Lord Lover- Welsh (ME) 1907 Barry D
[Three stanza fragment from: British Ballads from Maine; 1929. Barry, Eckstorm, Smyth. Barry's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
Our D-text, together with a longer County Sligo version, sung in Vineland, N.J., belongs to the earlier, better tradition of the ballad. This old tradition is represented by Child A, C, E, G, J, of which G calls the lady Isabell, and the others have retained some corruption of "Ann Isabel," To the same group belong Cox C, and one of the five texts in the Child MSS referred to by Professor Kittredge (JAFL, XXIX, 160), a text of Irish origin, which calls the heroine "Lady Ann, sweet bell(e)." The mood of this group of texts is serious, as is that of Child B, D, in which the lady is Nancybell, Nanciebel. Child F has a touch of sentimentality, which, in H, easily degenerates into comedy.
D. [Lord Lovel] MS Collection of Phillips Barry (Harvard University Library). Sung by Mrs. A. Welch, native of County Clare, at Brunswick, Sept. 4, 1907. Melody recorded by P.B.
I "Where are you going, Lord Lovel?" she said,
"Where are you going from me?"
"I'm going, I'm going, Lady Anisabel, [1]
Strange countries now for to see."
2 "When will you come back, Lord Lovel ?" she said,
"When will you come back to me?"
"All for the space of three long years,
Lady Anisabel," said he.
3. "Oh, that is too long, Lord Lovel!" she said,
"Oh, that is too long for me!
All for the space of three long years,
True lovers never to see."
1. Ann Isabel