Lord Bateman- Kidson (Two Melodies) pre-1904
Songs from the Collection of Mr. Frank Kidson
by Frank Kidson and Lucy E. Broadwood
Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 1, No. 5 (1904), pp. 228-257
9.-Lord Bateman.
FIRST VERSION (SHROPSHIRE).
Lord Bateman was a noble Lord,
A noble Lord of high degree.
He put his foot upon ship-board,
Some foreign country he would go see.
SECOND VERSION (NOTTINGHAM).
Lord Bateman was a noble Lord,
A noble Lord of high degree;
He set his foot all on ship-board,
Some foreign countries he would go see.
He sailed east: he sailed west:
Until he came to proud Turkey,
Where he was ta'en and put in prison
Until his life was most weary.
And in the prison there grew a tree,
It grew so stout and grew so strong
Where he was chained by the middle,
Until his life was almost gone, &c., &c.
The ballad of 'Lord Bateman' is too long and too well known to be repeated here in full. The two airs given above were noted by myself from the singing of two ladies, one learning her song in Shropshire, the other near Nottingham. It has been asserted
that William Makepeace Thackeray is the author of the modern version of the ballad, but its former widespread popularity among country people who have got it from traditional sources will at once dispose of this theory. The following is, so far as I know, a complete list of the old tunes to 'Lord Bateman,' which have, up to the present been published:
1. ' The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman,' illustrated by George Cruikshank, 1839. This clever little pictorial edition contains a tune which Cruikshank (witb. whom the ballad was a great favourite) learned from a street singer nicknamed 'Tripe Skewer.'
'Tripe Skewer' used to sing the piece outside a public house at Battle Bridge (King's Cross). The melody Cruikshank engraves is undoubtedly old.
2. A copy in Rev. John Broadwood's ' Sussex Songs,' 1840, and reprinted in 'Sussex Songs,' Lucas and Weber.
3. One in Christie's ' Traditional Ballad Airs,' vol. i., 1876, ' Lord Beichan.'
4. One in ' Northumbrian Minstrelsy,' 1882, 'Lord Beichan.'
5. An imperfectly noted traditional air in Crawhall's 'Olde Tayles Newley Relayted,' 1883.
6. One in Miss Burne's ' Shropshire Folk Lore.'
7. One in Kidson's 'Traditional Tunes,' 1891.
8. One in 'English County Songs,' 1893.
9. As 'Young Beichan' in ' Child's Ballads.'
10 & 11. The two above printed.
For exhaustive notes on the exceedingly ancient ballad of Lord 'Beikie,' 'Beichan,' or ' Bateman,' see Child's ' British Ballads.'- L. E. B.