Gypsum Davey- Price (RI) pre1916 Flanders D
[From Ancient Ballads, III, 1963. Flanders notes follow. Similarly titled in several versions, cf Sharp I.
R. Matteson 2015]
The Gypsy Laddie
(Child 200)
This is a very well-known song, one of the few Child ballads sung by educated persons who have no interest in folklore. It tells a romantic tale that would do justice to an operatic setting. Some gypsies sing bewitching songs at a lord's gate. So fascinating is the music, the lady of the house comes down and finds herself completely charmed. she gives herself to the gypsy leader Johnny Faw, or Johnny the Seer, and they ride off. Her lord finds her gone upon his return and hurries off in pursuit. Sometimes he captures the gypsies and hangs them. More often the tale takes a more sentimental turn and the lady refuses to return with her husband, giving away her baby and feather bed for true love.
Johhnny Faw was a common name for gypsies. Child, IV, 61 f., lists a number of incidents where men called this were sentenced to death, and he also cites the tendency in Aryshire to associate the story with the wife of the Earl of Cassilis. In America, however, the names Faw and Cassilis are never mentioned, and the "gypsies" may become only "a lover" or even "an Indian." The New World texts vary widely as to detail and story. See Coffin, 120-124, for discussion and bibliography. Over here the versions are generally related to the child G-J tradition, but localization of events and corruption by other songs, such as "I'm Seventeen come Sunday" is not unusual. "The Gypsy Laddie" was parodied in The Forget-me-not Songster (New York, 1872), and most American texts, unlike the British, have nonsense refrains.
The twenty-six Flanders texts give one a fairly good summary of the song as it is in the New World. The A version, with the seven gypsies in a row, follows the Child G-I tradition. Flanders B is striking in that stanzas 2-6 are a monologue by the lady and are framed by two descriptive stanzas --the opening one being unusual and the closing one consisting of lines that often start the song. C is a version of a broadside from the Alfred M. Williams Collection of Irish Broadsides in the Providence Public Library (see Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 275, and his text E). Flanders D-F are of the most common American sort, although E may be unique in this country if "Lord o' Castle" was once "Lord Cassilis." The G-Y group is from the same tradition as Child J (see Barry, op. cit., 269 f., for discussion), In that series, J has the remarkable finish in which the lord kilts his wife as well as the gypsy. H and I are not so unusual in having the lord remarry (see Child J), but this feature is often left out. R and S are interesting for their phraseology, S perhaps being corrupted by "The Frog Went a-Courtin' "
and other matter.
For bibliography beyond that in Coffin, see Dean-Smith, 69, and Belden, 73-74 (English); Greig and Keith, 126-129, and Ord , 411 (Scottish). There is an analogous Danish ballad in Svend Grundtvig, Danmarhs gamle Folheuiser (Copenhagen, 1853), No. 369.
With the exception of the L.N.C. tune, and the possible exception of the Brigham tune, all the tunes for Child 200 are related. The remaining ones can be divided into sub-families as follows: I) Pease, Richards, Taylor; 2) Woodbury, Erskine; 3) Fish. The Pease and Taylor tunes are especially close.
D. Gypsum Davey. Sung by Edith Ballenger Price of Newport, Rhode Island, learned from Esther Morton smith, who was singing this ballad before Cecil Sharp had collected in the southern Appalachians. M. Olney, Collector. October 25, 1945
It was late in the night when the Squire came home
Inquiring for his lady;
His servant made a sure reply,
"She's gone with the Gypsum Davey!"
Rattle to my Gypsum, Gypsum,
Rattle to my Gypsum Davey.
"Oh, go catch up my milk-white steed;
The black one's not so speedy;
I'll ride all night till the broad daylight
To overtake my lady!"
He rode and he rode till he came to the town,
He rode till he came to Barley;
The tears came rolling down his cheeks,
And there he espied his lady.
"It's come go back, my dearest dear;
Come go back, my honey;
It's come go back, my dearest dear,
And never shall you lack for money!"
"I won't go back, my dearest dear!
I won't go back, my honey!
For I wouldn't give a kiss from the Gypsum's lips
For you and all your money!"
"It's go pull off these milk-white gloves
Are made of Spanish leather,
And give to me your lily-white hand
And bid farewell for ever!"
It's she pulled off those milk-white gloves
That are made of Spanish leather,
Gave to him her lily-white hand,
And bid farewell for ever.
She soon went through her gay clothing,
The velvet shoes and stockings;
Her gold ring off her finger's gone
And the gold plate off her bosom.
"Oh, once I had a house and land,
A feather bed and baby,
But now I've come to an old straw pad
And the Gypsums dancing 'round me."