Fair Anna- Hopkinson (MA) c1890 Child/Barry
[My date and title. From British Ballad From Maine- Barry, Eckstorm, Smyth; 1929. Barry's notes follow. This is a good example of a ballad in Child's possession that he didn't use because it came from the US.
R. Matteson 2014]
The textual affinities of the foregoing version, which is purely traditional, are with child D, E, F, but it Is independent of all three. The singularly picturesque phrase "over the gale" corresponds to "over the dale" in Child's texts in Child I 14. The spyglass has been replaced by a "silken seam."
No text of this ballad has been recorded in Maine. There is no doubt whatever that versions of it are yet be found from northern tradition.
FAIR ANNIE
(Child 62)
A. [Fair Anna] Child MSS, Harvard University Library, XXIII 247. Given to Professor Child by Mrs. J. P. Hopkinson, Cambridge, Mass., as sung by her mother (who was my great-aunt. P.B.).
1 "Farewell, farewell! fair Anna," he cries,
"You must learn to lie alone,
There I go over the raging seas,
And fetch a new bride home."
2 "Who will make your wedding cake,
And who will brew your ale,
And who will welcome the gay lady
That you bring over the gale?"
3 "I will make your wedding cake,
And I will brew your ale,
But I will not welcome the gay lady
That you bring over the gale."
4 it was a year unto a day,
When he returned to land,
Fair Anna went up into a high tower,
With a spyglass in her hand.
5 She called her seven sons to her,
"By one, by two, by three,
Saying to the oldest of them all,
"Do you see what I do see?"
6 "I have made your wedding cake,
And I have brewed your ale,
And I will welcome the gay lady
That you fetch over the gale."
7 "King David is my father,
Queen Esther is my mother,
Prince Edward is my own brother,
And I'm sure you are my sister."