Molly Ban- Mrs. Arlie Fraser (ON) 1961 Fowke REC
[From: FO 20, Side 1, of Edith Fowke Tapes, York University, 1961. Reprinted in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1986).
R. Matteson 2016]
Molly Ban- Sung by Mrs. Arlington Fraser of Lanchester, Glengarry County, Ontraio in 1961. She was one of Fowke's most prolific informants.
In the country of Donegal where I was born and bred,
Sure the people all told me I was a rambling young lad.
And I courted pretty Molly till I had her heart won,
Sure the people would have blamed me had I left her behind.
Going home from her uncle in a shower of rain,
She crept under a green bush the rain for to shun.
Her white apron being around her I took her for a swan,
For I never intended to shoot my own Molly Ban.
O when he came to her and saw what he had done,
The tears from his eyes in great fountains did run.
Straight home to his father with a gun in his hand,
Saying "Father, dear father, I've shot Molly Ban.
"Her white apron being around her I took her for a swan,
And I never intended to shoot my own Molly Ban."
"Stay at home Johnny Randall and don't go away,
I wouldn't have you prosecuted should I lose all my land.'
Johnny Randall was taken prisoner that night in his cell,
Seven weeks in cold iron young Johnny did see.
And the night before his trial Molly's ghost did appear,
Saying, "Uncle, dearest uncle, Johnny Randall I clear.
"My white apron being around me, he took me for a swan,
And he never intended to shoot his own Molly Ban."
The girls of this country are all very sad,
Since the youth and great among them, Molly Ban, is now dead.
It's together and together, place them all in a row,
Molly Ban would appear among them like a mountain of snow.
O come all you late fowlers who carry a gun,
Beware of sharp shooting right after the sun.
Lest it might happen with you as it happened to me
For to shoot your own darling right under a tree.