The Gallows Tree- Sprouse (VA) 1917 Davis H
[From Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929. His notes follow. This version was collected again in 1934 with tune by Davis and published in More Trad. Ballads of Va., 1960 (see Davis' notes and other stanza of text below).
R. Matteson 2015]
27. THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
(Child, No. 95)
THE first American text of this ballad to be printed came from Virginia (via North Carolina). Miss Backus, who transmitted it to Professor Child describes it as " an old English song, in the Yorkshire dialect, brought over to Virginia before the Revolution." Child includes it in V, 296, and Professor Kittredge has made it widely known by including it and discussing it in his Introduction to the one-volume edition of English and Scottish Popular Ballads, pp. XXVI. It is this version that, except for its Yorkshire dialect, most of the Virginia variants resemble. In language they most resemble Child B, though their quite universal use of the term "hangman" would link them to the Child fragment G, where alone does the term appear in Child. There is no trace among the Virginia variants of the strong ending of the Scottish version (Child I), in which the released prisoner turns upon her heartless relatives and flays them with curses. At least five Virginia texts (E, F, G, H, and I) are like the version of Child III, 516, in that the prisoner is a man, not a maid.
Child suggests that "this may be a modern turn of the story, arising from the disposition to mitigate a tragic tale." And three Virginia texts (I, J, and K), like Child F, G, and H, give a suggestion of the offense for which the prisoner is in danger of hanging. But despite these other affiliations, the main resemblance is with the Child Y, 296, version. The thirty-one texts and five melodies collected in Virginia show the popularity of the ballad in the state, where it is generally known as "The Hang- man's Tree," or "The Gallows Tree," or "Hangman," or "Freed from the Gallows," or "The Maid Saved," and by various Negro and other perversions of these titles, such as "The Hangerman's Tree," "Hangsman," and " Hanger-man Tree," as well as by its Child title. The ballad is a special favorite among the Negroes, who have all but appropriated it to their own uses. Not only do they sing it; they act it as well.
Several records of its dramatization in Virginia are in the files of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society. Possibly the best account is found in a letter from Miss Mary I. Bell, formerly a teacher in the State Normal School of Harrisonburg, Va., dated May 27, 1913. The performance was at Scottsville, in Albemarle County, only some twenty miles from the University of Virginia:
It was a long time ago- probably twenty-five years - at the Colored school-house, as a part of the closing exercises of the school. We young people always attended these exercises if possible, because we were sure of being highly entertained. This particular play I remember better than any other I ever saw there because we thought it so very funny, though plainly intended to be so very sad. They had on the stage a rather rude representation of the upper part of a scaffold. A rope the size of a man's wrist was thrown over the cross-beam, one end being tied around the neck of a most dejected looking girl and the other end held in the hand of a middle-aged man of sternest aspect. She alone did any singing. The apparently endless procession of relatives recited their parts very glibly until at last when her "true love" arrived he sang his part and then the lovers ended the play with a joyous duet. I did not know then that it was a ballad.
The Negroes use the ballad as a game also. Mrs. Robert R. Morton, wife of the former executive of Hampton Institute, wrote to Dr. Smith, Dec. 2, 1915, saying: "when I was a child in Gloucester county, they used it as a game. And Mr. Stone reports of one of the tunes of the ballad (M), "The old time Negroes used it as the music to one of their games. Three instances of this kind were found in Nelson County." The words of some of the Negro versions, such as E and K, are highly entertaining. Dr. Smith attributes the popularity of this ballad among the Colored folk to "the adaptability of the theme and the easily remembered framework of the stanzas, qualities that mark the intersection of the ballad proper and the Negro camp-meeting song as types." For a fuller consideration of its use among the Negroes of the South, see Scarborough, Chap. II, pp. 34-43. Through the courtesy of Dr. Smith, Miss Scarborough presents a good deal of Virginia material in her discussion.
But white people as well as Negroes are known to have used the ballad as a play and as a game in Virginia. Mrs. James A. Otey writes from Montgomery County., February 21, 1916: "The apple- tree still is here at Walnut-Spring where the white children acted and sang this ballad as I have taken it down - about the- year 1867, they think. It was given to me by two old scholars of the private school here. They never saw it in print." (See Virginia J.) compare Child F, which is a children's game.
The wide currency of this ballad in Continental literature has been pointed out by Child, as has the fact that most of the English versions are defective and distorted in comparison with the European. Seldom is any explanation given of the danger in which the heroine (sometimes hero) finds herself (himself). In many versions in other languages, however , "a young woman has fallen into the hands of corsairs; father, mother, brother, sister,"refuse to pay ransom, but her lover, in one case husband, stickles at no price which may be necessary to retrieve her," says Child. "Another tradition," says Miss Scarborough, " holds that the story is all allegory, the golden ball signifying a maiden's honor, which when lost can be retrieved to her only by her lover. [Gilchrist 1915]. That would explain the sentence of death; for, in old times, death by burning or hanging was the penalty for unchastity on the part of a maid, or wife." Miss Scarborough gives also a more dialetic Negro interpretation, involving a lost golden ball and various magician's tricks. Of the three Virginia texts which attempt any explanation (I, J, and [), one has the sub-title, "The Girl to Be Hanged for Stealing a-Comb," the second also contains the inquiry whether the golden comb has been found, the third introduces the golden ball and the contributor attempts a fuller reconstruction of the story, as follows:
"A man received a golden ball and promised never to part with it. Later he gave it to his sweetheart, but when questioned refused to tell what he did with it. He is to be hanged for this and is saved by his sweetheart who returns the golden ball."
As a guide to the variants following, A to D are normal but interesting Virginia texts; E-to I reverse the sexes of the prisoner and rescuer; I to K give some explanation or inkling of the prisoner's offense; L to O are comprised but complete variants; P to V continue the series A to D, of normal Virginia texts with interesting variations. Nine variants have been excluded as adding little or nothing to the material included. They may be described as normal texts without significant variations from those included.
As appendices, for purposes of comparison, are given three texts which drifted in to the Virginia Folk-Lore Society from three other Southern states (Appendices A, B, and C). A is a quite different version, in which the victim is rescued by the mother; B has interesting verbal changes and a man as victim; C addresses the hangman as "Ropeman," and has other verbal changes. They are from North Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi, respectively.
For other American texts, see Barry, No. 25; Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 2-6; 8-10; Campbell and Sharp, No. 24 (Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia); Child Y, 296 (Virginia via North Carolina), 417 (North Carolina, melody only); Cox, No. 18; Hudson, No. 15 (and, Journal, XXXIX, 105; Mississippi); Journal, XIX, 22 (Hutchinson, Virginia, from English and Scottish, Popular Ballads. Sargent and Kittredge, p.xxv); XXI, 56 (Kittredge, West Virginia); XXIV, 97 (Barry, melody only, reprinted from the Hudson MS. No. 355); XXVI, 175 (Kittredge, Massachusetts, fragment); XXX, 319 (Kittredge, New York, Missouri, text and melody, North Carolina); Pound, Ballads, No. 131 Sandburg, p. 72 (South Carolina); Scarborough, pp. 35 (Virginia), 39 (Florida, text and melody), 41 (Louisiana); C. A. Smith, pp. 6 (North Carolina), 10 (Virginia, fragments); Reed Smith, No. 10; Reed Smith, Ballads, No. 10; Wyman and Brockway, p.44. For additional references, see Cox, p. 115; Journal, XXXI 318. For a recent consideration of this particular ballad, see Reed Smith, Ballads, Chapter VIII, "Five Hundred Years of 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows.' "
H. "The Gallows Tree." Collected by Miss Juliet Fauntleroy, Sung by, Mrs. J Sprouse (nee Pribble), of Lawyers, Va. Campbell County. September 4, 1915.
I "Hangman, hangman, slacken your rope,
And a few more minutes for me;
I think I see my father a-coming,
He's coming from many a long mile."
2 "Oh father, Oh father, did you bring me any gold?
I'm obliged to pay my fee;
Or did you come to see me hang
Upon the gallows tree?"
3 "No sir, no sir, I brought you no gold,
Nor I won't pay your fee;
But I did come to see you hang
Upon the gallows tree."
Then in turn come mother, sister, and brother; they make the same replies. Then comes the true love, who makes replies:
I5 "Yes sir, yes sir, I've brought you gold,
And I will pay your fee;
But I did not come to see you hung
Upon the gallows tree."
__________________________________________
Hangman- Humphreys (VA) 1932 Davis AA
[Davis: More Traditional Ballads from Virginia, 1960. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
(Child, No. 95)
The widespread European popularity of this ballad is emphasized by Child, who devotes most of his five-page headnote to a summary description of versions in the following languages: Sicilian, Spanish, Faroe, Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, German, Esthonian, Wendish, Russian, Little-Russian, and Slovenian. The usual story of the ballad, both in northern and southern Europe, is thus summarized by Child: "A youug woman has fallen into the hands of corsairs; father, mother, brother, sister, refuse to pay ransom, but her lover, in one case husband, stickles at no price which may be necessary to retrieve her." By comparison with these texts, Child finds the English versions "defective and distorted" and they are so in the sense that they seldom give any explanation for the maid's plight but present only the final conversational drama and its happy resolution, with the resulting release of tension. In any other sense, one would find Child's adjectives unduly harsh, in view of the known tendency of ballads to reduce antecedent action to a minimum and to concentrate on the crucial situation. Such simplification and concentration do not suggest inferiority. On the contrary, whether or not all of our curiosity about the situation is satisfied, the ballad is a superb example of ballad compression, dramatic presentation, objectivity of narrative method, and incremental repetition.
A few English and American texts do offer some explanation of the girl's plight: she has lost or stolen a golden ball, comb, key, or cup. Miss Lucy Broadwood and others following her have suggested that the golden ball represents virginity. See Coffin, pp. 95-99, for detailed references.
Since the time of Child, the ballad has been widely collected in many versions in England and the United States, but not in Scotland or in Canada. TBVa prints twenty-two of thirty-one available texts, and five tunes. More recently, four additional items, with two tunes, have been recovered from Virginia. All four and both tunes have been found worthy of inclusion here.
In a sampling of recent American collections, the ballad is represented as follows: Cox, seven texts and no tune: Barry, four texts and no tune; Sharp-Karpeles, ten texts (or partial texts) and ten tunes; Belden, one text and one tune; Randolph, six texts and four tunes; Brown, thirteen texts and eight tunes ; and so on. Belden (p. 66) lists fourteen American states in which the ballad had been found before 1940, and Brown (II, 143) adds four more states recently heard from. Coffin (p. 96) gives an impressive list of references.
In America the somewhat ponderous Child title is more often "Hangman," "Hangman's Tree," "The Gallows Tree," of some such title. The sex of the victim is sometimes changed from a girl to a man, sometimes left in doubt. The "golden ball" form of the story or other explanation of the girl's predicament is rare. Occasionally, the ballad is acted as a play or used as a game, especially by Negroes, to whom the ballad's simple dramatic form and repetitive stanzaic pattern (the latter so closely akin to their own spirituals) seem to have appealed. In this connection, note Kittredge's use of a version of this ballad (incidentally, a version which was brought over to Virginia before the Revolution) to illustrate the portibility of a qualified form of so-called "communal composition," in his Introduction to the one-volume edition of Child (pp. xxv-xxvii). But let us not revive ancient controversy!
The ballad has been much written about, especially as to its currency among Negroes, who also make use of the story as a combination of ballad stanzas and interpolated narrative or folk tale closely related to the form known as cante-fable. (Several of Child's texts also approach the cante-fable form) Chapter 8 of Reed Smith's South Carolina Ballads traces "Five Hundred Years of 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' " (pp. 80-94). Miss Dorothy Scarborough writes delightfully and informatively of her encounters with this ballad in On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs (pp. 35-43). versions of the cante-fable form current among the Negroes of Jamaica and the Bahamas are given in Walter Jekyll's Jamaican Song and Story (pp. 35 tr.), by Elsie Clews Parsons in "Folk-Tales of Andros Island, Bahamas," Memoirs of the American Folk Lore Society, XIII (1918), 152-54, and by Miss Martha M. Beckwith in "The English Ballad in Jamaica," PMLA, XXXI), (June, 1924), 475-76. Miss Beckwith's cante-fable text from Jamaica is reprinted in The Ballad Book (1955) of MacEdward Leach as his version C (pp. 298-99), and also in The Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English, Speaking World (1956) of Albert B. Friedman as his version C (pp. 134-36).
The four items here presented-three new texts and two new tunes-add something to the very full record of this ballad in TBVa. AA follows the usual pattern of the ballad in America in addressing the "hangman" rather than the "judge" usually found in British texts. It has an unusual final stanza, appropriate enough but obviously imported from a later song. BB is a recently recovered tune for a text which was printed in TBVa without tune. The full text (not here reproduced) reveals that the prisoner is a man. CC is an interesting fragment in which the compressed third stanza of the cycle of three is not spoken directly by the relative but is indirectly reported by the prisoner, who is apparently the speaker throughout the ballad.
DD adds a new type of version to the Virginia collection. It is called "Highway Man," and represents a crossing of the old ballad with a more recent badman ballad or convict song generally known as "Poor Boy," "Gambling Man," or "The Roving Gambler." The "maid" has become a highwayman who is saved from hanging by his girl. The first two stanzas and refrain of first-person emotive depression are imported from the more recent song' but with the third stanza the pattern of the old ballad takes charge, to continue through stanza 11. The final stanza with its "I love that highway man" reverts to the newer song. It is an interesting but not a unique patchwork version. Coffin cites three examples as his Story Type F, from Mississippi (Hudson), North Carolina (Henry), and Kentucky (Fuson). Henry (pp. 94-95) prints a long letter from Phillips Barry commenting on the ballad and rightly urging its printing as an actual version of the old ballad, not as an appendix. Since that time Alton Morris has presented a fragmentary text in Folksongs of Florida (1950), pp. 298-99, and the Brown Collection (1952) prints a seven-stanza text from North Carolina (pp. 148-49). The latter text is reprinted in Friedman's recent (1956) "Anthology, pp. 136-32. The present Virginia text of twelve stanzas plus refrain is the fullest text of this version so far recovered, and includes interesting verbal variations. Other versions include only the coming of the girl in addition to the emotive stanzas. In the Virginia text, mother, father, and girl appear, making nine stanzas from the old ballad as against four from the newer one. It will be noted that the prisoner's appeal is to "Mr. Judge" (the usual English form), not to the hangman.
To be added to the references of Coffin and others is an eight-stanza Louisiana text of "The Highway Man," published in Saxon-Dreyer-Tallant, Gumbo Ya-Ya (Cambridge, Mass., 1945), p. 444. There is no tune. The book is a collection o{ Louisiana folk tales and other folklore brought together by the Louisiana Writers Project.
Barry's letter to Henry draws attention to the fact that "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" is also found in combination with two versions of "Mary Hamilton" printed by Child, "in which the heroine is not hanged in Edinburgh town, but is ransomed by her lover" (Henry, p. 94). This may be a more respectable liaison than that with the highwayman, but it represents the operation of the same process in oral tradition.
The two tunes here given seem relatively undistinguished but add something to the musical record of the ballad in America.
BB. "The Gallows Tree." Collected by Miss Juliet Fauntleroy, of Altavista, Va. Sung by Mrs. Kit Williamson, of Yellow Branch, Va. Campbell County. March 15, 1934. Tune noted by Mrs. Paul Cheatham, of Lynchburg, Va. The text of Mrs. Williamson's song (she was then Mrs. Sprouse) has been printed earlier as TBVa H, without tune. The full text is therefore not reprinted here. (cf. TBva, pp. 320-21.) It will be noted that the "hangman" of the TBVa text has become "hangsman" in this more recent singing. Reference to the full text reveals that the sexes of the prisoner and rescuer are apparently reversed, since the replies to the prisoner's questions are "No, sir" up to the last stanza, and then "Yes, sir."
1. "Hangsman, Hangsman, slacken your rope,
And a few more minutes for me,
I think I see my father a-coming,
He's coming for many a long mile."