Lowlands Low- Murphy (ME) 1942 Flanders K, Olney
[Below are Coffin's introductory notes from Flanders' Ancient Ballads. This ballad covers over 80 pages, the most extensive collection published.
R. Matteson 2014]
The Sweet Trinity or the Golden Vanity
(Child 286)
This ballad is immensely popular in America and not hard to find in Britain. It dates back to a broadside of the 1680's in which the deceitful captain is Sir Walter Raleigh. (See Flanders FF.) Since then it has taken many forms and may conclude in any number of ways. The Flanders texts give an excellent cross section of the plot variations found in this ballad. In A-T the boy drowns in the lowlands low. In U, he sinks the captain's ship as well as that of the enemy before he drowns. In V, he also sinks the captain's ship and there is only one survivor to tell the tale. In W, he sinks the captain's ship, ironically drowning the girl he loved with the crew. In X, he dies after being hauled on deck. In EE his ghost returns to treat the captain to a glass of beer before sinking the boat. In FF-JJ, the heroic lad is rewarded with a leave of absence, the daughter's hand, or gold and silver. Of these texts, A1, with the stanzas on the phantom ship, and R, with the lines borrowed from "The Mermaid" (Child 289) are noteworthy. So are V, with its one survivor, like Melville's Ishmael; and FF, which preserves the name of Raleigh, if not the ending, from Child A" The vessel's name, originally The Sweet Trinity, varies greatly in America, becoming The Golden Vanity, The Green Willow Tree, The Merry Golden Tree, and so on. Its opponent, sunk by the cabin boy, was "a false galley" in the old broadside, but it is more likely a Turkish (or Russian, Irish, French, etc.) Revelee or "Shavaree" (sloop) in the States.
There is a certain preposterous quality to this song, and college students and music hall writers have exploited this fact in a series of parodies. see Coffin, 155, for references. Perhaps for the same reason, it has been extremely popular with sailors.
A long bibliography for "The Sweet Trinity" is easy to come by. See coffin, 153-5 (American); Dean-Smith, 69; Belden, 97 (English); Greig and Keith, 228-9, and Ord, 450-1 (Scottish). Phillips Barry, British Ballad's from Maine, 339-47, includes and discusses it. There is a song, once in a while confused with "The Sweet Trinity," called "The Low-lands Low." while it has a similar burden, it tells a very different story and goes back to an English stall ballad, "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (Laws M 34), that was well known here and in Britain, see Laws, ABBB, 197-8; Belden, 127; and Dean-smith, 118, for some references to it.
The tunes for Child 286 can be divided into six groups which, however, may turn out to be related at least to some extent. The groupings are as follows: (1) Davis, Edwards, Moses, Burditt, and possibly Pease; (2) George, Daniels, Houghton; (3) Henry, Blake, George, Barry; (4) Clarke, Cassidy, Richards, Dragon; (5) Ingalls; and (6) Fish and Percival. The Ingalls runs seems to be a version of the popular "Canada-I-O." In order to save repetition, the tune relationships for standard collections are given here. Only relatively close tunes have been selected. from the large number available. In spite of their profusion, however, there is a lack of analogues for groups (2) and (6). For group (3), see Sharp I, 282-285, 2B9 I; FCB 4, 120, 47 A, 121 A (I), 123 C (I) ; BES, 346, ROI, 195, 200 (D); BI, 160. For group (3), especially the Blake rune, see BES, 34b (distant). For group (4) see Sharp l, 287, 288 G; GCM, 214; ROI, 200.
K. "Lowlands Low" Sung by Mrs. Harriet Gott Murphy of Rumford Center, Maine; Sept. 12, 1942; Collected by M. Olney.
Lowlands Low
My father owns a ship in the northern country;
She goes by the name of The Golden Vanity.
I fear she will be taken all by some Spanish crew,
As she sails along the Lowlands along the Lowlands,
As she sails along the lowlands low.
The first one that spoke up was a saucy cabin boy:
"Say, what will you give me if I will her destroy?
"I'll give you gold and, silver, my daughter fair and gay
I{. you'll sink her in the Lowlands, in the Lowlands,
If you'll sink her in the Lowlands low."
The boy he bent his breast and then he plunged in.
The boy he bent his breast and, then began to swim.
He swam alongside of this large Spanish ship,
And he sank her in the Lowlands, in the Lowlands,
And he sank her in the Lowlands low.
oh, some were playing cards and some were: shaking dice
And some were in their harninocks a-sleeping very nice.
He bored two holes in irer broadside and let the water in,
And he sank her in the Lowlands, in the Lowlands,
And he sank her in the Lor,vlancls low.
Ithe trroy he srvarrr back unto the srarboarcl side,
AnC being quite exhausted, so bitrerly he cried,
"Oh, messmates, take me in' for I'm going with the tide'
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands' in the Lowlands'
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands low."
"I will not take you in," our captain then replied'
"I will not give you gold"o' *y daughter for your bride'
I'll shoot you, I'1I stab You, and send you with the tide'
And I'11 sink you in the Lowlands' in the Lowlands'
And I'11 sink you in the Lowlands low."
The boy, he then swam on unto the larboard side'
And b.ing quite exhausted, so bitterly he cried'
"Oh, messmates, take me in, for I'm going with the tide'
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands' in the Lowlands'
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands low."