Pretty Polly- Mack (WV) pre 1916 Cox D
[From Folk-Songs of the South; Cox, 1925; This version is probably 50 years older but no date can be guessed. Cox's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF KNIGHT (Child, No. 4)
This ballad is known in West Virginia as "Pretty Polly," "Six Kings' Daughters," "The King's Daughter," "The False Lover," and "The Salt-Water Sea." Nine variants have been recovered.
For American variants see Child, M, 496 (Virginia; from Babcock, Folk-Lore Journal, VIII, 28) ; Journal, XVIII, 132 (Barry; Massachusetts) ; XIX, 232 (Belden; Missouri); XXII, 65 (Beatty; Wisconsin), 76 (Barry; New Jersey, tune only),
374 (Barry; Massachusetts; from Ireland; also readings from other texts); XXVI, 374 (Mackenzie; Nova Scotia; cf. Quest of the Ballad, pp. 93, 174, 183); xxiv, 2)33, 344 (Barry; Massachusetts and Illinois; from Irish sources); XXXVII, 90 (Gardner; Michigan); xxviii, 148 (Perrow; North Carolina); xxxv, (Tolman and Eddy; Ohio); Wyman and Brockway, p. 82 (Kentucky); Campbell and Sharp, No. 2 (Massachusetts, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia); Focus, IV, 161, 212 (Virginia); Child MSS., xxi, 4 (4, 6); Minish MS. (North Carolina). In Charley Fox's Minstrel's Companion (Philadelphia, Turner & Fisher), p. 52, may be found "Tell-Tale Polly. Comic Ballad. (As sung by Charley Fox.) "
For references to American versions, see Journal, xxix, 156, note, 157; xxx, 286. Add Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Bulletin, Nos. 6-10. For recent British references see Journal, xxxv, 338; Campbell and Sharp, p. 323.
D. "Pretty Polly." Communicated by Mrs. Elizabeth Tapp Peck, Morgantown, Monongalia County, March 31, 1916; obtained from her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Wade Mack, who learned it in her youth while living near Bethel Church.
1 He followed her up, he followed her down,
In the bedchamber where she lay,
And she had not the wings of a dove for to fly,
Nor the tongue for to say nay, nay.
2 Said he, "Take all your father's beaten gold,
And put on your mother's shoes,
And take two of the best horses in your father's stable,
Wherein lie thirty and three."
3 She mounted on the bonny brown,
And he on the dapple gray,
And they rode till they came to the green river's side,
Three long hours before it was day.
4 "Take off, take off that silken gown
And hand it unto me,
For it is too rich and costly
To rotten in the salt, salt sea."
5. . . .
. . . .
"For six king's daughters have I drowned here,
And the seventh one you shall be."
6 Then she mounted on the bonny brown
And led the dapple gray,
And she rode till she came to her own father's door,
One long hour before it was day.
7 Then up spoke the pretty parrot
From the cage wherein she lay,
Saying, "What is the matter with my pretty Polly,
That she's traveling so long before day?"
8 "Lie still, lie still, my pretty parrot,
And tell no tales on me,
And your cage shall be lined with my father's beaten gold,
And be hung in the green willow tree."
9 Then up spoke the old man himself
From the bedchamber where he lay,
Saying, "What is the matter with my pretty parrot,
That she's chattering so long before day?"
10 "The old cat came to my cage door
And said she would murder me,
And I had to call to the Pretty Polly
To drive the old cat away."