"Rose Connoley": An Irish Ballad by D. K. Wilgus
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 92, No. 364 (Apr. - Jun., 1979), pp. 172-195
"Rose Connoley" An Irish Ballad
D. k. Wilgus; University of California
Los Angeles
"ROSE CONNOLEY" OR "DOWN IN THE WILLOW GARDEN" (Laws F 6)[1] belongs to the "murdered sweetheart" pattern in which a girl stated or assumed to be pregnant is murdered by her lover, who is usually brought to justice in one manner or another. Ballads in this pattern found in Britain, Ireland, and North America (for example, "The Jealous Lover," Laws F 1; "Poor Omie," Laws F 4; "On the Banks of the Ohio," Laws F 5; [2] "The Wexford Girl," Laws P 35; "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter," Laws P 36; "The Old Oak Tree," Laws P 37; "James McDonald," Laws P 38; "Pat O'Brien," Laws P 393) are closely related and have influenced each other to the extent that it is difficult to discuss a single example of the pattern. My concern in this article, however, is-insofar as possible-with the "Rose Connoley" textual manifestation of the pattern.
For lack of evidence, "Rose Connoley" has been treated as a native American ballad, but one of the editors of Volume II of the Brown Collection summed up what has been the private conclusion of a number of America ballad scholars: "One supposes that it ["Rose Connoley"] is an Irish stall ballad, but I have found it reported only from the United States." [4] Other than clues furnished by the texts themselves, the one piece of evidence has been a tune in the Bunting collection titled "Rose Connoley" noted as collected in Coleraine in 1811.[5] The melody is an unusual but recognizable form of "Rosin the Beau," the tune to which "Rose Connoley" is invariably sung in the United States. My own researches in broadside collections, archives, and the "field" in Ireland yielded no results until recently, when the following text was discovered in the Irish Folklore Collections of University College, Dublin (formerly the Irish Folklore Commission):
Rosy O Connell
1. It was on a Saturday morning
my true love and I did meet
Yonder a soddely garden
our sorrows we did relate
2. A bottle of poison I brought her
of which she did not know
which made me murder my darling
all under the banks below
3. Rosy O Connel she loved me
as dear as she loved her life
It was my whole intention
to make her my loving wife
4. When it was the devil's temptation
that soon entangled me
which made me murder my darling
all under the ivy tree
5. My mother she reared me tenderly
for seven long years and more
But seldom ever she thought of
that the gallows would be my store
6. My father often told me
that money would set me free
But now I am found in this country
and its hung I will surely be
7. I live in a castle of comfort
a little beyond the fair
grief it is my comfort
and sorrow is my care
8. My bolsted feathers are dingling
the whole lenght of day
I have but the cold floor to walk on
to pass the time away
9. My father stood at the hall-door
with a watery eye
looking at his own dear son
hanging on the gallows so high
10. I leave it written on my tombstone
to read as they pass it by
That my name is James Mullrooney
that murdered Rose Conolly
The text was collected by Mairtin O Mainnin, July 7, 1929, from Joe Joyce, Galway.[6] The recovery of a song in Ireland, particularly an isolated text, does not necessarilyi ndicateI rish origin, or even transmission through Ireland to North America. Flow of material between the Old and New Worlds has been reciprocal. "The Boston Burglar" (Laws L 16B) is well nigh ubiquitous in Ireland, and such songs as "The Last Fierce Charge" (Laws A 17),[7] "Twenty-One Years" (Laws E 16),[8] and "When the Roses Bloom Again" [9] can be collected. [10] Many, if not all, Irish villages had their "Yank" returned from a stay in America," not to speak of the soldiers trained in the American Civil War returned to lead the Fenian Rebellion, casual visitors, and commercial transmission of materials [11]. Consequently one must consider not only the relation between the American texts and the Irish text of "Rose Connoley," but the direction of the relationship.
The earliest report of "Rose Connoley" in the United States is from West Virginia, 1915, with the note, "It was popular in the oil fields of Wetzel County about 1895" (42). [12] There is another report from West Virginia in
1917 (47), and Cecil Sharp encountered the song in Virginia (51) and North Carolina (10) in 1918, though he noted only the tune and a couplet in each instance.
The presence of a traditional form in the "Kaintuck" repertoire of Wisconsin (6) [13] may well add to the evidence suggesting late nineteenthcentury circulation. The fact that all other variants of the ballad were collected after the appearance of the ballad on commercial recordings in 1928 will be taken into account in the following consideration of performances from seventy-one sources.[14]
For purposes of reference I have chosen a text (24) that seems to contain all stanzas central to the "Rose Connoley" tradition in the United States, adding some important readings. I am not suggesting at this point that the reference text is "original" or "normal."
ROSE CONDELEE (Mrs. M. J. Hamilton, Wise Co., Virginia, 1939)
(1) Come all you young men and fair ladies
Take warning by me,
Never go a-courting your true love,
Down under a willow tree.
(2) Down in a willow garden,
My true love and I did meet,
And we were a-sitting discoursing,
My true love dropped off to sleep.
(3) I had a bottle of Burgler's wine,
My true love she did not know,
And there I poisoned my own true love,
Down under the banks below.
(4) I ran my sabre through her breast,
Which was my bloody knife,
I throwed her into the river,
Which was a shocking sight.
(5) I threw her into the river,
Which was a sight to see,
My name is Pat Goreery
Who murdered Rose Condelee.
(6) Often she had told me,
She loved me as she loved her life,
Often I have told her,
I would make her my lawful wife.
(7) But Satan and temptation
Has overcome me,
And caused me to murder that fair young lady
Called Rosie Condelee.
(8) My father had often told me,
That money would set me free,
If I would murder that fair young lady,
Called Rosie Condelee.
(9) But now he can sit in his own bowing door,
With tears all in his eyes,
A looking up at his own dear son,
All on the gallows high.
(10) My race is run beneath the sun,
And hell is waiting for me,
My name is Pat Goreery,
Who murderedR ose Condelee.
[or: Because I murdered my own true love
Down under the willow tree (71)]
[more often: For I did murder that dear little girl
Whose name was Rose Connelly (54)]
(This text was reported without a tune. But in all cases I am treating each seven-stress couplet [CM stanza] as a separate stanza in the discussion, even if the variant was performed to a two strain
tune.)
We can establish first what seems common to, or perhaps overwhelming in, the American tradition. In the establishment of such traits we must be conscious of a number of problems. First, we tend to discount "fragments," but we cannot always determine what is really a fragment. An abbreviated text may result from the idiosyncrasy of the collector (10, 51?), the failure of a recording machine (59?), or other reasons obscuring "the tradition" or the singer's "normal" performance. On the other hand, a "fragment" may represent to the performer a perfectly satisfying version. And what remains of the text in the "fragment" may be significant if it is truly representative of what the performer consciously or unconsciously wishes to preserve. Unless we have multiple performancesf rom an informant, it is difficult to determine if a "missing stanza" is actually missing from the singer's "real" text. But there may be a difference between the absence or suppression of a trait within a formal unit (such as a stanza) and the absence of the stanza itself. Furthermore, the sources drawn upon may represent different planes of tradition. Finally -and obviously- there is no guarantee of the representative nature of the sources. Consequently the conclusions here are based not on gross tabulations, but on weighted judgments. With the caveats in mind we can, however, find the following "common" elements in the American tradition of "Rose Connoley."
(1) The victim. The name of the murdered girl occurs in all but seven texts. Five of the seven consist of a single stanza (1, 10, 51, 59, 63) and none of the seven (including 6 and 25) contain the stanza in which the name appears elsewhere. The name is consistently a variant of "Rose Connoley," varying no more than "Condelee" (24, 47, 71), "Congalee" (3), "Cumberly" (6), or "Caudeley" (13).
(2) Down in the willow garden. Stanza 2 of the reference text is certainly the most common in American tradition. The stanza is the total recovered text in four instances (1, 51, 59, 63), possibly because the stanza so often opens American texts. The stanza is omitted only in a fragment from North Carolina (10), short texts from Tennessee (25) and Wisconsin (6), and a unique "crossed" text from Kentucky (69), which will be discussed later. "Willow garden" is the overwhelming choice of place, with the simple "garden" appearing once (39), "wilds of Gardia" once (21), and "London garden" in two texts (4, 34), which probably represent an identical source. It should be noted that "my true love dropped off to sleep" is a constant in the stanza.
(3) My father had often told me. Stanza 8 of the reference text is missing only from four single stanza fragments (1, 51, 59, 63), from the short Wisconsin text (6), and from the "crossed" Kentucky text (69).
(4) But now he can stand in his own bowing door. The companion stanza (9 of the reference text) is missing from its mate in only four texts (9, 13, 25, 47).
(5) My race is run. Stanza 10 of the reference text is not internally stable in American tradition, but varies mainly in the alteration of the names of the victim and the murdered, and what is waiting for the condemned man. It occurs in all texts of more than one stanza with few exceptions( 6, 17, 25, 33, 56, 69).
(6) The multipl meeans of murder. The villain of a "murdered sweetheart" ballad may use a number of means to dispatch his victim, but he normally stabs or beats the girl to death, then disposes of her body by burialo r by throwing it into a body of water. Unusual in the "Rose Connoley" ballad is the combination of poisoning and stabbing a s well before the girl's body is thrown into the river. Ten American texts (9, 16, 25, 26, 32, 47, 55, 61, 62AB, 71), however, omit the stabbing. Variation f rom the "multiple means" pattern seems almost always to represent only reduction by omission of textual elements. Two texts (55, 62AB) simply omit stanza 4 (the stabbing) of the reference text; one text (6) omits stanza 5 (the rivers tanza); eight texts (9, 15, 25, 26, 32, 47, 61, 71), by omitting stanzas 4 and 5, retain only the poisoning.( Interestingly, in the text "crossed" with "The Wexford Girl" [69] the girl's head is cut off before her body is thrown into the river.)
We can then summarize the essence of the American" Rose Connoley" tradition as follows: Rose Connoley a nd her lover meet in a willow garden. He poisons her, stabs her, and throws her body into a river. The murderer's father had promised him to buy his freedom, but now the father must watch his son's execution. The son laments his death. This summary, however, omits and obscures a number of problems and does not present a probable or even a possibled evelopment of the ballad on the basis of the meager evidence
we have.
Given the "constants" we have established, it is possible to distinguish two main types of "Rose Connoley" in the United States. The first is the "Come-all-ye" form, distinguished by the presence of stanza 1 of the reference text and/or the presence of the name of the murderer. I shall contend that this type is the older in American tradition on the basis of the convergence of the "come-all-ye" stanza and the presence of the name of the murderer. The come-all-ye stanza is a traditional opening of vulgar ballads and occurs in this position in ten "Rose Connoley" texts (5, 11, 15, 24, 25, 47, 53, 55, 56, 71). It can also serve as a concluding warning (56). The stanza could be added to the tradition of a ballad at any stage, and therefore its presence does not necessarily indicate an early type of the text to which it is attached. But names and details (unless they represent localizations) are often an indication of an early stage, and we find that the name of Rose Connoley's murderer is omitted only three times in "come-all-ye" texts, and in each instance (11, 25, 71) stanza 5 of the reference text, in which the name of the murderer normally appears, has been omitted. Stanza 10 also contains the name of the murderer in some variants (5, 11, 13, 15, 24, 47, 62AB), for it is a "confession" stanza, and is so recognized in an unusual text:
My name is MacRae, Johnny MacRae,
A name I'll never deny.
I murdered that maid, that pretty fair maid,
Who once for me did cry (15).
The murderer's name appears in four texts lacking the come-all-ye stanza. In two texts (42, 64) the murderer is identified in the incremental repetition of stanza 5 of the reference text, and one of them (42) contains also a form of stanza 6. In one text (47) the name appears in a "confession form" of the concluding stanza:
My name is. . . Morrison, my name I'll never deny,
Who murdered that pretty fair lady, who now does dwell on high.
And while "Rose Connoley" is a constant, the name of the murderer consistently varies:
Paddy Maragel (3)
Pat Mararie (5)
Johnny McRae (15)
Pat Goreery (24)
Pata Maidadore (32)
Paddy Mariah (13)
Patsy O'Railly (42)
... Morrison (47)
Pat McCree (53)
Perry McCrary (55)
Pattimeredo (56)
Pierre Maria (62AB)
Paddy Reedium. (64)
(Statistically one is led to look for a Patrick McR . . . as the murderer.) The second main type of the "Rose Connoley" texts is the vulgate form of the ballad, which could be called the "Down in the Willow Garden" form because stanza 2 of the reference text is invariably the opening. This is an "achieved form," for there are texts that indicate a history in which the "come-all-ye" convention, the identification of the murderer, and other elements disappear until there remains a tightly constructed narrative containing stanzas 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, and 10 of the reference text. This form of the ballad is now well known in professional tradition, and because the first record of the version appears on a hillbilly recording, that tradition must be examined carefully.
The ballad was first recorded by G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter for the Victor Recording Company, October 9, 1928, and issued as Victor 21625 (23). Whitter, of Fries, Virginia, was one of the earliest "hillbilly" performers to record. Grayson, blind fiddler of Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee, is credited by the Victor Company as the author of the song, and it does not appear in Whitter's privately issued song folio. Both musicians toured in the Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina area.
The second recording was by two professional North Carolina "country" performers, Wade Mainer and Zeke Morris, August 2, 1937, and released first as Bluebird B-7298 (37A).
The third important recording was by Charlie Monroe and His Kentucky Pardners, March 24, 1947, and first released as RCA Victor 20-3416 and RCA Victor 48-0222 (40A). Although Charlie Monroe was originally from western Kentucky and began his professional work in the Midwest, most of his career was spent in the southern Appalachian area from which the earlier recordings originated. It seems likely that he learned the song there, rather than in western Kentucky, where the song has no strong early tradition. (This conclusion, however, is based only on fieldwork supervised by Herbert Halpert and me, largely in the 1950's. There was no significant collection conducted in the area prior to that time.)
These recordings have undoubtedly been influential, but they have not led to completely stable forms, even in professional tradition. The three recordings differ in minor but significant points. The Grayson-Whitter performance uses a two-strain tune, but only the first seven-stress couplet is sung to the first strain, the remaining stanzas being sung to the second strain. In the following transcription of the Grayson-Whitter text, distinctive textual elements are italicized.
(1) Down in the willow garden
Where me and my love did meet,
O there we sit a-courting,
My love dropped off to sleep.
(2) I had a bottle of the burglar's wine,
Which my true love did not know,
And there I poisoned my old true love
Down under the bank below.
(Spoken: Poor little woman.)
(3) I drewm y sabret hroughh er,
Which was a bloody knife.
I threw her in the river,
Which was a dreadful sight.
(4) My Father always taught me
That money would set me free,
If I'd murder that pretty little miss,
Whose name was Rose Connoley.
(5) He's sitting now in his own cottage door
A-wiping his weeping eyes,
A-looking at his own dear son
Upon the scaffold high.
(6) My race is run beneath the sun,
Though hell'sn ow waitingf or me.
I did murder that pretty little miss,
Whose name is Rose Connoley.
The Mainer-Morris performancies two-strain throughout, but the text differs mainly in the readings:
There I poisoned that dear little girl
Stobbed her with a dagger
My father's often told me
And the Monroe performance, also two-strain, contains:
I had a bottle of Burgundy wine
ThereI poisoned that dear little girl
I drew a sabre through her
My father often told me
Now he sits in his cabin door
The Devil is waiting for me
These represent the greatest points of variance not only among these three performances, but within the entire vulgate tradition. It is not possible to group "sabre" forms, "dagger" forms, [15] "burglar's wine" forms, and so forth with any great degree of correlation. Instead we find variations across rather than within groups.
The closestt raditionaaln alogueto the Grayson-Whittepre rformancise that of Frank Profitt and Nathan Hicks in 1939 (48), though a 1934 text from Hicks (28) differsa bit, and the strainp atterni s impossiblet o determine.
The Mainer-Morris form probably underlies a number of recorded performances, (7, 22, 35, 38, 58, 66), which vary in small details. One variationis the substitution of "burgundy" for "burglar's." The name given to the
poison wine of course varies throughout the entire tradition of the ballad, other forms including "Berkeley," "burdelin," "buglers," and simply "wine." The fact that collectorsa nd commentators have independently and almost universally identified the variations as derivations of burgundy points out the probability of independent "correction" of texts.[16] Sam Hinton recalls learning his text (30) from a UCLA student who learned it from a hillbilly record, which would certainly have been the Mainer-Morris disc. But the text contains not only "burdlin," but "Hell's gates are gapin' for me," which has traditional warrant elsewhere (42, 53, 71).
Similar developments can be observed in the wake of the Charlie Monroe performance, which established "Down in the Willow Garden" as a bluegrass standard. For example, a semiprofessional hillbilly group, "The String Dusters"( 57), echo clearly the vocal and instrumental stylings of the Charlie Monroe band but perform a variant text. In fact, in texts presumably derived from or related to Charlie Monroe's, we find "cabin door" replaced by "cabin hall" or "cottage"; "the Devil" by "gallows," "sentence," "scaffold," "hell," or "the cell." We do not, unfortunately, have other evidence of the circulation of the ballad among professional country performers between 1928 and 1947. But it would seem that the ballad was fairly well known, and that the issued recording exercised as much general as particular stabilizing influence on professional and nonprofessional pe rformers. What does seem stable is the performance of individual professionals (for example, 3 7A-B [but see note 15], 40A-B, 41A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H).
A few other forms of the ballad must be noted at this point. The one distinct alteration in the ballad plot occurs in a text from Pleasure Ridge Park, Kentucky (31):
(1) Down in the willow garden
Where ma and love did meet,
It's there we sat a-courtin',
My love dropped off to sleep.
(2) I had a bottle of bourbon wine,
Which my true love did not know.
I drew a sabre from her breast,
And how the blood did flow.
(3) My mama often told me
That money would set me free,
For if I'd murder that dear little girl,
Whose name was Rose Conley.
(4) It's now she sets in the cabin door,
Weeping her life away,
For it's her that murdered that pretty little girl,
Whose name was Rose Conley.
(5) A-sitting in her cabin door,
A-weeping her tear-dimmed eye,
A-gazing at her only son
A-hanging on the scaffold high.
Although the result is not yet coherent, a slight alteration in the first stanza has begun a significant story change so that the mother is now the murderess and the son a victim.
The version performed by the late Cisco Houston (33) and continued by Jack Elliot (17) is distinguished not only by the identification of the father ("My father, Ritchie, had told me/That money would set me free"), but contains borrowed elements and "crosses" of some significance.
(7) Well it's now I sit in my old jail cell
And out of the window can see
The spot where I murdered that pretty little girl
In the shade of that willowy tree.
This may be a remodeling that only coincidentally resembles scenes in "Ellen Smith" (Laws F 11) and "Spotty and Dudie" (Laws I 20). But the following stanza, occurring twice in Houston's text, is clearly reminiscent of other "murdered sweetheart" ballads:
(2-6) O Willie, my darlin', O Willie my dear,
How can you take my life?
How can you stab my fair young breast
With your long and daggery knife?
It is indeed surprising that the American tradition of "Rose Connoley" has remained so independent of ballads with similar plots and that such a text as the following (69) should be thus far unique.
(1) I had a bottle of burglan's wine,
It wasn't for her to know;
I gave it to my darling
Under the banks below.
(2) My father has often told me
That money would set me free,
If I'd kill that fair young lady
Thay call Rose Connolley.
(3) We walked and we talked
Till we came to Waxford town;
I cut off her head and throwed it in the river
That flowed through Waxford town.
(4) I went up to my father's house
At nine o'clock that night:
(5) "O son, O son, what have you done
That blood's all on your clothes?"
The answer that I gave her was:
"A bleeding at the nose."
(6) I called for a candle
To light myself to bed;
And also a handkerchief
To bind my aching head.
(7) I rolled and I tumbled,
No pleasure could I see;
The murderings ceneb eforem y eyes
Like hell before me.
(8) That very week or two or three,
That fair maid's body was found
A-floatin' on the water
That flowed through Waxford town.
(9) My father he sits in his own cottage door
With many a watery eye,
A-lookin' at his only son
A-hangin' on the gallows high.
The obvious "crossing" with "Wexford Girl" (Laws P 35) brings us back to a consideration of the Irish text and its relation to the American "Rose Connoley" tradition. Excepting as noted, the American tradition reveals a tendency to develop away from other murdered-girl ballads, and it is early "undeveloped" American texts that resemble the Irish not only in identifying the murderer, but by including stanzas reminiscent of other "murdered sweetheart" ballads. Thus the American,
Rose Conner-lees he loved me
As dear as she loved her life,
And she has oftimes told me
She'd be my lovely wife.
Satan and temptation
Have overpowered me;
My name is Perry McCrary
Who murdered Rosa Conner-lee. (55)
parallels the Irish stanzas 3 and 4. Furthermore, stanza 6 of the Irish text includes "hung I'll surely be," recalling one facet of "Wexford Girl" tradition.
If the correspondences of the Irish and American texts indicate an early tradition, the unique stanzas of the Irish text provide little evidence beyond giving details that would likely be lost in transplantation to the United States-the wry comments on the jail and chains in stanzas 7 and 8. Stanza 5, though it roughly parallels stanza 6, may well be modeled on a text of "Mary Hamilton" (Child 173). But there is one piece of evidence that may be helpful in placing "Rosy O Connell" in Irish tradition.
"Yonder a soddely garden" in the opening stanza of the Irish text is truly arresting, for by comparing it with the American "Down in the willow garden" we arrive at "Down in the Salley Gardens," the opening line of William Butler Yeats's lyric, which was an "attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballysodare, Sligo. . . ."
Michael Yeats has identified a traditional version of the "old song" in the P. J. McCall manuscript ballad collection in the National Library, Dublin.[17] Previously Hugh E. Shields had identified the "old song" as "The Rambling Boys of Pleasure," of which he noted both traditional and broadside versions.[18] Prior to Shields's research Sam Henry had published "Down in My Sally's Gardens" from a Coleraine singer, noted its resemblance to Yeats's lyric, and called attention to "The Rambling Boys of Pleasure" as an alternate source.[19] Although the lyric in the McCall collection is so close to Yeats's text that it might seem exactly what he heard, the comments of Shields and Henry call attention to the commonplace nature of the stanza. Henry's Coleraine lyric differs considerably, but the resemblance among the other texts is quite clear:
Yeats: Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love as easy as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her could not agree.
McCall: Down by the Sally Gardens my love and I did meet
She passed the Salley Gardens, a tripping with her snow white feet.
She bid me take life easy just as the leaves fall from each tree;
But I being young and foolish with my true love would not agree.
"Rambling Boys": Down by yon flowry gardens my love and I first did meet.
I took her in my ar'ms and to her I gave kisses sweet.
She bade me take life easy just as the leaves fall from yon tree,
But I being young and foolish with my darling did not agree.
We can then place the stanza in a larger context. In her unpublished M.A. thesis of 1937, Mildred Haun [20] pointed out the relationship of Yeats's poem to a stanza of a lyric sung by her mother in Cocke County, Tennessee:
(1) Why can't I take love easy,
As the leaves upon the tree?
They only fade and wither,
So is his love for me.
Chorus: I don't know why I love him,
For he does not care for me.
But still my mind will wonder
Wherever he may be.
(2) He is just as nice as a flower,
But he does not care for me.
But still I'll always love him
Wherever he may be.
(3) He may go across the ocean,
He may go across the sea.
He may travel this wide world over,
He'll never find another like me.
Miss Haun further pointed out that her mother sang "Rose Connoley" to the same tune, which she unfortunately did not record.
Another facet of the tradition is a text collected by Alan Lomax from J. W. Green, St. James, Beaver Island, Michigan, August 1938.[21] (Since the tune is apparently unrelated to "Rosin the Beau," or that recorded with "Rambling Boys of Pleasure," or "Mourne Shore" [which Michael Yeats associates with "Salley Gardens"], I am not including it here.)
(1) It was down in a salley garden where me and my true love did meet.
I took her in my arrumsa nd embracedh er with kisses sweet,
Saying, "Love, tell me the reason Oh why you were so severe.
You must have some other suitor that's more pleasing to your mind than me."
Chorus: And it's not the time to go, boys, to go boys, to go away.
It's not the time to go, brave boys. We'll boast about it until day.
(2) O I called for a bottle of brandy for to drink in my true love's company,
But she felt so proud and sassy she would not take one drop from me.
She bade me take love easy and not be so severe.
She bade me take love easy like the dew drops falling off yonder trees.
Chorus
(3) O landlady, my darling, come fill us one bottle with speed.
I will pay you to a farthing, my darling indeed, indeed.
I will pay you to a farthing, my darling indeed, indeed,
Here's a health to all my suitors who cause my poor heart to bleed.
Chorus
(4) Oh once I had the money plenty ee ['n?] when I roamed about,
But now my pockets are empty and most of my credit's out.
Chorus: And now's the time to go, boys, to go, boys, to go away.
Oh now's the time to go, brave boys. We'll boast no more till breaking day
[spoken].
This song is the farthest removed from Yeats's poem, but the relationship of the first stanza is unmistakable. That Green's song came to Beaver Island from Ireland is unquestionable, and it certainly establishes "Down in the salley (willow) garden" as an Irish commonplace. Finally, the text of the song in which there is a lover's disputation and the call for a bottle of brandy suggests at least an associational relationship to "Rose Connoley."[22]
It seems reasonable to conclude that the ballad of "Rose Connoley" is not a native American ballad, but originated in Ireland in the early nineteenth century, and that its early forms owed some debt to "The Wexford Girl" and to "The Rambling Boys of Pleasure" or an analogue. Because we have but a single traditional text, and that quite late, we can hardly even speculate on any "original" or early Irish form. For example, are the stabbing and drowning motifs, present in what seem to be early American texts, American additions or the preservation of Irish tradition? To what extent is the ballad factual? The consistency of the name Rose Connoley is the best single clue for the dedicated researcher, who cannot be at all sure that County Galway is event he best place to begin an investigation. Certainly the discovery of a factual basis would add to our knowledge of the way in which the "murdered sweetheart" ballad tradition absorbs and reshapes the facts with which it deals.[23]
A consideration of the American tradition of the ballad can perhaps cast a bit of light on the Irish genesis. The ballad was introduced in to the United States in the late nineteenth century or perhaps earlier, considering that Mildred Haun's text was traced to her grandmother, and the related lyric to her greatgrandmother. More important is the apparently limited introduction of the ballad. One looks for and finds Irish songs in abundance in eastern Canada and the northeast and north central United States. But the circulation of "Rose Connoley," prior to recent media influence, has been basically southern Appalachian. Reports of the ballad beyond the Appalachians and Ozarks have come from migrants.[24] A northern Wisconsin version comes from a family who migrated from Carter County, Kentucky, in 1906 (6), and a Colorado performance (26) is from an informant who remembered it "from her background in Kentucky." It is as if an Irish local song never popularized on broadsides was spread by a single Irish peddler on his travels through Appalachia. [25] While the earlier form remained throughout the area, mountain musicians in the Virginia-North Carolina-Tennessee triangle developed the ballad into the concise form in which it is widely known today.
It is quite possible, of course, that the seeming rarity of "Rose Connoley" in Irish tradition is only that. In giving the title "Wexford Girl" to the American tradition of the English "murdered sweetheart" ballad known
variously as "The Berkshire Tragedy," "The Wittam Miller," "The Oxford Tragedy," G. Malcolm Laws, Jr., depended on American tradition and was forced to hypothesize an Irish traditional or broadside form.[26] (Irish versions do, in fact, exist,[27] but were unknown to Laws.) On the other hand, in the light of recent research and cataloging, the existence of a broadside version of "Rose Connoley" seems unlikely. Oral versions may emerge, most likely if they are deliberately sought after. I hope that further research will provide needed information concerning the Irish ballad "Rose Connoley."
Coda
In The Songs of Sean McCarthy (Listowel, September 1973, p. 23)[28] appears the following text (set to a "Rosin the Beau" variant), which can be dated at least to 1967.
THE WILLOW TREE
When I was young and foolish my mind was not at rest.
I courted a fair young maiden, with her love I was blessed.
Fortune proved unkind to me, my love got with child.
Oh! with agony for my true love my thoughts were running wild.
My love sat down beside me, beneath the Willow Tree.
She placed her arms around my neck, and softly said to me.
"We will marry in the springtime love, I'll stand by your right arm,
And we will have a baby son and you'll keep him from all harm."
I was young and foolish and full of misery.
I did not want a baby son a smiling on my knee.
But I held my true love in my arms, she placed her lips on mine.
And I vowed I would keep her from all harm till the very end of time.
I bought a bottle and I bought a glass, and the deep red wine did pour.
I put the poison in my true love's glass, my true love asked for more.
I held her close up to my breast, I would cause her no alarm.
And there beneath the Willow Tree I kept her from all harm.
Last night as I lay on my bed no rest there could I find
The thoughts of my own true love kept running in my mind
I thought about our baby son, that never would be born.
And the vow I made my own true love, and I'll keep from all harm.
I took the Poison from off the shelf, and the deep red wine did pour.
I put the poison in my glass and then I drank some more.
Peace it reigns within my heart, and I feel no alarm,
Soon I will see my own true love, and I'll keep her from all harm.
It is immediately apparent that the song is not derived from American texts, but differs far more from the Irish traditional text. Yet "The Willow Tree" is independently related to "Sally's Garden" and "The Rambling Boys of Pleasure" ("When I was young and foolish... ")-as well as "Wexford Girl" ("Last night as I lay on my bed . . "). It is unfortunate that we do not know how much of the text, including the unique conclusion to the story, is due to McCarthy. While "The Willow Tree" does not indicate the provenance of the multiple means of murder, it does show that the substitution (or alterationo) f willowf or sallyw as not originallyA merican.
INDEX OF AMERICAN P ERFORMANCES OF "ROSE CONNOLEY"
Americanp erformanceosf "Rose Connoley" referred to in the foregoing discussion are here arranged alphabetically by performer. The source, number of stanzas (seven-stress couplet= 1 stanza), presence or absence and type of tune are noted. Recordings, tapes, and transcriptions of all materials are on deposit in the Center for the Study of Comparative Folklore and Mythology, University of California, Los Angeles.
Abbreviations:
AAFS: Archive of American Folk Song, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Brown: The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, 7 vols. Durham, North Carolina, 1952-1964.
Cox: John Harrington Cox, Folk Songs of the South. CambridgeM, ass., 1925.
Davis: Arthur Kyle Davis, J r., Folk-Songosf Virginia.Durham, N.C., 1949.
Rosenberg: Bruce A. Rosenberg, The Folksongs of Virginia A: Checklist of the WPA Holdings, Alderman Library, University of Virginia. Charlottesville, Va., 1969.
SharpMSS.: Manuscript Collection of Cecil Sharp, Houghton L ibrary, Harvard University; Cecil Sharp House, London.
1. Anonymous (North Carolina?) "Down in the Willow Garden."1 . 1st strain of tune. Brown, 4:146.
2. Artie Gertrude Adams, aged 10 (daughter of Finley Adams, from whom she learned the song), Dunham, Ky., March 29, 1939. "Willow Garden." 4. 1st strain of tune throughout. Recorded by Herbert Halpert. AAFS 2790 Al.
3. Horton Barker, Chilhowie, Va., January3 , 1950. (. .. used to hear it as a child . . . in middle Tennessee.) "Paddy Moragel (Rose Congalee)." 8. 2d strain of tune throughout. Recorded by Sam Eskin. AAFS 10,503 A15.
4. Otis Bird, Marshall, Ark., July 26, 1958. "Rose Connalee." 6. 2d strain of tune throughout. Recorded by Mary C. Parler. AAFS 12,049 B10.
5. Rev. George Wesley Blevins,( Big Laurel?V) a., 1938. "The Willow Garden." Collected by James Taylor Adams. Rosenberg 1217B.
6. Pearl Jacobs Borusky, Antigo, Wisc., July 13, 1938. "My Father Has Often Told Me." 2d strain throughout. Collected by Asher E . Treat. Journal of American Folklore, 52 (1939), 24-25.
7. Oscar Brand." The Willow Garden."6 . 2 strain. M orality. Impulse A -25, 12" LP.
8. Hylo Brown. "Down in the Willow Garden."4 . 2 strain.R uralR hythm1 76, 12" LP.
9. Tilman Cadle, Middlesboro, Ky., September 15, 1937. "Rose Conneley." 3. 1st strain for stanza 1, 2d strain for others. Recorded by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax. AAFS 1402 Al.
10. Mrs. Margaret Callaway, Bolden's Creek, Burnsville, N. C., September 16, 1918. "Rose Connelly." 1. 1st strain. Collected by Cecil Sharp. Sharp MSS. No. 4614.
11. Paul Clayton, May 1956. "Rose Connoley." 8. 2 strain. Bloody Ballads, Riverside 12-615, 12" LP.
12. Bill Clifton. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 150 Songs: Old-Time Folk and Gospel (n.d.), p. 37.
13. Minor Copas, Rarden, Scioto Co., Ohio, June 1952. ". .. heard in Scioto County when he was a young man." "Down by the Willow Garden." 5. Recorded by Bruce R. Buckley. Ballads and Folksongs in Scioto County, Ohio. Thesis, M. A., Miami University, 1952, pp. 86-87.
14. The Country Boys (Roland and Clarence White, Roger Bush, Billy Ray, Bobby Sloan), recorded at the Ash Grove, Los Angeles, February 1964. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. (Personal Collection.)
15. Grace Creswell. (Probably from family tradition in east Tennessee.) "Rose Connelly." 6. 1 strain. Rebel RRLP 3064, 12" LP.
16. Mrs. Virgie Dean, Esserville Coal Camp, Va., September 22, 1939. "Rose Connelly." 6. Collected by Emory L. Hamilton. Rosenberg 1217G.
17. Jack Elliot. "In the Willow Garden." 9. 2 strain irregular. Ramblin' Cowboy, Monitor MF 379, 12" LP.
18. Everly Brothers. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, Cadence CEP 110, 7" LP. Folksongsb y the EverlyB rothersC, adence 25059, 12" LP.
19. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. "Rose Connelly." 6. 2 strain. The Versatile F latt and Scruggs, Columbia CL 2354, 12" LP.
20. Walter Forbes. (. . . melody and chord progression adapted from a version learned from an old man on Monteagle Mountain, Tennessee.) "Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Ballads and Bluegrass, RCA Victor LPM/LSP 2472, 12" LP.
21. Dale Gillette, Portsmouth, Ohio, June 1952. (Learned from a third grade pupil in the Morgan Township School, 1942.) 6. Recorded by Bruce R. Buckley. Ballads and Folksongs in Scioto County, Ohio. Thesis, M. A., Miami University, 1952, pp. 85-86.
22. Mrs. Texas Gladden and Hobart Smith. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. The Asch Recordings1: 939-45. Vol. 2, Asch AA 4A, 12" LP.
23. G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter, October 19, 1928. "Rose Conley." 6. 2 strain, but only stanza 1 sung to strain 1. Recorded for Victor Recording Company (Mx. 40305) in Atlanta, Ga. Victor 21625. Old Time Southern Dance Music: Ballads and Songs, Old Timey LP-102, 12" LP.
24. Mrs. M. J. Hamilton, Wise, Va., ca. May 1939. "Rose Condelee." 10. Collected by Emory L. Hamilton. Rosenberg 1217H.
25. Mrs. Haun (mother of collector), Cocke County, Tenn. (Learned from her mother.) "Down under the Willow Tree." 4. Mildred Haun, Cocke County Ballads and Songs. Thesis, M. A., Vanderbilt University, 1937, pp. 125-126.
26. Frances Herring, Black Forest, Colorado, July 31, 1950. (. . . from her background in Kentucky.) "Rose Conlee." 5. 1 strain. Recorded by Sam Eskin. AAFS 10,505 B8.
27. Captain and Viola Hicks, Beech Mountain, N. C. (1963?) "Down in the Willow Garden." 2 strain, tune only. The Traditional Music of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, Vol. 2, Folk-Legacy FSA-23, 12" LP.
28. Nathan Hicks, Rominger, N. C., January 1934. "In the Willow Garden." 6. Collected by Mellinger E. Henry. Southern Folklore Quarterly 5, (1941), 143.
29. Pearl Hicks, Beech Mountain, N. C., July 1963. "Rose Connelly." 6. 2 strain, but only stanza 1 sung to strain 1. Recorded by Lee B. Haggerty and Harry Felt. AAFS 14,205 B5,6.
30. Sam D. Hinton, March 25, 1947. (Supposedly learned from a UCLA student who supposedly learned it from a hillbilly record.) "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Recorded by Rae Korson and Duncan Emrich at the Library of Congress. AAFS 8932 A8.
31. Sara Holbrook, aged 48, Pleasure Ridge Park, Ky., December 1961. (Learned from Edwin Holbrook, who learned it from his mother, Rachel Craft Holbrook, Southdown, Ky.) "Willow Garden." 5. Collected by Novella Holbrook. Western Kentucky Folklore Archive, University of California, Los Angeles.
32. Mrs. Winfred Holyfield, Wise, Va., December 5, 1939. "Rose Connelly." 5. Collected by Emory Hamilton. Rosenberg 1217F.
33. Cisco Houston. "Down in the Willow Garden." 8. 2 strain irregular. Folksay, Vol. IV, Stinson SLP # 11, 10" LP. Stinson SLPX 9, 12" LP.
34. Max Hunter. "Rose Connally." 6. 2d strain throughout. Songs of the Ozarks, Three Dials M08P 1160, 12" LP.
35. Kossoy Sisters. "Down in a Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Bowling Green and Other Folk Songs from the Southern Mountains, Tradition TLP 1018, 12" LP.
36. Maddox Brothers and Rose. "Down in the Willow." 6. 2 strain. 4-Star ET 9-A.
37. A. Wade Mainer and Zeke Morris, August 2, 1937. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Recorded for RCA Victor Recording Company (Mx. BSO 11823) in Charlotte, N. C. Bluebird B-7298. Smoky Mountain Ballads, RCA Victor LPV 507, 12" LP. Bluegrass Classics, RCA Victor (Jap.) RA 5220, 12" LP.
B. Wade Mainer and the Sons of the Mountaineers (Tiny Dobson, The Shelton Brothers [Jack and Curly], Howard Dixon), WWNC, Ashville, N. C., 1941. "Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. AAFS 4490 A4. C
C. Wade Mainer, Flint Michigan, 1975-76. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. From the Maple to the Hill, Old Homestead OHTRS 4000, 2-12" LP.
38. Herta Marshall, 1957. "Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. To You With Love: American Folk Songs for Women, Folkways FA 2333, 12" LP.
39. Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, the Gaslight, New York City, 1966. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. (Personal collection; supplied by Scott Hambly.)
40. A. Charlie Monroe and His Kentucky Pardners, March 24, 1947. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Recorded for RCA Victor Recording Company (Mx. D7-VB-0354) in Chicago, Ill. RCA Victor 20-2416. RCA Victor 48-0222. Who's Calling You SweetheartT onight,C amden CAS-2310(e), 12" LP. BluegrassH ighlightsN o. 2., RCA Victor (Jap.) RA 5267, 12" LP. Bluegrasjso r CollectorsR, CA Victor APM1-0568.
B. Charlie Monroe (1962). "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. A Monroe Brother Comes Back To Jerusalem Ridge, Rem LP-1003, 12" LP. Bluegrass Sound, StardayS LP 372, 12" LP.
41. James Monroe. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. . . . Sings Songs of "Memory Lane" of His Uncle Charlie Monroe, Atteiram API-L-1532, 12" LP.
42. F. A. Morgan, West Virginia. ("It was popular in the oil fields of Wetzel County about 1895.") "Rose Connoley." 9. Communicated by M. F. Morgan, Ravenswood, W. Va., October 15, 1915. Cox, p. 314.
43. Eddie Nesbitt. "Down in the Willow Garden." 2d strain only. Lost Treasures, Bluebonnett
BL116, 12" LP.
44. A. The Osborne Brothers and Red Allen, ca. November 1956. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Recorded for MGM Records (Mx. 56-XY-585). MGM K12420. MGM EPX 1645. Rounder Special Series 03.
B. The Osborne Brothers and Red Allen, Lyons Park, Pa., June 29, 1957. 6. 2 strain. (Personal collection; supplied by Scott Hambly.)
C. The Osborne Brothers and Red Allen, WWVA, Wheeling, W. Va., 1957. Ibid.
D. The Osborne Brothers and Red Allen, Ibid.
E. The Osborne Brothers with Jimmy Brown, Jr., Sunset Park, Rising Sun, Md., May 1, 1960. Ibid.
F. The Osborne Brothers with Jimmy Brown, Jr., Oak Leaf Park, Luray, Va., May 30, 1960. Ibid.
G. The Osborne Brothers with Jimmy Brown, Jr., ca. 1960. Ibid.
H. The Osborne Brothers with Benny Birchfield, Polish National Hall, Hempstead, Long Island, New York, May 3, 1963. Ibid.
45. Estella Palmer, Stone Co., Arkansas, 1968. "Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain irregular. Stone County Singing, Shoe String Tape SGB-1, 12" LP.
46. Pete Pike. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Rebel 1476, 12" LP.
47. D. L. Plumley, Logan Co., W. Va. ("Rose Condoley?") 5. Contributed by Warren C. Steele, January, 1917. Cox, p. 315.
48. Frank Proffitt and Nathan Hicks, Sugar Grove, N. C., 1939. "Rose Connally." 6. 2 strain. Brown, 2:249; 4:145.
49. Obray Ramsey, (1961?). "Down in a Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Orange Blossom Special (Tommy Hunter), Prestige/International PR-INT 13026, 12" LP.
50. Don Reno, Bill Harrell and the Tennessee Cutups. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. The Most RequestedS ongs of. .., Jalyn 119-A, 12" LP.
51. Mrs. Frances Richards, St. Peter's School, Callaway, Va., August 16, 1918. "Rosie Connelly." 1. 2 strain. Collected by Cecil Sharp. Sharp MSS. No. 4614.
52. Jim Ringer (with Kenny Hall and the Sweets Mill String Band), March 1972. (. .. learned the melody from Virginia Curtis of San Diego.) "Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Bay TPH-727, 12" LP.
53. Goldia Salyers, Dickenson Co., Va. (Learned from grandmother.) April 3, 1932. "Rosa Connely." 8. Contributed by Nannie McConnel to E. J. Sutherland. Davis, p. 273.
54. Mrs. Viola Salyers, Wise, Va., June 4, 1940. "Willows of the Garden." 6. Collected by Emory L. Hamilton. Rosenberg 1217A.
55. Mrs. P. T. Sloan, Ferrum, Va., July 18, 1939. "Rose Connerlee." 9. Collected by Raymond H. Sloan. Rosenberg 1217E.
56. Bessie Smith, Zionville, N. C. "Down in the Willow Garden." 7. Brown, 2:249-250.
57. "The String Dusters" (Ed Hunter, Lonzo Honeycutt, Espente Honeycutt), Middlesboro, Ky., January 1, 1950. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Recorded by Sam Eskin. AAFS 10,404 A19.
58. Virgil Sturgill, Ashville, N. C., June 14, 1951. "Down in a Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Recorded in Washington, D. C. AAFS 10,095 Al.
59. Mrs. Hetti Austin Swindel, aged 53, Freeling, Va., April 4, 1939. "Willow Garden." 1. 1st strain. Recorded by Herbert Halpert. AAFS 2418 A3.
60. Earl Taylor and Jim McCall. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Blue Grass Favorites,R ural Rhythm 188, 12" LP.
61. Mrs. Maxie Vanover, Rt. 1, Pound, Va., July 2, 1940. "The Willow Garden." 5. Collected by James Taylor Adams. Rosenberg 1217C.
62. A. Mrs. Alice Wagoner, Endicott, Va., July 16, 1935. "Willow Tree." 8. Collected by Alfreda Peel. Davis, p. 273.
B. Ibid., July 11, 1939. "Rose Conner-lee." 10. Collected by Raymond H. Sloan. Rosenberg 1217D.
63. Edith Walker, Boone, N. C., August 8, 1940. "Down in the Willow Garden." 1. 2 strain. (Portion of text omitted?). Brown, 2:146.
64. Tab Ward, Beech Mountain, N. C., April 29, 1966. (Learned from his sisters.) "Down in the Willow Garden." 7. 1 strain. Thomas G. Burton and Ambrose Manning, Folksongs II, (Johnson City, Tenn., 1969), pp. 38-39.
65. Wade Ward, Charlie Higgins, Dale Poe, Galax, Va., (1959?). "Willow Garden." 2 strain tune only. Recorded by Alan Lomax. Ballads and Breakdowns from the Southern Mountains, Southern Journey, Vol. 3, Prestige/International D S 25003, 12" LP.
66. Harry and Jeanie West. "Down in a Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Southern M ountain Folk Songs, Stinson SLP #36, 12" LP.
67. Red White and the Dixie Blue Grass Band. "Willow Garden." 6. 2d strain only. Real Blue Grass Music, Rural Rhythm RRRW 172, 12" LP.
68. Paul Wiley, Washington, D. C., 1968. "Down in the Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain. Comin' Round the Mountain, Voyager LP 302, 12" LP.
69. Mrs. Curtis Williams, Lawrence Co., Ky., ca. 1937. "Rose Connoley." 9. Cratis Dearl Williams, Ballads and Songs. Thesis, M. A., University of Kentucky, 1937 (Kentucky Microcards, Series A, Modern Language Series), p. 145.
70. George and Mary Williamson, Michigan, 1975. "Willow Garden." 6. 2 strain, but only stanza 1 sung to strain 1. Appalachian Echoes, Old Homestead 80006, 12" LP.
71. Mrs. Edna Wright, Farmington, W. Va., 1957. "The Willow Tree in the Garden." 8. Contributed by Mrs. Amanda Ellen Eddy of Rivesville. West Virginia Folklore, 7 (1957), 64.
FOOTNOTES
[1] G. Malcolm Laws, Jr., Native American Balladry, American Folklore Society Bibliographical and Special Series, Vol. 1 (2nd. ed., Philadelphia, 1964), p. 194.
[2] Ibid., pp. 191-194. (Identification numbers prefixed A-I refer to this volume.) G. Malcolm Laws, Jr., American Balladry from British Broadsides, American Folklore Society Bibliographical and Special Series, Vol. 8 (Philadelphia, 1957), pp. 267-271. (Identification numbers prefixed J-O refer to this volume.)
[4] The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, ed. Henry M. Belden and Arthur Palmer Hudson (Durham, N. C., 1952), 2: 248.
5 Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin, 1840), pp. ix, 14.
6 IFC MSS. Vol. 633, pp. 370-372. Used with permission.
7 UCLA Folklore Archive, T5-69-36 (copy deposited in IFC), "The Dark Stern Man," County Leitrim, 1969. Recorded by D. K. and Ebby Wilgus and Thomas Munnelly.
8 Irish Ballet Book No. 1, UCLA (copy deposited in IFC), from Carna, County Galway. Broadside texts are in Ireland'sO wn, June 21, 1941, p. 7 (localized to Ashfield Prison), and May 21, 1949, p. 1 (Knightsville Prison). The tune direction "Twenty-One Years" is given for the text "My Foolish Youth" in Ireland's Own, July 6, 1946, p. 16. A version localized to Dartmoor Prison was a recent popular song hit in Ireland: Dermot Hegarty, Release RL 533, SRL 3001, BRL 4010. The Irish version is a combination of "Twenty-One Years" and "Twenty-One Years Part II," and derives from Irish Decca W.4155, which 'was a reissue of two separate American recordings, Brunswick 483 and 596. I have demonstrated the relationship in an unpublished paper delivered before the American Folklore Society, November 1974.
9 Irish Ballet Book No. 1. The song furnished the model for "I'll Be with You De Valera When the Rifles Ring Again," IFC MSS. na Scol, Vols. 192, pp. 95-97; 233, pp. 113-116.
10 See also D. K. Wilgus, "American Ballads in Ireland," Folklore Today: A Fest schrifft or Richard M. Dorsone, d. Linda D6gh, Henry Glassie, and Felix Oinas (Bloomington: IndianaU niversity Press, 1976), pp. 507-523. (I take this occasion to correct my comments on "Down by the Rio Grande," which is a variant of "Lasca." My thanks to Eleanor R. Long for calling this oversight to my attention.)
11 The "Yanks" turn up in song, for example, "Yank Murphy's Party," IFC MSS. na Scol, Vol. 448, pp. 361-367; "Sweet Listenny Hill," ibid., Vols. 935, pp. 145-147, 207-208; 936, pp. 100-101, 379-380.
12 Numbers in parentheses refer to the index of performances at the close of the article.
13 In the late nineteenth century "cut over" logging lands were sold to Kentuckians, who migrated to Wisconsin and incidentally contributed to the Northern folksong repertoire. (See, for example, Asher E. Treat, "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin," Journal of Amrerican Folklore, 52 [1939], 1-51.)
14 1 have not examined the following: Old Joe Clark, Vetco LP-3018, 12" LP; Hutchison Brothers, Vetco LP-505, 12" LP; Fields Brothers, Jessup MB144, 12" LP; Charlie Monroe, Starday LPS-484, 12" LP; Charlie Monroe, PTSLP-528, 12" LP; Charlie Moore, Pine Mountain 246-247, 2 12" LP; Howard Wallace, Jewel 305, 12" LP.
15 "Sabre" and "dagger" are the overwhelming choices of weapons in the entire tradition; "silver dagger" (6), "skeever" (42), "weepon" (5), and "sword" (64) appear only once respectively.
16 In his 1975-1976 recording (37C), Wade Mainer" corrects" to "burgundy." Of course I do not know how he performed the song between 1941 (37B) and 1975.
17 "W. B. Yeats and Irish Folk Song," Southern Folklore Quarterly, 30 (1966), 158-159.
18 "Yeats and the 'salley gardens,' " Hermnatlihe 1a, 0 1 (1975), 22-26; Norman Jeffares, A Cormcntar), on the Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (Stanford, California, 1968), pp. 14-15.
19 Sam Henry Collection (Songs of the People), No. 828; Belfast Free Public Library, National Library of Ireland, Cecil Sharp House, etc. Shields believes "this syrupy piece . . . to be a re-writing of Yeats's poem in Graves's setting. The air given is the first half of Graves's air." ("Yeats and the 'salley gardens,' " p. 26.)
20 Cocke County (Tenn.) Ballads and Songs, M. A. Thesis, Vanderbilt University, pp. 37-38, 125-127. Text quoted by permission of Hershel Gower.
21 Archive of American Folk Song, Library of Congress,2 276A. Used by permission of Alan Lomax.
22 "Sally's Garden," a Scottish version of Green's song, is printed in Tocher, 11 (Autumn, 1973), 89-90. Sally's Garden is identified as a place between Longhome and Kildavie. One suspects this to be a localization.
23 A significant discussion of this kind of patterning is in Anne Billings Cohen's Poor Pearl, Poor Girl! Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Vol. 58 (Austin, Texas, 1973).
24 The Scioto County, Ohio text (13) I would class as southern Appalachian, though migration might
have been involved.
25 Although I do not advance him as a candidate, it could have been such a man as John Calvin" Lie-hue"
(Lihu?)Younts (Younce?) who traveled through the southern Appalachians spreading songs and tales.
See Sandy Paton, brochure accompanying The Traditional Music of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, Vol. 1,
Folk-LegacyF SA-22,1 2" LP (1964), pp. 4-5; Henry Wacaster Perry, A Sampling of the Folklore of Carter County, Tennessee, M. A. Thesis, George Peabody College for Teachers, 1938, p. 56.
26 American Balladry from British Broadsides pp, . 104-112.
27 BBC Archive of Recorded Sound, M P18582( Belfast, 952). B roadsides; National Library of Ireland,
Songbooks1 6551 (Limerick1, 924); Trinity College, Dublin, 6 6.u. 165. A recently recorded traditional
performance indicates the Irish circulation of the "Wexford Girl" form. (Irish Folk Music Collections,
University College, Dublin, Earles fort Terrace, Munnelly Tape No. 62. County Cavan, 1972.)
28 I owe thanks to Thomas Munnelly for calling McCarthy's publication to my attention. Munnelly points out that McCarthy also claims authorship of "Blow the Candle Out" (LawsP 17).