The Hangman's Song- Adams (VA) c.1933 Henry B
[From: Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands, 1938; collected & edited By Mellinger Edward Henry. His notes follow.
This version has some floating verses from other songs.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
15 THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
(Child, No. 95) For discussions of this popular ballad, see Professor Kittredge's Introduction to English and Scottish Popular Ballads in The Cambridge Poets, Student's Edition; Reed Smith, Ballads, Chapter VIII, "Five Hundred Years of 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows;'" Davis, No. 27; and Barry-Eckstorm-Smyth, pp. 206—213. For other American texts, see Barry, No. 25; Brown, p. 9; Campbell and Sharp, No. 24; Cox, No. 18; Hudson, No. 15; Pound, Ballads, No. 13; Sandburg, p. 72; Scarborough, pp. 35, 39, 41; C. A. Smith, pp. 6, 10; Reed Smith, No. 10; Reed Smith, Ballads, No. 10; Wyman and Brockway, p. 44; Journal, XIX, 22 (Hutchinson); XXI, 56 (Kittredge); XXIV, 337 (Barry, melody only); XXVI, 175 (Kittredge); XXX, 319 (Kittredge); XXXIX, 105 (Hudson); XLII, 272 (Henry); New Jersey Journal of Education, March, 1926. Add Journal, XXX, 318; Thomas, p. 164; Fuson, p. 113. Versions Candi? were printed in American Speech, Vol. I, No. 4, 247.
Mr. Phillips Barry, who has been very generous in his willingness to read and comment on many of these texts, sent the following note in regard to E with permission to print it:
' 'You have here a very interesting text, in which 'history has repeated itself.' Child 95, 'The Maid Freed From Gallows/ has been combined 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. The same thing has taken place in your text, stanzas 6 and 7 are taken directly from some version of Child 95, and used to complete the story of the highwayman who was ransomed by his sweetheart just before he was to be hanged. There is also a reminiscence of 'Geordie' in 4, 5, when the girl appeals for mercy, saying 'I love that highwayman.'
"It should certainly be printed with the texts you have of Child 95. The crossing of the old ballad with the later song was due not to the child who sang it, but to the one who pieced the ballad together in the form in which she sang it. I should add that lines 1 and 2 of stanza 3 are from Child 95 also. If you will examine the version of Child 95 on page 113 of Fuson's Ballads of the Kentucky Highlands (reviewed in Bulletin 3), you will discover that something of the same sort has occurred once before. The first stanza:
'Through the pine, through the pine, where the sun never shines,
And shiver when the cold wind blows;
I killed no man and I robbed no train,
I have done no hanging crime,'
does not belong to the old ballad, — it is supposed to be sung by the man on the gallows, — horse-thief, perhaps, or moonshiner. The ballad then continues as a good text of Child 95, with the appeal to the hangman to wait, the request to parents, brothers, sisters in order, finally:
'Hangman, hangman, slack on your road,
Slack on your road for a while;
I see my true love a-coming, for she
Has walked for many a mile.
True love, true love, did you bring me any gold?
Did you come to buy me free?
True love, true love, I have walked for many a mile,
I have come to buy you free,
And take you home with me.'
"As 2 1/2 outof 7 stanzas are from the Child ballad, I think your text ought to be printed with the others. Not in an appendix, since it is part of an actual version of the old ballad. Child, I am sure would have made the same disposition of it, — printing the rest of the text in smaller type than that used for stanza 3, lines 1—2, and stanzas 6—7."
Version B- "The Hangman's Song." The song was recorded by D. G. Tiller, a student in Lincoln Memorial University, from the singing of Mr. James Taylor Adams, Big Laurel, Virginia.
1. "Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope;
Oh, slack it for a while;
I looked over yonder and I see paw coming;
He's walked for many a long mile.
2. "Say, paw, say, paw, have you brung me any gold,
Any gold for to pay my fine?"
3. "No, sir, no, sir, I brung you no gold,
No gold for to pay your fine,
But I've just come for to see you hanged,
Hanged on the gallows line."
4. Oh, you won't love and it's hard to be beloved
And it's hard to make up your time;
You have broke the heart of many a true love;
True love, but you won't break mine.
5. "Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope;
Oh, slack it for a while;
I looked over yonder and I see maw coming;
She's walked for many a long mile.
6. "Say, maw, say, maw, have you brung me any gold,
Any gold for to pay my fine?"
7. "No, sir, no, sir, I've brung you no gold,
No gold for to pay your fine,
But I've just come for to see you hanged,
Hanged on the gallows line."
8. Oh, you won't love and it's hard to be beloved
And it's hard to make up your time;
You have broke the heart of many a true love;
True love, but you won't break mine.
9. "Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope;
Oh, slack it for a while;
I looked over yonder and I see my sweetheart coming;
She's walked for many a long mile.
10. "Sweetheart, sweetheart, have you brung me any gold,
Any gold for to pay my fine ?"
11. "Yes, sir, yes, sir, I've brought you some gold,
Some gold for to pay your fine,
For I've just come for to take you home
From on the gallows line."