Lord Lovell- Pierce (VT) pre1932 Flanders L
[From Flanders; Ancient Ballads; 1966, version L; first published in Vermont Folk-Songs and Ballads, 1932.
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.
L. Lord Lovell. Text and, tune contributed, by Mrs. John Pierce of Springfield,Vermont, as learned from her mother. Alice Maude Crawford. Printed, in Vermont Folk-songs & Ballads 215.
Lord Lovell, he stood at his own castle gate,
A-combing his milk-white steed,
When up came Lady Nancy Bell
To wish her lover good speed, speed, speed,
To wish her lover good speed.
"O, where are you going, Lord Lovell?" she said,
"O, where are you going?" said she.
"I'm going away, Miss Nancy Bell,
Strange countries for to see, see, see,
Strange countries for to see."
"When will you be back, Lord Lovell?" she said,
"When will you be back?" said she.
"A year or two or three at the most
I'll return to my Lady Nancee, cee, cee,
I'll return to my Lady Nancy." [1]
[missing stanzas]
"O, what is the matter?" Lord Lovell, he said,
"O, what is the matter?" said he.
"A lady is dead," the people all said,
"And they called her the Lady Nancee, cee, cee,
And they called her Lady Nancy."
He ordered the grave to be opened wide,
And the shroud to be ler down,
And then he kissed the pale, pale face,
And the tears came a-tricklying down, down, down,
And the tears came a-tricklying down.
[lines omitted]
And out of her bosom there grew a red. rose,
And out of her lover's, a briar, iar, iar,
And out of her lover's a briar.
They grew and they grew till they reached the church top
Till they couldn't grow up no higher;
Then they twined themselves into a true lovers' knot
For all lovers true to admire, ire, ire,
For all lovers true to admire.
1. Mrs. Pierce writes, "There is an evident hiatus in the tale as my mother sung it. I remember being puzzled as to why
he said goodbye to the girl, and rode away to the place where he found her buried; I evidently never realized that there
was something omitted."