IV.
The songs of this group find their common bond in their reference to Ireland, where some of them undoubtedly had their origin.
Irish Molly O, 6aabb and 6aabb(?), 7: A Scotch laddie, MacDonald, falls in love with "Irish Molly." Scorned by her parents, he wanders about, signifying his intention to die for her, and suggests an appropriate inscription for his tombstone. (See an Old World variant in Brooke and Rolleston's Treasury of Irish Poetry, p. 15, Macmillan, 1905.)
William Riley, 6aabb, 7: Eloping with Polly Ann, he is brought back to trial by her irate father, is defended by an aged lawyer, is transported, and departs wearing the maiden's ring. (See an Old World variant in the volume just named, p. 6.)
Roving Irish Boy, 4a3b4c3b, 12: He lands in Philadelphia and "makes a hit" with the ladies. Then he visits "other parts"—among the Dutch of Bucks County, he meets an inn-keeper's daughter, and leaves off rambling.
The Waxford Girl, 4a3b4c3b, 6: A youth murders his sweetheart and throws her into a stream. He tells his mother, who sees the blood on his clothes, that his nose has been bleeding. He is haunted by the ghost of the dead girl. (Cf. Lizzie Wan, Child, No. 51, and Miller-boy, page 28.)
Patty on the Canal, 3abcb and 3abcb, 9: Pat lands in "Sweet Philadelphy" and soon "makes himself handy" on the canal, likewise among the girls, whose mothers become anxious. He is a "Jackson man up to the handle."
Molly, 6aabb, 4: An Irish lad comes to America, courts Molly, but against her parents' will. He goes to serve a foreign king for seven years, returns, and finds that Molly has died of grief.
Johnnie Came from Sea, 6aa, 10: Irish Johnnie escapes a shipwreck and lands in America. Thinking him penniless, a landlord refuses him his daughter's hand. Johnnie "draws out handfuls of gold" and departs, to drink "good brandy."
Irish Girl, a fragment, as follows:
So costly were the robes of silk
The Irish girl did wear—
Her hair was as black as a raven,
Her eyes were black as a crow,
Her cheeks were red as roses
That in the garden grow.