Gentle Jinnie- York/Priest (ME) c.1885 Barry A ; From: British Ballads from Maine
[My title- Barry and all's notes.]
Barry's and all's notes: When Mr. Priest sang the refrain, "Gentle Jinny fair Rose Marie" (see version A) he said that these words referred to the heroine of the ballad, but he seemed to think, and rightly, that there was something peculiar in the double name given her, each name being preceded by its own adjective.
In Mrs. Young's version there is a similar refrain, "Jinny, come gentle, Rose Marie," and in still another American text, that of Cox, from the south, we have "Gentle virginia my Rosy my Lee." It is significant also, that text F, as printed in the abridged Child, is a New England text, and that it has the refrain, "Gentle Jenny cried rosemaree." This text may throw some light on the probable corruptions undergone by the refrain in question.
In the Jourmal of American Folk-Lore, VII, 232, comment is made on the fact that in another child ballad, 1 B, the words "Juniper gentle (for gentian) and rosemary," constituting a plant-burden, have been taken for names of persons. And in the Journal of the Folk-song society, II, 12-15, Miss Lucy E. Broadwood, in a valuable note on plantbo, mentions the old superstition that plants were regarded' [1] as charms against demons. She says that when a demon disappeared from a song, the plant-burden survived. In the case before us, the ungentle wife may have been regarded as possessed of an evil spirit, so that not only the plant-burden, but also the beating would be part of an exorcising ceremony. We should then have, in "The Wife Wrapped in the Wether's Skin', (Child 277), and "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (Child 278), companion pieces. In the
former the demon is exorcised; in the latter, he meets his match in the person of the cursed wife herself.
The supposition that gentle Jenny used the old plant-burden to ward off the evil spirit, is borne out by the words in Child's refrain, "Gentle Jenny cried, rosemaree." But by Americans such incantations would, sooner or later, have been changed into something more sensible, and so the names of plants became the names of persons in our American texts. Child F may be a possible intermediary between the earlier English and the later American texts, and the word "cried" will then be significant.
BRITISH BALLADS FROM MAINE- THE WIFE WRAPT IN WETHER'S SKIN
(Child 277)
A. Taken down in August, 1925, from the singing of Mr. Horace E. Priest of Sangerville, who learned it in a lumber camp some forty or fifty years before from Mr. Everett York of Medway. This variant most closely resembles Child F (English and Scotttsh
Popular Ballads, Cambridge edition: p. 604,-cf., V, 304 of the large edition).
1. I married a wife, I took her home,
Gentle Jinnie fair Rose Marie,
And I think I got married a little too soon,
As the dew flies over the gleen valley.
2. My wife would neither card nor spin,
Gentle Jinnie fair Rose Marie,
She was afraid of soiling her delicate skin,
As the dew flies over the green valley.
3. My wife would neither bake nor brew,
Gentle Jinnie fair Rose Marie,
She was afraid of soiling her high heeled shoe,
As the dew flies over the green valley.
4. When I came in from holding the plow,
Gentle Jinnie fair Rose Marie,
I said to my wife, "Is my dinner ready now?"
As the dew flies over the green valley.
5. There is some cold johnny-bread on the shelf,
Gentle Jinnie fair Rose Marie.
"And if you want any more you can get it yourself,"
As the dew flies over the green valley.
I went straightway into my field,
Gentle Jinnie fair Rose Marie,
It was there I cut two little willows so green,
As the dew flies over the green valley.
I went straightway into my barn,
Gentle Jinnie fair Rose Marie,
It was there I took my old sheepskin down,
As the dew flies over the green valley.
I placed the sheepskin on her back,
Gentle Jinnie fair Rose Marie,
And the two little willows went whickety whack,
As the dew flies over the green valley.
Go tell my friends, go tell my kin,
Gentle Jinnie fair Rose Marie,
I was only tanning my old sheepskin,
As the dew flies over the green valley.
But when I come in from holding the plow,
Gentle Jinnie fair Rose Marie,
It is "Yes, sir, and No, sir, and How do you do?"
As the dew flies over the green valley.