The Gypsy Laddie- Wenzel (MO) 1930 Randolph B
[From Ozark Folksongs; Randolph, I, 1946, p. 160 (B). His notes follow. This has the rare "Gypsy Laddie" attribution at the end of the first stanza. However, this version doesn't seem old, which means the attribution may have been taken from print.
R. Matteson 2015]
Ozark Folksongs Notes: 27. THE GYPSY DAVY
Many texts of the "Gypsy Davy" ballad are found in British collections (Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882-1898, No. 200). For American versions see JAFL 30, 1917, p. 323. Also the Bulletin of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society (No. 8, p. 7; No. 9, p. 7; No. 11, p. 8). Compare Campbell and Sharp (English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 1917, No. 27), Raine (Land of the Saddle-Bags, 1924, p. 119), Cox (Folk-Songs of the South, 1925, p. 130), Kincaid (My Favorite Mountain Ballads,1928, p. 33), Davis (Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929, pp. 423-431), Lunsford and Stringfield (30 and 1 Folk-Songs, 1929, p. 4), Greenleaf (Ballads and, Sea Songs from Newfoundland, 1933, pp. 38-39), Chappell (Folk-Songs of Roanoke and the Albemarle, 1939, p. 37), Eddy (Ballads and Songs from Ohio, 1939, pp. 67-69), Linscott (Folk Songs of Old. New England, 1939, pp. 207), Neely (JAFL 52, 1939, p. 79), Belden (Ballad; and Songs, 1940, pp.73-76), Brewster (Ballads and Songs of Indiana, 1940, p. 13a), Rayburn (Ozark Country, 1941, pp. 200-201), Morris (Southern Folklore Quarterly 8, 1944, p. 156), and the Brown (North Carolina Folk-Lore Society) collection.
B. The Gypsy Laddie. From Mr. William Wenzel, Venus, Mo., July 26, 1930. Mr. Wenzel calls it "The Gypsy Laddie."
When Lord Thomas[1] he come home
Inquiring for his lady,
The answer that they made to him,
She's gone with a Gypsy laddie.
It's he caught up his old gray horse,
An' he caught up his pony,
He rode all night and he rode all day
Till he overtook his doney[2].
It's come go back, my dearest dear,
It's come go back, my honey,
It's come go back my dearest dear,
And you'll never lack for money.
I won't go back my dearest dear,
I won't go back my honey,
I wouldn't give a kiss from my Gypsy's lips
For you and all your money.
It's go pull off those snow white gloves,
A-made of Spanish leather,
And give to me your lily white hand
And bid me farewell forever.
And she pulled off those snow white gloves
A-made of Spanish leather,
And gave to him her lily white hand
And bid him farewell forever.
I once did have so many fine things,
Fine feather beds and money,
But now my bed is made of hay
And the Gypsies a-dancing round me.
1. Cf Sharp D, 1916
2. Cf. Raine, 1924