Loving Henry- Kiser (VA) 1932 Cambiaire; Davis FF
[From Eastern Tennessee and Western Virginia Mountain Ballads- Cambiaire, 1934. Davis collected this text (through E.J. Sutherland) in 1932 and it appears More Traditional Ballads, 1960. The texts are nearly identical so I won't reproduce Davis text here. I've added the names of the cities where the informants lived. There was one addition to the text (footnoted).
R. Matteson 2014]
15. LOVING HENRY- Collected by Beuna Kiser of Clinchco, VA. Source: My mother, Mrs. Ida E. Kiser of Jahile, VA.
"Come in, come in, Loving Henry," she said,
"And stay all night with me.
Your bed shall be made of finest silk
And gold and silver-ee."
"No, I can't come in, Lillie Margaret," he said,
"And stay all night with you,
For the girl I left in a foreign land
Will think I am untrue."
She seated herself in a parlour neat,[1]
For to take a kiss or two,
And with the knife she held in her right hand
She stabbed him through and neat through.
"How long, how long, Lillie Margaret"' he said,
"Till you and I must part?
The purest blood that ever flowed
Comes flowing from my heart."
She called on a girl in this little town
To keep her secret still,
"And the ring I place on his right hand
Shall always belong to him."
She took him by his golden locks,
Her sister at his feet,
They carried him to the river side
And threw him in the deep.
"Lie there, lie there, loving Henry," she said,
"Till the meat falls from your bones;
And the girl you left in a foreign land
Will think you are long coming home."
As Lillie Margaret started on her highway home,
Some Polly Parrot seemed to say,
"Go home, go home, Lillie Margaret," it said,
"And stay till a sweet summer's day."
"Fly down, fly down, Polly Parrot," she said,
"And rest on my right knee;
I have a cage of the very finest
And I'll give it up to thee."
"No, I can't fly down, Lillie Margaret," it said,
And rest on your right knee;
For you've just killed your own true love,
And I'm afraid you might kill me."
"Have pity on me, Polly Parrot," she said,
"Don't remind me of my crime,
For the girl he left in a foreign land
Stole a love that once was mine."
"Go make my shroud, dear sister," she said,
"And bury me by his side;
For here on earth he loved her best,
And in death I'll be his bride."
They found her dead next morning,
Her face turned up to the sky,
And on her breast a letter pinned,
Saying, " All dear friends, good-bye."
________________________
1. Davis has "parlor neat,"