Six Kings' Daughters- Long (WV) 1915; Cox I
[From Folk-Songs of the South; Cox, 1925; Cox's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF KNIGHT (Child, No. 4)
This ballad is known in West Virginia as "Pretty Polly," "Six Kings' Daughters," "The King's Daughter," "The False Lover," and "The Salt-Water Sea." Nine variants have been recovered.
For American variants see Child, M, 496 (Virginia; from Babcock, Folk-Lore Journal, VIII, 28) ; Journal, XVIII, 132 (Barry; Massachusetts) ; XIX, 232 (Belden; Missouri); XXII, 65 (Beatty; Wisconsin), 76 (Barry; New Jersey, tune only), 374 (Barry; Massachusetts; from Ireland; also readings from other texts); XXVI, 374 (Mackenzie; Nova Scotia; cf. Quest of the Ballad, pp. 93, 174, 183); xxiv, 2)33, 344 (Barry; Massachusetts and Illinois; from Irish sources); XXXVII, 90 (Gardner; Michigan); xxviii, 148 (Perrow; North Carolina); xxxv, (Tolman and Eddy; Ohio); Wyman and Brockway, p. 82 (Kentucky); Campbell and Sharp, No. 2 (Massachusetts, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia); Focus, IV, 161, 212 (Virginia); Child MSS., xxi, 4 (4, 6); Minish MS. (North Carolina). In Charley Fox's Minstrel's Companion (Philadelphia, Turner & Fisher), p. 52, may be found "Tell-Tale Polly. Comic Ballad. (As sung by Charley Fox.) "
For references to American versions, see Journal, xxix, 156, note, 157; xxx, 286. Add Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Bulletin, Nos. 6-10. For recent British references see Journal, xxxv, 338; Campbell and Sharp, p. 323.
I. "Six Kings' Daughters." Communicated by Miss Mabel Richards, Fairmont, Marion County, October, 1915; obtained from Mrs. P. J. Long, who learned it from Mrs. Katherine Zinn, Monongalia County.
1 He helped her on the bonny, bonny black
And himself on the dappled gray,
And away they went through the green fields and trees,
Till they came to the brink of the sea, O sea,
Till they came to the brink of the sea.
2 "Light off, light off, you fair lady,
Pull off this shining gown,
For 't is too fine and costly
To rot in the waves of the sea, O sea."
3 "You've drowned six king's daughters here,
Yourself the seventh shall be ;
You've drowned six king's daughters here,
And your body shall lie in the sea, O sea,
And your body shall lie in the sea."
4 She turned herself around and about,
To gaze on the leaves of the tree;
She picked him up as many [1] as she could
And plunged him into the sea, O sea,
And plunged him into the sea.
5 "Lie there, lie there, you false-hearted knight;
This ain't what you promised me:
You promised me to fair Scotland we'd go,
And married we would be, O be,
And married we would be."
6 She helped herself on the bonny, bonny black,
And led the dappled gray,
And away she went from the green fields and trees,
And she rode three hours before day, O day,
And she rode three hours before day.
1. For manly or manfully: Cf. H, 5, A, 7.