The House Carpenter- Proctor (TN) 1928 Henry C
[From: Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands- Mellinger Henry, 1938. His notes follow. Compare to other Hicks/Harmon versions --Jane Hicks Gentry collected by Sharp 1916; Nora Hicks 1939 Brown Collection.
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.
C. "The House Carpenter." Recorded by Mrs. Henry from the singing of Mrs. Hiram Proctor, Cade's Cove, Blount County, Tennessee, August, 1928. Mrs. Proctor is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Harmon.
1. "Well met, well met, my own true love;
Well met, well met," said he.
"I'm just returning from the old salt sea,
Returning for to marry thee.
2. "Have you wedded any other man?
I'm sure I've wedded no other woman."
"Yes, I'm wedded to a house carpenter,
And I think he's a very nice man."
3. "You better leave your house carpenter,
And come along with me.
We'll go till we come to the old salt sea
And married we will be."
4. She dressed her babies all in red
And laid them on the bed.
"Lay there, lay there, my sweet little babes,
To keep your papa company."
5. She dressed her pavage all in blue;
Herself she dressed in green;
And every town they rode through -
They tuk her to be a queen.
6. They had not been on the sea two weeks,
I'm sure it was not three,
Till his true love began to weep;
She wept most bitterly.
7. "What are you weeping for, my love?
Are you weeping for my gold?
Are you weeping for some other man,
That you love more dear than me?"
8. "I'm not weeping for your gold,
Nor neither for your store;
I'm just weeping for my sweet little babes
That I never will see no more.
9. "If I had a thousand pounds of gold,
I'd give it all to thee,
If you'd take me to the land once more,
My poor little babies for to see."
10. "If you had a thousand pounds of gold
And would give it all to me,
I'd never take thee to the land no more,
Your poor little babies to see."
11. They had not been on the sea two months,
I'm sure it was not four,
Till they sprang a leak in her true love's ship
And it sank to rise no more.
12. "What hills, what hills, my own true love,
That look so bright above?"
"That's hills of heaven, my own true love,
Where all God's people doth go."
13. "What hills, what hills, my own true love,
That look so dark below?"
"That is hills of hell, my own true love,
Where you and I have started to go."
14. "A curse, a curse to all seaman,
A curse, a curse," she said,
"You've robbed me of my sweet little babes,
And stole my life away."