US & Canada Versions: 99. Johnie Scot (Johnny Scot)
[The ballad, Johnny Scot, likely dates back to the 1700s in the US as it was published in the The Green Mountain Songster, compiled by an old Revolutionary soldier and published in the town of Sandgate, Vermont in 1823. Although rare in the US and Canada, the ballad has been found in New England, Canada (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) and also through the Virginia colony where it spread westward to North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. Two versions of the ballad have been collected from the Hicks/Harmon family (Sharp A; Henry) who moved from Goochland, VA to Watauga County, NC before the Revolution.
I have currently 12 versions in my collection and I am missing the Haun version from Tennessee. Phillips Barry, (BBM, 1929, see full notes below) says the ballad is found in two main types and sub-types of the main two:
The tradition of the ballad, as was the case with that of "Little Musgrave," and some others, at an early period in its history, underwent a split, so that we have it in two distinct forms. Each of these forms, moreover, in its turn, has broken up into two or more well-defined sub-types.
In Type I, represented by Child A, B, E, I, K, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, and Greig's text, Johnny Scot goes to England to enter the king's service. According to the rest of the story, not every detail of which, however, is found in every text of this type, some of which are defective, the hero beguiles the king's daughter, and flees the country, while the princess is imprisoned. In Sub-type A, Johnny Scot sends a messenger to his lady-love, inviting her to come to him, in Sub-type B, she herself sends a messenger to her lover, asking help. Johnny Scot, with a company of retainers, goes to England, slays the king's champion in a duel, and frees his lady-love.
Type II is represented by Child C, D, G, L, and possibly by some other incomplete texts. Johnny Scot beguiles & noble lady (Earl Percy's daughter, C, D, --the king's daughter, G, L) while hunting in the English woods. The lady is put in prison. In Sub-type A (Child C) she sends a letter, asking her lover to help her, in Sub-type B (Child D) Johnny Scot sends his waiting man to bring her to Scotland. Sub-type C, represented by Child G, L, gives a different turn to the action, the King of England summons Johnny Scot to come to him, with the intention of putting him to death. As in Type I, Johnny and his merry men go to England, where the hero wins his lady-love after a duel to the death with the king's champion.
R. Matteson 2015]
CONTENTS: (To access individual texts click on the blue highlighted title below or on the titles attached to this page on the left hand column)
1) Johnny Scot- Rev. soldier (MA) pre1823 Flanders A -- From Flanders, Ancient Ballads II, 1963 tqken from The Green Mountain Songster, which was compiled by an old Revolutionary soldier and published in the town of Sandgate, Vermont in 1823.
2) Johnny Scott- Delorme (NY-VT) c. 1877 Flanders B -- From Flanders, Ancient Ballads II, 1963. As sung by Mrs. Lily M. Delorme of Caddyville, New York. Mrs. Delorme was born in Schuyler Falls, New York, in 1869.
3) Johnie Scot- Genty (NC) 1916 Sharp A --
Johnie Scot- Hensley (KY) 1917 Sharp B
Young Johnie- Dunagan (KY) 1917 Sharp C
Johnny Scot- Harmon (TN) 1928 Henry
Johnny Scot- Sprague (NB) 1928 Barry A
Johnny Scot- Holt (NB) 1928 Barry B
Johnny Scot- E. Sprague (NB) 1928 Barry C
Young Johnny Scott- Kettner (OK-MO) 1929 Moores
Johnny Scot- Moses (NH) 1942 Flanders C
Johnie Scot- Power (NS) 1954 Creighton
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Flanders, Ancient Ballads II, 1963
Johnny Scot
(Child 99)
A document by the Rev. Andrew Hall, Interesting Roman Antiquities, etc., 1823, 216 (quoted by Child, II, 378), tells a story of the court of Charles II in which one James Macgill, a Scot, fought a professional Italian gladiator who leaped over him as if to "swallow him" and who was "spitted" in mid-air. This may be the incident behind the romantic story of "Johnny Scot," with its "Italiant man" whom Johnny fights and defeats. Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 221-224, has analyzed the American versions of the song and comes to the conclusion there are two plot types-one in which Johnny, a servant in the English court, flees to Scotland after beguiling the King's daughter; and one in which he goes hunting in the English woods, where he seduces a noble lady. Barry's New Brunswick finds and the three Flanders texts are of the second Type (Child C, D, G, L) and show the minor variations found in those four related versions. A and B open with the woods scene. C is abbreviated and involves a letter from the seduced girl rather than from the king. A, with its mention of a "battle man," may be like Child Q and R in lacking the Italian champion, although it is possible the word "Italian" could be varied to "battle" over the years. All three Flanders texts lack the gymnastics performed by the Italian in many texts.
The song is rare in America, being found only in scattered areas- particularly in New England, the Maritimes, and the Southeastern hills. See Coffin, 99-100 (American), and Greig and Keith, 74-75 (Scottish), for bibliographical material and discussion. Dean-smith does not list the song, though Child had twenty versions.
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Notes by Barry and all: BRITISH BALLADS FROM MAINE
JOHNNY SCOT (Child 99)
The three Maine texts of "Johnny Scot" bring the total known versions of the ballad up to twenty-five. Of these, besides our three texts, twenty are in Child's collection, one in Greig's Last Leaves, pp.74-75, and one, a defective and worn down text from North Carolina, printed by Campbell and Sharp, pp. 109-110. The tradition of the ballad, as was the case with that of "Little Musgrave," and some others, at an early period in its history, underwent a split, so that we have it in two distinct forms. Each of these forms, moreover, in its turn, has broken up into two or more well-defined sub-types.
In Type I, represented by Child A, B, E, I, K, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, and Greig's text, Johnny Scot goes to England to enter the king's service. According to the rest of the story, not every detail of which, however, is found in every text of this type, some of which are defective, the hero beguiles the king's daughter, and flees the country, while the princess is imprisoned. In Sub-type A, Johnny Scot sends a messenger to his lady-love, inviting her to come to him, in Sub-type B, she herself sends a messenger to her lover, asking help. Johnny Scot, with a company of retainers, goes to England, slays the king's champion in a duel, and frees his lady-love.
Type II is represented by Child C, D, G, L, and possibly by some other incomplete texts. Johnny Scot beguiles & noble lady (Earl Percy's daughter, C, D, --the king's daughter, G, L) while hunting in the English woods. The lady is put in prison. In Sub-type A (Child C) she sends a letter, asking her lover to help her, in Sub-type B (Child D) Johnny Scot sends his waiting man to bring her to Scotland. Sub-type C, represented by Child G, L, gives a different turn to the action, the King of England summons Johnny Scot to come to him, with the intention of putting him to death. As in Type I, Johnny and his merry men go to England, where the hero wins his lady-love after a duel to the death with the king's champion.
Three of the four American texts, excluding Maine C as too fragmentary to enter into the calculation, belong to Type II C. Sharp's text, though defective and corrupt, fortunately has preserved the lines which definitely fix its place in the ballad tradition:
1 When Johnie Scot saw this big, broad letter,
It caused him for to smile:
But the very first line that he did read,
The tears run down far awhile-
But the very first line that he did read,
The tears run down for awhile.
2 "Away to old England I must go,
King Edwards has sent for me."
Up spoke young Jimmy Scot himself
As he sat by his knees:
"Five hundred. of my best brave men,
Shall bear you company." (P. 109)
The riding through the three towns, as we have in Maine A, B, is a feature of both types of the ballad tradition, while the Italian's sensational but fatal gymnastics in the duel are found only in Child C, D, F, G, of which C, D, G belong to Type II, as probably also F, which lacks the significant opening stanza. In Child c, D, F, Johnny scot is called simply "a clever man"; in G, however, we have the stanza:
Johnie was a valliant man,
Weel taught in war was he,
And on the point of his broad sword,
The Talliant stickit he.
(II, 388)
This is very close to the form in Maine B 19. The Maine text, too, is more picturesque in the description or in Italian's last attack than Child G, which says simply that the Talliant,
like unto a swallow swift,
He flew out o'er his head.
Maine A has a detail of the duel found in no other version; it is Johnny Scot, instead of the Italian, who flies like a swallow.
Maine A, B, and also C, the last a recent traditional variant of A, are evidently purely traditional texts, and very old. By a process of gradual elimination, we are able to say that they stand relatively near to Child C, G. Beside the features common to the Maine texts and the Child versions, we have in the reference to the Lord of Sarvary (Maine B), or Duke of Sargeree (Maine A), a detail which at once connects the ballad with a Breton ballad of closely similar content. In the Breton text (Child II, 378) the hero is named Les Aubrays. There can be no doubt that this Les Aubrays is the original of Child B, "King of Aulsberry," and of "Salvaree" and "Salgeree" of our Maine texts. We should expect an intermediary stage in the transition of the name to have been "Salisbury." The point of contact with Child's texts are too diffuse, and, as aids to a theory of traditional relationship, too inconclusive to warrant the application to our Maine texts of the term "variant" lately proposed. by Professor Kittredge as a means of distinguishing American texts which accord more or less closely with specific texts printed by Child, from texts which conform to Child's conception of "version," as meaning "a copy with distinguishing characteristics in plot, style, age, atmosphere, or the like." (R. Smith, South Carolina Ballads, p. 169.) If it were desirable to press the distinction between "variant" and-"version" a distinction which has the defect of making the process of tradition rather too simple, Maine A and Maine B might properly be regarded as two distinct variants of a version of "Johnny Scot" independent of any of the versions published by Child, to the same extent, that Child's versions are independent of each other.
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[Notes from the Moores, Ethel & Chauncey; Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p 77-79.]
28 Johnie Scot
The Oklahoma text of Johnie Scot, (Child, No. 99) is complete in most details. In the British version, Johnie flees to Scotland instead of Ireland because the King's daughter "goes with child by him'" the King's champion is an Italian, whereas his nationality is not identified by the Oklahoma singer. The item of the King's sending for a clerk to write the torcher is omitted. The ballad is also found among the Bretons of France. Motherwell, II, 78-91, gives a fine text and extensive headnotes; he also gives a tune in II, 272. Other references are Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, 223-24; Child, II, 377-98; Greig and Keith, T 4-7 5 ; Henry, 100; and Sharp, I, 215-18.
Young Johnny Scott, sung by Mrs. Belle Kettner of Park Hill, who moved to Oklahoma in 1929. Born in Montgomery county, Missouri, she learned her songs from her mother, who was also born in Missouri. Mrs. Kettner's maternal grandmother was born in England.
It was one of those summer days in Oklahoma when even a lizard should be reticent about venturing out into the heat. Both of us wished to find something in the area of the old Cherokee tribal mission, and the white bungalow nearest that historic spot looked inviting: on the porch sat a man and his wife. They were celebrating their wedding anniversary, and a large family of children and grandchildren was present. "No, no interference at all. This is a good day for Mommie to sing her songs," said the husband as he offered his seat in the porch swing next to his wife. An hour, two hours passed in visiting and song collecting. One more try for a new ballad, thought Ethel as she ran over the line "Young Johnny Scott's a-hunting gone," whereupon Mrs. Kettner picked up the next line and continued through all the stanzas' In the middle of the cotton field, in full view, stood a tall stone chimney, the only remains of a once proud mission. To mind came a story told by a Cherokee mother: on this very spot a chieftain stood at the end of the harrowing trek on the Trail of Tears. "Tahlequah" ("This will do"), said he as he laid his hand on the head of his small son, one of the few children who had survived the hardships of the long journey' "Tahlequah," said Ethel to me as she held in her hands the new-found ballad and turned to go, too full of emotion to express thanks for the fine hospitality shown us.
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
99. JOHNIE SCOT
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 213 / Green Mountain Songster , 41 / Haun, Cocke Cnty, 109 / Henry, F-S So Hgblds, 100 / JAFL, XLII, 273 / Kennedy, Effects Isolation, 321 / SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplcbns, #25 / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplcbns, I, 215 / Wilson, Bckwds Am, 94.
Local Titles: Johnie Scot, Johnny Scots.
Story Types: A: Johnie Scot, out hunting or in service at the English court, gets a princess or noble lady with child. He returns to the North, but she is locked up by her father. After he writes and asks her to join him (sometimes this is omitted), she requests or the King summons him to come to England. He sets out to rescue the girl. As Johnie approaches the castle
he sees his love looking out. At the court, the King scorns the force that has accompanied Johnie from his home and sentences them to hang. Johnie, however, prefers to fight, and the King brings forth an Italian champion to duel Johnie. The Italian is slain, and the King is so impressed that he frees the girl and gives his permission for the marriage. In some texts Johnie
returns to Scotland, not only married, but as King.
Examples: Barry (A, B); Haun; JAFL, XLII, 273.
B: The story, if garbled, is like that of Type A, except that Johnie attacks the King (in this case Henry) and kills him along with his guards. He then takes the girl home with him.
Examples: SharpK (B).
Discussion; The Type A versions are generally similar to those in Child, but the SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, B, Type B text seems to be unique. The SharpK, op. cit., C text may be of the same sort, however, although it is too incomplete to tell. The idea that King Henry flees, found in some versions, is American.
Barry, Brit Bids Me, 222 ff. breaks the Type A texts into two main divisions according to the minor details of the story, and he also notes that the Maine Lord of Salvary (B) is the result of contact with a similar Breton ballad, Les Aubrays. See also Child, II, 378.
The document of Rev. Andrew Hall (Interesting Roman Antiquities, etc., 1823, p. 216) which Child quotes, II, 378 and SharpK, op. cit. requotes, 418, reveals a story of the court of Charles II where a Scot, James Macgill, fought a professional Italian gladiator who leaped over him as if to "swallow him" and was "spitted" in mid-air. "Italian" becomes "taveren", "taillant", and
the verb "swallow", a bird.
The Green Mountain Songster text lacks mention of the Italian, a feature also missing in Child Q and R.