Salt Water Sea- Grubb (VA) 1891 Davis II
[From Davis, More Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1960. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2013]
Notes by Davis from More Traditional Ballads of Virginia:
36. JAMES HARRIS (THE DEMON LOVER)
(Child, No. 243)
Both of the Child titles are misnomers as applied to the American versions of this ballad: James Harris is not mentioned in them, and, except in a very few texts, the seductive lover has completely lost his demonic character. In America the song takes its title from the deserted husband and is, with few exceptions, known as "The House Carpenter," a variant of the "ship's carpenter" occupation of the husband in British texts.
Students of traditional song often speak as if the broadside were "the villain of the piece," as if it were the source only of corruption and degradation, even extinction, to the true traditional ballad. This is by no means the case. Many a traditional piece has been preserved only because at a certain point it had the good fortune to be printed as a broadside. More often, broadside writers have salvaged at least certain stanzas that bear the marks of tradition. Occasionally, new printed ballads have preserved and renewed old and traditional tunes in the broadside's instructions, "To be sung to the tune of ________," or in the actual notation of the tune. And finally, the origin of some excellent now traditional pieces can be traced only to the broadside press itself. (See Gerould's Chapter Nine, "Ballads and Broadsides," pp. 235-54.)
The present ballad illustrates several of the relationships just mentioned. In the first place, Child finds a broadside of 1685 (from the Pepys collection) to be the basis of all the traditional forms known-to him, and he accordingly prints it as his A text (in smaller type, to signify its non-traditional character), and remarks: "Two or three stanzas of A are of the popular [meaning traditional] description, but it does not seem necessary to posit a tradition behind A." The heading of this broadside deserves full quotation; it suggests the wide gulf which, in spite of the closer relationships mentioned above, clearly separates these "ballads in print o' life" from the products of genuine tradition (The Pepys Ballads, IV, 101):
A Warning for Married Women, being an examination of Mrs. Jane Reynolds (a West-country woman), born near Plymouth,_ who, having plighted her troth to a Seaman, was afterwards married to a carpenter, and at last carried away by a Spirit, the manner how shall presently be recited. To a West-country tune called "The Fair Maid of Bristol," "Bateman," or "John True."
The full text would show even more clearly the distance that normally lies between the broadside and the ballad of tradition, and the vast superiority of the latter. One finds it hard indeed to subscribe to Child's suggestion of this broadside as the "basis" of the traditional ballad, despite the wonder-working power of tradition. Child's B version is also a broadside or garland. of about a hundred years later, called "The Distressed Ship-Carpenter," and it has definitely taken on the traditional quality. The rest of Child's eight texts are definitely from tradition, either directly or via manuscript or print, and all are Scottish.
The American ballad also has broadside collections. Though Child prints no American text, his headnote reports (IV, 361):
"An Americanized version of this ballad was printed not very long go at Philadelphia, under the title of 'The House-Carpenter.' I have been able to secure only two stanzas, which were cited in Graham's Magazine, September, 1958:
'I might have married the king's daughter dear;'
'You might have married her,' cried she,
'For I am married to a house-carpenter,
And a fine young man is he.'
'Oh dry up your tears, my own true love,
And cease your weeping,' cried he,
'For soon you'll see your own happy home,
On the banks of old Tennessee.'
The two stanzas are not consecutive. The obviously traditional character of these verses, and especially of the last line quoted, strongly suggests that the ballad had been in America for some time, and that the printed text came from tradition. The impression is reinforced by the full text of the broadside printed by Barry in JOAFL, XVIII (July-September. 1905 ), 207-9, from a broadside of abort 1860 published by H. de Marsan, of New York. Barry's text was transcribed from a copy in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. Professor Kittredge points out, in JAFL, XXX (July-September, 1917), 325, that the deMarsan broadside is a reissue of one published by J. Andrews, of New York (whom deMarsan succeeded in business) in 1857 or thereabouts, and that a copy of the Andrews broadside is in the Harris Collection of Brown University. Identical or similar broadside forms of the ballad, then, were printed in both New York and Philadelphia as early as 1857 or 1858. Since these texts are close to the best-known American versions, it seems likely both that they were taken down originally from American tradition and that they have subsequently returned to that tradition and influenced it. [Both texts are identical except for one letter! They seem constructed, especially the "on the bank of the Tenessee" line. R. Matteson 2013] The similarity of many American texts of the ballad may be thus in part explained. To an extent these broadsides may also explain the widespread distribution and popularity of the ballad in America. As Belden puts it (p. 79), "There can be, I think, no question, in the case of this ballad, of the importance of print in spreading and perpetuating it."
In contrast to its present American circulation, the ballad is all but lacking in recent British tradition. Margaret Dean-Smith (p. 80) lists only two incomplete texts, one from Baring-Gould's Songs of the West (revised edition, 1905), and one in JEFSS, III (1908- 1909), 84, both with tunes. Professor Kittridge in JAFL, XXX (July-September, 1917), 326, reports a long text from Devon in the Baring-Gould manuscripts at Harvard. And from Scotland, the home of the ballad's traditional form, Greig-Keith (pp. 196-97) print only a single fragmentary text and tune.
In America the ballad is found in something like a profusion of texts wherever ballads are sung (See Coffin, p. 138.) TBVa over ran the alphabet in printing twenty-nine texts of an available fifty-two, with seven tunes. More recently, according to FSVa, twenty- five items, including eleven tunes, nine of them from phonographic recordings, have been added to the Virginia collection. Ten texts, all with tunes, are here presented.
Other representative American collections yield the following tabulation: Cox (1), twenty-one texts (not all printed) and one tune, plus Cox (2), four texts and three tunes; Barry, two texts and one tune; Sharp-Karpeles, twenty-two texts (or partial texts) and twenty-two tunes; Belden, nine texts (not all printed) and two tunes; Randolph, thirteen texts (or fragments) and five tunes; Brown, fourteen texts (not all printed) and nine tunes; Gardner-Chickering, three texts and three tunes, Henry, four texts and three tunes; and so on.
The Virginia texts in general are most closely related to Child B. Like Child B, they omit all antecedent action and plunge immediately into the conversation between the returned lover and the carpenter's wife; but unlike Child B, they do not end with the carpenter's mourning the news of his wife's death and pronouncing the curse on delusive mariners or sailors. The final curse stanza, when it appears, is spoken by someone else, apparently by the wife herself just before her death. There is no suggestion of the supernatural or demonic character in the returned lover-except, perhaps, in the very few texts which include the "hills of heaven and hell" stanza or stanzas (cf. TBVa. A, M, N, Appendix A). In addition to the "purer" texts, a number of Virginia texts are marked by the intrusion of stanzas from ballads or songs, of related theme, such as "The Lass of Roch Royal" (Child, No. 79), "The Mermaid" (Child, No. 289), and such later songs as "The False Young Man." "The True Lover's Farewell," "The Rejected Lover," "The Wagoner's Lad," "Cold Winter's Night," "Careless Love" and others. See the TBVa headnote, p. 440, and, TBVa texts R-AA and appendices. See also Coffin's "corruption chart," p. 166.
The usual story in America and in Virginia is this: A seaman returns to find his old love married, apparently happily, to a house carpenter, by whom she has a child (or more). By persuasion and promises the lover induces the wife to desert husband and babe(s) and sail away with him. But soon she pines for the old ties, weeps for her sweet little babe, and (sometimes after she has had a vision of the torment in store for her- not found in Child B) the ship springs a leak and sinks to the bottom of the sea. There is often a final stanza voicing her contrition, her curse upon deceiving men or a warning to other women. Most of the Virginia texts follow coffin's Story Type A; a few of the more fragmentary ones follow Story Type E, in which the boat does not clearly sink. There is no text similar to the rare story Type F, which is independent of "The House Carpenter" tradition and seems, along with the single Greig-Keith text, to hark back to the older traditional form of the ballad. See the unique copy in BFSSNE, VI, 9, and, Coffin, p. 139. Because of the multiplicity of texts in TBVa and because the later texts follow essentially the same pattern of variation described in the TBVa headnote, a policy of diastic excrusion has been followed: only texts with good tunes are presented here. This means that some of the fuller and better texts are omitted; but their like may be found in TBVa. only one quaintly garbled version contains the vision stanza about the "banks of heaven." In this same text the woman weeps for her "sweet sugar babe," and there are two stanzas imported from 'The Mermaid' (Child, No. 289) and a stanza interpolated from "The False Young Man" or a similar later song. Other excluded texts have the "shoe my foot" stanzas imported from "The Lass of Roch Royal" (Child, No. 76), or an unusual stanza here and there. But the loss is not great.
A distinctive feature of the ballad is the number of fine tunes recently added, most of them on phonograph records and therefore fully verifiable. Ten of the eleven tunes are printed, often with comments by E. C. Mead in the particular headnotes. If the texts are somewhat standardized and sometimes dull, the tunes are more interesting and varied. It is proper to put the emphasis here upon the series of excellent tunes.
Next to "Barbara Allan" in Virginia popularity in the first phase of collecting, "The House Carpenter" failed by only a single item to overtake the cruel lady in the second phase. Drastic editorial surgery has been practiced here upon both of these prolific specimens of the ballad art.
Since the twenty-seven texts of this ballad printed in TBVa over-ran the alphabet to include an AA text, an asterisk has been added to the AA text here, to distinguish it from TBVa AA.
II "Salt Water Sea." Collected by Miss Alfreda M. Peel and Miss Caroline Melbard, of Salem, Va. Contributed and sung by Minter Grubb, of Back Creek, Va. Roanoke County. August 26, 1932. Tune noted by Miss Eloise Kelly, of Marion, Va. Miss Caroline Melbard, a friend of Miss Peel, copied the song from a manuscript as Mr. Grubb had written it on March 10, 1891. The minor differences between the full text and the text printed with the music are due to the fact that Miss Kelly noted the words from Mr. Grubb's later singing. As is not unusual in Mr. Grubb's versions, the text shows a few quaintnesses of phrase.
1 "We will meet, we will meet, my old true love,
We will, we will meet," said he,
"l have just returned from the salt water sea,
And it's all for the love of thee."
2 "I could have married a king's daughter, dear,
And she would have married me,
Bit I refused a crown of her gold,
And it's all for the love of thee."
3 "If you could have married a king's daughter, dear,
I am sure you are not too,
For I have married a house carpenter,
And I think he is a nice young man."
4 "If you will forsake your house carpenter
And go along with me,
I will take you where the grass grows so green
On the banks of Sweet Willie."
5 "If I was to forsake my house carpenter
And go along with you,
What would you have to maintain me
Or to keep me from severe?" [1]
6 "I have seven old ships all on board
A-sailing for dry land.
Four hundred and ten jolly men
Shall be at your command."
7 She picked up her sweet little babe
The kisses she gave it three,
Saying, "Stay here, my sweet little babe,
And keep your pa's company."
8 She dressed herself all in red,
[And walked off so bold] [2]
And as she marched along
She looked like glittering gold."
9 She had not been on sea two weeks,
It was not three, I am sure,
Till she began to weep
And wept most bitterly.
10 "Is it for my gold you weep,
Or is it for my store?
Or is it for your house carpenter
That you never shall see any more?"
11 "It's neither for your gold I weep:
It's neither for your store,
I am weeping for my sweet little babe
That I never shall see any more."
12 She had not been on sea three weeks,
I am sure it was not four,
Till the ship it sprang a leak
And sank to rise no more.
1. slavery.
2. line not understood- I've supplied a possible line.