Pretty Polly- Pritt (VA) pre1924 Davis C
[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.
C. "The Salt Water Sea." Collected by Mr. Ben C. Moomaw, Jr. Sung by Mr. Sam Pritt, of Barber, Va. Alleghany County. November 28, 1924'
1 He followed her up and he followed her down,
He followed her into the room;
She had no power to flee from his arms,
Nor the tongue to answer him nay, nay, nay,
Nor the tongue to answer him nay.
2 "Oh, gather up your father's gold,
Likewise your mother's too;
And tell him of two of the very, very best,
Where in stalls stand sixty-three."
3 She gathered up her father's gold,
Likewise her mother's too,
And told him of two of the very, very best,
Where in stalls stood sixty-three.
4 She mounted on her milk-white steed,
And he on his iron gray;
She rode along the long, long road
Till she came to the salt water sea.
5 "Mount off, mount off, Pretty Polly," he said,
"And chat awhile with me.
Six king's daughters I've drownded here,
And you the seventh shall be."
6 "Pull off your clothes, Pretty Polly," he said,
"Pull off your clothes," said he,
"Because they are too rich and fine
To rot in the salt water sea."
7 "Oh, turn your face to yonder hill,
And gaze on yonder tree;
For it's no proper sight for a man to behold
To gaze on a maiden like me."
8 He turned his face to yonder hill,
And gazed on yonder tree,
She picked him up as he were a babe,
And cast him in the salt water sea.
9 "Some help, some help, Pretty Polly," he cried,
"Some help, some help," cried he.
"If ever I recover from this place," he said,
"I'll surely marry thee."
10 "No help, no help," Pretty Polly, she cried,
"No help, no help from me.
Your clothes are not too rich and fine
To rot in the salt water sea."
11 She mounted on her milk-white steed
And she led the iron gray;
She rode along the long, long road
Till she came to her father's dwelling.
(Some stanza about a bird, not fully remembered.)
12 "I wish I had a little willow bow,
And a string to fit my arrow;
I'd shoot a dart right through your heart,
And your notes you'd sing no more."