The Green Wedding- (KY) 1923 Pine Mountain Settlement School
[From Song Ballads & Other Songs of the Pine Mountain Settlement School (1923) pp. 29-31. This is a reprint of a Somerset folk song collected by Cecil Sharp. Katherine Pettit of Lexington, Kentucky one of the founders of pine Mountain had already begun supplying ballads to Kittredge at Harvard and others by the time she began organizing the School in 1913. She knew Sharp from his visit there in 1917.
This ballad was taken from "Folk Songs from Somerset" Cecil James Sharp, (Fifth Series) 1909; text from Mr. Robert Parish of Exford (Sept. 1906); tune from Charles Neville of East Cades (Boatman and the Taylor). It also appears in One Hundred English Folksongs edited by Cecil James Sharp, 1916.
Following is a brief excerpt of the School history and Sharp's song notes from One Hundred English Folksongs; edited by Cecil James Sharp 1916.
R. Matteson 2016]
Excerpt from History of school online: Pine Mountain Settlement School was founded in 1913 as a school for children in the commonwealth's remote southeastern mountains and a social center for surrounding communities. The school was the dream of a local man, William Creech Sr., who was troubled by the area's lack of educational opportunities, and the prevalence of social problems and rampant disease. He donated land for the school and recruited two women, Katherine Pettit of Lexington, Kentucky, and Ethel DeLong, New Jersey native, to establish and run the new institution.
Notes: No. 16. The Green Wedding --
The words of this ballad were sung to me to a very poor tune. I have, therefore, taken the liberty of mating them to a fine air which was sung to me to some very boisterous, unprintable words, called "The Boatsman and the Tailor." The occasional substitution of a minor for the major third in a Mixolydian tune is quite a common habit with English folksingers, and several examples of this may be seen in this volume (see Nos.46,47,and 53 [second version]); but for the major interval to follow the minor almost immediately is both curious and unusual. Miss Gilchrist has pointed out the close connection between "The Green Wedding" and the Scottish ballad "Katherine Janfarie," or "Jaffray," upon which Scott founded his ballad of "Lochinvar" in Marmion (see Child's English and Scottish Ballads; Motherwell's Minstrelsy; Sidgwick's Popular Ballads of the Olden 'Time; and Scott's Minstrelsy, 1st and 3d editions).
In the Scottish ballad, Katherine is wooed first by the Laird of Lauderdale, who wins her consent, and secondly by Lord Lochinvar "out frae the English border," who, however, omitted to avow his love to Katherine "till on her wedding e'en." The rivals meet at the "wedding house" and, in the fight that ensues, Katherine is carried off by her Scottish lover.
Whether our ballad is a corrupt and incomplete version of the Scottish one, it is difficult to say. Although the two have several lines in common, there is something in the plot of "The Green Wedding" which, despite its obscurity, seems to indicate a motive which is absent from "Katherine Janfarie." The scheme of our story seems to turn upon the dressing in green of both hero and heroine at the wedding feast, but the purpose of their device is not clear. This, however, presented no difficulty to my singer, who, when I asked him why the hero dressed in green, said, "Because, you see, he had told his true-love to dress in green also;" and when I further inquired why he told her to do this, he said, "Because, of course, he was going to put on a green dress himself" — and there was clearly nothing more to be said!
It is just possible, as Miss Gilchrist observes, that the reference to the green dress may be a reminiscence of "Robin Hood and Allan-a-Dale;" or perhaps it has been suggested by the following stanza which occurs in "Katherine Janfarie:"
He's ta'en her by the milk-white hand,
And by the grass-green sleeve;
He's mounted her hie behind himself,
At her kinsmen speir'd na leave.
THE GREEN WEDDING -- text from Mr. Robert Parish of Esford; tune from Charles Neville of East Cades (Boatman and the Taylor).
1. There was a Squire lived in the East, a Squire of high degree,
Who went courting of a country girl, a comely maid was she;
But when her father heard of it, an angry man was he,
He requested of his daughter dear to shun his company.
[: To my rally, dally, dido,
Rally, dally, day. :]
2. There was a farmer lived close by, he had an only son,
Who came courting of this girl until her love he thought he'd won ;
Her mother gave him her consent, her father his likewise,
Until she cried: I am undone! and tears fell from her eyes.
3. She wrote the Squire a letter, and sealed it with her hand,
And she said : This day I'm to be wed unto another man.
The first few lines he looked upon he smiled and thus did say:
O I may deprive him of his bride all on his wedding day.
4. He wrote her back another : Go dress yourself in green;
In a suit all of the same at your wedding I'll be seen ;
In a suit all of the same to your wedding Til repair,
O, my dearest dear, I'll have you yet in spite of all that's there.
5. He look-ed East, he look-ed West, he looked all o'er his land,
And there came to him full eight score men all of a Scottish band.
He mounted them on milk-white steeds, a single man rode he;
Then all the way to the wedding-hall went the company dressed in green.
6. When he came to the wedding-hall, they unto him did say:
You are welcome, Sir, you're welcome. Sir, where have you spent the day ?
He laughed at them, he scorned at them, and unto them did say :
You may have seen my merry men come riding by this way.
7. The Squire he took a glass of wine and filled it to the brim:
Here is health unto the man, said he, the man they call the groom;
Here's health unto the man, said he, who may enjoy his bride —
Though another man may love her too, and take her from his side.
8 Then up and spoke the farmer's son, an angry man was he:
If it is to fight that you come here, 'tis I'm the man for thee!
It's not to fight that I am here, but friendship for to show;
So let me kiss your bonny bride, and away from thee I'll go.
9 He took her by the waist so small, and by the grass-green sleeve,
And he led from the wedding-hall, of no one asking leave.
The band did play, the bugles sound, most glorious to be seen,
And all the way to Headingbourne Town went the company dressed in green.