The Ditch of Briars- Yorks (NC) 1940 Brown C
[Designated C. From The Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Vol. 4, 1956. Their notes follow. The good news is her version is in the James Carpenter Collection, the bad news is they can't seem to put the versions on-line where they can be used. I'm waiting---!!!
R. Matteson 2016]
62. The Bramble Brier
For detailed discussion of the relation of this ballad to the fifth story of the fourth day of the Decameron, see PMLA xxxiii 327-95; and for its currency as traditional song BSM 109, adding Virginia (FSV 64), Tennessee (BTFLS 11 27), Arkansas (OFS i 381-2), Indiana (SFLQ v 176-7), and Michigan (BSSM 59-61). Our two North Carolina texts are grammatically pretty rough, like most of the texts from American tradition.
C. 'The Ditch of Briars.' Sung by Mr. and Mrs. James York. From previous recording of Dr. W. A. Abrams, Boone, August 8, 1940. Owing to the condition of the record it is not possible to understand the words of the first stanza. The story in general is the same as in the previous version, 'The 'Prentice Boy' (62B). G. Malcolm Laws in NAB classifies this as derived from British broadsides.
[music upcoming]
Scale: Heptachordal, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure abed (3,3,2,2).
1 [missing first stanza]
2. There was a man who lived a merchant,
He had two sons and a daughter fair,
The 'prentice boy who was bound to him,
To him alone was left the same[1],
The 'prentice boy who was bound to him,
To him alone was left the same.
3 Early, early the next morning,
Hunting, hunting they would go.
Little did he think of bloody murder,
So a-hunting they did go.
4 When they returned late in the evening,
She inquired of where he went.
The brothers and whispered lowly,
'Brother, tell me if you can.'
5. We left him in the wild woods hunting,
And his face on earth you no more shall see.
He's crossing o'er the deep blue ocean.
He'll return no more to thee.
6 That night as she lay on her bed a-weeping,
His ghost to her it did appear.
'Then go unto yon ditch of briars,
There you will my body find.'
7 She rose early the next morning,
Gave at home[2].
She went till she came to the ditch of briars
Where her true love'd been killed and thrown.
8 His face was gray and
Tears in his eyes
She took his pale, cold lips a-cryin',
'You were the dearest dear of mine.'
9 'Since my two brothers have been so cruel
As to take your good, sweet life away,
One grave shall hold us both together,
While on this earth I'll no longer stay.'
1. This indicates that the 'prentice boy or factor was apparently left a portion of the inheritance when the father died. Only the amount left to the daughter has appeared (in several versions). In this case the 'prentice is to be left the same amount as the daughter and brothers, another motive for jealously by the brothers and murder.
2. Obviously the beginning of this line is missing (since "home" is the rhyme) or the whole line has not been heard correctly.