III. The Texts
"The Maid" and "The Hangman" p. 18-65, footnotes (not proofed) found at the end. Not edited carefully. The A Group has been added- some parts are missing, for now.
[Long was thorough but did not provide the texts, perhaps because of copyright issues. For some reason, she doesn't provide titles either. Many of the titles are not local titles and have been supplied by the collector. The geographic location of each text, although usually given, is not emphasized (she gives her reasons why in Chapter 1, but are they valid?)-- and is not considered in her charts (Table I, Table 2, etc. which I will include at a later date). A number of versions have been reported since 1971 (for example, Burton and Thomas; Folklore-Folksongs I) which obviously will not be in the book.
Several of the informants that have made multiple recordings (cf. Almeda Riddle; Mrs. Ward; Mrs. McCord) are listed twice while others (cf. Jean Ritchie; Leadbelly) are only listed once.
Some of the hybrid recordings similar to Poole's "Highwayman" ("Hang Down Your Head" and the different "John Hardy Blues" by Roy Harvey) are not listed but Sandburg's hybrid print version is.
For now I have transcribed the "Conclusions" section of The Texts. I'll add more as time permits.
R. Matteson 2015]
III. THE TEXTS
GROUP A
Group A is based upon an injunction in the first line to "hold" or "stay" the executioner's hand. Three subgroups can be readily distinguished: in one (A1-A12) the victim's ransom is in the form of "gold. and fee" (Fbl, 2); in the second (A13-A28) it is "gold" and "silver" or "money; (Fbl, 3 or Fbl, 4); and in the third it is simply "gold" (Fbl). Geographical distribution is wide; in these forms' the ballad has been connected in areas ranging from Kent and somerset in the south to Durham in the north of England, in Holland, in Australia, in Jamaica, and in the American states of North Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, and Florida.
Textual components are discussed in the order in which they appear in the table. First to be considered is the sex of the victim. of the thirty-seven ballad variants in the group, eight specify that a female is to be rescued from the gallows; of these, five (AB-11, A13) are from Scotland, one (A12) from Tennessee, one (A31) from North Carolina, and one (A25) from Jamaica. variants A12 and A25 show textual affiliations with the Scottish texts in other respects: A12 in its "gold and fee" ransom, found in all Scottish variants in this group except A13, and in its designation of the victim's lover by a proper name (Eb7); A25 in its-use of a first-stanza participle "traveled" (cb5) and ransom in the form of "gold and silver" corresponding to A13's "traveled" and "gold and white monie."
Three Scottish texts (A9, A11, A13) were recovered "crossed" with variants of Child 173 "Mary Hamilton" (Child 1738, F, and X), u narrative song in which a girl is condemned and. executed for having murdered her illegitimate infant. In one of these (Child 173X), the "Gallows Tree" stanzas are so modified that the lover does not offer to rescue her (Ecl). It is clear that the ballad situation could not have originated in the "Mary Hamilton- context' A13, in contrast, shares with A8, A10, Al2, and A31 the identification of the victim's sex by the incorporation of the word. "daughter" in the text (Yu), and A8 has been augmented by a nuncupative curse upon the victim's relatives which is characterized by such incorporations:
"Gae hame, gae hame, father," she says,
"Gae hame, and saw Yer seed;
And I wish not a pickle of it may grow up,
But the thistle and the weed'
"Gae hame, gae harne, gae hame, mother,
Gae hame and brew your Yill;
And I wish the girds may a' loup off,
And the Deil spill a'yer Yill'
"Gae hame, gae hame, gae hame, brother,
Gae hame and lie with yer wife;
And I wish that the first news I may hear
That she has tane your life.
"Gae hame, gae hame, sister," she says,
"Gae hame and sew yer seam,
I wish that the needle-point may break,
And the crows pyke out your een."
This nuncupative curse also occurs in most variants of Child 96 "The Gay Goshawk," and in a broadside ballad entitled "I'll O'er the Bogie wi' Him"[1]; it has not, however, been recovered from English, as opposed to Scottish, tradition. Gilchrist and Broadwood argued ("Children's Game-Songs," p.235) that it was related to an English game-song tradition in which a girl refuses to mourn at the news of the deaths of her relatives but responds to word of her lover's death, a tradition that has European analogues and can be dated at least to the twelfth century.[2] As the nuncupative curse appears in these Scottish exemplars, however, it conforms precisely to a tradition that is equally ancient, but one that occurs regularly in all
Finnish variants of the "Gallows Tree" tradition and sporadically in those of other northern countries. Julius Krohn showed in 1892 that it was to a Finno-Ugric source, entering the Scandinavian version no earlier than the late seventeenth century, that all "Gallows Tree" variants manifesting the curse must have been indebted (see chap. I, n. 15).
Scottish texts featuring "daughter" may or may not be linked directly with the "curse" tradition; but to the predilection for supernatural interpretations shared by Scots and northern Germanic peoples (see chap. I, tr. 47) can be added here a
predilection for female protagonists. In A10 occurs yet another example, this time in the form of a refrain:
O, the broom, the bonny broom,
The broom of the Cauthery Knowes,
I wish I were at home again,
Milking my ain daddy's ewes!
As Child noted (IV, 192), the tune to which this refrain was sung throughout Britain was "remarkably popular" during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The ballad story that normally accompanied it (see Child 217 "The Broom of Cowden knowes" and notes) was as irrelevant to the "Gallows Tree" situation as that of "Mary Hamilton": a girl finds herself pregnant after yielding to a casual stranger who returns in time to save her from disgrace, with neither life jeopardy nor ransom figuring in the ballad situation.
In contrast, English variants in this group show a marked preference for male victims. Two of the American texts identifying their protagonists as "George" (A4, Ab) can be traced to the mispronunication of "Judge" which is unmistakably evident in the British Broadcasting Company's phonograph recording of 416; and the "son" of A2B, also from America, may justifiably be regarded as a remodeling of "daughter." But there remain the "John" of A2 (from Australia) and A7 (from Wiltshire, England) and the "Johnson" of A27 (from North Carolina, as are the other American texts under discussion) as evidence that such modifications are not purely accidental. Variant A28 also addresses the executioner as "Johnnie Law," which serves as an indication that they are derived from an original text featuring "Judge" in the same postverbal position (Bc) that it holds in the Scottish texts with female protagonists.'The four variants from England lacking "Judge" but specifying a male victim through explanatory material (Ic) or through the pronoun "he" (A18, A21, A24, A34) agree in this respect with Al4, also from England, and A14 shares "Judge" with the Scottish texts.
According to Erik Pohl, the "Judge" to which our attention has thus been directed is a secondary development, since the "I see" (CaI) of the third line of the first stanza suggests an out-of-doors, not a courtroom, locale ("Losgehaufte," p. 45). "Hangman" (Ad) occurs in fifteen of these texts, "Judge" in only six. To those six, however, may be added the corruptions to "George" and "John" noted above, and "Judge" appears regularly in the earliest texts of record (A1, A8, A9, A10, A11, A13, dating from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries), twice in the form of "Justice" (Aa2). Similarly, with a single exception (A24), "hangman" texts have either "hold your hand" (Balbl) or "stay your hand" (Ba2bt); the texts postulated as corrupt have "hold up your head" (A2), "stand there" (A7), "hold your tongue" (AB), "take a while" or "stay a while" (A16), "stand back" (A27), and "pass your hands" (A28).
Anna Birgitta Rooth's study of the Cinderella cycle showed that its most widely known form in Europe was not the original one. In 1911 Friedrich Ranke found that the most conservative variants of a popular German legend were not those most coherent and widely disseminated, but the rare and relatively illogical texts, and that the original account had been best preserved in a remote Alpine region.[4] As early as 1864, moreover, J. G. von Hahn had cited illustrative materials in parallels between motifs in classical Greek legend and modern German popular tales (e.g., learning to speak animal languages from a grateful snake) and, conversely, motifs in medieval Germanic saga and modern Balkan tales (..g., a sleep-producing thorn).[5] In a seminal essay in 1927 Archer Taylor asserted that "confused versions may represent a transitional state between an obscured and partially understood Urform [original form] and a better-ordered, more intelligible, but later form" ("Precursors," p. 489), and in 1932 demonstrated the process by which this happens in the history of another German legend, adding that "a detail concerning which stories told on opposite sides of the area agree is very likely to represent a trait which belongs to the very oldest levels in the history of the story."[6] Data have since been gathered by Y. L. Cahan and Max Weinreich showing that
Yiddish traditions in Slavic countries preserve traits from German materials of three hundred years earlier;' Lajos Vargyas (Medieval History) has found the same kind of relationships between verbal traits in Hungarian and in French narrative
songs. Walter Anderson described the procedure that must be followed in analyzing such data in metaphorical terms: "We lay the variants upon each other, so to speak, and hold them up to the light: then out of the confusion of individual
variants the contours of the original form appear in bold relief."[7]
Despite the logicality and consistency of the "hangman, hold your hand" formulation, therefore, the presence, distribution, and condition of "Judge"-related texts suggests that an Urform be sought which would account for them, from the "hold your hand, Lord Judge" of A10, A14, and A15 to the "stand back, stand back, pretty little Johnson" of A27.
The third textual element is the injunction. "Hand" is even more common in these texts than is "hangman"; twenty-two variants take it as the object of the verb. Here, however, the pattern that emerges when the variants are held up to the light is similar to that of "Judge," "Justice," "George," and "John": A2 and A5 have "hold up your head," AB has "hold your tongue." Examination of the traditional ballads in the Child collection shows that "hold your tongue" is widely distributed as a commonplace in Scottish balladry; it occurs in variants of fifty-two ballads.[9] Since only a handful of these texts are from English tradition, and since a great many of them are associated with "daughter" or another family appellation such as is characteristic of Scots-Scandinavian materials, we may be certain that both traits are of Scottish provenance.
Of much more limited currency is "hold your hand." In addition to "The Gallows Tree," it is featured in four English ballads of broadside or minstrel tradition: Child 12B "Robin Hood Newly Revived," Child 150 "Robin Hood and Maid Marian," Child 158 "Hugh Spencer's Feats in France," and Child 231 "The Earl of Errol." The appearance in Scots tradition of the formula is more assured: it is found in variants of Child 37 "Thomas Rymer," Child 89 "Tam Lin," Child 46 "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship," Child 65 "Lady Maisry," Child 103 "Rose the Red and white Lily," Chitd 157 "Gude Wallace," Child l73 "Mary Hamilton," Child 182 "The Laird o Logie," Child 206 "Bothwell Bridge," Child 209 "Geordie," Child 231 "The Earl of Errol," Child 244 "James Hatley," Child 254 "Lord William," and Child 280 "The Beggar-Laddie," or fourteen variants in all.
Of particular concern in relation to "Gallows Tree" texts is a phenomenon observable in Child 254. In each of the three "Lord William" variants published by Child, "hold your hand" alternates with "stand," the injunction found in the deteriorated "Judge" texts of "The Gallows Tree"; the injunction is echoed in Child 73 (I-text), and is found as "stay still" in Child 257 (B-text). "Hold your hand" is manifestly intrusive in the Scots variants listed above. When the data are held up to the light, they show the very strong probability that the "stay thy hand" of A29 and 420-23 is a formulation that originated. in the text of this ballad and was modified in Scotland either to "hold your hand" (under the influence of the endemic commonplace "hold your tongue") or to "stay" or "stand" as corrupt forms. "Stand" exerted a very slight but traceable influence in turn upon such Scottish variants as Child 73I, 257F, and 254A, B, and C;[10] A24's "Hang-man, stand 'ere a while" transforms the probability into a demonstrable certainty. The "pass your hands" of A28 is phonetically somewhat like the "peace for a little while" of Al, the text selected by Child as his A-variant and widely reprinted. Since A28 also has the "methinks" of that text, there can be small doubt that this variant is indebted to the source as printed., at least so far as the first stanza is concerned. Noticeable, however, is the corruption of "Judge" to "Johnny Law," as well as the difference in the ransom specified.
Finally, two American texts (A26, A31) add "wair" to their regular injunctions (Ba6). Such an injunction occurs regularly in Scandinavian tradition;. but Child 254C also alternated "hold your hand" with "wait," and "away, away" occurs as an injunction in Scottish variants of Child ballads in precisely the same sporadic fashion that "stand" does, this time in Child 53 "Young Beichan," Child 64 "Fair Janet," child 83 "Child Maurice," Child 110 "The Knight and. the shepherd's Daughter," Child 178 "Captain Car," and Child 221 , "The Earl of Errol."
As both Erik Pohl and H. Gruner-Nielsen pointed out, there are strong logical reasons for doubting that the English ballad about a person saved from hanging by the payment of cash is derived directly from the Scandinavian ballad about a person saved from kidnapping by pirates by the sale of specifically enumerated personal possessions. My survey of Child's materials tends to verify their contention on phonological grounds: if "The Gallows Tree" did circulate in Britain with a first-trine "stay thy hand, Lord Judge" before the first text was recorded in writing as "good Lord Judge, peace for a little while" (A1), its effect upon
surrounding tradition is the form of "stay," "stand," and "wait" might have been predicted. The reciprocal influence of "hold thy tongue" upon the phrase is equally easy to account for.
The standard third line for the first stanza in this group is "I think I see my father coming" (Ca1b1). One English, one Scottish, and three American variants (A1, A10, A6, A26, A28) add "riding" (Cb2); the Australian A2 has "walking" (Cb3); the Scottish AB and A9 have "wandering"; the English Al4 has "tumbling"; and A13 and A25, one from Scotland and one from Jamaica, have "traveling," as was noted previously. "Yonder" occurs in line 3 of three Scottish texts (A10, A11, A13), as represented in the table by Co, but in line 4 of fifteen English variants (A7, AI5-2A, A22, A24, A29, A32-36), where it is regularly associated with
"stile" (Da2a). "Stile" is found in no Scottish or American text, and may be considered a late development. Since "yonder comes" is not universal in Scots tradition, and since "yonder" appears with "tree" in the second stanza (Hao) in two American and one Scots text (A3, A13, A37), we may conjecture that although the word was probably featured in the original text, its position was not in the first stanza.
In five texts in this group the regular sequence of relatives differs from the others in that the victim's mother is first to arrive (Ea2). The substitution is associated with "George" and "Johnson" in two American variants (A4, A27), with "hangman" in two English ones (A35, A36), both of which depart from the tradition represented in variants otherwise closely related to them. A16 and A17 initiate the sequence with "sister," and A28 with "friend."
"
Requests for ransom take three basic forms: "some of" or "a little of, give me"; "have you any"; and "have you brought" or "did you bring." The last (Fa2b, c, Fa3) occurs in twenty variants, the first (Fal) in three, and the second (Fa2a) in eleven. But, just as an original "Judge" can account for "George," "John," and "hangman," and "stay thy hand" for "hold your hand," "stand," and "wait," so "have you any" suggests itself as the most logical starting point for both "some of" and "have you brought."
Probably the most interesting textual feature in the stanza, however, is the nature of the ransom. Nine variants ask for "gold and fee" (Fb1, 2), and two American texts (A3, 4.6) for "gold to pay my fee" (Fb1, 10a), each with "hold your hand." The "gold to set me free" of 429-37, therefore, appears to be a simple rhyming alternative, and the "silver" and "money" (Fb3, 4) of A13-28 to be secondary accretions. "Fee" in the sense of movable property other than gold was a commonplace in Middle English, losing this sense during the seventeenth century;[12] it persisted in the formula "gold and fee" in variants of thirty-one ballads in the Child collection.[13] As Knut Liestol pointed our in a study of Scottish-Norwegian traditional relationships, the formula equally commonplace in the balladry of Norway.[14]
But "fee" in the sense of a charge fixed by law for services rendered is not only the sole meaning recognized in North America[15] (which might otherwise account for the rationalization "Pay my fee" in variants from that part of the world); it
occurs in Child ballad variants even more frequently than does "hold your tongue," and with the same Scottish preponderance that was recorded" for that commonplace formula. Of the fifty-seven ballads featuring "fee" in the sense of "charge for services,"[16] twenty-almost all Scottish-use the formula "pay a fee."[17] This formula, therefore, must also be regarded as one of considerable status in Scottish tradition.
Nor may "gold and silver" be regarded, merely as the modernization of an archaic expression. The earliest known English use of "gold. and fee," in an eleventh-century translation of the New Testament, reads "gold ne seolfer ne silver," fifteen are English,[18] two Irish (Child 12 "Lord Randal" and Child 93 "Lamkin"), and thirteen Scottish. The fact that "gold and silver" appears fifty-seven times in the Roxburghe collection of broadside ballads[19] raises the question of whether this may be a literary or at least an urban tradition; but "gold and money" occurs in variants of nine Child ballads,[20] "gold and white monie" in eighteen.[21]
It is clear, therefore, that no simple lines of genetic relationship may be drawn from "fee" to "set me free." "silver," "money," and "white money" are as ubiquitous in Anglo-Scots ballad tradition as is "gold. and fee" in Scotts-Norwegian. When the texts in group A are considered. as a whole, however, both "gold and fee" and "gold to set me free" are found. to be almost invariably associated with "hold your hand": "gold and fee" with "Judge" and its corrupted forms, "gold to set me free" with "hangman." "Gold and silver to set me free" and "gold and money to set me free" occur not only in "hold your hand" texts (A13-15, A19,
AI9), but in all "stay your hand" variants except for the fragment A23 and the hesitating A29, and in the only "hangman" texts (A20, A22) in which the verb phrase precedes the name of the person addressed (Bc), the pattern that is normative in "Judge" texts. An original text featuring "stay your hand, Lord Judge," and "gold and silver to set me free" is indicated.
Nineteen variants in this group follow the plea for ransom with the alternative query "or have you come," or "or did you come" (Gf, Gg). Of those remaining, eight have "to keep me [my body] from the grave [ground]" (A1, A15, A16, A17, A19, A22, A24, A28). The indebtedness of A2B to A1 is corroborated here, but the intervening variants show that the indebtedness is not perfect; A1 is the only such text that does not have "gold and silver" or "gold and money" as the ransom (see n.22). Six have "to save me," three (A8, All, A13) in that form, two with "gold and fee." "Save my body" is combined with "gold and fee" (A7, which also has "John, stand here"); "gold and money" (A18, with "hold your hand"); and "gold and silver" (A25, the Jamaican cante-fable featuring the female victim and "traveling" of Al3).[22] The Australian A2 combines "or have you come" with "to take me off this Tyburn tree" (G.), which provides as much evidence as may be necessary that "to keep me" and "to save me" belong to the same stratum of the tradition as does the "Judge" from which its "John" was derived- a stratum in which the gallows setting, with its "hangman" and "or have you come," had not yet appeared. The same may be said of Al's "yonder grave" (Go).
The pattern of I-elements in this group suggest that little relationship exists between narrative settings and the ballad's traditional situation. Child 173 "Mary Hamilton" furnished one such setting; the fable of. A25 furnishes another, in
which a girl is to be hanged for violating "the rule and regulation of her royalty" and is bought off the gallows (the text specifies a hangman, not a judge) with gold and silver. But Atr4 is similarly "crossed" with Child 155 "Little Sir Hugh," and features "silver and gold and jewels" together with a judge. And the informants who furnished texts A5, A18, and A21 shared with A14 the conviction that the protagonist was a male (Ic); one of them called him "George" (suggesting an antecedent "Judge"), and the other two featured "gold and money" in the ransom (suggesting an antecedent "gold and silver").
The last component to be discussed is the refrain sung with thirteen of these texts. (The refrain "O, the broom of Cauthery Knowes," attached to Al0, has already been mentioned as one that, probably together with its tune, was popularly attached to more than one narrative song.) This one has several variant
forms, of which the most common is
Oh, the prickly bush,
It pricked my heart full sore,
And if ever I get out of the prickly bush,
I'll never get in any more.
This formulation has been collected both independently (A38, A39, A40) and with the "Gallows Tree" text in Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire, Somerset, and Dorset in southern England. A variation, "Oh, the prickly holly bush," was also sung in Dorset (A16);[26] another, "O the briery bush," in Somerset (A29). A second version runs
O the prickly briers,
That prick my heart full sore,
If I ever get free from the gallows tree,
I'll never get there any more.
This one is localized in Somerset and Wiltshire (A18, A19, A20). It is regularly associated with "gold and silver" or "gold and money"; the "prickly holly bush" version also has "gold and silver," as goes one variant to which the most common
form of the refrain is attached (A14). With a third line corresponding to that of the most common refrain, however, it occurs in two Somerset variants (A32, A33) asking for "gold to set me free." Variant A14, with "prickly bush," is "crossed" with "Little Sir Hugh" and features "gold and silver and jewels to set me free"; A41, with "prickly brier," is attached to a Child 155 text without benefit of "Gallows Tree" stanzas. Variant A34, with "prickly bush," was sung in a concert series by the ballad popularizer Plunkett Greene during the last quarter of the nineteenth century[24]. Variants with the refrain in the form of "prickly bush,"
therefore, are traceable to this mass culture influence; the "prickly brier" refrain, specially adapted to the ballad situation in A1B, Al9, and A20, led an independent existence before becoming part of the "Gallows Tree" tradition, and may have done so through the medium of its association with "Little Sir Hugh." The singer of A29 reflects awareness of a dual tradition not only in her hesitation between "hold your hand" and "stay your hand" (Bal, 2), but also in her combining of the traditional and the mass culture versions of the refrain in "briery bush."
Both refrains associated with texts in this group, then, are demonstrably secondary and the association contrived. In spite of Cecil Sharp's belief that "there is no feature that is more characteristic of the popular ballad than the refrain,"[25] the more cautious observations of Gordon Hall Gerould and Joseph W. Hendren that refrains tend to be nonessential and superadded have been borne out.[26]
The influence of mass culture dissemination in this instance is mixed. Popularization not only of the refrain but also of the formulas "hangman, hold your hand" and "gold to set me free" is evident, particularly in the closely related Somerset and Dorset variants A32-A36. It is equally evident, however, that another version of the refrain, attached to more conservative texts, thrived relatively well on its own, and that few singers of the ballad in England failed to modify their texts in various ways. Furthermore, the pattern of distribution of A34's elements indicates that its composer drew upon extant tradition at least as much as he contributed to it.
These findings corroborate those of other investigators. Walter Anderson denied that the influence of printed or literary material was likely to be any greater upon folk tradition than that of other sources: "Often it is great-almost one hundred percent, at other times much less. . . . But the oral variants agree with each other item for item in the most important aspects, and, contradict the printed text that has been experienced only once."[27] Hinrich Siuts called attention to the readiness with which traditional singers adapt familiar materials to new orientations[28] as probably occurred with "hangman," "hold your hand," and the "prickly brier" refrain before the complex received support by virtue of its concert version. William Bascom summed up the principle involved as follows: "Innovations which are incompatible with the pre-existing patterns are rejected. This is not a mystical process of culture which operates independently of individuals, but the result of the fact that individuals judge everything in terms of their previous experience."[29]
Discussion of the place of commonplace verbal formulas, narrative settings (whether in songs or in prose), and ref-rains in the tradition of "The Gallows Tree" inevitably leads to the classic question of whether the traditional mechanism of the ballad singer is one of improvisation upon an idea, utilizing the singer's own stock of formulas and subsidiary themes, or one of memorization, with improvisation occurring only as a consequence of forgetting or rejecting portions of the memorized material. Following Albert Lord and Milman Parry, James H. Jones recently asserted that the former was true, and that such features in individual variants reflect the tradition of the singer, not of the ballad.[30] From this point of view, it could be argued that "The Gallows Tree" was recomposed throughout its tradition from materials at hand: a commonplace "hold your hand," the common places "gold and fee" and "gold and silver," the situations of the heroines in Child 173 and Child 217, and so on. But the evidence of the texts tends to support Albert B. Friedman's rebuttal of Jones's thesis." Not only have commonplace formulas been shown to be intrusive upon the ballad text to the same degree that they are commonplace (well though they may be preferences of individual singers), but the narrative settings and refrains are equally intrusive and secondary. Miss Beckwith, whose attempt to fix the origin of narrative song in manifestations tike A25 was overly ambitious, quite rightly pointed out that its creator adapted the material as he received it to the style of his own culture's art ("Jamaica," p. 457); my textual analysis showed beyond doubt that details in the ballad itself had been memorized with considerable accuracy. Whether creatively of this kind is operative, or whether, as Vargyas proposed, "inflation of the preliminaries" is largely due to misunderstanding or forgetting of the original circumstances (Medieval History, p. 264), the basic stability and regular patterns of modifications of these texts make it unmistakably clear that the tradition thus far established originated in a single recognizable text and has been perpetuated by a memorial, not an improvisatory process.
SOURCES OF VARIANTS: GROUP A (TABLE I)
(For Full Citations, See Bibliography)
A1. Reverend P. Parsons, Wye, Kent, 1770 (reported by Bishop Percy; Child A-text).
Sargent and Kittredge, Ballads, 1932, pp. 200-201.
Reed Smith , South Carolina, p. 83.
Reed Smith, Survivals, p. 53.
Numerous other reprints.
A2. Anderson F. Bennett, Queensland, Australia, 1924 (LC-AFS, Gordon MS 1565).
R. W. Gordon, Adventure Magazine, July 23, 1926, pp. 12g-12g, 18g.
Reed Smith, South Carolina, p.85.
A3. William Lewis, Anderson County, Missouri, l9?7 (reported by Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, I, 143-144).
Randolph, Ozark Life,6 (1930),31.
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 464, 465.
A4. Monroe Ward, Watauga County, North Carolina, 1936 (reported by Belden and Hudson, North Carolina, II, I46).
A5. Steve Church, North Carolina, 1941 (reported by Schinhan, music, pp. 78-79).
A6. Emma Backus, North Carolina, n.d. (claimed to have been "brought over to Virginia before the Revolution"; reported by W. W. Newell, Child, V, 296).
Sargent and Kittredge, Ballads, 1932, pp. xxv-xxvi.
Hutchison, "Sailors' Chanties," p. 22.
C. Alfonso Smith, "Ballads surviving," pp. 114-115.
Reed Smith , South Carolina, p.82.
Reed Smith, Survivals, p.54.
A7. G. Wirrall, Marlborough, Wiltshire, 1908 (reported by Gilchrist and Broadwood, "Children's Game-Songs," pp. 228-229).
Reeves, Circle, pp. 184-185.
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 455.
A8. Unidentified informant, Scotland, n.d. (reported by John Leyden; Child I-text, Child, IV, 491).
Sargent and Kittredge, Ballads, 1932, pp. 201-202.
A9. Unidentified informant, Scotland, n.d. (Child 173 "Mary Hamilton" X-text, Child, IV, 511-512).
A10. Widow McCormick, Dumbarton, Scotland, n.d. (reported by William Motherwell; Child B-text).
A11. unindentified informant, Scotland, 1802-1803 (reported by w. F. Skene; Child D-text; Child 173 "Mary Hamilton" F-text; see also Child, V, 246-247.
A12. Mrs. Haun, Cocke County, Tennessee, 1937 (reported by Haun, "Cocke County," pp. 99-102). Coffin, "Unusual Texts," pp. 180-181.
A13. Unidentified informant, Scotland., n.d. (reported by peter tsuchan; child E-text child 173 "Mary Hamilton" E-text).
A14. Reverend Edmund Venables, Buckinghamshire, 1883 (reported as learned from Woburn nursemaid; Venables, "Lancashire Ballad.," p. 27b; child c-text).
Venables, "Folk Song," p. 96.
Broadwood and Fuller-Maitland, English county songs, p. 113.
A15. unidentified informant, Hampshire, 1902 (reported by Reeves, circle, p. tga).
A16. Walter C. Lucas, "The Prickly Bush," Sixpenny Handley, Dorset, n.d. (Columbia KL-206).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 456.
Lucas, BBC 9407 (lZ EH 5449b).
Lucas, LC-AFS 9917A.
A17. Ted Keen, North Marston, Buckinghamshire, lgb2 (recorded by Seamus Ennis; Keen, BBC 18140).
A18. Relative of Dr. George Birkbeck Hill, Somerset, 1888 (reported by Nurt, .,Old Ballad,,, p. 144).
A.19. Dr. George Birkbeck Hill, Somerset, lg90 (Child J-text; Child, IV, 491).
A20.Tim Fox, Bampton, Wiltshire, lgZS (reported by Williams, upper Thames, p. 299).
A21. J. Bandinel, Durham, 1895 (reported. as having been learned eighty years earlier; Bandinel, "Folk Song," p. tl8).
A22. Robert Little, Wiltshire, 1923 (reported by Williams, upper Thames, pp.2Bl-zB?). According to Mr. Little, this version was very popular with the Gypsies of his region.
A23. Alden Mace, Southwest Harbor, Maine, 1928 (reported by Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, Maine, p.207).
A24. Fred Hewlett, Mapledurwell, Hampshire, 1955 (recorded by Bob copper; Hewletr, BBc Zlg5g).
A25. Thomas Willliams, Jamaica, 1924 (reported. by Beckwith, ,,Jamaica,,,pp. a6ba7b).
Reed Smith, Survivals, pp.59-61.
Leach, Ballad Book, pp. Zg8-299.
Friedman, Viking Book of Folk Ballads, pp. 134_136.
Numerous other reprints.
A26. Ruth Simmons, Florida, n.d. (reported by Morris, Florida, pp. 297-298).
A27. "Minnie Lee," Pamlico County, North Carolina, 1927 (reported by Belden and Hudson, North Carolina, II, 148).
A28. Student at Davidson College, North Carolina, 1927 (reported by Davis, Virginia, pp. 380-381).
A29. Mrs. Overd, Langport, Somerset, 1909 (reported by Sharp and Marson, Somerset,V,54).
Sharp, One Hundred Songs,p.42.
Reed Smith, South Carolina, pp. 83*84 (refrain only).
Bronson, Tradi,tional T une s, II, 467 .
Zoder andZoder, "Das Volkslied," pp.397-398.
A30. William Andrews, Lancashire and Cheshire, 1882 (Andrews, "Lancashire Ballad," p. 269; Child Gb-text).
A31. Cora Clark, Avery County, North Carolina, 1929 (reported by Henry, Southern Highlands, pp. e5-e7). Bronson, Traditional Tunes, Tl, 47 047 l.
A32. Unidentified informant, Langport, Somerset, 1883 (reported by Reeves, Idiom, pp. 153-154).
A33. Reverend D. M. Ross, Langport, Somerset, 1908 (reported by Bronson, Traditional Tunes II, 469-470).
A34. Heywood Sumner, Somerset, 1893 (reported by Broadwood and Fuller-Maitland, English County Songs, p. 112; Child K-text, Child, V,233).
Fuller-Maitland, "Folk Song," p. 119.
Bronson, T radit ional T une s, Il, 455.
A35. H. Way, Dorset, 1906 (reported by Gilchrist and Broadwood, "Children's Game-Songs," pp. 230-231).
A36. Julia Scaddon, "The Prickly Bush," Chidcock, Dorset, 1952 (Caedmon Records TGll45B p2-inch LPI).
Scaddon, BBC 18694.
A37. John Duncan, Mitchell County, North Carolina, 1922 (reported by Belden and Hudson, North
Carolina,II, 147).
A38. W. Major, Flambere, Somerset, 1910 (reported by Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 455).
A39. Betsy Pike, Somerton, Somerset, 1906 (reported by Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 468).
A40. Mrs. Timms, Buckland, Somerset, 1909 (reported by Bronson, Traditional Tunes, ll, 452).
A42. W. Hainworth, England, 1895 ("Folk Song," p. 119).
_____________________________________________________
GROUP B: [text missing]
With ninety-three variants, characterized by the injunction to "slack the rope,"group B is by far the largest in the coliection. Like group A, it can be divided into subgroups: a first (B1-28) in which the appeal for ransom is routinely for "gold to pay my fee" (Fbl, l0a); a second characterized by the presence of "yonder" in the thirdline of the first stanza (Co) together with "traveled" (Cb5) and "free" (Fbll) in some variants (8294a); a third (835-51) featuring the substitution of "I looked over yonder" (Co2) for "yonder comes" and "puy my fine" (Fbl0b) for "pay my fee"; a fourth (863-73) asking for "money" (Fb4) rather than "gold"; and a fifth (874-93) with "gold to set [bring, pay] me free." "Daughter" appears only twice in this group: 832 (with "wait," "yonder comes," and "gold to bring me free") and B74 (also with "wait" and "free"). A total of thirty-seven variants have "son" (Za), seventeen of them in the subgroup featuring "I looked over yonder." Variant A2B, with "Johnnie Law" and "pass your hands,"
shared this trait, which can by now be regarded with certainty as a remodeling of. . .
. . . The "slack the rope" group has furnished valuable evidence in several respects. With the aid of child 254, these texts demonstrate that "The Gallows Tree," circulated in the British Isles during the eighteenth century to a greater degree and in a greater variety of forms than published collections or the variants of Group A would indicate. They dramatically reinforce the conclusions drawn from group A that refrains are neither meaningful nor primary in the ballad's tradition and that mass media dissemination affects oral tradition only to the extent that the mass media version itself is based upon oral tradition. Finally, two variants suggest that the principle of convergence may be applicable to folklore materials in terms of the structure of the materials rather than in terms of cultural context: that alterations in the order of appearance of the victim's relatives are due to this kind of convergence seems highly probable.
SOURCES OF VARIANTS: GROUP B (TABLE 2)
(For Full Citations, See Bibliography)
B1. Mrs. [Stone] Maxie, Campbell County, Virginia, 1914 (reported by Davis, Virginia, p. 371).
B2. Grace Baker, Marlville, Tennessee, 1932 (reported by G. Anderson, "East Tennessee," pp. 48-49).
B3. Essie Wallace Yowell, Campbell county, virginia, r9r4 (reported by Davis, Virginia, pp. 266-267).
B4. Roy Pierce, Carter county, Tennessee, lgSB (reported by Perry, "carter county," pp. l54-t56).
B5. Roy Pierce, Carter county, Tennessee, 1938 (reported by Perry, Carter county," p. 304).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 47 147 Z.
B6. Mr. and Mrs. Crockett Ward, Galax, Virginia, 1940 (recorded by John A. and Ruby T. Lomax; Ward, LC-AFS 4083 BZ).
B7. Mrs. Crockett Ward, transcribed by Mr. crockett ward (LC-AFS, Fields M. Ward MSs, rrr t2).
B8. Mrs. I. L. Stowe, Texas, n.d. (reported by Owens, Texas, pp. a6a\.
B9. Jean Holeman, North Carolina, 1922 (reported as learned forty-five years earlier from Negro servant Maria Mccauley; Belden and Hudson, North Carolina, II, l42, and schinhan, Music, p.78).
B10. Henry cooper, North carolina, 1924 (reported by L. W. Chappell, Roanoke, pp. 35-36).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 46l. -
B11. Flora stafford Swetnam, Kentucky, n.d. (reported by Hudson, Mississippi, p. rla).
B12. Mrs. James Sprouse (later became Mrs. williamson), campbell county, virginia, IglE (reported by Davis, Virginia,pp. 370_32t).
B13. Mrs. [Lynch] Creasey, Campbell county, virginia, 1916 (reported by Davis, Virginia, pp. BII-378).
B14. Henry Belk, Union county, North Carolina, 1919 (reported by Belden and Hudson, North Carolina, II, pp. 146-14Z).
B15. Charlie Poole and His North Carolina Ramblers, "Hangman, Hangman, slack That Rope," 1928 (Columbia Records tb3l8_D lt4677}l).
B16. Miss Carrie Rakes, Franklin County, Virginia, 1939 (reported by Raymond H. Sloan; UVL-M).
B17. Mrs. Alice Wagoner, Franklin County, Virginia, 1939 (reported by Raymond H. Sloan; UVL-M).
B18. Hattie Quinn, Franklin county, Virginia, 1940 (reported by Raymond H. Sloan; UVL-M).
B19. Almeda Riddle, "The Hangman," Arkansas, I9b9 (prestige/International Records INT 25009).
B20. Almeda Riddle "The Hangman," Rhode Island, 1964 (Vanguard Records vRs_grg3/vsn 79183). [Also Wolf Collection]
B21. Unidentified 'illiterate mountaineer," Jager, West Virginia, 1903 (reported as received from Reed Smith by Kittredge, "Two popular Ballads," p 86)
Reed Smith, South Carolina, pp. 144-146.
Sandburg, Songbag, p. 72.
Smith and Rufty, American Anthology,pp. 82-88.
Reed Smith, "La balada traditional," pp. -ZZS_Zg+.
Botkin, American Folklore, pp. gZZ_824.
B22. John West, Gibson county, Indiana, 1935 (reported by Brewsrer, "Traditional Ballads,,,p. 3lt; Brewster, Indiana, pp. 125-127.
B23. unidentified informant, Tennessee, n.d. (reported by Marie Campbell, "Gallows Tree," p. 95).
B24. Harry Jackson, "The Hangman's song,,, r95g (Forkways Records FH bzz3 [Iz_inch Lp]).
B25 Carrol wayne Farker, ola, Arkansas, lg58 (recorded by Max Hunter; parker, LC-AF' .,g08
B26. Jimmie Driftwood" [James Morris], "slack your Rope," lgSg-lg5g (RcA Victor Records LPM 1994 fr?-inch Lpl).
B27.Jane Hurd, Trumann, Arkansas, 1967 (reported by Jeannine Talley; UCLA-CWF.
B28. Unidentified informant, Los Angeles, California,1966 (reported by Janeen Johnston; UCLA-cwF).
B29. Young man named Richards, Logan county, West Virginia, 1916 (reported by cox, south, p. 116).
B30. Mrs. E. E. chiles' Jefferson county, Missouri, 1916 (reported as learned sixteen years earlier
from housemaid Elsie Ditch; Belden, Missouri,p. 6?).
Kittredge, ..Ballads and Songs,,, p. BZ0.
Bronson, Traditional Tunei,Il, 469.
B31. E. C. Morgan Knoxville, Tennessee (reported as having been learned in Kentucky;
B32. Elizabeth Snyder, Hamilton County, Tennessee, 1939 (reported as having been learned in North Carolina; Duncan, "Hamilton County," pp. 77-79).
B33. Unidentified informant, Sea Islands, North Carolina, n.d. (reported by parsons, Sea Islands, pp. tB9-191).
Reed Smith , South Carolina, p. gg.
Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, Maine,
Bronson, Traditional Tu:nes, II, 467.
B34. Belvia Hampton, North Carolina, n.d. (reported by Schinhan, Music, p. 79).
B35. Mrs. Walter, North Carolina, n.d. (reported by Belden and Hudson, North Carolina, II, 144_t45).
B36. Jean Ritchie, Kentucky, 1951 (reported by Ritchie, Singing Family, p. 153; Ritchie, Folkways Records FA 2301 112-inch LPI).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 462.
Ritchie, LC-AFS 10,089 A9 (recorded by Duncan Emrich).
B37. May Kennedy McCord, Springfield, Missouri, 1897, 1938 (reported by Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, I, 145).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 47 2.
McCord, LC-AFS 5334 Bl (recorded by Vance Randolph).
B38. Miss Etta Kilgore, Wise CountJ, Virginia, 1939 (reported try Emory L. Hamilton; UVL-M).
B39. Jeannie Hall, Arkansas, 1930 (reported by Randolph, Ozark Folksongs,I, 14+145).
B40. Bentley Ball, "The Gallows Tree," l9l9 (Columbia Records ,{3084).
B41. Lucy Ann Cook, Harlan County, Kentucky, n.d. (reported by Wyman and Brockway , Lonesome Tunes,pp. 44-47).
Reed Smith , South Carolina, p.84.
Reed Smith, Survivals, p. 55.
Pound, American Ballads,pp. 3 1-33.
Cambiaire, Mountain Ballads, pp. 15-16.
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, Il, 461-462.
B42. Children in Pine Mountain Settlement School, Harlan County, Kentucky, 1916 (reported by Wells, Ballad Tree, pp. 115-116).
B43. Clara Callahan, North Carolina, n.d. (reported by Scarborough, Song Catcher, pp. 197-198).
B44. Mary Ann Short, Kentucky, l9l7 (reported by Sharp and Karpeles, Southern Appalachians, I, 2l l).
B45. James Still, Hindman Settlement School, Kentucky, n.d. (reported by Trout, "Greetings," December 19, 1957).
B46. James Taylor Adams, Big Laurel, Virginia, 1938-1939 (reported by Henry, Southern Highlands, pp. 97-98).
LC-AFS, WPA MSS, Virginia Songs and Rhymes, Ballads Wl1671, as obtained from H. H. Fuson.
Adams, UVL-N,{.
B47. J. Tom Hiles, 1938-1939, as obtained from Arcadian Magazine, Eminence, Missouri,2 June, 1932), 4 (LC-AFS" WPA MSS, Missouri Songs and Rhymes, Ballads 1V7360).
B48. Mrs. C. A. Brackett, Hamilton County, Tennessee, 1938 (reported by Duncan, "Hamilton County," pp.79-80.
B49.Unidentified informant, Hillsborough County, Florida, 1917 (reported by Davis, Virginia, p.381).
B50. "Two little mountain girls in Kentucky" (reported by Thomas, Devil's Ditties, pp. 164-165).
B51. Lenore C. Kilgore, Big Laurel, Virginia, 1939 (reported by James Taylor Adams; UVL-M).
B52. "Lengthy, a Tennessee boy" (reported by Sandburg, Songbag, p. 385).
B53. Nell Caldwell, Logan County, West Virginia, 1928 (reported by Cox, lVest Virginia, pp.29-30).
B54. Mrs. J. H. Humphries, Craig County, Virginia, 1932 (reported by Davis, More Virginia, pp. 224-226).
B55. John W. Bevins, Wise County, Virginia, 1942 (reported by James M. Hylton; UVL-M).
B56. Nancy E. Pearson (collector), Giles County, Virginia, l9l7 (reported by Davis, Virginia, p. 328).
857. Alice Stanchfield, 1969, reported as learned from stepfarher oscar Thompson (see D40; reported by Arthur G. Brodeur, Berkeley, California).
B58. Mrs. Cordelia Bentley, Esserville, Virginia, 1939 (reported by Emory L. Hamilton; UVL-M).
B59. Unidentified informant, Alleghany county, Virginia, 19l5 (reported by Davis, Virginia,p. Sg0)
B60. Esther Finlay Floevey, New Orleans, Louisiana, n.d. (reported by Scarborough, Negro Folk-Song, pp. 4t4Z).
B61. Bradley Browning, Arjay, Kentucky, 1937 (recorded by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax; Browning, LC-AFS 1387 A2 and Bl).
B62. "Old woman," Harrison County, Mississippi, 1916 (reported by Davis, Virginia, pp. 391-392)
863. Edwin Swain, Florida, n.d. (reported by Scarborough, Negro Folk-song, p. gg).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 4BZ4bg.
B64. L. c. Welch, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958 (reported as learned. from polly Ann Shefiy, Virginia, 1900; Trout, "Greetings," January 80, lgbg).
B65. Mrs. J. L. Inng, Virginia, 1918 (reported by Bronson, Traditional Tunes,II, 4bB).
B66. Mrs. Laura Donald, Dewey, Virginia, l9l8 relrcrted by Sharp and Karpeles, Southern Appalachians,I, ZlZ).
Bronson, Traditional T une s, lI, 47 I.
B67. Mrs. Lawson Grey, Virginia, lglS reported by Bronson , Trad,itional Tunes,lI,4b4).
B68. Mrs. Molly E. Bowyer, Villamont, Virginia, l9l8 reported by Sharp and Karpeles, Southern Appalachians, I, 213).
Bronson, T radit ional T une s, II, 4b4).
B69. Mrs. Pearl Brewer, Pocahontas, Arkansas, 1958 (recorded by Max Hunter; LC-AFS ll,gob B4).
B70. Bob Bradley, Blue Ridge, Virginia, lgl8 (reported by Bronson, Trad,itional Tunes,II, 4b4).
B71. May Kennedy McCord, Springfield, Missouri, 1952 (recorded by Anne Grimes; McCord, LC-AFS 11,457 Al).
B72. Mrs. [Holland] Maxie, Franklin County, Virginia, l9l4 (reported by C. Alfonso Smith, Ballads Surviving," p. ll9.
Scarborough , Negro Folk-Song, p. 42.
Reed Smith , South Carolina, p. gZ (first stanza only).
Davis, V irginia, pp. 362-869.
Bronson, Traditional Tunes,II, 4Sg.
B73. Mrs. James York, Iredell County, North Carolina, 1939 (reported by Schinhan, Music,p.gl).
B74. Jesse Harvey, Poplarville, Mississippi, n.d.. (reported by Hudson, "Ballads and Songs," p. 106).
B75. Belvia Hampron, North carolina, n.d. (reported by schinhan, Music, p.77).
B76. Carrie Hess, wesr Virginia, 1916 (reported by cox, south, pp. lls-lr?).
B77. Mrs. Walter Gilley, Tennessee Industrial School, n.d. (reported by McDowell and Lassiter,
M emory M e lodies, p. ZZ).
B78.Flora Hood, west Virginia, 18g0, 1916 (reported by cox, south, pp. llz-llg).
B79. Hazel K. Black, west virginia, n.d. (reported by cox, south, p. lls).
B80. B. B. Chapman, West Virginia, 1924 (reported by Josiah Combs; UCLA_WKF, Josiah H.
Combs Collection of Songs and Rhymes).
B81. Walter H. Keener, West Virginia, 194? (reported" by Musick, "'West Virginia," pp. 424-4).
B82. Jo Wilburn, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1958, as learned from friend whose grandmother learned it in southern Illinois (recorded by Mary C. Parker; Wilburn, LC-AFS 12,050 817).
B83. Mr. Joliffe, Northampton County, Virginia, 1921 (reported by Davis, Virginia, pp. 375-376).
B84. Hobart smith, saltville' virginia' 1942 (recorded by Alan Lomax; smith' LC-AFS 6723 Br) [see also his sister's version Texas Gladden, 1917 (Davis)]
B85. Flora Havens, Blount County, Tennessee, 1932 (reported by G. Anderson, "East Tennessee," pp. 46-48).
B86. Lizzie Dills, Kentucky, n.d. (reported by Fuson, Kentucky Highlands, pp. 113-114).
B87. J. A. Wyatt, King William County, Virginia, 1922 (reported by Davis, Virginia, pp. 378-379).
B88. Unidentified informant, North Carolina, n.d. (Isabel Rawn, collector; reported by Belden and Hudson, North Carolina,II, 144).
B89. Jane Brown, Canton, Ohio, n.d. (reported as having been learned in pp.62-63).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 459.
B90. Effie Mitchell, Burnsville, North Carolina, I9l8 (reported by Sharp and Karpeles, Southern A p p a lac h ian s,'1., 2I3).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 460.
B91. Bertha Fooshe, Chickasaw College, Pontotoc, Mississippi, 1928 (reported by Alice M. Child, "Folk Bailads," pp. aSaa).
B92. Julia FIalTr, Florida, n.d. (reported as learned from Bob Miller [cf. C21, also reported as having been learned from Miller]; Morris, Florida, p. 298).
B93. Ethel Perry Moore, Lincoln County, Nebraska, n.d. (reported by Botkin, Play-Party Song, p.62).
____________________________
GROUP C
Group C, characterized by an injunction to "wait," either alone or in combination, includes three subgroups: in the first, the person addressed in line I is "Joshua," and the appeal is for "gold and silver to pay my fee" (La4, Fbl,3, 10a); in the second, a "hangman" is addressed and the appeal may be for "money to pay my fee" (as in 863-66, 87l-73) or "gold to set me free" (as in A29-37); in the third, the appeal is for "silver and gold" (Fb3, 1) and the address may be to either "hangman" or "Judge."
Variants 1-11 constitute the first subgroup. The third line in the second stanza of their texts offers an explanation for the victim's situation: "For I have stolen a golden [silver] cup" (Gd). "Have you any" (Fa?a) occurred in eleven group A variants (A10, with "gold and fee"; A16-20, A22, and A24, with "gold and silver" or "gold and money" "to set me free"; and A29, A32, and A33, with "sold to set me free"). It also occurred in seven variants in group B (814, with "gold to pay my fee," B33, with "yonder comes" and "gold," B,64, with "money to pay my fee," and B78-82, with "gold to set me free"). In these texts it is normative, and may on the basis of this distribution be considered antecedent to "some of" and "have you brought" ("have you brought" being regular with "hangman," "some of" with "gold and fee"). "For I have stolen a golden cup" may therefore be regarded as an interpolation substituting for "to keep my body from yonder grave," from the. . .
. . . "yonder comes" and "gold and money to set me free" with "hold the rope," a manifest intrusion. Finally, C47 furnishes a possible example of "complex demand" similar to those discussed earlier. As has been indicated, its ballad text is independent of other "silver and gold" variants, although it has the "did you bring" found in A25, C7, Cl3, Cl4 (with "gold and silver") B3, B8, B9, B12, Bl3, B15-17, B31, B49, B53-55, B61-63, B74, B77; B85-91 (with "gold to set me free"); C23, C24, C26 (with "gold to set me free"); C29 (with "gold"); C32-34, C36, C45, C46 (with "silver and gold"). h the narrative setting for C47 (mother coming first, friend last) the usual sequence of refusals followed by acquiescence is reversed: all the members of the family offer all they have and only the friend refuses. This syndrome occurs in certain versions of the ballad found in eastern Europe; a single example from Serbian tradition will suffice for illustrative purposes.
Jowo wandered onto the Guards' scaffold,
The rotten wood broke under him,
He fell, and his arm was broken.
Quickly they called the healing-woman,
A WiIa from the mountain-forest.
She asked a great deal for healing him,
From his mother her white right hand,
From his sister her braided locks,
And her pearl necklace from his wife.
His mother gave her white hand,
His sister gave her braided locks,
But his wife gave not her necklace.
"I'll not, by God, give my pearl necklace,
It was given me by my father."
Then the WiIa from the mountain was angry,
And she poisoned Jowo's wound.
Jowo died,-alas, poor mother.[53]
SOURCES OF VARIANTS: GROUP C (TABLE 3)
C1. Mrs. Sarah Buckner, North Carolina, 1916 (reported by Sharp and Karpeles, Southern Appalachians, I, 208-209).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 460.
C2. T. Jeff Stockton, Tennessee, 1916 (reported by Sharp and Karpeles, Southern Appalachians,l, 208).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 460.
C3.Harold Staats, Tug Fork, West Virginia, l92l (reported by Cox, South, pp. ll8-119).
C4. Mrs. kna Bare Turbyfill, Elk Park, North Carolina, 1939 (recorded by Herbert Halpert; Turbyfill, LC-AFS 2844 B).
C5. Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Leicester, North Carolina, as learned from Henry Marlor, Boyd's Cove, Madison County, North Carolina, 1949 (recorded by Duncan Emrich; Lunsford, LC-AFS e474 A3).
C6. Nate Marlor, Boyd's Cove, Madison County, North Carolina, 1936 (recorded by Sidney Robertson; Marlor, LC-AFS 3169 A).
C7. Pauline Herman, Newton, North Carolina, n.d. (reported by Bascom Lamar Lunsford; Herman, LC-AMD).
Herman, UO-RG.
C8. Mrs. Laurel Jones, Burnsville, North Carolina, 1918 (reported by Sharp and Karpeles, Southern Appalachians,I, 215).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 464.
C9. Frank Profitt, Wautauga County, North Carolina, 1939 (reported by Schinhan, Music, pp. 7e-80).
C10. Joe Wells, Esserville, Virginia, 1939 (reported by Emory L. Hamilton; UVL-M).
C11. Sina Boone, North Carolina, 1918 (reported by Sharp and Karpeles, Southern Appalachians, I, 213).
C12. "Recca," Mangrove Cay, Andros Islands, n.d. (reported by Parsons, Andros Islands, pp. 153-154).
Reed Smith, South Carolina, pp. 90-91.
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 47 247 3.
Numerous other reprints.
C13. Jane Monroe, Cat Island, Bahama Islands, 1935 (recorded by Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle; Monroe, LC-AFS 481 82, 482 Al).
Monroe, BBC 13877.
C14. Gertrude Thurston, New Bight, Cat Island, Bahama Islands, 1935 (recorded by Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle; Thurston, LC-AFS 388 83).
Thurston, BBC 13877.
C15. Mary Riddle, Buncombe County, North Carolina, n.d. (reported by Henry, "Ballads and Songs," p. 272.
Henry, Southern Highlands, p. 98.
C16. Unidentified informant, Madison County, New York, n.d. (reported by Henry, "Fragments," p. 247; identical with C15).
C17. "Old woman," Pittsylvania County, Virginia, 1917 (reported by Davis, Virginia, pp.364-365).
C18. Mrs. Otey, Montgomery County, Virginia, 1916 (reported by Davis, Virginia, pp. 371-372).
C19. Norma Grindstaft, Beaver Creek, North Carolina, n.d. (reported as having been learned from mother whose name was McClellan [cf. C25]; Sheppard, Cabins, p.282).
C20. John Henry King, Woolsey, Virginia, 1941, reported as learned from "an old colored man" (reported by Susan R. Morton; UVL-M).
C21. Mrs. J. D. Blanton, Florida, n.d. (reported as learned from Bob Miller fcf. B92, also reported as having been learned from Miller]; Morris, Florida, pp. 295-296).
C22. Roy Crimes, De Valls Bluft, Arkansas, 1953 (recorded by Mary C. Parler; Crimes, LC-AFS; 11891 A21).
C23. Belvia Hampton, Clay County, North Carolina, 1915 (cf. B.34, 875, from same informant; reported by Belden and Hudson, North Carolina,II, 143).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 456.
C24. Myrtle Love Hester, Alabama, n.d. (reported by Arnold, Alabama, pp. 68-69).
C25. Ellen Crowder, Gouges Creek, North Carolina, n.d. (reported as having been learned from mother, whose name was McClellan [cf. Ct9]; Kittredge, "Ballads and Songs," p. 321).
Sheppard, Cabins, pp. 281-282.
C26. Mrs. H. L. (Laura) McDonald, Farmington, Arkansas, 1942 (reported by Randolph, Ozark Folks on gs, I, | 47 -L 48).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 468.
McDonald, LC-AFS 5418 Bl.
McDonald, LC-AFS 11,904 A9 (new but identical recording by Max Hunter, 1958).
C27. Sadie Spencer, Dumas, Arkansas, 1962 (recorded by Libby Hellums; Spencer, LC-AFS 13,138
Al2).
C28. Morley Roberts, Barnstaple, Devonshire, 1895 (reported as having also been known in this
form to Norman Gale in the Midlands; Roberts, "Folk Song," p. 16.
C29. Mrs. Calvin S. Brown, reported as learned "in the canebrakes of Alabama," n.d. (reported by Hudson, "Ballads and Songs," p. 105).
Hudson, Mississippi, p. lt2.
Hudson, Folh Tunes, p. 19.
Bronson, T radit ional T une s, II, 468.
C30. Aldah Louise Womble, Water Valley, Mississippi, n.d. (reported by Hudson, "Ballads and Songs," p. 106).
C31.Wilma Clark, Louisville, Mississippi, n.d. (reported by Hudson, Mississippi, p. 113).
C32. W. S. Harrison, Fayette, Mississippi (reported as having been learned from T. D. Clark, father
of informant for C31, who learned it from Allie May Estes; reported by Hudson, Mississippi, pp. 113-ll4).
C33. Mrs. M. E. Whisenhunt, Slick, Oklahoma, n.d. (reported as learned from grandfather, who
learned it in Aberdeenshire, Scotland; Moore and Moore, Southuest, p. 76).
C34. Earl Humphries, Kansas, n.d. (reported by Coleman and Bregman, American Folks, pp.
I 16-r l8).
C35. William F. Burroughs, Washington, D.C., 1925 (reported by R. W. Gordon; LC-AFS, Gordon
N.{S 1033).
C36. "W. F. 8.," Livingston, Montana (hobo jungle), n.d. (reported by R. W. Gordon, Ad,uenture
Magazine, December 20, 1925, p. l9l).
Reed Smith, South Carolina, pp. 48-49.
C37. Della Causey, Florida, n.d. (reported by Morris, Florida, pp. 298-299).
C38. Hetty Twiggs, North Carolina, 1931 (reported by Henry, Southern Highlands, p. 99).
C39. Luther Wright, Amherst County, Virginia, 1936 (reported by Davis, More Virginia, pp 227-228).
C40. charlie Poole and his North carolina Ramblers, "The Highwayman," 1926 (columbia Rec-
ords 15160-D p42659]).
UVL-M.
C41. Eunice Yearts, Virginia, 1932 (reported in Grapurchat, August 2b, 1982, p. B).
C42. Unidentified informant (John Burch Blaylock, collector), North Carolina, n.d. (reported by
Belden and Hudson, North Carolina,II, l48-l4g).
Friedman, Viking Book of Folk Ballads, pp. Ig6-197.
C43. "Lester the Highwayman" Hester "pete" Bivins], "The Highwayman," ca. 1937 (Decca Records 5559 [64112-A]).
C44. Pearle Webb, Avery County, North Carolina, 1939 (reported by Schinhan, Music, p. 80).
C45. "Blue Sky Boys" [Bill and Earl Bolick], "Poor Boy," 1965 (Capitol Records T/Sf 24SB [12-inch LP]).
C46. Lola Mae Cole, Durham County, North Carolina, 1921 (reported by Mary A. Hicks; LC_AFS, WPA MSS, North Carolina Songs and Rhymes,'W g47l).
C47. "Leadbelly" [Huddie Ledbetter], "The Gallis Pole" / "Mama, Did you Bring Me Any Silyer?" 1938 (LC-AFS 2501 A).
Lomax and Lomax, Leadbelly, p. 60.
Asch and Lomax, Leadbelly Songbooh, p. bZ.
Ames, "Negro Folklore," p.242 (partial text).
Johnny Bond Compositiores (for professional use only), p. 50; copyright by Harlan Howard, 1964 (vidor Publications, Inc., Burbank, california srightry modified).
Leadbelly, Elektra Records EKL-30l/1.
Leadbelly, LC-AFS t39 A2 (recorded by John A. Lomax, 1935).
Leadbelly, LC-AFS 4473 82 (recorded by Alan Lomax, 1940).
Numerous recordings and reprints.
C48. Unidentified informant, Jamaica, n.d. (reported by Jekyll, Jamaican Song, pp. 58-59).
Reed Smith, South Carolina, pp. 89-90.
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, Il, 479.
Numerous other reprints.
C49. Mrs. J. E. Schell, North Carolina, 1933 (reported by Henry and Matteson, Beech Mountain, P. 18).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 467.
C50. Laura Ferrara, Jersey City, New Jersey, n.d. (reported as learned from Edith Williams in Oklahoma; Henry, "Fragments," p. 247).
Henry, Southern Highlands, p. 98.
C51. Unidentified Negro nurse, Newberry, South Carolina, n.d. (reported by Belden and. Hudson, North Carolina, II, 146).
C52. Fred Gerlach, "Gallows Pole," 196? (Folkways Records FG 3529 [I2-inch Lp]). Gerlach, LC-AV 102.
___________________________________________
GROUP D
The variants of group D show a more regular pattern than has been discernible in groups A, B, and C. All but nine (D2,D4, DG, Dgb-gg, D44) begin with "hang-man, hold the rope"; D2 alternates "hold the rope" with "throw me a rope," D4 calls the executioner "Mr. Brakeman," D6 has "loosen the rope," D35 has "spare the lines," D36 has "stop the rope," and D44 has "hold. your horses." D37 ii included here only because it shares the unusual "I see my father's face" (Eala) with D36. D36, together with D38 and D39, demonstrates that the "ropeman" tradition eight variants in all) did originate in this context and not ruith "slack the rope." All but ten variants in group D (D1 and D12 with "walking:, Dg, D2, D13, D14, D33, D36, D39, D43 with "riding") have "r see my father coming" with no qualifying participle only the defective texts (D4, Db, D6, Dl6, Dl7, Dz6, D4I, D4z) fail to rhyme "while" with "mile" in Stanza I; the six featuring "gold to pay my fee" (D1-6) include three of these and one other lacking material in the second stanza. In the dominant "gold to set me free" group, all but D4l and D4Z, with "for I am going to be hung" (G.), and D17 and D29, with "or did you come to. . .
The Texts (Group D) SOURCES OF VARIANTS (TABLE 4)
D1. Mary Drain, Farmington, Arkansas, 1942 (reported by Randolph, Ozark Folksongs,I, 146-147).
D2. Mrs.W. L. Martin, Hillsville, Virginia, 1939 (recorded by Herbert Halpert; Martin, LC-AFS2i5i B4).
D3. Texas Glaclden, Roanoke County, Virginia, 1917 (reported by Davis, Vi.rginia, p.373).
D4. Bascom Larnar Lunsford, as learned from Mrs. Deal [Dill?], Henderson County, North Carolina, 1935 (recorded by George W. Hibbett and Wiltiam Cabell Greet, Lunsford, LC-AFS l78Z Bl).
BBC 12795.
LC-AFS 9474 A3
D5. Nancy Crow, Oklahoma, n.cl. (reported by Moore and Moore, Southwest, Pp. 75-76).
D6. "Lucy," Virginia, n.d. (reported by Scarborough, Negro Folh-Song, pp. 35-37).
D7. S. E. Lowden, Gilmer County, West Virginia, 1924 (reported by Carey Woofter; UCLA, WKF,
Josiah Combs Collections of Songs and Rhymes).
D8. Mrs. J. F. Dowsett, Virginia, 1937 (Reported by Bronson , Traditional Tunes,II, 466).
D9. Grace Grinstead, Barren County, Kentucky, 1952 (UCLA-WKF).
D10. Martha E. Gibson, Albermarle County, Virginia, 1931 (reported by Davis, More Virginia, p.
227).
D11. Mary Biggs, Knoxville, Tennessee, n.d. (reported by Kirkland and Neal, "Knoxville, Tennessee," p.71).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 466.
D12.Mrs. Flester Fields, Esserville, Virginia, 1940 (reported by Ernory L. Hamilton; UVL-NI).
D13. C. J. Cagle, Wesley, Arkansas, 1954 (recorded by N4ary C. Parler; Cagle, LC-AFS 11,893 AZ).
D14. Helene Bellaty, Ellsrvorth, l\'faine, n.d. (reported as learned from father, Captain W. C. Bellaty;
Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, Al[aine, pp. 206-?07).
D15. Nlorrow Davis, Elizabeth City Cotrnty, Virginia, l9l3 (reported as learned from cousin; Davis,
Virginia, p.376).
D16. Nlich Whitey, 1923 (attributed to Negro tradition; reported by R. W. Gordon; LC-AFS,
Gordon MS 1033).
D17. Emma Chandliss, Anderson County, Missouri, 1929 (reported by Randolph, Ozark Folksongs,
I, 144).
D18. Jennie Mason, Cannon County, Tennessee, n.d. (reported by Robert Mason, "Cannon County,"
pP.20-21).
Mason, "Middle Tennessee," pp. I29-l30.
D19.Robert Lassiter, Tennessee, n.d. (reported by McDowell and Lassiter, Memory h{elodies, pp
2r-22).
D20. Robert Shiflett, Brown's Cove, Virginia, 1961 (r'ecorded by George Foss; Shiflett, LC-AFS
12,004 A5).
Abrahams and Foss, Folksong Style, pp.4142.
D21. Mary Nash, Stafford County, Virginia, 1922 (reported by Davis, Virginia, P. 370).
D22. N. B. Chisholm, Albemarle County, Virginia, 1916 (reported by Sharp and Karpeles, Southern Appalachians,I,2l0).
Davis, Virginia, p. 369.
Bronson, Traditional T une s, II, 465.
D23. Mae Cosnor, West Virginia, 1915 (reported by Cox, South, p. 115).
D24. Margaret A. Pound, Westmoreland County, Virginia, 1915 (reported by Davis, Virginia, p. 379).
D25. Mary Bird McAllister, Brown's Cove, Virginia, 1956 (Putative; recorded by Paul Clayton; reported as having been learned in Los Angeles in 1951; McAllister, LC-AFS 11,305 AIB). McAllisrer, BBC t6?06.
D26. Ed Davis, Nelson County, Virginia, 1915 (reported try Davis, Virginia, p. 374).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 466.
D27. Mrs. J. D. Carpenter, Madison County, Virginia, 1920 (reported by Davis, Yirginia, pp. 374-otsv Jt5).
Bronson, Traditional T unes, II, 464.
D28. Mrs. H. S. Faugh, West Virginia, 19l5 (reported by Cox, South, p. 117).
D29. Unidentified informant, Rensselaer Count/, New York, n.d. (reported by Harold Thompson, Body, Boots, and Britches, p. 397).
D30. Cecil R.. Knight, Virginia, n.d. (reported by Scarborough, Song Catcher, pp. 199-200).
Bronson, Traditional T unes, II, 463.
D31. Addie Gibson, Virginia, n.d. (reported by Scarborough, Song Catcher, p. 200).
D32. "Mountain woman," Rockingham County, Virginia, l9l4 (reported by Davis, Virginia, pp. 362-363).
D33. Alice Sloan, Kentucky, l9l7 (first stanza only; Sharp and Karpeles, Southern Appalachians, T, 212 [Tune D33b]).
Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 458.
Full text, Bronson, Traditional Tunes,II, 469 (Tune D33a).
D34. Z. B. Lam, Virginia, 1935 (reported by Bronson, Traditional Tunes, II, 465-466).
D35. Orilla Keaton, Albemarle County, Virginia, 1916 (reported by Sharp and Karpeles, Southern Appalachians, I , 209).
Davis, Virginia, pp. 363-364.
D36. unidentified informant, Kentucky, n.d. (reported by Josiah H. combs; ucLA-wKF, Josiah H. Combs Collections of Songs and Rhymes).
D37. David Webb, North Carolina, 191B (reported by Bronson, Traditional Tunes,II, 450).
D38. Cleona Farnsworth, Harrisville, ohio, n.d. (reported by Eddy, Ohio, pp. 63-64).
D39. Vernon Allen, Shafter, California, 1941 (recorded by Charles Todd and Robert Tonkin; Allen, LC-AFS 5100 A).
D40. Oscar Thomason, Crum Lynne, Pennsylvania, 1969 (see B57, reported as learned from him in l913; reported by Arthur G. Brodeur, Berkeley, California).
D41. Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Brunswick, Maine, 1943 (reported as having been learned from a Negro in Indianapolis; Flanders, New England, III, 2l-29).
D42. Peggy Coffin Halvosa, Barre, Vermont (reported as learned from father, informant for D41; Flanders, N ew England, IIT, 23-27).
D43. Leah Arnold, Baltimore, Maryland, n.d. (reported by Davis, virginta, p. z7a).
D44. Louis J. Hebel, Louisville, Kentucky, 1957 (reported as learned from fwhite] maid sixty years earlier; Trout, "Greetings," December 19, 1957).
____________________________
have "stop the rope" (Ba8b3), and three others simply "stop" (E4-9). "Stop the rope" was also found in 864 (with "money to pay my fee," resembling F22 with its "money and fee"), C29 (where it is intrusive upon a "daughter-wait-yonder, traveling-gold" pattern), and D36 (with "ropeman" and "gold to set me free"). Only one "stop" text in this group E21) is not defective in its first stanza (Dc). "Stop," then, is a secondary and sporadic development, which might have originated either with an Irish ballad text featuring "money and fee" and "Judge" or with an English cante-fable text featuring "golden ball" and "hangman."
Three texts (E1-3) have "wait" (Ba6); one of them, collected in Illinois, combines it with "slack the rope" and features the male victim usually associated with that tradition. "wait" is found elsewhere with "silver and gold" (A26, C17, CBI-43, C46, C50), "gold and silver" (C1-7, C11), "money" (B72, C17), "to buy me free" (A26, A3l, 874, C11, C19, C20), "to pay my fee" (B3, B72, C1-7, C17), "to pay me free" (C26, C27), "to bring me free" (832, C23, C25). It only two other exemplars (C21, with a male victim and "hangman, hold the rope," and C22, with "daughter") is this verb associated with "set me free" as it is here. Like "stop," "wait" is consistently associated with secondary verbal manifestations.
Where present at all, the third line of Stanza I is the simplistic one (Ca1a) characteristic of "hold your hand / hold the rope-gold to set me free" texts in group A and group D; only three variants in this group (E10-12), all collected in the United States, have such a pattern. Eleven variants have an appropriate "have you found" (Fa2d), one the command "find" (Fa1c); seven have a conventional "have you brought" (Fa2b), and two "did you bring" (Fa3). "Have you any" (Fa2a) and "some of" are, of course, precluded by the nature of the ransom. But there is no such logical explanation for the absence of "to keep me" or "to save me," which were featured in the texts with narrative settings A25 and C47; the presence in E18 and E20 of "to take me off" (G.), found previously in A2, C12, C13, and C39 and proposed as a survival of such a trait, and the fact that E18 was collected in Maine, E20 on the Isle of Wight, render the hiatus more puzzling if these texts are to be considered "original."
Finally, it is to be observed that every American text in this group (E3, E10, E11, E12, E13, E15, E16, E17, E18, E21), except for the cante-fable E19, to be discussed. Presently, accompanies the introduction of a golden ball as ransom with an innovation in the final line of Stanza II.
More than thirty years ago, Erik Pohl summarized ("Losgehaufte," pp. 59-61) the logical case against accepting the "golden ball" version as the original form of "The Gallows Tree":
1. There is no apparent reason for the introduction's being in prose.[59]
2. There is no reason to assume that a ballad lacking motivation in its text must originally have had an introduction.
3. Popular balladry offers analogous cases that can always be demonstrated to be secondary.
4. The lost golden ball does not satisfactorily motivate the situation.
The textual evidence corroborates Pohl's argument. What is manifested in these "golden ball" texts is neither an Urform (original version), ascertainable from the presence of significant archaic traits, nor a Normalform (achieved version), although there is evidence in C, F, and G features that the Normalform of groups A and D underlies the tradition. The majority of the ballad texts are fragmentary; the injunctions to the hangman are those already demonstrated to be secondary; American variants tend to reverse the sex to the one that is normative in the tradition and to elaborate upon the adjective qualifying "tree" (E3, E10, E11, E12, E13, E15-18, E21). The symbolic values of the golden ball and the key are discussed in chapter V, when the narrative portions of these texts are examined more closely. But that the narratives in question were attached. to a ballad tradition that already was possessed of several distinct versions, each with its own characteristics in terms of the injunction to the executioner and the formulation of the ransom, is abundantly clear. E19, an elaborate tale reportedly collected from a plantation Negro, deserves the same special attention afforded in Chapter I to E7, the text composed by the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould. In the tale, a black couple ure t"*urded for their kindness to a stranger by the gift to their infant daughter of a golden ball pendant that turns her skin white and her hair long, straight, and yellow. Her mother dies and her father remarries; the new stepmother cuts the pendant from its chain, and the girl becomes black again. She is accused of being a stranger who has murdered, the fair child;[60] at the gallows, she begs her father, stepmother, and "beau" to "fin' dat golden ball," but to no avail. At last the beggar whom her parents had befriended appears with the ball, turns into a handsome young man, and rides off with her into the side of a hill.
The major narrative motif in this tale is that of AaT 412 "The Maiden with a Separable Soul in a Necklace," which has been reported from oral tradition only in India. Other themes employed are those of AaT 750 (protagonists rewarded for showing kindness to an unprepossessing stranger), AaT 463B (enchantment causes change in skin color), and AaT 403 (a cruel stepmother tries to bring about the death of a favored daughter, also utilized by the narrator of C48). As Phillips Barry pointed out (Barry, Ekstorm, and Smyth, Maine, pp. 210-211), the fairy hill in the conclusion is borrowed from Irish mythology.[61] Such complexity in narrative structure has been manifested in no other cante-fable in the "Gallows Tree" tradition except the one composed by Baring-Gould in support of his solar myth hypothesis. Moreover, three of the elements involved oikotypal ones (an Indian separable soul residing in a necklace, a predominately Mediterranean change of skin color by means of enchantment,[62] and an Irish other world). This tale is *o.* likely to have emanated from a library than from an illiterate informant.
SOURCES OF VARIANTS: GROUP E (TABLE 5)
E1. Unidentified informant, unidentified location, n.d. (reported by Addy, "Folk Song," pp. 148-149).
E2. Ellen M. Hill, Shrewsbury, 1895 (reported as learned. thirty-five years earlier; Hill, "Folk Song," p. 119).
E3. Mrs. Lessie Parrish, Carbondale, Illinois, 1945 (reported by Mclntosh, "Golden Ball," pp. 98-100).
E4. Mrs. Thompson, Southport, Lancashire, n.d. (reported by Gilchrist and Broadwood, "Children's Game-Songs," p. 233).
E5. Kate Thompson, Lancashire, 1884 (reported as learned from two servants from Northumbria; Thompson, "Lancashire Ballad," p.354i Child Hb-text).
E6. "W. F.," Lancashire, 1882 (reported as a game played by children in Forfarshire, Scotland; "W. F.," "Lancashire Ballad," p. 476; Child F-text).
E7. "Two Yorkshire lasses," n.d. (reported by Baring-Gould, Ha-text).
Jacobs, More Tales, pp. 12-15.
E8. A. Knight, Oxford, lB95 (reported as children's game played thirty years earlier; Knight, in Atlzenaeum, 3508 [January 19, 1895], 86).
E9. H. Fishwick, Lancashire, 1882 (Fishwick, in NQ [ser. 6], VI p8821, 415; Child G-text).
E10. W. R. Dehon, Summerville, South Carolina, 1918 (reported as learned from Negro nurse named Margaret, 1856-1857; Reed Smith, Survivals, p. 121).
Reed Smith, South Carolina, pp. 145-146.
E11. Miss Grauman, Michigan, n.d. (reported as learned from an Irish nursegirl in Kentucky, 1883; Gardner and Chickering, Southern Michigan, pp. 146-148).
E12. "Slum children in New York City," 1916 (reported by George Lyman Kittredge as received from Mary F. Anderson; Kittredge, "Ballads and Songs," pp. 319-320).
Reed Smith , Survivals, pp. 62-63.
Reed Smith, South Carolina,p.93.
Mary F. Anderson, UO-RG.
E13. Nancy Pearson, Pulaski County, Virginia, 1916 (reported by Davis, Virginia, p. 371).
E14. Mrs. Bacheller, Jacobstown, North Cornwall, n.d. (reported by Sabine Baring-Gould; Child Hc-text, Child, V, 238).
E15. Phebe fcilley] Stanley, Baker Island, Maine, n.d. (reported by Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, Maine, pp.208-209).
El6. Nancy [Gilley] Stanley, Big Cranberry Island, Maine, 1926 (reported by Barry, Eckstorm, and
Smyth, Maine, pp. 207-208).
E17. "Colored girl," Gloucester County, Virginia, 1918 (reported by C. Alfonso Smith, "Ballads Surviving," pp. 118-119)
Scarborough, N e gr o F o Ik- S ong, p. 42.
Reed Smith , Surviaals, p. 55 (first stanza only).
Davis, Virginia, p. 872.
E18. Mrs. Frank Matthews, Eastport, Maine, 1927 (reported by Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, pp. 209-210).
E19. Unidentified informant, unidentified location, n.d. (reported by Owen, OId Rabbit the Voodoo, pp.185-189).
Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, M aine, pp. 210-212.
Numerous other reprints.
E20. M. Damant, Lammas, Cowes, Isle of Wight, 1895 (reported as learned from a "young woman of Romsey"; Damant, "Golden Balls," pp. 306-308).
E21. Ellen M. Sullivan, Springfield, Vermont, 1932 (reported as having been learned in County Cork, Ireland; Flanders, New England, III, 18-20).
E22. Irish nursemaid, New York (?), 1909 (reported by Kittredge, "Various Ballads," p. 176).
E23. Anonymous and untitled report in JFSS, XIII (1913), 14.
E24. Mrs. Fred Morse, Islesford, Maine, n.d. (reported as learned from an "old wandering beggar man" in Ireland; Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, Maine, p. 210).
CONCLUSIONS
In regard to the sex of the victim in "The Gallows Tree" tradition, eighteen or group A's thirty-seven ballad texts, forty of group B's ninety-three, and twenty- three of group D's forty-four make no specification, while only eight of group C's fifty-two variants and eight of group E's twenty-three fail to do so. Group C and group E are dominated by extratextual traditions (the theft of a cup, watch, thimble, or key, the murder of a rival, the loss of a golden ball); the ballad situation itself, then, focusing as it does upon release from execution by payment of ransom is bound to no sexual preference. The appearance of the word "daughter" in five variants in group A, two in group B, thirteen in group C, six in group D, and one in group E is traceable to Scottish tradition; "son," in one text in group A, thirty-seven in group B, twelve in group C, and seven in group D is undoubtedly a remodeling of that tradition. "Daughter" tends to be associated with the verb "hold," "son" with "slack"; but both are found with "wait."
When the text is dissociated from this kind of sexual attribution, we find a female victim associated with "crossing" narrative materials in three variants in group A, three in group C, and six in group E, a male in only one in group A and four in group C. Males preponderate when the sex is attributed without benefit of such materials: there are only three female attributions in group B, four in group C, and two in group E, but male attributions occur in four of group A's texts, seven of group B's, two of group C's, six of group D's, and three of group E's. Both the chronological antecedence of the male victim and the fundamental irrelevance of the victim's sex and offense to the ballad's tradition are illustrated by the following conversation between a mother and daughter, recorded by Peter Kennedy in Dorset in 1952:
Mother: A man was gonna- wan't it?-hang 'imself, drown 'imself?
Daughter: No, 'twas a girl, wan't it?
Mother: Eh?
Daughter: Must 'ave been a woman, because she said, "'Ave you brought me gold, or can you set me free?" 'T' was a woman.
Mother: The prickly prickly bush--that's-I don't know what's the beginning on 't.
Daughter: The prickly prickly bush, that pricks my heart so sore; if I once get out of this prickly bush I won't go there any more. Well-- you don't remember-- I don't think Mother remembers what it's about, she only knows part of it.
Mother: Well, I know a lot of the verses of it, you see, mother, father, sisters and brothers-and the young lady, I know all that-see? But-I don't really know-
Daughter: Oh, 'twas a man, was it? I thought it was a woman.
Mother: Well, man, 'twas a man.
Daughter: Was goin' to be hung?
Mother: Ay.
Daughter: Oh, I see.
Four conclusions can be drawn:
1. As Walter Anderson, D. K. Wilgus, and Bertrand Bronson[64] have noted, the tendency of the ballad is to maintain or revert to its simplest, most primitive narrative form, to which in the present instance it is obvious that neither the sex of the victim nor the crime imputed is strictly relevant. It follows that no interpretation of the ballad situation which depends upon one or both can be valid.
2. A predilection for female victims is characteristic of Scottish and Border tradition, and is perhaps comparable to the predilection for supernatural trappings in Scottish and Scandinavian balladry that has been documented by Marta Pohl, Holger Nygard, and Lajos Vargyas.
3. There is also a strong tendency for female protagonists to be introduced together with "stories" explaining, although seldom very logically, the ballad situation Willa Muir has attempted to relate the "golden ball" story to nineteenth-century concepts of romantic love and family authority.[65] Although her thesis -ends itself to overinterpretation: the regular association of narrative materials of this kind with secondary textual features and, fragmentation of the ballad text beĀars it out so far as the dating is concerned. It must be remembered., however, that the "story," the sex of the victim, and the order of the relatives, appearance in any given text is the manifestation of the psychology of an individual, not of an entire social group or of a period;[66] only when regular and consistent patterns are present can legitimate inferences be drawn about the tradition of an isolable "folk."
4. This being true, the substitution of "son" to, "daughter" "slack the rope" and "silver and gold" texts, both of Scottish derivation, male victims for female ones in "golden ball" variants collected in the United States, and "George" and "John" for "Judge" in the United States, Australia, and England, corroborates the testimony of nonnarrative attributions in variants from all five textual groups: insofar as the sex of the victim is relevant to the ballad proper, it is traditionally male.
The Normalform of the ballad has three manifestations, which may be regarded as English, Scots-American, and Anglo-American oikotypes:
I Hangman, hold your hand,
Hold it for a while,
I think I see my father coming
Over yonder stile.
Have you brought my gold,
And will you set me free?
Or have you come to see me hung
Upon the gallows tree?
II Hangman, hangman, slack the rope,
Slack it for a while,
Yonder comes my father,
He's traveled [walked for] many a mile.
Have you brought my gold,
And have you paid my fee?
Or have you come to see me hung
Upon the gallows tree?
III Hangman, hangman, hold the rope,
Hold it for a while,
I think I see my father coming,
He's come for many a mile.
Have you any gold?
For gold will set me free.
Or have you come to see me hung
Beneath the willow tree
Parallel to these versions, however, are the traces of two others:
IV Hangman, hangman, wait a while,
Just wait a little while,
I think I see my father coming,
He's come for many a mile.
Have you brought me silver,
And have you brought me gold?
And have you walked this long, long way
To take me from the gallows pole?
V Hold your hand, Lord Judge,
And wait a while for me,
I think I hear my father coming,
Rambling o'er the sea.
Have you any gold
And silver to pay my fee?
For I am going to be hanged
Upon the gallows tree.
And behind all these traditions lies the one responsible for other corrupt forms of "Judge," "stay your hand," "stop your hand," and "stand," "riding," "to keep my body from the grave," and "to save me," and "yonder gallows tree," which can be reconstructed only as follows:
VI Stay thy hand, Lord Judge,
Stay it for a while,
I think I see my father coming,
Riding many a mile.
Have you any gold
And silver to set me free?
To keep my body from yonder grave
And my neck from the gallows tree?
Neither "slack the rope" nor "hold the rope" could well have become part of the tradition before "Judge" was replaced by "hangman." Since both Normal-formen featuring "hold" are characterized by "gold to set me free," it is probable that "fee" entered as "to pay my fee" with "slack the rope," and that its association with "hold" in some variants represents an archaization of that tradition facilitated by the existence of "gold and fee" as a commonplace formula in northern balladry. "Hold," in turn, is derived from the commonplace "hold your tongue." But the variant record is one of continual interpenetration of one version by another. Although each innovation must have originated. in some such fairly massive re-creation of the text as those proposed above, the tradition qua tradition shows minimal, not maximal change from variant to variant. The majority of the singers of this ballad are conservative, and will change few textual components at one time.
Innovations supported by mass media dissemination seem to have no greater effect upon the course of the tradition in this respect than do those originating and circulating without such support. Perhaps the most far-reaching change is that from "Judge" to "hangman," which took place entirely within the oral tradition. The "briery bush" refrain in England, the "stolen cup" and "beneath the willow tree" versions in the United States, and the "wait a while," "hangman, slack the rope," and "silver and gold" developments emanating from Scotland have exerted influence comparable to, if not greater than, that of the "prickly
bush," "you won't love and it's hard to be be loved," "slack the rope, hangman," and "wait, Mr. Judge," versions promulgated by mass media.
There remains the question of the immediate provenance of "The Gallows Tree." Reed Smith's assertion that it originated "before Chaucer's pilgrimage,"[67] has long been discredited; Erik Pohl thought that it could not be bated before 1550 ("Losgehaufte," p.63). Patrice Coirault and Holger Nygard have shown that "simple situation" ballads, structured by incremental repetition, did not appear in European tradition before the seventeenth century;[68] Louise Pound, E. Joan Miller, and David C. Fowler concur with regard to Anglo-Scots balladry in toto, Miller and Fowler proposing the eighteenth century as even more probable than the seventeenth for the real development of the genre.[69]
The wide distribution of variant forms in the Western Hemisphere showing trait relationships with British traditions demonstrates that "The Gallows Tree" emigrated not once but many times since its inception. Scottish traits predominate to a marked degree, however, and traces of the reconstructed, Urform can be found only in variants demonstrably based upon secondary developments (e.g., "Judge" with "gold and fee," "gold and silver" with "hangman',). Assuming that perpetuation of an oral tradition is dependent upon the continuous association of a relatively large number of persons who share it,[70] it seems evident that the massive Scottish emigrations that did not begin until the eighteenth century are responsible for the bulk of the American tradition.[71]
The third and fourth decades of the seventeenth century, however, saw an influx of English bondsmen into the southern colonies,[72] and it is reasonable to suppose that the community thus formed would have brought its ballads with it if they
existed; from 1640 until the turn of the eighteenth century, however, the exportation of such persons was negligible.
Taking into account its style, its language, and the condition of its texts in America, then, the period 1650-1700 seems the most propitious for the introduction of "The Gallows Tree" into English tradition.
Footnotes:
Portuguese tradition ("Una comparacion tentativa de temas de baladas inglesas y espaflolas," FA, 4 [1956], 5-27); see also his "German Folksongs in Spain," HR 27 (lgbgt, 49-Eb, and "Themes Common to English and German Balladry," MLe I (1940), 2g_2b.
58. Jonas Balys, Lithuanian Narratiae Folksongs (washington,D.c., lg54), pp. bb-bz.
59. See chap. i, n. 24. Siuts noted. that the phenomenon i, .o--on in Germanic oral narrative,
and that it is due to forgetting of the trallad text "Volksleider unserer Tage,,, p. 7B).
60. Again we have the "false accusation" motif characteristic of cante-fables with "gold and silver" and "silver and gold."
61 The motif is F211 in Thompson's Motif-Index and in Tom Peete Cross's Motif-Index of Early Irish Literature, Indiana University Publications, Folklore Series, 2 (Bloomington, Ind., [n.d.]). It appears sporadically in Icelandic and Lithuanian tradition. See also Hyder Rollins paicl-t,-|he other World according to Descriptions in Mediveal Literature (Cambridge, Mass., 1950).
62 Motif D31; there are scattered references in Danish folklore, but the bulk of the tradition is centered in Spanish, Arabic, and Jewish tales.
63 Mrs. Barnes and Mrs. Tuck of Chidcock, Dorset, as recorded by Peter Kennedy, 19 October, 1952 (BBC 18694).
64 W. Anderson, Albert Wesselshis Angrifien, p. 30; D. K. Wilgus, "Ballad Classification," x[F 5
(1955), p. 100; Bertrand H. Bronson, "About the Commonest British Ballads,,,JIFMC g (1957),
22-27.
65. Willa Muir, Living with Ballads (London, 1969), pp. 171-174.
66 See Phillips Barry, "The Part of the Folksinger in the Making of Folk Balladry," in Leach and Coffin, eds., The Critics and the Ballad, pp. 59-76.
67. Reed Smith, South Carolina, p. 93.
68 Patrice Coirault, Formation de nos chansons folkloriques (Paris, lgb8), I,26-27; Holger Nygard, "Ballads and the Middle Ages," TSL b (1960), 85-96.
69 Louise Pound, "On the Dating of the English and Scottish Ballads, PMLA 4b (1932), 10-16; E. Joan Wilson Miller, "The Rag-Bag world of balladry," ,sFe 24 (1960), zt7-228; David c. Fowler, "Toward a Literary History of the Popular Ballad," Nirqzl (lg6b), tis-t+t.when Ewald Fliigel undertook the task of dating the Child ballads in 1899 ("zur Chronologie der englischen Balladen," anglia 2l [1899], 312-358), he found, only twenty-three that could be traced earlier than the seventeenth century, none of them featuring enumerative or incremental structure.
70 W. Anderson, Albert Wesselshis Angriffen, pp. 35-41.
71. see Thomas Addis Emmett, "Irish Emigration during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries," JAIHS 2 (1899), 70; Wesley M. Gewehr, The Great Awakening in virginia, 1740-1790 (Durham, N. C., 1930), p.25 Edwin C. Guillet, The Great Migration: The Atlantic Crossing by Sailing-Ship since 1770 (London, 1932), p. l; J.p. Maclean, An Historical Account of the Sitttr*entsiy Scotch Highlanders in America Prior to the Peace of 17s3 (Glasgow, 1900), passim; George Shep-Person, "Writings in Scottish-American History: A Brief Survey," W Melser. B;, lt (lgb4),lOg-fZA. The evidence of the "Gallows Tree" texts supports the contentions of shepperson and Herschel M. Gower ("How the Scottish Ballads Flourished in America," sR 6 1960]; Z-rry that the cultural influence of the Scottish emigrants of this period has been unjustly overlooked.
72. Emmett, "Irish Emigration" p.61; J. Holland Rose et al., The Cambridge History of the British Empire,I (New York, 1929), 136-lB0; John Camden Florten, The Original Lists of persons of Quality; Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; serving Men sold, for a Term of years; Apprentices; Children stolen; Maidens Pressed; and Others Who Went from Great Britain to the
American Plantations 1600-1700," (London, 1874); Clifford K. Shipton, "Immigration to New England, 1680-1740," JPE 44 (1936), 225-229.I am assurning with J. w. Hendren ("The Scholar and the Ballad singer," SFQ 18 1954], 142) that ballads would have been sung primarily by the "Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years" and "Apprentices" rather than by "persons of quality."