Pretty Gold Lee- Blankenship (VA) 1914 Davis J
[Printed in the Focus for May, 1914, p. 212 as taken from Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1929. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT
(CHILD, NO.4)
THIS ballad is one of the few most frequently found in Virginia, where variously known as "Pretty Polly," "The Seven King's Daughters," "King's Daughter," "The Pretty Gold Leaf," "The Salt Water Sea," "Miss Mary's Parrot," and under several other titles. Its polyonymity is almost equal to its ubiquity - twenty-eight variants under sixteen different titles. In Virginia it does not, however, when compared with" Barbara Allen," "The House Carpenter" and several others quite live up to its reputation of having obtained the widest circulation of all ballads. Child's remarkable introduction to this ballad discusses at some length its extraordinary currency in the southern as well as the northern nations of Europe. Space is also given to a consideration of the hypothesis that the ballad is a wild shoot from the story of Judith and Holofernes, with Holofernes the original of the Elf-Knight. Child concludes; "It is a supposition attended with less difficulty that an independent European tradition existed of a half-human, half-demonic being, who possessed an irresistible power of decoying away young maids, and was wont to kill them after he got them into his hands, but who at last found one who was more than his match, and lost his own life through her craft and courage. A modification of this story is afforded by the large class of Bluebeard tales."
All the Virginia texts correspond much more closely with the Child series C-G (and Sargent and Kittredge H) than to A and B. Warning might perhaps be given of the confusion of Pollies in most of the Virginia texts. The girl and the parrot have the same name and are not always immediately distinguishable.
For American findings of this ballad see Barry, No. 4; Belden, No. 1 (fragment); Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 2-4, 6-12; Campbell and Sharp, No. 2 (Massachusetts, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia); Child, III, 496 (Virginia, from The Folk-Lore Journal, VII, p. 28); Cox, No. I and p. 521 (fragment and melody); Hudson, No. I (Mississippi); Jones, p. 301 (fragment); Journal, XVIII, 132 (Barry, Massachusetts, text and melody); XIX, 232 (Belden, Missouri); XXII, 65 (Beatty, Wisconsin), 76 (Barry, New Jersey, melody only), 374 (Barry, Massachusetts, text and melody, Missouri), 344 (Barry, Massachusetts); XXVII, 90 (Gardner, Michigan); XXVIII, 148 (Perrow, North Carolina); XXXV, 338 (Tolman and Eddy, Ohio); Mackenzie, Ballads, No. I, and p. 391 (melody); Sandburg, P: 60 (R. W. Gordon Collection); Scarborough, p. 43 (Texas, text and melody); Shearin, p. 3; Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Reed Smith, No. I; Reed Smith, Ballads, No. I; Wyman and Brockway, p. 82. For additional references, see Cox, p. 3; Journal, XXIX.
J. "Pretty Gold Lee." Collected by Miss May Blankenship, of the Farmville Ballad Club. Sung by her cousin, of Naruna, Va., Campbell County. May, 1914. Printed in the Focus for May, 1914, p. 212.
1 "Go bring me some of your father's gold,
And some of your mother's fee,
And two of the prettiest nags in the stall,
Wherein stands thirty and three, three, three,
Wherein stands thirty and three."
2 He mounted upon his milk-white horse,
And she the dapple gray,
And they safely arrived at the salt sea side,
And 't was three hours till day, day, day,
And 't was three hours till day.
3 "Light off, light off with the dapple gray,
And deliver it unto me;
For six king's daughters have I drowned here,
And now the seventh shall be thee, thee, thee,
And now the seventh shall be thee."
4. He turned his back and looked around,
The green leaves for to see;
She picked him up in her arms so strong,
And threw him in the sand salt sea, sea, sea,
And threw him in the sand salt sea.
5. "Reach forth, reach forth your lily-white hand,
And help me from the sea,
And I'll take you away to some foreign land,
And there I'll marry thee, thee, thee,
And there I'll marry thee."
6. "Lie there, lie there, you false-hearted man,
Lie there instead of me,
For six pretty ladies you drowned here,
And the seventh shall now drown thee, thee, thee,
And the seventh shall now drown thee."
7. She mounted upon the milk-white horse,
Leading the dapple gray.
She safely arrived at her father's house,
And 't was two hours till day, day, day,
And 't was two hours till day.
8. And there bespoke the pretty parrot,
Where in his cage he stay,
"Where have you been, my Pretty Gold Lee?"
And 't was one hour till day, day, day,
And 't was one hour till day.
9. "Oh hush, oh hush, my pretty parrot,
And don't tell tales on me.
Your cage shall be made of yellow gold,
And the doors of ivory, -ry, -ry,
And the doors of ivory."
10. And then bespoke the king so high,
Where in his chamber he lay,
"Oh, what is the matter with my pretty parrot
So long before 't is day, day, day,
So long before 't is day."
11. "The cat is coming to my cage
To carry me away,
And I am calling my Pretty Gold Lee,
To drive the cat away, -way, -way,
Go drive the cat away."