Sailing in the Lowlands Low- Clark (VA) c1861 Davis F
[From Davis, Traditional Ballads Of Virginia 1929, his notes are below.
R. Matteson 2014]
THE SWEET TRINITY (THE GOLDEN VANITY)
(Child, No. 286)
Our complete text, A, and five more or less fragmentary ones, with one tune, have been found in Virginia. The titles are 'The Lowlands Low," "The Green Willow Tree," "The Golden Vanity," "Turkeyrogherlee and the Yellow Golden Tree," and "Sailing in the Lowlands Low." All the Virginia items are printed here. They are all closely related to the Child C version, as shown especially by the final death of the cabin boy, either from exhaustion in the sea, as in A, or on deck, as in B. But there are verbal suggestions of other versions; for instance stanza 1 of the Virginia E fragment suggests child B 9. Several Virginia texts of a later "Lowlands low" song, also known in Virginia as "Young Edmund," which belong to the English song of "Younq Edwin in the Lowlands Low" have of course been excluded as out of place here. The story of the ballad is given with fair completemess in Virginia A.
F. " Sailing in the Lowlands Low." Collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by Mrs. J. B. Clark, of Waverly, Va. Sussex County. July 13, 1921. Mrs. Clark, writes Mr. Stone, "heard it sixty years ago in Prince William County, Va."
1 "O captain, captain, what will you give me
To sink this roguish rascal in the sea, sea, sea? "
"I'll give unto thee gold and silver free,
And my oldest daughter shall be married unto thee, thee, thee,
While I'm sailing on the lonesome sea, sea, sea,
While I'm sailing on the lonesome sea."