Loving Henry- Whitt (KY) pre1916 Kittredge
[From Ballads and Songs by G. L. Kittredge; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
YOUNG HUNTING (Child, No. 68)
A copy of the version current in America under the name of "Love Henry," "Loving Henry," or "Lord Henry," was contributed to this Journal by Miss Pettit in 1907 (20 :252-253), as taken down in Knott County, Kentucky. It is nearest to Child's F (Motherwell's MS.). A similar text ("Love Henry") was printed some years ago in Delaney's "Scotch Song Book No. I," p. 6 (New York, William W. Delaney).' Variants of this version are reported by Mrs. Olive Dame Campbell, "The Survey" (New York, Jan. 2, 1915), 23:373; Cox, 45: 160 (cf. JAFL 29 :400); Smith, Bulletin, No. 5, p. 6; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Belden, No. 3; JAFL I8 : 295. Interesting variants of "Loving Henry" have been communicated recently by Miss Loraine Wyman, Professor Belden, and Mr. Wallace C. Wadsworth.
I. Loving Henry
Communicated, 1916, by Miss Loraine Wyman, as taken down by her from the singing of Lauda Whitt, McGoffin County, Kentucky, in that year.
1. "Get down, get down, loving Henry," she cried,
"And stay all night with me;
This costly cord around my waist
I'll make sublime to thee."
2. "O I can't get down, O I can't get down,
And stay all night with you;
For there's another girl in the Eden land
That I love far better than you."
3. As he reared in his saddle stirrups,
To kiss her lily white cheeks,
All in her hand she held a sharp knife,
And in him she stabbed it deep.
4. "Live hours, live hours, loving Henry," she cried,
"Live hours some two or three;
For there's no girl in the Eden land
That will wait the coming of thee."
5. "I can't live hours, I can't live hours,
I can't live hours two or three;
For don't you see my own heart's blood
Come flowing out of me?"
6. "Must I go east, must I go west,
Or any way under the sun,
To get a doctor so good and kind
As to heal the wounded one?"
7. "You need not go east, you need not go west,
Nor no way under the sun;
For there's no doctor but God alone
Can heal this wounded one."
8. She took him by the yellow hair,
She took him by the feet,
She threw him over the downward wall,
Where the water was cold and deep.
9. "Lie there, lie there, loving Henry," she cried,
"With water up to your chin;
For there's no girl in the Eden land
To await your long coming in."
10. "O don't you see that sweet little bird
A-flying from vine to vine?
It's searching for its own true love,
Just like I search for mine.
11. "Fly down, fly down, you sweet little bird,
And sit upon my knee;
For I have a golden cage at home
Hanging in the green willow tree."
12. "I won't fly down, I won't fly down,
And sit upon your knee;
A girl who would murder her own true love
I'm sure would murder me."
13. "O if I had my cedar bow,
And arrow tied with string,
I'd plunge a diamond through your heart;
No longer you'd sit and sing."
14. "But if you had your little elder bow,[1]
An arrow tied with string,
Away to some tall tree I'd fly,
And there I'd sit and sing."
1. little arrow an' bow ?