Jeems Randal- Sexton (VA) 1932 Davis EE
[From Kyle Davis Jr., More Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1960, six versions AA-FF. Davis's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
LORD RANDAL
(Child No. 12)
Despite the great popularity of this ballad in America, the basic story of the sweetheart's murderous treachery, revealed through a question-and-answer sequence between a mother and her dying son, has remained surprisingly uncorrupted. Except for AA, the newly collected Virginia texts follow Child B in omitting information about the death of Randal's dogs, and all follow either Child A or B in the use of the gallows or hell-fire motif.
The concluding stanza of AA giving the detail of the punishment of the faithless sweetheart represents a story variant different from any classified by Coffin. Although of interest to the collector, this information Seems rather superfluous, since "Lord Randal" ends far more dramatically on the bleak note of the betrayed lover's curse. Other texts given here follow Coffin's Story Typ. A, with many verbal variants.
Child prints twenty-five versions of the ballad, and points out its Continental relations. Gerould (pp. 17-20) remarks that the ballad has been found "as far east as Czecho-Slovakia and Hungary, as far north as Scotland and Sweden, and as fat south as Calabria." He shows the close parallel between an Italian version recently collected near Pisa and traced back to a broadside printed in Verona in 1629, and an eighteenth-century Scottish version.
TBVa prints fourteen texts out of sixteen available, with four tunes. More recent collecting in Virginia has produced six additional items, including four tunes (one lost). All six versions, with three tunes, are presented here. Bronson (I, 191-225) has found and prints 103 tunes (with texts), and divides them into three major groups, commenting that "most of the divisions suggesting themselves within the larger body of tunes are subdivisions rather than actual cleavages." Group A with 81 variants, represents the main melodic tradition of the ballad, which Bronson subdivides into four varieties, plus an appendix of anomalies, the oldest copy coming from Robert Burns in Ayrshire before 1792. Group B, with 16 variants divided into two almost equal parts, is the "Henry" group, mainly English, but with representatives from the west of Scotland and America. Group C, the "Croodin' Doo" version, with six variants, has two varieties, one Scottish and Aeolian, the other English. All four Virginia tunes from TBVa are classified under one or another subdivision of Bronson's major Group A. Of the tunes below, FF belongs to Bronson's Group Ac.
EE. "Jeems Randal." Collected by E. J. Sutherland, of Clintwood, Va. Contributed by Miss Ada Rose, of Clinchco, Va., who learned it from Mrs. Betty Sexton, her great-grandmother. Dickenson County. March 12, 1932. Interesting text variants.
1 "What did you have for your breakfast,
Jeems Randal, my son ?
What did you eat for your breakfast,
My sweet and fair one ?"
"Fried eel and fresh butter,
Mother, fix my bed soon,
I am sick at my heart,
And it faints or lie down."
2 "What did you eat for your dinner,
Jeems Randal, my son ?
What did you eat for your dinner,
My sweet and fair one ?"
"Sweet milk and roast venison,
Mother, fix my bed soon,
I am sick at my heart,
And it faints or lie down."
3 "What did you eat for your supper'
Jeems Randal, my son ?
What did you eat for your supper,
My sweet and fair one ?"
"Baked ham and fried onions,
Mother, fix my bed soon,
I am sick at my heart,
And it faints or lie down."
4 "What do You will to Your mother,
Jeems Randal, my son ?
What do You will to your mother,
My sweet and fair one?"
"The house and the garden,
Mother, fix my bed soon,
I am sick at my heart,
And it faints or lie down."
5 "What do you will to your sister,
Jeems Randal, my son?
What do You will to your sister,
My sweet and fair one?"
"My trunk and my money,
Mother, fix my bed soon,
I am sick at my heart,
And it faints or lie down."
6 "What do you will to your brother,
Jeems Randal, my son?
What do You will to your brother,
My sweet and fair one?"
"My rope and my saddle,
Mother, fix my bed soon,
I am sick at my heart,
And it faints or lie down."
7 "What do you will to your father,
Jeems Randal, my son?
What do you will to your father,
My sweet and fair one?"
"The means to bury me,
Mother, fix my bed soon,
I am sick at my heart,
And it faints or lie down."
8 "What do you will to your sweetheart,
Jeems Randal, my son ?
What do you will to your sweetheart,
My sweet and fair one?"
"The rope and the gallows,
Mother, fix my bed soon,
I am sick at my heart,
And it faints or lie down."