The Twa Corbies- Gray (Ind.) Early 1900s Henry A
[This is not a traditional ballad. It written down by Mrs. Gray's grandfather (c. 1900) from Cleveland's Compendium which was published in Philadelphia in 1848, with subsequent editions reprinted in 1859 etc. The original, from Allan Cunningham, was printed in 1825 in Cunningham's Songs of Scotland, Vol. I, pp. 289-290. Cunningham rewrote Scott's text from 1803 (See Twa Corbies- Child A a.). There are slight differences in the text.]
From: Still More Ballads and Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands
by Mellinger E. Henry
Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 45, No. 175 (Jan. - Mar., 1932), pp. 1-176
2. THE THREE RAVENS (The Twa Corbies) Child, No. 26.
A. "The Twa Corbies". Obtained from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, Route 3, Box 499, Terre Haute, Indiana. The ballad, therefore, does not come from the southern highlands, but came as a result of meeting Mrs. Gray while on a ballad-quest in the Great Smoky Mountains. It was copied by the writer from an end-paper apparently of an old bound volume of magazines in the possession of Mrs. Gray. Just as the text was about to be sent to the printer, Mr. Phillips Barry pointed out that it is identical with the version in Cleveland's Compendium. It was then decided not to reprint the text. However, on Mr. Barry's suggestion it is again printed. He says in a letter of June 26, 1931:
"It seems to me that Mrs. Gray's text of 'The Two Corbies' might well be included in your collection with the other two texts. The use of Cleveland's Compendium was so universal in American high schools that it is not likely that Mrs. Gray's grandfather was the only person who learned the 'Two Corbies' from it. There is, after all, not so very much difference between a school-book and a broadside or a songster, when it is a question of giving a particular song text a new start in oral tradition. The volume of Vermont Folk-Songs and Ballads, just published by the Stephen Daye Press, Brattleboro, Vermont, has on pp. 19 ff., a song, 'Margaret Gray', sung to a variant of an air widely known among folk-singers. The song was written by Julia C. R. Dorr, and was first printed in 1868; apparently it was learned from a volume of her poems, and, having passed into oral
tradition became attached to the tune to which it was sung."
As Mrs. Gray was not certain that the ballad was copied down by her grandfather, it will be just as well to quote what she has to say about the song:
"I am very much afraid I can't help you greatly on the 'Twa Corbies'. As I have told you, it was in an old volume of bound magazines, that was among those given me by my quaker great-aunt. She lived to be a very old lady, and all her life had been a great student, and collector of china, books, lustre ware, etc. She read constantly and remembered all she read. She was a great one for clipping, and her books are full of clippings. This book that the ballad was found in, I believe, was among the hundred or so she bought of a church. Some one in a town north from here willed a lot of books to a church. They were stamped 'Good Shephard Library, Linton, Ind.' Some way or other they got down here to St. Luke's, an Episcopal mission. They were such books that the rector thought were not altogether fitting for a church library and at a church sale one time he sold them all. My Aunt, true to form, bought them all. This end-paper may have been in the book when she bought it or she may have put it in for safe keeping. It appears to be a fly leaf of an old volume; the hand writing resembles hers a tiny bit. Another complex: You recall that there were notes written on the other side. They strangely resemble my grandfather's writing. He was a surgeon, and traveled and studied abroad often. He brought Aunt Libbie many old books from London and Edinborough. This may have been in one of them. If only I had found them before Aunt Libbie died, she would have told me. Here is the case, as clear as a maze:
(1) It came from an old book from London or Edinborough.
(2) It was copied by some one abroad from printed matter.
(3) It was copied by some one abroad from memory.
(4) It was copied by Aunt Libbie from printed matter.
(5) It was copied by Aunt Libbie from memory.
(6) It was copied by some one in Linton who owned the book - from printed matter or memory.
Any way, some one fancied the selection at some time, and wrote it from memory or copied it, any time from twenty-five to a hundred and twenty-five years ago. It has not been recently copied, that I know, for that book had not been looked into for at least eight years and probably not for double that time. If it is Aunt Libbie's writing it was written at least thirty-five years ago. Her writing the last few years did not look like that. Personally I don't think it was Aunt Libbie's writing or even grandfather's on the other page, but father thought that it might possibly be."
Child reminds us that Scott says of "The Twa Corbies" that it was "rather a counterpart than a copy" of "The Three Ravens" (English and Scottish Popular Ballads, edited by Helen Child Sargent and George Lyman Kittredge, Cambridge, 1904, p. 45. Cf. also Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, London, 1839, p. 235). See Barry, No. 27; Campbell and Sharp, No. Io; Cox, No. 6; Davis, No. 10; Hudson, No. 6; Sharp, Folk-Songs of English Origin, 2nd Series, p. 22; Reed Smith, Journal, XXVII, 63 and XXVIII, 201; Tatlock, Journal, XXXI, 273. B and C are fragments of "The Three Crows", a comic variety of "The Three Ravens". Cox in his head-note (No. 6) gives a number of references to the comic versions of the song. Add to these Heart Songs, p. 485. Parodies of the song may be found in Davis, No. 10 (appendices, P. 145). Mr. Barry sent the following comment: "The longer form of the song, which consists of Scott's text, expanded and altered by Allan Cunningham, was printed in 1825 in Cunningham's Songs of Scotland, Vol. I, pp. 289-290. He changed 'corbies' to 'ravens' in the first line. The editor of Cleveland's Compendium thought 'ravens' was neither archaic nor Scotch enough; he changed Cunningham's 'ravens' back to 'corbies'."
1. There were two corbies sat on a tree,
Large and black, as black might be;
And one the other gan say:
"Where shall we go and dine today?
Shall we go dine by the wild salt sea?
Shall we go dine 'neath the greenwood tree?"
2. "As I sat on the deep sea sand,
I saw a fair ship nigh at land.
I waved my wings, I bent my beak,
The ship sunk and I heard a shriek.
There they lie - one, two and three.
I shall dine by the wild salt sea."
3. "Come, I will show ye a sweeter sight,
A lonesome glen, and a new-slain knight.
His blood yet on the grass is hot,
His sword half drawn, his shafts unshot,
And no one kens that he lies there
But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair.
4. "His hound is to the hunting gane,
His hawk to fetch the wild fowl hame,
His lady's away with another mate;
So we shall make our dinner sweet;
Our dinner's sure, our feasting free;
Come, and dine by the greenwood tree.
5. "Ye shall sit on his white hause-banel [1];
I will pick out his boury[2] blue 'een;
Ye'll take a tress of his yellow hair
To theak[3] yere nest when it grows base;
The gowden[4] down on his young chin
Will do to sew my young ones in.
6. "Oh, cauld and base[5] will his bed be
When winter storms sing in the tree.
At his head a turf, at his feet a stone.
He will sleep, nor hear the maiden's moan.
O'er his white bones, the birds shall fly -
The wild deer bound, and foxes cry."
[1] Neck Bone.
[2] For Bonny. Cunningham has "bony".
[3] Thatch.
[4] Golden.
[5] Mistake for bare as also in stanza 5, line 4.
_____________
APPENDIX A is repeated here showing Cunningham's readings as indicated by Mr. Barry.
CORRECTED TO RESTORE CUNNINGHAM'S READINGS.
From A Compendium of English Literature, Chronologically Arranged, from Sir John Mandeville to William Cowper, by Charles D. Cleveland. Philadelphia, 1859 (original copyright date, 1848).
THE TWO RAVENS [1]
There were two ravens sat on a tree
Large and black as black might be;
And one unto the other gan say,
Where shall we go and dine to-day?
Shall we go dine by the wild salt sea?
Shall we go dine 'neath the greenwood tree?
As I sat on the deep sea sand,
I saw a fair ship nigh at land,
I waved my wings, I bent my beak,
The ship sunk, and I heard a shriek;
There lie the sailors, one, two, three,
I shall dine by the wild salt sea.
Come, I will show ye a sweeter sight,
A lonesome glen, and a new-slain knight;
His blood yet on the grass is hot,
His sword half-drawn, his shafts unshot,
And no one kens that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair.
His hound is to the hunting gane,
His hawk to fetch the wild fowl hame,
His lady's away with another mate,
So we shall make our dinner sweet;
Our dinner's sure, our feasting free,
Come, and dine by the greenwood tree.
Ye shall sit on his white hause-bane,[2]
I will pike out his bony blue e'en;
Ye'll take a tress of his yellow hair,
To theak yere nest when it grows bare;
The gowden[3] down on his young chin
Will do to rowe my young ones in.
O, cauld and bare will his bed be,
When winter storms sing in the tree;
At his head a turf, at his feet a stone,
He will sleep, nor hear the maiden's moan:
O'er his white bones the birds shall fly,
The wild deer bound and the foxes cry.
Footnotes:
1 One of the most poetical and picturesque ballads existing.
2. The neck-bone — a phrase for the neck.
3. Golden.