Fair Lucy- Slayton (Vermont) 1933 Flanders A2
[From BFSSNE No. 7, 1934. Also reprinted in Flanders- Ancient Ballads; version A2. Learned from her father, Newell Slayton. This is the third version learned from Newell Slayton. Cf. Elmer George's, Myra Daniel's versions. Following are notes from Flanders and Barry from BFSSNE 1934.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
Mrs. Sicily is a direct descendant of Captain Thomas Slayton [of Watertown, Mass.], through the line of his grandson Phineas Slayton [(1757-1825), of Brookfield, Mass., a veteran of the French War and of the Revolution, who was in 1786 granted a soldier's concession in Calais, Vermont., whither he removed after selling his Brookfield homestead in 1806.]
Helen Flanders
Smiley Manse,
Springfield, Vermont.
Barry: Lizie Wan is a ballad of intra-familial fixation, as were originally Edward (Child 13), The Two Brothers (Child 49), a Danish ballad Moen paa Baalet (Grundtvig, 109, DgF., II, PP. 585, ff.) and perhaps also The Cruel Brother (Child 11). In every instance, the chief characters are siblings: the Danish ballad- in its present form "is homiletical, a story of slandered innocence and martyrdom. Ballads of more recent origin are: English, The Leeds Tragedy or, The Bloody Brother, (London broadside, no imp., c. 1750, Forget-me-not Songster, R. Marsh, New-York, 1847, pp. 243-250) French, (RTP., VI, 393; A Millien, Cirants et Chansons, I, 283, Le frere qui tue sa seur). For an exhaustive study of intra-familial fixation in all forms, in history and tradition, both popular and literary, see O. Rank, Das Inzest-Motiv in Dichtung unil Sage.
Until 1917, when a version of Lizie Wan was recorded by Sharp from Mr. B. J. Finlay, Manchester, Ky. (Sharp-Karpeles, I, 89), the ballad was thought extinct. The Slayton Family version is related to Sharp's, though a letter text; both are related to a version from Cambridgeshire, England (JEFDSS.,I, 53-4). Such relationship raises a pretty question of ballad migration; to be solved perhaps by a genealogist. There is only one known air to the ballad: this air is related to the air to Little Musgrave and, Lady Barnard, (Sharp-Karpeles, I, pp. 161-82; FSSNE, Bulletin 4, p. 12). The form of the Slayton Family set indicates that it is older than the Sharp-Karpeles and Cambridgeshire sets. A Dorian set of the same air has been used for a hymn-tune, "O tell me where the Dove has flown."
P. B.
Fair Lucy- Alice Slayton Sicily (North Calais, Vermont) 1933 Flanders
1. Fair Lucy was sitting in her own cabin door,
Making her laments alone;
Who should come by but her own mother dear,
Saying, "What makes Fair Lucy mourn?"
2. "I have a cause for to grieve," she said,
"And a reason for to mourn;
For the babe that lies in the cradle asleep,
Dear mother, it is his own."
3. Fair Lucy was sitting in her own cabin door,
Making her laments alone;
Who should come by but her own brother dear,
Saying, "What makes Fair Lucy mourn?"
4. "I have a cause for to grieve," she said,
"And a reason for to mourn;
For the babe that lies in the cradle asleep,
Dear brother, it is your own."
5. He took her by the lily-white hand
And he led her into the woods;
What he did there, I never can declare,
But he spilt Fair Lucy's blood.
6. "O, what is that upon your frock,
My son, come tell to me."
"It is one drop of Fair Lucy's blood,
And that you plainly can see."
7. "What will your father say to you,
When he returns to me?"
"I shall step my foot on board a ship,
And my face he never shall see."
8. "What will you do with your three little babes,
My son, come tell to me?"
"I shall leave them here at my father's command,
For to keep him companee."
9. "What will you do with your pretty little wife,
My son, come tell to me?"
"She shall step her foot on board a ship,
And sail the ocean with me."
10. "What will you do with your houses and lands,
My son, come tell to me?"
"I shall leave them here at my father's command,
For to set my children free."
11. "When will you return again,
My son, come tell to me?"
"When the sun and the moon set on yonders green hill,
And I'm sure that never can be."