Fair Eleanor- Blackbird Songster (NY) 1845 Cozzans/Barry B
[From: The Blackbird Songster. New York; P. J. Cozans publisher, 107 Nassan St., 1845. Reprinted in British Ballad from Maine, 1929; Version B.
Apparently this version was originally printed in The Black-Bird Songster; a Choice Selection of Songs, Duets, and Glees, Etc.; Publisher, Glasgow c. 1840. A very similar version was reprinted in The Humming Bird Songster; New York; P.J. Cozans publisher, 107 Nassan St., 1858 and The Humming Bird Songster was also printed in Philadelphia by Fisher & Bro., in 1858.
R. Matteson 2015]
Barry, BBM, 1929, notes: Child's text is based on three copies of an English broadside, the oldest dating to 1660-75, which "may reasonably be believed to be formed upon a predecessor in the popular style" (II, 430). Our texts are independent of the broadside, which names the lady "Elise," and is more prolix, but are closer to a fragmentary text sent to Percy in 1776 by the Dean of Derry, reprinted by Child, II, 429. This text, which names the lady "Eleanor," and agrees with our texts against the broadside in making the mother (i.e., stepmother) send the robbers as agents of her spite, was regarded by Percy as a "fragment of an older copy than that printed of "The Lady turnd Serving-Man" (Child, II, 429, note).
Our B-text must have been derived from tradition; a printer's ignorance may account for the misspelled words, but not for the absurdity of the second line of stanza 12, which corresponds to A7 line 2.
FAIR ELEANOR.
1. My father he was a noble lord,
As ever old England did afford.
My mother was a lady bright,
And in her l took great delight.
2. My brothers they built me a little bower,
And covered it over with pinks and flowers,
My father he married me to a noble [k]night,
For which my mother owed me great spite.
3 She sent nine robbers, all in one night,
For to rob my bower and to slain that knight:
And they could not do me a greater harm
Than to kill the knight which lay in my arm.
4. They robbed my bower of everything,
They stripped my lower so neat and clean,
They left nothing for to wrap him in,
But the bloody sheets that they slew him on.
5. It was all alone his corpse I washed,
It was all alone his corpse I dressed,
It was all alone a grave I made,
And into it my true love I laid.
6. My brothers and sisters from me did flee,
And left me in great misery:
I cut off my hair and I changed-my name,
From fair Eleanor to Sweet William.
7. I mounted me a nimble steed,
With sword and pistols all by my side,
I rode till I came to the King's long hall,
And loud for services there I did call.
8. O come to me, my handsome youth,
And tell to me what you can do.
I pulled off my hat and bowed full low,
It was love and duty all for to show.
9. Sir, I can be your kitchen cook,
Or I can be your stable boy,
Or I can be at your service all,
For to wait on nobles all when they call.
10. O you shan't be my kitchen cook,
Nor you shan't be my stable boy,
But you may be at my service all
For to wait on nobles-all when they call.
11. One day when the King was a-hunting gone,
He left his house all alone,--
He left no one at all at home
But fair Eleanor and this brisk young man.
12. Fair Eleanor, thinking herself alone,
A cup it flew to play a tune,-
Saying,--once I had a noble [k]night,
And I myself am a lady bright.
13. At night when the King had returned home,
What news, what news, to this brisk young man,
Brave news, brave news I have to-day,
Sweet William is a lady gay.
14 But if this be a lie that you tell me,
Yonder gallows shall be your fate,
But if this be true that you tell me,
I will buy you a bride and set you free.
15 Go fetch me down a gold diamond ring,
That fits her finger both long and slim,
O no, O no, cries this lady gay,
Pay me my wages and set me free.
16 Go fetch me down a gown of green,
That I may crown her for my queen,--
For it never was known, nor it never was seen,
A servant man crowned a queen.
17 Fair Eleanor is once more at rest,
I think she finally has been blest,
Her griefs and sorrows are o'er and past,
And happy she has become at last.