The Cruel Mother- McCabe (NL) 1929 Karpeles C
[Not a local title, assigned by Karpeles. From Folk Songs from Newfoundland, 1934, reprinted 1971, version C. Cf. Fair Flowers of Helio, Greenleaf A.
Following is an excerpt from Song Collecting in Newfoundland: Maud Karpeles, 1929 by David Gregory.
R. Matteson 2014]
Song Collecting in Newfoundland: Maud Karpeles, 1929
David Gregory, Athabasca University
Maud Karpeles (1885-1976) is best known for her song collecting with Cecil Sharp in the Southern Appalachians, her biography of Sharp[1] her commitment to preserving and teaching English folk dancing, and her work for the International Folk Music Council.
During 1929 and 1930 she made two collecting trips to Newfoundland, and they may be seen as the last important activities of the Late Victorian and Edwardian folk music revival and a coda to the work of Cecil Sharp.[2]
Why did Karpeles decide to go to Newfoundland? The reason is simple: Cecil Sharp had recommended it as a most promising place for further field-work. Newfoundland, incidentally, was not part of Canada when she visited it, since it would join the Canadian federation only after the Second World War.
Clarke’s Beach and North River
By now Maud had used up more than half the time she had available, and she had to make a difficult decision: whether to explore the islands of Twillingate and Fogo to the north-east, go further west to the Baie Verte peninsula, or return to eastern Newfoundland. She opted for the latter, taking a boat and train back to the relative civilization of Harbour Grace, where she did some more collecting before moving to Clarke’s Beach on the south-western shore of
Conception Bay.
The dozen or so outports Karpeles visited during the remainder of October included Clarke’s Beach, North River, Halls Town, Kit Hughes, Colliers, Conception Harbour, Harbour Main and Avondale.
The community that she found the most productive was North River, where lived a mix of families descended from both Irish and West of England settlers: the McCabes, Flinns, Boones, Snows, Halls, Fillers, and Sinclairs.
Another member of the Snow family, Rose, offered variants of “Young Floro” and “The Cruel Mother". . .
C. THE CRUEL MOTHER- Sung by Mrs. Violet (John) McCabe at North River, Conception Bay, 15th October 1929
There was a woman lived in New York,
Fair flowers of Idley O,
She was courted by her father's clerk,
In the green woods of the Bonny O.
She had two fair pretty babes of her own,
She prayed to God they'd never be known.
She had no clothes to cover them in,
Only her apron and it was thin.
She had a knife both long and sharp,
She pierced it in the two babes' heart.
She dug a grave both long and deep,
And she put those two pretty babes to sleep.
She was going to Club [sic] one day,
And she thought she saw her babes at play.
O *y two pretty babes, I wish you were mine,
I'd dress you up in silk so fine.
O dear mother, when we were yours,
You wouldn't dress us in the richest stores.
O dear mother, it's we can tell
That when you die you'll go to hell.