US & Canada Versions- Child 279-A Gaberlunyie-Man
[Versions of Child 279-A Gaberlunyie-Man are rare in the US and Canada. The Beggar's Bride collected by Phillips Barry from Mrs. McGill (NB) c. 1929, The Beggar Man from Eaton (MI-VA) 1935, The Beggar Man from Gilkie (NS) c. 1950 and A Beggar Man (mistitled 'Jolly Beggar') from Strachen (OK) pre-1925 but published in 1964 by Moores. Bronson lists a related version collected by Barry in 1908 (Wee Wee Man) which I will include here.
R. Matteson 2013]
CONTENTS:
The Beggar's Bride
---------------
Commentary Kyle Davis Jr. from "More Ballads"
42. THE GABERLUNYIE-MAN (Child, No. 279, Appendix)
Three adjacent ballads in Chiid, "The Jolly Beggar," "The Gaberlunyie-Man," and "The Beggar-Laddie" ( Child, No. 280), are closely related to one another. "The Jolly Beggar," with its seduction and the seducer leaving the girl after revealing himself as a man of rank and property, is the most realistic and ribald of the three; "The Gaberlunyie-Man," with a similar beginning, is rather a romantic elopement with a happy ending; "The Beggar-Laddie," not represented here, is an even more romantic love story, in which the girl voluntarily follows the beggar, to discover that he is a man of property and to become his bride. The problem of classification is a nice one, since "The Gaberlunyie-Man" is almost if not quite as close to "The Beggar-Laddie" as it is to "The Jolly Beggar." Child chooses to print "The Gaberlunyie-Man" as an appendix to "The Jolly Beggar," which it resembles in initial situation but not in outcome or in tone. All points considered, it would seem to the present editor sounder to treat these three beggar songs as separate but related ballads, with "The Gaberlunyie-Man" the middle term equidistant from the other two. Literally, the Scottish term "gaberlunyie" or "gaberlunzie" means beggar's wallet, but by synecdoche it means the beggar himself. Hence the three titles are very close. Child apparently printed "The Gaberlunyie-Man" as an appendix also in part because the text which he gives from Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, 1724, and subsequent reprints, hacl been subjected to a good deal of editorial revision- enough, he may have thought, to bring its traditional character into question. But Child knew that the ballad was in oral tradition because he refers to "recited copies, as the 'Old Lady's Collection,' No. 13 (Skene MS., p. 65), and Motherwell's MS., pp. 31" (V, 115). The fact that Child A of "The Jolly Beggar" comes from "The Old Lady's Collection," and that she knew "The Gaberlunyie-Man" as well, indicates that both ballads had some form of life as distinct and separate ballads in the mind of one singer or reciter. Why Child failed to present the two traditional or "recited" texts available to him and to give them precedence over Ramsay's revised text, as would be customary, he fails to explain. Nor does he attempt to justify his presentation of the ballad as an appendix. He simply states (V, 110): " 'The Gaberlunyie-Man' is given as an appendix." Elsewhere (V, 109) he seems to support Percy in taking to task Horace Walpole for his confounding of this ballad with "The Jolly Beggar."
Can it be that the great Child was guilty of two errors with respect to "The Gaberlunyie-Man": ( 1 ) in relegating it to a position of dependency upon "The Jolly Beggar" and not acording it full status as an independent ballad; and (2) in failing to recognize its genuine traditional character, now widely accepted by scholars? It would seem so.
The traditional claim that King James V of Scotland (1512-42) was the author of both "The Jolly Beggar" and "The Gaberlunyie-Man" is summarily disposed of by both Child (V, 109) and Greig-Keith (pp. 220, 223). This would tend to dispose also of the traditional claim that the ballad chronicles one of King James's adventures in the guise of "the goodman of Ballangeich" (Greig-Keith, p. 223; Ord, p. 377).
The story as given in Ramsay's text is briefly this: An old poor man seeks lodging at a home, and immediately shows much attention to the daughter. He tells her that were she black as her father's hat he would desire to take her with him; she replies that were she as white as the snow, she would go with him. They form a plot, and while the mother sleeps, they flee together. When the beggar's absence is discovered next morning, the mother fears that sornething may be stolen, but is relieved to find nothing gone. She calls for the regular work to commence, and then discovers that her daughter is missing. She sends out searchers, but they are apparentiy unsuccessful. The daughter is happy with her lover, he with her, and in the concluding stanzas he describes how he will win their living and merrily "carry the gaberlunyie on." Ramsay's text ends here, but Child (V, 109) refers to recited copies in which "the girl is made to come back again to see her mother (or the gaberlunyieman brings her) 'wi a bairn in her arms and ane in her wamb;' but for all that a fine lady, 'wi men and maid-servants at her command.'" The ribaldry of "The Jolly Beggar" is completely lacking.
"The Gaberlunyie-Man" has not often appeared in recent times, except possibly in Scotland. Margaret Dean-Smith reports no texts in England, and none seem to have been reported from England since her date of publication. In Scotland, however, both Greig-Keith and Ord find the ballad fairly popular in Aberdeenshire. All recovered texts, including the two North American ones can be traced directly back to Scottish sources.
Greig-Keith (pp. 223-26 and 276-7) print only one text in full, a version the equivalent of twenty four-line stanzas, out of a total of seven versions and fragments collected. They also print five of a total of twelve tunes collected. Four of the five collated texts "have a happy conclusion, relating the daughter's triumphant return with the gaberlunzie man and a 'quiver' fast becoming full" (pp. 24-24). This feature is in accord with the recited texts known to Child.
The only other British text to come to light is that published by John Ord in The Bothy Songs and Ballads of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moroy, Angus and the Mearns, Paisley, 1930, pp. 375-77. The single text, with tune, is called "The Beggar Man," and consists of eighteen four-line stanzas, each followed by a nonsense refrain. The ending is the triumphant return of the beggar and daughter to the girl's mother. Of the ballad Ord writes (p. 377): "There are several versions of this well-known ballad, but the one here printed is the most common in the bothies and farm kitchens in the North of Scotland. I have given it preference to the others, as the words are specially adapted to the old bothy air, to which they are set. I heard the song first sung to this air at a Sunday school soiree in the parish of New Byth, Aberdeenshire, upwards of forty years ago."
Only two texts of this ballad seem to have been recovered from North America, a text published by Barry in British Ballads from Maine, pp. 333-35, and the present Virginia text. Without comment Barry gives his text full footing with the other Child ballads under the title "The Gaberlunyie-Man ( Child 279, Appendix)." Its local title is "The Beggar's Bride," and the text was written down by Mrs. James McGill of Chamcook, New Brunswick, who was born in Scotland. Her air, which Barry publishes, was noted by George Herzog. The text has thirteen four-line stanzas, each followed by a nonsense line. The similarity of the Barry and Ord texts in placing near the beginning several stanzas which Ramsay places toward the end may indicate that their traditional place was at the beginning and that Ramsay replaced them at the end, perhaps in preference to the traditional happy conclusion.
The Virginia text was contributed by Miss Ruth K. Anderson, of Arlington, Virginia, as sung for her by Mrs. Jay P. Eaton, of Lansing, Michigan, who was born in Scotland. Mrs. Eaton seems to have visited Virginia in the summer of 1935, when the song was collected. "The Beggar Man," as its local title calls it, has fifteen four-line stanzas, each followed by a nonsense line, and is thus the longest text recovered in North America. Since Barry's informant, Mrs. McGill, was a resident of New Brunswick, the Virginia text seems to be the only instance of the recovery of this ballad in the United States. Miss Anderson writes of Mrs. Eaton, the singer:
"Mrs. Eaton was born in Scotland. She was one of a family of fourteen children. Her parents with their children carne to the United States when Mrs. Eaton was about sixteen years old. When I heard her sing this and asked for a copy, she said she had never had a copy, that it was a song she learned in the old country."
The Virginia text does not differ greatly from Barry or Ord, except that it adds more to the conclusion when the beggar returns with the daughter. Virginia 1 and 2 parallel Ramsay, Barry, Ord and Greig 1 and 2. Virginia 3 and 4 parallel Ramsay and Greig 5 and 6. The Virginia text lacks the stanzas which Barry and Ord give near the beginning but which Ramsay places near the end. Virginia 5 parallels Ramsay 7: the two make up a plot. Virginia 6 combines Ramsay 8 and 9: the old wife rises and misses the beggar all in one stanza. Virginia 7 parallels Rarnsay 10: a check is made to see if the beggar has taken anything. Virginia 8 and 9 parallel Ramsay 11 and 12: the daughter is sent for, but it is "the auld man" who goes for her, rather than the Servant girl as in Ramsay. Virginia 10 parallels Ramsay 14 a search is rnade for the beggar. Virginia 10 differs from Ramsay 14, however, in that it leads directly into the happy conclusion. Then follow Virginia stanzas 11 to 15, conciuding the ballad with the return of the daughter "with servants one at every hand." A feature of the Virginia text is that when the beggar reappears, he asks what the mother would give to see her daughter again, and she recognizes him:
"Oh," quay the auld wife, "I little doubt it's ye,
An' I wish I had ye slain."
The daughter then appears with silks and satins such that no other lady in the land can compare with her and blesses the hour when she went away with the beggar man.
There are many changes of language and expression as between the several versions, even when their stanzas closely parallel each other as to action. The Virginia text supplies its quota of new and interesting variants.
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
279. THE JOLLY BEGGAR
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 333, 475 (trace) / Cox, Trd Bid W Va., 50 / Davis, FS Va / Goose Hangs High Songster (deWitt, Philadelphia, 1866) / Randolph, Oz F-S, I, 194 / John Templeton, "Jolly Beggar" (Oliver Ditson, Boston, n. d.).
Local Titles: The Beggar's Bride.
Story Types: A: A man gives lodging to a beggar who then runs off with his daughter. When the parents find the girl gone, they swear they will never take in another beggar. Seven years later the beggar returns, and, upon being told why no more beggars are lodged, he reveals that he is bringing the daughter back, not only full of fine stories, but a gay lady as well.
Examples: Barry.
Discussion: Child 279 survives in America in a derivative form. The Jolly Beggar (see also The Beggar Laddie, Child 280) was published, revised, as The Gaberlunyie-Man in the 1724 Tea-Table Miscellany by Allan Ramsay. See Child V, 115, where the fact that both songs were traditionally ascribed to James the Fifth of Scotland is stated. Some texts of the derivative have been discovered in this country, but the song is not common over here. The California (Cox, Trd Bid W Va) and Missouri-Arkansas (Randolph, Oz F-S,) fragments have two stanzas that correspond to the Maine (Barry, Br it Bids Me] text, and Barry, JAFL, XXII, 79 notes a tune from New Hampshire. The Barry version reflects the American tendency to omit the lustier parts of a story. Compare also Child's Jolly Beggar in this respect.