The Three Maids- Johnson (Va.) 1939 Halpert
[From the Virginia WPA Collection as collected by Emory Hamilton and recorded by Herbert Halpert. Text and notes from the LP Virgina Traditions; Ballads from the British Tradition- recording BRI-002 One of two versions collected by Hamilton; he also got a version from Johnson's neighbor, a Mrs. Martha Shupe of Wise, Virginia.
R. Matteson 2014]
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[Virgina Traditions; Ballads from the British Tradition- recording BRI-002- Liner notes]
2. THE THREE MAIDS [The Cruel Brother, Child 11]-Polly Johnson, vocal. Recorded in Wise [Wise County], Virginia, March 24, 1939, by Herbert Halpert, Emory L. Hamilton, and an unidentified woman. 3:36.
Mrs. Johnson learned this song when she was seventeen from her nephew in Johnson County, Kentucky, fifteen miles below Paintville on Big Sandy. Professor Child says this song was once one of the most popular of Scottish ballads and he has found the same story in Scandinavian and German ballads as well. The bride's bequest of good things to her friends but ill things to the author of her death is highly characteristic of ballad poetry. Perhaps because the crime seems motiveless by today's standards, this ballad survives only weakly in tradition. Davis, for example, gives no versions of it in either of his collections. Emory Hamilton recorded three variants of the song, two from Mrs. Johnson and the third from a neighbor. It has not been
reported elsewhere in the state.
This ballad is a perfect example of what is termed "incremental repetition." The story progresses in clear increments or by regular consecutive additions: "What do you will your sister Ann?"; "What do you will your true love?"; "What do you will your mother dear?", etc. The seemingly meaningless refrain of this version has probably always been so for a version of the ballad collected in Scotland in 1800 (from Mrs. Brown of Falkland) is similar:
There was three ladies play'd at the ba.
With a hey ho and a lillie gay
There came a knight and played 0 'er them a'.
As the primrose spreads so sweetly.
(Kittredge and Sargent, p. 20)
It seems this ballad, as Mrs. Johnson sings it, "degenerated" little over the 139 year span between the versions. Another version of this song attributed to Mrs. Johnson goes:
What do you will your brother John? I lily-a
What do you will your brother John?
A rope and a gallows for to hang him on,
For the rose is sweet I know.
It is likely there was simply not enough room on the disc for this last verse and it was consequently omitted.
There was three maids a-playing ball.
I lily-O
There was three maids a-playing ball.
I lily-O
They some three lords for to court them all.
For the rose is sweet I know.
The foremost one was dressed in red.
I lily-O
The foremost one was dressed in red.
And this is the one 1 make my wed.
For the rose is sweet I know.
The middle one was dressed in green,
I lily-O
The middle one was dressed in green.
And this is the one I'll make my queen,
For the rose is sweet I know.
The foremost one was dressed in white.
I lily-O
The foremost one was dressed in white.
Oh this is the one I'll make my wife.
For the rose is sweet I know.
Her brother John was standing by.
I lily-O
Her brother John was standing by.
He wouuded his sister with a knife
For the rose is sweet I know.
Ride on, ride on, to yonder's hill.
I lily-O
Ride on, ride on, to yonder's hill.
Till I get down and bleed a while.
For the rose is sweet I know.
Ride on, ride on, to yonder's hill.
I lily-O
Ride Oil. ride on. to yonder's hill.
Till I get down and make my will.
For the rose is sweet I know.
What do you will your sister Ann?
I lily-O
What do you will your sister Ann?
My trunk of gold and silver pan.
For the rose is sweet I know.
What do you will your true love dear?
I lily-O
What do you will your true love dear?
This snow white horse that 1 rode here.
For the rose is sweet I know.
What do you will your mother dear?
I lily-O
What do you will your mother dear?
My snow white dress what I wore here.
For the rose is sweet 1 know.
Tell her to wash it nice and clean.
I lily-O
Tell her to wash it nice and clean.
So my heart's blood call never be seen.
For the rose is sweet I know.
What do you will your brother John?
I lily-O
What do you will your brother John?
A rope and a gallows for to hang him on,
For the rose is sweet I know.