4. It's she couldn't card and it's she wouldn't spin, THE FARMER'S CURST WIFE (Child, No. 278). Belden printed a text from Missouri in JAFL 19: 298-299; and Barry has since published three copies, two from Massachusetts and one from Maine (JAFL 24: 348-349; 27: 68), - but none of these are complete. A curious version (without the devil) may be found in Lomax, "Cowboy Songs," pp. 110-111 ("The Old Man under the Hill"). Texts are reported from Virginia by C. Alphonso Smith, Bulletin, No. 4, p. 8; No. 5, p. 9. Reed Smith reports the ballad from South Carolina (JAFL 28: 201). Miss Josephine McGill, in a brief paper on the "Survival of the English Folk Ballad" (in the Louisville "Courier-Journal" for Jan. 14, 1917),' quotes the concluding couplet-stanze of a Kentucky version: She was seven years going, and seven coming back, This recalls the end of the Scottish text in Child (version B), — She was seven year gaun, and seven year comin, And she cried for the sowens 2 she left in the pot. For recent English tradition see "Journal of the Folk-Song Society," 2: 184-185; 3: 131-132 (and references). The Harvard College Library has the piece in a slip issued by Pitts, "The Sussex Farmer" (25242.25, p. 97). The Old Woman and the Devil. Communicated by Professor Belden. From Mrs. Edward Schaaf, St. Mary's, Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, 1914. 1. The good old man went out to plow Sing tory a loo, walked out to plow, Up stepped the old devil, "How are you now? 2. "It's one of your family I have come for, 3. "It is neither you nor your eldest son; It is your old scolding wife, she is the one." 1 In a series of articles on Kentucky folk-lore published in the Courier-Journal on the second Sunday of every month, under the auspices of the Kentucky Folk-Lore Society. 2 Oatmeal soured and then boiled thick. 4. “Take her and welcome, with all your heart! 5. He picked her up upon his back, Like an old bald eagle went off in a rack. 6. He had not gotten more than half his road, 7. He set her down all for to rest; She up with a stick and hit him her best. 8. He picked her up upon her back, Like an old bald eagle, went off in a rack. 9. He travelled on until he came to his gate; 10. Ten little devils strung on a wire; She up with her foot and kicked nine in the fire. 11. One little devil peeping over the wall Sang "Daddy take her back, she'll murder us all." 13. "Now, old man, see what a woman can do; 14. "Now, old woman, on earth you must dwell; You are not fit for heaven, and they won't have you in hell.” THE SWEET TRINITY (THE GOLDEN VANITY) (Child, No. 286). To Child's version B belongs the Vermont text ("The Little Cabin Boy") printed in JAFL 18:125-127 (cf. 18:127). To Child's version C belong Belden, No. 78 (JAFL 23: 429-430); "Focus," 4: 158-159; Wyman and Brockway, "Lonesome Tunes," 1:72-75; McGill, "Folk-Songs from the Kentucky Mountains," pp. 96-102. See also Virginia Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 3, p. 5; No. 4, p. 8; F. C. Brown, p. 9; Cox, 45: 160 (JAFL 29: 400); Shearin and Coombs, p. 9 (Shearin, "Modern Language Review," 6: 514); "Berea Quarterly," October, 1915 (18: 18); Reed Smith (JAFL 28: 200-202). Dr. B. L. Jones has found the ballad in Michigan. The ballad is common in modern English broadsides, usually under the title of "The Golden Vanity; or, The Lowlands Low." See Harvard collection: 25242.11.5, fol. 107 (Such; same in 25242.17, xi, 31, and among the Child Broadsides); 25242.17, iii, 46 (J: Easton, York); same, iii, 150 (Forth, Pocklington); iv, 124 (J. Gilbert, Newcastle-upon-Tyne); v, 68 (J. Cadman, Manchester); x, 207 (J. Bebbington, Manchester). These broadsides are all alike, corresponding to Child's version Ca (Pitts). Closely similar are copies from recent singing in England, a number of which are noted by Child, (5137-138); see also Broadwood and Fuller Maitland, "English County Songs," pp. 182-183; Baring-Gould and Sheppard, "Songs of the West," No. 64, 3: 24-25;1 "Journal of Folk-Song Society," I: 104-105; 2: 244; Sharp, "One Hundred English Folksongs," No. 14, pp. xxiii, 36-37.2 Greig's variant, however, in "Folk-Song of the North-East," cxvi, belongs under Child's B. Ashton's copy, in "Real Sailor Songs," No. 75, is Child's A. The Merry Golden Tree. Communicated by Professor Belden, 1916. From Mrs. Eva Warner Case, from memory, with the assistance of her mother and grandmother, as sung in Harrison County, Missouri. This copy is noteworthy because of the poetical justice offered in the concluding stanza, which distinguishes it from all versions heretofore recorded." The text belongs in general to version C, but it has a special touch of its own: Down went the vessel and down went the crew, And down to join the cabin-boy went the captain too! Finis coronat opus! I. "O captain, dear captain, what will you give to me, As she sails in the Lowlands low?" 2. "It's I will give you money and I will give you fee; I have a lovely daughter I will marry unto thee, 3. He bent upon his breast and out swam he; 4. He took with him an auger well fitted for the use, As she sailed in the Lowlands low. 1 Reprinted sumptuously, New York, 1899 ("The Golden Vanity and The Green Bed"), with colored illustrations. 2 Compare Masefield, A Sailor's Garland, pp. 149–152. See p. 322. • Compare Child's remarks on his versions B and C as distinguished from version A (5: 136). VOL. XXX.-NO. 117.-22 5. He bent upon his breast and back swam he; 6. "Captain, O captain, take me up on board; 7. "It's I'll neither give you money, now will I give you fee, 8. He bent upon his breast and down sank he And he sunk her in the Lowlands lonesome low, 9. Down went the vessel, and down went the crew, And sunk in the Lowlands low. CAPTAIN WARD AND THE RAINBOW (Child, No. 287). Barry reprinted "Captain Ward" in this Journal (18: 137–138) from a Boston Broadside ("Captain Ward, the Pirate") of the early nineteenth century (N. Coverly, Jr.). A fragment from Michigan contributed by Dr. Alma Blount (JAFL 25: 177-178) sticks in some points more closely than Coverly to the black-letter text. The ballad was also issued as a broadside in Boston about 1825 ("Cor. of Cross and Tilton sts.": Harvard College, 25242.5.5 [125], p. 9) and in a chapbook ("Captain Ward and the Rainbow," etc.) in Philadelphia by R. Swift, about 1820-30 (25276.43.81). It is included in "The Forget Me Not Songster" (New York, Nafis & Cornish), pp. 41-44; the same (Philadelphia and New York, Turner & Fisher), pp. 200-203; and "The Pearl Songster," 1846 (New York, C. P. Huestis), pp. 136-139 (Brown University). The Harvard College Library has two eighteenth-century broadsides of this ballad, — 25242.5.5 (176) (Pitts); 25242.23, p. II, also H. P. Such's broadside, No. 501, "Ward the Pirate" (25242.26, p. 54). See also Greig, "Folk-Song of the North-East," cxiv, cxvii, cxxviii; Ashton, "Real Sailor Songs," No. 3; Kidson, "Traditional Tunes," p. 99; Barrett, "English Folk-Songs," No. 36, pp. 62-63; "Journal of the Folk-Song Society," 2: 163-164. THE MERMAID (No. 289). A fragmentary American text (with tune) was published by Barry in JAFL 18: 136 (from Vermont), as taken down in 1905 (cf. 22 : 78); a good copy (from Missouri), collected by Belden, is in 25: 176–177; another (from Tennessee), in "The Focus," 3: 447-448 and (with tune) 4 97-99.1 Miss McGill gives words and music in her "FolkSongs of the Kentucky Mountains" (1917, pp. 45-49). The ballad is also reported from Virginia (Bulletin, No. 2, p. 6; No. 3, p. 5; No. 4, p. 9; No. 5, p. 9);2 from Mississippi by Perrow (JAFL 27:61, note 2); from Nebraska by Miss Pound (p. 10). "The Mermaid" doubtless owes much of its currency in America to its inclusion in various "songsters." It is found, for example, in "The Forget Me Not Songster" (New York, Nafis & Cornish; also St. Louis and Philadelphia), p. 79; “Pearl Songster" (New York, 1846), p. 155; "Uncle Sam's Naval and Patriotic Songster" (New York, Philip J. Cozans), pp. 40-43. It was issued as a broadside by Leonard A. Deming about 1838-40 ("at the Sign of the Barber's Pole, No. 61 Hanover St. Boston and at Middlebury, Vt.": Harvard College, 1916, lot 12), and by H. de Marsan, New York (List 14, No. 56), about 1861. Its perpetuation is more or less insured by its inclusion in "Heart Songs" (Boston, 1909).1 A fragmentary text, taken down by Kittredge in 1878 from an old Massachusetts lady who had learned it about 1808, has the first stanza of Child's version A (5: 149), which is lacking in all other versions, British or American, so far as has been ascertained. At all events, it does not occur in any of those here registered, or in any of the following English broadside copies: Ebsworth, in his Roxburghe Ballads, 8: 446-447; Harvard College, 25242.4, i, 207 (J. Arthur, Carlisle); 25242.17, iii, 36 and 102 (John Harkness, Preston, No. 146); same, iv, 16 (John Gilbert, Newcastle-upon-Tyne), 147 (John Ross, Newcastle-upon-Tyne); v, 141 (J. Catnach); xi, 53 (H. Such, No. 53); 25242.28 (Pitts). Perhaps this stanza was adapted from the beginning of Martin Parker's famous "Neptune's Raging Fury" (Roxburghe Ballads, ed. Ebsworth, 6: 432; Ashton, "Real Sailor Songs," No. 76; Masefield, "A Sailor's Garland," pp. 160–163). 1 Compare Virginia Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 2, p. 6. 2 The ballad is printed in A. F. Wilson's Songs of the University of Virginia, 1906. 3 There is a comic version in The "We Won't Go Home till Morning" Songster (New York, R. M. DeWitt), pp. 8–9. 4 Whence it is extracted in the Boston Transcript, Feb. 14, 1914. Except the variety of A in "The Sailor's Caution" cited by Child (5: 148). Ashton's second version (Real Sailor Songs, No. 42) is Child's A; his first (No. 41) accords with the regular broadside. |