Giles Collins- Stockett (MS) c1785 Hudson D; Morris A
[My date. From: Folksongs of Mississippi by Arthur Palmer Hudson, 1936. His notes follow. This is from the same family as the Hubbard family (see Hudson A) and has been brought to this country by the informant's grandfather. Her father had "been sung to sleep with it as a baby in revolutionary times." She was born in 1829 and it's doubtful her father was over 50 when she was born, so that may not be accurate. Still her grandfather knew it by 1875. I'm sure at that point they weren't in Mississippi but, more likely, Virginia.
This was taken Mrs. Lucy Holt Harrison of Gainesville, FL (Morris A, 1950). She learned it from great-grandfather Dr. David Holt (1772-1882) of Woodville, Mississippi who got it from his English grandmother.
R. Matteson 2015]
D. "Giles Collins." Communicated to me in 1932 by Dr. John Miller Maclachlan, now of North Carolina State College, Raleigh, but formerly of Jackson, Mississippi. The story of the family connections of this song and of several others in this collection, particularly "Sir Hugh (The Jew's Daughter)" and the A text of "Lady Alice," exemplifies what Phillips Barry (British Ballads from Maine) says about the importance of family history in the study of ballads. This D text of "Lady Alice" comes from the sixth generation of a Mississippi family who have sung it for a hundred and fifty years. Dr. Maclachlan's own note, taken in connection with what has already been said about Mrs. Belle Holt Hubbard, constitutes a remarkable comment upon the vitality
of a ballad:
"My great-grandmother, Lucy Holt Stockett, elder sister of Mrs. Hubbard, sang this as a lullaby. She said it was brought from England by her grandfather; and she believed it a 'family affair,' both as to origin and knowledge of the correct tune. Her father had, she said, been sung to sleep with it as a baby in revolutionary times. Since she herself was born in 1829, this chronology may be approximately correct. The word coil she called 'an old French name for the little tight caps ladies wore in the Middle Ages'; it was this one word, perhaps, which made the deepest impression upon me, for with the definition as a text she was wont to discourse lengthily about the Middle Ages, pointing the story with other songs. I do not recollect any part of the seventh
stanza [cf. Child, B], which she may have deleted intentionally for my sake."
1 Giles Collins said to his mother one day,
"O Mother, come bind up my head
And make me a pot of water gruel,
For tomorrow I shall be dead,
Dead, dead,*
Tomorrow I shall be dead."
2 His mother she made him the water gruel
And stirred it around with a spoon.
Giles Collins drank that water gruel,
And he was dead before noon,
Noon, noon,*
And he was dead before noon.
3 Lady Annie by her window sat
A-sewing her scarf and coif.**
She said, "I've seen the strangest sight
I've ever seen in my life,***
Life, life,*
I've ever seen in my life.
4 "What bear ye, ye six strong men,
Upon your shoulders high?"
"We bear the body of Giles Collins,
Who for love of you did die,
Dis die, did die,*
Who for love of you did die."
5 "Set him down, set him down, ye six strong men,
Upon the grass so green.
Tomorrow before the clock strikes ten
My body shall lie by hisn,
Hisn, hisn,
My body shall lie by hisn."
6 They buried Giles Collins in the east,
Lady Annie in the west.
A lily grew on Giles Collins' grave
And touched Lady Annie's breast,
Breast, breast,
And touched Lady Annie's breast.
* These two words were sometimes repeated with a rising emphasis before the next line [Dr. Maclachlan's note]. Morris has:
For tomorrow I shall be dead, dead, dead, dead, dead,
**Pronounced "kweef" or "ko-eef" {ibid}
*** Pronounced to rhyme with "coif" as pronounced above {ibid.} "leef".