Lowlands Low- Webster (VA) 1914 Davis E
[From Davis, Traditional Ballads Of Virginia 1929, his notes are below.
R. Matteson 2014]
THE SWEET TRINITY (THE GOLDEN VANITY)
(Child, No. 286)
Our complete text, A, and five more or less fragmentary ones, with one tune, have been found in Virginia. The titles are 'The Lowlands Low," "The Green Willow Tree," "The Golden Vanity," "Turkey-Rogherlee and the Yellow Golden Tree," and "Sailing in the Lowlands Low." All the Virginia items are printed here. They are all closely related to the Child C version, as shown especially by the final death of the cabin boy, either from exhaustion in the sea, as in A, or on deck, as in B. But there are verbal suggestions of other versions; for instance stanza 1 of the Virginia E fragment suggests Child B 9. Several Virginia texts of a later "Lowlands low" song, also known in Virginia as "Young Edmund," which belong to the English song of "Younq Edwin in the Lowlands Low" have of course been excluded as out of place here. The story of the ballad is given with fair completemess in Virginia A.
E. "Lowlands Low." Collected by Miss Corita G. Seoane. Sung by Miss Webster, of Merrifield, Va. Fairfax County. February 11, 1914.
1 Some with their hats, and some with their caps,
Are trying for to stop those water-erie gaps,
As they're sailing in the lowlands, lonesome low,
As they're sailing in the lowlands low.
2 Then he turned on his back, and down sank he,
And he bade farewell to the low country,
As they're sailing in the lowlands, lonesome low,
As they're sailing in the lowlands low.