Recordings & Info 272. The Suffolk Miracle
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) 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
5) Wiki
6) Folk Index
7) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 246: The Suffolk Miracle (73 Listings)
Alternate Titles
Lover's Ghost
Lady Fair
The Sad Courtin'
The Richest Girl in Our Town
Lucy Bouns
A Lady Near New York Town
Jimmy and Nancy
Miss Betsy
The Holland Handkerchief
There Was a Farmer
Traditional Ballad Index: Suffolk Miracle, The [Child 272]
DESCRIPTION: A squire's daughter loves a lowborn man. The squire sends her away. In time her love comes to bear her home. His head hurts; she binds it with her kerchief. She arrives home. Her father says her love is dead. She finds his dead body wearing her kerchief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1689? (broadside, dated to that year by Wood)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation death father lover ghost supernatural corpse travel horse grief
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,West)) US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (23 citations)
Child 272, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Bronson 272, The Suffolk Miracle" (13 versions)
Butterworth/Dawney, pp. 22-23, "Its of a farmer all in this town (The Suffolk Miracle)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 90, "Lover's Ghost" (1 text)
SharpAp 37, "The Suffolk Miracle" (4 texts plus 1 fragment ("C") that might be almost anything, 5 tunes) {Bronson's #4, #2, #3, #1a, #8}
BarryEckstormSmyth p. 314, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 fragment)
Randolph 32, "Lady Fair" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 145-147, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Flanders-Ancient4, pp. 50-62, "The Suffolk Miracle" (3 texts, 2 tune, all weeming somewhat mixed -- e.g. "A" has the rose-and-briar ending) {Bronson's A=Bronson's #10, B=#7}
JHCox 27, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
BrownII 41, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Davis-Ballads 42, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts plus a scrap which could be anything, 2 tunes, one of them for the unidentifiable fragment) {Bronson's #8, #5}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 88-90, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Peacock, pp. 407-408, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 645-649, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts)
OBB 175, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Niles 56, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
SHenry H217, pp. 432-433, "The Lover's Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 40, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 12, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN2961, "A wonder stranger ne'r was known"
DT 272, SUFFMRCL* SUFFMRC2 SUFFMRC3*
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 136, "The Suffolk Miracle" (reproduction of a broadsheet by John White, closely related to but not the same as Child's A)
Roud #246
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "The Suffolk Miracle" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Packie Manus Byrne, "The Holland Handkerchief" (on Voice03)
Dol [Adolphus G.] Small, "There Was an Old and Wealthy Man" (AFS, 1950; on LC58) {Bronson's #1b}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(207b), "The Suffolk Miracle" or "A Relation of a Young Man Who a Month After His Death Appeared to his Sweetheart," F. Coles (London), 1678-1680; also Wood E 25(83) [some lines illegible; "MS annotation following imprint: 1689"], Douce Ballads 3(88a)[many illegible lines], "The Suffolk Miracle" or "A Relation of a Young Man Who a Month After His Death Appeared to his Sweet[-]heart,"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid of Sweet Gurteen" (theme)
SAME_TUNE:
My Bleeding Heart (per broadsides Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(207b), Wood E 25(83) and Douce Ballads 3(88a))
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Sad Courtin'
The Richest Girl in Our Town
Lucy Bouns
NOTES: Child complains of this song, "This piece should not be admitted here on its own merits.... It is not even a good specimen of its kind. Ghosts should have a fair reason for walking, and a quite particular reason for riding...." Child prints the song for the sake of its foreign analogs.
All I can say is, the plot may be somewhat defective, but the full forms of the ballad itself are quite beautiful and pathetic. It does corrupt easily, though, as the Flanders texts show.
More interesting is the way the story is expressed. Legends of ghosts are of course common, and legends of the fate of spirit and body affecting each other not rare (e.g. if a living person slashes at a ghost, the ghost may appear to be intact but the corpse will bear a scar, perhaps healed). In this song, the ghost actually comes to bear an artifact. That is not often encountered.
The "Holland Handkerchief" of certain versions is not a cloth woven in the Netherlands; rather, the adjective refers to the pattern of the weave. - RBW
Child Collection- Child Ballad 272: The Suffolk Miracle
Child --Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
272 Benji Kirkpatrick The Holland Handkerchief Half a Fruit Pie 2004 5:25 Yes
272 Connie Dover Holland Handkerchief If Ever I Return 1997 7:54 Yes
272 Dan Dutton The Holland Handkerchief Pull, Pick, Pluck 2004 7:04 Yes
272 Dean Gitter The Suffolk Miracle Ghost Ballads 1957 2:58 Yes
272 Dol Small There Was an Old and Wealthy Man Child Ballads Traditional in the United States, Vol. II 1960 2:59 Yes
272 Frank Harte The Holland Handkerchief Daybreak and a Candle-End 1987 4:21 Yes
272 Gordon Tyrrall The Suffolk Miracle So I've Heard 2000 3:38 Yes
272 Hanford Hayes Holland Handkerchief (1) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
272 Hanford Hayes Holland Handkerchief (2) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
272 Hanford Hayes Holland Handkerchief (3) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
272 Hanford Hayes Holland Handkerchief (4) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
272 Jim Moray The Suffolk Miracle Sweet England 2003 5:00 Yes
272 John Goodluck The Suffolk Miracle The Suffolk Miracle 1974 No
272 Josephine Marsh & Cyril O'Donoghue Lady Fair To Meet a Friend 1990 No
272 Kathy Cowan The Holland Handkerchief The Red-Haired Man's Wife 1990 4:40 Yes
272 Kerfuffle Holland Handkerchief K2 2004 No
272 Leo Foran The Holland Handkerchief The Edith Fowke Collection No
272 Maggie McGee The Red Woolen Hankie An Hour of Song 1991 No
272 Mary McPartlan The Holland Handkerchief The Holland Handkerchief 2004 5:42 Yes
272 Mrs. A.G. Hattie Suffolk Miracle The Helen Creighton Collection No
272 Mrs. Ellen M. Sullivan Suffolk Miracle (1) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
272 Mrs. Ellen M. Sullivan Suffolk Miracle (2) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
272 Nora Cleary The Holland Handkerchief Early Ballads in Ireland 1968-1985 1985 3:49 Yes
272 Packie Byrne The Holland Handkerchief Songs of a Donegal Man 1975 No
272 Packie Byrne The Holland Handkerchief Roy Palmer Collection 1971-1998 8:02 Yes
272 Packie Manus Byrne The Holland Handkerchief The Voice of the People, Vol. 3: O'Er His Grave the Grass Grew Green - Tragic Ballads 1998 5:53 Yes
272 Peggy Seeger The Suffolk Miracle Blood and Roses - Vol. 1 1979 4:39 Yes
272 Peta Webb & Ken Hall The Holland Handkerchief As Close as Can Be - Songs & Duets from English, Irish & American Traditions 2000 4:22 Yes
272 Tim Graham The Holland Handkerchief Absent Minded Traveller 2012 No
272 Tom Lenihan Holland Handkerchief Paddy's Panacea - Songs Traditional in West Clare 1977 No
272 Unidentified Singer His Heart's Delight The Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Collection No
272 Waterson:Carthy The Holland Handkerchief A Dark Light 2002 5:39 Yes
272 William Gilkie Suffolk Miracle (Holland Handkerchief) The Helen Creighton Collection No
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
272. THE SUFFOLK MIRACLE
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me; 314 / Brown Coll / BFSSNJE, V } 7 / Cox, F-S Soutb^ 152 / Davis, Trd Bid Fa, 482 / Duncan, No Hamilton Cnty, 98 / Flanders, New Gn Mt Sgstr, 86 / Morris, F-S Fla, 470 / Randolph, OzF-S, I, 179 / SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplchns. I / ShaipK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, I, 262 / SFLQ, VIII, 162.
Local Titles: A Lady Near New York Town, Jimmy and Nancy, Miss Betsy, The Holland Handkerchief, The Suffolk Miracle, There Was a Farmer.
Story Types: A: A lovely girl who has fallen in love with a young man is sent far away by her father. The young man dies. After awhile he appears at the place where the girl is living. He is mounted on her father's horse and carries her mother's gear, and he says that he has come to take her home. As they ride, he complains of a headache, and she ties a handkerchief about his head. At home, the young man goes to put up the horse while she knocks on the door. The father is amazed to see her, and his amazement is greater when he learns how she arrived. Later, they find the horse alone and in a sweat. It is then decided to open the grave, and, sure enough, the handkerchief is found about the head of the twelve-months corpse.
Examples: Davis (A, B), Flanders, SharpK (A).
Discussion: Child, V, 58 ff. points out that the English text is not truly a popular ballad, but he has included it because it represents, in enfeebled form, a great European story. He summarizes a Cornwall prose tale on the same subject, which he states to be "much nearer to the Continental tale".
The American versions follow the Child story, although they are more compact and leave out the death of the girl. As Morris (SFLQ, VIII, 162) points out, on the whole they show an improvement in the literary style and feeble narrative of Child's text. They also include a number of variations in narrative detail. The Cox, F-S South, 153 West Virginia version has lost the
handkerchief sequence entirely. In the story as told by a Maine woman (Barry, Brit Bids Me, 314) the handkerchief is already around the dead man's head when he arrives at the girl's door. And the Morris (SFLQ, VIII, 162) version has the unique feature of the wound which speaks and requests the lady to unloose the bonds binding it.
SharpK, Eng F-S So A$lchns 9 A version has a moral stanza at the beginning and end, while the Randolph, Oz F-S, A text is quite corrupt.
For a discussion of the superiority of northern American versions and the relation of southern American versions to the "sophisticated Child A" see Barry in SFSSNE, V, 10.
The Suffolk Miracle From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Suffolk Miracle is a Child ballad 272 Roud 246.
Synopsis
A young maiden of noble birth comes to love a young commoner, so her father sends her away. Whilst in exile, the maid wakes one night to find her lover at her window mounted upon a fine horse. They go out riding together until the man complains he has a headache; the maid tends to him and ties her handkerchief around his head. She returns to her father, who gives her the news that her young lover has in fact died of grief, whereupon he goes to his grave and digs up the bones, finding that her handkerchief is tied round the skull.
Versions
Jim Moray recorded a version of this song on his album Sweet England.
Packie Manus Byrne recorded the song as "The Holland Handkerchief". It is issued on The Voice of the People Vol 3.
External linksVersion 1 Lyrics at Digitrad
Version 2 Lyrics at Digitrad
Folk Index: The Suffolk Miracle [Ch 272/Sh 37]
Rt - Lady Fair; Holland Hankerchief
Rm - Christmas Now Is Drawing Near at Hand
Wells, Evelyn Kendrick (ed.) / The Ballad Tree, Ronald, Bk (1950), p217
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p645 [1600s]
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p648
Gitter, Dean. Ghost Ballads, Riverside RLP 12-636, LP (1957), trk# B.02
Jenkins, Mrs. Allen. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p117/# 49 [1930s] (Farmer's Daughter)
McClellan, Mrs. C. S.. Morris, Alton C. / Folksongs of Florida, Univ. Florida, Bk (1950), p315/#169 [1934-39] (There Was a Farmer)
McKinney, Polly (F.). Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p152/# 27 [1919] (Lady Near New York Town)
Rice, Mrs. Tom. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p264/# 37C [1916/08/16]
Richards, Frances (Mrs.). Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p266/# 37E [1918/08/16]
Sands, Mary. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p261/# 37A [1916/07/31]
Seeger, Peggy. Blood and Roses, Vol. 1, Blackthorne ESB 79, LP (1979ca), trk# A.02
Small, Adolphus Glenroy. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p264/# 37D [1918/05/22]
Stockton, T. Jeff. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p262/# 37B [1916/09/04]
Lady Fair [Ch 272]
Rt - Suffolk Miracle
Dusenberry, Emma L.. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p179/# 32 [1930/11/24]
Holland Hankerchief [Ch 272]
Rt - Suffolk Miracle
Lenihan, Tom. Paddy's Panacea. Songs Traditional in West Clare, Topic 12TS 363, LP (1978), trk# B.03
Mainly Norfolk: The Holland Handkerchief
[Roud 246; Child 272; Ballad Index C272; trad.]
Packie Manus Byrne sang The Holland Handkerchief on his 1975 Topic album Songs of a Donegal Man and on the 1998 Topic anthology O'er His Grave the Grass Grew Green (The Voice of the People Series Volume 3).
Norma Waterson sang The Holland Handkerchief on Waterson:Carthy's fourth album, A Dark Light. Martin Carthy commented in the sleeve notes:
Packie Manus Byrne appeared on the English music scene in the early 1960s and quickly made his mark. He is a canny man. Because he never paraded his knowledge many people took him far too lightly far too easily, but a treasure house is what he was. And, indeed, is. The musical sweep of his knowledge is colossal, and he is also generous. It is from him that Norma learned The Holland Handkerchief, one of the truly spooky songs and one not found that often these days.
Kerfuffle learned this song from Norma Waterson and recorded it in 2004 for their second album, K2.
Lyrics
A wealthy squire he lived in our town
And he was a man of high renown
He had one daughter, a beauty bright
And the name he called her was his Heart's Delight
Many young man far to court her came
But none of them could her favour gain
Till there came one of the low degree
And above them all why she'd fancy he
But when her father he came to know
That his lovely daughter loved this young man so
Over fifty miles he sent her away
All to deprive her of her wedding day
One night as she lay in her bedroom
Her lover appeared from out the gloom
He touched her hand and to her did say
“Arise my darling and come away”
'Twas with this young man she got on behind
And they rode swifter than any wind
They rode on for an hour or more
Till he cries, “My darling, my head feels sore!”
A Holland handkerchief she's then drew out
And with it wrapped his aching head about
She's kissed his lips and these words did say
“My love, you're colder than any clay”
When they arrived at her father's gate
He said, “Get down, love, for the hour is late!
Get down, get down, love, and go to bed
And I'll see this gallant horse is groomed and fed”
And when she's arrived at her father's hall
“Who's that, who's that?” her own father called
“It is I dear father, didn't you send for me
By such a messenger”, and she's named he
“Oh no dear daughter, that can never be
Your words are false love, and you lie to me
For on yon far mountain your young man died
And in yon green meadow well his body lies”
The truth then dawned upon this lady brave
And with her friends they exposed his grave
There lay her love though nine months dead
With the Holland handkerchief tied round his head
Acknowledgements
Transcribed by Reinhard Zierke