Lord Lovatt

Lord Lovatt

Lord Lovatt he stands at his stable door,
He was brushing his milk steed down,
When who passed by but Lady Nancy Belle,
She was wishing her lover God speed,
She was wishing her lover God speed.

"O where are you going, Lord Lovatt?" speak she said,
"Come, promise tell me true."
"Over the sea strange countries to see,
But Lady Nancy Belle, I'll come and see you.

Over the sea strange countries to see,
But Lady Nancy Belle, I'll come and see you."
He had been away a year or two,

But he scarcely had been three,
When a mightiful dream come into his head,
"Lady Nancy Belle, I'll come and see you.
Lady Nancy Belle, I'll come and see you."

But he passed down through the village town,
And down to Marys Hall.
And the ladies were all weeping sore,
And the ladies were all weeping sore.

"Who is dead?" Lord Lovatt he said,
"Come promise tell me true."
"Lady Nancy Belle died for her true lover's sake,
And Lord Lovatt, that was his name,
And Lord Lovatt, that was his name."

He ordered the coffin to be opened up,
And the white sheets rolled down.
He kissed her on the cold clay lips,
And

This is a variant of the English ballad, "Lord Lovel" (Child no. 75), made Scots by the employment of the Highland name "Lovatt." This is the story, uncomplicated by subplots, of the lover who returns too late. There is no hint that this affair was opposed by the family of either party, no rivals for either party's affections are mentioned, Lady Nancy Belle is not made pregnant, and there is no symbolic meeting in the afterlife, although many other variants do include what Bertrand Harris Bronson characterized as the "rose-and-briar eschatological reunion," most familiar from "Barbara Allen."

Jeannie's impassioned rendition speaks to the ballads enduring popularity in Aberdeen.