Recordings & Info 110. The Knight & Shepherd's Daughter
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Folk Index
5) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
6) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
7) Wiki
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 67: The Knight & Shepherd's Daughter (112 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter
The Shepherd's Daughter and the King
Eywillian
The Marigool
The Earl o' Stafford's Daughter
Sweet Willie
Jo Janet
Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter, The [Child 110]
DESCRIPTION: A knight, drunk, lies with a shepherd's daughter. She goes to the king's castle and calls for justice. With the king's help, she finds the culprit. The king orders the knight to marry her; he laments his fate. (She reveals that she is richer than he.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Percy); title mentioned 1656 (stationer's register; tune from "The Dancing Master," 1652)
KEYWORDS: marriage betrayal trial royalty seduction rape knight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Child 110, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (16 texts)
Bronson 110, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (24 versions+5 in addenda, though the last three are variants on each other and of dubious authenticity)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 76-80, "The Knight, and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 193-198, "Earl Richard" (1 text)
GreigDuncan7 1465, GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "Earl Richard" (7 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #20, B=#15, C=#16}
Williams-Thames, pp. 102-103, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (also Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 126) (1 text)
BrownII 31, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 17-18, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 15, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 230-232, "Sir William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 315-320, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 150, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 3, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 40, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
DBuchan 32, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 185-186, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, p. 289, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (1 tune, called "Parson Upon Dorothy" in Chappell's sources) {Bronson's #22c}
BBI, ZN2533, "There was a Shepherd's daughter"
DT 110, SHEPDAU * SHEPDAU2 SHEPDAU3* SHEPDAU4* SHEPDAU5*
Roud #67
RECORDINGS:
James Decker, "Sir William" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Lizzie Higgins, "The Forester" (on Voice06)
John Strachan, "The Royal Forester (The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #17.1 in addenda}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter
The Shepherd's Daughter and the King
Eywillian
The Marigool
The Earl o' Stafford's Daughter
NOTES: What might be a fragment of this ballad is found in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle", Act II, scene viii:
He set her on a milk-white steed,
And himself upon a gray;
He never turned his face again
But he bore her quite away.
Of course, it might be a fragment of "Lady Isabel" or "The Baffled Knight" or several other ballads as well. - RBW
Child Collection Index- Child Ballad 110: The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter
Child-- Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have 110 A.L. Lloyd The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 4 [Reissue] 196? No
110 A.L. Lloyd The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 2 1956 3:25 Yes
110 A.L. Lloyd The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter Bramble Briars & Beams of the Sun 2011 No
110 Alex McEwen Earl Richard The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 Alex Robb The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 Alex Robb The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 Alex Troup Earl Richard The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 Alistair Ogilvy The Forester Leaves Sae Green 2012 No
110 Alruin The Royal Forester De Steendam Sessies 2007 2:41 Yes
110 Bedlam The Royal Forester Made in Bedlam 2002 3:00 Yes
110 Blackthorn The Royal Forester Swift and Sloe 2002 No
110 Charlie Carver Sweet William Many a Good Horseman - Traditional Music Making from Mid-Suffolk 1993 No
110 Charlie Carver Sweet William Saturday Night at Tostock Gardeners Arms 1987 No
110 Charlie Carver The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter Desmond & Shelagh Herring Collection 1958-1960 3:30 Yes
110 Clutha The Forester On the Braes 2001 3:31 Yes
110 Crackerhash The Elfin Knight The Elfin Knight 1976 2:34 Yes
110 Cyril Tawney The Shepherd's Daughter The Outlandish Knight 1969 5:52 Yes
110 Dave Burland Earl Richard Dave Burland 1972 4:24 Yes
110 Dick Gaughan The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter Reel Reggae 1976 No
110 Elizabeth Robb Earl Richard The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 Elizabeth Robb The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 Elizabeth Robb The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 Ellen Rettie The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 Ewan MacColl The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter [English] The Long Harvest, Vol. 4 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1966 5:08 Yes
110 Fay Hield The Shepherd’s Daughter Looking Glass 2010 2:40 Yes
110 Five Hand Reel The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter The Collection 1997 2:58 Yes
110 Five Hand Reel The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter Five Hand Reel 1976 3:00 Yes
110 Five Hand Reel The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter Brum Folk 76 Souvenir Album 1976 3:00 Yes
110 Greg Joy Royal Forester Celtic Enchantment 2000 3:12 Yes
110 Greg Joy Royal Forester Celtic Dancer 2005 3:07 Yes
110 Jiggery Pokery The Forester In Glorious Colour (Or McCarty's Quest) 1996 1:07 Yes
110 John David Vass Earl Richard The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 John Jacob Niles The Shepherd's Daughter and the King The Ballads of John Jacob Niles 1960 2:58 Yes
110 John Roberts & Tony Barrand The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter Spencer the Rover Is Alive and Well and Living in Ithaca - Traditional English Ballads and Songs 1971 5:00 Yes
110 John Ross Earl Richard The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 John Strachan Earl Richard The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 John Strachan The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter Songs from Aberdeenshire 2002 2:48 Yes
110 John Strachan The Royal Forester Glenlogie - The Classic Ballads 1975 No
110 John Strachan The Royal Forester (The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter) The Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5: The Child Ballads 2 1961 2:43 Yes
110 John Strachan The Royal Forester (The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter) Classic Ballads of Britain & Ireland - Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, Vol 2 2000 2:48 Yes
110 John Strachan + Louise Holmes The Royal Forester + The Shepherd's Daughter The Baffled Knight - The Classic Ballads 2 1976 No
110 Johnny Collins The Shepherd's Daughter The Best of the Early Years 1998 No
110 Johnny Collins & Company The Shepherd's Daughter Johnny's Private Army 1975 2:59 Yes
113 Kerfuffle The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry + The Old Maid of Galway K2 2004 No
110 Lizzie Higgins The Forester In Memory of Lizzie Higgins - 1929-1993 2006 No
110 Lizzie Higgins The Forester Up and Awa' with the Laverock 1975 No
110 Lizzie Higgins The Forester The Voice of the People, Vol. 6: Tonight I'll Make You my Bride - Ballads of True and False Lovers 1998 3:17 Yes
110 Lizzie Higgins The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter Scottish Tradition 5: The Muckle Sangs - Classic Scottish Ballads 1992 3:26 Yes
110 Lizzie Higgins The Forester Reg Hall Archive 1953-1977 4:50 Yes
110 Louise Holmes The Shepherd's Daughter BBC Recordings No
110 Margaret Christl The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter Looking Towards Home 1984 4:06 Yes
110 Martin Jones Knight and Shepherd's Daughter Dished Up for Piano - Percy Grainger - The Complete Piano Music 2003 No
110 Mary Thain The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
110 Na'Bodach The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter Knickers Down, Bottoms Up 2003 5:06 Yes
110 Nathan Hatt Knight and Shepherd's Daughter The Helen Creighton Collection No
110 Norman Kennedy I'm a Forester in the Wood Ballads & Songs of Scotland 2002 3:54 Yes
110 Norman Kennedy The Forester English & Scottish Folk Ballads [1996] 1996 3:54 Yes
110 Norman Kennedy The Forester Scots Songs and Ballads 1968 3:47 Yes
110 Paddy Tutty Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter In the Greenwood 1998 6:25 Yes
110 Peggy Seeger The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter [American] The Long Harvest, Vol. 4 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1966 2:18 Yes
110 Penelope Thwaites Knight and Shepherd"s Daughter Shepherd's Hey - Percy Grainger - Gems for Piano 2005 No
110 Reg Hall & Bampton Morris Dancers The Forester John Howson Collection 1970-1995 No
110 Roy Harris The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter (Sweet William) By Sandbank Fields 1977 3:16 Yes
110 Steeleye Span Royal Forester Live BBC 1974 4:58 Yes
110 Steeleye Span Royal Forester Below the Salt 1972 4:33 Yes
110 Steeleye Span Royal Forester My Father's Place Roslyn April 2 1973 1973 6:11 Yes
110 Steeleye Span The Royal Forester A Rare Collection 1972-1996 1999 5:12 Yes
110 Steeleye Span The Royal Forester The Harvest of Gold - The English Folk Almanac 2003 4:09 Yes
110 Steeleye Span The Royal Forester Through Bushes and Briar 1987 No
110 Steeleye Span The Royal Forester Live at a Distance 2009 5:21 Yes
110 Steeleye Span The Royal Forester [DVD] Live at a Distance 2009 No
110 Steeleye Span The Royal Forester Live on the Bottom Line, WNYU FM, New York, July 4th 1974 1974 4:24 Yes
110 Steeleye Span Royal Forester Live at the Siego Club, Rimini, August 1982 1982 5:05 Yes
110 Steeleye Span Royal Forester A Parcel of Steeleye Span - Their First Five Chrysalis Albums 1972-1975 2009 4:32 Yes
110 Steeleye Span Royal Forester The Best of Steeleye Span - EMI Gold Issue 2002 No
110 Steeleye Span Royal Forester That's Steeleye Span - 10 Original Super Classics 1982 No
110 Steeleye Span Royal Forester Steeleye Span 1980 No
110 Steeleye Span Royal Forester Live in Philadelphia, PA 1973 3:56 Yes
110 Tarneybackle The Forester Winds of Freedom 2008 No
110 The Baltimore Consort The Beautiful Shepherdess of Arcadia (Tune of "The Shepherd's Daughter" or "Parson upon Dorothy") A Trip to Killburn - Playford Tunes and Their Ballads 1996 10:16 Yes
110 The Young Tradition Knight William The Young Tradition + So Cheerfully Round 1997 4:45 Yes
110 Tom Kines The Shepherd's Daughter Of Maids and Mistresses 1957 No
110 Waterson:Carthy The Royal Foreste + The Bald Headed End of the Broom The Carthy Chronicles 2001 6:25 Yes
110 Waterson:Carthy The Royal Forester (tune) + The Bald Headed End of the Broom Broken Ground 1999 6:25 Yes
Folk Index: The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter [Ch 110]
Rt - Jo Janet
At - Beautiful Shepherdess of Arcadia; Earl Richard(, the Queen's Brother); Earl Lithgow
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p150 [1820s]
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p315
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p319
Christl, Margaret. Looking Towards Home, Canadian River LLR 3529 C, Cas (1984), trk# B.01
Holgate, Benjamin. Kidson, Frank (ed.) / Traditional Tunes. A Collection of Ballad Airs, S.R. Publishers, Bk (1970/1891), p 19 [1880s]
Kennedy, Norman. Ballads and Songs of Scotland, Folk Legacy FSS 034, LP (1968), trk# 11 (I'm a Forester in the Wood)
Kines, Tom. Of Maids and Mistresses, Elektra EKL 137, LP (1957), trk# B.06 (Shepherd's Daughter)
Lloyd, A. L. (Bert). English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) Vol. 4, Washington WLP 718, LP (196?), trk# B.02
MacColl, Ewan. Long Harvest. Traditional Ballads in their English, Scots and..., Argo ZDA 069, LP (1967), trk# B.05
Niles, John Thomas. Niles, John Jacob / Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, Bramhall House, Bk (1961), p225/N 40 [1917/08/12] (Shepherd's Daughter and the King)
Roberts, John; and Tony Barrand. Spencer the Rover Is Alive and Well and Living in Ithaca, Swallowtail ST 1, LP (1971), trk# A.06
Seeger, Peggy. Long Harvest. Traditional Ballads in their English, Scots and..., Argo ZDA 069, LP (1967), trk# B.06
Steeleye Span. Below the Salt, Chrysalis ZCHR 1008, Cas (1972), trk# A.05 (Royal Forester)
Strachan, John. Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5. The Child Ballads, Vol. II, Caedmon TC 1146, LP (1961), trk# A.01 [1950s] (Royal Forester)
Strachan, John. Songs from Aberdeenshire, Rounder 1835, CD (2002), trk# 10 [1951/07/16]
Tutty, Paddy. In the Greenwood, Prairie Druid PA 04, CD (1998), trk# 5 (Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter)
Young Tradition. Young Tradition, Vanguard VSD7 9246, LP (1967), trk# 4 (Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter)
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
110. THE KNIGHT AND THE SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER
Texts: Brown Coll / BFSSNE, IX, // Greenleaf and Mansfield, Bids Sea Sgs Newfld, 35 / JAFL, XXII, 377 / Miixish Mss.
Local titles: Sweet Willie, The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter.
Story Types: A: A knight gets drunk and seduces a country girl. She asks his name so that she can call her baby after him. He replies that it is William, of the court, and rides away. She follows on foot. When she reaches the court, she tells the King her story, and he replies that if the man is married he shall hang; if single, shall be married to her. William is called down and
bewails the revelry that has caused him to be forced into a marriage that is below him. Nevertheless, the ceremony is performed. The girl turns out to be a duke's daughter; William, a blacksmith's son.
Examples: Greenleaf and Mansfield.
B: The story is the same as that of Type A, but the bribe is retained; that is, the knight offers the girl 500 to maintain her child, if she will forget the marriage.
Examples: HFSSNE, IX, 7.
Discussion: The Newfoundland version (Type A) is close to the usual Child story, although the seduction is nearer rape as in Child E, the attempts to buy off the girl are left out, and the end is made even more dramatic in the knight's being a blacksmith's (Child K), not at least a squire's, son. The Minish Mss. text is generally similar to the other Type A versions, although the knight is now a soldier, some of the details such as the reason for requesting the man's name, the King's decree for the married and single man, etc. are left out. In this text, the girl also indicates that she has a local suitor, and, while her rank is revealed to be that of a princess in the end, her lover's rank does not change.
Type B retains the bribe, and in the text cited above the revelation of the girl's being a princess comes in direct contradiction of the opening line's "shepherd's daughter".
Mainly Norfolk: Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter /Knight William / The Royal Forester / The Shepherd's Daughter
[Roud 67; Child 110; Ballad Index C110; trad.]
The songs shown here are all variants of Child 110, Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter.
A.L. Lloyd sang The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter in 1956 on his and Ewan MacColl's Riverside album of Child ballads, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Volume II. Editor Kenneth G. Goldstein wrote in the album's booklet:
Aside from a broadside copy in the Roxburghe Collection and a fragmentary text from Kidson's Traditional Tunes (1891), all of the 16 texts of this ballad printed by Child were Scottish.
Parts of this ballad will be recognised as having great similarity to lines in Child Waters (63); no question of one's borrowing from the other exists, however, for the lines appear to suit both ballads equally well. The ballad tale is almost identical to that of Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale as well as to various other tales including The Marriage of Sir Gawain.
The ballad has been rather frequently reported from tradition in England in this century, and would appear to be better known there than in Scotland at the present time. It has been reported rarely in America.
A.L. Lloyd's version was noted by Percy Grainger from William Roberts of Burringham-on-Trent, Lincolnshire, in 1906, with additional stanzas from Shepherd Banting of Quenington, Oxfordshire.
See Child (110), Volume II, p. 457ff; Coffin, pp.102-103; Dean-Smith, p.3; Greig & Keith, pp. 87-90.
The Young Tradition sang Knight William in 1967 on their second album, So Cheerfully Round. Peter Bellamy commented in the album liner notes:
This is our first attempt to apply group singing techniques to one of the “big songs”, and to do so we have had to employ various combinations of voices from verse to verse. Since learning this and working it out we have come across even longer versions of the same story, but this fifteen-verse account did not seem to us in need of further expansion.
Steeleye Span recorded The Royal Forester in 1972 for their fourth LP Below the Salt, which was the first album of their longest-living “classic” line-up with Tim Hart, Bob Johnson, Rick Kemp, Peter Knight, and Maddy Prior. The sleeve notes commented:
Subtitled “The Aboriculturist Meets Superwoman”.
From the singing of John Strachan. The first English text appeared in Anchovy Ram's elementary drum tutor Half Way to Para-diddle, published in 1293. Although a faithful translation of the original Latin, there is still scholarly dispute as to the spelling of the name ‘Erwilian’ and over the use of the word ‘leylan’.
A live recording of The Royal Forester—probably from a BBC Radio Concert Session in early 1973—was published on the compilation The Harvest of Gold. Another live recording from the Royal Opera Theatre in Adelaide during Steeleye Span's Australia tour of 1982 was intended for inclusion on the On Tour Australian-only LP release but was subsequently deleted due to time limitations of vinyl pressings. It appeared later on the Steeleye Span / Maddy Prior anthology A Rare Collection 1972-1996.
Former Witch of Elswick, Fay Hield sang this ballad under the title The Shepherd's Daughter in 2010 on her first solo CD, Looking Glass. Her source is the cassette Mostly Ballads sung by Arthur Knevett.
Lyrics
The Young Tradition sing Knight William
It's of a shepherd's daughter dear
Keeping sheep all on the plain;
Who should ride by but Knight William
And he'd got drunk by wine.
With me right fal-lal-al diddle-al-day
Well, he has mounted off his horse
And quickly laid her down,
And when he's had his will of her
He rose her up again.
With me right … (chorus after each verse)
“Since you have had your will of me,
Pray tell to me your name,
So when our dear little babe is born,
I might call him the same.”
“Sometimes they call me Jack,” he said,
“Sometimes they call me John;
But when I am at the King's high court
They call me Knight William.”
He's put his foot all in the stirrup,
And away he then did ride.
She's tied a handkerchief around her waist,
And followed at the horse's side.
She's run till she come to the river brink,
She's fell on her belly and swam.
And when she came to the other side
She took to her heels and she ran.
She run till she come to the King's high court,
She's knock-ed and she's ring;
There's none so ready as the King himself
To let this fair maid in.
“Good morn to you, fair maid,” he said,
“Good morn, kind Sir,” said she,
“Have you a knight all in your court
This day have robb-ed me?”
“Well, have he robbed you of your gold?
Or any of your store?
Or have he robbed you of your gold ring
You wear on your little finger?”
“Well, he ain't robbed me of me gold
Or any of me store;
But he's robbed me of my maidenhead
Which grieves my heart full sore.”
“Well, if he be a married man
Then hang-ed he shall be;
But if he be a single man
Then his body I will give to thee.”
The King has call-ed all his men,
By one, by two, by three;
Knight William used to be the foremost man
But now all behind comes he.
“Oh curs-ed be the very hour
That I got drunk by wine
For to have a shepherd's daughter dear
To be a true lover of mine.”
“Well, if you think me a shepherd's daughter
Leave to me alone.
If you make me lady of a thousand men
I'll make you lord of ten.”
So then these two to church they went
And then small things was done.
She appeared like some Duke's daughter
And him like a squire's son.
Steeleye Span sing The Royal Forester
I am a forester of this land
As you may plainly see,
It's the mantle of your maidenhead
That I would have from thee.
He's taken her by the milk-white hand
And by the leylan sleeve,
He's lain her down upon her back
And asked no man's leave.
“Now since you've lain me down young man,
You must take me up again,
And since you've had your wills of me,
Come tell to me your name.”
“Some call me Jim, some call me John,
Begad it's all the same;
But when I'm in the King's high court
Erwilian is my name.”
She being a good scholar,
She's spelt it o'er again,
“Erwilian, that's a Latin word,
But Willy is your name.”
Now when he heard his name pronounced,
He mounted his high horse.
She's belted up her petticoat
And followed with all her force.
He rode and she ran
A long summer day,
Until they came by the river
That's commonly called the Tay.
“The water, it's too deep, my love,
I'm afraid you cannot wade.”
But afore he'd ridden his horse well in
She was on the other side.
She went up to the king's high door,
She knocked and she went in,
Said, “One of your chancellor's robbed me
And he's robbed me right and clean.”
“Has he robbed you of your mantle?
Has he robbed you of your ring?”
“No, he's robbed me of my maidenhead
And another I can't find.”
“If he be a married man
Then hang-ed he shall be,
And if he be a single man
He shall marry thee.”
This couple they got married,
They live in Huntley town.
She's the Earl of Airlie's daughter,
And he's the blacksmith's son.
Fay Hield sings The Shepherd's Daughter
It’s of a shepherd’s daughter tending sheep on yonder hill,
A roving blade came a-riding by and swore he’d have his will.
“If you should have your will of me, pray tell to me your name,
So when my baby it is born I might call him the same.”
“Oh some they call me Jack,” he said, “and some they call me John,
But when I’m in the King’s own court, my name is Sweet William.”
He mounted on his milk white stead and away from her did ride;
She’s lifted up her petticoats and run close by his side.
She ran till she came to the riverside, she fell on her belly and swam;
She swam till she came to the other side, took to her heels and ran.
She ran till she came to the King’s own court and boldly pulled the ring,
And none were so ready but the King himself to let this fair maid in.
“What brings you here, my pretty fair maid, what brings you here?”, says he,
“It's of a knight in your own court this day has robbed me.”
“What has he robbed you of, fair maid, has he stolen all your fee?”
“No he’s robbed me of my maidenhead that my mother has give to me.”
“Well if he be a married man then it's hanged he shall be,
But if he be a single man, his body I’ll give to thee.”
And he called down his merry men all by one, by two, by three,
Sweet William he came last of all when first he used to be.
And he pulled out a handful of gold, he put it all in a glove.
“Take this, take this, my pretty fair miss, go seek for another true love.”
“Oh I’ll not have any of your gold nor any of your fee,
But I will take your sweet body that the King has granted me.”
He mounted on a milk white stead and she upon another;
They rode along the King’s highway like sister and like brother.
They rode till they came to the first fair town, he bought her a gay gold ring,
And when they got to the next fair town, he gave her a gay wedding.
“Well I wish I were drinking a bath of water instead of drinking wine
Before an old shepherd’s daughter would have been a bride of mine.
I wish I were drinking white wine instead of drinking red
Before an old shepherd’s daughter would bring me to my wedding bed.”
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Patrick Montague for correcting the Steeleye Span lyrics
The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter" is an English ballad, collected by Francis James Child as Child Ballad 110.[1]
Synopsis
A knight persuades a shepherd's daughter to give him her virginity. She chases after him to court, on foot while he is on horseback, and demands marriage. He attempts to bribe her, but she insists, and he must marry her or be executed. After the marriage, it is revealed, either by the woman herself or by Billy Blin, that she is, in fact, the daughter of royalty or high nobility; it may also be revealed that the man is a noble instead of a mere knight.
Motifs
Her pursuit of the knight, on foot while he is on horseback, also appears in Child Ballad 63, "Child Waters", where it fits a very different plot.[2] The motif is very similar to that of the loathly lady, particularly the variant found in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale".[3]
Lise et Mainfroi, a 1740 French imitation of this ballad, has an actual shepherdess as the heroine; she announces at the altar that she is satisfied without the wedding, and the king and his court must persuade her to agree.[4]
See also"The Wylie Wife of the Hie Toun Hie"
References
1.^ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter"
2.^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 458, Dover Publications, New York 1965
3.^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 458, Dover Publications, New York 1965
4.^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 459, Dover Publications, New York 1965