Lord Lovel- Sands (NC) 1916 Sharp A
[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 2012, 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.
Lord Lovel
1. Lord Lovel was at his gateside
A-currying his milk-white steed;
Miss Nancy Bell come riding by,
A-wishing Lord Lovel good speed, good speed,
A-wishing Lord Lovel good speed.
2 Where are you going, Lord Lovel? she says,
Where are you going? says she.
I'm going to ride my milk-white steed
Some foreign country to see. [repeat end of stanza similarly]
3 How long will you be gone, Lord Lovel? she says,
How long will you be gone? says she.
One year, or two, or two, or three,
Then 'turn to my Lady Nancy.
4 He had not been gone but one year and one day,
Strange thoughts rolled through his mind
. . . .
About his Lady Nancy.
5 And so he mounted his milk-white steed
And rode to London town,
And there he heard the death-bells ringing
And the people a-mourning all round.
6 Who is dead? Lord Lovel he said,
Who is dead ? says he.
Miss Nancy Bell from London town
That is called your Lady Nancy.
7 Go open her coffin, Lord Lovel he said,
Pull down her shroud, says he,
And let me kiss her cold, cold lips—
And the tears come trinkling down.
8 Go dig my grave, Lord Lovel he said,
Go dig my grave, says he,
For I have no longer in this world to stay
For the loss of my Lady Nancy.