Lord Lovel- Carpenter (RI) 1872 Flanders B
[My date. From Flanders; Ancient Ballads; 1966, version B. Coffin's notes follow. Jessie Myra Carpenter was born August 9, 1864. She married Eugene Lincoln Grindell June 17, 1884 in Warwick, Kent, Rhode Island and died in 1950.
R. Matteson 2014]
Lord Lovel
(Child 75)
Phillips Barry in British Ballads from Maine, 145-47, gives a good history of this song, telling of its popularity among the nineteenth-century printers and the many uses it served for political parody and music hall gaiety. The American versions which are known wherever ballads are sung almost all stem from the same tradition as Child H, an 1846 London broadside. American printers reproduced texts from this tradition throughout the period between the Mexican and Civil Wars. The Flanders versions are in no way exceptional and are much what one would expect to find. As with texts from other areas, the original name of the church, St. Pancras (see E), has undergone radical modification, but all in all proximity to print has held variation to a minimum. The tune to "Lord Lovel" is also consistent. In South Carolina Ballads (Cambridge, Mass., 1928), 121, Reed Smith comments that "the difference between reading [Lord Lovel] as a poem and singing it is the difference between tragedy and comedy." The use of a tune that is too light for the story no doubt accounts for the tact that parodies have turned up in Maine, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Missouri, among other places, in this country (see Coffin, 79, for a bibliography) and in Scotland (see Greig and Keith, 57) abroad. Bibliographical references can be had in Coffin, 78-79 (American); Dean-Smith, 85 (English); and Greig and Keith, 57-58 (Scottish).
The five tunes given here are related, four of them very closely. Only the Fish tune diverges. In order to save repetition of references, the related tunes for the group consisting of the Grindell, Moore, Britton, and Pierce. Tunes are given here: SAA,20; SSC, 122; Sharp , 149 (C), 149 (D and E), 116 (distant), and 147 (distant); AA, 124; DV,524, No. 20 (E, L, and O); EO, 39, 40; BES, 139 (not too close); BI, 92. obviously this tune group is very widespread and its correlation with the Child 75 text is great.
B. Lord Lovel. Sung by Mrs. Jessie Carpenter Grindell of Providence, Rhode Island, as she learned it as a small child. M. Olney, collector; January 29, 1945
Lord Lovel he stood at his castle gate
A-combing his milky-white steed,
When 'long came Lady Nancy Belle
A-wishing her lover good speed, speed, speed,
A-wishing her lover good speed!
"And where are you going, Lord Lovel?" said she;
"And where are you going?" said she.
"I'm going, my dear Lady Nancy Belle,
Strange countries for to see, see, see,
Strange countries for to see."
"And when will you be back?" says she;
"And when will you be back?"
"In a year or two or three at the most
I'll return to you, fair ladee, ladee;
I'll return to you, fair ladee."
He had not been gone but a year and a day
Strange countries for to see
When languishing thoughts came into his head:
Lady Nancy Belle he must see, see, see;
Lady Nancy Belle he must see.
He rode and he rode on his milk-white steed
Till he came to London town,
And there he heard St. Barna's bells
And the people a-mourning around, 'round, 'round,
And the people a-mourning around.
"Is anybody dead?" Lord Lovel said he;
"Is anybody dead?" said he.
"My lord's daughter's dead," a lady replied,
"And some call her Lady Nancee, -cee, -cee,
And some call her Lady Nancee."
He ordered the grave to be opened forthwith
And the shroud to be folded down,
And then he kissed the clay-cold tips
Till the tears came trickling down, down, d"own,
Till the tears came trickling down.
Lady Nancy Belle died as you might say today;
Lord Lovel, he died as tomorrow;
And out of her bosom there grew a red rose,
And out of Lord Lovel's, a briar, briar, briar,
And out of Lord Lovel's, a briar.
They grew and they grew till they reached the church top,
And then they couldn't grow any higher;
And there they entwined in a true lovers' knot,
Which true lovers always admire, -mire, -mire;
Which true lovers always admire.