How Come That Red Blood on Your Coat? Hurt (Va.) 1921 Davis A
[From Davis- Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
EDWARD
(Child, No. 13)
This ballad, like the preceding, is a colloquy between mother and son. The son has killed some one, usually a father or brother, and the mother by persistent questioning extracts the truth from him. The final stanza in Child usually implicates the mother. All the Virginia texts, however, are strikingly filial: the mother is never cursed or implicated in the murder, nor is the father ever
the victim. The tragedy is always fratricidal, with the "little brother" as victim. They are more closely related to Child A than to B, in form, in language, and in the identity of the victim, but the absence of the mother-cursing stanza and her implication in the guilt distinguishes them sharply from all the Child versions. Whether this change is the result of American filial sentimentality or of an unconscious rationalization of a somewhat unnatural conversation, there is some loss of dramatic force at the close. For a man to say that he will be back
When the sun and moon set on yonder hill,
And that will never be
is an inadequate substitute for the compressed meaning when he tells his "ain mither deir" what he will leave her:
The curse of hell frae me sall ye beir,
Sic counceils ye gave to me O.
In Virginia the ballad is usually known by its repeated first line, as " What Is That on the End of Your Sword?" "What Is That on Your Sword So Red?" and "How Come That Red Blood on Your Coat?" American texts are few. See Bulletin, Nos. 2-4, 6, 9; In Campbell and Sharp, No. 7 (North Carolina); Hudson, No. 5 (and Journal, xxxlx, 93; Mississippi); Pound, Ballads, No. 9; Sharp, Songs, I, No. 1 (Tennessee); Shearin, p. 4; Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Perrow reported the ballad from Kentucky in a letter to Kittredge (1914).
A. "How Come That Red Blood on Your Coat?" Collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by Mrs. M. C. Hurt, of Wytheville, Va. Wythe County. November 8, 1921.
1. "How come that red blood on your coat?
Pray, Son John, tell it to me."
"It is the blood of my fine horse
That ran away with me."
2. "How come that red blood on your coat?
Pray, Son John, tell it to me."
"It is the blood of my fine gilligo-hound [1]
That trailed the track for me."
3. "How come that red blood on your coat?
Pray, Son John, tell it to me?"
"It is the blood of my poor little brother
That rode along with me."
4. "What did you and your little brother fall out about
Pray, Son John, tell it to me."
"We fell out about a chestnut bush
Which you might call a tree."
5. "What will you do when your father comes home?
Pray, Son John, tell it to me."
"I'll set my feet in yonders boat
And sail across the sea."
6. "What will you do with your pretty little wife?
Pray, Son John, tell it to me."
"I'll set her down by my side
And sail across the sea."
7. "What will you do with your sweet little baby?
Pray, Son John, tell it to me.
"I'll set him down betwixt my knees
And sail across the sea."
8. What will you do to get rid of the law?
Pray, Son John, tell it to me."
"I'll set my feet in yonders boat
And sail across the sea."
9. "When will you be back?
Pray, Son John, tell it to me."
"When the sun and the moon set on yonders hill,
And that will never be."
1. Cf , gay gilleon or gergilleon in other versions. Cf. also greyhound of Child A. [This word as derived from other versions is "guinea grey hound."]