Polly Bonn- Jewel Robbins (NC) c.1923 Brown A
[My date, none given. Short version with music from Brown Collection II, 1952 and IV, music 1956. Their notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
76. Molly Bawn
For the history of this ballad, see Kittredge's bibliographical note in JAFL XXX 358. It has been reported as traditional song in Ireland (OIFMS 220), Norfolk (JFSS vii 17), Somerset (JFSS II 59-60), Maine (JAFL xxii 387, BFSSNE x 12-13), Massachusetts (JAFL XXX 358-9, FSONE 274-6), New Jersey (JAFL Lii 56-8), Virginia (SharpK i 330-1, SCSM 1 16-17, FSV 68-9), West Virginia (FSS 339-41), Kentucky (JAFL xxx 359-6o, SharpK i 329, 331-2), Tennessee (SharpK i 329), North Carolina (SharpK I 328, FSRA loi), Mississippi (FSM 145-6), Florida (SFLQ viii 176), Arkansas (OFS i 257), Missouri (OFS i 254-6), Michigan (BSSM 66-8), and Wisconsin (JAFL lii 32, from Kentucky).
Our texts are incomplete; they should end with the appearance of Molly's ghost to free her lover of the charge of murder. Sharp, noting in the song "a strange admixture of fancy with matter of fact," thought that it might be "the survival of a genuine piece of Celtic or, still more probably, of Norse imagination." The woman's name appears in various forms: Molly (or Polly) Van, Vaughn, Bawn, Bond, Bonn; in a stall print by J. Andrews of New York as Polly von Luther! The man is Jimmy; in many texts, as in our A, is Jimmy Randall.
A. 'Polly Bonn.' From the collection of Miss Jewel Robbins (later Mrs. C. P. Perdue) of Pekin, Montgomery county.
1 'Twas one rainy evening.
The rain it did fall ;
Pretty Polly was under a holly bush
The rain for to shun.
2 With her apron pinned around her
The rain for to shun;
Jimmy Randall he saw her
And shot her for a swan.
3 He ran home to his father,
His gun in his hand.
'Dear father, dear father,
I've killed Polly Bonn !
4 'I've killed that fair creature.
My own heart's delight,
And I always have intended
To make her my wife!'
5 His father being old.
His head being gray:
'Jimmy Randall, Jimmy Randall,
Don't you run away.
6 'You're in your own country;
Your trial shall stand.
You never shall be condemned
By the loss of my land.'