The Silver Dagger- Luther Burwell (WV) 1915 Cox D
[Designated D. From: John Harrington Cox's "Folk-Songs of the South" #108A; 1925. His notes follow. Both Belden and Cox have separate categories for Drowsy Sleeper and Silver Dagger.
R. Matteson 2016]
108 THE DROWSY SLEEPER
Two variants of this song have been recovered in West Virginia, one having the title, "The Silver Dagger," probably because the last two stanzas of it belong to that song (see p. 350, below).
"The Drowsy Sleeper" an interesting variant of a song known, in a Nithsdale version, to Allan Cunningham, and given in part in a note to "0, my hive's like a red, red rose" in his edition of Burns, 1834, iv, 285 (Kittredge, Journal, xx, 260).
For American texts see Journal, xx, 260 (Kentucky), xxix, 200 (Georgia); xxx, 338 (Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska or Utah); xxxv, 356 (Ohio) ; Belden, Herrig's Archiv, cxrx, 430 (Missouri, Arkansas): Campbell and Sharp, No. 47 (North Carolina); Sturgis and Hughes, Songs from the Hills of Vermont, p. 30; Pound, No. 21 (A, Nebraska; B, the same as Journal, xxx, 342); Sharp, Folk-Songs of English Origin Collected in the Appalachian Mountains, 2d Series, p. 48; Minish MS., 11, 63 (North Carolina); broadside, H. J. Wehman (New York), No. 518 (mixed with "The Silver Dagger").
For English and Scottish references see Journal, xx, 260; xxx, 338; xxxv, 356; Campbell and Sharp, p. 330. See also the Hudson MS. of Irish airs, Volume 1, No. 181 (Boston Public Library).
There is an extremely interesting paper on " English Songs on the Night Visit," by Baskervill, in the Publications of the Modern Language Association, xxxvi, 565-614 (see p. 585 for the present piece).
1O9 THE SILVER DAGGER
Three good copies of this song have been recovered in West Virginia, one of them going under the title of "The Warning Deaths." A and C are almost exactly alike in arrangement and phraseology. B is different from the other
two in that the crossing of the lovers is due to the girl's parents.
For texts and references see Journal, xx, 267 (Kentucky) ; xxx, 362 (Missouri); Pound, Ballads, No. 52 (Wyoming and Illinois). For contamination of "The Silver Dagger" with "The Drowsy Sleeper" see Journal, xxx, 388. The text of the latter published by Wehman as a broadside (New York, No. 518: "Who's at my Bedroom Window?") shows this mixture, and the same is true of "The Shining Dagger" in Sturgis and Hughes, Songs from the Hills of Vermont, p. 30, of Campbell and Sharp's No. 47 C, and Pound's, No. 21 B (Ballads, p. 52).
D. "The Silver Dagger." Communicated by Anna Copley, Shoals, Wayne County, December 28, 1915; obtained from Mr. Luther Burwell, who learned it when a child from his mother.
1 Pray, men and maids, all lend attention
To these few lines I'm going to write;
It is something concerning a youth whom I'll mention;
He courted a lady, beauty bright.
2 And when her parents came to know it,
They strove to part them, both night and day;
They strove to part them from her own dearest jewel,
"He's poor, he's poor," they often cried.
3 Her bended knees to them she bowed,
Crying, "Father, O pray pity me!
And don't let my true lover go denial,
For without him what's this world to me?"
4 She turned her back unto the city,
To view those fields and meadows round;
She wandered away to some clear, broad river,
And under the shade of a tree sat down,
5 Saying, "Will I now or shall I ever,
Shall ever I enjoy my true love's charms?
Shall ever I enjoy my own dearest jewel,
Or see the man whom I love best?"
6 Then she pulled out a silver dagger,
And pierced it through her milk-white breast;
And under those few lines she began to stagger,
Saying, "Fare you well, I'm going to rest."
7 Her true love not being far behind her,
He heard her make her love-sake moan;
He ran on like a man distracted,
Saying, "I'm ruined, lost, I'm left undone."
8 Her deep-blue eyes to him she opened,
Crying, "True love, you have come too late!
But prepare to meet me on Mount Zion,
Where all our joys will be complete."
9 Then he picked up this bloody weapon,
And pierced it through his poor tender heart,
Saying, "Let this day be a dreadful warning,
To all who doth true lovers part."