The House Carpenter- Franklin (NC) 1929 Henry B
[From: Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands- Mellinger Henry, 1938. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2013]
JAMES HARRIS (THE DAEMON LOVER) (Child, No. 243) Campbell and Sharp, No. 29, give eleven variants and tunes. Cox, No. 25, states that twenty-one variants have been found in West Virginia. Davis, No. 40, says that fifty-two texts and seven melodies have been found in Virginia. See also Barry, No. 11; Barry-Eckstorm-Smyth, p. 304; Belden, No. 11; Hudson, No. 19; Pound, No. 17; Pound, Syllabus, p. 10; Sandburg, p. 66; Shearin, Sewanee Review, July, 1911; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; C. Alphonso Smith, Musical Quarterly, January, 1916; Reed Smith, The Traditional Ballad and Its South Carolina Survivals, No. 11; Reed Smith, South Carolina Ballads, No. 12. Note also the following in the Journal: Belden, XIX, 295; Kittredge, XX, 257; Barry, XXV, 274; Kittredge, XXX, 325; Tolman and Eddy, XXXV, 346; Pound, XXVI, 360; Henry, XLII, 274. Add Thomas, pp. 63,172; Brown, p. 9; PTFLS, No. 10, pp. 159—162.
B. "House Carpenter." Obtained from Cleophas L. Franklin, Crossnore, Avery County, N. C, July 14, 1929, who had it from his great grandmother, Tilda Pyatte, of Avery County.
1. "I once could have married a king's daughter,
And she would have married me;
But I['ve] forsaken the crown of gold;
Was all for the love of thee."
2. "If you could have married the king's daughter,
I'm sure that you are to blame;
For I have married a house carpenter
And I think he's a nice young man."
3. "If you'll forsake your house carpenter
And go along with me,
I'll take you to where the grass grows green
And the banks of sweet relief."
4. "If I forsake my house carpenter
And go along with thee,
What have you to maintain me on
Or keep me from slavery?"
5. "I have five ships on the ocean wide
A-sailing for dry land;
Five hundred and twenty bold seamen
Will be at your command."
6. She picked up her sweet little babe
And kisses gave it three,
Saying, "Go, stay with your papa, my sweet little babe,
And keep him company."
7. She dressed herself in silk so fine,
Most glorious to be seen;
As she walked along the shore,
Outshined the glittering sun.
8. But she had not been on the ship two weeks,
I'm sure it were not three,
Till she li-mented in her true-lover's ship
And wept most bitterly.
9. "Is it for my gold you weep?
Or is it for my store?
Or is it for your house carpenter
That you never shall see any more?"
10. "It is not for your gold I weep;
Nor it is not for your store.
I was just weeping for my sweet little babe,
That I never shall see any more."
11. She had not been on the ship three weeks,
I'm sure it were not four,
Till there sprang a leak in the true-lover's ship
And she sank to rise no more.
12. "A curse, a curse to all seamen,
A curse forever more!
They robbed me of my house carpenter
That I never shall see any more."