Two Maine Texts of "Lamkin"- Eckstorm 1939
Two Maine Texts of "Lamkin"
by Fannie Hardy Eckstorm
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 52, No. 203 (Jan. - Mar., 1939), pp. 70-74
TWO MAINE TEXTS OF "LAMKIN"
BY FANNIE HARDY ECKSTORM
The Maine tradition of "Lamkin" (Child 93) seems to be that of a single version, set to one air, with indications of an Irish original; such at least was the opinion of the late Phillips Barry. In British Ballads from Maine (Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth, 1929), we printed one text, with the air, and a fragment. Since then I have located and taken down two better texts and Mr. Barry recorded the airs on his dictaphone. It is doubtful whether these airs have been transcribed from the records or whether he left any notes on the ballad; therefore it seems best to print the two texts as I took them down myself in 1934. Transcription of the record of the shorter text, made by the singer, with the air, will probably reveal some variations from my copy; but the longer text must necessarily be my own and the one here given.
The history of the recovery of these texts should be given because they are important and from independent traditions. It also shows by what small margins of time some of our most interesting folksongs have been saved.
In the spring of 1934, in my home town in Maine I discovered a fragment of "Lamkin", and by following it up diligently I obtained most of the text. It was what was remembered by the son and daughter-in-law of the woman who used to sing it, but they could not give me the air. When Mr. and Mrs. Phillips Barry came on from Massachusetts in August on their fall collecting trip, we drove up to Kingman, more than ninety miles from my own home, to see the singer, Mrs. Margaret Morris. She was eighty-one years old and so frail that we spent not more than fifteen minutes with her and did not attempt to get the air from her; this was furnished by her son, Mr. Adam Morris. We read over to her the text as given by her son, Mr. William Morris, and she made some corrections and added several stanzas, thus making the text authentic and her own. She lived only a few weeks after this and a few days later we could not have seen her at all. By so small a time limit was this text recovered.
LAMKIN
Text of Mrs. Margaret (McPhail) Morris, of Kingman, Me., August 20, 1934. Mrs. Morris was born in Charlottetown, P.E.I., in 1853, and probably learned the song of her mother, Mrs. Ruth (Hescot) McPhail, who was born in England about 1812 and
died in St. John, N.B., about 1905, aged 93. The air was recorded on the dictaphone by Mr. Phillips Barry from the singing of Mr. Adam Morris.
1. Lamkin was as fine a mason as e'er laid a stone;
Built a castle for Lord Warrington and payment he got none.
2. O, he built it all round and he lined it within,
And he left a false window for himself to creep in.
3. The lord of this castle was going away;
"Beware of Bold Lamkin," to his lady did say.
4. "I care not for Lamkin or none of his kin,
For my doors are all bolted and my windows pinned in."
5. In the middle of the night Bold Lamkin crept in;
"Good morning, Bold Lamkin," said the false nurse to him.
6. "Where is the Lord of the castle, or is he within?"
"He's gone over to London to dine with the King."
7. "O, where are his noblemen, or are they within?"
"They've gone over to London to wait upon him."
8. "Where is his lady, or is she within?"
"She's up in her chamber with her windows penned in."
9. "How can we get her down?" the Lamkin did cry;
"Kill her baby in the cradle," the false nurse replied.
Io. "'Tis a pity, 'tis a pity," the Lamkin did cry;
"No pity, no pity," the false nurse replied.
11. The Lamkin did rock and the false nurse did sing,
In four corners of the cradle the red blood did spring.
12. "I can't please your baby with breast-milk or pap,
0, pray, dearest lady, come take it in your lap."
13. "How can I come down this cold, bitter night,
Without one speck of fire or a candle light?"
14. "The moon's on the stairway as bright as the sun;
Why can't a fair lady be lighted by one?"
15. "Nurse, dearest nurse, how cruel you be;
If your head only ached, how sorry I'd be."
16. "Please spare my life till one o'clock,
You shall have my daughter Betsy, she's the flower of my flock."
17. "Call down your daughter Betsy and set her at work,
To scour out the basin that holds your heart's blood."
18. There's blood on the stairway, there's blood in the hall,
There's blood in the nursery, the best blood of all.
19. As Betsy was sitting in her chamber most high
She saw her father come riding thereby.
20. "0 father, dear father, don't you blame me,
For the false nurse and Lamkin has slain your ladye."
21. The Lamkin was hung on the gallows so high,
And the false nurse was burnt on the mountain near by.
22. It was Scotland's lamentation and Ireland's loud cry,
"Hushaby, lullaby, hushaby, lullaby."
Mrs. Morris explained that the false nurse was a cousin to Bold Lamkin and that they "stuck a bobkin in the soft spot in the baby's head". These glosses seem more like answers to satisfy a child's questions than like stanzas lost from the original text.
In Mrs. Harding's text, the variation of the nurse being hanged and Lamkin burnt is probably only a lapse of memory on the singer's part which she could have corrected had her attention been called to it.
The other text was from Mrs. Susan M. Harding, of Hampden, Maine, recorded June 16, 1934, on the first visit made that year by Mr. Barry. I had previously located the song and made a list of the songs Mrs. Harding knew. One Saturday afternoon we drove about twelve miles, found her home and arranged to come to her the Monday following. On Monday we found her ill in bed and unable to do anything. A few days later we went again. She was then sitting up, and although far from well, she
obliged us with several songs and airs, including this text, and arranged to see us again later. This time she was in the hospital. On Mr. Barry's second trip in August we learned that she had died. Again a text was saved by the narrowest margin, and this is even more important than the first, for it contains the only hint we have of the real meaning of the song about "the bloody mason".
FALSE LINFINN
From the singing of Mrs. Susan M. Harding, Hampden, Me., June 16, 1934. Air recorded on the dictaphone by Philips Barry. Mrs. Harding said that the song came from her mother's family, the Knowltons, who came early from England to Massachusetts.
1. Said the lord to his lady as he went away from home,
"Beware of the Linfinn, for he'll do you much harm."
2. "I care not for Linfinn nor none of his kin,
I keep my doors bolted and my windows pinned in."
3. "How shall I get her down?". . .
. . . . . . . .
4. They pricked it and they pricked it and they pricked it full sore
Till the blood ran from the cradle in streams on the floor.
5. "I've rocked it and fed it on breast milk and pap,
Why can't you come down and rock it on your lap?"
6. "How can I come down so late in the night
Without any fire or bright candlelight?"
7. "There are fifteen bright candles burning and one as bright as the sun;
You can come down here by the light of one of them!"
8. She started to come down, not thinking any harm,
And the Linfinn stood ready to catch her in his arms.
9. "O spare me, Mr. Linfinn, till one o'clock at night,
And you shall have as much money as you can carry in your cart."
10. "If I had as much money as I could haul in my cart,
I'd rather see a sword run through your red heart."
11. "O spare me, O spare me, O spare me," she cries,
"And you shall have my daughter Betsy, she's the pride of all flowers."
12. "Bring down your daughter Betsy, she may do some good
For to hold the silver basin for to catch your heart's blood."
13. "O Betsy, dearest Betsy, stay right where you be,
Until your noble father comes a-riding home from sea."
14. As Betsy was a-sittin' in her chamber most high,
She saw her noble father come a-riding close by.
15. Says, "Father, dearest father, pray do not blame me,
For the Linfinn and the wet nurse has murdered Ma-mee."
16. The wet nurse was hung on the gallows so high,
And the Linfinn was burned to a stake standing by.
17. "Farewell to old England, old Ireland," says he,
And the landlord went a-mourning for his fair ladye.
This is clearly the same version as Mrs. Morris's, though there is no possibility of a common source short of the old country. If we insert into Mrs. Morris's version stanzas 4, 7, 8, , 10 and 13, we greatly improve the story and get a text of twenty-eight stanzas. That the original was an Irish tradition Mr. Barry felt sure from the phrase about Betsy being "the branch of all flowers", which occurs in Mr. Mace's text in British Ballads from Maine, p. 205. It is also found, in variants, in both these texts. The reference to Ireland in the concluding stanza of both texts may be significant, but these are not the important features of Mrs. Harding's song. While Mr. Barry was recording the song on the dictaphone, I sat by as usual with paper and pencil, making notes of anything not in the record; for often the side remarks of a singer were important, and Mr. Barry might not even notice them. This day, because the song itself was a rare one, I took down the whole text in longhand, as given above. That evening, as we were going over the day's work, Mr. Barry looked at my notes and suddenly pounced upon the name "the Linfinn", which, for no reason whatever I had written with a doubled final letter. "Did she say that?" he demanded.-"She certainly did," I replied.-"That explains it," he said, and fell musing; and when he had gathered his thoughts a little he expounded the inner meaning of the old ballad as it had never been explained before. Without attempting to quote his words, I may venture to reproduce his idea. "The Linfinn" was Irish for the "white man who lives by the linn" or stream. Why white? Because he was a leper, forced to live apart by himself. The cure for leprosy was blood, the blood of some innocent human being and the ceremonial of taking it required that it be collected in a silver basin. Mr. Barry, with his great learning, had at hand the references needed to uphold his theory. I believe I am not far wrong in saying that he explained the idea of the Linfinn being a mason as a probable later intrusion, after leprosy had ceased to be feared. Irish masons were said to be superior and they had a recipe for making cement with blood, it might be of animals though it was also claimed that human blood was used. This would explain how the leprosy-ceremonial became grafted upon the mason, and why the ballad has its Irish turn. Perhaps it originated in Ireland, and travelled from there.
One thing is evident: if Lamkin is based upon the idea of a cure for leprosy, it is very much older than any student has hitherto dreamed and should stand near the head of the ballad list.