnan Williams Memorial Library Collection,
MPS 60 (31) 63.
Description: 2 stanzas:
A4 B C G H.
Refrain: Mere mere victus domine
Tune: Group B

(xiii) 'Gifts from over the sea'
Place: Michigan
Date: 1934
Source: Charles Muchler (learned 1879). E. E. Gardner & G. J. Chickering, Ballads and Son s of Southern Michigan (1939) p.453.
Bronson Appendix 13
Description: 5 stanzas:
A2 B C D1 E1 G H Il J 1.
Refrain: Perry merry dinctum dominee
Partum, quartum, pery dee centum,
Perry merry dinctum dominee.
Tune: Group A

(xiv) 'Piri-miri-dictum Domini'
Place: Ohio(?)
Date: 1934
Source: J. J. Niles, A Ballad Book, pp.7-9· Source
given as Miss Cora Swift, Oberlin, Ohio.
Description: 7 stanzas:
A3 C B E1 D1 F H G Jl I 1 .
Refrain: Piri-miri-dictum, Domini
Pantrum, quartum paradise stantrum,
Piri-miri-dictum Domini.
Tune: Group A

(xv) 'Perry, Merry, Dictum, Domini'
Place: Stowe, Vermont
Date: c.l939
Source: Miss Zelta Norcross, learned from her grandfather (b. 1839). H. H. Flanders, Ancient Ballads Traditionally Sung in New England, II pp.313-5.
Description: 5 stanzas:
A2 C B D1 E1 H G1 J 1.
Refrain: Perry, merry, dictum, domini
Partum, quartum, perry, dicentum,
Perry, merry dictum, domini.
Tune: Group A

(xvi) 'Perri dixi'
Place: East Jaffrey, New Hampshire
Date: 1939
Source: Lena Bourne Fish; Flanders, ABTSNE II pp.312-3.
Description: 6 stanzas:
A2 B C D1 F1 G H I1 J 1.
Refrain: Perri dixi, dum-di-dee
From over the deep blue sea

(xvii) 'Perry Merry Dictum Dominee 1
Place: Medina, Ohio
Date: 1939
Source: Lena Smith. Eddy, Ballads & Songs from Ohio
p.25; Bronson 46 (Appendix 15)
Description: 5 stanzas:
Perry merry dictum dominee
Partum quartum perry dicentum
Perry merry dictum dominee
Tune: Group A

(xviii) 'Perrie merrie dixi Domini'
Place: Taunton, Massachusetts
Date: 1939
Source: 'When the eldest daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler Hubbard. . . was ten years old, she was given the evening duty of singing her small brother to sleep, and no other song that she knew would induce so prompt a drowsiness as the monotonous rhythm of this old ballad'; E. H. Linscott, Folksongs of Old New England, pp. 267-9.
Description: 5 stanzas:
A2 B C D1 E1 G H I1 J 1 .
Refrain: Perry merry dixi Domini
Petrum, partrum, paradisi tempore,
Perry merry dixi Domini.
Tune: Group A
(xix) 'Peri Merri Dictum'
Place: unknown
Date: 1953
Source: 'The Curtis Collection of Songs, Part II';
New York Folklore Quarterly, IX (1953) 273.
Description: 5 stanzas:
A2 B C D1 E1 G H Il J 1 •
Refrain: Perri merri dictum domine
Partum, quartum, peri dicentum,
Perri merri dictum domine.

(xx) 'Perrie merrie dixi domini'
Place: Oklahoma
Date: 1964
Source: Mrs. w. F. Lawson (born Penns.). Ethel & Chauncey o. Moore, Ballads and Folksongs of the Southwest (University of Oklahoma Press, 1964) p. 243.
Description: 5 stanzas:
A2 B C D1 E1 G H I 1 J1.
Refrain: Perrie merrie dixi Domini
Petrum, partrum, Paradise tempore,
Perrie merrie dixi Domini.
Tune: Group A.

'Riddle Song' texts: Key to Description
A I gave/bought my love ... /I"'ll get my love ...
A1 My love gave me .. .
A2 You promised me .. .
A3 Bring me .. ,
A4 I'll give thee ...

B. A cherry without a(any) stone

C. A chicken without a(any) bone

D. A ring that has no rim/a ring that has no end(rent)
A thimble without any rim
A Bible that no man could read
A blanket without a(any) thread
A story that has no end

E. A child wench(baby) without mourning(crying)

F. An apple without any core

G. A dwelling without any door
G1. A palace without a door, that you may unlock without a key
G2. A home wherein she may be, where she may be kept fast, without any key

H. A palace wherein she may be, that she might unlock it without any key
H1 . A fortune Kings cannot give

I. How can there be ... (to each riddle)

J. A cherry in blossom has no stone

K. A chicken in the egg(when it's pipping) has no bone

L. A ring when it's rolling(melting) has no rim(end/rent)
L1 . When the thimble's running it has no rim
L2. When the Bible 1 s in the press, no man can it read
L3 . When the wool's on the sheep's back, there is no thread
L4 . The story of our love(that I love you) it has no end

M. A baby when it's sleeping/a-getting has no crying (mourning)
M1  An oak in the acorn it has no limb
M2. The dove is a bird without a gall

N. My head is the apple. . .
O. My mind is a dwelling .. .
O1. My mind is love's palace

P. My heart is a palace ...
P1. My heart is the house, wherein she may be ...
P2. My heart is the wealth ...

Description of texts

(i) ('My love gave me a cherry')
Place: England
Date: c.l650
Source: Edinburgh University MS Dc.l.69, No. 2
(back of MS). Bronson 46 (Appendix 1).
Description: 1 stanza: A 1 B C D E
Tune: Group A

(ii) 'The Riddle'
Place: London
Date: ? c.l830
Source: Broadside (slip=sheet) printed by J. Jennings, 15, Water-lane, Fleet-street (one of the printers used by John Pitt 1 s
firm). Madden collection, Cambridge University Library.
Description: The riddles are enclosed in a 'medley'
text; see Chapter 6.
No stanza division: 40 lines.
A F G H B C D E I N 0 P J K L M.

(iii) 'Love's Riddle'
Place: England
Date: 1873
Source: John Clare. Printed in J. L. Cherry,
Life and Remains of John Clare (London,
1873) pp.356-357.
Description: 6 stanzas: the riddles are enclosed in 3 stanzas presumably of Clare's composition. The poet addresses 'Jenny', inviting her to solve the riddles in return for a kiss; if she answers wrongly she is to treble the debt to me. She fails, and he claims his dues. Stanzas 2-4 as follows:
A4 F B G1 Hl IN J 01 P 2 .

(iv) ( 'A Paradox')
Place: England
Date: 1878
Source: M. H. Mason, Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs (1908 edn3 p.24. Bronson 46 App. 4
Description: J stanzas:
A1 C B D2 DJ I K J L2 L3.
Refrain: Don't you go a-rushing, maids in May;
Don't you go a-rushing, maids, I pray;
For if you go a-rushing,
I 1m sure to catch you blushing;
So gather up your rushes, and haste away.
Tune: Group E

(v) 'Don 1 t you go a-rushing'

Place: South Brent, and Mary Tavy, Devon
Date: 1888; 1893
Source: J. Helmore and Samuel Fone, noted by H. Fleetwood Shepherd; Baring-Gould MSS CXVI(i); text (A). Bronson 46 App. 10
Description: 4 stanzas. Opening stanza as follows:
Don't you go a rushing, Maids in May,
Don't you go a rushing, Maids I say.
Don't you go a rushing
Or you'll get a brushing,
Gather up your rushes, and go away.
A4 C B D E1 I K J L M1 .
Tune: Group E

(vi) ('Don't you go a-Rushing')
Place: Whitchurch, Hampshire
Date: 1890
Source: William Nichols, noted by H. Fleetwood
Shepherd. Baring-Gould MSS CXVI(2) text (B).
Bronson 46 App. 11
Description: 2 stanzas given; 'rest as in the previous copy, (A)'
A G2 P1 C B...
Tune: c

(vii)'Go no more a Rushing'
Place: England
Date: 1891
Source: William Alexander Barrett, English Folksongs
p.62. Bronson 46 App. 16
Description: 2 double stanzas. Begins:
Go no more a rushing, maids, in May;
Go no more a rushing, maids, I pray;
Go no more a rushing, or you'll fall a blushing,
Bundle up your rushes and baste away.
A2 BCD E2 I J K L M2.
Tune: Group A

(viii)'I will give my love an apple'
Place: Sherborne, Dorset
Date: 1906
Source: Mr. J Burrows, collected by H. E. D. Hammond.
Folksong Journal Vol III No.ll (1907) p.ll4.
Also sung by Clive Carey, English Colombia
Rec.WA 10686 (DB 335).
Bronson 46 App.3 . Hammond MS D575 p,353,
Description: 4 s:ft~nza~,· plus two additional stanzas
in MS only; see Chapter 6
A F G H N 0 P A B C D E J K L M.
Tune: B

(ix) ('Don't you go a-Rushing')
Place: Eley, Over Stowey, near Bridgwater, Somerset
Date: 1907
Source: Mrs. Ware. ShatpHSs 1224/1197.
Bronson 46 App.l2
Description: 3 stanzas: 1-2 as follows:
Don't you go rushing maids, I say,
Don't you go rushing maids in May,
For if you go a rushing they're sure to get you blushing,
They'll steal all you rushes away.
I went a rushing 'twas in May,
I went a rushing maids you say,
I went a rushing, they caught me a blushing
And stole my rushes away.
K J M.
Tune: Group E

(x) ('The Riddle Song')
Place: Hyden, Kentucky
Date: October 9 1917
Source: Mrs. Eliza Pace. Sharp MSS 4139/2987.
Sharp & Karpeles, English Folksongs from the
Southern Appalachians, p.190. Bronson 46
App.6.
Description: 3 stanzas
A B C D1 E I J K L1 M.
Tune: Group DD

(xi) ('The Riddle Song')
Place: St. Helen's, Lee County, Kentucky
Date: October 12 1917
Source: Mrs. Margaret Dunagan. Sharp MSS 4155/2997.
Sharp & Karpeles, op.cit. p.191.
Bronson 46 App.5
Description: 3 stanzas
ABC D1 E I J K L1 M.
Tune: Group DD

(xii)('The Riddle Song')
Place: Pineville, Kentucky
Date: May 2 1917
Source: Mrs. Wilson. Sharp MSS 3621/2688. Sharp & Karpeles, op.cit. p,l90
Bronson 46 App.7
Description: 3 stanzas
A B C D I J K L M.
Tune: Group D

(xiii)'The Riddle Song'
Place: Clay County, Virginia
Date: c.l924
Source: Mary Bell Workman. Patrick Gainer, Folk
Songs from the West Virginia Hills, p.29.
Description: 3 stanzas
ABC D4 E I J K L4 M.
Tune: Group D

{xiv) 'Riddle Song'
Place: N. Carolina
Date: 1927
Source: Sung 'by a young girl who worked in a mica mill and had lived on the ... ridge above the Toe River valley all her life'.
Collected by Mrs. Sutton. Brown MSS l6a 4J. Brown, North Carolina Folklore II p.49.
Bronson 46 App.9
Description: 3 stanzas
A B C D E I J K L M.
Tune: Group DD

{xv) 'Riddle Song'
Place: Lake Lynn, Pennsylvania
Date: ? c.l930
Source: Edna Barker, learned from Mrs. S. Jacobs, Point Marion, Pa. Carpenter MSS Reel 5.
Description: 2 stanzas: A B C

(xvi) 'The Riddle Song'
Place: Kentucky
Date: 1933
Source: Miss Wilma Creech, Pine Mountain. J. J. Niles,
Ballad Book, pp.5-7.
Description: 3 stanzas
A B C D E I J K L M.
Tune: Group D

(xvii) 1 I gave my love a cherry'
Place: Knott Co., Kentucky
Date: 1936
Source: Elmer Griffith Sulzer, Twenty-Five Kentucky Folk Ballads, I p.5. Bronson 46 App.8.
Description: 3 stanzas
A B C I J K L.
Tune: Group D

( xviii) 'Bring me a cherry 1
Place: Buchanan Co., Virginia
Date: 1937
Source: Sung by a 'youth'. Dorothy Scarborough, A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains pp.230-231.
Description: 3 stanzas
A3 B C D E I J K L M.
Note: 'The old ballads generally end with a spoken line, "And now she is Mrs. Wedderburn".

(x±x) 'The Riddle Song'
Place: Virginia
Date: June 29 1940
Source: Betty Adams, from Kentucky, collected by James Taylor. University of Virginia Library, 1547/18/168. Betty Adams learned it at school in Knott Co.; she said there was some other title which she had forgotten.
Description: 3 stanzas
A B C D E I J K L M.

(xx) 'I gave my love a cherry'
Place: Fulton Co., Kentucky
Date: May 1948
Source: Mrs. Eunice Maddox. Montell Folksong
Collection, Western Kentucky University.
Description: 3 stanzas
A B C D E I J K L M.

(xxi) 'I gave my love a cherry'
Place: Kentucky
Date: 1950
Source: Boswell Folksong Collection, Western Kentucky
University.
Description: 3 stanzas
ABC D4 E I J K L4 M.
Tune: Group D

(xxii) 'I'll give my love an apple'
Place: Chezzetcook, Nova Scotia
Date: 1950
Source: Dennis Smith, collected by Helen Creighton. Fowke & Johnston, Folksongs of Canada, pp.136-137. Bronson 46 App.2a,b.
Description: 6 stanzas
A F G H I N 0 P A B C D E I J K L M.
Tune: Group A

(xxiii) 'I gave my love'
Place: Campbellsville College, Kentucky
Date: 1964
Source: Betty Lou Clark (aged 19), collected by
Jerry Powell. Mantell Folksong Collection,
Western Kentucky University.
Description: 3 stanzas
A B C D E I J K L M.

(xxiv) 'I gave my love'
Place: Carrol Co., Kentucky
Date: 1966
Source: Melanie Gwen Eversole (aged 9), collected by
Jane Chandler. Mantell Folksong Collection.
Description: 3 stanzas
A B C D E I J K L M.

(xxv) 'The Riddle Song'
Place: Berea College, Kentucky
Date: 1967
Source: From students, collected by Gladys V. Jameson.
Jameson, Sweet Rivers of Song, pp.46-47.
Description: 3 stanzas
A B C D E I J K L M.

Tune: Group D
(xxvi) 'Riddle Song'
Place: Campbellsville College, Kentucky
Date: 1968
Source: Bonnie Dunaway, collected by Brenda Watson,
Mantell Folksong Collection, West Kentucky
University.
Description: 3 stanzas
A B C D E I J K L M.

'Captain Wedderburn' Texts: Key to Description.

A. The Laird of Bristoll1 s daughter (or: The Duke of Merchant's daughter; The Laird of Rosslyn's daughter; A Nobleman's fair daughter; A Gentleman's fair daughter; A farmer's daughter; A Duke's fair daughter of Scotland; One of fair Scotland's daughters; A gentle young lady; A fair lady; A girl) walked out (or: rode/roved out) in the lane (or: in the woods; alone).
A1. As I walked (roved) out one evening (morning) by John Sander's lane (or: a shady/narrow/strawberry lane), or:
As I walked down the Mall last night. . .
A2. It's of a merchant's (rich man's) daugh·ter who lived in Maiden Lane (or: down yonder lane). . .
A3. Captain Washburn is a shrewd and daring sailor, who decides at last to take a wife. He goes courting a worthy lady who is hard to win.

B. She met with Captain Wedderburn (Walker), a servant to the King (Queen).
B1.  She met with Mr. Woodburn (cameron, Gilmour, Walker, Osbourne; Captain Dixon; William Dixon; William Dempsey;
William Peterson; Johnnie Hoodsparra), the keeper of the game.
B2. I met with Bold Robbington (captain Woodstock; Mr. Cameron; a pretty maid), the keeper of the game (a gentleman).
She met with a deep (bold) sea captain. A noble lord followed her and abducted her to his castle. Two gentiemen from Ireland come that way.

C. He said to his serving men (man) if it was not for the law, he would have her in his own bed. . .
C1. One says to the other if it was not for the law he would have her in his own bed. . .
C2 . It's true I loved that handsome maid and if it were not for the law I would have her in my own bed. . .
C3. He said to his serving maid if it were not for the law both you and I in one bed would lie. . .
D. She says she is in her father's land and asks to be left alone.
D1. She says he is a 'clever chiel' and she will set him questions.

E. The supper (butler's) bell will soon be rung and she'll be missed away.

F. He describes the bed she will have, with satin and holland.

G. He introduces himself and says she will have fifty men at her command, with drums and trumpets to sound.

H. He takes her to Edinburgh. His landlady says she has never seen such a fair lady. He orders a down bed.

I. She asks for three dishes for her supper (breakfast/dinner) before she will lie with him: he answers the
riddles:
(a) a cherry without a stone (- in blossom; or, 'The Kerry land is flat and 'low, it really has no stone')
(b) a chicken/bird/capon without a bone (- in the egg)
(b1) a fish without a bone ( - in the egg)
(c) a bird without a gall ( - the dove)

J. She asks six/seven questions, which he answers:
(a) What is rounder than a ring? ( - globe/world/earth)
(b) What is greener than grass? ( - virgus/holly/holland/evergreen/death/the grave)
(c) What is higher than a tree/the sky? ( - Heaven/Sun/hill)
(c1) What is higher than a wall? ( Sun )
(c2) What is higher than a King? ( God )
(d) What is meaner (worse) than a woman's (an ill woman's) wiss (wrath/vice/tongue/voice); or, than womankind? (or; What do pass the female heart?)
  (- Devil/Old Nick)
(e) What is deeper than the sea? ( -Hell)
(f) What bird sings best? (thrush/hackey bird/lark/nightingale)
(g) What bird sings first? ( - cock/lark/roe/nightingale)
(h)What bird sings next? (sea bird)
( h1)What bird sings last? ('thirst')
( i)What bird flies far the broad sea across? ( - gull)
( j) What bird serrlsforth its busy call? ( - lark)
(k) What tree/flower buds/grew first? ( - cedar/heath/oak/yew/palmtree)
(k1 ) What heather blooms first?
(l) Where does the dew (jew) first fall (or; what falls on them first)? (- on Sugar Loaf/in the air/on them/on it/the dew)
(l1 ) Whence do the dew-drops fall ( - from Heaven)
(m) What's a young man's sense in a fair maid's heart,
     I you on duty call? ( -The Devil's sense. . . )

K. She asks four questions (or, for four presents/ferlies): he answers:
(a) fruit that grows in winter ( --My father has. . . /In my father's hot-bed/I'll pick you some haws)
(a1) Farren fruit that in Car'lina grew (My father has. . . )
(b) a silk mantle/cloak/dollman that never weft went through ( -My mother/father has. . .)
(b1 ) a silk webbed cloak that never a shadow went through
(b2 ) a new slip bound with never thread worn through it ( -My mother has. . .)
(c) a sparrow's horn/thorn ( - there's one on every claw)
(d) a priest unborn to join us twa ( - one is by the door who was cut from his mother's side/a wild boar pierced his mother's side)
(d1 ) a priest unborn/unshorn ( -Melchisedec/Saint Patrick/Virginian/Damocles/Benedict/Belshazzar/in Belgium there is. . . )
(d2 ) A priest unborn ( - . . . I cannot call)

L. Little kent Grizey Sinclair/she that morning that would be the last of her maiden days; now she is Captain
Wedderburn's wife.
L1.  The couple got married; because she was so clever/generous-hearted, she enthralled his heart.
L2. The couple got married; because he was a clever fellow, he enthralled/betrayed her heart.
L3. 'You fly from me, Devil', she said, 'right through that old stone wall'.
L4. He took her by the lily-white hand and led her through the hall, and led her to his bed of down.
L5.  She found her Willie so manfully did Mary's heart enthrall, He/I took this young girl by the waist but she didn't lie next to the wall.
L6. So I'll leave this stuccoed wall.

Description of 'Captain Wedderburn' Texts

(i) 'Captain Wedderburn'/'The Laird of Bristoll's Daughter'
Place: Scotland
Date: c.l776-1825
Sources: - David Herd MS (British Mus. Add.22311-12) I, 161; II, 100. Child 46A. ('The Laird of Bristoll's Daughter.) -Chapbook, with 'The Wandering Boy', c.l825, 4 pages. Stirling, printed by W. Macnie. Woodcut of a hunt. Bound in 'Curious Tracts' by James Mitchell, Aberdeen, 1828 (British Mus. l078m 24 7k) ('The Laird of Roslin's Daughter')
- Alexander Whitelaw, Book of Scottish Song, Blackie, London 1843, pp.70-1. With note; 'This diverting ditty was at one time very popular among the country people of Scotland. It can be traced no further back than to the New British Songster published in Falkirk in 1785.' (Roslin) Child 46A
Description: Except for the discrepancy 'Bristoll', the texts are virtually identical.
18 stanzas
ABC DE F G H I(a,b,c) J(b,c,d,e,g,l) K(a,b,c,d) L.

(ii) 'Captain Wedderburn'/'Lord Roslyn's Daughter'
Place: North Scotland; Newcastle
Date: c.1775-1857
Sources: - 'Lord Roslin's Daughter's Garland' (late 18th c.) Harris MS fol.l9b, No.l4 (Mrs. Harris) (Late 18th c.)
- 'The Old Lady's Collection' (Scott MSS) No. 3 8 ( C. 180 5)
- Thomas Wright, Songs & Carols (Wharton Club, 1856) 'from a Newcastle chapbook about the beginning of the 19th century'
- Jamieson, Popular Ballads (Edinb. 1806) II, 159 Chapbook, with 'Johnie Coup', n.d., Glasgow, woodcut of soldier, 8pp. Mitchell Library, Glasgow Ser.v 556267 893152. Buchan MSS II, 34 (c.1828)
-Kinloch MSS II, J4 (cl8JO) -Mary Barr.
-Notes & Queries 2nd Series IV, 170 'as sung among the peasantry of the Mearns' (1857) See Child 46B. Bronson 46.-8
Description: Texts are virtually identical (see Child)
18 stanzas
ABC DE (G) H I(a,b,c) K(a,b,c) J(b,c,d,e, g,k,l) L.
N.B. In the Glasgow chapbook, K and J are mixed: K(a,b) J(g,k,l) J(b,c,d,e) K(c,d).

(iii) 'The Lover's Riddle'
Place: Cork
Date: ?c.l825
Source: -Broadside, n.d., Haly, South Main-Street, Cork. Woodcut of seated man and woman.
-Another copy, n.d., unnamed, woodcut of interior with man, woman and child. Both in National Library of Ireland
Description: 10 st.
l A B C I(b,a,c) J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) K(a,b,c,d)

(iv) 'The Laird of Roslin's Daughter'
Place: Berwick on Tweed
Date: 1847
Source: Remembered by a lady of Berwick, learned from a nurse in childhood. Sheldon, Minstrelsy of the English Border, 1847, p.232. child C.
Description: 12 sts.
A B C G Kc(corrupt) I(b,a,c) J(c,d,e) Kd L.

(v) 'The Lord of Rosslyn's Daughter'
Place: Montrose
Date: 1866
Source: Notes & Queries, Jrd Ser. X (1866) 48-9.
Contributor aged 80. 'Published towards the
end of the last century'
Description: 8 sts., fragmented, prose interpolations
A B D E H I(a,b,c) J(b,c,d,e,g,l) K(a,b,c,d) L.

(vi) ('Captain Wedderburn's Courtship')
Place: Affath (error for Achath, Aberdeen?)
Date: 1905
Source: Mrs. Pyper, Greig HSS I 94. Bronson 46.1.
Description: 1 stanza: I(b,a)
Tune: Group A

(vii) 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship'
Place: N.E.Scotland
Date: 1906
Source: J. W. Spence; Greig MSS I 165; Bk.726, XVI 85 Greig & Keith, Last Leaves, 1925, p.136(b);
Bronson 46.7
Description: 16 sts.
ABC DE G H I(a,b,c) J(b,c,d,e,g,l) K(a,b,c,d) L.
Tune: Group A

(viii) ('Captain Wedderburn's Courtship')
Place: New Pitsligo, Aberdeen
Date: Sept. 1907
Source: J. Mowat. Greig MSS II 149; Bk.729, XIX 32.
Greig & Keith, Last Leaves, p.J6(2).
Bronson 46.10
Description: 17 sts.
ABC DE G H I(a,b,c) J(b,c,d,e,g,l) K(a,b,c,d) L.
Tune: Group D
N.B. The same text, and the same tune with very slight variation, appear in Carpenter's collection, Reel 4 Box 2, from Johnie Mowat of Craigmaud, Dumfriesshire, learned from his father. (c.l930?) This may be the original J. Mowat, or his son.

(ix) 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship'
Place: Udny, Aberdeen
Date: c.l9l0
Source: R. Alexander; Duncan MS 285: 1 dates back 100
years'. Greig & Keith, Last Leaves, p.J6(la);
Bronson 46.5; Carpenter MSS Reel 4 Box 2.
Description: 1 st. A B4
Tune: Group A

(x) 'The Laird o' Roslin's Daughter'
Place: Strichen, Aberdeenshire
Date: c.1910
Source: Elizabeth Robb. Greig MSS, IV p.88.
Carpenter MSS, Reel 4 Box 2 Packet II.
Bronson 46.3
Description: 15 sts.
ABC DE HI J(b,c,d, e) K(a,b,c,d) L.
Tune: Group D

(xi) 'Six Questions'
Place: Westville, Pictou Co., Nova Scotia
Date: 1910
Source: John Adamson. JAF XXIII (1910) p.377. W. Roy Mackenzie, The Quest of the Ballad, pp.108-110. Bronson 4 .13.
Description: 9 stanzas
A B3 J(a,c,d,e,g,h1 ,1) K(a,b,c,d) I(b,a,c) L4
Tune: Group F

(xii) ('Captain Wedderburn's Courtship')
Place: Boston, Massachusetts
Date: 1911
Source: E. A. s. native of Co. Down. Barry, JAF XXIV
(1911) 335-336. Barry, Eckstorm & Smyth,
British Ballads from Maine, p.97.
Bronson 46.9.
Description: 9 stanzas (fragmented)
1 1 A B J(a,c,d,e)(f,k,l) I(b,a,c) K(a,b,d ).
Tune: Group F

(xiii)('The Duke of Rutland's Daughter')
Place: Boston, Massachusetts
Date: 1911
Source: Hudson MS, No. 701, from E. Clements. Barry, JAF ·XXIV (1911) p.337. Bronson 46.11.
Description: 2 lines: A
Tune: Unclassified

(xiv) ('Captain Wedderburn's Courtship')
Place: Union Mills, Brunswick, Canada
Date: 1928
Source: T. Edward Nelson. Barry, Eckstorm & Smyth,
British Ballads from Maine, pp.95-6(B).
Bronson 46.~2.
Description: 2 stanzas (fragmented)
J(a,c,d,e,k,l)
Tune: Group BB

(xv) 'Bold Robbington'
Place: West Gouldsboro, Maine
Date: June 28th 1929
Source: Mrs. Annie V. Marston; learned in 1867.
Barry, Eckstorm & Smyth, British Ballads from
Maine, p.481; pp.93-5. Bronson 46.17.
Description: 10 stanzas
Al B2 c 2 J(a,c,d,e,i,l) K(a,b,d1 ) I(a,b,c) L5 .
Tune: Group BB

(xvi) 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship'
Place: North River, Conception Bay, Newfoundland
Date: 1929
Source: Mrs. Mary McCabe.
from Newfoundland!
Description: 4 stanzas
Maud Karpeles, Folksongs PP. 39-40 (A) .
J(b,c,d,e,f,l) I(b 1 , a,c).
Tune: Group C

(xvii) 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship'
Place: Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland
Date: 4th August 1930
Source: Mrs. K. M. Coombes. Karpeles, op.cit., pp.40-1 (B) .
Description: 5 stanzas
A B 3 C I(b 1 , a,c) K(a,b 2 ,c,d 2 ) L 6 .
Tune: Group C

(xviii) 'The Laird o' Roslin's Daughter'
Place: Lambhill, Insch, Aberdeenshire
Date: c.1930
Source: Bell Duncan. Carpenter MSS Reel 4, Box 2 Packet II
Description: 14 stanzas
ABC DE J(b,c,d,e,g,l) I(a,b,c) K(a,b,c,d) L.

(xix) 'The Laird o Roslin's Daughter'
Place: Tories, Oyne, Aberdeenshire
Date: c.1930
Source: Mrs. William Duncan. Carpenter MSS Reel 4,
Box 2 Packet II; Reel 7 Box 5.
Description: 11 stanzas
ABC DE J(b,c,d,e,g,l) I(a,b,c) K(a,b,c,d)L.
Tune: Group A

(xx) 'The Laird 6' Roslin's Daughter'
Place: Gourdon, Aberdeenshire
Date: c.1930
Source: Jim Smith. Carpenter MSS, Re61.4 Box 2,
Packet II; Reel 10, learned 32 years ago.
Description: 10 stanzas
ABC DE J(b,c,d,e,g,l) I(a,b,c).
Tune: ?

(xxi) 'The Laird o 1 Rossley1 s Daughter'
Place: Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire
Date: c.1930
Source: Peter Christie. Carpenter MSS, Reel 4, Box 2
Packet II; Reel 7 Box S.
Description: 13 stanzas
ABC DE H K(a,b,c,d) I(a,b,c) J(b,c,d,e,g,l)
Tune: Group E

( xxii) 'Captain Wederbourne'
Place: Kirkside, N. E. Scotland
Date: c.1931
Source: Mrs. Pirie. Carpenter MSS Reel 4 BGx 2 Packet II.
Description: 18 stanzas
ABC DE G E H I(a,b,c) J(h,c,d,e,g,l) K(a,b,c,d) L.

(xxiii) 'The Laird o 1 Roslin's Daughter'
Place: Glenbogie, Oyne, Aberdeenshire
Date:. c .1930
Source: John Riddoch; Carpenter MSS Reel 4 Box 2 Packet II.
Description: 10 stanzas
ABC DE J(b,c,d,e,g,l) I(a,b,c) K(a,b,c,d).
Tune: Group A

(xxiv) 'The Laird o' Roslin's Daughter'
Place: Cuminestown, Aberdeenshire
Date: c.l930
Source: Jean Esselmont, learned from milkmaids when a girl 58 years ago. Carpenter MSS Reel 4, Box 2 Packet II.
Description: ll stanzas
ABC DE J(b,c,d,e,g,l) I(a,b,c) K(a,b,c,d) L.

(xxv) 'Captain Wederbourn'
Place: Denhead, Dunlugas, Fife
Date: c.l930
Source: Alexander Clark, from Maggie Lamond, of Eden,
1878. Carpenter MSS Reel 4 Box 2 Packet II; Reel 7, Box 5.
Description: 10 stanzas
ABC D l J(b,c,d,e,g,l) I(a,b,c) K(a,b,c,d) L.
Tune: Group A

(xxvi) 'The Laird o' Roslyn's Daughter'
Place: Willow Bank, Insch, Aberdeenshire
Date: c.1930
Source: Leslie Durno. Carpenter MSS Reel 4 Box 2 Packet II. Learned from a farm labourer, 1878, never seen in print.
Description: 12 stanzas
ABC DE J(b,c,d,e,g,l) I(a,b,c) K(a,b,c,d) L. ('Little Kristy St. Clair').
Tune: Group E

(xxvii) 'The Laird o' Roslin's Daughter'
Place: Denhead, Dunlugas, Aberdeenshire
Date: c.1930
Source: Willie Mathieson, laarned as a boy from his father. Carpenter MSS Reel 4 Box 2 Packet II
Description: 12 stanzas
ABC DE J(b,c,d,e,g,l) I(a,b,c) K(a,b,c,d).
Tune: Group A

(xxviii) 'Laird of Roslyn's Daughter'
Place; Baldruddery, Latheron, Caithness
Date: C .1930
Source: John Sutherland. Carpenter MSS Reel 4 Box 2 Packet II. Reel 7, Box 5.
Description: 9 stanzas
ABC DE J(b,c,d,e,g,l) I(a,b,c) K(a,b,c,d).
Tune: Group E

(xxix) 'The Laird o' Roslyn's Daughter'
Place: Cuminestown, Aberdeenshire
Date: c.1930
Source: David Edwards, learned in Cornhill 60 years ago. Carpenter MSS Reel 4 Box 2 Packet II; Reel 7 Box 5.
Description: 19 stanzas
ABC D J(b,c,d,e,g,l) I(a,b,c) K(a,b,c,d) L.
Tune: Group E
* The same text was collected in 1965 by H. Henderson & F. Collinson; Scottish Studies IX Pt.l (1965) pp.l4-l7.

(xxx)('Oaptain Wedderburn's Courtship')
Place: ? N.E. Scotland
Date: ? c.1930
Source: Jason Mason. Carperter J~S Reel 7, Box 5.
Descrip~on: 2 stanzas: I(a,b,c).
Tune: Group E

(xxxi) ('Captain Wedderburn's Courtship')
Place: ? N.E. Scotland
Date: ? c.l930
Source: Ellen Rettie. Carpenter MSS Reel 7, Box 5.
Description: 1 stanza: A
Tune: Group A

(xxxii)( 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship')
Place: ? N.E. Scotland
Date: ? c.l930
Source: Mrs. Andrew Thompson. Carpenter MSS Reel 7, Box 5
Description: 2 stanzas: A I(a,b,c).
Tum Group E

(xxxiii) 'The Laird o' Roslin's Daughter'
Place: North Scotland
Date: 1930
Source: John Ord, Bothy Songs and Ballads,pp.416-120.
Bronson 46.6.
Description: 18 stanzas
ABC DE G H I(a,b,c) J(b,c,d,e,g,l) K(a,b,c,d) L.
Tune: Group A

(xxxiv) 'Captain Woodstock'
Place: South-East Passage, Nova Scotia
Date: 1933
Source: Richard Hartlan. Creighton, Songs & Ballads
from Nova Scotia, pp.6-7. Bronson 46.22.
Description: 7 stanzas
1 1 1 A B C J(a,c,d,e,k,f) I(b,a,c) K(b,d ).
Tune: Group C

(xxxv) 'Mr Woodburn's Courtship'
Place: Greenville, Michigan
Date: 1934
Source: Mrs. Eliza Youngs, learned from her mother. Gardner & Chickering, op.cit. pp.139-140. Bronson 46.24.
Description:10 stanzas
A B1 Ll.l C I(b,a,c) J(a,c,d,e,f,l) K(a,b,c,d )
Tune: Group C

(xxxvi) 1Mr Woodburn's Courtship'
Place: Kalkaska, Michigan
Date: 1934
Source: Charles Muchler; learned in a Pennsylvanian lumber camp. Gardner & Chickering, op.cit., pp.14l-l42, Bronson 46.15.
Description: 4 stanzas
A1 B2 C J(a,c,d,e,g,f,l).
Tune: Group BB

(xxxvii) Fragment
Place: Vermont
Date: August 3rd 1934
Source: Mrs. Ellen M. Sullivan. H. H. Flanders, Ancient Ballads Traditionally Sung in New England I pp.45-50. Flanders places the
fragment as Child l on grounds of metre.
Description: 2 stanzas
2 J(a,c e).

(xxxviii) 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship'
Place: Chezzetcook, Nova Scotia
Date: July 11th 1937
Source: Dennis Smith. Creighton & Senior, Traditional
Songs from Nova Scotia, pp.22-23; JEFDSS VI
(Dec.1951) p.85. Bronson 46.
Description: 8 stanzas
Tune: Group B

(xxxix) ('Captain Wedderburn's Courtship')
Place: Petpeswick, Nova Scotia

Date: July 23rd 1937
Source: Tom Young. Creighton & Senior, o£.cit.,
pp.23-34; JEFDSS VI(Dec.l951) p.8 .
Bronson 46,20.
Description: 7 stanzas
A B5 c1 J(a,c,d,e,k,f,l) I(a,b,c) J(a,b,c,d).
Tune: Group B

(xl) 'Many Questions'
Place: Central Valley, California
Date: December 25th 1938
Source: Warde H. Ford. Robertson, LC/AAFS No.4196 Bl.
Bronson 46.26
Description: 6 stanzas
I(a,b,c) J(a,e,d,c,j,l1 ).
Tune: Unclassified

(xli) 'A Strange Proposal'
Place: New Ham~shire
Date: November 1939
Source: Mrs. Margaret A. Martin, from her grandfather,
of Cork. Flanders & Olney, Ballads Migrant
in New England, pp.43-46.
Description: 10 stanzas
A B 1 C I(a,b,c) J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) K(a,b,c,d) L2.

(xlii) ('Captain Wedderburn's Courtship')
Place: New Hampshire
Date: September 1939
Source: Mrs. William Edwin Martin (mother of the
above?) as known to her father. She came
from Cork, but has lived long in Vermont.
F.landers, Ancient Ballads, I p.310 (E).
Description: 1 stanza: K(b,c,d1 ).

(xliii) 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship'
Place: Springfield, Vermont
Date: c.l939
Source: Mrs. Elwin Burditt, as sung by 1Red MacDonald'
in Michigan. Flanders, Ancient Ballads, I
pp.307-J08 (c)
Description: 2 stanzas: I(a,b,c)
Tune: Unclassified

(xliv) 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship'
Place: Springfield, Vermont
Date: c.l939
Source: Mrs. Ellen M. Sullivan. (see also xxxvii).
Flanders, Ancient Ballads, I pp.308-310 (D).
Description: 2 stanzas: I(b,a,c)
Tune: Group C

(xlv) 'I'll lie near the wall'
Place: Cathair, Limerick
Date: 1939
Source: Molly King (aged 33). Irish Folkore Commission
(University College, Dublin) Vol.629 pp.548-9.
Description: 6 stanzas
l A B C J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) I(a,b,c)

(xlvi) 'Captain Washburn's Courtship'
Place: East Jaffrey, New Hampshire
Date: 1940
Source: Mrs. Lena Bourne Fish. Flanders, Ancient
Ballads I pp.J04-307 (B).
Description: 6 stanzas
B3 I(b,a,c).
Tune: Group B

(xlvii) ('For my breakfast you must get me')
Place: Ballytruckle, Waterford, Ireland
Date: 1940
Source: Mary Josephine Cleary (aged 74)collected by her son, Se,;' an 0/ Cl,e irigh. IFC Vol.o-9 6 . (sung as a duet).
Description: 4 stanzas: I(a,b,c) J(c,a,d,e,f,l).

(xlviii)'You lie next the wall'
Place: Kilgarvan, Kerry
Date: 1940
Source: Singer unknown, collected by John O'Donoghue.
IFC Vo. 828 pp.512-514.
Description: 6 stanzas
J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) I(a,b,c) K(a,b) (unfinished).

(xlix) 1The Merchant's Daughter'
Place: Waterford
Date: c.1940
Source: Singer unknown.·IFC Vol.275, pp.739-742.
Description: 7 stanzas
AB-C I(b,a,c) J(c,e,a,d,k,f,l)

(l) ('Captain Wedderburn 1 s Courtship')
Place: Colebrook, New Hampshire
Date: 1942
Source: Mrs. Belle Richards. Flanders, Ancient
Ballads I pp.310-312 (F).
Description: 2 stanzas: J(a,c,d,e,g,f,l)
Tune: Group C

(li) 0ne evening fair'
Place: Choc Maoilin Baile Chruuich, Mayo
Date: 1942
Source: D~nall a Gr~ntaigh (aged 89) collected by Thomas de Burca. IFC Vol.804 pp.206-209.
Description: 10 stanzas
Al B2 C J(a,c,d,e,g,f,l) I(a,b,c) K(a,b,c,d1 ).

(lii) 'The Stock or Wall'
Place: Corrstruce, Ballinagh, Cavan
Date: 1942
Source: Pete Galligan, collected by Seamus MacAonghusa IFC Vol.l282 pp.404-4o6.
Description: 11 stanzas
A B1 C I(b,a,c) J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) K(a,b,c,d1 ) Ll.

(liii) 'As I roved out one morning'
Place: Comhartha Beag, Cairbhe, Kerry
Date: 1942
Source: M~ire u{ Chonaill (aged 80) collected by
Tadhg 6 Murch~. IFC Vol.82J pp.44o-444.
Description: 9 stanzas
l 1 l A B C I(b,a,c) J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) K(a,b,c,d ) L.

(liv) 'Either Stock or Wall'
Place: Cloch~n Liath, Dunglow, Donegal
Date: 1943
Source: M~ire McCafferty (aged 54) collected by
Seamus MacAonghusa. IFC Vol.l282 pp.95-96.
Description: 10 stanzas
1 2 1 1
A B C I(b,a,c) Kia,b,d ) J(a,e,d,c,k,l) L .

(lv) 'A gentle young lady'
Place: South Connellsville, Pennsylvania
Date: 1946
Source: Albert E. Richter, recorded by Samuel Bayard.
George Korson, Pennstlvanian Songs & Legends
pp.35-J6. Bronson 4 .25.
Description: 11 stanzas
A B1 Ll. 1 1 C I(a,b,c) J(a,e,d,c,g,f,l) K(a ,b,c,d )
Tune: Group E

(lvi) 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship'
Place: Sambro, Maritime Canada
Date: 1949
Source: Mr. William Gilkie. Creighton, Maritime
Folksongs, p.6
Description: 2 stanzas and a fragment
A BS C E ; K(c,d).
Tune: Group B

(lvii) ('Captain Wedderburn's Courtship')
Place: Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia
Date: 1950
Source: Ralph Huskins; Creighton & Senior, Traditional
Songs from Nova Scotia, pp.24=25.
Description: 3 stanzas: I(b,a,c).
Tune: Group BB

(lviii) 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship'
Place: Mohill, Co. Leitrim
Date: December 1954
Source: Thomas Moran, recorded by Seamus Ennis. JFDSS VII (1955) No.4 p.24J. Seamus Ennis, Topic, Folksongs of Britain Vol.4, 'The Child Ballads I'; sings this text with a different tune (see tune for Willie Clancy, lxvi).
Description: 9 stanzas
A B1 C I(a,b,c) J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) K(a,b,c,d1 ).
Tune: Group C

(lix) 'Stock or Wall'
Place: Belfast
Date: ?
Source: Collected by Hugh Shields; in Inishowen, Co. Donegal. Museum, tape 68/19. singer learned song Ulster Folk
Description: 6 stanzas
1 A B C J(a,c,d,e,k,f,l) K(a,b,c,d)
last line is spoken: 'So he rolls her to the wall'
Tune: Unclassified

(lx) 'Stock or Wall'
Place: Annalong, Co. Down
Date: ?
Source: Mrs. Rose McCartin, collected by Hugh Shields; learned from a man of Hilltown, who wrote it down for her. UFM tape 70/4.
Description: 10 stanzas
A B1 C I(b,a,c) J(a,c,d,e,f,h,l) K(b,a,c,d).
Tune: Unclassified

(lxi) 'As I roved out'
Place: Annalong, Co. Down
Date: 1955
Source: Mrs. Cunningham, collected by Hugh Shields. Learned from (lx) above; MS in possession of Hugh Shields. Fragment of same, UFM Tape 70/2.
Description: 8 stanzas
A B1 C J(a,c,d,e,g,k1 ,1) K(b,a,c,d) L 2 .

(lxii)'Captain Walker's Courtship'
Place: Unknown (American)
Date: 1958
Source: Norman Cazden, ed., The Abelard Song Book, p.20.
Description: 8 stanzas
A2 B1 C J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) I 1 b,a,c) L1 •
Tune: Group E

(lxiii)'The Devil and the Blessed Virgin Mary'
Place: Pinware, Labrador
Date: August 1960
Source: Martin Hocko. Leach, Folk Ballads & Songs of the Lower Labrador Coast, pp.26-27.
Description: 11 stanzas
A BJ CD J(e,c1 K(a,b,c,d) LJ.M) J(e,c ,f,l) I(b ,a,c)
Tune: Group C

(lxiv) 'You'll lie next the wall'
Place: Cluain an Bhric, Aghinagh, Muscra1 Tho1r, Cork
Date: 1960
Source: Paddy Moynihan (aged 60), collected by Sean 0 Cr6inin. IFC Vol.l592, pp.l9-22.
Description: 11 stanzas
A1 B1 C J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) I(b,a,c) K(a,b,c,d1 ) L. Lj.LJ.L3.

(lxv) 'You and I in the one bed lie'
Place: Pomeroy, Co. Tyrone
Date: 1956-62
Source: Frank Donnelly, collected by Sean 0' Boyle and Diane Hamilton. Innisfree/Green Linnet, 1977, SIF 1005, 'Singing Men of Ulster'.
Description: 8 stanzas
A B 1 C I(b,a,c) K(a,b,c,d1 ) J(a,c,f,l).
Tune: Group C

(lxvi) 'The Song of the Riddles'
Place: Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare
Date: 1967
Source: Willie Clancy, learned from a neighbour,
recorded by Bill Leader. Topic, l2T 175,
'Willie Clancy - Minstrel from Clare'.
Description: 9 stanzas
A B l C I(a,b,c) J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) K(a,b,c,d l ) .
Tune: Unclassified

(lxvii) 'Stock and Wall'
Place: Glencolumbkille, Donegal
Date: August 10 1968
Source: Patrick Heekin, collected by Hugh Shields.
Folklife X (1972) pp.87-88.
Description: 10 stanzas
A B1 Ll.1 C I(b,a,c) J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) K(a,b,c,d )
Tune: Group C

(lxviii) 'Dialogue'
Place: Aughavilla, Warrenpoint, Co. Down
Date: ? 1968-9
Source: Willie Johnson, MS written by Mrs. Nora Cooper copy in possession of Hugh Shields.
Description: irregular, 6 long stanzas
Al B2 C 3 I ( b ,a,c ) J ( a,c, d ,e,g, f , l) .
Tune: 1 to a tune like 'The Boys from the Co. Armagh'

(lxix) 'A Riddling Song'
Place: Caithness, Scotland
Date: 1969
Source: Mrs. David Gunn, collected by Alan Bruford.
Tocher I(1969) p.23; SA 1969/48 B5.
Description: 2 stanzas: J(a,c,d,e).
Note: 'This story, I think, is of a man ' trying to evade marrying a woman asking her riddles'.
Tune: Unclassified

(lxx) 'Mr Woodburren's Courtship'
Place: Mullagh, Co. Clare
Date: August 31 1972
Source: Joe 1Mikey1 McMahon (aged 73), collected by
Tom Munnelly, IFC tape 92/A/1; Dal gCais 1977.
Description: 9 stanzas
A B1 C J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) K(a,b,c,dl) I(b,a,c) L 1.
Tune: Group C

(lxxi) 'Stock or Wall'
Place: Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare
Date: January 13 1972
Source: John Moloney (aged 66), collected by Tom Munnelly, IFC tape 36/B/9.
Description: 9 stnazas
1 1 A B C I(b,a,c) J(a,e,d,c,f,k,l) K(b,a,c,d ).
( lxxii)'The Nobleman 1 s Fair Daughter 1
Place: Kilshanny, Co. Clare
Date: July 19 1974
Source: Pat McNamara(retired farm worker), learned as a child from his uncle. Collected by Tom Munnelly, IFC tape 319/A/2.
Description:11 stanzas
A B1 C I(b,a,c) J(a,c,d,e,f,k,l) K(a,b,c,d )

(lxxiii)'Stock or Wall'
Place: Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare
Date: July 29 1974
Source: Tom Griffin (aged 80), farmer. Collected by Tom Munnelly, IFC tape 324/A/2.. (learned from Ann Burke who emigrated to USA, 1920).
Description: 7 stanzas (some omitted from end)
A B1 C J(a,c,d,e,k,f,l) I(b,a,c).

(lxxiv)'The Keeper of the Game'
Place: Fish Loughan, Ulster.
Date: unknown
Source: John Millen, jun. Sam Henry Collection
No. 681 (Vaughan Williams Memorial library).
Description: 8 stanzas
2 l 2 A B C J(a,c,d,e,k,l) I(a,b,c) L .