Little Harry Huston- Fairbanks(VT) 1939 Flanders A
[From Ancient Ballads, III; Flanders, 1963. Notes by Coffin/Flanders follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter
(Child 155)
This ballad is founded on an incident related under the year 1255 in The Annals of Waverly. Child, III, 235, summarizes it as follows:
A boy in Lincoln, named Hugh, was crucified by the Jews in contempt of Christ, with various preliminary tortures. To conceal the act from the Christians, the body, when taken from the cross, was thrown into a running stream; but the water would not endure the wrong done its maker, and immediately ejected it upon dry land. The body was then buried in the earth, but was
found above dry ground the next day. The guilty parties were now very much frightened and quite at their wit's end; as a last resort they threw the corpse into a drinking well. The body was seen floating on the water, and, upon its being drawn up, the hands and feet were found to be pierced, the head had, as it were, a crown of bloody points, and there were various other wounds: from all which it was plain that this was the work of the abominable Jews. A blind woman, touching the bier on which
the blessed martyr's corpse was carrying to the church, received her sight, and many other miracles followed. Eighteen Jews, convicted of the crime, and confessing it with their own mouths, were hanged.
It was also known to Matthew Paris, in The annals of Burton, and in many other medieval accounts. Chaucer's Prioress' Tale tells the same story, and there is an Anglo-French ballad analogue. The story has been greatly modified in the course of its history, so that in some of the modern ballad versions the religion of the murderer is not clear, and there may be no miracles associated with the crime. Coffin, 111-112, lists many of the variations in the story, which has been a favorite subject for study. See Belden, 69, for articles on themes related to Child 155, and Walter M. Hart, The English Popular Ballad (New York, 1916), 30-31, for a comparison of the Chaucerian tale and the folksong.
"Sir Hugh" is well known in America and Britain today but is not particularly common in New England. Phillips Barry, British Ballad,s from Maine, prints no text, for example. The Flanders material is close to that in Child. A is of the "Harry Hughes" (see Child N) tradition and includes both the miracle of the conversation between the mother and the dead boy and "the Bible at my head, prayer-book at my feet" ending. B, with the "Bible-prayer book" ending, but without the miraculous conversation, follows
the pattern of the most common American type, "The Jew's Daughter."
See coffin, 110-112 (American) for a start on a bibliography. Dean-Smith, 85, and Belden, 69, gives English references. There is also an interesting comparison of two texts, one from a small girl and one from her grandmother, in JAF, XLVI, 385f. Frances C. Stamper and William H. Jansen print an unusual Kentucky text, called "Water Birch," in JAF, LXXI, 16-17.
The two tunes for Child 155 are unrelated.
A. Little Harry Huston. In North Springfield, Vermont, Mrs. John Fairbanks sang this song as learned from her mother, Margeret Kelley, of County Limerick, Ireland, who learned, it from her people. Published in Ballads Migrant in New England, p. 70. H. H. F., Collector; September 29, 1939. Structure: A1 A2 B C D (2,2,2,2,2); Rhythm C; Contour: an arc; scale: hexachordal. Note the tritonic children's ditty-like beginning. rel., see Sharp I, 225; and possibility DV, 590, No.
Little Harry Huston
Yesterday was a very fine day,
The finest day in the year, year,
When little Harry Huston and schoolboys all
Went out to play at ball, ball,
Went out to play at ball.
The first little tip Harry Huston gave the ball,
It was not good at all, all,
The second little tip Harry Huston gave the ball,
He broke the window all, all,
He broke the window all.
A Jewess, she came down the stairs
And she all dressed in green, green,
Saying, "Little Harry Huston, if you come here"
. . .
. . .
"I'll not go back, and I won't go back
And I'll not go back at all, all,
For if my mama came to know
She would. . ."
. . .
She coaxed him back with an apple so red
And with a cherry so sweet, sweet,
And took him to her own dressing room
Where she slew him like a sheep, sheep,
Where she slew him like a sheep.
She rolled him up in a winding sheet;
It was her own winding sheet, sheet,
And she took him to Saint Simon's well
Which was seven fathoms deep, deep,
Which was seven fathoms deep.
Five o'clock was past and gone,
And all schoolboys gone home, home;
Every mama had her boy;
Harry Huston's mama had none, none,
Harry Huston's mama had none.
When she went to the Jewess' house
And kneels down on a stone, stone,
Saving, "Little Harry Huston, if you be there,
Will you pity your mama's moan, moan,
Will you pity your mama's moan?"
"He is not here, nor he was not here
And he's not been here all day, day,
But if you go to Saint Simon's Well
You might have seen him there, there,
You might have seen him there."
She went unto Saint Simon's Well
And knelt down on a stone, stone,
Saving, "Little Harry Huston, if you be there,
Will you pity your mama's moan, moan,
Will you pity our mama's moan?"
"How can I pity your moan, mama,
When I am here so long, long?
The little penknife she stuck-through my heart;
The Jewess, she did me wrong, wrong,
The Jewess, she did me wrong.
"But come tonight at twelve o'clock
And there you'll see my ghost, ghost;
Place my schoolbooks at my feet
And my Bible at my head
That my schoolmates they may read, read,
That my schoolmates they may read."