Lord Lover- Boone (NC) 1918 Sharp E
[Three stanzas with music. From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians by Sharp and Campbell; Sharp/Karpeles I, 1932. Notes from the 1932 edition follow. The 1932 edition prints stanzas 1, 5, 8 only; other supplied from MS. Sina Boone, the informant, was an African- American singer and kin to Mrs. Julie Boone, from whom Sharp took down 29 songs.
R. Matteson 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.
Sandburg's American Songbag, p. 570.
E. Lord Lover. Sung by Mrs. SINA BOONE at Shoal Creek, Burnsville, N. C, Sept. 28, 1918
Hexatonic (no 7th).
1. Lord Lover stands by his dest (sic) castle gate
A-combing his milk-white horse,
And out comes Lady Nancy Bell
To wish her lover good speed, speed, speed,
To wish her lover good speed.
2. O where are you going? said Nancy Bell.
How long will you be gone? said she.
A year or two, or two or three,
And I'll return to thee.
3. He rode and he rode his milk-white horse
Strange countries for to see,
And the thought came in Lord I-over's head
That Lady Nancy he'd see.
4. He rode and he rode his milk-white horse
Till he come to London town,
Enquiring what was the matter
That the people was mourning all around.
5 Some people called her Nancy Bell,
Some called her Lady Nancy.
He ordered the lid to be opened wide
And the winding sheet laid back.
6. He kissed and he kissed her pale clay-ed cheeks
Till the rears come trinkling down.
He kissed and he kissed her pale clay-ed cheeks
Till the tears came trinkling down.
7. They buried Lady Nancy as it was today,
They buried Lord Lover tomorrow;
And out of Lady Nancy's grave sprung a red rose,
And out of Lord Lover's a briar.
8 They grew and they grew to the top of the church,
They could not grow much higher.
They twittered and they tied in a true love's knot
For all true lovers to admire.