Other US and Canadian Ballads and Songs of British/English Origin
[This section is meant to be an extension of Child's 305 English and Scottish Popular Ballads. The selections are mine based in part on popularity. Several ballads have been completed - see: More English & Scottish Popular Ballads- Matteson
1) Drowsy Sleeper (Oh Molly Dear) Arise (Awake) You drowsy Sleeper
2) The Gosport Tragedy (Cruel Ship's Carpenter / Pretty Polly/Silver Dagger)
3) Bramble Briar
4) Constant Farmer's Son
5) Molly Bawn
[complete]
6)Frog and the Mouse (Froggie Went courtin') [Children's song- not much of a plot]
7) Pretty Fair Maid down in the Garden
6) Dearest Dear/Blackest Crow/Fond Affection [most love songs- may not be a ballad; broadsides see Red Red Rose]
The Bitter Withy (Roud 452) (2.19)
Lang A-Growing (Roud 31; Laws O35; G/D 6:1222) (4.58)
The Seven Virgins (Roud 127) (4.39)
Down in Yon Forest (Roud 1523) (2.47)
The Bold Fisherman (Roud 291; Laws O24; G/D 4:834) (3.49)
The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green (Roud 132; Laws N27; G/D 5:1061) (4.48)
Six Dukes Went A-Fishing (Roud 78) (2.54)
The Holy Well (Roud 1697) (4.57)
Matthew Hodgart's The Ballads {Hutchinson 1950}. He lists "Still Growing", "Lang a-Growing" &c, as his #1 omission.
'Trees they Grow So High', often somewhat pretentiously named 'Young Craighton'.
The Three Butchers, Roud 17
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[Arranged in alphabetical order]
[under construction]
CONTENTS:
A- Other US- Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Arthur McBride and the Sergeant (Carrie Grover)
As I Stepped Out Last Sunday Morning (Brown Collection NC)
As Willie and Mary strolled by the seaside (Wisconsin)
Awake, arise, you drowsy sleeper(Wisconsin)
B- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Banks of the Ohio, On the (Brown Collection NC) [probably US origin]
Beautiful Susan- Brown Collection (Brown Collection NC)
Beneath the linden tree (I saw my gentle mother) (Wisconsin)
Boys Won't Do to Trust, The- Brown Collection (Brown Collection NC)
Bramble Brier, The- Brown Collection
Bramble Briar- article by Belden
Brave Irish Lady, A(Brown Collection NC)
Brennan on the moor(Wisconsin)
Butcher Boy
Butcher Boy, The (Brown Collection NC)
Butcher's boy(Wisconsin)
C- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Charming Beauty Bright (Brown Collection NC)
Chowan River (Brown Collection NC)
Come All Young People (Brown Collection NC)
D- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Dark-Eyed Sailor, The (Brown Collection NC)
Dark Knight, The (Brown Collection NC)
Dives and Lazarus (Brown Collection NC)
Dives and Lazarus II (Brown Collection NC)
Douglas Tragedy (see: Child Ballads)
Drowsy Sleeper The (Brown Collection NC)
E- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Early, Early in the Spring (Brown Collection NC)
Endurance- Nathan Hicks
F- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Fair Fannie Moore (Brown Collection NC)
False Lover, The- Howard 1938; Voices from Dust Bowl
Froggy Went A-Courtin'
G- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Ghost's Bride, The (Brown Collection NC)
Gilderoy- Dusenberry (Arkansas) c. 1930s
Glove, The (Brown Collection NC)
Gosport Tragedy, The (Brown Collection NC) [Pretty Polly]
H- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Handsome Harry(Brown Collection NC)
I- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In (Brown Collection NC)
Indeed Pretty Polly- Tink Tillet 1940 Warner
J- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Jack Munro
Jack the Jolly Tar BFSSNE 1932
Jealous Brothers, The (Armstrong REC) [Pretty Polly]
John Reilley (Brown Collection NC)
Johnny German (Brown Collection NC)
K- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
L- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Lancaster Maid, The (Brown Collection NC)
'Let's Go A-Hunting,' Says Richard to Robert (Brown Colection NC)
Lexington Murder, The (Brown Collection NC)
Lightning Flash, - BFSSNE
Locks and Bolts (Brown Collection NC)
Lovely Susan (Brown Collection NC)
Lovely Mary (Owens, TX) Handsome Molly?
Lover's Lament, The (Brown Collection NC)
M- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Mary of the Wild Moor (Brown Collection NC)
Molly Bawn (Brown Collection NC)
N- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Nancy of Yarmouth (Brown Collection NC)
New River Shore (Brown Collection NC)
O- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
P- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Pretty Betsey (Brown Collection NC)
Pretty Polly (Douglas Tragedy)
Pretty Fair Maid down in the Garden, A (Brown Collection NC)
Prince of Morocco, The; or, Johnnie (Brown Collection NC)
Q- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
R- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Romish Lady, The (Brown Collection NC)
Rose Connally (Brown Collection NC)
S- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Servant Man (Brown Collection NC)
Silver Dagger, The (Brown Collection NC)
Soldier's Wooing, The (Brown Collection NC)
T- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Three Butchers, The (Brown Colection NC)
Turkish Factor, The (Brown Colection NC
Twelve Blessings of Mary, The (Brown Collection NC)
Twelve Days of Christmas, The (Brown Collection NC)
U, V- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
W X- Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Who is at My Window Weeping? (Peacock, 1952) Silver dagger, O Molly dear
Y, Z-Other US Canadian Ballads of English Origin
Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low (Brown Collection NC)
(Brown Collection NC)
97. Polly Oliver 98. Mollie and Willie 99. Jack Munro 100. The Girl Volunteer 101. Charming Nancy 102. A Rich Nobleman's Daughter 103. Little Plowing Boy 104. The Sailor Boy 105. Scarboro Sand (Robin Hood Side) 106. William Taylor 107. The Silk-Merchant's Daughter 108. Green Beds 109. Poor Jack 110. Little Mohea 111. The Faithful Sailor Boy 112. The Sailor's Bride 113. Barney McCoy 114. In a Cottage by the Sea 115. A Song About a Man-of-War 116. Captain Kidd 117. Poor Parker 118. High Barbary 119. The Lorena Bold Crew 120. The Sheffield Apprentice 121. The Rambling Boy 122. My Bonnie Black Bess 123. The Drummer Boy of Waterloo 124. Caroline of Edinburgh Town 125. Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch 126. I Wish My Love Was in a Ditch 127. Shule Aroon 128. William Riley 129. Johnny Doyle 130. Sweet William and Nancy 131. The Irish Girl 132. Pretty Susie, the Pride of Kildare 133. I Was Sitting on a Stile 134. I Left Ireland & Mother because We Were Poor 135. Three Leaves of Shamrock 136. Skew Ball 137. When You and I Were Young, Maggie 138. The Happy Stranger 139. Sweet Lily 140. Once I Had a Sweetheart 141. A False-Hearted Lover 142. Mama Sent Me to the Spring 143. Annie Lee 144. Hateful Mary Ann 145. The Girl I Left behind Me 146. The Isle of St. Helena 147. The Babes in the Wood 148. The Orphan Girl 149. The Blind Girl 150. Two Little Children 151. The Soldier's Poor Little Boy 152. The Orphan 153. Fond Affection 154. You Are False, but I'll Forgive You 155. We Have Met and We Have Parted 156. Broken Ties 157. They Were Standing by the Window 158. The Broken Heart 159. This Night We Part Forever 160. Parting Words 161. Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me 162. The One Forsaken 163. Don't Forget Me, Little Darling 164. She Was Happy till She Met You 165. The Ripest Apple 166. Sweetheart, Farewell 167. My Little Dear, So Fare You Well 168. Dreary Weather 169. My Sweetheart's Dying Words 170. The Homesick Boy 171. Over the Hills to the Poor-House 172. You're the Man That Stole My Wife 173. I'm Going to Get Married Next Sunday 174. Katie's Secret 175. The Farmer's Daughter 176. The Derby Ram 177. The Miller and His Three Sons 178. I Tuck Me Some Corn to the County Seat 179. The Old Dyer 180. Father Grumble 181. Johnny Sands 182. The Old Woman's Blind Husband 183. The Dumb Wife 184. The Holly Twig 185. Nobody Coming to Marry Me 186. Whistle, Daughter, Whistle 187. Hard of Hearing 188. The Three Rogues 189. Bryan O'Lynn 190. Three Jolly Welshmen 191. The Good Old Man 192. The Burglar Man 193. Billy Grimes the Drover 194. Grandma's Advice 195. Common Bill 196. Swapping Songs 197. Dog and Gun 198. Kitty Clyde 199. Father. Father, I Am Married 200. If I Had a Scolding Wife 201. The Scolding Wife 202. The Little Black Mustache 203. No Sign of a Marriage 204. Wilkins and His Dinah 205. Thimble Buried His Wife at Night 206. Boys, Keep Away from the Girls 207.
Come and I will sing you(Wisconsin)
Dick Turpin and Black Bess(Wisconsin)
Did you ever see the devil?(Wisconsin)
Dolan's ass(Wisconsin)
Farmer had a daughter(Wisconsin)
Finnegan's wake(Wisconsin)
Froggie went to take ride(Wisconsin)
Go tell aunt Rhody(Wisconsin)
Homestead strike(Wisconsin)
How happy is the sportsman(Wisconsin)
I am a man of pleasure and to Blackwater came(Wisconsin)
I once had two handfuls of gold(Wisconsin)
I stood upon the sand bank(Wisconsin)
I'll sell my hat, I'll sell my coat (Wisconsin)
Irish Molly-o (Wisconsin)
Irish washerwoman(Wisconsin)
Lantern's gleam (Wisconsin)
Magpie and the lark(Wisconsin)
Miss Fogarty's Christmas cake(Wisconsin)
Mistletoe bough(Wisconsin)
My grandmother lived on yonder green(Wisconsin)
My Jack has gone a'sailing(Wisconsin)
O Mary dear go ask your mother (Drowsy Sleeper)(Wisconsin)
O Mary dear (Wisconsin)
O'Connell and his steam (Wisconsin)
Oh, I'm a jolly Irishman(Wisconsin)
Oh, it's nine years ago I was diggin' in the land(Wisconsin)
Oh, will you wear the white, Jennie Jenkins(Wisconsin)
Old Willis is dead and in his grave lay(Wisconsin)
On the decks of the Baltimore(Wisconsin)
Once I courted a charming beauty bright(Wisconsin)
One morning, one morning, one morning in spring(Wisconsin)
One ship drives east(Wisconsin)
Paddy Doyle and Biddy O'Toole(Wisconsin)
Paddy Miles, the fisherman(Wisconsin)
Pretty Polly Oliver(Wisconsin)
Pretty Polly(Wisconsin)
Pretty Polly (KY) 1916 Wyman
So merry, so merry are we(Wisconsin)
There was an old woman in London(Wisconsin)
Very first time I saw my love(Wisconsin)
What will I do with the baby - o(Wisconsin)
When she got there she was highly mounted(Wisconsin)
Young Charlotte(Wisconsin)
Young Mary(Wisconsin)
------------------------
Nottingham Fair
Lowlands of Holland
The Broken Token
On a Bright and Summer's Morning
Jackie's Gone a-Sailing (maud Long)
The Barnyard (Hinton)
----------------
In "The Rambler's Garland" an early 18th Cent. chap book is "The Distressed Ship Carpenter" [Child 243; house carpenter]
Well met, well met, my own true love
Long time I've been seeking thee.
I'm lately come from the salt sea
And all for the sake, love, of thee.
I might have had a king's daughter,
And fain she would have married me.
But I've forsaken all her Crowns of Gold
And all for the sake, love, of thee.
If you might have had a king's daughter
I think you are much to blame.
I would not for five hundred pounds
That my husband should hear the same.
For my husband is a Carpenter
A young ship-carpenter is he.
And by him I have a little son,
Or else,love, I'd go with thee.
But if I should leave my husband dear,
Likewise my little son also
What have you to maintain me withal,
If I along with you go?
I have seven ships upon the seas,
And one of them brought me to land
And seventeen mariners to wait on thee,
For to be, love, at thy command.
A pair of slippers thou shalt have
They shall be made of beaten gold.
Nay & be a lined with velvet soft
To keep thy feet from the cold.
A gilded boat there thou also have
The oars shall be gilded also.
And mariners (seven) to row thee along
For to keep thee from overthrow.
They had not been long upon the sea,
Before she began to weep.
What weep you for my gold he said
Or for my fee do weep?
O do you weep for some other one
That you love more than me?
No I do weep for my little son
That should have come along with me.
She had not been upon the seas
Passing days three and four
But the mariner & she were dying,
And never were heard of more.
When the tidings to old England came
The ship carpenter's wife was drowned
He wrung his hands & tore his hair
And grievously fell in a swoon.
O cursed be these mariners
For they do lead a wicked life
They ruined me, a ship carpenter
By deluding away my wife.
-----------------------------
"Vandy, Vandy" Again
Arthur Palmer Hudson
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 75, No. 295 (Jan. - Mar., 1962), pp. 59-61
"VANDY, VANDY" AGAIN:-In "Notes and Queries," A4F, LXXIII (April-June 1960), I54-I56, Ed Cray, of Los Angeles, published a version of the song "Vandy, Vandy" with tune notation, comparative notes, and a statement that he would be interested in further information about the song. Perhaps readers of JAF will be, too. In his comments Cray refers to a text of the song published by Manly Wade Wellman, a professional writer of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Following is the text of the song,
with the melody, as given me by Wellman in the spring of I954 and as published by me in the journal North Carolina Folklore, II (Sept. I954), 3-4.
1. Van - dy,Van-dy, I've come to court you, Be you rich or
be you poor, And if you'll kind- ly en - tr - tain me
I will love you for ev - er-more. For I love you and
I can't help it, Oh, yes, I do.
2. Vandy, Vandy, I've gold and silver,
Vandy, Vandy, I've a house and land,
Vandy, Vandy, I've a world of pleasure.
I would make you a handsome man.
For I love you, etc.
3. I love a man who's in the army;
He's been there for seven long year,
And if he's there for seven year longer,
I won't have no other dear.
For I love him, etc.
4. What care I for your gold and silver?
What care I for your house and land?
What care I for the world of pleasure?
All I want is my soldier man.
For I love him, etc.
5. Wake up, wake up, the dawn is breaking,
Wake up, wake up, it's almost day.
Open your doors and your divers windows,
See my true love march away.
For I love him, etc.
In comparison with Cray's version, the North Carolina version lacks a stanza corresponding
to Cray's fifth. The verbal similarities of the corresponding five stanzas are close,
with a few interesting differences to be expected in a real folksong. It is notable that the
North Carolina version has a refrain, whereas Cray's does not. The two tunes seem to show
very little similarity.
To Cray's notes on the links of "Vandy, Vandy" with other folksongs, I should like to
add a few comments of my own. It is a compound of stanzas from several other folksongs
not noted by Cray, among them "The Spanish Lady" and "A Pretty Fair Lady." As put
Notes & Queries 6I
together, it looks like a survival or adaptation of a very ancient folk-lyric type known as
"song of the night visit," which developed out of a pagan custom permitting the lover of a
girl, under properly regulated conditions, to spend a night with her before marriage. (See
Shakespeare'sd ramaticu se of the custom and its conventionsi n Romeo and Juliet, II, ii,
and III, v; and also "The Grey Cock," Child No. 248.) Note the serenade in stanza I. The
last stanza resembles the song of the night visit known as the aube or alba (that is, the
dawn song), which the man was expected to sing as he left his lady-love at cockcrow or the
first note of the lark or other "pretty-featherefdo wl." (Cray's term "audabe-like"se ems to
be a misprint for aubade-like.)
All in all, "Vandy, Vandy" is a lovely Old World song, not at all incongruous with the
piney-woods country of North Carolina, and presumably not with the other far-distant
places cited by Cray in his notes. It is interesting and pleasing to learn that it has had
wide diffusion in the United States, though it seems to have been only recently turned up.
Who knows but that a few others as beautiful may not be caught by the folklorist's finetooth
comb, among the nits and tags and wisps of American folksong?
University of North Carolina
ARTHUR PALMER HUDSON
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
------------------------
The Robber Maid
G. L. Kittredge
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 39, No. 152 (Apr. - Jun., 1926), pp. 214-217
THE ROBBER MAID. Communicated by Win. Northrop Morse - The
following copy of "The Undaunted Female," as the song is called in English
broadsides, was taken down in 1925 by Miss Susie Marie Williams, of Radcliffe
College, as sung by an Irish servant in her aunt's family.
1. In fair London city a damsel did dwell;
For wealth and for beauty there none did her excell;
A-serving out her time for the space of seven year,
And what follows after you pretty soon shall hear.
2. One night this fair damsel she lay all alone
And dreamt that her father was making a sad moan.
Next morning quite early this fair maid arose,
Demanded her wages, her box and her clothes.
3. She put her box upon her head and traveled along.
She had not gone far ere she met a highwayman.
He said, "My pretty fair maid, if you'll come along with me,
I'll show you the straight road across the counterie!"
4. [He took her by the hand and he led her to a lane,1
He says, "My pretty fair maid, I mean to tell you plain;
Deliver up your money without either fear or strife,
Or else this very moment I'll take away your life."]
5. [The tears from her eyes like two fountains did flow,
Saying, "Where shall I wander, or where shall I go ?"
While this young fellow was feeling for his knife,
This beautiful damsel she took away his life.]
6. She put her box upon head and traveled along,
She had not gone far ere she met a gentleman.
He said, "My pretty fair maid, where are you going so late,
And what was the noise that I heard at yonder gate ?
7. "This box upon your head to yourself does not belong;
To your master or your mistress you have done something wrong:
To your master or your mistress you have done something ill,
And trembling with fear, you scarcely can stand still!"
8. "This box upon my head to myself does belong;
To my master or my mistress I have done nothing wrong:
To my master and my mistress I have done nothing ill,
But I fear in my heart that a robber I have killed."
' The text written down by Miss Williams reads, "He led her through lanes and he led her through
ditches," with the note, "Next six lines forgotten, telling of her killing this robber." "Six lines" meani
six half-lines.
o. She took the young man right straight to the place,
And there they found the robber a-bleeding in the face;
They found some loaded pistol, some powder and some ball,
And a knife, and a whistle more robbers for to call.1
xo.
She put the whistle to her mouth and blew both loud and shrill,
And four troops of young men came trooping o'er the hill.
The gentleman shot one - but that's a fiddle-dee,
For the beautiful young maid she shot the other three.
i . "I'll make you my bride for the valor you have shown.
I'll make you my bride by the setting of the sun,
I'll make you my bride for the valor you have done,
For tile saving of your own life and firing off your gun."
The song does not seem to be common in this country, but Dr. B. L. Jones
had found it in Michigan. It still circulates orally in England, Scotland,
and Ireland. See Journal of the Folk-Song Society, V. 12; Baring-Gould
Ms. (Harvard College), Appendix, article I; Williams, Folk-Songs of the
Upper Thames, pp. 280-281; broadsides by Pitts, Catnach, Ryle & Co.,
W. S. Fortey, Such (No. 23), W. M'Call (Liverpool, No. 533), Bebbington
(Manchester, No. 201), Harkness (Preston, No. 426), Mason (Belper).
Stanza 2 does not occur in any other version that I have seen. A lacuna
after stanza 3 is here supplied (in brackets) from the Pitts broadside.
"The Undaunted Female" is a remaking of "The Tinker and Staffordshire
Maid," of which I subjoin a copy (uncorrected) from an early nineteenth-
century broadside "Printed and sold by Jennings, 13, Water-lane,
Fleet-street, London."
Both songs belong to a group of ballads in which a robber is outwitted.
Compare "The Crafty Farmer," Child, No. 283, and the pieces there cited
(V. I28-I29); JAFL. 30, 367-369; Williams, Folk-Songs of the Upper
Thames, pp. 253-254; Maidwent, Scotch Ballads and Songs, 1859, p. 208;
Journal of the Folk-Song Society, I, 236-237; Country Moll's Garland
(Harvard College Library, 25276. 49. 6); Bob Hart's Plantation Songster
(copyright 1862), p. 70 ("The Quaker and the Robber"); Tony Pastor's
New Comic Irish Songster, p. 62 ("The Bould Highwayman"); The Songster's
Jewel for 1819, p. 7 ("Diamond Cut Diamond").
1 Two stanzas in the broadsides, As follows in Pitts:
"He demanded my money, but I soon let him know,
For while he was feeling for his knife, I proved his overthrow."
She took him by the hand, and she led him to the place
Where this noble young fellow lay bleeding on his face.
This gentleman got off his horse to see what he had got.
He had three loaded pistols, some powder, and some shot;
He had three loaded pistols, some powder and some ball,
And a knife, and a whistle, some robbers for to call.
THE TINKER AND STAFFORDSHIRE MAID.
I. Come all you bold Britons and listen awhile,
I will tell you a story will make you to smile,
It is of a bold young Staffordshire Maid,
The part of a rogue with a Tinker she play'd.
2. At Yarmouth this damsel did live we hear,
And along with a farmer the space of a year,
But being desirous her parents to see,
Gave her master warning to go away.
3. In wages her master paid her five pounds,
She put it in her box, with her head-clothes and gown,
And having her wages unto her content,
With a box on her head from her service she went.
4. She had not got out of town past a mile,
But she met with a Tinker alone by a stile,
And smiling upon her unto her he said,
O where are you going my charming fair maid.
5. I am a-going to Erly where my parents dwell,
In truth, says the tinker, I know them full well,
But be ruled by me, the tinker did say,
You will surely be robb'd if you go the highway.
6. O then down the lane they together did walk,
Diverting each other with innocent talk,
Until they came unto a lonesome place,
When the tinker he looked her sly in the face.
7. What have you in this box on your head tell me,
Then taking it from her demanded the key,
She told him she had it with tears in her eyes,
With a long piked staff which the tinker had by,
8. And while he was busy in opening the lock,
She up with the staff and gave him a knock,
The knock that she gave him made him to know
Her staff it was ready to give him the blow.
9. Another she gave him on the side of the head,
The blood it run down, she left him for dead,
Saying lie there villain, thou rogue in thy heart,
Thy treachery has now met with desert.
io. Then taking the box on her head once again,
And as she was going down the long lane,
She met with a gentleman who did her intreat,
And asked her the favour to open the gate.
ii. To open the gate that his horse might go thro',
And as the gentleman near to her drew,
To whom does this box on thy head belong,
To master or mistress, or have you done wrong?
12. No I've done no wrong but a crime that is ill,
For I do believe that a man I did kill,
Come shew me the place the gentleman he said,
And I will protect you from danger fair maid.
I3. She shewed the place where the tinker lay dead,
With a long stream of blood running down his head,
Besides in his pockets powder and ball,
And likewise a whistle his companions to call.
14. And likewise a hanger by his side.
And a large pair of spur if occasion to ride,
The gentleman said you might have been abused,
These are odd sort of tools for a tinker to use.
15. He said my fair maid have you courage to stand,
To fire a pistol when danger is at hand,
O yes, kind sir, for I will never start;
When danger is at hand I will soon play my part.
16. Then he took up the whistle, and gave such a crow,
He made the woods ring, and the thieves for to know,
But when these bold villains they did appear,
And seeing what was done they began for to swear.
17. Swore they'd be reveng'd on this maid without dread,
She cock'd her pistol and shot one in the head,
Another bold villain the gentleman shot,
And there they lay bleeding dead on the spot.
18. Another bold villain then seeing what was done,
He took to his heels and away he did run,
But the gentleman pursu'd him & brought him to town,
Where the truth of the matter was quickly made known.
i9. Now the prisoner to the assizes is gone as is said.
And for this bright girl he will have paid,
Full fifty bright guineas she'll make it appear,
Beside the effects in the budget we hear.
20. Now all the young men were in a strife,
Which of them should gain this bright wife,
But she would have none but the Squire so bright,
Made her his own lady to his great delight.
G. L. KITTREDGE
Two Ballads
by Aileen Walls and Edgar Holcombe
The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Winter, 1948), pp. 334-335
When I was a little boy to London I'd go
He dtim a diddle dum dam
When I was a little boy to London I'd go,
Sit upon a picket and make a mighty show
Sing a roily folly ring a sing a ray.
O, I sat there til the giant passed by
He dum a diddle dum dum
O, I sat there til the giant passed by,
I looked at his feet and his head touched the sky.
Sing a roily folly ring a sing a ray.
He bantered me a wrestle for a hop, jump, run
He dum a diddle dum dum
He bantered me a wrestle for a hop, jump, run
I beat him, and banged him, and killed him, and was done
Sing a roily folly ring a sing a ray.
I gave him a little fling and his head flung down
He dum a diddle dum dum
I gave him a little fling and his head flung down
Gave him a little fling and I flung him over town
Sing a roily folly ring a sing a ray.
When the people over there seen what I'd done
He dum a diddle dum dum
When the people over there seen what I'd done
Paid me some money, about two thousand ton
Sing a roily folly ring a sing a ray.
Made me a box about three acres square
He dum a diddle dum dum
Made me a box about three acres square
And in my little box I put my money there
Sing a roily folly ring a sing a ray.
Now when I go to travel I travel like an ox
He dum a diddle dum dum
Now when I go to travel I travel like an ox
And in my britches pocket I put my little box
Sing a roily folly ring a sing a ray.
* Contributedb y Aileen Walls and Edgar Holcombe.M rs. Walls writes of her
ballad: "This song was taught my father-in-lawb y his aunt about 1904. The family
had lived in Arkansas (near Little Rock) since 1860 (approximately), having
moved to Arkansas at that time from Alabama where they had lived for only one
generation after their removal from England and Scotland. He has never found
anyone else who knows it, and believes it to be just a "family" song, handed down
from generation to generation." Mr. Holcombe writes that Texas Rangers is "a
folklore song learned from Texans in the vicinity of Denton, 1887-1890, by Mrs.
Thomas J. Holcombe, mother of E. H."
Collectors of ballads and folk songs relating to Arkansas and the Southwest may
send their contributionst o Dr. Robert Morris, associate editor of the Quarterly.
-----------------
SIMPLE GIFTS (ANGLO-AMERICANFOLKSONGS) 1961
sung by
George and Gerry Armstrong
(3) THE JEALOUS BROTHERS - This
ballad we learned from Howie Mitchell.
It was collected in 1939 in Fayetteville,
Arkansas by Dr. Asher Treat
of Dumont, N.J. from whom Howie
learned it. This ballad was left
out of Prot'. Child's collection of
English and Scottish Ballads but it
has an ancient lineage. The ballad
story was the fourth tale of the
fifth night in Boccaccio's
"Decameron" . The story tells of
the daughter of a wealthy merchant
who falls in love with a servant.
Her two brothers decide to put an
end to this by murdering the
servant. His ghost appears to her
and reveals the place where his
body lies.
We had the pleasure of teaching this
song to the blind Virginia singer,
Hor ton Barker, who remarked, "I
believe that's just about the
prettiest ballad I've ever heard."
They sat a'courtin' one fine evening,
Her brothers hearing what they say,
"Oh, it's this courtship, it must be
ended,
For the likes of this, it will never
do."
They rose up early, early next
morning,
A game of hunting for to go,
And it's this young man they both
did flatter,
For to go and hunt along with them.
They rode allover the hills and
valleys,
In places where that they were
known,
Until they came to a lonesome
valley,
That's where they killed him and
left him alone.
And when the brothers had returned,
The sister asked where the servant
was,
Oh, it's: ''We've lost him in a
game of hunting,
And it's him no more can we find."
She lay across her bedside weeping,
It come to her as in a dream,
That they'd carried him beyond the
ragions,
That's where they'd killed him and
left him alone.
She rose up early, early next
morning,
She dressed herself in rich array,
Saying, "I'm going to find my lost
truelover,
Or spend the balance of my days."
She rode allover the hills and
valleys,
In places where that she was known,
----------------
Lonesome Tunes: Folk Songs from the Kentucky Mountains
Loraine Wyman, Howard Brockway - 1916 - 102 pages
Pretty Polly
I In London far city a lady did dwell,
Concerning her beauty no tongue can tell.
II I courted pretty Polly, the livelong night,
And then just to rob her before daylight.
III "Come home, pretty Polly, and go along with me,
Before we get married some pleasure we'll see."
IV He led her over hills aud through valleys so deep,
At last protty Polly began for to weep-
V "Willy, O Willy, I'm afraid of your ways,
I'm afoared you're leading my body astray."
VI She trusted him a pieee further and what did she spy,
But a new dug grave, two spades a-lying by.
VII "Polly, pretty Polly, you're guossing just right,
I've finished your grave I was digging last night."
VIII She throw her arms around him and trembled with fear,
"How can you kill a poor girl that loves you so dear?"
IX "No time for to talk, no time for to stand,"
He came with his knife all in his right hand.
X He stabbed her to tho heart and the heart blood did flow,
Down in her grave pretty Polly must go.
XI He threw the sod over her and turned to go home,
And left little birds to weep and to mourn.
--------------------
1841-56 Pioneer songster
25. Pretty Polly
The English song known as "Polly's Love; or, The Cruel Ship
Carpenter," according to Cox, is condensed from a long eighteenth-
century broadside, "The Gosport Tragedy; or, The Perjured Ship
Carpenter." The Harvard Library has an American broadside of
about 1820. Scarborough prints five tunes; Mackenzie, one.
The story begun in the Douglass version may be completed by
comparison with other versions. In Scarborough (C) the man
proposed marriage, but Polly refused because she was too young.
After the murder he went on shipboard; the ship sank, and he
saw a vision of Polly and a child, warning him of the debt he
must pay the devil. In Cox (A) he died raving mad; in (C) a
sailor stepped on the grave, and a woman with a child in her
arms appeared, a sign that the ship would be unlucky. In "Polly's
Love," referred to by Cox, William was torn to pieces by the
girl's ghost. A long, detailed version (23 stanzas) appears in Macken-
zie.
The texts vary. Brown presents four versions, of which (A) and
* Note by original copyist: You may use either the last line of the
19th verse or the line below.
By killing of your servent man
Songs and Ballads front the British Isles 6j
(B) are much alike and much longer than Douglass. The verses given
in Douglass, however, have lines quite similar to a section of Brown
(A), beginning with Browfi's stanza n. Scarborough (C) is fairly
close to Douglass. Scarborough (A) and Cox (A) repeat the first
line of each stanza; Scarborough (B) has no dialogue; Scarborough
(D), (E), and (F) are so modernized that the man kills the girl
with a revolver instead of a sword.
Pretty Polly
i. Come Polly come Polly come go along with me
Before we are married some friends for to see
He led her ore hills ore valleys so deep
At last pretty Polly sat down for to weep
2. O Billy O Billy you have led me a stray
On purpos my innocent life for to stay
Polly O Polly O that is what I have
1 was all the last night a digging of your grave
3 . She went a little farther as she did spy
A grave being dug and a spade standing by
Her lilly white hand in sorrow she rung
Begging for mercy cries what have I done
4. In an instant he drew a bright sword in his hand
----------------------
INDEED PRETTY POLLY
Source Folktrax 926-90 ('Songs from the Outer Banks')
Performer Tillett, Tink
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Roanoke
Collector Warner, Anne & Frank
[Tink Tillet's version appears in Chappell- Folk Songs of the Roanoke and the Abermerle, 1939. C.K. "Tink" Tillett was collected by Chappell (probably first), The Brown Collection and circa 1940, Frank Warner.
Warner wrote: From the Outer Banks of North Carolina were C. K. Tillett and his family (wife, Eleazar Tillett, their son Cliff, and nephew Hub Tillett) of Wanchese. Mr. Tillett's nickname was "Tink." These people live north of Cape Hatteras, on Roanoke Island.
Indeed Pretty Polly 1940
Indeed, pretty Polly, I once loved you dearly
And in your sweet company I took great delight.
When a man is once wed, his joy is all fled
He is freed from all liberty,
Bound down to hard slavery.
So we are both free, love, I will bid you good night.
But indeed, pretty Polly, there is one thing I would tell you,
That is to ask me to your wedding, love, and I will do the same.
For you need never mind a husband you will find
If there's any such a thing,
If there's any such a thing,
If there's any such a thing in this world to be had.
So she wrote him a letter to come to her wedding,
To come to her wedding on the ninth day of June.
This letter he reads and his poor heart did bleed,
Crying, "I have lost her,"
Crying, "I have lost her,"
Crying, "I have lost her, I have lost her indeed!"
With his bridle and saddle he rode to her station,
He rode to the place where pretty Polly did dwell.
And when he got there through his troubles and snares,
The bride and the bridegroom,
The bride and the bridegroom,
The bride and the bridegroom was out on the floor.
"O indeed, pretty Polly, if l only had of known it,
If I only had of known, love, that you'd be wedded so soon,
We would have married, no longer have tarried,
So step up beside me, love,
So step up beside me, love,
So step up beside me, love, and leave him alone."
"O indeed, pretty William, I once loved you dearly,
And in your sweet company I took great delight.
But remember you said when a man was once wed,
He was freed from all liberty,
Bound down to hard slavery,
So we are both free, love, and I'll bid you goodnight!"
(traditional North Carolina)
One of the songs that Anne and Frank Warner collected from
Tink Tillett on the outer banks of North Carolina.
I like its portrayal of a young woman who is strong,
but not bitter towards her misguided young William.
from the singing of Judy Cook
SOF
Indeed Pretty Polly (traditional North Carolina)
One of the songs that Anne & Frank Warner collected from Tink Tillett on the outer banks of North Carolina. I like its
portrayal of a young woman who is str
ong, but not bitter towards her misguided young William.
O indeed, pretty Polly, I once loved you dearly
And in your sweet company I took great delight.
But when a man is once wed, his joy is all fled
He is freed from all liberty,
Bound down to hard slav
ery.
So we are both free, love, and I bid you good night.
But indeed, pretty Polly, there is one thing I would tell you,
That is to ask me to your wedding, love, and I will do the same.
For you need never mind a husband you will find
If there’s any such a
thing,
If there’s any such a thing,
If there’s any such a thing in this world to be had.
So she wrote him a letter to come to her wedding,
To come to her wedding on the ninth day of June.
The letter he reads and his poor heart did bleed,
Crying, “I ha
ve lost her,”
Crying, “I have lost her,”
Crying, “I have lost her, I have lost her indeed!”
With his bridle and saddle he rode to her station,
He rode to the place where pretty Polly did dwell.
And when he got there through his troubles and snares,
The br
ide and the bridegroom,
The bride and the bridegroom,
The bride and the bridegroom, they were out on the floor.
“O indeed, pretty Polly, if I only would’ve known it,
If I only would’ve known, you’d be wedded so soon,
We would have married, no longer have
tarried,
So step up beside me, love,
O step up beside me, love,
O step up beside me, love, and leave him alone.”
“O indeed, pretty William, I once loved you dearly,
And in your sweet company I took great delight.
But remember you said, “When a man is onc
e wed,
He is freed from all liberty,
Bound down to hard slavery.”
So we are both free, love, and I bid you goodnight!”
From Judy Cook’s CD “
If You Sing Songs...
”
--------------
THE FALSE LOVER
Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941
Mrs. Ida M. Howard
Tempe, Arizona, 1938
As I walked out one May morning
To hear pretty birds sing sweet
I leaned my back against the little closet door
To see true lovers meet.
Kind Miss, won't you come in
And sit ye down by my side?
It's been three quarters of a year or more
Since I've changed one word with you.
I'll not come in nor I won't sit down,
For I have but a moment of time;
You have wives, sweetheart, a-plenty of your own,
And your heart it's no more mine.
You have wives, sweethearts, a-plenty of your own,
And your heart it's no more mine.
You crossed your hands across my breast,
You made me believe by the false of your soul
That the sun rose in the West.
I'll climb as higher trees as you,
I'll rob as richer next,
I'll come down safe, and I'll catch not a fall
And I'll get who I love best.
I'll come down safe, and I'll catch not a fall
And I'll get who I love best.
There's many a staro'er head, my dear,
There's many a grave below;
There's many a curse on a young man's head
That has served those poor girls so.
There's many a curse on a young man's head
That has served those poor girls so.
---------------
LOVELY MARY
Sung by Rod Drake, Silsbee, Texas, 79t2.
The singer breaks the regularity of the moderately paced quarter-note pulse to emphasize important syllables, indicated here by a fermata (ri).
It was on last Sunday evening
My love she passed me by;
I saw her mind was changing
By the movements of her eye.
I saw her rnind was changing
To some other high degree.
Says I to Lovely Mary,
"tVhy cain't you fancy rne?
"Why cain't you fancy me?
Why cain't you fancy rne?"
As I told Lovely Mary,
"\7hy cain't you fancy me?"
Her hair was as black as a raven,
Her eyes were as black as a crow,
Her cheeks were like red roses
All in the morning glow;
All in the morning glow,
All in the morning glow,
Her cheeks was like red roses
All in the rnorning glow.
---------------
Jack the Jolly Tar
1. As Jack walked out of London city, no one
on Jack to take pity,
As Jack walked out of London city, no one
on Jack to take pity,
Jack thought he heard the people say that
in the streets he'd have to laY.
A whang dang diddle-de-dang, fol-lo-day.
'fhere was a squire who lived quite handy,
he courted the lawyer's daughter
Nancy,
He courted her both night and day, and
agreed with her one night to lay.
3. "I'll tie a string around my flnger and hang
it out of the chamber window,
You come up and pull the string, and I'll
come down and let you in."
4. She tied a string around her finger and hung
it out of her chamber window,
Jack came up and pulled the string, and she
came down and let him in,
5. She slipped the string from off her finger,
but it dangled from her chamber
window,
The squire came up and pulled the string;
the string was pulled, but he couldn't
get in.
6. To give the squire a friendly warning, she
arose at daylight the next morning,
There she saw Jack in a striped shirt, his
face and hands all covered with dirt.
7. "llow come you here, you saucy fellow?
You've broke my household and robbed
me of my treasure."
"I came up and pulled the string, and you
came down and let me in.t'
Another version, as sung by Mr. George
H. Spurling of Southwest Harbor, Maine,
has the concluding stanza:
"Since it is so, it is no matter,
We'll join our hearts and hands together."
She loved the tarry sailor well,
And told the squire to go to hell.
Diddily iddily ding dang diddily iddily day'
Compare "Doo me Ama" (W. B. Whall,
Sea Songs and, Ch.anties, Glasgow, 1920,
p. 16); "Jack the Jolly Tar" (JF'SS., II,
38-3e).
"Jack the Jolly Tar" belongs to the
large class of songs of the night aisit
(Baskervill, PMLA., XXXVI, pp. 565'
ff.): the ballad itself is a secondary form
of Glasgerioz (Child, 67), with parallels in
Swedish and Danish. There are only three
fonns of denoument; all are found. In
Glasgerion, there is a ttagic ending; the
lady kills herself, Glasgerion (Glenkindie)
kills the changeling lover, his servant man,
and commits suicide (A) or goes mad
(8, C?). The Scandinavian form, the best
text of which, in Swedish, Riddaren och
Torpardrangen (The Knight and the
Churl), is in E. Lagus, Nglandska FoIk-
uisor, no. 43, is broadly comic; the girl
taunts the peasant that if she has lost her
treasure, she has his shoes, to which he
replies in kind. Our ballad has the third
type of denoument; the squire is jilted in
favor of the sailor. A notable feature of
the text is the Child ballad style, particularlv in stanzas 3-5.
----------------
Non- Child Ballads
THE LIGHTNING FLASH.
When I was young and in my prime, my age twenty-two,
I fell in love with a pretty girl; the truth
I'll tell to vou.
I courted her fo'r seven years, till her father
carne to know,
He says: "I'll have you cross the seas,
where the stormy winds do blow."
On the fourteenth day of September last,
Queen's Harbor we sailed awav!
Bound down to Gibraltar in a sweet'and a
pleasant gale,
The wind blew fair, our course we steered,
our ship trefore the wind,
But still my heart was filled with love for
the girl I Ieft behind.
When rpe got to our distant port, we
stopped a short time there,
Our orders run to Milliger * ihe weather
being fair;
The very next day we sailed away, all with
a cloud of sail,
When the storms arise, eclipsed the sun;
they blew a tremendous^gale.
The wind it riz to a hurricane, it blew a
tremendous gale,-
And the captain iuyi, ,.Mv brave bovs. so
reef the main topsail !-"
No sooner when bis order was given, up
aloft we lav.
Like he_arty tais to lay those yards, his
orders to obey.
5. When-we got to the main topsail, a honid
flash carne onr-
Oh, God ! How I remember the last eclipse
of the sun !
The thunder rolled tremendously, and the
lightning around us flash,
the heavy sea rolled over us, and sand on
deck did dash.
Early .next morning wasn't we a sight to
view !
Our captain was washed overboard and three
men of the crew;
The thunder rolled tremendously, and by
that veil of light,
I and three of thoie sailors, by that light-
ning we lost our sight.
7. But thanks be unto kind providence that
carried us back on shore,
Back to dear old lreland, to the girl whom
I adore;
To me she did prove loyalty,-constant and
kind to me,
We join our hands in wedlock bands, but
her face I ne'er can see I
* "Malaga.t'
sung by the late Mr. John P. A. Nesbitt, st. stephen, New Brunswick. Text
recorded by miss Mary w. smyth; melody recorded by Mr. George Herzog.
-------------
From BFSSNE
CAROLINE AND HER YOUNG SAILOR BOLD
Written down, May, 1926, by Dr. Robert M. Lewis, New Haven, Connecticut, as sung
by Mr. Henry Bunker, Cranberry fsles, Maine. Melody recorded from Mr. Bunker
by Mr. George Herzog. *
1. 'Twas of a nobleman's daughter
So lovely and handsome a girl;
Her father possessed of large fortune,
Full twenty-five thousand in gold.
He had one only daughter,
Caroline was her name, I am told;
And out of her drawing room window,
She admired a young sailor bold.
Her cheeks were as red as two apples,
Her eyes were as black as a jet;
Caroline sbe watched his departure,
Went out and with him she met.
Saying, "I am a nobleman's daughter,
Possessed of large fortune and gold,
I'll forsake both my father and another,
'l'o wed with a young sailor bold."
5.He said, "Oh, my dear honored young lady,
Be commanded your parents to mind;
For sailors, they are poor dependents,
When their true Ioves are left far behind."
6. "Therets nothing can ever persuade rne
One moment to alter my mind;
I'll ship and go with my true lover,
He never shall leave me behind."
7. She dressed like a gallant young sailor.,
Forsaking both father and gold;
Five year-s and a haif on the ocean,
She ploughed with her young sailor bold.
8. Five times with her love she was ship-
wrecked,
But to him she always proved true;
Her duty she done like a sailor,
Went aloft in her jacket so blue.
g. Her father long wept and lamented,
That his daughter he ne'er should behold;
Till at last she arrived safe in England,
Caroline and her young sailor bold.
10. Straightway to her father she wandered,
In her trousers and jacket so blue;
Her father immediately fainted,
When first she appeared to his view.
11. Saying: "Father, dear father, forgive me,
Forever deprive me of gold;
Grant one more request, I'm contented
To wed with a young sailor bold.
12, They were married, and Caroline's fortune
Was twenty-ffve thousand in gold;
And now they live peaceful and happy,
Oaroline and her young sailor bold.
*Variant II should be indicated only for third
bar from end; for "great", read larget'.
------------------
PRETTY POLLY (folk ballad)
Reprinted in AppLit with permission from the James Taylor Adams Collection
U of Virginia's College at Wise/Blue Ridge Institute of Ferrum College
Collected by James M. Hylton
Wise, Virginia
NOTE: This text was recopied directly from a typewritten copy in the archives of the Blue Ridge Institute. James Taylor Adams (1892-1954) kept typewritten copies of the folklore he and others collected during the last thirty years of his life, while he lived in Wise County, VA. Typographical errors in the original have not been corrected, except for some obvious errors in spacing. In Hylton's introduction, the word "mothet" was surely meant to be "mother." For other tales and songs about girls named Pretty Polly, see "Pretty Polly" in AppLit's Annotated Index of Appalachian Folktales.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James M. Hylton 20 Lines
Wise, Virginia. (Folk Ballad) Songs )
Words
Told to this Writer November 14, 1941, at Wise, Virginia, by Lovell J. Johnson, aged 38 yrs., and a son of Aunt Polly Johnson of whom much interesting material has been obtained for this Project. He is a brother to Jesse J. Johnson who also furnished this Writer with a version of Pretty Polly. He recalls hearing his mother and father and other brothers sing the song many a time when young and growing up in the home. At the home of this mothet during a late-night visit he sang this song to the Writer upon request and it will b be seen at once that it differs somewhat from the words and lines as submitted by Jesse and his mother at an earlier date. He has roamed around a good lot of his time throughout the Country on the highways and the railroads getting a ride or left here and there as he can. He says he has heard another good version of this song if he can only rig it into his memory.
" Pretty Polly "
Over in London, where I did dwell, nothing concerning but beauty can tell
I courted Pretty Polly one live-long night and led her over mountains green
And deep, and then Pretty Polly began to weep.
"Oh William, Oh William. I'm afraid of your way,
I'm afraid your pleasure will lead me astray.
"Oh Pretty Polly, Pretty Polly, you've spoken just right,
"I dug on your grave the biggest part of last night.
"Oh William, remember your infant and spare me my life.
"Let me to destruction if I cant be your wife.
He struck her in the head which caused the blood to flow.
And into the grave her poor little body did go.
He throwed the dirt over her and away Willie did go
Leaving nothing behind but the wind and Polly both to moan.
A ship was on the ocean and away he did ride fast
When Pretty Polly's ghost come after him at last.
"Oh Pretty Polly, Pretty Polly. Oh yonder she stands
"The ring in on her finger, her lillie-white hands.
"Oh William, Oh William, you scoundrel, your in hands content".
The ship sprung a leak, and down to the bottom she went.
------------------
Who is at My Window Weeping?
It was quite a thrill to hear this 'new' tune, one
of the most beautiful of the 200-odd I noted in
Newfoundland.
Newfoundland.
"Who is at my window weeping,
Weeping there so bitterly?"
"It's I, it's I, your own true loved one,
Arise, arise, and pity me. "
"Darling go ask your mother,
If thou my wedding bride will be;
If she says no return and tell me,
No longer will I trouble thee. "
"How can I go and ask my mother?
For I'm her only child and dear;
Oh darling go and seek some other, "
She softly whispered in his ear.
"Darling go and ask your father,
If thou my wedding bride will be;
If he says no return and tell me,
No longer will I trouble thee. "
My father's on his bed a-sleeping,
With a shinning sword placed on his breast.
All for to slay my own true loved one,
To slay the lad that I love best. "
Then William took the shining sword,
And pierced it through his aching heart;
"Adieu, adieu., to all false loved ones,
Adieu, adieu, we both shall part. "
Then Mary took the blood-stained sword,
And pierced it through her lily-white breast;
"Adieu, adieu, to my cruel parents,
Adieu, adieu, we both shall rest. "
Collected by Ken Peacock, Sung by Mrs. Lucy Heaney,
Newfoundland, 1952 Stock Cove
----------------
Source O'Bryant, Folksongs & Ballads (in Koch, Kansas Folklore)
Folksongs and Ballads Kansas
RISSELTY ROSSELTY (secondary version of "Wife Wrapped")
[Collected from Mrs. Lizzie Troup, Winfield, Kansas, May, 1958. Mrs. Troup came to Kansas from Missouri as a child and
learned from her father a number of songs, including this one, which went by the. name of "Nickerty Nockerty Now, Now,
Now." In Mrs. Troup's version the nonsense phrase "risselty rosselty," which gives the song its standard title, has been replaced
by "wisselty wosselty." A Missouri version of this song is recorded by Vance Randolph, IV, 190-193, and he refers to a ver-
sion recorded in Nebraska by Louise Pound. Some folklorists
consider the song a secondary version of "The Wife Wrapt in
Wether's Skin" (Child 277) omitting the narrative element,
which consists of the slattern's punishment: her husband would
not thrash her but took her out to his wool shack, laid a sheep-
skin across her back, and thrashed the sheepskin.]
I married me a wife in the month of June,
With a wisselty wosselty wow, wow, wow,
Took her home by the light of the moon,
With a wisselty wosselty, ho John bobberty,
Nickerty nockerty now, now, now.
She swept her floor but once a month,
With a wisselty wosselty wow, wow, wow.
And every stroke it brought a grunt,
With a wisselty wosselty, ho John bobberty,
Nickerty nockerty now, now, now.
She combed her hair but once a year,
With a wisselty wosselty wow, wow, wow,
And every stroke it brought a tear,
With a wisselty wosselty, ho John bobberty,
Nickerty nockery now, now, now.
She churned her butter in dad's old boot,
With a wisselty wosselty wow, wow, wow,
Instead of a dash she wiggled her foot,
With a wisselty wosselty, ho John bobberty,
Nickerty nockerty now, now, now.
She peddled her butter all over town,
With a wisselty wosselty wow, wow, wow,
The print of her foot was on every pound,
With a wisselty wosselty, ho John bobberty,
Nickerty nockerty now, now, now.
She strained her cheese through dad's old sock,
With a wisselty wosselty wow, wow, wow,
The toe jam run down into the crock,
With a wisselty wosselty, ho John bobberty,
Nickerty nockerty now, now, now.
She went upstairs to make the bed,
With a wisselty wosselty wow, wow, wow,
She fell over the chair and bumped her head,
With a wisselty wosselty, ho John bobberty,
Nickerty nockerty now, now, now.
She went outdoors to milk the cow,
With a wisselty wosselty wow, wow, wow,
She made a mistake and milked the sow,
With a wisselty wosselty, ho John bobberty,
Nickerty nockerty now, now, now,
-----------------------
"Jack Monroe", also known as "Jack Munro," "Jackie Monroe," "Jack-A-Roe," "Jackaroe," "Jackaro," "Jackie Frazier," "Jack the Sailor," "Jack Went A-Sailing," "The Love of Polly and Jack Monroe," among other titles, is a traditional ballad of uncertain (though presumably British) origin.
The version "Jack Went A-Sailing" collected in Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp's English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians (1917) is frequently cited as an early published version.
Dianne Dugaw's Warrior Women and Popular Balladry, 1650-1850 gives a 1934 version of "Jack Monroe" collected in Missouri, and also notes the existence of a version "on an 1830s Boston broadside in American Antiquarian Society, Uncatalogued Ballads."
The song is a staple of the folk rock repertoire and has been performed by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and more commonly, The Grateful Dead (as "Jack-A-Roe"). In 1931, Florence Reece used this tune for her song "Which Side Are You On?". Also performed by Melora Creager of Rasputina on Ancient Cross-Dressing Songs.
Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7]
DESCRIPTION: A rich girl loves a soldier/sailor; her father does not, and has the boy pressed to Germany. She disguises herself and enlists under the name (Jackie Monroe). When her lover is wounded, she nurses him. She reveals her identity; they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (Garret, _Merrie Book of Garlands_)
KEYWORDS: love cross-dressing disguise injury medicine marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(Scotland) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Laws N7, "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)"
Greig #45, pp. 1-2, "Jack Munro" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 171, "Jack Munro" (8 texts, 6 tunes); GreigDuncan1 172, "Jackie Went A-Sailing" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 171-177, "Jack Munro" (5 texts)
Randolph 42, "Men's Clothes I Will Put On" (Of Randolph's six texts, only two -- "C", with melody, and "F" -- belong with this piece; "A" and probably "D" are variants of "The Banks of the Nile"; "B" and "E" may be "Banks of the Nile" or "William and Nancy I")
Eddy 35, "Jack Went A-Sailing" (2 texts plus fragments, 3 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 59, "The Wealthy Merchant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 139, "Jack Munro" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 143, "Johnny's Gone A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 99, "Jack Monro" (2 texts plus 1 fragment and 1 excerpt)
BrownSchinhanIV 88, "Jack Munro" (4 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Chappell-FSRA 59, "Jacke Went A-Sailing" (1 text)
Hudson 34, pp. 147-148, "The Wars of Germany" (1 text)
Moore-Southwest 82, "Jackie Frazier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. "203-210, The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (4 texts, which despite Scarborough's title are all this song; local titles are "Jackaroe," "Jacky Freasher," "Jackie Frazier," "Jackie Frazier"; 1 tune on p. 410)
Brewster 37, "Jackie Fraisure" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peters, p. 152, "Sing Lay the Lily Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 38, "Jackaro" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 65, "Jack Went A-Sailing" (20 texts, 20 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 32, "Jack Went a-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Korson-PennLegends, pp. 53-54, "Jackie Frazier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-Singing, pp. 170-172, "Lily Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 82, "Lily Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 98, "Jackie Fraisure" (3 texts)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 30-31, "Across the Rocky Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune -- a rewritten and expanded version by Roscoe Holcomb)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 82-83, "Jackie's Gone A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 121-123, "Jack Monroe" (1 text)
DT 331, JACKROE* JACKROE2 JACKSAIL* JCKSAIL2* ACROSRCK*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 23, #2 (1974), p, 16, "Lilly Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune, the Uncle Eck Dunford version)
Roud #268
RECORDINGS:
Pearl Jacobus Borusky, "Sing Lay, Sing Lay the Lily Low" (AFS 4172 B, 1940; in AMMEM)
George Davis, "Love of Polly and Jack Monroe" (on GeorgeDavis01)
Sarah Hawkes, "Ho Lilly Ho" (on Persis1)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Across the Rocky Mountain" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Doug Wallin, "Jackaro" (on Wallins1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(152), "Jack Munro," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(934), Harding B 11(392), Johnson Ballads 2086, Harding B 11(1835), "Jack Munro"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy)" [Laws M24]
cf. "Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)" [Laws N6]
cf. "William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I)" [Laws N8]
cf. "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9]
cf. "High Germany ()"
cf. "The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging)" [Laws O33]
cf. "The London Heiress (The Brisk and Lively Lad)"
cf. "The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie" (plot)
cf. "The Chatham Merchant" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bold Munro
Pretty Polly
NOTES: The Cohen/Seeger/Wood version, from Kentuckian Roscoe Holcomb, shares some words with "The Girl I Left Behind." - PJS
The version in Fife and Fife, "Roving Cowboy," at first glance bears no relationship with this piece, since it lacks the ending about the girl rescuing the young man. However, the earlier verses are clearly "Across the Rocky Mountains," which is evidently a version of this song. "Roving Cowboy" has simply lost the ending. - RBW
--------------------
MARYLAND FOLK LEGENDS AND FOLK SONGS
Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?
From the repertoire of Mrs. Tucker. There is some evidence that
points to a l9th century Scotch origin for this song as a game song.
But on this side of the Atlantic, the song seldom attaches itself to any
game. See Brown, IIf, 15 f.
1. "Soldier, soldier, wontt you marry me?
For O the fife and drum. "
"How can I marry such a pretty girl as you,
When Irve got no hat to put on?"
2. Off to the hatshop she did go
As hard as she could run;
Got him a hat and all fine things;
"Now, soldier, put them on.
3. "Soldier, soldier, wontt you marry me?
For O the fife and drum. "
"How can I marry such a pretty girl as you,
When Irve got no coat to put on?"
4. Off to the tailor she did go
As hard as she could run;
Got him a coat and all fine things;
"Now, soldier, put them on.
5. "Soldier, soldier, won't you marry me?
For O the fife and drum. "
"How can I marry such a pretty girl as you,
When I've got no shoes to put on?"
6. Off to the shoe shop she did go
As hard as she could run;
Got him shoes and all fine things;
"Now, soldier, put them on.
?. "Soldier, soldier, won't you marry me?
For O the fife and drum. "
"How can I marry such a pretty girl as you
With a wife and baby at home?"
-----
---------------------------------
Bitter withy
Bitter Withy, The
DESCRIPTION: Jesus is sent out by Mary to play. He is snubbed by a group of rich boys. He builds "a bridge with the beams of the sun," and the boys who follow him across fall into the river and drown. Mary beats her child with a withy branch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Rickert)
KEYWORDS: Jesus poverty punishment religious discrimination
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Leach, pp. 689-690, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
Leach-Heritage, pp. 125-126, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
Leather, pp. 181-184, "The Bitter Withy; or The Sally Twigs" (2 texts, the first perhaps mixed with "The Holy Well," 4 tunes)
Wells, pp. 188-189, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickert, pp. 86-87, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 60, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 5, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
Hodgart, p. 152, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
Morgan-Medieval, pp. 123-124, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
cf. Belden, p. 102, "Jesus and Joses" (a legend he connects with this piece)
DT 310, BITWITHY*
Roud #452
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Holy Well" (plot)
NOTES: It should perhaps be noted that this event has no place in the Bible, nor even in the (known) apocryphal gospels (though it reminds one of various events in the "Infancy Gospel of Thomas," which also contains some rather nasty miracles; Leather also mentions this obscure and vicious piece). The bridge of sunbeams is a commonplace in religious art.
Rickert and others see this as an evolved version of "The Holy Well." If they are actually related, however, I would suspect the evolution of going the other way; the usual tendency of corruptions in religious pieces is for them to make God and Jesus look better, not worse.
Belden sees a connection between this song and the folk legend "Jesus and Joses," in which Joses (Jesus's brother; cf. Mark 6:3) tattles on Jesus and Jesus is beaten with willow twigs. There is a fundamental difference, however: In "The Bitter Withy," Jesus is genuinely guilty; in "Jesus and Joses," he is said to be innocent.
According to Leather, the local title "The Sally Twigs" came about because, in Hereford, a willow wand is called a "sally twig." The phrase is not used in either text she prints.- RBW
__________________________
Folklore, Volume 19, 1905
edited by Joseph Jacobs, Alfred Trübner Nutt, Arthur Robinson Wright, William Crooke
"The Bitter Withy" Ballad. by Frank Sidwick
Professor Child's magnificent collection of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads deals, as all ballad-students must be aware, with 305 separate items; and since the completion of his exhaustive work that number has been regarded as including every piece of traditional popular narrative, complete or fragmentary, that could be regarded as a ballad in the strict sense of the term.1 But in view of the fact that a ballad or carol variously known as The Bitter Withy, The Withies, or The Sally Twigs, printed by me in 1905 for the first time, has recently been accepted as genuine by one of Child's most distinguished pupils,2 it may now be considered, I think, that the 305 must be increased by one.
Quite recently, another American scholar8 has investigated the claim of The Bitter Withy to consideration as a traditional ballad, and finds it genuine; Professor Gerould, moreover, traces the story to its sources with great elaboration. With the hallmark of Professor Gummere's approval, therefore, and with Professor Gerould's valuable and erudite exegesis, The Bitter Withy takes its place on the roll of honour; but seeing that the former had but one text on which to adjudicate, and the latter three and a fragment, I am glad to be able now to increase the number of variants.
1 Except, of course, variants of Child's texts, which are discovered from time to time both in print and in tradition.
3 Prof. F. B. Gummere, The Popular Ballad (1907), 227-9.
* Prof. G. H. Gerould, in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, xxiii. 1 (pp. 141-167).
It will be convenient in the first place to give a list of the texts known to me, distinguishing each in the style adopted by Child. Prof. Gerould in his study of the ballad has used the Roman numerals I. to IV., but I think it best to continue Child's method of capital and lower-case letters, leaving figures for the verses and lines.
Texts of " The Bitter Withy"
A. ( = Gerould I.). The Withies. Taken down verbatim as sung by an old Herefordshire man of about seventy in 1888, as learnt from his grandmother, and communicated in a letter, Dec. 31, 1888, by Mr. Henry Ellershaw, Jun., of Rotherham, to Mr. A. H. Bullen (shortly after the publication of the latter's Songs and Carols). Printed by F. Sidgwick in Notes and Queries, 10th Ser., iv. 84 (1905); reprinted thence in More Ancient Carols (Shakespeare Head Press Booklets, No. V., 1906), in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii. 300 (1906), by Gummere, The Popular Ballad, 228 (1907), and by Gerould, Publications Mod. Lang. Assoc. of Amer., 142 (1908). Nine verses=36 lines.
B. ( = Gerould II.). A fragment contributed by C. F. S. to Notes and Queries, 4th Ser., i. 53 (1868), with a request for the complete form. First and last verses (with prose description of the remainder) = 8 lines of verse.
C. ( = Gerould Ill.). Our Saviour Tarried Out. Communicated by Dr. R. Vaughan-Williams,1 as noted in 1905 from the singing of Mr. Hunt, a native of Sussex (where he learnt it), at Wimbledon, to the Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii. 205, with tune. Eight verses = 32 lines.
D. ( = Gerould IV.). The Sally Twigs, or The Bitter Withy. Noted in 1904 by Mrs. Leather in Herefordshire. The last three verses communicated by her to the Journ. F.-S. Soc, ii. 302, incorporated in Miss Broadwood's note on texts A and C. The whole version first printed by Gerould. Seven verses (with prose description of one forgotten verse) = 28 lines.
Before proceeding, the correspondence of the verses in the above four texts may conveniently be noted: B first = Ai; B last = Ao.
Ci, 2 = A 1, 2; C3,4 = A3; Cs = A6; C7,8 = A8, 9.
D 1, 2 = A 1, 2; (next is forgotten); 03-5= A4-6; D6, 7
= A8>9.
1 Prof. Gerould is wrong in attributing the recording of the words to Miss Broadwood, who tells me that Dr. Vaughan-Williams noted them. She however wrote the notes in the Journal, ii. 300-4, incorporating the results of contributions from various members of the Folk-Song Society.
I may also mention at this point that upon the publication of A in Notes and Queries as above, I received a letter from Mr. Hubert Smith of Leamington, informing me that he had taken down "some years since" a version of The Bitter Withy from a fisherman, who learnt it from his grandmother; she lived in Corvedale, Shropshire, but probably learnt the carol in Herefordshire.
I should also mention here another text, referred to by Prof. Gerould in a footnote (p. 144). This was sent me in a private letter from Stratford-on-Avon, as copied from tradition at Bidford, a village near Stratford. As it was only roughly noted, I applied for a full and correct copy, but this has not yet arrived. The draft corresponds closely to the known Herefordshire versions.
I have lately obtained several new texts as follows. On Dec. 21, 1907, the Hereford Times printed a letter of mine asking for versions of the carol. I chose Herefordshire, as it will be seen that A and D (and perhaps Mr. Smith's version) came from that county. I gave only a prose narration of the story, and the usual instructions for securing faithful record; the result was most gratifying. Within a week or two I received fifteen communications, including ten texts. Six of these are clearly the normal form of the modern Hereford "Bitter Withy," and closely resemble A. The other four show confusion with the similar (but, I think, separate) carol of The Holy Well; one of these four must be ruled out, as it is obviously not genuine—it begins,
"The dew had fallen one lovely morn,
And bright came on the day."
I proceed to give particulars of these E texts.
B. Six normal "Bitter Withy" Texts, recorded 1907.8.
a. Written down by G. J. Brimfield, Winforton; Dec 23, 1907; learnt from his grandfather thirty years ago: "I have the same rone in my head as he used to sing. I never saw it in print."
b. Written down by W. Holder, Withington; Dec. 23, 1907; "being 62 years of age, at the age of 10 I learnt this carol from my mother" in Herefordshire; "I can sing the carol in the old tone."
c. Written down by Pattie Leaper, Grafton; "my brother sent me this copy from Gloucestershire, where the carol is still sung, also the wassail
[graphic]
bowl carried round on old Xmas Eve. You will see the word tender (81) was omitted, but I remember quite well it was in the carol."—Jan. 15, 1908.
d. Written down by James Layton, King's Pyon, Weobley; Jan. 8, 1908; he also had the tune noted by the local organist. "It has always gone, too, about this part."
e. Written down by Arthur James Brookes, Withington, from the singing of his father Charles Brookes, aged 75; Dec 26, 1907; "he used to sing it as a lad; he learnt it about 60 years ago; I am sending the exact words he tells me whether correct or not."
/. Written down by James Hill, King's Thome; Dec. 23, 1907; "I have wrote it out as I had it wrote out for me about 25 years ago. . . . The last two lines of the verse to be sung over the second time."
All these were entitled The Bitter Withy except d, The Bitter Withies.
The confusion with the carol of The Holy Well is due to the fact that both this and The Bitter Withy begin with two similar verses. For the present purpose I shall only say that I regard any version of The Bitter Withy1 which mentions the "Holy Well" as contaminated by the other carol.2 The three genuine mixed texts I call:
x. Written down by Richard Innes, Hentland, near Ross; Dec 23, 1907; "age 55 years, learnt when a boy by my mother, her age is now in her 97 or 98 year, and she learnt it when she was a girl."
y. Written down by S. Brooks from the singing of his father James Brooks, aged 55, Swainshill; Dec. 24, 1907. Mr. Brooks learnt it in Herefordshire when he was young.
2. Written down by Jessie Preece, Withington, from the singing of her mother; Dec. 25, 1907; "my mother learned it about 40 years ago; it was all the go then at Cowarne, Herefordshire. . . . We were singing it at home last week."
Taking Sandys' text (Christmas Carols, 149) of The Holy Well as standard, I allot the verses in these three texts thus:
x. 1, 2 belong to both; 3,4 to H. W.; 5-10 to B. W. y.l,2 belong to both; 3-5 to H.W.; 6 to B.W.; 7 (first four lines) to H.W.; 7 (last four lines)-! 1 to B. W. [6 has six lines, 7 has eight.] *. 1,2 belong to both; 3 to H. W. ; 4-9 to B. W.
1 Except £ </3*, where it seems to be quite accidental.
1 When I first printed The Bitter Withy in Notes and Queries, I mentioned that "the first part of the story is well-known in the carol commonly called 'The Holy Well.'" Miss Broadwood in her notes in F.S.S. Journal, ii. 303, prints as a B. W. variant a version of H. W. from Howitt's Rural
N
I must also note here that one H. W. phrase—
"He said, God bless you every one,
And your bodies Christ save and see"!
—has crept into certain of the E texts of B.W.: £4''; Jf; *3«; and/3«.
I now give text Ea with collations.
E TEXT.
The Bitter Withy.
1. As it fell out one high holiday
When drops of rain did fall, did fall,
Our Saviour begged leave of his Mother Mary
If he should go play at ball.
2. "Go play at ball, my own dear Son,
It's time that you were going or gone;
But don't you let me hear of any complaint
To-night when you come home."
3. So it's up ling call and down ling call
Our Saviour he did whoop and call,
Untill he met with three jolly jordans,
And he asked them to play at ball.
4. They said they were lords and ladies' sons
Born in power all in all—
"And you are but a poor maiden's child,
Born in an oxen's stall."
5. "If I am but a poor maiden's child
Born in an oxen's stall,
I will let you know at the very latter end
That I am above you all."
----
Life in England (1837). Prof. Gerould appears to regard the Holy Well as a debased version of The Bitter Withy (paper cited above, 164).
'A phrase perfectly familiar, of course, to students of traditional and early poetry, but easily corrupted through misunderstanding.
6. So our Saviour built a bridge with the beams of the sun
And over the sea, the sea went he,
And after did follow the three jolly jordans,
And they were all drowned three.
7. So it's up ling call and down ling call,
Their mothers they did whoop and call, Saying, "Mary mild, call home your child, For ours are drowned all."
8. Then Mary mild she called home her child
And laid him across her tender knee, And with the handfull of bitter withy She gave him the slashes three.
9. "Oh the withy, the withy, the bitter withy,
That has caused me to ache and to smart,
Oh the withy shall be the very first tree
That shall perish and die at the heart."
Collation.
a. I5 droops. 24 comes. 7J There.
b. 01-3 are combined into two irregular six-lined stanzas:
b I. Our Saviour asked leave of his mother Mary
If he should go to play at ball.
"To play at ball, my own dear son
It is time you was gone and coming home,
But pray do not let me hear of your ill-doings
At night when you do come home."
(>2. It is up leencorn and down leencorn
Our saviour he did run, did run,
Untill he met with three jolly jerdins
And asked them all three:
"Now which of you all three jolly jerdins
Will play at ball with me?"
63. "Oh we are lords and ladies' sons
And born," etc.
From this point b 3 corresponds to a 4, and so on:
b4= "You are safe, you are safe, you are safe," said he,
"You are safe, you are safe, I plainly do see,
For it is at the latter end I will make it appear," etc.
f
46* they did hoot and hollow.
* 6s Mary, Mary mild.
if*-* And she with her hand full of those cold, cold bitter withies,
She gave him the lashes three.
48l "Oh you cold, you cold, O you cold bitter withy.'
c. a4 At night.
31 Then up lone con and down lane con.
4" Born in our bowers and hall.
5'j* If you are lords and ladies' sons
Born in your bowers and hall,
I will make it appear, etc.
7> «3'-
84 lashes.
4. 1* The season when the leaves do fall.
a* you were gone if you are going.
2* you do return.
31 up lane corn and down lane corn.
3** It was at the Holy Well hard by the Willow Tree
That he met with the jolly jerdins three.
J4= God bless you all both great and small,
Your bodies I plainly see;
If you will let me play with you
Then you shall play with me.
d 5 corresponds to a 4, and so on:
1/5' bowers of our own.
rf8' = 3'.
. . a* hear of your ill-doings.
31 up lineal, down lineal.
3* Saying your soul is safe I see.
4* And you are a poor messiah son.
S4 I am an angel above you all.
7 Mary mild call back your child
For mine are drowned all three,
And with a handful of withy twigs
Give it lashes three.
9* That caused me to smart.
/. I1 As he fell out.
1' Small rain from the skies did fall.
a' as in e.
31-1 Well meet, well meet, you three great dons,
Your bodies are safe you see.
M And born in all in all.
44 in an old ox stall.
5' « 4"
54 as in e.
71 Oh it was up in call, it was down in call.
81 Oh then Mary picked a handfull of withy.
Collation of important variations in the B.W. verses of texts x, y, z. x. 7* these three jolly jordens [called in 33 three of the finest children].
81 Then up a lane call and down lane call. y. 8* ( = a65) And over the river Jordon went he.
8' the three jordons [called in 3M and 4X* three as nice children
As ever a tongue could tell). 91 (=ayl) Then up they called and down they called. z. 6* The three jolly jerdins followed him.
71 So it was up in lee in corn and down lee in corn.
So much for the Herefordshire versions. When I received the Bidford draft mentioned above (see p. 192), it occurred to me that application to other country newspapers might produce other versions. I wrote a letter, similar to the one printed by the Hereford Times, which appeared in the Evesham Journal, Feb. 29, 1908. In reply to this there appeared one new verse text and one very curious version printed (as it was written) in prose. I call these:
E^. Obtained by Mr. and Mrs. George Gibbs, of Bengeworth; "a version as sung at Evesham more than forty years ago." Printed in the Evesham Journal, Ap. 4, 190S.
1. As it fell out on a bright holiday,
Small hail from the sky did fall.
Our Saviour asked His mother dear,
If he may go and play at ball.
2. "At ball! At ball 1 my own dear Son!
It is time that you were gone,
And don't let me hear of any doings
At night when you come home."
3. So up Lincull and down Lincull,
Our sweetest Saviour ran,
And there he met three rich young lords:
"Good morning to you all I"
4. "Good morn! Good morn! Good mom!" said they.
"Good morning!" then said He.
"Which of you three rich young men
Will play at ball with me?"
5. "We are all lords and ladies' sons,
Born in our bower and hall;
And Thou art nothing but a poor maid's child,
Born in an ox's stall."
6. "If you are all lords and ladies' sons,
Born in your bower and hall,
I will make you believe in your latter end,
I'm an angel above you all."
7. So he made him a bridge with the beams of the sun,
And o'er the water crossed he;
These rich young lords followed after Him,
And drowned they were, all three.
8. Then up Lincull, and down Lincull,
These young lords' mothers ran,
Saying, "Mary mild fetch home your child,
For ours he has drowned all."
9. So Mary mild fetched home her child,
And laid him across her knee;
With a handful of green withy twigs
She gave him slashes three.
IQ. "Oh! withy, Oh! withy, Oh! bitter withy,
Thou has caused me to smart,
And the withy shall be the very first tree
That shall perish at the heart."
B h. A version sent by Mrs. H. Collins, Broadway, Worcestershire.
Printed, exactly as sent, in the Evesham Journal, Ap. II, 1908.
THE BITTER WITHY.
Our Saviour asked of his dear mother if he could go and play. He saw two little Jardene sons playing at ball. He asked if he could play at ball with them. At ball with you? How could we play at ball with you? We're two little Jardene sons born in our bowry hall. You're nothing but a poor maid's son born in an ox's stall. If you're two little Jardene sons born in a bowry hall, and I'm nothing but a poor maid's son born in an ox's stall, I'm an angel above you all. He built him a bridge with the beams of the sun, and across the water did go; two little Jardenes tried to do the same, and drowned they were both. O Mary mild fetch home your child, for drowned ours are both. Then Mary mild fetched home her child and laid him across her knee, with a bunch of green withy twigs she gave him lashes three. O Mother, Mother, this bitter withy makes my back to smart. Every withy tree that I come to shall perish at the heart.
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Enough has now been recorded to show that the legend of The Bitter Withy still survives amongst us, chiefly, it seems, in the south-west midland counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire; but as text C comes from Sussex (and, while I write, I hear of a Lancashire version which I hope to obtain soon), it is not confined to those counties.
Prof. Gerould's scholarly investigation of the origin of the story-radical speaks for itself. There remain two curiosities of language, and one of superstition, on which I wish to make a few notes.
A31 upling scorn and dmonling scorn, (repeated 71.]
E031 up ling call and down ling call, [repeated 71.]
It had occurred to me that this might be a corruption of "up Linkum and down Linkum" before the Evesham text E^ came in. "Linkum" is a stock ballad-locality (see Child's Ballads, v. 354, Glossary and References). Miss Broadwood suggests in a letter to me that possibly the phrase is a corruption of "up-linking and down-linking" or "up linked 'un and down linked 'un "; linking being a dialect word for running.1
A 3a jerdins: and the other variants jordans, jordens, jordons, jorrans, great dons, Jardene sons, etc.
Not explained. At first I thought the jerdins of A might be an error for virgins of B; but Prof. Gerould disposes of this suggestion. Miss Broadwood first suggested a corruption from children, and recently wrote to me that "Jew Don's Sons may be the original of 'jerdins,' etc."
A 9. etc.
Both Prof. Gummere and Prof. Gerould appear to regard the cursing of the withy in the last stanza as an addition, an "afterthought and a tag." Doubtless it is possible that the aetiological tendency of the folk might lead them to round off the legend by attaching it to a prevalent superstition; for there certainly is a popular belief in Herefordshire that the withy is unlucky. Mrs. Leather, of Weobley, has recorded that the county-folk say that a growing person or animal will cease to grow if struck with a
1 [" Up linking and down linking " in many northern English dialects would mean, "going up and down arm in arm." See the English Dialect Did., s.v. Link.—Ed.]
"sally-twig." Mr. R. Ll. George, of Kingsland, Herefordshire, writes to me: "None of the old breed of Herefordshire people would use a withy (or sally) stick to beat an animal or child; and, if asked why, they would tell you that it was unlucky, because Christ was beaten with one by His mother."
Frank Sidgwick.
___________________________
Journal of American Folklore - Page 80
https://books.google.com/books?id=6DOdAAAAMAAJ
1914
THE BRIDGE OF SUNBEAMS.
BY PHILLIPS BARRY. A.M., S.T.B.
Among the legends recorded in the uncanonical books dealing with the childhood of Jesus, is a miracle of levitation by means of solar rays. It is first found in an interpolated passage of the PseudoMatthean Gospel: —
Et cum Jesus cum aliis infantulis super radios so(lis) ubique plures ascenderet et sederet, multique simili modo facere coeperunt, praecipitabantur.1
Other versions of the same story are found in two documents of the thirteenth century: —
1. Una autem die . . . ascendit Jhesus Christus radium solis, et positis super eum vestimentis suis sedebat quasi super trabem firmissimum.*
2. Legitur eciam ibi quod dum Jesus quandoque matri aquam de fonte ferret, super solis radium suspendit vasculum, et post se radium sicut funem cum vasculo traxit.3
At about the same time, the miracle was current in the vernacular hagiography, — Provencal,4 French,6 and somewhat later in English. Of the English text, three recensions,' the oldest of the fourteenth century, are extant. The following citations may be of interest: —
I. Sythyne apon a noder daye
Wyth chylderne Jhesu ganne mete:
Sum wold play and sum sayd naye,
On the sune-beme Jhesu mayd hys sete.
As he dede so wend thay,
Thay fylle adown and never the bet.'
1 C. Teschendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, p. 106, footnote. This interpolation cannot be earlier than the eleventh century.
* R. Reinisch, Die Pseudo-Evangelien von Jesu und Maria's Kindheit, p. 10, sect. 6.
* O. Schade, Narrationes de Vita et Conversatione B. M. Virginis, xliii, p. 31. 4 K. Bartsch, DenkmSler der Provencalischen Litteratur, p. 279.
* P. Mayer, Romania, xviii, p. 128. The French text, as yet unpublished, was translated into English about the year 1300. This English version, from MS. (Laud, 108), has been published by C. Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden.
* MS. Harleianus, 3954 (the oldest), MS. Harleianus, 2399; C. Horstmann, Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden, pp. 101-123, MS. Additional, 31042; C. Horstmann, Herrig's Archiv, lxxiv, pp. 327-339.
7 MS. Harleianus, 2399,11. 453-458; C. Horstmann, Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden, p. 118.
2. Than Jhesu hoi hys pot gan make,
Ant to hys frend he seyd anon,
Wyl we pleyne be the lake?
On the sunne bem xul our pottes gon.
On the sunne bem thei hem honge,
Crystes heng stylle, here gan don falle.1
From the hagiographs, the story filtered down through popular tradition, to appear in the ballad of "The Bitter Withy,"' in the following form: —
Our Saviour built a bridge with the beams of the sun,
And over He gone, He gone He,
And after followed the three jolly jerdins,
And drownded they were all three.*
In the course of a critical study of the ballad of "The Bitter Withy," Dr. G. H. Gerould has sought to trace the origin of this story.4
"It is, then, not out of place to inquire whence came the sunbeam in the legend. Dr. Kressner, in treating the Provencal versions, suggests a parallel, which I am inclined to believe a source. He says, 'Man ist versucht dieses Wunder mit einer im Mittelalter sehr verbreiteten Geschichte zusammen zu bringen, namlich von einem Diebe, welcher auf einem Mondstrahle von dem Dache eines Hauses in dasselbe hinunter gleiten will, und dabei den Hals bricht.'1 This story is found in 'Kalila and Dimna,' and thus goes back to Sanscrit. . . . This story is, of course, absolutely unlike our legend, save for the expedient of using the ray of the moon as a means of conveyance; yet when it is considered that the Oriental story was known in Europe before the end of the eleventh century,* and that the Laurentian MS. of the Pseudo-Matthew (somewhat after that date) gives the legend very briefly, it seems probable that the first man to invent the incident of Jesus and the sunbeam knew the earlier tale in some form or other."
This theory, must, however, be abandoned. In the first place, the story of the thief and the moonbeam does not go back to Sanscrit, but is of later origin. It appears for the first time in the Introduction prefixed by Ibn Al-Mokaffa to his version of the "Kalila and Dimna,"
• MS. Harleianus, 3954. 11. 357-362; C. Horstmann. Ibid., p. 106.
• Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. ii, pp. 205-206, 300-304, vol. iv, pp. 29-47.
• Ibid., vol. ii, p. 301.
• G. H. Gerould. "The Ballad of the Bitter Withy" (Publications of the Modern Language Association, vol. xxiii, pp. 160-161).
1 A. Kressner, "Die Provencalische Bearbeitung der Kindheit Jesu" (Herrig's Archiv, lviii, p. 296, note).
• The translation by Simeon Seth was made towards 1080 (G. H. Gerould, I. C, p. z6l< note).
made from the Pehlevi version of Burzoye, about the year 750.1 The story is as follows:—
I felt, therefore, more and more convinced that if f fixed my affections on things of unapproved worth, or listened to the suggestions of my ill-regulated passions, my credulity would be repaid by disappointment and trouble, and I was confirmed in this persuasion by the story of the thief who, having formed with some of his companions a plan for robbing the house of a rich man, made so much noise that he awakened the owner, who informed his wife of what he had heard, and desired her to be still, as he thought there were thieves breaking into his house. He then told her to pretend to awaken him by making a noise, which the thieves might hear, and to ask him to give her some account of his great fortune and riches. "And when I desire you," said the master of the house, "to hold your tongue, you must not forget to be more earnest and louder in your demand." The wife did as her husband had desired her, and the thieves listened attentively to all that was passing. The husband then told his wife, that if fortune had been bountiful to them, she ought to be satisfied with the possession of what fate had given them, "for if I inform you," continued he, "of the means by which I have acquired my riches, it is possible that I shall be overheard, and we may both of us suffer for my imprudence and indiscretion." The wife assured him that there was no one to hear what he related, upon which he acceded to her request. "I have collected together," said he, "all that I possess, by my dexterity in robbing, and I have never excited in any one suspicion of my practices. One moonlight night I went out with my companions, and, climbing up to the top of the house of a rich person like ourselves, I went to the aperture which was made for the admission of light, and used an incantation, which consisted in pronouncing, seven times, Shulatn, shulam; then I embraced the light, and no one perceived that I had let myself down into the room. I then took away all the money and furniture which I could find, and, repeating the same incantation seven times, I embraced the light, and it drew me up. Then I went to my companions, and we retired unmolested." When the thieves heard this, they congratulated themselves on the discovery which they had made, and promised themselves a large booty. They therefore remained quiet till they thought that the man and his wife were asleep; then the leader of them went to the window and said, "Shulam, shulam," seven times, and embraced the light, that he might let himself down into the room; but, falling backwards upon his head on the floor, the husband immediately sprang out of bed, and rushed upon him with his club, and, asking him who he was and what he wanted, was answered by the thief that he had been betrayed by his too easy credulity, and was then reaping the fruits of his error.*
Evidently we have here to do with a fable, one of the many variations of the theme of the knave outwitted, into which a bit of popular tradition has been interwoven.
1 The Sanscrit text of Kalila and Dimna, the fables of Bidpai (made about 300 A.D.), is lost, as also the Pehlevi version by Burzoye, made about 570. From the Pehlevi, a Syriac version was made about 570; that of Al-Mokaffa, about 750. The Introduction consists of a fictitious autobiography of Burzoye, which is not found in the Syriac version of 570.
• W. Knatchbull. Kalila and Dimna. pp. 69-71. VOL. XXVII.—NO. 103.—6.
It is not necessary, however, to look in Oriental documents for the immediate source of the miracles of levitation by solar rays, as reported in the Latin prose and vernacular metrical narratives of the infancy of Jesus, since these are paralleled by numerous similar instances of such miracles, recorded in the Latin Lives of the Saints. In witness whereof is the following testimony.
I. DOCUMENTS OF KNOWN DATE.
1. (652-657.) Vita S. Brigidae, part, ii, iii, 12.1
Quadam autem die pluviali Virgo gloriosa Brigida ad cellam suam de via venit, et cum post pluviam sol luceret, radius solis domum per parietem domus intravit, et posuit S. Brigida vestimenta sua hutnida super ilium radium, putans quod funis esset.
2. (Eighth century.) Vita S. Alvei, 4.*
Tunc nutu Dei, antequam memorati sancti Alvei cappa ad terram caderet, radio solis suscipitur, et videntibus cunctis, in radio solis pendet
3- (839.) Vita S. Goaris, xi.3
Qui cum intrasset, coepit praevidere locum ubi discipulus suus stare potuisset, vel ubi cappam suam pendere vel abscondere licuisset, et vidit de angulo domus per fenestellam.exire radium solis, et visum est ei vel manipulo suo quasi fustis esset roboreus, ibique pependit cappam suam, atque ministrum suum ibidem stare praecepit.
4- (965.) Vita S. Deicoli, 20.4
Vir venerandus aspiciens radium solis per fenestram domus ad instar trabis clare ingredientem . . . vestimentum superposuit.
5. (1000.) Vita S. Cadroe, iii, 28.5
Putans homo Dei se aliquem suorum sequi, baculum quern manu gerebat, retro porrexit, quem cum nullus esset qui susciperet, per fenestram lucebat, ut solet contingere, radius solis, qui videlicet ruentem baculum, velut elementum aliquod solidum, suscepit et sustinuit.
6. (c. 1050.) De S. Amato, Episc. Senon.'
Quoniam fatigatus itinere . . . deponens cappam suam atque manicas suas, radio solis tamquam ibi protensae ferulae ignoranter iniecit.
7. (c. 1100.) Acta S. Nicolai Peregrini, i, 5.'
Divina virtute dum orat, supra solis radios sublevatur, ac intra monasterii muros latus et in ecclesiae trullo portatus, miro modo ascendit.
8. (1117.) Vita S. Aldhelmi, 9.»
Iuste et pie peracto Missae officio, eodemque ministris suis porrigente casulam . . . ita firmiter et constanter solis radio pependit.
• AA. SS. Boll., i Feb.. 161. » AA. SS. Boll., iii Sept.. 808. » AA. SS. Boll., ii Iul.. 334. 4 AA. SS. Boll., ii Jan., 204.
» AA. SS. Boll., i Mart., 479.
• AA. SS. Boll., iv Sept., 126. From the Chronicon Cameracense, covering the period 500-1051.
'AA. SS. Boll., i Iun., 238. A Latin panegyric, written before 1117, refers to this miracle, —
Et super solis radios canoro
Tolleris ore.
• AA. SS. Boll., vi Mai., 86.
---
9. (1160.) De Miraculis S. Roberti Casae-Dei.1
Avenione in loco, eo sermonem ad populum faciente, cum eius chirothecas duo clericelli in ecclesia inventas ludendo invicem in ecclesiam proiicerent, in solis radio visae sunt remanere pendendo.
10. (Twelfth century.) Vita S. Florentii Episc. Argent., 6.'
Beatus autem Florentius se circumspiciens, a fenestra solarem radium contra se dirigi attendit. . . . Sciens ergo quia omnia possibilia credenti, clamidem exutam eidem lineae sustinendam commisit.
11. (Twelfth century.) Vita S. Etheldredae, 161.8
Dominum oravit, et chirothecam abstractam et simul revolutam, super radium solis, qui prope ex fenestra clare radians emicuit, incunctanter posuit.
12. (c. 1200.) Vita S. Cunegundis, iii, 13.4
Dexterae manus suae chirothecam detrahens, cum nullus quo reciperet adesset, a se reiecit, quam radius solis per fenestrae rimulas intrans suscepit.6
13. (1225.) Acta S. Amabilis Ricomagi, 6.*
Deus . . . solis radium dedit illi in obsequium, qui contra sui naturam tamquam fidelis famulus, eius sustineret sagum sive tegmina manuum.
14. (Thirteenth century.) Vita B. Alrunae, 5.'
Quadam enim die . . . radium solis . . . vestium suarum firmum fecit retinaculum.
15. (Fourteenth century.) Anecdote of St. Utho of Metz.1
Cum enim ipse Karolus Magnus provinciam Bavariae obtineret, accidit quod transitum faceret in venatione positus . . . viditque ibidem hominem dispositione eremitica existentem . . . et bipennem cum quo ligna exscindebat, ad radios solares suspendentem.
16. (1420.) Vita S. Petri Caelestini, — Suppl. 30.»
Cum enim . . . cucullam exuisset . . . remansit cuculla divinitus suspensa in aere ad solis radium, transeuntem per fenestram vitream.
17. (1518.) Vita B. Amati Saludeciensis, 14.10
Sol radios ex quadam fenestra per opaca domus transmittens trabis speciem efficiebat, eique suberat discus, super quem vir Dei pallium ponere solitus f uerat, quod tunc ... vir Dei cum apposuisset, remansit in sublime radiis solaribus detentum.
1 AA. SS. Boll., iii Apr., 327. » AA. SS. Boll., iii Nov., 401. » AA. SS. Boll., iv Iun., 576.
4 AA. SS. Boll., i Mart., 275.
5 The author continues, "Tale etiam quid in beati viri Goaris veste aliquando divina virtute ostensum fuisse legitur, qui ... a summa maiestate per maioris luminaris honoratur famulatum." This statement is of interest as giving evidence that the hagiographers were in the habit of comparing notes.
* AA. SS. Boll., ii Iun., 467.
'B. Pez, Thes. Anecd., ii, pt. 3, p. 259..
• Andreae Ratisbonensis Chronicon. B. Pez., Ibid., iv, pt. 3, p. 446.
• AA. SS. Boll., iv Mai., 505. This saint was afterward Pope Caelestinus V.
"AA. SS. Boll., ii Mai., 351. As far as is known, this saint is the last of whom the miracle of levitation by solar rays has been recorded.
II. DOCUMENTS OF UNKNOWN DATE.1
1. St. Alexander of Fiesoli.*
Vir namque Dei . . . arrepto itinere Papiam devenit ad imperatorem Lotharium. Et ingressus ad eum, mox pileum ubi abstraxit, statim solis sphaera id per dimidium fere horam sustinuit.
2. St. Cuthmann of Stennyng.3
Consuevit indumenta manualia, quae chirothecas appellamus, radiis solaribus appendere.
3. St. David of Cluny.4
Cum iam . . . oculi eius caligarent, radium solis perfenestram intrantem forte conspicatus, et paxillum esse ratus, in eo chirothecas appendit.»
4. St. Hathebrand of Antwerp.»
Quodam tempore cum Abbas cum fratribus secundum consuetudinem in pratis laboravit, subito de caelo pluvia non modica super ipsos erupit. Cessante pluvia, cuculla sua se Pater exuit, et tunc quasi ex turbatione in splendorem solis suspendit.
5. St. Hildewert of Bern.7
Chirothecae eius, quas e manibus suis ante consecrationem extraxerat, a radio solis in aere visae fuerunt tribus horis sustentatae.
6. St. Jerome of Pavia."
Cum ad regem vocatus, festinus venisset, aestuque ex itinere vexatus, pallium exuisset, illud radio solis . . . subsistere visum est.
7. St. Leonorius.*
Dum . . . vestem manicalem exueret, atque ad dexteram partem ponere speraret radius solis per fenestram egrediens, suscepit fortiter.
8. St. Lucanus.10
Cum Romam pervenisset Pontificemque adiisset, pallium suum radio solari, tamquam vecti impositum mirabiliter substitit.
9. St. Milburg."
De capite suo sacrum velamen quasi nescia proiecit. Nec mora, solis radius, divino nutu, antequam terram tangeret illud suscepit.
1 Though the exact dates of the following documents are unknown, it is certain that none of them can be as early as the Vita Brigidae. * AA. SS. Boll., i Iun., 750
» AA. SS. Boll., ii Feb., 199. Vita S. Cuthmanni, 11.
4 J. Vastovii, Vitis Aquilonia, p. 49, ed. 1708 (compiled, 1622).
• "In the year 1205 there lived in Slagelse a priest of St. Peter's Church, who was known by the name of Holy Anders. . . . He was so holy a man that when he performed his devotions in the open air, he was wont to hang his cap (cappal i.e., cowl) and gloves on the sunbeams." — B. Thorpe, Northern Mythology, ii, pp. 258-259.
• AA. SS. Boll., vii Iul., 166. Vita S. Hathebrandi, 7. 'AA. SS. Boll., vl Mai., 713.
» AA. SS. Boll., v. Iul., 322. Cited from F. Ferrari, Catalogue Sanctorum (compiled before 1626).
• AA. SS. Boll., i Iul. 122. Vita S. Leonorii, vii. The biography is pure fiction; no such person as St. Leonorius ever existed.
v> AA. SS. Boll., v Iul. 70. Cited from F. Ferrari, Catalogus Sanctorum. a J. Capgrave, Nova Legenda Angliae, ii, 191 (ed. C. Horstmann).
io. Sts. Wulfhadius and Rufinus.1
Prostravit re rex poenitens iuxta verbura sancti sacerdotis in oratione, levansque oculos vidit vestimenta sacerdotalia super radium solis dependere. . . . Surgens ergo protinus accessit . . . suasque chirothecas et baltheum posuit super radium, quas statim ceciderunt in terra m.
Of the foregoing hagiographic records of the miracle of levitation by solar rays, the earliest is contained in the biography of St. Brigit, Abbess of Kildare, which dates back to the seventh century. Of all Irish saints, none was more highly honored than St. Brigit. She is called "the branch with blossoms, the mother of Jesus," by St. Ultan,* who prays to her in these words: —
Brigit, ever excellent woman, golden sparkling flame,
Lead us to the eternal kingdom, the dazzling resplendent sun.3
Broccan, whose hymn dates from the ninth century,4 records the story of St. Brigit and the sunbeam.6 He calls her "the Ladder to peoples to attain to the kingdom of Mary's Son, — a striking bit of • symbolism which reappears in the Latin elegiac verses prefixed to the version of her biography by Chilienus.7 Another version of the sunbeam incident, according to which St. Brigit meets with the famous St. Brenainn, or Bredanu, as found in a Middle Irish homily, is as follows: —
Once upon a time, Brenainn came from the west of Ireland to Brigit, to the plain of Liffey. For he wondered at the fame that Brigit had in miracles and marvels. Brigit came from her sheep to welcome Brenainn. As Brigit entered the house, she put her wet cloak on the rays of the sun, and they supported it like pot-hooks. Brenainn told his gillie to put his cloak on the same rays, and the gillie put it on them, but it fell from them twice. Brenainn himself put it, the third time with anger and wrath, and the cloak staid upon them.'
> AA. SS. Boll., v IuL, 581.
* "In chroib comblathaib in mathlr Isu" (Ultan's Hymn, c. 650).
W. Stokks and J. Strachan, Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus, ii, 325.
* "Brigit bfi bithmaith, breo órde oiblech,
Donfe don bithflaitb in gren tind toidlech." — Ibid., p. 325.
* W. Stokes and J. Strachan, Thesaurus Paleohibernicus, ii., xxbc.
* "On a day of rain she herded sheep, in the middle of a plain.
She afterwards spread her mantle in the house on a sunbeam."
W. Stokes and J. Strachan, Ibid., pp. 335-336. Broccan's Hymn, as the editors point out (Ibid., p. xxiz), is the source of the biography by Cogitosus, written about 835. Compare AA. SS. Boll., i Feb., 136, this passage, in turn, being borrowed directly by the author of the Biography of St. Hathebrand.
* "Amra arad do thuathaib d'ascnam flatha Maicc Maire." — Ibid., ii, p. 328. 'AA. SS. Boll., i Feb., 141: —
"Scala parata viris, pueris excelsa, puellis, Matribus et Sanctis, tendit ad astra poli." » W. A. Stokes, Three Middle Irish Homilies .p. 83.
The interpretation of these allusions is to show that, by the time when biographies of St. Brigit had come to be circulated, she had been connected in legendary lore with a group of beliefs that belong to the category of solar mythology. Nor is the life of St. Brigit unique. Similar references and allusions are numerous in the Latin hagiography of Ireland. Waiving the debatable question, whether elements of Irish Paganism have filtered into Irish Christianity, we may depend on documents to show that a number of legends and miracles, including levitation by solar rays, were already part of the Christian ecclesiastical tradition, and came with it to Ireland.
The hagiography testifies to an activity peculiarly associated with the life of the monks. Through them the tradition of sainthood developed. Now, monasticism originated in Egypt; both Pagan and Jewish religious communities existed in pre-Christian times in the Nile valley.1 The Egyptian St. Anthony was, according to tradition, the first Christian monk.* The first monastery was founded at Tabennisi, by St. Pachomius, soon after the year 300. Linguistic evidence also, that Egypt was the centre whence monasticism was diffused over Europe, is furnished by the word "frock" (the monastic dress), also by Glocke and Schelle, names of bells, —all of which are Coptic.3 The monastic character of the early Irish Church is a well-known fact. The appearance in Irish hagiographs of elements of legendary lore which are found in similar Coptic documents of an earlier date, only adds to the evidence for the contact of Ireland and Egypt.
Instances of such documentary parallels may here be put in evidence.
I. Fingers of a saint give light or fire.
(Coptic Testimony.) Vie de Schnoudi (written by Besa of Atripe, about 457).
J'ai vu les dix doigts du petit garcon, étant comme dix Iampes de feu.4
1 Dom. Cuthbert Butler, "The Lausiac History of Palladius" (Texts and Studies, ed. J. Armitage Robinson, vol. vi, pp. 229-230). The native priests of Memphis and Heliopolis lived an eremitical life of seclusion and austerity. Many Alexandrian Jews, in the time of Philo, left their homes to watch and pray in the wilderness.
• The Decian persecution in the year 250, when many Christians fled to the deserts and mountains, transmitted the spiritual impetus of monasticism to Christianity.
* Frock. — "Bei M8nchsgewand darf es nicht befremdem wenn das Etymon in einem koptischen Worte wurzeln sollte, denn auf die Gestaltung der Monchsregeln hat die Thebaide gewiss einen grossen Einfluss ausgetlbt."—L. Wiener, "Materialien zu einer Geschichte der Kleidung" (Revue de Linguistique, xliv, p. 138).
Glocke. — "Dieses Klopfen oder Glockenlauten heisst auf koptisch kolh, koleh, kolah. Aus diesem stammt nun vlat. clocca, gerade wie kopt. fork zu vlat. froccus gefflhrt hat." — L. Wiener, "Byzantinisches" (Zeitschrift f flr Romanische Philologie, xxxv, p. 468).
Schelle. — "Skella ist aber das koptische ikil, skilkil, ikelkil, kelkil, Glocke." — L. Wiener, Ibid., p. 468.
4 E. AmSlineau, "Monuments pour servir a l'Histoire de L'Egypte chretienne" (Vie de Schnoudi, p. 4). Compare also, p. 76.
(Irish Testimony.) Vita S. Patricii (compiled by Jocelin about 1185). Videbantur enim intuentium oculis de digitis sancti pueruli orantis, pro stillulis aquae, scintillae igneae respergi.1
2. Breath of a saint issues in light or fire.
(Coptic Testimony.) Apophthegmes sur Saint Macaire.
Et le petit dit cinq psaumes de six versets chacun, avec un alléluia, et à chaque verset une flamme de feu sortait de sa bouche et montait au ciel.* (Irish Testimony.) Vita S. Patricii.
Videbatur ex ore pueri Patricii pro flatu, flamma processisse.'
3. Fingers of a saint pierce stones.
(Coptic Testimony.) Vie de Schnoudi (457).
Alors il s'approcha du morceau de pierre qui était près de là: il le saisit entre son doigt et son pouce, — aussitôt il le perfora comme de la cire près du feu.4 (Irish Testimony.) Vita S. Brigidae (657-662).
In alio die B. Brigida digitis suis petram durissimam perfora vit.»
The above instances are chosen as being the most obvious and notable; the list of such parallels, however, is not thereby exhausted.* As yet, no exact parallel, corresponding in detail as well as in general to the miracles of levitation by solar rays, has been found in the Coptic hagiography. Instances are recorded, however, of levitation by light, described as a "cloud of light," or "a glowing vapor," of which the following are representative : —
(457-) Vie de Schnoudi.
Pendant qu-il pensait ainsi, voici qu'une nuée de lumière descendit du ciel, le prit avec son disciple, l'enleva dans les airs, et s'envola avec lui.7
Et lorsqu'il eut dit amen, voici qu'une nuage de lumière l'enleva, et l'emmena dans la ville capitale du royaume." 2. Vie de Saint Jean de Lycopolis.
Voici qu'une nuée lumineuse vint vers lui, dans laquelle il y avait une grande lumière et un grand parfum. Sur l'heure il monta sur la nuée.*
1 AA. SS. Boll., ii Mart., S41. Compare also, p. 572: "Continuo illius qulnque digiti velut quinque radii solis lucidissimi effulserunt . . . totam provinciam illuminantes." In Coptic, the comparison of a bright light to solar rays is a stereotyped commonplace.
» E. Amélineau, Annales du Musée Guimet, xxv, p. a11.
• AA. SS. Boll., ii Mart., 541. Compare Ibid., p. 572. "Praedicabat S. Patricius cuidam viro . . . videbaturque ei quod ex ore Patricii flamma egrediens aures et os suum ingrederetur."
• E. Amélineau, Monuments pour servir, etc., p. 16. » AA. SS. Boll., i Feb., 170.
« In a subsequent article, "Lac pro Sanguine," the provenience of Egyptian lore in Latin hagiography will be treated more fully.
'E. Amélineau, Monuments pour servir à THistoire de l'Egypte chrétienne, p. 13.
• Ibid., p. 33. • Ibid., p. 661.
---
Si je lancais cette lettre en haut vers cette nu6e lumineuse . . . mon Seigneur, mon Seigneur. . . . Et sur l'heure il lanca la lettre au ciel.1
The light and fire miracles which appear in Christian hagiographs are quite correctly set in relation to the myth and ritual of solar deities, such myths having become literalized as events in the lives of saints. Egypt, the first home of Christian monasticism, had, for three thousand years at least, maintained an elaborate and complicated system of sun-worship. Remnants even of the cultus passed into Christianity among the Copts. St. Coluthus, on his fast-days, kept his eyes fixed on the solar orb from its rising to its setting.* It is, then, in Egypt, that we must look for the origin of the miracle of levitation by solar rays.
In the " Pyramid Texts," the oldest monuments of the native Egyptian religion,3 are found already records of a doctrine to the effect that the king ascends to heaven on a ladder of sunbeams, there to join the company of the gods. In witness whereof, the following documents may here be put in evidence.
1. Unis (c. 2625 B.C.).
Unis ascends upon the ladder which his father Re hath made for him.4
2. Pepi i (c. 2550 B.C.).
Meri-re has put down this thy radiance as a stairway under his feet.6
3. Pepi i.
The spirits of Heliopolis put down a stairway for him.»
4. Pepi i.
He ascends to heaven on the ladder of God.'
5. Pepii.
Thou hast given him the ladder of God, thou hast given him the ladder of Set.'
6. Pepi ii (c. 2475 B.C.).
They have made thee a ladder, thou goest to heaven.1
This imagery appears over and over again in these texts.10 In the event that none of the gods would help him, it was believed to lie in the monarch's power to make a ladder for himself, as illustrated by the following utterance: —
1 E. Amelineau, Monuments pour servir, etc., p. 663.
» G. Zoega, Catalogus codicum copticorum manuscriptorum, p. 44.
» These texts are magical-liturgical formulas, inscribed on the walls of the Pyramidtombs to insure the deceased ruler immortal life. See J. H. Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, pp. 70-117.
4 K. Sethe, Die Altagyptischen Pyramidentexte, 390. All references to the Pyramid Texts are to this edition.
■ Ibid., 1108. • Ibid., 1090. 'Ibid., 979.
» Ibid., 974. • Ibid., 1474.
10 Compare Pyr., 468, 472, 479, 547. 75L 94L 971.974-976, 978-980,1090.1108, 1253, 1431, 1474, 2070, 2082.
Homage to thee, ladder of God, — homage to thee, ladder of Set! Stand up, ladder of God, — stand up, ladder of Set, — stand up, ladder of Horus!1
Its mystic name also was a word wherewith to conjure.
He hath set up the ladder, — he goeth upon it in its name of "Thou, (ladder) goest to heaven!"* Thou goest upon it in its name, M'kt!1
From the ritual of the days of the Pyramid kings, the belief in the ascent by a ladder to heaven passed into the great body of magical scriptures known as the "Coffin Texts,"4 and lastly into the "Book of the Dead."5
The contact of Egypt and the West, as has been pointed out, due to the spread of monasticism, facilitated the diffusion, into the Latin hagiographic tradition, of legends and ideas native to Egypt, among others, the "ladder of light." Out of a natural tendency toward literalization of the symbolic, grew the miracle of levitation by lightrays, in particular, by rays of the sun. The ballad of "The Bitter Withy," in which this miracle appears, as derived from the hagiography, acquires for us an additional interest through the literary genealogy which carries the legend of the Bridge of Sunbeams ultimately back to the ancient dwellers in the valley of the Nile as they made homage to their Lord, the Son of the Sun:—
Teti, thou springest, thou ascendest the radiance, thyself a radiant one, on the passage-way to Heaven.•
1640 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, Mass.
1 Pyr.. 971.
• Ibid., 1431.
» Ibid., 479. Egypt, m'kt; Coptic, mouki ("ladder").
4 J. H. Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 279.
• E. A. W. Budge, The Book of the Dead, xcviii, 5, cxlix, ii. "I set up a ladder to heaven amongst the gods," clii, 7.
• Pyr.. 75i
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Eddy, The Murdered Girl 1939
B. ON THE BANKS OF THE OLD PE,EDEE
From Mrs. M. E. Warner, Melco, Ohio.
My love and I we took a walk
On the banks of the old Peedee,
And as we walked, we gently talked
When our wedding day would be.
"Only say, on- ly say
that you will be mine,
And your home will ever be
Where the si - lent wa-ters flow
On the banks of the old pee dee.
He took her by the lily-white hand,
And swung her round and round,
Then threw her into the waters deep,
And there he watched her drown.
"Because she said she'd never be mine,
And her home would never be
Where the silent waters flow
On the banks of the old peedee.',
Mrs. warner learned this song near Lyons, Fulton county, ohio.
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Hoosier Folklore Society
Five Folksongs from Richmond, Indiana
Author(s): Jane Willets
Source:
Hoosier Folklore,
Vol. 5, No. 1 (Mar., 1946), pp. 21-28
Published by: Hoosier Folklore Society
FIVE FOLKSONGS FROM
RICHMOND, INDIANA
By Jane Willets
When my maternal grandmother, Jennie Delk, was a girl
in Richmond, Indiana, in the 1860's and 70's she was extremely
fond of singing and was locally famous for her sweet voice
and her long memory. She not only sang for her own plea
sure?or comfort?but was an ardent participant in the
"singin', spellin', and recitin' bees" so popular at that time.
Many years later my grandmother remembered some of these
songs and still sang them occasionally. The following songs
were among her favorites:
1. The Sailor Boy (?)
Early in the spring when I was young;
The flowers bloomed and the gay birds sung;
Not a bird was happier than I
When my sailor love was nigh.
Refrain
Tra la la la la la, la la la
Tra la la, la la la
Not a bird was happier than I
When my sailor love was nigh.
(Last two lines of verse)
The moon had arisen o'er the eastern hill;
The stars shone bright, 'twas twilight still ;
Sailor lad and his bride
Were walking by the ocean side.
_the ship sailed away
_ at the breaking of the day
_the broad ship bears my love away
Many years have passed and he comes no more
To greet his bride on the lonely shore;
The ship went down at the howling of the storm,
And the waves enclose my lover's for
Now I wish that I were sleeping, too,
Beneath the waves of the ocean blue.
My soul to God, and my body in the sea,
And the blue waves rolling over me.
You may dig my grave both wide and deep;
Place a marble slab at my head and feet;
On my breast a turtle dove
To certify that I died of love.
(From the standpoint of folklore, "The Sailor Boy" has
always seemed to me the most interesting of the songs grand
mother sang. Two versions of this ballad are recorded by
Mary Eddy, Journal of American Folklore, 35, pp. 410-413) as
sung in Ohio in the 19th century. One version was found in the
Reverend Franklin Eddy's album dated Ashtabula, Ohio, 1852 ;
the other was sung by a woman in Shreve, Ohio. The tune
Mary Eddy records is only slightly similar to the tune grand
mother sang, being most doleful while grandmother's tune
was gay. Neither version includes the "Dig my grave" last
verse, but in other respects both are quite similar.
The missing third verse in one of Mary Eddy's versions is :
'Twas scarce three months we had been wed,
And oh, how fast the months had fled!
But we were to part at the dawning of the day,
And the proud ship bore my love away.
Also in this same version are the verses:
'Tis autumn now, and I am alone;
The flowers have bloomed and the birds have flown;
All is sad, yet none so sad as I,
For my sailor lad no more is nigh.
My sailor sleeps beneath the wave,
The mermaids they kneel o'er his grave,
The mermaids they at the bottom of the sea,
Are weeping their sad tears for me
The version sung by Mrs. Ross of Shreve has two additional verses at the beginning of the song:
Our youthful hearts do oft 'times weep
For those who plow the briney deep.
Think how many find a grave
Beneath a wide outspreading wave.
But now I will relate a case
Which happened in my early days
Of a sailor boy whose heart was true,
But now he lies in the ocean blue.
In Mary Eddy's collection the song is entitled "The Sailor and his Bride" or "The Sailor's Bride." My grandmother was
never quite sure of the title, "The Sailor Boy," and thought it might have been "Early in the Spring" or that it did not
have a title.
J. H. Cox records the ballad from West Virginia in Folk
songs of the South, No. 113, pp. 364-65, under the titles,
"The Sailor and His Bride" and "The Sailor Boy." Both of
these versions are short?four and five verses?and lack the
"dig my grave" verse. Cox writes that this song appears on
de Marsan's list 15 as No. 90 under the title, "The Sailor
Boy's Bride." The ballad is also sung in Nebraska and other
Middle Western states according to Louise Pound, who records
it in Folk-songs of Nebraska and the Central West (Lincoln,
1915), p. 42, under the title, "The Sailor Bride's Lament."
Apparently the last verse of grandmother's version is an
addition from another ballad, either from "The Sailor Boy,"
the American version of the English ballad, "Sweet William"
{JAFL, Vol. 30 p. 364), or from the "Tavern in the Town"?
"Butcher Boy" songs. The verse appears almost invariably
in these songs, but except for the song my grandmother sang
it is lacking in "The Sailor's Bride." It is also found in some
versions of "Early, Early in the Spring" but according to Cox
does not rightfully belong to this ballad (Cox, No. Ill, pp.
358-361).?J. W.)
The four following songs are probably not, properly speak
ing, folksongs. Their nature seems too much akin to the
sentimental popular songs of the eighties and nineties which
circulated for the most part in books, although they may
have enjoyed some oral dissemination. They are, however,
worthy of inclusion as examples of this type of song.?The
Editor.
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Gerry Armstrong CD Folkways
(6) WENT TO SEE MY SUZIE - This courting
song is known in many versions, most often under the title: "The
Keys of Canterbury" or "Paper of pins".
This version comes from Lee Munroe
Presnell of Beech Mountain, North
Carolina.
I went to see my SUZie,
She met me at the door
Said I needn't a'come any more,
And I won't be your truelovyer.
"Madam, I'll buy you a little black
dog
To follow you when you go abroad,
If you'll be my truelovyer."
"I won't accept your little black
dog,
To bother me when I go abroad
And I won't be your truelovyer."
"Madam, I'll buy you a dress of red
And hit stitched around with a
golden thread,
If you'll be, etc."
"I won't accept a dress of red
And hit stitched around with a golden
thread,
And I won't, etc."
"Madam, I'll buy you a dress of green
You'll look as fine as any queen,
If you'll etc."
"I won't accept a dress of green
I'm already as fine as any queen
And I won't be your truelovyer."
"Madam, I'll give you the keys to my heart
So you and I may never part,
If you'll etc."
"I won't accept the keys to your
heart
So you and I may never part,
And I won't etc."
"Madam, I'll Give you the keys to
my desk,
So you can have money at your
request,
If you'll etc."
"I will accept the keys to your
desk,
So I can have money at my request,
I will be your truelovyer."
"Madam, I can plainly see
You love my money but you don't
love me
And I won't be your truelovyer."
"Ha, ha, ha, I'll be an old maid,
I'll take my stool and set in the
shade
And I won't have any truelovyer. "*
* Mr. Presnell did not sing this last
verse, but Gerry has borrowed this
from Jean Ritchie to give the woman the last word