Lady Margaret- Caroll (Newfoundland) 1930 Karpeles
[My title, replacing the Child title. From Folk Songs from Newfoundland, version A, Karpeles. Notes by David Gregory follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
From: Song Collecting in Newfoundland: Maud Karpeles, 1930
David Gregory, Athabasca University
The first region Maud visited was therefore the western coast of the Avalon Peninsula, with Placentia as her base. On July 4th she recorded her first impressions in her diary: “Placentia a beautiful place…[but] does not look promising for songs. Strolled out after tea and mode some enquiries. Seems rather hopeless.” The next day she called on Gerald Doyle and others to get as much information as she could about the best places to visit on the Southern Shore and the difficulties of transportation in the region. As a result of the advice she obtained, she decided that her best bet was to go first to Placentia, next to the Burin Peninsula, and thereafter to take the coastal steamer further west.[2]
However, the next day was a little more promising. This is Maud’s record of how she fared that Saturday:
Took car to Pt. Verde. There made several calls. Everybody most friendly, but they have no songs. Got several addresses… After dinner made some calls in Placentia finishing up with the Griffins. They got Mr. Carrol to come in & he sang “William’s Ghost.” He is a fine singer & no doubt has other songs. Arranged to call tomorrow. Feeling very tired, but am cheered at the thought of having got even one song.[3]
Mr. Carrol was actually Michael Caroll, Snr. Maud had noted the ballad that he sang her, “Sweet William’s Ghost,” on four different occasions during her 1929 collecting trip and she would encounter it when she reached Hermitage on the southern coast, but Michael Caroll’s tune was the one she would eventually choose to publish as her A version in Folk Songs from Newfoundland. The singer decorated and varied the melody slightly from verse to verse, so the following is only an approximation of his tune:
Lady Margaret (Sweet William's Ghost) -Sung by Michael Caroll Sr. at Placentia, July 5, 1929.
Lady Margaret was sitting in her own loyal bower,
‘Twas built of lime and stone;
Lady Margaret was sitting in her own loyal bower,
When she heard a dead man’s moan.
“Now is it my father the king?” she cries,
“ Or is it my brother John?
Or is [it] my own Willie,” she said,
“From Scotland here have come?”
“No, ‘tis not the king,” he replied,
“It is no your brother John,
But it is your own dear Willie
From Scotland here have come.”
“Did you bring to me any token of love,
Did you bring to me a ring,
Did you bring to me any token at all
That a true love ought to bring?”
“No, I’ve brought to you no token at all,
I’ve brought to you no ring,
But I’ve brought to you my winding-sheet
That my body lies mouldering in.”
Now in crossing over the frozen plain
On a cold and stormy night,
In crossing the plains of a cold winter’s night
In a dead man’s company.
Now when they came to the old churchyard
Where the graves were mossy green,
Saying: “Here is my place of residence,
For me to take a sleep.”
“Is there any room at your head?” she said,
“Or any at your feet?
Or any room about you,
For me to take a sleep?”
“No, my father is at my head,” he said,
“My mother is at my feet,
And there’s three little devils
For my soul to take.
“One of them is for my drunkenness,
And the other is for my pride,
And the other is for deluding of fair pretty maids
And staying out late in the night.” [4]
Footnotes:
2. Karpeles, “ Field Diary # 2” . Entry for 4th July, 1930.
3. Karpeles, “ Field Diary # 2” . Entry for 5th July, 1930.
4.. Maud Karpeles, ed., Folk Songs from Newfoundland, 50-51 (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1970).