Three Little Babes- Quivey (Utah) Pound 1914
[From: Ballads and Songs by G. L. Kittredge; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369. His notes follow.
Pound gives the following note: "Secured by LA Quivey when a student at the University of Nebraska, as known to his family in Burt County, Nebraska, in 1914." This indicates that the version should be from Nebraska, not Utah as Kittredge wrote below.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL (Child, No. 79).
Since Miss Backus's North Carolina version of the ballad ("There was a lady fair and gay") was printed in Child, 5: 294, [2] many variants have been collected in this country, belonging to that same general version. Belden publishes a text (from Missouri) in JAFL 23:429; Emma Bell Miles, one in "Harper's Magazine" for June, 1904 (109: 121-122); Cox (44:388 and 45: 11-12) publishes a fragment and a complete copy, both from West Virginia, and reports other variants (cf. 45: 160; JAFL 29: 400) [3] Miss McGill gives words and tune in her "Folk-Songs from the Kentucky Mountains," pp. 4-8. See also Shearin and Combs, p. 9 ("Lady Gay," closely resembles Miss Backus's text); F. C. Brown, p. 9; Virginia Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 4, P. 7; No. 5, P. 7; JAFL 27 : 59-62; 28 : 199-202, A peculiar version in Mrs. Leather's "Folk-Lore of Herefordshire " (1912, pp. 198-I99) contains a stanza adapted from "The Carnal and the Crane" (Child, No. 55): [4] -
Then Christ did call for the roasted cock,
That was feathered with his only hands;
He crowed three times all in the dish
In the place where he did stand.
II. Three Little Babes. From Professor Louise Pound. Reported from Burt County, Nebraska, by L. A. Quivey of Salt Lake City, Utah. See Miss Pound's Syllabus, p. 10.
1. Christmas time was drawing near,
And the nights were growing cold,
When three little babes came running down
Into their mother's fold.
2. She spread a table long and wide,
And on it put bread and wine:
"Come eat, come drink, my sweet little babes;
Come eat and drink of mine."
3. "We want none of your bread, mother;
We want none of your wine;
For yonder stands our blessed Lord,
And to him we will join."
4. She made a bed in the very best room,
And on it placed clean sheets,
And over the top a golden spread,
The sweeter they might sleep.
5. " Take it off, take it off," cried the eldest one,
"Take it off," cried he;
"For I would not stay in this wicked world,
Since Christ has died for me."
6. "A sad farewell, kind mother dear;
We give the parting hand,
To meet again on that fair shore
In Canaan's happy land.
7. "A tombstone at our head, mother;
The cold clay at our feet;
The tears we have shed for you, mother,
Have wet these winding sheets."
Footnotes:
2. Reprinted in JAFL 13: 119-120.
3. Cox (44 : 388) also prints two stanzas of a version corresponding to Child's A, which appears to have been brought to West Virginia from Ireland.
4 Compare Broadwood, English Traditional Songs and Carols, pp. 74-75, 122; Sharp, English Folk-Carols, No. I, pp. 2-4; Journal of Folk-Song Society, I : 183; 4: 22-25; a broadside of about 1780, Worcester [England], J. Grundy (Harvard College Library, 25242.5.5 R49, No. i3]); Notes and Queries, 3d series, 3: 94.