US & Canada Versions: 299. Trooper and Maid
[Included here are the known extant traditional US versions of Child 299: Trooper and Maid. Because of the sexual nature of the encounter between the soldier and the maid, Kittredge left this ballad out of the 1904 edition. Certainly the times have changed as evidenced by the supplemental lyrics of Randolph's 1929 Missouri version published in Roll Me in Your Arms: Unprintable Ozark Folksongs and Folklore- Volume 1 - Page 209 by Vance Randolph, Gerson Legman- 1992. Similar lyrics were alluded to in Appalachian versions from Madison County, NC but they were never taken down. The first Madison County, NC version was collected by Sharp in 1916 and the second sung by Dillard Chandler in 1973.
When you consider that many of the Child ballads deal with murder, death, and even incest, a little sex shouldn't be offensive. Of the 16 extant US versions (there are no known Canadian versions) one is a fragment (Brown 45 (1)), another is an alternative version (Randolph- A Soldier Rode) with explicit lyrics and the version from Davis - More Ballads is most likely taken from Brown A.
R. Matteson 2013]
CONTENTS (View individual ballads by clicking on left hand column):
The Soldier Traveling - Chandler (NC) 1963 Cohen
The Trooper and the Maid- Rice (NC) 1916 Sharp A
Trooper and the Maid- Stockton (TN) 1916 Sharp B
The Bugle Boy- Rayfield (NC) 1915 Brown Coll.
The Bugle Boy- Tillett (NC) 1922 Brown Coll.
Trooper and the Maid- Hopkins (IN) 1935 Brewster
Soldier's Horse- Pack (WV) 1940
The Soldier's Farewell- Slater (OK) pre-1964
Trooper and the Maid- Finchum (VA) 1915 Davis A
The Trooper and the Maid- Hart (VA) 1921 Davis B
A Soldier Rode- Patton (MO) 1928 Randolph
The Bugle Boy- Smith (NC) 1921 Davis AA
A Soldier Rode (2)- Patton (MO) 1928 Randolph- Legman A
Soldier's Sweetheart- H. F. (MO) 1899 Randolph-Legman B
The Bugle Britches- Niles (KY) c.1880s collected c 1915 Niles A
The Soldier and his Lady- Gaffney (NC) 1934 Niles B
We Hadna Land Gane Inta Bed- McGill (NB) 1928 Barry
Supplimental Excerpts, Articles & Info
1. Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950
2. Brown Collection of NC Folklore 49. Trooper and Maid
3. Pretty Peggy O- from British Ballads in the Cumberland Mountains by Hubert G. Shearin 1911
4. Pretty Peggy O from: A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk-songs; 1911 by Hubert Gibson Shearin, Josiah Henry Combs
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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
299. THE TROOPER AND THE MAID
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 371 / Brewster, Bids Sgs Ind, 166 / Brown Coll / BFSSNE, VIII, 11 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 544 / Focus, V, 280 / Randolph, Oz F-S, I, 213 / Randolph, Oz MtFlk, 209 / Sewanee Review (July 1911), 326 / SharpC, EngF-S So Aplcbns # 37 / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplcbns, 305 / Va FLS Bull #s 4, 7, 8.
Local Titles: A Soldier Rode from the East, The Bugle Boy, The Trooper, The Trooper and the Maid.
Story Types: A: A trooper comes to his mistress' house to spend the night with her. After feeding the horse and feasting, they go to bed and are awakened by a trumpet in the morning. The trooper has to leave; the girl fearing she has been ruined follows him. He begs her to turn back. She asks him repeatedly when they are to meet and marry. He replies with a typical
ballad "never, never" motif, such as that used in Edward, The Two Brothers, etc.
Examples: Davis (A, B), SharpK (A, C).
B: The story is much like that of Type A. However, the trooper says he will return to the girl, though marriage is not mentioned.
Examples: Barry.
C: The story is similar to that of Type A, but the trooper says he will marry the girl in the future.
Examples: Randolph, OzF-S, I.
D: A version, badly corrupted by Young Hunting, in which the lady stabs the trooper as he bends from his horse after telling her he will never marry her, exists in Indiana. In this text, the girl also persuades the man to spend the night with her after he has told her he is on his way to see his real love.
Examples : Brewster.
Discussion: The American Type A stories follow Child's summary as given in V, 172. Type B, however, as does the Greig, Last Leaves Trd Bid, B, version (see his Note 107 on p. 278), begins to show a modification of the realistic ending. Here the mention of the marriage is left out, but an intention to return is expressed. The Barry, Brit Bids Me, B text, it should be noted, is similar to Greig A (p. 246) expect for this one final stanza where the idea of the return is given: "But, bonnie lassie, I'll lie near ee yet". This final stanza may be a variation from the second stanza (which is repeated in Greig A) with influence from the Greig B ending. Type C carries the tendency to its ultimate conclusion in an ending where the trooper replies that he'll marry the girl "when peace is made an 3 the soldiers are at home" instead of the usual "when cockle shells grow silver bells", etc. Whether this ending has been affected by the Pretty Peggy of Gibb Ms., #13, p. 53 or The Dragoon and Peggy of Maidment's Scotish Ballads and Songs (1859), 98 which Child, V, 172 notes end happily is hard to say. Type D demonstrates
the manner in which a new song can grow from two old ones. Brewster, Bids Sgs Ind, 166 points out that his text contains a half-stanza from the Manx Va shiaulteyr voish y twoiae (JFSS, VII, 216).
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Brown Collection of NC Folklore
49. Trooper and Maid
(Child 299)
Child lists a number of broadside ballads of the same general quality and character as this, but the identity of this particular one is assured by its metrical structure with its feminine rhymes on the even-numbered lines and the "able-stable-table" rhymes. For its occurrence as traditional song, see BSI 167. It is found, though not very frequently, both in New England and in the South, in the Ozarks (OFS i 213-14), and as far west as Indiana (in Indiana in combination with 'Young Hunting'). Very likely its actual currency is greater than its appearance in collections would indicate.
'The Bugle Boy.' Secured in 1915 by Thomas R. Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, from the recitation ("she can sing it, but her voice is not very good") of Mrs. Polly Rayfield. All that she remembered was the first five stanzas. Later Mrs. Peggy Perry, "who knows about all the song," supplied the last stanza and a half.
1 She look-ed east and she look-ed west,
She saw the soldier a-comin';
She knew him by the horse he rode,
Because she dearly loved him.
2 She took the horse by the rein
And led him to the stable.
Saying, 'Here's oats and corn for the soldier's horse;
Feed high, for we are able.'
3 She took him by the hand
And led him to the table,
Saying, 'Here's cakes and wine;
Eat and drink, for we are able.'
4 She raised up from the table-side,
Her milk-white dress a-flouncin':
He pulled off his bugle cloths
And went to bed with a lady.
5 'I hear the rooster crow,
And 1 must be a-goin'.'
'Oh. dear, don't leave me here,
For I am forever ruined.'
6. 'If it is a boy you can name it after me,
And when he's twenty-one you can send him off to sea.
Or with a grey uniform and blue jacket on
He can fight for his country like his father used to do.[1]
7. 'If it is a girl you can hire it a nurse
With gold in her pocket and silver in her purse.
1. Mrs. Perry though it should be perhaps "union" instead of "country" and "daddy" instead of "father."
Professor Belden says, "It should be observed that the last six lines are metrically of a different pattern from the preceding stanzas. They fit the situation well enough, but belong really to a different song." This "dif- ferent song" we have here.
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49. Trooper and Maid [Music from Vol. 4]
(Child 299)
'The Bugle Boy.' Sung by Mrs. Peggy Perry. Recorded as ms score at Zionville, Watauga county, in 1915. This is the ballad concerning which in II 199 (footnote 1) Professor Belden says, "It should be observed that the last six lines are metrically of a different pattern from the preceding stanzas. They fit the situation well enough, but belong really to a different song." This "dif- ferent song" we have here. Incidentally, the page given for BSI is not 188, but 167.
Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: aaiba2 (2,2,2,2) =
Reprisenbar.
49(1) 'The Bugle Boy.' Sung by C. K. Tillett. Recorded at Wanchese, Roanoke Island, December 29, 1922. The last two lines of a varied third stanza are here repeated, thereby extending the melody.
For melodic relationship cf. **TBV 606, No. 51A, measures 7-10 and 13-15 with our 5-7 and 11-I3. Scale: Hexachordal, plagal. Tonal Center: e. Structure: nmmi (4,6,4) = inverted barform. The m is terminally incremented.
2 She took the soldier's horse by the bridle rein,
She led him to the stable,
(The record breaks off here.)
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[Coffin refers to this version? in his texts: Sewanee Review (July 1911), 326. Not sure what's going on with that reference, since clearly this is related topic, but not a version of 299 Trooper and Maid. Perhaps Coffin is referring to the reference in A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk-songs by Hubert Gibson Shearin, Josiah Henry Combs; 1911. Child mentions the ballad in his narative: There are several other ballads of a trooper and a maid (Peggy). In 'The Bonnie Lass o Fyvie,' Christie, I, 276, Murison Manuscript, p. 50, Kinloch Manuscripts, VII, 339, Buchan Manuscripts, II, 270, 'Irish Dragoons,' Motherwell's Manuscripts, p. 428, a captain falls in love with a Peggy and dies thereof; but in another copy, 'Pretty Peggy,' Gibb Manuscript, No 13, p. 53, all is made to end well. A dragoon very constant and liberal to Peggy, and she very fond to him, are happily married in 'The Dragoon and Peggy,' Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1859, p. 98, from a Glasgow copy of the date 1800.
See below:]
British Ballads in the Cumberland Mountains
by Hubert G. Shearin
The Sewanee Review, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Jul., 1911), pp. 313-327 p. 326
PRETTY PEGGY, O
As we marched down to Fernario,
As we marched down to Fernario,
Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove,
And they called her by name, Pretty Peggy, O.
"
What would your mother think, Pretty Peggy, O,
What would your mother think, Pretty Peggy, O,
What would your mother think for to hear the guineas chink,
And the soldiers a-marchin' before ye, O ?
"You shall ride in your coach, Pretty Peggy, O.
You shall ride in your coach, Pretty Peggy, O,
You shall ride in your coach and your true-love by your side,
Just as grand as any lady in the Ario.
"
Come stepping down the stairs, Pretty Peggy, O,
Come stepping down the stairs, Pretty Peggy, O,
Come stepping down the stairs, combing back your yellow hair,
Take the last farewell of your Sweet William, O,
Take the last farewell of your darling Pretty Peggy, O.
"
If ever I return, Pretty Peggy, O,
If ever I return, Pretty Peggy, O,
If ever I return, this city I'll burn [down]
And destroy all the ladies in the Ario.
"
Our captain he is dead, Pretty Peggy, O,
Our captain he is dead, Pretty Peggy, O,
Our captain he is dead and he died for a maid
And's buried in the Louisiana County, O."
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A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk-songs; 1911
by Hubert Gibson Shearin, Josiah Henry Combs
Pretty Peggy O, metre as below, 6: A fine lilting lyric of the Captain's love for his lass; his farewell; and his death. It begins:
As we marched down to Fernario,
As we marched down to Fernario,
Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove,
And they called her by name Pretty Peggy, O.
(Cf. Child, No. 299, Trooper and Maid. Published by Shearin, Sewanee Review, July, 1911, p. 326.)
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