House Carpenter- Shiflett (VA) 1962 Foss Bronson 59
[From: LC/AAFS, rec. No. 11,004(B10) as transcribed by Bronson in TTCB, III 1966 No. 59.
Florence Shiflett (also Shifflett) is kin to Robert Shiflett (See: Shifflett 1961, collected one year earlier by Foss) of Brown's Cove, Va. They both have similar versions of House Carpenter, although Robert's has the additional "What hills" part. You'll need to read the article below to find out how they are related and learn more about Foss and the people of Virginia.
R. Matteson 2013]
Excerpt: From White Hall to Bacon Hollow by George Foss
http://www.klein-shiflett.com/shifletfamily/HHI/GeorgeFoss/whall.html
Florence Shiflett was in her mid-eighties when I first met her and she had always lived in the hills above Bacon Hollow. Some folks prefer to talk and sing rarely, and then only if pressed. Florence Shiflett did not talk much, but for her, singing was as natural as breathing. Singing was a pleasant way to pass a visit with friends or even to make one's solitary hours go by more quickly. Whenever I was with her she was constantly singing. Some of her songs, “Who Killed Cock Robin,” “Peggy the Harmless Creature, ” “The Gypsy Laddie-O” and “Across the Blue Mountain” are among the most beautiful I've ever heard.
Another excerpt George Foss: If I am allowed a personal favorite of the many wonderful old ballads sung in the Southern mountains, it is this one. It is called "The House Carpenter" commonly, but is also known to ballad scholars as "James Harris, the Demon Lover". The story is homiletic parable of the inescapable punishment that follows deep moral error. The supernatural element of a former love who 'returns' from the sea to tempt a young woman into fatal error gives a dimension to the ballad seldom found in moralistic tales. This ballad has its roots in the same ancient myth that inspired Richard Wagner's operatic masterpiece, "The Flying Dutchman" in which a young woman may sail endlessly with an other-worldly mariner until she shows remorse and breaks the magical spell.
"House Carpenter"- Sung by Florence Shiffett (84), Wyatt's Mountain, near Dyke, Va., June 9, 1962. Collected by George Foss.
1. We've met, we've met, my own true love,
We've met, we've met, says he,
I have lately returned from the salt water sea
And it was for the sake of you, [thee]
I have lately returned from the salt water sea,
And it was for the sake of you.
2. I once could have married to a king('s) daughter dear,
And she would have married me,
But [the] offer 'f the crowns of gold I refused
And it was for the sake of you, [thee]
It was all for the sake of you.
3. If you could have married to the king('s) daughter dear,
I'm sure you wears the blame,
For I am married to a house carpenter
And they says he's a fine young man.
4, Will you forsaken your house carpenter
And go along with me?
I will carry you where the grass grow(s) green
On the banks of sweet Willie.
5. What have you to maintain me, my love,
To keep me from starvation? says she,
I have a hundred of ships a-sailing on the sea,
And they're sailing for dry land;
And a hundred and ten [of] the finest waiting-men
Will be at your command.
6. She picked up her tender little baby,
The kisses they was three,
Stay at home, stay at home, my tender little one
And keep your papa company,
Stay at home, stay at home, my tender little one
And keep your papa company.
7. She wasn't sailing on the sea two weeks,
I'm sure it was not three,
Before this fair damsel began for to weep,
And she wept most bitterly.
8. Are you a-weeping for your husband, said he,
Or are You weeping tor your gold?
Or are you a-weeping for your house carpenter
That you never will see no more?
9. I'm not a-weeping for my house carpenter
Not neither for my gold,
I am weeping for my tender little baby
That I never will see no more.
10. She wasn't sailing on the sea three weeks,
I'm sure it was not four,
Before this vessel sprung a leak and sunk,
And it sunk for to rise no more.