Three Young Ladies (The Bonny Banks of Virgie-O) - Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Monks; Newfoundland; 1929 Karpeles A; Peacock B
[Lomax's title- he attributes this to Peacock, who also collected this ballad from the Monks c. 1952. “The Bonny Banks of Virgie-O” was first collected from Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Monks of King’s Cove Newfoundland by Maud Karpeles in 1929. This is Bronson No. 3 and his text has "Vergeo" instead of "Vergie-O." It's the second or third text of Child No. 14 collected in North America (Greenleaf collected a version in summer or fall of 1929- no day or month was given; Barry collected a fragment in 1927). Alan Lomax titled the ballad, Three Young Ladies, and reprinted it in his Folk-Songs of North America.
Peacock version only slightly deviates from Karples: Instead of "I pray now tell?” Peacock has, "I pray you tell?”-- otherwise the texts are identical. Peacock's version was reprinted by Fowke in 1954 with the first chorus as found in Greenleaf's version.
A cover version of the song with a different yet similar melody titled “The Bonny Banks of Virgie-O” (with music) was recorded by Howie Mitchell for Folk Legacy in 1962 (See modified lyrics at the bottom of the page).
David Gregory wrote this, commenting on Karpeles diary, (Song Collecting in Newfoundland: Maud Karpeles, 1929): "Kenneth Monks was another King’s Cove informant. He sang “Go From My Window,” and on the afternoon of the 24th September gave Maud a “wonderful ballad” called “The Bonny Banks of Virgie-O,” a variant of “Babylon” (Child # 14)."
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
[Three Young Ladies] The Bonny Banks of Virgie-O- collected from Kenneth Monks of King’s Cove Newfoundland by Maud Karpeles in 1929.
1. Three young ladies went out for a walk,
All a lee and the lonely O;
They met a robber on their way,
On the bonny, bonny banks of Virgie-O.
2. He took the first one by the hand,
And whipped her around till he made her stand.
3. “O will you be a robber’s wife,
Or will you die by my penknife?”
4. “I will not be a robber’s wife,
I would rather die by your penknife.”
5. He took the penknife in his hand,
And it’s there he took her own sweet life.
6. He took the second one by the hand,
And whipped her around till he made her stand.
7. “O will you be a robber’s wife,
Or will you die by my penknife?”
8. “I will not be a robber’s wife,
I would rather die by your penknife.”
9. He took the penknife in his hand,
And it’s there he took her own sweet life.
10. He took the third one by the hand,
And whipped her around till he made her stand.
11. “O will you be a robber’s wife,
Or will you die by my penknife?”
12. “I will not be a robber’s wife,
Nor will I die by your penknife.
13. “If my brothers were here tonight,
You would not have killed my sisters bright.”
14. “Where are your brothers, pray now tell?”
“One of them is a minister.”
15. “And where is the other, I pray now tell?”
“He’s out a-robbing like yourself.”
16. “The Lord have mercy on my poor soul,
I’ve killed my sisters all but one.”
17. Then he took his penknife in his hand,
And then he took away his own sweet life.
_________________
BONNIE, BONNIE BANKS OF THE VIRGIO- sung by Howie Mitchell and Lisa Null; 1962. The suicide verse was left off. This is reported to be Karpeles' version but it uses Greenleaf's first chorus.
Three young ladies went for a walk
Too ra lee and a lon ee o
They met a robber on their way
By the bonnie, bonnie banks of the Virgio
He took the first one by the hand
He whipped her around and he made her stand
Oh, will you be a robber's wife
Or will you die by my pen knife
I will not be a robber's wife
I'd rather die by your pen knife
He took the second one by the hand
He whipped her around and he made her stand
Oh, will you be a robber's wife
Or will you die by my pen knife
I will not be a robber's wife
I'd rather die by your pen knife
He took the third one by the hand
He whipped her around and he made her stand
Oh, will you be a robber's wife
Or will you die by my pen knife
I will not be a robber's wife
Nor will I die by your pen knife
If my brothers had been here
You would not have killed my sisters dear
Who are your brothers, I pray thee tell
One is a robber like yourself
And who is the other, I pray thee tell
The other is a minister
Lord have mercy for what I have done
I've killed my sisters, all but one.
HOWIE MITCHELL (autobiography)
I was born in the small college town of Lexington, Virginia, in February, 1932. My early memories are of green rolling hills with blue mountains in the distance, the fun and fascination of collecting buckeyes, jumping in big piles of leaves, catching fish and frogs for the aquarium (which soon became overcrowded and was subsequently moved to the bathtub to accommodate the addition of some tadpoles and salamanders), and the sights, sounds and sensations from my visits to the farm near Chatham, Virginia, where my father grew up to become a medical doctor. There I learned some of the really IMPORTANT things, such as how to make a whistle from a willow switch, and a pop-gun from the hollowed branch of elderberry, the unforgettable flavor and odor of food cooked in a wood stove, fresh milk and home grown vegetables, sleeping in a goose-feather bed and being awakened by roosters and chickens at that early, magic time of the morning, and the very special warmth and quiet strength of people who make their living in the country.
I was a very shy and uncommunicative person as I reached my early teens, and was full of self-doubts and an acute awareness of my shortcomings. I was constantly fearful of having someone see me make a mistake, and I am sure that this is one good reason why I did not take well to piano lessons; I preferred to simply not practice at all, thereby providing some sort of an external excuse for my lack of proficiency. I did like to sing, however, and looked forward to the times when I met with the church choir for practice or for real. I also found myself responding to the radio programs presented at that time by Burl Ives, and by a performer who called himself "The Singing Cowboy", if I remember correctly. (Jules Allen - ed.) This was perhaps my first contact with music having the flavor of the old songs. When I heard a concert in high school by a ballad singer (Earle Spicer), I began to discover that this was a type of music that I could possibly make, f or myself, and which contained the warmth of simplicity, integrity, and subtle humor of homespun people that I had come to respect so much.
The first instrument I picked up was the guitar, which I played by using only the top four strings. When I went to Cornell to train for electrical engineering, I continued to learn about the guitar (adding the other two strings) and spent many pleasant hours singing with friends who had similar interests in traditional music. At a concert by Pete Seeger, I became aware of and excited by his presentation of some of the mountain styles of playing the five-string banjo, and I eventually began to listen to some of the recordings of the traditional musicians and to experiment with that instrument„ At about the same time, I heard and was very much attracted to the playing and singing of Jean Ritchie and Andrew Rowan Sommers; that was my first hearing of the plucked dulcimer of the Southern Mountains. It was soon after this that I met Dr. Asher Treat of Dumont, New Jersey, who showed and played for me the first dulcimer I had ever seen. As a direct result of that meeting, I became fascinated with an instrument that seems to make music at the slightest touch. It was only a few days later that I decided to make a dulcimer for myself, which I did with some success, and was thereby begun on an intense eight year search for a design that could somehow reach toward the optimum in my own concept of the instrument.
Soon after graduating from college, I was invited to join the Navy for twenty-one months, and managed to find the time and opportunity to construct two more dulcimers which were, as one might guess, quite a curiosity to my associates.
After my tour of active duty, I returned home for a few months, during which time I continued to make dulcimers -of all sorts of shapes and sizes, and to wrestle with my change of feeling from engineering to teaching as a possible career. I eventually joined a private college-preparatory school in Washington, D. C,, called the Hawthorne School, where I have taught mathematics and science, and was immediately delighted with my choice. It was there that I made twenty-eight dulcimers (#18 through #46) and perfected my approach to the subject enough to believe it meaningful to communicate some of the techniques of building and playing that instrument by means of a pamphlet and a recording. That work is still in the process of completion, but in the meantime, this first record should serve to introduce myself to those who are interested and to make them aware of a bit of ray style and texture of playing, and of my selection and interpretation of (mostly) traditional material.
Howie Mitchell Washington, D. C. November 1962