Weep-O-Mellow Tree- Coffin/Halvosa (VT) 1957 Flanders B2
[From Flanders; Ancient Ballads, III, 1963. Coffins notes follow. Obviously the informant is a relative of Tristram Coffin, who wrote the notes, perhaps his cousin. However, no mention is made of any relationship. Flanders C-F are not part of "Maid Freed" but of the related ballad "Derry Gaol/Streets of Derry," that Bronson lists as an Appendix. For whatever reason, these "Derry Gaol" ballads are not identified in the otherwise excellent notes provided below.
Version B1 was sung by the informant's father and a separate entry will be made for it, cf. Creep-O-Mello Tree, B1.
R. Matteson 2015]
The Maid Freed from the Gallows
(Child 95)
"The Maid Freed from the Gallows" has been studied as thoroughly as any Child ballad: perhaps because it is known all over the Western world, perhaps because it is a sort of model folk song with its simple plot, question and answer structure, and incremental repetition. The original story probably involved a girl who was captured by pirates. The brigands, eager for ransom, take her to her father, mother, brother, sister, and so forth, seeking gold. They all refuse, until finally her sweetheart (or husband) says he'd rather lose all his wealth than lose her. Later, when her father, mother, brother, etc., die, she dresses in gaudy colors, saying only her sweetheart is worthy of black. This plot is usually much abridged in Britain and America, and the scene is shifted to a gallows tree where the girl is to be hung for an unknown crime or for losing a golden comb, key, or ball that some scholars have associated with her virginity. In these versions, a judge or hangman is addressed at the opening, and the "gaudy colors for mourning" portion is left out. Erich Pohl's monograph in FFC, No. 105, l-265, gives a detailed history of the song, as does Iivar Kemppinen's Lunastettasa neito (Helsinki, 1957). For other interesting articles, see Child, II, 346f ., where the European analogues are summarized; Sager's essay in Modern Philology, XXVIII , 129 f.; Reed Smith, South Carolina Ballads, Cambridge, Mass., 1928), Chapter 8; Dorothy Scarborough, On the Trail of the Negro Folk-Song (Cambridge, Mass., 1925), 35 t.; Lucy Broadwood's remarks in JFSS, V, 231: George Lyman Kittredge's remarks in JAF, XXX, 319; Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 210-213; and Belden, 66. The famous treatment of the song by Kittredge in the one-volume Cambridge Edition of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Boston and New York, 1904), xi-xxxi, is a museum piece also worth noting.
The ballad, though quite consistent throughout its many travels, has been used in a number of different ways-as a lyric, a game, a drama, a play-party dance, a cantefable, a folktale. Coffin, 98-99, opens a fairly extensive list of references for each of these developments. He also treats the plot oddities (the man at the gallows, the mother's rescue of her son, the hanging of the maid, etc.) that have occurred in America. The Flanders texts of the song are rather unusual. The normal opening: "Hangsman, Hangsman, hold your rope awhile," known all over America, was not collected for the Archive, although Barry, op. cit., 206, gives an example from Maine. The A text, from Ireland, is of course of much the same general sort as Barry's find, as may well be the Mid-western variants B1 and 82 with their "mellow tree" burden. B1 and 82 are quite typical of the most common New World forms in all except the burden. The golden ball, mentioned in A, is not extremely unusual in America (see Barry, op. cit., 207), but is more popular in Britain and in the west Indian cantefables. The C-G series, called "James Derry," or "The Streets of Derry," is listed by Barry, op. cit., 389-393, as a "secondary form" of child 95. This is an Irish re-writing of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" that may be connected to the uprisings of 1798. It is a fine example of balladry and well worth inclusion in the extensive canon of the famous plot.
For bibliographical material on the texts of Child 95, refer to Coffin,96-99 (American); Dean-Smith, 86, and Belden, 66 (English). References to European analogues can be had through the citations in Child, the FFC monograph, Kemppinen's book, and the Modern Philology article mentioned above. see also Paul Brewster, Ballads and, songs of Indiana (Indiana University Publications, Folklore series, No. 1, 1940), I25 (Hungarian); NYFQ, II, 199 (Italian); and SFQ, V, 25 (Rumanian). A fragment from a "Derry" text is given in JAF, XXVI, 175.
The eight tunes for Child 95 can be divided into one large group (Hayes, Luther, Robie, Finnemore, and possibly Halvosa) and three separate, apparently unrelated ones Sullivan, Coffin, Merrill). Even though many tunes for Child 95 are included in the standard American collections, it is difficult to find tunes related to those in this collection.
B2. Weep-O-Mellow Tree. Sung by Mrs Peggy Coffin Halvosa of Barre, VT formerly of Brunswick, ME. Learned from her father Robert Tristram Coffin when she was young.
"O mother, mother, bring me gold
For to set me free,
For today I'm going to be hung
Under the weep-o-mellow tree."
"O Johnny, no, I've brought no gold
For to set you free,
I have come to see you hung
Under the weep-o-mellow tree."
"O father, father, bring me gold
For to set me free,
For today I'm going to be hung
Under the weep-o-mellow tree."
"O Johnny, Johnny, no, I've brought no gold
For to set you free,
But I have come to see you hung
Under the weep-o-mellow tree."
"O sisters, sisters, bring me gold
For to set me free,
For today I'm to be hung
Under the weep-o-mellow tree."
"No, Johnny, no, I've brought no gold
For to set me free,
But I have come to see you hung
Under the weep-o-mellow tree."
"O sweetheart, sweetheart, bring me gold.
For to set me free,
For-today I'm going to be hung
Under the weep-o-mellow tree."
"Yes, Johnny, yes, I've brought the gold
For to set you free.
I could not bear to see you hung
Under the weep-o-mellow tree."