Song Ballad of Pretty Polly- Wiley (VA) 1916 Davis G
[Title supplied by Peel; from Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1929. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT
(CHILD, NO.4)
THIS ballad is one of the few most frequently found in Virginia, where variously known as "Pretty Polly," "The Seven King's Daughters," "King's Daughter," "The Pretty Gold Leaf," "The Salt Water Sea," "Miss Mary's Parrot," and under several other titles. Its polyonymity is almost equal to its ubiquity - twenty-eight variants under sixteen different titles. In Virginia it does not, however, when compared with" Barbara Allen," "The House Carpenter" and several others quite live up to its reputation of having obtained the widest circulation of all ballads. Child's remarkable introduction to this ballad discusses at some length its extraordinary currency in the southern as well as the northern nations of Europe. Space is also given to a consideration of the hypothesis that the ballad is a wild shoot from the story of Judith and Holofernes, with Holofernes the original of the Elf-Knight. Child concludes; "It is a supposition attended with less difficulty that an independent European tradition existed of a half-human, half-demonic being, who possessed an irresistible power of decoying away young maids, and was wont to kill them after he got them into his hands, but who at last found one who was more than his match, and lost his own life through her craft and courage. A modification of this story is afforded by the large class of Bluebeard tales."
All the Virginia texts correspond much more closely with the Child series C-G (and Sargent and Kittredge H) than to A and B. Warning might perhaps be given of the confusion of Pollies in most of the Virginia texts. The girl and the parrot have the same name and are not always immediately distinguishable.
For American findings of this ballad see Barry, No. 4; Belden, No. 1 (fragment); Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 2-4, 6-12; Campbell and Sharp, No. 2 (Massachusetts, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia); Child, III, 496 (Virginia, from The Folk-Lore Journal, VII, p. 28); Cox, No. I and p. 521 (fragment and melody); Hudson, No. I (Mississippi); Jones, p. 301 (fragment); Journal, XVIII, 132 (Barry, Massachusetts, text and melody); XIX, 232 (Belden, Missouri); XXII, 65 (Beatty, Wisconsin), 76 (Barry, New Jersey, melody only), 374 (Barry, Massachusetts, text and melody, Missouri), 344 (Barry, Massachusetts); XXVII, 90 (Gardner, Michigan); XXVIII, 148 (Perrow, North Carolina); XXXV, 338 (Tolman and Eddy, Ohio); Mackenzie, Ballads, No. I, and p. 391 (melody); Sandburg, P: 60 (R. W. Gordon Collection); Scarborough, p. 43 (Texas, text and melody); Shearin, p. 3; Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Reed Smith, No. I; Reed Smith, Ballads, No. I; Wyman and Brockway, p. 82. For additional references, see Cox, p. 3; Journal, XXIX.
G. "Song Ballad of Pretty Polly." Sent by Mrs. Olin F. Wiley, of Richmond, Va. Witt County. December 1, 1916.
1 " Rise up, rise up, Pretty Polly, rise up,
Rise up, rise up," says he, --
"And I'll take thee to some North Scotland
And there I'll marry thee.
2 "Go get some of your father's gold,
Likewise some of your mother's theme, [1]
I got a horse out of yonder stable
And there stands thirty-three."
3 She mounted on her snowy white horse,
And him the dapple gray;
Straightway they ride for some salt water sea
Three hours before it was day.
4 "Get off, get off, Pretty Polly," says he,
"Get off, get off." says he,
"For six king's daughters have I drownded here,
And those never shall be."
5 "Get out those sickles and cut those nettles
That stand so near the brim,
For fear they tangle in her long yellow hair
And sting her snowy white skin."
6 He got out of those sickles and he cut those nettles
That staid [sic] so near the brim,
For fear they would get tangled in her long yellow hair
And sting her snowy white skin." [2]
7 "Pull off, pull off, those fine silk clothes,
Pull off, pull off," says he,
"For they are too fine and costly too
For to rot in the bottom of the sea."
8 "Turn your back on the leaves of the trees
And your face toward the sea,
Till I pull off my fine silk clothes,
So myself you may not see."
9 He turned his back on the leaves of the trees
And his face toward the sea,
And Pretty Polly with a trembling heart
Threw False William in the sea.
10 "O help me, O help, Pretty Polly," says he,
"Reach down your hand to me,
And I'll take thee to North Scotland
And there I'll marry thee."
11 "Lay there, lay there, False William," says she,
"Lay there, lay there," cried she;
"For six King's daughters have you drownded here,
You with those seven shall be."
12 She mounted on her snowy white horse
And led the dapple gray,
And away she rode to her old father land
An hour before it was day.
Footnotes:
1 Variation of the usual fee.
2 Stanzas 5 and 6 link this version definitely with Child F. It is the only Virginia version that has the sickle and nettle incident. Compare Campbell and Sharp, No. 2, D.