Six Kings' Daughter (Child No. 4)
[This ballad has been widely disseminated through Europe, Scandinavia and North America. Child's narrative is extensive. There are 736 listings in the Roud Index (attached to the Recordings & Info page), the Bronson list of 141 versions with tunes has not been completed totaling 115 (see: Sheet Music). More than 1800 international variants of the ballad are noted in a book entitled, The Ballad of "Lady Isabel and the False Knight" by Dr. Ivar Kemppinen (Helsinki: Kirja-Mono Oy, 1954; pp. 301) See: Combs Review 1955.
R. Matteson 2014]
SIX KINGS' DAUGHTERS
1. Oh, once there was rich young man,
And William was his name;
He first came across the Arabian Sea;
And then came courting me, oh me,
And then came courting me.
2. "Go and get all of your father's gold,
And part of your mother's too;
We'll ride away to the salt-water sea,
And there I'll marry you, oh you,
And there I'll marry you."
3. She went and got all of her father's gold,
And part of her mother's, too,
They rode away to the salt-water sea,
One lonesome summer day, oh day ---
One lonesome summer day.
4. "Get down, get down my pretty cold one;
Get down, get down, I say;
For all the promises I made to you,
I'll threaten them for to be, oh be--
I'll threaten them for to be."
5. "Pull off that dress, my pretty cold one,
Pull off that dress, I say;
It cost too much of your father's gold
To rot, in the salt-water sea, oh sea --
To rot in the salt-water sea."
6. "Hand me your hand, my pretty cold one,
Hand me your hand , I say;
I've drowned six of tho Kings' daughters here,
And the seventh one you shall be, oh be ---
And the seventh one you shall be ."
7. "Turn yourself right round and round,
Your face to the leaves of the tree."
She gathered him 'round the waist like a man,
And threw him into the sea, oh sea--
And threw him into the sea.
8. "Lie there, lie there, you falsey thing;
Lie there, lie there, I say;
You've drowned six of the kings' daughters here,
Go keep them company, oh -ny--
Go keep then company."
9. She jumped upon her milk-white steed,
And led the iron gray,
She rode away to her father's house ,
Three hours before it was day, oh day--
Three hours before it was day.
10. "Go away , go away, my pretty parrot;
Tell no tales on me;
I'll make you a nest of yellow beaten gold,
And hang it on the willow tree, oh tree --
And hang it on the willow tree."
This ballad was furnished by Mrs. R. E. Lassiter, formerly Miss Bertha Pugh, who learned it from her mother. The tune ls remembered by L. L. McDowell , who heard it sung about 1895 by Luther Charlos, of Camp Ground, Tennessee. The tune ls essentially the same as sung by Mrs. Lassiter named above, and ls quite similar to the tune of Lord Lovell and of Fair Eleanor And The Brown Girl.