Lord Lovel- Williams (MO) 1907 Belden C
[From Belden, Songs and Ballads; 1940. Version C. Belden's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Lord Lovel
(child 75)
Practically all the American texts belong to the tradition of Child H, a London broadside. It is not infrequent in stall print and in songbooks, and its popularity is evidenced by the fact that it was parodied for political purposes, on both sides, in the Civil War-see below. The rose and brier ending is an almost unfailing feature in modern texts, tho it is lacking in three of Child's
versions, C D G. The name of the church in the English broadside, St. Pancras, appears to have sounded strange in American ears, and has undergone various changes: St. Pancreas, St. Pancridge, St. Patrick, St. Pauthry, St. Varnie, St. Vincent, St. Rebecca, so that one may suspect a rather close relation to print where the original name is retained, as it is in Missouri D and two of the texts in TBV.
Texts have been reported. since Child's time from Aberdeenshire (LL 57-8), Wiltshire (FSUT 145-6), Essex (JEFDSS I 134), Kent (JFSS VI 31-2), and from Irish immigrants to America (BFSSNE I 4-5). On this side of the Atlantic I do not find it reported from Canacla or Newfoundland., but it is known in Maine (BBM 139-49, with valuable notes), Vermont (VFSB 215-6), Nantucket (JAFL XVIII 291-2, by way of New Jersey), Connecticut (JAFL XVIII 292, by way of New Jersey), Rhode Island (JAFIJ XVIII 293), New York (SCSM 102, FLSH 203-4), Pennsylvania (JAFL XXXV 342, NPM 140-1), Maryland. (SCSM 99-100), Virginia (TBV 240-58, SharpK I 747-8, 149, SFLQ II 70), West Virginia (FSS 78-82), Kentucky (FSKM 9-13, SharpK I 148), Tennessee (SFLQ II 69), North Carolina (SharpK T 146-7, 749, TNFS 55-6, SCSM 101-2, SFLQ II 70), South Carolina (SCB 721-4), Mississippi (FSM 90-1), the Ozarks (OMF 193-5), Ohio (JAFL XXXV 343), Indiana (JAFL XLVIII 303-5), Illinois (ABS 4-6, by way of Nebraska), Michigan (KNR 301), and Wyoming (ABS 6-7).
Six copies have come into the Missouri collection, but they are so nearly alike that it seems sufficient to give the text of one.
C. Lord Lovel. One of the many ballads secured thru Mr. C. H. Williams from his brother George of Bollinger County, in 1907. 'St. Varnie's bell.'
Lord Lovel he stood at his castle gate,
A-combing his milk-white steed,
When along eame Lady Nancy Bell
A-wishing her lover good speed, speed, speed,
A-rvishing her lover good speed.
(Repeat thus the last line of each stanza)
'Oh, where are you going, Lord Lovel?' she said,
'Oh, where are you going ?' said she.
'I'm going, my' dear Lady Nancy Bell,
Strange countries for to see.'
'Oh, when will you be back?' she says,
'Oh, when will you be back?' says she.
'In a year or two, or three at the most,
'I'll return to your fair body.'
He had not been gone but a year and a day
Strange countries for to see,
When languishing thoughts came into his head
Lady Nancy Bell he would see.
He rode, he rode upon his white steed
Till he came to London town;
And there he heard St. Varnie's bell
And the people all mourning round.
'Is anybody dead?' Lord Lovel he said;
'Is anybody dead?' says he.
'A lord's daughter dead,' a lady replied,
'And some call her Lady Nancy.'
He ordered the grave to be opened forthwith
And the shroud to be folded, down,
And there he kissed her clay-cold lips
Till the tears came trickling down.
Lady Nancy she died as it might be today,
Lord Lovel he died tomorrow.
And out of her bosom there grew a red. rose
And out of Lord Lovel's a briar.
They grew and they grew till they reached the church top,
And there they couldn't grow any higher;
And there they entwined in a true lover knot,
Which true lovers always admire.