Lord Lovel & Lady Nancy- Nichols (NC) 1923 Brown B
[Single stanza (stanza 3) with music from the Brown Collection of NC Folklore; Vol. 2, 1953; also Vol. 4, 1957 (music). The editors' notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Lord Lovel (Child 75)
Possibly it is the very simplicity of the sentiment that has made this ballad so persistent a favorite; certainly it has little else (unless, perhaps, the tune) to commend it. For its range since Child's time, both in the old country and in America, see BSM 52. To the texts there listed should be added Kentucky (BTFLS iii 92), Tennessee (SFLQ xi 124-5), North Carolina (FSRA 27-8), Florida (SFLQ viii 150-2), Missouri (OFS i 113-15). Ohio (BSO 39-45), Indiana (BSI 79-91), and Michigan (BSSM 27-8). The texts vary but little, going back, perhaps in all cases, to a London broadside of a hundred years ago, Child's H. To the variations in the name of the church whose bells announce the death of the lady, some of which are listed in BSM, North Carolina adds one more, "St. Banner's" (version B below). For the most part the church is not named in the North Carolina texts; Lord Lovel returns to "Cruel Clark's" (A), to "London Tower" (C), to "London town" (D F G) and hears the bells, but the church is not named. For an adaptation to the purposes of political satire during the Civil War, see volume 111, section ix.
The texts are so much alike that only a few are given in extenso.
B. 'Lord Lovel and Lady Nancy.' Communicated, with the tune, by Madge Nichols, a freshman at Trinity College about thirty years ago. Her text is much closer to the standard broadside text than Henneman's, but it has "St. Banner's bell" instead of "St. Pancras bells."
Brown Vol. 4, 1957:
B. 'Lord Level and Lady Nancy.' Sung by Miss Madge Nichols. Recorded at Trinity College, Durham, in the early 1920's. The first four measures could well pass as variation of Mrs. James York's 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William' (20I) as well as her 'The Seven Sisters' (2B i). Our text resembles the third stanza of the C version.
For melodic relationship cf. **OFS i 112, No. 16C; our measures 6-7 with FSRA 27, No. II, measures 2-3.
Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: aa1bcc1 (2,2,2,2,2) = ab (4,6) ; b is terminally incremented.