Lord Beham- Simpkins? (NC) c.1900 Brown A
[From: Brown Collection (A-F Versions) Vol. 2, c.1952, version A. This version came from the John Bell Henneman collection compiled around 1900, and the Brown editor suggests the informant may be Mrs. Simpkins, however this is not known. Henneman, an author, died around 1908.
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.
A. 'Lord Beham.' From the John Bell Henneman collection, the North Carolina part of which came into the possession of the North Carolina Folklore Society through Professor C. Alphonso Smith of the University of Virginia. Presumably this, like the other North Carolina items in the Henneman collection, came from the singing of Mrs. Simpkins, but the manuscript does not say so. In the manuscript it is not divided into stanzas, but since much of it is clearly stanzaic I have attempted such division. The marginal notes are from the manuscript; the punctuation is the editor's. One suspects mishearing, or miswriting, in
the matter of the Turkish lady's name. In most texts her name is Susy Pye; sometimes Susanna, less often Sophia.
1 Lord Beham was a gentleman,
A gentleman of high degree.
He put his foot on yon footboardings,
Saying, 'Some foreign land I will go see.'
2 He sailed east, he sailed west,
He sailed towards the north;
There he fell among the Turks;
They taken him as a slave.
3 In his right shoulder they bored a hole
And into that they put a tree;
They bound him down in prison strong,
Quite weary of his life to be.
4 The old Turkish priest had but one daughter,
. . . .
At night she goes and steals the keys,
Saying, 'Lord Beham I will go and see.'
5 'Have you land or have you livings?
Have you a castle of high degree?
What will you give one lady fair
If out of the prison she will set you clair?' [1]
6 'Yes, I have lands and I have livings,
I have a castle of high degree ;
I will give it all to one lady fair.
If out of prison she will me clair.'
7 She took him to her father's castle,
She treated him on the best of beer.
And every merry health she'd drink to him,
'Lord Beham, you're a gentleman,'
And every merry health she'd drink to him,
'Lord Beham, I wish you were mine.'
8 A gold ring then was broke betwixt 'em:
At seven long years Susifie will cross the sea. [Susy Fyr] [2]
9 She carried him down to her father's harbour.
She put him aboard her father's ship:
'Farewell, farewell, my own heart's joy!
You I fear I shall no more see.'
10 Long seven years come and past over.
11 Lord Beham carried his new bride home.
And Susifie she crossed the sea.
She came into the city
Enquiring for Lord Beham's dwelling.
12 'Yes, this is Lord Beham's dwelling;
He's just carried his new bride home.'
13 'Tell him to send me a piece of bread
And a bottle of beer.
Ask him if he'd forgot the lady fair
Who out of prison set him clair."
14 A-going into his master's dwelling
And falling on his knees.
'Rise up, rise up, my bold porter.
And tell your story unto me.'
15 'There is a lady at your gate,
She is one perfect beauty;
She's got more gold about her waist
Than all England can afford.'
16 He rise up from his new royal dinner,
He split his table in pieces three:
Til lay you all my lands and living
My Susifie has crossed the sea.
17 'Your daughter is bonny and very bonny.
Although she's none the worse for me ;
She came to me on a horse and saddle,
I'll send her home in coaches three.'
18 Her mother, being very angry:
'I wish in hell Susilie had have been [Susifyr? ] [2]
Before she crossed the sea.'
1. clair=clear to rhyme with fair, but it should be "free" as it's a 2,4 line rhyme- this appears again in measures 6, 14.
2. Brown suggests "Susy Fry" but perhaps "Susy Pye" is more accurate. The last time there is and "l" indicating a change to "Susy Lye."