Willie and Mary- Mrs. Diehl (NE-UT) 1915 Pound D; Kittredge
[My date. From Ballads and Songs by G. L. Kittredge; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
THE DROWSY SLEEPER.
"The Drowsy Sleeper" was printed in this Journal in 1907[1] from a copy collected by Miss Pettit in Kentucky (20: 260-261), and attention was called to its connection with a Nithsdale song given in part by Allan Cunningham in his edition of Burns, 1834 (4:285), as well as with a Sussex song and a Catnach broadside. In 1908 Belden printed three versions, two from Missouri and one from Arkansas, in Herrig's "Archiv," 119: 430-431. Other copies have since come in; and these are worth publishing, not only because of the literary relations of the piece, but also because of the curious varieties in which it occurs and its mixture with other songs.
The English song published by Sharp under the title of "Arise, Arise" ("Folk-Songs from Somerset," No. 99, 4: 56-57; "One Hundred English Folksongs," No. 47, pp. 106-107), is related to "The Drowsy Sleeper." Stanza I (Sharp) corresponds to stanza I of version III (p. 341, below); stanza 2, to stanzas 3 and 4; stanza 3, to stanza 5; Sharp's stanza 5 resembles Miss Wyman's stanza 8 (p. 340, below), and his eighth stanza agrees with the last stanza of Belden's version II ("Archiv," 119: 431). Sharp's version agrees pretty closely with the Catnach broadside entitled "The Drowsy Sleeper" (Harvard College, 25242.2, fol. 172). See also "Journal of Folk-Song Society, " I: 269-270 ("O who is that that raps at my window?"). The conclusion of versions IV and V (below) shows admixture of "The Silver Dagger;" [2] and this is true also of a broadside text of "The Drowsy Sleeper," published by H. J. Wehman, New York (No. 518, "Who's at My Bedroom Window?" Harvard College Library).
V. Willie and Mary. From Miss Pound. "Reported by Mrs. I. E. Diehl (a Nebraskan) of Robinson, Utah." Compare Pound, Syllabus, pp. 18- 9.
1. "Oh who is at my bedroom window?
Who weeps and sighs so bitterly? "
2. "O Mary dear, go ask your mother
If you my wedded bride may be;
And if she says nay, then come and tell me,
And I no more will trouble thee."
3. "O Willie dear, I dare not ask her,
For she lies on her bed of rest;
And by her side there lies another,
. . . ."
4. "O Mary dear, go ask your father
If you my wedded bride may be;
And if he says nay, then come and tell me,
And I no more will trouble thee."
5. "O Willie dear, I dare not ask him,
For he is on his bed of rest,
And by his side there lies a dagger,
To pierce the one that I love best."
6. Then Willie drew a silver dagger
And pierced it through his aching breast,
Saying his farewell to his own true lover,
"Farewell, farewell, I am at rest."
7. Then Mary drew the bloody dagger
And pierced it through her snow-white breast,
Saying her farewell, "Dear father, mother,
Farewell, farewell, we're both at rest."