Love Henry- McKinney (WV) 1919 Cox B
[From Folk-Songs of the South; 1925 by John Harrington Cox. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
9. YOUNG HUNTING (Child, No. 68)
Two copies of this ballad have come to hand under the titles: "Lord Henry" and "Love Henry," the latter an abbreviated variant of no special significance. The former is an excellent ballad most like F of the Child versions, as indicated by the throwing of the body into the deep well (stanza 9) and the wishing for a bow and arrow (stanza 14). Cf. Child F 8 and 12.
For American texts see Journal, xx, 252 (Pettit; Kentucky); xxx, 297 (Kittredge; Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana), where references will be found; Campbell and Sharp, No. 15 (North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia); The William and Mary Literary Magazine, May, 1922, xxix, 664 (Virginia). Cf. Bulletin, Nos. 6, 7, 10.
LOVE HENRY- Miss Polly McKinney, (Sophia, WV) 1919 Cox B 1919. Folk-Songs of the South, Dover ed., p. 42-44.
"Come in, come in, Love Henry,
And stay all night with me;
For I have a chair of yellow green gold
And all the best is for thee."
"I can't come in, nor I shall not come in,
To sit at your right knee,
For I have a girl left in the India land,
Will think long of my coming home."
She leant herself all over the fence
And kisses gave him three.
A little penknife all in her hand,
She would it in fully.[1]
"O live, O live, Love Henry," she said,
"A half an hour or more,
And all the doctors in the town
Shall be here at your cure."
"O how can I live, O how can I live,
O how can I live?" said he;
"For don't you see my own heart's blood,
Come trinkling to my knee?"
"Come down, come down, Polly Parrot," she said,
"And sit on my right knee;
I'll give you a cage of yellow green gold,
And all the best is for thee."
"I can't come down, nor I shall not come down,
To sit on your right knee;
For it have n't been long since you killed Love Henry-
How soon you might kill me!"
1. "She wished to thrust it completely into his bosom."