Gypsy Daisy- Brigham (VT) 1933 Flanders N
[From Ancient Ballads, III, 1963. Flanders/Coffin's notes follow.
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.
N. Gypsy Daisy. Delmer Brigham of East Calais sang this song. Published in A Garland of Green Mountain Song, 78. H. H. F., Collector; July 29, 1933.
Structure: A1 A2 A1 B C1 C2 C3 D (2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2); Rhythm C and D; Contour: angulat, each line an arc; Scale: hexachordal. t.c. C. For mel. rel., see MF, 304; B. Nettl in Acta Musicologica, 1955, 83, third tune.
Gypsy Daisy come over the hills,
Come over the hills and the valleys.
He sang so sweet that he made the valleys ring
And charmed the heart of a lady.
Chorus: Rattle dattle dum, dattle dum, dattle dum,
Rattle dattle dum, dinka Daisy,
Rattle dattle dum, to my myrinka dinka dum,
To the moryro, myrinka dinka Daisy.
The boss being late come home one night
Enquiring for his lady,
A waiter girl gave this reply,
"She's gone with a gypsy Daisy."
(Chorus)
"Would you forsake your true wedded lord?
Would you forsake your baby?
Would you forsake your warm feather bed
And go with a gypsy Daisy?
(Chorus)
"Last night you slept on a warm feather bed
And in your arms your baby.
To-night you'll sleep on the cold, cold ground
Along with a gypsy Daisy."
(Chorus)