Lord Bakeman- Shepard (VT) 1933 Flanders G
[From Flanders; Ancient Ballads, 1966. Notes by Coffin follow. This patterned after the broadside versions published in the New England area.
R. Matteson 2014]
Young Beichan
(Child 53)
This ballad has an extensive Anglo-American tradition and still is well known on both sides of the Atlantic. The American songs all trace back to early broadsides[1] and song books and quite generally refer to the hero as Lord Bateman or Bakeman. These texts vary somewhat in minor detail, but follow the Child L pattern as to plot outline, significant facts, and length. Nevertheless, a good many scholars have devoted a good bit of time to the minor variations of the American versions and more particularly to identifying the printed sources of the ballad in the New World. George L. Kittredge JAF, XXX, 295-97) used "the hole bored in the hero's shoulder" as a means of distinguishing texts closely akin to Child L from those related to the Coverly broadside in the Isaiah Thomas Collection, Worcester, Massachusetts, and Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 106 f., continues the probings and points out the "hole in the shoulder" stanza is characteristic of the South. There is also a good bit of information along similar lines in Jane Zielonko's Master's thesis, "Some American Variants of Child Ballads" (Columbia University, 1945), 83 f.
The Flanders versions below have been divided according to the findings of these researchers. Texts A-J seem to be similar to the Coverly broadside or to the version printed in the J. S. Locke of Boston Forget-Me-Not Songster (See A particularly) that goes back to an earlier broadside Coverly may have used. K-S are close to the text printed by Lucy E. Broadwood and J. A. F. Maitland in English Country Songs (London, 1893) and cited by Barry, op. cit., 116. This is a form of the song still known in Britain that evidently found its way into print in New England. In this series (see K-O) the hero's shoulder is not bored through as in many Child texts, but Bateman is tied to a tree[2]. T, it will be noted, contains further modifications and a compression
of the narrative. But, all in all, the Flanders texts are pretty typical of the northern findings for this ballad. Child, I,455 f., discusses the affinities of this song and the legend associated with Gilbert a Becket in the Middle Ages. However, analogous stories are known about Henry of Brunswick, Alexander von Metz, and a host of other heroes in Scandinavian and southern European balladry. A start on a bibliography can be had in Coffin, 63-65 (American); Dean-Smith, 5 (English) ; Greig and Keith, 40-43 (Scottish) ; and the notes in Child. Kittredge's JAF article contains a number of references, not easily available elsewhere, to printed American texts of "Lord Bateman" and its relative "The Turkish Lady." The latter, listed by Laws as O 26 and possibly derived from "Lord Bateman," is also immensely popular in America. Laws, AEBB,238, and Coffin, 65, give a
good many references for it.
The eight tunes for Child 53 are all related, and all correspond to tune group A in BC1. Two subfamilies appear: 1) the Davis, Kennison, Pierce, and Burke tunes, characterized by a triad at the beginning, this group corresponds to BCI group Aa. The other tunes together fit in with BCI group Ab, the Morton tune being relatively divergent from the others, however.
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1. In my opinion, this statement is simply inaccurate, "the American songs all trace back to early broadsides." Consider, for example, the Hick/Harmon version (Susan Price/Young Behan) which was collected from three different family members which they brought from Virginia (circa late 1600s) to the Carolina mountains probably around 1770 and has been passed strictly through oral tradition since then. [R. Matteson 2014]
2. It's likely that the "tied to a tree" reference is, in fact, an abbreviated form of the "hole in the shoulder" texts. After all, there aren't many prisoners tied to a tree in a jail cell. [R. Matteson 2014]
G. "Lord Bakeman." As sung by I.E. Shepard, of Baltimore, Vermont to H.H.F. and, Phillips Barry, as learned from his mother, a native of Ireland. H. H. F., Collector; July 9, 1933.
Lord Bakeman
In India lived a noble lord,
His riches were beyond compare,
He was the darling of his parents,
An only son and only heir.
He had gold and he had silver
And he had houses of high degree,
Still he could never be contented
Until a voyage he had been to sea.
He sailed east and he sailed west,
He sailed till he came to the Turkey shore,
There he was taken and put in prison
Where he could neither see nor hear no more.
For seven long months he laid lamenting,
He laid lamenting in iron chains
Until a lady chanced to see him
Which set him free from his iron bonds.
The jailer had one only daughter,
A brisk uoung lady gay was she,
As she was going accost the room
She chanced Lord Bakeman for to see.
"Have you got gold, have you got silver,
Have You got houses of high degree?
What will You give to this fair lady
If from your bondage will set you free?"
"Yes, I've got gold and I've got silver
And I've got houses of high degree,
I'll give it all to thee, fair lady,
If from my bondage you'll set me free."
"Let us make a bargain and make it strong
For seven long years we will let it stand
That you will wed with no other woman
And I will wed with no other man."
When seven long years was passed and gone,
When seven long years was at an end,
She. picked up all her richest clothing,
Saying, "Now I'll go and seek my friend."
She sailed east, she sailed west,
Sailed till she came to India's shore.
There she could never be contented
Until Lord Bakeman she did enquire.
She enquired for Lord Bakeman's palace
On every corner of the street;
She enquired for Lord Bakeman's palace
Of every person that she met.
When she came to Lord Bakeman's palace
She knocked so loud upon the ring;
There was no one so ready as the brisk young porter
To rise and let this lady in.
She enquired if this was Lord Bakeman's palace
And if the Lord himself was in.
"Oh, yes," replied the brisk young porter,
"Him and his new bride has just come in."
She wept, she wept, she wrung her hands,
Crying, "Alas, I am undone.
I wish't I was in my native country
Across the seas where I came from.
"Tell him to send me one ounce of bread
And a bottle of his wine so strong.
Ask him if he's forgot the lady
That set him free from his iron bonds."
The porter went unto the master;
He bowed himself upon his knee.
"Oh, arise, arise, my brisk young Porter,
And tell me what the matter is."
"There is a lady at your gate
And she doth weep most bitterlee.
I think she is as fair a lady
As ever I wish my eyes to see.
"She's got more rings on her forefinger
And about her waist there's diamonds strung,
She's got more gold about her clothing
Than your new bride and all her kin.
"She wants you to send her one ounce of bread
And a bottle of Your wine so strong.
She enquired if you had forgotten the lady
That set you free from his iron bonds."
He stamped his foot, he raged aloud,
He broke the table in Pieces three.
"Adieu, adieu, my fair wedded bride,
This fair lady I will go and see."
Then up and spoke the new bride's mother.
She was a lady of high degree.
"Since you've married my only daughter,
And she's none the worse for thee."
"Since I married your only daughter,
A second wedding there shall be.
Your daughter came in horse and saddle
And can return in a coach and three."
He took her by the lily-white hand.
He led her o'er the marble stone.
He changed her name from Susanah Fair.
She's called the wife of Lord Bakeman.