Pretty Polly- Avery (ID) 1933 Cheney
[From Thomas Edward Cheney's Folk Ballad Characteristics, 1936, reprinted Idaho Folklife. Cheney's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
I have found only one of the Child ballads, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (Child 4). Mrs. Elizabeth Curtis of Victor, Idaho, told me of an old song she had known, the story of which she related; it was "Bonny Barbara Allen" (Child 84). That many of these songs exist in the Western states may be safely assumed.
Other ballads than the Child texts, however, exist. Sharp classified eighteen songs as ballads of English and Scottish origin which are not Child ballads. Cox in Folk-Songs of the South classified thirty-four as ballads that are of American origin. Much has been adapted to local conditions. As I proceed in this study, I shall attempt to show to what extent some of the mass of present-day folk song approaches the ballad type, as described above.
There is no other ballad which has had and still has the cosmopolitan and broad local circulation of "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight." It is nearly as well known in southern as in northern Europe. It has wide circulation in Poland, Germany, and Scandinavia. Child, in his detailed introduction to the ballad, briefly relates the story as told in German, Polish, Bohemian, French, Dutch, Flemish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic. In English it is still in circulation. In America nearly every collector has found it. Arthur Kyle Davis in Traditional Ballads of Virginia gives nineteen variations; Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth jn British Ballads from Maine give nine variations; Campbell and Sharp in Folk Songs of the Appalachians give five variations;
Reed Smith in South Carolina Ballads gives two versions; and Mackenzie in Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia gives one. This ballad has been found everywhere in America where anyone has made even a partial search.
The story contained in Child's E version, from Herd's MS.(1776), most nearly approaches the version I present. In the first stanza the story is told in first person, an outlandish knight "came a wooing me." Neither girl nor man is named. She is asked to get some of her father's gold and mother's fee and two of her father's best horses. She obeys. The couple mount and ride to the seaside in the Northland, arriving three hours before day. She is commanded to dismount and give the milk-white steed she rides to the robber, for she is to be drowned there where six pretty maids have preceded her. In turn she is commanded to remove her silken gown, the silken stays, and the Holland smock, for they are too precious to rot in the salt sea. She cleverly requests as she removes the last of her clothing that he turn his back unto her, "For it is not fitting that such a ruffian a naked woman should see." He grants her the favor, but, as his back is turned, she tumbles him into the stream. He scrambles to the side asking her to give him a helping hand. She refuses, mounts her horse, leads the dapple gray he rode, and returns to her
father's abode. The parrot in the window hears her return and questions her. Fearing the parrot will tell tales, she promises a new cage made of glittering gold. The king in his chamber above awakes to question the parrot as to why she talked, but is given no information other than that the cat has come to the window and she is afraid. The girl commends the parrot on the
"well-turned" story and promises again a glittering gold cage, this time with an ivory door.
The name given to me for the ballad I collected was "Pretty Polly," a name used for the girl in nearly half of the forty American versions current in West Virginia, Maine, South Carolina, and Nova Scotia. The story told in this variation is very much the same as the Child version just told. It differs by beginning with the American ballad introduction, "I'll tell you." The man in the
story, still unnamed, becomes a rich young man; she is merely a fair lady. An added enticement of an offer of marriage is given the lady; he rides a brown pony instead of a dapply gray; he offers a bribe for her help, as he struggles in the water, of "ten thousand." The only allusion to her being a king's daughter is in his statement: "for it's six king's daughters I've drounded [sic] here, and you the seventh shall be." Rather than a glittering gold cage Polly offers the parrot a cage lined with gold and locked with a silver key. The parrot when questioned offers a more plausible lie in saying that she called Polly to scare the cat away. The following version was collected from William H. Avery, of Victor, Idaho, in the autumn of 1933.
Pretty Polly- William H. Avery, of Victor, Idaho, in the autumn of 1933.
I'll tell you of a rich young man
Who came courting a fair lady;
He came into her father's house
Her life for to betray.
"Hand down, hand down your father's gold
Likewise your mother's fee,
And I'll take you to the north country,
And there I'll marry thee."
She handed down her father's gold,
Likewise her mother's fee,
And she took the best horses in her father's barn,
And there stood thirty-three.
She mounted on her milk-white steed,
And he on the brown pony,
And they rode till they came to the north country;
'Twas on a summer's day.
"Alight, alight, my Pretty Polly,
Alight, I say unto thee,
For it's six king's daughters I've drowned here,
And you the seventh shall be.
Take off, take off that fine clothing,
Take it off, I say unto thee,
For it is too fine and too costly
To rot in the deep, deep sea."
"Then turn your face toward the west
Toward the willow tree,
For 'tis not fit for any young man
A lady's figure to see."
He turned his face toward the west
Toward the willow tree.
And she clasped her arms around his waist
And threw him into the sea.
"Hand down, hand down that lily-white hand,
Hand it down I say unto thee;
For it's many a bargain I have made with thee,
And I will ten thousand give."
"Lie there, lie there, you false young man,
Lie there I say unto thee,
For it's six king's daughters you've drownded there,
Co keep them company."
She mounted on her milk-white steed
And led the brown pony,
And she rode 'til she came to her father's house
'Twas just before it was day.
And then up spoke the pretty parrot
That in the cage did stay,
Saying, 'Where have you been, my Pretty Polly,
This long sweet summer's day?"
"Hush up, hush up, my pretty parrot,
Tell no tales on me,
And your cage will be lined with pure shining gold
And locked with a silver key."
And then up spoke her own father
Who in his bed did lie,
"What is the matter, my pretty parrot?
You speak before it is day."
"The cat was at my own cage door
My life for to betray,
And I called upon my Pretty Polly
To drive the cat away."