Gypso Davy- Plummer (VA) 1921 Stone/Davis B
[From Davis; Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1929. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
THE GYPSY LADDIE
(Child, No. 200)
The eight texts and three tunes of this ballad found in Virginia differ notably from one another, and all are included here. "The Gipsy Laddie" and "Gypsy Davy" are the usual titles.
The ballad story of the ballad is recounted by Child for his A version as follows: "Gypsies sing so sweetly at our lord's gate as to entice his lady to come down; as soon as she shows herself, they cast the glamour on her. She gives herself over to the chief gypsy, Johny Faa by name, without reserve of any description. Her lord, upon returning and finding her gone, sets out to recover her, and captures and hangs fifteen gypsies." Of the historical prominence of Johnny Faa, Child cites numerous facts, among them that Johnny Faw's right and title as lord and earl of Little Egypt were recognized by James V, in 1540. But in the next year Egyptians were ordered to quit the realm within thirty days on pain of death. The gypsies were expelled from Scotland by act of Parliament in 1609. Soon after this date there are several records of the execution of Johnny, or Willie, Faa, and of other Egyptians. The execution of the notorious Johnny Faa seems to have made a considerable impression on the popular mind, as the ballad testifies. Later eighteenth century copies of the ballad seek to identify the lady as the wife of the Earl of Cassilis. But neither Johnny Faa nor the Earl of Cassilis is mentioned in any Virginia variant.
The Virginia variants pass very lightly over the first part of the story, the coming of the gypsies and the charming of the lady, and they also suppress the catastrophe of the hanging of the gypsies. The ballad ends with the lady's evidently final refusal to return with her husband. Only one text, Virginia B, has a spurious ending of two stanzas, in which the wife tires of the Gypsy,
asks her husband to let her return, and is refused -- a puritanical appendage in the interest of morals. The Virginia texts are most like the Child sequence H, I, J.
For American texts, see Barry, No. 9; Belden, No. 10 (fragment); Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos.3, 5, 8, 9, 11; Campbell and Sharp, No. 27: (Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia; cf. Sharp, Songs, 11, No. 2); Child, v: (Massachusetts, New York, Maine); Cox, No. 21, and p. 524 (four texts, melody); Hudson, No. 18 (Mississippi); Journal, xvlii, 191 (Barry, Nova
Scotia, text and melody, Massachusetts, four texts and two melodies, Rhode Island, fragment and melody); xix, 294 (Belden, Missouri); xxii, 80 (Barry, Massachusetts, melody only); xxiv, 346 (Barry, Pennsylvania, Maine); xxv, 173 (Belden, Missouri, Ohio); xxvi,353 (Pound, Nebraska, fragment); xxx, 323 (Kittredge, Massachusetts, text and melody); McGill, p. 15; Pound,
Nebraska, fragment); xxx,323 (Kittredge, Massachusetts, text and melody); xxvi, p. 353; Pound, Syllabus, p. 10 (fragment). For additional references, see Cox, p. 130; Journal, xxx, 323.
B. "Gypso Davy." Collected by Mr. John stone. Sung by Mrs. Oscar Plummer and Miss Foxie Plummer, of Park, Va. Grayson County. November 8, 1921.
1 He come into his room one night,
A-quiring[1] for his lady;
The answer were made balk to him,
'She's gone with the Gypso Davy."
2 "Go saddle, go saddle my little gray horse,
My black one ain't so speedy,
I'll ride all night, I'll ride in day
Till I overtake my lady."
3 He rode by the riverside
Where it was deep and muddy.
O who did he spy on yonder side,
Hard-hearted Gypso Davy.
4 "Come back, come back, my own true love,
Come back, come back, my lady;
I'll swear by the gold that hangs by my side
It's you shan't want for money."
5 "I won't come back, my own true love,
I won't come back, my baby,
For I wouldn't give a kiss from the gypsy's lips
For you and all your money."
6 "Would you forsake your house and land?
Would you forsake your baby?
Would you forsake those crowns of gold
And follow Gypso Davy?"
7 "Yes, I'll forsake my house and land,
And I'll forsake my baby,
And I'll forsake those crowns of gold
And follow Gypso Davy."
8 "Pull off, pull off them high-top shoes,
They are made of Spanish leather;
And give to me your lily-white hand,
We'll bid farewell forever."
9 "I can't pull off my high-top shoes,
Though made of Spanish leather;
I'll give to you my lily-white hand,
We'll bid farewell forever."
10 "Last night you lay on your bed of rest
With your arms around your baby;
Tonight you can lay on the cold river banks
In the arms of the Gypso Davy."
11 He hadn't been gone by about two weeks
Till she wrote him a letter:
"O come and get me, my old true love,
I'm tired of the Gypso Davy."
12 He wrote her back the very next day,
He wrote her back another:
He had him a sweet little babe,
She could stay with the Gypso Davy.[2]
1. Inquiring. A-inquiring easily becomes a-quiring.
2. The last two stanzas are an interesting envoi to the ballad, though they completely change the effect of the story. This salutary warning to erring wife is evidently an addition of fairly recent date. It is without a parallel in the Child versions. Probably it is a Virginia contribution to the old ballad.