I.
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, No. 4. 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. (Cf. 5, page [28].)
Fair Ellender, 4a3b4c3b, 10: A variant of the Earl Brand cycle, Child, No. 7.
Lord of Old Country, 4aa, with refrain as below, 10ca: A variant of The Two Sisters, Child, No. 10.
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, No. 12.
Edward, 4a3b4c3b, 10: A variant of the Old World ballad of the same name, Child, No. 13.
The Greenwood Side (Three Little Babes), ii, 4a3b4c3b, 9: Variants of The Cruel Mother, Child, No. 20.
Little Willie, 4a3b4c3b, 5: A variant of The Two Brothers, Child, No. 49.
Lord Bateman (The Turkish Lady), ii, 4abcb, 17ca: Variants of Young Beichan, Child, No. 53.
Loving Henry (Sweet William and Fair Ellender), iii, 4a3b4c3b, 11ca: Variants of Young Hunting, Child, No. 68.
Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender, iii, 4a3b4c3b, 17ca: Variants of Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor, Child, No. 73.
Fair Margaret and Sweet William, iv, 4a3b4c3b, 15ca: Variants of the Old World ballad of the same name, Child, No. 74. (Published by Combs in Jour. Am. Folklore, 23.381.)
Lord Lovely, 4a3b4c3b, 9: A variant of Lord Lovel, Child, No. 75.
Cold Winter's Night (Bosom Friend, Lover's Farewell), vii, 4a3b4c3b, 9ca: Variants of The Lass of Loch Royal, Child, No. 76. (Published by Shearin, Mod. Lang. Review, Oct., 1911, p. 514.)
Lord Vanner's (Daniel's) Wife, ii, 4a3b4c3b, 17ca: Variants of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, Child, No. 81.
Barbara Allen, vi, 4a3b4c3b, 11ca: Variants of Barbara Allen's Cruelty, Child, No. 84.
The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington, 4a3b4c3b, 12: A variant of the Old World ballad of the same name, Child, No. 105.
The Jew's Daughter, ii, 4a3b4c3b, 12ca: Variants of Sir Hugh, Child, No. 155. 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, No. 243.
Dandoo: A fragmentary variant of The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin, Child, No. 277, 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, No. 286.
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, No. 299, Trooper and Maid. Published by Shearin, Sewanee Review, July, 1911, p. 326.)
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, No. 79, The Wife of Usher's Well, and a close variant from North Carolina in Kittredge's Edition, p. 170.)
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 battlefield, and nurses him back to health; then they are married. (Cf. Child, 1857 ed., iv, p. 328. 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, p. 218, 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, p. 222.)