False-Hearted Youth- Payne (NL) 1920 Greenleaf; Bronson
[My title, which is conflicting somewhat (haha) because the first stanza is taken from "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (Child 105). I guess a well-loved youth could still be false-hearted- haha. See similar first stanza in Creighton A, Flanders C and D, also Arthur Huff Fauset's 1931 version titled "Pretty Polly" from Nova Scotia.
From: Ballads and Sea-Songs of Newfoundland by Elizabeth Bristol Greenleaf, Grace Yarrow Mansfield - 1933. Sung by Mrs. Minnie Payne, Green Point, Newfoundland, 1920
Bronson adds: This variant, both text and tune, appears to be crossed with "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (Child 105). Cf. the Cornish variant published in /FSS, IV (1910), p. 116 (post, #90). But cf. also the English copy of "Edward" (Child 13) published by Peter Kennedy in JEFDSS, VII (1952), p. 38.
R. Matteson 2014]
[False-Hearted Youth]- Sung by Mrs. Minnie Payne, Green point, Newfoundland, 1920
1. There was a youth, a well-beloved youth,
He was a squire's son,
He courted an innkeeper's daughter,
[Belonged to North Cumberland.] [1]
2. He courted her a long winter's night,
And many a long summer's day,
And all he courted his fair lady for
Was to take her sweet life away.
3. "Now get some of your father's gold," said he,
"And some of your mother's fee,
And we will go to a far counteree,
And married we will be."
4. So she took some of her father's gold,
And some of her mother's fee,
And walked till she came to her father's stable door,
Where lay horses thirty and three.
5. She mounted on a lily-white steed,
And he on a silvery gray,
And she rode till they came to a clear riverside
Six hours before it was day.
6. "Now you pull off your clothes," he said,
"And prepare for your wat'ry tomb,
For nine king's daughters I have drownded here,
And the tenth one you shall be."
7. "Turn, O turn, you false-hearted youth,
Come turn your back unto me!
I don't think such a villain as you
A naked woman should see."
3. He turned himself quite round about;
in bitter grief she did weep,
And with all of the strength this fair lady had
She pushed him into the deep.
9. "O swim, O swim, you false-hearted youth!
I think you've got your doom;
For I don't think your clothes too costly
For to lie in a watery tomb."
10. She mounted on her lily-white steed,
And led his silvery gray,
And she got back to her father's stable door
Three hours before it was day.
11. Her father been so hazily awoke,
Which caused him to say,
"What makes you prattie, my pretty parrot dear,
So long before it is dayl"
12. "There was two cats came at my cage-door,
They came for to carry me away,
And I called upon my young misteress [2]
To drive those cats away."
13. "Hold your tongue, my pretty parrot dear,
Now hold your tongue," said she,
"Your cage shall be made of the yellow beaten gold,
And shall hang on a willow tree."
1. From Dennis Smith; Creighton A
2. mistress