Lord Bateman- Walker (ME) 1942 Flanders C
[From Flanders; Ancient Ballads, 1966. Notes by Coffin follow. This is patterned after the broadside versions published in the New England area dating back to the late 1700s.
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.
---------
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, derived from the "hole in the shoulder" texts, via faulty oral transmission. After all, there aren't many prisoners tied to a tree in a jail cell. [R. Matteson 2014]
C. Lord Bateman. As sung by Arthur Walker of Littleton, Maine. M. Olney, Collector; August 31, 1942
In India there lived a noble lord,
His riches they were beyond compare;
He was the darling of his parents,
Of its estate and its only heir.
For he had gold and he had silver,
He had houses of a high degree,
But still he ne'er could be contented
Until a voyage he had been to sea.
He sail-ded east, he sail-ded west
Until he came to an Indian shore
Where he was taken and Put in Prison
Where he could neither see nor hear.
Seven long months he lied lamenting,
He lied lamenting in iron bands;
He chanced for to spy a fair young lady,
That sot him free from his prison chains.
Now the jailer had one only daughter,
And a brisk young lady gay was she;
She stole the keys of her father's prison.
She said she would let Lord Bateman free,
Saying, "Have you gold, have you got silver
Or have you houses of a high degree?
What will you give to this fair lady
If she from bondage would set you free?"
"Yes, I've got gold and I've got silver;
I've got houses of a high degree.
I'll give them all to this fair lady,
If she from bondage would set me free."
"It's not your gold nor yet your silver,
Nor yet your houses of a high degree;
It's all I want just to be made happy
And all I crave is your fair bodee.
"Let's get married, now let us talk it strong
For seven long years that it might stand
That you shan't marry no other woman,
Nor I shan't wed no other man."
Oh, several long years was passed and gone;
Several long years were at an end;
Oh, she packed up all of her clothing;
She said she'd go and seek her friend.
She sail-ded east, and she sail-ded west
Until she came to Kentucky shore;
But still she never could be contented,
But for her true love she did inquire.
She did inquire for Lord Bateman's palace,
To every corner of the street;
She did inquire for Lord Bateman's palace,
To every Person she chanced to meet.
It's when she got to Lord Bateman's palace,
Oh, she knocked loudly upon the ring;
There's none so ready as the brisk young Porter
To arise and let this fair lady in.
She asked if this was Lord Bateman's palace.
"Oh, is the lord himself within?"
"Oh, yes, oh, Yes," replied the brisk young
"Him and his new bride they just entered
She wept, she wept, and she wrung her hands,
Saying that, "At length, I am undone;
I wished I were in my native countree,
Across the seas there to remain.
"You ask him to send me one ounce of bread,
Likewise a bottle of your strongest wine,
And ask him if he does mind that lady
That sot him free from his prison chains."
He stomped his foot upon the floor;
His table he broke it up in three,
"Adieu, adieu to my wedded wife,
To that fair creature I'll go and see."
Oh, the next spoke up was the new bride's mother,
And she was a lady of a high degree,
"Now since you have wed my only daughter,"
"Well, she is none the worse of me."
"Now since I have wed your only daughter,
The second wedding there will be;
If your daughter came in horse or saddle,
She can ride back in a coach by three."
He took her by the lily-white hand,
He led her over the marble stones;
He changed her name from Susanna Fair,
She is now the wife of Lord Bateman here.