THE BRITISH TRADITIONAL BALLAD IN NORTH AMERICA
[This was written in 1950- there's been additional scholarship and other traditional versions since. This page has the title page, contents, dedication, introduction, bibliography and index. The other three sections are attached as pages on the left hand column (Click to open). R. Matteson 2011]
-----------------------------------------
Title Page
THE BRITISH TRADITIONAL BALLAD IN NORTH AMERICA
TRISTRAM R. COFFIN
PHILADELPHIA
THE AMERICAN FOLKLORE SOCIETY
1950
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY
AMERICAN FOLKLORE SOCIETY INC.
PRINTED IN GERMANY
BY J.J.AUGUSTIN, GLttCKSTADT
------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION xi- xvi
A DESCRIPTION OF VARIATION IN THE TRADITIONAL BALLAD OF AMERICA 1-21
FOOTNOTES 21-25
A CRITICAL, BIBLIOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF THE TRADITIONAL BALLAD OF AMERICA 27-162
AN INDEX TO BORROWING IN THE TRADITIONAL BALLADS OF AMERICA 163-169
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 171-181
INDEX TO BALLADS DISCUSSED 183-188
---------------------------------------
Dedication
TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER:
TRISTRAM ROBERTS COFFIN
---------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this book, as it covers the field to May 1950, is to offer the ballad scholar, and particularly the student of ballad variation, a key to the published material on the Child ballad [1] in America. The task has been approached with the study of change and development in mind, although the actual presentation is one of bibliography, reference, and description.
Variation is one of the most rewarding and important subjects that the American folk song scholar can investigate. In the alterations and modifications that are to be found in the New World versions and variants of traditional British ballad texts are probably hidden the answers to three of folklore's seemingly insolvable questions: how did folk poetry originate, what
are the methods by which successions of ignorant and semi-ignorant people produce art, and what is the history of the arrival and subsequent spread of British songs in America? That the answers to these questions can ever be conclusively learned is doubtful. That they never can be conclusively learned from the studies so far completed is certain. [2]
Two major steps are to be taken in assembling the evidence which may eventually bring us closer to the solution of these problems: the collection of texts, and the detailed study and correlation of the material collected. The first step is nearly completed in this country. Under the impetus supplied by the great students of the last two generations, Child himself, Kittredge, Barry, John Lomax, Hudson, Belden, and their fellows, the surviving songs of American and Anglo-American balladry are nearly all in print, on records, or in the various archives in a large variety of forms. Although further collection will and should continue, its hey-day is past. In the words of a Tennessee informant,
We don't sing many of the old songs now. Radio has come in and we have to keep up with Flat Foot Floogie . . . [3]
Of necessity, folk students of this and the next generation must attempt to complete the second step. Pioneer work in the field of textual and melodic study and correlation has been going on for some time, but the dent made in the material by men such as Barry, Bayard, Parker and Bronson, as well as their fellows like Jansen and Zielonko, is in truth small. [4] Few scholars have concentrated on the field, although in it there is work for lifetimes of study. Perhaps, the reason for such sporadic interest lies in the difficulty and time wasted in locating texts and tunes. American folk songs are scattered through a thousand books and libraries.
It is hoped that the work that follows will greatly simplify the task of the textual scholar. Thus, the introductory description of variation, and the subsequent bibliographies, studies, charts and reports are not designed to reveal a thesis, but rather to present factually the material of and the completed scholarship on the Child ballad in America. My hope is that, once the
way is opened, others may find it easier to produce the many detailed textual studies and analyses of small areas that will eventually lead to more objective remarks concerning the major problems of ballad origin, art, and history than it is now and has been possible to make.
To claim my work is complete would be foolhardy, although completeness has been my aim. Obscure newspaper columns, privately printed material, and other such publications are bound to include material on the American Child ballad that I have missed. [5] Nevertheless, I am confident that I have covered the field in a fashion that is close enough to completeness to serve the same end.
In the preparation of a compilation of this scope, I have found it expedient to draw certain arbitrary boundaries. Thus, I have confined myself, with a very few important exceptions, to material published from oral tradition, excluding phonograph records, archive collections, anthologies of previously printed texts that contain no editorial comment of significance, and collections of previously printed songs arranged for singing. The ballads to be found in the two former classifications are generally catalogued and indexed by the specific institutions through which they can be obtained, and works of the latter sort offer nothing not included by my prescribed limits. It migjit be noted at this point, however, that I have included as a service some references to broadside and songbook texts in my individual bibliographies, although no effort has been made to make a complete list of references of this sort.
This work is composed of four major parts. Three of these, the descriptive essay on ballad variation, the chart of inter-ballad corruption, and the general bibliography are self-explanatory, but the main body of the dissertation needs some clarification. In this section, the ballads are listed consecutively under their Child numbers, with an individual bibliography, the local
American titles, and the American story types following. In using the bibliographies, five points should be kept in mind.
1.) The titles of the books are abbreviated in such a way that their identification in the General Bibliography at the end, where dates of edition and places of publication are given, is easily made.
2.) As a series of versions or variants of a ballad is often published in a periodical and later only one or two texts from such a series is reprinted in a book or different magazine, I have found it very misleading to indicate the separate bibliographical references that cite identical texts. Consequently, I have avoided making such indications. Nevertheless, even though most editors indicate when and where their texts have previously appeared, the student working with the individual bibliographies should keep overlapping in mind, particularly with reference to material collected by Barry, Belden, Brewster, Cox, Eddy, Henry, MacKenzie, Tolman, and the other consistent workers, some of whom have printed texts two or three times over. Likewise, it should be remembered that the Child ballads in early books by a certain scholar often are reprinted in later works by the same man or in later, larger editions of the same book.
3.) References to obscure newspapers and privately printed works are not given when the songs included in them have been reprinted in easily obtainable sources.
4.) No references are given to British or European versions of the songs, unless such references are pertinent to the American tradition. However, Phillips Barry, H. M. Belden, Paul Brewster, J. Harrington Cox, and Cecil Sharp have placed such lists in their collections and, between them, include Old World bibliographies to most of the Child ballads that appear in this country.
5.) It may be noted by a reader that certain references included in previously published bibliographies of individual ballads have been omitted from my lists. These references will prove to be to ballad titles and not to texts. My bibliographies confine themselves to texts, with a few obvious and notable exceptions such as the Michigan list of Bertrand Jones, the Shearin & Combs Kentucky Syllabus, and the Louise Pound Nebraska Syllabus.
In connection with the local titles under which the various ballads appear, I have had to trust the various editors in my attempts to distinguish labels from actual names.
The "story types" into which I have divided the American versions and variants are arbitrary classes based on differences in plot and mood. Story variation, as opposed to variation of the actual texts, or textual variation, is a vital and generally neglected part of ballad study. The story of a folk song only exists at the length and with the dramatic mood at which that
song is remembered. What it was, and even what it will be, are unimportant while it is being passed along. Thus, new ballads grow from the old, and the ways of folk art reveal themselves with respect to plot and mood, just as they do with respect to text.
Within my story classifications, no attempt has been made to distinguish specific textual variation. Such a task is too particular for a work of this sort. In many cases, the information can be had by consulting the individual collections. [6] The representative examples of the story types have been cited from the most easily obtainable and extensive works, wherever possible, in order to facilitate the task of the reader who wishes to refer to an actual text. And versions that borrow material from other songs have been considered to create new story types only where I feel that the borrowing has affected the
mood or plot of the original song.
Finally, I should like to express my appreciation of the assistance and cooperation extended me by the various libraries which I worked in, corresponded with, or had access to through the inter-library loan service, and, in particular, to thank the staffs of the Bryn Mawr College Library, the Brown University Library, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Harvard University Library, and the University of Pennsylvania Library. I am indebted to Dr. H. M. Belden, who wrote me willingly in connection with the F. C. Brown Collection; to Dr. W. Edson Richmond, whose project some of my work has overlapped; to Mr. Horace P. Beck, for bringing to my attention two interesting variants ; and to Dr. E. Sculley Bradley, Dr. Joseph Carriere, Dr. Malcolm Laws, Mr. Lynn Hummel, Dr. Samuel P. Bayard, Mrs. Tristram R. Coffin, Miss Ruth Robinson, Mr. Thomas P. Crolius, Mrs. James A. Schnaars, and Mr. William L. Hedges for their various services and courtesies. Most of all, however, I wish to state my gratitude to Dr. MacEdward Leach, who conceived and directed my thesis, and to my wife, who did some labo-
rious work throughout its preparation.
FOOTNOTES------------------------------------
1 The "traditional" or "Child" ballads are those songs that are included in Francis J. Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. His system of numbering has been observed.
2 It seems to me here that Gummere, Kittredge, and the rest of the ''communal school" went astray, for they attempted to come to definite conclusions that they could not have believed had they waited for all the evidence to be in.
3 Robert Mason, Folk Songs and Folk Tales of Cannon County, p. 14.
4 See Phillips Barryj British Ballads from Maine; the discussions of Samuel Bayard and Harbison Parker on the Johnny Collins tradition in JAFL, LVIII, 73 ff. and LX, 265 ff.; the unpublished melodic index of Child ballad music in America being prepared by B. H. Bronson; William Jansen's discussion of The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin in HFLQ 9 IV, 4^3, p. 41 ff.; Jane Zielonko's Master's Thesis Some American Variants of Child Ballads; and other such works.
5 I have been unable to study two collections of American folk songs : Lucy Cobb, Traditional Ballads and Songs of East North Carolina, Doctoral Dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1927 and Bess Owens, Some Unpublished Folk Songs of the Cumberland, Master's Thesis, George Peabody College, 1930.
6 A. K. Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia; Barry's BESSNE articles and his British Battads from Maine; J. H. Cox, Folk Songs of the South; H. M. Belden, Folk Songs of Missouri; W. R. MacKenzie, Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia; A. P. Hudson, Folk Songs of Mississippi; P. J. Brewster, Ballads and Songs of Indiana; V. Randolph, Ozark Folk Songs; and H. H. Flanders, New Green Mountain Songster are particularly good in including such correlation.
----------------------------------------
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PUBLICATIONS USED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS STUDY
A deck-List of Recorded Songs in the English Language in the Archive of American Song to
January 1943. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 19423.
Adler, Kurt. Songs of Many Wars, N.Y., 1943.
Allen, Jules V. Cowboy Lore, San Antonio, 1933.
Anderson, Geneva. A Collection of Ballads and Songs from East Tennessee, Master's Thesis,
University of North Carolina, 1932.
Anderson, Robert, Works of the British Poets, 14 vols., Edinburgh, 1795.
Barbeau, Marius. Folk Songs of French Canada, New Haven, 1925.
Barbour, Frances M. Six Ballads of the Ozark Mountains, Radcliffe College, 1929.
Baring-Gould, S. and Sheppard, H. Fleetwood. (Sharp, C. : musical ed.). Songs of the West,
London, 1905.
Barnes, Ruth. 1 Hear America Singing, Philadelphia, 1937.
Barry, Phillips. Ancient British Ballads, a privately printed list,
Barry, Phillips (with Eckstrom, Fannie H. and Smyth, Mary W.). British Ballads from
Maine, New Haven, 1929.
Barry, Phillips. Maine Woods Songster, Cambridge, Mass., 1939.
Beck, Earl C. Lore of the Lumberjack, Ann Arbor, 1948.
Beck, Earl C. Songs of the Michigan Lumberjacks, Ann Arbor, 1941.
Beckwith, Martha. Folklore in America, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 1931.
Belden, H. M. A Partial List of Song Ballads and Other Poetry Known in Missouri (Second
Edition), 1910.
Belden, H. M. Missouri Folk Songs (University of Missouri Studies, Vol. XV), 1940.
Blades, W. C. Negro Poems, Melodies, etc., Boston, 1921.
Boatright, Mody C. Backwoods to Border, Dallas, 1943.
Botkin, Benjamin. American Play Party Song, Lincoln, 1937.
Botkin, Benjamin. Treasury of American Folklore, New York, 1944.
Botkin, Benjamin. Treasury of New England Folklore, New York, 1947.
Botsford, Florence. Songs of the Americas, New York, n. d.
Bowles, Paul F. American Folk Songs, New York, 1940.
Broadwood, Lucy. English Traditional Songs and Carols, London, 1908.
Brews ter, Paul G. Ballads and Songs of Indiana, Bloomington, Ind., 1940.
Brown, F. C. A Collection of North Carolina Folklore to be published soon.
Bums, Robert. Complete Poems (Cambridge Edition), Cambridge, Mass., 1897.
Cambiaire, Celeste P. East Tennessee and Western Virginia Mountain Ballads, London, 1935.
Carmer, Carl L. America Sings, New York, 1942.
Chadwick, H. M. and N. K. The Growth of Literature, Cambridge, Eng., 1932.
Chambers, Robert. The Songs in Scotland Prior to Burns, Edinburgh, 1890.
Chappell, Louis W. Folk Songs of the Roanoke and Alhemarle, Morgantown, W. Va., 1939.
Chappie, J. M. (ed.) Heart Songs, Boston, 1909.
Chase, Richard. Old Songs and Singing Games, Chapel Hill, N. C, 1938.
Chase, Richard. Traditional Ballads, Songs, and Games, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1935.
173
174 British Traditional Ballad in North America
Child, Francis J. "Ballad Poetry" in Johnson's Universal Cyclopaedia, Vol. I., 1893.
Child, Francis J. English and Scottish Popular Ballads (edited by Kittredge, G. L. and
Sargent, H. C.), Cambridge Edition, Cambridge, Mass., 1904.
Child, Francis J. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 5 Vols., Boston, 188298.
Coffin, Robert P. T. Lost Paradise, New York, 1934.
Colcord, Joanna. Roll and Go, Indianapolis, 1924.
Colcord, Joanna. Songs of American Sailormen, New York, 1938.
Coleman, Satis and Bregman, Adolph. Songs of American Folk, New York, 1942.
Combs, Josiah. Folk Songs du Midi Etats-Unis, Paris, 1926.
Combs, Josiak Folk Songs of the Kentucky Highlands, New York, 1939.
Cox, John H. Folk Songs of the South, Cambridge, Mass., 1925.
Cox, John H. Traditional Ballads Mainly from West Virginia, New York, 1939.
Crabtree, Lillian G. Songs and Ballads Sung in Overton County, Master's Thesis, George Peabody College, Nashville, 1936.
Creighton, Helen. Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, Toronto, 1933.
Cunningham, Allan. The Songs of Scotland, 4 Vols., London, 1825.
Cutting, Edith. Lore of an Adirondack County (Cornell Studies in American History, Literature, and Folklore, I), Ithaca, N.Y.
Davis, Arthur K. Folk Songs of Virginia, Durham, 1949.
Davis, Arthur K. Traditional Ballads of Virginia, Cambridge, Mass., 1929.
Dean, M. C. The Flying Cloud, etc., Quickpoint, Virginia, Minn., 1922.
Deutsch, Leonhard. Treasury of the World? s Finest Folk Songs, New York, 1942.
Dobie, J. Frank (ed.). Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, Austin, 191 iff.
Dolph, Edward A. Sound Off, New York, 1942.
Downes, Olin and Siegmeister, Elie. Treasury of American Song, New York, 1940.
Duncan, Ruby. Ballads and Folk Songs in North Hamilton County, Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1939.
Eckstrom, Fannie H. and Smyth, Mary W. Minstrelsy of Maine, Boston, 1927.
Eddy, Mary O. Ballads and Songs from Ohio, New York, 1939.
Emerich, Duncan. Casey Jones and Other Ballads of the Mining West, Denver, 1942.
Ent-wistle, William J. European Balladry, Oxford, 1939.
Farwell, Arthur. Folk Songs of the West and South, Newton Center, Mass., 1905.
Fauset, Arthur H. Folklore from Nova Scotia, MAFLS, XXIV, New York, 1931.
Flanders, Helen H., etc. Country Songs of Vermont, New York, 1937.
Flanders, Helen H. Garland of Green Mountain Song, Boston, 1934.
Flanders, Helen H.; Ballard, Elizabeth F., Brown, George; and Barry, Phillips. New Green
Mountain Songster, New Haven, 1939.
Flanders, Helen H. & Brown, George. Vermont Folk Songs and Ballads, Brattleboro, Vt.,
Finger, Charles J. Frontier Ballads, New York, 1927.
Folk Song Bibliography of the New Tork Public Library, New York, 1907.
Ford, Ira. Traditional Music of America. New York, 1940.
Ford, Worthington C. Broadsides, Ballads, etc. in Massachusetts, 16391800, (Massachusetts
Historical Society Collection, Vol. LXXV), Boston, 1922.
Fuson, Harvey H. Ballads of the Kentucky Highlands, London, 1931.
Gable, J. Harris. A Bibliography of Robin Hood, Lincoln, 1939.
Gardner, Emelyn E. Folklore from the Schoharie Hills, Ann Arbor, 1937,
General Bibliography 175
Gardner, Emelyn E. and Chickering, Geraldine J. Ballads and Songs oj Southern Michigan,
Ann Arbor, 1939.
Garrison, Theodore. Forty-five Searcy County Songs, Master's Thesis, University of Arkansas,
1939.
Gerould, Gordon. The Ballad of Tradition, Oxford, 1932.
Gilbert, Douglas. Lost Chords, Garden City, 194.2.
Goethe, Johann W. Sdmtliche Werke, Stuttgart, 18545.
Gomme, Alice. Traditional Games (Vols. I and II in Dictionary of British Folk Lore, Part I),
London, 1894.
Gordon, Robert W. Folk Songs of America, National Service Bureau Publication, 1938.
Gray, Roland P. Songs and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjacks, Cambridge, Mass., 1924.
Green, Charles P. Ballads of the Black Hills, Hot Springs, Va., 1930.
Green Mountain Songster (in possession of Harold Rugg, a librarian at the Dartmouth College
Library), Sandgate, Vt., 1823.
Greenleaf, Elisabeth B. and Mansfield, Grace Y. Ballads and Sea Songs cf Newfoundland,
Cambridge, Mass., 1924.
Greig, Gavin. Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads (ed. A. Keith), Aberdeen, 1925.
Gummere, Francis J. Ballads (in CHEL, Chapert 17), Cambridge, Mass., 1908.
Gummere, Francis J. Old English Ballads, New York, 1894.
Gummere, Francis J. The Popular Ballad, New York, 1902.
Halliwell, James O. Nursery Rhymes of England, London, 1874.
Halliwell, James O. Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, London, 1849.
Hannum, Alberta P. Thursday April, New York, 1931.
Hart, Walter M. Ballad and Epic, Boston, 1907.
Hart, Walter M. English Popular Ballad, New York, 1916.
Haufrecht, Herbert (ed.) The Wayfarin 9 Stranger, New York, 1945.
Haun, Mildred. Cocke County Ballads and Songs, Master's Thesis, Vanderbilt University,
Hendren, Joseph W. A Study of Ballad Rhythm, Princeton, N. J., 1936.
Henry, Mellinger. A Bibliography of American Folk Songs, London, 1937.
Henry, Mellinger. Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands, New York, 1938.
Henry, Mellinger. Songs Sung in the Southern Appalachians, London, 1934.
Henry, Mellinger and Matteson, Maurice. Twenty-nine Beech Mountain Folk Songs and
Ballads, New York, 1936.
Hudson, Arthur P. Folk Songs of Mississippi and their Background, Chapel Hill, N. C., 1936.
Hudson, Arthur P.: Herzog, George; Halpert, Herbert. Folk Tunes from Mississippi, New
York, 1937.
Hudson, Arthur P. Specimens of Mississippi Folklore, 1928.
Hummel, Lynn E. Ozark Folk Songs, Master's Thesis, University of Missouri, 1936.
Hustvedt, Sigurd B. Ballad Books and Ballad Men, Cambridge, Mass., 1930.
Jackson, George P. Down-East Spirituals, New York, 1939.
Jackson, George P. Spiritual Folk Songs of Early America, New York, 1937.
Jackson, George P, White and Negro Spirituals, New York, 1943.
Jackson, George P. White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands, Chapel Hill, N. C, 1934.
Jeckyll, Walter. Jamaican Song and Story, London, 1907.
Johnson, Guy B. John Henry, Chapel Hill, N. C, 1929.
Johnson, Guy B* and Odum, Howard W. Negro Workaday Songs, Chapel Hill, N, C., 1926.
Ij6 British Traditional Ballad in North America
Johnson, Guy B. and Odum, Howard W. The Negro and bis Songs, Chapel Hill, N. C., 1925.
Jones, Bertrand L. Folklore in Michigan (reprinted from the Kalamazoo Normal Record,
May 1914, Western State Normal School, Kalamazoo, Mich.)
Jordan, Philip D. Singing Tankees, Minneapolis, 1946.
Karpeles, Maud. Folk Songs from Newfoundland, Oxford, 1934.
Kennedy, Tolbert H. Cultural Effects of Isolation on a Homogeneous Rural Area, Doctoral
Dissertation, George Peabody College, Nashville, 1942.
(Kentucky Counties Songs). Songs Collected by Workers of the Federal Music Project (WPA)
in Boyd, Floyd, and Rowan Counties, Ky. Mss. New York Public Library, 1938.
Ker, William P. Epic and Romance, London, 1908.
Ker, William P. On the History of Ballads in Vol. IV of Proceedings of the British Academy.
Kincaid, Bradley. Favorite Mountain Ballads and Old Time Songs, Chicago, 1928.
Kolb, John and Kolb, Sylvia. A Treasury of Folk Song (a Bantam Book), New York, 1948.
Korson, George P. Pennsylvania Songs and Legends, Philadelphia, 1949*
Lane, Rose. Cindy, New York, 1928.
Lane, Rose. Hill Billy, New York, 1926.
Larkin, Margaret. Singing Cowboy, New York, 1931.
Lawrence, Dorothy D. Folklore Music Map of the United States, New York, 1946.
Leach, MacEdward and Beck, Horace. Mss. copies of folk songs and ballads collected in
Virginia. To be published in JAFL.
Lengyel, Cornel. A San Francisco Songster (History of Music in San Francisco Series, II),
Linscott, Eloise H. Folk Songs of Old New England, New York, 1939.
Loesser, Arthur. Humor in American Song, New York, 1942.
Logan, W. H. A Pedlar's Pack of Ballads and Songs, Edinburgh, 1869.
Lomax, Alan and Colwell, S. A. American Folk Song and Folklore (A Regional Bibliography),
New York, 1942.
Lomax, John and Lomax, Alan. American Ballads and Folk Songs, New York, 1941.
Lomax, John. Adventures of a Ballad Hunter, New York, 1947.
Lomax, John. Cowboy Songs, New York, 1910.
Lomax, John and Lomax, Alan. Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, New York, 1938.
Lomax, John. Folk Song U.S.A., New York, 1947*
Lomax, John and Lomax, Alan. Negro Folk Songs by Leadbelly, New York, 1936.
Lomax, John and Lomax, Alan. Our Singing Country, New York, 1941.
Lomax, John. Songs of the Cattle Trail and Cow Camp, New York, 1919.
Lunsford, Bascom and Stringfield, Lamar. Thirty and One Folk Songs from the Southern
Mountains, New York, 1929.
Luther, Frank. Americans and Their Songs, New York, 1942.
MacCaskey, J. P. Franklin Square Song Collection, New York, 1887.
Macintosh, David S. Some Representative Southern Illinois Folk Songs, Iowa City, 1935.
MacKenzie, W. Roy. Ballads and Sea-Songs from Nova Scotia, Cambridge, Mass,, 1928.
MacKenzie, W. Roy. Quest of the Ballad, Princeton, N.J., 1919.
Mason, Robert. Folk Songs and Folk Tales of Cannon County, Master's Thesis, George Pea-
body College, Nashville, 1939.
Mattfeld, Julius. Folk Music of the Western Hemisphere, New York Public Library,
McCarthy, Helen. Return of the Dead, Master's Thesis. Brown University, 1937.
General Bibliography ijj
McDonald, Grant. A Study of Selected Folk Songs of Missouri, Master's Thesis, University
of Iowa, 1939.
Me Gill, Josephine. Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, New York, 1917.
Miller, George M. The Dramatic Element in the Popular Ballad, Cincinnati, 1905.
Minish, Maude. Mss. notebooks in the Harvard University Library.
Morris, Alton C. Folk Songs of Florida and Their Cultural Background, Doctoral Dissertation,
University of North Carolina, 1941.
Musick, Ruth. Folklore In and Near Kirksville, Missouri, Ms. to be published.
Neal, Mabel. Brown County Songs and Ballads, Master's Thesis, University of Indiana, 1926.
Neely, Charles and Spargo, J. W. Tales and Songs of Southern Illinois, Menosha, Wise., 1938.
Neeser, Robert W. American Naval Songs and Ballads, New Haven, 1938.
Newell, William W. Games and Songs of American Children, New York, 1883.
Niles, John J. Anglo-American Ballad Study Book, New York, 1945.
Niles, John J. Ballads, Carols, and Tragic Legends, New York, 1938.
Niles, John J. Ballads, Love Songs, and Tragic Legends, New York, 1937.
Niles, John J. More Songs of the Hill Folk, New York, 1936.
Niles, John J. Seven Kentucky Mountain Tunes, New York, 1928.
Niles, John J. Songs of the Hill Folk, New York, 1934.
Northcote, Sydney. The Ballad in Music, New York, 1941.
Notes jrom the Pine Mountain Settlement School, Harlan County, Ky., 1935.
Owen, Mary. Voodoo Tales, New York, 1893.
Owens, William A. Southwest Sings, Austin, 1941.
Owens, William A. Studies in Texas Folk Song, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Iowa,
1941.
Parsons, Elsie C. Folklore of the Antilles, MAFLA, XXVI, New York, 1933.
Parsons, Elsie C. Folklore of the Cape Verde Islands, MAFLS, XV (2 vols.), New York, 1923.
Parsons, Elsie C. Folklore of the Sea Islands, MAFLS, XVI, New York, 1923.
Parsons, Elsie C. Folk Tales of the Andros Islands, MAFLS, XIII, New York, 1918.
Perry, Henry W. A Sampling of the Folklore of Carter County, Master's Thesis, George Pea-
body College, Nashville, 1938.
Pound, Louise. American Ballads and Songs, New York, 1922.
Pound, Louise. Folk Song of Nebraska and the Central West. A Syllabus.
Pound, Louise. Poetic Origins and the Ballad, New York, 1921.
Powell, John. Five Virginia Folk Songs, New York, n. d.
Raine, James W. Land of the Saddle Bags, Texarkana, 1924.
Ramsay, Allan. Tea-Table Miscellany, London, 1733.
Randolph, Vance. Ozark Folk Songs, Vol. I, Columbia Mo., 1946.
Randolph, Vance. Ozark Mountain Folk, New York, 1932.
Randolph, Vance. The Ozarks, New York, 1931.
Rayburn, O. E. Ozark Country, New York, 1941.
Rickaby, Franz. Ballads and Songs of the Shanty-Boy, Cambridge, Mass., 1926.
Richardson, Ethel P. American Mountain Songs, New York, 1927.
Richmond, W. Edson. Place Names in the English and Scottish Popular Ballads and Their
American Variants, Doctoral Dissertation, Ohio State University, 1947.
Ring, Constance V. Mid-Hudson Song and Verse. An unpublished manuscript.
178 British Traditional Ballad in North America
Ring, Lyle R. New England Folk Songs, Boston, 1934.
Roberts, Elizabeth M. The Great Meadow, New York, 1930.
Sandburg, Carl. Tie American Songbag, New York, 1927.
Sears, Minnie E. and Crawford, Phyllis. Song Index, New York, 1926.
Scarborough, Dorothy. On the Trail of Negro Folk Songs, Cambridge, Mass., 1925.
Scarborough, Dorothy. Songcatcher in the Southern Mountains, New York, 1937.
Scott, Thomas J. Sing of America, New York, 194.7.
Scott, Sir Walter. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, New York, 1902.
Sharp, Cecil. English Folk Songs, 2 vols., London, 1921.
Sharp, Cecil. English Folk Songs: Some Conclusions, London, 1907.
Sharp, Cecil, zoo English Folk Songs, New York, 1916.
Sharp, Cecil and Campbell, Olive. English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, New
York, 1917.
Sharp, Cecil and Karpeles, Maud. English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 2 vols.,
Oxford, 1932.
Shay, Frank. American Sea Songs and Chanties, New York, 1948.
Shay, Frank. Deep Sea Chanties, London, 1925.
Shay, Frank. Drawn from the Wood, New York, 1929.
Shay, Frank. Iron Men and Wooden Ships, New York, 1925.
Shay, Frank. More Pious Friends and Drunken Companions, New York, 1928.
Shay, Frank. My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions, New York, 1927.
Shearin, Hubert and Combs, Josiah. A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk Song (Transylvania
Studies in English, Lexington, Ky.), 1911.
Sheppard, Muriel. Cabins in the Laurel, Chapel Hill, N. C, 1935.
Sherwin, Sterling. Singin in the Saddle, Boston, 1944.
Shoemaker, Henry W. North Pennsylvania Minstrelsy, Altoona Pa., 1923. (Mention! s also
made of the 1919 edition in connection with The Mermaid.}
Shoemaker, Henry W. Mountain Minstrelsy (a third edition of North Pennsylvania Min-
strelsy), Philadelphia, Pa., 1931.
Sidgwick, Frank. The Ballad, London, 1914.
Siegmeister, Elie. Songs of Early America, New York, 1944.
Siegmeister, Elie. Work and Sing, New York, 1943.
Skeat, Walter W. Tale of Gamelyn, Oxford, 1884.
Spaeth, Sigmund. Read 'em and Weep, New York, 1 927.
Spaeth, Sigmund. Weep Some More My Lady, New York, 1927.
Smith, R. A. The Scotish Minstrel, 6 vols., Edinburgh, 18204.
Smith, Reed. South Carolina Ballads, Cambridge, Mass., 1928,
Smith, Reed and Rufty, H. An American Anthology of Old World Ballads, New York, 1 937.
Stegemeir, Henri. The Dance of Death in Folk Song, Chicago, 1939.
Stewart, George R. The Technique of English Verse, New York, 1930.
Stout, Earl J. Folklore from Iowa, MAFLS, XXIX, New York, 1936.
Stringfield, Lamar. America and her Music (University of North Carolina Extension Bulletin,
X, #7), March 1931.
Sturgis, Edith B. and Hughes, Robert. Songs from the Hills of Vermont, New York, 1919.
Summers, Montague. History of Witchcraft and Demonology, New York, 1926,
Thomas, Jean. Ballad Makin* in the Mountains of Kentucky, New York, 1939.
Thomas, Jean. Blue Ridge Country, New York, 1942.
General Bibliography
Thomas, Jean. DeviFs Ditties, Chicago, 1931.
Thomas, Jean. Singin 9 Fiddler, New York, 1938.
Thomas, Jean. The Singin 9 Gathering New York, 1939.
Thompson, Harold W. Body, Boots, and Britches, New York, 1940.
Thompson, Stith. Motif Index to Folklore, Bloomington, Ind., 19327.
The Vagabonds: Old Cabin Songs of 'the Fiddle and Bow, n. p., n. d.
Wells, Carolyn. A Parody Anthology >, New York, 1904.
Wetmore, Susannah and Bartholomew, Marshall. Mountain Songs of North Carolina, New
York, n. d.
Wheeler, Mary. Kentucky Mountain Folk Songs, Boston, 1937.
White, Newman I. American Negro Folk Songs, Cambridge, Mass., 1928.
Whittier, John G. Tankee Gypsies in Prose Works, Boston, 1889.
Williams, Alfred. Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, London, 1923.
Williams, Alfred M. Studies in Folk Song and Popular Poetry, New York, 1894.
Wilson, H. R. Songs of the Hills and Plains, Chicago, 1943.
Wilson, Charles M. Backwoods America, Chapel Hill, N. C., 1934.
Wimberly, Lowry C. Death and Burial Lore in the English and Scottish Popular Ballads,
Lincoln, 1927.
Wimberly, Lowry C. Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads, Chicago, 1928.
Wimberly, Lowry C. Minstrelsy, Music, and the Dance in the English and Scottish Popular
Ballads, Lincoln, 1921.
Wyman, Loraine and Brockway, Howard. Lonesome Tunes, Folk Songs from the Kentucky
Mountains, New York, 1916.
Wyman, Loraine and Brockway, Howard. Twenty Kentucky Mountain Songs, Boston, 1920.
Zielonko, Jane. Some American Variants of Child Ballads, Master's Thesis, Columbia Uni-
versity, 1945.
PERIODICALS
(For references to specific articles consulted see the individual bibliographies and discussions
under the various ballads.)^
Adventure, New York.
Advertiser, Aurora, Mo.
American Speech, Baltimore.
Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pa.
Arizona Quarterly, Tuscoru
Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Fayetteville, Ark.
An World, New York.
Ballad Society Publications, London.
Ballads Surviving in the United States, a Ballad Circular, Department of Public Instruction
of Virginia, 1916.
Bangor Daily News, Bangor, Me.
Berea Quarterly, Berea, Ky.
Blackwoofs Magazine, Edinburgh.
Boletin Latino-Americano de Musica, Montevideo.
Bookworm, London.
Boston Evening Transcript, Boston.
13*
180 British Traditional Ballad in North America
Boston Sunday Globe, Boston.
Bulletin of the Folk Song Society of the Northeast, Cambridge, Mass. (BFSSNEJ.
Bulletin of the Tennessee Folklore Society, Marysville, Term.
Bulletin of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.
California Arts and Architecture, San Francisco.
California Folklore Quarterly (now Western Folklore Quarterly}, Berkeley, Calif. (CFLO).
Caravan, Washington, D. C.
Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N. C.
Dalbousie Review, Halifax, N. Sc.
Detroit News, Detroit.
Direction, Darien, Conn.
German Quarterly, Lancaster, Pa.
Greensboro Daily News, Greensboro, N. C.
English Journal, Chicago.
Etude, Philadelphia.
Explicator, Fredricksburg, Va.
Farm Life, Spencer, Ind.
Focus, Farmville, Va.
Folk-Lore, London.
Folklore Fellows Communications, Helsingfors. (FFC).
Folk-Lore Journal, London.
Folk Say, Norman, Oklahoma.
Golden Book, New York.
Grapurcbat, East Radford State Teacher's College, Va.
Harper's Magazine, New York.
Hoosier Folklore Quarterly, Bloomington, Ind. (HFLQ).
Illinois State Historical Society Journal, Springfield, 111.
Journal of American Folklore, Boston, Lancaster, Pa., and New York. (JAFL).
Journal of the Folk Song Society, London. (JFSS).
Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Dublin.
Midwest Quarterly (Nebraska University), New York.
Missouri Historical Society Bulletin, St. Louis.
Modern Language Notes, Baltimore. (MLN).
Modern Language Quarterly, Seattle. (MLQ).
Modern Language Review, Cambridge, Eng. (MLR).
Modern Philology, Chicago.
Musical America, New York.
Music Educator's Journal, Madison, Wise, and Ann Arbor, Mich,
Musical Quarterly, New York
Music Teacher's National Association Papers.
Narragansett Times, Wakefield, R. I.
Nation, New York.
General Bibliography l8l
Nebraska Academy of Sciences Publications, Lincoln.
Nebraska Folklore Pamphlets, Lincoln.
New Jersey Journal of Edwation, New Egypt, N. J. and Newark, N. J.
New Republic, New York.
New Tork Folklore Quarterly, Ithaca, N. Y. (NTFLQ).
New Tork Sunday Times, Magazine Section, New York.
New Tork Tribune, New York.
North American Review, Boston and New York.
North Carolina Booklet, Raliegh, N. C.
Outlook, New York.
Ozark Life, Kingston, Ark.
Publications of the Modern Language Association, New York. (PMLA).
Publications of the Texas Folklore Society. See Dobie, J. Frank (ed.). (PTFLS).
Sewanee Review, Sewanee, Tenn.
Singer's Journal, Henry de Marsan, New York.
Southern Folklore Quarterly, GainsviUe, Fla. (SFLQ).
Speculum, Cambridge, Mass.
Springfield Sunday Union and Republican, Springfield, Mass.
Survey, New York.
Texas Folklore Society Bulletin, Austin.
Travel, New York.
University of Kansas Publications, Humanistic Studies, Lawrence, Kans.
University of Virginia Magazine, Charlottesville, Va.
Vermont Historical Society, Proceedings, New Series, Montpelier, Vt.
Virginia Folklore Society Bulletin, Charlottesville, Va.
Western Folklore, Berkeley, Calif. (WF).
West Virginia School Journal and Educator, Morgantown, W. Va.
West Virginia University Studies, III (Philological Papers, II), Morgantown, W. Va.
William and Mary Literary Magazine, Williamsburg, Va.
------------------------------------------------
INDEX TO BALLADS DISCUSSED
INDEX TO BALLADS DISCUSSED
Andrew Lammie
Archie o Cawfield
Babylon ................................................................... 46
The Baffled Knight ......................................................... I0 3
The Bailiffs Daughter of Islington ............................................ 101
Bessy Bell and Mary Gray ................................................... I2 ^
The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood ............................................ 107
Bonnie Annie .............................................................. 51
Bonny Barbara Allen ....................................................... 87
Bonny Bee Horn ........................................................... 94
The Bonny Earl of Murray .................................................. 117
The Bonnie House of Airlie .................................................. 119
Bonnie James Campbell ..................................................... 128
The Braes of Yarrow ........................................................ 129
The Broom of Cowdenknowes ................................................ 132
The Broomfield Hill ........................................................ 57
The Brown Girl ............................................................ 159
Captain Car (Edom o Gordon) ............................................... 117
Captain Ward and the Rainbow .............................................. 155
Captain Wedderburn's Courtship .......................................... . . . 59
The Cherry-Tree Carol ...................................................... 65
Child Maurice .............................................................. 86
Child Waters ............................................................... 70
Clerk Colvill ............................................................... 57
The Crafty Farmer ......................................................... 151
The Cruel Brother .......................................................... 42
The Cruel Mother ... ........................................................ 50
The Death of Queen Jane ................................................... n5
Dick o the Cow .......................................................... ti8
Dives and Lazarus ................. . ........................................ 67
Earl Brand ................................................................ 3S
Edward ................................................................... 45
The Elfin Knight ........................................................... 30
Erlinton ................................................................... 37
Fair Annie ......................... . ...................................... 69
Fair Margaret and Sweet William ............................................ 76
'The False Knight upon the Road ...................................... 31
The False Lover Won Back ................................................33
The Famous Flower of Serving-Men 102
The Farmer's Curst Wife 148
The Gardner 133
The Gay Goshawk 99
Geordie 126
The George Aloe and the Sweepstake 152
Get Up and Bar the Door 145
Glasgerion................ 71
The Grey Cock (Saw You My Father ?) 141
Gude Wallace 112
The Gypsie Laddie 120
The Heir of Linne 142
Henry Martyn 141
Hind Horn 47
The Hunting of the Cheviot (Chevy Chase) 112
James Harris (The Daemon Lover) 138
Jamie Douglas 125
Jellon Grame , 94
Jock o the Side 118
John of Hazelgreen 158
John Thompson and the Turk 142
Johnie Cock 104
Johnie Scot 99
The Jolly Beggar 150
Katherine Jaffray 133
King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth 144
King Henry the Fifth's Conquest of France t 113
King James and Brown 117
King John and the Bishop 58-
King Orfeo 50
The Kitchie-Boy 142
The Knight and the Shephard's Daughter 102
The Kreach i the Creel 150
Lady Alice 90
Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight 32
Lady Maisry , 70
The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea 55
The Laird o Drum , 137
LamHn , ..,..., 94
The Lass of Roch Royal , 70
Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard 84
Lizie Lindsay . . , 135
Lizie Wan , . . . 63,
Lord Derwentwater ......................................................... I2 r
Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet ................................................ 71
Lord Lovel ................................................................ 78
Lord Randal .............................. . ................................ 43,
Lord Thomas and Fair Annet ................................................ 74
The Maid Freed from the Gallows ............................................ q6
The Marriage of Sir Gawain ................................................. 54
Mary Hamilton ...... , ..................................................... 1 1 6
The Mermaid ............................................................. 157
Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas ........................................ 117
Our Goodman .............................................................. 144
Prince Robert ............................................................. 93
Proud Lady Margaret ....................................................... 60
Queen Eleanor's Confession .................................................. 112
The Queen of Elian's Nouricc ................................................ 56
The Rantin Laddie ......................................................... 137
Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow (The Water o Gamrie) .......................... 131
Riddles Wisely Expounded ................................................ 29
Rob Roy .................................................................. 134
Robin Hood and the Bishop ................................................. no
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne ............................................ 104
Robin Hood and Little John ................................................. 106
Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon ........................................ 107
Robin Hood and the Shepherd ............................................... 108
Robin Hood and the Tanner ................................................. 106
Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires .......................................... 109
Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly ............................................ 109
Robin Hood's Death ........................................................ 105
Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham ........................................ 108
The Rose of England ....................................................... 113
Saint Stephen and Herod . .................................................. 5
Sir Andrew Barton ........................................................ - * 13
Sir Hugh (The Jew's Daughter) .............................................. no
Sir James the Rose ......................................................... 128
Sir Lionel ................................................................. 4&
Sir Patrick Spens ........................................................... 68
The Suffolk Miracle ......................................................... 1 43
The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity) ....................................... 153
Sweet William's Ghost ...................................................... 81
Tarn Lin 56
Thomas Rymer , 55
The Three Ravens (The Twa Corbies) 53
The Trooper and the Maid 161
The Twa Brothers 60
The Twa Sisters 38
The Twa Magicians 58
The Unquiet Grave 82
The Wee Wee Man 55
The Whummil Bore 54
The Wife of Usher's Well 83
The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin 146
Willie Macintosh 1 18
Willie o Douglas Dale , 101
Willie o Winsbury 100
Willie's Lyke-Wake 52
Young Beichan 63
Young Benjie 92
Young Hunting 71
Young Johnstone 93