Gipsy Davy- DeCoster (ME) 1925 Barry A1
[From British Ballads from Maine, Barry Eckstorm and Smyth, 1929. Barry's (and all's) notes follow. Barry already published A-G in the 1905 JAFL so the letter designations for BBM are A1, B1 etc.
R. Matteson 2015]
GIPSY DAVY
(Child 200)
The texts A-D are evidently from the same stock, tracing to Child J. It is fair to reckon Child J b as a Maine text, since it was taken down about 1840 from the singing of a lady whose mother, Mrs. Farmer, was born in Maine. Professor Kittredge, in JAFL, XXX, 321, prints a Rochester, Mass., text, "a variant of Child's version J," with the air. This air, together with a Cambridge, Mass., air (P.B., in JAFL, XVIIII, 195), a Providence, R. I., aft (ibid, p. 194), Mrs. Young's air, and Dr. Patch's air, has descended traditionally from a common original.
But Mrs. Robbins's E-text is utterly unlike the others and is apparently Irish. The Williams Collection of Irish Broadsides, in the Public Library of Providence, R. I., contains the original of it, purchased some sixty years ago in Ireland. But so far from scouting Mrs. Robbins's text as being recent or doubtfully traditional, we do not question its having been sung on Mount Desert Island for almost a full century and perhaps for a much longer time. For it happens that there is about Mount Desert a stratum of early Irish settlement. Not to mention the terrible wreck of the ship Grand Design, in 1740, upon the ledges near the Western Way, when what were left of the Irish emigrants it was bearing to the New World settled along the Maine coast, there were a
number of stalwart young Irishmen who came at a later period, married wives of the native stock and became the heads of well-known families, still resident. Such are the Longs, the Bulgers, and the Carrolls. And still later came William Lawler, from Waterford, a good singer, whose songs are still remembered as his own. The Irish songs on the Maine coast were in most cases brought over directly by bold sailors, sturdy fishermen, or good craftsmen who came as settlers at an early period, married Yankee girls, and identified themselves with the native English stock, as the laborers and forced emigrants of the Famine period never have done. The latter class had the comic "Paddy" songs of the middle of the last century; but the old balladry of Ireland, which we find abundantly along the Maine coast, came here very much earlier. To show how near Mrs. Robbins's song is to the Irish broadside mentioned, we quote the latter, which we have never found in any American imprint, for comparison.
A."Gypsy Davy." Sent in, August, 1925, by Mr. Justin DeCoster of Buckfield.
1 The lord came home quite late at night,
And inquired for his lady,
The servant made him this reply:
"She has gone with the Gipsy Davy."
Oh, willa do willa, diddle lala day,
Oh, willa do willa Davy,
The servant made him this reply:
"She has gone with the Gipsy Davy."[1]
"Then saddle me my milk-white steed,
The gray one is not speedy,
I'll ride all night and I'll ride all day
Till I overtake my lady."
He rode till he came to the water's edge,
The water looked dark and r'ily;
Big tears came trickling down his cheeks,
For there he beheld his lady.
"Will you forsake your house and lands,
Will you forsake your baby,
Will you forsake your own wed lord,
To follow the Gipsy Davy?"
"Yes, I'll forsake my house and lands,
And I'll forsake my baby,
And I'll forsake my own wed lord
And follow the Gipsy Davy."
"Last night I lay on a fine feather bed,
And the servants called me 'lady,'
Tonight I'll lay on the cold, damp ground,
In the arms of the Gipsy Davy."
"Last night I lay in fine holland sheets,
And in my arms my baby,
Tonight I'll lay on the cold, damp ground,
The bride of the Gipsy Davy."
"Oh, willa do willa, diddle lala day,
Oh, willa do willa Davy,
Tonight I'll lay on the cold, damp ground,
The bride of the Gipsy Davy."
1. The chorus each time repeats the last two lines of the verse it follows.