Pretty Polly- Gordon Collection; [no date given] published Sandburg 1927 (1923 Gordon)
[From Sandburg; American Songbag, 1927. According Sandburg, "This version is from the R W. Gordon collection." In 2000 Sandy Paton posted this on Mudcat:
It turns out that the version Joe Hickerson recorded for us on Drive Dull Care Away, Volume 2 was learned from Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag, but Joe mislearned the tune, switching it from Myxolidian to Aeolian. Sandburg has obtained a number of songs (without the tunes) from Robert W. Gordon who was the first head of the Archive of American Folksong at the Library of Congress, a position Joe Hickerson later held for a number of years. Gordon had the text from Mrs. O. Mobley of Springfield, Illinois. Joe thinks that Sandburg may have taken the tune he used from Kidson's Traditional Tunes (1891), but notes that it was in 4/4 rather than 3/4 there. Thus, kids, is the tradition modified."
The Gordon Collection list Pretty Polly / Andrew Bardeen as collected on November 30, 1923. It's unclear if this is the same ballad but it would be correct for the time line. See also Hickerson's version titled, Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, 1976.
R. Matteson 2011, 2014]
PRETTY POLLY
Murder is evil but what shall we say of six murders of young women for the sake of their "costly clothing "? We are told here and in ancient Scandinavian ballads of a man who drowned six women. But the seventh and last of his brides foiled him and sent him to his death. With all her strength she "pushed him into the sea" and that was his end. The piece is an ancient one, a Scottish text of it, "May Colvin," appearing in David Herd's collection published in 1776. In English ballad books and broadsides it has been variously titled "The Old Beau," "The Outlandish Knight," "False Sir John," and "May Colleen." It is heard in variants in nearly all the Appalachian regions. This version is from the R W. Gordon collection.
1. "Go get me some of your father's gold
And some of your mother's too,
And two of the finest horses he has in his stable,
For he has ten and thirty and two."
2. She got him some of her father's gold
And some of her mother's too,
And two of the finest horses he had in his stable,
For he had ten and thirty and two.
3. Then she jumped on the noble brown,
And he on the dappled gray,
And they rode till they came to the side of the sea,
Two long hours before it was day.
4. "Let me help you down, my Pretty Polly;
Let me help you down," said he.
"For it's six kings' daughters I have drowned here,
And the seventh you shall be."
5. "Now strip yourself, my Pretty Polly;
Now strip yourself," said he;
"Your clothing is too fine and over-costly
To rot in the sand of the sea."
6 "You turn your back to the leaves of the trees,
And your face to the sands of the sea;
Tis a pity such a false-hearted man as you
A naked woman should see!"
7 He turned his back to the leaves of the trees,
And his face to the sand of the sea;
And with all the strength that Pretty Polly had
She pushed him into the sea.
8 "Come, lend me your hand, my Pretty Polly;
Come, lend me your hand," said he,
"And I will be your waiting-boy,
And will wait upon you night and day."
9 "Lie there, lie there, you false-hearted man!
Lie there, lie there," said she;
"As six kings' daughters you've drowned here,
Then the seventh you shall be!"
10 Then she jumped on the noble brown,
And led the dappled gray,
And rode till she came to her father's hall,
Two long hours before it was day.
11 Then up bespoke her Poll Parrot,
Sitting in his cage so gay,
"Why do you travel, rny Pretty Polly,
So long before it is day?"
12 Then up bespoke her old father,
Lying in his room so gay,
"Why do you chatter, my pretty parrot,
So long before it is day?"
13 "The cat was around and about ray cage,
And I could not get it away
So I called unto Miss Pretty Polly
To drive the cat away."
14 "Well turned, well turned, my pretty parrot,
Well turned, well turned for me;
Thy cage shall be made of handbeaten gold,
Thy door of the finest ivory."