Mollie Bond- Lauda Whitt (KY) 1916 Kittredge B
[From G. L. Kittredge, "Ballads and Songs," Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 30. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
POLLY VANN (MOLLY WHAN).
Jamieson founded his ballad of "Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour" [1] on his recollection of the story of "a silly ditty of a young man, who, returning homeward from shooting with his gun, saw his sweetheart, and shot her for a swan;" and, in circulating "Lord Kenneth" (as a printed sheet) among his friends in 1799, he prefixed a note to that effect, remarking that he had not been able to procure a copy. In 1803 he mentioned the ditty as "the tragic ballad of 'Peggie Baun'" in his list of desiderata in the " Scots Magazine," 65 : 700. In 1806 he was able to publish an incomplete text, "Peggy Baun," in his "Popular Ballads" (1 : 194) from the recitation of a maidservant. He apologized to his readers "for attempting to introduce such paltry stuff to their notice."
A slip issued by Pitts very early in the nineteenth century contains a variant under the style of "Molly Whan" (Harvard College, 25242.4, ii, 67); and almost the same text, similarly entitled, occurs in "The Lover's Harmony" (London, about 1840), p. 158.[2]
J. Andrews (38 Chatham Street, New York) published a text about 1857 in one of his broadsides (List 5, Song 50): "Polly von Luther and Jamie Randall" (Harris Collection, Brown University). Shearin and Coombs, p. 28, describe the ballad (from Kentucky) under the title of "Polly Vaughn."
Barry (JAFL 22: 387) prints a four-stanza medley ("Mollie Bawn" or "At the Setting of the Sun ") which contains four lines of the ballad. The song now in circulation in England, known to collectors as "The Shooting of his Dear," is a disordered form of the broadside. It may be found in Sharp and Marson, "Folk Songs from Somerset," No. 16, 1 :32-33; "Journal of the Folk-Song Society," 2 : 59-60.
B. "Mollie Bond." From Miss Loraine Wyman, as sung by Lauda Whitt, McGoffin County, Kentucky, 1916.
1. Come all you young men who handle a gun,
Be warned of shooting after the down sun.
2. A story I'll tell you; it happened of late,
Concerning Mollie Bond, whose beauty was great.
3. Mollie Bond was out walking, and a shower came on;
She sat under a beech tree the showers to shun.
4. Jim Random was out hunting, a hunting in the dark;
He shot at his true love and missed not his mark.
5. With a white apron pinned around her he took her for a swan;
He shot and killed her, and it was Mollie Bond.
6. He ran to her; these words to her he said,
And a fountain of tears on her bosom he shed:
7. Saying, "Mollie, dear Mollie, you're the joy of my life;
I always intended to make you my wife."
8. Jim ran to his uncle with his gun in his hand,
Saying, "Uncle, dear uncle, I've killed Mollie Bond.
9. "With her apron pinned around her, I took her for a swan;
I shot and killed her, and it was Mollie Bond."
10. Up stepped his dear uncle with his locks all so gray,
Saying, "Stay at home, Jimmie, and do not run away.
11. "Stay in your own country till your trial comes on;
You shall not be molested if it costs me my farm."
12. The day of Jimmy's trial Mollie's ghost did appear,
Saying to this jury, "Jim Random, come clear!
13. "With my apron pinned around me he took me for a swan,
He shot and killed me, and now I am gone."
1 Popular Ballads, I : 193-199.
2 Issued in fifty numbers of eight pages each ("Pitts, Printer").
3 Compare Frank Smith, Dover Farms, pp. 28-29.