Lord Lovel- Moore (ME) 1881 Flanders I
[My date. From Flanders; Ancient Ballads; 1966, version I.
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.
I. Lord Lovel. As sung by Mrs. Annie Tate Moore of Ellsworth Falls, Maine, learned from her sister about sixty years ago.
M. Olney, Collector; June 22, 1941.
Lord Lovel he stood at his castle gate
A-combing his milky-white steed,
When along came Lady Nancy Belle
A-wishing her lover good speed, speed, speed,
A-wishing her lover good speed.
"Oh, where are you going, Lord Lovel?" she said;
"Oh, where are you going?" said she.
"I'm going afar away from home,
Strange countries for to see, see, see,
Strange countries for to see."
"When will you be back, Lord Lovel?" she said;
"When will you be back?" said she.
"In a year or two or three at the most,
I'll return to my Lady Nancee, cee, cee,
I'll return to Lady Nancee."
He had not been gone but a year and a day
Strange countries for to see,
When languishing thoughts came into his head,
Lady Nancee he would see, see, see,
Lady Nancee he would see.
He rode and he rode on his milky-white steed
Till he came to London town,
And there he heard the village bells
And the people all mourning around, 'round, 'round,
And the people all mourning around'
"Is anyone dead?" Lord Lovel, he said,
"Is anyone dead?" said he.
"A lady is dead!" the people all said,
And they called her the Lady Nancee, cee, cee,
And they called her the Lady Nancee.
He ordered the grave to be opened wide
And the shroud to be folded down,
And there he kissed her clay-cold lips
Till the tears came trickling down, down, down,
Till the tears came trickling down.
Lady Nancy died as 'twas yesterday,
Lord Lovel he died as tomorrow;
And out of her breast there grew a red rose
But out of Lord Lovel's a briar, briar, briar,
But out of Lord Lovel's a briar.
They grew and they grew to the top of the church
Until they could grow no higher;
And there they entwined in a true lover's knot,
Such as only young lovers admire, mire, mire,
Such as only young lovers admire.