The Lady of York- White (ME) pre1915 Barry B
[From British Ballads from Maine, version B. This version is older than the 1915 date when White was in the military, when he lived at Murry on Prince Edwards Island. Probably from late 1800s, need to do more research.
Barry's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
(Barry and all's notes)
BRITISH BALLADS FROM MAINE- THE CRUEL MOTHER
(Child 20)
We have found four excellent texts and two good fragments of "The Cruel Mother" in Maine. Fragment C is undoubtedly from Scotland, and, judging from the refrain, the B-text probably came from there also. One of the other texts was learned from Irish girls, but it shows no great peculiarities. Indeed, Mrs. Morse's statement that, although she heard it sung in Ireland a good many times, it was always in English and never in Gaelic, implies that the Irish form was imported from England. In Nova Scotia, Professor Mackenzie found it under the name of "The Greenwood Siding," which is closely similar to the common name for the song in Maine. Perhaps attention should be called to the fact that the people of maritime Maine and of parts of Nova Scotia are largely of the same stock. Before the American Revolution, over-populated Cape Cod sent out many bodies of emigrants to the eastward; and songs from widely separated points along the eastern coast may have come from the same village, or even the same hearthstone, on Cape Cod a century and a half ago.
The Maine texts found are sufficiently similar not to need any extended comparison with each other. Most of the variations can be accounted for as omissions. It is possible to take the stanzas we have and by arranging them in order to make one long ballad of twenty-three verses, which would not only include all our Maine texts, but all Professor Cox found in the South and several of Professor Child's texts, which are largely fragmentary. Such an arrangement, although not assuming to be the original ballad, has a working value to a collector, who can fit his fragments into place by following the tabulation: it is
perhaps as justifiable a reconstruction as the creation of an extinct animal from a fossil bone.
A. "Down By the Greenwood Side." From a manuscript book compiled at least twenty-five years ago by Mrs. Susie Carr Young of Brewer to preserve the old songs sung by her grandmother, mother, and others of the family. Melody recorded by Mr. George Herzog.
Mrs. Young says she learned this song at least sixty years ago from her Grandmother Carr, the wife of Hugh Hill Carr of Bucksport, who was born Mary Soper of Orland, where the Sopers were very early settlers. It has without doubt been a long time traditional in that family, and Mrs. Young thinks the first emigrants of some branch in the ancestry brought it to this country with them.
B. "The Lady of York." Taken down, November 19, 1926, from the singing of Capt. John T. White of Brewer, formerly of Prince Edward Island, who said that in his boyhood the boys of "The Island" used to sing it often. He omitted the stanzas about the birth of the babes, and later his wife said that he did not know them' He bridged the gap in his singing by remarking, "She got into trouble, you see."
1 There was a lady in York did dwell,
Fair flowers of valley-o,
She fell in love with her father's clerk,
In the green wood's of Si-bo-ney-o.
2 She took her penknife keen and sharp,
Fair flowers of valley-o,
She pierced those pretty babes to the heart,
In the green wood's of Si-bo-ney-o.
3 She dug the grave full seven feet deep,
Fair flowers of valley-o,
She laid those pretty babes to rest,
In the green wood's of Si-bo-ney-o.
4. She covered them all over with the oak leaves,
Fair flowers of valley-o;
She prayed to God it would never be known,
In the green wood's of Si-bo-ney-o.
5 When she returned to her father's hall,
Fair flowers of valley-o,
She saw those pretty babes at play,
In the green woods of Si-bo-ney-o.
6 "Oh, babes, oh, babes, if thou wert mine,
Fair flowers of valley-o,
I'd dress you in the finest of silk,
In the green wood's of Si-bo-ney-o.
7 "Oh, mother, dear mother, when we were thine,
Fair flowers of valley-o,
You'd nayther dress us in satin or silk,
In the green woods of Si-bo-ney-o.
8 "But you took a penknife, keen and sharp,
Fair flowers of valley-o,
And you pierced it to our infant heart,
In the green woods of Si-bo-ney-o.
9. "You dug a grave full seven feet deep,
Fair flowers of Si-bo-ney-o,
It was there you laid us down to sleep,
In the gr€en woods of Si-bo-ney-o.
10 "You covered us over with the oak leaves,
Fair flowers of Si-bo-ney-o,
And you prayed to God it would never be known,
In the green wood's of Si-bo-ney-o.
11 "But Heaven is high and Hell is low,
Fair flowers of Si-bo-ney-o,
And when you die to Hell you'll go,
In the green wood's of Si-bo-ney-o.
Captain White could not explain "si-bo-ney-o"; but, after considerable thought, the editors decided that it must be "the green woods sae bonny o." Child's D-text (Kinloch's version) has the refrain:
"Down by the green wood sae bonnie."