The Sad Courtin'- Nuckols (KY) 1932 Niles
[From The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, 1961. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2013]
The Sad Courtin' (Niles No. 56)
Niles notes: IN the summer of 1932 I encountered an elderly woman named Mrs. Nuckols, who lived somewhere north of Yerkes, Ky. She was in Hazard, Ky., with her husband on some matter involving a coal-rights claim. She was pointed out to me as a person who knew and would sing "the ghost ballad." Indeed she did know it, but alas and alack, she would not sing it. At least, what she did sing was altered so often that I finally gave up and made as clear a record of the text as I could. She was the most unwilling singer I had encountered in a long while. Perhaps I offended her. I never knew, for I never saw her again. Here are her verses:
1. Sing courtin', sing courtin',
All courtin' is vain:
It brings us small pleasure
For all it brings pain.
2. As soon as her father did come for to know,
She loved a farmer boy, said, "No, daughter, no,
I'll send you a travelin' some miles from your home."
'Twas then that her lover did make heavy moan.
3. The clerks and the clergy, the doctors all tried,
But now 'tis a year this young man he died.
And now he comes ridin' a dappled white steed,
A-seekin' his sweetheart with horseback and speed.
4. "I've brought you a horse from your old father's barn,
Your own mother's coat to keep you from harm."
He said as they came to her father's own gate,
"My dearest, my head, it is all of an ache."
5. She reached to kiss him, his lips were as clay.
She looked at his face, and his face it was gray.
She took a fine handkerchief off from her neck,
And wound it around her dear lover's head.
6. "It's Father, oh Father, dear Father," cried she.
"It's welcome, most welcome, dear daughter," cried he.
"The one that you sent, my dear lover of old,
Is bedding the horse, the night is so cold."
7. Now come all ye parents of daughter or son,
Part not your true loves, once love is begun,
For they opened the grave of her lover long dead:
Her kerchief was wrapped round his moldering head.