Lord Lovel- Satterfield (WV) 1915 Cox A
[From Folk-Songs of the South by John Harrington Cox; 1925. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
12. LORD LOVEL (Child, No. 75)
Five variants have been recovered, under the titles: "Lord Lovel," "Lord Lover," and "Lord Leven." They are all to be classed with Child H. A is practically identical with Child H to the end of the seventh stanza. Stanza 8 is made up of verses 1 and 2 of Child 8, and 3 and 4 of Child H 9. Stanza 9 is the same as Child H 10. In additions and corrections to "Lord Lovel" Mr. Child has the following: "211 H. I have received a copy recited by a lady in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was evidently derived from print, and differs but slightly from a, omitting 83,4, 91,2 ." It would seem that the Massachusetts version and West Virginia A are identical.
B is the same as Child H stanza for stanza, but the phraseology is not quite so close as is that of West Virginia A. C, more or less fragmentary, does not differ materially from A and B. Stanza D 4 is not found in Child H. Cf. Child C 4. E shows some likenesses to Child D. The name "Lady Ouncebell" is found in this form in Child A 1.
For American texts see Journal, xvni, 291 (Barry; Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island); XIX, 283 (Belden; Kentucky, Missouri); Shoemaker, p. 124 (Pennsylvania); McGill, p. 9 (Kentucky); Focus, iv, 215 (Virginia); Campbell and Sharp, No. 18 (North Carolina) ; Clifton Johnson, What They Say in New England, p. 225; Pound, No. 2 (Illinois, Wyoming); Ralph, Harper's Monthly Magazine, July, 1903, cvn, 272; Minish MS. (North Carolina). Cf. Barry, No. 14; Belden, No. 6; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Pound, p. 9; Bulletin, Nos. 2-10; Reed Smith, Journal, xxvin, 199.
No old ballad has oftener been printed in American song-books and broadsides. See references, which could be indefinitely extended, in Journal, xxix, 160, note 1. It has sometimes been sung as a comic ditty: see, for example, Bob Smith's Clown Song Book, p. 51 ("as sung by Bob Smith"). A satirical parody beginning "Lord Lovell he sat in St. Charles's Hotel," was popular in the sixties and has often been printed (for example, in Tony Pastor's New Union Song Book, cop. 1862, p. 66, " The New Ballad of Lord Lovell " in Frank Moore's Songs of the Soldiers [New York, 1864], p. 174; and in R. G. White's Poetry, Lyrical, Narrative, and Satirical of the Civil War [New York, 1866], p. 115); Belden has found it in Missouri (No. 128). Another, called "Ye Ballade of Mans. Lovell," is in Frank Moore's Personal and Political Ballads (New York, 1864), p. 321. A Confederate parody, " Where are you going, Abe Lincoln? " is printed in Allan's Lone Star Ballads (Galveston, 1874), p. 31. For a recent parody see Carolyn Wells, A Parody Anthology, p. 326.
A. "Lord Lovel." Contributed by Miss Blanche Satterfield, Fairmont, Marion County, 1915; learned from her mother, who learned it from her mother, a lady of English descent, who came from Washington County, Pennsylvania. Printed by Cox, XLIV, 350.
1 Lord Lovel he stood at his castle gate,
A-combing his milk-white steed;
When along came Lady Nancy Bell,
A-wishing her lover good speed,
A-wishing her lover good speed.
2 "O where are you going, Lord Lovel?" she said,
"O where are you going?" said she;
"I'm going, my dear Nancy Bell,
Strange countries for to see."
3 "O when will you be back, Lord Lovel?" she said,
"O when will you be back?" said she.
"In a year or two or three at the least
I'll return to my Lady Nancy."
4 He hadn't been gone but a year and a day,
Strange countries for to see,
When a languishing thought came into his mind,
Lady Nancy Bell he must see.
5 He rode and he rode upon his white steed,
Till he came to London Town;
And there he heard St. Varner's bell,
And the people all mourning round.
6 "Is anybody dead?" Lord Lovel he said,
"Is anybody dead?" said he.
"A lord's daughter's dead," a lady replied,
"And some call her Lady Nancy."
7 He ordered the grave to be opened forthwith
And the shroud to be folded down;
And there he kissed the clay-cold lips,
Till the tears came trinkling down.
8 Lady Nancy she died as it might be to-day,
Lord Lovel he died to-morrow;
And out of her bosom there grew a red rose,
And out of Lord Lovel's a briar.
9 They grew and they grew till they reached the church top,
And there they could n't grow any higher;
And there they entwined in a true lover's knot,
Which true lovers always admire.