Lord Ronald- MacRae (London) 1908
[From: Journal of the Folk-Song Society - Volumes 17-20 - Page 119, Folk-Song Society (Great Britain) - 1913
R. Matteson 2011, 2018]
LORD RONALD
Noted, from phonograph record, by Lucy Broadwood. SUNG BY FARQUHAR MACRAE: M.D.,
(I. OF LEWIS AND ROSS-SHIRE), LONDON, MAY 14TH, I908.
[music]
"What will ye leave for your brother, Lord Ronald, my son?
What will ye leave for your brother, my handsome young man?"
"My greyhound to cherish, mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm weary of hunting, and fain would lie doon."
2 "What will ye leave for your sister, Lord Ronald, my son ?
What will ye leave for your sister, my handsome young man ?
"A Bible to read, mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm weary of hunting, and fain would lie down."
3 "What will ye leave for your sweetheart, Lord Ronald, my son ?
What will ye leave for your sweetheart, my handsome young man ?"
"A gallows to hang her, mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm weary of hunting, and fain would lie down."
Dr. Farquhar MacRae learned this song (of which he could not recall the opening verses) from his mother in the West Highlands. His tune is a variant of " Cuir a nall duinn am botal," a favourite song in the North-West of Scotland of which I noted a version in Inverness-shire (see Journal, Vol. iv, No. i6, p. I54). These Highland airs, both in three-four time, seem to have furnished Burns with the air, in common time measure, of his song " A Hieland Lad my Love was born "which was admittedly set to an old air. The bequest of a Bible to the sister is very rarely found in the " Lord Randal " texts. Child gives a Scottish version of " Lord Ronald" where the dying man leaves his mother "My Bible for to read upon"; and in one Scottish text of "The Cruel Brother" the mother's legacy is "My silver Bible" (see Child's Ballads, large ed., Vol. i, pp. 497 and 500). Compare "The Croodin' Doo" and "Three Drops of Poison " in this Journal, where references for "Lord Randal" ballads are given. To the more numerous references in Journal, Vol. ii, p. 32, etc., may be added- "Where were you all the Day, my own pretty Boy ?" a minor air, No. 330 in the Complete Petrie Collection, and the same tune, but in the major, No. 8I2 in Joyce's Old Irish Folk-Music an4d Songs. A good text has lately appeared in the late Mr. Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North-East of Scotland (2nd series). The most recent number of the Welsh Folk-Song Society's Journal, Vol. ii, Part I (I9I4), contains four interesting versions, under the title " 0, fy Mab anwyl" ("0, my dear Son").
A German version, with seven stanzas and a very simple tune, is to be found in Neues Wunderhorn (Fischer and Franke, Berlin), under the title of " Stiefmutter." Another very interesting version, from North Germany, is in Zuccalmaglio's Deutsche Volkslieder (I840), under the title of " Die Schlangenkochin." This has fourteen verses, relating how " Maria " has been to an old neighbour who gave her a baked fish, caught with sticks and rods in her herb-garden. The dog having eaten of it burst into a thousand bits. The North German air is of interest, as showing a strong likeness to certain English tunes, equally sung by solo
and chorus alternating, such as the Sussex version of " Bango," referred to in this Journal under " Cobbler and Tinker" (see Sussex Songs, Broadwood and Birch- Reynardson). It is therefore subjoined.-L. E. B.