Lamkin- Mace/Anderson (ME) c.1887 Barry A
[From British Ballad From Maine; 1929, Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth. Their notes follow. Complete notes are found on the US/Canadian Version page.
R. Matteson 2015]
Mr. Mace learned this song, when a little boy eight or nine years old, from a man named John Anderson: probably from Prince Edward Island, who was then working on Plantation 21, now the town of Osborn. "What I learned of this Lamkin I learned forty years or more ago in the woods; so I remember only a little of some verses. In one verse Lamkin asked the nurse where the man was. She told him where he had gone."
A. Lamkin - sung by Alden Mace, Southwest Harbor, September 28, 1927.
1. "And where is the landlady,
and is she within?"
"She is up in her chamber,
in her chamber most high,
And her doors they are bolted
and her windows fastened tight."
2. "How shall we try
to get her to come down?"
"You may prick her babe's shoulder
with a silver pin."
3. They pricked it
and pricked it full sore,
And the blood from the cradle
in showers did pour.
4 "How can I come down
so late in the night,
Without any fire
or no candle-light?"
5. "There are several bright lanterns,
as bright as the sun,
And you can come down
by-the light of one of them."
6 Down came this fairest lady
. . . . .
Lamkin stood ready
and grabbed her in his arms.
7 "Oh, please, Mr. Lamkin,
spare me till one o'clock,
You can have all the gold
you can take in your cart."
8 "I'd rather see a knife run
through your red heart
Than have all the money
I can take in my cart."
9 "Oh, Lamkin, please Lamkin,
spare me but one hour,
And you may have my daughter Betsy,
She's the branch of all flowers."
10 "Call down your daughter Betsy
she may do you some good,
She may hold a silver vessel
to catch your life's blood."
11 "Oh, my daughter Betsy,
stay where that you be,
To welcome your father
when he comes home from sea."
12 As Betsy was sitting
in her chamber most high,
She saw her old father
a-coming close by.
13 "O father, dearest father,
don't be angry with me,
But Lamkin and the false nurse
have murdered Marmee."
14 Lamkin was taken,
hung on a gallows most high,
And the lanterns stood burning
on the posts that stood by.