Young Men & Maidens- S. G. Yoke (WV) 1856 Cox C
[Designated C, my title. From: John Harrington Cox's "Folk-Songs of the South" #108A; 1925. His notes for 108 and 109 follow. Both Belden and Cox have separate categories for Drowsy Sleeper and Silver Dagger.
This is also the text for Cox E, "The Warning Deaths." Communicated -by Mr. E. C. Smith, Weston, Lewis County, December 18, 1915; obtained from an old manuscript in the possession of Mr. J. W. Smith, who lives near Weston. Eight stanzas, almost identical with A.
R. Matteson 2016]
108 THE DROWSY SLEEPER
Two variants of this song have been recovered in West Virginia, one having the title, "The Silver Dagger," probably because the last two stanzas of it belong to that song (see p. 350, below).
"The Drowsy Sleeper" an interesting variant of a song known, in a Nithsdale version, to Allan Cunningham, and given in part in a note to "0, my hive's like a red, red rose" in his edition of Burns, 1834, iv, 285 (Kittredge, Journal, xx,
260).
For American texts see Journal, xx, 260 (Kentucky), xxix, 200 (Georgia); xxx, 338 (Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska or Utah); xxxv, 356 (Ohio) ; Belden, Herrig's Archiv, cxrx, 430 (Missouri, Arkansas): Campbell and Sharp, No. 47 (North Carolina); Sturgis and Hughes, Songs from the Hills of Vermont, p. 30; Pound, No. 21 (A, Nebraska; B, the same as Journal, xxx, 342); Sharp, Folk-Songs of English Origin Collected in the Appalachian Mountains, 2d Series, p. 48; Minish MS., 11, 63 (North Carolina); broadside, H. J. Wehman (New York), No. 518 (mixed with "The Silver Dagger").
For English and Scottish references see Journal, xx, 260; xxx, 338; xxxv, 356; Campbell and Sharp, p. 330. See also the Hudson MS. of Irish airs, Volume 1, No. 181 (Boston Public Library).
There is an extremely interesting paper on " English Songs on the Night Visit," by Baskervill, in the Publications of the Modern Language Association, xxxvi, 565-614 (see p. 585 for the present piece).
1O9 THE SILVER DAGGER
Three good copies of this song have been recovered in West Virginia, one of them going under the title of "The Warning Deaths." A and C are almost exactly alike in arrangement and phraseology. B is different from the other two in that the crossing of the lovers is due to the girl's parents.
For texts and references see Journal, xx, 267 (Kentucky) ; xxx, 362 (Missouri); Pound, Ballads, No. 52 (Wyoming and Illinois). For contamination of "The Silver Dagger" with "The Drowsy Sleeper" see Journal, xxx, 388. The text of the latter published by Wehman as a broadside (New York, No. 518: "Who's at my Bedroom Window?") shows this mixture, and the same is true of "The Shining Dagger" in Sturgis and Hughes, Songs from the Hills of Vermont, p. 30, of Campbell and Sharp's No. 47 C, and Pound's, No. 21 B (Ballads, p. 52).
No local title. Communicated by Mr. W. H. S. White, Piedmont, Mineral County, January 21, 1916; obtained from Mr. S. G. Yoke, Morgantown, who says that it was a favorite among the young folks of Stone Coal Creek, Lewis County, more than sixty years previously.
1 Young men and maidens lend attention,
While unto you these lines I write,
Of a comely youth that I will mention,
Who courted a lady bright.
2 But when his parents came to know it,
They strove against him night and day;
To keep their son from a mesalliance,
"She's a poor girl," they oft did say.
3 But this fair damsel being handsome,
She knew the grief that he went through;
She wandered away and left the city,
Some pleasant fields and groves to view.
4 She rambled down by a flowing river,
She leaned her back against a tree,
And then she sighed, "O shall I ever,
Ever my true love see?"
5 She then pulled out a silver dagger,
And pierced it through her snow-white breast;
These words she spake and as she staggered:
"Farewell, my love! I'm going to rest."
6 He being low down in the city,
And hearing of this female voice,
He ran, he ran like one distracted,
Saying, "Alas, alas, I am undone!"
7 But when he came just up unto her,
Her coal-black eyes like stars did shine;
She says, "My love, O come and meet me,
Where joy and love are both combined."
8 He then picked up the bloody weapon,
And pierced it through his tender heart,
Saying, "Let our ends be a dreadful warning,
To all who do true lovers part."