Song called Mollie Bawn- M.L.F. (ME) 1907 JAF; Barry C
[From: Irish Come-All-Ye's by Phillips Barry; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 22, No. 86 (Oct. - Dec., 1909), pp. 374-388. First published in the 1908 self-published book, Folk-Songs of the North Atlantic States under the title, "At the Setting of the Sun," C. Also recently printed in British Ballads from Maine (Second Series) Phillips Barry, Fanny Hardy Eckstorm , Mary Winslow Smyth edited by Pauleena MacDougall; Northeast Folklore Volume XLIV 2011 with these notes:
"Our C-text is a good example of the "ballad mosaic" The first two stanzas belong to a different song, a lovelorn ditty called "The Sailor Lad.” There is a text of it in Pretty Peggy and Other Ballads, edited by Rosina Emmet, Dodd, Mead and Co., New York, 1880, pp. 33, ff. The song was brought to this country by emigrants who in the South, became drivers of Conestoga
wagons in the pre-railroad era. These "wagoner lads", with their rough manners, drunkenness and profanity, but worst of all with their love songs shocked a prim New England Miss of 1810 who journeyed by wagon from Connecticut to Ohio (A Journey to Ohio in 1810, as Recorded in the Journal of Margaret Van Horn Dwight, passim, but especially, p. 48). We regret that she did not take down a few of the songs she so unwittingly overheard; there is no doubt that as early as 1810 "The Sailor Lad" had already been re-created by the wagoners as "The Wagoner Lad," now one of the darling songs of the Southern Highlanders (Sharp-Karpeles, II, 123, ff.)."
As pointed out in the footnotes above and below, this is a hybrid version - the first two stanzas being of the "Sailor's Lad/Wagoner's Lad/If I Were a Blackbird" family. The last stanza not found elsewhere in tradition is valuable in its uniqueness.
R. Matteson 2016]
A typical specimen of a ballad mosaic may here be put in evidence:--
C. "Song Entitled Mollie Bawn"[28]
I. I am a wee lassie whose fortune was low,
To whom I fell a-courting a young sailor boy,
He courted me early, by night and by day,
But now he's gone and left me, he's gone far away,
But now he's gone and left me, he's gone far away!
2. I'll build a wee boatie, I'll build it on shore,
If he ever returns to me, I'll crown him once more,
If he ever returns to me, I'll crown him with joy,
And I'll kiss the ruby lips of my own sailor boy,
And I'll kiss the ruby lips of my own sailor boy.
3. As Mollie went a-walking, a shower it came on,
She went under a green bush, till the shower it was o'er,
Her apron been around her head, I mistook her for a swan,
And by my sad misfortune, I shot Mollie Bawn,
And by my sad misfortune, I shot Mollie Bawn.
4. Oh, Mollie, lovely Mollie, since I have shot you, dear,
Through the wild woods I'll wander, for the sake of you, dear,
Through the wild woods I'll wander, by night and by day,
And I'll never fulfill my rambles, till the moon shines clear day,
And I'll never fulfill my rambles till the moon shines clear day.[29]
Footnotes:
28. "At the Setting of the Sun," C, Folk-Songs of the North Atlantic States, MS., forwarded by M. L. F., Portland, Maine.
29. The theme of this ballad, apart from the first two stanzas, which are from a different source (cf. "The Wagoner Lad," Ballads and Rhymes from Kentucky, by G. L. Kittredge, in this Journal, vol. xx, p. 268), is the Supernatural-Lover (bird or fish). It is found also in "The Earl of Mar's Daughter" and "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry." In both is mention made of killing the supernatural being when in the non-human shape. Another variant is the Irish folk-tale, "The Mermaid."