US & Canada Versions: 208. Lord Derwentwater
[The single known traditional US version of Lord Derwentwater was collected from Mrs. G. A. Griffin of Newberry, Florida in March 1934 and is titled, The King's Love Letter. She learned it before 1879 from her father, a fiddler, in Georgia. Alton Morris, heard about G. A. Griffin (born Feb. 23, 1863, died in 1944) from her daughter Mrs. William Brown in March 1934 and he visited her and made recordings. Hudson, after looking over the collection or Griffin's songs and ballads several weeks later, identified it as Child 208.
See music and text below. From the 1939 Lomax recording trip (with Morris) "When Mr. Lomax mentioned to her the ballad, The King wrote a love-letter, which she had recorded previously, she said she learned it from her father, and proceeded to relate this incident: "Once my father stood on top o' the shed and sung The king wrote a love-letter, and he sung it so loud that the neighbors three mile away said they heared him. They was a creek and I guess his voice went down the creek." She was sixteen years old the last time she heard him sing."
A single stanza found in Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, may have been taken form this ballad- see bottom of the page.
R. Matteson 2012]
CONTENTS:
1) The Journal of American Folklore article by Morris
2) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950
3) Transcription of second version by Library of Congress as sung by Mrs. G.A. Griffin at Newberry, Florida, 1937. Recorded by John A. Lomax
4) Stanza from "A-Roving"
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Lord Derwentwater, Child 208
by Alton C. Morris
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 47, No. 183 (Jan. - Mar., 1934), pp. 95-96
LORD DERWENTWATER, CHILD 208 - "Lord Derwentwater" is a Child ballad which has not previously been reported from America. The present version was sung by Mrs. G. A. Griffin of Newberry, Florida. She was born in southern Georgia in 1863 and moved to the Florida village when she was a child. She learned the ballad from her father, a native Georgian. Mrs. Griffin can neither read nor write; she has been a sawmill operator, a fancy quilter, a fiddler, and a dancer. She sang other Child ballads which will be published in a Florida folk-song collection, which I am now preparing.
The present version conforms rather closely to the "D" version of Child text.[1] The musical score has been transcribed from a dictaphone recording,
The King's Love Letter
The king he wrote a love letter,
And he sealed it over with gold;
And he sent it to the Duke of Bellanter
To read it if he could.
The first few lines that he did read
It caused him for to smile,
But the next few lines that he did read,
The tears from his eyes did flow.
He called up his oldest son
To bridle and saddle his steed.
"I've got to go to London town
Although I have no need."
Before he rode up in the edge of town,
He met a jolly old man.
"Your life, your life, you Duke of Bellanter,
Your life I will command."
"Yes, make your will, you Duke of Bellanter;
Yes, make your will all around."
"It's two and two to my oldest son
It's two and two all round.
"It's all my ox, steed and the rest of my property
Will retain you to a Lady's side."
. . . .
. . . .
He stooped over the window;
The flowers smelt so gay
Till his nose gushed out and bleeding,
. . . . . .
"Come all you lords, you pretty lordie
And be kind to my baby."
. . . .
. . . . .
ALTON C. MORRIS.
University of Florida.
Footnote:
1. To Dr. A. P. Hudson, of the University of North Carolina, is due the credit for identification.
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Coffin 1950: 208. LORD DERWENTWATER
Texts: JAFL, XLVII, 95 / Morris, F-S Fla, 460 / SFLQ, VIII, 158. Local Titles: The King's Love Letter.
Story Types: A: The Duke is summoned to England by a "love letter" from the King, He calls his eldest son and tells the lad that he is leaving for London. Before the city, he meets a man who fortells the Duke's death and asks for his will. The will is given; thereupon the Duke's nose begins to bleed as he stoops over to smell flowers. The song is incomplete, and it ends with the Duke's wish that his children be cared for.
Discussion: The story of the incomplete Florida version can be reconstructed from the Child texts (especially Child D) where Derwentwater, who was actually an agitator for the Pretender, is summoned as a Scotsman to the court. His wife, with child, forseeing his death, tells him to make his will before he goes. Derwentwater complies. He then sets forth. En route, by some omen such as a bleeding nose, the stumbling of his horse, etc. he knows his days are numbered. At London, he is branded a traitor. An old man with an axe then steps up (undoubtedly this man is the original of the American questioner) and demands the Lord's life. Derwentwater is slain after a few generous dying requests.
For a discussion of the one American text of the ballad and the folk superstition in the nose-bleeding see SFLQ, VIII, 158. A. C. Morris, the editor of this item, sees this discovery as an indication of the retention of English eighteenth centnry culture in the South.
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Recorded by Lomax- notes, transcription by Bronson:
LORD DERWENTWATER (Child No. 208)
A3 [(a) "The King's Love-Letter." Sung by Mrs. G.A. Griffin at Newberry, Florida, 1937. Recorded by John A. Lomax.] This is an extraordinary survival indeed! What's the Jacobite Rising of 1715 to Florida, or Lord Derwentwater to Mrs. Griffin, that she should lament for him? The narrative behind this disordered and confusing text is as follows: Derwentwater, a Scottish Earl who rose to support his companion in France, James Stewart, the Old Pretender, against the House of Hanover and George I, was captured at the Battle of Preston (November 14, 1715), was attainted and brought to the block, February 24, 1716. His youth --he was only 27 --and his open bearing excited popular sympathy for his fate. The ballad describes the summons to London for trial and the Earl's premonitions of doom. In earlier versions, he leaves houses and land to his eldest son, £10,000 to his second son, and a third of his estate to his lady, who is in child-bed when he departs. Probably "It's two and two" is a corruption of "to you and to you." On the way, his horse stumbles, and his nose begins to bleed --two bad omens. The "jolly old man" who commands his life is properly the headsman with a "braid axe." The Earl deals money to the poor, in a final generous gesture, and his velvet coat as a fee to the executioner. His only treason, he says, was the keeping of 500 (or 5,000) men to fight for King James, his rightful sovereign.
Professor Alton Morris, who brought Mrs. Griffin's large repertoire to the attention of the Archive of Folk Song, recounts her singing of this rare fragment in the Journal of American Folklore (vol. XLVII, 1934, pp. 95-96) and on pages 308-310 of his Folksongs of Florida (Gainesville, University of Florida Press, 1950).
1. The king he wrote a love letter
And he sealed it all with gold
And he sent it to the Duke of Melanto(r)
To read it if he could.
2. The first few lines that he did read
It caused him for to smile
But the next few lines that he did read
The tears from his eyes did flow.
3. He called up his oldest one
To bridle and saddle my steed
For I've got to go to Lunnon Town
Although I have no need.
4. It's make your will, you Duke of Melanto(r)
It's make your will all around
It's two and two to my two oldest sons
It's two, it's two all around
For all of my steeds and the rest of my property
We'll retain to her lady's side
5. Before he--rode up in the edge of town
He met a jolly old man
Your life, your life, you Duke of Melanto(r)
Your life I will command.
6. He stooped over the window
There the flowers swelled so gay
Till his nose gushed out and bleed
Come all you lords, you pretty lords, ye,
Be kind to my baby
Come all you lords, you pretty lords, ye,
Be kind to my baby
For all my steeds and the rest of my property
We'll retain to her lady's side.
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From "The House Carpenter" (Appendix B, Davis)
This single stanza (with "the nose bleed") is found in many versions Child 208, Lord Derwentwater:
B. "A-Roving." Collected by Miss Alfreda M. Peel. Sung by Mrs. Shields, of Gralman, Va. Roanoke County. December 3, 1916.
6 He threw his left foot in the stirrup,
The bridle in his hand,
He rode and he rode with very much speed,
Till his nose began to bleed.
Compare Stanza 6 with Child 208 Lord Derwentwater; Version E Stanza 8.
8 He set his foot in the level stirrup,
And mounted his bonny grey steed;
The gold rings from his fingers did break,
And his nose began for to bleed.