The Miller's Melody- G.A.C. (Eng) 1852 Child L a.
[My location, England, from Notes and Queries, April 3, 1852, by "G.A.C." Below are Child's notes and text from the author of 'The Scouring of the White Horse,' Thomas Hughes, who learned the ballad from his father.
Three versions of L were given by Child, who dates this version late 1700s. L is closely related to Child A, "The Miller and the King's Daughter of 1655.
R. Matteson 2018]]
Notes and Queries, April 3, 1852
View original text: Page 316; page 317
THE MILLER'S MELODY, FRAGMENT OF AN OLD BALLAD
When I was a good little boy, I was a favourite visitor to an old maiden lady, whose memory retained such a store of old ballads and folk-lore as would be a treasure to many a reader of "N. & Q." were she still living and able to communicate.
One ballad, parts of which, as well as the tune, still haunt my memory, I have tried to recover in its integrity but in vain; and of all the little wearers of frocks and pinafores, who had the privilege of occasionally assembling round the dear old lady's tea-
table, and for whose amusement she was wont to sing it, I fear I am the sole survivor. The associations connected with this song may perhaps have invested it with an undue degree of interest to me, but I think it sufficiently curious to desire to insert as much as I can remember of it in "N. & Q." in the hope that some of your correspondents may be able to supply the deficiencies. I wish I could at the same time convey an idea of the air. It began in a slow quaint strain, with, these words:
"Oh ! was it eke a pheasant cock,
Or eke a pheasant lien,
Or was it the bodye of a faire ladye
Come swimming down the stream?
Oh ! it was not a pheasant cock,
Nor eke a pheasant hen,
But it was the bodye of a faire ladye,
Came swimming down the stream."
For the next two verses I am at fault, but their purport was that the body "stopped hard by a miller's mill," and that this "miller chanced to come by," and took it out of the water " to make a melodye."
My venerable friend's tune here became a more lively one, and the time quicker ; but I can only recollect a few of the couplets, and those not correctly, nor in order of sequence, in which the transformation of the lady into a viol is described:
'And what did he do with her fair bodye?
Fal the lal the lal laral lody.
He made it a case for his melodye,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her legs so strong?
Fal, &c.
He made them a stand for his violon,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her hair so fine?
Fal, &c.
He made of it strings for his violine,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her arms so long?
Fal, &c.
He made them bows for his violon,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her nose so thin?
Fal, &c.
He made it a bridge for his violin,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her eyes so bright?
Fal, &c.
He made them spectacles to put to his sight,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her petty toes?
Fal, &c.
He made them a nosegay to put to his nose,
Fal, &c."
G. A. C.
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L. a. These fragments were communicated to Notes and Queries, April 3, 1852, by "G.A.C.," who had heard 'The Miller's Melody' sung by an old lady in his childhood, and who represents himself as probably the last survivor of those who had enjoyed the privilege of listening to her ballads. We may, there fore, assign this version to the latter part of the 18th century. The two four-line stanzas were sung to "a slow, quaint strain." Two others which followed were not remembered, "but their purport was that the body 'stopped hard by a miller's mill,' and that this 'miller chanced to come by,' and took it out of the water 'to make a melodye.'" G.A.C. goes on to say: "My venerable friend's tune here became a more lively one, and the time quicker; but I can only recollect a few of the couplets, and these not correctly nor in order of sequence, in which the transformation of the lady into a viol is described."
b. Some stanzas of this four-line version, with a ludicrous modern supplement, are given in 'The Scouring of the White Horse,' p. 161, as from the Welsh marshes. Five out of the first six verses are there said to be very old indeed, "the rest all patchwork by different hands." Mr. Hughes has kindly informed me that he derived the ballad from his father, who had originally learned it at Ruthyn when a boy. What is material here follows:
1 it was not a pheasant cock,
Nor yet a pheasant hen,
But O it was a lady fair
Came swimming down the stream.
2 An ancient harper passing by
Found this poor lady's body,
To which his pains he did apply
To make a sweet melody.
3 To cat-gut dried he her inside,
He drew out her back-bone,
And made thereof a fiddle sweet
All for to play upon.
4 And all her hair, so long and fair,
That down her back did flow,
he did lay it up with care,
To string his fiddle bow.
5 And what did he with her fingers,
Which were so straight and small?
O he did cut them into pegs,
To screw up his fiddoll.
6 Then forth went he, as it might be,
Upon a summer's day,
And met a goodly company,
Who asked him in to play.
7 Then from her bones he drew such tones
As made their bones to ache,
They sounded so like human groans
Their hearts began to quake.
8 They ordered him in ale to swim,
For sorrow's mighty dry,
And he to share their wassail fare
Essayd right willingly.
9 He laid his fiddle on a shelf
In that old manor-hall,
It played and sung all by itself,
And thus sung this fiddoll:
10 'There sits the squire, my worthy sire,
A-drinking hisself drunk,' etc., etc.