The Holland Handkerchief- Henderson (MA) pre1932
[From BFSNE, Vol. 5, 1932. Barry's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2013]
Barry Notes: Comparison of the Northern and Southern textual tradition of The Suffolk Miracle shows the superiority of the Northern texts. The Southern texts are more sophisticated and closer to the broadside, Child A, having retained the moralizing final stanza (Campbell and Sharp, English Folk-Songs of the Southern Appalachians, pp. 130-32; Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 482, ff.). The texts were printed, together with Maine A (British Ballads from Maine, l.c.) form a Scoto-Irish tradition independent of the broadside and doubtless older. The Cornwall folk-tale mentioned by Child (V, 59) indicates a possible Celtic origin for the story. Would that Professor Child had taken the advice of Miss Margaret Reburn and gone ballad hunting in Ireland! Mrs. Sullivan's melody is related, though very distantly, to the sets recorded by Sharp in the South (Campbell and Sharp, 1.c., pp. 130-33;Davis, Lc., pp. 594,-5), as well as to the tradition of a certain long-metre ballad air surviving in an enormous number of sets, to which several ballads have long been sung. Whether the melody to Child A, My bleeding heart, etc., originally sung to Sir Andrew Barton (Rollins, The Pepys Ballads,III , 21 ), was a set of the air in question, cannot be determined. The extraordinary variation in intonation and tonal sequence, from line to line and stanza to stanza of Mrs. Sullivan's rendition of the air, need not be imputed to faulty technique. The recurrence of some of the variants, in fact, is evidence to the contrary. It is quite possible that we have in Irish folk-singing a survival of a method of emotional appeal through subtle gradations of pitch analogous to that demonstrated in the case of Negro singers by Dr. Milton Metfessel, (Phonophotography in Folk-Music, passim, but especially pp. 146-7, and pp. 11-16, in which the author's findings are interpreted psychologically by Dr. Carl E. Seashore).
II. "The Holland Handkerchief" From Miss Margaret T. Henderson, Springfield, Mass., as sung by her mother, aged 96. Forwarded by the kindness of Mrs. Fred W. Morse, Islesford, Maine.
1 There was a Lord that lived in this town,
His praises went through the country round;
He had one daughter, a beauty bright,
In her he placed his whole heart's delight.
2 There was many a Lord her a-courting came,
But none of them did her favor gain;
Until a young man of a low degree,
Came underhand, and she fancied he.
3 But when her father came to understand
That she was courted by this young man--
Four score of miles he had her sent,
To her uncle's house at her discontent.
4 As she one night on her pillow lay,
She heard the voice unto her did say,
"Come with me, dear, do not wait,
Your horse awaits you at your uncle's gate."
5 They moved in silence, no word was spoke;
He wrapped her gently in her mother's cloak;
"God granted this for true love's sake,
And now I am weary and my head does ache."
6 "I have your own handkerchief, my dear," she said,
And she wrapped it tenderly around his head;
And as she did, these words did say,
"My dearest dear, you're cold as clay."
7 They travelled along in that lonely state,
Till they arrived at her father's gate;
"Now alight and go to your bed,
You'll find your horse in the stable fed."
8. She left her lover, not one word did say,
But to her father she went straightway,
Saying, "Dearest father, did you send for me
By such a messenger, kind sir?" said she.
9 Her father's hair it stood on his head,
For right well he knew this young men was dead;
But though this young man was six weeks dead,
The Holland handkerchief was round his head.