Lord Lovel- Fitzgerald (VA) 1918 Sharp B
[From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians by Sharp and Campbell- I; 1917 Sharp/Karpeles I, 1932. Notes from the 1932 edition follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
No. 21. Lord Lovel.
Texts without tunes: — Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 75. Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North-East, art. ii. 159. A. Williams's Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, p. 145. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 78 (see further references). Journal of American Folk-Lore, xix. 283.
Texts with tunes: —Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii. 209 ; iii. 64; vi. 31. Child, v, p. 416. Gavin Greig's Last Leaves, No. 29. C. Sharp's English Folk Songs (Selected Edition), i. 22 (also published in One Hundred English Folk-Songs, No. 26). Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii. 291 ; xxxv. 342. Reed Smith's South Carolina Ballads, p. 121. D. Scarborough's On the Trail of Negro Folk Songs, p. 55. Broadside, G. H. de Marsan, New York. Musical Quarterly, January 1916, p. 5. British Ballads from Maine, p. 139. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 240 and 573. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 10. Sandburg's American Songbag, p. 570.
B. Lord Lovel. Sung by Mr. PHILANDER FITZGERALD at Nash, Va., May 7, 1918
Heptatonic. Ionian.
1. Lord Lovel he stood at his castle gate
A-combing his milk white steed,
And a long came Lady Nancy Bell
To wish Lord Lovel good speed, good speed,
To wish Lord Lovel good speed.
2 A where are you going, Lord Lovel? she said.
O where are you going? said she.
I'm going, Lady Nancy Bell,
Strange countries for to see, to see,
Strange countries for to see.
3 When will you be back, Lord Lovel? she said.
When will you be back ? said she.
A year or two or three at most,
I'll return to my Lady Nancy, cy, cy,
I'll return to my Lady Nancy.
4 He had not been gone twelve months and a day,
Strange thoughts come in his head,
That Lady Nancy he would see,
Fearing that she was dead, was dead,
Fearing that she was dead.
5 He mounted on his milk-white steed,
And he rode to London town,
And there he heard those bells a-mourn?
A-mourning round and round and round,
A-mourning round and round.
6 O what is the matter? Lord Lovel he cried.
O what is the matter? cried he
A lady is dead, a woman replied,
Some called her Lady Nancy, cy, cy,
Some called her Lady Nancy.
7 He ordered the coffin to be opened wide,
And the shroud he turn-ed down,
And there he kissed her cold, clay lips
Till the tears come trinkling down, down, down,
Till the tears come trinkling down.
8 Lord Lovel was buried in the green churchyard,
Lady Nancy was buried in the choir;
And out of his grave grew a red rose,
And out of her a brier, brier, brier,
And out of her a brier.
9 They grew up to the church steeple top
To the admiration of the town;
And they would have been there until now
If the sexton had not cut them down, down,
If the sexton had not cut them down.