"The Water Is Wide" The History Of A "Folksong"- Jürgen Kloss 2010
[This excellent article by Jürgen Kloss can best be viewed here:
http://justanothertune.com/html/wateriswide.html
I might reproduce the graphics/links at some point and add commentary,
R. Matteson 2012]
"The Water Is Wide": The History Of A "Folksong"
by Jürgen Kloss, October 2010 (revised July 2012)
I. "The Water Is Wide" is one of the most popular "Folk songs" today, not at least because of its beautiful tune. The song has been performed and recorded by countless artists. I heard it first from Bob Dylan and Joan Baez who sang it as a duet in 1975. Their performance was one of the highlights of Dylan's movie Renaldo & Clara and this version can now be found on the CD Live 1975 (see BobDylan.com):
The water is wide and I can't cross over
And neither have I wings to fly
Build me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row My love and I
There is a ship and it sails on the sea
loaded deep as deep can be
But not as deep as the love I'm in
I know not if I sink or swim
I leaned my back up against an oak
Thinkin' it was a trusty tree
But first it bent and then it broke
just like my own false love to me
Oh love is gentle and love is kind
Gay as a jewel when first it's new
But love grows old and waxes cold
And fades away like the morning dew
The water is wide and I can't cross over
And neither have I wings to fly wings
Build me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row My love and I
Here is one version of the tune:
"The Water Is Wide" is often called an "old Folk song" but in fact it is not that old. It came only to prominence after Pete Seeger introduced the song in 1958 on his LP American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 2 (Folkways FW 02321). In fact it was somehow courageous to designate the song as an "American Favorite Ballad" because it was barely known there at that time. In the liner notes to the LP he didn't tell his listeners where he had learned this piece. But it was included two years later in a songbook called American Favorite Ballads. Tunes and Songs as Sung by Pete Seeger (Oak Publications, New York 1960). Here he described "The Water Is Wide" as "another song from England, collected by Cecil Sharp many years ago and titled by him 'Waillie, Waillie'" (p. 77). And on page 4 we can read that it was "printed by permission". A copyright by London publishers Novello & Co. - 1908 and 1936 - is acknowledged and for some reason he names English Folk-songs from the Southern Appalachians by "Cecil Sharpe" [sic!] as the source.
But that was not correct. The original version of "The Water is Wide" can be found in Folk Songs From Somerset. Third Series by Cecil Sharp and Charles Marson. This collection was published in London by Simpkin & Co. in 1906 (available at IMSLP, here No. LXVI, p. 32/33). Here it was still called "Waly, Waly". In the Notes on the Songs (p.76) a "Mrs. Cox, of High Ham" is mentioned as the source for both the words and the tune. Sharp also remarked that he had "noted this song in Somerset five times - tunes and words varying considerably" but that "our Somerset words have so much affinity with the well-known Scottish ballad 'Waly, Waly' that we are publishing them under the same title".
These notes are somewhat misleading. They seem to suggest that Sharp had collected the song in exactly this form. But in fact he had created it anew by collating bits and pieces from different field-recordings. What he regarded as "Folk"-versions of that old Scottish ballad were in fact mutilated fragments of two different broadside-songs. Already in 1954 J. W. Allen - in a seminal article in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (pp.161-171) - has compared the published version with the original field-recorded variants in the manuscripts and was able to show convincingly how Sharp had put together this song. He even identified one of the two broadside ballads in question.
The following text is an attempt at outlining the history and prehistory of "The Water Is Wide". Mr. Allen has laid the groundwork for any further examination of this problem with his article but I try to discuss it in a broader context. A couple of questions come to mind: why and how did the song collectors like Cecil Sharp edit their field-recorded texts for publication? What was their notion of authenticity? How did the anonymous writers of broadside ballads produce their texts? What did broadside writers and folklorists have in common? Why were so-called "floating verses" so important for the production of both broadside ballads and "Folk songs"? In fact this is a very fascinating story that shows how mutilated relics of ancient popular songs were reinterpreted as remainders of "old folk songs" and then – restored to honor and patched together to a new "old" song - started a second, even more successful life.
II. But at first it is necessary to go back to 1720s and have a look at this old Scottish ballad "Oh Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny". This song was first printed in 1725/6 in two groundbreaking publications. A version with a tune and four verses - including variant forms of two we know from the modern "The Water Is Wide" - can be found in William Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius, or a Collection of the best Scotch Songs. Here it was called "Wale' Wale' up yon Bank" (p. 34, available at Early Books of Scottish Songs, NLS) . :
And wale' wale' up yon Bank,
And wale' wale' down yon brae.
And wale' wale' by yon River's side,
Where my love and I was wont to gae.
Wale' wale' gin Love be bonny,
A little while when it's new.
But when it's old, it waxes cauld,
And wears away, like morning Dew.
I leant my back unto an Oak,
I thought it was a trusty tree.
But first it bow'd and sine it Brake
And sae did my true love to me.
When Cockle Shells turn Silver Bells,
and Mussles grow on ev'ry tree,
When Frost and Snaw shall warm us a'
Then shall my Love prove true to me.
Thomson was a Scottish singer who had moved to London. There he obviously had great success and was "favoured at court on account of his Scots songs" (Farmer 1962, p. I). His Orpheus Caledonius - the very first collection of Scottish songs - was dedicated to the Princess of Wales. This book was published on January 1st, 1726 (see the advert in the Daily Post, December 31, 1725, GDN Z2000268762, BBCN).
Another version - this time only a text without a tune - was included by Allan Ramsay in the second volume of his immensely influential Tea-Table Miscellany. The exact publication date is not clear. The first volume had come out in 1724 (ESTC N045927). In the catalogue of the National Library of Scotland the second is dated as from 1726 (see Copac; see also Martin 1931, p. 97)). If this is correct it would mean that it was published after Thomson's collection. In fact Ramsay's version is bit different from Thomson's. The verse with the "cockle shells" is missing. Instead we get seven additional quatrains (here pp. 179-180 from the 10th edition, Dublin 1734):
O, waly waly upon the bank
And waly, waly down the brae,
And waly waly yon Burn-side
Where I and my love wont to gae.
I leaned my back unto an Aik
I thought it was a trusty tree
But first it bow'd and syne it brak
Sae my true Love did lightly me.
O waly, waly, but love be bony
A little Time while it is new,
But when 'tis auld it waxeth cauld
And fades away like Morning Dew.
O wherefore should I busk my Head,
Or wherefore should I kame my Hair?
For my true Love has me forsook,
And says he'll never love me mair.
Now Arthur-Seat shall be my bed,
The Sheets shall ne'er be fyl'd by me,
St. Anton's Well shall be my drink,
Since my true love has forsaken me.
Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blaw,
And shake the green leaves aff the tree?
O gentle Death, when wilt thou come?
For of my life I am weary.
'Tis not the frost that freezes fell,
Nor blawing Snaw's Inclemenciy
'Tis not sic cauld that makes me cry,
But my Love's Heart grown cauld to me.
When we came in by Glasgow Town,
We were a comely Sight to see;
My love was clad in black Velvet,
And I my sell in Cramasia.
But had I wist before I kiss'd
That Love had been sae ill to win,
I'd lock'd my Heart in a Case of Gold,
And pin'd it wi' a Silver Pin.
Oh, oh! if my young Babe were born,
And set upon the Nurse's Knee,
And I my sell were dead and gane,
For a Maid again I'll never be.
In 1733 William Thomson published a second expanded edition of his Orpheus Caledonius. Here he not only simplified the bass of his first version of this song but he also changed he title to "Waly, Waly" and added six of the additional verses from Ramsay's text on two extra pages (No.34, available at the Internet Archive):
Ramsay has marked "Oh, Waly, Waly" with a "Z" as an "old song", but we don't know how old it was when he published it. Nor do we know if and how much Ramsay and Thomson have edited their texts. But at least one verse was already known a hundred years earlier. A variant of the second can be found in a manuscript from the 1620s (see Child IV, No. 204, p. 93):
This particular lines were also used as the fourth verse in a Cantus for three voices that was published in Aberdeen in 1666 in the second edition of Thomas Davidson's Cantus, songs and fancies, to three, four, or five parts (ESTC R213597, available at EEBO, image 48):
Of course this doesn't mean that "Oh Waly, Waly" already existed at that time. It is far more likely that the anonymous creator of this song simply borrowed an older verse. Interestingly five of the seven additional stanzas from Ramsay's text can also be found in other songs. One was part of the ballad "The Seamans Leave Taken Of His Sweetest Margery" (first printed ca. 1650, ESTC R227870, available at EEBO; see also Pepys 4.158, 1681-84, at EBBA):
If I had wist before I had kist,
that love had been so dear to win;
My heart I would have clos'd in gold,
and pin'd it with a silver pin.
But "Oh Waly, Waly" also shares four verses with "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed, or: Love in Despair". This "New Song much in Request" was apparently published circa 1701 (available at NLS: The Word On The Street; see also Child, p. 93 and p. 105, see also Allen, p. 167):
[...]
O Arthur's Seat shall be my Bed,
and the Sheets shall never be fil'd for me
St. Anthony's well shall be my Drink,
Since my, true Love's forsaken me.
[...]
It's not the Cold that makes me cry,
nor is't the Weet that wearies me:
Nor is't the Frost that freezes fell:
but I love a Lad, and I dare not tell.
[...]
Oh, oh! if my young Babe were born,
and set upon the Nurses Knee,
And I my self were dead and gone,
for a Maid again I'le never be.
Martinmass wind when wilt thou blow,
and blow the green leafs of the Tree,
O! gentle Death when wilt thou come,
for of my Life I am wearie.
The exact relationship between the two songs is not clear. Did the author of "Arthur's Seat" borrow these stanzas from "Oh Waly, Waly". Was it the other way round? But this would mean that "Oh Waly,Waly" was not that old because it then must have been written after "Arthur's Seat". Of course it is also possible that the writers of both pieces have borrowed these verses from another undocumented older song. Not at least it cannot be excluded that they were only later - sometime between 1701 and 1726 - added to the Scottish ballad. But I assume it can't have been Ramsay himself. In this case he would have marked "Oh Waly, Waly" not with a "Z" as an old song but with a "Q, old songs with additions".
Some verses from "Oh Waly, Waly" can be found in a couple of variants of "Jamie Douglas" (see Child No. 204). This ballad was first printed in a fragmentary version in in 1776 in the second edition of David Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs (Vol. 1, p. 144, here in the reprint published in 1869; see also Motherwell 1827, p. 395, Chambers 1829, p. 133-140). Motherwell (p. 407) claims that this ballad was "frequently sung to the same tune as 'Waly, Waly, Up The Bank'" but the one he has included (p. 421; also Bronson III, No. 204.5, p. 260) is quite different. Lord Douglas and Lady Erskine were divorced in 1681 so the ballad of course must have been written after that date. According to most experts "Oh Waly, Waly" apparently predates "Jamie Douglas" (see Bronson III, p.258; Friedman 1956, p. 101, Allen 1954, p. 166).
It seems that "Oh Waly, Waly" was immensely popular during the 18th and 19th century. The tune was used for example by John Gay in his ballad opera Polly (1729, Scene 6, Air 7, tunes, p. 2, No.VII) and also by James Worsdale in A Cure for a Scold. As it is now acting at the Theatres in London and Dublin, with universal Applause (London 1738, Air VII, p. 26, ESTC T62771, available at ECCO). Mr. Worsdale's new lyrics are worth quoting:
Altho' so fondly Men profess
to love us, without ranging,
Their passions vary like their Dress,
decaying, ever changing.
No Face so fair, no Eye so bright,
From roving to restrain them;
As Boys, as whom gilded Toys delight,
possess, and then disdain them.
The tune can also be found in the collections of both major Scottish composers of that time (see Olson, Incomplete Index). James Oswald included it both in his Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (1740) and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (Vol.1, 1743, p.5, available at the Internet Archive). William McGibbon published his arrangement in the Collection of Scots Tunes (ca. 1742; here Book III, p.87 in Robert Bremner's new edition, ca. 1768, available at IMSLP). But just like John Gay they both didn't use the version from Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius but instead one that suited Ramsay's 8-line double-stanzas:
Allan Ramsay's text remained available throughout the 18th century, not only because the Tea-table Miscellany were reprinted regularly: 1793 saw the 18th edition. It was also included in many songsters, for example The Lark (1740, 1742), The Merry Companion (1742), The Charmer (1752, 1765), The Scots Blackbird (1766, 1768), The Blackbird (1771, 1783, p. 91, at Google Books) and The Diary Maid: Or, Vocal Miscellany (1784; all available at ECCO) and in chapbooks like this one:
Four excellent new [sic!] songs.: 1, Waly waly up the bank 2, The ploughman laddie 3, Jack of all trades. 4, Sylvia and her lover (Edinburgh, ca. 1780; ESTC T182987)
But the text of "Oh Waly, Waly" also found a place in the most important antiquarian collections of that time: Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765, here pp.144-6 in the 3rd ed., 1775) and David Herd's Ancient And Modern Scottish Songs (1769, pp. 196-7, ESTC T078132, available at ECCO; here from the 2nd ed. 1776, Vol. 1, pp. 81-2).
Towards the end of the century the song was published in all major collections of Scottish songs. It was available in sophisticated arrangements, for example in William Napier's Selection of the most Favourite Scots Songs Chiefly Stafforal, Adapted for the Harpsichord, with an Accompaniment for a Violin By Eminent Masters (London, 1790, No.60, ESTC T219204, available at ECCO) and in the first volume of George Thomson's Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs (1793, No. 19, ESTC T186186, available at ECCO). Thomson had hired Austrian composer Ignaz Pleyel as the arranger and also added a completely unnecessary new English text with the title "Hard Is The Fate Of Him Who Loves". More simple arrangements with only the bass were published by James Johnson in his Scots Musical Museum (Vol. 2, 1788, No. 158, p. 166 & Vol. 5, 1797, No. 446, p. 458) and David Sime in his Edinburgh Musical Miscellany (Vol. 2, Edinburgh 1793, p. 328, all available at the Internet Archive):
Not at least antiquarian Joseph Ritson included the tune and the text in his Scotish Songs (Vol. 1, here pp. 235-6 in the reprint Glasgow 1869). He refrained from using a bass part and claimed that "the Scottish songs are purely melody, which is not infrequently injured by the basses which have been set to them by strangers: the only kind of harmony known to the original composers consisting perhaps in the unisonant drone of the bagpipe" (p. 7):
At this time "Oh Waly, Waly" was established as an "old Scottish ballad". It remained in print during the next century and was still regularly performed and published. We again can find the song in different surroundings. Ramsay's text was for example included on these two Long song sheets printed some time between 1813 and 1838:
The Covent Garden Syren; a collection of the most admired songs (Johnson Ballads, fol. 8, at the allegro Catalogue of Broadside Ballads)
The Thistle (Johnson Ballads, fol. 28; dto)
A quick search at Copac shows that it was also regularly published in new professional musical arrangements, for example in:
O waly waly up the bank : a popular Scotish [sic] melody ... / the symphonies & accompaniments composed by Alexr. Robertson (18??)
O waly waly: a favorite old Scotish [sic] song / arranged for the piano forte with a 2nd voice part ad lib, by R.A. Smith (18??)
O waly, waly, up the bank : favorite Scotch song / with new symphony & accompaniments by J. Macpherson (1878)
And of course it found a place in scholarly publications like The Garland of Scotia. A Musical Wreath of Scotish Song by John Turnball and Patrick Buchan (Glasgow 1841, p. 54), George F. Graham's The Songs of Scotland (1848, Vol. 1, pp. 100-1) and Edward F. Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Bishop Percy's Reliques (1850, pp.102 & 35-6). Graham noted that the "air is beautiful and pathetic" but complained about the quality of earlier arrangements:
"The simplicity of the original has been spoiled by several flourishes introduced into it by tasteless and ignorant collectors. M'Gibbon, Oswald, Bremner, and others, have much to answer for in the matter of pseudo-embellishment of our finest old airs. We have removed from 'Waly, Waly' the absurd trappings hung about its neck by these men".
The song was also well known in North America. The melody was used for example for teaching the violin (Howe's New Violin Without A Master, 1847, p. 111). Swedish Opera singer Christina Nilsson performed it her concerts and her version was published in 1870 in The Authorized Edition of [her] Songs as sung by her in America (available at the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music), but with a new tune written by one Jacques Blumenthal. Ralph Waldo Emerson included the text in his poetry anthology Parnassus (1875, p. 382). Later Carl Sandburg introduced a minimalist version in his American Songbag (1927, p. 16). The tune is completely different and for some reason the verse with the "cockle shells" has returned:
When cockle shells turn silver bells,
Then will my love return to me.
When roses blow, in wintry snow,
Then will my love return to me.
Oh, waillie! waillie!
But love is bonnie
A little while when it is new!
But it grows old and waxeth cold,
And fades away like evening dew.
"Oh Waly, Waly" survived into the 20th century and was also recorded during the Folk Revival era, for example by Hermes Nye (Early English Ballads From The Percy And Child Collections, 1957, Folkways FW 02305), by Peggy Seeger & Ewan MacColl (Two-Way Trip, 1961, Folkways FW 08755) and by John Jacob Niles whose eccentric version was first released in 1953 on American Folk Love Songs to Dulcimer Accompaniment (Boone-Tolliver BTR-22, 10" LP) and then in 1959 on An Evening With John Jacob Niles (Tradition TLP1036, available at amazon.co.uk).
III. Allan Ramsay's version of "Oh Waly, Waly" had a long and honorable history and it is still performed today. "The Water Is Wide" is a much younger song that was - as already noted – first published under the very same title by Cecil Sharp and Charles Marson in 1906 in Folk Songs From Somerset. Third Series (No. LXVI, p. 32/33). Their song included variants of two verses known from the old Scottish ballad but otherwise the rest of the text and the tune were completely different.
The water is wide l cannot get o'er
And neither have I wings to fly.
Give me a boat that will carry two
And both shall row, my Love and I.
O, down in the meadows the other day
A-gath'ring flow'rs both fine and gay,
A-gathering flowers, both red and blue,
I little thought what love can do.
I put my hand into one soft bush
Thinking the sweetest flower to find.
I pricked my finger right to the bone,
And left the sweetest flower alone.
I leaned my back up against some oak
Thinking that he was a trusty tree:
But first he bended and then he broke;
And so did my false Love to me.
A ship there is and she sails the sea,
She's loaded deep as deep can be,
But not so deep as the love I'm in:
I know not if I sink or swim.
O, love is handsome and love is fine,
And love's a jewel while it is new,
But when it is old, it groweth cold
And fades away Iike morning dew.
The Folk Songs From Somerset were no academic collection. Sharp wanted to revitalize these songs that he saw as "our national heritage, or some salvage of it" (Introduction, p. ix). The song was reissued two years later by another publisher, Novello & Co. , as sheet music in the series "School Songs". Interestingly there was no copyright notice in the Folk Songs From Somerset. But Novello & Co. registered the song in 1908 (renewed in 1936). Their copyright was acknowledged by Pete Seeger and Oak Publications when they published "The Water Is Wide" in 1960 in the songbook American Favorite Ballads.
A second variant of this song with some minor changes in the text and two additional verses was included in Cecil Sharp's One Hundred English Folk Songs (No. 39, pp. 90), a book published by Ditson in New York and Boston in 1916. The notes (p. xxx) are more or less the same as in the Somerset collection but here Sharp refrained from naming his informant:
The water is wide, I cannot get o'er
And neither have I wings to fly.
O go and get me some little boat
To carry o'er my true love and I.
A-down in the meadows the other day,
A-gath'ring flow'rs, both fine and gay,
A-gath'ring flowers, both red and blue,
I little thought what love could do.
I put my hand into one soft bush
Thinking the sweetest flow'r to find,
I prick'd my finger to the bone,
And left the sweetest flow'r alone.
I leaned my back up against some oak,
Thinking it was a trusty tree.
But first he bended and then he broke,
So did my love prove false to me.
Where love is planted, O there it grows,
It buds and blossoms like some rose;
It has a sweet and a pleasant smell,
No flow'r on earth can it excel.
Must I be bound, O and she go free!
Must I love one that does not love me!
Why should I act such a childish part,
And love a girl that will break my heart.
There is a ship sailing on the sea,
She's loaded deep as deep can be,
But not so deep as in love I am;
I care not if I sink or swim.
O love is handsome and love is fine,
And love is charming when it is true;
As it grows older it groweth colder
And fades away like the morning dew.
"O Waly, Waly" was compiled by Cecil Sharp from parts of three different field recordings he had made in Somerset between 1904 and 1906. One was by Mrs. Caroline Cox (1905, Karpeles, No. 35, version A, p. 171; also in Allen, p. 163). and he took the tune and four of the five verses - one of them known from the Scottish "Oh Waly, Waly" - from this variant:
Down in the meadows the other day,
Gathering flowers both fine and gay,
Gathering flowers both red and blue,
I little thought what love can do.
I put my hand into the bush
Thinking the sweetest flower to find,
I pricked my finger to the bone
And leaved the sweetest flower alone.
I leaned my back against some oak
Thinking it was a trusty tree.
First he bended, then he broke
And so did my false love to me.
There is a ship sailing on the sea
But it's loaded so deep as deep can be,
But not so deep as in love I am,
I care not whether I sink or swim.
Since my love's dead and gone to rest
I'll think on her who I love best.
I've sewed her up in flannel strong,
Have another now she's dead and gone.
The second one was from James Thomas (1906, Karpeles, No. 35, version B, p. 172). Sharp used two of his four verses for the extended text published in 1916:
O down in the meadows the other day
A-gathering flowers both rich and gay,
A-gathering flowers both red and blue,
I little thought what love could do.
Where love is planted there do grow,
It buds and blossoms just like some rose,
For it has a sweet and a pleasant smell,
No flower on earth can it excel.
I fetched my back once against an oak,
I thought it had been some trusty tree,
For the first it bent and the next it broke,
So did my love prove false to me.
Must I go bound and she go free?
Must I love one that don't love me?
Why should I act such a childish part
To love a girl that will break my heart?
A fragment supplied by Mrs. Elizabeth Mogg (1904, Karpeles, No. 35, version C, p. 173; also quoted by Allen, p. 165) was the source for the first and the last verse. This is clearly a relic of a different song although Sharp apparently also regarded it as related to the old Scottish "Oh Waly, Waly" because it included a variant form of one of its stanzas:
The water is wide and I can't get over
Neither have I got wings to fly.
Go and get me O some little, little boat
For to carry over my true love and I.
Love is handsome, love is pretty,
Love is charming when it is true;
As it grows older it grows colder
And fades away like the morning dew.
I had two dogs under my father's table.
They do prick their ears when they do hear the horn.
When I'm dead, dear, it will be all over
And I hope my friends will bury me.
Two years later Mrs. Mogg sang another version with two different verses (Karpeles, p. 173, also quoted by Allen):
The water is wide and I can't get over
Neither have I got wings to fly.
Go and get me O some little, little boat
For to carry over my true love and I.
In London city the girls are pretty,
Streets are paved with marble stones.
My true lover the clever a woman
As ever trod on English ground.
I'm often drunk but never sober,
I'm a rover in every degree.
When I'm drinking I'm always a-thinking
How to gain my love's company.
IV.
The pieces Sharp collected from Caroline Cox and James Thomas were not remainders of "Waly, Waly" but fragments of an old broadside ballad that was known under the titles "The Unfortunate Swain", "Picking Lilies" and "The Maid's Complaint". Mrs. Cox used five of the original nine verses - the first, then the seventh, the sixth, the fifth and the last - while Mr. Thomas only recalled four of them: the first, the second, the sixth and the third:
Down in yon Meadow fresh and gay,
Picking of Flowers the other day,
Picking of Lillies red and blue:
I little thought what Love could do.
Where Love is planted there it grows,
It buds and blossoms much like a Rose;
And has a sweet and pleasant smell,
No Flower on earth can it excel.
Must I be bound, must she be free,
Must I love one that loves not me;
If I should act such a childish Part
To love a Girl that will break my Heart.
If there are thousands, thousands in a Room,
My true love she carries the brightest Bloom,
Sure she is some chosen one,
I will have her or I'll have none.
I saw a Ship sailing on the Deep,
She sail'd as deep as she could swim;
But not so deep as in Love I am,
I care not whether it sink or swim.
I set my Back against an oak,
I thought it was a trusty tree,
But first it bent and then it broke
So did my false Love to me.
I put my Hand into the Bush,
Thinking the sweetest Rose to find,
l prick'd my Fingers to the Bone,
And left the sweetest Rose behind.
If Roses be such prickly Flowers,
They should be gather'd while they're green,
And he that loves an unkind Lover,
I'm sure he strives against the stream.
When my love is dead and at an end,
I'll think of her whom I love best
I'll wrap her up Linning strong,
And think on her when she's dead and gone
This seems to be the earliest of the available extant texts. It was published on a broadside where it was only called "A New Love Song". This song-sheet has no imprint but in the English Short Title Catalogue "1750?" is suggested as the possible year of publication and John White in Newcastle as the printer:
Two excellent new songs. I. A new love song. II. Newcastle Ale (Roxburghe Ballads III.421, available at the English Broadside Ballad Archive, EBBA; ESTC T52067, also available at EEBO).
It was somehow courageous to publish this piece as a "new song". In fact it was mostly a compilation of verses from earlier broadsides: at least five of the nine were borrowed from other songs. One ("I set my foot against an oak...") was cribbed from "Oh Waly, Waly". Two can be found in Martin Parker's "The Distressed Virgin" (first printed 1633, ESTC S112529, available at EEBO; see also Douce Ballads 1(95a), between 1663 and 1674, at the allegro Catalogue; Pepys 3.313, ca. 1678-80, at EBBA):
I put my finger in the bush,
thinking the sweetest Rose to find,
I prickt my finger to the bone,
but yet I left the Rose behind;
If Roses be such prickling flowers
they must be gathered while they be green
And she that loves an unkind love,
Alas, she rowes against the streame.
Amazingly the anonymous author also resorted to songs that also share verses with Allan Ramsay's version of "Oh Waly, Waly" although he used not the same but others. Apparently the relationship between these texts was well known at that time. One was taken from "The Seamans Leave Taken of his Sweetest Margery" (see Pepys 4.158, 1681-1684, at EBBA;first printed ca. 1650, see ESTC R227870) but only in a rather mutilated form. In the original text the rhymes worked much better:
I have seven ships upon the sea,
and all are laden to the brim;
I am so inflam'd with love to thee,
I care not whether I sink or swim.
Another one may have been taken from "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed, or: Love in Despair" (ca. 1701, see NLS: The Word On The Street), although it looked a little different there:
Should I be bound that may go free?
should I Love them that Loves not me?
I'le rather travel into Spain,
where I'le get love for love again;
The compiler of this "new song" was surely well acquainted with old popular songs but his abilities as a poet left something to be desired. The rhyme scheme is inconsistent. In some verses it's aabb, in others abab or abcb and in the last one the first two lines do not rhyme with each other ("end/best"). Unfortunately we don't know anything else about this song. Was it written by a more or less professional broadside poet for the printer who then threw this piece on the market in hope that the people would pick it up and? Or was it a transcription of a popular song written and performed by a professional musician? Nor do we know the tune originally used for this text. None was indicated on the song-sheet and it was later never published with a melody in a songbook.
Nonetheless it seems that the song became very popular. At least it was regularly republished during the next decades and well into the 19th century. The text remained more or less stable, there were only minor changes as well as occasional attempts at repairing some of its flaws (see the pdf-file with all available printed variants). Around 1770 a slightly edited text was included in a small collection of song-texts:
The Merry Songster. Being a Collection of Songs [...], Printed and sold in Aldermary Church Yard, Bow Lane, London, [1770?] (ESTC T39283, available at ECCO)
This was the first time this song was called "The Unfortunate Swain". The first verse looks a little bit different and in the last a correct rhyme-word was inserted into the first line:
Down in a Meadow both fair and gay,
Plucking a Flower the other day,
Plucking a Flower both red and blue,
I little thought what Love could do.
[…]
When my love is dead and at her rest,
I'll think of her whom I love best
I'll wrap her up in Linnen strong,
And think on her when she's dead and gon. [sic!]
Two broadsides without imprint have also survived. In the English Short Title Catalogue 1780 and 1790 are given as possible dates of publication:
The Unfortunate Swain. A new Song, [London?, s.n., 1780?] (ESTC T010507 available at ECCO; same edition with identical woodcut and text: Harding B22(312), undated, in the allegro Catalogue & Madden Ballads 3, 1936)
The Unfortunate Swain. A new Song, [London?, s.n., 1790?] (ESTC T050423, available at ECCO; this edition has a different woodcut but an identical text; the lines of the last verse were printed in the wrong order)
Here the roses are introduced into the first verse:
Down in a meadow fair and gay
Plucking a Rose the other day,
Plucking a Rose both red and blue,
I little thought what love could do.
After the turn of the century "The Unfortunate Swain" was published in Scotland in at least four different chapbooks. They are all listed in the catalogue of Scottish chapbooks on the website of the University of Glasgow:
Bruce's address : to which are added, The blue cockade; Sorrow and care; The unfortunate swain, Printed and sold by C. Randall, Stirling 1805
The shady grove. To which are added, The maid's complaint for Jockey. Happy Lizzy, blooming maid. The lass of Primrose-hill. The unfortunate swain. She wakes, Sabina wakes, Printed by J. & M. Robertson, Saltmarket, Glasgow 1799, 1802 & 1807
An excellent new song, called, Esk mill : To which are added, The ship in distress. The happy fire-side. Vulcan's cup. The unfortunate swain. The maid's complaint for Jockey, Printed by M. Randall, Stirling [1813-1820?]
The crafty farmer : To which are added, The unfortunate swain. A new love song. Advice to the fair, Printed by M. Randall, Stirling [1813-1820?]
This song was also published with other titles. It can be found as "Picking Lilies" in some chapbooks from the last two decades of the 18th century. The only differences to the other texts were that one of the original verses was missing and that the lilies took over the main role in the first verse:
Four Excellent Songs Intituled, I. Picking Lillies. II. The Sailor's Lamentation. III. Low down in the Broom. IV. Willie is the Lad for me, [Newcastle upon Tyne?, 1780?] (ESTC T012281, available at ECCO)
Four excellent new, songs : 1. The captain's frolic. 2. Picking lillies, 3. The distressed saillors [sic] on the rocks of Scylla. 4. The generous gentleman, [Edinburgh, 1780] (ESTC T182889, text reprinted in: W. H. Logan, A Pedlar's Pack of Ballads and Songs, Edinburgh 1869, pp. 336-7 (available at The Internet Archive)
The Dandy---o. To which are added, Tippet is the dandy---o. The toper's advice. Picking lilies. The dying swan, Printed by J. & M.Robertson, Glasgow 1799 (ESTC T190595, available at ECCO)
Four copies of another edition called "The Maid's Complaint" - also with eight instead of nine verses - can be found among the Madden Ballads (8-5377; 9-5914 & 6132; 10-7033). One of them (9-6132) was published by Alice Swindells in Manchester and another one by Theophilus Bloomer in Birmingham. According to the British British Book Trade Index Mrs. Swindells was active as a printer between 1790 and 1828 while Mr. Bloomer was in this business between 1817 and 1827. One may assume that they both have published this song at around the same time. This strongly suggests that these two editions as well as the two other without an imprint were thrown on the market in the late '10s or during the '20s.
By all accounts "The Unfortunate Swain" remained popular for considerable time. It was published regularly – though sometimes with different titles - for at least 70 years. Already in 1803 a fragmentary version consisting of only three verses but including a tune was published by James Johnson in the sixth volume of his Scots Musical Museum. William Stenhouse in his notes to the 1839 edition of this collection reports that "the words and music of this were taken down from the singing of Mr. Charles Johnson", James Johnson's father, who claimed to have learned this piece "in his infancy, and he was then informed that it was very ancient". If this information is correct it would mean that this song had already existed in Scotland sometime before it was printed for the very first time around 1750 ("In Yon Garden", No. 563, p. 582 & notes, pp. 487-8, in the edition published in 1839):
In yon garden fine an' gay,
Picking lilies a' the day
Gath'ring flow'rs of ilka hue,
I wist na then what love cou'd do.
Where love is planted there it grows,
It buds and blossoms like any rose
It has a sweet and pleasant smell,
No flow'r on earth it can excel.
I put my hand into the bush,
And thought the sweetest rose to find,
But prick'd my finger to the bone,
And left the sweetest rose behind.
Another version of this song can be found in the Thomas Hepple Manuscript. In 1855 the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne "appointed a committee 'to protect and preserve the ancient melodies of Northumberland'". Two years later the Duke of Northumberland offered prizes for the two best collections of "ancient Northumbrian music". Thomas Hepple, a "local singer" from Kirkwhelpington, sent in his manuscript of 24 songs, in his own words "some old ballads I have had off by ear since boyhood" (Lloyd, Foreword to Bruce/Stokoe, pp. vi & xi; Rutherford 1964, pp. 270-2). His text – with six of the nine original verses - is very close to the printed versions and one may assume that he or his source had learned the song from a broadside or chapbook (online available at FARNE). The tune is clearly related to the one published in the Scots Musical Museum:
Down in a meadow fresh & gay
Plucking flowers the other day,
Plucking flowers both red and blue,
I little thought what love could do.
Where love is planted there it grows,
It buds & blossoms like any rose,
Such a sweet and pleasant smell,
All flowers on earth can it excel.
There thousands thousands all in a room,
My love she carries the highest bloom,
Surely she must be some chosen one,
I will have her or, I will have none.
I put my hand into a bush,
Thinking the sweetest rose to find,
But I prick'd my finger to the bone,
I left the sweetest rose behind.
I spy'd a ship sailing on the sea
Laden as deep as she could be,
But not deep as in love I am,
I care not whether she sink or swim.
Must I be bound and she go free
Must I love one that loves not me;
Why should I act such a childish part
To love a girl that should break my heart.
In 1867 a reader sent in four verses to the magazine Notes And Queries (3rd Ser., Vol. 11, p. 441). He noted that it was "a fragment of a song frequently sung by the Newcastle pitmen". In fact three of them are variants of verses 5, 6 and 7 from the broadside text while the fourth is partly related to another verse from "Waly, Waly". It's not unreasonable to assume that this fragment was a relic of a local "Folk"-version of this song.
William Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, Vol. 1 (1876, p. 226) includes a song called "The Prickly Rose" that he had collated from two Scottish variants of "The Unfortunate Swain". One was "sent to the Editor [Christie] in 1850 by a native of Buchan", the other from an "old woman in Buckie [...] She died in the year 1866 at the age of nearly 80 years. Her father [...] had the sobriquet 'Meesic' [...] indicating his fame as a ballad-singer" (dto. p. 42). The text is very similar to the printed versions and one may assume that he had a broadside or a chapbook with that song at hand. Otherwise he obviously refrained from major revisions. On the other hand it is impossible to say how much he has edited the tunes:
Down in yon meadow fresh and gay,
I was pulling flowers the other day;
I was pulling flowers both red and blue,
But I little knew what love could do.
For there love's planted, and there it grows,
It buds and blooms like any rose,
It has such a sweet and a pleasant smell,
That nought on earth can it excel.
I put my band into a bush,
Thinking a sweet rose there to find ;
But prick'd my fingers to the bone,
And left the sweetest rose behind.
If roses be such prickly flowers,
They should be pull'd when they are green;
So he that finds an inconstant love,
l'm sure he strives against the stream.
I see a ship sailing on the sea,
As heavy laden'd as she can be;
But she's not so deep, as in love I am,
What is't to me though she sink or swim ?
Must I go bound, and she go free ?
Must I love one that loves not me ?
Why should I act such a childish part,
As to love a fair one that breaks my heart ?
'Mong thousand thousands in a room,
My love does carry the highest bloom ;
She surely is my chosen one,
And I shall wed her or eise wed none.
Though she were dead and at her rest,
I would think on her whom I love best,
I would wrap her up in my memory strong.
And still think on her when she's dead and gone.
Sabine Baring-Gould, parson and squire in a parish in West Devon who started collecting the old songs in the late '80s, included a version with a piano arrangement called "Deep In Love" in his Songs And Ballads Of The West (1891, pp. 184/5, notes p. xxxviii). For the revised edition published in 1905 the song was rechristened to "A Ship Came Sailing" (No. 86, pp. 176-7). In the informative notes three informants are credited:
A ship came sailing over the sea,
As deeply laden as she could be;
My sorrows fill me to the brim,
I care not of I sink or swim.
Ten thousands ladies in the room,
But my true love's the fairest bloom,
Of stars she is my brightest sun,
I said I would have her or none.
I leaned my back against an oak,
But first it bent and then it broke,
Untrusty as I found that tree,
So did my love prove false to me.
Down in the mead the other day,
As carelessly I went my way,
And plucked flowers red and blue,
I little thought what love could do.
I saw a rose with a ruddy blush,
And thrust my hands into the bush,
I pricked my fingers to the bone,
I would I'd left that rose alone!
I wish! I wish! but 'tis in vain,
I wish I had my heart again!
With silver chain and diamond locks,
I'd fasten it in a golden box.
It is clear to see that the Rev. Baring-Gould has edited his text. For example he – who was a gifted songwriter himself - introduced a consistent rhyme scheme: in all verses it is aabb. Thankfully his manuscripts are now easily available (see Martin Graebe's Guide to the Baring-Gould Manuscripts on his site Songs of the West). Most important in case of "Deep In Love" is the chapter LXXXVI in the first volume of the so-called Personal Copy Manuscript. There we can find the variants of this song he had collected as well as important additional information. A pdf-file with a transcription of this particular chapter can be found on Martin Graebe's site. Images of the original pages are available on the Take Six Homepage of the EFDSS (SBG/1/1/404-415). The first thing to note is that Baring-Gould really has done his homework. In the manuscript he quotes the related verses from Oh "Waly, Waly", "Picking Lilies", "The Distressed Virgin" and Johnson's "Down In Yon Meadow" and also refers to a broadside of "The Unfortunate Swain". But it is also obvious why he felt it necessary to edit the song. In fact the texts of three variants he had collected were all fragments of dubious quality and it would have been impossible to use them for a songbook intended for a non-scholarly audience.
One version (text A) was sent to him by Miss Octavia L. Hoare, a correspondent from Cornwall. She had "heard it sung by an old Cornish parson, Mr. Walker of S. Enoder, who had picked it up from an old fellow in his parish". It consists of the same four verses as the version from Newcastle published in Notes And Queries in 1867, that means including the additional one starting with "I wish, I wish in vain [...]". I really wonder why this particular variant was only found in the Southwest and the Northeast of England and nowhere in between. But maybe Mr. Walker or Miss Hoare were also readers of Notes & Queries:
A ship came sailing o'er the sea,
As heavily laden as she might be,
But not so deep in love as I'm
For I care not wether Isink or swim.
I leaned my back against an oak,
Thinks I, I've found a trusty tree,
But first it bent & then it broke,
And so did my false love to me.
I put my hands into a bush,
I thought a lovely rose to find,
I pricked my fingers to the bone,
And left this lovely rose behind.
I wish! Iwish! But 'tis in vain,
I wish I had my heart again,
I'd lock it in a golden box,
I'd fasten it with a silver chain.
The second one (text F) with only three badly remembered verses was recorded from William Nichols,Whitchurch, Devon, whose "grandmother sang it to him in 1825":
In the meadow t’ other day
Plucking flowers both fine & gay
Plucking flowers red, white & blue
I little thought what love could do.
Where love is planted there it grows
It buds and blossoms like a rose
It bears a sweet & pleasant smell
There’s not a flower can it excell.
Ten thousand ladies in the room
My love she is the fairest bloom
[...]
I said I would have her or none.
The third fragment (text B) was taken down from "Mary Sacherley [i. e. Sally Satterley], aged 75 [...] daughter of an old singing moor man", a "famous singer on Dartmoor". But the text in the Personal Copy and also in the Fair Copy Manuscript (see SBG/3/1/422 ) had already been repaired by Baring-Gould. In the Working Notebook 3 (SBG/2/2/244, both available at the EFDSS) we can find what looks like the original version of this variant:
I shall be bound and she be free,
Shall I love one that loves not me?
Shall I play such a childish part,
For woman's love to break my heart.
Ten thousand lovers in the room
But my true love the fairest bloom
I'm sure she is the fairest one,
I will have her,or else have none.
I saw a ship come sailing by,
…
But not so deep in love as I,
I care not …
Down in the meadow 't other day
A plucking flowers red & blue
I little thought what love could do.
I put my hand into a bush.
In fact it was not much he had at hand but he managed to put together a more or less coherent song with a consistent rhyme scheme. The tune used in his book was the one sent to him by Miss Hoare together with the text quoted above. Baring-Gould left it more or less intact (see also Rough Copy, Vol.2, SBG/3/5/8A, at EFDSS). But he also noted that both Mary Sacherly and William Nichols sang the same tune, but the former "with twists" while the latter's was "imperfect". Interestingly in the Personal Copy Manuscript a second tune can be found. But that one is completely different from Miss Hoare's. It was sent to him – apparently without a text - by "Lady Lethbridge as sung by her old nurse":
After the turn of the century the collectors still found more relics of the song. Some time between 1907 and 1911 George Butterworth recorded in Sussex a text with four verses that was clearly derived from that broadside (GB/4/59, EFDSS) although he obviously regarded it as a variant of "Waly, Waly":
Down in those meadows fresh & gay,
Plucking flowers the other day,
I plucked those flowers both red and blues,
I little thought what love could do
The roses are such prickly flowers
They should be gathered when they are green,
I pricked my finger into the bone,
I left the sweetest rose behind.
I leaned my back against an oak,
I thought it was a trusty tree,
But first it bent,then it broke,
And so did my false love to me.
In yonder deep there swims a ship,
She swims as deep as deep can be,
Not half so deep as I am in love,
I little care if I sink or swim.
In 1909 George Gardiner collected a tune with one verse from one Thomas Bulbeck, also from Sussex (GG/1/21/1385, at the EFDSS):
The same year Herbert Hughes published in the first volume of his Irish Country Songs (p. 68-9) a "fragment of an old song" from County Derry that is clearly a very mutilated relic of the "Unfortunate Swain". In this case even the "childish part" got lost:
Must I go bound and you go free,
Must I love the lass who wouldn't love me,
Was e'er I taught so poor a wit,
As to love the lass would break my heart.
I put my finger to the bush,
To pluck the fairest rose,
I pricked my finger to the bone,
Ah, but then I left the rose behind.
We have even one single version from North America, another fragment of two verses that were recorded by Cecil Sharp from the singing of Jane Gentry in 1916 in North Carolina (Smith 1998, p. 157):
As I walked out one morning in May,
A-gathering flowers all so gay,
I gathered white and I gathered blue,
But little did I know what love can do.
Seven ships on the sea,
Heavy loaded as they can be,
Deep in love as I have been,
But little do I care if they sink or swim.
In all these more or less fragmentary versions one can find a combination of verses that is - to my knowledge - only known from "The Unfortunate Swain" and its off-springs. Most of the informants couldn't remember too much of the original text. Apparently these relics of the old broadside ballad were no longer part of the active singing repertoire. Instead it was a song heard and learned many decades ago and then only recalled for the collectors when they asked for "old songs". But at least at some point it must have been known all over the British Isles. Otherwise all these fragments wouldn't have been found in so many different places. Apparently the song was mainly disseminated with the help of broadsides and other printed matter. All the collected texts are very close to the commercially published versions.
Some of the tunes presented here are clearly related to the one published by Johnson in the Scots Musical Museum, not only Hepple's but also the first strain of Christie's version, the one sent to Baring-Gould by Lady Lethbridge and the one collected by Gardiner in Sussex.. There is good reason to assume that a melody of this kind was already in use for "The Unfortunate Swain" in the 18th century. Perhaps this was the "original" tune of the song. The others - including the two collected by Sharp - are not related to this group and they are also very different from each other. I am inclined to think that they were all applied to the song at a later point, perhaps by singers who had learned the text from a broadside or chapbook.
Now there is one question left. What about the tune used by Mrs. Cox? Unfortunately it is not known where she had learned it and to my knowledge this particular melody hasn't been found elsewhere. It's in no way related to any of the others collected with this song. J. W. Allen (p. 163 & 171) notes that "a similar tune to this occurs in a version of 'Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" and again in a version of [...] 'Young Hunting', from the Appalachians", all collected by Cecil Sharp in 1916. In fact the melodies of versions A and C - and D should also be mentioned - of "Lord Thomas" (Sharp 1917, No.16, pp. 55, 58, 59) are partly related to the one sung by Mrs. Cox. But it's only the musical phrase in first two bars that is similar while the rest of the song is very different:
The same can be said about the variant of "Young Hunting" he refers to (Karpeles, Appalachians, No.18 H, p. 110):
Allen (p. 164) also claims that the tune of a variant called "Deep In Love" - collected by H. E. D. Hammond in Dorset in 1905 (see Broadwood et al. 1923, pp. 69-70 and HAM/2/5/15 at EFDSS) - "is very similar to that printed and published by Sharp [...] we may say that, this tune, in its various forms, is the one proper to the song 'Down In The Meadows'" (i. e. "The Unfortunate Swain"). I must admit I can't hear much similarities. At best these two melodies are only very loosely related to each other. Nor do I think that it qualifies in any way as an offspring of the original tune of broadside song. As noted above Johnson's would be a much more likely candidate for this honor.
Another related tune was found by singer Sam Hinton. On his LP "The Wandering Folk Song" (1966, Folkways FW 02401, see the liner notes, p. 2) he did not only sing a version of "The Water Is Wide" but also a hymn called "The Happy Land" with words by Isaac Watts. He had found this text together with a "tune, which sounds to me so much like 'The Water Is Wide'" in Joshua Leavitt's The Christian Lyre. This book was first published in New York in 1830 (here from the 3rd ed. 1831, p. 128):
On this LP Hinton also sings an "anti-liquor song" called "Intemperance" - taken from "The Western Minstrel, a songster printed about 1850" (liner notes, p.3) - that has the same tune. But this particular melody is very obviously not identical to the one used by Mrs. Cox. They only share some melodic motives. In the end this leaves two possibilities. Either Mrs. Cox has created the melody all by herself: the similarities to the songs mentioned above may be purely coincidental or she simply used the same musical motif as the starting-point. Or else what she sang for Sharp was the English predecessor of these American tunes, perhaps a hymn learned in school or in the church. But that's of course speculation and at the moment this question can’t be answered. Nonetheless I think she should be given appropriate credit as the originator of this particular tune.
V.
The two fragments Sharp secured from Elizabeth Mogg are relics of another broadside ballad called "I'm Often Drunk And Seldom Sober". That one was published in two versions. The first with nine verses and a chorus can be found for example on a song-sheet printed by John Pitts in London (Johnson Ballads 868, at the allegro Catalogue):
Many cold winters nights I've travell'd,
Until my locks were wet with dew,
And don't you think that I'm to blame,
For changing old love for new.
[Chorus:]
I'm often drunk and seldom sober,
I am a rover in every degree,
When I'm drinking I'm often thinking
How shall I gain my love's company.
The seas are deep and I cannot wade them,
Neither have I wings to fly,
I wish I had some little boat,
To carry over my love and I.
I lean'd my back against an oak,
Thinking it had been some trusty tree;
At first it bent and then it broke
And so my false lover proved to me.
In London City the girls are so pretty,
The streets are paved with marble stone,
And my love she is as clever a woman
As ever trod on English ground.
I wish I was in Dublin city,
As far as e'er my eyes could see,
Or else across the briny ocean,
Where no no false lover can follow me.
If love is handsome and love is pretty,
And love is charming while its new,
So as love grows older it grows colder,
But fades away like the morning dew.
I laid my head on a cask of brandy,
It was my fancy I declare;
For when I'm drinking I'm always thinking
How I shall gain my love's company.
There is two nags in my fathers stable,
They prick their ears when they hear the hound;
And my true love is as clever a women
As ever trod on England's ground
You silly sportsmen leave off your courting,
I'll say no more till I have drank,
For when I'm dead it will be all over,
I hope my friends will bury me.
This is a song of somehow dubious quality, in fact it looks more like a random selection of verses without much inner coherence. Most interesting are the two stanzas that were apparently borrowed from "Oh Waly, Waly": the third with "I lean'd my back against an oak" and the sixth with "love is handsome and love is pretty". The reference to Dublin in the fifth verse suggests a connection to Ireland. But the anonymous author of this piece was not necessarily one of the great poets of his era. Much of the text sounds very clumsy and in the fourth as well as in the last verse there aren't even any rhymes.
When was this song first published? Pitts' address on this broadside is "6, Great St. Andrew Street, 7 Dials". There he was active between 1819 and 1844 (see The British Book Trade Index) but that doesn't help much. Other editions of this version help to narrow the date. One was published by Pitts' great rival James Catnach, 2 Monmouth Court, Seven Dials (Madden Ballads 5-3183) and he was active between 1813 and 1838. All his song-sheets at the allegro Catalogue are dated that way. Robert Walker from Norwich "near the Duke's Palace" also threw a copy of the song on the market (Harding B 25(894), at the allegro Catalogue). According to Brown (Glimpses 32, at mustrad) he worked at this address "from c. 1818 up until the late 1820s".
Another broadside with this song was published by "Evans Printer, Long-lane, London" (Harding B 17(136b)). In the allegro Catalogue this edition is dated as from"between 1780 and 1812". But that is misleading. Brown (Glimpses 32, at mustrad) notes that "there was a whole Evans clan operating in London" and they worked at Long Lane "between 1791 and 1828". Quite a lot of different imprints were used for the Evans family's publications but this particular one can be found on many song-sheets and some of them are even exactly dateable.
For example there was one with the songs "Rose of Albion" and "God Save The Queen" (Harding B 11(3324)). Both were about Queen Caroline. In 1820 George IV ascended the throne and his wife Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel returned to Britain from Italy where she had spent the last six years. The new queen had been separated from her husband for a long time but she was still very popular in England and was received with great entusiasm. These two songs must have been written at the time of her return. Evans also published other songs about Caroline with the same imprint, for example "Caroline's Return", "Remember your Queen ,&c." and "Appeal of Innocence" (Firth c.16(28)).
But it can also be found on some earlier publications. "Prince Cobourg's Lamentation For The Loss Of Princess Charlotte" (Harding B 16(274a)) was written after the death of the popular princess in 1817. "Boney's Defeat at Waterloo. A new song" (Curzon b.33(193)) and "Elwina Of Waterloo" (Firth c.14(39)) were of course published after the famous battle in June 1815. A chapbook called "Nelson's Wreath, Or British Glory" with "A new song on Lord Nelson's victory at Copenhagen" (Curzon b.24(99), all at the allegro Catalague) is dated as from "1801- 1805". But generally it seems to me that this imprint was mostly used during the ‘10s and early '20s. I am inclined to think that "I'm Often Drunk" was first published around 1819 or 1820. John Pitts had been in this business since 1802 and until 1818/19 he had his headquarters at 14, Great St. Andrew Street. One may assume that he would have brought out the song already while working at this address if it had been available earlier.
There are some more extant copies of this song but they were published a little bit later. Joseph Phair (Madden Ballads 7-4995) was busy in London between 1827 and 1853 (see The British Book Trade Index). Thomas Birt (Harding B 11(1730) & Madden Ballads 6-4172), also from London, started his business around 1824 (see The British Book Trade Index) and in the allegro Catalogue his song-sheet is dated as from "between 1828 and 1829". Another copy was brought out by "Mate, C., No. 9 Market Place, Dover" (Madden Ballads 11-7451) . According to the Book Trade Index there were two printers with that name at that address in Dover. One published between 1807 and 1825 and the other one between 1832 and 1839. James Catnach still listed this song in a catalogue published in 1832 (p. 4). John Harkness in Preston started his business only in 1840 but he also printed a copy of this song (Madden Ballads 9-6415).
A second version of "I'm Often Drunk" is little bit shorter. Two verses were dropped, the first of the longer version ("Many cold winters nights I've travell'd [...]") and one of the two borrowed from "Oh Waly, Waly" ("I leane'd my backagainst the wall [...]". The song now starts with a slightly edited variant of what was originally the second verse. For reasons unknown to me the "false lover" in the stanza starting with "I wish I was in Dublin city" was replaced by "lawyers". Here is the text published by W. Armstrong in Liverpool between 1820 and 1824 (Harding B 28(63), at the allegro Catalogue):
The sea is wide and I can't get over,
Neither have I got wings to fly,
And come and fetch me some little boat
To carry over my love and I.
(Chorus:)
I'm often drunk, but seldom sober,
I am a rover in every degree;
When I'm drinking I'm often thinking
How shall I gain my love's company.
In London City, the girls are pretty,
The streets are pav'd with marble stones,
And my love she is as sweet a woman
As ever trod upon English ground.
I wish I was in Dublin city,
As far as e'er my eyes could see,
Or else across yonder briny ocean,
Where there are no lawyers can follow me.
O love is handsome and love is pretty,
And love is charming while it is new,
So as love grows older, it does grow colder,
But fades away like the morning dew.
I laid my head on a cask of brandy,
It was my fancy as you may see;
For when I'm drinking I'm always thinking
How I shall gain my love's company.
There is two nags in my father's stable,
They prick their ears when they hear the hounds;
And my true love is as neat a man [sic!]
As ever trod on England's ground
You silly sportsmen leave off your coursing,
I'll say no more till I have a drink,
For when I'm dead it will be over,
My friends will bury me I think.
The editor of this particular text even tried to repair the last verse and introduced an appropriate rhyme. But this variation can't be found in any other extant copy of the shorter version of the song. Four more prints have survived. In the allegro Catalogue we can find an undated sheet without imprint (Harding B 25(893)). This one is also listed in the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC T197384) with "1790?" as the possible date of publication. That seems to me highly unlikely because that would have been nearly 30 years before the longer version and more than three decades before other prits of the shorter text.
Another edition was brought out by William Wright from Birmingham (Madden Ballads 11-7422). The address given on the song-sheet is "No.113, Moor-st" where he worked between 1822 and 1826 (see Palmer, Birmingham Ballad Printers 4, at mustrad). Later the text was also published by Ring Hurd in Shaftesbury (Madden Ballads 11-7809, possibly 1830, see British Book Trade Index) and by Liptrot in St. Helen's (Harding B 11(1731), at the allegro Catalogue). St. Helens is about 25 miles from Manchester and according to the Book Trade Index one Daniel Liptrot was busy there as a printer in 1841.
All available evidence seems to suggest that "I'm Often Drunk, And Seldom Sober" was popular from the early '20s to the '40s. It was known not only in London but also published in other parts of England. Mrs. Mogg must have heard the song in her youth and in 1904 she recalled a fragment of the shorter version: two more or less complete verses as well as two half verses that she merged to one. In her second attempt she managed to remember one more stanza and the refrain. Interestingly no other collector has noted variants of this song from his informants. To my knowledge Sharp was the only one. It is well known that he was no friend of these kind of broadside ballads and I assume he usually wouldn't have looked twice at such a song. But in this case Mrs. Mogg's second verse - "Love is handsome [...]" must have caught his attention because he recognized it as a variant form of the of the second verse of Ramsay's "O Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny" and "its occurence [...] probably led Sharp to believe that the song was really 'O Waly Waly' badly remembered" (Allen, p. 165).
This may be the reason that he also used her first verse ("The water is wide..."). It fit well into the song he was constructing and maybe he thought it was an otherwise lost part of an older oral variant of "Oh Waly, Waly". But in fact it had never belonged to earlier versions of that song. The line "the water is wide" as used since Sharp definitely derives from Mrs. Mogg, it was her own variation of "the sea is wide" from the second edition of "I'm Often Drunk". To my knowledge a verse like this hasn't been part of any song written before that broadside ballad. Variants of this verse were occasionally used in other songs but none of them predates the broadsides with "I'm Often Drunk" that was apparently first printed around 1820.
Already in the 1820s and early 1830s a song called "Peggy Gordon" was published on American song-sheets: in New York and in Boston (available at the libraries of Brown University, RI and the New York Historical Society, here quoted from Mudcat Discussion Board, posted by user Taconicus on 23.12.2010):
Sweet Peggy Gordon, you are my darling,
Come set you down upon my knee,
And tell to me the very reason,
Why I am slighted so by thee.
I am deep in love, but I dare not show it,
My heart is lock'd up in thy breast;
I will plainly let the whole world know it,
A troubled mind can take no rest.
I'll lean my head on a cask of brandy,
That is my fancy I do declare;
For when I'm drinking, I'm always thinking,
How shall I gain that young lady fair.
I wish my love was one red rose,
And planted down by yonder wall,
And I myself was one drop of dew,
That in her bosom I might fall.
I wish my love and I were sailing,
As far from land as one could see;
Yes, sailing over the deepest waters,
Where love and care would not trouble me.
For the seas are deep, and I cannot wade them,
And neither have I wings to fly;
I wish I had some jolly boatman,
To ferry over my love and I.
I wish I was in Caropage,
And my sweet girl along with me;
Sweet Peggy Gordon, you are my darling;
Sweet Peggy Gordon, I'd die for thee.
I wish I was in Covel's Castle,
Where the marble stones are as black as ink,
Where the pretty girls they all adore me
I'll sing no more until I drink.
Here we find three verses known from the longer version of "I'm Often Drunk" including the one starting with "the seas are deep, and I cannot wade them [...]". It seems this song was very popular. It was later also published in Everybody's Songster (1859, Roud ID S187124) and the Old Armchair Songster (1860, Roud ID S302091). I haven't been able to check these publications and can't say if it's exactly the same text. But they also start with the line "Sweet Peggy Gordon, you are my darling". In 1880 New York publisher Pauline Lieder brought out a song called "Sweet Maggie Gordon". This was in fact an abbreviated version of the old "Peggy Gordon" with some minor changes but the three verses can also be traced back to the first edition of the British broadside. On the sheet music (available at Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, Library of Congress) composer and songwriter Ned Straight is only credited as the arranger so the tune may be older and perhaps even the one used for the original "Peggy Gordon":
I wish my love and I were sailing,
As far from land as far can be,
Far, far across the deep blue water,
Where I'd have none to trouble me.
[Refrain]:
Sweet Maggie Gordon you are my bride,
Come sit you down upon my knee,
And tell to me the very reason,
Why I am slighted thus by me.
The sea is deep, I can't swim over,
Neither have I the wings to fly,
But I will hire some jolly sportsman,
To carry o'er my love and I.
I wish I had a glass of Brandy,
The reason I will tell to thee,
Because when drinking I am thinking,
Does my true love remember me.
A version from West Virginia with more or less the same words was collected by J. H. Cox in 1918 ("Maggie Goddon", Cox, No. 142, p. 424, "learned forty years ago"). Variants called "Peggy Gordon" with more and different verses were recorded in Canada since 1943 (Roud # 2280; see the versions on Alan Mills and Jean Carignan, Songs, Fiddle Tunes and a Folk-Tale from Canada, Folkways FW 03532, 1961 and Maritime Folk Songs: from the Collection of Helen Creighton, Folkways FW 04307). In another song from West Virginia called "Youth And Folly" we find variant forms of three verses known from "Peggy Gordon". Another one - "O love is warming [...]" - is clearly derived from "I'm Often Drunk" (collected in 1916, Cox, No.141, p. 422). The informant had "learned it from his father":
Youth and folly make youngsters marry,
And when they're married they must obey;
For many a bright and sunshiny morning
Has turned to a dark and rainy day.
O love is warming, O love is charming,
Love's quite handsome while it's new!
But as love grows older, love grows colder,
And fades away like the morning dew.
It was all in the sweet month of April,
While summer flowers were in their bloom,
Trees were budding, sweet birds were singing;
Times ain't with me as they have been.
Great Jehovah, have mercy on me!
My comrades, come to set me free;
I never courted but one fair lady;
Her name was Polly, she told me.
Polly, O Polly, you are my darling!
Come set yourself down awhile by me,
And tell me the very reason
Why I was slighted so by thee.
I am in love, I dare not own it,
The very pain lies on my breast;
I am in love, and the whole world knows it,
That a troubled mind can find no rest.
I wish to God I never had seen you,
Or in my cradle I had died;
To think as nice a young man as I am
Should be in love and be denied.
I wish I was on some stormy ocean,
As far from land as I could be;
And sailing for some better country
Where there no grief could trouble me.
Parts of "I'm Often Drunk" can also be found in the Irish song "The Young Sick Lover". According to John Moulden (Mudcat Discussion Board, 31.01.2000) this strange bilingual text was published by Haly in Cork "c 1840". A reprint by John Troy from around 1860 can be found in the J.D.White Collection at the Trinity College, Dublin (Cashel Ballads, Vol.2, EPB OLS X-1-531, image 49; see also the catalogue record):
[...]
The seas are deep, and I can't swim over,
No nor neither have I wings to fly,
I wish I met with some handsome boatman,
To ferry over my love and I.
And its Kilkenny it is supposed,
Where the marble stones are as black as ink;
[...]
I am always drunk, and seldom sober,
Constantly roving from town to town;
[…]
Interestingly here the "marble stones" are also "black as ink". The same phrase can be found in the American "Peggy Gordon". It is not unreasonable to assume that these two songs have a common ancestor, perhaps an undocumented Irish version - or predecessor - of "I'm Often Drunk".
Another offspring of "I'm Often Drunk" was published in 1900 in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society. It was contributed by one "Mr. H.C.Mercer, of Philadelphia, and he describes it as a 'Down East' coast song from the neighborhood of Portland, Maine" (Fuller Maitland 1900, p. 29 & 45). The same tune with only two verses can also be found in Sam Henry's Songs of the People (Huntington & Hermann 1990, p. p. 383). But no source is given there and I am inclined to think that he had simply taken it from the Journal:
O the ripest of apples, they must soon grow rotten,
And the warmest of love, it must soon grow cold;
And young men's vows they must soon be forgotten,
Look out pretty maiden, that you don't get controlled.
The seas they are deep, and I cannot wade them,
Neither have I the wings to fly.
But I wish I could find some jolly, jolly boatsman,
To ferry me over, My love and I.
O I wish that me and my love was a sailin'
As far as the eye could discern from the shore.
A sailin' so far across the blue ocean,
Where no cares nor troubles wouldn't bother us no more.
This is a fragmentary version of the earlier and longer variant of "I'm Often Drunk": it still uses the phrase "I cannot wade them" instead of "can't get over". The first verse about "the ripest of apples" was most likely developed from or inspired by the verse starting with "If love is handsome [...]" in "I'm Often Drunk", the one borrowed from "Oh Waly, Waly". Both are about love growing cold with the time and offer a similar message although the new variant sounds a little more drastic. Interestingly this particular stanza has occasionally infiltrated other songs: one called "Twenty, Eighteen" from Norfolk that was published in 1893 in Lucy Broadwood's and J. A. Fuller Maitland's English County Songs (pp. 90-1); one from North Carolina (Brown II, No. 165, p. 428) and a piece called "Spanish Lady" from West Virginia (Cox, No.158, p. 466). None of them is in any way related to this particular fragment or to "I'm Often Drunk". But at least the wide dissemination of this verse allows the conclusion that it was coined already in England.
Folklorists in the USA have found a lot of variants of a song usually called "Fair And Tender Ladies" or "Little Sparrow" (Roud # 451, see f. ex. Campbell & Sharp 1917, No. 65, p. 220-222 and M. E. Henry 1938, No.79, p. 257-260). This is a very flexible and unstable mixture of verses from many different sources and there are no two versions alike. Some of them include variant forms of the verse originally starting with "Love is handsome […]" , for example this text from North Carolina from the "first decade of the present century" (Brown 1952, Vol. 3, No.254 B, p. 291):
Come all ye fair and tender ladies,
Be careful how you court young men.
They're like bright stars in a summer morning,
They first are here and then they're gone.
They'll tell to yon some tender story,
Declare to you that they are true.
Then straight away go and court some other.
And that's the love they have for you.
Oh. love is sweet and love is charming
And love is pleasant when it's new.
But love grows cold as love grows older,
And fades away like the mountain dew.
I wish that I'd a never seen him.
Or that I'd died when I was young.
To think a fair and handsome lady
Was stricken by his lying tongue
I wish I was a little sparrow,
Had wings, and oh ! could fly so high.
I'd fly away to my false lover
And when he'd ask, I would deny.
Alas, I am no little sparrow.
No wings, and cannot fly so high.
I'll sit me down in grief and sorrow
And try to pass my trouble by.
It would be worth discussing if the verse about the "little sparrow" is in some way related to the one starting with "the seas are deep" from "I'm Often Drunk". Both share the second line, here in the original text:
Neither have I got wings to fly
This is very similar to "No wings, and cannot fly so high" in Brown's text quoted above, to "Nor have I any wings to fly" (M. H. Henry, No.179 B, p. 258) or to "Got no wings, nor I can't fly" (Sharp, No. 56 B, p. 221). Maybe this line was the starting-point for the development of the key verses of "Little Sparrow". Other variants including these two verses were collected for example by John H. Cox (No. 149, pp. 419/20). Interestingly his´version B contains the phrase "marble stones" that is of course known from the broadside of "I'm Often Drunk". But here there are also "black as ink" as in "Peggy Gordon" and "The Young Sick Lover":
[...]
I wish I were on some tall mountain,
Where the marble stones are black as ink;
I'd write a letter to my false lover,
Whose cheeks are like the morning pink
That expression can also be found in his version A, but without the "marble stones". Instead the "ivy rock is black as ink". The occurrence of this phrase also supports the assumption that there could have been an Irish version of "I'm Often Drunk" that migrated to North America at an unknown date. There it apparently became not only the precursor of "Peggy Gordon" but also one of the sources for the songs of the type "Fair And Tender Ladies/Little Sparrow". This would be the most logical explanation for the dissemination of this verses and phrases.
VI.
It seems that especially the verses associated with "Oh Waly, Waly" and related songs have been very popular among the producers of broadsides. They regularly recycled verses for "new" texts. Two pieces published circa 1780 demonstrate this technique. "Forsaken Lover. Tune Farewel You Flower Of False Deceit" (ca. 1780, ESTC T040047, available at ECCO) shares three verses with "The Unfortunate Swain" and and includes variant forms of two more known from "Oh Waly, Waly":
I run my finger into a bush,
Thinking the sweetest rose to find,
I prick'd my finger to the bone,
And left the sweetest rose behind.
If roses be such a fading flower
They must be gather'd when they're green;
And she that loves an unkind man,
'Tis like striving against the stream.
Against the stream, love, I dare not go,
Because the stream it it runs so strong;
I'm deadly afraid I'm one of those,
That lov'd an unkind man too long.
I wish to Christ my babe was born,
And smiling in its daddy's arms,
I myself wrapt up in clay,
Then should I be free from all harm.
I leant my back against an oak,
Thinking it a trusty tree:
First it bow'd, and then it broke,
And so did my false love to me.
Had I but kept my apron down,
My love had ne'er forsaken me,
But now he walks up and down the town
With a harlot, and not with me.
What makes the Western winds to blow,
to blow the green leaves from the tree?
Come death, come death, and end my woe,
For a maiden more, love, I ne'er can be.
I cast my anchor in the sea,
And it sunk doen into the land;
And so did my heart in my body,
When I took my false love by the hand.
The writer of "The Effects of Love. A new Song" (London?, ca. 1780, ESTC T032452, available at ECCO) used the same two verses and edited them in a different way to make them fit into his "new" song. But these two and one more line are also related to "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed" (ca. 1701, available at NLS: The Word On The Street), another one from this family:
O! Love is hot, and love is cold,
And love is dearer than any gold;
And love is dearer than any thing,
Unto my grave it will me bring.
O when my apron it hung low,
He followed me thro' frost and snow;
But now I am with a child by him,
He passes by and says nothing.
I wish that I had ne'er been born,
Since love has proved my downfall;
He takes a stranger on his knee,
And is not this a grief to me.
I wish that my dear babe was born,
And dandled on his daddy's knee,
And in the cold grave did lie,
And the green grass grew over me.
Ye Christmas winds when will ye blow,
And blow the green leafs off the tree?
O, gentle death when you call,
For of my life I'm quite weary.
Unloose these chains love, and set me free,
And let me at liberty;
For was you hear [sic] instead of me,
I'd unloose you love, and set you free.
Interestingly the first verse here is clearly a variant form of the third in "Oh Waly, Waly" ("O waly, waly, but love be bonnie […]") but this particular version did not survive. Instead the variant later used in "I'm Often Drunk" ("Love is handsome, love is pretty […]") prevailed and started a life on its own, both as a floating verse and as the lead stanza for new songs. For example it became a refrain in a "simple ditty with a pleasant air" called "Love It Is Easing" that was taken down by British collector Alfred Williams in Wiltshire County (MS collection No Wt 496, undated, before 1914):
When I was young and well beloved,
‘Twas by a man of this country,
He courted me both late and early,
While he gained his free will of me.
[Chorus]:
Oh, love it is easing, and love it is teasing,
Love is a pleasure while it is new;
But when it grows older it still grows colder,
And fades away like the morning dew.
I never thought he was going to leave me,
Until one day as he came in;
He threw himself down and began to tell me,
And then my troubles they did begin.
I left my father, I left my mother,
I left my brothers and sisters too;
I left my home and my relations,
I left them all for the sake of you.
Adieu, adieu, to all false lovers,
Adieu, adieu unto my dear;
You’re like a star on a winter’s morning,
You’re far away when you ought to be near.
In Scotland Greig and Duncan have noted a fragment with only one verse that could be a relic of this song (Greig-Duncan VI, No.1166, p. 252):
Other more complete versions were collected by H. E. D. Hammond in Somerset in 1905 ("Love It Is Pleasing", HAM/2/1/23) and by Charles Gardiner in Hampshire in 1907 ("Love Is Teasing", GG/1/16/1002, both at the Take Six Archive of the EFDSS). Interestingly most of the rest of the text is derived from another old broadside called "The Wheels of Fortune" that includes a variant form of one verse known from Ramsay's "Oh Waly, Waly" (Mu23-y1:104 and Mu23-y1:105 at Glasgow Broadside Ballads and Firth c.18(132) in the allegro Catalogue of Ballads, all undated, see also the version in Christie, Vol. 1, p. 260):
When I was young I was much beloved
By all the young men in the country ;
When I was blooming all in my blossom,
A false young lover deceived me.
He has tried his whole endeavor,
He has tried all his power and skill,
He has spoiled all my good behaviour,
He has broken my fortune against my will.
I did not think he was going to leave me,
Till the next morning when he came in;
Then he sat down and began a-talking,
Then all my sorrows did begin.
I left my father, I left my mother;
I left my sister and brothers too;
And all my friends and old aquaintance,
I left them all to go with you.
But turn you round, you wheel of fortune,
It's turn you round and smile on me;
For young men's words they are quite uncertain,
Which sad experience teaches me..
If I had known before I had courted,
That love had been so ill to win,
I wad locked my heart in a chest of gold,
And pon'd it with a silver pin.
Then fare-ye-weel, ye false-hearted young man,
It's fare-ye-weel, since we must part;
If you are the man that has broke my fortune,
You're not the man that shall break my heart.
Of all the flowers that grow in the garden,
Be sure you pull the rose and thyme,
For all others are quite out of fashion,
A false young man he has stole my thyme.
But time will toon put an end to all things,
And love will soon put an end to me;
But surely there is a place of torment,
To punish my lover for slighting me.
On the British broadside sheet this song is combined with "The Green Willow" that includes another variant form of this verse:
You false-hearted young men you know you have deceived me,
You false-hearted young men you have caused me to rue,
My love it does grow older but never will grow colder,
I wish 't would fade away like the sweet morning dew.
Some time in the 1940s Jean Ritchie learned a little song from an "Irish girl" (Ritchie, p. 24):
Oh, love is a teasin' and love is pleasin'
And love's a pleasure when first it's new.
But as love grows older it still grows colder,
And fades away like the morning dew.
Come all ye fair maids, now take a warnin',
Don't never heed what a young man say.
He's like a star on some foggy mornin'
When you think he's near, he is far away.
I left my father, I left my Mother,
I left my brothers and sisters, too.
I left my friends and my fond dwellin',
My dear young man for the sake of you.
Oh, love is a teasin' and love is pleasin'
And love's a pleasure when first it's new.
But as love grows older it still grows colder,
And fades away like the morning dew.
She regarded this song as an "enchanting version of 'Waly, Waly'" but in fact it looks more like a fragment of "Love It Is Easin'/Pleasin'/Teasin'" as collected in Britain by Williams, Hammond and Gardiner. Variants of the second verse - "Come all ye fair maids, now take a warnin [...]'" - are of course also known from the American song "Fair And Tender Ladies". In 1960 Alan Lomax published a slightly different version called "Love Is Pleasin'" in his Folk Songs of North America (No. 70, p. 136):
Oh, love is a pleasin' and love is teasin'
And love's a pleasure when first it is new.
But as love grows older, at length (sic!) grows colder,
And fades away like the morning dew.
I left my mother, I left my father,
I left my brother and my sisters, too.
I left my friends and my kind relations,
I left them all for the love of you.
If I'd a-knowed before I courted,
That love had-a been such a killin' crime,
I'd a-locked my hear in a box of gold,
And tied it up with a silver twine.
Oh, love is a pleasin' and love is teasin'
And love's a pleasure when first it is new.
But as love grows older, at length (sic!) grows colder,
And fades away like the morning dew.
The new third verse - I don't know if it was inserted by Lomax himself or by Jean Ritchie - is of course well-known from "Waly, Waly" but in fact much older. At least it had been used in the broadside ballad "The Seamans leave taken of his sweetest Margery" (see Pepys 4.158, EBBA) long before "Waly, Waly" was published for the very first time:
But had I wist before I kiss't
That love had been sae ill to win,
I'd lock'd my heart in a case of gold,
And pinn'd it wi' a silver pin.
A different version of this verse is part of at least two variants of "The Unfortunate Swain" from oral tradition that I have already mentioned: one from Cornwall that can be found in Baring-Gould’s manuscripts and the other a fragment from Newcastle (Notes And Queries, 3rd Ser., Vol. 11, 1867, p. 441):
I wish, I wish, but 'tis all in vain -
I wish I had my heart back again;
I'd lock it up in a silver box,
And fasten it with a golden chain.
It was also included in some variants of "Fair And Tender Ladies"/"Little Sparrow". Both Ritchie (p. 18) and Lomax (No.99, p. 205) have published a version in their collections as have for example also Cecil Sharp (No. 65 B, p. 221), Mellinger E. Henry (pp. 257-260, versions A, C, D) and Frank C. Brown (Vol. 3, No. 254, pp. 290-293, version A & C). Here's Brown's version A "as sung by a woman in 1907":
Come all ye fairer tender ladies,
Take warning how you love young men;
For they're like a star in the summer morning.
They are here but soon are gone again.
For once I had an untrue lover
Which I claimed to be my own.
He went right away and loved another,
Leaving me to weep alone.
If I had known before I loved him
That his love was false to me
T would have locked my heart with a key of golden
And pinned it there with a silver pin.
Oh, if I were a little sparrow
And I had wings to fly,
I'd fy right away to my true love's window,
I'd listen what he told.
But then as it is I'm no little sparrow.
Neither have I wings to Hy.
So I'll sit right down in my grief and sorrow,
I'll sit here till I die.
Of course all these verses are interchangeable, they all fit well into this kind of laments of lost love. I presume Lomax - like Sharp with his composite text - tried to "reconstruct" a "Folk"-version of "Waly, Waly". But the addition of this verse makes sense for another reason because it was also part of the broadside song "Wheel Of Fortune" that had been the major source for the British "Love It Is Easin'/Pleasin'/Teasin'". I'm not sure how popular this broadside was, I only know of one English and two Scottish prints. But at least one American variant of "Little Sparrow/Fair And Tender Ladies" quotes extensively from this song (M. H. Henry, p. 261). This is another case where the broadsides served as a conduit for the survival of an old verse. Lomax' "Love Is Pleasin'" is not so much a "Folk"-version of "Waly, Waly" but a fragment of the broadside song "The Wheel Of Fortune".
Another ancient verse from the "The Unfortunate Swain" - later recycled by Sharp for the longer version of his "Waly, Waly" in One Hundred English Folk Songs, 1916, p. 90 - has also taken on a life of its own:
Must I be bound that can go free?
Must I love one that loves not me?
Why should I act such a childish part,
To love a girl that will break my heart.
It had not been part of the original "Oh Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny". As already noted an early form of this particular verse can be found in another related older song, "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed, or: Love in Despair" (available at NLS: The Word On The Street and in Child, p. 105). But the phrase "act such a childish part" seems to have been introduced by the "Unfortunate Swain". I know of no earlier occurence. A variant form of this stanza was used for a broadside ballad called "The Complaining Lover - A New Song" (ca. 1795, Madden Ballads 2-1082, ESTC T198961):
Must I be bound that can go free,
Must I love one that loves not me.
Let reason rule thy wretched mind,
Altho' I wink I am not blind.
He loves another one he loves not me,
No cares he for my company,
He loves another I'll tell you why
Because she has more gold than I.
Gold will wast and Silver will flys,
In time she may have as little as I,
Had I but gold and Silver in store,
He would like me as he has done before.
He gave me honey mixt with gall,
He gave me words and blows withal,
He bought me a dilacte [sic! i. e. delicate] Gown to wear,
Hem'd with sorrow and stich'd with care.
If I should gain my Liberty,
In a short time I shall get free,
I will buy me a dilacate gown to wear,
Not hem'd with sorrow or stich with care.
No Vallintine shall ev'r me see,
No wanton Lad shall lie with me,
No man shall come a near my ground,
'Until I see my loves health go round.
Tis his healthe I mean to drink,
From his arms I never will shrink,
He has my heart with a free good will,
And wherever he goes I will love him still.
My love he is not Black but he is brown,
And still he is worthy to where [sic! i. e. wear] a crown,
He has a handsome foot and a delicate toe
And a Blessing go with him wherever he goes.
In 1905 Folklore collector H. E. D. Hammond noted a song from Jacob Baker in Dorset (Broadwood et al. 1923, pp. 69-70 and HAM/2/5/15 at EFDSS). Here we find a couple of verses from "The Complaining Lover" combined with five from "The Unfortunate Swain". But the new version of the first stanza had not survived, instead Mr. Baker used the one from the latter song:
Must I be bound, or must I go free?
To love a young man who never loved me?
Why should I act such a childish part
To love a young man with all my heart?
He loves another, he loves not me,
And he cares not for my company;
He loves another - I'll tell you why:
Because she's got more gold than I.
[xxx]
[xxx]
Her gold will waste her beauty blast,
And in time she'll come like me at last.
I put my back up against an oak.
Thinking it was some trusty tree,
But first it bent and then it broke;
And so did thy false love to me!
I put my hand into a bush,
Thinking some sweeter flower to find;
I pricked my finger to the bone,
Leaving that sweetest flower alone [behind].
Since roses are such prickly flowers
They should be gathered when they're green;
And she did court such an unkind love,
I'm sure she's striving against the stream.
For against the stream I dare not go,
For fear that it should overflow;
And not so deep in love am I!
I care not whether he live or die!
He gave me honey all mixed with gold [?gall]
He gave me words and bows withal;
He gave me a delicate gown to wear,
All stitched with sorrow and hemmed with fear.
Now if I ever gain my liberty,
And that I trust I soon will be,
I'll buy me a delicate gown to wear
Not hemmed with sorrow nor stitched with fear.
Now here's his health I mean to drink,
And from his arms I will not slink;
He hath my heart, go where he will
Although he is false I must love him still.
This verse and especially the the expression "the childish part" showed considerable persistence. It was also adapted in North America for some other of songs. "The Man That Wouldn't Hoe Corn" in Louise Pound's American Ballads And Songs (1922, pp. 110/11, p. 249; a variant of this song called "The Lazy Man" without this particular verse is available in the Journal of American Folklore 29, 1916, pp. 181/2) - collected 1914 in Nebraska - shows a quasi-feminist approach:
"I won't be bound, I will be free,
I won't marry a man that don't love me.
Neither will I act the childish part
And marry a man that will break my heart".
In the same collection we can find a version of "My Blue-eyed Boy" from Nebraska (ca. 1905, p. 212) that also includes this verse. Frank Brown once noted that this song has "one of those Protean folk-lyrics whose identity is hard to fix because they shift from text to text, taking on new elements and dropping old ones from the general reservoir of the folk fancy" (Brown 1952, Vol. 3, p. 298). His own "Blue-Eyed Boy" as well a variant collected by Paul Brewster are very different from Pound's but have retained this particular verse (see for Brown 1952, dto.; Brewster 1940, p. 85, here as "I turn back to my childhood part" [sic!]). "Bring Me Back My Blue-Eyed Boy" in Carl Sandburg's American Songbag (1927, p. 324) looks more like a version of "The Butcher Boy" while "Brisk Young Lover" as sung by Jane Gentry in 1916 for Cecil Sharp (Smith, p. 175, the melody is also in Sharp 1917, No.101 B, p. 287) is in fact "The Butcher Boy" with a mutilated variant of this verse - without the "childish part" - added at the end of the song.
Sam Henry's Songs Of The People (Huntington 1990, p. 386) includes a complete song from 1928 called "Must I Go Bound" that opens with this verse but none of the others are in any way related to those known from the old broadside. In this case it has become the starting-point for a new song and has lost all connections to the original ballad. In 1954 American American Folk singer Susan Reed recorded a short song called "Must I Go Bound" for her 10-inch LP Old Airs From Ireland, Scotland and England (Elektra EKL 26).
Must I go bound and you go free,
Must I love a lad who doesn't love me,
Must I be born with a so little heart,
As to love a one would break my heart.
I put my finger into the bush,
To pluck a rose as fair as thyme,
The thorn it pierced me at a touch,
And so I left the rose behind.
Must I go bound and you go free,
Must I love a lad who doesn't love me,
Must I be born with a so little heart,
As to love a one would break my heart.
In fact this is a edited version of the two-verse fragment of "The Unfortunate Swain" collected by Herbert Hughes and published as "Must I Go Bound?" in his Irish Country Songs (Vol. 1, 1909, pp. 68-9). In Hughes' text the "childish part" was missing. Instead there was a rather strange line: "Was e'er I taught so poor a wit". Here it was replaced with another line of somehow dubious quality. In 1965 Buffy St. Marie recorded a much longer version of "Must I Go Bound" (at the moment available at YouTube) for her LP Many A Mile:
Must I go bound and you so free
Must I love one who doesn't love me
Must I be born with so little art
As to love a one would break my heart
I put my finger into the bush
I thought I'd find a lovely flower
The thorn it pierced me to a touch
And so I left the rose behind
I leaned my back up against some oak
I thought it was a trusty tree
But first it bended and then it broke
And so did my false love to me
Must I go bound and you so free
Must I love one who doesn't love me
Must I be born with so little art
As to love a one would break my heart
There is a ship that's sails the sea
It's loaded down as deep can be
But not so deep as the love I'm in
I know not there if I sink or swim
Oh love be gentle and love be kind
Gay as a jewel when first it is new
But love grows old and then grows cold
And fades away like the morning dew
Must I go bound and you so free
Must I love one who doesn't love me
Must I be born with so little art
As to love a one would break my heart
This version has been supplemented with some verses from Pete Seeger’s "The Water Is Wide". That means that the fragment collected by Mr. Hughes in Ireland was completed with some of the missing parts from just the right song. Both are derived from "The Unfortunate Swain" and both share one verse of the original broadside text as Seeger's edited version of Sharp's "Waly, Waly" still includes these lines:
I put my hand into some soft bush,
Thinking the sweetest flower to find.
I pricked my finger to the bone,
And left the sweetest flower alone .
"Must I Go Bound" is in fact "The Water Is Wide" with a different melody and a different lead verse: the one starting with "Must I go bound [...]". Both songs are modern variants of the same ancient broadside ballad with a little input from another old song-sheet. They have reached us on different transmission routes, but their trip was very similar: first was the broadside with scattered verses from older songs, then the "Folk" that stored these texts in their memory for a couple of decades, then the Folklore collectors who saved these verses from oblivion by writing them down and publishing their findings in books and then at last the Folk Revival singers who used them for new "old" songs.
VII.
It seems that the original "Oh Waly, Waly" was literally broken into pieces by the writers of all those broadsides. They systematically plundered Ramsay's text as well as those of other related songs. These verses were then disseminated by songs like "The Unfortunate Swain", "I'm Often Drunk", "The Wheel Of Fortune", "Forsaken Lover", "The Effects Of Love" and therefore the people kept them in their memory. When the Folklorists started collecting they encountered these relics just around every corner. But it seems that Ramsay's text itself had very little or even no influence on oral tradition even though it had been printed and reprinted so often. Apparently only the broadsides served as the conduit for these verses' transmission. The collectors found them among the "Folk" either in fragmentary versions of this particular broadside text or as floating verses in all kinds of different songs and then secured their subsequent survival. They were published in academic collections or in songbooks for popular consumption and performed, published and recorded by Folk revivalists.
In case of "The Water Is Wide" the route of transmission is easy to follow. At first there were the texts of "Oh Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny" as published by Allan Ramsay and William Thomson in the 1720s as well as some other songs printed on broadsides in the 17th century like "The Seaman's Leave...", "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed" and Martin Parker's "Distressed Virgin". Some verses from these texts were then borrowed and included in "new" songs like "The Unfortunate Swain" and "I'm Often Drunk And Seldom Sober" that were published on popular broadside sheets during the second half of the 18th century and in the early 19th century. Fragments of these songs were recalled by Mrs. Cox, Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Mogg during the years 1904 and 1906 for song collector Cecil Sharp. He then compiled his own new "old" song from those fragments and published it as "Oh Waly, Waly" in 1906 in Folk Songs From Somerset and in 1916 in One Hundred Folk Songs
Cecil Sharp's "Oh Waly, Waly" is the starting-point for the development of the modern "The Water Is Wide". It was in effect a new song constructed from relics of two popular songs. He tried to put together a "Folk"-version of "Oh Waly, Waly" but the only connection to that old Scottish ballad was that the creators of the two broadside texts themselves had cribbed one respectively two verses from that song. Interestingly Sharp's methods were strikingly similar to those of the writers of "The Unfortunate Swain" and other broadsides. They had compiled their songs from verses borrowed from different sources and claimed it was "new" while Sharp did exactly the same thing but preferred to regard his work as an "old" song. In fact both were only half right. In some way he had unwittingly followed the rules of the genre. A modern Folklorist will not regard his song as "authentic" but a professional author of broadside songs from the 18th or 19th century and also the singing "Folk" surely would not have been bothered by his methods.
For some reason Sharp's song had a slow start. At first only classical composers took interest and brought out arrangements for solo singers or choirs, for example Herbert William Pierce in 1931, Robert Chignell in 1935 or Reginald Redman in 1943:
Waly, waly. Somerset Folk Tune ... Tune and words collected by C. J. Sharp. Arranged for Baritone Solo and Male Chorus by H. Pierce, London, J. B. Cramer & Co, 1931 (see Copac)
Like Morning Dew. O waly, waly. Song, traditional words and music. Edited and arranged by R. Chignell, London : Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew, 1935 (see Copac)
Waly, waly. A Somerset Folk-Song. Arranged [for S.A.T.B.] by R. Redman from collected version by C. J. Sharp, London : Novello and Co, 1943 (see Copac)
The best known was of course Benjamin Britten's version that he first published in 1947 in his Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 3: British Isles (see Peter Pears with Britten at the piano at YouTube). His arrangement is still regularly performed by classical singers.
The first "Folk"-recording was by singer and dulcimer player Andrew Rowan Summers from Virginia who included "Oh, Waly, Waly" in 1954 for his LP The Faulse Lady (Folkways FW02044). He sang the version with eight verses from Sharp's One Hundred English Folk Songs (1916, p. 90) although the source is not credited in the liner notes. Instead for some reason it is claimed that this "famous old song […] is widely known and sung throughout all English-speaking countries". I really wonder where he got that information. But I assume that he simply wanted to obscure the fact that he had learned it from a book.
In fact this song only became "famous" after Pete Seeger had recorded his version in 1958. He deleted one verse, played it in common time instead of the original triple rhythm and was the first one to call it "The Water Is Wide". As already noted he forgot to give credit to Sharp and his informants in the liner notes to his record but had to acknowledge the original copyright by Novello & Co. when the piece was published by Oak Publications in 1960 in the songbook American Favorite Ballads. Tunes and Songs as Sung by Pete Seeger (p. 4 & 77):
The water is wide, I cannot get over
And neither have I wings to fly.
Give me a boat that can carry two,
And both shall row, my love and I.
A ship there is and she sails the sea,
She's loaded deep as deep can be.
But not· so deep as the love I'm in,
And I know not how I sink or swim.
I leaned my back up against some .young oak,
Thinking he was a trusty tree.
But first he bended, and then he broke,
And thus did my false love to me.
I put my hand into some soft bush,
Thinking the sweetest flower to find.
I pricked my finger to the bone,
And left the sweetest flower alone .
Oh, love is handsome and love is fine,
Gay as a jewel when first it is new,
But love grows old, and waxes cold,
And fades away like summer dew .
Roger McGuinn (quoted from his Folk Den) saw "Pete Seeger in concert at Orchestra Hall in Chicago many times in my teen years. His 12-string guitar was always tuned down so that the bass notes were big and round, filling the hall as would a string quartet. His voice was clear, full of emotion and youthful exuberance. That was the first time I heard The Water Is Wide". Guy Carawan recorded it also in 1958 for Folkways (FW03544) and in his liner notes he wrote that Seeger had taught it to him while "driving along in a car in upstate New York". But he also reported that he had heard the song "later" in London as sung by Shirley Collins. So it seems it was already known in Folk Revival circles before it was recorded by Pete Seeger.
Other early recordings were by Leon Bibb on Sings Love Songs (1960, Vanguard VRS 9073, see the discography at wirz.de) and Carolyn Hester on her second LP in 1961 (Tradition TLP 1043). Ms. Hester also sang Seeger's version although this was deliberately obscured in the liner notes written by Robert Shelton (as Stacey Wiliams, his pseudonym for these kinds of jobs). At least Sharp got some credit although he of course had never collected the song in the USA:
"During one of her many visits to the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress the singer came upon "The Water is Wide", a song collected in America by Cecil J. Sharp. Polished poetry in the text seems at times to be the work of a highly gifted poet, but actually has evolved through the folk process into one of the most beautiful, remorseful lyric statements in the body of Anglo-American folk song".
The song can also be found on Pernell Roberts' Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies (1963, see allmusic.com). Joan Baez included it in 1964 in her Songbook, but without any credit to Seeger or Sharp. She also performed "The Water Is Wide" in her concerts although to my knowledge she didn't record the song for any of her early LPs. A live recording from the early 60s is available on Very Early Joan (see JoanBaez.com) released in 1982. Here the song is credited as "traditional, arr. by J.Baez". The melody of Bob Dylan's "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" sounds as if it is closely related to the one used for "The Water Is Wide". Dylan later reported that he had "heard a Scottish ballad on an old 78 record that I was trying to really capture the feeling of, that was haunting me [...] It was just a melody (liner notes to Biograph, 1985). Unfortunately it's not known which record he had listened to.
Sam Hinton's version on "The Wandering Folk Song" (1966, Folkways FW 02401, see the liner notes, p. 2) is one of the few that was taken directly from Cecil Sharp. He refers to his One Hundred Folk Songs and in fact he uses six of the eight verses of the version published in that book, although most of them in a slightly edited form. But this was an exception to the rule and it seems that nearly everybody at that time learned the song directly or indirectly from Pete Seeger, either from live performances, from him personally, from the recording, or from any of the printed versions. Today The Water Is Wide" is firmly established as an "old Folk song". Seeger's version has become a standard. But nowadays usually only four verses are sung: one ("I put my hand into some soft bush […]") got lost sometime during the '60s. And now we have arrived again at the text I have quoted in the very first chapter:
The water is wide and I can't cross over,
And neither have I wings to fly,
Build me a boat that can carry two,
And both shall row My love and I.
There is a ship and it sails on the sea,
loaded deep as deep can be,
But not as deep as the love I'm in,
I know not if I sink or swim.
I leaned my back up against an oak,
Thinkin' it was a trusty tree,
But first it bent and then it broke,
just like my own false love to me.
Oh love is gentle and love is kind,
Gay as a jewel when first it's new,
But love grows old and waxes cold,
And fades away like the morning dew.
The water is wide and I can't cross over,
And neither have I wings to fly wings,
Build me a boat that can carry two,
And both shall row my love and I.
This reduced version looks in fact very close to the original "Oh Waly, Waly": variant forms of two of these four verses – the third and the fourth - had already been part of that old Scottish ballad when it was first published by Thomson and Ramsay in 1726. Even though "The Water is Wide" as a song is not that old in fact the verses themselves are of great antiquity and it's fascinating to see that they have survived for so long. The earliest variant of the first one was printed on a broadside as part of the song "I'm Often Drunk And Seldom Sober" around 1820, the second ("There is a ship...") sometime between 1660 and 1684 on another broadside called "The Seamans leave taken of his sweetest Margery", the third about the "trusty tree" can be found in both variants of "Oh Waly, Waly" (1726) and the earliest form of the last verse is known from an old manuscript from the 1620s. The oldest has been in use for nearly 400 years and even the youngest is known for nearly two centuries. They have survived for so long because of a complex process involving both written transmission and oral tradition. But it's also interesting to see how these verses have changed over the centuries. The earliest version of the last verse of looks a little bit different from the one used for "The Water Is Wide":
Hey trollie lollie, love is jolly
A qhyll qhill it is new;
Qhen it is old, it grows full cold,
Woe worth the love untrue!
According to Robert Chambers (1829, p. 134) "troly, loly" was common as a "burden [...] of songs [...] during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries". The variant in Ramsay's "Oh Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny" from the 1720s is much more similar to the verse as we know it today:
O waly, waly, but love be bonnie,
A little time while it is new,
But when 'tis auld it waxes cauld
And fades away like morning dew.
For the broadside text of "I'm Often Drunk And Seldom Sober" - published around 1820 - the words were modernized and the anachronisms deleted:
If love is handsome, and love is pretty,
And love is charming while it's new,
But as love grows older it grows much colder
But fades away like the morning dew.
When Mrs. Mogg from Somerset recalled this verse in 1904 for Cecil Sharp is was nearly identical to the one on the broadside. She only replaced "while it's new" with "when it is true":
Love is handsome, love is pretty,
Love is charming when it is true;
As it grows older it grows colder
And fades away like the morning dew.
The version Sharp published in his Folk Songs From Somerset in 1906 shows some interesting variations and is more similar to Ramsay's verse: "new" is reinstated and "old/cold" replaces "older/colder". But he also added something new by changing the last word of the first line from "pretty" to "fine" and the start of the second line from "love is charming" to "love's a jewel":
O, love is handsome and love is fine,
And love's a jewel while it is new,
But when it is old, it groweth cold
And fades away like morning dew.
In Pete Seeger's version (1958) the second line looks a little bit different - "Gay as a jewel" instead of "love's a jewel" - and the traditional "morning dew" is changed to "summer dew". But there is also one more anachronism directly taken from Ramsay's "Oh Waly, Waly": "waxes" replaces "groweth". In fact every new edit makes this line look older and more like the one in "Waly, Waly": "grows older" in the texts from the broadside and from Mrs. Mogg was first changed by Sharp to "groweth cold" and then in this variant to "waxes cold" which is just like the original:
Oh, love is handsome and love is fine,
Gay as a jewel when first it is new,
But love grows old, and waxes cold,
And fades away like summer dew .
But in most of the versions used today the "morning" has returned and these days the second half of this verse looks surprisingly similar to the corresponding lines in "Oh Waly, Waly": every editor since Sharp has added one more element of the original text.
Oh love is gentle and love is kind,
Gay as a jewel when first it's new,
But love grows old and waxes cold,
And fades away like the morning dew.
The first verse of "The Water Is Wide" also shows an interesting development. In the longer version of "I'm Often Drunk" it looks this way:
The seas are deep and I cannot wade them
Neither have I wings to fly,
I wish I had some little boat
To carry over my love and I.
In the later edition with the abbreviated text "deep" was changed to "wide" and "cannot wade them" to "can't get over":
The sea is wide and I can't get over
Neither have I got wings to fly,
Come, fetch to me, then a little boat,
To carry over my true love and I.
Mrs. Mogg in 1904 was the first to use the phrase "the water is wide". That's a nice alliteration and it sounds much better than the original lines. Of course we don't know if she made it up herself or if she learned it that way from someone else:
The water is wide and I can't get over
Neither have I got wings to fly.
Go and get me O some little, little boat
For to carry over my true love and I.
In 1906 Cecil Sharp decided to retain the first two lines sung to him by his informant. But it seems he didn't like the second half of this verse and he simply replaced it with something he wrote himself.
The water is wide l cannot get o'er
And neither have I wings to fly.
Give me a boat that will carry two
And both shall row, my Love and I.
That's the version of the first verse we know today. It was first made up by a writer of broadside ballads and then later edited both by an old lady from Somerset and an academic Folklorist. A "Folk song" is usually the result of a complicated process and the input of the professional ballad writers and the professional Folklorists is often much greater than what the real "Folk" has contributed. And sometimes an "old" song is not that old and sometimes a Folklorist had to produce a "Folk song" himself, especially if he wasn't satisfied with what he had found among the "Folk". But no matter who was involved in the creation of "The Water Is Wide": the song is still popular today and in the end that's what counts.
Musical Examples & Illustrations
"The Water Is Wide", music sheet and midi-file created from file in abc-notation available at www.abcnotation.com
"Wale' wale' up yon Bank", from William Thomson, Orpheus Caledonius, or a Collection of the best Scotch Songs, London 1726, p. 34 (available at Early books of Scottish Songs, National Library of Scotland)
Title page, Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany, Vol. 1, 11th edition, London 1750, source: The Internet Archive
From: Francis James Child, The English And Scottish Popular Ballads, Part 7 (i.e. Vol. 4.1), Boston & New York 1890, p. 93, source: The Internet Archive
"Hey Troly, Loly [...]",excerpt (verse 4) from Cantus, Three Voices, in: Cantus, Songs and Fancies, to three, four, or five parts, [...] as is taught by Thomas Davidson, in the Musick-School of Aberdene, Printed by John Forbes, Aberdeen 1666, ESTC R213597, available at EEBO, image 48
From: John Gay, Polly, an opera. Being the second part of The Beggar's opera, 1729, Act 1, Air VII, here p. 19 from an edition published London 1922, source: The Internet Archive
"Waly,Waly", from William McGibbon, A Collection of Scots Tunes [...] With some Additions by Robert Bremner, London [1768], Book III, p.87, source of image: pdf-file downloaded from IMSLP
"Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny", in: Joseph Ritson, Scotish Songs In Two Volumes, Vol. 1, 1794, 2nd ed. Glasgow 1869, p. 235, source: The Internet Archive
"Oh Waly, Waly", from Cecil Sharp, Folk Songs From Somerset. Third Series, 1906, p. 32/33
Title page, Cecil Sharp & Charles R. Marson, Folk Songs From Somerset. Third Series, London 1906, source pdf-file downloaded at IMSLP)
"Waly, Waly (Down In The Meadows)", sung by Mrs. Caroline Cox (70), Somerset, 1905, collected by Cecil Sharp, from Karpeles, Sharp Collection, No. 35 A, p. 171
"Waly, Waly (Down In The Meadows)", sung by James Thomas (89), Somerset, 1906, collected by Cecil Sharp, from Karpeles, Sharp Collection, No. 35 B, p. 172
"Waly, Waly (The Water Is Wide)", sung by Mrs. Elizabeth Mogg, Somerset, 1904, collected by Cecil Sharp, from Karpeles, Sharp Collection, No. 35 C, p. 173
From: W. H. Logan, A Pedlar's Pack of Ballads and Songs, Edinburgh 1869, p. 336, source: The Internet Archive
"In Yon Garden &c.", from James Johnson (ed.), The Scots Musical Museum, Vol. 6, 1803, No. 563, p. 582 (here from a later edition publ. 1839, available at Google Books and the Internet Archive)
"Down In Yon Meadows", tune and text from Thomas Hepple Manuscript, ca. 1857 online available at FARNE
From: Notes And Queries, 3rd Ser., Vol. 11, 1867, p. 441, source: The Internet Archive
"The Prickly Rose", from William Christie , Traditional Ballad Airs, Vol. I, Edinburgh 1876, p. 226, source: pdf-file of book downloaded from http://www.celtscot.ed.ac.uk/ballad.htm (University of Edinburgh, Celtic & Scottish Studies)
"Deep In Love", from Sabine Baring-Gould & Henry Fleetwood Shepard, Songs And Ballads Of The West: A Collection Made From The Mouths Of The People, London 1891, No. 86, pp. 184-5 (available at The Internet Archive); also as "A Ship Came Sailing" in: Sabine Baring-Gould, H. Fleetwood Sheppard & F. W. Bussell, Songs Of The West. Folk Songs Of Devon And Cornwall Collected From The Mouth Of The People, New & Revised Edition Under The Musical Editorship of Cecil J. Sharp, London [1905], No. 86, pp. 176-7
"Deep In Love", tune, "Sent by Lady Lethbridge as sung by her old nurse, from Sabine Baring-Gould Manuscripts, Personal Copy Vol.I, LXXXVI, SBG/1/1/415 at EFDSS, also from pdf with transcription of his chapter by M.Graebe, available at his site Songs Of The West
"Deep In Love", tune and 1 verse collected by George Gardiner in April 1909 from Thomas Bulbeck, Sussex, GG/1/21/1385 at EFDSS
"Must I Go Bound?", from Herbert Hughes, Irish Country Songs, London 1909, p. 68-9, "fragment of an old song" from County Derry
"Lord Thomas", As sung by Mrs. Hester House, Hot Springs, NC, 14.9.1916; tune and text from: Olive Dame Campbell & Cecil J. Sharp, English Folk Songs from The Southern Appalachians, p. 55
"Young Hunting", from Maud Karpeles (ed.), English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Collected by Cecil Sharp, 1932, No. 18H, p. 110, sung by Mrs Dunagan, St. Helen's, Kentucky
"Deep In Love (Must I Be Bound Or Must I Go Free?)", collected by H.E.D.Hammond 1905 from Jacob Baker, Dorset, in: Broadwood et al. 1923, pp. 69-70 and HAM/2/5/15 at EFDSS
"Melody in Common Time", words: "The Happy Land" by Isaac Watts, from Joshua Leavitt, The Christian Lyre, Third Edition, Revised, New York 1831, p. 128 (available at the Internet Archive)
"Sweet Maggie Gordon", arranged by Ned Straight, from sheetmusic, Pauline Lieder, New York 1880, source: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/sm1880.01560, Music For The Nation: American Sheet Music (Library of Congress, Music Division)
"The Ripest Of Apples", from Fuller Maitland 1900, p.45, note, p. 29; contributed by H. C. Mercer of Philadelphia, described as "'Down East' coast song from the neighbourhood of Portland, Maine; same tune with the first two verses also in Henry, Songs of the People, p. 383, "source not given", probably taken from the Journal.
"Love It Is Pleasing", Greig Duncan VI, No. 1166, p. 252, as sung by Alexander Robb, 1906 ("Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny")
"The Water Is Wide", as sung by Pete Seeger on American Favourite Ballads, Vol. 2, Folkways FW 02321, 1958, also available in American Favorite Ballads. Tunes And Songs as Sung by Pete Seeger, Oak Publications, New York 1960, p.77
Bibliography
J. W. Allen, Some Notes on "O Waly Waly", in: JEFDSS 7, 1954, p. 161-171
Sabine Baring-Gould & Henry Fleetwood Sheppard, Songs And Ballads Of The West: A Collection Made From The Mouths Of The People, London 1891 (available at The Internet Archive)
Sabine Baring-Gould, H. Fleetwood Sheppard & F. W. Bussell, Songs Of The West. Folk Songs Of Devon And Cornwall Collected From The Mouth Of The People, New & Revised Edition Under The Musical Editorship of Cecil J. Sharp, London [1905]
Christopher James Bearman, The English Folk Music Movement 1898-1914, Diss. University of Hull, 2001, online available at University of Hull, Digital Repository
Paul Brewster, Ballads And Songs Of Indiana, Bloomington 1940 (available at traditionalmusic.co.uk)
Lucy Broadwood & J. A. Fuller Maitland, English County Songs,London [1893]
Lucy E. Broadwood et al., 1923, Songs of Unhappy Love, in: Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 7, No. 27, 1923, pp. 69-75
Bertrand Harris Bronson, The Traditional Tunes Of The Child Ballads. With Their Texts, according to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America, 4 Vols., Princeton NJ 1959-1972 (reprint East Windsor NJ, 2009)
The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Volume 2: Folk Ballads From North Carolina, ed. by H. M. Belden & A. P. Hudson, Durham 1952 (available at The Internet Archive)
The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Volume 3: Folk Songs From North Carolina, ed. by H. M. Belden & A. P. Hudson, Durham 1952 (available at The Internet Archive)
Roly Brown, Glimpses into the 19th Century Broadside Ballad Trade, No. 32: Robert Walker of Norwich (mustrad article MT217)
J. Collingwood Bruce & John Stokoe, Northumbrian Minstrelsy. A Collection Of The Ballads, Melodies, And Small-Pipe Tunes Of Northumbria, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1882 (reprint with a new Foreword by A. L. Lloyd, Hatboro 1965)
Olive Dame Campbell & Cecil J. Sharp, English Folk Songs from The Southern Appalachians, New York & London 1917 (available at The Internet Archive)
James Catnach, Catalogue Of Songs And Song Books,Sheets, Half-Sheets, Christmas Carols, Children's Books &c. &c. &c., Printed And Published By J. Catnach, Printer and Publisher,2, Monmouth Court, Seven Dials, 1832 (in: Madden Ballads, Reel 5)
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Ballads, Edinburgh 1829 (available at The Internet Archive)
Francis James Child, The English And Scottish Popular Ballads, Part 7 (i.e. Vol. 4.1), Boston & New York 1890 (available at the Internet Archive)
William Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, Vol. I, Edinburgh 1876 & Vol. II, Edinburgh 1881 (available for download as pdf-files at http://www.celtscot.ed.ac.uk/ballad.htm (University of Edinburgh, Celtic & Scottish Studies))
John Harrington Cox, Folk-Songs Of The South, Gretna 1998 (first published 1924; partly available at Google Books)
Henry George Farmer, Foreword to Orpheus Caledonius. A Collection of Scots songs Set to Music by William Thomson, Two Volumes in One, Reprint of Second Edition, first published 1733, Hatboro PA 1962
Albert Friedman, The Penguin Book of Folk Ballads of the English Speaking World, New York 1977 (first published 1956)
J.A. Fuller Mailtland, Report of the Second Meeting of the Folk-Song Society, in: Journal of
the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 1,No.2, 1900, pp. 27-31 & 43-51
John Glen, Early Scottish Melodies, Edinburgh 1900 (available at The Internet Archive)
George F. Graham, The Popular Songs of Scotland with Their Appropriate Melodies, 1856, new edition Edinburgh 1887 (available at The Internet Archive)
The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection, Vol. 6, edited by Patrick Shuldham-Shaw & Elaine Petrie, Aberdeen 1995
Mellinger Edward Henry, Folk Songs From The Southern Highlands, New York 1938 (online at traditionalmusic.co.uk)
David Herd, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Vol. 1, 1776 (reprint 1869 of 2nd ed. is available at the Internet Archive)
Herbert Hughes, Irish Country Songs. First Volume, London 1909
Gale Huntington & Lani Herrmann (ed.), Sam Henry's Songs Of The People, Athens, GA 1990
James Johnson, The Scots Musical Museum, Vol. 2, 1788, Vol. 5, 1797, Vol. 6, 1803
Maud Karpeles (ed.), English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Collected by Cecil Sharp, London, New York & Toronto 1932
Maud Karpeles (ed.), Cecil Sharp's Collection Of English Folk Songs, Vol. 1, London, New York & Toronto 1974
Ann Keith, 'Most Suitable For Purposes Of Publication': Cecil Sharp's Folk Song Texts, in: Brio, Vol. 45, 2008, pp. 18-28
Joshua Leavitt, The Christian Lyre, Vol.1, Third Edition, Revised, New York & Boston 1831 (available at the Internet Archive)
W. H. Logan, A Pedlar's Pack of Ballads and Songs, Edinburgh 1869 (available at Google Books and The Internet Archive)
Alan Lomax, The Folk Songs Of North America, New York 1960
The Madden Ballads. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Songs and Ballads from the Cambridge University Library, 12 Volumes, Woodbridge, CT 1987 (Microfilm)
William Motherwell, Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern, Glasgow 1827, (available at Google Books)
Notes And Queries. A Medium of Inter-Communication For Literary Men, General Readers, Etc., 3rd Ser., Vol. 11, 1867 (available at The Internet Archive)
Bruce Olson, An Incomplete Index Of Scottish Popular Song And Dance Tunes Printed In The 18th Century, 1998 (available on the late Bruce Olson's website: Roots of Folk: Old English, Scots, and Irish Songs and Tunes)
Roy Palmer, Birmingham Ballad Printers, Part Four: V - W (mustrad article MT247)
Louise Pound, American Ballads And Songs, New York 1922 (available at The Internet Archive)
Frank Purslow, Marrow Bones. English Folk Songs from the Hammond and Gardiner Mss., London 1965
Edward F. Rimbault, Musical Illustrations of Bishop Percy's 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, London 1850 (available at Google Books)
Jean Ritchie, Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians, Lexington 1997 (first published 1965; partly available at Google Books)
Joseph Ritson, Scotish Songs In Two Volumes, Vol. 1, 1794, 2nd ed. Glasgow 1869 (available at The Internet Archive)
Frank Rutherford, The Collecting And Publishing Of Northumbrian Folk-Song, in: Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th Series, Vol. XLII, pp. 261-278
Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag, New York 1927 (online at The Internet Archive)
Cecil Sharp & Charles R. Marson, Folk Songs From Somerset. Third Series, London 1906 (available as a pdf-file at IMSLP)
Cecil Sharp, One Hundred English Folk Songs For Medium Voice, Boston & New York 1916 (available at The Internet Archive)
Betty N. Smith, Jane Hicks Gentry: A Singer Among Singers, Lexington 1998
Harold W. Thompson, Body, Boots, & Britches: Folktales, Ballads, and Speech from Country New York, Syracuse 1979 (first published 1939; partly available at Google Books
Online Resources
allegro Catalogue Of Broadside Ballads (Bodleian Library, Oxford)
BBCN = 17th & 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers (Gale; items are identified by Gale Document Nr.)
British Book Trade Index (University of Birmingham)
Copac National, Academic, and Specialist Library Catalogue
Digital Tradition Database
Early English Book Online (EEBO, access only through participating institutions like libraries)
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO; access only through participating institutions like libraries. I have identified each quoted item with the ESTC number so it's easy to find there)
English Broadside Ballad Archive (University of Santa Barbara, California)
ESTC = English Short Title Catalogue (British Library)
FARNE - Folk Archive Resource North East, Archive, Collections
Glasgow Broadsides Ballads - The Murray Collection (University of Glasgow)
IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library
John Jacob Niles - Dean of American Balladeers (Discography)
James Prescott, Folk Song Index
Jane Keefer, Folk Music - An Index To Recorded Sources
The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music (John Hopkins University)
Music For The Nation: American Sheet Music (Music Division, Library of Congress)
Mudcat Discussion Board (MDB; I have learned a lot from reading the excellent discussions there, especially Water Is Wide - First American Version)
National Burns Collection
Scottish Chapbooks, Special Collections, University of Glasgow
Smithsonian Folkways
Songs Of The West (A great website about Sabine Baring-Gould)
Steven Roud, Folk Song Index, English Folk Dance And Song Society (Vaughn Williams Memorial Library)
Take Six Homepage, English Folk Dance And Song Society (a database of the manuscript archives of the British Folk song collectors Sabine Baring-Gould,, Janet Blunt, George Butterworth, Francis Collinson, George Gardiner, Anne Gilchrist and Henry Hammond.
The Traditional Ballad Index. An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World
A Traditional Music Library of folk music, tune-books, songbooks and sheet music
Wiltshire Folk Songs (on the Wiltshire Council Website)
The Word On The Street (National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh)
Many thanks to Stewart Grant who has written about “The Water Is Wide” for my former website and who encouraged me find out a little more about this song!