Pretty Polly- Gough (NY) 1943 Cutting B
[From Cutting, Lore of an Adirondack County (1944) pp.61-64 (version B) Cutting's notes follow an on-line bio.
R. Matteson 2014]
Edith E. Cutting – teacher, author and folklorist – was born in the Essex County town of Lewis, on a small family farm. She attended the New York State College for Teachers, where in 1936 she enrolled in an elective course in American Folklore, taught by Dr. Harold W. Thompson, a founder of the New York Folklore Society. Thompson encouraged his students to interview their friends and families and collect examples of their old customs, stories and sayings, to make them aware of their heritage and their communities. Research from this first class project was later published in 1944 by Cornell University Press as Lore of an Adirondack County, the first such published collection of any North Country folklore materials. It contains fascinating tales, weather lore, games, ballads and songs shared by older men and women of the Champlain Valley whom she had known as a child.
Cutting's notes: Augustus Gough, of Lewis, sings another variant of the ballad. In the eighth stanza the parrot speaks to the girl, and in the ninth stanza to the mother or father, although mention of their being disturbed is omitted.
Pretty Polly- sung by Mrs. Augustus Gough, Lewis New York c. 1943
"Go steal, go steal your father's gold,
Likewise your mother's fee,
And then we'll go to the northern country
And married we will be."
She went and stole her father's gold,
Likewise her mother's fee,
And then they started for the northern country
And married supposed to be.
She mounted on her bonnie brown,
And she led the silver gay,
And then she started for the old country
And married supposed to be.
"Dismount, dismount, my pretty polly,
Dismount, dismount, I say,
For your clothes they are too rich and too good
For to rot with your body."-
"Turn your face towards the wall,
Likewise the willow tree."
And then she clasped her hands around his waist
And plunged him into the sea.
"Swim on, swim on, you false-hearted man,
Swim on, swim on, I say,
For your clothes they are not too rich nor too good
For to rot with your body."
She mounted on her bonnie brown,
She led the silver gray,
And then she got to her own father's house,
Long while before 'twas day.
"Oh, where have you been, my Pretty Polly,
Those long summer evenings?
I'm sure You are too early arrived
Those long summer mornings."
"The old cat came to my cage-door
And came and disturbed me;
Then I called for my Pretty Polly
To come and drive her away."
"Hush, hush, hush, my Pretty Parrot,
And tell no tales on me,
And your cage shall be built of gold and beads
And lock with a silver key.''