US & Canada Versions: 170. Death of Queen Jane
[As an appendix Child has included, The Duke of Bedford, which he says "is one half (sts 5-8) a plagiarism from 'The Death of Queen Jane.'" Bronson prints two versions in TTCB under Appendix B and says that since the connection (stanzas depicting the burial ceremony) is very slight, there is no need to print more than two versions. In Ancient Ballads Flanders gives two versions of "The Duke of Bedford" (containing lines from Child 170). The Traditional Ballad Index titles it, "Six Dukes Went a-Fishing" after the titles of the Williams and Grainger versions. I am not including "Dukes of Bedford" as an appendix since the association is so slight.
Bronson has included, as Appendix A, "Queen Jean" (Gilchrist, 1906) and "Jane was a Neighbor" (Barry, 1931) which will both be included. Other versions mix "The Death of Queen Jane" with "Sally and her True-Love Billy/Rich Irish Lady" which is usually under Child 295. "Queen Sally," a version with both was collected from Archie Sturgill (Close to Home, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40097, CD (1997), trk# 33 [1967/01]). It begins with 5 (2 line) stanzas of "Queen Jane" then goes into "Sally." Another Virgina version "Poor Sally" with stanzas from both ballads was collected by Sharp in 1918 (listed under Brown Girl, p. 303) and published by Davis in TBVa, 1929 as "The Death of Queen Jane."
There are few complete (with a plot that tells most of the story) versions found in North America. Both the Lunsford version and the Barry/Gordon version (Jane was a Neighbor) are similar fragments that repeat, "The Red Rose of England shall flourish no more." The two versions collected in Kentucky by Sharp in 1917 as well as the version by Niles (he gives one version published in 1938 and in his Ballad Book, 1961 but apparently found another- see Roud Index) appear to be the extant complete versions. The ballad's sole point of origin appears then to be the Virginia colony. From Virginia, where two partial versions combined with Child 295 were recorded, the ballad came to Kentucky.
R. Matteson 2015]
CONTENTS: (The individual versions may be accessed by clicking on the blue title below or clicking on the title attached to his page which is green highlighted on left-hand column)
1) Jane Was A Neighbor- Galt/Powers (KY) 1880 Gordon -- From a recording by Robert W. Gordon printed first in the Bulletin of the Folk-Song Society of the Northeast - Volume 2 , p. 23 by Phillips Barry, 1931. Taken from the singing of Miss Nellie Galt of Louisville, Kentucky. Learned about 1880 from an Irish girl named Katie Powers.
2) Queen Jane- Thomas (KY) 1917 Sharp A -- From: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Vol 1, 1932 edition, by Cecil J Sharp, Maud Karpeles (Editor). Sung by Mrs. Kate Thomas at St. Helen's, Lee Co., Ky., Sept. 6, 1917.
3) Queen Jane- Dunagan (KY) 1917 Sharp B -- From: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Vol 1, 1932 edition, by Cecil J Sharp, Maud Karpeles (Editor). Sung by Mrs. Margaret Dunagan at St. Helen's, Lee Co., Ky., Oct. 12, 1917.
4) Poor Sally- Richards (VA) 1918 Sharp/Davis -- My title. From Sharp's MS, the text is 3140 and is titled Death of Queen Jane/Brown Girl; the tune is 4453 and has been published in EFFSA I, 1932 p. 303 under The Brown Girl, Child 295. It was supplied to Dr. Smith in a letter dated September 1, 1918 and then received by Davis who published it as a version of "Queen Jane" in Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929. Sung by Mrs. Francis Richards at Callaway, Franklin County, Va., Aug. 16, 1918.
5) Queen Jane- Sturgill (VA) c.1924 Seeger REC -- From "Close to Home: Old Time Music from Mike Seeger's Collection, 1952-1967" as sung by Archie Sturgill; Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40097, CD, trk# 33. This version starts off with "The Death of Queen Jane" then in the 5th stanza shifts to "Poor Sally" (Child 295).
6) Queen Jane- Holcolm (KY) 1932 Niles -- My title. From: John Jacob Niles' Ballad Book, 1961. First published in Niles, Ballads, Love-Songs & Tragic Legends (1938) pp. 16-17. Sung by Aunt Beth Holcolm of Whitesburg, Kentucy on July 8, 1932.
7) Queen Jane- Lunsford (NC) pre1935 Scarborough -- Recorded in 1935 for LOC. Text and tune published by Scarborough, Song Catcher in 1938. Most of her material was received circa 1931. This version is very similar to "Jane was a Neighbor" collected in Louisville, KY by Gordon.
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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
170. THE DEATH OF QUEEN JANE
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me 466 (trace) / BFSSNE, II, 6 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 419 / Flanders, Vt F-S Bids, 219 / Niles, Anglo-Am Bid Stdy Bk> 24 / Niles, Bids Lv Sgs Tgc Lgds, 16 / Scarborough, Sgctcbr So Mts, 254 / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplcbns, I, 230.
Local Titles: The Death of Queen Jane.
Story Types: A: Queen Jane is in labor for more than six weeks. She tells the doctors to cut her open and save the baby. However, King Henry refuses to sacrifice her for the child. She dies, and the baby is saved, regardless. The funeral takes place, and the baby is christened.
Examples: Niles, Bids Lv Sgs Tgc Lgds; SharpK (A, B).
B : The story is similar to that of Type A. However, Queen Jane has become "a neighbor", and she calls for her father and mother before she calls for King Henry. Examples: BFSSNE, II, 6.
C: A lyric on the theme of Queen Jane's labor survives from the ballad and contains repeated comments by her mother, her father, and Prince Henry that "the Red Rose of England shall flourish no more".
Examples: Scarborough.
D : Sally is taken sick and goes to bed. King Henry is sent for. Then the "Are you the doctor ?" lines from the American Brown Girl (Child 295) enters (see Child lyoB), as does the gloating over the dying girl by the jilted lover. Sally's presentation of the ring and her death follow. Examples: Davis, p. 420; SharpK, p. 303.
Discussion: The full ballad is a threnody on the death of Jane Seymour, who succumbed twelve days after the birth of Prince Edward, October 12, 1537. The Queen is ill, begs for surgery to save her unborn (in the ballad) child. See Child, III, 3723. King Henry refuses to sacrifice the mother for the child. An operation becomes necessary, and the boy lives through it, while the mother dies. The jubilation over the birth is lost in lamentation.
The Type A version follows this story rather closely. Type B is probably from a broadside (see BFSSNE, II, 7) and shows a variation from "in labor" to "a neighbor" that might eventually change the details of the story. The refrain has become "the red roads of England shall flourish no more". It should also be noted that Henry does not enter the song until the eighth of ten stanzas. If a singer were to forget the last three stanzas a new story would exist. For a comparison of this version to Child A, E, H, and I see BFSSNE, II, 7.
The Type C text is rather beautiful, but it needs little explanation. It is the result of a common American ballad tendency. The Type D stories, however, reveal the growth of a new ballad from the merger of two older ones. The entrance of the doctor into a dying woman's room has been sufficient to switch the story into the American Brown Girl and to change the Queen's name to Sally, although the "black and yellow" funeral stanzas are retained at the end. The result appears to be a counterpart of Barbara Allen with the sexes reversed. See Davis, Trd Bid Va 419.
Flanders, FtF-S lds, 219 prints a song called Two Dukes which contains the first two lines of Stanza 5 and the last two lines of Stanza 6 (the funeral description) of Child 1700. It is given as a version of The Death of Queen Jane, but it seems to me to be The Duke of Bedford which has been corrupted by Child 170. See also BFSSNE, II, 7.