Lord Bateman- Brown (NC) c.1920 Brown D; Sutton
[From: Brown Collection (A-F Versions) Vol. 2, c.1952, version D. This version is from Beech Mountain, NC where my grandfather collected ballads with Melinger Henry. Members of the Hicks (Nathan) family have been passing ballad there for several centuries.
R. Matteson 2014]
OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH
14. Young Beichan (Child 53)
It has been suggested that the frequent and widespread occurrence of this ballad as traditional song may be due to its frequent appearance in broadside and songbook print (for which see Barry, BBM 106-22, and especially Kittredge's bibliographical note, JAFL XXX 294-7). The argument may easily, however, be turned the other way: that ballad printers used it because it was known to be a favorite. Cause and effect are not easily distinguished in such cases. There is at least no question that it is a favorite. It has been reported as traditional song in recent times in Scotland (LL 40-2), Northamptonshire (ECS 62-3), Lincolnshire (JFSS iii 192-9), Wiltshire and Hampshire (FSUT 147-9; Williams says it is "common to the whole of the Thames Valley"), Sussex (Sharp's Folk-Songs of England v 32-3), Somerset (FSSom no. 65), even, the tune at least, in the Isle of Man (JFSS vii 315) ; and on this side of the water in the Bahamas (JAFL xli 585-8), Newfoundland (FSN 88-92, BSSN 17), Nova Scotia (BSSNS 16-19), Maine (BBM 106-22), Vermont (VFSB 204-8), Pennsvlvania (JAFL XXIII 450-1), Virginia (TBV 158-71, SharpK i 87, SCSM 212-13), West Virginia (FSS 36-41), Kentucky (JAFL xx 251-2, xxii 64-5, SharpK i 79-80, 83-6, 87, 88, LT 58-61, DD 86-7), Tennessee (SharpK i 81-3. 86, FSSH 55-9, BTFLS viii 68-9), North Carolina (JAFL xxviii 149-51, SharpK i 77-9, 80-1, FSRA 18-20), South Carolina (SCB 104-6), Mississippi (FSM 75-6), Florida (SFLQ VIII 144-6), the Ozarks (OMF 197-201, OFS i 83-8), Ohio (BSO 28-9), Michigan (BSSM 143-5), and Nebraska (ABS 53-6, really from Indiana).
There are certain interesting variations among these many texts. Kittredge, in the note above referred to, remarks that some of the American texts differ from the broadsides in retaining a detail of the Turks' barbarous cruelty: a hole is bored in Beichan's shoulder by means of which he is harnessed and becomes a draft-animal. Thus in Child A:
For thro his shoulder he put a bore.
An thro the bore has pitten a tree,
An he's gard him draw the carts o wine.
Where horse and oxen had wont to be.
Similarly in B D E H I N. The word "tree" here means "draught-tree," the pole of a wagon or cart by which it is attached to the
draft animal. "Tree" in this sense was apparently not an acceptable locution, was not understood in America ; Henry's Tennessee text and our version E change it to "key," two of the West Virginia texts and the only text in TBV that retains this feature change the word to "rope" and the other West Virginia text to "string." Other American texts that keep the word change the meaning; the "tree" is now that to which the captive is tied (chained, nailed, bound, fastened, sometimes around his middle), giving a quite different picture. So BBM D, TBV E, SharpK A E, JAFL xxviii 150, XXX 295, and our A version. Some of the texts have in the closing scene what seems to be a reference to the heroine's baptism, most definitely in Child A:
He's take his bonny love by the han,
And led her to yon fountain stane;
He's changed her name frae Shusy Pye,
An he's cald her his bonny love, Lady Jane.
Some of the American texts, both from the North and from the South, retain the feature of the change of name, but I judge that in each instance it is understood of a change of name by marriage, not by christening. Finally, certain of the American texts make the heroine declare her love with an un-American frankness. When the prisoner offers wealth and position to the lady if she will free him from his bonds, she tells him that all she wants is his "fair body." This locution is found in none of the Child texts; but it is in Coverly's Boston broadside, in The Forget-Me-Not Songster, and in traditional texts from Nova Scotia, Maine, Vermont, Virginia, and North Carolina (though not in any of the texts in our collection). Whether the innovation originates with Coverly is not clear, but it is contrary to the general American mores to express desire so simply.
Our collection has six texts of Young Beichan.
D. 'Lord Bateman.' Another version found by Mrs. Sutton in Avery county. This was sung by Mrs. Brown, of Beech Mountain. The elements of the story are the same as in C, yet the language is different — so much so that there are scarcely two identical stanzas in the two versions.
1 Lord Bateman sailed on the salt-salt sea
Until he came to Turkey's shore.
Where he was caught and placed in jail;
He feared he'd never travel more.
2 The jailer had just one fair child,
As pretty a girl as you e'er did see.
She stole the key of Lord Bateman's cell.
She stole the key and set him free.
3 'Have you got house? Have you got land?[1]
Have you got wealth for me to see?
Have you got anything to maintain me on
For to keep me from slavery?[2]
4 'I've got house and I've got land[1]
And both of these I'll give to thee,
My merry men shall you command
If you'll only go to my countree.'
5 She carried him down to the wharf
And loosed a ship that rode the foam.
Seven dark sailor men she gave to him,
Saying, 'Soon, my lord, you'll be at home.'
6 When he reached his home he forgot the maid,
Forgot the maid who saved his life;
He sought the hand of a neighbor girl;
In a little while she was his wife.
7 The Turkish girl waited long for him
Before she tried to cross the sea.
At last she said, 'I'll follow him,
My own true love, to his far country.'
8 She traveled many a weary mile
Before she reached Lord Bateman's door,
Her body ached, her heart was sick,
Her little feet was very sore.
9 When she reached the door of his castle grand
She jingled loudly at the bell.
'Oh, who is that?' the young wife said,
'Oh, who is that? I pray thee tell!'
10 'There's a lady there,' the servant said,
'A lady fair and richly clad.
Your husband's name is all she speaks,
Her voice is quare[3] and very sad.'
11 Lord Bateman walked thru the long, long hall
To meet his true love at the door.
He took her by her lily-white hand
And bowed him down unto the floor.
12 'My own true love has followed me
From out a far-off distant land.
My pledged word belongs to her,
My life and heart she does command.
13 'You may return to your father's house,
Ten thousand pound I'll give to thee,
Six merry men to guard you home;
My own true love will marry me.'
1. This appears in the manuscript, both times, as "lard" — surely just a slip.
2. This stanza seems to have been borrowed from 'James Harris' ; at least it appears frequently in American texts of that ballad.
3. queer