The songs in this group are the
survivors of English and Scottish originals, found
for the most part in the Child collection. Certain
of those given in sections II to XVIII below could
doubtless, with due effort, be identified in like
manner.
The King’s daughter
(six pretty fair maids, pretty
Polly), iv, 4a3b4c3b, 9ca: Variants
of Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight, Child, N.
By a stratagem she drowns the lover just as he is
about to drown her.
Pretty Polly, iv, 4aabb,
9ca: Parallel in general plot to the above,
save that she is led by the lover to an open grave
and there slain. (C, page 28.)
Fair Ellender, 4a3b4c3b,
10: A variant of the Earl Brand cycle, Child,
N.
Lord of old country,
4aa, with refrain as below, 10ca: A variant
of The Two Sisters, Child, N.
The miller was hung
upon Fish-gate, Bosodown,
The miller was hung
upon Fish-gate,
(These sons were sent
to me)
The miller was hung
upon Fish-gate
For drowning of my sister
Kate!
I’ll be true,
true to my true-love,
If my love’ll
be true to me.
The rope and the
gallows (Lord Randal), 4aa, 12ca:
A variant of Lord Randal, Child, N.
Edward, 4a3b4c3b, 10: A
variant of the Old World ballad of the same name,
Child, N.
The Greenwood side
(three little babes), ii, 4a3b4c3b,
9: Variants of The Cruel Mother, Child, N.
Little Willie, 4a3b4c3b,
5: A variant of The Two Brothers, Child, N.
Lord Bateman (the Turkish
lady), ii, 4abcb, 17ca: Variants of
Young Beichan, Child, N.
Loving Henry (sweet
William and fair Ellender), iii,
4a3b4c3b, 11ca: Variants of Young Hunting,
Child, N.
Lord Thomas and fair
Ellender, iii, 4a3b4c3b, 17ca: Variants
of Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor, Child, N.
Fair Margaret and sweet
William, iv, 4a3b4c3b, 15ca: Variants
of the Old World ballad of the same name, Child, N. (Published by Combs in Jour. Am. Folklore,
23.381.)
Lord Lovely, 4a3b4c3b, 9:
A variant of Lord Lovel, Child, N.
Cold winter’s night
(bosom Friend, lover’s farewell),
vii, 4a3b4c3b, 9ca: Variants of The Lass
of Loch Royal, Child, N. (Published by Shearin,
Mod. Lang. Review, Oct., 1911, .)
Lord Vanner’s (Daniel’s)
wife, ii, 4a3b4c3b, 17ca: Variants of
Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, Child, N.
Barbara Allen, vi, 4a3b4c3b,
11ca: Variants of Barbara Allen’s Cruelty,
Child, N.
The bailiff’s daughter
of Islington, 4a3b4c3b, 12: A variant
of the Old World ballad of the same name, Child, N.
The Jew’s daughter,
ii, 4a3b4c3b, 12ca: Variants of Sir Hugh,
Child, N. One of the Kentucky versions
makes the murdered boy’s mother go seeking him
switch in hand, to punish him for not returning home
before nightfall. (Communicated by Dr. Katherine Jackson.)
The house Carpenter,
iii, 4a3b4c3b, 13ca: Variants of The Demon
Lover, Child, N.
Dandoo: A fragmentary variant
of The Wife Wrapt in Wether’s Skin, Child, N, as follows:
He put the sheepskin
to his wife’s back, Dandoo;
He put the sheepskin
to his wife’s back,
Clima cli clash to ma
clingo,
He put the sheepskin
to his wife’s back,
And he made the old
switch go whickity-whack,
Then rarum scarum
skimble arum
Skitty-wink skatty-wink
Clima cli clash to ma
clingo.
The green willow tree,
metre as below, 11: A variant of The Golden Vanitee,
Child, N.
There was a ship sailed
for the North Amerikee,
From down in the lonesome
Lowlands low
There was a ship sailed
for the North Amerikee,
And she went by the
name of the Green Willow Tree,
And she sailed from
the Lowlands low.
The driver boy (young
Edwin), 4a3b4c3b, 12; The above adapted to a
recital of Emily’s love for the mail-driver boy
and of his untimely murder.
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, N, Trooper
and Maid. Published by Shearin, Sewanee Review,
July, 1911, .)
Lady gay, 4a3b4c3b, 9:
An English woman sends her three children to America.
They die on board ship, their shades return to the
mother at Christmas and warn her against pride. (Cf.
Child, N, The Wife of Usher’s Well, and
a close variant from North Carolina in Kittredge’s
Edition, .)
Jackaro, iv, 3abcb, 17ca:
The daughter of a London silk merchant loves Jack,
the sailor-boy, against her father’s will.
Disguised as a man, she follows him to “the
wars of Germany,” finds him wounded on the battle-field,
and nurses him back to health; then they are married.
(Cf. Child, 1857 ed., iv, . The Merchant’s
Daughter of Bristow, 4abab, 65: Maudlin disguised
as a seaman follows her lover to Padua; they are married,
and return to England.)
The fan, ii, 4abcb, 12:
A sea-captain and a lieutenant woo a lady. To
test their love she throws her fan into a den of lions.
The sea-captain recovers it and wins her. (Published
by Shearin, Mod. Lang. Notes, 26. 113; for
British originals see Belden, Sewanee Review, April,
1911, , and Kittredge, Mod. Lang.
Notes, 26. 168.)
The apprentice boy,
iii, 4abcb, 12ca: Like Keats’s Isabella,
the daughter of a merchant in a post-town loves her
father’s apprentice. He is slain by her
brothers and his body hidden in a valley. His
ghost reveals the murderers, who, striving to flee,
are lost at sea. (Identified by Belden with an
English version, The Constant Farmer’s Son,
in The Sewanee Review, April, 1911, .)