House Carpenter- Gentry (NC) 1916 Sharp H
[From: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians; Comprising 122 Songs and Ballads, and 323 Tunes With Lyrics & sheet Music; Collected by Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp, published 1917. Sharp's No. 29. is titled, The Daemon Lover. I've changed it to the more appropriate title- House Carpenter.
Sharp did not provide the text for Gentry's version and many of the versions he collected in EFFSA because he probably felt that the text was not significantly different than the other versions with text provided. Additional text from Sharp MSS 3422/2513; see also Bronson No. 7.
R. Matteson 2013]
Notes: No. 29. The Daemon Lover.
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 243.
Texts with tunes:—Journal of the Folk-Song Society, iii., 84. Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Appendix xv., tune 1. Songs of the West, 2nd ed., No. 76. American variants: —Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii., 207; xix., 295; xx., 257; xxvi., 360; xxv., 274 (with tune). Broadside by H. De Marsan, New York. Musical Quarterly, January, 1916, p. 18.
The Daemon Lover (House Carpenter)
1 O come you home my own true love,
O come you home from sea?
It's are you married? he said,
Yes I am married to a house- carpenter,
And I think he's a nice young man.
2 It's I could have married the king's daughter fair,
And she would have married me;
But I refused a thousand weight of gold,
And 'twas all for the love of thee.
3 If you could have married the king's daughter fair,
I'm sure you are to blame;
For I am married to a house-carpenter,
And I think he's a nice young man.
4 It's won't you forsake your house-carpenter
And go along with me,
I'll take you where the grass grows green
All on the banks of the sweet Willie.
5 She pick-ed up her sweet little babe,
And kisses give it three,
Saying: Stay at home sweet mother's little babe,
And keep your papee company.
6. She hadn't been on sea three days.
Not more than a week. I'm sure
Till she fainted away in her true-love's arms,
And she fainted for to rise no more.
7. It's are you weeping for my gold, he says,
Or are you weeping for my store,
0r are you weeping for your house carpenter
That you never shall see anymore?
8. It's I'm not a-weeping for your gold, she says,
And I'm not a-weeping for your store
But I am a weeping for my sweet little babe,
That I never shall see anymore.
9. She hadn't been dead but about three days,
Not more I will ensure.
Till there came a leak in her true love's ship
And it sunk for to rise no more.