NAME: Kid, The
DESCRIPTION: Recitation. Big Ed, a teamster, adopts a boy from town. A chain breaks Ed's spine; the boy drives him back; he dies on the way. The boy pushes on; he is killed by being thrown from the sledge. The narrator learns he's telling the story to the boy's father
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Recitation. Big Ed, a teamster, comes back from town with a boy he has adopted. He teaches the boy the ways of the woods. One day a chain breaks Ed's spine; the boy drives him back, but he dies on the way. The boy doesn't notice, and pushes on; the narrator watches as he, too, is killed by being thrown from the sledge. The narrator discovers, at the end, that he's telling the story to the boy's father
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger death recitation father
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 58, "The Kid" (1 text)
Roud #4058
NOTES: This song is item dC37 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Be058
===
NAME: Kidd's Lament: see Captain Kidd [Laws K35] (File: LK35)
===
NAME: Kidder Cole
DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Kidder Cole at a dance, wants to dance but she dances with Charlie Wright. He goes to another dance; she still won't dance (because he's drunk). He visits her; she cold-shoulders him; he vows he'll dance with her yet, and praises her beauty
AUTHOR: Felix Eugene Ally?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting love beauty dancing drink
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #9131
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Kidder Cole" (Brunswick 230, 1928; on Cornshuckers1)
File: RcKidCo
===
NAME: Kielder Hunt, The
DESCRIPTION: Description of field trials at Kielder; owners and dogs are listed, and the dogs run a fox to earth. The singer drinks a toast to the "gallant sportsmen a'." Chorus: "Hark away! Hark away! O'er the bonnie hills of Kielder/Hark away"
AUTHOR: James Armstrong (source: Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 18" - 15.9.02)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1879 (in _Wannie Blossoms_, according to Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 18" - 15.9.02)
KEYWORDS: hunting drink moniker animal dog
FOUND_IN: Scotland(Bord)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #5126
RECORDINGS:
Will & Sandy Scott, "The Kielder Hunt" (on Borders1)
Willie Scott, "The Kielder Hunt" (on Voice18)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (subject, phrase)
NOTES: There's actually little in common between this song and "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)"; I include the cross-reference only because of the "Hark away" phrase, and to differentiate them. - PJS
File: RcKielHu
===
NAME: Kilby Jail: see The Prisoner's Song (File: FSC100)
===
NAME: Kildallan Brown Red, The
DESCRIPTION: At Monaghan the Kildallan bird defeated a Piley from Leitrim that had previously won at Drumreilly. The Piley "brought our Kildallan bird down" first. When the Kildallan recovered he killed the Piley and "shocked the whole County Leitrim"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1979 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: fight death gambling chickens
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #5669
RECORDINGS:
James and Paddy Halpin, "The Kildallan Brown Red" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cock-Fight" (theme)
cf. "The Follom Brown-Red" (theme)
File: RcKiBrRe
===
NAME: Kilkenny Cats
DESCRIPTION: "There once were two cats of Kilkenny, Each thought there was one cat too many, So they fought and they fit And they scratched and they bit, Till, excepting their nails, and the tips of their tails, Instead of two cats, there weren't any."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (Baring-Gould-MotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: fight animal
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #835, p. 315, "(There once were two cats of Kilkenny)"
NOTES: I don't know if the poem of the Kiklenny Cats is traditional, but the legend certainly is, so I thought I should include this item.
According to David Pickering's _The Cassell Dictionary of Folklore_, there are at least two explanations offered for this legend. One is that, in Norman times, there were rival English and Irish towns in Kilkenny, which naturally were in competition. Another bases it on a story of two cats who had their tails tied together by soldiers during the 1798 rebellion. I can't say that I find either explanation very convincing. - RBW
File: BGMG835
===
NAME: Kilkenny Louse House
DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Carrick-on-Suir looking for a place to sleep. He is taken to Buck St John's place on Cook Lane. When the lights were out he has to fight the bugs. The slaughter is described. The band plays The Dead March. Beware Buck St John's place.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (recording, Tommy McGrath and Gemma McGrath)
KEYWORDS: battle poverty hardtimes bug
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #9228
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "The Kilkenny Louse House" (on IRTravellers01)
Tommy McGrath and Gemma McGrath, "Burke's Engine" (on Voice07)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm No' Comin' Oot the Noo" (theme)
NOTES: Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 7" - 1.3.03: "Burke's Engine" on Voice07 is a version of "Kilkenny Louse House"; "the compilers mis-heard the name of the proprietor, one Buck St John, and transliterated it as 'Burke's Engine'." Taking the Musical Traditions statement as gospel I am using "Kilkenny Louse House" as the name of the piece. The description is based on the Voice07 text. - BS
File: RcKiLoHo
===
NAME: Kill or Cure
DESCRIPTION: The singer, "a roving Irish boy," marries Kitty O'Shaughnessy. She gets sick. He makes a bargain with the doctor: "kill or cure for twenty pounds." She dies. The doctor wants his money but he didn't cure her, won't admit he killed her, and doesn't collect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.14(191))
KEYWORDS: bargaining death humorous wife doctor money
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 40, "Kill or Cure" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(191), "Kill or Cure" or "Katty O'Shaughnessy", H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Firth b.25(160), "Katty O'Shaughnessy" or "Kill or Cure"; Harding B 11(1988), "Kill or Cure"
File: OCon040
===
NAME: Killafole Boasters
DESCRIPTION: The huntsmen around Newtown have a hunt for hare. The hounds are named as well as the landmarks passed. The local hunters succeed. The Killafole Boasters only follow false trails and "may go home with shame, And never come back for to hunt us again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1980 (recording, Jimmy Halpin)
KEYWORDS: death hunting animal dog moniker Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #12922
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy Halpin, "Killafole Boasters" (on Voice18)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair of Rosslea" (subject: competitive hare hunt from the huntsman's point of view)
cf. "The Huntsman's Horn" (subject: competitive hare hunt from the huntsman's point of view)
NOTES: The hunt takes place in the area around Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
Hall, notes to Voice18: "In Co. Fermaanagh, the average hunt club of small-town working men and small farmers is loosely organized and meets monthly in a pub to plan the month's fixtures, some of which might be in competition with another club." Hall goes on to discuss attitudes toward individual hares ("they divert the attention of the dogs if there seems any chance of a hare being killed") and foxes ("they might even take a gun out on a fox-hunting day"). "After a good meeting they might gather in a pub and sing about hunting."
Tunney-StoneFiddle p. 84: "'No good sportsman would shoot a hare; it is for coursing only', we were often told...." - BS
File: RcKilBoa
===
NAME: Killarney
DESCRIPTION: "By Killarney's lakes and fells" the singer describes "that Eden of the West; Beauty's home, Killarney": "Innisfallen's ruined shrine... Castle Lough and Glenna Bay, Mountains Tore and Eagle's Nest." Sights that "charm the eye," "each sound a harmony"
AUTHOR: unknown (see Notes)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.26(71))
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 81, "Killarney" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(71), "Killarney", T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Harding B 12(207), 2806 c.16(219), "Killarney"
NOTES: This is credited to Falconer in Ralph L. Woods's _A Second Treasury of the Familiar_." On the other hand, the uncredited book _The Library of Irish Music_ (published by Amsco musoc) says the words are by Edmund O'Rourke and music by Michael William Balfe. - RBW
File: OCon081
===
NAME: Killeavy's Pride: see The Pride of Newry Town (File: HHH190)
===
NAME: Killeevy's Pride: see The Pride of Newry Town (File: HHH190)
===
NAME: Killer, The: see Dobie Bill (Dobe Bill, The Killer) (File: LxA403)
===
NAME: Killiecrankie: see Killy Kranky (File: JRSF111)
===
NAME: Killin' in the Gap, The (Stevie Allen)
DESCRIPTION: "It was on a Sunday night and the moon was shining bright, Stevie Allen held his baby in his lap." The child is sick (?); Allen says he will ride to the doctor despite his enemies. The baby dies; Allen's horse returns riderless
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: children death feud horse disease
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 21-22, "The Killin' in the Gap" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. " Bonnie George Campbell" [Child 210] (theme)
NOTES: Thomas indicates no tune for this, but it looks like "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane." - RBW
File: ThBa021
===
NAME: Killy Kranky
DESCRIPTION: "Killy Krankie is my song, Sing and dance it all day long, From my elbow to my wrist, Then we do the double twist." "Broke my arm, I broke my arm, a-swinging pretty Nancy." The dancers are encouraged into other difficult positions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Hudson)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 27, 1689 - Battle of Killiecrankie
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 111-112, "[Killy Kranky]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 4, "Killy Kranky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson 54, pp. 170-171, "Killiecrankie" (1 text)
DT, KILCRNK2*
Roud #2572
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sad Condition" (lyrics)
NOTES: Despite the Ritchie spelling, which I assume will be the best-known form of this piece, is no doubt in my mind that the title of this song derives from the battle of Killiecrankie (1689). But her words have obviously wandered far, and the tune does not match either of the two I know as "Killiecrankie."
Ritchie says that this "was both a game and a song and not much of either one. The players sang the song while they 'wound the grapevine,' ... all of which Uncle Jason [from whom she learned the song] avowed was just a good excuse to get their arms around each other."
Hudson's text (with no tune) doesn't appear to be a playparty, and clearly derives from a Scots original, but appears confused ("I've fought on land and I've fought on sea, At home I've fought my auntie O"?!). I'm still looking for an intact version of this song.
The Battle of Killiecrankie effectively ended the fight in Scotland on behalf of James II in the Glorious Revolution.
Dundee (John Graham of Claverhouse, first Viscount Dundee, 1648-1689) led a small Jacobite army in an attack on Williamite forces led by General Hugh Mackay. The Jacobite cause was entirely dependent on Dundee, but he fought in the front line of the battle (he had to prove his courage, and promised that, if he won, he would not join the fray again). The Jacobites won, but Dundee was killed, and that was that. The more so as the victory was not decisive; Mackay kept his forced together, and their losses were not extreme.
Peter Underwood in _A Gazetteer of British, Scottish & Irish Ghosts_, pp. 378-379, states that Dundee had a vision before the battle, seemingly of a mortally wounded man calling the general to the field of Killiecrankie. Supposedly, every July 27, a red haze can be seen by some (but not all) over the battlefield; this is linked to Dundee's vision. (If you think this sounds very much like the story of Duncan Campbell at Ticonderoga -- yes, it does. For the Campbell legend, in addition to Richard Nardin's "The Piper's Refrain," see Walter R. Borneman, _The French and Indian War_ Harper-Collins, 2006, pp. 136-137.)
Peculiarly, I recently heard a classical recording of the tune "Killiecrankie" (definitely the same melody as that recorded by Archie Fisher and others as a Jacobite tune) which claimed that it came from c. 1600, i.e. well *before* the battle. I have been unable to determine the source of this claim. But I also have heard a classical type call the piece "Gillycrankie" (not sure about the spelling, but the first consonant was pretty definitely a "G"), so what do they know?- RBW
File: JRSF111
===
NAME: Killyclare (Carrowclare; The Maid of Carrowclare)
DESCRIPTION: The singer deliberately spies on a couple courting under the moon. The boy says he is sailing to America. The girl fears the local women will cause him to forget her. He promises never to forget her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation emigration
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H169, pp. 298-299, "The Maid of Carrowclare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2939
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "Killyclare" (on Voice04, IREButcher01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29] (plot) and references there
NOTES: I notice that the guy doesn't promise to be true -- just to remember.
"Luna" is the Latin name for the moon. Its use seems to indicate a literary origin. - RBW
File: HHH298
===
NAME: Kilnamartyra Exile, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer left Ireland for America for "love of money." After twelve years travelling from Alabama to the Rockies "black misfortune followed me" "Age has overtaken me and youth has long forsaken me." He will always fondly remember Kilnamartyra.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration separation hardtimes America Ireland age
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OCanainn, pp. 74-75, "The Kilnamartyra Exile" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OCanainn: "This well-known song of the exile from Kilnamartyra in West Cork was sung for us by Sean O Se. Sean said it was written around the turn of the century by John Brown, a soldier who eventually became a John of God lay-brother." - BS
File: OCan074
===
NAME: Kilrane Boys, The
DESCRIPTION: April 13, 1844: thirteen "matchless youths" -- all named -- leave Wexford's Quay "bound for Buenos Aires, the land of liberty." "Foul British laws are the whole cause of our going far away ... with one for Dan O'Connell they boldly sailed away."
AUTHOR: Walter McCormack of the Bing, Kilrane
EARLIEST_DATE: 1943 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell sea ship
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 74-75, "The Kilrane Boys" (1 text)
NOTES: Ranson: "A centenary celebration was held in Kilrane on April 11th, 1944, to honor the memory of the emigrants, when the cart, which brought some of the emigrants into Wexford, was drawn into the procession." The thirteen are twelve men and a bride. - BS
File: Ran074
===
NAME: Kilruddery Hunt, The
DESCRIPTION: An early December morning the hunters, horses, and dogs "rode from Kilruddery, to try for a fox." The huntsmen and dogs are named. Reynard is "unkennelled" and the route is traced. The fox is killed after a five hour chase. The hunters party until night.
AUTHOR: Thomas Mozeen and Owen Bray (source: Croker-PopularSongs and _The Fiddler's Companion_ )
EARLIEST_DATE: 1762 (probably written 1744, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: hunting drink party moniker animal dog horse
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 204-215, "The Kilruddery Hunt" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Shelah na Guiragh" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: The song says the hunt began at 5 in the morning, December 5, 1744. Among the places named, Kilruddery, County Wicklow, is near Bray, ten or fifteen miles down the coast from Dublin.
Croker-PopularSongs: "Called, by Ritson, 'The Irish Hunt,' and printed by him in the second volume of his collection of English Songs (ed. Park. 1813, p.184).... Mr. Walker ... informed Ritson that ''The Irish Hunt' was written by T Mozeen. It appeared in a collection of 'Miscellaneous Essays,' which he published by subscription in 1762.... Mozeen entitles the song ... 'A Description of a Fox Chase that happened in the County of Dublin with the Earl of Meath's Hounds.'"
"'The Kilruddery Hunt,' was written to this air ["Celia O'Gara (Sighile ni Ghadharadh)"] in 1744 by Thomas Mozeen and Owen Bray of Loughlinstown, Co. Dublin. It soon became enormously popular, according to Grattan Flood (1906), and was called by Ritson 'The Irish Hunt' (who incorrectly ascribed it to St. Leger)[until he corrected that error]." (source: Andrew Kuntz, _The Fiddler's Companion_ Copyright 1996-2006) - BS
File: CrPS204
===
NAME: Kilties in the Crimea, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Kilties are the lads for me, They're aye the foremost on a spree." The singer praises the Highland soldiers, and recounts their exploits in the Crimea, mentioning Alma, Sir Colin Campbell, and several Highland regiments
AUTHOR: John Lorimer
EARLIEST_DATE: 1856 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS:
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1853-1856 - Crimean War (Britain and France actively at war with Russia 1854-1855)
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma
Oct 25, 1854 - Battle of Balaclava
Nov 5, 1854 - Battle of Inkerman clears the way for the siege of Sevastopol (the city fell in the fall of 1855)
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 223-227, "The Kilties in the Crimea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13083
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10] (subject)
cf. "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (II)" (subject)
NOTES: Among the various references in this song:
* The Royal Forty-Twa: The famous "Black Watch," which earned battle honours for Alma and Sevastopol. For more of its history, see the notes to "Wha Saw the Forty-Second." I can't help but add that this famous regiment, which held together despite service in the Crimea and the Sudan and so many other failures, has in the early twenty-first century been amalgamated into a "Super Scottish Regiment." The reason? People won't join because they refuse to go to Iraq.
* Alma: Battle of Alma. For history of this particular campaign, see "The Heights of Alma (I)"
* Sir Colin: Colin Campbell (1792-1863), commander of the Highland Brigade. He may have been the best soldier -- certainly the best brigade commander! -- in the British army at this time, but he was not a nobleman (he wasn't knighted until 1849) and wasn't rich, and so did not receive and could not buy the promotions he deserved.
According to Byron Farwell, _Queen Victoria's Little Wars_ (Norton, 1972), p. 110, Campbell was "born Colin Macliver in 1792, the son of a carpenter. He was educated by his uncle, a soldier named John Campbell." His uncle (his mother's brother) also managed to secure him a commission, though it was under the name Campbell. And so the young man became Colin Campbell. His early service was in the Peninsular Campaign, where he earned promotion to captain by merit -- and stalled. According to Oliver Thomson, _The Great Feud: The Campbells & the MacDonalds_, Sutton, 2000, p. 128, he was "invalided home in 1813. He recovered but by 1837 -- a bachelor in his late forties -- he was still only a colonel on garrison duty. Though recognized... 'as the best administrator and soldier since Wellington' he could not buy promotion and had to earn it." He gained much useful experience in Asia, but was still only a colonel when he resigned his command and went on half pay in 1853.
He was called back to duty for the Crimean War, and promoted Major General (the equivalent of a modern brigadier). His Highlanders made the key push at the Battle of Alma, and they blunted the initial charge at Balaclava. It will tell you something about the officers in the Crimea that, according to Alan Palmer, _The Crimean War_, Dorset, 1987 (originally published as _The Banner of Battle_), p. 250, he was ony of only two senior officers in the Crimea to do anything to improve their reputations afterward.
Having done much to win the Crimean War, he was appointed to command the Indian Army at the time of the 1857 rebellion. It was he who finally relieved Lucknow (Farwell, p. 112), the key event in the supression of the rebellion. He was rewarded with a peerage; according to the _Oxford Companion to British History_ becoming Lord Clyde in 1858. That's not really much of a compliment, considering how many awful soldiers were ennobled by the British over the years, but in his case, it was richly deserved.
This is not the only song about Campbell; he is mentioned in several Crimean War songs, and C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 330, prints a song called "General Campbell" about his work in India.
* Ninety-Third: Another Highland regiment (93rd Highlanders, now the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), with battle honours for Alma, Balaclava, and Sebastopol. It was the Ninety-third, more than any other regiment, which halted the Russian charge on Balaclava.
* Balaclava: For the history of this incredible botch, see "The Famous Light Brigade." - RBW
File: FVS224
===
NAME: Kind Fortune
DESCRIPTION: A drummer proposes marriage to a maiden. She rejects him because her father "is a captain of honour and fame" and she would not "bind myself down to slav'ry." He threatens suicide. She relents. They elope. Her outraged father gives them an annual income
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1826 (broadside, Harding B 17(285a))
KEYWORDS: elopement soldier father money marriage suicide
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 74, "Kind Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 27, "The Drummer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST KaNew074 (Partial)
Roud #2302
RECORDINGS:
Martin Gorman, "The Little Drummer" (on Voice01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(285a), "The Silly Drummer," Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825; also Firth c.14(305), Harding B 25(677), "The Fortunate Drummer"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Hard Times
NOTES: Karpeles-Newfoundland omits the broadside touch of the father's money after the elopement; we are left to believe that she is left to "follow the drum."
Grieg _Folk-Song of the North-East_, CLXXVIII p.2, "O Hard Fortune," adds the following elements to the beginning of the story: A company of soldiers is playing and a drummer among them falls in love with a beautiful lady. He asks his captain what he should do since "for love I must die." His captain advises him to tell her. The plot described in DESCRIPTION continues.
Martin Gorman's version on Voice01 follows Grieg. - BS
File: KaNew074
===
NAME: Kind Friends and Companions: see A Health to the Company (Come All My Old Comrades) (File: CrSe222)
===
NAME: Kind Miss: see Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: E098)
===
NAME: Kind Sir: see The Courting Case (File: R361)
===
NAME: Kinding Wood (My Name is Dinah from South Carolina)
DESCRIPTION: "My name is Dinah From South Carolina And I'm selling kindling wood to get along." "If you don't believe me, come down to see me, For I'm selling kindling wood to get along." "And won't you buy some, Oh won't you buy some."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 324, "Kindling Wood" (3 short texts)
Roud #15888
NOTES: This reads like a street cry, but how many street cries are there from South Carolina? It may be a fragment of a longer ballad, perhaps of an orphan child -- but if so, it has not been located. - RBW
File: Br3324
===
NAME: King and Miller of Mansfield, The: see King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth [Child 273] (File: C273)
===
NAME: King and the Bishop, The: see King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)
===
NAME: King Arthur and King Cornwall [Child 30]
DESCRIPTION: King Arthur, disguised, goes to King Cornwall's castle, where Cornwall boasts how he is better than Arthur.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1750 (Percy MS.)
KEYWORDS: royalty disguise bragging
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 30, "King Arthur and King Cornwall" (1 text)
OBB 18, "King Arthur and King Cornwall (A Fragment)" (1 text)
Roud #3965
NOTES: This ballad is known only from the Percy manuscript. Since the manuscript is heavily damaged, the detailed course of the ballad cannot be discerned. Child connects the ballad with the (twelfth century) romance of Charlemagne's visit to Jerusalem. - RBW
File: C030
===
NAME: King David: see Little David, Play on Your Harp (File: CNFM046)
===
NAME: King David had a Pleasant Dream [Laws O16]
DESCRIPTION: A soldier asks for a kiss. The girl refuses; her mother has told her to avoid soldiers. He replies with the story of David, who began as a shepherd but ended as a king and the killer of Goliath. The girl decides to kiss him after all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: soldier courting Bible
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws O16, "King David had a Pleasant Dream"
Belden, p 170, "King David had a Pleasant Dream" (1 text)
SharpAp 175, "The Slighted Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 478, KNGDAVID
Roud #988
File: LO16
===
NAME: King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth [Child 273]
DESCRIPTION: The King goes out a-riding and meets the Tanner. The Tanner gives abrupt answers to the King's questions. The King tries to exchange horses; again the Tanner wants no part of the deal. Finally the King gives the Tanner a gift/pension
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy) (entered in the Stationer's Register in 1589)
KEYWORDS: royalty contest disguise trick gift money horse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1154-1189 - Reign of King Henry II
1399-1413 - Reign of King Henry IV
1461-1470 AND 1471-1483 - Reign of King Edward IV
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) Ireland Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 273, "King Edward IV and a Tanner of Tamworth" (4 texts -- though three of them are appendices)
Bronson 273, "King Edward IV and a Tanner of Tamworth" (3 versions)
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 92-100, "King Edward IV. And Tanner of Tamworth"; III, pp. 178-188, "The King and Miller of Mansfield" (2 texts)
Leach, pp. 649-653, "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" (1 text)
PBB 73, "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1472, "In summer time when leaves grow green"
Roud #248
NOTES: Thie king mentioned in this ballad varies. Child's primary text simply calls the king "Edward." Of the three texts in the appendices, the first gives no name. The second goes under the title "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth," but again the King is simply called "Edward." The third text (from the Percy folio, but not the version printed in the _Reliques_) is "King Henry II and the Miller of Mansefield," but again no name is given. The records of 1564 also mention a printing of "The story of Kynge Henry IIIJth and the Tanner of Tamowthe."
No matter which king we choose, there is no historical record of an event such as this. There is at least some verisimilitude in assigning the piece to Edward IV.
Edward was a hunter (most English kings were), but could be easily distracted -- as witness the fact that he first met his wife, Elizabeth Woodeville, on a ride. (Elizabeth, who had been widowed by the Wars of the Roses, carefully stationed herself by the path where Edward was expected to ride, and she was pretty enough to get his attention. Edward never could resist a pretty girl....) In addition, Edward was a friendly, cheerful man who could easily be involved in games such as this.
On the other hand, Henry II was engaged in constant wars with France. Henry IV was an usurper who had to deal with periodic rebellions. And Edward IV lived during the Wars of the Roses. None of them had the petty cash to give the sorts of rewards mentioned here. - RBW
File: C273
===
NAME: King Edwards
DESCRIPTION: "There never was a king so great, but love cause him to abdicate. Ch: Love, love alone, cause King Edwards to leave the t'rone (repeat)." Verses sung in first person as Edward explains reasons for abdicating and marrying Wallace Simpson.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Colcord)
KEYWORDS: shanty love royalty marriage
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1936 - Abdication of Edward VIII and his marriage to Wallis Simpson
FOUND_IN: West Indies
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Colcord, pp. 186-187, "King Edwards" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Colc186 (Partial)
Roud #4707
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Edward's Abdication" (theme of Edward VIII)
NOTES: I don't have a copy of Thomas-Makin', but based on the description of "Edward's Abdication" I'd say that even though they are covering the same subject, these are two different songs. [Yes, they are. And this is pretty definitely the better one. - RBW] Colcord gives a tune for the chorus but says that the verses were song in a droning monotone. The chorus tune, by the way, is not "House Carpenter," which was the tune supposed for "Edward's Abdication."
Brought back from the West Indies by a Prof. Samuel E. Morison, and said to have been sung by Negro boatmen in Basse Terre, St. Kitts. - SL
Morison is, of course, the great American historian who was particularly involved in naval history. I believe he published this in one of his own books also, though I don't know which one; I'm sure I've seen the text before.
For additional information on Edward VIII and his marriage, see the notes to "Edward's Abdication." This song in addition mentions the Duke of York, Edward's brother, who became George VI (reigned 1936-1952). Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947) was Conservative Prime Minister 1923-1924, 1924-1929, and 1935-1937. The Abdication Crisis of 1936 was in some ways his finest hour; by consulting with the royal family, his own party, the opposition, and the Dominions, he found an answer everyone could accept. He resigned immediately after, leaving the post to Neville Chamberlain -- and you *know* how that turned out....
To tell this from "Edward's Abdication," consider the first few lines of text:
King Edwards:
Love, love alone, Cause King Edwards to leave the t'rone
Love, love alone, Cause King Edwards to leave the t'rone.
Edward's Abdication:
Come hearken good friends to this story so tre
Of a lord of high degree;
Concerning the love of this bonny young prince.
The King of his own countree. - RBW
File: Colc186
===
NAME: King Estmere [Child 60]
DESCRIPTION: King Estmere, aided by his brother Adler Younge, seeks to wed the daughter of King Adland. He wins her troth; at threat of losing her to rival (heathen) king of Spain, he attends the wedding in guise of a harper, kills his rival, and wins the bride.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage disguise trick royalty
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Child 60, "King Estmere" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley I, pp. 85-98, "King Estmere" (1 text)
OBB 41, "King Estmere" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 270-279+358-359, "King Estmere" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Iona & Peter Opie, The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse, pp. 100-108, "King Estmere" (1 text)
Roud #3970
NOTES: This ballad does not exist in any proper copy. It was found in the Percy manuscript, but Percy himself tore it out, and the pages have been lost. Thus the only reference is the text printed in the _Reliques_ -- and, from Percy's comments and his patently false claim to have another copy, it seems clear that he touched that up somewhere. Nor do Percy's two editions agree entirely.
The Opies note an item mentioned in _The Complaint of Scotland_, "How the King of Estmure land married the King's daughter of Westmure land." Possibly the same story -- but who knows? It does seem to imply that "Estmere" is the "East Moor" -- i.e. the lands east of the West Moor, or Westmoreland. Which would be Northumbria or maybe Durham. - RBW
File: C060
===
NAME: King Henry [Child 32]
DESCRIPTION: King Henry goes hunting and encounters a hideous woman. For courtesy he salutes her, only to find her making incredible demands -- first the flesh of his animals, and finally that he sleep with her. He does, to find her transformed into a beautiful woman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: courting sex shape-changing
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 32, "King Henry" (1 text)
Bronson 32, "King Henry" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 124-126, "King Henry" (1 text)
OBB 16, "King Henry" (1 text)
DBuchan 4, "King Henry" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's {#1})
DT 32, KINGHENR*
Roud #3967
File: C032
===
NAME: King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]
DESCRIPTION: The English king sends to the French king a reminder of tribute due. The French king says our king is too young to be a threat and sends tennis balls instead. Our king takes an army, excluding married men and widows' sons, and succeeds against the French
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1832 (Nicolas); many undated manuscript copies predate this, and D'Urfey had something similar
KEYWORDS: war royalty battle
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1413 - Accession of Henry V
1415 - Henry V attacks France, captures Harfleur, and wins the Battle of Agincourt
1415-1421 - Continuing campaigns in France
1421 - Henry marries Catherine (the youngest daughter of Charles VI "the Mad," the king of France) and is declared the heir of France
1422 - Death of Henry V
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,NE,SE)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Child 164, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #6, #1}
Bronson 164, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (10 versions)
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 145-148, "King Henry the Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2 a/b, although the three transcriptions are all slightly different musically}
Leach, pp. 463-466, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (2 texts)
Niles 49, "King Henry Fith's Conquest of France" (3 texts, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN305, "As our King lay musing on his bed"
DT 164, HENRYV*
Roud #251
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Agincourt Carol" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Fency King and the English King
Henry's Tribute
The Tennis Balls
NOTES: The career of Henry V marked the high point, for the English, of the Hundred Years' War (which lasted from 1437 to 1453, more or less, although with frequent truces). The death of Henry almost instantly turned the course of the war around. In 1435 the French recaptured Paris, in 1450 they retook Normandy, and in 1451-1453 they threw the English out of Guyenne, which they had ruled since 1154. Except for Calais (which the English held for another century), the invaders had been driven from France.
It might be noted that, under English law, the king of England was also the rightful king of France. (Of course, there is the minor detail that Henry V was not the rightful king of England.) The French, however, managed to dig up a law that said that the throne of France could only be passed on through a male line -- and the English monarchs claimed the French throne through a female line.
The story about the tennis balls is widely told (including in some old chronicles), but there is no real reason to believe it true. Some have suspected that it derives from a story of Darius III of Persia and Alexander the Great: Darius send Alexander children's toys.
In any case, it wasn't modern lawn tennis back in the fifteenth century; modern tennis is a nineteenth century invention, based only very loosely on the older game of Court Tennis (or Royal Tennis, or Real Tennis). - RBW
File: C164
===
NAME: King Herod and the Cock: see The Carnal and the Crane [Child 55] (File: C055)
===
NAME: King James and Brown [Child 180]
DESCRIPTION: Douglas comes to attack the King. The ruler is saved by Brown. Brown convinces the king to pardon Douglas; Douglas reacts by attacking Edinborough. Brown once again defeats the renegade Earl; for this and other services, King James makes him an earl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: royalty nobility fight rescue
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: April 7, 1571 - hanging of James Hamilton, Archbishop of Saint Andrews, whom Child believes to the the Bishop of Saint Andrews whom Brown defeated
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 180, "King James and Brown" (1 text, with appendix "The King of Scots and Andrew Browne")
cf. Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 221-225, "King of Scots and Andrew Brown" (1 text, not from the folio manuscript even though the folio includes part of the piece; note that this is the piece Child puts in the appendix, not the main text, though both are from the Percy folio)
BarryEckstormSmyth p. 467, "King James and Brown" (notes plus a modified partial text from Child)
Roud #4009
File: C180
===
NAME: King John and the Abbot of Canterbury: see King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)
===
NAME: King John and the Bishop [Child 45]
DESCRIPTION: King John tells the (bishop of Canterbury) he must answer the King's questions or die. The bishop, unable to answer, turns to a shepherd (his brother?). The answers are so clever the king rewards the shepherd and pardons both (makes the shepherd bishop)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1695 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: questions help riddle
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1199-1216 - Reign of King John
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) US(MW,MA,NE,NW)
REFERENCES: (14 citations)
Child 45, "King John and the Bishop" (2 texts)
Bronson 45, "King John and the Bishop" (15 versions plus1 in addenda)
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 303-312, "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury" (2 texts, one from the Percy folio and one as printed in the _Reliques_)
BarryEckstormSmyth p. 445, "King John and the Bishop" (brief notes only)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 111-112, "The King's Three Questions" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 200-203, "The King's Three Questions" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11; note that Bronson has the wrong date in his headnotes}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 280-298, "King John and the Bishop" (5 texts plus 2 fragments, 3 tunes; the texts are listed A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, C, D, because A1 and A2 were both ultimately derived from the same singer through different informants and B1, B2, B3 are from the same informant at different times) {A1=Bronson's #11}
Gardner/Chickering 155, "King John and the Bishop" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Leach, pp. 154-158, "King John and the Bishop" (1 text)
Leach-Labrador 2, "King John and the Bishop" (1 text: Newfoundland story related by theme to the ballad)
OBB 172, "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury" (1 text)
Niles 19, "King John and the Bishop" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN1364, "I'le tell you a story, a story anon"
DT 45, KJONCANT*
Roud #302
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Bishop of Canterbury" (AFS 4196A, 1938; tr.; on LC57, in AMMEM/Cowell) {Bronson's #4}
SAME_TUNE:
The Shaking of the Sheets (Chappell/Wooldridge II, pp. 228-229; British Library Add. MS. 15225; entered in the Stationer's Register for John Awdelay 1568/9; Playford, The Dancing Master, 1651; rec. by The Baltimore Consort on The Ladye's Delight)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The King and the Bishop
NOTES: King John did not have a good relationship with the Catholic Church; he refused to accept Stephen Langton, the Pope's choice for Archbishop of Canterbury. From 1208 to 1213 England was placed under Interdict by the Pope. John responded by removing bishops from their offices -- and taking away their mistresses (though he allowed them pensions). The historical story bears only the slightest similarity to the tale in the ballad, however, which may also have been influenced by the war of wills between John's father Henry II and Thomas Becket.
Bronson notes that the song has been in constant contact with broadside prints, and doubts that any of the versions arose entirely from traditional stock. Several of the broadsides list the tune as "The Shaking of the Sheets"; see the "Same Tune" reference. - RBW
File: C045
===
NAME: King Knapperty: see Kempy Kay [Child 33] (File: C033)
===
NAME: King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O: see Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)
===
NAME: King o' Spain's Daughter, The: see Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)
===
NAME: King of the Cannibal Islands, The
DESCRIPTION: Sometimes a ballad about castaways marrying the daughter of the King of the Cannibal Islands, but often degenerates into a quatrain-ballad about the odd events on the islands. The use of the title phrase is characteristic.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 36(10) View 2 of 2)
KEYWORDS: humorous cannibalism
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 195, "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #15695
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 36(10) View 2 of 2, "The King of the Cannibal Islands," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads 536, Harding B 11(322), Harding B 11(1997), Firth c.17(312), Harding B 11(1496), Harding B 11(2830), "[The] King of the Cannibal Islands"
NLScotland, R.B.m.143(147), "The King of the Cannibal Islands," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1858
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf."The Settler's Lament (The Beautiful Land of Australia)" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Hoke Pokee Wonkee Fum (per broadside, NLScotland, R.B.m.143(147))
The Settler's Lament (The Beautiful Land of Australia) (File: PFS101)
NOTES: This doesn't show up in folk songbooks much, but it seems to me that I heard it somewhere in my youth; I suspect it qualifies as a children's folk song. At least, I'm putting it here on that assumption. - RBW
From the commentary for broadside NLScotland RB.m.143(147): "This ballad was written at a high-point of British Imperialism, and is a telling illustration of the superior attitudes which popularly existed among both those Brits who settled abroad, in countries such as Africa, and also among the broadside-buying public back in Scotland. As with another broadside in the National Library of Scotland's collection, 'The Queen of Otaheite', the 'natives' are portrayed as bigamous cannibals, with little regard for Western ways."
Opie-Oxford2 re 227, "Hokey, pokey, whisky, thum": Evidently derived from "King of the Cannibal Islands" by A.W. Humphreys. See broadside [Note however that the NLScotland broadside of 1858 states that the tune comes from "Hokee Pokee Wonkee Fum"] - BS
File: PHCFS195
===
NAME: King of the Fairies, The
DESCRIPTION: "A wee, wee man came to our toon en', Fiddledum, faddledum, fee, fee, fee," singing the men from their work despite his huge feet and mouth, odd clothes, very long arms, etc. He holds a dance, then frightens them; he becomes king of the fairies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: dancing talltale music
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 166-167, "The King of the Fairies (Nursery Song)" (1 text)
Roud #5561
File: Ord166
===
NAME: King Orfeo [Child 19]
DESCRIPTION: The wife of (King) Orfeo, perhaps in a fit of madness, flees from him and his court. Orfeo sets out to find her. Encountering her under guard in a high hall, he plays his pipes so well that his wife is returned to him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1880
KEYWORDS: music magic separation madness
FOUND_IN: Britain(Hebr)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Child 19, "King Orfeo" (1 text)
Bronson 19, "King Orfeo" (1 version plus 1 in addenda)
Davis-More 11, pp. 79-80, "King Orfeo," comments only
OBB 15, "King Orfeo (A Shetland Ballad)" (1 text)
DT 19, KNGORFEO*
Roud #136
RECORDINGS:
John Stickle, "King Orfeo" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
NOTES: Loosely based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridice. Observe, however, that "King Orfeo" has a happy endings: Orfeo and the Euridice figure are successfully reunited.
The same is true of what may be the direct source of this piece, the Middle English romance "Sir Orfeo."
The interesting question is how "Sir Orfeo" evolved the ending it did. Of the 50-odd Middle English romances, it is generally considered the best not by Chaucer or the Gawain-Poet or Marie of France ("Sir Orfeo," like the works of Marie, is considered a "Breton Lei").
The story of Orpheus was known in the Middle Ages (from Virgil's Georgics and from Ovid -- indeed, it seems to have been better known from Latin than Greek sources), but it's not clear how it was converted to a romance, or how the ending changed. It has been theorized that there is a lost French version, but if so, it's definitely lost.
"Sir Orfeo" is now found in 3 MSS, with the earliest and best, the Auchinlek MS., from about 1330; the others, Harley 3810 and Ashmole 61, are of the fifteenth century. The language of this piece appears to be SW English but with some northern forms, perhaps introduced by a northern copyist; the whole is perhaps from a French or Breton original).
Sir Orfeo is, incidentally, one of the few Middle English romances to be generally praised by critics, for both its plot and for its well-handled poetry. It is #3868 in the Brown and Robbins Middle English Index.
A full apparatus criticus for "Sir Orfeo" has been published by A. J. Bliss. A critical text of the romance is available in Kenneth Sisam's _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_. (604 lines) Unfortunately, it is not glossed (though the book has a complete glossary by J. R. R. Tolkien). A glossed version is available in Donald B. Sands, _Middle English Verse Romances_ (580 lines). Tolkien later published a modernized verse version following the same lineation as Sisam (though it is not just a crib; it's a true translation, using almost none of the language of the original); it is available in the volume _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight * Pearl * Sir Orfeo_.
Several other ballads also derive loosely or from Middle English romance, or from the legends that underly it, examples being:
* "Hind Horn" [Child 17], from "King Horn" (3 MSS., including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "Floris and Blancheflour")
* "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31], from "The Weddynge of Sir Gawe and Dame Ragnell" (1 defective MS, Bodleian MS Rawlinson C 86)
* "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" [Child 300], from "Floris and Blancheflour" (4 MSS, including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "King Horn," and the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Sir Orfeo") - RBW
File: C019
===
NAME: King Pharim: see The Carnal and the Crane [Child 55] (File: C055)
===
NAME: King Solomon's Temple: see The Building of Solomon's Temple [Laws Q39] (File: LQ39)
===
NAME: King Stephen Was a Worthy Peer: see The Old Cloak (File: OBB170)
===
NAME: King Takes the Queen, The
DESCRIPTION: "The King will take the Queen, But the Queen will take the knave, And since we're in good company, More liquor let us have. Here's to you, Tom Brown, and to you me jolly soul." As cards take cards, so each reminds the singer of a happy life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1891 (collected by Frank Kidson)
KEYWORDS: drink cards nonballad game
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North,South)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Kennedy 283, "Tam Broon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 64-66, "Tam Brown" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 232, "Tom Brown" (1 text)
Roud #884
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
With All My Heart
The Card Song
The Cards
The Two Beats the One
NOTES: Tunney-StoneFiddle has the song in a Mummers' Play. - BS
In 1857. Thomas Hughes published a novel, _Tom Brown's Schooldays_, about a fellow noted for skill, sportsmanship, and an imperfect grasp of academics. It is apparently based on the real Rugby School. Brown might well be the sort of person who would be the toast of a song like this. Given the distribution of versions of this song, I think it unlikely -- but just possible enough to be worth mentioning. - RBW
File: FSWB232
===
NAME: King William and the Keeper
DESCRIPTION: King William disguises himself as a poacher. He's caught by the keepers, who tell him no one may hunt this ground without leave of King William. He attempts to bribe the keepers, but they refuse (and beat him). He reveals himself and praises their loyalty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1676 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: virtue crime poaching hunting royalty money disguise
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1688-1702 - Reign of William III
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacSeegTrav 116, "King William and the Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood" [Child 151] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Suit of Russet Grey
The Loyal Forester or Royal Pastime
NOTES: [MacColl and Seeger write,] "Following the return of William III from his Irish campaigns, London balladmongers would appear to have been fully employed in creating an acceptable popular image for Ebsworth's 'saturnine' monarch. Old tales and ballads were refurbished with William represented as a roistering updated Prince Hal, consorting with sailors, farmers, shepherds and foresters." One hopes he carried adequate identification. - PJS
Few such songs seem to have survived in tradition, for which we should perhaps be thankful. I wonder how many merged with the songs allegedly about James V of Scotland?
Incidentally, there is little evidence that William III had any such "popular" tastes. - RBW
File: McCST116
===
NAME: King William was King James's Son
DESCRIPTION: "King William was King James's Son, Upon the royal race he run, Upon his breast he wore a star, (That points the way to the ocean far)." "Now this couple are married together... You must be kind, you must be good, And help your wife in kindling wood."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty royalty
FOUND_IN: US(NE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Randolph 543, "King William was King James's Son" (15 texts, mostly short, 2 tunes; the "C" and "D" texts might be "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow")
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 402-403, "King William Was King James's Son" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 543A)
Hudson 142, pp. 289-290, "King William" (1 text plus mention of at least five others)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 263-264, "See This Pretty Little Girl of Mine" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. ,188-189 "King William Was King George's Son" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 181-182, "The White Cockade" (1 text, translated from the Gaelic with some lines surely inspired by this; the rest is not the usual "White Cockade." I rather suspect two-way translation)
ST R543 (Full)
Roud #4203
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The White Cockade"
NOTES: Norm Cohen says succinctly of the Randolph version, "The title of the song is not true."
To clarify: There are no specific references in this song to which king is meant, but there has never been an actual case, in England or Scotland (or any other country, to my knowledge) of a King William who was the son of a King James. The closest thing to a parallel would be William III and Mary II; William III was the nephew, son-in-law, and deposer of James II.
Paul Stamler recalls a song "King William was King George's Son," and of course this is the title in Flanders/Brown; Newell also lists this as a variant reading. This is more possible (King William IV, reigned 1830-1837, was the song of George the III and the younger brother of George IV) -- but William IV was a dissolute, childless king who would hardly inspire a song.
Another known combination of father and son is the song is King Charles son of James (possible for James I and Charles I).
Gomme has two texts with William son of David; England never had a King David. Scotland did, but neither was succeeded by a William. David II Bruce died without legitimate offspring. David I was succeeded by his grandson Malcolm IV "the Maiden." When Malcolm died, he was succeeded by his brother William the Lion. This is therefore the closest example of a William-and-David in British history.
It has been claimed that this is a war recruiting song, but of Randolph's fifteen versions, only one (H, "This old slouch hat you must put on To follow the man with the fife and drum") supports this conclusion, and while Newell's text #177 gives hints of a soldier's life, it's directed to a young woman! The Flanders/Brown version appears to be just a singing game.
Newell tied his first text (#27) to the Swedish tale of Folke Algotson, but if so, there has been a lot of evolution along the way. - RBW
File: R543
===
NAME: King William's Son: see Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)
===
NAME: King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood, The [Child 151]
DESCRIPTION: King Richard, impressed by Robin's reputation, seeks him. Disguised as an abbot who is the king's messenger, he hears Robin's declarations of loyalty to king and of spite to clergy. Well treated for the king's sake, he reveals himself and pardons Robin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1777
KEYWORDS: Robinhood royalty disguise clergy
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1189-1199 - Reign of King Richard I
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 151, "The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood" (1 text)
Roud #3993
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "King William and the Keeper" (theme)
NOTES: Robin Hood is often portrayed as a loyal servant of King Richard I against his vile brother John. However, it should be noted that Richard was a rotten king (especially for England, where he spent only six months of his ten year reign -- and used those six months solely to gather money). Richard was rash, brutal, and indecisive -- and John never really rebelled against him; he merely succeeded him. In other words, the events in this ballad are historically almost impossible.
For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. - RBW
File: C151
===
NAME: King's Dochter Lady Jean, The [Child 52]
DESCRIPTION: The king's daughter goes to the wood, where a man meets her and rapes her. After he is through, they exchange names. He is her brother came back from the sea! She stabs herself. She is carried home and dies. When he sees her body, he dies in her arms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: royalty incest rape suicide
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(MA)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 52, "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" (4 texts)
Bronson 52, "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" (5 versions plus 2 in addenda)
DT 52, KINGDAUJ KNGDAU2
Roud #39
RECORDINGS:
Sara Cleveland, "Queen Jane" (on SCleveland01) {Bronson's #1.1 in addenda}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf "The Bonnie Hind" [Child 50] (plot)
cf. "Sheath and Knife" [Child 16] (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" [Child 14] (plot)
cf. "Lizie Wan" [Child 51] (theme)
NOTES: On the scientific evidence that brothers and sisters raised apart are particularly likely to fall in love, and some further speculation as to why, see the notes to "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]." - RBW
File: C052
===
NAME: King's Land, The
DESCRIPTION: "I'm on the King's land, The King's not at home! The King's gone to Boston, To buy his wife a comb."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Linscott)
KEYWORDS: royalty commerce home playparty
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Linscott, pp. 30-31, "King's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14049
NOTES: Linscott describes this as being derived from an ancient game, "King of Cantland"; I can't find any records of such a thing. - RBW
File: Lins030
===
NAME: King's Three Questions, The: see King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)
===
NAME: Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo)
DESCRIPTION: "Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa, Wid de muff-stash on his face, Go long the road some time dis mornin' Like he gwine to leab de place?" The slaves exult that the coming of Union soldiers is chasing Master away, leaving them free (and free to rejoice)
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST_DATE: 1862
KEYWORDS: slave slavery Civilwar freedom
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Randolph 230, "The Year of Jubelo" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 232, "Kingdom Coming" (3 texts)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 106-109, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, pp. 92-93, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 114-115, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, p. 104, "The Year of Jubalo" (1 text)
DT, YRJUBILO*
ST R230 (Full)
Roud #778
RECORDINGS:
Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers [Oscar Jenkins, Frank Jenkins, Ernest V. Stoneman], "In the Year of Jubilo" (Conqueror, unissued, 1929)
Chubby Parker, "The Year of Jublio" (Conqueror 7897, 1931)
Pete Seeger, "Kingdom Coming" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Babylon Is Falling" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Massa's Gone Away
NOTES: This was the first song by Henry Clay Work (1832-1864) to be published. Work was a fervent abolitionist; his father had been jailed for his activities with the underground railroad. One day the younger Work showed up at Root and Cady. George F. Root described him as "a quiet and rather solemn-looking young man, poorly clad," but was astonished by the song he brought along.
"Kingdom Coming" was taken up by the Christy Minstrels in 1862, and soon became a runaway bestseller. Work's career was off to a fine start.
In a rather hilarious twist, the polemic _War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy_ (1904?) publishes this as "The Contraband," along with an explanation of how slaves loved their masters! Work's name, naturally, is omitted; it is offered as "A song of Mississippi negros in the Vicksburg campaign."
I have never seen an explanation of how this song originated, but there is an incident which might have played a tangential role, and which happened fairly early. In 1862, in the western theater of the war, Confederate commander Albert Sydney Johnston had played a vast game of bluff, occupying a line in Kentucky and northern Tennessee with forces he knew to be inadequate to the task. After U. S. Grant broke the center of his line by capturing Forts Henry and Donelson, he had no choice but to move the rest of his lines sharply south. In the process, he had to abandon his main supply base at Nashville (February 24, 1862, according to [no author], _The Civil War Almanac_, World Almanac/Bison Books, 1983, pp. 86-87).
When Federal troops entered Nashville, a reporter went to one of the leading hotels and pounded on the door. According to Shelby Foote, _The Civil War: A Narrative_ (Volume I: Fort Sumter to Perryville) (Random House, 1958), p. 217, "He kept on ringing, with the persistency of a tired and hungry man within reach of food and a clean bed. At last he was rewarded. A Negro swung the door ajar and stood there smiling broadly. 'Massa done gone souf,' he said, still grinning."
What's more, there *was* "a smoke way up de ribber" at that time. It came from two Confederate gunboats being burned (Foote, p. 216) -- but the civilians could hardly know that, and they *did* know that Federal gunboats had been responsible for the capture of Fort Henry and had attacked (though they had been repelled at) Fort Donelson. - RBW
File: R230
===
NAME: Kings of Orient: see We Three Kings (Kings of Orient) (File: OBC195)
===
NAME: Kingston Volunteers, The: see James Bird [Laws A5] (File: LA05)
===
NAME: Kinkaiders, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells us that the "place I like the best" is "the sand hills, O the sand hills, The place Kinkaiders make their home." He praises the corn, melons, cows, etc., and gives thanks "for the homestead law he made, This noble Moses P. Kinkaid."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: home farming
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1903-1919 - Term of Congressman Moses P. Kinkaid, who introduced the homestead law which was so widely praised in Nebraska
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Sandburg, pp. 278-279, "The Kinkaiders" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 85, p. 184, "The Kinkaiders" (1 text)
Roud #4982
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and references there
NOTES: Pound reports, "Moses P. Kinkaid was congressman of the sixth congressional distict [of Nebraska], 1903-1919. He was the introducer of a bill for 640-acre homesteads known as the 'Kinkaid Homestead Law.'"
Also known as the "Kinkaid Home Act," and passed in 1904, the Act applied originally only to unsettled areas of Nebraska, and granted the land in return for five years residence and $800 in improvement. It was extended in 1909.
Given that the song was collected while Kinkaid was still in office, one wonders if this might not be a campaign song. - RBW
File: San278
===
NAME: Kinmont Willie [Child 186]
DESCRIPTION: Kinmont Willie, a notorious raider, comes to the border under a truce, with few men at his back, and is treacherously taken by a large force under Lord Scroop and others. He is imprisoned as a raider, but finally rescued
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: betrayal prison rescue borderballad
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Apr 13, 1596 - Rescue of William Armstrong of Kinmouth (Kinmont Willie) from the castle at Carlisle
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Child 186, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Bronson 186, "Kinmont Willie" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 504-509, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
OBB 137, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
PBB 56, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 116-122+327-328, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 108-114, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
DT, KINMWILL
Roud #4013
NOTES: Kinmont Willie was a real person, and he caused a major border incident at a time when James VI of Scotland was really trying to stay on good terms with Elizabeth I of England, since he wanted to succeed her.
According to Roaslin Mitchison, _A History of Scotland_ (second edition), p. 158, "In 1597 [her date; Child's extensive note says 1596] there was the international incident of Kinmont Willie. The English broke Border law by capturing him at a day of truce, and refused from personal animosity to the Scottish Warden, Buccleuch, to hand him back. Buccleuch then rescued him from Carlisle castle. The subsequent outbreak of diplomatic huffiness was resolved by a joing English and Scottish commission."
This was typical of the problems of the time: The governments wanted peace, but the borderers wanted to keep on looting. - RBW
File: C186
===
NAME: Kinsale versus Mallow
DESCRIPTION: The singer's answer to Paddy. "What could bewitch you, to sing ... the praise of Kinsale?" The only commerce of Kinsale is fish. The spa at Mallow beats that at Kinsale. No king would ever have sight of the Kinsale hotel. "I'll stay here in Mallow"
AUTHOR: John Lander (source: Croker-PopularSongs)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1831 (Haly broadside, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: commerce fishing humorous nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 218-220, "Kinsale versus Mallow" (1 text)
NOTES: Kinsale and Mallow are in County Cork.
Croker-PopularSongs: "This satirical song ["The Praise of Kinsale"], with the subsequent reply to it ["Kinsale versus Mallow"], are given from a broadside purchased by the Editor in 1831, at the shop of Haly, a ballad printer in Hanover Street, Cork. The were respectively entitled, 'Paddy Farrell, of Kinsale, to his Friend at Mallow;' and 'Answer of Thady Mullowny, of Mallow, to Paddy Farrell, Kinsale.'" - BS
File: CrPS218
===
NAME: Kintey Coy at Samsonville
DESCRIPTION: Tales of Old Abey Kelder's bar. The clientele is reported to have "kintey coyed and raised the devil; I bet they thought their heads was level." The behavior of various bar patrons is briefly described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: drink moniker
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
FSCatskills 162, "Kintey Coy at Samsonville" (1 text)
ST FSC162 (Partial)
File: FSC162
===
NAME: Kintyre Love Song, A
DESCRIPTION: "Like the violets in spring, like the lark on the wing... so sweet is she." The singer uses similar imagery to illustrate that "so fair is she," "so kind is she," "so dear is she."
AUTHOR: Words: James Hamish Dall Mactaggart
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H195, p. 234, "A Kintyre Love Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9468
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ned of the Hill" (tune)
File: HHH195
===
NAME: Kipawa Stream, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am a roving shantyboy -- the pinewoods is my home, Like every other fellow, from camp to camp I roam." The singer recalls his years of work on the rivers, noting "My muscle is my fortune." He wishes he could have revenge on the Indians
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger drink Indians(Am.)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke-Lumbering #63, "The Kipawa Stream" (1 text)
Roud #4557
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Manistee River Song"
cf. "Boardman River Song"
NOTES: Although the final stanza of this song seeks revenge on the Indians, the singer gave no reason for wanting such revenge. It may be that this is a leftover from one of the various other versions of this song (see the cross-references). - RBW
File: FowL63
===
NAME: Kirtle Gaol: see County Jail (II) (File: Mack148)
===
NAME: Kishmul's Galley: see Beinn a' Cheathaich (File: K002)
===
NAME: Kiss in the Morning Early, A
DESCRIPTION: A maid goes to her cobbler "for her kiss in the morning early." They plan to marry. He gives her a fancy pair of shoes. She goes home and tells her father "I've got me a man." He wonders who but guesses it is only the cobbler when he sees the shoes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: courting father clothes
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 75, "A Kiss in the Morning Early" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3807
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "The Shoemaker's Kiss" which is also about relations between a girl and a shoemaker -- but the latter involves a pregnancy, on which basis we split them (at least until I find linking versions). - RBW
File: OLcM075
===
NAME: Kiss Me, Oh, I Like It
DESCRIPTION: "One morning rather dark as I strolled through the park, I met with a blushing young maid." They find their way beneath the trees, where she proclaims, "Kiss me, oh, I like it, Kiss me again, it's nice.... You are a dear, and no one is near....."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (recorded from Edith Perrin)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #16398
RECORDINGS:
Edith Perrin, "Kiss Me, Oh, I Like It" [fragment] (on USWarnerColl01)
File: RcKMOILI
===
NAME: Kissing in the Dark
DESCRIPTION: "For lang I courted Jeannie... And whan she cam to see me, I wad kiss her in the dark." One night when she is away, he sneaks in and accidentally kisses her mother. This causes the mother to give consent to their marriage, and her money when she dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting humorous mother nightvisit
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 97-98, "Kissin' in the Dark" (1 text)
File: Ord097
===
NAME: Kissing Song (I)
DESCRIPTION: The loving young man "hangs all around the cabin door," kissing the girl "for (his/her) mother and her sister and her brother Till her Daddy comes...." Daddy threatens to shoot him; the girl objects. They continue courting much to the old folks' delight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: love courting father family
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 374, "A Young Man's Love" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 305-307, "A Young Man's Love" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 374C)
DT, KISSNG
Roud #3642
RECORDINGS:
Chubby Parker, "The Kissing Song" (Conqueror 7891, 1931)
NOTES: According to Cohen, this song was copyrighted by Billy Carter in 1882 as "Kissing on the Sly." - RBW
File: R374
===
NAME: Kissing Song (II -- She Just Kept Kissing On)
DESCRIPTION: "I gave her kisses one, kisses one (x2), I gave her kisses one, And she said 'twas well begun, So we kept kissing on, kissing on." Similarly, "Kisses two... She said that would not do...." and so on, up to perhaps "ten... begin again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 313, "Kissing Song" (1 text plus a fragment)
Roud #4388
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "She Just Kept Kissing On" (Victor V-40095, 1929; on KHarrell02)
NOTES: The editors of Brown link this with the other "Kissing Song" found in Randolph. This is perverse -- this is a counting song, Randolph's a genuine courting song. - RBW
File: Br3313
===
NAME: Kissing's No Sin (I)
DESCRIPTION: "Some say kissing's a sin, but I think it's nane ava, For kissing has been in the world When there was but only twa." The singer points to all those who have engaged in kissing, noting that it must be lawful if lawyers do it, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kinloch-BBook XXIX, pp. 86-88, "The Mautman" (1 text, containing at least a fragment of this)
Roud #2579
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mautman" (lyrics)
cf. "The Hog-tub" (lyrics)
cf. "The Song of Temptation" (theme of the antiquity of sexual relations)
NOTES: This is, quite simply, a tangle. This consists of two parts: "Some say that kissing's a sin" and "If it wasna lawful...." The former is shared with "The Mautman," which adds a story about a mautman demanding his pay; the latter is shared with "The Hog-tub," which adds a Mother Goose rhyme, "Once I courted a pretty lass." How all these grafts came together I don't know; the combination found in this song seems most logical, but what does that prove? - RBW
File: RcKiNoSi
===
NAME: Kissing's No Sin (II): see The Mautman (File: KinBB29)
===
NAME: Kitardine
DESCRIPTION: "One night ... Some rambling thoughts came in my mind And caused me for to roam." The singer leaves his girl, takes the train from Kitardine to the lumber camp, and takes a job as a cook. At season's end he signs on to help take the lumber to Bangor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: courting farewell lumbering
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 42-43, "Kitardine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12473
NOTES: Dibblee/Dibblee: Kitardine is in Maine. - BS
File: Dib042
===
NAME: Kitchey Coo: see Bill Wiseman (File: Doyl3014)
===
NAME: Kitchey-Coo: see Bill Wiseman (File: Doyl3014)
===
NAME: Kitchie-Boy, The [Child 252]
DESCRIPTION: A lady reveals her love to a kitchen boy. He begs her not to make it known; her father would kill him. She sends him over the sea; he rebuffs a lady's advances. He returns home in disguise and convinces the father to let him marry his daughter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: love separation nobility servant disguise marriage reunion return
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (5 texts)
Bronson 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (3 versions)
Leach, pp. 616-621, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 text)
DBuchan 25, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 text)
Roud #105
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Matt Hyland" (plot)
cf. "Richie Story" [Child 232] (plot)
cf. "The Prince of Morocco (The Sailor Boy II)" [Laws N18] (plot)
cf. "Hind Horn" [Child 17] (lyrics)
NOTES: Child views this as a "modern 'adaption' of 'King Horn'" (i.e. "Hind Horn," Child 17), from which it derives some stanzas. The plot, however, is by no means identical, sharing elements with a number of other ballads. - RBW
File: C252
===
NAME: Kite Abandoned in White Bay, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye rambling sailor boys And hearken please to me And hear what fishermen endure...." The Kite sets out with the sealing fleet, but her slow speed causes her to be left behind. 22 crew leave her to go home and seek better work
AUTHOR: probably Johnny Burke
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small)
KEYWORDS: ship hunting abandonment
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 103, "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)" (tune)
NOTES: This apparently comes from a manuscript with no indication of author, date, or tune. Ryan and Small believe it to be by Johnny Burke. Looking at the form and certain of the words, I think it effectively certain that "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)" was his model. - RBW
File: RySm103
===
NAME: Kitten Is Under the Sod, The
DESCRIPTION: "The kitten is under the sod, the sod, The kitten is under the sod."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal burial
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 179, "The Kitten Is Under the Sod" (1 short text)
File: Br3179
===
NAME: Kittie Wells: see Kitty Wells (File: MN2166)
===
NAME: Kitty Alone (I): see Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)
===
NAME: Kitty Alone (II): see The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)
===
NAME: Kitty Alone and I: see Kemo Kimo (File: R282)
===
NAME: Kitty Cain't You Come Along Too?: see Raccoon (File: R260)
===
NAME: Kitty Clyde: see Katy Cline (File: FSWB149)
===
NAME: Kitty Gray
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a girl and courts her "For she looked like an angel although she was poor." Her widowed mother consents to the marriage "as by flattery and deception I won Kitty Gray." But when she realizes his deception, she and the baby die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: "One morning as through the village churchyard I did stray," the singer sees a girl and courts her "For she looked like an angel although she was poor." Her widowed mother consents to the marriage "as by flattery and deception I won Kitty Gray." But when she realizes his deception, she and the baby dies
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty death children money trick
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Gardner/Chickering 32, "Kitty Gray" (1 text)
ST GC032 (Partial)
Roud #3692
File: GC032
===
NAME: Kitty Kline: see Katy Cline (File: FSWB149)
===
NAME: Kitty Kline (II): see Little Birdie (File: R676)
===
NAME: Kitty O'Noory: see Katie Morey [Laws N24] (File: LN24)
===
NAME: Kitty of Coleraine
DESCRIPTION: "As beautiful Kitty one morning was tripping" she sees the singer, stumbles, breaks her pitcher and spills its milk. He comforts her. "She vowed for such pleasure she'd break it again." Soon after not an unbroken pitcher could be found in Coleraine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1809 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(8))
KEYWORDS: sex humorous food
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
O'Conor, p. 44, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
Hayward-Ulster, p. 67, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Kitty of Coleraine" (source notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 467, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
Roud #6534
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(8), "Kitty of Colerain", Laurie & Whittle (London), 1809; also Firth b.25(262), 2806 c.15(262), 2806 c.17(209), Harding B 28(149), "Kitty of Colerain"; 2806 b.11(176), Firth c.26(216), Harding B 25(1033), Harding B 12(49), "Kitty of Coleraine"; Harding B 28(265), "Kitty of Colerein"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Spotted Cow" (theme)
cf. "Blackberry Grove" (theme)
cf. "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" (theme)
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(8) imprint: "Publish'd Apr. 4, 1809, by Laurie & Whittle, 53, Fleet Street, London. Sung with unbounded applause by John Johnstone, Esq of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, amongst his convivial friends in Ireland." - BS
The editors of _Granger's Index to Poetry_ list this as "wr[ongly] at[tributed] to Charles Dawson Shanley." Hoagland, at least, follows this incorrect attribution (giving Shanley's dates as 1811-1875, which obviously demonstrates why he couldn't have written a song published in 1809), though she admits some doubts. - RBW
File: OCon044
===
NAME: Kitty Tyrrell
DESCRIPTION: The singer comes to the girl, describing all he has to offer if she will marry. He concludes "Your silence I'll take for consent... Now all that I have is your own. This week you may be Kitty Tyrrell; Next week you'll be Mistress Malone."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Jefferys / Music: Charles W. Glover (died 1863)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1860 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2430))
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage home
FOUND_IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 788, "I've Built Me a Neat Little Cot, Darling" (1 text)
O'Conor, p. 12, "Kitty Tyrrell" (1 text)
Roud #7418
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2430), "Kitty Tyrrell", Ryle and Co (London), 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(708), Harding B 18(333), Harding B 11(858), Harding B 11(3976), Harding B 11(2011), "Kitty Tyrrell"; Firth b.26(102), Firth c.26(154), "Kitty Tyrell"; Firth b.25(82), "Kitty Tyrrel"
NOTES: O'Conor attributes the words to [Samuel] Lover - BS
File: R788
===
NAME: Kitty Wells
DESCRIPTION: The singer weeps to remember Kitty Wells. The two were planning their wedding when she died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1858
KEYWORDS: courting death nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
BrownIII 411, "Kitty Wells" (1 text plus mention of 12 more)
Brewster 92, "Kitty Wells" (2 texts plus an excerpt)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 166-168, "Kitty Wells" (1 text, 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 185-186, "Kittie Wells" (1 text)
Beck 78, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 94, p. 202, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
JHCox 127, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Kitty Wells" (source notes only)
ST MN2166 (Full)
Roud #2748
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Kitty Wells" (Victor 20058, 1926)
Sid Harkreader, "Kitty Wells" (Paramount 3043, 1927)
The Hillbillies, "Kitty Wells" (Vocalion 5018/Vocalion 5019, c. 1926)
Doc Hopkins, "Kitty Wells" (Decca 5983, 1941)
Bradley Kincaid, "Sweet Kitty Wells" (Champion 15502 [as Dan Hughey]/Gennett 6363/Silvertone 5187/Silvertone 8218/Supertone 9208, 1928; rec. 1927)
Pickard Family, "Kitty Wells" (Columbia 15141-D, 1927); (Conqueror 7517, 1930)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Kitty Wells" (Okeh 45048, 1926) (Edison 51994, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5341, 1927)
Virginia Ramblers, "Kitty Wells" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(110b), "Kitty Wells," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Kate Wells
Katy Wells
NOTES: This piece was repeatedly published in the mid-nineteenth century. The earliest copy (1858) credits it to Charles E. Atherton; the same publisher in 1861 issued an "authorized" edition as by T. Brigham Bishop. A third copy, from 1860, credits the piece to Thomas Sloan, Jr.
From the notes in Cox, it appears that this began life as a dialect song, but many of the texts (including Cox's own) are now in ordinary English. - RBW
File: MN2166
===
NAME: Kitty, the Wicklow Girl
DESCRIPTION: "God bless you all, I just came out to have a little chat, I am Irish sure, but thatÕs no sin, IÕm a rollicking merry Pat." The singer claims great success with girls, but wants only Kitty. He describes the happy process of courting her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 68,, "Kitty, the Wicklow Girl" (1 text)
Roud #5498
File: Dean068A
===
NAME: Klondike Gold Rush, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh come to the place where they strike it rich, Come where the treasure lies hid, Where your hat full of mud is a five pound note.... Klondike, Klondike, Label your luggage for Klondike." The singer tells the poor folks about easy wealth in Klondike
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959
KEYWORDS: gold mining nonballad money
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1896 - George Carmack and his companions discover gold near the Klondike River. By 1898 there were so many prospectors (an estimated 25,000) in the area that the Mounties turned back anyone not carrying a year's worth of supplies
FOUND_IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 186-188, "The Klondike Gold Rush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4527
NOTES: Fowke collected this song in British Columbia, but believed it was written by an Englishman (it refers to a "five pound note" and a "quid," although Canada went to dollars in 1858, even before Confederation). - RBW
File: FMB186
===
NAME: Knave, The: see The Rogue (File: RL187)
===
NAME: Knaves Will Be Knaves: see The Rogue (File: RL187)
===
NAME: Knickerbocker Line, The
DESCRIPTION: The earliest versions seem to involve a man who became involved with a seamstress who later stole his watch. In the U.S. this plot seems to have disappeared, replaced by sundry nonsense. The references to the Knickerbocker Line seems diagnostic
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1911
KEYWORDS: nonsense robbery courting
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(West)) US(MA) Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Kennedy 323, "The Knickerbocker Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 146, "The Knickerbocker Line" (2 texts, 2 tunes, plus a text of a published antecedant)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 195, "The Knickerbocker Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST K323 (Partial)
Roud #2149
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Great Northern Line" (tune & meter)
File: K323
===
NAME: Knife in the Window, The: see Creeping and Crawling (File: RL033)
===
NAME: Knight and the Labourman's Daughter, The: see The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)
===
NAME: Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter, The [Child 110]
DESCRIPTION: A knight, drunk, lies with a shepherd's daughter. She goes to the king's castle and calls for justice. With the king's help, she finds the culprit. The king orders the knight to marry her; he laments his fate. (She reveals that she is richer than he.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1769 (Percy); title mentioned 1656 (stationer's register; tune from "The Dancing Master," 1652)
KEYWORDS: marriage betrayal trial royalty seduction rape knight
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (16 citations)
Child 110, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (16 texts)
Bronson 110, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (24 versions+5 in addenda, though the last three are variants on each other and of dubious authenticity)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 76-80, "The Knight, and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
BrownII 31, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 17-18, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 15, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 230-232, "Sir William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 315-320, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 150, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 3, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 40, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
DBuchan 32, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 185-186, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, p. 289, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (1 tune, called "Parson Upon Dorothy" in Chappell's sources) {Bronson's #22c}
BBI, ZN2533, "There was a Shepherd's daughter"
DT 110, SHEPDAU * SHEPDAU2 SHEPDAU3* SHEPDAU4* SHEPDAU5*
Roud #67
RECORDINGS:
Lizzie Higgins, "The Forester" (on Voice06)
John Strachan, "The Royal Forester (The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #17.1 in addenda}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl)"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter
The Shepherd's Daughter and the King
Eywillian
NOTES: What might be a fragment of this ballad is found in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle", Act II, scene viii:
He set her on a milk-white steed,
And himself upon a gray;
He never turned his face again
But he bore her quite away.
Of course, it might be a fragment of "Lady Isabel" or "The Baffled Knight" or several other ballads as well. - RBW
File: C110
===
NAME: Knight in Green, The
DESCRIPTION: A knight pledges a fortune to win a beautiful girl. To raise this money he must borrow from a Jew, offering his own flesh as collateral. When the bill comes, he cannot pay, and flees. And on it goes, till they all live happily ever after
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1825 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: bargaining courting exile poverty reprieve Jew
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 184-191, "Night in Green" (sic) (1 text)
ST FO184 (Partial)
Roud #303
NOTES: The theme here was, of course, used in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." The text here shows no direct knowledge of that play, but the two probably derive from a common ancestor.
The notes in Flanders/Olney state that there is a broadside version in the Folger Shakespeate Library. Unfortunately, they give no other details.
It's worth noting that this very long item comes from manuscript, not singing. And, yes, the title listed by Flanders is "Night," not "Knight." - RBW
File: FO184
===
NAME: Knight of Liddesdale, The [Child 160]
DESCRIPTION: Only one stanza extant: "The Countesse of Douglas out of her boure she came, And loudly there did she call: 'It is for the Lord of Liddesdale That I let all these tears downe fall.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: (1833)
KEYWORDS: death mourning nobility
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1353 - Assassination of William Douglas, "The Knight of Liddesdale," by his relative Lord William Douglas
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 160, "The Knight of Liddesdale" (0 texts!)
Roud #3999
NOTES: Child apparently included this ballad in his collection "on speculation"; Scott's "Minstrelsy" claimed there were "fragments" still current in his time. Child, however, had only one stanza, and nothing more has been recovered since.
Child has extensive notes on the Knight of Liddesdale, who is the probable subject of this ballad. William Douglas, who was known as the Knight of Liddesdale, was active during the reign of David Bruce, the son of Robert Bruce (for some details on the complicated Scottish succession of this period, see the notes to "The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward" [Child 271]).
David had come to the throne as a child of five, and soon after, the English were invading; the English King Edward III (reigned 1327-1377) was promoting Edward Balliol as King of Scotland (this was, in a way, proper, since Edward Balliol was the son of John Balliol, who was the rightful heir of Scotland's King Alexander III. But the Balliol claim had been abdicated, and Edward III was promoting Edward Balliol solely to gain control of Scotland.)
In this period, there was much conflict between the Balliol adherents and the loyalists who supported David Bruce's claim. This conflict did not really end until Edward III started the Hundred Years' War with France and started sending his troops to France rather than Scotland. The Balliol forces were then pushed out of Scotland. Naturally there was much opportunity for various people to pick up lands at the expense of their neighbors. The Knight of Liddesdale was one of the staunchest defenders of the Bruce legacy (see Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, _The History of Scotland_, 1982; I use the 1995 Barnes & Noble edition; p. 85).
We can't say much about this song, but since it seems to refer to Liddesdale's death, the possibility cannot be ruled out that the song at least mentions the complicated question of his successor (which Child does not elaborate) -- or of Douglas's dealings to obtain his fief in 1342. These were, according to Stephen Boardman's _The Early Stewart Kings_, p. 162, "somewhat dubious."
What followed Liddesdale's death was at least as dubious, since the other William Douglas (the assassin) became "Lord of Liddesdale" by a royal grant in 1354, and the grant was converted to an earldom in 1384. This even though the Knight had had a daugher, Mary, though she died in 1367 without issue.
Earl Liddesdale died in 1388, causing yet another squabble over the inheritance (since there was a major factional struggle in Scotland at the time); eventually the property went to Douglas of Dalkeith. - RBW
File: C160
===
NAME: Knight Templar's Dream, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams of the burning bush. He picks up the fiery serpent and it becomes a rod which he takes to Jerusalem. He sees the knights of Malta. He is enlisted "to fight for Christian Liberty." He travels to Ararat and Enoch's temple before he wakes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 19C (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1270(010))
KEYWORDS: dream ritual religious
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 130-131, "The Knight Templar's Dream" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.21(38), "The Knight Templar's dream," unknown, no date
NLScotland, L.C.1270(010), "The Knight Templar's Dream," James Kay (Glasgow), c.1845
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brilliant Light" (subject)
cf. "The Grand Mystic Order" (subject)
cf. "Sons of Levi (Knights of Malta)" (style)
cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (subject)
cf. "The Blackman's Dream" (subject)
NOTES: Zimmermann, p.303 fn. 39: "Some of those who founded the first Orange Lodges were 'unwarranted' Freemasons, and both institutions had much in common in the early nineteenth century. Other Protestant organizations ... were also the themes of allegorical songs which appeared, along with masonic texts, in Orange collections." - BS
Moses and the burning bush are found in Exodus, chapter three. Exodus 4 mentions the rod which became a serpent, and vice versa -- but this serpent is not fiery, though it swallowed other serpents (Exodus 7:12). We meet fiery sepents in Numbers 21:6-9, where Moses makes a bronze serpent to combat a plague of serpents. (Note that it's not the same rod!) This fiery serpent did end up in Jerusalem, because King Hezekiah later destroyed it (2 Kings 18:4); the people were worshiping it. But Moses didn't take it to Jerusalem; Moses was dead before the Israelites conquered Canaan. It cannot have been taken to Jerusalem before the time of David.
Enoch's Temple is even more curious. Enosh was notable in that he "walked with God," but there is no evidence that he built a Temple. Even if he had, it would, in the Biblical view, have been destroyed in the Flood. - RBW
File: BrdKnTeD
===
NAME: Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter: see The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter [Child 110] (File: C110)
===
NAME: Knight's Dream, The: see The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)
===
NAME: Knight's Ghost, The [Child 265]
DESCRIPTION: The lady comes to the seashore to meet her lord from sea; the sailors tell her he is slain. She gets them drunk and locks them away. Asleep in her room, the knight comes to her and tells her to release the sailors, then tells parts of her future
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: death sailor prison dream ghost reprieve knight
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 265, "The Knight's Ghost" (1 text)
Bronson 265, "The Knight's Ghost" (1 version)
Roud #3889
NOTES: Child says of this piece that it "has not a perceptible globule of old blood in it," and he may be right (Bronson's comment is that it is "pointless") -- but its only real defect is that the knight returns in a dream rather than his ghost walking to rescue his sailors from their unfair treatment. The ending is, in a way, realistic; the lady will live a normal life rather than pining away with grief. - RBW
File: C265
===
NAME: Knights of Malta: see Sons of Levi (Knights of Malta) (File: HHH146)
===
NAME: Knock a Man Down: see Blow the Man Down (File: Doe017)
===
NAME: Knock John Booker: see Johnny Booker (Mister Booger) (File: R268)
===
NAME: Knocklayde
DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing of a mountain, the pride of the north...." The singer describes the great summit of Knocklayde. It would take a surveyor to measure it. It is made of limestone, and supports good grass. The singer will stay there and enjoy its beauties
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H509, p. 168, "Knocklayde" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13481
NOTES: I think this is the only geological folk song I've ever encountered.
Knocklayde probably would not inspire non-Irish very much. A short distance south of Ballycastle (on the very northern coast of Ulster), it rises only 517 meters above sea level. - RBW
File: HHH509
===
NAME: Knot of Blue and Gray, A
DESCRIPTION: Singer tells why she wears upon her breast both blue and gray. She says that she had two brothers; one fought and died for the north, the other for the south -- "But the same sun shines on both their graves"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (recording, Loman D. Cansler)
KEYWORDS: grief army Civilwar war death mourning brother
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "A Knot of Blue and Gray" (on Cansler1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Blue and Gray
NOTES: This song, apart from being ridiculously schmaltzy [Not necessarily schmaltzy if sung well. See Barton & Para's version, for example. - PJS], has real historical problems. The oldest version is in the Dabney papers (Dabney Family Papers, MSS 9852, Box 21, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library), and in it, the southern brother "rode with Stonewall and his men," while the northern brother "followed Sherman's march, Triumphant to the sea."
The problem is, Jackson was not a cavalry general. And the number of battle casualties on Sherman's March to the Sea could be counted on one's finger. One has to suspect the author just plugged in some familiar names.
The Duke University collection has a text which eliminates the reference to Stonewall Jackson and credits the music to T. Brigham Bishop. Since Bishop's name appears on at least two other pieces ("Kitty Wells" and "Shoo Fly") which he almost certainly did not write, one suspects, in Paul Stamler's words, "an early-day Lomax in action." Particularly since the Cansler version is sung to "The Wearing of the Green." - RBW, PJS
File: RcAKOBAG
===
NAME: Knox's Farewell
DESCRIPTION: The singer (Sam Knox) now must leave the land where he long wandered; he will seek his fortune overseas. He bids his parents not to grieve, bids farewell to the land and his friends, and asks that he be remembered
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel Knox/Music set by Sam Henry
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H49, p. 200, "Knox's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH049
===
NAME: Knoxville Girl, The: see The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)
===
NAME: Kock, De (The Cook)
DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Verses made up of short phrases, the cook describing himself, his habits, the meals he prepares. No chorus, but a pull on "seggt he" (says he) after each phrase. "Yellow peas, sez he. Cook for me, sez he. Keep them stirred, sez he," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty cook food
FOUND_IN: Germany
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 537-539, "De Kock" (3 texts-German & English, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "In Berlin Sagt 'Er" (tune)
File: Hugi537
===
NAME: Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall, A (Come to Me on Saturday Night)
DESCRIPTION: Swedish hauling song. Chorus: "Viktoria, Viktoria! Kirre-verre-vipp-bom! Hurra sa!" Printed verses have rhymes about drinking, Hugill says there were 18 verses he couldn't print.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty worksong
FOUND_IN: Sweden
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 427-428, "A Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall " (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
cf. "Halarvisa" (similar chorus)
NOTES: Hugill says the unprintable verses of this shanty are identical to a Chinese song which refers to the "18 points of feeling." They are quoted in _Sang under Segel._ - SL
File: Hugi427
===
NAME: Kookaburra
DESCRIPTION: "Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree, Merry merry king of the bush is he, Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra, Gay your life must be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 413, "Kookaburra" (1 text)
File: FSWB413B
===
NAME: Kum Ba Yah: see Kum By Yah (File: FSWB368D)
===
NAME: Kum By Yah
DESCRIPTION: You know the drill: "Kum by yah, my Lord, kum by yah (x3), Oh, Lord, Kum by yah." "Someone's crying, Lord..." "Someone's singing, Lord..." "Someone's praying, Lord...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (recording, Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 368, "Kum Ba Yah" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Kum Ba Yah" (on SeegerTerry)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Come By Here" (form)
NOTES: Although almost the prototypical camp song, and certainly a folk song in that right, genuine field collections seem to be few and far between. - RBW
File: FSWB368D
===
NAME: Kyle's Flowery Braes: see Laurel Hill (File: HHH008)
===
NAME: L'amant a la Fenetre de sa Maitresse (The Lover at his Mistress's Window)
DESCRIPTION: French. The singer returned from war and knocked at his mistress's door. Her father and mother are in their bed, and they have barred the door and have the keys. She opens the window to her bedroom.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting love sex return father lover mother nightvisit
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 493-494, "L'amant a la Fenetre de sa Maitresse" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea493
===
NAME: L'il Liza Jane: see Li'l Liza Jane (File: FSWB037)
===
NAME: L'Internationale: see The Internationale (File: FSWB297B)
===
NAME: La Courte Paille: see Courte Paille, La (File: FMB041)
===
NAME: La Cucaracha: see Cucaracha, La (File: San289)
===
NAME: La Gaie-Annee: see Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)
===
NAME: La Gui-Annee: see Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)
===
NAME: La Guignolee: see Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)
===
NAME: La Guillannee: see Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)
===
NAME: La Rose Blanche (The White Rose): see Rose Blanche, La (The White Rose) (File: FMB118)
===
NAME: Laboring Man's Daughter, The (The Knight's Dream)
DESCRIPTION: A nobleman dreams of a beautiful girl. After seven years' searching he finds her, a poor laboring-man's daughter. He tells her he has seen her only in a dream, but is confident she will not deny him. He takes out a ring and proposes. (They happily marry)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Sharp, JFSS)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: A nobleman's son dreams of "the beautiful-est girl in the nation." After seven years' searching he finds her, a poor laboring-man's daughter. He tells her he has only seen her once, as she lay by him in a dream, but he is confident she will not deny him. She asks what is his desire, that he's so afraid of denial; "Although I am poor, no scorn I'll endure/Do not put me under any such trial." He takes out a ring and proposes. (She worries that his parents will look down on her; he replies that they are both dead, and his friends will not object. They marry and are happy)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage ring travel dream nobility worker beauty
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,North)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 132, "The Labouring Man's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 540-541, "The Knight and the Labourman's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST K132 (Partial)
Roud #595
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Among the Heather" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Knight and Labourman's Daughter
NOTES: I'm not certain "A Cornish Young Man" is the same song, but Kennedy lumps it in. - PJS
File: K132
===
NAME: Labour Boroo, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams he is at the "Labour Borue." Everyone is polite; they offer a seat, brandy, a smoke, money for the asking, and a taxi home; his wife welcomes him. His wife wakes him. He screams. She asks if his worthless self had had a nightmare.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1970 (Morton-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: work unemployment dream husband wife
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Morton-Ulster 25, "The Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-Belfast, pp. 46-47, "The Labour Boroo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2886
NOTES: Morton-Ulster: "N.E. Ireland has always been the 'industrialized' sector of the country.... When a man is unemployed he faces what for many is a humiliating half-life of 'signing on at the Employment Exchange', otherwise known as the Labour Bureau (Borue)." - BS
File: MorU025
===
NAME: Labourer, The: see Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)
===
NAME: Labouring Man's Daughter, The: see The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)
===
NAME: Labrador
DESCRIPTION: The crew on the schooner Carey catch bait in Conception Bay and cash in at Holyrood. They hear fishing is exceptional on the Labrador. They fight bad weather to get there, are poorly equipped, and fare badly.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea storm
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 138-139, "Labrador" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9965
File: Pea138
===
NAME: Lachlan Tigers, The
DESCRIPTION: The shearers wait eagerly for the shift to begin: "At his gate each shearer stood as the whistle loudly blew...." The expert shearers set out to be the fastest, while the boss tries to make sure they shear the sheep completely.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957 (Stewart & Keesing, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sheep work Australia
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 136-137, "The Lachlan Tigers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 178-180, "At the Gate Each Shearer Stood" (1 text)
DT, LCHLNTIG*
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Lachlan Tigers" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd8)
NOTES: The region along the Lachlan river is one of Australia's best sheep-raising areas. Naturally, it attracted the best shearers, who came to be known as the "Lachlan Tigers."
Jackie Howe holds the all-time (and probably unsurpassable) record of 328 sheep sheared in an eight hour day; hence the remark in the song "There's never been a better board since Jackie Howe expired." - RBW
File: FaE136
===
NAME: Lad and a Lass, A: see No Sign of a Marriage [Laws P3] (File: LP03)
===
NAME: Lad in the Scotch Brigade, The (The Banks of the Clyde)
DESCRIPTION: Geordie and Jean meet on the banks of the Clyde. She tries to dissuade him from "going to fight for his queen." She gives him a lock of her hair. In the battle a bullet "buried that dear lock of hair in his heart." Jean and his mother comfort each other.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Spelling)
KEYWORDS: courting army battle separation death lover soldier
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf,West)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Leach-Labrador 133, "The Banks of the Clyde" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab133 (Partial)
Roud #1784
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2032), "The Lad in the Scotch Brigade" or "The Burning Plains of Egypt" ("On the banks of the Clyde stood a lass [sic] and a lassie"), unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, RB.m.143(125), "The Scotch Brigade," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Town of Greenock" (theme)
cf. "The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands)" [Laws N2] (theme)
NOTES: This ballad is reported in _What We Sang Down on the Farm: A Forgotten Manuscript on Western Canadian Singing Traditions_ by David A.E. Spelling in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1985). The article includes an anonymous undated manuscript collected in Alberta by Dr. Robert E. Gard in the 1940s. The author of that manuscript recalls that "our favourite war song was 'The Lad in the Scotch Brigade,' a product of the war in Egypt and the Soudan." The manuscript then summarizes the ballad and includes the chorus from the broadside omitted in the Leach-Labrador version.
The Alberta source, in placing the war "in Egypt and the Soudan" was probably imagining it to be about the recent (1884-1885 and 1896-1898) wars against the Dervish Empire. The ballad does not name the battle at which the hero is killed but refers only to "the great victory." In those "river wars" the "great victory" was the Battle of Omdurman, September 2, 1898. However, one of Roud's sources for #1784, as "The Scotch Brigade," was _Delaney's Song Book No.1_ published in 1892, before the second Dervish war. Too bad: the Scotch Brigade -- the 94th Regiment of Foot -- was in the second war against the Dervish Empire. It does not seem that the Scotch Brigade was in Egypt at any other time. You can find a history of the Scottish Brigade at the Dungarvan Museum site Historical Articles - BS
File: LLab133
===
NAME: Laddie That Handles the Ploo, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the plowmen and farmers who provide others with food. He lists other occupations, and notes how much they are needed -- but none of them could survive "Gin it werena for the bonnie laddie that handles the ploo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: farming worker food
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 81, "The Bonnie Lad That Handles the Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2170
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer is the Man" (theme)
cf. "The Praise of Ploughmen" (theme)
File: Ord081
===
NAME: Ladies to the Center
DESCRIPTION: "Ladies to the center and a ding dong ding, Gents to the center and form a ring, Mile and a quarter round this ring, Meet your partner, balance and swing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (JAFL 27)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 577, "Ladies to the Center" (1 fragment)
Roud #7666
File: R577
===
NAME: Ladies' Orange Lodges O!, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Orange cause is booming strong, Since ladies joined the Order." "They crowd round William's banner." Throughout England they "lilt their Orange ditties" and "work against those who love the night, And hate the British Empire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1895 (Graham)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Graham, p. 19, "The Ladies' Orange Lodges O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The Loyal Institution of Orange Ladies of England is a section of the Loyal Orange Institution of England. "Ladies Lodges have been a part of the Orange family since the middle of the nineteeth century, with Lodges meeting in different locations, mainly in the Lancashire area ...." (source: "The Orange Ladies of England" at the Grand Orange Lodges of England [GOLE] site). - BS
File: Grah019
===
NAME: Ladle Song, The: see A Rich Old Miser [Laws Q7] (File: LQ07)
===
NAME: Lads of Wamphrey, The [Child 184]
DESCRIPTION: The Johnstones raid the stable of the Crichtons. William, nicknamed Galliard, the Johnstone leader, by mistake rides off on a blind horse. He is captured and hanged. His nephew gathers a gang which drives the Crichtons from their land
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1791
KEYWORDS: feud battle execution revenge
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 184, "The Lads of Wamphrey" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 495-497, "The Lads of Wamphrey" (1 text)
Roud #4011
File: C184
===
NAME: Lads that was Reared Among the Heather, The
DESCRIPTION: Girls: the best men are "the lads that was reared in the heather"; the best dances are in the barn, not the hall, with the lads ...; the best ship builders, the best soldiers and the best poets are the lads....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1967 (recording, Willie Scott)
KEYWORDS: bragging commerce dancing nonballad soldier
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #5127
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scott, "The Lads that was Reared Among the Heather" (on Voice05)
File: RcLTRATH
===
NAME: Lady Alice [Child 85]
DESCRIPTION: Lady Alice sees a beautiful corpse being carried by and learns it is her lover. She bids the bearers leave it; she will herself be dead by the next evening. They are buried apart but roses from his grave grow to reach her breast until severed by a priest.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1810
KEYWORDS: death corpse love burial flowers
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (24 citations)
Child 85, "Lady Alice" (4 texts)
Bronson 85, "George Collins (Lady Alice)" (43 versions)
SharpAp 25 "Giles Collins" (6 short texts, 6 tunes){Bronson's #13, #15, #14, #28, #5, #42}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 452-453, "Lady Alice" (notes plus a text derived from Child C)
Peacock, pp. 738-739, "Young Collins Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 12, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 85, "George Collins" (1 text)
Randolph 22, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #27}
Davis-Ballads 25, "Lady Alice" (7 texts apart from the appendix, 5 tunes entitled "Johnny Collins," "George Collins"; 10 more versions mentioned in Appendix A)
Davis-More 26, pp. 199-206, "Lady Alice" (3 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes -- but the fourth, fragmentary, text and tune could as well be "Fare You Well, My Own True Love" or something similar) {Bronson's #41, #32, #31, #29, #2}
BrownII 28, "Lady Alice" (8 texts plus 2 excerpts, a fragment, and mentions of 4 more)
Chappell-FSRA 14, "Georgie Collins" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Hudson 16, pp. 107-111, "Lady Alice" (4 texts)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 47, "George Collins" (1 short text)
Cambiaire, p. 76, "George Collins" (1 short text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 117-122, "Lady Alice," with individual texts titled "George Collins," "George Collins," (no title), "George Collins," (no title), "George Allien" (4 texts plus 2 excerpts, 4 tunes on pp. 393-394) {Bronson's #22, #19, #1, #11}
OBB 154, "Lady Alice" (1 text)
Warner 96, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 37, "Lady Alice" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 246-247, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 32, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 17, "Lady Alice" (5 texts)
Silber-FSWB, p. 151, "George Collins" (1 text)
DT 85, GEOCLLNS* GEOCOL2 GEOCLLN3
ST C085 (Full)
Roud #147
RECORDINGS:
Dixon Brothers, "Story of George Collins" (Montgomery Ward M-7580, 1938)
Henry Griffin, "George Collins" (on HandMeDown2)
Spud Gravely, "George Allen" (on Persis1)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "George Collins" (Brunswick 250, 1928; on ConstSor1)
Kelly Harrell, "The Dying Hobo" (Victor 20527, 1926; on KHarrell01 -- a rather strange version combining the first verse of "The Dying Hobo" with a plot, taken from "George Collins," of a girl mourning her dead lover) {Bronson's #30}
Dick Justice, "One Cold December Day" (Brunswick 367, 1929 -- like the Harrell recording, this starts with a "Dying Hobo" verse, then parallels "George Collins")
New Lost City Ramblers, "George Collins" (on NLCR02)
Frank Proffitt, "George Collins" (on Proffitt03)
Riley Puckett, "George Collins" (Montgomery Ward M-4551, 1934)
Enos White, "George Collins" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1, Voice03)
Henry Whitter, "George Collins" (OKeh 45081, 1927, rec. 1926) (Broadway 8024, c. 1931); Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "George Collins" (OKeh, unissued, 1926)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Earl Colvin
Young Collins
George Coleman
Dame Alice was Sitting on Widow's Walk
George Collum
George Promer
NOTES: A number of scholars (including Coffin and Lloyd, with some support from Bronson) believe that "Lady Alice" is a fragment of a larger ballad (called "George Collins" or the like). The first half is found in "Clerk Colville" [Child 42]; "Lady Alice" forms the second half. Lloyd writes, "Either these are two separate songs which have been combined to form George Collins or (which seems more likely) they are two fragments of the completer ballad."
Paul Stamler provides this description of the composite ballad:
George Collins, out walking, kisses a pretty maid, who warns him he won't live long. He kisses her, goes home and dies. His lover kisses his corpse goodbye; she dies too. In the last verse, it's said that six pretty maids died in one night for his sake. Many have interpreted the "pretty maid" as a water-fairy whom Collins has been trysting with; when she finds he's been betrothed, she gives him a poisoned kiss. - RBW, PJS
The supernatural explanation seems reasonable. But sudden death transmitted by a kiss -- has no one suggested communicable disease?
The ballad is found throughout western Europe, including a manuscript poem from Germany dated c. 1310. - PJS
[For discussions of the question of whether this is one ballad], see Barbara Craster in the _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_ 2:4 (15) (1910) pp. 106-109 (comparisons) and in Coffin, _Brit. Trad. Ballad in N. America_ (1977 edn.) p. 51 and pp. 86-88, 241 - JM
[Ewan] MacColl in The Long Harvest... feels there is little left to doubt and combines them. He cites S.P. Bayard, "No two ballads in English are more closely allied." Harbison Parker gives much detail and together, says MacColl, "make an almost watertight for the two Child ballads as springing from one and the same source. - AS
In general I have followed the policy of listing "George Collins" versions here, without further notes, as the "Lady Alice" portion is more integral to the story. - RBW
A curious thing is that Sharp calls the ballad "Giles Collins", but the protagonist is "George" in 5 of his 6 examples, and "Charles" in the sixth.
Again this [Silber's version] is fragmentary; George Collins, driving home, is taken sick and dies. His Nell opens his coffin to kiss him goodbye, then laments his passing. That's it; nothing else happens. Nothing to connect it to Lady A. except George's name. Arghh. - PJS
File: C085
===
NAME: Lady and the Dragoon, The: see The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)
===
NAME: Lady and the Farmer's Son, The [Laws O40]
DESCRIPTION: A wealthy lady wants a youth to marry her, but he is pledged to one of the lady's servants. The lady brings her maid on a boat trip and throws her into the sea. She winds up in prison; the young man goes mad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: homicide drowning prison servant courting money
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws O40, "The Lady and the Farmer's Son"
Flanders/Olney, pp. 170-171, "The Lady and the Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 490, FARMSON*
Roud #994
NOTES: This is so close to Sharp's "Handsome Sally" that Paul Stamler lumped them. But Laws and Roud distinguish them, so I tentatively do the same. - RBW
File: LO40
===
NAME: Lady and the Glove, The: see The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)
===
NAME: Lady and the Gypsy, The: see The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)
===
NAME: Lady and the Sailor, The: see Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)
===
NAME: Lady and the Shepherd, The: see The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)
===
NAME: Lady and the Soldier, The: see One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)
===
NAME: Lady Connolly
DESCRIPTION: Rebellion begins May 18, 1798. Lord Carhampton "burned our holy altars, and Dunboyne town also." Lady Connolly, "may her soul rest in glory, while Lord Carhampton's sent to hell." We'll keep Carhampton agitated until the French come, then we'll skin him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1970 (Healy's _Mercier Book of Old Irish Street Ballads Vol. 2_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion death France Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 51, "Lady Connolly" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Moylan: "Lady Louisa Connolly was the wife of Tom Connolly of Castletown House. She was the aunt of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and visited him in his cell in Newgate Prison a couple of hours before his death.... The Earl of Carhampton, of Luttrelstown House, was the Commander-in-Chief in 1795 and was responsible for the dragooning of Ulster in response to the outbreak of Defenderism. He was universally feared and hated...." - BS
According to Thomas Pakenham, _The Year of Liberty_, pp. 235-238, Lady Connolly did very little except write a rather pathetic account of Edward Fitzgerald's last hours (for Fitzgerald, see the notes to "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)"), which nonetheless made clear that the British had not mistreated him once he was in custody. Her position may have been somewhat equivocal; she was the aunt of Fitzgerald -- but she was also the wife of Tom Connolly, the commander of the Derry militia (Pakenham, p. 48).
Carhampton I think may be the Lord Lieutenant, John Jeffreys Pratt, second earl of Camden. He was appointed in 1795, and lasted until after the 1798 rebellion, when he was fired (Canning privately wrote that he had been rendered useless for anything) but promoted to marquis. I can't find any source that calls him "Carhampton," but there is no one else who seems to fit. Certainly theIrish did completely bamboozle him. - RBW
File: Moyl051
===
NAME: Lady Diamond [Child 269]
DESCRIPTION: The king's daughter Lady (Daisy) is with child by a kitchen boy. The king has the boy killed and a token (his heart) sent to Lady Daisy. She dies for love (prompting the king's deep regret)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1823 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: royalty execution pregnancy death bastard
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 269, "Lady Diamond" (5 texts)
Bronson 269, "Lady Diamond" (4 versions)
Dixon XIV, pp. 71-72, "Ladye Diamond" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 635-636, "Lady Diamond" (1 text, correctly titled but erroneously numbered as Child 264)
PBB 37, "Lady Diamond" (1 text)
DT 269, LADYDIAM* LADYDIA2
Roud #112
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie o Winsbury" [Child 100] (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lady Daisy
Lady Dysie
NOTES: [A. L. Lloyd writes,] "Boccaccio re-tells [this story] in his tale of Ghismonda and Guiscardo, and in later years it was made into a play in England and elsewhere. Versified into a ballad, it was widely known throughout Western Europe and Scandinavia." - PJS
The link to Boccaccio was noted long before Lloyd; Child mentions it and many non-English analogies, and the link to the Decameron goes back at least to Dixon.
The tale is the first story of the fourth day, told by Fiammetta. In outline, the Decameron account is precisely "Lady Diamond," but there are also substantial differences. In "Lady Diamond," the girl is pregnant and the father forces the truth out of her; in Boccaccio, she is already a widow and her father discovers the truth accidentally; in "Lady Diamond," she dies for love, whereas in the Decameron, she takes poison, and the Italian tale ends with the king's repentance, something rare in the ballad.
With all that said, it's hard to doubt that the two spring from the same sources. Much of the difference may be simply due to the fact that the Decameron version had to be fleshed out to a full story, while the ballad version, like most ballads, strips much inessential detail. - RBW
File: C269
===
NAME: Lady Elgin, The: see Lost on the Lady Elgin (File: R692)
===
NAME: Lady Elspat [Child 247]
DESCRIPTION: Lady Elspat and Sweet William plan a tryst, but Elspat's brother's page reports to her mother. The mother takes the boy to court on a charge of robbery. The judge concludes that his only crime is being relatively poor, and frees William to wed Elspat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1783
KEYWORDS: courting trial reprieve
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 247, "Lady Elspat" (1 text, 2 tunes, but Bronson says the tunes are not proper to the text)
Bronson 247, "Lady Elspat" (2 versions)
OBB 86, "Lady Elspat" (1 text)
Roud #4023
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10] (plot)
cf. "Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter)" [Laws M16] (plot)
File: C247
===
NAME: Lady Fair (I): see The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)
===
NAME: Lady Fair (II), A: see Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)
===
NAME: Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9]
DESCRIPTION: A sailor has a dream (. He hears Lady Franklin) telling of the loss of her husband, who disappeared in Baffin's Bay as he sought the Northwest Passage. He never returned, and is presumed dead, but Lady Franklin would give a great fortune to be certain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1878 (Faulkner, _Eighteen Months on a Greenland Whaler_); broadside versions probably date from the period 1850-1853
KEYWORDS: sailor wife death exploration Eskimo
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1845-1847 - Lord Franklin's final expedition
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Laws K9, "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)"
Doerflinger pp. 145-147, "Lady Franklin's Lament" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 159-159, "Franklin's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 154-156, "The Franklin Expedition" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H815, p. 103, "Franklin the Brave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 151, "The Franklin Expedition" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 65-66, "Franklin In Search of the North-West Passage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 145, "Franklin and His Ship's Crew"; p. 146, "Franklin and His Bold Crew" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 97, "Franklin and His Bold Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 401, LADYFRAN* LADYFRN2 LADYFRN3
Roud #487
RECORDINGS:
Pat Maher, "Franklin" (on NFMLeach)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y2:005, "Lady Franklin's Lament for her Husband," unknown, 19C [there is a hand-written date of "1851" on the sheet, but this appears to be a later addition; the text itself says it has been seven years since Franklin sailed, making the year at least 1852]
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lord Franklin
NOTES: This song is the chief musical relic of one of the saddest events in the history of arctic exploration: The last failed attempt in the nineteenth century to sail the "Northwest Passage" from the Atlantic to the Pacific north of Canada.
It was a popular theme in broadsides, but most of the results were terrible (for an example of just how bad they can be, see "A Ballad of Sir John Franklin," in Sandler, pp. 96-98. For the list of books cited in this note, see the bibliography at the end of this essay). It appears that none of these products survived in tradition -- except this song, which has proved enduringly popular.
Unfortunately, the song ends in the middle of the story, with an unsolved mystery. Most books about the Franklin Expedition, simply describe the quest for the Northwest Passage, Franklin's part in it -- and then the quest to discover what happened to Franklin. I'm going to try to do it from the standpoint of the song, telling the history of the quests for the passage, then discussing Franklin, then looking what the song has to say on the subject -- and only then talking of the search for and fate of Franklin. It's not a very coherent story this way, but it avoids "cheating." If you want a more orderly exposition, try one of the books listed in the bibliography (I'd recommend Delgado or Fleming-Barrow).
The quest for the Northwest Passage began because the sea trip from Europe to Asia was so long -- going eastward, it required ships to not only sail the length of Eurasia but, in the period before the opening of the Suez Canal, also south around the Cape of Good Hope. The westward route was also long, and required making the dreadful trip around Cape Horn, which is perpetually stormy. Mariners desperately wanted a shorter, safer route. For that reason, the Northwest Passage had been a goal of mariners since Martin Frobisher in the sixteenth century (McGhee, pp. 23fff.) -- but, at that time, the Little Ice Age almost certainly made it impossible.
As the climate warmed, and as ships improved, chances became better. Plus, despite centuries of failures, people becane more willing to look. For most of the eighteenth century, apart from a naval expedition around 1740 (Williams, pp. 62-108), the area of the Passage had been in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, a closed group with no willingness to spend money on speculations or on anything that might affect their business (Williams, p. 49fff. Their employees at one time were given instructions to give no cooperation at all to Passage expeditions -- which, in practice, meant that they interfered with them; Williams, pp. 142-143). But then came Napoleon. Since it was only the Navy that kept the French from invading England, the Navy had to expand; it ended up roughly four times bigger in 1812 than it had been 25 years earlier. (This had dramatic side effects, such as the Nore and Spithead mutinies; see "Poor Parker" for background.)
Following the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy was dramatically reduced; some 90% of Navy officers were on "half pay" -- i.e. still on the books, but with no commands; in effect, they were in reserve -- and, often, going slowly bankrupt; Fleming-Barrow, pp. 2-3. The attempts at the Northwest Passage were in part an attempt to find something for them to do. With so many officers available, it is no surprise that many exploratory voyages, to all parts of the world, were ordered. Britain ruled the waves; now it wanted to know just what waves it ruled.
Some of these exploratory voyages were successful, but those to the Northwest Passage all failed, and most resulted in much privation and some death -- Cookman, pp. 221-222, examines eight Passage attempts between 1819 and 1836: Three under Parry, two under Franklin, one under John Ross, and two under Back. 15 men died out of a total force of about 450 embarked. His list is not comprehensive -- e.g. Williams, pp. 18-32, documents the early eighteenth century expedition of James Knight, which was lost without any survivors from two ships and a crew numbering in dozens. (It is strange to note that no serious attempts were made to find Knight, even though the approximate site of his disappearance was known. Recent expeditions have discovered his ships and winter camp, but no records and almost no bodies; the best guess is that, like the Franklin expedition a century and a quarter later, Knight's men left their ships and vanished in the wilderness; Williams, pp. 32-45.)
But most of these were relatively small attempts. Franklin's 1845 expedition was organized on a massive scale.
Someone compared the quest for the Northwest Passage to the 1960s Apollo lunar program. In terms of cost, the comparison is ridiculous, but in one sense, it's accurate: The quest pushed the limits of what was possible with current technology. It is unfortunate that the Admiralty tried to hurry the Franklin expedition due to budget constraints.
The comparison with NASA is instructive. NASA's lunar expeditions were preceded by every possible test -- three generations of manned hardware (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo), plus much detailed exploration (Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter). Even so, there were disasters (Apollo 1) and near-disasters (Apollo 13). The Franklin expedition made no such preparations. No one tried to finish off the maps of the relevant area; no one tested the new equipment in Franklin's ships. The massive expedition thus became a massive disaster. What follows can only sketch the story as far as it is now known.
John Franklin, the leader of the expedition, was born on April 16, 1786; he joined the Royal Navy in 1801. His early career was distinguished; he fought as a junior officer at Copenhagen and Trafalgar (aboard the _Bellerophon_, one of the more heavily-engaged ships, and the one which would later bear Napoleon into exile); the noise was so great as to cause permament damage to his hearing (Wilkinson, pp. 117-118).
Franklin then became a noted explorer. In his late teens, he helped chart portions of the south Pacific -- and faced a shipwreck and his first experience of starvation. In 1818, as lieutenant in command of the of the _Trent,_ he was part of David Buchan's failed push from Spitzbergen toward the North Pole, narrowly surviving the encroachments of the ice (Fleming-Barrow, pp. 53-55, speaks of a "hair-raising series of near disasters"). The next year, on foot rather than by ship, he explored the north coast of Canada between Point Turnaround and the Coppermine River -- an expedition that nearly caused his death, and resulted in charges of cannibalism and murder, though by men who were separated from Franklin at the time.
Berton, p. 70, accuses Franklin of "ignor[ing] common sense," but also admits that his orders were faulty and the mission funding was inadequate. Fleming-Barrow, p. 125, says more charitably that he was "ordered to hitch-hike through a war zone into a wilderness," being forced to beg assistance from the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies, which at this time were engaged in a small-scale war of raids; they had no time for a Royal Navy interloper.
It would not be the last time John Barrow, the Second Secretary of the Admiralty who dreamed up most of these projects (and for whom Point Barrow, Alaska is named; Savours, p. 39), sent Franklin on a mission that was not adequately prepared.
At least Franklin could learn. In 1825 he went on another expedition in northern Canada. This one charted the coastl region from the Coppermine River to the Mackenzie, and this time, his planning for the expedition was much better; Fleming-Barrow, p. 173, says he allowed "little scope for failure." There were no casualties, and much territory was charted. It also showed how good Franklin was at charming people; at one time he had in his camp Englishmen, Gaelic-speaking Scots, Canadians, Inuit, and four different tribes of non-Inuit Indians, but there were no fights (Savours, p. 88). Almost the only problem was a failure of two of their three chronometers (Savours, p. 89), making some of their maps ever so slightly inaccurate, but hardly Franklin's fault!
It was, in many ways, the highlight of his career. Never again would he have such a happy result while on duty. Franklin was knighted for his work (Fleming-Barrow, p. 175; Savours, p. 102, says this happened in 1829. We should note that the song's title "Lord Franklin" is not correct; he was neither an admiral nor a peer. His highest title was "Sir John Franklin," and his wife was Lady Franklin).
Incidentally, the 1825 expedition split into two smaller parties once it reaached the coast, with Franklin going west and the other party going east. One of Franklin's most important subordinates in the eastern group, Dr. John Richardson, apparently felt that they explored enough coast to have mapped the Northwest Passage (Savours, p. 99). This was almost true; the upper coast of Canada was mapped -- except for the Boothia Peninsula and the water route between it and Victoria Island. It could be said with fair confidence that there was a water route; between what James Clark Ross, Parry, and Richardson had found, that much seemed certain. But that did not show how a ship could travel it. So Richardson (properly, to my mind) was not given the reward for finding the passage.
Having made those three exploratory voyages, Franklin went back to more normal sea duties for about a decade, serving for a time in the Mediterranean and earning the famous Franklin Medal from William IV for services done on behalf of the Greek government.
Eventually, though, he was called home, and found he needed a job. Explorers were not wanted at the time, and the navy still had lots of excess officers. It took him a while before he was given an offer he thought worthwhile -- and it was one for which he really wasn't competent.
From 1837-1843 Franklin served as governor of Van Diemen's Land, bringing much relief after the dreadful leadership of George Arthur -- Franklin, in a brutal age, was gentle enough that he trembled when seamen were flogged, and one of his subordinates on one of the Canadian expeditions told of him refusing to kill a mosquito that landed on him (Fleming-Barrow, p. 129). He even tried to learn about the few surviving Tasmanian natives, though it was far too late to help them. He also founded what would become the Royal Society of Tasmania, and made some efforts to treat prisoners humanely (Wilkinson, p. 128; Cookman, pp. 26-27).
Frankly, he was just what the colony needed -- except that he didn't have the deviousness to outmaneuver the local officials. And, unfortunately, his civilized attitude was resented by the local establishment; they quarrelled with him constantly, and still more with Lady Jane Franklin, who actually wanted to be a human being rather than a ceremonial ornament, and who did much exploring and even founded a local college.
(Franklin's career seemed jinxed, but he was very lucky in love: His two wives were both beautiful, forthright, and highly intelligent. His first, Eleanor Ann Porden, gave him his only child, a daughter, but died of tuberculosis six days after he set out on one of his expeditions. On his return, he married the former Jane Griffin -- in 1828, according to Savours, p. 167. Lady Jane Griffin Franklin, 1791-1875, would prove one of the most determined women of the nineteenth century. It has been said that Franklin's wives were smarter than he was. Very likely true -- but at least he was a man enough to let them be the brilliant women they were.)
(Today, Lady Franklin is known mostly for her quest for her husband, but if things had turned out differently, or if she had lived a century or so later, things might have been very different: She wanted to learn, study, and work; Berton, p. 138, sourly remarked on her room in Tasmania that it was "'more like a museum or menagies than the boudoir of a lady,' being cluttered with stuffed birds, aboriginal weapons, geological specimens, and fossils." I can't help but think, had she been born in the twentieth century, she would have made a good Education Secretary.)
(Franklin also inspired real loyalty from his subordinates. John Hepburn, who had served with him as early as 1818, and also lived through the disastrous first land expedition, still cared for his commander enough to volunteer, when in his early sixties, for one of the Franklin searches; Savours, p. 241.)
MSmith, p. 86-87, sums up Franklin's time in Tasmania this way: "Van Diemen's Land was an unpleasant, half-forgotten penal colony on the fringe of the Emmpire. Over 17,000 of the island's population of 42,000 were shackled convicts and many of the free citizens were former prisoners.... To Franklin and his feisty, strong-willed wife, Lady Jane Franklin, it was a hellhole. To round things off, almost everyone in the suffocating, reactionary frontier community disliked the Franklins, who were regarded as outsiders and dangerous liberals. Lady Franklin, an assured, unconventional woman in her late forties, simply grated... They found her aggressive and disconcertingly radical, especially when she defied convention by straying into unwelcome areas, such as her attempts to improve the island's mediocre schools.... John Franklin was a square peg in a round hole. He was a genial an inoffensive man who had very little in common with the hostile colonialists or the wretched convicts and often found himself at the mercy of the wily civil servants in the Colonial Office."
Franklin eventually was recalled from Tasmania in mild disgrace, though it's reported that thousands of non-government officials showed up to cheer him off. (In fact, the people of Tasmania would later contribute 1700 pounds to the search for Franklin; Berton, p. 140. This out of a relatively impoverished free population numbered in the tens of thousands. As a result, the Tasmania Islands in the Arctic are named for them; Savours, p. 168) But, when he got back to England, he again needed a job.
And, after years of ignoring the Arctic, the Royal Navy was getting interested again. It was clear the Passage would never be commercially useful with nineteenth century ships -- but Admiralty Second Secretary Barrow, who had sent out all those other missions of exploration, was in his eighties, and knew he wouldn't be around much longer; he wanted the Passage to finish off his career.
(How hard has it been to make it through the passage? Cookman, p. 197, counted only seven successful trips through the passage as of 2000 -- though Savours, pp. 326-328, has a list of 49 passages from 1906 to 1990, with the rate increasing steadily over the years. But most of these are icebreakers or small boats. It appears, until around 2000, the passage was *still* not commercially viable -- MacInnis, p. 121, notes that in his first two years of hunting for the _Breadalbane_, there were only seven days of suitable weather, and Edinger, pp. 263-264, describes the attempt of the icebreaker/tanker _Manhattan_, which made it through the passage carrying a symbolic barrel of oil,but sustained heavy damage in the process; the attempt was not repeated.)
(It's likely that global warming will change that in the next few years, though; I heard a recent report of a group of people canoeing the Northwest Passage in a single year. Williams, p. xix, notes that the _St Roch II_ in 2000 made it through the passage in a month, without ever being halted by ice! And the difficulty of the Passage does not mean that there is no traffic up there; oil has been discovered in the Artic Archipelago, so ships are frequently going in and out, and there are several icebreakers on regular arctic duty. It's just that they don't take the Passage; they go out the same way they came in.)
Once the Passage expedition was chartered -- and thrown together hastily to get it on the present budget -- someone had to run it. Usually a commander was lined up before an expedition was organized. Not this time.
There was no question about who the first choice would have been: Captain James Clark Ross was the greatest Arctic explorer then alive. He had served on Passage expeditions with his uncle John Ross and with William Edward Parry; he had discovered the North Magnetic Pole, and he was just back from the most successful Antartcic expedition ever made. There was no man alive who knew more about arctic exploration.
But he ruled himelf out. Part of the reason was that he had not fully recovered from the Antarctic expedition; in addition, he had promised his wife and father-in-law that the southern expedition would be his last. (Fleming-Barrow, p. 351; MSmith, pp. 76, 137-138).
The next choice would be Ross's former commander William Edward Parry, whose 1819 Passage attempt had come closer to success than any before or since (Delgado, pp. 58-64), and who had followed it with two other, less successful attempts at the Passage and an 1827 attempt at the North Pole which failed but which set a new "Farthest North" record that would stand for fifty years (Berton, p. 637). But Parry was now 54 and not interested (MSmith, p. 138).
With those two out of the running, there was no really obvious choice left. The leaders in Arctic experience were Franklin and Captain F.R.M. Crozier; each had drawbacks. Crozier had less seniority; though an intelligent self-made man, had never held an independent command. And, somehow, he never seemed to gain any recognition or fame (MSmith, p. 132).
To be sure, his paper credentials were excellent. Born in Banbridge, Ireland (MSmith, pp. 6-7), he was of an Ulster Presbyterian family (the family home, now known as Crozier House, still stands). He was born around September 17, 1796. His family joined the (Anglican) Church of Ireland in the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion (MSmith, p. 10).
Francis himself joined the navy in 1810, at the age of 13 -- an unusual choice, since most of the other members of his family were solicitors. He served as a midshipman on the _Fury_ during Edward Parry's 1821 expedition to Hudson Bay, where he became friends with his future commander, James Clark Ross (MSmith, p. 29). He was also part of Parry's 1824 Passage expedition which ended in the loss of H.M.S. _Fury_ (MSmith, p. 51). He was made lieutenant in 1826, and in that capacity he joined Parry's 1827 North Pole quest, and commanded _Hecla_ while Parry was away trying (and failing miserably) to sledge across the polar ice (MSmith, p. 59). But then -- nothing. He was a lieutenant on half-pay (i.e. without an actual posting) for most of the next seven years (MSmith, pp. 66-67), though he did briefly serve on an expedition sent to rescue some whalers (MSmith, pp. 71-73); if nothing else, that earned him a promotion to Commander (MSmith, p. 74). In 1839, James Clark Ross asked him to be second-in-command of the expedition he was taking to the Antarctic, and it was Crozier who did most of the work of organizing this highly successful expedition (MSmith, p. 78). But, of course, the credit would go mostly to Ross.
It was probably small consolation to be elected a member of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1827 (MSmith, p. 67). Crozier also has a lunar crater named after him, close to the Mare Fecundatis, between it an the Mare Nectaris, close to Columbo Crater. It's a small crater, though, barely visible on most maps. Nor is it located anywhere near either pole, unlike Amundsen Crater (which is right at the South Pole) or Scott Crater (and why Scott should get a bigger crater than Crozier is beyond me, except that he had a great P.R. machine) or Nansen crater near the North Lunar Pole. In time, he even was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society -- a major tribute to his scientific work (MSmith, p. 145).
But he seems to have lacked self-confidence (MSmith, p. 29). And -- he was a victim of unrequited love. His history in that regard was strange and sad. MSmith, pp. 75-76, tells of hints that he was attracted to the poetess Jean Ingelow (1820-1897), very well known in her time but now remembered, if at all, only for "High Tide on the Coast of Lancashire." She was less than half Crozier's age at the time they met, and nothing ever came of it -- but, strangely enough, she would never marry, and some of her poetry refers to loving a sailor lost at sea.
It wasn't Crozier's last odd romantic attachment. His may have been one of the strangest love triangles of all time. The woman he had fallen in love with was Sophia Cracroft, Franklin's niece (Cookman, p. 54; Savours, p. 177; MSmith, pp. 87-88, says she was the daughter of Franklin's younger sister Isabella and Thomas Cracroft, and was known as "Sophy." Her father died in 1824, when she was nine, and Franklin, and later Jane Franklin, watched over her from that time. Franklin's relationship with Isabella was mutually beneficial, since Isabella watched over his daughter when he was at sea.).
Sophy Cracroft, after she grew up, served as a sort of general assistant to Lady Jane Franklin. She met Crozier in Van Dieman's Land, when Franklin was Governor there; Crozier and James Clark Ross twice stopped there during their Antarctic voyage. Crozier promptly fell in love with her, but she just as promptly fell in love with his commander Ross, even though he was already spoken for (Fleming-Barrow). Sophy, who apparently was quite flirtatious, was not interested at all in Crozier, calling him "a horrid radical and an indifferent speller" (! -- MSmith, p. 89). Smith seems to think he proposed to her at least twice, once while in Hobart (MSmith, p. 95) and once in 1844 after he and she had returned to England (MSmith, p. 133); on the latter occasion, she reportedly told him that she would not be a captain's wife.
Crozier apparently didn't hold her feelings against Ross (they continued to serve well together, and Crozier kept writing to Ross after the expedition ended -- indeed, Crozier lived with Ross and his wife in the last month before the Passage expdition; MSmith, p. 152), nor seemingly against Franklin, but he continued to carry a torch for her. (Interestingly, Cracroft never did marry. She stayed with Jane Franklin to the end of the former's life, and would take possession of her papers after her death.) In the course of the Antarctic expedition, Crozier was finally promoted to Captain (MSmith, p. 119). Crozier and Ross also selected the site of the future Port Stanley, the only significant town in the Falkland Islands (MSmith, p. 122).
All this seems to have left Crozier depressed. Jane Franklin and Ross both worried about him (MSmith, p. 134). He ended up taking a leave of absence from the Navy to try to get his feelings straightened out (MSmith, p. 135). When the possibility of the Passage expedition came up, he declared "I am not equal to the hardship" (MSmith, p. 140), and turned down the command (Fleming-Barrow, p. 366) -- though this may not really have been his choice; as a self-educated Ulster Presbyterian, he had no political clout, and would likely have been rejected anyway by political hacks (Sandler, p. 72); he would, as we shall see, accompany the party as second-in-command (MSmith, p. 141, calls this "the worst of all decisions," but I can't see why this is so; Crozier's depression would have made him a poor commander -- and it sounds as if it got worse as the expedition went along; his last letter, written to the Rosses, sounds like a man on the brink of a breakdown; it is quoted on MSmith, pp. 162-163. But he had shown his skill as an executive officer).
John Franklin, though more willing, had a very different, and probably worse, set of drawbacks. He was elderly, overweight, not a strong physical specimen (Sandler, p. 32, says that he had had circulation problems even when in his twenties), and though he had long before explored northern Canada, he had not been part of any previous naval expedition to the Passage. But he was the only Arctic veteran available, so he was appointed to command even though many simply didn't think him up to the task (Beattie, p. 36; Fleming-Barrow, pp. 366-368).
Franklin's last expedition was mounted in 1845, with the explorer acting as commodore commanding two ships (the reinforced bomb ships H.M.S. _Erebus_ and H.M.S. _Terror_). Not a single man ever returned (MSmith, p. 164). It has been argued that they must have found the Northwest Passage. But it is certain they could not travel it. Their fate would not be learned for many years, and even now, much about it is unknown.
By the late 1840s, the world was growing very concerned about the Expedition. They had been given supplies for three years -- enough that they would probably last four. But that time was about up, and nothing had been heard. A vast effort was mounted to try to learn the expedition's fate.
Looking at the fuller versions of this song, including the Murray broadside, we observe that the texts detail rescue attempts but do not recount the fate of Franklin's crew. I think it nearly certain that the piece originated in this period -- probably in broadsides of 1850-1851, when almost nothing was known and before it became clear that M'Clintock and Rae and McClure, not Austin and Ross and Grinnell, were the most important of the searchers.
It is possible that the Murray broadside is the original of the piece; it looks like a partial adaption of another lost-sailor song (in it, Lady Franklin is seen wandering by the Humber looking for her husband!). Nearly every other version, though, is shorter and frankly better; I suspect that there is at least one other deliberate recension standing between the Murray text and the large majority of traditional versions.
This song is surprisingly accurate in its details (another indication that it is contemporary), though later texts have mangled some names badly -- e.g. I can't imagine who captains Hogg(s) and Winslow might be (Mirsky, pp. 322-324, lists all Franklin search parties; neither name is mentioned, nor anything that sounds similar). Some examples of correct references in one or another text:
"I dreamed a dream, yes I thought it true": The idea of a sailor seeing Franklin in a dream is not just fiction; one W. Parker Snow had dreamed of finding Franklin near the North Magnetic Pole (which, amazingly and ironically, was actually about right; the Pole at that time was on the western side of the Boothia Peninsula, the expedition passed quite close to it shortly before Franklin's death. Had rescuers gone straight there at the first opportunity, they might have rescued some of his men, would almost certainly have learned his fate sooner, and might even have saved one of the ships). Snow joined one of the searches as a result, though he was of no other significance to the search for Franklin (Berton, p. 174, etc.). He later ended up having a major row with the later explorer Charles Francis Hall about a book they both wrote, but that is another story altogether (Sandler, p. 269; Berton, p. 370).
Lady Jane Franklin, to her discredit, also tried consulting spiritualists to seek her husband (MSmith, pp. 203-205). Strangely enough, this also pointed to roughly the right part of the Arctic, but nothing ever came of it.
There is a third spiritual link in the Franklin story, making you wonder how anyone could call this an enlightened period: Elisha Kent Kane, who tried to reach the North Pole while pretending to search for Franklin, was involved with a "spiritualist" named Margaret Fox; her ability as a "spirit rapper," according to Berton, p. 237, was "the mould from which all future mediums were fashioned." Berton's claims that no one tried to communicate with the dead are patently false -- note that Saul is reported to have brought up the shade of the Prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 28! -- but Fox perhaps did found the modern industry of making a *profession* of lying to fools stupid enough to listen to them. Supposedly Kane tried to get her out of this business, but still, he was attracted to her.
"In Baffin's Bay where the whale fish blow...": The Northwest Passage does begin from Baffin Bay -- up the Davis Strait, into the Bay, through Lancaster Sound (which separates Baffin and Devon Islands) and Barrow Strait (between Somerset Island on the south and Devon and Cornwallis Islands on the north), with several alternatives from there (the straight path is through Viscount Melville Sound and McClure Strait, but these are almost always blocked by ice; the best route is south through Peel Sound, passing to the east of Prince of Wales and King William Islands, and then west along the north coast of the Canadian mainland). On July 28, 1845, in Baffin Bay, the Franklin Expedition was seen for the last time by Europeans; they met the whalers _Enterprise_ and _Prince of Wales_ before heading into Lancaster Sound.
(Whalers, we should add, did most of the original exploring of these northern regions; indeed, it was the report of a whaler, William Scoresby, that the ice was melting in the north, that helped encourage the British voyages of exploration after the Napoleonic Wars; see Berton, pp. 24-26. Whales, and hence whalers, are common in far northern and southern latitudes, because that's where the food is -- cold water holds more dissolved oxygen than warm.)
"Three ships of fame": Franklin's expedition of course consisted only of two ships, _Erebus_ and _Terror_, but they had initially had the supply ship _Barretto Junior_ along; it turned back before they went on the ice. In addition, H.M.S. _Rattler_, famous for being an early screw steamer, accompanied them as they left England; Cookman, p. 74. (Some versions say he had only two ships anyway.)
The ships were indeed famous, given their Antarctic adventures with James Clark Ross; Mt. Erebus and Mt. Terror in Antarctica are named for them. _Terror_ also participated in the bombardment of Fort McHenry that gave rise to "The Star-Spangled Banner"; as a bomb ship, she would have been responsible for at least some of the "bombs bursting in air." Since _Terror_ had been part of George Back's arctic expedition of 1836, and both had been to the Antarctic with James Clark Ross, they were already adapted for arctic service, and were selected because they would need relatively little modification.
But this is where the technology of the time became a problem. Bombs were immensely strong; no ships in use were better designed to withstand the pressure of the ice; they had been used for exploration as early as Middleton's expedition a century earlier (Williams, pp. 62-64). But bombs -- tubby, heavy, low-riding vessels -- were probably the slowest class of ships in the navy, and the modifications for Arctic service, which added to their weight and put them lower in the water, made them slower still. Almost painfully slow. _Terror_ was particularly bad (during the Antarctic expedition, Ross in _Erebus_ often had to shorten sail to let Crozier's ship catch up; MSmith, p. 84). _Terror_ even before her refit was capable of only nine knots before the wind and five when close-hauled (Cookman), p. 74. Those figures probably fell by a third as refitted.
It was hoped that steam might provide the answer. The two ships had revolutionary engines -- removable screw propellers powered by locomotive engines -- but the supply of coal was finite and could not be replaced, and the engines developed only a few dozen horsepower anyway. This was the result of Barrow's hurrying the expedition along; the Admiralty had little time to fit engines more suited to the actual ships. The result was that their engines gave them a speed of only about four knots (Cookman, p. 41; MSmith, p. 149, notes that _Terror_ even on her test run under steam reached only four knots, implying that she would be slower still in field conditions).
Franklin's _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were not the first ships to use steam power in the Arctic -- _Victory_, sailed by John Ross in 1829, also used steam. But he found the engine so useless in arctic conditions that he actually yanked it out of his ship in 1830! (Fleming-Barrow, p. 283; Edinger, p. 33, mentions the curious fact that Ross didn't just toss the engine overboard, but carefully disassembled it and had it carried to a beach nearly a mile away. This was nice for historians -- Delgado, p. 91, shows a photo of some of the parts still by the seaside -- but a rather pointless burden for the crew. Ross's adventures inspired at least one song, "The Bold Adventures of Captain Ross,Ó found in C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907, p. 331, available in Google Books, though this shows some pretty substantial errors).
Steam technology had improved since then -- notably in the replacement of paddlewheels with screw propellors -- but steam engines were still not mass-produced items; each had its own peculiar characteristics. And Cookman argues that, in this case, the engines used coal that the expedition really needed for heating. _Erebus_ and _Terror_ would be slow to make the passage even under ideal circumstances -- and ideal conditions never happen in the Arctic, and the ships were very unhandy if there were a need for fast maneuvering.
There was another drawback to the steam engines: They were not interchangeable. It had been settled policy for decades to send two nearly-identical vessels on exploring missions (Savours, p. 115); this meant that they could sail the same passages, move at the same speed, and interchange parts at need -- plus, if one ship sank, its crew would be able to fit on the other. And, indeed, _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were close to identical as originally built. But there was no way they could swap engine parts. We have no reason to think it mattered -- but, with the fragmentary information we have, we can't prove it didn't, either. It's another small bit of evidence of the hastily-thrown-together nature of the trip.
Another side-effect of the hasty throwing-together of the expedition was the lack of a backup plan. Voyages to the Arctic *did* end in disaster -- as Ross's _Victory_ expedition had shown; given supplies for only a year and a half, they spent four years on the ice, surviving only because of the caches left on Fury Beach years before by Parry. Ross had known about this, and planned all along to use those supplies -- though hardly intending to use them to survive two extra winters! (For details on how _Victory_ was trapped, see Edinger, pp. 123-128; for her abandonment, pp. 170-177.) Franklin had no such emergency cache, and no backup route home -- and, like Ross, his ships would be iced in for more than one winter.
"Captain Perry of high renown": Not one of Franklin's officers; Captain F. R. M. Crozier commanded the _Terror_, which had also been his ship during Ross's Antarctic expedition, while the slightly newer and larger _Erebus_ was under the immediate direction of Commander James FitzJames -- an officer so promising and so well-versed in current technology that Secretary Barrow had thought about giving him command of the expedition, but he was considered too young at 33 (Sandler, p. 72; Cookman, pp. 55-57; MSmith, p. 138, is scathing about this nomination, which he thinks political, but none of the other authors seem to have thought him unfit). Instead, he was given the post of Commander aboard _Erebus_, where Franklin flew his flag -- making him, in effect, her captain, since Franklin, the nominal skipper, would be commanding the whole expedition.
"Perry" refers rather to the aforementioned William Edward Parry (1790-1855), an explorer active mostly from 1819-1825 -- and one of the best in terms of ground covered and casualties avoided; his first voyage had disovered Barrow Straight and Viscount Melville Sound and made it farther west than any expedition for more than thirty years. He, like James Clark Ross, had been offered command of the Franklin expedition -- and turned it down; he was long since done with adventure.
"Captain Ross": Either John Ross or his nephew James Clark Ross. The elder Ross, who led expeditions in 1818 and then commanded the aforementioned _Victory_ expedition of 1829 (the primary subject of Edinger), had harmed the quest for the Passage by erroneously stating that Lancaster Sound was a closed inlet. His four-year second expedition (1829-1833 -- the one that resulted in him tossing his steam engine on the beach) learned survival techniques that the Franklin expedition ignored to its cost -- but also produced a distorted map of King William Island, with what proved fatal consequences (Delgado, p. 93; Fleming-Barrow, p. 288; Mirsky, pp. 132-133; MSmith, pp. 68-69, points out that this was one of the few Arctic expeditions that did not include F.R.M. Crozier, and that this would, ironically, prove fatal to him).
At 72, John Ross led an expedition to find Franklin in 1850 -- but found nothing, and came back with a third-hand report from Greenland that the entire Franklin party was dead. That was, in fact, true, but the details of the report were entirely wrong, and were (properly) ignored. Lady Franklin bitterly remarked that, if she could have done so, she would have put after her name in the subscription list for Ross's expedition, "with a deep sense of gratitude to Sir John Ross for murdering her husband" (Edinger, p. 249). Nonetheless, the Admiralty sent more expeditions; they just didn't send Ross. He died in 1856.
Ross the younger, who had served under his uncle and under Parry, commanded _Erebus_ and _Terror_ on their Antarctic expedition (1839-1843), making many important discoveries including the Ross Sea and Ross Ice Shelf (which were named for him). Though Ross had refused to command the Passage expedition of 1845, he took a turn hunting for his friends Franklin and Crozier in 1848-1849 (and broke his health in the process).
"Captain Austin": Horatio T. Austin of HMS _Resolute_, one of the search vessels. A man of great experience and courage (Sandler, p. 115), he nonetheless proved a not very inspiring leader. Clements Markham, a midshhipman on the expedition, describes him as small and stout, an advocate of steam, a "great talker," "genial and warm-hearted," "fond of detail," and having "wide knowledge, though he was a little narow in his views. But for managing the internal economy of an expedition... he was admirable" (Savours, p. 205).
Austin and Erasmus Ommaney of _Assistance_ were the first to find any traces of the Franklin expedition, in the form of discarded supplies on Devon Island, and later three graves and other artifacts on the peninsula known as Beechey Island (Berton, p. 180). But they did not learn the expedition's fate (and met public scorn on their return home in 1851). Having concluded that Franklin could not be west of Lancaster Sound, and could not have turned south because Peel Sound was blocked, they turned north into Jones Sound, where Franklin never ventured (Savour, p. 211)
The very fact that the Austin expedition's early return is not mentioned in the earliest known broadside hints that it dates from before they made it back. Austin would not serve in the Arctic after his first mission, and spent the last years of his career in what amounted to desk jobs (Sandler, p. 252)
"[Captain] Osborn": Given its context and the timing, this is probably an error for "Captain Austin," but it might refer to Sherard Osborn, who as a lieutenant commanded the _Intrepid_ during Austin's expedition and also served under Edward Belcher during the expedition of 1852-1854. Osborn was arrested by Belcher for arguing about the commander's plans -- but it wasn't held against him, because Belcher's expedition was such a disaster. Osborne later wrote a book called _Stray leaves from an Arctic journal_ (Savours, p. 206).
(Arressting a subordinate was by no means unusual for Belcher. Savours, pp. 243-245, devotes three pages to a history of his arguments with junior officers. On p. 245, she cites a source describing which tells how Belcher *habitually* court-martialed his officers at the end of a voyage!)
All that can be said in defence of Belcher is that few men died on his watch. Otherwise, his expedition was an unmitigated disaster, learning nothing useful and resulting in the loss of four ships. And not to the ice -- Belcher (who had from the start indicated little interest in the Arctic) after two years decided he had had enough, and despite the arguments of his subordinates abandoned four of his five ships, even though they were still intact. Berton, p. 244, calls him "one of... the most detested figures in the Royal Navy" and Sandler summarizes his actions as a "disgraceful performance"; p. 253. Belcher of course faced a court-martial, which concluded that his actions fell within his discretion, but they gave him back his sword "in stony silence"; (Sandler, p. 145).
Belcher was deprived of all future commands -- and his subordinate Osborn promoted for his actions (Mirsky, p. 153). Indeed, Osborn would campaign for expeditions to the Pole long after the Admiralty had decided to stop wasting ships and men on the Arctic.
(It was, incidentally, during Belcher's expedition that the supply ship _Breadalbane_ was sunk off Beechey Island; MacInnis, p. 38. The search for the _Breadalbane_ was the subject of MacInnis's book; the ship was and is the northernmost known shipwreck. The ordeal of the ship shows clearly the problems or operating in the Arctic. _Erebus_ and _Terror_, despite a year and a half trapped in the ice, stayed afloat until abandoned, showing the strength of bomb ships. The unreinforced _Breadalbane_ was not supposed to enter the ice -- but you can't avoid ice in the Arctic. Off Beechey Island, she was "nipped" by the ice and sank in 15 minutes; MacInnis, p. 116. Had the rest of Belcher's expedition not been based there, the entire crew would probably have been lost.)
"[Captain] Penny": This might be an error for the more famous Captain Parry, but chances are it refers to captain William Penny, an experienced whaler. Lady Franklin managed to convince ("con" might be a better word) the Admiralty into sending this veteran arctic sailor on a search expedition in 1850-1851, but he didn't find much (Berton, p. 171.); he was sent into Jones Sound (north of Lancaster Sound, and far away from the path Franklin had been ordered to follow; Berton, p. 173). It was closed by ice, so he headed for Lancaster Sound, but that left him among all the other search vessels. His men were the first to find the traces on Beechey Island (Sandler, p. 115), but there is no doubt they would have been found soon anyway.
He then wanted to head north up Wellington Channel, but even had this been permitted, that wouldn't have found Franklin either. Berton thinks it might have caused the search to be directed in a better direction (pp. 190-191), but I can't see how.
Penny ended up in a dispute with Austin, and went back to whaling after his one experience with the navy (Simpson, p. 264).
"Granville": Probably Henry Grinnell, an American trader who was convinced by Lady Franklin to support the search. He paid for (but did not accompany) two expeditions; neither accomplished much except to make Elisha Kent Kane briefly famous for surviving a disaster he largely caused.
"With a hundred seamen he sailed away": Franklin's force initially totalled 134 men, one of the largest forces ever sent on an exploratory voyage; five were sent home sick before the ships entered Lancaster Sound and were the only survivors. Three of those initial losses were significant: the sailmaker from _Terror_ and armorers (gunmakers) from both _Erebus_ and _Terror_ (McClintock, p. 231). The loss of the latter would make hunting for provisions much harder (and fresh food was the only way to get the Vitamin C to avoid scurvy); the loss of the former meant that the two ships -- never speedy, as we saw above -- might end up even slower.
It's perhaps worth reminding moderns, who never face scurvy, how deadly it was at the time. It affects the connective tissue especially, meaning that scars reopen; it also casuses blood vessels to leak, resulting in bruises where there has been no trauma; it leaves men weak and gasping for breath, and kills when blood vessels in the brain rupture (Sobel, p. 14). For years, it had ruined crews on long voyages, opening old wounds, causing joint pains, eventually resulting in the loss of teeth as the jaws swelled up; it also affected the mind, so the victims did not realize how bad the problem was.
Scurvy is prevented by Vitamin C, but that is found primarily in fresh vegetables, and also to an extent in fresh meat (especially organ meat). Crews on sea voyages had none such, and the symptoms usually started to occur in four to six months. This is because crews lived mostly on biscuit and salt meat (as late as the Franklin search, the daily died for sledgers consisted of 3/4 of a pound of salted meat and bacon, a pound of biscuits, a drib of many-year-old potatoes, and chocolate and tea; Savours, p. 263). By the time of the Franklin expedition, the use of lemon juice (frequently called "lime juice") was common -- but the juice loses potency over time.
Another curious fact about the expedition is that, though the crew was hand-picked, it had very little useful experience (MSmith notes that the Admiralty had given responsibility for choosing the crew to FitzJames -- ordinarily it would have been Crozier's job -- and blames him for botching it, even accusing FitzJames of "nauseous whiff of patronage"; p. 146. This was unfortunate in at least one way: It meant that the depressive Crozier had no close friends aboard the expedition; MSmith, p. 155). Apart from Franklin and Crozier, the only commissioned officer who had been to the arctic was Lt. Graham Gore of the _Erebus_ (Fleming-Barrow, p. 373) -- and his experience was slight; he had been on George Back's disastrous expedition on the _Terror_, which would have taught him a lot about shipwreck but little about arctic survival. Plus he, like Franklin, would die fairly early on. Crozier was the only officer on the expedition to know about wintering in the arctic on a ship.
The men were rather better. On paper, only about half a dozen sailors had arctic experience (Cookman, p. 61) -- but some of those who did had very extensive backgrounds indeed. Thomas Blanky, who had been first mate on John Ross's harrowing four-year expedition of 1829-1833 (Edinger, p. 244), meaning that he had more experience of wintering in the arctic than any man alive other than James Clark Ross, would go on to be _Terror's_ Ice Master (cf. Savours, p. 127). One of the surgeons had been on whaling voyages; there was a whaling captain who served as an Ice Master (Savours, p. 178). Even the men who had not been to the Arctic -- who were, of course, the large majority -- were mostly veterans with good records.
"To the frozen ocean in the month of May": The expedition left the Thames on May 19, 1845, to arrive in Baffin Bay in June (there was little point in arriving before June due to the ice, though a departure date a few weeks earlier might have allowed the expedition to make it a little farther before their first winter. At least in a normal year, though 1845 was more than usually icy; MSmith, p. 163. But a departure date earlier than mid-May was impossible due to the rush with which the expedition was put together. In any case, it appears that there was ice in Barrow Straight in the first year of the Franklin expedition, causing them to make a useless circuit of Cornwallis Island before settling down to winter at Beechey Island. So an earlier start, in 1845, would have done no good at all. The really strange part is that the expedition seems to have left no records at all at Beechey Island -- just empty cans and a few other artifacts and the three graves).
"On mountains of ice their ship was drove": The whole Northwest Passage is around 70 degrees north; as early as 1631, Luke Foxe had proved that there was no passage south of the Arctic Circle, and this was confirmed by the explorations of the west side of Hudson Bay done in the eighteenth century. Despite stories by men such as Juan de Fuca, the last blow to the "Straits of Anian" (an easy Northwest Passage with at most a short stretch in the Arctic) was struck by Samuel Hearne, who in 1771 (in the company with a party of natives) reached the mouth of the Coppermine River and became the first European to view the seas around the Arctic Archipelago. His journey showed for the first time that northern Canada was very large and contained no straights or sounds or passages (Williams, pp. 231-233). The passage, such as it was, is all in the Arctic.
(Hearne, incidentally, was forced to witness a massacre along the way, and his sad retelling of the tale would much later inspire Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"; McGoogan, pp. 1-3.)
Much of the Passage, including Lancaster Sound, is well north even of the Arctic Circle. Even in summer, the waters are never entirely free of ice; in winter, they all freeze over, and it's a matter of luck which ones thaw out in any given spring.
Nearly every arctic expedition at some point found itself frozen in, and those which handled their ships badly would see them crushed by the ice. Franklin was neither the first nor the last to come to grief this way, though severe weather in 1847 probably sealed the expedition's fate. (Beattie, p. 128, notes that ice cores show that "the Franklin era was climactically one of the least favorable [i.e. coldest and iciest] periods in 700 years," while MSmith, p. 179, mentions an Inuit report that "there was no summer between two winters" in the time the ships were trapped in the ice.)
The history of ships in the passage shows how deadly the ice could be. Parry's H.M.S. _Fury_ was lost to it on his third expedition. The ice had trapped John Ross's _Victory_, forcing him to abandon the ship. _Terror_ herself had nearly been wrecked in George Back's expedition of 1833-1835 -- the ice "once hurled his battered vessel forty feet up the side of a cliff" (Berton, p. 130); the ship barely made it back across the Atlantic and had to be beached on the Irish coast. _Breadalbane_, mentioned above, lasted only a few days in the Arctic. And H.M.S. _Investigator_ never escaped Mercy Bay after being trapped in the Franklin search.
"Only the Eskimo in his skin canoe Was the only one to ever come through": The Inuit did indeed use skin kayaks, and they did know the paths through the ice -- and, as it turned out, saw at least some of the Franklin survivors. They had saved John Ross's 1829 expedition, which would have perished due to starvation and scurvy without them. But not every European commander had the diplomatic skills or wisdom to work with them (no one prior to Charles Frances Hall in the 1860s really tried to make friends with them), and no one bothered to talk to them about Franklin until John Rae in 1854. Even more important, Franklin had too many men for the Inuit to be able to provide useful supplies; the natives travelled in small bands and were barely able to feed themselves even so.
"For my long-lost Franklin I'd cross the main": Lady Franklin did not physically participate in all the searches (Sandler, p. 86, says that she volunteered to join John Richardson's search, only to be politely rejected), but she did in fact go to the Americas during the hunt, and during the great push starting in 1850, she was hovering around the edges of the search.
"Ten thousand pounds would I freely give": The Admiralty for a time was offering twenty thousand pounds for anyone who could rescue the Franklin expedition, and half that for definitive word of Franklin's fate, but eventually dropped it, though Rae did manage to collect.
Lady Franklin spent much of her limited fortune financing search parties; M'Clintock's final expedition, which found the key evidence telling of the expedition's fate, was relatively small mostly because of Lady Franklin's need to keep costs down (Berton, pp. 317-318): it consisted of one small ship, with the officers serving as volunteers. The exact amount she spent is unknown -- I've seen estimates as low as 3,000 pounds and as high as 35,000 (so Berton, p. 333, though this probably includes contributions from others) -- but it was substantial.
I do not know if it is significant, but Berton, pp. 202-203, says that Lady Franklin brought ten thousand pounds to their marriage, and that part of the estate was one of the things he left her in his will. Thus, if she did spend ten thousand pounds, it was the entirety of her own money. (But she spent more than her own money, by every indication; Franklin had left his first wife's dowry to his daughter Eleanor, and she quarrelled with her stepmother, arguing that Jane Franklin had wasted her estate.)
Lady Franklin's dedication did do some slight good for feminism: She would be the first woman to be given the Patron Medal of the Royal Geographic Society.
As we see, the song ended before the fate of Franklin was known. So what happened to him?
From what was learned later, we know that the ships were caught on the ice; eventually they were abandoned and wrecked (this was verified both by Inuit accounts and by wreckage; Collinson found some as far away as Dease Strait, some ten degrees west of where the ships went down; Savours, p. 233), but the men were unable to reach civilization.
Bad maps may have played a role. The Northwest Passage can be thought of as proceeding from Baffin Bay in four stages: The first is Lancaster Sound, then the Barrow Straight. The obvious third stage was the straight path through Viscount Melville Sound (which runs north of Victoria Island). This path, however, is usually frozen; Parry had made it part way on his first voyage, but had eventually been halted, and no one else had even come close. The fourth stage would be due west to the Beaufort Sea and out the Bering Strait.
The first, second, and fourth parts were known, but no one had even mapped a complete route for the third stage. It was known, e.g., that there was a straight path to the south of Victoria Island, but no one knew how to get to Victoria Island from Barrow Straight.
Franklin's first attempt at finding the third stage was an unfruitful exploration of Cornwallis Island; this led nowhere. Franklin then properly headed south through Peel Sound and past Prince of Wales island, just to the west of the Boothia Peninsula.
The question then was whether to pass east or west of King William Island, which lies in the area between the Boothia Peninsula and Victoria Island. This was where Franklin had to make a guess. And the charts Franklin had were not just incomplete but inaccurate. John Ross's error, cited above, closed off the eastern passage around King William Island (which, in any case, was narrow and shallow; it would have been hard to navigate -- MSmith, p. 171). Another error seemed to imply a useful passage further west which did not exist. (Lest we criticize, the Arctic Archipelago -- called the "District of Franklin" when they were still part of the Northwest Territories -- is among the hardest places on earth to map; I have an atlas from 1967 which still contains some fairly significant errors, such as showing Borden and Mackenzie King islands as one; an atlas from 1952 is even worse, omitting islands and bays and creating a great bay which doesn't exist.)
Given that misinformation, Franklin chose to steer west of King William Island. That route, while short in air distance, is exposed to pack ice coming down M'Clintock Channel. While technically ocean, the route in fact almost never thaws -- there is so much ice that it periodically throws floes high up on King William Island (Fleming-Barrow, p. 288; MSmith, pp.170-171, quotes James Clark Ross's observtions of the ice on the island). Franklin seems to have entered it at one of the few times when it was partly open. His ships were frozen on the ice for almost two years before they were finally abandoned.
Franklin did not live long enough to know the worst. He died, of unknown but probably natural causes, aboard _Erebus_ on June 11, 1847; his body has not been found. His loss shouldn't have been fatal -- after all, that left the veteran F. R. M. Crozier in command.
But the loss of their paunchy admiral seemed to take something out of the expedition. Crozier, though an intelligent self-made man, had never held an independent command. And, somehow, he never seemed to gain any recognition or fame (MSmith, p. 132).
Crozier told the wife of another officer that he didn't expect to get back alive from the Franklin Expedition (MSmith, p. 156; cf. Cookman, p. 73; Fleming-Barrow, p. 374). His last letters hint strongly at depression (Cookman, p. 54), and Lady Franklin wrote that he "seemed... ill and dispirited when he left" (Savours, p. 192). He felt, with some justice, that his record should have earned him more recognition than he had been given. Bitter and pessimistic, he was hardly the man to save a bad situation.
After being frozen off King William Island for two winters, Crozier finally abandoned the ships and tried to head back to a possible rendezvous point by the Great Fish River. But there were no rescue ships there, and indications are that the crew broke up into smaller groups, none of which survived. Several bodies have been found which seem to come from the Franklin Expedition -- and which show obvious signs of cannibalism.
The last written record of the expedition comes from the spring of 1848, as they abandoned the ships, though we know some men lived longer -- possibly into the 1850s.
Franklin's problem, perhaps, could ultimately be put down to "bad luck" -- i.e. lack of actual genius; his 1819 expedition had ended in disaster through minor errors in what we would now call "staff work," and that is perhaps part of what happened here: When he needed to be inspired, he instead got bogged down, wasting much time circling Cornwallis Island, failing to leave cairns to mark his progress (or building cairns but leaving no records in them; see, e.g., Savours, p. 292), and then dying before he could rectify his mistake.
(Most books seem to take a position that is either strongly pro- or anti-Franklin. I must admit that I find this hard. Of the men most qualified to know -- Parry, James Clark Ross, and Crozier -- all initially approved of his appointment; although Crozier eventually because depressed, he had written to Ross somewhat earlier expressing his approval of Franklin; Savours, p. 178. Reading the passages from Frankin's notes compiled by Savours, pp. 169-177, it appears he was much wiser about the Arctic than his superiors. And yet -- he *did* fail. My best guess is that he was a better-than-average commander for the task -- but that the task, given the weather conditions in the late 1840s, needed someone who was better than better-than-average.)
All this of course was reconstructed from the findings of the expeditions sent to look for Franklin. There were many (Beattie, pp. 262-263, list some 17 ships sent out by 1850, plus some land expeditions; Delgado, p. 149, says that 32 expeditions were mounted from 1847 to 1859), but the initial searches were rather a failure; although the ships charted some new territory, few discovered anything and several managed to come to grief themselves.
Lady Franklin did not get any useful word until 1854. At that time, John Rae -- who wasn't even searching for Franklin; he was exploring the Boothia Peninsula for the Hudson's Bay Company (Savours, pp. 270-271) -- met sundry Inuit (Savours, p. 272) who had collected a few relics (including the Franklin Medal) and had also seen a company of perhaps forty white men struggling south in the snow. The Europeans had starved to death (Savours, p. 273), and the Inuit had collected the relics.
While that located the expedition in the waters off the Boothia Peninsula -- an area that no one had bothered to search, though Lady Franklin had urged it -- it left at least two-thirds of the men unaccounted for, though Franklin on the evidence was surely one of the casualties. The Admiralty was satisfied; it closed the books (Cookman, pp. 1-2, prints the preliminary Admiralty order to pay off the men's widows after a certain date if no word was heard. This was before Rae reported; obviously his report just made it final). The Navy declared the seamen dead, passed out a few knighthoods, and sent its fleet to fight in the Crimean War (where the British forces suffered more wastage than they ever did in Lancaster Sound, and for even less use. The Northwest Passage expeditions not only charted new ground, but they made biological, geological, and anthropological discoveries, though hardly enough to justify the lives they cost).
Lady Franklin wasn't satisfied, but from now on, she was entirely on her own. She would finally learn her husband's fate in 1859.
In 1857, Lady Franklin had chartered one last expedition, under Francis M'Clintock -- one of the most industrious of the early explorers, though he didn't become famous at the time. They had only a single small ship, the _Fox_, a 177 ton topsail schooner, formerly a yacht, with auxiliary steam (Savours, p. 284) that had to be crammed to the bilges to fit in all the men and supplies (Savours, p. 285) -- but they finally went to the right place, searching (mostly by sledge) around King William Island and the Boothia Peninsula. They also talked to quite a few Inuit.
During their search, they found skeletons, more relics -- and two of the expedition's summary reports (Franklin had had orders to leave reports, sealed against water, at regular intervals, though only a handful were ever found, most from very early in the expedition; in effect, we have only one document of the last stages). These two summaries were both written on the same sheet of paper, and found in a cairn by one of McClintock's officers (for details of the finding, see e.g. Sandler, pp. 182-185, plus of course McClintock, pp. 190-192).
The first report, from May 28, 1847, was still optimistic. The expedition, after wasting most of 1845 circling Cornwallis Island, had spent the winter of 1845-1846 at Beechey Island. Once the ice broke up the next spring, Franklin had headed south, spending the winter of 1846-1847 off King William Island. At the time the report was written, the ships were still stuck there. Still, there seemed to be hope.
The second report, from (probably) April 25, 1848, was a grim addendum written in the margins of the first; the ships had been ice-locked by dreadfully cold weather for more than a year and a half. Both Franklin's subordinate captains, Crozier and FitzJames, were alive to sign the report (McClintock, p. 193, believed that the note was written by FitzJames himself, save the last words which were by Crozier; he does not give reasons for this, but Savours, p. 292 accepts it). Franklin, though, had been dead for ten months, and a total of two dozen men -- 20% of the expedition's total -- had been lost. There seemed no way to escape by sea. On April 22, Crozier ordered the 105 survivors to abandon the ships and head for the mainland.
The 1848 report did not tell the fate of the last survivors, of course. Most think they simply tried for the mainland (the report says they would "start tomorrow... for Back's Fish River") and failed to make it. But David Woodman speculated that they wanted to hunt and fish at the river to restore their strength, then return to the ships (Delgado, p. 163). This would explain why there were relics found at so many places -- and also why the one ship's boat that was found was found on a sledge heading *north* (Savours, p. 296). On this theory, some of the crew may have lived until 1851 or 1852. But they were never seen again by Europeans.
They may have made severe mistakes in planning this last stage -- M'Clintock found they took a lot of junk, such as books and silverware, with them, though it has been argued that they simply emptied the ships (perhaps of materials not needed for the final part of the voyage, or perhaps to keep them available should the ships sink).
They may not have been in shape to travel. Their sledges were ill-designed and heavy. It is little surprise that most died along the trek. It appears that quite a few simply dropped as they walked, and died where they fell (Beattie, pp. 80-81). Then, too, the evidence of cannibalism is overwhelming (Rae observed it at once -- Savours, p. 273 -- and others later confirmed it), in the form bones carved by knives and often scattered in a completely unnatural way (Delgado, p. 168; Sandler, pp. 150-151; Cookman offers additional details on pp. 176, 178, then proceeds on p. 184 to accuse Crozier of killing living men to feed the others. Of course, the only evidence of that is Cookman's drug dreams).
The Inuit would indicate that, after _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were abandoned, one sank and one was crushed by ice (Sandler, p. 180). This seems likely, and would accord with a few pieces of wreckage which have been found, but unlike the _Breadalbane_, their wrecks have not been discovered (it's a lot easier to search around Beechey Island, where the waters open almost every year and which is close to regular sea routes, than the often-frozen waters off King William Island).
Their strange behavior in these final months led to speculation that the men were slowly losing their minds. Much would be made of this in the next century.
It is an irony of the search for Franklin that it finally *did* find the Northwest Passage; explorers from the west, led by Robert McClure, discovered McClure and Prince of Wales Straits and followed each far enough to sight Melville Sound and Parry's Winter Harbour (where that explorer had wintered in 1820), "forging the last link," as the journalists of the time put it (it apparently was Franklin's friend John Richardson who first said the that Franklin's party "forged the last link of the Northwest Passage with their lives"; Mirsky, p. 136. But the phrase became a commonplace). Both these routes, however, were blocked by ice and unusable at the time (and are close enough to the arctic pack that they rarely open).
McClure managed at one point to sledge to Winter Harbor, the westernmost point reached by any expedition from the east, but he and his ship _Investigator_ did not come through -- and indeed blundered around so much that the ship was lost (having first risked a winter in open ice -- Mirsky, p. 145 -- the next year McClure entered a cul-de-sac he called "Mercy Bay," where the ship was trapped; Berton, pp. 228-232). Shortly before they were found, McClure engaged in a brazen attempt to send more than half of his crew to their deaths so that the remainder (the strongest) would have a better chance to survive (Sandler, pp. 131-132). Fortunately, they were found before he managed to execute his plan.
Even when McClure's crew was rescued by sledges from ships in the east, he tried to keep his sick crew on his ship, so he could try to claim the prize money for the passage -- but he simply couldn't convince the crew to do it (Berton, p. 248). Fleming-Barrow, p. 405, calls his behavior at this time "a little mad," which may be an understatement; several of his crew were dead, all had scurvy, and clearly they weren't strong enough to sail the vessel, but McClure tried to trick his superior into forcing them to stay with his ship. He also tried to force his crew to abandon the journals which would have documented his behavior (Savours, p. 222).
What it came down to was that McClure's crew made the passage (from west to east) -- but no ship did. In the end, the eastern expeditions returned east, and the the one surviving this that had gone in from the west went back west, without their vessels meeting.
Captain Richard Collinson, McClure's nominal superior, also discovered a passage (Delgado, p. 133), approximating that later used by Amundson, but gained little credit for it, in part because McClure made it home first and in part because he didn't actually follow the passage. Yet, as his brother noted in editing his journals that he "demonstrated practically that it is navigable for ships" (quoted by Savours, p. 231) -- that is, Collinson, though he mapped only a small part of the Passage, was the first to sail a ship through large portions of it. It was Collinson, not McClure or Franklin or anyone else, who proved that -- under ideal circumstances -- it was possible to get a ship through the Passage. (Amundsen would later say that Collinson would get far too little credit for what he did; Savours, p. 307). All that was needed after that was for someone to actually do it.
It was not until 1903-1906 that Amundsen in the _Gjoa_ would make the actual passage from Baffin Bay to Beaufort Sea -- and even he didn't take the Lancaster/Melville/McClure route, but turned south from the Barrow Strait to take the longer, narrower, but less icy, route east and south of King William Island and then south of Victoria Island -- in effect combining the first part of Franklin's path with the main part of Collinson's.
It wasn't until 1944 that Larsen made it through the icy Lancaster/Melville passage. (Amazing to realize that, now, there are actual settlements -- Resolute and Grise Fjord, among others -- north of that route. Though Wilkinson, p. 78, notes an interesting point about Resolute: It is mostly a military base and airfield, designed to watch the Pole -- and it was supposed to be set up at Parry's Winter Harbor. But there was too much ice to get there, so they set up on Cornwallis Island instead. Winter Harbor ended up being the place where the first Arctic oil drilling began, though -- Wilkinson, p. 99. If that's something worth memorializing.)
But why did the expedition fail? Why did they make the strange decisions they did, and why weren't they able to make it home? Crozier and company were far from anywhere when they abandoned ship, but they should still have had enough supplies to make it to one or another Hudson Bay Company outpost.
This is the second Great Mystery of the Franklin Expedition -- the one that endures to this day.
The obvious answer is, Scurvy, or vitamin C deficiency (cf. MSmith, p. 174, who estimates that the disease would have turned serious just about when Franklin died). As noted above, this had been the constant companion of long sea voyages for as long a men could remember; it nearly ruined Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe.
Franklin's crews of course were given the standard rations of lemon juice -- but the standard ration is not by itself enough to prevent scurvy. On most ships, this doesn't matter; the crews get at least some fresh food. Not in the Arctic, though! And Vitamin C has an unfortunate tendency to degrade when exposed to light and air, so a dose of lemon juice that might have prevented scurvy in 1845 would have been too weak to do much good in 1847. Plus, Sherard Osborn noted that no canned materials were found among any of the relics found along King William Island. If the survivors had any provisions left, they were in the form of salt meat and biscuits, which had no vitamin C at all (Savours, p. 297).
What's more, scurvy affects both the mind and the body; a man too badly afflicted might make the sort of strange decisions Crozier and his surviving officers are accused of having made.
Yet many deny the possibility of scurvy (e.g. Fleming-Barrow, p. 416 thinks it killed too quickly). Owen Beattie found another theory. In 1984 and 1986, he autopsied the bodies of the first Franklin men to die (the three buried on Beechey Island in the first winter). He found extremely high levels of lead. He also looked at some of the bones of the skeletons found along the path of the Franklin Expedition. He found strong evidence of scurvy (Beattie, p. 16) -- and more lead. His theory is that the men were driven mad by lead poisoning, which would explain their erratic behavior, and of course would make them less able to bear the privations of an arctic journey. Documentation of this may be found in Beattie.
But while the lead theory has become popular, the evidence is far from complete -- Beattie examined only a handful of bodies, and only the three from Beechey Island were intact; all three had elevated levels of lead, but all died of other causes. And even if lead poisoning caused some of the other deaths, we cannot be sure if these men were typical.
If anything, the evidence for lead poisoning is stronger in the search expeditions -- e.g. nearly everyone in James Clark Ross's crew came down sick for extended periods, and their problem does not appear to have been scurvy (Sandler, p. 93).
Against the lead theory may be set the fact that the last message, written and signed by Crozier and FitzJames, seems largely coherent and reasonable. The men were debilitated, but not entirely mad. Berton, p. 146, mentions the lead theory but says flatly that "the main cause of death was clearly scurvy." MSmith, p. 181, notes that Crozier's decision to abandon the ships in April 1848 was rational: although the weather would be warmer later on, this was the best time to travel across the ice, which would still be firm after the winter.
In any case, there is the question of where the lead came from. *This* question we can answer: It came from their food. About a third of the provisions supplied to the Franklin Expedition came from canned food -- in tin cans sealed with lead. And yet, other expeditions also sailed with lead-sealed cans, and survived. Indeed, thirty-some years later, the _Jeannette_ expedition suffered from lead poisoning (in the form of stomach cramps) -- and they identified the condition and corrected it (see Leonard F. Guttridge, _Icebound_, p. 158; for background on the _Jeannette_, see the notes to "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay").
This led Cookman to another theory. Canning was still a new technology in 1845 (the first British patent was granted in 1811), and people were still tinkering with it. The contract to supply the Franklin Expedition was so large that most canners had backed out. One who did not was Stephan Goldner -- who submitted by far the lowest bid.
Cookman portrays Goldner as the extreme villain of the piece, deliberately cheating the Admiralty. This need not follow -- but it is quite clear that Goldner was not really up to the job he had contracted for. He was supposed to supply a variety of provisions -- canned vegetables, meats, soups -- mostly in small cans. He delivered almost nothing by the contract date, and was allowed to substitute large cans (cheaper and faster to manufacture) at the last moment.
By the end of the 1850s, it would become clear that Goldner's methods simply didn't work. He did not cook the contents of the cans sufficiently, and he didn't solder them tightly enough; the contents, in addition to being saturated with lead, very often rotted in the cans, or in some instances burst.
Cookman thinks that Goldner probably adulterated what he shipped, as well; since he was canning in the spring, there would have been few fresh vegetables, and little fatted meat, available. Between the inferior ingredients, the inadequate cooking, and the undeniably unsanitary conditions in Goldner's factory, the canned goods would almost certainly have been breeding grounds for bacteria. Including botulism bacteria.
But is this a quality control problem or deliberate cheating? Cookman thinks the latter -- but it appears that some contemporary Goldner products had proved acceptable (Beattie, p. 65), and that Goldner had given satisfaction in the past (Beattie, p. 45). And Cookman is demonstrably wrong in one charge against Goldner (p. 87, where Goldner, correctly, argued that round cans are structurally more sound than square. Goldner's explanation is imprecise, so Cookman calls it a lie even though the gist of it is true).
But deciding that Goldner was evil allowed Cookman to evolve a vision of the expedition which makes Franklin and Company look much better: At every stage their behavior was rational. They just kept dying of food-borne illnesses. The idea is old: as early as Austin's expedition, Captain Ommaney, counting the number of tins left on Beechey Island, thought that some of Franklin's food might have been bad. The only problem with Cookman's version it is that it's about 10% facts (the facts being Goldner's problems, the large number of cans in the cairn on Beechey Island, and the known places where Franklin artifacts were found) and 90% Cookman -- and Cookman's writing shows his ability to substitute speculation for fact; his history of the expedition often includes detailed descriptions of events no one witnessed or could reconstruct from the available data (e.g. he actually tells us which hatches were bolted on Franklin's ships during the winter -- see p. 95).
Still, MSmith, p. 150, mentions the botulism theory with some approval.
That Goldner's products were inferior is certain; there were many complaints in the years after the Franklin expedition, and eventually the Admiralty imposed such stringent conditions on him that he appears to have been driven out of business. Even if his products weren't filled with lead or fatal bacteria, many of the cans probably contained spoiled food.
This would fit Beattie's autopsy of Marine Private William Braine, who was very tall for the period (about 6 feet/180 cm.) but utterly emaciated (about 40 kg/90 pounds); botulism frequently affects the digestion first, and other forms of food poisoning target the digestion even more.
In this regard, the Admiralty's decision to fit out a large expedition was probably largely to blame: The ships were heavily modernized and very up-to-date -- but, with so many hands, the crew could not possibly pick up enough food to significantly supplement their diets. (Indeed, it appears they didn't have anyone trained as a hunter.) They had to rely overwhelmingly on provisions taken from England -- which, whether lead-contaminated or not, whether poison or not, whether vermin-infested or not, lacked Vitamin C and were guaranteed to produce scurvy.
It seems to me that all the individual theories have contradictions. If the problem were lead alone, then there was enough food, so why cannibalism? If it were scurvy alone, again, why cannibalism? If it were botulism alone, then why were there so few deaths on Beechey Island? Hundreds of cans were discarded, yet only three men died, at least one of them primarily of tuberculosis. Even when the men abandoned the ships, the casualties were still only in the dozens. Goldner's cans may have been filled with junk, but at most a tiny fraction could have contained actual toxins. And if there were no toxins, then Cookman's diatribe against Goldner has no point.
One thing I note is that very many Arctic expeditions -- e.g. those of Kane, Hall, and Greeley, for which see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay," and the _Karluk_ voyage, for which see "Captain Bob Bartlett" -- ended in madness and insubordination. This was true from the time of the earliest explorers: Martin Frobisher, the first man to seek the Northwest Passage, came to blows with some of his captains during his third voyage to Baffin Bay (McGhee, pp. 143-145). Henry Hudson's crew set him adrift in Hudson's bay because he would not abandon the weaker members of the party (Mirsky, pp. 62-63; Woodman, pp. 36-40, thinks that the madness was actually Hudson's, not his men's, and suggests that "there seems little doubt that Hudson, whatever his skills as a seaman and his experience as an explorer, was a feeble commander. Setting aside the suggested ambiguities in his sexuality, his vacillations and his biddable character are enough to condemn him"). Williams, pp. 16-17, tells of exploring parties sent by the Hudson's Bay Company in which men -- often the leaders -- lost their minds; in a later expedition, two ship captains ended up quarrelling over something as trivial as who distributed ptarmigan brought in by Indians (Williams, p. 173), and the officers were accusing each other of plotting murder (Williams, p. 175).
The Arctic brought out the worst in men, and not just because of hunger and scurvy. Noah Hayes, who was on Charles Francis Hall's 1871 expedition, wrote "I believe that no man can retain the use of his faculties through one long [Arctic] night" (quoted in Fleming-North, p. 145).
Thomas Collinson, who edited the journals of his brother Richard Collinson (who spent five arctic winters in the search for Franklin), confessed "there appears to be someting in that particular service... that stirs up the bile and promotes bitter feelings" (Berton, p. 296); Berton himself says on pp. 392-393, "The history of Arctic exploration is riddled with irrational decisions and events."
That there was an Arctic disorder seems clear. I've not seen any writing explaining it, though -- seasonal affective disorder might play a part (the Inuit actually had a name for that; they called it "perlerorneq"; MSmith, p. 175) , but it hardly seems sufficient. Perhaps SAD plus incipient vitamin deficiency? Or calcium deficiency? In Robert Peary's later expedition, his Inuit were sometimes attacked by a disease called _piblokto_, which produced vicious and erratic behavior; it is now thought to be caused by lack of calcium (see Fleming-North, p. 359). Reading the accounts of Dr. Frederick A. Cook's arctic quest, I thought his behavior evidence of some sort of mental disturbance, and Bryce, p. 844, quotes another source who had the same thought. Whatever the "arctic madness" was, who is to say it didn't affect the Franklin expedition?
The various books I've consulted all seem quite certain about their theories. But it appears that, barring additional evidence, we simply cannot be sure. It is true that occasional relics continue to turn up, but they don't tell us much. Barring some other written record -- and, after 150 years, such a record is unlikely to be found (particularly since the detailed 1879 search by Frederick Schwatka, which most most of the remaining relics, was so thorough; Beattie, p. 99) -- we will remain as uncertain as the author of this song.
It's pretty useless at this stage to assign blame, but it's worth noting that not everyone thinks Franklin entirely at fault for the disaster. He has had a curious history -- the British at first treated him as a near-saint. Then came the reaction in which he was treated as a fool. Now there are various attempts to vindicate him. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. A wiser man would probably have done better with the materials he had at hand, but it was not Franklin who designed the expedition. That was done by John Barrow, the Admiralty Second Secretary. Cookman, p. 204, blames Barrow explicitly; Fleming-Barrow implies it repeatedly. Ironic, then, that I have never seen a version of this song which mentions Barrow.
For the later fates of some Franklin searchers, who then turned to North Pole exploration, see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay."
>>*BIBLIOGRAPHY*<<
In writing this summary, in addition to the standard references, I have heavily consulted the following works, of varying quality.
Beattie: Owen Beattie & John Geiger, _Frozen in Time_ (revised edition by Greystone, 2004). This is specific to the fate of the Franklin Expedition, but says less about the Franklin itself than about Beattie's autopsies; it's not really a history of the Franklin Edition. It exists mostly to advance the lead theory.
Berton: Pierre Berton, _The Arctic Grail_ (Viking, 1988). This covers the whole history of Polar and Passage exploration. It has a very low opinion of most arctic explorers -- it is almost as if Berton set out to insult as many people as possible -- but which includes much useful detail. Because it predates Beattie's main publication, it does not address the lead issue in full detail.
Bryce: Robert M. Bryce _Cook & Peary: The Polar Controversy, Resolved_ (Stackpole, 1997) is not about Franklin, or the Northwest Passage, but contains so much detail that some of it reflects on the Franklin expedition.
Cookman: Scott Cookman, _Ice Blink: The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin's Lost Polar Expedition_ (Wiley, 2000). Another Franklin-specific book. Although published as non-fiction, and including several useful appendices, this is really more of a historical novel. It advances the botulism theory -- and then basically invents a history of the expedition, right down to what Captain Crozier was thinking as he abandoned the ships and decided to engage in cannibalism. Uh-huh. Maybe there is merit to his theory -- but he'd have done a lot better to present his theory, not write a piece of fiction and try to sell it as fact.
Delgado: James P. Delgado, _Across the Top of the World_ (Checkmark, 1999). This book, which provides a good general overview of Passage exploration, briefly cites this song (and Stan Rogers's "Northwest Passage" and is a good place to start studying Passage exploration. Incidentally, Rogers looked almost eerily like early engravings of Franklin; see, for instance, Delgado's modern edition of Franklin's own edition _Journal to the Polar Sea_ -- there is a reproduction facing p. 160), and appears to be up to date on the state of research through 1999. This has the advantage of providing a good context, since it covers the Northwest Passage expeditions before and after Franklin.
Edinger: Ray Edinger, _Fury Beach: The Four-Year Odyssey of Captain John Ross and the Victory_, Berkley, 2003. Mostly about Ross, of course, rather than Franklin, but it has some useful background.
Fleming-Barrow: Fergus Fleming, _Barrow's Boys_ (Grove, 1998) covers the explorations undertaken at the behest of John Barrow, Second Secretary of the British admiralty for most of the first half of the nineteenth century. This includes most of Franklin's explorations, though it includes much other material as well. Still, it gives the feel of the period better than any of the other books, including Delgado.
Fleming-North: Fergus Fleming, _Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole_ (Grove, 2001). In some ways, a companion volume to the preceeding, devoted mostly to the quest for the North Pole with occasional side glances at other aspects of arctic exploration. It of course shares most of the characteristics of Fleming-Barrow.
MacInnis: Joe MacInnis, _The Land that Devours Ships: The Search for the Breadalbane_ (CBC, 1985). The story of a modern search for one of the Franklin rescue ships, with relatively little about Franklin himself -- but, because of its monotonous background about the process of the search, it gives a fair amount of detail about working on shipboard in the Arctic.
McClintock: Francis McClintock, _The Voyage of the Fox_, 1860(?); I use the 1998 Konemann edition which omits most of the extensive appendices but retains the main narrative. This is one of the key source documents, though it is unindexed and not particularly readable. NOTE: This edition spells the captain's name "McClintock," in accord with modern usage; he and his contemporaries used the spelling "M'Clintock."
McGhee: Robert McGhee, _The Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher: An Elizabethan Adventure_, University of Washington Press, 2001. It barely mentions Franklin, but it documents the first-ever search for the Northwest Passage.
McGoogan: Ken McGoogan, _Ancient Mariner: The Amazing Adventures of Samuel Hearne, the Sailor Who Walked tot he Arctic Ocean_, Harper Perennial Canada, 2003. Obviously not about Franklin -- it never even mentions the 1840s expedition, though it does briefly allude to the disastrous 1821 trip that retraced part of Hearne's route. But it gives good background on the whole nature of exploring northern Canada.
Mirsky: Jeannette Mirsky, _To the Arctic: The Story of Northern Exploration from the Earliest Times to the Present_, revised edition, Knopf, 1948. Given its date, this inevitably shows its age. It also glosses over almost all errors while stressing the heroism of arctic explorers. But it covers all attempts at the Arctic, even those by Russians, which is rare.
MSmith: Michael Smith: _Captain Francis Crozier: Last Man Standing_ (Collins Press, 2006). The first attempt at a full biography of Frankin's second-in-command, it gives a rather different look at the whole Northwest Passage expedition. There are a number of mathematical gaffes (the author does not understand the difference between linear and area measure!), but it is useful as a counterweight to the usual books all about Franklin.
Sandler: Martin W. Sandler: _Resolute_ (Sterling, 2006). This is, of all things, a book about a desk. But it's a desk made out of wood from one of the Franklin search ships. I ended up -- by accident , thanks to Half Price Books selling a copy that should not be sold (a fact I failed to notice) -- with an uncorrected review copy. I've noticed several small errors in dates, but I assume the pagination will be little changed.
Savours: Ann Savours, _The Search for the North West Passage_ (St. Martin's, 1999). I found this somewhat heavy going, and while it is footnoted it manages to quote the Stan Rogers song "Northwest Passage" as a "seafarer's song" (p. viii), but the appendices, with lists of Northwest Passages and artifacts from the Franklin Expedition, are most useful, and it covers the ground thoroughly.
Sobel: Dava Sobel, _Longitude_, 1995 (I use the 2007 Walker edition with a foreward by Neil Armstrong). This has nothing to do with Franklin, but has useful information about scurvy and about navigation in unknown waters.
Wilkinson: Douglas Wilkinson, _Arctic Fever: The search for the Northwest Passage_ (Clarke Irwin, 1971). This seems to be written for a school-aged audience; footnotes are few, and there are a lot of minor slips. It's quite readable, though, and has some information not found elsewhere, mostly about the Arctic today.
Williams: Glyn Williams, _Voyages of Delusin: The Quest for the Northwest Passage_ (HarperCollins, 2002; I use the 2003 Yale University Press edition). Despite what you might think from its title, this is not a history of all the Passage attempts; it ends c. 1800, and Franklin is mentioned only three times, briefly. But it's a good background book for the pre-Franklin period.
Woodman: Richard Woodman, _A Brief History of Mutiny_, Carroll & Graf, 2005. It doesn't even mention Franklin, but some of its insights on mutiny in the cotext of Arctic Madness are interesting.
- RBW
Greenleaf/Mansfield states that 151C is a different song from 151A and 151B. The text is
We sailed away down Baffin Bay,
Where the nights and days were one;
And the Huskimaw in his skin canoe,
That was the only living soul.
The ice-king came with his eyes aflame,
Perched on our noble crew,
And his chilly breath was cold as death,
It pierced our warm hearts through.
- BS
It is noteworthy that Laws does not list that song with this piece, and most of the lines quoted above are not normally found in "Lady Franklin's Lament." The reference to Eskimos, however, *is* found in other Franklin versions, so (given the rarity of this version), I'm still lumping the songs for the moment.
Incidentally, though the word "Huskimaw" for "Eskimo" seems to be extinct today, it was common enough in the past that it gave rise to the name "husky" for arctic dogs. (Thanks to J. V. Arkle and Lyle Lofgren for bringing this to my attention.) - RBW
File: LK09
===
NAME: Lady Gay (I): see The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)
===
NAME: Lady Greensleeves: see Greensleeves (File: ChWI239)
===
NAME: Lady Isabel [Child 261]
DESCRIPTION: Isabel's stepmother accuses Isabel of being "her father's whore," and tries to have her drink (poisoned) wine. At church; her mother advises her to take the poison. She bids farewell to her servants, drinks the poison, and dies. The stepmother goes mad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: death stepmother poison homicide mother wine
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 261, "Lady Isabel" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 633-635, "Lady Isabel" (1 text)
Roud #3884
NOTES: Something seems to be wrong with this ballad; there are too many loose ends. While the stepmother's actions are perhaps understandable (she thinks Isabel's father pays more attention to his daughter than his new wife), Isabel's love beyond the sea appears for only one stanza, her mother's behavior is inexplicable, and Isabel is much too passive. Presumably something has been lost. - RBW
File: C261
===
NAME: Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4]
DESCRIPTION: A knight woos a lady. He will marry her if she runs away with him. He leads her to the seashore and threatens to drown/kill her as he has killed others before. She makes him turn his back and kills him instead. She bribes her parrot to keep her secret
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: elopement homicide seduction bird lie
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Australia; analogues in Poland, Germany, France, Scandinavia, Netherlands
REFERENCES: (56 citations)
Child 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (8 texts)
Bronson 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (144 versions plus 2 in addenda)
Dixon XI, pp. 63-65, "The Water o' Wearie's Well" (1 text, plus an "Outlandish Knight" text on pp. 101-104 in the notes)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 130-131, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #29}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp.14-34, "The False-Hearted Knight" (8 texts plus a fragment, 6 tunes; the "B" text is probably mixed as it starts with first person verses from the false knight) {Bronson's #50, #22, #35, #81, #5, #13}
Flanders/Brown, pp. 190-192, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #130}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 4-7, "The False-Hearted Knight"; pp. 109-111, "The Castle by the Sea"; pp. 129-131, "The Outlandish Knight" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #138 ,#57, #141}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 82-123, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (14 text plus 5 fragments, 12 tunes; the "C" and "D" texts have scraps from "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" [Child 105], and the "J" fragment also appears to be mixed) {A=Bronson's #138, E=#141, F=#130, I=#60, N=#57}
Belden, pp. 5-16, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (8 texts plus variants)
Randolph 2, "Pretty Polly Ann" (4 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #121, C=#86, E=#131}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 16-18, "Pretty Polly Ann" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 2A) {Bronson's #121}
Eddy 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (4 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #49, #89}
Gardner/Chickering 1, "Lady Isabe and the Elf-Knightl" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 1 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #92}
Davis-Ballads 3, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (17 texts plus 2 fragments, 7 tunes entitled 'Pretty Polly," "The Nine King's Daughters," "The Seven King's Daughters," "The False-Hearted Knight," "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight"; 9 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) { {Bronson's #103, #146, #23, #104, #2, #19, #24}
Davis-More 4, pp. 16-25, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, including one reconstructed, 2 tunes)
BrownII 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (7 texts)
Chappell-FSRA 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 fragments)
Hudson 1, pp. 61-66, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (3 texts plus a fragment)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 43-45, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #120}
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 127-128, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 short text, apparently without a local title, consisting mostly of the ending with little of the initial seduction)
Brewster 3, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 2-9, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (4 texts plus 3 fragments, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #74, #44, #42, #43}
Greenleaf/Mansfield 1, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #73}
Peacock, pp. 206-207, "The King's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 1, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 1, "Pretty Polly" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #61}
Manny/Wilson 53, "The Gates of Ivory (Doors of Ivory)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 72-76, "Doors of Ivory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 53-59, ""Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 82, "Six Kings Daughters" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #109}
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 143-145, "The Seventh Sister" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 2-3, "False Sir John" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #102, which has two fewer verses and transcribes the tune rather differently}
OBB 8, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight"; 10, "May Colvin" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 10, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 texts)
Warner 41, "The Castle by the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 12, "Lady Isobel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 11, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28a}
Niles 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's#96}
SharpAp 3 "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (10 texts, 10 tunes) {Bronson's #110, #106, #9, #111, #116, #99, #118, #100, #135, #55}
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 4, "The Outlandish Knight (Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune, somewhat edited and expanded) {Bronson's #99}
Sandburg, pp. 60-61, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #64}
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 80-81, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #39, though Bronson has a different title and no text}
SHenry H163, pp. 413-414, "The King o' Spain's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Ulster 13, "The Parrot Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 8, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #44}
Hodgart, p. 28 ,"Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
DBuchan 42, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
TBB 32, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
JHCox 1, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (9 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #126}
JHCoxIIA, #IA-B, pp. 5-9, "The False Sir John," "Six Kings' Daughters (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #128, #127}
MacSeegTrav 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 188, "Lady Isabel And The Elf Knight" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 23-26, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 texts)
BBI, ZN975, "Go fetch me some of your father's gold" (said to be combined from several Child ballads)
DT 4, OUTKNGHT* ELFKNGHT* WILLWTRE* KNGSPAIN* FLSESIRJ
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #427, ("The Water o' Wearie's Well") (1 text)
Roud #21
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "The False-Hearted Knight" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Bill Cassidy, "Pretty Polly" (on IRTravellers01)
Lena Bourne Fish, "Castle by the Sea" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Mary Anne Haynes, "The Young Officer" (on Voice11)
Fred Jordan, "The Outlandish Knight (Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1) (on FJordan01, HiddenE)
Sam Larner, "The Outlandish Knight" (on SLarner01)
Jean Ritchie, "False Sir John" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #102}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 244, "The Outlandish Knight" ("An outlandish knight came from the north lands"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.21(15), Firth c.21(16), 2806 c.17(323), Firth c.26(230), Harding B 11(2886), Harding B 11(2887), Harding B 11(2889), Harding B 11(2890), Harding B 11(2891), "[The] Outlandish Knight"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair Eleanor (II)" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
King of Spain's Daughter
Lady Ishbel and Her Parrot
King William's Son
The Courting of Aramalee
May Colvin
An Outlandish Rover
The Highway Robber
The Old Beau
Halewijn
The Seventh King's Daughter
Pretty Cold Rain
Sweet William
The Six Fair Maids
The Hinges of Ivory
The Prating Parrot
NOTES: Many theories have been offered as to the origin of this ballad (closely connected with the Franko-Dutch tale of Halwijn). The most widely known is Bugge's theory that this is a corrupt form of the tale of Judith, found in the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books of the Bible.
It should be noted, however, that the only actual parallel between Judith and Lady Isabel is that both end with the bad guy being killed by the heroine.
A comprehensive study of the origins of this piece is offered by Holger Olof Nygard in "Ballad Source Study: Child Ballad No. 4 as Exemplar" (first printed in the _Journal of American Folklore_, LXV, 1952; see now MacEdward Leach and Tristram P. Coffin, eds, _The Critics and the Ballad_, pp. 189- 203). Nygard concludes that none of the theories of origin is accurate, and I heartily agree. This piece stands on its own.
Peter Underwood, in _A Gazetteer of English, Scottish & Irish Ghosts_, p. 383, associates this song with Lendalfoot in Ayreshire, and claims that "mysterious shrill cries and strangely fading screams are still heard there." One has to suspect that this is one of those legends that arose after the song. - RBW
MacColl & Seeger cite a German broadside, c. 1550. - PJS
Of course, most of the alleged parallels to this piece (few of which are *truly* parallel) are in German and Scandinavian literature. - RBW
Also collected and sung by Kevin Mitchell, "False Lover John" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
File: C004
===
NAME: Lady Ishbel and Her Parrot: see Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)
===
NAME: Lady Leroy, The [Laws N5]
DESCRIPTION: A girl and her lover want to escape her father. She disguises herself and buys the Lady Leroy from her father. The father sends a ship to intercept them, but the girl captures her father's ship and sends it home. She and her lover continue on their way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1895 (JAFL8)
KEYWORDS: love escape disguise ship
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,So) Canada(Ont,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Laws N5, "The Lady Leroy"
Belden, pp. 180-182, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
FSCatskills 58, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 137-138, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 33-34, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 63, "Lady Leroy" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
JHCox 118, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
SharpAp 155, "Sally and Her Lover, or Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H214, pp. 445-446, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 111, "The Lady Uri" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 208-209, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 25, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 440, LADYLROY LADYLRO2
Roud #1889
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Lady Leroy" (AFS 4205 B1 and 4205 A2 [last verse], 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell); "The Fair Captive [wrong title, fragment]" (AFS 4205 A2, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES: The LC recordings are a bit of a mess. The one identified as "The Fair Captive" has numbers listed as AFS 4205 A1 and A2, but clicking on any of the audio links brings down only A2, which is definitely "Lady Leroy" or a fragment thereof. The listing under "The Lady Leroy," on the other hand, has a full version, 4205 B1, plus the same fragment, which is really the last verse of "The Lady Leroy." "The Fair Captive" is actually recorded, in full, on AFS 4201 B1. Got that? - PJS
File: LN05
===
NAME: Lady Maisry (II): see Mother, Mother, Make My Bed (File: VWL071)
===
NAME: Lady Maisry [Child 65]
DESCRIPTION: The Scottish heroine loves an English lord above all Scots. Her family, learning of her love and (in most versions) her pregnancy, prepare to burn her. She sends tokens to her love, but she has been burnt before he can arrive. (He takes bitter vengeance)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1822
KEYWORDS: love separation death hate hardheartedness family execution revenge
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland) US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Child 65, "Lady Maisry" (11 texts)
Bronson 65, "Lady Maisry" (13 versions, though some of these are really "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed")
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 448-449, "Lady Maisry" (notes only)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 117-119, "Bonnie Susie Cleland" (1 text)
Davis-Ballads 16, "Lady Maisry" (2 fragments, the first probably this but the second is only the verse of the messenger boy swimming the river; I suspect it's actually from "Little Musgrave," or "Mother, Mother," or "Lord Lovell," or some other such source)
SharpAp 17 "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 2 tunes){Bronson's #13, #12}
Sharp-100E 10, "Lady Maisry" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Leach, pp. 208-213, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 74, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
OBB 73, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
PBB 40, "Janet (Lady Maisry)" (1 text)
Niles 26, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the second is short, and appears to be a mixed text)
Gummere, pp. 218-222+352, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
DBuchan 11, "Lady Maisry", 29, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
DT 65, SCLELAND* LMAISRY *
Roud #45
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stolen Bride" (plot)
cf. "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (lyrics)
cf. "Kafoozalem (I)" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Bonnie Susie Cleland
Sweet Maisry
Lord Dillard and Lady Flora
NOTES: Bronson, Roud, and Scarborough, and probably others, have filed "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" with "Lady Maisry," but that ballad (composed largely of floating elements) lacks key plot elements, notably the reasons for, and fact of, the girl's condemnation and death. It appears to be a separate song, though perhaps composed on the fragments of this song.
Interestingly, it appears that every text Bronson has of "Mother, Mother" is part of his "C" tune group, and every text in the "C" group is either "Mother, Mother" or is too short to allow identification. - RBW
File: C065
===
NAME: Lady Margaret: see Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)
===
NAME: Lady Margaret (II): see Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)
===
NAME: Lady Margaret and King William: see Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)
===
NAME: Lady Margaret and Sweet William (I): see Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)
===
NAME: Lady Margaret and Sweet William (II): see Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)
===
NAME: Lady Margot and Love Henry: see Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)
===
NAME: Lady Margot and Sweet Willie: see Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)
===
NAME: Lady Mary (The Sad Song)
DESCRIPTION: "He came from his palace grand And he came to my cottage door... But I was nothing to him, Though he was the world to me." She desperately loved him; now he is dead, but she has no excuse for mourning. She wonders if, in heaven, he will still ignore her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (collected by Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: death love beauty
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 698, "The Sad Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 522-524, "The Sad Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 698)
DT, LADYMARY*
Roud #6358
RECORDINGS:
Bud Skidmore, "The Sad Song" (Columbia 15761-D, 1932)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "We Met, 'Twas In a Crowd"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Palace Grand
NOTES: This has been quite popular in the folk revival; it appears that most if not all of these versions derive from the May Kennedy McCord collected by Randolph and Hunter; she also gave it to Evelyn Beers. Bush's printing also derives from McCord. Thus although there are a few other versions of the song known (from Owens and Sandburg), if you've heard this song, the version you know almost certainly comes from McCord. - RBW
File: R698
===
NAME: Lady Mary Ann (by Robert Burns): see A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)
===
NAME: Lady o' the Dainty Doonby, The: see The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)
===
NAME: Lady of Arngosk, The [Child 224]
DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "The Highlandmen has a' come down... They've stowen away the bonny lass, The Lady of Arngosk." They dress her in her silken gown, and the Highland leader draws his sword and bids her come. They tie her hands, but she scorns them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1823 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection clothes abduction
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 224, "The Lady of Arngosk" (1 text)
Roud #4019
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Eppie Morrie" [Child 223] (plot)
NOTES: Child's notes to this are about twelve times as long as the actual three-stanza text (the only fragment recovered, and likely the only one which ever will be recovered), and give the apparent background to the song. The lyrics itself are so fragmentary, however, that they could well be a minor adaption of some similar piece such as "Eppie Morrie." - RBW
File: C224
===
NAME: Lady of Carlisle, The [Laws O25]
DESCRIPTION: Two brothers court a lady. Unable to choose between them, she decides to find out who is braver. She throws her fan into a den of lions and says she will marry whoever recovers it. The sea captain does so; she offers herself as the prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Harding B 16(327a))
KEYWORDS: contest courting clothes marriage animal
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(So)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (18 citations)
Laws O25, "The Lady of Carlisle"
Flanders/Olney, pp. 207-208, "In Castyle there Lived a Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 36, "Lady of Carlisle" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 66, "The Bold Lieutenant" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
SHenry H474, pp. 488-489, "The Glove and the Lions" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 49, "London City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 36, "The Bold Lieutenant" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Creighton-NovaScotia 43, "Lion's Den" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 34-35, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 22, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 133, "The Lion's Den" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 393-394, "The Lion's Den" (1 text)
BrownII 89, "The Glove" (2 texts)
Hudson 29, pp. 139-141, "The Faithful Lover, or The Hero Rewarded" (1 text)
Brewster 59, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 146, "Lady Of Carlisle" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 130-131, "Carolina Lady" (1 text)
DT 335, LDYCRLIL* LDYCRL2*
Roud #396
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "The Fan" (on IREButcher01)
Dillard Chandler, "Carolina Lady" (on Chandler01)
Teresa Maguire, "The Lion's Den" (on FSB8)
Basil May, "Lady of Carlisle" (LC-1587/AAFS 1702, rec. 1937)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Lady of Carlisle" (on NLCR03, NLCR12, NLCRCD1) (on NLCR16)
Pete Seeger, "Down in Carlisle" (on PeteSeeger16)
Doug Wallin, "The Bold Lieutenant" (on Wallins1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(327a), "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.19(28)[some words illegible], "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded"; Harding B 28(187), "Faithful Lover" ("Near to St. James's there lived a lady"); Harding B 17(167b), "The Lions' Den"; Firth c.13(35) View 1 of 2, "The Bold Lieutenant in the Lions' Den"; Harding B 16(29a), "Bold Lieutenant"
LOCSinging, as102520, "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded," J. Catnach (London), 19C
Murray, Mu23-y1:087, "The Bold Lieutenant in the Lion's Den," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
In Roslyn Isles There Lived a Lady
NOTES: Kennedy notes, "Lions were kept at the Tower of London from the time of Henry III [reigned 1216-1272] until 1834." Sam Henry dates this to an actual event in the reign of Francis (I? -- reigned 1515-1547) of France. This is more probable than most of these derivations (how many people in the world are that silly?), but as usual, it cannot be proved.
The notes in Brown posit a different original, claiming (following Barry?) that it originated in Spain, spread to France and Italy, and inspired Schiller ("Der Handschuh"), Browning, and Leigh Hunt ("The Glove and the Lions"). Belden (_The Vulgar Ballad_, p. 6) thinks he finds traces of a broadside published between 1814 and 1834. Again, proof is lacking. - RBW
File: LO25
===
NAME: Lady of the Lake, The (The Banks of Clyde II) [Laws N41]
DESCRIPTION: The singer walks up to a girl and asks her why she is weeping. She says that the Lady of the Lake, carrying her true love, was wrecked off Newfoundland. He tells her that Willie is dead, and gives her his last message, but then reveals that he is Willie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie); c.1850 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.16(54))
KEYWORDS: love death wreck ship disguise
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 11, 1833 - The "Lady of the Lake" strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks, taking with her most of her passengers
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws N41, "The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde)"
Doerflinger, pp. 302-303, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text)
SHenry H765, pp. 312-313, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 928-930, "Liza Gray" (1 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 67, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text)
DT 466, LADYLAKE
Roud #1886
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(54), "The Lady of the Lake," G. Jacques (Manchester), c.1850; also Firth b.27(297), Firth c.12(230), "The Lady of the Lake"
Murray, Mu23-y3:010, "The Lady of the Lake," unknown, 19C
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Lady of the Lake" (subject) and notes there
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Wreck of the Lady Shearbrooke" (plot)
cf. "Thomas and Nancy" [Laws K15] (theme)
NOTES: Leyden: "Total saved 34; perished 197; total 234" with a list of those saved, including Captain Grant and at least one William. - BS
For more details on the casualties, see "The Loss of the Lady of the Lake." - RBW
File: LN41
===
NAME: Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow)
DESCRIPTION: "Here comes a poor (woman/widow) from (Babylon/baby-land), WIth three small children in her hand. One can brew, the other can bake, The other can make a pretty round cake.... Pray, ma'am, will you take one in?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: cook children poverty playparty
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Leyden 19, "Here's a Poor Widow from Sandy Row" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #641, p. 256, "(Here comes a poor woman from baby-land)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 85, "(Here's a poor widow from Sandisland)" (1 text)
Roud #12975
File: BGMG641
===
NAME: Lady of York, The: see The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)
===
NAME: Lady Turned Serving-Man, The: see The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)
===
NAME: Lady Uri, The: see The Lady Leroy [Laws N5] (File: LN05)
===
NAME: Lady's Fall, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer warns listeners against sex before marriage. A lady becomes pregnant by her love, who deserts her. Once the babe is born, she dies, only to have her lover kill himself with sadness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: love sex pregnancy childbirth family death infidelity burial
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 139-145, "The Lady's Fall" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1753, "Mark well my heavy doleful Tale"
NOTES: Hales believes this to be by the same author as "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34] - RBW
File: Perc3139
===
NAME: Lady's Fan, The: see The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)
===
NAME: Lady's Waiting Man, The
DESCRIPTION: A beautiful girl falls in love with her father's servant-man who waits on table. She faints and when she recovers asks "in the kitchen carry me." When he brings her "dainties" she kisses him and professes her love. He is happy to wait on her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: love beauty servant
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 545-546, "The Lady's Waiting Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6460
File: Pea545
===
NAME: Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home
DESCRIPTION: "Ladybug/Ladybird, Ladybug/Ladybird, Fly away home, Your house is on fire, Your children do roam." The extended version may instruct the insect to go to Flanders or elsewhere, and fly to the singer's love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: bug home fire
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #467, p. 209, "(Lady Bird, Lady Bird)" (a short version in the text with a long addedum in the notes)
Opie-Oxford2 297, "Ladybird, Ladybird" (1 text)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 15, "Ladybird" (1 very full text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 243, (no title) (1 short text)
Roud #16215
File: MSNR15
===
NAME: Ladye Diamond: see Lady Diamond [Child 269] (File: C269)
===
NAME: Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs, The
DESCRIPTION: When the king returns from traveling, his daughter welcomes him. A lord calls her very fair; her stepmother turns her to a worm. Child Wynd arrives and, with difficulty, transforms her back. He turns the queen into a toad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1812 (Bell); Child estimates the date of the "Hagg Worm" version as c. 1775
KEYWORDS: animal magic royalty jealousy beauty father stepmother revenge
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 34 Appendix, "The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs" (1 text plus a "more popular" version, "The Hagg Worm," in the addenda to volume IV)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 180-181, "The Laidley Worm" (1 slightly defective text, 1 tune)
ST C034A (Partial)
Roud #3176
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Kemp Owyne" [Child 34]
NOTES: Child prints this ballad as an appendix to #34, "Kemp Owyne." There are, however, just enough known versions (including Stokoe's, with a tune of uncertain origin) that we split them.
The reference to a King based in, or at least leaving his daughter in, Bamborough, is puzzling; being near the Scots border (but never in Scotland), it is a rather unsafe place; in any case, few Kings of England spent much time in the north, except in cases such as that of Henry VI when he was a fugitive. If, then, we assume a King who campaigned in Scotland, had daughters, and had a second wife, the obvious choice is Edward I (reigned 1272-1307). Which seems awfully early....
The theme of a beautiful daughter and jealous stepmother and a transformation is of course commonplace, with the best known version being "Snow White" (which is from the Grimm collection). - RBW
File: C034A
===
NAME: Laidley Worm, The: see The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs (File: C034A)
===
NAME: Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea, The [Child 36]
DESCRIPTION: The singer's mother died when he was seven, and his stepmother enchanted him into a "laily worm" and his sister into a "machrel." When their father learns the truth, he forces her to restore the children, then burns her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1802/3 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: family father children stepmother magic shape-changing rescue monster
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 36, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
OBB 14, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
PBB 20, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
DT 36, LAIDLEYW
Roud #3968
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Allison Gross" [Child 35] (theme)
NOTES: Child's text is badly and multiply defective, but the lack of materials makes restoration well-nigh impossible. Child's conjectures as to what is missing seem apt. - RBW
File: C036
===
NAME: Laird o Cockpen, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Laird o Cockpen, he's proud and he's great... He wanted a wife his braw hoose tae keep...." He comes to court the noble but poor Jean, who at first turns him down, but then thinks of his wealth and chooses to wed him
AUTHOR: Adapted by Lady Nairn?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1821
KEYWORDS: courting marriage money nobility
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Logan, pp. 355-359, "The Laird of Cockpen" (1 text)
DT, COCKLAIR*
ST Log355 (Full)
Roud #2859
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Squire and the Gipsy" (theme)
SAME_TUNE:
Tipperty's Jean (Ord, pp. 283-284)
Parody on Laird o' Cockpen (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(103), "Parody on Laird o' Cockpen" ("The Laird o Cockpen he's puir and he's duddy"), unknown, c. 1875)
New Year (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(104), "The New Year" ("And now we're to enter another New Year, When little is thought on but whiskey and beer"), unknown, c. 1875)
The Laird of D--mm-- (broadside NLScotland, ABS.10.203.01(102), "The Laird of D--mm--e," unknown, c. 1835)
"Incompetence of Politicians" (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(6a), [no title] ("Oh! hae ye heard o' an unprincipled squad"), unknown, n.d.)
File: Log355
===
NAME: Laird o Drum, The [Child 236]
DESCRIPTION: The Laird o Drum, instead of wooing a noble lady, chooses to court a poor working girl. All his relatives oppose this, but he notes that the girl is willing to work; instead of costing him money (as his previous wife did), she will help him earn it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.; cf. Herd 1776)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1665-1710 - Life of Margaret Coutts, second wife of Alexander Irvine of Drum (previously married, in 1643, to Mary Gordon of Huntley. Drum died in 1687)
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Child 236, "The Laird o Drum" (6 texts)
Bronson 36, "The Laird o Drum" (26 versions+1 in addenda)
Dixon VIII, pp. 53-56, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 300-303, "The Laird of Drum" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #26}
Creighton-Maritime, p. 28, "The Laird O'Drum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 4-9, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
DT 236, LAIRDDRM*
Roud #247
RECORDINGS:
Lucy Stewart, "The Laird o' Drum" (on FSBBAL2) (on LStewart1)
NOTES: Bodleian, 2806 c.11(7), "The Laird o' Drum" ("The laird o' Drum is a hunting gane"), unknown, n.d. could not be downloaded and verified. - BS
File: C236
===
NAME: Laird o Logie, The [Child 182]
DESCRIPTION: (Logie) is in prison awaiting death; Margaret would save him. She petitions the King; he will not free Logie for all the gold in Scotland. (The queen/Margaret) (steals tokens from the King) and orders that Logie be freed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: prison escape trick nobility love mercy help
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 182, "The Laird o Logie" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 182, "The Laird o Logie" (3 versions)
Leach, pp. 493-495, "The Laird o Logie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #422, "The Laird o' Logie" (1 text)
Roud #81
NOTES: In 1591, the Earl of Bothwell tried to capture King James VI of Scotland, and James Weymis of Logie was implicated in the plot. One of Queen Anne's maids, Margaret, loved him; she forged an order to have him questioned, and used it to help him escape. James's anger was appeased by the Queen, and he pardoned Logie, who then Margaret - RBW
File: C182
===
NAME: Laird o Roslin's Daughter, The: see Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)
===
NAME: Laird o Udny, The: see Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)
===
NAME: Laird o Windy Wa's, The: see Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)
===
NAME: Laird o' Drum (II), The: see Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)
===
NAME: Laird o' Leys, (The): see The Baron o Leys [Child 241] (File: C241)
===
NAME: Laird o' the Dainty Doonby, The: see The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)
===
NAME: Laird of the Denty Doon Bye, The: see The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)
===
NAME: Laird of Wariston, The [Child 194]
DESCRIPTION: Wariston (accuses his wife of adultery and) strikes her. She avenges herself by killing him with the help of a servant. Lady Wariston is arrested and condemned. (She begs the King to lessen her sentence to beheading. He wishes she did not have to die.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: homicide revenge adultery accusation punishment execution nobility royalty
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 5, 1600 - Execution of the former Jean Livingston, Lady Wariston (according to Birrell)
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 194, "The Laird of Wariston" (3 texts)
Leach, pp. 528-533, "The Laird of Wariston" (2 texts)
DT 194, WARSTON
Roud #3876
NOTES: Child reports that this event is historical, but the judicial records of Lady Wariston's trial are lost. This ballad is therefore the only evidence of the motive for her murder of her husband.
This certainly appears to be a folk ballad, but it also appears to be extinct. Child knew three texts, all damaged, and the song has not been collected since. Ewan MacColl has a tune for it, but it's nearly certain that it came out of his own head. (Or, more correctly, is a modification of a tune for another ballad -- e.g. it's much like the tune I know for "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow.")
Child treats this as one ballad, and given its lack of survival in tradition, there is no reason to break it up into two entries -- but I think it likely that it is in fact *two* ballads, one represented by Child's A and B texts and the third by his C text.
There are several reasons for this. The forms of the stanzas are different (though we might note that A and B also differ from each other). There are only a few common words, and most of them commonplace ("O Wariston, I wad that ye wad sink for sin").
Most crucial, though, is the complete difference in motive. In the A/B text, Wariston strikes his wife over a trivial quarrel. In C, however, Lady Wariston is a child bride (her age is given as fifteen at the time of her marriage; the real Lady Wariston seems to have been about nineteen). Shortly after their marriage, Wariston goes to sea; before he returns a year later, she bears a child.
Upon his return, Wariston accuses his lady of adultery and casts her out. The murder is her retaliation. - RBW
File: C194
===
NAME: Laird's Wedding, The: see The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)
===
NAME: Lake Huron's Rock-Bound Shore: see The Persian's Crew [Laws D4] (File: LD04)
===
NAME: Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33]
DESCRIPTION: Willie Leonard and a friend visit Lake Cool Finn. Willie dives in first, and swims to an island, but warns his friend not to follow, warning of "deep and false water...." When Willie tries to swim back, he vanishes (to fairyland?). He is mourned by many
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1873
KEYWORDS: death drowning
FOUND_IN: US(MA,NE) Ireland Britain(England,Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Laws Q33, "The Lake of Cool Finn"
Leach, pp. 732-733, "Willie Leonard or the Lake of Cool Finn" (1 text)
FSCatskills 72, "The Lakes of Col Flynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 324, "The Lakes of Shallin" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H176, p. 146, "Willie Lennox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 35, "The Lake of Coolfin" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 44, "Johnny Bathin" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 15-16, "Lakes of Cold Finn" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "The Lakes of Cold Finn" (source notes only)
DT 541, LKCOLFIN* LKCOLFI2*
Roud #189
RECORDINGS:
Amy Birch, "Royal Comrade" (on Voice11)
Patsy Flynn, "Willie Leonard" (on IRHardySons)
Tom Lenihan, "The Lake of Coolfin" (on IRTLenihan01)
Mary Reynolds, "The Lakes of Shallin" (on FSB7)
Cathie Stewart, "The Lakes of Shillin" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
Scan Tester, "The Lakes of Coalflin" (on Voice03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(260), "The Lakes of Cold Finn," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 20(88), "The Lakes of Cold Finn"; 2806 b.11(31), Firth b.26(168), Harding B 11(1376), "Willie Leonard"
LOCSinging, as107400, "The Lakes of Cold Finn," unknown, 19C
File: LQ33
===
NAME: Lake of Coolfin, The: see Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)
===
NAME: Lake of Ponchartrain, The [Laws H9]
DESCRIPTION: A young man (Union soldier?), lost in the south, is taken in by a Creole girl. He asks her to marry; she cannot, for she is promised to another who is far away (at sea?). He promises to remember her always
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: courting separation promise
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,West)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Laws H9, "The Lake of Ponchartrain"
Randolph 882, "The Ponsaw Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 46-48, "On the Lake of the Poncho Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 55, pp. 127-128, "The Creole Girl" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 45, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Creighton-NovaScotia 137, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 78, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H619, pp. 373-374, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 649, PONTCHAR PONCHAR2 PONCHAR3 PONCHAR4
Roud #1836
RECORDINGS:
Sarah Ann Bartley, "Lakes of Ponchartraine" (on Saskatch01)
Walter Coon, "Creole Girls" (Superior 2521, 1930)
Frances Perry, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (AFS, 1946; on LC55)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (Supertone 9717, 1930) (Perfect 5-10-14/Melotone 5-10-14, 1935; rec. 1934)
Art Thieme, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (on Thieme05)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lakes of the Ponchartrain
File: LH09
===
NAME: Lake of the Caogama, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, now we're leaving home, me boys, to Ottawa we're goin', Expectin' yo be hired, and yet we do not know." The singer hires with Tom Patterson, and spends his time in a comfortless shanty eating bad food. He misses the girls and looks forward to leaving
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fowke-Lumbering #24, "The Lake of the Caogama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 21, "The Lake of the Caogama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4534
NOTES: Typical shantyboy complaint song. Lake Caogama (pronounced keg-a-ma) was a lumber camp on the northern shore of the Ottawa River. - SL
File: FowL24
===
NAME: Lakes of Cold Finn: see Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)
===
NAME: Lakes of Shillin, The: see Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)
===
NAME: Lakes of the Ponchartrain, The: see The Lake of Ponchartrain [Laws H9] (File: LH09)
===
NAME: Lambkin: see Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)
===
NAME: Lambs on the Green Hills, The: see The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)
===
NAME: Lambton Worm, The
DESCRIPTION: Young Lambton catches a fish of an unknown kind. Wanting to know what it is, he puts it down a well, then sets off for the Crusades. The fish grows into a serpent that leaves the well and does great damage. The lord comes home and kills the creature
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1892
KEYWORDS: animal monster fishing fight
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
PBB 104, "The Lambton Worm" (1 text)
DT, LAMDWORM
Roud #2337
NOTES: Reputed to be about a Northumbrian lord's attempt to raise taxes. I know of no hard evidence of this. - RBW
File: PBB104
===
NAME: Lament for John Sneddon: see The Collier Lad (Lament for John Sneddon/Siddon) (File: HHH110)
===
NAME: Lament for the Loss of the Ship Union: see Lovely Ann (File: Leyd034)
===
NAME: Lament of John O Mahony
DESCRIPTION: The singer, growing old "in a foreign land, in a lonesome city" thinks "not a single hope have I seen fulfilled For the blood we spilled." He thinks of his home land. "My heart still lingers on its native strand And American land holds naught for me"
AUTHOR: Dr. Douglas Hyde (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: homesickness rebellion exile America Ireland lament nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 31, "Lament of John O Mahony" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OLochlainn-More: "O'Mahony, born in Co. Limerick, turned out with Smith O'Brien at Ballingarry, 1848, fled to France and in 1852 to America; with Stephens founded I.R.B. and was Head Centre in U.S.A. Died in poverty, New York, 1877." - BS
For more on the events of 1848, see especially "The Shan Van Voght (1848)." It is ironic to note that the 1848 rebellion was the one attempt to set Ireland free that resulted in almost no bloodshed. - RBW
File: OLcM031
===
NAME: Lament of the Border Widow, The: see The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)
===
NAME: Lament of the Irish Emigrant, The: see I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary (The Irish Emigrant II) (File: Pea462)
===
NAME: Lament, The: see The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)
===
NAME: Lamentation of a Bad Market, The
DESCRIPTION: On January 10 a carpenter starts a fire that burns a bridge over the Thames. A lord and the King, looking at the thin ice, bet whether a man's weight could be held. The king loses when three children fall through and drown. John is beheaded.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1651 (The Loves of Hero and Leander, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: wager execution death drowning fire parody children nobility
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(53), "The Lamentation of a Bad Market ," J. White (Newcastle), 1711-1769
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went" (see Notes)
NOTES: Immediately after the King loses his bet a man is beheaded without explanation or follow-up.
Opie-Oxford2 99, "Three children sliding on the ice": "It describes the burning of 'a bridge of London town' and was probably occasioned by the fire which, in February 1633, destroyed much of London Bridge. Stanzas 12, 18, and 19, run:
Three children sliding there abouts, Upon a place too thin, That so at last it did fall out, That they did all fall in.
Yee Parents all that Children have And ye that have none yet; Preserve your Children From the Grave, And teach them at home to sit.
For had these at a Sermon been, Or else upon dry ground, Why then I never have been seen, If that they had been drown'd.
This is undoubtedly a burlesque of the pious ballad-mongers whose 'Providential Warning and Good Counsels' wearied the Cavalier aristocracy."
The three verses survive as "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went" changed slightly to add paradox. - BS
According to the _Riverside Shakespeare_, p. 1395, it has never been common for the Thames to freeze over -- but that page shows a woodcut from Dekker's 1608 publication _The Great Frost: Cold Doings in London_; the winter of 1607-1608 did see the river frozen solid. Most amazing is the fact that it shows a fire burning in a pan set directly on the ice. Evidently this sort of thing was common.
And don't get me started on Minnesota ice fishermen who park their pickup trucks out in the middle of lakes. - RBW
File: BdBLoaBM
===
NAME: Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds, The
DESCRIPTION: Hugh Reynolds loves Catherine McCabe who, by perjury, has him condemned to be hanged. "With irons I'm surrounded, in grief I lie confounded, by perjury unbounded; she's the dear maid to me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1845 (Duffy)
KEYWORDS: abduction execution trial lament
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: March 28, 1826 - Hugh Reynolds executed for the abduction of Catherine M'Cabe (source: Sparling [see notes])
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
OLochlainn 66, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 380-381, 513, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds"
Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 152-153, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds"
Roud #2395
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star of Sunday's Well" (tune)
NOTES: Sparling: "Both families were County Cavan people and Catholics, but there was a feud between them, begun over 'a bit of land.' ... Catharine was very reluctant, and her evidence had to be forced from her. Her uncle was universally credited with being the instigator of the prosecution, and the vindictive inventor of the plot by which Reynolds was captured and convicted. The girl died soon after--of a broken heart, say the gossips; who also report that 'Divine vengeance' followed the M'Cabes."
Duffy: "'She's a dear maid to me.' Perhaps the English reader will require to be told that this is not to be taken in its literal meaning; it is a proverbial expression, implying that he would pay dearly for his acquaintance with her."
"Another popular ballad on the same subject is 'The Abduction of the Quaker's Daughter' by John M'Goldrick." (source: Chapters of Dublin History site: John Edward Walsh, _Ireland Sixty Years Ago_ (1911), "Chapter III. Abduction - Abduction Clubs - The Misses Kennedy - Miss Knox") - BS
File: OLoc066
===
NAME: Lamentation of James O'Sullivan, The
DESCRIPTION: July 12 in Stewartstown the Catholics defend their church, leaving 22 Orangemen "a-bleeding on the ground." O'Sullivan is jailed, tried, convicted, "and sentenced for to end his life upon a gallows tree." He refuses freedom and reward to turn informer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1830 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: violence execution trial Ireland political lament
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 36, "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Owen Rooney's Lamentation" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Battle That Was Fought in the North" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Noble Blue Ribbon Boys" (subject: Ulster quarrels)
NOTES: July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William III of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690.
The complete title of Zimmermann's broadside is "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan, Who was executed at Omagh Jail for being concerned in the battle which took place between the Catholics and Orangemen at Stewartstown on the 12th July."
Zimmermann: "This ballad ... [was] perhaps also inspired by the 'party fights' in July 1829. Upwards of twenty men were said to have been killed in County Tyrone.... There was more fighting near Stewartstown in July 1831." - BS
And it would continue for many more years; after the fight at Dolly Brae in 1849 (for which see "Dolly's Brae (I)" and "Dolly's Brae (II)"), the British would pass the Party Processions Act in 1850 to control these fights. But still they march at Portadown.
Stewartstown is roughly on the boundary between the majority-Catholic and the majority-Protestant parts of Ulster; so it's easy to see how life could be very tense there. - RBW
File: Zimm036
===
NAME: Lamentation of Patrick Brady, The: see Pat Brady (File: OLoc053A)
===
NAME: Lamfin: see Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)
===
NAME: Lamkin [Child 93]
DESCRIPTION: (Lamkin) rebuilt a lord's castle, but was never paid. As the lord sets out on a journey, he warns his wife to beware of Lamkin. The precautions are in vain; Lamkin (helped by a false nurse) steals in and kills the lord's child (and wife) (and is hanged)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1775 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: death theft revenge children punishment homicide cannibalism
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(Lond,South,West)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (37 citations)
Child 93, "Lamkin" (25 texts)
Bronson 93, "Lamkin" (30 versions (some with variants)+3 in addenda)
Leather, pp. 199-200, "Young Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #19}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 200-206, "Lamkin" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 1 tune; also extensive notes on version classification) {Bronson's #16}
Randolph 23, "False Lamkin" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Eddy 17, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Gardner/Chickering 127, "Lamkin" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 104-107, "Squire Relantman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 297-316, "Lamkin" (7 texts plus 3 fragments, 4 tunes) {C=Bronson's #7)
Linscott, pp. 303-305, "Young Alanthia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-Ballads 26, "Lamkin" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune entitled "Lampkin") {Bronson's #10}
Davis-More 28, pp. 214-220, "Lamkin" (1 text)
BrownII 29, "Lamkin" (1 text plus assorted excerpts)
Chappell-FSRA 42, "Lamkins" (1 text, apparently a fragment of Child #93 (containing only a threat of cannibalism) plus three "My Horses Ain't Hungry" stanzas)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 62-64, "Bolakin (Lamkin)" (1 text)
Brewster 16, "Lamkin" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #20}
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 20-21, "Lamkin" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 806-807, "Bold Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 13, "Lamkin" (1 text, 4 tunes)
Lehr/Best 35, "False Limkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 288-295, "Lamkin" (4 texts)
Leach-Labrador 6, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 199, "Lamkin" (1 text)
OBB 78, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Warner 102, "Bolamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 27, "Lamkin" (5 texts, 5 tunes){Bronson's #11, #14, #12, #4, #9}
Sharp-100E 27, "False Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
PBB 64, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Niles 38, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 60-61, "Long Lankin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 258-259, "False Lanky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 64, "Lamkin" (1 text)
DBuchan 16, "Lamkin" (1 text)
TBB 19, "Lamkin" (1 text)
SHenry H735, p. 133, "Lambkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 63-64, "Bo Lamkin" (1 text)
DT 93, BLAMKIN* BOLAMKN2* BOLAMKN3*
Roud #6
RECORDINGS:
Ben Butcher, "Cruel Lincoln" (on FSB4, Voice03)
George Fosbury, "False Lamkin" (on FSBBAL1)
Frank Proffitt, "Bo Lamkin" (on Proffitt03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1048), "The Lambkin," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Batson" [Laws I10] (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lamfin
NOTES: John Jacob Niles claims that this song was once sung in the Louisville schools. One can only wish he had offered supporting evidence.
Anne G. Gilchrist examines the development of this ballad in "Lambkin: A Study in Evolution" (first printed in the _Journal of the Emglish Folk Dance and Song Society_, I, 1932; see now MacEdward Leach and Tristram P. Coffin, eds, _The Critics and the Ballad_, pp. 204-224).
Gilchrist finds two basic forms of the ballad. In one, primarily Scottish, Lamkin is a mason defrauded of his pay by the lord whose castle he built. In the other, Northumbrian and English, Lamkin is simply a ruffian or a border raider, seeking loot or perhaps the hand of the lord's daughter.
Gilchrist believes the Scottish form to be older, and believes that the other arose when the first stanza (in which the lord's fraud is described) was lost. She argues that the name "Lambkin" is diminutive of the Flemist name Lambert, and speculates that it may have been based on a (hypothesized) incident at Balwearie in Fife -- a site mentioned in some versions of the ballad, and located near a Flemish colony. - RBW
File: C093
===
NAME: Lammas Fair in Cargan, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer rambles until he chances on the Cargan fair, which he says exceeds all others. He describes the people, the food, the vendors, the police, the brawling -- and admits to coming home bruised and beaten
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: party drink fight nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H513, p. 75, "The Lammas Fair in Cargan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9051
File: HHH513
===
NAME: Lancaster Maid, The: see Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)
===
NAME: Land League's Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland, The
DESCRIPTION: "Cheer up your hearts, you tenant farmers, the land you nobly till, Pay no rent, and keep the harvest" is the advice of Parnell, Brennan, Thomas Woods and Michael Davitt. Thumb your nose at the landlord. Reject the champion spud
AUTHOR: "M. O'Brien" (Source: Zimmermann)
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1881 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: farming Ireland nonballad political
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 79, "The Land League's Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)" (subject)
cf. "Michael Davitt" (subject)
NOTES: Bodleian, Harding B 40(6), "The Land Leagues Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland ("Attend to me you tenant farmers thats assembled in this town"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 is apparently this ballad but I could not download the image to verify that. It has the author as M. O'Brien.
Zimmermann: "This ballad was probably written as a comment on the 'No-Rent Manifesto' issued by the Land League after the arrest of its leaders, advising the tenant farmers 'to pay no rents under any circumstances to their landlords ... They can no more evict a whole nation than they can imprison them'" quoting _The Nation_, 22nd October 1881.
Zimmermann notes that the "Champion spud," ridiculed in the song, was resistant to the potato blight and was grown in Scotland and Ireland after 1870.
Zimmermann notes, p. 276, that Thomas Brennan was a Land Leaguer arrested in 1881. Charles Stewart Parnell was also arrested in 1881 (p. 278; cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)"). Michael Davitt is another arrested Land Leaguer (cf. "Michael Davitt"). [For these two, see also the notes on "The Bold Tenant Farmer." - RBW] I have no information on Thomas Woods. - BS
File: Zimm079
===
NAME: Land o' the Leal, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am wearing awa', Jean, Like snaw when it's thaw, Jean; I'm wearing awa' tae the land o' the leal...." The (old man) recalls the hard times they have been through, and looks forward to a happier life
AUTHOR: Caroline, Lady Nairn
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: love separation death
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, LANDLEAL
Roud #8999
NOTES: One of Lady Nairn's most popular pieces, reprinted in works such as Palgrave's _Golden Treasury_. Gordeanna McCulloch sings a song, "Be Kind Tae Yer Nainsel," which purports to be from oral tradition and which has many of the same lyrics but a rather different purpose. I do not know whether it inspired Lady Nairn's song, or was inspired by it; the notes on the recording imply the former. - RBW
File: DTlandle
===
NAME: Land of Fish and Seals, The
DESCRIPTION: "Let Sunny India her wealth proclaim... We envy not her gaudy show." The singer contrasts "the land of fish and seals" with foreign nations: though "No great immortal names are ours," they can boast of freedom and "our living brave."
AUTHOR: "Mrs. Peace" ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung By Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: nonballad patriotic Canada fishing recitation
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 25, "The Land of Fish and Seals" (1 text)
NOTES: A poem not a song, and probably not traditional -- but seemingly widely printed in Newfoundland. - RBW
File: RySm025
===
NAME: Land of Potatoes, Oh!, The
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, had I in the clear five hundred a year" the singer would build a cottage and garden in Ireland, not roam to other countries. Those from other lands would stay here if they came once. An Irish wife, "so nice and complete," would make him even happier.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs); before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1066))
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration Ireland nonballad home
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
O'Conor, pp. 73+160, "The Land of Potatoes, Oh!" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 57-60, "The Land of Potatoes, O!" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1066), "The Land of Potatoes", J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Morgan Rattler" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs: "[The Land of Potatoes] is ascribed to Mr. [Robert MacOwen] Owenson, the father of Lady Morgan; who is also said to have been "the author of various lyrical compositions, which were sung on the Dublin stage, and are remarkable for broad wit and genuine humour" (see also "Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan),Novelist, c1783 - 1859" at the site for George Owenson, Dalgety Church and Dalgety Bay). - BS
File: OCon073
===
NAME: Land of the Silver Birch
DESCRIPTION: A pseudo-Indian ode to northern lands: "Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver, Where still the mighty moose wanders at will, Blue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more." The singer ends by promising to build a wigwam in the north
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1953 (Ontario Department of Education booklet)
KEYWORDS: homesickness return nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 190-191, "Land of the Silver Birch" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ190 (Partial)
Roud #4550
NOTES: For some reason, we learned this in elementary school in Minnesota, some time around 1970. I can't imagine why. - RBW
File: FJ190
===
NAME: Land of the West, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer urges his love to "come to the west... I'll make thee my own. I'll guard thee, I'll tend thee...." North and south have their delights, but the west is warm and fair. He again calls her to come to his own land
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855 (Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II)
KEYWORDS: love home nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H677, p. 175, "The Land of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, pp. 27-28, "The Land of the West"
Roud #5990
NOTES: Hayes has Samuel Lover as author. - BS
File: HHH677
===
NAME: Land Where the Shamrocks Grow, The
DESCRIPTION: "There is an Island thatÕs famed in her glory, Sweet poets have sung in her praise." Some prefer England or Scotland, but the singer gives his love to Ireland. He hopes that she may soon be more friendly to England
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 60-61, "The Land Where the Shamrocks Grow" (1 text)
Roud #9559
NOTES: There is a relatively common poem with this title, found e.g. in the Digital Tradition. They are not the same song. I have found no other sure references to this piece, though with two songs having the same title and general theme, it can be hard to tell.... - RBW
File: Dean060
===
NAME: Landlady of France, The
DESCRIPTION: "A landlady of France loved an officer, 'tis said, And this officer he dearly loved her brandy-o." As he prepares to go off to battle, they encourage encourage each other (primarily to drink more), "For love is like the colic, cured with brandy-o."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942
KEYWORDS: soldier drink separation love
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Gilbert, pp. 37-38, "The Landlady of France" (1 text)
DT, LNDLDYFR*
File: Gil037
===
NAME: Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl
DESCRIPTION: "Landlord, fill the flowing bowl until it doth run over (x2), For tonight we'll merry merry be (x3); Tomorrow we'll be sober." The singer describes those who drink water, ale, whiskey and/or court freely -- noting that those who drink deep are happier
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (recording, Kingston Trio)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad courting landlord
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 229, "Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl" (1 text)
DT, COACHMN3*
Roud #1234
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Three Jolly Coachmen
File: FSWB229A
===
NAME: Lane County Bachelor, The: see Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)
===
NAME: Lang Johnny More [Child 251]
DESCRIPTION: John More, on a visit to London, falls in love with the King's daughter. The King declares he will kill John, and takes him prisoner by drugging him. John sends a message begging help. Two giants come to rescue him, browbeating the King into surrender
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: royalty love courting prison execution rescue
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 251, "Lang Johnny More" (1 text)
Bronson 251, "Lang Johnny More" (15 versions)
DBuchan 59, "Lang Johnny More" (1 text)
DT 251, LONGJOHN
Roud #3100
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "Lang Johnny More" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #8}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnie Scot" [Child 99]
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Long John, Old John, and Jackie North
NOTES: Child views this as "perhaps an imitation, and in fact almost a parody, of 'Johnie Scot.'" Certainly the plots are very much alike -- but the supernatural feats of the rescuers are commonplaces (cf., e.g., "Hughie Grame" [Child 191]).
The surname "More/Moore" appears a distortion of Gaelic "Mor," "big." - RBW
File: C251
===
NAME: Lang Lang Syne: see Do Ye Mind Lang Syne (File: FVS190)
===
NAME: Langolee: see (references under) The Banks of the Dee (File: DTbnksde)
===
NAME: Lanigan's Ball
DESCRIPTION: Jimmy Lanigan had "batter'd away till he hadn't a pound"; coming into money from his father, he determines to have a party. A fight ends the ball when "Old Shamus the piper" was tangled in "pipes, bellows, chanters" and "the girls in their ribbons"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2058))
KEYWORDS: money party fight dancing drink music humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 222-224, "Lanigan's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 100-101, "Lannigan's Ball" (1 text)
OLochlainn 52, "Lanigan's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Lanigan's Ball" (source notes only)
DT, LANIBALL*
ST SWM222 (Partial)
Roud #3011
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Jimmie Lanigan" [fragment] (AFS 4212 A4, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2058), "Lannigan's Ball", H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 15(167a), Harding B 11(3172), Harding B 26(345), 2806 c.8(124), "Lannigan's Ball"; 2806 b.11(154), "Lannigan's Ball!"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (theme)
SAME_TUNE:
Larry Magee's Wedding (File: OCon083)
NOTES: This reminds me quite a bit of "The Blythesome Bridal," in that the minimalist plot is offered simply to offer a justification for the party that the song is really about. - RBW
OLochlainn: "Air and fragment of words from my mother who learnt them in Kilkee about 1880.... I have seen a full music sheet of this song published about the 'seventies, where words were ascribed to 'Mr. Gavan, the celebrated Galway poet.'" - BS
File: SWM222
===
NAME: Lannigan's Ball: see Lanigan's Ball (File: SWM222)
===
NAME: Lanty Leary
DESCRIPTION: "Slippery Lanty Leary" and Rosie Carey are in love. Her father is opposed. He follows her anyway. Her father dies leaving her "house, land, and cash." He agrees to follow her again. Deathly sick, she asks him to follow her. "I'll not, says Lanty Leary"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: courting death money humorous father separation
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hayward-Ulster, p. 78, "Lanty Leary" (1 text)
Roud #6538
File: HayU078
===
NAME: Largy Line, The
DESCRIPTION: Shoemaker George McCaughey, having seen many women, is ready to abandon them for "Miss Baxter." He met her while teaching the "Tully band," and walked home together. Her family has consented to the marriage. He blesses the founder of the band
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting music family
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H781, p. 467, "The Largy Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9457
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Foot of the Mountain Brow,The (The Maid of the Mountain Brow)" [Laws P7] (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Foot of the Mountain Brow,The (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)
File: HHH781
===
NAME: Lark in the Morning, The
DESCRIPTION: (Singer) meets young girl who praises plowboys. The singer meets a plowboy. He takes her "to the fair." The rest of their relationship is couched in equally allegorical terms.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1854 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1070))
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad farming courting seduction
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) Ireland US(So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Sharp-100E 62, "The Lark in the Morn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 562, "Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 140, "The Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LARKMORN* LARKMOR2*
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 46, "The Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #151
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Lark in the Morning" (on Voice05) [a mixture of "The Lark in the Morning" and "Roger the Ploughboy"]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1070), "The Lark in the Morning" ("As I was a walking one morning in May"), Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Harding B 11(3684), Firth c.18(172), Firth b.34(224), Harding B 16(125c), Harding B 11(2060), "The Lark in the Morning"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Pretty Plowboy
NOTES: The narrative thread is so fragmentary that I've classed this as a lyric song, not a ballad. -PJS
There is a ballad back there, though, as Kennedy's version shows; under all the symbolism is a story of seduction. - RBW
Re Paddy Tunney's "The Lark in the Morning" (on Voice05): the first verse is a fragment of "The Lark in the Morning"; the second is a fragment of "Roger the Ploughboy." - BS
File: ShH62
===
NAME: Larrigans, The
DESCRIPTION: About Angus Munn, his size 14 larrigans, and the daily life in the winter lumber camps: sleep on spruce boughs, up three hours before sun-up, lunch, axes and saws at work, songs at night.
AUTHOR: Jim McAree, Baldwin's Road
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: lumbering music humorous
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 34-35, "The Larrigans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12474
NOTES: Here is a description of larrigans from the Web: "They're felt boots and rubbers. Heavy felt, shaped like an English Wellington and knee-high, with tough rubbers over the feet, the whole being devised to comfort woodchoppers in deep snow. The larrigan is noticeable and recognized at a great distance." (source: _Grandmothers I Have Known and Embellished_ by John Gould, quoted from The Home Forum Column from the September 15, 2000 Christian Science Monitor on the Cristian Science Monitor site). In Dibblee/Dibblee pp. 38-39, "Shanty Boys" "We all arrive at the shanty wet and cold with damp feet; We then pull off our larrigans...." - BS
File: Dib034
===
NAME: Larry Doolan: see My Irish Jaunting Car (The Irish Boy) (File: HHH592)
===
NAME: Larry Magee's Wedding
DESCRIPTION: Larry "dwelt in a fashionable part of the city An illigant fine mansion." The dancers, drinkers and eaters "at the grand wedding" are named. All the old songs are sung. The wedding ends with a grand fight.
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging as107470)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous party drink fight food moniker
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor pp. 83-84, "Larry Magee's Wedding" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as107470, "Larry Magee's Wedding," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lanigan's Ball" (tune, per broadside LOCSinging as107470)
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging as107470: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OCon083
===
NAME: Larry Marr: see The Big Five-Gallon Jar (File: Doe111)
===
NAME: Larry McGee
DESCRIPTION: Larry coaxes "Missus Brady, who was reared up a lady" to marry. There was a huge wedding party with dancing, drink and food. Larry gets drunk, confuses his donkey for his wife, gets into a fight "in defense of his darling" and is laid out "with a clout"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: wedding fight dancing drink food music humorous animal
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Mackenzie 139, "Larry McGee" (1 text)
Roud #3283
BROADSIDES:
Harding B 11(684), "The Wedding of Larry Magee," unknown, n.d.
NOTES: MacKenzie: "The Irish song 'Larry Magee's Wedding' is so similar in metre and plot to [MacKenzie 139] that there is pretty certainly a tie of relationship." It all depends. Mackenzie cites O'Conor pp. 83-84 (included in the Index as "Larry Magee's Wedding," by Samuel Lover); that is certainly a different song. However, broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(684) is certainly Mackenzie's song. - BS
File: Mack139
===
NAME: Larry O'Gaff
DESCRIPTION: Larry's father leaves when he is a baby in Ireland. He recounts his rambles to England as a hod carrying, bog trotting, soldiering at Waterloo, and retiring "with a wife to spend my life, sport and play, night and day" to Ireland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1072))
KEYWORDS: Napoleon Ireland marriage rambling return abandonment soldier
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Eddy 148, "We Fought Like the Divil" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 55-56, "Larry O'Gaff" (1 text)
ST E148 (Full)
Roud #13383
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1072), "Larry O Gaff", J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
File: E148
===
NAME: Lass from Glasgow Town: see The Lass of Swansea Town (Swansea Barracks) (File: Pea547)
===
NAME: Lass o Glencoe (I), The
DESCRIPTION: Singer reminisces about the lass he has left in Glencoe. He meets her in the heather and asks her to marry; she refuses. He promises to keep a lock of her hair. Last line of most verses: "I still like my lassie fae bonnie Glencoe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (collected from Maggie McPhee)
KEYWORDS: love rejection parting travel Scotland
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacSeegTrav 29, "The Lassie o' Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3923
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe" (lyrics)
cf. "Portmore (My Heart's in the Highlands)" (lyrics)
NOTES: Despite a few lyrics in common, this is a separate song from "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe." It also seems to have had grafted onto it a verse from "Portmore", which inspired Burns's "Farewell to the Highlands." - PJS
File: McCST029
===
NAME: Lass o Glencoe (II), The: see MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)
===
NAME: Lass o' Bennochie, The
DESCRIPTION: "Twas at the back o' Bennochie... There I fell in love wi' a bonnie lass." Her wealthy father, despising the lad, forces him into the army. He returns to claim the girl. Father and uncle pursue, but the soldier beats them off. They live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting poverty soldier separation reunion father
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ord, pp. 438-441, "The Lass o' Bennochie" (3 texts, very diverse; the second is mixed with "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13])
DT, LASBENCH
Roud #406
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "Locks and Bolts" (Laws M13), and indeed Ord's second version includes several whole verses from that song. And Ord's other versions, particularly the third, are so different that it might be reasonable to classify #3 as a separate song and place #2 with "Locks and Bolts."
Nonetheless the similarity of Ord's #1 and #2, and the overall distinctness of the pair from "Locks and Bolts," causes me to split them. This apparently follows Laws, who does not list the Ord texts with M13. Best to see both songs, however - RBW
File: Ord438
===
NAME: Lass of Dunmore, The: see The Maid of Dunmore (File: MaWi083)
===
NAME: Lass of Glenshee, The [Laws O6]
DESCRIPTION: The singer woos the a Scottish shepherdess. He offers to marry and provide wealth and servants. She agrees, even though she is content with her life and herd. The singer looks back on years of happy marriage
AUTHOR: Andrew Sharpe (1805) ?
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1851 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2075)))
KEYWORDS: courting money marriage
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Britain(Scotland) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Laws O6, "The Lass of Glenshee"
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 12-15, "The Lass o' Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 75-76, "The Lass o Glenshee" (1 text, tune referenced)
Warner 4, "Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 28, "The Hills of Glenshee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 77, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 131-132, "The Lass of Glenshie" (1 text)
SHenry H590, pp. 486-487, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 31, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 36, "The Rose of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 471, GLENSHEE GLENSHE2 GLENSHE3
Roud #292
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Lass of Glenshee" (on Abbott1)
Warde Ford, "Lass of Glen Shee" (AFS 4199 A1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
"Yankee" John Galusha, "Lass of Glenshee" (on USWarnerColl01)
Mrs. T. Ghaney, "The Lass of Glenshee" (on NFMLeach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2075), "The Lass o' Glenshea," Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850; also Harding B 17(162a), 2806 c.14(23), Harding B 11(3321), "The Lass o' Glenshea"; Harding B 25(1081)[some words illegible], "The Lass o' Glenshee"; Firth b.26(227), "The Lass of Glenshee"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(120), "The Lass o' Glenshee," unknown, c. 1875
SAME_TUNE:
Queen Victoria's Welcome to Deeside (Ord, p. 337)
NOTES: Ford's notes claim that "The Crookit Bawbee" is "simply a free adaption" of this piece. In music, possibly. The text -- hardly. - RBW
Leach-Labrador notes the difference between his text and Ord's: "The present text of six quatrains tells the same story found in the Ord text of twelve quatrains. The difference is, as usual, in the repetition of details." The difference between Leach-Labrador and all of the broadsides is similar. The difference is more than the usual repetition of details. There are very few lines in common though the story outline is the same. This seems a rewrite by someone who once heard the original but never got the words and rebuilt the ballad out of the usual pieces. I wonder what A.B. Lord would have done with this. (No, this is not "Crookit Bawbee" either.) - BS
File: LO06
===
NAME: Lass of Glenshie, The: see The Lass of Glenshee [Laws O6] (File: LO06)
===
NAME: Lass of Mohe, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Lass of Mohea, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Lass of Mohee, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Lass of Mowee, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Lass of Roch Royal, The [Child 76]
DESCRIPTION: (Anne) misses her love (Lord Gregory). She sets out to meet him. When she comes to his castle, Gregory's mother turns her (and her son) away. When Gregory arrives/awakens to meet his love, he find Anne dead (drowned) and gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: separation death mother betrayal floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland) US(Ap,MW,So,SE,SW)
REFERENCES: (24 citations)
Child 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (12 texts)
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions+1 in addenda, though many are generic "Pretty Little Foot" versions; I would regard only #1, #3, #4, #4.1 in the addenda, #5, #16, and #21 as being true versions of this piece, and the first two of those are fragments; #2 has the correct title but no text)
Dixon X, pp. 60-62, "Love Gregory" (1 text, plus a "pleasing imitation" called "Lord Thomas," printed 1825, on pp. 99-100)
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 174-177, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 fragments, one of which is probably "The Lass of Roch Royal" but the second being "Pretty Little Foot"; 1 tune)
Belden, p. 55, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (notes and references only)
Randolph 18, "Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?" (8 texts, 5 tunes, with only the "C" and "G" versions clearly belonging here; most of the rest are "Pretty Little Foot" texts; "D," "E," and "F" are probably "Fare You Well, My Own True Love") {G=Bronson's #16}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 37-39, "Oh, Who Will Shoe My Foot" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 18G) {Bronson's #16}
BrownII 22, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, clearly this song, but with the "Storms are on the ocean" verse; this is either the original of the latter or the two combined)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 122-123, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (sundry excerpts from versions she did not collect; the versions Scarborough collected are of "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot," "Honey Babe/New River Train," and "I Truly Understand That You Love Some Other Man")
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 78-79, "Fair Annie of the Lochroyan" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #5, a rather different transcription though of the same approximate version}
Leach, pp. 253-256, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
OBB 43, "The Lass of Rochroyan" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 78, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (3 texts, 1 tune, with only the "A" text being this ballad)
Niles 31, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the second clearly "The Lass of Roch Royal" but the first could be any "Who's Goin' to Shoe" song)
Gummere, pp. 223-227+352, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
Sandburg, 98-99, "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (3 texts, 1 tune; of the three texts here, "C" is definitely a fragment of this piece, "B" is "The Storms Are on the Ocean"; the "A" text is a "pretty little foot" version)
Combs/Wilgus 21, pp. 118-121, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
DBuchan 12, "The Lass of Roch Royal" , 13, "Love Gregor" (2 texts)
JHCox 13, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, but one is a "Pretty Little Foot" version)
MacSeegTrav 10, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 65-68, "Love Gregor" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 214, "The Lass Of Roch Royal" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1259, "I built my love a gallant ship"
DT 76, LORDGREG LORGREG2 LRDGREG2*
Roud #49
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Lord Gregory (The Lass of Roch Royal)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Peggy Delaney, "Maid of Aughrim" (on IRTravellers01)
Jean Ritchie, "Fair Annie of Lochroyan" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #5}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary Anne" (lyrics)
cf. "Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)" (theme)
cf. "More Pretty Girls than One" (tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lord Gregory
A-Roving On A Winter's Night
Roving On Last Winter's Night
Who's Goin' to Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot
Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot
Sweet Annie of Roch Royal
NOTES: This song has created a great deal of confusion, because of the attempt of certain scholars to make everything a Child Ballad. Some versions of this song contain the verses beginning "Who will shoe your pretty little foot, And who will glove your hand...." Therefore, anything containing these verses is filed by those scholars as Child #76, even though the songs they so file often contain no other portions of "The Lass of Roch Royal" -- and in fact the "pretty little foot" stanzas are not integral to "Roch Royal"; it's my personal feeling that they originated elsewhere and floated into this song, rather than the reverse.
For this yearson, it may be that some of the versions listed here should be classified with "The Storms Are on the Ocean" or other some other song with the "who will shoe your pretty little foot" lyrics. (I eventually tried to clean those out, but it's hard to do after the fact, and for too long I just trusted people who stamped a song "Child 76.") The floating stanzas about shoeing the girl's feet are simply too widespread for any classification effort to be entirely successful; hence the Ballad Index staff created the entry "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot."
After much hesitation, we finally ended up dividing the complex family of songs involving those lyrics as follows:
* "The Lass of Roch Royal" for the ballad of that title
* "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" for fragments too short to classify at all
* "Mary Anne" for the versions specifically about that girl
* "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)," for everything else.- RBW
Of Child's versions, Peggy Delaney's "Maid of Aughrim" on IRTravellers01 is closest to 76H. - BS
File: C076
===
NAME: Lass of Swansea Town, The (Swansea Barracks)
DESCRIPTION: A maid tells a man she is waiting for Willie, a sailor who left eight years ago. She would know him by a scar. He says Willie was killed in battle and told him to look after her. She only wants Willie. Then she sees his scar. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2071))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage war reunion beauty dialog sailor separation trick
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Peacock, pp. 547-548, "The Lass of Swansea Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 45, pp. 136-137,173, "The Lass from Glasgow Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LASSWANS
Roud #1416
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2071) , "The Lass of --- Town" ("As down by --- barracks"), T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 11(2072), "The Lass of ---town"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] (plot) and references there
SAME_TUNE:
Irish Molly O! (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2071) )
NOTES: At the Reinhard Zierke site re Mike Waterson entry for Swansea Town: "A.L. Lloyd said in the Mike Waterson sleeve notes: Behind this is an Irish song, The Blooming Rose of Antrim. Old Phil Tanner, of the Gower Peninsula, South Wales, used to sing it, and perhaps it was he who moved the events to Swansea." It's Waterson's version that repeats the line "She's the blooming rose of South Wales and the Lass of Swansea Town."
However, the version of The Blooming Rose of Antrim I've seen, at Henry's Songbook site, called Flower of Corby's Mill, the form of the ballads is similar and there are some parallel verses but the stories are entirely different: specifically, Antrim has no mention of a lost sailor or his return; the "Blooming Lass" is "the bonny wee lass that works in Corby's Mill."
The CD _A Gower Garland_ by CaLennig includes (Tanner's?) version of "Swansea Barracks" in which the action takes place at Swansea Barracks but the maid is "the blooming rose of South Wales, the lass of Swansea Town." Swansea is in fact in South Wales. Antrim is in Northern Ireland.
As to moving the events to Swansea, it appears from the three Bodleian broadsides, which predate Tanner (1862-1950), that you were to substitute any barracks name you could make into two syllables and the "blooming rose" is equally non-differentiating.
In broadsides Harding B 11(2071) and Harding B 11(2072) she's "the blooming rose of England"; in Peacock "she appeared to be some goddess." - BS
File: Pea547
===
NAME: Lass That Loved a Sailor, The: see When I Was Young; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: EM075)
===
NAME: Lass with the Bonny Brown Hair, The: see The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair (File: HHH024)
===
NAME: Lassie Lives by Yonder Burn, A
DESCRIPTION: "A lassie lives by yonder burn, That jinks about the seggins, And aft she gies her sheep a turn, To feed amang the bracken." The singer promises that he would "row her in my plaidie" if she would "woo wi' me." He must leave but hopes to return to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting separation
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 229-231, "A Lassie Lives by Yonder Burn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6121
File: FVS229
===
NAME: Lassie wi' the Yellow Coatie
DESCRIPTION: "Lassie wi' the yellow coatie, Will ye wed a muirlan' Jockie? Lassie wi' the yellow coatie, Will ye busk an' gang wi' me?" The singer admits to poverty, but promises to work hard and be true. He warns: "Time is precious, dinna lose it."
AUTHOR: James Duff ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, p. 198, "Lassie wi' the Yellow Coatie" (1 text)
Roud #2582
File: FVS198
===
NAME: Last Farewell, The (The Lover's Return)
DESCRIPTION: "So at last you have come back Since time at last has set you free...." The singer recalls his old love for the other -- but concludes that it is all over now: "No, no, you must not take my hand; God never gives us back our youth...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: love separation return age infidelity
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Randolph 761, "The Last Farewell" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 495,496 "The Last Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 761A)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 152-153, "And So You Have Come Back to Me" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 33-34, "Too Late" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3590
File: R761
===
NAME: Last Fierce Charge, The [Laws A17]
DESCRIPTION: Two soldiers, boy and man, are about to ride into battle (at Fredericksburg?). Each asks the other to write to his home should he die. Both are killed; no letter is sent to mother or sweetheart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: war battle death farewell Civilwar
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 17, 1775 - Battle of Bunker Hill (fought on Breed's Hill, and won by the British, though at heavy cost)
Dec 13, 1862 - Battle of Fredericksburg. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, well-positioned and entrenched, easily throws back the assault of Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac
July 1-3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac holds off Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
June 25, 1876 - Battle of the Little Bighorn. Lt. Colonel George A. Custer (who had been a Major General during the Civil War) is killed, along with the entire force of cavalry (five companies with somewhat over 250 men) with him.
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Laws A17, "The Last Fierce Charge (The Battle of Fredericksburg, Custer's Last Charge)"
Belden, pp. 383-387, "The Last Fierce Charge" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 234, "That Last Fierce Fight" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fuson, pp. 94-96, "The Soldier Boy with Curly Hair" (1 text)
Eddy 139, "The Last Fierce Charge" (2 texts)
Dean, pp. 14-16, "The Charge at Fredricksburg" (1 text)
BrownII 231, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Peacock, pp. 1004-1006, "The Last Great Charge" (1 text, 1 tune, a conflate version)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 156-157, "Balaclava" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 118, "The Battle of Fredericksburg" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 86-87, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 295, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text)
FSCatskills 14, "The Battle of Gettysburg" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 45, "Custer's Last Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 692, LASTFIER
Roud #629
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier's Letter" (plot)
cf. "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (plot)
cf. "Custer's Last Charge (I)" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Two Soldiers
Fight at Bunker Hill
The Last Fierce Charge of the French at Waterloo
NOTES: As the list of song titles shows, this piece could be particularized to deal with almost any battle (as, indeed, Belden has a text called "Fight at Bunker Hill," after the Revolutionary War battle. This, however, is historically impossible; the Americans weren't doing any charging at Bunker Hill. In any case, the "Bunker Hill" text never mentions that battle).
Since, however, the second-earliest (and perhaps least famous) event commemorated was the Battle of Fredericksburg, it seems quite likely that the song was originally about that conflict.
Phillips Barry had two texts credited to Virginia F. Townsend -- but even if this is accurate, it may apply only to an adaption; both were "Gettysburg" texts. - RBW
Creighton-Maritime names this "Balaclava" -- I assume the name the singer assigned -- though that is never mentioned in the ballad; Creighton also has a fragment naming the battle as Waterloo, referenced as in ms. as "The Last Great Charge." - BS
File: LA17
===
NAME: Last Friday Evening: see I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening) (File: Beld194)
===
NAME: Last Gold Dollar, The: see My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)
===
NAME: Last Good-Bye: see The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted) (File: Beld212)
===
NAME: Last Letter, The
DESCRIPTION: "Dear love here's a letter It's the last one I'll send For my love's correspondings will soon be at end." He dies with the letter unfinished. She dies from grief when she gets the letter. Now "they dwells each together in a bright home above"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: love parting reunion death
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 101, "Lovely Annie" (1 text)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 180-181, "The Unfinished Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1967
RECORDINGS:
George Riley, "The Last Letter" (Conqueror 7742, 1931)
File: GrMa101
===
NAME: Last Longhorn, The
DESCRIPTION: "An aged longhorn bovine lay dying on the river...." As the bull says it does not wish to live alone, the cowboy watches the passing of their era. The bull dies. The cowboy rides off; "His horse stepped in a dog hole and fell and broke his spine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 ("The Cattleman")
KEYWORDS: cowboy animal death
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fife-Cowboy/West 115, "The Last Longhorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8015
RECORDINGS:
Carl T. Sprague, "The Last Longhorn" (Victor V-40197, 1930; Mongomery Ward M-4467, 1934; on MakeMe, WhenIWas1)
NOTES: The dating of the Fifes' version is rather strange; the final verse says that the cowboys' "glory has departed in 1889," but earlier it said that the last comrades of the longhorn "were embalmed to feed the boys who were a-fighting Spain" (placing the song after 1898). Since the cow also refers to the 1880s as "some nineteen summers past," the correct date in the final verse is probably 1899.
The longhorn cow was rugged and strong, but stubborn and perhaps not the best source of meat. Thus, after the closing of the frontier in the late eighteenth century, it was supplanted by domestic breeds. Hence this song. - RBW
File: FCW115
===
NAME: Last Moments of Robert Emmet, The: see Bold Robert Emmett (File: PGa032)
===
NAME: Last Month of the Year: see What Month Was Jesus Born In? (File: CNFM245)
===
NAME: Last of the Wooden Walls
DESCRIPTION: "Here Atlantic's foam-wreaths float In aqua-floral tribute to a ship submerged." The unnamed ship's activities are recalled, the men aboard mentioned; we are told of the tears shed when her journeys ended
AUTHOR: Harry R. Burton
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Harrington, Poems of Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad hunting
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, pp. 142-143, "Last of the Wooden Walls" (1 text)
NOTES: Yes, this is as, um, aqua-floral as it looks. Really, it doesn't belong in the Index. But I've done everything else in Ryan/Small; leaving out one of many irrelevant poems because it's irrelevant is rather pointless.
This should not be confused with the various other poems about the decline of sailing ships, several of which share similar titles. - RBW
File: RySm172
===
NAME: Last Parting of Burns and Bonnie Jean
DESCRIPTION: "Come near to me, Jean, come close to my side... That the widow's God may soften the road For my helpless bairns and thee, O." Burns bids farewell. After he dies, she kisses his cold lips and takes a lock of his hair. Burns is buried and widely mourned
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Rennie ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: death burial separation
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1759-1796 - life of Robert Burns
1788 - Burns marries Jean Armour (1767-1834)
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 356, "Last Parting of Burns and Bonnie Jean" (1 text)
Roud #5606
File: Ord356
===
NAME: Last Rose of Summer, The
DESCRIPTION: "'Tis the last rose of summer, left blooming alone, All her lovely companions are faded and gone." The singer promises not to leave this flower even when other flowers are "scentless and dead": "Oh! Who would inhabit this bleak world alone!"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore
EARLIEST_DATE: 1852
KEYWORDS: flowers love nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
DT, LASTROSE*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 378-379, "The Last Rose of Summer" (1 text)
Roud #13861
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Castle Hyde" (tune)
cf. "Bells of Shandon" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
The Groves of Blarney (File: OCon033) (per Hoagland in the notes to "Castle Hyde")
Castle Hyde (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 254-255)
NOTES: Dr. William Mahar claims this is one of the six most popular songs of the Civil War era. I've no idea what his evidence for this was; I've never seen it mentioned in any Civil War history.
This is another of Moore's pieces that was very popular in print (Granger's Index to Poetry has 15 references to it) but which seems to have had little vogue in tradition. - RBW
File: DTlastro
===
NAME: Last Serenade, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am under your window tonight, love, Giving you my last serenade." The singer says he must leave the girl. "But in the days that are to come we may then be joined in heart.... Serenade, serenade, I am giving you my last serenade."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation farewell
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 742, "The Last Serenade" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7396
File: R742
===
NAME: Last Token, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come press to your heart this last token, Though 'tis neither silver nor gold, 'Twill remind you of words you have spoken Too fondly to ever be told. When I'm far away a-sleeping... Your first love you'll never forget."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love death
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 739, "The Last Token" (1 fragment)
Roud #7395
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Rosewood Casket"
NOTES: I'm sure this is a fragment of something longer. It may even be elsewhere in the Index. But Randolph's fragment is so short that I can't identify it. - RBW
File: R739
===
NAME: Last Winter Was a Hard One
DESCRIPTION: Two Irish women lament the hard times. Neither woman's husband could find a job, and both families suffered. They curse the Italians who have arrived to take Irish jobs. They look forward to better times when their husbands find work
AUTHOR: Words: Jim O'Neil / Music: Jack Conroy
EARLIEST_DATE: 1880 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: work poverty unemployment foreigner hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Dean, pp. 89-90, "When McGuinness Gets a Job" (1 text)
FSCatskills 98, "Last Winter Was a Hard One" (1 text+fragments, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 111-112,248, "Last Winter Was a Hard One" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LASTWNTR*
Roud #4607
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family)" (theme)
NOTES: The sheet music to this is "respectfully dedicated to comptroller John Kelly." John Kelly (1822-1886) was a New York politician. A one-time representative, the _Dictionary of American Biography_ credits him with running Tammany Hall 1873-1882. Thus he would be the chief politician responsible for municipal employment.
See one version of "When McGuinness Gets a Job" [Sheet Music: digital id sm1880 11975], published in New York in 1880, at the Library of Congress American Memory site. - BS
File: FSC098
===
NAME: Last Words of William Shackleford, Executed in Pittsboro, Chatham Co, March 28, 1890: see William S. Shackleford (File: BrII293)
===
NAME: Last Year Was a Fine Crap Year: see Whoa Back, Buck (File: LxU067)
===
NAME: Late Battle in the West
DESCRIPTION: Another account of the conquest of Vicksburg by Union troops. The focus is mostly on General Grant: "Oh bully for our chief... Old Jeff is getting scared, Grant's getting bolder... Three cheers for Grant, and the Union forever!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 1862 - Union general Ulysses S. Grant begins his Vicksburg campaign. His first four attempts to reach the city fail
Apr 16, 1863 - Porter's gunboats run past Vicksburg, opening the way for Grant's final successful campaign
May 12-17, 1863 - Grant fights a series of minor battles which bring him to the defences of Vicksburg
May 22, 1863 - Grant's attempt to take Vicksburg by storm is a bloody failure. The Union army settles down to a siege
July 4, 1863 - Lt. General Pemberton surrenders Vicksburg
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 371-372, "Late Battle in the West" (1 text)
Roud #7764
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Vicksburg" (subject)
cf. "Victorious March" (subject)
NOTES: Every historical event in this song is described in the notes to "Victorious March"; see the notes to this song.
Although this is surely a composed song, the informant almost certainly had it from oral tradition. This shows in the names of the officers. He mentions, in addition to Grant, three generals: MacPherson (James B. McPherson, 1828-1864, one of Grant's corps commanders), Logan (John A. Logan, 1826-1886, a division commander), and "McClellan."
George B. McClellan, former commander of the Army of the Potomac, of course did not serve at Vicksburg. The reference, I think, must be to John A. McClernand (1812-1900), a politician who had become one of Grant's corps commanders in exchange for raising many of the troops used in the expedition. He was not particularly competent, and would later be relieved. - RBW
File: Beld371
===
NAME: Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown)
DESCRIPTION: "Late last night when Willie came home Heard a mighty rapping on the door... Willie don't you rap no more." The song then veers to floating verses. Chorus: "Oh me, oh my, what's gonna become of me I's downtown, fooling around No one to stand for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: drink prison nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 166, "Late Last Night When Willie Came Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
MWheeler, p. 87-89, "Come On, My Pink, an' Tell Me What You Think" (1 text, 1 tune, consisting of many floating verses -- the first, e.g., comes from "Little Pink" -- but which overall seems closest to this)
Handy/Silverman-Blues, pp. 58-59, "Ever After On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7691
RECORDINGS:
Frank Blevins, "Late Last Night when Willie Came Home" (Columbia, 1927; unissued)
Uncle Dave Macon w. Sam McGee, "Late Last Night When My Willie Come Home" (Vocalion 5095, 1926; on RoughWays2)
Poplin Family, "Hammer Ring" (on Poplin01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Late Last Night When Willie Came Home" (on NLCR02)
Louise Foreacre, "Last Last Night" (on Stonemans01)
Doc Watson, Clint Howard & Fred Price, "Way Down Town" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Late Last Night When My Willie Came Home
NOTES: It's hard to tell if the Handy text "Ever After On" belongs here. Certainly they derive from the same roots; the Handy text begins "Late last night when my baby come home I heard a mighty knocking on my door... Told him Baby don't you knock no more." The chorus runs, "But I'll love my baby till the seas run dry... Oh ain't it hard... To love a man that don't love you."
The rest, like the version in Wheeler, is fairly standard for a traditional blues: Verses unrelated except in their sorrowful feeling, and borrowed from all over. I initially listed it as a separate song based on the notes in Handy/Silverman, which imply multiple versions in Odum and Johnson. But I suspect those are actually versions of "Late Last Night." - RBW
File: CSW166
===
NAME: Late One Night: see Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) [Laws I8] (File: LI08)
===
NAME: Lather and Shave: see The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15] (File: LQ15)
===
NAME: Laughing Song
DESCRIPTION: "As I was coming 'round the corner, I heard some people say, Here comes a dandy darky; here he comes this way. His heel is like a snowplow, And his mouth is like a trap, And when he open it gently you will see a fearful gap." Chorus is mostly laughing
AUTHOR: George W. Johnson
EARLIEST_DATE: 1894
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad Black(s)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 171, "Laughing Song" (1 fragmentary excerpt)
Roud #6352
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough" (chorus)
NOTES: Greenleaf/Mansfield replaces the "dandy darky" reference by "laughing jackass" and uses elipses to give the impression that the chorus is just "Ha, ha ha ha ha ha, ha, ha, ha, Ha, ha," etc.
Johnson's chorus is
Then I laugh ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
I couldn't stop my laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
Ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
I couldn't stop my laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Johnson's sheet music and recording were an immediate hit "selling tens of thousands of records by 1894 alone" per "The Ragtime Ephemeralist" site. The text is on on the Archeophone Records site recording of the month for February 2002.
This song is sometimes confused with another laughing chorus song, Cal Stewart's 1901 "I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough." - BS
File: GrMa171
===
NAME: Laundry Song, A
DESCRIPTION: "I used to work in the kitchen And wash the pans and crocks, But now I work in the laundry And wash the stinking socks." Brought up well, the singer falls in with a bad crowd, and stands guard during a robbery. The others escape; he ends in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: trial punishment crime work prisoner clothes
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Gardner/Chickering 148, "A Laundry Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GC148 (Partial)
Roud #3674
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "No More Shall I Work in the Factory" (lyrics)
NOTES: The informant from whom this song was collected said that he did not know where he learned the song -- but he was "a boy of fifteen in the Detention Home, Detroit." One suspects he or someone he knew composed it, based on something like "No More Shall I Work in the Factory." - RBW
File: GC148
===
NAME: Laurel Hill
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls sailing from Ireland to fight Napoleon with Wellington. He fights in Spain and all the way to Waterloo. At last her returns to find his love bewailing his death. He reveals himself to her; they settle down. He praises Wellington
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion Napoleon soldier
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1809 - Wellington takes command in the Peninsula (to 1814)
1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H8, pp. 311-312, "Laurel Hill/Kyle's Flowery Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 193, "Laurel Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LAURLHIL
Roud #2917
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Burns and His Highland Mary" [Laws O34] (tune)
NOTES: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Sweet Laurel Hill" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
File: HHH008
===
NAME: Lavender Blue
DESCRIPTION: "Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly..." Singer tells his lady that she must love him because he loves her. He tells of a vale where young man and maid have lain together, and suggests that they might do the same, and that she might love him (and also his dog)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1685 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: courting sex love dog colors
FOUND_IN: Britain US(NE)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Linscott, pp. 229-230, "Lavender's Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 299, "Lavender's blue, diddle, diddle" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #137, p. 113, "(Lavender blue and rosemary green)"
Silber-FSWB, p. 158, "Lavender Blue" (1 text)
DT, LAVNDER2
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #140, "Lavender's Blue" (1 text)
Roud #3483
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(56a), "Diddle, diddle" or "The Kind Country Lovers ("Lavenders green, didle, didle"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clark (London), 1674-1679
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Diddle, Diddle (Or The Kind Country Lovers)
NOTES: When I was four years old, I thought this song was stupid. Forty-five years later, I see no reason to change my mind. - PJS
Hard to argue that point based on the versions that I've heard, but the broadside version in the Digital Tradition hints that there is at least a little more going on behind the scenes. Linscott explains that the song, "of English origin, is connected with the amusements of Twelfth Night and refers to the choosing of the king and queen of the festivities."
The real problem may be that the version most people know comes from a Disney film. - RBW
File: FSWB158A
===
NAME: Lavender Cowboy, The
DESCRIPTION: "He was only a lavender cowboy, The hairs on his chest were two." Troubled by dreams, the boy tries all sorts of worthless hair nostrums. At last he "battled for Red Nellie's honor... He died with his six-guns a-blazing And only two hairs on his chest."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Ewen Hail)
KEYWORDS: death dream cowboy fight
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fife-Cowboy/West 39, "The Lavender Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 30, "The Lavender Cowboy" (1 text)
DT, LAVCOWBY
Roud #11213
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Lavender Cowboy" (Bluebird B-8229, 1939)
Ewen Hail, "Lavendar Cowboy" (Brunswick 141, 1927; Brunswick 433, 1930)
NOTES: Vernon Dalhart recorded this song in 1938 in an ill-fated comeback on Bluebird, only to see the song blacklisted. - RBW
File: FCW039
===
NAME: Lavender Girl
DESCRIPTION: "Wen the sun climbs over the hills And the skylark sings so merrily, Then I my little basket fill And trudge away to the village cheerily." The girl sells lavender to "keep my mother, myself, and my brother"; she cries, "Come and buy my lavender."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: commerce home mother family orphan
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 245, "Lavender Girl" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Lavender Girl" (source notes only)
Roud #15774
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Blooming Lavender" (theme)
File: Br3245
===
NAME: Lavender's Blue: see Lavender Blue (File: FSWB158A)
===
NAME: Lavender's Blue, Diddle, Diddle: see Lavender Blue (File: FSWB158A)
===
NAME: Lawlands o' Holland, The: see The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)
===
NAME: Lawson Murder, The (Charlie Lawson) [Laws F35]
DESCRIPTION: Charlie Lawson goes mad on a Christmas evening and shoots first his wife and then, despite their pleas, his six children. He prepares them for burial, bids goodbye, and kills himself also. The family is buried in a common grave
AUTHOR: Wiley Morris? Walter "Kid" Smith?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, The Carolina Buddies)
KEYWORDS: homicide family burial suicide madness children
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 25, 1929 - 43-year-old Charles D. Lawson shoots his family and himself
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws F35, "The Lawson Murder (Charlie Lawson)"
Warner 114, "The Lawson Family Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 298, "The Lawson Murder" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Darling-NAS, pp. 206-207, "The Lawson Murder" (1 text)
DT 729, LAWSNMRD
Roud #697
RECORDINGS:
[Walter "Kid" Smith and the] Carolina Buddies, "Murder of the Lawson Family" (Conqueror 15537, 1930)
Spencer Moore with Everett Blevins, "The Lawson Murder" (on LomaxCD1705)
The Morris Brothers, "The Story of Charlie Lawson" (Bluebird B-7903, c. 1938)
E. R. Nance Singers, "The Lawson Murder" (Brunswick 542, 1931)
Glen Neaves, "The Death of the Lawson Family" (on Persis1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dark Knight" (plot)
cf. "William Beadle" (plot)
NOTES: As is typical of songs from the early era of recorded music, the authorship of this is uncertain. D. K. Wilgus credits this to Wiley Morris of the Morris Brothers. But Richard Dress informs me that Walter "Kid" Smith of the Carolina Buddies also claimed to have written it -- and, of course, his recording came first; the Morris recording actually postdates the first field collection (Brown).
Whoever wrote it sure came out with it fast, since the song was released only months after the murder.
It has become quite popular with bluegrass performers in recent years, starting with the Stanley Brothers. - RBW
File: LF35
===
NAME: Lawyer Outwitted, The [Laws N26]
DESCRIPTION: A squire's son loves a lawyer's daughter. He disguises himself to ask the lawyer's advice on how to get married against a father's wishes. The lawyer gives detailed advice, which the children follow. Presented with a fait accompli, he blesses the union
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1764 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 3(14a))
KEYWORDS: lawyer courting disguise marriage trick
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws N26, "The Lawyer Outwitted"
SharpAp 68, "The Councillor's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 37, "The Councillor's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 24, "Rich Counsellor" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN2078, "Of a rich Counsellor I write"
DT 455, LAWYROUT
Roud #188
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(14a), "The Crafty Lover" or "The Lawyer Outwitted," W. and C. Dicey (London), 1736-1763; also Harding B 4(52), "The Crafty Lover" or "The Lawyer-Out-Witted"
SAME_TUNE:
I'll Love Thee More and More (per broadsides Bodleian Douce Ballads 3(14a), Bodleian Harding B 4(52))
File: LN26
===
NAME: Lay Dis Body Down: see I Know Moonlight (File: San451)
===
NAME: Lay Down Body: see I Know Moonlight (File: San451)
===
NAME: Lay Me Down: see Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)
===
NAME: Lay of Oliver Gogarty, The
DESCRIPTION: Senator and doctor Oliver St John Gogarty is asked at home by a lady in a Rolls-Royce to make a house call for a sick man. In the car he is abducted by rebel "masked ruffians" but escapes to the safety of the Civic Guard
AUTHOR: William Dawson (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: abduction escape patriotic doctor police IRA
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 12, 1923 - "[Free State] Senator Oliver St. John Gogarty [1878-1957] ... escaped from his IRA captors by swimming the Liffey." (source: _Chapters of Dublin History_ on the eircom site)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 16, "The Lay of Oliver Gogarty" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OLcM016
===
NAME: Lay Out, Tack Sheets and Haul: see Paddy, Get Back (File: Doe054)
===
NAME: Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom: see Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)
===
NAME: Lay This Body Down: see I Know Moonlight (File: San451)
===
NAME: Lazarus (I)
DESCRIPTION: "There was a man in ancient times" who dressed and ate well "And spent his day in sinning." Lazarus comes to his door to beg, but is turned away. Lazarus dies and is taken to heaven; the rich man dies, goes to Hell, begs mercy, and is lectured
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); + 1889 (JAFL2)
KEYWORDS: religious poverty punishment Hell
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Bronson 56, "Dives and Lazarus" (13 versions, of which #10, #11, and #12 are this piece and #9, a tune with no text, might be)
BrownII 210, "Dives and Lazarus I" (1 text)
Davis-Ballads 14, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, listed as "Dives and Lazarus" but clearly this piece; 1 tune, entitled "Lazarus and Dives, or The Rich Man Dives") {Bronson's #11}
SharpAp 84, "Lazarus" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6566
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (subject) and references there
NOTES: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated).
It's worth remembering that this is not something that actually happened in the Bible; rather, it is a story Jesus told as a warning. Thus this is a warning about a warning. (At least one version, the Tennessee text of J. C. Jarnigan, makes this explicit.)
Bronson lists this song with "Dives and Lazarus," but in an appendix, and it appears to be a separate song; in this judgment Belden concurs. It has at least two key features: The introductory line about the man in ancient times, and the lack of mention of Dives/Diverus. - RBW
File: C056A
===
NAME: Lazarus (II): see The Little Family [Laws H7] (File: LH07)
===
NAME: Lazarus and Dives, or The Rich Man Dives: see Lazarus (I) (File: C056A)
===
NAME: Lazarus and the Rich Man
DESCRIPTION: The singer urges all people to listen as he relates how Lazarus suffered and the rich man ignored him. Indeed, the rich man enjoyed Lazarus's sufferings. Now the rich man is in torment; the listeners are urged to turn to God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible death warning
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 661, "Lazarus and the Rich Man" (1 text)
Roud #7582
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (subject) and references there
cf. "The Rich Man and the Poor Man" (theme)
NOTES: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated).
It's worth remembering that this is not something that actually happened in the Bible; rather, it is a story Jesus told as a warning. Thus this is a warning about a warning. - RBW
File: R661
===
NAME: Lazy (Young) Man, The: see The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)
===
NAME: Lazy Club, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer complains about his lethargic family: "My wife is such a lazy Turk, she will not do a bit of work." "My eldest daughter's just as bad; I really think she's lazy-mad." And so on, through son, servant, even dog -- leaving him to pay their debts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1848 (Elton's Song Book)
KEYWORDS: work money
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
FSCatskills 107, "The Lazy Club" (1 short traditional text plus part of a broadside version, 1 tune)
ST FSC107 (Partial)
File: FSC107
===
NAME: Lazy Farmer Boy, A: see The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)
===
NAME: Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai)
DESCRIPTION: The workers set out for Sydney, but upon reaching Lazy Harry's, stop for a drink. And "the girl who served the poison, she winked at Bill and I, So we camped at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai." The men revel until their money is used up.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: drink money rambling
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 253-255, "On the Road to Gungagai" (1 text)
DT, GUNDAGI2*
Roud #10726
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai)" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jacksons" (plot, lyrics, portions of tune)
cf. "Jog Along Till Shearing" (theme)
NOTES: Gundagai was a town of no particular account in itself. Its position at the midpoint of the Sydney-Melbourne road has, however, made it the setting for many folk songs. - RBW
File: DTgundag
===
NAME: Lazy Mary (She Won't Get Up)
DESCRIPTION: The mother calls the girl, but she "won't get up, she won't get up, she won't get up today." The mother makes various offers to entice the girl; she refuses each one. Finally a young man is offered, and the girl rises.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914
KEYWORDS: dialog humorous mother family courting
FOUND_IN: US(MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 396, "She Won't Get Up" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 110, pp. 225-226, "What Will You Give Me If I Get Up?" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 31-33, "Lazy Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R396 (Full)
Roud #6561
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (theme)
File: R396
===
NAME: Lazy Old River: see Powder River (I - Lazy River) (File: FCW061)
===
NAME: Le Bal Chez Boule (Boule's Ball): see Bal Chez Boule, Le (Boule's Ball) (File: FJ108)
===
NAME: Le Sergent: see Sergent, Le (File: FMB060)
===
NAME: Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme: see My Good Old Man (File: R426)
===
NAME: Lead Her Up and Down (Rosa Becky Diner, Old Betsy Lina)
DESCRIPTION: "Lead her up and down, Rosa Betsy Lina (x3) And I want you to be my darling." "Wheel and turn the old brass lantern..." "Swing corners all, Rosa Betsy Lina..." "All promenade...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Texas Folklore Society)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 552, "Lead Her Up and Down" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Roud #7679
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Rosa Betsy Lina
Rosa-becka-lina
Betsy Larkin (?)
File: R552
===
NAME: Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
DESCRIPTION: Gospel song, with chorus "Leaning on the everlasting arms." The rest is a combination of confidence in Jesus, comfort at being in fellowship with Jesus, and simple anticipation
AUTHOR: E. A. Hoffman and A. J. Showalter
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Darling-NAS, pp. 260-261, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (1 text)
DT, LEANARMS*
RECORDINGS:
Irene Spain Family, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (OKeh 45322, 1929)
NOTES: At first glance, and even at second glance, this looks like just another gospel song. I don't know of any reason to think it's any more traditional than any other church hymn. But it has achieved a certain popularity with folk revival singers, so it's here. - RBW
File: DarNS260
===
NAME: Learmont Grove: see The Banished Lover (The Parish of Dunboe) (File: HHH023)
===
NAME: Leather Breeches
DESCRIPTION: "I went down town And I wore my leather breeches. I couldn't see the people For looking at the peaches." "I went down town And I got a pound of butter; I come home drunk And I throwed it in the gutter."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink clothes food
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 322, "Leather Breeches" (1 short text)
Roud #15748
NOTES: A fiddler's mnemonic for Leather Britches? It's not possible to tell from Brown. - RBW
File: Br3322
===
NAME: Leather Britches: see The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)
===
NAME: Leatherwing Bat: see The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)
===
NAME: Leave for Texas, Leave for Tennessee: see T for Texas (Blue Yodel #1) (File: LoF152A)
===
NAME: Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Leave her, Johnny, leave her... And it's time for us to leave her." Tells of the troubles on the voyage and of what Johnny can hope for as the ship arrives in port. Some versions have a chorus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor separation return
FOUND_IN: US(MA,SW) Ireland Australia Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 89-90, "Time for Us to Leave Her (Leave Her, Johnny)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone, pp. 135-136, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 119-121, "Leave Her, Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 99-100, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 293-298, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (5 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 218-221]
Sharp-EFC, II-III, pp.3-4, "Leave Her Johnny" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 86-87, "Time to Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 46-47, "Leave Her, Jollies, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 412, "Leave Her, Bullies, Leave Her" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text, which is this song, is very short; the "B" text is "Across the Western Ocean")
Scott-BoA, pp. 135-137, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, p. 233, ("Leave Her, Johnny") (1 text)
SHenry H96, p. 96, "It's Time for Us to Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment, short enough that it could be this or "Across the Western Ocean")
Silber-FSWB, p. 97, "Leave Her, Johnny" (1 text)
DT, LEAVEHER* LEAVHER2*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). A fragment called "Tis Time for Us to Leave Her" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Roud #354
RECORDINGS:
Leander Macumber, "Leave Her Johnny, Leave Her" (on NovaScotia1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Across the Western Ocean" (floating lyrics; tune)
File: Doe089
===
NAME: Leave Her, Jollies, Leave Her: see Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her (File: Doe089)
===
NAME: Leave Me Alone
DESCRIPTION: I hev a roustabout for my manÑ Livin' with a white man for a sham, Oh, leave me alone, Leave me alone, I'd like you much better if you'd leave me alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 593, [no title] (1 text)
File: DMRF593A
===
NAME: Leaves of Life, The: see The Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life) (File: OBB111)
===
NAME: Leaves So Green, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer, who "never loved to tread" populated areas, asks that his body, when he dies, be taken "to some green lonely spot, Where none with careless steps shall tread." He recalls the flowers and birds, and can rest most easily among them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: burial flowers bird nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H719, p. 63, "The Leaves So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13332
File: HHH719
===
NAME: Leaving Erin
DESCRIPTION: "Farewell Erin, I now must leave you for to cross the raging main." The singer is leaving Ireland for America even though his parents have lived in Ireland since Brian Boru. He misses his family's graves, and hopes the Irish will come home for vengeance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: Ireland emigration home revenge
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Apr 23, 1014 - Battle of Clontarf. Brian Boru defeats a combined force of Vikings and rebels from Leinster, but dies in the battle
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 109-110, "Leaving Erin" (1 text)
Roud #9577
NOTES: Since this song mentions starvation only briefly, it appears it does not date from the potato famines but rather from one or another of the periods when landlords were squeezing tenants off their properties. It does not mention the Fenians by name, so perhaps it is early. I wouldn't bet too much on that, though. - RBW
File: Dean109
===
NAME: Leaving Home: see Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)
===
NAME: Leaving of Liverpool
DESCRIPTION: The singer is preparing to sail from Liverpool. He bids farewell to the city and most especially to his sweetheart. He describes the difficult conditions he will face aboard the Davy Crockett under Captain Burgess
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Doerflinger)
KEYWORDS: sailor parting abuse
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 104-105, "The Leaving of Liverpool" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 97, "The Leaving of Liverpool" (1 text)
DT, LEAVLIV1*
Roud #9435
NOTES: Despite the beauty of this song, it seems to have survived only in the single copy published by Doerflinger, which gave rise to all the pop/folk recordings.
Although the song refers to the ship as the "Davy Crockett," there was never (according to Octavius T. Howe and Frederick G. Matthews, _American Clipper Ships 1833-1858_ Volume I, p. 126) a clipper by that name; the ship was called the _David Crockett._ She was launched in late 1853. Designed for the Liverpool-to-New-York trade, she was transferred to the San Francisco route in 1857.According to Basil Lubbock, _The Down Easters: American Deep-water Sailing Ships 1869-1929_, p. 46, she "could hardly have been improved upon as a Cape Horner, being possessed not only of unusual speed and strength but of good carrying capacity."
She was also famous for her fast voyages, a tribute partly to her design but mostly to the harshness of her masters.
John A. Burgess took command of the ship in 1860, having previously commanded the _Governor Morton_ and the _Monarch of the Seas_. Burgess, according to Lubbock, p. 28, ÒBurgess was not only a navigator of exceptional reputation, but one of those seamen who deligheed in the art of driving a ship under sail. Though a strict disciplinarian, he would allow no bucko methods, and was one of those rare master-men who were never known to swear or use bad language. His mates, Griffiths and Conrad, were men of the same type, who could get work out of an indifferent or vicious crew without using belaying-pins or knuckle-dusters."
Lubbock, pp. 266-267, gives a catalog of the _Crockett's_ trips around the Horn -- a total of 25 from 1857 to 1983. Burgess took command on her fourth voyage (1860), and captained 13 trips before his death; his mate John Anderson finished that trip and commanded the next two.
Burgess was on his way home to San Francisco to retire when he was washed overboard in 1874. According to Lubbock, p. 28, he was attempting to remove wreckage, a task he took upon himself rather than risk a crewman's life.
The _Crockett_ did not become an easier ship after his death. The June 2006 issue of _American History_ magazine has an article by Steve Wilson on impressment ("crimping," in American terms) on the American West Coast. It notes that one Andreas Stork in 1882 sued second mate Jesse Millais of the _Crockett_ for abuse -- and won! Given that sailors were expected to face harsh treatment, conditions on the _Crockett_ must have been bad indeed.
Based on Lubbock's list of voyages, the _Crockett_ made only one trip in 1882 and a last voyage in 1883. I wonder if the Stork suit didn't hasten her retirement from the route.
According to Lubbock, p. 49, the _Crockett_ was converted to a coal barge in 1890 and wrecked in 1899. - RBW
File: Doe104
===
NAME: Leaving of Merasheen, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers life on the "little isle of Merasheen down in Placentia Bay" and mourns having to leave it. "Those days are gone forever now and so is Merasheen."
AUTHOR: Ernie Wilson
EARLIEST_DATE: 1975 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: homesickness home parting lament nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 65, "The Leaving of Merasheen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: "The Resettlement Program was carried out in Newfoundland during Joseph Smallwood's government [1950s to 1970s].... Its aim was to relocate ... coastal communities to larger centers where they would find better job opportunities and public facilities such as hospitals and schools.... When the smoke had finally cleared over three hundred communities had been completely closed down and those that remained were tombstones marking the passing of a large and noble part of our history."
See "The Blow Below the Belt" for another resettlement song - BS
Joey Smallwood began his career as a radio broadcaster, and used his position to push Newfoundland into Confederation with Canada; according to Craig Brown, e.d, _The Illustrated History of Canada_, p. 374, "Mainland prosperity, urged by Joey Smallwood... won out against the proud penury of independence."
But Smallwood, who went from broadcaster to Newfoundland premier and led the province for more than twenty years, by the late Fifties was turning to "increasingly illiberal one-man rule" (p. 491). The result of his policy was complaints like these. - RBW
File: LeBe065
===
NAME: Leaving Old England
DESCRIPTION: The singer is sadly leaving England, and asks for his mother's blessing as he departs. He regrets leaving home, but poverty forces him away. He comments on England's social system that is so hard on the poor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: emigration family political mother
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 55-56, "Leaving Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Meredith amd Anderson suggest that this might be the ancestor of "Botany Bay"; the tunes are similar. There is, however, no firm evidence of this. - RBW
File: MA055
===
NAME: Lee's Ferry
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you roving cowboys, bound on these western plains... We'll go back home again... We'll cross over Lee's Ferry, oh, and go back home this year." The cowhands agree that they will go home, but they grow old without ever returning
AUTHOR: Romaine Lowdermilk
EARLIEST_DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: cowboy home travel age
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 37, "Lees' Ferry" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19] (character of John D. Lee)
NOTES: Lee's Ferry (named for Mormon pioneer John D. Lee) was at one time the only way to cross the Colorado River in Arizona. The region north and west of the river (the "Arizona Strip"), surrounded on two sides by river, and with desert to the west and hills to the north, was decent cattle country but very isolated. Hence this song.
For more about John D. Lee, very little of it good, see the notes to "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]. - RBW
File: Ohr047
===
NAME: Lee's Hoochie
DESCRIPTION: A soldier visits "Miss Lee" in Seoul, and contracts a venereal disease. He advises it is better to avoid Lee's hoochie than to have "Old Smoky," his penis, blue.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease sex warning
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1950-1953 - Korean War
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cray, pp. 407-409, "Lee's Hoochie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10409
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (tune)
NOTES: This song, for which there seem to be no direct antecedents, dates from the Korean War. - EC
File: EM407
===
NAME: Leeboy's Lassie, The: see Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)
===
NAME: Leesome Brand [Child 15]
DESCRIPTION: Leesome Brand impregnates his love. When her time comes she has him take her riding, then go hunt, sparing the white hind. He returns to find her and his son dead. He laments his knife and sheath. His mother gives him St. Paul's blood to revive them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: love pregnancy death hunting resurrection
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Child 15, "Leesome Brand" (2 texts)
Leach, pp. 90-96, "Leesome Brand" (2 texts)
OBB 56, "Leesome Brand, or, The Sheath and the Knife" (1 text)
PBB 52, "Leesome Brand" (1 text)
DBuchan 43, "Leesome Brand" (1 text)
Roud #3301
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sheathe and Knife" [Child 16] (lyrics about the "sheathe and knife")
File: C015
===
NAME: Left Jim and I Alone: see Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone) (File: BrII150)
===
NAME: Leg of Mutton Went Over to France, A
DESCRIPTION: "A leg of mutton went over to France ... The ladies did sing and the gentlemen dance." Anyway, a man dies, a doctor looks in his head and finds a spring in which 39 salmon are learning to sing, with a pool for young salmon to go to school.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1918 (Journal of Folk-Song Society, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: France humorous nonsense talltale wordplay
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Peacock, p. 14, "A Leg of Mutton Went Over to France" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 357, "As I was walking o'er little Moorfields" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #244, p. 155, "(As I was walkin o'er little Moorfields)"
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 49, "As I Was Going to Banbury" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2423
NOTES: The ending floats: "perhaps you think I ... lie", "If you want any more ...", even if entire verses don't.
Opie-Oxford2: "[Moorfields] would be an appropriate setting for a nonsense song, for in 1675 the Old Bethlem Hospital was moved to Moorfields from Bishops Gate Without." - BS
I suspect the "As I Was Going to Banbury" version is a compound of two different items. As, however, it appears to exist only in the version Cecil Sharp collected from Emma Sister, there seems no need to create a separate item for it. The ending is this song; it merely starts with the verse "As I was going to Banbury, Ri fol lat-i-tee O...." - RBW
File: Pea014
===
NAME: Legacy
DESCRIPTION: "When in death I shall calm recline O bear my heart my mistress dear, Bid her not shed one tear of sorrow To sully a heart so brilliant and light; But balmy drops of the red grape borrow To bathe the relict from morn till night."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore
EARLIEST_DATE: 1808 (Missouri Harmony)
KEYWORDS: death drink religious
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, p. 155, "Legacy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: San155A
===
NAME: Legion of the Rearguard, The
DESCRIPTION: "Up the republic, they raise their battle cry, Pearse and McDermott will pray for you on high, Eager and ready, for the love of you they die." The soldiers for the Republic die proud, bloody deaths to accomplish an unstated goal
AUTHOR: J. O'Sheehan
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (copyright, according to the Clancy/Makem songbook)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political soldier death nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, LGNREAR
NOTES: Why is it that the Irish nut cases get all the good songs?
After the 1916 rebellion, the Irish people finally turned truly nationalist. And, after World War I, Michael Collins and others turned up the heat so much that the British, after repression failed (see the notes, e.g., to "The Bold Black and Tan"), gave up and started negotiating.
The result was the Anglo-Irish Treaty (for which see, in particular, "The Irish Free State"). This would have turned Ireland into a British Dominion (a nearly-independent state; Canada was the prototype). But there were two things in the Treaty that were objectionable: The Irish still owed nominal allegiance to the British crown, and Ireland was to be partitioned between Ulster and the Free State, according to a boundary to be determined.
Rationally, it was a fair agreement for Ireland; it was not George V and the current generation of the royal family who had oppressed them, but Elizabeth I (no descendants), Oliver Cromwell (repudiated by the English), William of Orange (not the ancestor of the current dynasty), and David Lloyd George, who wouldn't hold power much longer. And, had the boundary commission worked, Ireland would have gotten rid of those ungovernable Ulstermen that gave England almost as much trouble as they gave Dublin.
But the war with Britain had been fought by the IRA and other, even more secret and terrorist, forces, and they wanted complete independence. When Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins brought home the Treaty, Eamon de Valera (head of state and chief hard liner) rejected it. The Dail, the Irish parliament, however, went against him and -- despite being composed entirely of Sinn Fein members -- voted for it by a narrow margin. The national election which followed showed strong support for it; even the pro-Republican historian Calton Younger's statistics (_Ireland's Civil War_, pp. 313-314) make it appear that only 22% of the voters voted to reject the Treaty.
But 22% is more than enough for an insurgency. The IRA was split into pro- and anti-treaty factions. Speaking very loosely, the anti-treaty forces were concentrated in the south and west, with Cork their chief center (hence, presumably, the song's reference to the martial tramp of the Republicans being heard "from Cork to Donegal"). The anti-treaty forces promptly went to war against the pro-Treaty provisional government.
The insurgents scored one and only one real success: On August 22, 1922, they succeeded in killing Michael Collins, the effective head of the government. (For this, and much additional background, see the notes to "General Michael Collins").
It was the ultimate in pyrrhic victories. Collins had started his career as a terrorist, but he was also a realist and a genius. He might have managed to control the rebellion with relatively slight loss of life and liberty. Without him, the new government, headed by William Cosgrave, Kevin O'Higgins, and Collins's former Chief of Staff Richard Mulcahy, turned Ireland into a temporary police state; the Dail gave them emergency powers, and they set up military tribunals and indeed engaged in arbitrary executions; the rebels were explicitly denied prisoner of war status. (See Robert Kee, _Ourselves Alone_, being volume III of _The Green Flag_, pp. 168-169). What should have been a noble cause got off to a dreadful start. But it suppressed the rebellion.
This song -- the only thing I've ever encountered by O'Sheehan -- seems to have played its part. In 1923, Eamon de Valera, whose refusal to accept the Treaty had contributed to much to causing the Irish Civil War, finally gave in and urged the anti-treaty forces to lay down their arms. And he addressed them as "Soldiers of the Republic, Legion of the Rearguard" (Kee, p 175; see also p. 170). They were so-called because they had once been (and hoped to be again) the vanguard of Irish independence, but now were fighting a rearguard action to keep the dream alive.
In the long run, of course, de Valera would succeed in "freeing" the 26 counties; Ireland is no longer a British dominion. But it would surely have been a lot easier had he pursued a political solution.
Besides de Valera, the song mentions:
Pearse - Padraig Pearse, the leader of the 1916 uprising, who was executed in that year; see in particular the notes to "The Boys from County Cork."
McDermott - Sean McDermott, another executed in the aftermath of the Easter Rising; he was one of those who joined Pearse in organizing the rebellion. According to Michael Foy and Brian Barton, _The Easter Rising_, p. 4, he and Tom Clarke were "the key figures who, in the years before 1916, shaped the policies of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.Ó Still in his early thirties at the time of the rising, he had suffered from polio in his late twenties, and could barely shuffle along with a cane or walking stick. I wonder if he may not have been offered as an example precisely *because* he was a cripple whom the British executed anyway.
"Wolfe Love" - This is what the Clancy Brothers record as the text, but I have to think this is an error of some sort. Certainly the reference is to (Theobald) Wolfe Tone, who helped inspire the 1798 rebellion and tried to win French support in the years before that; for his activities and his condemnation by the British, see e.g. the notes to "The Shan Van Voght."
Emmett - Robert Emmet (the usual spelling), whose 1803 attempt at rebellion was a complete botch but who inspired many songs; see e.g. the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet."
I doubt this song is actually traditional; I think the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (violent nationalists all) picked it up because of their political beliefs rather than its historic status. But since they recorded it, it perhaps deserves an Index entry. - RBW
File: DTlgnrea
===
NAME: Lehigh Valley, The
DESCRIPTION: A stranger explains he is hunting the city slicker who stole his girlfriend Nelly "if it takes till Judgment Day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1882 (As "The Tramp's Lament" in Edward Harrigan's play "Squatter Sovereignty")
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody love seduction elopement hobo
FOUND_IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Cray, pp. 198-200, "The Lehigh Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 272-274, "The Lehigh Valley" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
JHJohnson, pp. 16-18, "Down in the Lehigh Valley" (1 text, bowdlerized)
DT, LEHIGH*
Roud #9389
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight?" (plot)
cf. "The Tramp's Story" (plot)
NOTES: According to Vance Randolph, this is a parody of Harrigan's "The Tramp's Lament." - EC
For additional thoughts on this point, see "The Tramp's Story" (the name the Index uses for the Harrigan song)
The details of this song apparently vary widely (though some of this may be due to editorial tampering). The final two lines, "I'll hunt the runt that swiped my cunt, If it takes till judgement day," seem however to be absolutely diagnostic. - RBW
File: EM198
===
NAME: Leinster Lass, The: see The SS Leinster Lass (File: HHH808)
===
NAME: Lenora
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I left to make a fortune, in the glowing West, Then I returned at least to marry the one that I loved best, I had made a half a million in a mine of gold...." "Lenora, darling, I think of you only... Lenora, love me as I love you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage gold
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 790, "Lenora" (1 short text)
Roud #7420
File: R790
===
NAME: Leo Frank and Mary Phagan: see Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)
===
NAME: Leprechaun, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a leprechaun and laughs anticipating a purse of gold. He grabs the leprechaun to claim the purse but is tricked into releasing the leprechaun. The singer laughs to think how he had been fooled.
AUTHOR: Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830-1883) (source: Hoagland)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968 (recording, Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman)
KEYWORDS: trick gold supernatural
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 527, "The Leprahaun"
Roud #5274
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman, "The Leprechaun" (on Voice14)
NOTES: The trick: singer is told that the [non-existant] lady by his side has the purse in her hand. - BS
Robert Dwyer Joyce is also credited with the Irish political songs "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" and "The Boys of Wexford" in this index. - RBW
File: RcTLepr
===
NAME: Les Darcy
DESCRIPTION: The singer mourns for Les Darcy. He recalls "how he beats, Simply eats them, Every Saturday night." "(The Yanks) called him a skiter, but he proved himself a fighter, (so they killed him, down in Memphis), Tennessee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: fight Australia death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 24, 1917 - Death of Les Darcy in Memphis, Tennessee
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 218-219, "Les Darcy" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Les Darcy" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Les Darcy" (plot, subject)
NOTES: Les Darcy was an Australian boxer of whom great things were expected. He did not live long, and so his major bouts were few, but the Australians made him one of their great heroes. When he died in 1917, the Americans gave the cause of death as pneumonia; Australians claim he was poisoned.
Two songs about Darcy are found in the tradition; this one, based on "Way Down in Tennessee," begins, "In Maitland cemet'ry (or "Way down in Tennessee") lies poor Les Darcy...." It has been surmised that this one was written by P.F. Collins (under the pseudonym "Percy the Poet"). The piece seems to have truly entered oral tradition, however; Fahey reports collecting it twice, and his text differs significantly from that used by John Greenway.
The other, more literary, Les Darcy song has eight lines per stanza and begins "We all get a craving to roam, Far from home, o'er the foam...." - RBW
File: FaE218
===
NAME: Les Reeder
DESCRIPTION: Les Reeder's mother begs him not to work on Sundays. He tells her he won't any more after this one last time. Needless to say, he's killed on the skidway by a log.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: lumbering logger death work mother
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 63, "Les Reeder" (1 text)
Roud #4053
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (theme)
NOTES: [Beck reports,] "Logs were skidded to the skidway, where they were piled to be hauled to the rollways or to the narrow-gauge railroads." - PJS
This song is item dC34 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Be063
===
NAME: Lescraigie
DESCRIPTION: Pretty Peggie is advised to prepare the cot, "For the fair-haired laddie will be here." "He winna lie in the kitchen... But he'll lie in your bed, Peggie, And you in his airms twa." With the harvest done, Sandy Fraser is coming to take her away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting harvest
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 285, "Lescraigie" (1 text)
Roud #3940
File: Ord285
===
NAME: Leslie Allen
DESCRIPTION: Leslie Allen comes to Black Brook from Moncton. He wanders from town one day and a search team of "three hundred men and two bloodhounds" follow his tracks "but the search was unavailing" He is never found.
AUTHOR: Michael Whelan "the poet of the Renous" (Manny/Wilson)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: manhunt
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Manny/Wilson 29, "Leslie Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi029 (Partial)
Roud #9188
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Barbara Allen" (tune)
NOTES: Black Brook is a tributary of the Main Southwest Miramichi River in New Brunswick.
Manny/Wilson: A true story of Leslie Allen, a lost hunter. - BS
File: MaWi029
===
NAME: Let Go the Peak Halyards
DESCRIPTION: "Let go the peak halyards, Let go the peak halyards, My knuckles are caught in the falls. LET GO!" (last line shouted)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: sailor
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Shay-SeaSongs, p. 125, (no title) (1 fragment)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Go the Reef Tackle" (form)
NOTES: Shay apparently thinks this a fragment of something. To me, it looks more like a curse -- and quite possibly cleaned up.
As a wild speculation, Don Nichols repeated a story Stan Hugill is is said to have told a story about a sailor who stuttered but was able to sing clearly. DoN recalled the story as follows:
There was a sailor... up the mast who was in obvious distress. He kept trying to tell what was wrong, and the stuttering got in the way. From the deck, the bosun cries "For God's
sake man -- *sing* it!". So, from the mast comes:
Slack off your reefy tackles
reefy tackles, reefy tackles.
Slack off your reefy tackles,
Me Bollocks are Yammed!
No words in common with this piece, of course, but the *feeling* sure sounds familiar. That song occurs in the Index as "Let Go the Reef Tackle," but with a much-cleaned-up feel. - RBW
File: ShaS125B
===
NAME: Let Go the Reef Tackle
DESCRIPTION: The ship sails out the channel as the sailor cries out, "Let go the reef tay-ckle, Let go the reef tay-ckle, Let go the reef tay-ckle, My sheets they are jammed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: sailor work
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Doerflinger, p. 165, "Let Go the Reef Tackle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 170-171, "Let Go the Reefy Tackle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, p. 503, "Slack Away Yer Reefy Tayckle" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 371]
Roud #9145
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Go the Peak Halyards" (form)
File: Doe165
===
NAME: Let Her Go By: see Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye (File: BMRF591)
===
NAME: Let Me Call You Sweetheart
DESCRIPTION: "Let me call you 'sweetheart'...." The singer professes his lover in the usual sorts of empty phrases
AUTHOR: Words: Beth Slater Whitson/Music: Leo Friedman
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuld-WFM, p. 327, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart"
RECORDINGS:
Riley Puckett, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" (Columbia 405-D, 1925)
SAME_TUNE:
Don't You Call Me Sweetheart (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 113)
Let Me Call You Lizzie (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 113)
Let Me Call You Sweetheart (I'm In Love With Your Automobile) (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 146)
NOTES: Not a folk song by any stretch I can imagine. It's listed here because of all the parodies it inspired. - RBW
File: xxLMCYS
===
NAME: Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's: see Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's) (File: Doyl3039)
===
NAME: Let Me Fly
DESCRIPTION: "Way down yonder in the middle of the field, Angel workin' at the chariot wheel... Now let me fly (x2), Let me fly to Mount Zion, Lord, Lord." The singer hopes to meet mother in Heaven, and advises avoiding hypocrites
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 364, "Let Me Fly" (1 text)
DT, LETMEFLY*
File: FSWB364
===
NAME: Let Me Go Home, Whiskey
DESCRIPTION: "Let me go home, whiskey, Let me go out that door... Well, I'm feelin' so fine, But I just can't take it no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, p. 20, "Let Me Go Home, Whiskey" (1 text (probably incomplete), 1 tune)
File: CNFM020
===
NAME: Let Me In This Ae Nicht
DESCRIPTION: The (Laird o' Windy Wa's) comes to the girl's window (in bad weather) and begs her, "Let me in this ae nicht." The girl protests. He convinces her to let him in discreetly. She does, and he takes her maidenhead and steals away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (recording, Archie Fisher)
KEYWORDS: sex nightvisit bawdy mother father trick grief courting request rejection storm father lover mother soldier
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 90, "Glaw, Keser, Ergh Ow-cul Yma [It Rains, It Hails and Snows and Blows]" (1 text + Cornish translation, 1 tune)
DT, AENICHT COLDRAIN*
Roud #135
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Aye She Likit The Ae Nicht" (chorus, theme)
cf. "Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails)" (plot)
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Laird o Windy Wa's
The Laird o Udny
Cold Haily Windy Night
Cold Blow and a Rainy Night
NOTES: This is a complicated story. Kennedy seems to split this song from "Cold Blow and a Rainy Night" but I unhesitatingly lump them. [As do I - RBW.] The plot combines elements of the first three night-visiting songs cross-referenced, but has a distinctly different ending, more reminiscent of "The Barley Straw."
Kennedy's Cornish words are a revivalist translation from the English. Digital Tradition mentions a 19th-century broadside in Baring Gould's collection, but offers no details, and it's not in Kennedy. - PJS
Archie Fisher and Kennedy both say this is part of a longer song found in Herd. But is it a part, or a relative (compare "Aye She Likit The Ae Nicht")? I flatly don't trust Kennedy's list of versions.
Paul Stamler wanted to file this as "Cold Haily Windy Night," on the basis that it's the one best known to folkies, citing recordings by Steeleye Span and Martin Carthy. But I had already assigned the title I learned.... - RBW
File: DTaenich
===
NAME: Let Me Lose: see If I Lose, I Don't Care (File: CSW187)
===
NAME: Let Me Ride
DESCRIPTION: "Well, I'm a soldier, let me ride (x3); Low down your chariot and let me ride!" "I've been converted, let me ride..." "I've got my ticket..." "I'm bound for Heaven..." "In the Kingdom..." "Troubles over...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Warner 170, "Let Me Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 72, "(Low Down the Chariot and Let Me Ride)" (1 text); p. 250, "Let Me Ride" (1 tune, partial text)
ST Wa170 (Partial)
Roud #7500
RECORDINGS:
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Low Down the Chariot and Let Me Ride" (on NFMAla5) (on ReedWard01)
NOTES: This became a staple of gospel quartet recordings in the 1940s. - PJS
File: Wa170
===
NAME: Let Mr. Maguire Sit Down: see Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down (File: RcLMMSD)
===
NAME: Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down
DESCRIPTION: When Mick McGuire calls to court Kitty Donahue, her mother makes sure that he, a farm owner, had the seat by the fire. (Once married, Mick spends her father's legacy, or he proves poorer than expected.) Now her mother won't have him sit by the fire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean); c.1845 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1270(020))
KEYWORDS: courting dowry marriage humorous mother money poverty
FOUND_IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 86, "Kate OÕDonahue" (1 text)
Roud #4249
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Let Mr. Maguire Sit Down" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Mick McGuire" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Dinny (Jimmy) Doyle and Larry Griffin, "Let Mr McGuire Sit Down" (on USBallinsloeFair)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(135), "Barney, Get Up from the Fire", unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, L.C.1270(020), "Barney Get Up from the Fire!", unknown, c.1845
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Mick Maguire
Kitty Donahue
NOTES: The 1928 date for USBallinsloeFair is according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #1122.
Broadsides NLScotland L.C.1270(020) and Bodleian 2806 c.16(135) are clearly the same song with the same chorus as the recordings but [have] a different twist. Barney is Kate's brother and tries to blackmail Paddy M'Guire ("I saw you courting Peggy Brown, I'll tell my sister Kate, But if you give me a sixpence, maybe I'll hold my prate.") but mother saves the day; they marry happily and without recriminations on anyone's part. - BS
File: RcLMMSD
===
NAME: Let Old Nellie Stay
DESCRIPTION: The bartender is closing up, and demands that the "old lady in red" depart. As she starts crying, someone explains, "Her mother never told her The things a young girl should know... So do not treat her harshly Because she went too far...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: drink age sin recitation
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 44, "Let Old Nellie Stay" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured" (theme)
File: Ohr044
===
NAME: Let Recreant Rulers Pause
DESCRIPTION: "Rouse! Orangemen, rouse! in God be your hope, For England is now allied with the Pope." "The Papists are plotting our Church to pull down." "For wearing a ribbon of Orange and Blue, The prisons were filled with the loyal and true" but we remain loyal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jul 26, 1869 - Irish Church Disestablishment Act
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 18, "Let Recreant Rulers Pause" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Downfall of Heresy" (subject)
NOTES: OrangeLark: "This song is a protest against the proposal [sic] disestablishment and disendowment of the Church of Ireland, which was to take place in 1871." - BS
"Disestablishment" was the process under which Catholic tithes ceased to support the Protestant church and clergy. For the Catholic view of the matter, see "The Downfall of Heresy."
The absurdity of the claim that Britain was allied with the Pope is shown by the fact that, to this day, Catholics are excluded from the British succession. Not only is it illegal for a Catholic to be the crowned monarch, it's illegal for one even to marry a Catholic. - RBW
File: OrLa018
===
NAME: Let That Liar Alone
DESCRIPTION: On the theme of the wickedness a liar can do. "Come to your house, stay all day...." "Tell you such a lie it'll surprise your mind...." Sometimes the liar is Satan. Cho: "If you don't want... to get in trouble...You'd better let that liar alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recordings, Rev. Edward Clayborn, Rev. Isaiah Shelton)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Words vary, but always on the theme of the wickedness a liar can do. "Come to your house, stay all day" "Tell you such a lie it'll surprise your mind/Mix a little truth just to make it shine" Sometimes the liar is Satan. Chorus: "If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble...You'd better let that liar alone"
KEYWORDS: lie nonballad religious devil
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #5120
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Let That Liar Alone" (Vocalion 5229, c. 1928)
Carlisles, "Leave That Liar Alone" (Mercury 70109, 1953)
Carter Family, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 5518, 1938, rec. 1937)
Rev. Edward Clayborn, "Let That Lie Alone" (Vocalion 1093, 1927)
Fairfield Four, "Better Leave That Liar Alone" (Bullet 253, n.d.; rec. 1946)
Golden Gate Quartet, "Let That Liar Alone" (Bluebird B-7835, 1938)
Rev. Anderson Johnson, "Leave That Liar Alone" (Glory 4016, n.d., rec. 1953)
Mound City Jubilee Quartette, "Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 7058, 1935)
Rev. Isaiah Shelton, "The Liar" (Victor 20583, 1927; on Babylon)
Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (OKeh 8667/Velvetone 7078/Clarion 6052/Diva 5175, 1929; rec. 1928)
Rosetta Tharpe, "Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 48023, n.d.; rec. 1943)
Trumpeteers, "Leave That Lie Alone" (Score 5057, n.d.; rec. 1946)
Rev. T. E. Weems, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (Columbia 14469-D, 1929; rec. 1927)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Satan's a Liar (Ain't Gonna Worry My Lord No More)" (theme)
NOTES: This is a messy song; the verses vary all over the place, sometimes secular, sometimes religious, but the chorus is constant. - PJS
File: RcLTLA
===
NAME: Let the Back and Sides Go Bare
DESCRIPTION: Beggar sings of the pleasures of his life -- drinking, starving, sleeping in filth, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916
KEYWORDS: drink begging starvation humorous nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland,England)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Sharp-100E 78, "The Beggar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT BCK&SID2*
Roud #1573
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Begging I Will Go" (theme)
cf. "Jolly Good Ale and Old (Back and Sides Go Bare)" (chorus)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Beggar's Song
NOTES: The chorus, "Let the back and the sides go bare, go bare/let the hands and the feet grow cold/but give to the belly, boys, beer enough/whether it be new or old" appears in _Gammer Gurton's Needle_ (1575), but the verses are quite different. -PJS
The themes are rather similar, though; I suspect the dependence is literary. - RBW
File: ShH78
===
NAME: Let the Bullgine Run (I): see Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run) (File: LoF029)
===
NAME: Let the Bullgine Run (II): see Run, Let the Bullgine Run (File: Hugi342)
===
NAME: Let the Cocaine Be: see Take a Whiff on Me (File: RL130)
===
NAME: Let the Deal Go Down
DESCRIPTION: "Let the deal go down, boys, Let the deal go down." (Sound effects indicate cards being dealt.) "If your cards ain't lucky, Y' oughta be in a rollin' game." "I want to win for my sweet mama, She needs a new pair of shoes." Verses about (problem) gambling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: gambling cards
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-FSNA 296, "Let the Deal Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Not to be confused with "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down." - RBW
The game referred to in this and similar songs is the "Skin Game" or "Georgia Skin Game." -PJS
File: LoF296
===
NAME: Let the Dove Come In
DESCRIPTION: "(Oh,) Noah, hoist the window (x3), Hoist the window, let the dove come in." Describes how Noah's neighbors scorned him for his work, but he had the last laugh.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: ship Bible
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, p. 45, (no title) (partial text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Noah's Ark" (lyrics)
NOTES: In this song from the Georgia Sea Islands, the name "Noah" is pronounced "Norah." - RBW
File: CNFM045
===
NAME: Let Us Be Merry Before We Go: see The Deserter's Lamentation (File: OLcM087A)
===
NAME: Let's Go a-Hunting: see Billy Barlow (File: SBoA165)
===
NAME: Let's Go a-Hunting, Says Richard to Robert: see Billy Barlow (File: SBoA165)
===
NAME: Let's Go to the Woods: see Hunt the Wren (File: K078)
===
NAME: Letter Edged in Black, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer cheerfully greets the postman, only to be handed a letter edged in black. The letter is from his father, informing him that his mother is dead.
AUTHOR: Hattie Hicks Woodbury (Hattie Nevada)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1897 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: death mother mourning
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Randolph 703, "The Letter Edged in Black" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 475-476, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 703A)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 169-171, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 38-39, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 267, "The Letter Edged In Black" (1 text)
DT, LETTRBLK
Roud #3116
RECORDINGS:
Cotton Butterfield, "Letter Edged in Black" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Letter Edged In Black" (OKeh 7008, 1924)
Pete Cassell, "The Letter Edged in Black" (Majestic 6007, c. 1947)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Letter Edged in Black" (Lincoln 2426, 1925) (Edison 51649, 1925) (Victor 19837, 1925) (Cameo 809, 1925) (Banner 1653, 1926; Challenge 560, 1927; Conqueror 7074, 1928) (Bell 396, 1926) (Challenge 160/Challenge 319, 1927) (Champion 15906, 1930; Champion 45096, 1935; rec. 1928) (Brunswick 2900, 1925; Supertone S-2000, 1930) (Columbia 15049-D [as by Al Craver], c. 1926) (Brunswick 6799, 1934) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5085 or 5086, 1925) (Durium 9-2, n.d.)
Bradley Kincaid, "Letter Edged In Black" (Bluebird B-5895, 1935; rec. 1934)
Frank Luther, "Letter Edged in Black" (Decca 435, 1935)
George Reneau, "Lettter Edged in Black" (Vocalion 14998, 1925/ Vocalion 5058, c. 1926)
Marc Williams, "Letter Edged in Black" (Decca 5327, 1937; rec. 1934)
File: R703
===
NAME: Letter in the Candle, The
DESCRIPTION: "There's a letter in the candle, It points direct to me, How the little spark is shining, From whoever can it be." The singer describes the "writer From far across the sea." Her last letter in a candle meant her sailor was coming home....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 777, "The Letter in the Candle" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 37-38, "The Letter in the Candle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7412
File: R777
===
NAME: Letter that Never Came, The
DESCRIPTION: Day after day, a man asks the mail carrier if there is a letter for him. Day after day, he is disappointed. The chorus asks from whom the letter might come. But come it never does; the man dies, and asks that the letter, if it comes, be buried with him
AUTHOR: Paul Dresser (1857-1906) and Max Sturm
EARLIEST_DATE: 1886 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS: death lastwill
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Rorrer, p. 76, "The Letter That Never Came" (1 text)
Gilbert, p. 142, "The Letter that Never Came" (1 text)
ST Gil142 (Full)
Roud #4860
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Mountain Singers, "The Letter that Never Came" (Columbia 15580-D, 1930)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "The Letter That Never Came" (Supertone 9363, 1929)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "The Letter That Never Came" (Columbia 15179-D, 1927; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "No Letter in the Mail" (theme)
cf. "The Eight-Pound Bass" (tune and structure)
NOTES: Gilbert observes that this song, unlike almost all popular music, preserves the mystery to the end: We never do learn from whom the letter might have come.
For the story of Paul Dresser, see the notes to "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away." - RBW
File: Gil142
===
NAME: Letters of Love, The: see Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)
===
NAME: Letty Lee: see Young Kitty Lee (Letty Lee) (File: Pea605)
===
NAME: Levee Camp Holler
DESCRIPTION: "We git up in de mornin' so dog-gone soon, Cain'[t] see nothin' but de stars and moon. Um...." An enumeration of typical travails in a hard day behind a team of mules.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: poverty work hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 569, "Levee Camp Holler" (1 text (composite, from Lomax), 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 49-52, "Levee Camp 'Holler'" (1 text, obviously composite, 1 tune)
Roud #15580
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Roustabout Holler"
cf. "Steel Laying Holler"
File: BMRF569
===
NAME: Levee Moan (I'm Goin' Where Nobody Knows My Name)
DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' whe' nobody knows mah name, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd, I'm goin whe' nobody knows mah name." (x2) "I'm goin' whe' dey don't shovel no snow...." "I'm goin' whe' de chilly wind don't blow...." "Oh, baby, whe' you been so long...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: nonballad work
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, pp. 225-227, "Levee Moan" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES: This looks to me like a cross of "Goin' Down This Road Feelin' Bad" with "Chilly Winds" -- but I can't prove it. - RBW
File: San225
===
NAME: Lexington Murder, The: see The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)
===
NAME: Li'l Liza Jane
DESCRIPTION: "I've got a gal who loves me so, L'il Liza Jane, Way down south in Baltimore... Oh, Eliza, L'il Liza Jane." The singer loves Liza at first sight, and so "Now I've got me a mother-in-law," plus a house and children in Baltimore, and a home which he loves
AUTHOR: Countess Ada de Lachau
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage children
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 436, "Eliza Jane (I)" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 37, "L'il Liza Jane" (1 text)
Roud #825
RECORDINGS:
Al Bernard, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Vocalion 15638, 1927)
Harry C. Browne, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Columbia A2622, 1918)
Al Campbell & Henry Burr, "Liza Jane" (Columbia A2621, 1918)
Carter Bros. & Son, "Liza Jane" (OKeh 45202, 1928)
Taylor Flanagan & his Trio, "Li'l Liza Jane' (Brunswick 573, 1931; rec. 1930)
Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Victor 18394, 1917)
Louise Massey & the Westerners, "Lil Liza Jane" (Vocalion 05361, 1939)
Ollie Shepard & his Kentucky Boys, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Decca 7651, 1939)
Win Stracke, "Little Liza" (Mercury 5777, 1952)
NOTES: Hard to believe that this isn't a variant of one of the other Liza Jane songs. But there is no evidence that it is. - RBW
It's a composed song, published in 1906, from the show "Come Out of the Kitchen." - PJS
Which probably holds some sort of record for obscurity. I can't even determine if "Countess" is part of de Lachau's name (which I suspect of being a pseudonym), or if she really was a slumming member of some obscure branch of the nobility.My library contains no references to her, and an internet search turned up nothing of use except copies of the sheet music to this song. - RBW
File: FSWB037
===
NAME: Liam O Raofaille (Willy Reilly; The Virgin Widow)
DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: The singer and her Liam (Willie) are married on the island where they live, but as he rows the priest back to the mainland after the ceremony, the boat sinks and both are drowned. She is left a widow on her wedding night
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (recording, Sean 'Ac Donnca)
KEYWORDS: grief love virginity wedding death drowning ship foreignlanguage lament husband wife clergy
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Sean 'Ac Donnca, "Liam O Raofaille" (on TradIre01)
File: RcLiamOR
===
NAME: Liam OConnell's Hat
DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to Coolea "on a dancing expedition." After the dance and drinks his famous hat is missing. It had been worn by Brian Boru, Alfred the Great,... He searches all Ireland but, finally, a witch tells him it is in the Lake.
AUTHOR: "[Jimmy?] Crowley the tailor" (source: OCanainn)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink music humorous talltale witch clothes
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OCanainn, pp. 96-97,124, "Liam OConnell's Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The tall tale nature of this song is shown by the two kings mentioned. Alfred reigned in Wessex (southwestern England) from probably 871 to c. 899. Brian Boru was born a copule of generations later, and died at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Thus it is chronologically possible that the hat could have passed on -- but there was effectively no contact between Wessex and Ireland at this time. Unless the Vikings captured the hat from Wessex and carried it to Ireland. But what are the odds of it surviving that? (Even if you assume it survived everything else). - RBW
File: OCan096
===
NAME: Liar's Song, The: see Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)
===
NAME: Liberty for the Sailors
DESCRIPTION: "The Bellman's called it round the town, And far and near the news has flown; Each wife seeks out her last new gown, There's liberty for the sailors." The revels are told as "every lass will get her lad And every bairn will see its dad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: sailor home food drink party
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 188-189, "Liberty for the Sailors" (1 text, 1 tune); some additional words given on p. 198
DT, LIBSAILR*
Roud #3179
File: StoR188
===
NAME: Liberty Tree (I), The
DESCRIPTION: "Columbus, a man of great genius, Came from the European shore [to America where] Great God himself has created A place for the Liberty Tree." Great Britain jealously tried to clamp down on the Americas, but they remain a beacon of liberty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad America exploration
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 47-50, "The Liberty Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The phrase "The Liberty Tree" is probably inspired by a publication of Thomas Paine's, itself found as a song, though I don't know if it's traditional.
The piece in Thomas doesn't strike me as a real result of the folk process; it looks like one of those pieces certain teachers wrote to teach their students. - RBW
File: ThBa047
===
NAME: Lichtbob's Lassie, The: see Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)
===
NAME: Lie Low: see The Major and the Weaver [Laws Q10] (File: LQ10)
===
NAME: Life Boat, The
DESCRIPTION: "The life boat is comin', by the eye of faith I see, As she sweeps through the water to rescue you and me." The singer rejoices that the life boat will take him/her (and his/her companions) away from worldly sorrows and into heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 629, "The Life Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3405
File: R629
===
NAME: Life in a Prairie Shack
DESCRIPTION: The singer points out the difficulties of "life in a prairie shack." The tenderfoot can't handle the cold and rain, is thrown from his horse, and hits his toe with an axe. His conclusion: "This bloomin' country's a fraud, And I want to go home to my ma."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes injury mother
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fife-Cowboy/West 36, "Life in a Prairie Shack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 33, "Life in a Prairie Shack" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PRAIRSHK*
Roud #4472
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (tune)
File: FCW036
===
NAME: Life in California
DESCRIPTION: Singer leaves his family in Maine to seek California gold; he loses his money at cards and catches the "fever-n-ager." He asks for food, drink, lodging. Cho: "I'm a used-up man, a perfect used-up man/And if ever I get home again, I'll stay there if I can"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1853 (California Songster)
KEYWORDS: disease homesickness loneliness poverty home emigration separation travel mining cards death family
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1848 - gold found in Sutter's Mill, California.
1849 - multitudes of easterners emigrate west, hoping to "make their pile"
FOUND_IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Life in California" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Used-Up Man" (tune)
NOTES: Fever and ague: Malaria. - RBW
File: RcLiICal
===
NAME: Life Is a Toil: see The Housewife's Lament (File: FSC097)
===
NAME: Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad: see Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad) (File: DTlifera)
===
NAME: Life of Georgie, The: see Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)
===
NAME: Life on the Ocean Wave, A
DESCRIPTION: "A life on the ocean wave, a home on the rolling deep, Where the scattered waters roll And the winds their revels keep." The sailor thrills to the sea life, so much that he welcomes even the storms
AUTHOR: Words: Epes Sargent/Music: Henry Russell
EARLIEST_DATE: 1838 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 87-89, "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2033
File: SWMS087
===
NAME: Life Presents a Dismal Picture
DESCRIPTION: The physical and psychological woes of a family detailed. (The problems are usually sexual in nature, and the family may be very extended.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy family humorous nonballad scatological
FOUND_IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cray, pp. 114-116, "Life Presents a Dismal Picture" (2 texts, tune indicated)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 527-530, "Life Presents a Dismal Picture" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #10130
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
A Letter from Home
My Family Life
NOTES: Sung to the melodies of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" or "Scarlet Ribbons." - EC
File: EM114
===
NAME: Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)
DESCRIPTION: "Life is like a mountain railroad With an engineer that's brave; We must make the run successful." The listeners are warned, in railroad terms, of the difficulties in life, and promised that if they do well, they will be praised by God the superintendent
AUTHOR: Words: M. E. Abbey/Music: Charlie Tillmann
EARLIEST_DATE: 1893 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: religious railroading nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 611-618, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (1 text plus a text of "The Faithful Engineer", 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 15-16, "(Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (1 text, plus fragments of assorted parodies)
Silber-FSWB, p. 364, "Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad" (1 text)
DT, LIFERAIL
Roud #13933
RECORDINGS:
Allen & Hart, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (CYL: Edison [BA] 3441, n.d., prob. mid-1920s)
Allen Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (OKeh 45196, 1928; rec. 1927)
Blue Ridge Duo, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Edison 51498, 1925)
Curly Bradshaw [King of the Harmonica], "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Acme J-102, n.d.)
Calhoun Sacred Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 20543, 1927; Montgomery Ward M-4350, 1933)
Criterion Male Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Brunswick 2931, 1925; Supertone S-2120, c. 1930)
Sid Harkreader, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Broadway 8129, c. 1930)
Harper & Turner, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Supertone 9658, 1930)
Charles Harrison, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 19825, 1922)
Bradley Kincaid, "Life is Like a Mountain Railroad" (Bluebird B-8501, 1940; rec. 1934)
Fred Kirby, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Melotone [Canada] 45037, 1935)
Smilin' Ed McConnell "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 23823, 1933; Bluebird B-8194, 1939)
Montgomery Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Decca 146, 1934)
Pace Jubilee Singers, "Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad" (Victor 23350, 1932; rec. 1929)
Pickard Family, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Oriole 1934, 1930)
George Reneau, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 14811, 1924; Vocalion 5030, c. 1926)
Homer Rodeheaver, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 14339, 1922) (Columbia 165-D [as Rodeheaver and Asher], 1924)
John Seagle & Leonard Stokes, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 22060, 1929)
Oscar Seagle [baritone], "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia A3420, 1921)
Smith's Sacred Singers, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia 15159-D, 1927; Vocalion 02921, 1935)
Southern Railroad Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven' (Victor V-40002, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-8129, 1939; rec. 1928)
Mr. & Mrs. J. Douglas Swagerly, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (OKeh 40086, 1924)
Ernest Thompson, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia 158-D, 1924) (Diva 6003/Harmony 5096-H, 1930 [both as Jed Tompkins])
Frank Welling & John McGhee "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Champion 15971 [as Hutchens Bros.], 1930; Champion 45125, c. 1935)
Hermes Zimmerman, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 1018, 1926)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballad of the Braswell Boys" (tune)
cf. "Miner's Lifeguard" (tune)
cf. "Weaver's Life" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Ballad of the Braswell Boys (File: MN1048)
Miner's Lifeguard (File: BSoF730)
Weaver's Life (File: CSW090)
NOTES: The original [sheet music] publication also includes an alternate set of lyrics composed by Jack Penn, under the title "The Gospel Highway"; they seem not to have entered tradition. - PJS
The origin of this piece is looking more and more complicated the more I look at it. In previous editions of the Index, I noted a connection to "The Road to Heaven," which dates from probably 1854. Paul Stamler thought the notion of a railroad to heaven could occur independently. It almost doesn't matter; "The Road to Heaven" is among the earliest "spiritual railroad" songs, but Cohen in _Long Steel Rail_, pp. 597-603, notes many examples of the genre. There were certainly lots of forerunners to choose from, although only a handful went into tradition.
The interesting feature of this song is its relationship to "The Faithful Engineer," by Will S. Hays, published in 1886. This begins, "Life is like a crooked railroad, And the engineer is brave, Who can make a trip successful From the cradle to the grave."
The connection to this piece can hardly be denied, though the rest of the Hays poem is not quite so closely related.
So how did Abbey and Tillman get away with copyrighting this as an entirely new piece? I have no answer; neither has Cohen, though he speculates about intermediate versions. This seems likely enough, given how rapidly the song spread. Perhaps Abbey did not rewrite Hays, but rewrote some anonymous copy or rewrite of Hays. - RBW
File: DTlifera
===
NAME: Lifeboat, The
DESCRIPTION: "We're floating down the streams of time, We have not long to stay, The stormy clouds of darkness Is turned to brightest day. Oh let us all take courage... The lifeboat soon is coming To gather his jewels home." The joys of life with Jesus are outlined
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Chappell-FSRA 99, "The Lifeboat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ChFRA099 (Partial)
Roud #6629
NOTES: Roud lumps several "lifeboat" songs under this number, but one is a secular ballad, "The Little Clare Mary (Dailey's Lifeboat)." - RBW
File: ChFRA099
===
NAME: Lift Him Up That's All
DESCRIPTION: Jesus meets a woman at Jacob's well; she wonders at his being a Jew, but when she sees it is Jesus she runs to town: "Come and see a man who told me all that I have done." He asks her for water; she tries to hide her sins, speaking of "race pride."
AUTHOR: Washington Phillips
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Washington Phillips)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Jesus meets a woman at Jacob's well; she wonders at his being a Jew, but when she sees it is Jesus she runs into town saying, "Come and see a man who told me all that I have done." He asks her for some water, and she tries to hide her sins, speaking of "race pride." Ch.: "Lift him up, that's all/Lift him up in his word/If you tell the name of Jesus everywhere...He will draw men unto him."
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus Jew
FOUND_IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Washington Phillips, "Lift Him Up That's All" (Columbia 14277-D, 1927; on Babylon)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid and the Palmer" [Child 21] (subject)
cf. "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (subject)
cf. "See the Woman at the Well" (subject)
NOTES: For the story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, see John 4:5-26 - RBW
File: RcLHUTA
===
NAME: Light on Cape May, The
DESCRIPTION: As the ship sails on a pleasant sea, the lookout spots a light. The crew is given the good news that it is the Cape May light.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sea
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Doerflinger, p. 130, "The Light on Cape May" (1 text, 1 tune, the latter identified as "The Bigerlow" and taken from Sandburg)
DT, CAPEMAY*
Roud #9438
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bigler's Crew" [Laws D8] (tune, lyrics) and references there
NOTES: Doerflinger describes this as a "salt-water variant of... 'The Timber Schooner Bigler.'" - RBW
File: Doe130
===
NAME: Lightning Express, The: see Please, Mister Conductor (The Lightning Express) (File: R720)
===
NAME: Lights of London Town, The: see A Picture from Life's Other Side (File: R603)
===
NAME: 'Ligion So Sweet: see Religion So Sweet (File: LxA582)
===
NAME: Like an Owl in the Desert
DESCRIPTION: "Like an owl in the desert I weep, mourn and cry; If love should overtake me I surely would die." "I can love like a lawyer... I can love an old sweetheart Till a new one comes along." "I can love him and kiss him... And turn my back on him ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 304, "Like an Owl in the Desert" (1 text)
Roud #16860
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Br3304
===
NAME: Likes Likker Better Than Me (Brown-Eyed Boy)
DESCRIPTION: "Oh I'm in love with a brown-eyed boy And he's in love with me But he's in love with a whiskey jug...." Singer laments that her young man "likes likker better than me." She says she thinks of marrying him, but life's hard as a whiskey-drinker's wife.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Woodie Brothers)
KEYWORDS: love courting drink
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 75, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRWNEYED*
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (on NLCR01) (NLCR12)
Woodie Brothers, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (Victor 23579, 1931; on LostProv1)
NOTES: Pity we don't have the keywords "alcoholism" and "co-dependency." -PJS
File: CSW075
===
NAME: Likes Liquor Better than Me: see Likes Likker Better Than Me (Brown-Eyed Boy) (File: CSW075)
===
NAME: Lila Lee: see Lily Lee (File: R098)
===
NAME: Lilli Burlero: see Lilliburlero (File: FR286)
===
NAME: Lillian Brown
DESCRIPTION: "While the sun in his sinking beauty Was shining brightly in the West, A fair fortune maiden was thinking How soon she would meet her death." Lillian Brown, a Virginian boarding near West Durham Mill, takes poison and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: suicide
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1914 - Reported date of Lillian Brown's suicide
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 299, "Lillian Brown" (1 text)
ST BrII299 (Full)
Roud #6638
NOTES: This piece, only three stanzas long, gives no motivation for Ms. Brown's suicide, and the editors of Brown were not able to elucidate. - RBW
File: BrII299
===
NAME: Lilliburlero
DESCRIPTION: Two Irish Catholics congratulate one another on victory over the Protestants, and make nasty remarks about what they intend to do to them. The song was written by a Protestant Englishman, in a burlesque of Irish dialect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1688 (broadside, Bodleian (Wood 417(168)-Wood 417(172)))
KEYWORDS: hate Ireland humorous nonballad political dancing
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1685-1688 - Reign of James II (James VII of Scotland), the last Catholic king of Britain
1688 - Glorious Revolution overthrows James II in favour of his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband and first cousin William III of Orange
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 359-362, "Lilli Burlero" (1 text)
OLochlainn 36, "Lillibulero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 286, "Lilliburlero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge II, pp. 58-60, "Lilliburlero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 303, "Lilli Burlero" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 90-91, "Lilliburlero" (1 text)
DT, LILIBURL
ADDITIONAL:
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 441-443, 513, "Lillibulero"
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 178-179, "Lilli Burlero" (1 text)
Roud #3038
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, (Wood 417(168), A New Song [The first part of "Lill-li-burlero bullen a-la"] ("Ho brother Teague dost hear de decree") , unknown, [the date is illegible; see part 2];Wood 417(172), The second part of "Lill-li-burlero bullen a-la" ("There was an old prophesie found in a bogg") , unknown, "Printed in the Year 1688"); also Firth b.20(145), "A New Song" ("Ho brother Teague dost hear de decree"), unknown, see notes; Firth b.21(103), Harding B 5(33), A new song. Being a second part to the same tune of "Lillibullero" ("A treaty's on foot, look about English boys") (see notes for broadsides with a tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Overtures from Richmond" (tune)
cf. "There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
My Thing Is My Own (BBI ZN1181, DT THINGOWN)
Overtures from Richmond (File: SCW46)
Bumpers, Bumbers, Flowing Bumpers (File: CrPS094)
There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket (File: OO2544)
You that love mirth, give ear to my song/Teague and Sawney (BBI ZN3133)
The Martial drum no sooner did beat/The Couragious Soldiers of the West (BBI ZN1757)
I have been long in Custody here/The Chancellors Resolution (BBI ZN1282)
Come all ye Protestant Lads in the Land/The Protestants Delight, Or An Health to His Highness (BBI ZN515)
I'll sing ye a Song, if you'll pay me but for't/The Brandy-Bottle Plot (BBI ZN1357)
We came into brave Reading by Night/The Reading Skirmish (BBI ZN2745)
Protestant Boys, both valliant and stout/ Undaunted London-Derry (BBI ZN2262)
Protestant Boys, good tydings I bring/Dublin's Deliverance..Surrender of Drogheda (BBI ZN2263)
Protestant Boys now stand your Guard/The discovery of the New Plot (BBI ZN2264)
You that a fair maids heart would obtain/Faint Heart never won fair Lady: Or, Good Advice to Batchelors (BBI ZN3109)
Pray now attend and listen a while/The False-hearted Glover (BBI ZN2235)
The Protestant subjects of England rejoice/ ..Kingdom's Joy for the Proclaiming King William (BBI ZN2266)
I am a Lad that's come to the Town/West-Country Tom Tormented (BBI ZN1201)
Sound up the Trumpet, beat up the Drum/The Protestant Courage..of Valiant Sea-men (BBI ZN2391)
The coffee-house Trade is the best in the town/The City Cheat discovered (BBI ZN498)
Boys let us sing the Glory and Fame/Couragious Betty of Chick-Lane (BBI ZN427)
NOTES: The tune was used, under its own name, for an English country dance. A fragment of it is also played on the BBC World Service, 20 seconds before every hour. -PJS
Chappell/Wooldridge report of this piece, "The words have been variously ascribed to Lord Wharton and Lord Dorset, but probably neither was the author. The tune is a harpsichord lesson by Purcell, printed... in... Musick's Handmaid, two years before Tyrconnel's appointment as Lord Deputy." They quote Percy, "[The piece] was written, or at least re-published, on the Earl of Tyrconnel's going a second time to Ireland, in 1688. 'Lilliburlero' and 'Bullen-a-lah' are said to have been words of distinction used among the Irish Papists in their massacre of Protestants, in 1641."
The appointment of Tyrconnel is explicitly mentioned in the song:
Ho brother Teague, dost hear de decree...
Dat we shall have a new deputie...
Ho, by my Soul, it is a Talbot.
Talbot is Richard Talbot (1630-1691), Earl of Tyrconnel since 1685, appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1687. He proceeded to "reform" the Irish army by removing its Protestant officers and increasing its size. Catholics were appointed to other positions as well. The Protestants, naturally, panicked; "Lilliburlero" is one sign of this.
It is said that this song "whistled James II from his throne." (For background on this, see the notes to "The Vicar of Bray.") RBW
Broadside Bodleian Wood 417(168) has the tune.
Broadside Bodleian Firth b.20(145) has another tune and the annotation "Made upon ye Irish upon Tyrconnells goeing Deputy thither 25 Oct. 1688."
Sparling: "Generally attributed to Lord Wharton, but this has never been conclusively proved.... A copy printed in London, 1689, is in the British Museum." - BS
File: FR286
===
NAME: Lillie Shaw
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the crowd gathered to see his execution "for the murder of Lillie Shaw, Who I so cruelly murdered And her body shamefully (?) burned." He recalls the crime, sees his parents in the crowd, and hopes for forgiveness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Henry, from the singing of Sofia Hampton)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution punishment gallows-confession
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 55-56, "Lillie Shull" (1 text)
BrownII 308, "Lillie Shaw" (1 text)
Roud #4627
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pretty Fair Widow (Lillie Shaw)" (subject)
NOTES: Although there are two songs on this subject, and this one at least spread enough to be collected three times, no one seems to have found details on the fates of Lillie Shaw and Jim Wilcox/E. B. Preston.
Frank Proffit, who supplied the Warner ballad, claimed the murder took place in the 1880s in Mountain City, Tennessee. - RBW
File: BrII208
===
NAME: Lillie Shull: see Lillie Shaw (File: BrII208)
===
NAME: Lily Fair Damsel, A: see Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)
===
NAME: Lily Lee
DESCRIPTION: (Nathan Gray) sets out across the sea to gain the money to marry (Lily/Lilla) Lee. One night he dreams that Lily is dead. He returns home in fear, to find that she has indeed died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (LoC recording, David Rice)
KEYWORDS: separation love death travel
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 98, "Lily Lee" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 513-514, "Lily Lee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 98B)
ST R098 (Full)
Roud #3268
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Lovel" [Child 75]
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lila Lee
File: R098
===
NAME: Lily Munroe: see Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)
===
NAME: Lily of Arkansas, The: see The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)
===
NAME: Lily of the Lake
DESCRIPTION: Singer describes the beauties of Lake Champlain, then the beauty of fair Mary, who glides on its waters. He sits down by her, proposes to her; she accepts with a blinding smile -- "She is the lovely Mary, the Lily of the Lake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: courting love beauty
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Lily of the Lake" (on PeteSeeger29)
NOTES: This was only collected from tradition once, but it was from Yankee John Galusha, and that's good enough for me. - PJS
File: RcLotL
===
NAME: Lily of the West, The [Laws P29]
DESCRIPTION: The singer courts (Mary/Flora), only to see her courting another man. He stabs the other man to death. He is taken and sentenced, all the while saying that he loves the Lily of the West despite her betrayal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1839
KEYWORDS: homicide jealousy betrayal trial
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North,South,West) Ireland US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Laws P29, "The Lily of the West"
Belden, pp. 132-133, "The Lily of the West" (1 text plus reference to 1 more)
Randolph 145, "The Lily of the West" (3 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Eddy 49, "The Lily of the West" (2 texts, 1 tune)
BrownII 267, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, with little of the plot remaining)
Chappell-FSRA 113, "The Lily of the West" (1 fragment)
SharpAp 148, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 54, "Lily of the West" (2 texts, 1 tune)
SHenry H578, pp. 416-417, "Flora, The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 133-136, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 93, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 473-474, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 42, "Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 225, "Lily Of The West" (1 text)
DT 507, FLORAWST*
Roud #957
RECORDINGS:
W. Guy Bruce, "The Lily of the West" (on FolkVisions1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(104), "The Lily of the West," W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 b.9(276), 2806 c.15(122), 2806 b.11(137), Harding B 19(15), "The Lily of the West"
LOCSinging, as107800, "The Lily of the West," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as107780, sb20280a, as107790, "The Lily of the West"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(87a), "Flora The Lily of the West," Poet's Box? (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
SAME_TUNE:
Caroline Of Edinburgh Town (per broadsides Bodleian LOCSinging as107800, LOCSinging as107780, LOCSinging sb20280a)
NOTES: OLochlainn 93 ends happily: "I then did stand my trial, and boldly I did plead, A flaw was in my indictment found and that soon had me freed."
Broadside LOCSinging as107800: J. Andrews dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: LP29
===
NAME: Lily White Robe: see Little White Robe (File: RcLWRobe)
===
NAME: Lily-White Flower: see Wallflowers (File: HHH048d)
===
NAME: Limber Jim
DESCRIPTION: A long collocation of (often) floating verses, with recurrent themes of gambling, women, comparisons between black and white, "rebels," all in no apparent order, with a variable refrain including the words "Limber Jim" and the chorus response "Shiloh!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: gambling nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 593, "Limber Jim" (1 text)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 120-121, "(Shiloh)" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Went to the River (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Buckeye Jim"
File: BMRF593B
===
NAME: Limbo
DESCRIPTION: "Many thousands I've spent on Rachel and Ruth... Bridget and Pegs." A rich uncle gets the singer out of limbo prison; he'd "put you once more on your legs" if he'd settle down. He shows the girls his money. They try to get it from him; he turns them away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3214))
KEYWORDS: prison rake family money
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 124-125, "Once I Was Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan, pp. 304-307, "The Spendthrift clapt into Limbo" (1 text)
ST CrMa124 (Partial)
Roud #969
RECORDINGS:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3214), "The Rakes Complaint in Limbo," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (theme)
cf. "The Wild Boy" [Laws B20] (theme)
NOTES: Steve Gardham has this answer to my question as to whether there is/was a "Limbo Prison" (quoted with permission):
"No there was never a Limbo prison. The term applied to prisons evolved from the religious use of the word i.e. the medieval term for purgatory from Limbus Patrum. The leap isn't far from purgatory to prison if you think about it.
According to Partridge [_The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang_] the use of the word for a place of confinement dates from c1590. Partridge also gives other uses of the word:
a pawnshop c1690 to 1820,
female pudend 19thC,
bread- military late 19th century.
Roxburgh Ballads. Vol 8 p. 811 and Logan's _Pedlar's Pack_ p. 304 have plenty to say on Limbo songs." - BS
File: CrMa124
===
NAME: Lime Juice Tub, The: see The Limejuice Tub (File: MA140)
===
NAME: Lime Stone Water
DESCRIPTION: "Lime stone water and cedar wood, A kiss from you would do me good."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 232, (second of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
File: MHAp232B
===
NAME: Limejuice and Vinegar: see According to the Act (File: FaE042)
===
NAME: Limejuice Ship, The: see According to the Act (File: FaE042)
===
NAME: Limejuice Tub, The
DESCRIPTION: A sarcastic song about the ignorance of new chums just arrived in Australia. Recognized primarily by the chorus, "With a rowdem rowdem a rub a dub dub, We'll send you back (or "drive them back") to the limejuice tub."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: emigration humorous Australia
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 140, "Rub-a-dub-a-dub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 124-125, "The Limejuice Tub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, p. 108, "The Limejuice Tub (The Whalers' Rhyme)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 160-161, "The Limejuice Tub" (1 text plus a fragment possibly of this song)
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Lime Juice Tub" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd10)
NOTES: "Limejuice tubs" were British immigrant ships, so named after the lime juice used to prevent scurvy. (Ironically, the lime juice was usually lemon juice, but called "lime." A little propaganda to make it sound less sour, perhaps.) - RBW
File: MA140
===
NAME: Limerick is Beautiful (Colleen Bawn)
DESCRIPTION: The city of "Limerick is beautiful ... The girl I love ... lives in Garryowen, And is called the Colleen Bawn." If I were "Emperor of Russia ... Or Julius Caesar, or the Lord Lieutenant" I'd give up everything to have her be my bride.
AUTHOR: Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1860 (in play "The Colleen Bawn")
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad beauty Ireland courting rejection lover
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
O'Conor, p. 12, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text)
OLochlainn 72, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 23-24, "Coleen Bawn" (1 text)
Roud #3002
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Colleen Bawn (Limerick Is Beautiful)" (on Abbott1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(100), "Limerick is Beautiful", P Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; 2806 b.11(40), "Limerick is Beautiful"; also Harding B 26(101), "Colleen Bawn" ("Limerick is beautiful as every body knows")
LOCSinging, sb20290b, "Limerick is Beautiful!", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Varty" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Limerick is Beautiful (Rebel Version ) (DT, LIMBEAUT)
NOTES: Given how often most of the characters the singer envies were assassinated, I might be tempted to give up the job too. - RBW
Fowke notes that the song was included in Boucicault's play, and that he is therefore sometimes credited with authorship. A more literary version was penned by the Irish poet Michael Scanlan. - PJS
The song is from Dion Boucicault's play "The Colleen Bawn" which opened September 10, 1860 at the Adelphi Theatre, London [sources: Templeman Library University of Kent site "Richard Fawkes Dion Boucicault Collection" (gives attribution for "composer" as "Levey, R. M., Mr"; "The Adelphi Theatre 1806-1900" at Eastern Michigan University site for English Language and Literature).]
Broadside LOCSinging sb20290b includes the statement "Sung by Dan Bryant in the great Irish drama, the Colleen Bawn, at Wallack's Theatre, New-York."
"Garryowen (Garrai Eoin, 'the garden of Eoin') on the edge of the old city of Limerick Eoin is the older Irish form of the name John" (source: _Odds and Ends_ from May 26, 2001 online edition issue Limerick Leader site)
Broadside LOCSinging sb20290b: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OCon012
===
NAME: Limerick Rake, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer brags of being a rake; his fancy is young women. Rich men die "among nettles and stones"; he wants to be like wise Solomon with 1000 wives who will cry at his wake. when he goes to the tavern, he's welcomed "where Bacchus is sportin' with Venus."
AUTHOR: words: Unknown; music: attributed to Robert Thompson
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(71))
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer brags of being a rake; raised properly by his father and well educated, his main fancy is young women, whom he lists in great number -- he's in love with one from Arda. The money he spends on the girls causes his parents much chagrin. He says he's not inclined for riches; Rich men die "among nettles and stones" but he wants to be like wise Solomon with 1000 wives who, with their children, will cry at his wake. He will buy a cow that will never run dry, for riches won't last past the grave; when he goes to the tavern, he's welcomed "where Bacchus is sportin' with Venus." Macaronic refrain: "Agus fagaim id siud mar ata se"
KEYWORDS: courting sex bragging beauty money death Ireland foreignlanguage animal father rake humorous
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn 42, "The Limerick Rake" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LIMERAKE*
Roud #3018
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman, "The Limerick Rake" (on Barry-Gorman1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(71), "The Limrick Rake," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also Harding B 26(354), "The Limerick Rake"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Vive la Compagnie" (on Bacchus & Venus line, otherwise unrelated)
SAME_TUNE:
I'm Champion at Keeping 'Em Rolling (MacColl-Shuttle, p. 7)
NOTES: I believe the tune was used by Ewan MacColl for his song, "Champion at Keepin' 'em Rollin'"; Barry states that it was written by her grandfather, Robert Thompson, a famous piper. The Gaelic refrain translates as, "Leave it as it is," or, "Leave well enough alone." - PJS
The tune in fact has been much-used; recently, Ian Robb turned it into "Champion at Driving 'Em Crazy." The Digital Tradition, in fact, lists seven songs with this tune, though only one other, "The Pensioner's Complaint," has any any sort of traditional status. And it's listed as having two tunes, so it's not clear whether that affects Thompson's claim to authorship. We do note that he was unlikely to have been of "composing age" at the time the first broadsides were published. - RBW
File: DTlimera
===
NAME: Limerick Shanty, The
DESCRIPTION: Shanty or forebitter. Verses are in the form of limericks, and any limerick will do. Chorus: "Oh, the elephants walked around, and the band begins to play. And all the girls in Bombay town, were dressed in the rig of the day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sternvall's _Sang under Segel_)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Shanty or forebitter. Verses are in the form of limericks, and any limerick will do. Chorus: "Oh, the elephants walked around, and the band begins to play. And all the girls in Bombay town, were dressed in the rig of the day." The verses printed were fairly mild but one could easily see this turning into something like "The Good Ship Venus."
KEYWORDS: shanty humorous foc's'le wordplay
FOUND_IN: Sweden Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 511-513, "The Limerick Shanty" (1 text plus fragments, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hugill found this in _Sang under Segel,_ though he figures it was British in origin and was picked up by Swedish sailors, a practice which apparently was not unusual, given the number of English worded shanties sung on Scandinavian ships. One significant difference in practice however, is the use of many popular Victorian English "sea-songs." While these were sung ashore by British seamen, they rarely used at sea (and never as shanties), but the same songs were often sung at the capstan by Scandinavian and German sailors. - SL
File: Hugi511
===
NAME: Lincoln and Liberty
DESCRIPTION: From Lincoln's 1860 presidential campaign, to the tune of Rosin the Beau: "Hurrah for the choice of the nation! Our chieftain so brave and so true, We'll go for the great reformation, For Lincoln and Liberty too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1860
KEYWORDS: political derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1809 - Birth of Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky (hence the references to "the son of Kentucky")
1858 - Lincoln runs for Senator from Illinois against Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas won the election, but a series of debates between the two brought Lincoln to national attention
1860 - The Republicans, looking for a candidate who does not carry much baggage, nominate Lincoln for President. In a four-way race, Lincoln receives 40% of the popular votes and enough electoral votes to be elected President. The result is the Civil War
1864 - Lincoln re-elected President
1865 - Lincoln assassinated
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Sandburg, p. 167, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, p. 75, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 50, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 40-41, "Lincoln and Libery" (1 text, filed under "Old Rosin, the Beau"; tune referenced)
Darling-NAS, pp. 345-346, "Lincoln and Liberty, Too" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 292, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text)
DT, LINCLBRT*
Roud #6602
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Lincoln and Liberty" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A." (subject)
cf. "Adams and Liberty" (concept)
cf. "Jefferson and Liberty" (concept)
NOTES: I have seen several authors (F.A. Simkins, Jesse Hutchinson) listed as writing these words. I think the matter must be considered uncertain.
To explain the complicated situation behind it requires a lot of history. Assuming you want the background, bear with me if it's quite a few words before I even mention the name "Lincoln." For references cited, see the Bibliography at the end.
Most histories of the Civil War, quite properly, begin some time around the end of the Mexican War, because this is when the sectional conflicts over slavery started to really tear the country apart. But it wasn't sectional rivalry that elected Lincoln; it was party division. And that division was due largely to the fact that the parties of the mid-nineteenth century were still very fragile things.
It all really started with the War of 1812. This was, in some very real ways, almost a civil war as well as a foreign war. New England, with its economy built upon the sea, hated the war with Britain, even though it was the part of the country that suffered most of the insults inflicted by the British Navy.
The internal struggle in 1812 fell largely along party lines. The two factions which had existed since the passing of the Constitution were the Federalists, with a relatively strong concept of the power of the government, and the Jeffersonians ("Republicans," but not the same party as the current Repubican party) with a much more limited notion of government. And New England, which so opposed the war, was almost entirely Federalist in politics.
But the country was governed by the Republicans, based in the South and with little reliance upon trade at sea. They were the ones who declared the war-- and nearly destroyed the young nation in the process, since they utterly bungled both finances and military strategy. By the end, so bitter was the conflict that Federalist New England was holding an event called the "Hartford Convention" which at least considered withdrawing from the Union (see Hickey, pp. 270-281, with the results of the Convention itself occupying pp. 277-278).
But then the war ended. The Americans didn't win -- the two sides essentially called it all off on the basis of the status quo. The wreck of the government finances proved that the Federalists had in fact been mostly right. But Americans *felt* they had won -- and the Federalists were the party of the Hartford Convention, which in the wake of "victory" looked like near-treason. Plus the Jeffersonians had found themselves unable to manage the country on their strictly hands-off basis, and came to adopt more and more Federalist-type measures (Schlesinger, p. 19).
Between having little to distinguish it from the Republicans and having the stain of lack of loyalty, the Federalist party died (Hickey, p. 308) -- died so fast that, five years after the war, James Monroe was re-elected with 231 out of 232 electoral votes, and I've heard that it would have been 232 out of 232 except that a New Hampshire elector disliked Monroe (Schlesinger, p. 19) and felt that no President except George Washington should be elected unanimously (for the electoral vote breakdown, see e.g. the Hammond Atlas, p. U-58). There was a feeble attempt to form a "Tertium Quid," or third party, in the original Jefferson mold, but it failed completely (Schlesinger, pp. 20-21).
For a dozen years, there were no real political parties as such; everyone was a Republican of one stripe or another. Then Andrew Jackson was elected in 1828 (he had nearly won in 1824; he led the popular vote but did not have a majority of the electoral votes, and the House made John Quincy Adams president), and *he* roused opposition (see Holt, p. 17, etc.; Schlesinger, pp. 3-7, describes the near-panic in Washington as Jackson prepared to assume the presidency). Indeed, the opposition party which formed in the years after that came to be called Whigs because the British Whigs were generally the anti-Monarchy party, and American Whigs opposed "King Andrew."
The Democratic (Jacksonian) party was never as united as it is sometimes portrayed; there were always factions such as "barnburners," "hunkers," and "locofocos" within it (see, e.g., Schlesinger, p. 398), and it was always possible that they would split off. What held the party together was that the government, inefficient in most other ways, was very good at patronage (see the sweeping indictment of the "spoils system" in Nevins1847, pp. 173-181, which demonstrates how government offices were handed out based on favors, not competence). What kept the nation together was the fact that these were not truly widespread movements, if New York barnburners, say, tried to separate from the United States, they could not take a block of states with them. The most they could do was hijack the party.
A hijack of "the Democracy" might have happened had the opposition been weaker -- or stronger. But the Whigs never really managed to produce a coherent ideology either. They had some common opinions -- support for internal improvements, e.g. -- but on most other issues they had contradictions. For example, although theoretically the anti-war party (Jackson had been elected in part based on his wars against various Indian tribes, including the Creeks and Cherokees, and the Mexican War was started by Democrats), the only two Presidents the Whigs elected (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor) were both generals.
Meanwhile, the south's pro-slavery attitude was hardening. As late as 1830, there were still significant numbers of southerners who opposed slavery, or at least wanted to see it restricted. But then came Nat Turner's rising. The rising failed quickly, with the participants almost all killed (Vandiver, p. 5) -- but the brought home to southerners the truth that there *could* be a slave rebellion. Ever after, the great fear of southerners was another Santo Domingo.
There was also John C. Calhoun. Originally a strong nationalist with a desire for internal improvements, in the 1820s he started spending more time in his home of South Carolina, and he started beating the drums of sectionalism (Schlesinger, pp. 52-54). Later, for purely personal reasons, he came to resent the northern Democrats who had thwarted his presidential hopes and supported Martin Van Buren (Schlesinger, pp. 54-55, shows just how vicious Calhoun became in this vendetta). And he was so strong an intellect, and so widely respected, that his opinions swayed even those who did not agree with him.
He had also changed how leaders were selected: "With General Jackson, I put the Congressional caucus system under foot, but I did not expect to see this monstrous system of national conventions take its place" (Nevins1847, p. 194). National political conventions, and their platforms, have obviously survived, but at this time the rules were still fluid and the results highly unpredictable (Holt, p. 293) -- except for the certainty of pandering. There was a sense that "party dictation meant slavery" (Holt, p. 32), so the strongest leaders did little to bind the parties to themselves or themselves to the parties.
By the 1840s, the Whigs were discovering that they just didn't have any answers on the question of slavery. And that oh-so-Democratic war, the Mexican War, made the problem worse, because suddenly the United States gained a lot of southern land -- Texas, California, plus lands in between containing most of what is now Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and more -- that had to be opened to slavery or kept as free soil (Mexico, unlike the U.S., banned slavery categorically, though its peonage system looked very like slavery to some observers).
Theoretically, the problem shouldn't have arisen. President Polk, who started the Mexican war, had campaigned on the platform of annexing Texas *and* a large part of what is now western Canada ("Fifty four forty or fight!"). But, not wanting to fight two wars at once, he had compromised on the Oregon/Canada business, meaning that he brought in less clearly-free (that is, north of the 36 30' Missouri Compromise line) territory than expected -- but the Mexican War took over more southern territory. So Polk had supplied less free territory, and more slave territory, than anticipated. This led to charges of bad faith on the part of northwesterners (Nevins1847, p. 7).
The worst of it was that it potentially upset the balance of power in the Senate. California and New Mexico were thought to be mostly desert, which would always have small populations -- but they would have lots and lots of Senators (eight to ten, under the territorial arrangement envisioned at the time; Nevins1847, p. 21).
William Lowndes Yancey, who thirteen years later would be more responsible than anyone else for splitting the Union, made matters worse: His "Alabama Resolutions" called for repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to open all the territories to slavery (Nevins1847, p. 12). Already he was threatening secession if he didn't get what he wanted.
It's interesting to note that, at this time, few called the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional; it had passed by a margin of three to one, with no questions about its legality (Nevins1847, pp. 26-27). It had generally been agreed that Congress could legislate slavery in the Territories -- until that started to threaten the Peculiar Institution.
Ironically, it was a Democrat, David Wilmot, who introduced the Wilmot Proviso, intended to bar slavery from the territories captured in the War (Holt, p. 251); in this regard, it modelled itself on the great Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (Nevins1847, p. 9) -- something that, in theory, should have made it appeal to conservative Democrats. But it was anti-slavery Whigs who became devoted to it.
This proved an elaborate form of party suicide. The Whigs won the election of 1848 with Zachary Taylor as their candidate, but the process of electing him caused much damage to the party, which broke into "cotton Whigs" and "Conscience Whigs" (the latter basically pro-Wilmot Proviso and anti-slavery; Nevins1847, pp. 201-202). In 1850, the Whigs lost ground in congress. And then they had to pick a presidential candidate for 1852. It took them 53 ballots to nominate someone, and the division was almost entirely sectional (McPherson, p. 116). They finally set aside sitting president Millard Fillmore (who had alienated the Free Soil forces by enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law) to endorse Winfield Scott (Nevins1852, pp. 28-30). He was, in a way, a compromise, but after the nomination, many southern Whigs abandoned the party (McPherson, p. 118).
(Perhaps the best way to demonstrate the Whig confusion is simply to look at their election record. The Whigs contested five elections, those of 1836-1852. In their worst election, that of 1852, four states gave their electoral votes to the Whigs. All four of those states had voted Whig in every presidential election involving a Whig. The four states? Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Vermont; Hammond Atlas, pp. U-58, U-59. Since the latter two were among the strongest against slavery, and the former two were slave states, the problem is evident.)
Even as the Whigs were struggling over a nominee, Democrats were uniting behind Franklin Pierce. (The Democratic convention of 1852 would how chaotic the convention system could be: The convention was deadlocked after many ballots, with Cass and Buchanan the clear favorites. The Buchanan forces then tried a strange strategy of putting up what they thought were straw men, to be quickly defeated. The idea apparently was to convince Cass delegates that there was no other alternative -- only Buchanan could draw wide support. Instead, on ballot #49, the convention precipitated around Franklin Pierce; Nevins1857, pp. 18-20. Since Pierce was a handsome fool, it shows the problems of the time. Of course, the current system, in which the convention does nothing except use up a lot of fossil fuels ratifying what is already decided, is no better.)
Nevins1852, p. 32, notes great glee on the Democratic side: "the main reason for Democratic exuberance was that the party had patched up its slavery quarrels, while the Whigs had not." And, indeed, though Scott picked up a respectable vote total, the election was a blowout. Holt, p. 758, gives a table analyzing the election of that year; so bad was the rout that, in Alabama and Mississippi, the Whig percent of the vote dropped by more than half. It was "the most stunning defeat in the party's history" (Holt, p. 754). They won only 44% of the popular vote, and only 42 out of 296 electoral votes, against the vacuous Pierce. Their representation in congress fell dramatically, too -- the Democrats gained two-thirds of the seats in the House, and nearly two-thirds of the Senate (McPherson, p. 119).
No wonder that Alexander Stephens declared, "The Whig party is dead" (McPherson, p. 118). By 1854, even the corpse was collapsing; battered not only by slavery, but by an anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant backlash prompted in part by the Irish famines, and even by the temperance movement (McPherson, p. 135), splinters broke off in all directions. Holt, p. 838 says that the "congressional, state, and local elections between August 1854 and December 1855 were the most labyrinthine [and] chaotic... in all of American political history." They would be followed, two elections later, by the most labyrinthine presidential election.
Unfortunately, President Pierce was a failure. It's not that he was completely incompetent; had he beenin a position such as the Queen of England, who at this time had an important role in forming governments though she did not rule directly (similar to the President of Israel today, say), he might have done good work. What he could not do is formulate a policy. Nevins1852, p. 43, notes, "Pierce, taking up the reins of office in 1852, had a clear choice between two line of policy and unhesitantly took the weaker and more convenient." That is, he could have supported the Compromise of 1850 with all his might (or perhaps proposed a workable alternative) -- but instead he just tried to drift along. His cabinet was curious -- it was full of able men like Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and Secretary of State William L. Marcy, but they had no coherent policy; in effect, the Cabinet became a parliament of independent duchies rather than a government (Nevins1852, pp. 45-48). ÒAnd when a brilliant young Alcibiades grasped the leadership that Nicias did not exercise, Pierce had to fall in behind a chariot that was being driven headlong toward the ruin of the Administration" (Nevins1852, p. 44).
But at least the Democrats were still theoretically in charge, which allowed them to survive. By 1856, the prediction of Alexander Stephens was proved correct: the Whigs were dead (they held a convention of sorts in that year -- but instead of nominating a candidate, they simply endorsed Know-Nothing candidate Fillmore; RandallDonald, p. 104. It was their last act). With their party evaporated, former Whigs had to decide which way to go. Those who accepted slavery almost all turned Democratic. But northern Whigs founded a new party. It might have been called "Free Soil" (there was a "Free Soil" splinter party in 1852), or the "Liberty" party, or even "Wilmotite" party -- but the name they ended up with was "Republican."
The anti-immigrant Know-Nothings (who by now were calling themselves the "American" party) also started to fracture in 1856. Northern Know-Nothings nominated Nathaniel P. Banks (the Speaker of the divided House, and a future thoroughly inept Civil War general) even as the southerners nominated Millard Fillmore, and Banks then withdrew in favor of the Republican candidate John C. Fremont (who had gotten the job mostly because he carried no political baggage). In 1856, this split in the Know-Nothings helped the Democrats -- but in the longer term, it cemented the Republicans as the "other" party (McPherson, pp. 153-155).
The Republicans stood for a number of things -- e.g. most of them, as former Whigs, believed in a strong program of internal improvements. But they stood for one thing unequivocally: An absolute prohibition on slavery in the territories (Nevins1857, pp. 410-411; he claims this as the moderate position of Lincoln, as opposed to the more radical Seward, who considered the party's dominant idea to be "the equality of men before human tribunals and laws." Lincoln and the moderate Republicans wanted to fence in slavery so that it could not grow; the more radical wing of the part was for more or less immediate abolition).
Even the moderate position -- no slavery in the Territories -- was unacceptible in the South. It threatened slavery twice. It threatened it politically because, if all those territories became free states, they would eventually become numerous and populous enough to amend slavery out of the Constitution.
But the real threat, as some realized at the time, was economic. The southern economy was built around "King Cotton" -- and cotton ruined the soil. (This apart from the fact that mass cotton production meant the Southerners were falling into the economic trap of putting all their eggs in one raw material. The South, even as the planters built their mansions, was growing poorer in both absolute and relative terms. The planters were forever in debt, and there was no capital for the non-planters to build decent farms or anything else. Really, by 1860, the South was a colony of the British and New England textile mills; cf. Catton-Coming, p. 84; also McPherson, p. 95, which notes that there were more cotton spindles in Lowell, Massachussetts alone than in *all eleven future Confederate states combined*.)
Even had the South wanted to change -- and some did; the well-respected _DeBow's Review_, e.g., was always calling fore more industry (McPherson, p. 96) -- the economy was ill-structured for change. All the capital was absorbed in land and slaves (McPherson, p. 97; Vandiver, p. 4 says that slaves alone "represented no less than a third of the section's wealth"). But, somehow, the South failed to realize that they were turning their fate over to their perceived enemies. Cotton consumption was growing so fast that the South took to the golden treadmill (the same treadmill that today keeps Saudi Arabia what it is).
William H. Seward was not simply being an anti-slavery man when he wrote that southern territory consisted of "exhausted soil, old and decaying towns, wretchedly-neglected roads, and, in every respect, an absence of enterprise and improvement" (Foner, p. 41). The poverty of slave territory was clear to all who saw it.
Seward apparently thought this entirely a moral effect -- slavery causing the decay. Not really; it was the cotton itself. A sufficiently smart owner could mitigate this -- Edmund Ruffin, who would later fire the first shot at Fort Sumter, had shown that marl (consisting largely of old seashells, and rich in calcium and magnesium) could replenish soil fertility. It didn't matter. Most plantation owners were too foolish to engage in scientific farming (these are, after all, people who thought slaveholding a *desirable* state -- RandallDonald, p. 107, quotes Albert Gallatin Brown: "That slavery is a blessing to the masters is shown by simply contrasting a Southern gentleman with a Northern abolitionist. One is courageous, high-bred, and manly. The other is cowardly, low-flung, and sneaking." Nevins1859, p. 126, cites R. M. T. Hunter, "the very keystone of this arch [the Union] consists of the black marble cap of African slavery; knock that out, and the mighty fabric, with all that it upholds, topples and tumbles to its fall."). Since slavery ruined the land it was on, they saw the only way slavery could survive was if new land was opened to the slaveholders.
Catton argues that there was another reason why the South clung to slavery: It meant they could avoid the issue of what to do with the former slaves (Catton-Coming, pp. 85-86). Certainly it was a problem we're still struggling with; at the time, even liberals like Lincoln thought the best solution was sending the slaves to found colonies outside the U.S. Many states, north and south, refused to let free Blacks live there. It was a time when racism was so ingrained that no one questioned it. Foner, indeed, argues that many Republicans were not against slavery in the territories because they upposed slavery but because the Whites in the north wanted to make sure plantation culture didn't take over the land -- these Republicans wanted it for themselves, not for the plantation-owners (Foner, p. 61).
The decline of slavery had, in fact, already taken place in many slave states. Delaware in 1860 had a population roughly 20% Black -- but 19,723 of those Blacks were free and only 1798 slaves; the number of slaves had significantly *declined* in the last decade (RandallDonald, pp. 4-5), and by 1860 there were only 111 households left with five or more slaves (RandallDonald, p. 68). Maryland's Blacks were almost half free (Nevins1859, p. 488). Virginia still had plenty of slaves, but relatively few real plantations; to a significant extent, slavery persisted there to breed slaves for the cotton states (McPherson, p. 102).
But the truly ridiculous situation was Kansas. The state had fought a low-grade civil war for half a dozen years over the issue of slavery, and had (with some conniving from Missouri and Federal authories) tried to join the Union as a slave state -- but the 1860 census showed exactly *two* slaves resident in the region (RandallDonald, p. 99).
It didn't help that, in the decade of the 1850s, there had been all sorts of irritants between the regions -- California, Kansas/Nebraska, the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, John Brown, the filibusterers (southerners who took semi-private invading forces into places like Nicaragua or Cuba hoping to capture more territory for slavery), physical violence in the Senate (Senator Charles Sumner had made a speech attacking South Carolina's Andrew Butler. Butler's nephew Preston Brooks answered by entering the Senate and beating Sumner unconscious with his cane. Sumner needed four years to recover, but his state refused to replace him; Brooks was easily re-elected; Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 398).
None of these actually affected the electoral situation in the slightest, so I won't detail them. What mattered was that every one of them led to more distrust between South and North.
Plus people no longer trusted the Supreme Court. As early as the 1840s, during the debate over the Texas territories, there was an attempt (the "Clayton Compromise") to turn the whole issue over to the courts. This failed; too many people thought the courts unreliable. And then, right after the Election of 1856, came the infamous Dred Scott decision, in which the courts upheld the Southern position in almost every particular -- no compromise, and no limits on the right to slavery. The North was outraged. The reservoir of national goodwill built up since the end of the War of 1812 was completely used up.
You will sometimes hear people claim that secession was not about slavery; it was about States Rights. This is entirely false, as the above information clearly shows. But this does not mean States Rights was trivial. On the contrary, the belief in States Rights was what allowed the South to secede: They felt they were *entitled* to secede -- that each state was sovereign and had the right to leave the Union. The Constitution was, one might say, a treaty which might be revoked at any time, not a binding contract (cf. Nevins1859, pp. 329-331). The distinction is subtle but real: The South did not secede *in defence of* States Rights but *because they believe in* States Rights.)
It should be noted that this principle was never properly tested. The Constitution does not mention secession. The principle could have been taken to the Supreme Court -- e.g. President Buchanan could have sought an opinion on the matter when South Carolina pulled out. With a southern-dominated court led by Roger B. Taney of Dred Scott infamy, it is hard to guess how they might have ruled. But no one did so. The whole thing reminds me a lot of the Book of Judges: "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes" (21:25 and parallels).
This was the more so because the period had seen the passage of the last men who remembered the founding of the United States. Andrew Jackson died in 1845. John C. Calhoun followed in 1850, and Henry Clay and Daniel Webster in 1852. The leaders who had held the nation together for thirty years were all gone. So it was more or less accepted: If a Republican became President, the South would leave the Union.
In the place of the great leaders of the second generation there arose -- Stephen A. Douglas.
Catton- Coming, p. 6, sums up the man brilliantly: "Senator Douglas was a man about whom no one could be indifferent. He was either a remorseless scheming politician or a hero defending eternal truth, the appraisal depending partly on the observer's point of view and partly on what Douglas himself was up to at the moment. As a scheming politician he had opened the door for the great tempest in Kansas and now he was standing in the wind's path, defying the storm and those who had made it; a man who could miscalculate drastically but who would not under pressure run away from what he had done. Very few men either hated or admired him just a little. A passionate man himself, he evoked passion in others, in his friends and in his enemies."
Except for the Dred Scott decision, there was very little that happened in the 1850s that he had not influenced. First chosen for the Senate in 1847, he made a reputation for himself three years later. It was Henry Clay the Whig who put together the Compromise of 1850, but Clay was too old to put in the effort to push it through, and it was Douglas the Democrat who had gotten it passed (McPherson, p. 75; RandallDonald, p. 97). Yet, just a few years later, for reasons which eem completely inadequate, he in effect, ruined the Compromise -- and even the 1820 Missouri Compromite -- with his actions regarding Kansas (RandallDonald, pp. 94-95).
By 1858, he was the most important figure in the country, not excepting President Buchanan, but he was widely regarded as being in trouble in his run for re-election to the Senate (Nolan, p. 133). His attitudes had turned the administration against him to the extent that they tried to run another Democrat to make it a three-way contest (Nevins1857, p. 351), which would naturally have led to a Republican landslide. To this end, they were brutal to Douglas supporters in the state (Nevins1857, p. 372). In the view of Nevins, it made the 1858 Senate contest much more than an ordinary Senate race. Potentially it would decide the direction of the Democratic party -- and with it the nation.
Douglas managed to halt Buchanan insurgency (though naturally the administration never gave him any support), but found himself being trailed around the state by his Republican opponent Abraham Lincoln (Nolan, pp. 135-137). To stop the "stalking," he agree to a series of seven debates, organized by congressional districts.
Not all the debate were memorable or even particularly honest; Nevins1857, pp. 385-386, for instance, talks of the Charleston debate as almost a case of political trickery, and says that its "shadowboxing was unworthy of such men." But the Galesburg debate asked a question still worth asking today. Douglas, declaring Republicanism to be a sectional doctrine, declared that "no political creed is sound which cannot be proclaimed freely in every State of this Union." To which Lincoln wondered if the true test of the doctrine was whether people would not let it be proclaimed everywhere (Nevin1857, p. 387). This was the ultimate difference between the two: Lincoln had a much stronger belief in a higher law. Douglas held as his highest principle popular sovereignty: True democracy (as long as you were male and white and an American citizen and, probably, protestant); Nevins1857, p. 390.
The key was the second debate, at Freeport in northern Illinois. The Dred Scott decision, annulling the Missouri Compromise, allowed Lincoln to put Douglas on the spot: Was there *any* way the people of a territory could exclude slavery in the wake of the Supreme Court's action? Douglas, never one to dodge an issue, formally stated an opinion he had informally held for years (Nevins1857, p. 381). Now known as the Freeport Doctrine, his position was that the Federal government *could not* impose slavery on people, because they would simply not enforce it (Catton-Coming, p. 7; Current/Williams/Freidel, pp 402-403).
Historians -- most of them, of course, anti-slavery -- generally think that Lincoln won his "debates" with Douglas (McPherson, p. 187). Certainly it was the Republican party that distributed tens of thousands of copies (Nevins1859, p. 394).
But the debates and the Freeport Doctrine won "The Little Giant" re-election to the Senate -- just barely. RandallDonald, p. 120, implies that this was partly a result of out-of-date and perhaps gerrymandered district boundaries; Democratic parts of Illinois carried more legislative seats than they were due. (Recall that, at this time, Senators were elected by the state legislatures.) Nevins1857, pp. 396-398, says that Republican legislative candidates won125,275 votes; Douglas Democrats 121,090, with the Buchanan Democrats picking up a pitiful 5,071 votes. The map in Nevins1857, p. 397, shows county-by-county totals, with Lincoln taking every county north of roughly Peoria, Douglas winning all but three in the south (roughly below Effingham), and the east-central counties supporting Linoln while the west-central went mostly to Douglas. (It's an amazing map. Apart from those three Lincoln counties in the south, each candidate had one solid mass; there was no checkerboard border such as we usually see in sectional elections). McPherson, pp. 187-188, has Democrats winning 51 of 54 southern Illinois districts and Republicans winning 42 of 48 in the northern part of the state. It added up to a legislature that gave Douglas 54 votes for the Senate seat and Lincoln 46).
It was, however, a rather pyrrhic victory: Douglas had won Illinois -- but it was otherwise a devastating election for the Democrats.While Republicans had not won control of congress (resulting in a second many-month battle over who would be Speaker), they had become the largest party: 109 Republicans, 101 Democrats (only 32 of them from the north, down from 56 in 1856; McPherson, p. 188), 26 Know-Nothings, and one stubbornly self-declared Whig (Catton-Coming, p. 13).
What's more, the cracks in the Democratic party were showing. While it was still officially a unity, it was divided into two factions: The Douglas faction and the Administration faction which followed Buchanan (and his several southern advisors). And the South hated Douglas. Intent on States Rights when that meant slavery, Southerners would not accept States Rights when that meant free soil.
Administration supporters were known as "Lecompton men," after the Lecompton Constitution fraudulently foisted on Kansas. Nevins1857, p. 402, notes that "It was significant that nearly all Northern Congressmen who had supported the bill at the Directory's [i.e. the Administration's] behest had run pell-mell for cover as soon as they faced the voters.... Wherever Lecompton was a direct issue, the popular vote was decisive. In Buchanan's own State, for example, ten Lecompton Representative went down; two beaten for renomination, eight for election." Pandering to the South meant defeat in the north -- but failing to give in to the south meant the threat of secession.
Even churches were splitting over the issue; Vandiver, p. 10, notes the formation of the Methodist Church, South and the Southern Presbyterian Church in this period.
Ironically, the pro-Douglas, anti-Lecompton Democrats were not worried; Nevins1857, p. 403, notes "exultant as the Republicans were [after the 1858 elections], the popular sovereignty Democrats were happier still." They thought that their success would bring the rest of the Democratic party in line behind them. In fact, all they had won was gridlock: "A feeble president, the captive of a self-willed faction of his party, now repudiated by the North; a divided Congress which faced a certain deadlock on any important legislation; a Supreme Court discredited in half the nation [by the Dred Scott decision] -- such would be the government of the next two years" [Nevins1857, p. 404]. With the nation completely leaderless, is it any wonder that southern fire-eaters were maturing plans for secession?
Indeed, in some ways, the rebellion started even before the Civil War. Many Northerners had long resisted enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law (which, when you think about it, was largely an expression of the Freeport Doctrine. But no one -- not even Douglas -- seems to have looked at it that way).
The South was coming up with its own answer: In the good old days when everyone had wanted slavery to die out, North and South had agreed to pass a ban on further importation of African slaves; all future slaves would be the children of existing slaves. Now, with slavery regarded as a positive good rather than an evil to be tolerated, plantation owners wanted to re-start the importation of slaves. And there were plenty of vile sailors willing to do their bidding. Some slipped through the (obviously quite loose) blockade intended to prevent this. Some were caught by the American navy. But when brought to trial in the South, juries refused to convict them even when the slavers were clearly guilty of atrocities (Nevins1857, pp. 433-437). (There was also agitation to make the trade legal; it's hard to say which was more disgusting. But, of course, both inflamed anti-slavery sentiment in the North.)
President Buchanan also promoted an attempt to annex Cuba -- something Spain would never voluntarily allow; it was just another irritant to northern anti-slavery forces (since Cuba was already slave territory and would strengthen pro-slavery forces (Nevins1857, pp. 448-450).
And then came 1860, and its presidential election. Douglas was the great issue. He was too powerful to ignore and too hated to be generally acceptable. It showed in the run-up to the 1860 presidential conventions: Douglas was the only true candidate on the Democratic side (Catton-Coming, p. 6; Nevins1859, p. 209, notes that various anti-Douglas politicians supported vice president Breckinridge, or secretary Guthrie, or Senator Hunter, or even Andrew Johnson. Several of these men, ironically, would stay with the Union).
Even had they stayed united, the Democrats had other problems, as the election of 1856 had shown. It had looked like a blowout in the electoral college -- President Buchanan had earned 174 of 296 electoral votes, or 59%. But a glance at the actual results (see e.g. p. U-59 of the Hammond Atlas) shows a different picture: There had been three candidates: Buchanan, the Democrat; Fremont, the Republican; and Fillmore, the Know-Nothing (the Know-Nothings were technically called the American party. Which actually translated as the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic party). Buchanan had won only 45% of the popular vote (only 41% in the north, according to McPherson, p. 162), with Fremont taking 33% and Fillmore 22%. It was southern electoral votes which had put Buchanan in office, and Southerners, as it proved, would make sure Buchanan knew he owed them.
And the Republican party in 1856 was brand-new and had little national organization; only a few states had a significant apparatus. It had clearly grown stronger in the years since 1856, when a battle over the house speakership had forced its congressional delegation to cooperate (McPherson, p. 144).
Plus the election was followed by the Panic of 1857, which shattered the economy; the after-effects were still being felt in 1860. It was hardly Buchanan's fault -- Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 399, blame it mostly on a decline in demand for American products after the end of the Crimean War -- but of course Presidents and their party are always blamed for the state of the economy.
There was every expectation Republicans would improve their showing in 1860 (which incidentally pretty well ruined the idea of a split Democratic ticket: If no candidate won the electoral vote, resulting in the election going to the House of Representatives, the House would very likely elect the Republican. Indeed, Douglas himself declared that he would not allow such an outcome: "before it shall go into the House, I will throw it to Lincoln" -- CattonRoads, p. 232; Nevins1859, p. 285).
Then, too, there was the distribution of votes in 1856. Fremont has won New York, all of New England, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Only five free states -- California, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (which was Buchanan's home state) -- had gone for Buchanan. Already it was a sectional contest: Buchanan versus the Republican candidate Fremont in the north and against the Know-Nothing Fillmore in the south (McPherson, p. 157). The Democrats won only by taking all of the South and a little in the North. If they lost ground in either section, they were doomed.
And the electoral balance continued to tilt northward. Two states (Oregon and Minnesota) had joined the Union since 1856; the latter was almost certain to go Republican, and they had at least a chance for the former. In 1860, if the Republicans could hold the states they had won in 1856, win the two new states, and take Pennsylvania plus any one of the other Democratic states, they would have at least 152 out of 303 electoral votes and would elect a President. The Democrats, to win, had to somehow to come up with a candidate who would run strong in the Northeast or Midwest. Problem was, there were no Democrats, except Douglas, who seemed likely to run strong there (Catton-Coming, p. 9).
It's a situation really quite reminiscent of the early twenty-first century: Two parties dominated by extremists. The Democrats still had a chance -- a very good chance -- if they could keep their party united and their voters in line.
But who could they nominate? The incumbent, James Buchanan, had been nominated in 1856 mostly because he had been an ambassador and so was not burdened with baggage about Kansas (Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 398). But by 1860 he was obviously no longer free of that taint -- and was so worn and worthless that not even the Democrats seriously considered re-nominating him.
The leading man in the party was Senator Douglas, the man who had beaten Abraham Lincoln in that 1858 Illinois Senate Race. But -- Douglas had (rather gratuitiously) created the infamous Kansas/Nebraska conflict. And, to win that 1858 election, he had supported the doctrine of "Popular Sovereignty" (in simplest terms, that the local [white male] residents always decide about Slavery), and added the "Freeport Doctrine" (not a law, simply an opinion: That locals would always end up making the decision about slavery, because only locals were in a position to enforce the law. If they didn't like a law, it would be ignored).
The centrist who would be easiest to elect nationally was almost impossible for the reactionary Democrats to stomach.
Douglas faced other handicaps. He had, in 1856, stepped aside to open the door for Buchanan's candidacy, at significant financial cost to himself (Nevins1847, p. 175), but gratitude is rare in politics. The Buchanan administration hated him, and they dominated controlled several state delegations that might otherwise have gone for Douglas at least in part (Nevins1859, p. 211). The convention was held in Charleston -- a decision made four years earlier, when Democrats had seemed likely to dominate for years; this was before Dred Scott and John Brown. But Charleston was probably the most reactionary, anti-Douglas city in the country (Catton-Roads, p. 201)
The Democrats were supposed to nominate their candidate first; they were to meet in Charleston at the end of April 1860. But "[m]ost southern Democrats went to Charleston with one overriding goal: to destroy Douglas" (McPherson, p. 213). The southerners, according to Catton-Coming, p. 11, were clear: "There was going to be a showdown; once an for all the South would find out whether Northern Democrats would stand squarely with the South on true Constitutional principles [i.e. making people accept slavery whether they wanted it or not]. Both platform and candidate would have to be explicit; 'there must be no Douglas dodges -- no double constructions -- no janus-faced lyring resolutions -- no double-tongued and doubly damned trifling with the people.'" It was an attitude which hardly encouraged compromise.
The Southerners at least made this brutally clear, offering this plarform language: "Resolved... First, that Congress has no power to abolish slavery in the Territories. Second, that the Territorial Legislature has no power to abolish slavery in any Territory, nor to prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor any power to exclude slavery therefrom, nor any right to destroy or impair the right of property in slaves by any legislation whatever" (Catton-Coming, p. 30; Nevins1859, p. 214, comments that, by the day before the platform was due, "everyone agreed that the platform committee must bring forward either a subterfuge or a bombshell")
Their choice was the bombshell. The platform committee had been stacked with anti-Douglas delegates, determined to produce a platform he couldn't accept (Nevins1859, p. 213; Catton-Roads, p. 203), and a majority of the committee adopted the southern position, with a vocal minority producing a more moderate document (Nevins1859, pp. 214-215). When the southern version of the platform was brought up, the Northern Democrats in effect said, "We've been suffering because of you for years, and now you want *this*?" (Catton-Coming, p. 32). The result was pandemonium, halted only be adjourning the day's session (Catton-Coming, p. 33; Nevins1859, p. 217).
When the delegates finally came back together, they rejected the proposed slavery-or-else language 165 to 138 (Catton-Coming, p. 34). This was no surprise; there were more northern than southern delegates. But the southerners were ready -- or had backed themselves into a corner. The delegations from the cotton states walked out (Catton-Coming, p. 34). Formally, the southern states were still part of the U.S. But they had, for practical purposes, already seceeded. According to Catton-Roads, p. 204, they were not committed to seccession; their goal was simply to get rid of Douglas. If he were gone, they were willing to come back on more moderate terms. But the Douglas supporters, thinking only a few delegates would withdraw, refused to give in at this time.
The seceeders totalled only about fifty delegates (Catton-Coming, 36). The convention tried to continue. But, it was ruled, any resolution must get a majority (for some sorts of motions, a two-thirds majority) of all delegates, including those who had walked out (Catton-Coming, p. 36). It wasn't going to happen. There were 303 total delegates, of whom 253 (give or take a few) were still in the convention. 202 were needed to nominate a candidate -- 80% of those still present. Six candidates were nominated: Douglas; former treasury secretary James Guthrie; Senator R.M.T. Hunter; Daniel S. Dickinson; Andrew Johnson; and Joseph Lane (Nevins1859, p. 222). Douglas on the first ballot earned 145.5. His best total was 152.5, and that only briefly. Thus he barely reached even 50% of total delegates, and never came close to two-thirds. But no other candidate was even close to him; on the first ballot, Hunter had 42, Guthrie 36 and a half, and the others less. Nor could anti-Douglas forces come together; the leading alternative, Guthrie, peaked at 64 and a half. After nearly sixty ballots, the convention gave up (Catton-Coming, pp. 37, 39). There would be no nomination at this time. It was decided to reconvene six weeks later (Catton-Coming, p. 39).
The Republicans, whose convention followed, were thrilled. Nevins1859 reports that the convention chairman's gavel was "made of oak from Commodore Perry's flagship at the Battle of Lake Erie" (for background on which, see the notes to "James Bird" [Laws A5]). The chairman, noting this, declared, "All the auguries are that we shall meet the enemy and they shall be ours." It seemed pretty clear a Republican could win the Presidency -- as long as they convention produced a candidate who didn't alienate any segment of the North. That same arithmetic that said they needed to add only Pennsylvania plus one other state to their tally in order to win the presidency also meant that they could not spare many northern states -- e.g. the loss of New York would effectively doom them (Catton-Roads, p. 219). So they had to pick a candidate who wouldn't alienate any of their potential supporters.
(How sectional were the Republicans? Apart from what Nevins1859, p. 251, calls a "flagrantly bogus" Texas delegation, only five slave states -- Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Virginia -- were even represented at their convention; Catton-Coming, p. 51. Note that four of the five would stay in the Union, and the fifth, Virginia, would have West Virginia secede when the rest of the state went South. There were no representatives of the cotton-growing areas at all. And the only one of those five states they had any hope of winning was Missouri, and that only because of Saint Louis.)
So the Republicans gathered, in effect, to seek a dark horse who didn't have any record for people to run against. And they were meeting in Chicago, Illinois. William H. Seward was their leading man, but he had spoken of the "Irrepressible Conflict," and he was just a little too prominent. The largest block in the Republican convention supported him. The rest, almost to a man, were "anyone but Seward" types. On the first ballot, Seward had 173.5 votes (out of 233 needed to nominate), favorite son Lincoln 102, and there were rather more than a hundred scattered votes.
The Lincoln team had worked hard. They were everyone's second choice. On the second ballot, it was Seward 184.5, Lincoln 181. The third ballot saw Lincoln at 231.5, and several delegates then changed their votes and Lincoln was over the top. (Catton-Coming, p. 63).
Then it was the Democratic turn to try again. And fail again. They met in Baltimore in mid-June -- and found themselves in a fight over credentials; there were now multiple delegations (pro- and anti-Douglas) from some of the states (Catton-Coming, pp. 69-74). Douglas himself had stated in writing that he woul withdraw from the race if it would help (Nevis1859, p. 270). His followers never even revealed the letters, because they saw no signs that the Southern delegates would compromise.
Once again there was a walkout. The rump, naturally, nominated Douglas -- but of course many Democrats did not consider him "their" candidate. Indeed, right there in Baltimore, supported by a meeting in Richmond, the seceders nominated Buchanan's vice president John C. Breckinridge, and he was nominated on the first ballot among those in this small meeting (Catton-Coming, p. 77 -- a rather amazing outcome for this conservative bunch, since Breckinridge was not yet forty). The Democratic party was split, just as the Whigs had two elections earlier. It would be oversimplified to say that Douglas was the northern Democrat and Breckinridge the Southern (as the election proved, Douglas earned votes everywhere) -- but still, there were two Democratic candidates, and that was the general feeling (though Breckinrige, unlike most of his followers, was not committed to secession if he lost -- he was, after all, the vice president!). And, with the situation so messy, a fourth candidate, John Bell, was thrown into the game.
Bell was a last-minute draft, called in in response to the Democratic debacle. But so severe was the train wreck that he was technically was the first candidate nominated. On May 9, after the Democratic failure in Charleston but before the Republicans met in Chicago, a group of (mostly) doddering elders (McPherson, p. 221, reports that "few... were under sixty years of age) representing 24 states met in Baltimore with the express purpose of preserving the Union.
Their leading light was Kentuckian John J. Crittenden, who would later offer the "Crittenden Compromise" (and who had sons who were generals on both sides in the war). But he took himself out of the running on the grounds that he was too old. That left Bell and Texas's Sam Houston as the only significant contenders. Bell earned some two-thirds of the votes (Nevins-1859, pp. 161-162).
Calling themselves the "Constitutional Union" party, they nominated Edward Everett as Bell's running mate, passed a platform standing for Union, the Constitution, enforcement of laws (plus, presumably, motherhood and apple pie), refusing even to mention the word "Slavery" (Catton-Coming, pp. 47-48) -- though Bell himself was a slaveholder (McPherson, p. 221).
Bell had had a distinguished career -- Speaker of the House in 1834, Secretary of War under Harrison, many years in the Senate. An independent thinker, he had opposed the pro-Slavery extremists on many occasions, so he could be called a genuine moderate (Nevins1859, pp. 272-273). He would even have praise for Lincoln, saying that the congressman from Illinois had impressed him (Nevins1859, p. 275)
Distinguished or not, balanced or not, Bell's nomination was a forlorn attempt to find middle ground where there was none. And even though it happened before the Democrats finally split, it was largely in response to the Democratic disaster. (So most of the sources, anyway, though they also represented an attempt by the several dying parties to revive; RandallDonald, p. 131, considers them to be the last gasp of the Know-Nothings. Catton-Roads, p. 230, agrees in part, calling the party "Conservative in tone, largely old-line Whig and displaced Know-Nothing in composition, staffed principally by respectable, elderly citizens whose only formula for solving the sectional problem was to stop talking about it." McPherson, p. 221, considers it to be a remnant of the Whigs. Nevins1859, like Catton, thinks it included both Whigs and Know-Nothings; p. 161.)
In practice, not even the Constitutional Unionists could avoid the slavery issue; apparently a number of their supports in the south promised a slave code for the territories. That cost them whatever support they might have had in the North. They ended up winning only 3% of the vote in northern states (McPherson, p. 222).
The election which followed was hardly a legitimate example of taking the issues to the voters. Of the four candidates, only Douglas really went out and campaigned (Catton-Coming, p. 100). Bell was less a candidate than a platform which people could accept or reject; his supporters' primary campaign technique was to ring bells (Catton-Roads, p. 231).
Lincoln was the quietest of all, staying at home and explicitly refusing to make campaign statements on the grouns that his opinions were well-known (Nevins1859, pp. 277-278. Doesn't that sort of campaign sound heavenly today?). The Republican organizantion did produce a campaign newsletter, _The Railsplitter_, but it did little except print falsehoods about Douglas (Catton-Coming, p. 92). What little the voters knew (apart from those who read the many speeches Lincoln had given earlier, and which were the basis for his statement that his views were known) came from parades (staged by Republican "Wide Awakes" and Douglasite "Minutemen"; Catton-Roads, p. 231) and word of mouth and songs such as this one and the much more negative "Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A."
The Bell campaign was the weakest in this department; as Nevins1859, p. 281, comments, "The conservative businessmen and planters who ought to have toiled amain for Bell were just the most prone to indifference and apathy. They would vote, but they would not take off their coats and go to work." Plus, of course, such well-known and venerable men as Bell and Everett had long "paper trails," and opponents could almost always dig up something to make them appear "unsound" on some issue or another.
Breckinridge to a large extent relied upon the Democratic machinery governened by the White House; president Buchanan hated Douglas, and so gave all possible aid to Breckinridge (Nevins1859, p. 284).
Indeed, the administration contributed greatly to the debacle which followed. President Buchanan's hate of Douglas, combined with a pro-southern attitude and a fatal weakness (he is regarded by many historians as the worst president in American history. And, yes, liberal folkies, that includes George W. Bush in the calculations) meant that he did absolutely nothing to try to control the nation's divisions or to try to bring together the anti-Lincoln forces (Nevins1859, pp. 289-290).
We should perhaps not blame Buchanan too much; Nevins1847, pp. 186-187, notes that "For twenty-five years after Jackson left the White House, no man of high abilities entered it. What was more, the country knew that no man of high abilities occupied it." The parties did not want great men; they were bound to alienate one or another faction. Polk, who served from 1845 to 1849, was at least forceful, but Zachary Taylor (1849-1850) was too inexperienced and died too soon; Millard Fillmore (1850-1853) was a non-entity, Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) quite literally a pretty face, and Buchanan (1857-1861) got the job as the only Democrat who didn't have a track record on Kansas!
Nevins1847, pp. 188, sums up the situation this way: "With a clumsily managed, hopelessly divided Congress and a series of weak chief magistrates, the country watched the national crisis grow to a point where evenstrong leadership could not control it. In 1860 all three parties selected strong men. Douglas, Breckinridge, and Lincoln were alike leaders of intellectual power and stalwart character. At last the country was certain of a President of statesmanlike parts -- but it was too late."
There were side issues: excessive corruption in the Buchanan administration, Pacific railroads, the need for a Homested Act, tariffs (Nevins1859, p. 301, 304-305). The Republicans, stung by Democratic charges that they were in favor of Black equality, used these issues in some areas. (To show the tenor of the times -- there was a ballot initiative in New York at this time to give Blacks the vote. New York voted 54% for Lincoln -- but only 37% of the citizens of the state supported the ballot proposal; McPherson, p. 225.) But in the South in particular, the issue was slavery. And, indeed, the Republicans had made it clear that it would be; at the Chicago convention, when someone had nominated David Wilmot (of the Wilmot Proviso, banning slavery in the territories) to be temporary chairman, the proposal was greeted by "a tempest of applause" (Nevins1859, p. 251).
Not even the presence of an official (but extremely minor) Abolitionist candidate, Gerrit Smith, could cover up the fact that Republicans were the party of controlling slavery (just as Breckinridge was the candidate of appeasing the South). Nor did the false rumors of slave revolts change anything (Nevins1847, p. 307) -- after all, no one in the South intended to vote for Lincoln anyway!
All four candidates, ironically, seem to have thought that they were the only one who could save the Union. Breckinridge wanted to save it by giving in to the South. Bell wanted to save it by pretending there was no problem. And the Republicans believed in standing firm -- in effect, telling the South that they had cried wolf too many times.
That was indeed the South's problem; they *had* cried seccession every election since 1848 (Catton-Coming, pp. 96-97), and the Republicans thought it was just noise. But, in fact, every previous cry for seccession had won some sort of compromise. Now, compromises there were none. The forces opposed to the Republicans couldn't even compromise on a candidate; Catton-Roads, p. 231 and Nevins1859, pp. 283-285 report that there were a few abortive attempts to combine the Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas tickets, but the Douglas camp insisted (almost certainly correctly) that only he could win anything in the North, so nothing came of that. And, as noted above, Douglas was unequivocally opposed to having the election settled in the House.
Douglas -- alone among the candidates -- actually wanted to address the issues. (No wonder he didn't win. In addition, he found it very difficult to raise funds, crimping his campaign activities; Nevins1859, p. 292.) He knew the Southerners were serious; he just felt they were dead wrong -- and told them so to their faces: The election of Lincoln was not grounds for secession, and if they did seceed, he declared, "it is the duty of the President of the United States and all others in authority under him to enforce the laws of the United States.... In other words, I think the President of the United States... should treat all attempts to break up the Union by resistance to its laws as Old Hickory treated the Nullifiers in 1832" (Nevins1859, p. 294).
Elections at this time were conducted over an extended period; Pennsylvania and Indiana voted before the rest of the North. When Pennsylvania went Republican, a number of papers in other states changed their attitudes, turning from Douglas to Lincoln or, in a few cases, Breckinridge (Nevins1859, p. 311). Douglas declared, "Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save the Union. I will go south" (Nevins1859, p. 295).
Douglas was dead right. There had been four-way elections before, in 1824, 1832, and 1836 (in 1836, in fact, five different candidates won states. 1832 and 1836 were cases of parties in effect nominating local candidates, but 1824 had four national candidates). But none was like this: Those had been about the person the public wanted as a leader. This was about the very nature of the United States, with each candidate standing for something very different. The bottom line of the 1860 election was straightforward:
* Lincoln: 40% of the popular vote, 180 electoral votes (Lincoln won California, Oregon, Minnesota, Iowa, plus all states north of the Ohio River except New Jersey, where he won four of seven electoral votes)
* Douglas: 29%, 12 electoral votes (9 from Missouri, 3 from New Jersey)
* Breckinridge, 18%, 72 electoral votes (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas)
* Bell, 13%, 39 electoral votes (Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, which at that time still included West Virginia)
The actual results weren't nearly as simple as the above would imply. Lincoln wasn't even a serious candidate in the southern states (Nevins1859, p. 312; Foote, p. 34, says that he earned no votes at all in five states; RandallDonald, p. 133, says he had no votes in ten of them. The footnote on that page shows that there is some uncertainty about the vote totals; McPherson, p. 223, says simply that the Republicans were not on the ballot in ten states. In the handful of slave states where Lincoln was on the ballot, they earned only 4% of the vote,with most of those from Saint Louis). Breckinridge had hardly more support in the northwest (e.g.he combined to only about 4500 votes in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa combined; Nevins1859, p. 313), though in total about a quarter of his votes came from free states (Catton-Coming, p. 113).
A look at the map in McPherson, p. 236, reveals an even more complicated situation. It shows the winners of the popular vote county-by-county. Only eight states had the same winner in every county: Connecticut, Maine (probably), Massachussetts New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont went for Lincoln, and Delaware and South Carolina went for Breckinridge (the latter meaning nothing, since onservative South Carolina didn't even conduct a popular vote in this period). The other states were split -- basically between Lincoln and Douglas in northern states, and between Bell and Breckinrige in the south, but several states divided three ways: In California and Oregon, various counties went for Lincoln, Douglas, and Breckinridge (the Breckinridge vote in the western states was just large enough to deny Douglas a win there); in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia we see different parts supporting Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas.
Missouri takes the prize. The state as a whole went for Douglas, but in terms of territory it was almost a perfect three-way split between Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas, with Lincoln actually winning Saint Louis and one other county. (Missouri had earlier been the first Slave state to elect a Repubican representative; Nevins1859, p. 300. He would be very lonely.)
Looking at sectional totals, Lincoln won 54% of the votie in the North, while in the South (not counting the border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia), Breckinridge won 45% of the vote and Bell 39% (MacPherson, p. 232) -- an interesting statistic, because it means that even in the South, the majority was still in favor of the Union. But the pro-Union group was a small majority, fragile and easily swayed. And in the deep South, Breckinridge had absolute majorities in most cases, though not in Georgia and Lousiana (Catton-Roads, p. 245).
Sliced one more way: Lincoln won more than 60% of the vote, and all but about two dozen counties, north of the 41st parallel (McPherson, p. 232) -- in other words, all points from a line passing south of Chicago, north of Pittsburg and Philadelphia, and just northof New York City. From that line to the Ohio River was won by Douglas (including, ironically, even Lincon's home county -- CattonComing, p. 110). Bell won from the Ohio River to roughly a line from Memphis, Tennessee to Norfolk, Virginia. And Breckinridge won south of the Memphis-Norfolk line. The United States had had elections divided by sectional interests before, and would have them again (just look at the 2004 electoral map) -- but never such a tiger-stripe based almost solely on north-south geography. It was, indeed, almost a tiger-scratch, ripping the nation apart.
To put that level of complication in another sort of a perspective: this was an election that could have had at least three different winners based on voting method. Lincoln won a plurality of the vote. He also won the Roman voting system vote (a.k.a. the Electoral College: Voting goes by tribes/states, with the winner of voting *within* the tribe earning all the tribe's votes). But if the current notion of Instant Runoff Voting had been in place, Douglas would probably have won. And if the other primary ranked voting method (assigned points, which is the voting method used by the Mathematical Association of America) had been used, my guess is that Bell would have won.
Some Democrats had hoped that, somehow, the three non-Lincoln candidates could combine to win an electoral majority, and a compromise could be worked out in the House. As it turned out, if Lincoln won a plurality in a state, he almost always won a majority; of the states he won, there were only three (California, Oregon, and New Jersey) where he did not win more votes than Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas combined. (MacPherson, p. 232) The states he won outright had a total of 169 electoral votes, or 17 more than a majority. Nevins1859, p. 312, notes, "Had Douglas been nominated at Charleston, Lincoln might well -- in view of the different trend which the campaign would have taken -- have lost." But Charleston had not nominated Douglas.
Two things were clear. One was that the country opposed the Southern doctrine that Slavery could be imposed on territories even if they didn't want it. Two-thirds of the population had voted either for Lincoln, who expressly opposed Slavery in the territories, or Douglas, who would allow its implicit limitation (Nevins1859, p. 316)
The other point was even clearer: Lincoln, despite the split in the vote, had won the election. And, as a special extra prize, secession and civil war.
The song is mostly accurate in its details about Lincoln's life -- e.g. the lines "They'll find what by felling and mauling, Our railmaker statesman can do" is reminiscent of Lincoln's own words: "I am not ashamed to confess that twenty five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flat-boat..." (McPherson, p. 28). Though this omits the fact that Lincoln, since then, had worked almost exclusively as a lawyer.
The song calls Lincoln "The pride of the Suckers so lucky." "Suckers" were inhabitants of Illinois. He was hardly their "pride," though, considering that he had won only one term in congress, and lost the 1858 Senate race. In 1860, Illinois hardly looked like the "Land of Lincoln." On the evidence, it was the "Land of Douglas." Until that November.
>>*BIBLIOGRAPHY*<<
In writing this summary, apart from looking up odd facts in Boatner's _Civil War Dictionary_, I have cited the following:
Catton-Coming: Bruce Catton, _The Coming Fury_, being volume I of _The Centennial History of the Civil War_(Pocket, 1961, 1967)
Catton-Roads: William & Bruce Catton, _Two Roads to Sumter: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and the March to Civil War_ (Phoenix, 1963, 1988)
Current/Williams/Freidel, Richard N. Current, T. Harry Williams, Frank Freidel, _American History: A Survey_, second edition, Knopf, 1966
Foner: Eric Foner, _Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War_ (Oxford, 1970)
Foote: Shelby Foote, _The Civil War: A Narrative_ (Volume I: Fort Sumter to Perryville) (Random House, 1958)
Hammond Atlas: (no author listed), _The Atlas of United States History_ (Hammond; I'm using the edition copyrighted 1977 though I imagine there have been others)
Hickey: Donald R. Hickey, _The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict_ (University of Illinois Press, 1989, 1995)
Holt: Michael F. Holt, _The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War_ (Oxford, 1999; I could probably have written this entire article based on this 1248 page tome, but it's so thick,I can't find references even just a few days after I read them!)
McPherson: James M. McPherson, _The Battle Cry of Freedom_ (The Oxford History of the United States: The Civil War Era; Oxford, 1988)
Nevins1847: Allan Nevins, _The Ordeal of the Union: Fruits of Manifest Destiny 1847-1852_ [volume I of _The Ordeal of the Union_] (Scribners, 1947)
Nevins1857: Allan Nevins, _The Emergence of Lincoln:Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos 1857-1859_ [volume III of _The Ordeal of the Union_] (Scribners, 1950)
Nevins1859: Allan Nevins, _The Emergence of Lincoln: Prologue to Civil War 1859-1861_ [volume IV of _The Ordeal of the Union_] (Scribners, 1950)
Nolan: Jeannette Covert Nolan, _The Little Giant: Stephen A. Douglas_ (Messner, 1964)
RandallDonald: J. G. Randall (second edition revised by David Donald), _The Civil War and Reconstruction_, second edition (Heath, 1961)
Schlesinger: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., _The Age of Jackson_, Little Brown, 1945
Vandiver: Frank E. Vandiver, _Their Tattered Flags: The Epic of the Confederacy_ (Harper's, 1970) - RBW
File: San167
===
NAME: Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A.
DESCRIPTION: "There's an old plow 'hoss' whose name is 'Dug,' Doo-dah, doo-dah, He's short and thick, a regular plug... We're bound to work all night... I'll bet my money on the 'Lincoln Hoss,' Who bets on Stephen A.?" Douglas's political problems are parodied
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: political parody nonballad animal
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1847 - Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) of Illinois elected Senator
1854 - In response to the Kansas slavery question, Douglas proposes "popular sovereignty"
1858 - Abraham Lincoln runs for Senator from Illinois against Douglas. Douglas wins the election, but is forced to declare moderate positions that cause extremists on both sides of the slavery question to oppose him.
1860 - A four-way race pits Lincoln (Republican) against Douglas, the southern Democrat Breckinridge, and the "Constitutional Unionist" John Bell. In a bitter campaign over slavery, Douglas is lampooned by both sides. Lincoln earns 40% of the vote and is elected President; Douglas earns 29%
1861 - Douglas dies after strenuous attempts to save the Union and, failing that, to support Lincoln's positions
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 42-43, "'Lincoln Hoss' and Stephen A." (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Camptown Races" (tune)
cf. "Lincoln and Liberty" (subject)
NOTES: In addition to having been a moderate on slavery issues, Stephen A. Douglas was a short, stout man. Hence this vicious satire on a man who, though he was not a strong opponent of slavery, was in every other way an honest and generous politician. - RBW
Oh, I don't know about that. James McPherson's _Battle Cry of Freedom_ offers evidence that Douglas took pro-slavery positions to win the support of southern politicians for his attempts to obtain railroad concessions. His record, at least as detailed in that book, is considerably less than honorable. - PJS
Paul is right; McPherson, pp. 121-122, reports that Douglas was "a large investor in Chicago real estate" who "had enhanced the value of his property by securing a federal land grant for a railroad from that city to Mobile. Perhaps hopingto repeat the scenario from Chicago to San Francisco, Douglas and [William A.] Richardson in 1853 reported bills to organize Nebraska territory." But even McPherson admits his view is controversial.
Allan Nevins, _Ordeal of the Union: A House Dividing 1852-1857_ [volume II of _The Ordeal of the Union_], pp. 9, admits that he was a favorite of "an industrious bevy of lobbyists and privilege-hunters" and that he "had made a good deal of money in real estate [and] was something of a Western land speculator himself."
Great care must be taken not to see the men of 1860 in the light of today. If Douglas were alive today, we would consider him utterly vile -- it should be remembered that Douglas did not wish to destroy slavery. But it was an attitude of the time. Similarly, that was the era of the spoils system. Few people could make a career of politics, and elected officials weren't paid very well; naturally they tried to take advantage. Today, he would be in trouble with the Ethics Committee. But the rules were very different then -- and at least Douglas lived at a time when incumbents could be voted out of office!
In his defence, we note that J. G. Randall's _The Civil War and Reconstruction_ (second edition by David Donald, Heath, 1961), p. 93, says that "His forthrightness, vigor, and aggressiveness, his force as a debater and talent as a political strategist, had made a deep impression; and the breadth of his natinal vision had given him a peculiar distinction in an age when the sectionalism of many of the nation's leaders was all too evident."
The real complaint against Douglas is that he destroyed the Compromise of 1850. Yes, he did, and he did it over Kansas. But the Compromise was doomed anyway. If it hadn't been for Kansas, it would have been Dred Scott, or the Wilmot Proviso (which hadn't been settled, merely buried) or the Mormons, or Cuba, or something; the Whig party, we must remember, was *already* dying over the Slavery issue in 1852, before the first drop of blood was shed in Kansas. And Douglas notably opposed the fraudulent Lecompton constitution for Kansas.
The majority of historians I've consulted consider Douglas as basically honest, though he certainly resorted to a lot of politicians' tricks. And when it came down to the breach during the election of 1860, Douglas -- and only Douglas -- went all-out, campaigning to save the Union. In the process, he did such harm to his health that he died soon afterward.
According to William and Bruce Catton, _Two Roads to Sumter_, p. 233, after it became clear that the parties were split in 1860, and that diaster loomed, it was Douglas, and Douglas alone, who gave his all to try to prevent the war: "The final months of his life were a blaze of glory for the Little Giant, and the greatness that had always hovered above his dogged trail descended fully upon him at the last. Of all the varied courses pursued by America's leaders in the loud, uneasy campaign of 1860, his alone was that of the statesman. Not only grasping but squarely confronting the probably course of events that would follow a Republican victory, Douglas made the Union his sole platform.
"His purpose was simply to remind the electorate, and especially the Democrats, that defeat at the polls in a fair election was no valid cause for destroying the government.... Douglas even carried his message to the deep South, where it took real courage to glorify the Union and repudiate secession at this late date. Abuse, rotten eggs, and detailed threats of physical force attended his swing through the cotton states...."
Nevins, _The Emergence of Lincoln: Prologue to Civil War 1859-1861_ [volume IV of _The Ordeal of the Union_], p. 293, says that Douglas even feared a sort of sourthern coup d'etat if southern Democratic candidate and vice president Breckinridge won the border states, and that he campaigned heavily there to prevent it. The coup was probably just a daydream, but Douglas accomplished his ends, more or less: He took Missourri, John Bell won Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and Breckinridge's margin in Maryland was too small to allow any such games.
Elections at this time were conducted over an extended period; Pennsylvania and Indiana voted before the rest of the North. When Pennsylvania went Republican, Douglas declared, "Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save the Union. I will go south" (Nevins1859, p. 295).
Another measure of Douglas's character is that Alexander Stephens, the future Confederate Vice President who was also perhaps the most realistic man in the South, and one who knew Douglas, openly declared that he admired the man (Nevins, p. 296).
I guess I would sum it up this way: No man in the United States loved the Union more than Douglas. Was this a crime? Lincoln fought the Civil War to preserve the Union. The difference between the two is that Douglas loved the Union as it was; Lincoln loved it as it should have been. Certainly LIncoln's was a better Union -- but not a good one; Lincoln, for instance, had no use at all for indepenent women -- when Jesse Benton Fremont visited him in the White House, he brushed her off as a "female politician" (Allan Nevins, _The War for the Union: The Improvised War 1861-1862_, p.338). Lincoln had reason to be irritated with her, but the remark shows that he too had a lot to learn. Lincoln was more right than Douglas on one specific issue. It was enough to make him President. But it doesn't prove that he was actually a much greater man.
Really, Douglas is one of the hardest characters in American history to grasp. The disagreement with Paul rather shows the point: Could Douglas be great without being good? He made things happen, but sometimes it almost seemed as if he was stirring things up just to see if he could enjoy the chaos. On the whole, he reminds me more of Theodore Roosevelt than almost any other American politician. (Which, I am sure, will draw more protests. But, of course, opinions of TR were also very mixed.)
For more background on the Lincoln/Douglas situation, see the notes to "Lincoln and Liberty." - RBW
File: SRW042
===
NAME: Lincolnshire Poacher, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer served as apprentice for seven years, then took to poaching, "For tis my delight of a shining night in a season of the year." The poachers go out hunting, but are spotted by a gamekeeper; they subdue him and continue to make merry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1838 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: poaching work apprentice fight
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Kennedy 258, "The Northamptonshire Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan, pp. 290-291, "The Poacher" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 203, "Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text)
DT, LINCPOCH*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #216, "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text)
ST K259 (Full)
Roud #299
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chandler's Wife" (tune)
cf. "The Nottinghamshire Poacher" (theme)
NOTES: Kennedy remarks, "Although Lincolnshire, Somerset and Leicestershire occur as the location for this most 'fam-e-rous' of poaching songs, more than half the versions from genuine sources favour Northamptonshire." This appears, from Kennedy's bibliography, to be true, but the oldest versions, and those usually sung, are associated with Lincolnshire, so that is the title I adopted. - RBW
File: K259
===
NAME: Lindy Lowe
DESCRIPTION: "Come smilin' Lindy Lowe, de pootiest gal I know, On de finest boat dat ever float, in de Ohio, de Mississippi or de Ohio." Verses have no story at all and only the second line ever changes, "Come smilin' Lindy Lowe, by de Gulf ob Mexico.." etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: worksong shanty
FOUND_IN: Barbados
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Harlow, pp. 201-202, "Lindy Lowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9170
NOTES: [Harlow's] notes give this as a Barbadian hand over hand shanty. - SL
File: Harl201
===
NAME: Linen Song, The: see Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron (File: ShH82)
===
NAME: Lingle Lingle Lang Tang (Our Cat's Dead)
DESCRIPTION: "Lingle, lingle, lang tang, Our cat's dead! What did she die with? With a sore head! All you that kent her, When she was alive, Come to her burial, Atween four and five."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: animal death burial
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 41, "(Lingle, lingle, lang tang)" (1 short text)
Roud #13025
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oor Cat's Deid"
NOTES: Roud lumps this with the Sam Henry piece "A Child's Lullaby" (indexed as "Oor Cat's Deid"). There is similarity in both form and subject matter -- but the lyrics are enough different that I decided to split them. - RBW
File: MSNR041
===
NAME: Linktem Blue (Reeling Song)
DESCRIPTION: "All along, all along, All along, all along, All along, all along, Linktem blue." "Linktem blue is a very fine song, All along, all along, All along, all along, All along, all along, Linktem blue." Reportedly used to count knots while weaving yarn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Flanders/Brown, p. 34, "Reeling Song" (1 text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 19, (no title) (1 text)
ST FlBr034 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "Linktem Blue" (on MMacArthur01)
File: FlBr034
===
NAME: Linstead Market
DESCRIPTION: "He promised to meet me at Linstead Market, take me out to a show." The girl waits long, but there is no sign of Joe. At last a letter arrives, saying that he "just got married today." He promises to meet her the next day, though, and take her to the show
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: courting marriage infidelity
FOUND_IN: Trinidad
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 335, "Linstead Market" (1 text)
File: FSWB335
===
NAME: Lint Pullin', The
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his early days as a lint puller. He is kind to the girls he works with, and makes sure they do well. One day, Mary Jane chooses to work with him; they prove the best. They go home together, and now will work together at marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: work courting home marriage
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H487, pp. 43-44, "The Lint Pullin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9299
File: HHH487
===
NAME: Linten Lowrin: see Rhynie (File: RcRhynie)
===
NAME: Linton Lowrie
DESCRIPTION: "I tint my heart ae morn in May When birdies sang on ilka tree... O, Linton Lowrie, Linton Lowrie, Aye sae fond ye trowed to be, I never wist sae bright a morn Sae dark a night would bring tae me." After wishing him back, she sets out to find him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H640, p. 291, "Linton Lowrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6888
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (tune)
NOTES: Not to be confused with "Linten Lowrin," filed in the index with "Rhynie." - RBW
File: HHH640
===
NAME: Lion and the Unicorn, The
DESCRIPTION: "The lion and the unicorn, Fighting for the crown, The lion beat the unicorn All around the town." Details of the battle, and of the beasts' reception, may follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1691 (according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: animal battle royalty
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 304, "The lion and the unicorn" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #123, p. 103, "(The Lion and the Unicorn)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 39, "(The lion and the unicorn" (1 text)
NOTES: I've never heard this sung, but Lewis Carroll and other sources list it as a song, not a poem, so here it files.
The song definitely predates Lewis Carroll, appearing in several nursery rhyme anthologies, but I have been unable to determine exactly which, so I have to use Carroll as the earliest date.
Various theories revolve around this piece. Typical is the claim that it refers to the conflict between Scotland (whose arms featured a unicorn) and England (marked by lions). But both the Baring-Goulds and Martin Gardner in _The Annotated Alice_ note that there was a traditional mythological rivalry between lion and unicorn over who would be the King of Beasts. Given that the lion is a carnivore and the unicorn presumably an herbivore (and how does it get its mouth to the ground with that thing on its head?), I suppose it's logical that the lion wins. - RBW
Opie-Oxford2: "MS inscription dated 1691 beside a woodcut of the royal arms with supporters in a copy of _The Holy Bible_, 1638 (Opie Collection), 'the unicorn & the lyon fiteing for the Crown and the lyon beat the unicorn Round About the town'" - BS
If the poem did arise in that period, one suspects it has to do with the quarrel between England and Scotland over the Covenant, Charles I, or Charles II, with Scotland wanting to retain its Stuart King (while putting some restraints on his behavior), whereas England was trying to get rid of the monarchy. - RBW
File: BGMG123
===
NAME: Lion's Den, The: see The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)
===
NAME: Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine
DESCRIPTION: When the young man comes to the girl's door, she confesses that she had once hastened to answer his call. But now he shows the signs of liquor; she warns him that "Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine." If he sobers up, she will reconsider
AUTHOR: George W. Young
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (unknown newspaper)
KEYWORDS: drink courting rejection
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 341, "Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine" (1 text)
BrownIII 30, "The Lips That Touch Liquor Must Never Touch Mine" (2 texts, with the second perhaps a revised version of the Young original)
Roud #7812
File: R341
===
NAME: Lipto
DESCRIPTION: "Lipto, lipto, jine de ring, Lipto, lipto, dance an' sing; Dance an' sing an' laugh an' play, Fur dis is now a holiday. Turn aroun' an' roun' and roun'...." "Er holdin' uv dis golden crown, An' I choose my (gal/man) fur ter dance me down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 132, "Lipto" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring)" (lyrics)
NOTES: I have to suspect that "lipto" is a corruption of "tiptoe," but whether the confusion is the informant's or the collector's I can't tell.
I also suspect that this whole thing is a corruption of something, perhaps "Jingo Ring," but it's been very thoroughly corrupted. - RBW
File: ScaNF132
===
NAME: Lisburn Lass, The
DESCRIPTION: Henry loves a Lisburn Lass. Her parents' disapproval forces him to enlist for India. She offers to go with him. He says "All by my foes I am here cut down For loving a maiden in Lisburn town." He leaves her but promises to steal her if he returns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1980 (Mary Anne Connelly on IRHardySons); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(530))
KEYWORDS: love army separation India father mother
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #5694
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Connelly, "The Lisburn Lass" (on IRHardySons)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(530), "The Pride of Lisburn" ("You boys and girls where'er you be"), Haly (Cork), 19C
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Kilkee" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name) and references there
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(530) is the basis for the description.
Notes to IRHardySons: "Lisburn is in County Antrim, southwest of Belfast."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(530) includes these lines: "For to tell her name I don't intend For fear I might insult her friends But you all know her well, the truth I lay down, For her dwelling lies in Lisburn Town" - BS
File: RcLisLas
===
NAME: Lisnagade
DESCRIPTION: The Ulster Protestants march to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne and meet an ambush at a fort at Lisnagade. There is shooting. The Catholic flag was inscribed "Hail Mary" but "my Lady Mary fell asleep, and so they ran away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1816 (_The Patriotic Songster_, according to Zimmermann; Zimmermann believes it dates from "early 1790's")
KEYWORDS:
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 12, 1791 - "A group of 'Defenders', a secret Roman Catholic agrarian society, took up position in Fort Lisnagade to attack a group of 'Peep O' Day Boys' who were celebrating King William's [1691] victory at Boyne." (source: "Lisnagade" at the Musica site)
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 93, "Lisnagade" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #13403
NOTES: "Lisnagade" refers to the white flag:
We had not march'd a mile or so when the white flag we espied,
With a branch of podereens on which they much relied,
And this inscription underneath -- Hail Mary! unto thee --
Deliver us from these Orange dogs, and then we will be free.
Zimmermann p. 43 fn. 42: "Previously to the green, the 'seditious' colour was the Jacobite white. This colour remained the symbol of the Catholic Defenders." - BS
File: Zimm093
===
NAME: Listen to the Mocking Bird: see Listen to the Mockingbird (File: RJ19110)
===
NAME: Listen to the Mockingbird
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his beloved Hallie, who is "Sleeping in the valley, And the mockingbird is singing where she lies." Now the song of the mockingbird makes him "Feel like one forsaken... Since my Hallie is no longer with me now."
AUTHOR: "Alice Hawthorne" (Septimus Winner) and Richard Milburn
EARLIEST_DATE: 1854
KEYWORDS: death burial separation bird
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Dean, pp. 78-79,"Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 159, "Sweet Hally" (1 text)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 110-114, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 61-61, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 249, "Listen To The Mockingbird" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 333, "Listen to the Mocking Bird"
DT, MCKNBIRD
ST RJ19110 (Full)
Roud #8079
RECORDINGS:
Theron Hale & Daughters, "Listen To The Mocking Bird" (Victor V-40019, 1929)
Fiddlin' Red Herron, "Listen To The Mockingbird" (King 629, 1947)
Bela Lam and His Green County Singers, "Listen tothe Mocking Bird" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
W. MacBeth & Tom Collins, "Listen to the Mockingbird" (Vocalion 5282, c. 1929)
Morgan & Stanley, "Listen to the Mockingbird" (Columbia 1833, 1904) (Victor Monarch 4080, 1904)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & the Jr. Skillet Lickers, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (on DownYonder)
NOTES: Although now often used as an opportunity for fiddle players or other performers to produce strange sounds from their instruments, this piece was originally done "straight." After a few years of obscurity, the composer sold the copyright for a mere $5, only to see the song sell over a million copies.
Alice Hawthorne was a leading pseudonym of Septimus Winner; he also listed her as the author of "Whispering Hope." (The name was a tribute to his mother.) For some reason, Winner published such trivia as "Oh Where Oh Where Is My Little Dog Gone" under his own name.
The first edition of this piece gave a melodic credit to Richard Milbourne; this was dropped on later printings. It seems likely, however, that Milbourne did supply the tune; he was a young Negro errand-boy and beggar known as "Whistling Dick." Early in his career, Winner was willing to give credit to others; as he became more successful, he apparently wanted the praise for himself.
The song is reported to have been dedicated to Harriet Lane, the niece of president James Buchanan who was the White House hostess during that bachelor's presidency. (Buchanan was not yet President when the song was written, but Lane had already done duty as his social helper, so this is possible.) It is ironic to observe that Lane was almost an old maid, not getting married until 1866, when she was well into her thirties. - RBW
File: RJ19110
===
NAME: Little 'Dobe Casa, The: see The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)
===
NAME: Little Adobe Casa: see The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)
===
NAME: Little Ah Sid
DESCRIPTION: "Little Ah Sid was a Chinese kid, A neat little cuss, I declare...." One day, as Ah Sid is out playing, he spots a bee and, taking it for a butterfly, knocks it down and puts it in his pocket. It stings him; he remarks "Um bullifly velly dam hot!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: foreigner bug injury
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, pp. 276-277, "Little Ah Sid" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Little Ah-Sid" (Conqueror 7887, 1931)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chinee Bumboatman" (style)
File: San276
===
NAME: Little Alice Summers
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young parents, I'll sing to you a song Concerning Alice Summers Who was lost so long." Little Alice, not yet two, disappears in the cold. For long hours she is missing, and her family almost despairs. But her tracks are found
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (recording, Arkansas Charlie)
KEYWORDS: family children rescue
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 727, "Little Alice Summers" (1 text)
Roud #7391
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Charlie [pseud. for Charlie Craver], "Little Alice Summers" (Vocalion 5367, c. 1929)
File: R727
===
NAME: Little Annie Rooney
DESCRIPTION: "A winning way, a pleasant smile, Dressed so neat but quite in style... Has little Annie Rooney... She's my sweetheart, I'm her beau; Soon we'll marry, never to part, Little Annie Rooney is my sweetheart." The singer looks forward to life with Annie
AUTHOR: Michael Nolan
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1885 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.28(8a/b) View 3 of 8)
KEYWORDS: love marriage home
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 774, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text)
Geller-Famous, pp. 45-47, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 333-334, "Little Annie Rooney"
Roud #4822
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(8a/b) View 3 of 8, "Little Annie Rooney", R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884; also Harding B 11(2154), Harding B 18(577), "Little Annie Rooney"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Little Annie Roonie
NOTES: Michael Nolan was an obscure music hall performer; Annie Rooney is reported to have been his niece, and to have been three years old when this song was written.
According to James J. Geller, this song was a huge commercial success, but brought no compensation to Nolan, who swore off writing songs as a result. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(577) attributes music to George Le Brun. The 1889 sheet music was published in Boston by White-Smith; the American Memory LOC notes list George Le Brunn as the arranger [cover only, call number Music #572 no. 20 at Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University]. - BS
File: R774
===
NAME: Little Auplaine, The: see The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)
===
NAME: Little Ball of Yarn: see Ball of Yarn (File: EM089)
===
NAME: Little Beggar Boy, The
DESCRIPTION: The beggar boy's mother is gone and his father is a drunkard who beats him. He misses his mother and wishes to be buried by her. Last verse: "My coffin shall be black/Six white angels at the back/Two to watch, two to pray/Two to carry my soul away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (collected from Emily Baker)
KEYWORDS: poverty abuse death funeral begging nonballad father mother floatingverses playparty
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
MacSeegTrav 122, "The Little Beggar Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BEGGRBOY*
Roud #6355
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Go and Dig My Grave" (floating verses)
cf. "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (I)" (floating verses)
cf. "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (lyrics)
NOTES: This should not be confused with "The Little Beggarman," an entirely separate song. The last verse is a floater, tacked on from elsewhere; MacColl & Seeger note that it's a children's game, found in Edinburgh. I've heard recordings of it from Americans as well. I use the keyword "playparty" for the final verse because we lack a keyword "game." - PJS
File: McCST122
===
NAME: Little Beggarman, The (Johnny Dhu)
DESCRIPTION: "I am a little beggarman, a-begging I have been, For three score years and more in this little isle of Green...." (Johnny Dhu) briefly narrates his life, including nights in barns and a "flaxy-haired girl's" attempt to court him. He sets out on his way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: rambling begging gypsy courting
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Kennedy 345, "The Little Beggarman" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H751, pp. 50-51, "The Oul' Rigadoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-More 26, "The Beggarman's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BEGGARDH*
Roud #900
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Doran et al, "The Little Beggarman" (on FSB3)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Haired Boy" (tune)
cf. "Me Old Ragadoo" (tune, lyrics)
File: K345
===
NAME: Little Benton
DESCRIPTION: "To little Benton I did fee, In Rhynie feein' fair," but it proves an unhappy agreement; he and Benton soon quarrel. The farmer tries to drive off the singer, who is determined to stay and earn every farthing. The singer warns others of Benton
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: farming money hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 238-239, "Little Benton" (1 text)
Roud #5580 and 5906
NOTES: Ord observes that "Benton" is Aberdeenshire dialect for "bantom," implying that it is a description of, rather than a name for, the unpleasant farmer. - RBW
File: Ord238
===
NAME: Little Bessie
DESCRIPTION: The little girl tells her mother that she is ill (with what sounds like heart disease). She reports that a voice called her, saying, "Come, be my child." The girl bids her mother not to grieve, then dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Recording, Buell Kazee)
KEYWORDS: death children mother religious
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 172-173, "Little Bessie" (1 text, the same as that in Abrahams/Foss; 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 132-134, "Little Bessie" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 122-123, "Little Bessie" (1 text, the same as that in McNeil-SFB2; 1 tune)
ST MN2172 (Partial)
Roud #4778
RECORDINGS:
Leroy Anderson, "Little Bessie" (Champion 45059, 1935)
Blue Sky Boys, "Little Bessie" (Bluebird B-8017, 1939)
Dixon Brothers, "Little Bessie" (Montgomery Ward M-7171, 1937)
Kelly Harrell, "I Heard Somebody Call My Name" (Victor 23747, 1929; on KHarrell02)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Little Bessie" (on Holcomb1, HolcombCD1)
Buell Kazee, "Little Bessie" (Brunswick 215, 1928)
Holland Puckett, "Little Bessie" (Gennett 6720, 1928/Supertone 9324, 1929)
Kid Smith [Walter Smith] & Family, "Little Bessie" (Victor 23576, 1931)
NOTES: McNeil reports that a song called "Little Bessie," credited to "someone named Keutchman," was published in 1870. No copies of this piece are known, however, so it cannot be determined if the two are the same.
Given how often this was recorded by old-time bands, and how rare it is in tradition, I have to suspect that Viola Cole (Foss's informant) learned it, at least indirectly, from a recording. - RBW
File: MN2172
===
NAME: Little Betty Pringle She Had a Pig: see There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)
===
NAME: Little Betty Winkle She Had a Pig
DESCRIPTION:
AUTHOR:
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS:
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig
File: E068
===
NAME: Little Bird
DESCRIPTION: "Where are you going, little bird, little bird, Where are you going, little bird? I am going to the woods, sweet child, sweet child." What is in the woods? A tree. In the tree is a nest, in the nest, eggs, in the eggs, baby birds to sing "Praise the Lord"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: questions bird nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fuson, p. 89, "Little Bird" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 359-400, "The Tree in the Wood/Pretty Bird" (1 text)
ST Fus089 (Partial)
Roud #4281
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rattling Bog" (theme)
NOTES: Lumped by Scarborough with the Endless Circle/Tree in the Wood/Rattling Bog family. But the versions of this do not complete the circle, and add the religious motif. This may well have started from a fragment of the English song, but they're separate, sez I. - RBW
File: Fus089
===
NAME: Little Birdie
DESCRIPTION: "Little birdie, little birdie, Come and sing me your song. I've a short time for to be here And a long time to be gone." Often consists of floating verses, but concerns adultery: "Pretty woman... you made me love you, Now your husband has come."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: adultery bird love courting husband floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Randolph 676, "The Dark Hollow"" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune, with the "A" text perhaps somewhat mixed with "Dark Hollow")
Randolph/Cohen, pp. The Dark Hollow, "" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 676A)
BrownIII 255, "Kitty Kline" (2 text plus 4 fragments and 1 excerpt, which despite the title mostly file here; see Notes)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 187-188, "Little Birdie" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 397, "Little Birdie" (1 text)
DT, LILBIRDY
Roud #5742
RECORDINGS:
Willie Chapman, "Little Birdie" [instrumental] (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Coon Creek Girls, "Little Birdie" (Vocalion 04413, 1938)
Al Craver [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart], "Little Birdie" (Columbia 15044-D, 1925)
John Hammond, "Little Birdie" (Challenge 168 or 332 [one of these as "William Price"/Silvertone 5697, 1927; on BefBlues3)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Little Birdie" (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1)
Robert Howell [pseud. for Holland Puckett], "Little Birdie" (Herwin 75563, 1927)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Little Birdie" (Montgomery Ward M-7127)
Wade Mainer & Zeke Morris, "Little Birdie" (Bluebird B-6840)
Wade Mainer, "Little Birdie" (King 1093, 1952)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Birdie" (on NLCR16)
Land Norris, "Little Birdie" (OKeh 45006, 1925)
Frank Proffitt, "Little Birdie" (on FProffitt01)
Sauceman Brothers, "Little Birdie" (Rich-R-Tone 457, n.d.)
Stanley Brothers, "Little Birdie" (Rich-R-Tone 1056, rec. 1952) (on FOTM)
Pete Steele, "Little Birdie" (AFS, 1938; on KMM) (on PSteele01)
Pete Seeger, "Little Birdie" (on PeteSeeger47)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "East Virginia (Dark Hollow)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Easy Rider" (theme)
cf. "Kitty Kline"
NOTES: No, not the producer of "Spirituals to Swing," nor his blues-singing son! - PJS
(I think the above is a reference to the recording by John Hammond. But it's all Urdu to me. - RBW)
Yes, it is such a reference. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren informs me that Charles Wolfe did some research on Hammond, learning that he cut only six sides. Wolfe was unable to trace his origins but suspects he came from northern Kentucky.
Very many of the versions in Brown contain references to "Kitty Kline (Clyde, etc.)," and the editors on that basis filed it under that title. But the versions are clearly what we know as "Little Birdie," sometimes mixed with references to Kitty Kline, and so I file them here. - RBW
File: R676
===
NAME: Little Birdie in the Tree
DESCRIPTION: "Little birdie in the tree, Singing a song to me, Singing about the roses, Singing about the tree; Little birdie in the tree, Singing a song for me."
AUTHOR: Philip Paul Bliss?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 146, "Little Birdie in the Tree" (1 text)
Roud #5259
File: Br3146
===
NAME: Little Bit
DESCRIPTION: "Leddle bit-a Niggeh an' a great big toe, Meenie miny mo. Leddle bit-a Niggeh wid a great big fis', Jes' de size fo' his mammy to kiss. Leddle bit-a Niggeh wid big black eyes, Bright as de sun up in de skies...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love children nonballad lullaby
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 153, (no title) (1 short text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)" (lyrics)
File: ScNF153A
===
NAME: Little Bit of Heaven, A
DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever hear the story of how Ireland got its name?" A small piece of Heaven broke off and fell to earth; when an angel finds it, he proposes to leave it there because it fits so well. They proceed to make improvements such as adding shamrocks
AUTHOR: Words: J. Keirn Brennan / Music: Ernest R. Ball
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: Ireland talltale
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 6-7, "And They Called It Ireland" (1 text)
Roud #5495
NOTES: Ironically, although this song supplies an (obviously humorous) explanation of how Ireland came to be, it does not explain how it came to be called Ireland.
Dean does not seem to have known the first verse of the song, which is about leprechauns and their antics. It's no loss; other sources omit it as well. - RBW
File: Dean006
===
NAME: Little Bitty Baby: see Children Go Where I Send Thee (File: LoF254)
===
NAME: Little Black Bull, The: see The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)
===
NAME: Little Black Mustache, The: see The Black Mustache (File: CW180A)
===
NAME: Little Black Train Is A-Comin'
DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Little black train is a-comin', Get all your business right... For the train may be here tonight." King Hezekiah is offered as an example. A young man lives a sinful life; when death comes, he is surprised and vainly begs for mercy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death Bible train
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 625-628, "Little Black Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 541, "The Little Black Train" (1 text)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 914-915, "Little Black Train Is A-Comin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 41, "(Little Black Train)" (partial text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 260-261, "The Little Black Train" (1 text)
ST BAF914 (Partial)
Roud #11594
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "The Little Black Train Is Coming" (Vocalion 5229, c. 1928)
Dock Boggs, "Little Black Train" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
Carter Family, "The Little Black Train" (OKeh 03112, 1935; on CGospel1)
Rev. J. M. Gates, "Death's Black Train is Coming" (Columbia 14145-D,1926)
Harmon E. Helmick, "The Little Black Train" (Champion 16744, 1934)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "This Old World Ain't Going to Stand Much Longer" (subject)
NOTES: The story of Hezekiah's bout with sickness, God's threat, Hezekiah's repentance, and Isaiah's promise of fifteen additional years of life is told in 2 Kings 20:1-11 (repeated almost verbatim inIsaiah 38) and briefly summarized in 2 Chronicles 32:24-26.
The version in Brown accidentally replaces "Hezekiah" with "Ezekiel," but the former name is clearly correct. It tacks on the story of the Wise Fool, Luke 12:16-20. - RBW
File: BAF914
===
NAME: Little Blossom
DESCRIPTION: Lonely little (Blossom/Phoebe), left alone by her mother, sets out to find her father. She finds him in the saloon; when she interrupts him, he grabs a chair and attacks her with it. He comes to his senses, but the child is already dead
AUTHOR: (based on a poem by Martha J. Bidwell)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: father drink homicide children
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Randolph 311, "Little Blossom" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 260-263, "Little Blossom" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 311A)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 118-123, "Little Blossom (I), (II)" (2 texts)
DT, LTLBLSSM*
Roud #7788
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Little Blossom" (Conqueror 7886, 1931)
NOTES: Randolph notes, "Little girls in starched white dresses used to sing [this song] in front of the courthouse at election time." Almost makes modern political ads sound tolerable, doesn't it? - RBW
File: R311
===
NAME: Little Bo-peep
DESCRIPTION: Shepherdess Bo-peep can't find her sheep. When she finds them they are without their tails. One day she finds the tails hung on a tree to dry. She "tried what she could, as a shepherdess should, To tack again each to its lambkin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1806 (Monthly Literary Recreations, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale sheep shepherd injury dream
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 66, "Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #112, p. 93, "(Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep)"
cf. DT, MERRYLND
Roud #6487
NOTES: The Baring-Goulds note occurrences of the name "Bo-peep" before the 1810 edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland, which is the first date they mention. But no one seems to be able to trace the song earlier than this.
I'm amazed no one has tried to find a political interpretation. Were the piece earlier, one would be tempted to the English Civil War and Restoration. Or maybe the Stuart monarchy and the Jacobite rebellions. Given the early nineteenth century date, one thinks of the French Revolution, the guillotine, and perhaps Bonaparte's restoration of monarchy.
Or not. I don't really believe it. But it sounds so "folk-plausible." Even the name is right.... - RBW
File: OO2066
===
NAME: Little Boxes
DESCRIPTION: "Little boxes on the hillside... And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same." How people go to school and go into business and get put into "little boxes (houses) all the same" (except for minor differences in color)
AUTHOR: Malvina Reynolds
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Scott-BoA, pp. 378-380, "Little Boxes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, p. 189, "Little Boxes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 314, "Little Boxes" (1 text)
DT, LITBOX1* (LITBOX2*) (LITBOX3*)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Little Boxes" (on PeteSeeger35, PeteSeeger36)
NOTES: The irony of this song, at least to me, is that while most Americans DO think the same thoughts and live the same lives and buy houses from the same contractors and watch the same sports on the same TV sets and otherwise follow the crowd and pollute the same environment with the same junk that they extract from the same oil wells, they at least have a choice about it. A medieval peasant was a medieval peasant no matter how hard he tried to be a freethinker, and even the nobility didn't have many choices....
This is of course not a traditional song by origin, and it probably hasn't goine into traition either; it's here because it's cited in many books, but none of them are field collections.
Although Reynolds is responsible for both words and music of the piece, but she seems to have been inspired (perhaps unconsciously) by the song "Pittsburg, Pennsylvania" ("There's a pawn shop on the corner In Pittsburg Pennsylvania"), made popular by a 1952 recording by Guy Mitchell. - RBW
File: SBoA378
===
NAME: Little Boy Billee (Le Petite Navire, The Little Corvette)
DESCRIPTION: English & French versions. Three Bristol men steal a ship and go to sea. Starving, Jack & Jimmy plot to eat Billee, but he asks to say his catechism first. Before he finishes, he sights the British fleet. Jack and Jimmy are hanged, Billee made an admiral
AUTHOR: Unknown, English version possibly translated by William Thackeray
EARLIEST_DATE: 1946 (Davenson, French version)
KEYWORDS: crime execution punishment theft rescue death ship cannibalism foreignlanguage homicide
FOUND_IN: France
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 114, "Le Petit Navire [The Little Corvette]" (French version -- 1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 429-430, "Three Sailors of Bristol City" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Little Boy Billee" (on LastDays)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship in Distress" (plot) and references there
NOTES: The song was apparently widespread among French sailors. The English version, possibly translated by Thackeray, seems almost a burlesque. And the similarities to "The Ship in Distress" are so acute that I suspect the songs are related. - PJS
To me, the question is more of the relations between Kennedy's various texts in multiple languages. If two songs have the same plot, and there is a version in another language with the same plot, how do you tell which song it belongs with? - RBW
File: K114
===
NAME: Little Brass Wagon: see Old Brass Wagon (File: San159)
===
NAME: Little Brown Bulls, The [Laws C16]
DESCRIPTION: Bold McCluskey believes his steer can out-pull anything on the river, and backs his belief by betting that they can out-pull Gordon's little brown bulls. Despite McClusky's confidence, the bulls are victorious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: contest animal gambling lumbering
FOUND_IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Laws C16, "The Little Brown Bulls"
Rickaby 13, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 107, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 775-777, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
Lomax-FSNA 54, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 849-851, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 37, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-Lumbering #47, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 168-171, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 178-179, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
DT 603, BRWNBULL*
Roud #2224
RECORDINGS:
Charles Bowlen, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
Warde Ford, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS 4213 B, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Carl Lathrop, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
NOTES: According to Fred Bainter, who sang Rickaby's "A" text, "the ballad was composed in Mart Douglas's camp in northwestern Wisconsin in 1872 or 1873. It was in this camp and at this date... that the contest between the big spotted steers and the little brown bulls was held" (quotation from Botkin, not Bainter; Laws quotes this information from Rickaby, but without comment on its truth or falsehoodl Fowke notes that Beck had a different story).
Rickaby's second version lacks the Derry Down refrain, but the informant apparently knew it with the Derry Down tune. Fowke describes her tune as a "Villikens" variant. - RBW
Beck notes that some lumberjacks have suggested this song comes from Maine, but it is not included in R. P. Gray's collection _Songs and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjacks_. - PJS
File: LC16
===
NAME: Little Brown Church in the Vale, The (The Church in the Wildwood)
DESCRIPTION: "There's a church in the valley by the wildwood, No lovelier spot in the dale; No place is so dear to my childhood...." "Come to the church in the wildwood, Oh, come to the church in the dale." The singer recalls the joys of church as both child and adult
AUTHOR: William S. Pitts
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (source: Johnson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 172-173, "The Little Brown Church in the Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4970
NOTES: According to Johnson, this is largely about an actual church built in the 1860s in the town of Bradford, Iowa (near present-day Nashua). Bradford was bypassed by the railroads, and withered away, but as of his writing, the church still stood. - RBW
File: BdLBCitV
===
NAME: Little Brown Dog
DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little boy As fat as I could go, They set me there upon the fence...." The boy fights and defeats a giant, induces his hen to hatch out a hare, acquires a dog with legs ten feet long, and otherwise does the impossible
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1891 (JAFL 4)
KEYWORDS: talltale animal chickens dog horse sheep humorous nonsense fight
FOUND_IN: Britain(Shetlands) US(MA,NE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Randolph 357, "When I Was a Little Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
FSCatskills 145, "The Lofty Giant" (1 text)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 101, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson 129, p. 275, "To London I Did Go" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 24-29, "A Tale of Jests" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-Labrador 111, "The Lying Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 87, "The Liar's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 103-106, "The Little Bull Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 79, "The Little Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 394, "Little Brown Dog" (1 text)
DT, (AUTUMNTO)
Roud #1706
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Derby Ram"
cf. "The Swapping Boy"
cf. "The Seven Wonders"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Big Jeest
Once I Had
The Lie Song
NOTES: I've listed this song under a title by which it's well known; as it was extremely popular in the 1960s folk revival. -PJS
Versions of this song may take almost any form, as long as there is enough exaggeration. The piece is recognized by its short lines and stanzas. Here are samples: "When I was a little boy, To London I did go, Upon that banished (?) steeple, My gallantry to show." "I bought me a little hen, I did not take much care; I set her on an oyster shell, And she hatched me out a bear."
Hudson calls this a rhymed version of the story of Jack the Giant Killer. Some versions were doubtless influenced by that, but the song doesn't require killing a giant. - RBW
File: VWL101
===
NAME: Little Brown Hands
DESCRIPTION: "They drive the cows home from the pasture Down through the long shady lane." "They know where the apples are reddest." These hard-working children shall one day be great. Many other secrets "are held in the little brown hand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad work
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 327, "Little Brown Hands" (1 text)
Roud #15890
File: Br3327
===
NAME: Little Brown Jug, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises drink and the little brown jug it comes in: "Ha, ha, ha, you and me, 'Little brown jug' don't I love thee." Drink has turned his friends into enemies, left him poor and sick, and ruined his prospects -- but still he wants another drop
AUTHOR: Eastburn (Joseph Eastburn Winner)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1869
KEYWORDS: drink poverty nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 115-118, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, p. 261, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus an excerpt from another)
Randolph 408, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a fragment which may or may not go here)
BrownIII 33, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus 6 excerpts)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 176-177, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune, probably composite, since it includes all the original verses plus some floaters)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 52-53, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 64-65, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 269, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 236, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 334-335, "Little Brown Jug"
DT, BROWNJUG*
ST RJ19115 (Full)
Roud #725
RECORDINGS:
[Gene] Austin & [George] Reneau, "Little Brown Jug" (CYL: Edison [BA] 4973, prob. 1924)
The Blue Ridge Duo [possibly a pseudonym for George Reneau?] "Little Brown Jug" (Edison 51422, 1924)
Uncle Tom Collins, "Little Brown Jug" (OKeh 45132, 1927)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Brown Jug" (Perfect 12421, 1928)
Chubby Parker, "Little Brown Jug" (Gennett 6120/Silvertone 5013/Silvertone 25013, 1927; Supertone 9191, 1928) (Conqueror 7893, 1931)
Riley Puckett (w. Clayton McMichen), "Little Brown Jug" (Columbia 15232-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
George Reneau, "Little Brown Jug" (Vocalion 14812, 1924)
Ernest Thompson, "Little Brown Jug" (Columbia 147-D, 1924)
Welby Toomey, "Little Brown Jug" (Gennett 6025/Champion 15198, 1927; rec. 1926)
Henry Whitter, "Little Brown Jug" (OKeh 40063, 1924)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Woodpecker's Hole" (tune)
cf. "The Whiskey Seller" (tune)
cf. "The Poor Little Girls of Ontario" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Old Man's Lament (II) (File: Logs050)
NOTES: Joseph Winner (the brother of Septimus Winner, a.k.a. "Alice Hawthorne") published some twenty pieces in his career under the title Eastburn, but only this one had any commercial success. The title may have come from another song of the same name, but that piece (by George Cooper and W. F. Wellman, Jr.; copyright 1868) fell into instant obscurity. - RBW
File: RJ19115
===
NAME: Little Bull Song, The: see Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)
===
NAME: Little Cabin Boy, The
DESCRIPTION: A fair lady falls in love with Billy, a cabin boy. She tries to convince his captain to release him, but the captain will not. She bids him farewell, goes into a garden, and dies for love. Billy's ship is lost in a storm with all hands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1876
KEYWORDS: sea courting love death separation wreck
FOUND_IN: US(MA) Britain(Scotland,England(South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
FSCatskills 56, "The Little Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt, p. 83, "The Cabin Boy" (1 text)
ST FSC056 (Partial)
Roud #1168
File: FSC056
===
NAME: Little Carpenter (I), The
DESCRIPTION: Singer is courted successively by an old man, a blacksmith (who gives her a handkerchief and a finger ring) and a handsome young man (from Scarlet town!); she rejects all, preferring the little carpenter who, "hews with his broadaxe all day and sits by me
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (field recording, Blind James Howard)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection magic lover worker
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, LITCARP
ST DTLitCar (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Blind James Howard, "The Little Carpenter" (AAFS 1376 B2, 1933; on KMM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Little Carpenter" (on NLCR06, NLCRCD2)
NOTES: I've included the keyword, "magic" because the appearance of the handkerchief and finger ring hint at now-lost magical elements. Curiously, the field recording cited under, "Earliest Date" is the only time the song has been found, although its diction and images make it sound European. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren, who did a detailed examination of this song for a historical column, agrees. He notes several indications that the song is old: The change from third to first person, the "props" such as finger rings, the pentatonic melody (centering on the fifth rather than the tonic), and the general tone. One scholar speculated that it is a religious song in disguise.
The other very faint possibiility is that it's about the historical Cherokee chief Attakullakulla, known as "Little Carpenter," who lived at the time of the French and Indian Wars and ended up surrendering some land in the region of South Carolina after a nasty campaign in which both sides suffered significan casualties. I can, by twisting very hard, make some of the references here make sense in his context. But I think it highly unlikely, unless we find another version which makes the matter clearer. - RBW
File: DTLitCar
===
NAME: Little Carpenter (II), The: see The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)
===
NAME: Little Chickens in the Garden, The: see Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm) (File: R668)
===
NAME: Little Chimney Sweep, The
DESCRIPTION: A chimney sweep steals the child while his mother spins. After three years, the child is not found. The sweep returns and is hired by the woman; when his boy appears, she recognizes him. Women are warned to keep their children close at hand
AUTHOR: Unknown, possibly a Mr. Upton
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (collected from William Hughes) -- but a broadside in the Madden collection, possibly called "The Lost Child Found", long predates it
KEYWORDS: reunion abduction crime mother worker children
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacSeegTrav 124, "The Little Chimney Sweep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1549
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Lost Child" (plot)
NOTES: The resemblance of this song to "The Little Lost Child" (composed 1894) is sufficient that I strongly suspect the author of the latter was familiar with "The Little Chimney Sweep", also known as "The Lost Child Found." According to MacColl & Seeger, it was quite popular among 19th-century broadside printers. - PJS
File: McCST124
===
NAME: Little Clare Mary, The (Daily's Lifeboat)
DESCRIPTION: "When the tempest was raging And the seas running high The little Clara May came scudding down by." The ship strikes a rock. The captain says Dailey will come in his lifeboat, but he never does. The sailors are finally rescued by the Mary Louise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster rescue cowardice
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownII 289, "The Song of Dailey's Life-Boat" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 32, "The Little Clare Mary" (1 text)
Roud #6629
NOTES: The notes in Brown describe their failure to find historical evidence for the events described here (which may explain the confusion in the name of the song: Brown's text calls it the Clara May, Chappell the Clare Mary). Nor is there evidence of cowardice in the (real) Dailey family.
Roud lumps several "lifeboat" songs under this number, but the other is a religious song. - RBW
File: BrII289
===
NAME: Little Cobbler, The
DESCRIPTION: The butcher goes to London; his wife takes the cobbler to her bed. When a policeman shows up, she invites him into bed while the cobbler hides beneath. The butcher then arrives with the cobbler still hidden. The butcher finds and punishes the cobbler
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (JFSS)
KEYWORDS: seduction trick bawdy humorous hiding
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 224-226, "The Little Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 197, "The Cunning Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #174
RECORDINGS:
George Spicer, "The Cunning Cobbler" (on FSB2, FSB2CD)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
NOTES: The Copper version of this piece appears, from the initial verse, to be very closely related to "The Major and the Weaver" [Laws Q10] . The Kennedy version, however, is distinct. I suspect the Copper version is a cross-fertilization.
Vaughn Williams observed that the piece must be modern (because of the policeman), and remarks "It is a modern example of the kind of fun we find in Chaucer's 'Clerk of Oxenforde.'"
This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
File: CoSB224
===
NAME: Little Cock Sparrow, The
DESCRIPTION: "A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree" A "naughty boy" with bow and arrow says he will shoot the sparrow to make a stew and pie. The sparrow says otherwise and flies away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1846 (Halliwell, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: escape hunting bird youth food
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 111, "A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #182, p. 130, "(A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree)"
Roud #3368
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1117), "The Little Cock Sparrow," W. Oxlade (Portsea), n.d.
NOTES: Bird fanciers will note that this is the English sparrow, known in America as a "House Sparrow" but actually a weaverfinch, rather than a true sparrow; it's generally not possible to tell the genders of true sparrows without detailed examination. English sparrows are also generally more given to chattering, and spend more time in trees; true sparrows are groundfeeders. Not that a nursery rhyme writer is likely to worry about such details. - RBW
File: OO2111
===
NAME: Little Cora: see Darling Corey (File: LxU087)
===
NAME: Little Cory: see Darling Corey (File: LxU087)
===
NAME: Little Darling (II): see Nobody's Darling on Earth (File: R723)
===
NAME: Little David, Play on Your Harp
DESCRIPTION: Recognized by the chorus, "Little David, play on your harp, Hallelu, hallelu." The rest can describe David's exploits, or almost anything else vaguely related to Biblical subjects
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (recording, Fisk University Male Quartet)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Bible
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
BrownIII 609, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 81, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (1 text, 1 tune, possibly mixed with "On My Journey Now")
Courlander-NFM, pp. 46-49, (no title) (1 text, which appears composite); pp. 236-237, "King David"
Silber-FSWB, p. 361, "Little David" (1 text)
Roud #11831
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson & Earthy Anne Coleman, "King David" (on NFMAla4, DownHome)
Big Bethel Choir #1, "Little David Play Your Harp" (Columbia 14157-D, 1926)
Commonwealth Quartet, "Little David" (Domino 0173, 1927)
Brother Claude Ely, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (King 1375, 1954)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Little David, Play On Yo' Harp" (Victor 16448, 1909)
Fisk University Male Quartette (sic.), "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Columbia A2803, 1919)
Hampton Institute Quartette, "Little David, Play On Your Harp" (Musicraft 231, prob. 1939)
Joe Ramer Family, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Broadway 8106, c. 1930)
Joe Reed Family, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (c. 1925; on CrowTold02)
Noble Sissle & Lt. Jim Europe's Singing Serenaders, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Pathe 22084, 1919)
Southland Jubilee Singers, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (OKeh 4271/Phonola 4271, 1921)
Wood Bros. Quartet, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Rainbow 1094, 1923)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Trials" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Spaeth lists a 1921 hit, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" as arranged by "Burleigh." I would assume that that is this song, and that it therefore is older than that date by some years. - RBW
The Courlander-NFM references certainly is composite, but the verses were compiled by the informant, Rich Amerson, not by Courlander. See his recording on NFMAla3 and DownHome. - PJS
File: CNFM046
===
NAME: Little Devils: see The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)
===
NAME: Little Doogie: see Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)
===
NAME: Little Drops of Water (Little Things)
DESCRIPTION: "Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean And (the pleasant/a beautiful) land."
AUTHOR: Julia A. Fletcher Carney (1823-1908)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Minnie Stokes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 242, (no title) (1 short text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #798, p. 293, "(Little drops of water)"
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 635-636, "Little Things" (1 text)
NOTES: This item has been variously attributed; _Granger's Index to Poetry_ notes attributions to E. C. Brewer and Frances S. Osgood, but unequivocally lists the author as Julia A. Fletcher Carney. The Baring-Goulds also credit it to her, and Felleman agrees though it gives her name simply as Julia A. Fletcher.
This rather insipid piece (which continues, "So the little moments, Humble though they be, Make the mighty ages Of eternity") is clearly Fletcher Carney's "hit"; _Grangers's_ lists nine books which contain it, but cites no other works from her pen whatsoever. - RBW
File: MHAp242A
===
NAME: Little Drowned Girl, The: see The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)
===
NAME: Little Dun Dee
DESCRIPTION: "My uncle died and left me forty quid." The singer bets it all on Little Dun Dee in a match race. As the race progresses Little Dunny falls behind and the price rises. The pony falls behind the bay but just wins at the end and carts the money away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1793))
KEYWORDS: money racing horse
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #176
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Haynes, "Little Dun Dee" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Broadside Bodleian, Harding B 11(1793), "Little Dun Mare ("On the twenty-fourth of August last"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838 ; also Harding B 11(1794), Firth c.12(446), Harding B 11(2734), Harding B 25(1118)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(900), Harding B 11(1793), "[The] Little Dun Mare"; Johnson Ballads 895, "Dun Mare"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Skewball" [Laws Q22] (plot)
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (plot)
NOTES: The Bodleian broadsides go into more detail on the betting, the strategy, and the final weighing; the uncle does not die but is an active participant. The race takes place at Newmarket on July 14 or August 24. - BS
File: RcLiDuDe
===
NAME: Little Eau Pleine, The: see The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)
===
NAME: Little Family, The [Laws H7]
DESCRIPTION: Sisters Mary and Martha are deeply grieved when their brother Lazarus falls sick and dies. Jesus is informed that his friend Lazarus is sick, and hurries to Bethany. Finding the sisters weeping, he too weeps and raises Lazarus from the dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (Belden, from a manuscript probably from 1865; Hudson's ms. was dated 1862)
KEYWORDS: family Jesus religious Jesus Bible
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Laws H7, "The Little Family"
Belden, pp. 447-449, "The Little Family" (2 texts plus a mention of 1 more)
Randolph 614, "The Little Family" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Eddy 133, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 151, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 134, "The Little Family" (2 texts)
BrownIII 610, "The Little Family" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more; also assorted stanzas in the notes)
Hudson 86, pp. 212-214, "The Little Family" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 195-196, "The Little Family" (1 text)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 218-222, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 734-736, "The Little Family" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 132-133, "Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 231-232, "[The Little Family]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, p. 183, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 647, LAZRUS
Roud #656
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Gilbert, "The Little Family" (on LomaxCD1704)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Mary and Martha
Martha and Mary
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus
NOTES: This song closely parallels the account in John 11:1-44, with two exceptions. First, when Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, he did NOT hasten to Bethany, but sat around for two days (apparently to give the dead body a little extra time to rot!). Second, Jesus did not weep for Lazarus; he wept because of the hardness of heart of the Jews who did not think Lazarus would be raised. - RBW
File: LH07
===
NAME: Little Farm, The: see Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm) (File: R668)
===
NAME: Little Fight in Mexico
DESCRIPTION: "They had a little fight in Mexico, It wasn't for the boys but the gals, you may know, Sing fa la la, sing fa la la, sing fa la la la day." Boys and girls "came to the place where the blood was shed," where (girls/boys) turned back but the dance continues
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting dancing fight
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Randolph 549, "Little Fight in Mexico" (2 texts, 1 tune, although the texts do not really look related)
BrownIII 79, "Little Fight in Mexico" (1 fragment)
Hudson 141, pp. 288-289, "Had a Big Fight in Mexico" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 9, "Johnny Cake" (4 texts, 1 tune, but the "B" text, entitled "Had a Little Fight in Mexico," is clearly this piece)
Roud #736
NOTES: Based on the content of this song, I would guess that it is not related to the Mexican War (Hudson states otherwise, but this is based only on the date; he knew people who claimed to have heard it c. 1860). - RBW
There is a town called Mexico in Missouri, although it's in the northern part of the state, not in the Ozarks. - PJS
File: R549
===
NAME: Little Fighting Chance, The [Laws J19]
DESCRIPTION: The "Little Fighting Chance" encounters a French warship. The battle is long, and the British take twenty casualties, but in the end they defeat the French vessel and take it home as a prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: ship battle navy
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws J19, "The Little Fighting Chance"
Mackenzie 82, "The Little Fighting Chance" (1 text)
DT 551, LILCHANC
Roud #980
File: LJ19
===
NAME: Little Fish, The: see Yea Ho, Little Fish (File: MA119)
===
NAME: Little Fisherman: see Cod Fish Song (File: EM005)
===
NAME: Little Gal at Our House: see Possum Up a Gum Stump (File: R280)
===
NAME: Little Geste of Robin Hood and his Meiny, A: see A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] (File: C117)
===
NAME: Little Girl (I): see In the Pines (File: LoF290)
===
NAME: Little Girl (II): see The Old Cow Died (Little Girl) (File: FSWB396A)
===
NAME: Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer hears screams of his daughter, who's been attacked by "an awful, dreadful snake." He runs through the woods to rescue her, but arrives too late; she is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (recording, Stanley Brothers)
KEYWORDS: death animal children father
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, "The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake" (Decca 28878, 1953)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake" (on NLCREP2, NLCRCD2) (NLCR16)
The Stanley Brothers, "The Little Girl And The Dreadful Snake" (Rich-R-Tone 1055, 1952)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Springfield Mountain" [Laws G16] (plot)
File: RcLGATDS
===
NAME: Little Girl and the Robin, The
DESCRIPTION: "There came to my window one morning in spring A sweet little robin that started to sing" "As soon as he had finished his... song A cruel young man with a gun came along. He killed... my sweet bird... No more will he sing at the break of the day"
AUTHOR: George J. Webb ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1889 (New First Music Reader)
KEYWORDS: bird death hunting music
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 880, "The Sweet Little Birdie" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 538-539, "The Sweet Little Birdie" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 880A)
Roud #7545
NOTES: If this were a traditional song, I'm sure folklorists would be all over it looking for a hidden meaning. Even though it seems to be composed, I suspect there is an additional meaning -- but I can't see what it is. - RBW
File: R880
===
NAME: Little Glass of Wine: see Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)
===
NAME: Little Golden Ring, The
DESCRIPTION: A sailor bids his mother, "a lone, weeping widow," farewell. He promises to return. She gives him a ring, saying, "Wear it for your mother's sake." He does well at sea, but then his mother's letters stop. He comes home to learn that she is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Doerflinger)
KEYWORDS: sailor mother separation death ring return
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Doerflinger, pp. 170-172, "The Little Golden Ring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9418
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(104b), "It Is But a Little Golden Ring," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: Doe170
===
NAME: Little Gypsy Girl, The: see The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4] (File: LO04)
===
NAME: Little Harry Huston: see Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)
===
NAME: Little Hero, The: see The Stowaway (File: GrMa051)
===
NAME: Little Indian Maid, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer grew up in American Indian culture: her father hunted and her mother worked in the wigwam. She helped her mother, but could not read, sew, or pray until the white man "taught poor Indians Jesus's name." She asks the Saviour to bless whites
AUTHOR: unknown, but I bet it wasn't an Indian [note from PJS]
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1957 (recording, Lotys Murrin)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of growing up in American Indian culture, while her hunter father roamed, "wild nature's child," and her mother stayed in the wigwam, wove baskets and sewed his moccasins. She helped her mother, but could not read, sew, or pray until the white man came and "taught poor Indians Jesus' name." Now she asks the Saviour to bless the white man
KEYWORDS: religious family Indians(Am.)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #4807
RECORDINGS:
Lotys Murrin, "The Little Indian Maid" (on Ontario1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Go Up to Shinum Place" (theme)
cf. "Indian Hymn" (theme)
NOTES: The song practically reeks of missionary origin, but Edith Fowke was unable to find a printed source. She notes that it was popular among lumberjacks. - PJS
Indeed, the several other songs of this type are generally produced by whites (hence their use of English, often pidgin English). Contrary to propaganda, the chief thing the locals caught from missionaries was not Christianity but epidemic diseases. - RBW
File: RcLitInM
===
NAME: Little Jack Horner
DESCRIPTION: "Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner Eating of Christmas pie. He put in his thumb And pulled out a plum, And said, What a good boy am I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1725 (Carey's Namby Pamby, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: food
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 262, "Little Jack Horner" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #50, p. 61, "(Little Jack Horner)"
cf. DT, MERRYLND
NOTES: This is probably only a nursery *rhyme*, and not a nursery *song*, and so properly does not belong in the Index. But Tony and Irene Saletan recorded it as part of their version of "Hail to Britannia" (which includes many nursery rhymes), so it does have a musical tradition of sorts. I also seem to recall a second tune for the second part of the verse. I include it, very tentatively, on that basis.
If one believes that all nursery rhymes have political contexts, this obviously has to do with political or ecclesiastical corruption. The quasi-official version of the story, according to the Baring-Goulds, is that the real Jack Horner was Thomas Horner of Glastonbury, who at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries managed to sneak several deeds to Henry VIII (allegedly in a piecrust), and managed to extract one for himself.
Carey's Namby Pamby, the source cited by the Opies, has itself some interesting references; according to Partridge's "A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English_, "Namby Pamby" was a name used by Carey, Swift, and Pope for the poetaster Ambrose Philips. According to Benet's _Reader's Encyclopedia_, it was Carey who first bestowed the name on Phillps (a friend of Addison and of Steele, who died 1749) due to Phillips's "eminence in infantile style."
As with his earlier near-contemporary John Fell (of "I do not love you, Doctor Fell" fame), Philips seems to be remembered only for the quip at his expense. In the case of Fell, that was unfair; he did genuinely useful work. But Philips's most popular poem seems to have been "To Miss Charlotte Pulteney in Her Mother's Arms," which is probably a clue to his work.... - RBW
File: BGMG050
===
NAME: Little Jimmy Murphy: see Jimmy Murphy (File: Beld291)
===
NAME: Little Joe the Wrangler [Laws B5]
DESCRIPTION: "Little Joe" runs away from home because of a parental remarriage. He is taken in by cowboys and learns how to herd cattle. When a storm starts blowing, he stops a stampede but is killed in the process
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp (1898)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908 (Thorp's "Songs of the Cowboys")
KEYWORDS: cowboy death
FOUND_IN: US(NW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Laws B5, "Little Joe the Wrangler"
Randolph 203, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (1 text)
Thorp/Fife I, pp. 28-37 (9-11), "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (4 texts -- one of them being "Sister Nell" and another a parody about "Joe... That hung that bunch of cactus on the wall," 1 tune)
Logsdon 2, pp. 32-37, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 123-126, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 79, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 166-167, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 265, "Little Joe The Wrangler" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 207-208, "Little Joe, The Wrangler" (1 text)
DT 373, LITTLEJO*
Roud #1930
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (Victor 21470, 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4344, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4780, 1935)
Leon Chappelear, "Little Joe the Wrangler" Champion 45068, c. 1935; Montgomery Ward M-4950, 1936)
Edward L. Crain, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (Crown 3239/Conqueror 8010, 1932; Homestead 22991, c. 1932)
Harry Jackson, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (on HJackson1)
Goebel Reeves, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (Melotone M-12214, 1931; Panachord 25313, 1932; on MakeMe)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (on AKStorm01)
Marc "The Cowboy Crooner" Williams, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (Brunswick 269, 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (subject, tune)
NOTES: Larkin notes that, in a cattle ride, the horse wrangler (responsible for controlling the horses and bringing them to the riders as needed) stood low in the social hierarchy but often played a vital role when the herd was nervous or the riders busy. - RBW
File: LB05
===
NAME: Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell
DESCRIPTION: The girl rides up to the cowboy's fire. She is looking for her brother Joe. The cowboys, reluctant to tell her that her brother is dead, listen to her sad story of a cruel stepmother. At last, seeing the brands on the cattle, she realizes the truth
AUTHOR: unknown (sometimes credited to N. Howard Thorp, author of "Little Joe the Wrangler"; Thorp himself in 1934 credited it to Kenneth Clark, according to Logsdon)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: abuse orphan death stepmother cowboy derivative
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 204, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (1 text)
Thorp/Fife I, pp. 28-37 (9-11), "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (4 texts, 1 tune -- the "B" text being "Sister Nell")
Ohrlin-HBT 69, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4049
RECORDINGS:
Harry Jackson, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (on HJackson1, CowFolkCD1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler" [Laws B5] (tune) and references there
NOTES: This song is item dB36 in Laws's Appendix II. For background on authorship and such, see Logsdon 2, pp. 32-37, "Little Joe the Wrangle. - RBW
File: R204
===
NAME: Little John a Begging [Child 142]
DESCRIPTION: Little John (goes/is assigned by Robin to go) a-begging. He meets up with beggars feigning disabilities who do not want his company and they fall to blows. Little John overcomes them and is much enriched by their stores which he takes to Sherwood.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1663
KEYWORDS: Robinhood begging fight disability
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 142, "Little John a Begging" (2 texts)
Bronson 142, comments only
Leach, pp. 406-408, "Little John a Begging" (1 text)
BBI, RZN2, "All you that delight to spend some time"
Roud #3988
NOTES: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. - RBW
File: C142
===
NAME: Little John Henry
DESCRIPTION: "It was early one mornin' And it looked like rain, Way roun' that curve, Lord, I spied a gravel train. O my little John Henry, Godamighty knows." "Now where'd you get your learnin'? Please tell it to me. On the Gulf and Colorado And the Santa Fe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933
KEYWORDS: train
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 300, "Little John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 198-199, "My Li'l John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune, a fragment placed her based primarily on the chorus)
Roud #6715
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long)" [Laws I16]
NOTES: Probably a "John Henry-ized" version of "Casey Jones" -- but it may be that this is another case of the Lomaxes turning a song into something else. - RBW
File: LoF300
===
NAME: Little Johnny Green: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: Little Log Cabin by the Sea
DESCRIPTION: Yet another song derived from "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane", but in this one the singer reminisces about the precious Bible his/her mother left behind in the log cabin by the sea
AUTHOR: Lyrics: Probably A. P. Carter; tune: Will S. Hays.
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible mother family
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #15142
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Little Log Cabin by the Sea" (Victor 21074, 1927)
DeBusk-Weaver Family, "Little Log Cabin by the Sea" (on DeBusk-Weaver1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune, structure) and references there
NOTES: This shouldn't be confused with "Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream" or any of the other "Log Cabin" songs; it's indexed primarily to differentiate it from them. - PJS
File: RcLLCBTS
===
NAME: Little Lost Child, The
DESCRIPTION: "A passing policeman found a little child... Says to her kindly, you must not cry; I'll find your mother by and by." At the station he realizes she is his daughter Jennie, with whose mother he had quarreled. When the mother arrives, they are reconciled
AUTHOR: Words: Edward B. Marks / Music: Joseph W. Stern
EARLIEST_DATE: 1894 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: father mother reunion children
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 728, "The Lost Child" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 148-150, "The Little Lost Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-Famous, pp. 132-137, "The Little Lost Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4651
RECORDINGS:
Earl Shirkey & Roy Harper, "The Little Lost Child" (Columbia 15642-D, 1931; rec. 1929)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Chimney Sweep" (plot)
File: R728
===
NAME: Little Low Plain, The: see The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)
===
NAME: Little Lowland Maid, The: see The Lovely Lowland Maid (File: Pea620)
===
NAME: Little Maggie
DESCRIPTION: Singer laments Maggie's drinking and straying ("Over yonder stands little Maggie... She's a drinking away her troubles and a-courting some other man"). He praises her beauty extravagantly, saying she was made to be his, but plans to leave town.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Grayson & Whitter)
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting love rejection parting drink travel
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Cambiaire, pp. 23-25, "Hustling Gamblers" (1 text, very long and with so much floating material that it could be linked with several songs, but "Little Maggie" seems to be the largest and most distinct part)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 102-104, "Hustling Gamblers" (1 text, from the same informant as Cambiaire, though apparently taken down independently and with some small difference, many of them orthographic)
Shellans, p. 11, "Little Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 48, "Little Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 277, "Little Maggie" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 193, "Little Maggie" (1 text)
DT, LILMAGGI*
Roud #5723
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bode, "Little Maggie" (on FBode1)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Little Maggie With a Dram Glass In Her Hand" Victor V-40135, 1929; Bluebird B-7072, 1937; rec. 1928)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers [or Wade Mainer], "Little Maggie" (Bluebird B-7201, 1937)
Wade Mainer, Zeke Morris & Steve Ledford, "Little Maggie" (Bluebird B-7201/Montgomery Ward M-7309, 1937; on GoingDown)
Ivor Melton & band, "Little Maggie"
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Maggie" (on NLCR16)
Frank Proffitt, "Little Maggie (on USWarnerColl01)
The Stanley Brothers, "Little Maggie" (Rich-R-Tone 423, rec. c. late 1947)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Corey" (words)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Little Maggie With a Dram Glass In Her Hand
NOTES: Although this shares several verses with "Darling Corey", it leaves out the latter song's central theme of moonshining; that, a different tune, and several divergent verses lead me to call this a different song. - PJS
Roud, of course, lumps them. I agree with Paul.
The notes to USWarnerColl01 note that this is widely recorded but rarely collected in the field; they speculate that its popularity derives from one or another old time country recording. This seems likely, with the first Grayson and Whitter version being the obvious candidate. - RBW
File: CSW048
===
NAME: Little Marget: see Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)
===
NAME: Little Marian Parker: see Marian Parker [Laws F33] (File: LF33)
===
NAME: Little Marion Parker: see Marian Parker (III) (File: LdF57)
===
NAME: Little Mary Fagan: see Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)
===
NAME: Little Mary Phagan: see Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)
===
NAME: Little Mary, the Sailor's Bride: see Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)
===
NAME: Little Massie Grove: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Little Mathy Groves: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Little Maud
DESCRIPTION: As the singer sleeps on some lumber, a policeman awakes and arrests him. He says he has lost his pocketbook and money, his crops are damaged, and he doesn't have a cent to his name. Chorus: "Little Maud, little Maud/She's the dearest darling of all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers)
KEYWORDS: captivity poverty love prison farming police hardtimes
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers, "Little Maud" (OKeh 45177, 1928, rec. 1927; on GoingDown)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Willy, Poor Boy" (floating verses, some similarity in the tune)
NOTES: To say that this song is disjointed would be an understatement. The verses sound like floaters, but aren't. - PJS
File: RcLitMau
===
NAME: Little Maumee, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Little Miss Muffet
DESCRIPTION: "Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet Eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider And sat down beside her And frightened Miss Muffet away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1797 (cf. Baring-Gould-MotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: food bug
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 369, "Little Miss Muffet" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #141, p. 114, "(Little Miss Muffet)"
NOTES: This is probably only a nursery *rhyme*, and not a nursery *song*, and so properly does not belong in the Index. But Tony and Irene Saletan recorded it as part of their version of "Hail to Britannia" (which includes many nursery rhymes), so it does have a musical tradition of sorts. I include it, very tentatively, on that basis.
The Baring-Goulds state, incidentally, that this is the most frequently illustrated of all nursery rhymes, even though (according to them) the word"tuffet" is otherwise unattested. - RBW
File: BGMG141
===
NAME: Little Mohea, The: see The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)
===
NAME: Little Mohee, The [Laws H8]
DESCRIPTION: A (foreign soldier) is greeted by a pretty Mohee. She offers to take him into her tribe if he will stay with her. He will not stay; he has a sweetheart at home. Returning home, he find his girl has left him, and wishes himself back with the Mohee
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) love abandonment infidelity
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (33 citations)
Laws H8, "The Little Mohea"
Belden, pp. 143-145, "Little Mohea" (1 text plus references to 6 more)
Randolph 63, "The Pretty Mohee" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 484-486, "The Pretty Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 63A)
BrownII 110, "Little Mohea" (1 text plus mention of 11 more)
Hudson 47, pp. 162-164, "Little Mohea" (2 texts plus mention of 3 more)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 336-345, "The Indian Lass" (6 texts plus a fragment/excerpt, with local titles "Pretty Mauhee," "The Pretty Mohea," "Pretty Mohea," "The Lass of Mohee," "Mawhee," "The Pretty Mahee," (no title); 1 tune on pp. 448-449)
Brewster 29, "The Pretty Mohee" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 17-18. "The Lass of Mohe" (1 text)
Logsdon 40, pp. 211-214, "The Little Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 725-726, "The Little Mohee" (1 text)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 52, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, p. 84, "The Little Mohea" (1 text)
Cambiaire, pp. 62-63, "The Pretty Mauhee" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 47, "Little Mohea" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 163-165, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 824-825, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 128-129, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H836, pp. 372-373, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text with many variant readings, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 91, pp. 197-198, "The Pretty Mohea" (1 text)
JHCox 116, "The Pretty Mohea" (3 texts)
JHCoxIIB, #12A-C, pp. 147-150, "The Pretty Mohea," "The Little Maumee" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 148-150, "The Lass of Mowee" ( text)
Colcord, pp. 199-200, "The Lass of Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 53, "The Young Spanish Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 103, "Little Mohee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 58, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 82-83, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 195-197, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 227-229, "The Little Mohee" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 148, "Little Mohee" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 482, "The Pretty Mohea" (source notes only)
DT 648, LILMOHEE*
Roud #275
RECORDINGS:
Hall Brothers, "Little Mo-Hee" (Bluebird B-6843/Montgomery Ward 7237, 1937)
Buell Kazee, "The Little Mohee" (Brunswick 156, 1927; Brunswick 436, 1930) (on Kazee01 [fragment])
Bradley Kincaid, "The Little Mohee" (Gennett 6856/Supertone 9402, 1929)
Flora Noles, "Little Mohee" (OKeh 45037, 1926)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "Little Mo-Hee", Perfect 5-10-14/Melotone 5-10-14, 1935; rec. 1934)
Riley Puckett, "Little Maumee" (Columbia 15277-D, 1928)
Roe Bros. & Morrell, "My Little Mohi" (Columbia 15199-D, 1927)
Ernest Stoneman and His Dixie Mountaineers, "The Pretty Mohea" (Edison, unissued, 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (tune)
cf. "The Indian Lass" (theme, some verses)
cf. "I'm a Stranger in this Country (The Darger Lad)" (theme, verses)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Cocoanut Grove
NOTES: Kittredge describes this as a "chastened" (i.e. de-bawdy-ized) American reworking of a British broadside, "The Indian Lass." It is agreed, though, that the American version is much superior to the British. [It may be agreed that this is superior to "The Indian Lass," but not by me. - PJS]
Barry, however, considers the American version original; it then became a sea song, with the girl transformed from a "Mohee" to a resident of Maui, and the British version descends from that. Belden concurs at least to the extent of calling it a sea song and saying "that the 'Indian lass' is a denizen not of America but of the South Seas."
Huntington splits the difference; he thinks the sea version is the original, and the source of the Native American version (he doesn't mention "The Indian Lass"). He offers no evidence for this view, except for the early dates of the whaling versions.
Just looking at the sundry texts, my (slight) inclination is to think "The Little Mohee" the original; "The Indian Lass" looks like this song with a little bit of "The Lake of Ponchartrain" mixed in and the Indian girl released from tribal affiliation.
Scarborough has a discussion of the matter, in which she supports Kittredge in calling it a British import. But she seems to consider the two still one song -- although her versions consistently mention the Mohee/Mauhee/Mawhee, she titles the song "The Indian Lass."
Whatever its origin, the song has become extremely popular in America (Laws lists in excess of two dozen versions, from more than a dozen states). Sundry tunes are used; many are close to "On Top of Old Smokey." - RBW
File: LH08
===
NAME: Little More Cider Too, A
DESCRIPTION: The singer loves drink and Miss (Snowflake/Dinah). He wishes they were apples rubbing against each other in the tree, and for more drink. Chorus: "A little more cider, cider, cider, a little more cider too, A little more cider for Miss Dinah...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink courting floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 46, "A Little More Cider Too" (2 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Roud #7866
File: Br3046
===
NAME: Little More Faith in Jesus, A
DESCRIPTION: "Mothers, don't you think it best, A little more faith in Jesus? Carry the witness in your breast, A little more faith in Jesus. All I want, all I need, All I want is a little more faith in Jesus." Similarly with fathers, children, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', p. 211, "A Little More Faith in Jesus" (1 text)
Roud #12067
File: ThBa211
===
NAME: Little Moscrow: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Little Moses
DESCRIPTION: The story of Moses in brief: Set adrift in a small boat in Egypt, he is found and raised by the daughter of Pharaoh. When grown, he leads his people across the Red Sea to safety while Pharaoh's host is destroyed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jew royalty abandonment river rescue hiding Jew
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Belden, p. 449, "Moses in the Bulrushes" (1 text)
Randolph 662, "Little Moses" (1 text)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 74, "Little Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 128-129, "Little Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 361, "Little Moses" (1 text)
DT, LITMOSES
Roud #3546
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Little Moses" (Victor 23641/Victor V-40110, 1929; Bluebird B-5924, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-5010, 1936; on AAFM2)
A. P. Carter Family, "Little Moses" (Acme 992, n.d. but post-WWII)
Harmon E. Helmick, "Little Moses" (Champion 16705, 1934; Decca 5498, 1938)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Finding of Moses" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
By the Side of a River
NOTES: The story of Moses being abandoned by his parents (who had to hide him to prevent him from being killed) is told in Exodus 2:1-10; the crossing of the Red Sea is covered in Exodus chapter 14. - RBW
File: R662
===
NAME: Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81]
DESCRIPTION: (Lady Barnard), left alone at home by her lord, convinces (Little Musgrave) to sleep with her. Her husband returns unlooked-for, and finds Musgrave in bed with his wife. Lord Barnard slays Musgrave in a duel, and then kills his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1611 (Beaumont & Fletcher)
KEYWORDS: adultery death
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland,England) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Jamaica
REFERENCES: (50 citations)
Child 81, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (15 texts)
Bronson 81, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (74 versions+1 in addenda)
Dixon III, pp. 21-29, "Lord Burnett and Little Munsgrove" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 150-194, "" (11 texts plus a collation, a fragment, and a text not from Maine, several of these being variants on versions learned from the same source; 8 tunes from Maine plus one from elsewhere; also extensive notes on version classification) {Ab=Bronson's #70, B=#59, Db=#21, E [Yankee Doodle]=#73, Gb=#60, H [The Little Red Lark] = #71, I=#66; the non-Maine tune is #13}
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 68-74, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Belden, pp. 57-60, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Randolph 20, "Little Mathy Groves" (1 short text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #58, C=#12}
Eddy 15, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #40}
Gardner/Chickering 7, "Lord Valley" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 195-237, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (10 texts, 7 tunes) {A=Bronson's #46, F=#65, J=#68}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 86-91, "Lord Arnold" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #46}
Davis-Ballads 23, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (6 texts, 1 tune entitled "Lord Daniel's Wife"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #72}
Davis-More 24, pp. 170-181, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownII 26, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts)
Chappell-FSRA 12, "Little Matthew Groves" (1 text)
Cambiaire, pp. 50-54, "Lord Daniel" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 65-68, "Matha Grove" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 143-149, colectively "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard," with individual texts "Little Mose Grove," "Lord Donald's Wife" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts; 1 tune on p. 400) {Bronson's #36}
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 30-32, "The Lyttle Musgrave" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 23 "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (10 texts plus 7 fragments, 17 tunes){Bronson's #16, #18, #22, #9, #17, #11, #19, #20, #37, #27, #14, #29, #42, #43, #48, #38, #10}
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 18, "Matthy Groves (Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard)" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #17}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 43-49, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #2, #23}
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 11-13, "Lord Arnold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 5, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 fragment, called "Little Matha Grove" by the singer, 1 tune) {Bronson's #47}
Peacock, pp. 613-616, "Lord Donald" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 11, "Matthy Groves" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 8, "Little Matha Grove" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Manny/Wilson 54, "Little Moscrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 265-273, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts)
Leach-Labrador 5, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBB 50, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 186, "Little Musgrave and the Lady Barnard" (1 text+2 fragments)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 22, "Little Matthew Grove (or, Lord Daniel's Wife)"; p. 62, "Lord Orland's Wife (or, Little Matthew Grew)" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {p. 22=Bronson's #51; p. 62=#6?}
Fuson, pp. 52-55, "Little Musgrove and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Warner 78, "Mathy Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 36, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB1, pp.119-122, "Little Massie Grove' (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 34, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 164, "Little Matthy Groves" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Gummere, pp. 337-340, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, printed in the notes to "Lord Randal")
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 123-127, "[Lyttle Musgrave]" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Hodgart, p. 60, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
TBB 17, "Little Musgrave" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 105-108, "Matha Grove" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
LPound-ABS, 15, pp. 37-39, "Little Matty Groves" (1 text)
JHCox 15, "Little Musgrave and Lary Barnard" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 47-50, "Lord Darnell" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 226, "Matty Groves" (1 text)
BBI, ZN286, "As it befell on a high Holyday"
DT 81, MATTIEGR* MATTIEG2*
Roud #52
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Mathie Groves" (on OldLove)
Green Maggard, "Lord Daniel" (AFS, 1934; on KMM)
Jean Ritchie, "Little Musgrave" (on JRitchie02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 401(91), "The Little Mousgrove, and the Lady Barnet," F. Coles (London), 1658-1664; also Douce Ballads 1(115b), Firth b.19(13)[many words illegible], "[The] Little Musgrove, and the Lady Barnet"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Birdy" [Child 82] (plot)
cf. "Run Mountain" (words)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Matty Groves
Matty Grove
Little Mattie Groves
Little Mathey Groves
Mathie Groves
Lord Barnard
Lord Arnold's Wife
Lord Daniel's Wife
Little Mathigrew
Lord Donald
NOTES: A fragment of this ballad is found in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act V, scene ii:
And some they whistled, and some they sung,
"Hey, down, down!"
And some did loudly say,
Ever as the Lord Barnet's horn blew,
"Away, Musgrave, away!"
There is a somewhat interesting twist in several of the versions. Usually the song says that the wife loves Musgrave/Mattie more than her Lord and all his kin -- but in both of Scarborough's texts and in Creighton and Barry/Eckstorm/Smythe p. 164 and a version from Sharp (Bronson's #42) and another from Karpeles (Bronson's #56) she loves his finger, and in Creighton/Senior #1 his tongue. Maybe it just strengthens the comparison -- but they're interesting body parts to care for; maybe there was more going on in that bedroom than we thought.
It also occurs to me that there is a certain similarity in this tale to "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Not in plot, really, but in incident. Note that Lord Barnard kills Little Musgrave in a formal contest in which Musgrave is granted the first blow. This is obviously a variant on the Beheading Game of "Sir Gawain" -- though in fact the contest is older; the first instance of the Beheading Game appears to have been the Irish prose saga of "Fled Bricrend," "Bricriu's Feast" (cf. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_, second edition revised and edited by Norman Davis, Oxford, 1967, p. xv); in this, Cuchulainn twice wins the Beheading Game. But Sir Gawain adds to this the temptation of Gawain by a lady while her husband is out hunting. One might say that "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" is "Sir Gawain" if Gawain had given in to temptation.
Not that there is much likelihood of literary dependence; "Sir Gawain" was effectively lost (only one copy is extant), and the tale seems to come from a region not associated with the main versions of "Little Musgrave." But there are a number of romances (listed in Tolkien/Gordon/Davis, pp. xvi-xvii) which are similar to "Sir Gawain" though weaker. Most of these are French, but they might have inspired the story.
Of course, there is an important footnote here: Three people ended up in Lord Barnard's bedroom: Barnard, his wife, and Musgrave. Only Barnard came out alive. Thus every detail must have been attested by Barnard. We could not know if there was actually a contest of blows, or what Lady Barnard said; it's perfectly possible, e.g., that Barnard struck Musgrave without warning, and that Musgrave inflicted Barnard's wound after he was himself struck. Or -- well, I leave the rest as an exercise for the reader, until someone comes up with an actual incident that might be the basis for the song. - RBW
File: C081
===
NAME: Little Musgrove and Lady Barnard: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Little Nell of Narragansett Bay
DESCRIPTION: "Full well do I remember My boyhood's happy hours... The bright and sparkling water O'er which we used to sail." The singer and Nell were never afraid at sea. But one day her body is found by the shore. Ten years later, he still weeps for the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: ship death drowning separation mourning
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 30-31, "Bright-Eyed Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, p. 119, "Little Nell of Narragansette Bay" (1 text)
Brewster 88, "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (source notes only)
ST Brew88 (Partial)
Roud #3274
NOTES: There is another "Little Nell" ballad in the National Library of Scotland collection; this too revolves around a dead girl. It is suggested tht the name was inspired by the Little Nell of Dickens's _The Old Curiosity Shop_. The same suggestion might apply here. Or might not, of course. - RBW
File: Brew88
===
NAME: Little Old Dudeen
DESCRIPTION: If not for Walter Raleigh "I wouldn't be smoking my old dudeen." The singer smokes to keep peace when his wife grumbles. At his wake there'll be poteen but "into me gob, so help me bob, you'll find me old dudeen"
AUTHOR: Words: Ed Harrigan/Music: John Braham
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Peacock); reportedly written 1875
KEYWORDS: nonballad funeral
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1554-1618 - Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, credited in the song with bringing tobacco to Europe (in fact it was first introduced to Europe by Columbus, and cultivated in Iberia; the first American tobacco plantation was founded by John Rolfe)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 377-378, "My Old Dudeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea337 (Partial)
Roud #9787
NOTES: Library of Congress American Memory 19th century song sheets collection as "Little Old Dudeen": Words Ed Harrigan, Music John Braham, pub Boston 1875.
Harrigan and Hart famous vaudeville team per The Big Bands Database Plus site entry for David Braham.
See The Black Dudeen by Robert Service for one [use of the] phrase "tucked in me gub, me old dudeen." - BS
For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
File: Pea337
===
NAME: Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream (Rosalie)
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the happy time when he and the old folks partied with the fiddle and banjo. Now death has taken his (Rose/Rosalie) "From the little old log cabin by the stream." She was killed by "swamp fever"; and others are likely to be taken also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: death love fiddle
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So, SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 710, "Rosalie" (1 text)
DT, LOGCABIN*
Roud #7376
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream" (OKeh 45198, 1928; rec. 1927)
NOTES: I'm not sure what to make of this piece; Randolph's version sounds like a southern minstrel piece, yet the Digital Tradition version, from Illinois, is neither southern nor minstrel-ish.
Making the matter more confusing is the fact that Randolph's informant, Rose Wilder Lane, is of course the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and might thus have had the song from the Ingalls (i.e. Wisconsin) tradition. - RBW
Yes, but it could have entered that tradition from the minstrel shows. They toured everywhere in the USA (and in Britain as well). - PJS
And there is a possibility that one or the other version, probably Lane's, could be from the Fiddlin' John Carson version. - (PJS,RBW)
File: R710
===
NAME: Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a former slave, is getting old and can't work; his master and mistress and fellow slaves are gone; only his old dog remains. His home is falling apart. He recalls the dances they used to have. He hopes the angels will watch over him.
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST_DATE: 1871 (sheet music)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer, a former slave, is getting old and feeble; he can't work any more, his master and mistress are gone, and so are the other former slaves; no one else remains except his old dog. In former days the other "darkies" would gather around his door, and he'd play the banjo while they danced. His house is falling down, the footpath is overgrown and the fences fall down. Chorus: "The chimney's falling down, and the roof is caving in/I ain't got long round here to remain/The angels watches over me when I lay down to sleep/In the little old log cabin in the lane"
KEYWORDS: age loneliness home abandonment death farming dancing music slavery nonballad animal dog friend slave Black(s)
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #2473
RECORDINGS:
Bentley Ball, "De Little Old Log Cabin in de Lane" (Columbia A3087, 1920)
Kenneth Barton [pseud. for Marian Underwood], "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Challenge 331, 1927)
Binkley Bros. Dixie Clodhoppers, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor V-40129, 1929)
Frank [or Kenneth] Calvert [pseud. for somebody, probably Vernon Dalhart or Carson Robison], "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Grey Gull/Radiex 4135, 1927)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (OKeh 4890, 1923)
Carroll Clark, "De Little Old Log Cabin in de Lane" (Columbia A-696, 1909)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Cameo 1174/Romeo 399, 1927) 2455
Girls of the Golden West, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 23857, 1933; Bluebird B-5737, 1934)
Doc Hopkins, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Broadway 8305, rec. 1931)
Bradley Kincaid, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Champion 15923 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9505, 1929)
Silas Leachman, "Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 1893, 1903)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner [Mac and Bob], "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Brunswick 350, 1929; Supertone S-2036, 1930; Aurora [Canada] 22004, 1931)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Vocalion 14864, 1924)
Clayton McMichen "Log Cabin in the Lane" (Crown 3447 [as Bob Nichols], 1933; Varsity 5026, n.d. but prob. c. 1939)
Metcalf & Spencer, "The Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia 645, 1902; Columbia A-480, 1909)
Metropolitan Quartet, "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Edison 80484, n.d.) (CYL: Edison [BA] 3573, n.d.)
David Miller, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Gennett 3082/Silvertone 4019, 1925)
Fiddlin' Powers & Family "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 19448, 1924) (Edison, unissued, 1925)
Riley Puckett, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia 107-D, 1924) (Columbia 15171-D, 1927)
Oscar Seagle, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia A-3582, 1922; rec. 1921)
Frank C. Stanley, "A Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Imperial 44823, c. 1906)
Ernest V. Stoneman "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 20235, 1926) (Montgomery Ward M-8305 [as Stoneman's Dixie Mountaineers], 1939); Ernest V. Stoneman Trio, "Little Log Cabin in the Lane" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
John White, "The Little Old Log Cabin" (Paramount 3190, 1930)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim" (tune)
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (subject, tune)
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune)
cf. "Beans, Bacon, and Gravy" (tune)
cf. "The Freehold on the Plain" (tune)
cf. "Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (tune)
cf. "Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square" (tune)
cf. "cf. "Sara Jane" (tune)
cf. "My Cabin Home Among the Hills" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim (File: R197)
Little Joe the Wrangler [Laws B5] (File: LB05)
The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill (File: HHH642)
Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell (File: R204)
The Freehold on the Plain (File: FaE174)
Beans, Bacon, and Gravy (File: Arn170)
Sara Jane (File: RcSarJan)
The Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square (File: FCW025H)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I) (File: BRaF455)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (II) (File: Br3235)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (III) (File: RcTLRCBT)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (IV) (File: LSRai261)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (V) (The Hobo Tramp) (File: LSRai382)
My Cabin Home Among the Hills (File: RcMCHAtH)
Callahan Brothers, "Little Poplar Log House on the Hill" (Conqueror 8384, 1934)
NOTES: This pop song is the basis from which all of the cross-referenced songs were built. From a modern perspective it's sentimentally stereotyped balderdash, but it was a huge hit when published -- and, judging by the number of versions on 78s, it remained wildly popular half a century later. (Presumably among white people.) It's indexed here primarily because of the genuine folk songs it inspired. - PJS
According to Bill Malone (_Don't Get above Your Raisin'_, p. 54), the 1923 Fiddlin' John Carson recording is "one side of the first documented recording of a southern rural musician." - RBW
Not quite; Eck Robertson recorded several sides of fiddle music on Victor before Carson made his first recording, and one of the discs was released before Carson's. But it didn't have any impact, probably because Victor considered itself a "prestige" label and had no idea how to market it. (They also, unlike their competitors, had no distribution agreement with a major mail-order company like Sears, and wouldn't until the 1930s, so they missed a prime means of distribution to rural buyers.) Carson's OKeh disc, backed with "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow," wasn't the first, but it was the one that started the avalanche. - PJS
File: RcLOLCIL
===
NAME: Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls how his father sold the livestock to send him across the sea, "For in Paddy's land but poverty you'll find." The singer misses home, mother, the local music; he wishes he were still there
AUTHOR: S.Gaffney
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration poverty
FOUND_IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H642, pp. 207-208, "The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 100-101, "Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (1 text)
Roud #9271
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Coyle, "The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler" [Laws B5] (tune) and references there
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH207
===
NAME: Little Old Sod Shanty in the West: see The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)
===
NAME: Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer admits, "I'm looking rather seedy while holding down my claim." His little sod shanty is made of poor materials and is infested by mice. He recalls the easier life out east, and wishes a girl would join him
AUTHOR: Lindsey Baker?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888?
KEYWORDS: hardtimes settler bachelor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 20, 1862 - President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act
FOUND_IN: US(MW,Ro,So) Canada(West)
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Randolph 197, "The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 90-91, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 89-91, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife VII, pp. 87-96 (20), "Little Adobe Casa" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 142-143, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 205, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 25, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (7 texts, 2 tunes, though some of these -- especially the "G" and "H" texts -- appear distinct)
Arnett, pp. 94-95, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 74, p. 165, "The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 332-333, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 121, "The Little Old Sod Shanty On My Claim" (1 text)
DT, SODSHANT*
Roud #4368
RECORDINGS:
Jules Verne Allen, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (Victor 23757, 1933; on MakeMe)
Craver & Tanner [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart & probably Carson Robison], "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (Vocalion 5342, 1929)
Jenkins Family, "That Little Old Sod Shanty" (OKeh 45563, 1932; rec. 1930)
Lone Star Ranger, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (Regal 8881, 1929)
Chubby Parker, "My Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim" (Gennett 6319/Silvertone 25103, 1927)
Jack Weston, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (Van Dyke 84293, 1929)
John White, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (Domino 4440/Cameo 9321 [as "My Little Old Sod Shanty"], 1929)
Marc Williams, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (Brunswick 564, 1931; rec. 1930)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor)" (theme)
cf. "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (tune & meter)
cf. "I Will Tell You My Troubles" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square" (tune & meter)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Little Vine-Clad Cottage
The Little 'Dobe Casa
Little Old Sod Shanty in the West
NOTES: This piece is probably based on Will S. Hays's "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane," with which it shares a melody.
The song clearly dates back to the latter part of the nineteenth century, the period of Homestead Claims. The Homestead Act of 1862 had opened large areas of the western U.S. to settlement, allowing settlers to lay claim to 160 acre sections in return for nominal payments. However, the settlers were required to live on their claims for five years before they could "prove up" and gain title to the property. Many settlers, like the one here, wound up living in impossible conditions because it was the only way to stake the claim.
Fife in Thorp/Fife treats "Little Adobe Casa," and some related parodies, as separate from "Little Old Sod Shanty." (Interestingly, the Fifes lump the songs in "Cowboy and Western Songs"). To me these look to be simply localizations of the same song, and there are intermediate versions, so I do not separate them.
Several people seem to have claimed the authorship (e.g. Pound lists a report that one Emery Miller claims to have made it up while living on a claim in the 1880s). The claim by Baker seems to be the strongest, but proof is probably impossible. - RBW
File: R197
===
NAME: Little Page Boy, The: see Child Waters [Child 63] (File: C063)
===
NAME: Little Piece of Whang, The
DESCRIPTION: When the Lord sewed up Adam and Eve, He measured wrong, leaving Adam with a little piece of whang, and Eve with a gap. Ever since then, men have sought to lend women a bit of the whang to fill the gap.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 496-498, "The Little Piece of Whang" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8384
NOTES: Legman provides citations to a number of folktale antecedents to the modern bawdy song in Randolph-Legman I. - EC
The earliest of said folktales is apparently found in de Verville's "Le Moyen de Parvenir" (1610). However, one can find something rather similar as far back as Plato. The reference in the song is, of course, to Gen. 2:21-22. - RBW
File: RL496
===
NAME: Little Pig, The: see There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)
===
NAME: Little Pink
DESCRIPTION: "My pretty little Pink, I once did think, That you and I would marry." The singer complains that the girl has taken too long to make up her mind. In some versions he is a soldier who sets out to see the sights and fight in the Mexican War
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation soldier floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Sandburg, p. 166, "My Pretty Little Pink" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 793, "Careless Love" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "B" text belongs here if it belongs anywhere)
BrownIII 287, "Darling Little Pink" (1 text); also 78, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees" (7 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more, but almost all mixed -- all except "H" have the "Coffee grows" stanza, but "A" also has verses from "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss"; "and "C" through "H" are mostly "Little Pink"; "B" is mixed with "Raccoon" or some such)
Hudson 85, p. 212, "Going to the Mexican War" (1 fragment, with the "Knapsack on my Shoulder" text and also the "Coffee Grows" stanza; there isn't much "Little Pink" in it, but it clearly goes with the Brown texts cited above)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #808, p. 301, "(My little pink)" (a fragment that appears related but may be a by-blow)
ST San166 (Full)
Roud #735
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "We're Marching Down to Old Quebec" (floating verses)
File: San166
===
NAME: Little Plowing Boy, The: see The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy) [Laws M24] (File: LM24)
===
NAME: Little Poppa Rich
DESCRIPTION: Children's game: "Little poppa-rich you draw your long lannet/Sit by the fire and spin/The hen's in the window a-combing her hair/The cat in the corner a-frying his fish... Cocka-pen dungle a-blowing his horn/The wind was high and it blowed him away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense paradox playparty animal chickens
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacSeegTrav 123, "Little Poppa Rich" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16639
NOTES: I call this a playparty for want of a keyword "game." - PJS
File: McCST123
===
NAME: Little Red Caboose behind the Train (I), The
DESCRIPTION: In this maudlin ballad, a young conductor is taking his bride to the city for their honeymoon. The train collides with the express, and the bride is killed. Now the old white-haired conductor "rides all alone In that little red caboose behind the train."
AUTHOR: Words: Bob Miller (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: train marriage wreck death
FOUND_IN: US(MA) Canada
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 261-263, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train" (2 texts; tune referenced. The "A" text is this piece;"B" is "Little Red Caboose (IV)")
Botkin-RailFolklr, p. 455, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4762
RECORDINGS:
Barney Burnett & Bob Miller's Hinky Dinkers, "Little Red Caboose" (Brunswick 446/Supertone S-2074, 1930)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Red Caboose" (Velvet Tone 1893-V/Diva 2893-G/Harmony 893-H [as Mack Allen], 1929)
Bob Ferguson [pseud. for Bob Miller] & his Scalawaggers "Little Red Caboose" (Columbia 15616-D, 1930)
Bob Miller, "Little Red Caboose" (Grey Gull 4286/Van Dyke 74286, 1930 [as Miller & Burnett]) (Victor 23693, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-4337, 1933)
Red River Dave (McEnery), "Little Red Caboose" (Musicraft 285, 1944)
Rocky Mountaineers, "Little Red Caboose" (Columbia [UK] FB-1249, 1935)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (II), (III), (IV), (V)" (tune, structure)
NOTES: This is one of several songs by this name, all set to the tune of "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; you should check out the others as well, as they're sometimes hard to untangle. It should also not be confused with the dance tune "Little Red Caboose," as recorded by Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas.
It looks like Vernon Dalhart rushed his recording into print before the author's. - PJS
Roud for some reason lumps at least the first two "Little Red Caboose" songs, though they are clearly different in purpose (Caboose I is a song about a young woman's death, Caboose II is about railroad life). - RBW
File: BRaF455
===
NAME: Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (II), The
DESCRIPTION: "Now I am a jolly railroad man and braking is my trade." He tells of the enjoyable life throwing switches and making up trains, and mentions the "jolly crew" resting in the little red caboose. He wishes luck and the attention of angels for the crew
AUTHOR: unknown (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (recording, Pickard Family)
KEYWORDS: work train nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 583-590, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (3 texts, 1 tune; only the "A" text is this piece; "B" and "C," both short, are probably "Caboose" (III); also a sheet music cover from a song that is none of these)
BrownIII 235, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train" (1 text)
Roud #4762
RECORDINGS:
Pickard Family, "Little Red Caboose" (Banner 6371/Cameo 9278/Conqueror 7349/Domino 4328/Jewel 5590/Lincoln 3305/Oriole 1562/Regal 8776/Apex[Canada] 8916/Crown[Canada] 81057/Melotone[Canada] 81037/Sterling[Canada] 281057, all 1929; Paramount 3231/Broadway 8179 [as Pleasant Family]/Conqueror 7736, 1931)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I), (III), (IV), (V)" (tune, structure)
NOTES: This is one of several songs by this name, all set to the tune of "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; you should check out the others as well, as they're sometimes hard to untangle. It should also not be confused with the dance tune "Little Red Caboose," as recorded by Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas. - PJS
Roud for some reason lumps at least the first two "Little Red Caboose" songs, though they are clearly different in purpose (Caboose I is a song about a young woman's death, Caboose II is about railroad life). - RBW
File: Br3235
===
NAME: Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (III), The
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a railroader, says he's getting old and feeble, and the only friend he has is the caboose (or his watch). He reminisces about working as a brakeman on the L&N and Southern railroads, and ironically wishes his young successors well
AUTHOR: unknown (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Marian Underwood & Sam Harris)
KEYWORDS: age disability loneliness train railroading technology work nonballad worker
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 583-590, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (3 texts, 1 tune; the short"B" and "C" texts are probably this piece; "A" is "Caboose" (II); also a sheet music cover from a song that is none of these)
RECORDINGS:
Marian Underwood & Sam Harris, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (Gennett 6155/Champion 15297 [as Clinch Valley Boys]/Challenge 334 [as Borton & Thompson]/Herwin 75549, all 1927)
Paul Warmack & his Gully Jumpers, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (Victor V-40067, 1929; on RRinFS)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I), (II), (III), (V)" (tune, structure)
NOTES: This is one of several songs by this name, all set to the tune of "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; you should check out the others as well, as they're sometimes hard to untangle. It should also not be confused with the dance tune "Little Red Caboose," as recorded by Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas.
Paul Warmack copyrighted the lyrics in 1930, but since he copyrighted the well-known music as well, and the Underwood-Harris recording precedes his, his claim is doubtful at best. - PJS
It's worth noting that, of the "Red Caboose" songs, this is the one most directly inspired by "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; not only does it share the tune, but also the plot of an old man looking back. It simply changes an old slave to an old raildoadman. - RBW
File: RcTLRCBT
===
NAME: Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (IV), The
DESCRIPTION: "Bill Jackson was a brakeman on number 51." Engineer Dad Mendenhall loses his brakes on Crooked Hill. The crew scrambles to set the brakes by hand in icy weather. Bill is thrown from the train and dies; his body is brought home in the caboose
AUTHOR: probably John Lair (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (100 WLS Barn Dance Favorites)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 261-263, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train (I)" (2 texts; tune referenced. The "B" text is this piece;"A" is "Little Red Caboose (I)")
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I), (II), (III), (V)" (tune, structure)
File: LSRai261
===
NAME: Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (V), The (The Hobo Tramp)
DESCRIPTION: "I will sing you a little song, won't entertain you long, 'Bout the hoboes that promenade the streets." The hobos travel about, suffering in the cold, wishing they could be in the caboose.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1892 (Delaney's _Collection of Songs_)
KEYWORDS: train hobo nonballad travel
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 382-384, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train (II)" (2 texts; tune referenced)
RECORDINGS:
(Tom) Darby & (Jimmie) Tarlton, "The Hobo Tramp" (Columbia 15293-D, 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I), (II), (III), (IV)" (tune, structure)
NOTES: According to Cohen, the Darby & Tarlton recording is the only version of this song not from a songster, and there are only a few print versions. There is no evidence that it ever went into tradition. On the other hand, the melody implies that it is one of the vast constellation of "red caboose" songs, so perhaps Cohen is right to include it in his book. - RBW
File: LSRai382
===
NAME: Little Red Fox, The
DESCRIPTION: "The little red fox is a raider sly" taking ducks, cocks, and geese for "a family young and growing." He is a "family man," a "hero bold" and a "gallant knight." He is finally "taken 'mongst the rocks, For the love of two bright eyes dying"
AUTHOR: Francis Arthur Fahy (1854-1935) (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: theft death humorous animal family
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 69, "The Little Red Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OLochlainn-More: "Adapted from the old ballad of the Maidirin Rua which was a macaronic song -- mixed Gaelic and English." - BS
Francis Arthur Fahy is probably most famous as the author of "The Ould Plaid Shawl." - RBW
File: OLcM069
===
NAME: Little Red Train, The
DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, this describes the sexual activities and practices of the train crew and passengers. Recognized by the internal chorus, "(She/It) blew, (She/it) blew" and the final line "How (she/it) blew."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: bawdy train humorous nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Cray, pp. 224-226, "The Little Red Train" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 254-256, "The Runaway Train" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 379, "The Wind It Blew Up the Railroad Track" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, SHEBLEW*
Roud #9859
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Runaway Train" (Brunswick 2911, 1925) (Victor 19684, 1925) (Oriole 454 [as Dick Morse], 1925) (Edison 51584, 1925) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5028, n.d.) (Perfect 12207 [as Guy Massey], 1925)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (tune)
cf. "Snapoo" (tune)
cf. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" (tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Runaway Train
The Sixty-Nine Comes Down the Track
NOTES: The history of this song is a bit vague, as it has both clean and dirty forms. Sandburg prints a single stanza of a clean text (saying of it "This is for cold weather, around the stove in the switch shanty"). But the bawdy version seems to be much more widespread.
Which is original? The evidence available to me does not make it clear. The possibility that Sandburg's text is bowdlerized cannot be denied. - RBW
The Sandburg version may indeed be bowdlerized, but Vernon Dalhart also put out a clean version of "The Runaway Train" in 1925, two years before. Actually, he put it out several times that year, on different labels. Sandburg's verse isn't on his recording(s), though. - PJS
File: EM224
===
NAME: Little Rosewood Casket
DESCRIPTION: The singer, dying for love, asks her sister to bring her love's letters, kept in the rosewood casket. Having heard them read, she prepares to die and asks that the letters, (ring), and other tokens be buried with her
AUTHOR: Louis P. Goullaud & Charles A. White
EARLIEST_DATE: 1870 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: death love infidelity ring farewell
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Australia
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Belden, p. 220, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text)
Randolph 763, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 507-509, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 763A)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 123-126, "Little Rosewood Casket" (2 texts)
BrownII 273, "Little Rosewood Casket" (3 texts plus mention of 21 others )
JHCoxIIB, #28A-B, pp. 185-197, "A Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 182-183, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text)
Shellans, p. 40, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 261-262, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, p. 35, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 276-277, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 182, "Rosewood Casket"; p. 269, "Little Rosewood Casket" (2 texts)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 482, "The Rosewood Casket" (source notes only)
DT, RSEWOOD*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 206, "(The Rosewood Casket)" (1 text)
Roud #426
RECORDINGS:
Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (Rich-R-Tone 415, n.d. but post-WWII)
Vernon Dalhart "The Little Rosewood Casket" (Edison 51607, 1925) (Victor 19770, 1925) (Cameo 811, 1925; Romeo 333, 1927) (Broadway 8056-D, c. 1930) (OKeh 40488 [as Tobe Little], 1925) (Herwin 75506, mid-to-late 1920s) (Banner 6044/Domino 0199, 1927; Conqueror 7175, 1928; Conqueror 7750, 1931) (Champion 15906, 1930; Champion 45076, c. 1935; rec. 1928)
Cal Davenport & his Gang, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Vocalion 5371, 1929)
Arthur Fields, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Radiex 02272, 1926)
Betty Garland, "Little Rosewood Casket" (on BGarland01)
Sid Harkreader, "There's A Little Rosewood Casket" (Broadway 8056, c. 1930)
Lulu Jackson, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Vocalion 1278, 1929)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (Gennett 6989/Supertone 9403, 1929); (Bluebird B-5895, 1935)
George Reneau, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Vocalion 5057/Vocalion 14997/Silvertone 3044, 1925)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Little Rosewood Casket" (on AKStorm01)
Ernest Thompson, "The Little Rosebud Casket" (Columbia 216-D, 1924)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Last Token"
NOTES: Titled by the authors, "A Package of Old Love Letters," this title seems extinct in tradition. - RBW
There are two listings under RECORDINGS for Broadway 8056; one is credited to Vernon Dalhart & Co., the other to Sid Harkreader. At this date, I do not know which is correct. - PJS
[I think it's the Harkreader, but presumably the Dalhart is an error for some other Broadway disc, so I'm leaving the reference for now until someone can sort it out. - RBW]
File: R763
===
NAME: Little Sadie: see Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) [Laws I8] (File: LI08)
===
NAME: Little Sally Racket: see Haul 'Er Away (Little Sally Racket) (File: FSWB086A)
===
NAME: Little Sally Walker
DESCRIPTION: "Little Sally Walker, sitting in (a saucer), Cryin' (for the old man to come for the dollar), (Ride, Sally, Ride). (Fly) to the east, (fly) to the west, (Fly) to the one that you love best."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So) Ireland Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber),Wales)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
SHenry H48g, p. 11, "Old Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson 143, pp. 209-291, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
Courlander-NFM, p. 157, "(Little Sally Walker)" (1 text); p. 278, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 392, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
DT, LTLSALLY; also SALWALKER (a collection of several songs with this title, some of which belong here)
Roud #4509
RECORDINGS:
Mattie Gardner, Ida Mae Towns & Jessie Lee Pratcher, "Little Sally Walker" (on LomaxCD1703)
Vera Hall, "Little Sally Walker" (AFS 1323 B1, 1937)
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Little Sally Walker" (on NFMAla1)
Pete Seeger, "Little Sally Walker" (on PeteSeeger21)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "What's Poor Mary Weepin' For (Poor Jenny Sits A-Weeping)" (lyrics)
NOTES: In England, if the collections in Gomme are to be believed, this is about equally known as "Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping" and "Little Sally Walker/Waters." The latter name seems to dominate in the U. S., and so has been used on the basis of plurality.
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #644, p. 256, begins "Sally, Sally Waters, sprinkle in the pan" and ends "Choose for the prettiest that you like best." This certainly sounds related, but on its face it doesn't appear the same song. - RBW
File: CNFM157
===
NAME: Little Sally Waters: see Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)
===
NAME: Little Saro Jane: see Liza Jane (File: San132)
===
NAME: Little Scotch Girl, The: see The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)
===
NAME: Little Scotch-ee: see Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)
===
NAME: Little Seaside Village, The
DESCRIPTION: "To a little seaside village came a youth one summer day." He wooed a girl, but then left a letter, "Goodbye, I'm going home." A year later he decides he loves her; her father shows him her grave; her message to him was "Goodbye, I'm going home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941
KEYWORDS: death betrayal love courting separation abandonment
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 801, "The Little Seaside Village" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 520-522, "The Little Seaside Village" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 801)
Roud #7422
File: R801
===
NAME: Little Shepherd, The: see Balm in Gilead (File: FSWB360A)
===
NAME: Little Shingle Mill, The: see Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell) [Laws C13] (File: LC13)
===
NAME: Little Shoe Black, The
DESCRIPTION: "I'm Daniel O'Connor, an orphan I am, My father and mother both lately did die, But, 'I clean your boots, Shall I shine your boots!' It's all day long I cry. Just give me one try and I'm sure you'll come back, Please to encourage this little shoe black."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: orphan work clothes hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 36-37, "The Little Shoe Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MCB036
===
NAME: Little Soldier's Boy, The: see The Soldier's Poor Little Boy [Laws Q28] (File: LQ28)
===
NAME: Little Son Hugh: see Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)
===
NAME: Little Sparrow: see Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)
===
NAME: Little Streak o' Lean, A
DESCRIPTION: "A little streak o' lean, an' a little streak o' fat, Ole Massa grumble ef you eat much o' dat!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food slave
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 207-208, "Work-Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
File: ScNF207B
===
NAME: Little Streams of Whisky: see The Dying Hobo [Laws H3] (File: LH03)
===
NAME: Little Swiler, The
DESCRIPTION: "He was such a very little chap, Blue eyes and sunny smile"; when the boy's father becomes ill, the youth sneaks off (with a knife but no gaff) to take a seal. A band of sealers finds him, feeds him, takes him home, for he "was really only ten"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small)
KEYWORDS: youth work disease father children
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 116, "The Little Swiler" (1 text)
File: RySm116
===
NAME: Little Thatched Cabin, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the "little thatched cabin Where first shone the light of my life's early morn." He describes learning from and working for his parents. Now he is old, "and kind fortune smiles on me," but he would trade the fortune to be a boy again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home age
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H91, p. 156, "The Little Thatched Cabin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8121
RECORDINGS:
Big John Maguire, "The Neatly Thatched Cabin" (on Voice20)
NOTES: Sam Henry thought, based on a reference to vines, that this song originated in America. I'm not sure that constitutes proof, but I seem to recall seeing a very similar poem -- somewhere. So he is likely right. - RBW
File: HHH091
===
NAME: Little Vine-Clad Cottage, The: see The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)
===
NAME: Little White Cat, The (An Caitin Ban)
DESCRIPTION: The little white cat finds her kitten "dead in the hay of a manger." The sad mother brings the dead body home. The pretty kitten had never broken anything and had no enemies except mice.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection; Gaelic text in Costello 1923)
KEYWORDS: death animal
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H510, p. 17, "The Little White Cat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 228-229, "The Little White Cat (1 text, a translation from the Irish said to be by "Mrs. Costello of Tuam")
Roud #13342
File: HHH510
===
NAME: Little White Robe
DESCRIPTION: Come on fathers and let's go home, I'm a-going where my troubles will be over, will be over, will be over I'm a-going where... There's a little white robe a-waiting for me, I'm a-going where..." Repeat for mothers, brothers, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 607, "Lily White Robe" (1 text)
Roud #5740 and 7137
RECORDINGS:
Frank Proffitt, "Little White Robe" (on FProffitt01)
File: RcLWRobe
===
NAME: Little White Rose, The
DESCRIPTION: "He gave me a rose, a pretty white rose, And asked me to wear it for him. She recalls their happy days together. Later, he is found dead, having thrown himself into the stream with a rose in his mouth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drowning suicide courting flowers
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 276, "The Little White Rose" (1 text plus mention of 2 fragments)
Roud #6628
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie Down by the Pond (Sinful to Flirt)" [Laws G19] (plot)
File: BrII276
===
NAME: Little Willie (I)
DESCRIPTION: "Little Willie went to heaven On a bright an' starry night, When I last viewed him in his coffin In his little Sunday suit." The singer describes the possessions the boy left behind. His sister hopes to meet him soon. Jesus will care for him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: death family corpse religious
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 613, "Little Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LTWILLIE*
Roud #7443
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Blue-Haired Boy (Little Willie II, Blue-Haired Jimmy)"
File: R613
===
NAME: Little Willie (II): see Blue-Haired Boy (Little Willie II, Blue-Haired Jimmy) (File: RcBlHaJi)
===
NAME: Little Willie and Mary: see Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)
===
NAME: Little Yorkshire Boy, The: see The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)
===
NAME: Liverpool Dock
DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to his mother as his ship sails away from Liverpool Dock. He hopes to return to his home, but there will be no one to meet him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: mother separation emigration parting
FOUND_IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 95, "Liverpool Dock" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragmentary text that might fit with any number of emigration ballads)
McBride 69, "Welcome Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R095 (Full)
Roud #3266
File: R095
===
NAME: Liverpool Girls: see The Liverpool Judies (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll) (File: Doe106)
===
NAME: Liverpool Judies, The (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll)
DESCRIPTION: The young sailor sets out from England to America. But a wild, drunken life lands him at the boarding-master's. Back at sea, he suffers cruelly at the hands of the mate (whom he curses to hell). (At last he arrives back in port)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: sailor abuse drink return shanty
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Doerflinger, p. 106, "Roll, Julia, Roll (Row, Bullies, Row)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone, pp. 118-120, "The Liverpool Girls" (1 text, 1 tune, slightly cleaned up)
Colcord, pp. 176-177, "Row, Bullies, Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 198-199, "The Liverpool Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 401-403, "The Liverpool Judies" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 304-306]
Lomax-FSNA 30, "Row, Bullies, Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 66, "The Liverpool Pilot" (1 text, 1 tune, a perhaps slightly adapted version but with too many similarities to split)
Creighton-NovaScotia 126, "Liverpool Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LIVJUDY LIVJUDY2
Roud #928
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "The Liverpool Pilot" (on NFABest01)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Towrope Girls
NOTES: [Regarding their "Liverpool Pilot" version, Lehr/Best report] the singer "describes this as a heave-up shanty." The chorus is "And it's row, row, row bullies row For the Liverpool Pilot she have us in tow." - BS
File: Doe106
===
NAME: Liverpool Landlady, The: see Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)
===
NAME: Liverpool Packet, The: see The Dreadnought [Laws D13] (File: LD13)
===
NAME: Liverpool Pilot, The: see The Liverpool Judies (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll) (File: Doe106)
===
NAME: Liverpool Song, The
DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the' cold month of December... I shipped in the clipper ship 'Defender....'" The singer complains of sailing along with a lot of foreigners who "didn't know a word of English But answered to the name o' 'Month's advance.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Bone); he reports learning it in 1900
KEYWORDS: foreigner sailor ship hardtimes
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Bone, pp. 140-144, "The Liverpool Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST BonCB140 (Partial)
Roud #653
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy, Get Back" (form, lyrics)
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "Paddy, Get Back," which clearly inspired it, but Bone notes that a sailor used each shantey "for its own special purpose on deck and it was rarely heard within the fo'cas'le, for entertainment...."
"[T]he elder hands maintained that the rousing of a chanty 'when ther worn't no call' could not but offend some presiding deity. But there were fo'cas'le ditty that could be sung in lieu and they had, in words and tune, a close resemblance to the chanty proper."
On that basis, I split them, though this hardly seems to exist in its own right.
There was an American clipper named _Defender_, launched in Boston in 1855 and wrecked in the South Pacific in 1859; I doubt it is the same ship. - RBW
File: BonCB140
===
NAME: Living on a Hill
DESCRIPTION: "When you get married and living on a hill, I will send you a kiss by a whippoorwill."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love marriage bird
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 231, (fourth of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
File: MHAp231D
===
NAME: Living on the Hallelujah Side
DESCRIPTION: Singer, once a sinner perishing with cold, is rescued by Jesus, and would not leave "this precious place." Chorus: "Glory be to Jesus, let the hallelujahs roll/Help me to ring the Saviour's praises far and wide... And I'm a-living on the hallelujah side"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Ernest V. Stoneman)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer, once a sinner perishing with cold, is rescued by Jesus, and now would not leave "this precious place" for all earth's gold and millions. Chorus: "Glory be to Jesus, let the hallelujahs roll/Help me to ring the Saviour's praises far and wide/For I've opened up towards heaven all the windows in my soul/And I'm a-living on the hallelujah side"
KEYWORDS: rescue religious Jesus
FOUND_IN: US(SE) Bahamas
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #12646
RECORDINGS:
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Hallelujah Side" (on Stonemans01) (Victor 20224, 1926); Ernest Stoneman and Eddie Stoneman, "Hallelujah Side" (ARC, unissued, 1934)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "The Hallelujah Side" (Vocalion 5241, 1928) (Champion 16585, 1933)
NOTES: In addition to the hillbilly performers listed above, the song has been recorded by Bahamian songster Joseph Spence. I suspect it was printed in a popular hymnal at some point. - PJS
File: RcLotHS
===
NAME: Liza Ann
DESCRIPTION: The singer offers herself to earn money to pay the fine for her man, serving on the chain gang.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy prisoner whore
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, p. 320-321, "Liza Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RL320
===
NAME: Liza Anne: see Sweet Heaven (II) (File: RcSwHeav)
===
NAME: Liza Gray: see The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde II) [Laws N41] (File: LN41)
===
NAME: Liza in the Summer Time: see Liza Jane (File: San132)
===
NAME: Liza Jane
DESCRIPTION: "Goin' up on the mountain To plant a patch of cane, Make a jug of 'lasses To sweeten Liza Jane. O po' Liza, po' gal, O po' Liza Jane, O po' Liza, po' gal, She died on the train." About moonshine, courting Liza Jane, (and dodging work if possible)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1893 (JAFL6)
KEYWORDS: courting drink nonballad work floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Randolph 435, "Liza Jane" (3 texts, 1 tune)
BrownIII 437, "Eliza Jane (II)" (1 text, which looks more like this than anything else though it lacks the chorus)
SharpAp 244, "Liza Jane" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Sandburg, pp. 132-133, "Liza Jane"; "Mountain Top" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "B" text, "Mountain Top," appears mixed with "Moonshiner" or something similar); 308-309, "Liza in the Summer Time (She Died on the Train)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-Makin', p. 127, (no title) (1 fragment in which the girl is "Susan Jane")
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 7-8, "I Went Up on the Mountain Top" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 192, "Hawkie Is a Schemin' Bird" (1 text, with the "Hawkie" first stanza, a chorus from "Lynchburg Town," and verses such as "Went up on a mountain To give my horn a blow" and "Climbed up on a mountain... To sweeten Liza Jane")
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 284-286, "Liza Jane" (2 texts, 1 tune. The main text is composite)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 591 [no title] (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 30, "Goodbye 'Liza Jane" (1 text)
DT, LIZAJANE
Roud #825
RECORDINGS:
Rufus Crisp, "Ball and Chain" (on Crisp01)
Homer & Jethro, "Poor Little Liza, Poor Gal" (King 773, 1949)
Bradley Kincaid, "Liza Up in the Simmon Tree" (Gennett 6761/Champion 15687 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9362, 1929; Champion 45057, c. 1935; on CrowTold01)
John & Emery McClung "Liza Jane" (Brunswick 135, 1927)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Liza Jane" (on NLCR06, NLCR11)
Riley Puckett, "Liza Jane" (Columbia 15014-D, c. 1925; Silvertone 3261 [as Tom Watson], 1926)
George "Short Buckle" Roark, "I Ain't A Bit Drunk" (Columbia 15383-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Oh! Liza, Poor Gal" (on PeteSeeger06, PeteSeegerCD01); "Liza Jane" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
Uncle "Am" Stuart [vocal by Gene Austin], "Old Liza Jane" (Vocalion 14846, 1924; Vocalion 5039, 1926)
Tenneva Ramblers, "Miss 'Liza, Poor Gal" (Victor 21141, 1927)
Henry Whitter, "Liza Jane" (OKeh 45003, 1925)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (lyrics)
cf. "Run Mollie Run" (lyrics)
cf. "Push Boat" (lyrics)
cf. "Cindy" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (floating verses)
cf. "Turn, Julie-Ann, Turn" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Goodbye Liza Jane
Saro Jane
Little Saro Jane
NOTES: The "Saro Jane" referred to under "Alternate Titles" should not be confused with "Rock About My Saro Jane," which is a different song.
This song is almost certainly of minstrel origin, and shares many floating verses with other, similar minstrel-show songs.
The Rufus Crisp recording, "Ball and Chain", is in fact one of those conglomerated songs incorporating floating verses from a dozen sources; RBW suggests putting it here because more of its verses seem to come from here than anywhere else.
Ditto the George Roark recording; I put it here for want of a better place. It could also go under "Don't Get Trouble In Your Mind," as its lyrics overlap with that song, but it doesn't have the plot theme of rejection. In fact, it doesn't have a plot at all. - PJS
File: San132
===
NAME: Liza Jane (II): see Po' Liza Jane (File: Br3456)
===
NAME: Liza Lee: see Yankee John, Stormalong (Liza Lee) (File: Hugi080)
===
NAME: Lizie Lindsay [Child 226]
DESCRIPTION: A young man comes to court Lizie Lindsay, asking her to come to the Highlands with him. Neither she nor her relatives are interested. He then reveals that he is a rich lord (the Lord of the Isles?); she changes her mind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1796 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,NE,So)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Child 226, "Lizie Lindsay" (8 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Bronson 226, "Lizie Lindsay" (9 versions+1 in addenda)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 297-299, "Lizzie Lindsay" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 269-271, "Lizie Lindsay" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCoxIIA, #11, pp. 46-47, "Leezie Lindsay" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Brewster 20, "Lizie Lindsay" (1 text)
Ford-Vagabond, p. 314, "Leezie Lindsay" (1 short text)
Randolph 29, "New Yealand" (1 fragment)
DT 226, LIZLIND*
Roud #94
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Dugall Quin" [Child 294]
cf. "The Blaeberry Courtship" [Laws N19]
File: C226
===
NAME: Lizie May: see Lizie Wan [Child 51] (File: C051)
===
NAME: Lizie Wan [Child 51]
DESCRIPTION: (Geordy) finds his sister (Lizie Wan) crying. When he asks why, he is told that she is pregnant by him. He kills her to hide his crime. He is revealed by the blood on his sword, and is forced away from home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: incest homicide pregnancy questions exile brother
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland,England) US(Ap,NE,SE)
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Child 51, "Lizie Wan" (2 texts)
Bronson 51, "Lizie Wan" (7 versions plus the #10 text of "Edward," which is actually "Lizie Wan")
SharpAp 14 "Lizzie Wan" (1 text, 1 tune){Bronson's #2}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 143-145, "Fair Lucy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5b}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 332-338, "Lizie Wan" (2 texts, 2 tunes, which differ though both informants cited the same source) {A1=Bronson's #5b, A2=#4}
Leach, pp. 167-169, "Lizie Wan" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 159, "Lizie Wan" (1 text)
PBB 38, "Lizie Wan" (1 text)
Niles 21, "Lizie Wan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 65, "Lucy Wan" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
DT 51, LIZIWAN1*
Roud #234
RECORDINGS:
Jeanie Robertson, "My Son David" (on LomaxCD1700)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sheath and Knife" (plot)
cf. "The Bonnie Hind" [Child 50] (theme)
cf. "Edward" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lizie May
NOTES: John Jacob Niles claims that, in his experience, the only people willing to sing this song were men. He points out that Sharp's informant was a man; so was the singer who gave the song to Flanders. As usual, though, one must wonder about Niles's sources. In any case, Bronson lists four versions from women. - RBW
Niles may claim that the only informants willing to sing the song are men, but Vaughan Williams/Lloyd's version was collected from a Mrs. Dann of Cottenham, Cambs. Lloyd notes, however, that this was the only version of the ballad found in oral tradition in England, and that no new Scottish version has been reported since 1827. -PJS
On the scientific evidence that brothers and sisters raised apart are particularly likely to fall in love, and some further speculation as to why, see the notes to "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]." - RBW
File: C051
===
NAME: Lizzie Borden Songs
DESCRIPTION: Sundry comments on the Fall River murders, e.g. "Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks"; "There's no evidence of guilt, Lizzie Borden, That should make your spirit wilt." The poems/songs are not all derived from a single source
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: homicide father mother
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: August 1892 - the Fall River Murders
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Burt, p. 14-15, (no title) (5 assorted fragments/excerpts)
DT, (FALLRIVR)
NOTES: Burt observes that there seem to be no truly traditional songs about this famous event. That being the case (and it appears she's right), I've lumped all Lizzie Borden items here as a placekeeper.
Lizzie Andrew Borden (1860-1927) was a spinster living with her wealthy father and stepmother when they were murdered in 1892. Borden was tried for the murders, but found innocent, and lived as a recluse in Fall River for another 35 years. - RBW
File: DTfallri
===
NAME: Lizzie Brown
DESCRIPTION: The singer, who has moved to Bee's Hotel to sleep with Lizzie Brown, extols the lady's lack of virtues.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 393-394, "Lizzie Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RL393
===
NAME: Lizzie Lindsay: see Lizie Lindsay [Child 226] (File: C226)
===
NAME: Lloyd George
DESCRIPTION: Lloyd George won the great war but he'd still "better keep clear from the boys of Fair Hill"; the Germans had intended to capture Ireland. The bishops say only Freestaters get to heaven but there is a spot reserved for the boys of Fair Hill.
AUTHOR: Sean O'Callaghan (source: OCanainn)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political religious IRA
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OCanainn, pp. 52-53, "Lloyd George" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The Irish Free State, created under the Free State Agreement, came into being December 1922. It did not provide for the independent republic desired by the IRA. David Lloyd George, who had been Prime Minister during the "Great War,' was British Prime Minister during the negotiation. (Source: Wikipedia article _Irish Free State_) See notes to "General Michael Collins" for additional background.
Fair Hill is a suburb of Cork City. - BS
And Cork, we should note, was one of the strongest centers of the rebellion in Ireland.
The Bishops did not say that only Freestaters get to Heaven; almost universally, they condemned all violence -- this is, after all, basic Christian doctrine, as is non-resistance to being governed by nonbelievers (so explicitly 1 Peter 213fff., and less explicitly but no less clearly in the writings of Paul). But since the Republicans started the violence -- and since they had very little Christian understanding of the other side -- they felt they were suffering the stronger condemnation. It was ironic to note than many Republicans considered their Catholic bishops to be working with the British!
The situation perhaps can be shown by the events of a single day in 1919. According to Robert Kee, _Ourselves Alone_, being Volume III of _The Green Flag_ (Quartet, 1972, 1976), pp. 77-78, this day saw the murder of a British agent, which the Archbishop of Tuam labelled "'a shocking crime'... 'a most grave violation of the law of God.'" But even as this was going on, the entire Irish hierarchy was formally condemning British behavior in denying the Irish their political rights, and declaring, "Let the military domination of Ireland cease at once. Let the people of Ireland choose for themselves the Government under which they are to live."
Of course, the Irish people would choose the Free State (or Home Rule -- a government still with links to Britain). So in a way the Bishops were condemning the Republicans. But this was clear only after the fact.
The mention of the Germans capturing Ireland is a reference to the Casement Affair. They didn't really intend to invade Ireland (though they made vague promises along those lines); they could not, unless they beat the British Navy -- and the Battle of Jutland had settled that. What the Germans could do was send arms to the rebels -- arms which they considered unfit for their own soldiers. For background on this, see the notes to "Lovely Banna Strand.." - RBW
File: OCan052
===
NAME: Lo Que Digo: see Venadito (File: San294)
===
NAME: Load of Kail Plants, The
DESCRIPTION: The young man comes to Ballymoney to sell his kail plants. He does his business with various buyers, then sets out to seek a wife. He finds a girl, offers her tea, kisses her, asks her name, and presumably asks if she wishes to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting farming commerce home
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H25b, pp. 261-262, "The Load of Kail Plants" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6919
File: HHH025b
===
NAME: Loading Pulp at Georgetown
DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you how we load the pulp." The loading crew is named we are told how "they like to dine at Mrs Clay." "It is a very dangerous job." Pulp is poor at low price in 1953 and 1954 but "but the wages isn't bad"
AUTHOR: Joe Trainor
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: lumbering nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 100-101, "Loading Pulp at Georgetown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12452
File: Dib100
===
NAME: Loakie's Boat: see Lukey's Boat (File: FJ046)
===
NAME: Lobster, The: see The Sea Crab (File: EM001)
===
NAME: Loch Erin's Shore (II): see William and Eliza (Lough Erin's Shore) (File: HHH597)
===
NAME: Loch Erne's Shore: see William and Eliza (Lough Erin's Shore) (File: HHH597)
===
NAME: Loch Lomond
DESCRIPTION: Singer laments parting from his/her love by Loch Lomond, noting "the broken heart it kens nae second spring." Chorus: "You'll take the high road and I'll take the low road And I'll be in Scotland before ye But me and my true love will never meet again..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1841 ("Vocal Melodies of Scotland")
KEYWORDS: loneliness love parting separation Scotland lyric
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland) US(MW)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 145-148, "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" (2 texts, 1 tune; the first is the common version and the second a variant without chorus which may have inspired the popular piece)
Dean, pp. 122-123, "Loch Lomond" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 257, "Loch Lomond" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 336-337, "Loch Lomond"
DT, LOCHLMND LOCHMOM (LOCHLOM2)
Roud #9598
RECORDINGS:
George Alexander, "Loch Lomond" (Columbia 3294, 1906)
Henry Burr, "Loch Lomond" (Victor 16062, 1908)
Unidentified baritone, "Star of Eve/Loch Lomand [medley]" (Climax [Columbia] X-88, c. 1901)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(17a), "Bonnie Banks of Lochlomond," unknown (probably Poet's Box ) (Dundee), n.d.
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Red Is the Rose" (tune)
cf. "The Babcock Bedtime Story" (tune, some lyrics)
cf. "Flora's Lament for her Charlie" (verses)
SAME_TUNE:
Flora's Lament for her Charlie (broadside NLScotland, RB.m.168(178), "Flora's Lament for her Charlie," Robert MacIntosh (Glasgow), after 1849; probably the same broadside as Murray, Mu23-y3:013)
NOTES: The song (or at least the chorus) seems to have entered oral tradition in the US, probably through the recording by Benny Goodman's band. (Benny Goodman & his Orchestra, vocal by Maxine Sullivan, "Loch Lomond" (Victor 25717, 1937)). - PJS
Legends about this song are numerous. One has it that it was heard and/or composed by Lady John Scott in the 1840s. Another (supported by the Clancy family) is that it is derived from the Irish "Red Is the Rose," with which it shares a tune. ("Red Is the Rose" sounds more recent and more composed, though, at least to my ears.)
Legend has it that the "low road" is the road of death, and that the song was made by a Scottish prisoner following the 1745 Jacobite rebellion: The condemned soldier tells his comrade that (following his execution), he will take the low road back to Scotland and arrive first.
One real connection with the Jacobite rebellion is a broadside, NLScotland RB.m.168(178), "Flora's Lament for her Charlie," printed by Robert McIntosh, beginning "It's yon bonny banks and yon bonny braise, Where the sun shines bright and bonny, Where I and my true love went out for to gaze On the bonny, bonny banks of Benlomond." The next verse is standard "Loch Lomond." But it looks like a patch-up job, and no tune is listed.
More explicit, and perhaps more traditional, is Ford's second text, said to have been found by Lady Jane Scott in Edinborough; it has a terminal verse, "The thistle shall bloom, an' the King hae his ain" and an explicit complaint in the second verse that "My Ranald... the morrow he marches to Edinburgh toun, To fecht for the King an Prince Charlie!"
Both these items, however, look like patch jobs as well. The connection with the '45 remains uncertain.
Fuld offers a list of possible antecedants of the tune; all show noticeable differences. I think the matter must be regarded as unsettled.
Loch Lomond, one of the largest Scottish lakes, is a short way north of Dumbarton, and not far north and west of Glasgow; its outlet flows into the Clyde in Dumbarton. - RBW
File: FSWB257B
===
NAME: Loch na Garr (Lachin Y Gair)
DESCRIPTION: The singer is in England, a land of "a million luxuries," but longs for Caledonia. He remebers his childhood, his plaid and "traditional story ... on cheiftains long perished" As "one who has rambled o'er countries afar" he prefers "dark Lough Na Garr"
AUTHOR: George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) (source: broadside, NLScotland L.C.178.A.2(318))
EARLIEST_DATE: 1807 (Byron, _Hours of Idleness_, according to Connie Beck's Lord Byron site)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration England Scotland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Tunney-SongsThunder, p. 180, "Dark Lough Na Garr" (1 text)
Roud #2436
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(318), "Loch na Garr," Harkness (Preston), c.1870
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(55)[some words illegible], "Loch Na Garr" ("Away, ye gay landscapes! ye gardens of roses"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(2241), 2806 c.14(54), "Loch-na-Garr"; Harding B 26(118), "Dark Loch Na Gar"; Harding B 40(2) View 3 of 4,"Dark-Lock-na-Garr"; Harding B 19(88), "Dark Lock-na-Garr"
NOTES: Most of the broadsides and Tunney-SongsThunder are incomplete. For a complete version see NLScotland L.C.178.A.2(318). The commentary for that broadside notes that "Lochnagar [is] the mountain that gives this poem its title...." [about 40 miles west of Aberdeen]. - BS
File: TST180
===
NAME: Loch o' the Auds, The
DESCRIPTION: "At nicht i' my fun, when late I was rovin'" in May, the singer sees a beautiful Portnay girl talking with a rover. Then her long-time swain shows up, and is shocked to find her showing affection for another man. The singer warns against trusting women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: courting betrayal rambling
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 446-447, "The Loch o' the Auds" (1 text)
Roud #5619
File: Ord446
===
NAME: Lochaber Shore
DESCRIPTION: The singer calls all people to hear his song about "sweet Lochaber Shore." He lists the local residents, and describes the weather during the past two years, cold winters, and a summer storm which carried of several sailors. He hopes for better times
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home disaster ship
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H134, pp. 168-169, "Lochaber Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13482
File: HHH134
===
NAME: Lochmaben Harper, The [Child 192]
DESCRIPTION: A (blind) harper sets out to work in England. He rides his mare, which has just given birth to a foal. In England, he contrives to tie his horse to King Henry's. Next morning, mare and horse are gone; King Henry pays the harper for his work and his mare
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1791
KEYWORDS: robbery royalty music harp
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 192, "The Lochmaben Harper" (5 texts)
Bronson 192, "The Lochmaben Harper" (3 versions)
Dixon IV, pp. 37-41, "The Jolly Harper" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 519-522, "The Lochmaben Harper" (1 text)
OBB 144, "The Lochmaben Harper" (1 text)
DT 192, LOCHHARP
Roud #85
File: C192
===
NAME: Locked in the Walls of Prison
DESCRIPTION: "Locked in the walls of prison, Down in a narrow cell, Locked in the walls... No one to go my bail. If I was worth ten thousand, I'd bury it in my trunk, Or else I'd surely gamble Besides I might get drunk... Take me back... To wear the ball and chain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929
KEYWORDS: prison chaingang drink crime
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 144, "Locked in the Walls of Prison" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5484
NOTES: Although nearly every word of this song occurs elsewhere (e.g. the final verse, "One foot upon the platform, T'other on the train," can be found in "The House of the Rising Sun"), this is the only version I know of that combines them in this way. - RBW
File: R144
===
NAME: Locks and Bolts [Laws M13]
DESCRIPTION: The singer misses his love. Her parents, learning she loved a poor man, locked her away (in her uncle's house). The young man breaks the locks and rescues her (possibly fighting a battle along the way). The two are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1876 (Christie, _Traditional Ballad Airs I_)
KEYWORDS: love poverty separation rescue marriage
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (17 citations)
Laws M13, "Locks and Bolts"
Belden, pp. 168-169, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text, a fragment)
Randolph 110, "I Dreamed of My True Lover" (2 texts, 1 tune)
McNeil-SFB1, p. 74, "Rainbow Willow"; pp. 75-76, "I Dreamt Last Night of My True Love" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownII 84, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 74, "Sylvania Lester" (1 text)
Brewster 65, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text from tradition plus a text from the Pepys Ballads)
SharpAp 80, "Locks and Bolts" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Sandburg, p. 149, "I Dreamed Last Night of My True Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 162, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 31, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
MacSeegTrav 79, "Locks and Bolts" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Chase, pp. 132-133, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 438-441, "The Lass o' Bennochie" (3 texts, very diverse; the second is mixed with this song)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 111-112, "Rainbow Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 145, "Locks And Bolts" (1 text)
DT 328, LOCKBOLT*
Roud #406
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "Locks and Bolts" (on Maynard1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Locks and Bolts" (on NLCR16)
Almeda Riddle, "Locks and Bolts" (Vanguard VRS-9158, n.d.); "Rainbow 'Mid Life's Willows" (on LomaxCD1707)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Iron Door" [Laws M15] (theme)
cf. "The Gallant Shoemaker" (theme)
cf. "All Over Those Hills" (theme)
cf. "The Lass o' Bennochie" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lass o' Bennachie
At the Back o' Bennachie
NOTES: "Rainbow 'Mid Life's Willows" is a truncated version of the song, ending with the singer's lamenting his separation from his true love; his breaking down the door is omitted. It does contain the key line, "Locks and chains [bolts] doth hinder," which places it as a version of this song.
The versions of "Locks and Bolts" found in MacSeegTrav, "The Lass o' Bennachie" and "At the Back o' Bennachie" should not be confused with the song indexed as "Where Gadie Rins", although the latter is also called "The Back o' Bennachie" and was collected from the same singer as MacColl/Seeger's "B" text. The songs are different. - PJS
Belden notes a song from Martin Parker called "The Lover's Joy and Grief" with the burden "but locks and bolts doe hinder." It is not clear what is its relation with the present song. - RBW
File: LM13
===
NAME: Lofty Cavavaille, The
DESCRIPTION: The French barque Cavavaille under Captain Ormsby strikes Blackwater sand-bank on December 18. Though freed once from the sand, they are cast up on Blackwater beach, "to pieces split," and 27 are lost. The rich cargo from exotic lands is summarized.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 18, 1768 - Cavavile wrecked on Blackwater Bank; Captain Ormsby and 27 crew lost (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 71)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 120-121, "The Lofty Cavavaille" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7347
File: Ran120
===
NAME: Lofty Giant, The: see Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)
===
NAME: Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17]
DESCRIPTION: The singer has been a criminal (robber and pickpocket) from his youth. Eventually he lands in prison, facing an extended sentence.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: crime prison youth
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Laws E17, "Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail)" (sample text in NAB, pp. 76-77)
Randolph 135, "The Dallas County Jail" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 3 tunes)
Combs/Wilgus 59, pp. 185-186, "Bob Sims" (1 text)
Ohrlin-HBT 57, "Sporting Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 42, "Logan County Court House" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Darling-NAS, pp. 285-286, "The Prisoner's Dream" (1 text); also pp. 286-287, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text, mostly the "Jack of Diamonds" variant of "Rye Whiskey," but with material from this song)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 130, "At the Jail" (2 texts, 1 tune; the result looks to me to be a mix between this and "Danville Girl," though it's one of those vague cases....)
DT 739, DALLJAIL* LGANJAIL RAMSJAIL*
Roud #691
RECORDINGS:
Allen Brothers "Prisoner's Dream" (Victor V-40210, 1930) (Vocalion 02874, 1934) (one of these is on RoughWays1, but it's not clear which; the liner notes date it "1928")
Carl & Harty, "The Prisoner's Dream" (Melotone 7-01-53, 1937)
Gooby Jenkins, "The Prisoner's Dream" (OKeh 45082, 1927; rec. 1926)
Glenn Ohrlin, "The Sporting Cowboy" (on Ohrlin01)
Shelton Brothers, "The Prisoner's Dream" (Decca 5381, 1937)
Hobart Smith, "Hawkins County Jail" (on LomaxCD1700, LomaxCD1705)
Weaver and Wiggins (pseudonyms for Wilmer Watts & Frank Wilson), "The Sporting Cowboy" (Broadway 8112, c. 1931; on WhenIWas1 [as Watts & Wilson])
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Moonshiner's Dream" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Moundsville Prisoner
NOTES: Most of the Laws ballads have clearly defined boundaries and distinct plots. This one is rather an exception. By its nature, it has attracted a lot of extra verses, and (perhaps as a result) also sometimes has pieces fall off. Laws himself discusses this point in NAB, pp. 77-79. - RBW
File: LE17
===
NAME: Logan's Lament
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the happy lives of various creatures, then turns to his own unhappy lot. His wife, children, and people have been destroyed by the white man. He vows to "dig up my hatchet and bend my oak bow...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1844 (fragment in Sanders' Fourth Reader)
KEYWORDS: animal Indians(Am.) homicide revenge
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Eddy 112, "The Blackbird, or Logan's Lament" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Burt, pp. 128-129, "Logan's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E112 (Full)
Roud #5340
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Steals of the White Man" (theme)
cf. "Jilson Setters's Indian Song" (theme)
cf. "An Old Indian (The Indian Song)"
NOTES: Eddy reports that this song is based on a speech by one Logan, the son of a white man and a Cayuga woman. His family was slain by Europeans, and he vowed revenge, igniting what is known as Lord Dunmore's War (for which see "The Battle of Point Pleasant"). When the Shawnee chief Cornstalk made peace with Dunmore (the Royal governor of Virginia) in 1775, Logan refused to give up his vengeance, and offered this speech (delivered under the Logan Elm in Pickaway County, Ohio) to back his position.
Despite its origin, the first few stanzas of this song bear an interesting similarity to Jesus's words in Matt. 8:20, Luke 9:58. - RBW
Logan, a chief of the Mingo tribe, was raised a Christian, and the beginning of his oration under the elm is a clear paraphrase of the cited passages from the Bible. A biography of Logan, and the full text of his speech, may be found in Walter G. Shotwell's _Driftwood_ (1927, reprinted 1966 by the Books for Libraries Press, Freeport, NY). - PJS
File: E112
===
NAME: Logger's Alphabet, The
DESCRIPTION: A song by which lumbermen remember the alphabet and tell of their "merry" lives: "A is for axes as all of you know / And B is for boys who can use them also.... So merry, so merry, so merry are we / No mortals on earth are as happy as we"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: logger nonballad lumbering wordplay
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES: (16 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 207-208, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a sort of personalized appendix, "The Shantyboy's Song," on p. 209)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 112-113, "Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 235-237, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 3, "The Woodsman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby 6, "The Shanty-Man's Alphabet" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 102, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 5 more)
Fowke-Lumbering #1 , "The Shantyboy's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 168-170, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 98, "Alphabet Song (Lumberman's)" (1 text; the "A" and "B" texts in this entry are "The Sailor's Alphabet")
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 87-90, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 82, "The Lumberman's Alphabet (The Axe-Handle Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 564-565, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 5, "Alphabet Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 173-175, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 335-336, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text)
DT, LUMBALPH*
Roud #159
RECORDINGS:
Sam Campbell, "The Shantyboys' Alphabet" (on Lumber01)
Sam Eskin, "Lumberman's Alphabet" (on GrowOn3)
Wilmot MacDonald, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (on Miramichi1)
Gus Schaffer, "Lumberjack's Alphabet" (on AFS, 1938; on LC56)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor's Alphabet" (subject)
cf. "The Bawdy Alphabet" (subject)
cf. "A Is for Apple Pie" (subject)
cf. "Alphabet Song (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Average Boy" (subject)
cf. "Alphabet Songs" (subject)
cf. "Building a Slide" (tune, lyrics)
cf. "The Fisherman's Alphabet" (subject and structure)
cf. "Air Force Alphabet" (subject)
cf. "The Army Song" (subject)
NOTES: Linscott claims that there are unprintable versions of this song, but it's not clear (since she doesn't print them) whether they are really lumber-camp versions or just forms of the various bawdy alphabets.
She also says that the song has been attributed to Larry Gorman -- but what hasn't been?
Although all collections of this song appear to be from the twentieth century, chances are that it dates from the 1860s or earlier; by the 1870s, the crosscut saw was replacing the axe as the standard method for felling trees -- but most versions of this have multiple references to axes and few if any to saws. - RBW
File: Doe207
===
NAME: Loggers' Plight, The
DESCRIPTION: Landon Ladd Ladd comes to Newfoundland, forms a logger union, and calls a loggers' strike; some are thrown in jail. Premier Smallwood insists Ladd leave and that a new union be formed with Maxwell Lane to lead the way and come to terms with A.N.D.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: strike lumbering labor-movement Canada
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1959 - the [US-controlled] IWA (International Woodworkers of America [which split in 1987 into US and Canadian unions]) strikes the AND [Anglo-Newfoundland Development] company at Badger.
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 755-756, "The Loggers' Plight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9801
NOTES: The "on-ramp for K-12 school Web pages in Newfoundland and Labrador" site includes the background about the logging industry at Point Leamington and the strike.
"Throughout its history Point Leamington has been linked directly to the forest industry, and... many of the town's residents were -- and still are -- involved with logging camps and sawmill operations. Many men in the town and the surrounding communities worked at logging camps operated by... locals. The wood from these logging operations supplied the raw material needed to make newsprint by the AND Co. Paper Mill at Grand Falls.... Also, many of the locals operated sawmills within the Point Leamington area and employed many of the town's men.
"Over the years many men from Point Leamington were employed in the lumber woods and the seasonal trek to the logging camps in the fall and winter became a way of life.
"However, the wages and the living conditions in the early camps were far from adequate, and despite several attempts to improve those conditions, when the International Woodworkers of America (I.W.A.) arrived in the province in the late 1950's working conditions were still far from ideal.
"Although Landon Ladd's attempt at organizing the Nfld loggers into his union failed following the bitter strike of 1959, the Commission of Enquiry on the Logging Industry that followed in 1961 addressed the conditions of the camps, and this eventually led to improved conditions for loggers. Within a few years most of the recommendations of the Commission had been implemented, and many loggers attribute the improved working and living conditions in the logging camps (either directly or indirectly) to the I.W.A. strike of 1959."
Point Leamington, Grand Falls, and towns often mentioned in Newfoundland logging songs, like Badger -- originally Badger Brook -- and Bishops Falls are about 270 miles northwest of St John's on TC-1, not far from Bonavista Bay on the northeast coast.
The St. Mark's School site, in its biography of Newfoundland Premier Joseph Smallwood, states "On March 1959, a tragedy at the small town of Badger where striking loggers clashed with police officers. One member of the Newfoundland constabulary was clubbed and later died. Joey, who had opposed the strike and decertified the union a few days before, made him into a martyr. Joseph from then on consorted with corporate tycoons and devoted himself to large industrial endeavours like the Churchill Falls power project." St. Marks school is in King's Cove, Newfoundland, and serves grades K-12 for the northern section of the Bonavista Peninsula.
The IWA.CA site presents a view of the strike not in accord with the ballad. "In 1958, the Eastern Canadian Regional Council [of the IWA] organized loggers in Newfoundland and confronted the hostile government of Joey Smallwood who passed legislation decertifying and outlawing the IWA. In March 1959, battalions of RCMP marched on strikers in Badger, beating workers unconscious as women and children screamed. During the confrontation an officer was killed and a logger charged, later to be acquitted."
Peacock discusses the main characters of the ballad. "Landon Ladd is the local union representative sent in by the International Woodworkers of America to organize the loggers. Maxwell Lane is the head of the local union set up by Premier Smallwood to rid Newfoundland of alleged 'union gangsterism' emanating from the United States."
Peacock collected "The Loggers' Plight" at Rocky Harbour in July 1959. Rocky Harbour is on the northwest coast of Newfoundland. - BS
File: Pea755
===
NAME: Logie O Buchan
DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that "they have taken away Jemy the delight of the yard." She has been offered the hand of wealthy Sandy, but prefers to wait for her beloved Jemy. Before he left, he gave her half of his only sixpence
AUTHOR: George Halket?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation poverty brokentoken
FOUND_IN: Britain US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 197-198, "O Logie o Buchan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson 55, pp. 171-172, "Logie o' Buchan" (1 short and much-damaged text)
DT, LOGIBUCH*
Roud #1994
File: SWMS197
===
NAME: Lolly-Too-Dum
DESCRIPTION: Daughter comes to mother, asking to be married. Mother, after pointing out she's young, asks who she will marry. Daughter says, "Handsome Dan" -- or any of forty more if he's not available. (The daughter marries, and mother looks for a husband herself)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: marriage loneliness courting mother
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Belden, p. 266, "Mother and Daughter" (1 text)
Randolph 370, "Rolly Trudum" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 299-300, "Rolly Trudum" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 370A)
Hudson 134, pp.280-281 , "Rolly Trudam" (1 text)
Lomax-FSUSA 12, "Lolly-Too-Dum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 138-139, "Lolly Too Dum" (2 texts, 1 tune, but the first is "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle")
Silber-FSWB, p. 344, "Lolly-Too-Dum" (1 text)
DT, LLYTOODM*
Roud #441
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Rolly Trudum" (on Barker01)
May Kennedy McCord, "Rolly Trudum" (AFS; on LC12)
Pete Seeger, "Lolly Too Dum" (on PeteSeeger32)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit)" (theme)
NOTES: This song is named for its chorus, "Lolly-too-dum, lolly-too-dum-day." Thematically, it is identical to "I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit)," but the stanza form is different enough that I have separated them. (Roud, of course, lumps them.) - RBW
File: LxU012
===
NAME: London Bridge Is Broken Down: see London Bridge Is Falling Down (File: R578)
===
NAME: London Bridge Is Falling Down
DESCRIPTION: Upon learning that "London Bridge is (falling/broken) down," the singers must decide what to do, e.g. "Shall we build it up again?" "Mud and clay will wash away" "Iron and stone will stand alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1744 (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book)
KEYWORDS: playparty technology
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) US(Ap,MW,NE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Randolph 578, "London Bridge is Falling Down" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, p. 45, "London Bridge" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 34-36, "London Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 8, "London Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H48h, pp. 11-12, "Broken Bridges" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, p. 189, (no title; part of a section called "Granny London Tells About Old Times") (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire, p. 135, "London Bridge" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 244, (no title) (1 short text)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 81, "London Bridge" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Opie-Oxford2 306, "London Bridge is broken down" (4 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #641, pp. 254-255, "(London Bridge)"
Fuld-WFM, p. 337+, "London Bridge"
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #68, "London Bridge" (1 text)
ST R578 (Full)
Roud #502
RECORDINGS:
Pratt children and friends, "London Bridge" (on Ritchie03)
Pete Seeger, "London Bridge" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock-A-By Ladies" (tune & meter)
SAME_TUNE:
Greenberg Shop is Moving South (Greenway-AFP, p. 126 note)
NOTES: The notes in Baring-Gould mention the theory that this pertains to the breaking of London Bridge by Olaf of Norway in the reign of Ethelred II Unraed ("the Unready," c. 978-1016). Of course, any song about that would have had to be in Old English.... - RBW
File: R578
===
NAME: London City (I): see The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)
===
NAME: London City (II): see The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)
===
NAME: London Heiress, The (The Brisk and Lively Lad)
DESCRIPTION: An heiress loves a farmer's son. Her father has him sent to the battle front. He is severely wounded. She is Captain's waiting maid in the hospital. She buys his discharge. They return to Ireland. She tells her father she will live with her lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1132))
KEYWORDS: love marriage army war reunion separation injury father
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Morton-Maguire 33, pp. 86-87,119,169, "The Lady Heiress and the Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRSKLIVE*
Roud #2930
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1132), "London Heiress" ("In London lived an heiress unto a gentleman"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(2187), "London Heiress"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7]" (theme) and references there
File: MoMa033
===
NAME: London Town: see The Ring-Dang-Doo (I) (File: EM182A)
===
NAME: Londonderry Air: see references under Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air) (File: FSWB323)
===
NAME: Londonderry Love Song
DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out wandering and sees boys and girls at play. He might be with them had his girl proved true. But her father told her she must cross the seas, and with much lamenting, she consented. She sails away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration father
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1862 - Wreck of the Zared, of Londonderry
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H518, p. 301, "Londonderry Love Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6898
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dreadnought" [Laws D13] (The Sam Henry text of that song describes the Zared)
NOTES: A strange song: The father sends the girl away, but does not go with her or (apparently) offer her any means of support. One wonders if this isn't a worn-down version of something like "The Suffolk Miracle," where the father sends the daughter away because he doesn't like her lover.
If that were true, it would even explain the mention of the _Zared_ -- the girl was coming home to her love, but drowned on the way. Very much "The Suffolk Miracle," with the genders reversed. - RBW
File: HHH518
===
NAME: Londonderry on the Banks of the Foyle: see Sweet Londonderry (on the Banks of the Foyle) (File: HHH813)
===
NAME: Lone Fish-Ball, The: see One Fish-Ball (One Meat Ball, The Lone Fish-Ball) (File: SRW074)
===
NAME: Lone Green Valley, The: see The Jealous Lover (II) AND The Jealous Lover (I) (File: E104)
===
NAME: Lone Pilgrim, The: see The White Pilgrim (File: R619)
===
NAME: Lone Prairie, The: see Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2] (File: LB02)
===
NAME: Lone Rock Mine Song: see Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line (File: ADR98)
===
NAME: Lone Rock Song: see Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line (File: ADR98)
===
NAME: Lone Star Trail (II), The: see The Chisholm Trail (I) (File: R179)
===
NAME: Lone Star Trail, The: see I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows (File: LoF186)
===
NAME: Lone the Plow-Boy: see Cupid the Plowboy [Laws O7] (File: LO07)
===
NAME: Lone Valley: see Pretty Saro (File: R744)
===
NAME: Lonely Louisa: see Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)
===
NAME: Lonely Tombs: see Voice from the Tombs (Lonely Tombs) (File: Wa087)
===
NAME: Lonely Waterloo [Laws N31]
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a girl grieving for her love. She describes Willie, and the singer tells her Willie has died at Waterloo. The girl suffers terribly from grief; (in some texts he reveals himself as Willie and prepares to marry her)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon separation grief
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) US(MW) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Laws N31, "Waterloo II"
Gardner/Chickering 88, "Bloody Waterloo" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 88, "Lonely Waterloo" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 1007-1008, "Lonely Waterloo" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-Labrador 127, "Lonely Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 67, "Lonely Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 390, BLDYWLOO*
Roud #622
RECORDINGS:
Ken Peacock, "Lonely Waterloo" (on NFKPeacock)
Willie Scott, "Bloody Waterloo" (on Voice08)
NOTES: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Lonely Waterloo" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
Harte notes that his version came back to Ireland via a singer who had seen the text in Peacock. - BS
This has recently been set to a new (and highly effective) tune by Daithi Sproule of Altan. This seems to be a song everyone wants to revive. - RBW
File: LN31
===
NAME: Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter, The [Laws H12]
DESCRIPTION: The singer insists that a girl tell him whether she will marry him or not. She will not; she has another lover. He berates her love of wealth and threatens to go away as a soldier/sailor. (In some texts she changes her mind, but the man has a new girl.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection separation
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Laws H12, "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter"
Belden, pp. 195-196, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 136-137, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter (All in the Scenes of Winter" (1 text)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 94, "The Gonesome [sic] Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 108-109, "Lonesome Hours of Winter" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 156-157, "The Stormy Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 57, "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 127-129, "Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans, pp. 38-39, "The Scornful Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 209-212,"Stormy Winds of Winter" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 50, "The Stormy Winds of Winter" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 445-446, "Flora" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, 650 CHILSCEN* CHILSCN2*
Roud #443
RECORDINGS:
Lewis McDaniel & Walter Smith: "I Went to See My Sweetheart" (Victor 23505, 1930; on ConstSor1)
Southern Melody Boys, "Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (Montgomery Ward 7227, 1937)
NOTES: The editors of _Sam Henry's Songs of the People_ place H637 (p. 385, "Lovely Nancy") here -- but I frankly don't see the kinship. Belden, in discussing the matter, says that a song he knows as "Proud Nancy" (I assume the same piece) has "a like theme but little verbal resemblance." - RBW
File: LH12
===
NAME: Lonesome Dove (I - The Minister's Lamentation)
DESCRIPTION: "As I set in that lonesome grove, Set o'er my head a little dove, For its lost mate began to coo...." The singer recalls his lost wife and daughter, killed by consumption. But he thanks God who has taken them away, and hopes to see them in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855 (Social Harp)
KEYWORDS: death religious bird family disease children wife
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Randolph 607, "The Lonesome Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, p. 486, "The Dove" (1 text)
BrownIII 305, "The Lonesome Dove" (1 text)
SharpAp 147, "The Lonesome Grove" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Cambiaire, p. 77, "Lonesome Dove" (1 text)
Roud #3637
RECORDINGS:
Almeda Riddle, "Lonesome Dove" (on LomaxCD1707)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All You Friends and Neighbors" (theme)
cf. "The Vulture (of the Alps)"
NOTES: The Social Harp version of this song (1855) is credited to William C. Davis. This is certainly possible -- it is hardly a true folk song -- but since Davis might be an arranger, I do not list an author. - RBW
File: R607
===
NAME: Lonesome Dove (II)
DESCRIPTION: Singer laments a lost love: "You've broken all your promises, Just marry whom you please." "The blackest crow that ever flew It surely will turn white." "Oh don't you see yon little dove?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal abandonment separation floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
BrownIII 262, "The Slighted Girl" (1 text)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 85, "Do You See That There Bird On Yonder Tree?" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, (LONEDOVE) (TUTRLDOV) (TURTDOV2) TURTDOV3
NOTES: It's hard to decide if this is really a song or a collection of floating verses. The Brown text is interesting; it begins with a verse "You need not flirt nor flounce around. There's more pretty boys than one." Then it goes through the lost love routine, and concludes "Darling, darling, do hush up! I hate to hear you cry. As other friends are having to part, And why not you and I, my love, and why not you and I?" - RBW
Creighton-Maritime is a one verse fragment, "Do you see that bird there on yonder tree." It belongs, as Creighton notes, to some song which, she speculates, may be "George Collins" ("Lady Alice," Child 85) but I'd rather just put it here. - BS
File: Br3262
===
NAME: Lonesome Grove, The: see Lonesome Dove (I - The Minister's Lamentation) (File: R607)
===
NAME: Lonesome Hours of Winter: see The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)
===
NAME: Lonesome Prairie, The: see Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2] (File: LB02)
===
NAME: Lonesome Road
DESCRIPTION: "Look down (x2) that lonesome road, Hang down your head and sigh. The best of friends must part some day, And why not you and I? (x2)." "I wish to God that I had died... Before I had seen your smilin' face." Singer may be in prison, having ignored mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: courting betrayal lie floatingverses lyric prison loneliness lover
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
BrownIII 292, "Lonesome Road" (2 texts); also 306, "By By, My Honey" (1 text, mostly "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" though with several floating verses, including one from this song)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 73, "The Lonesome Road" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 322-323, "Lonesome Road" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 308, "Hattie Belle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 273, "Look Down" (1 tune, partial text, placed here on the basis of the first line)
Roud #824
RECORDINGS:
Luther B. Clark [or Blue Ridge Highballers], "Wish to the Lord I Had Never Been Born" (Columbia 15096-D, 1926) [note: tentative identification; I have not heard the recording]
Delmore Brothers "Look Up, Look Down That Lonesome Road" (Bluebird B-7383, 1938)
J. Paul Miles, "County Jail" (on AFS, pre-1940)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Long Lonesome Road" (on NLCR06)
Kilby Reeves, "County Jail" (on Persis1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "More Pretty Girls than One" (tune)
cf. "Lonesome Stream"
NOTES: Not to be confused with the (non-traditional) blues by Will Nash, "Goin' Down that Long Long Lonesome Road." - RBW
File: San322
===
NAME: Lonesome Sea Ballad, The: see The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)
===
NAME: Lonesome Stream
DESCRIPTION: "When you look way 'cross dat lonesome stream (x2), Way to Zion, Lawd, Lawd." "When you look way down that lonesome road." "I got a mother dead and gone." "She lef' me here to weep an' moan." "Dark cloud risin' i de east'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death mother
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 602-604, "Dat Lonesome Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15547
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lonesome Road"
NOTES: The Lomaxes attribute this to Mississippi prisoners. I have not noted it elsewhere, though it obviously has links to "Lonesome Road." I suspect the Lomaxes may have engaged in editorial work. - RBW
File: LxA602
===
NAME: Lonesome Valley
DESCRIPTION: "You've got to walk that lonesome valley, you've got to walk it by yourself; There's no one here can go there with you [or: walk it for you]; You've got to go there by yourself." Various floating verses about the difficult path to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (recording, Jenkins Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Randolph 622, "Some Folks Say John Was a Baptist" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune -- a floating verse which, based on the tune, probably belongs here)
Warner 162, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune, sung and notated in three parts)
Sandburg, p. 486, "You Got To Cross It Foh Yohself" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 100, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 762, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 354, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text)
DT, LONEVALY
Roud #7098
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Ramblers String Band, "That Lonesome Valley" (Perfect 12818/Melotone 12428, 1932)
Carter Family, "Lonesome Valley" (Victor 23541, 1931; Bluebird B-6117/Montgomery Ward M-4735, 1935) (OKeh 03112, 1935; on CGospel1)
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, "Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky" (Columbia 21334, 1954)
Elzie Floyd & Leo Boswell, "Lonesome Valley" (Columbia 15167-D, 1927)
Jenkins Family, "That Lonesome Valley" (OKeh 40377, 1925)
Heavenly Gospel Singers, "Walk This Lonesome Valley" (Bluebird B-6984, 1937)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Walk That Lonesome Valley" (Bluebird B-6596/Montgomery Ward M-7007, 1936)
Curt Mann, "Lonesome Valley" (on USWarnerColl01)
[Lester] McFarland & [Robert] Gardner, "The Lonesome Valley" (Vocalion 5127, 1927)
Blind Willie McTell, "I Got to Cross the River of Jordan" (LoC, 1940, two versions; one version is on Babylon)
David Miller, "That Lonesome Valley" (Gennett 6175, 1927)
Monroe Brothers, "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" (Bluebird B-6477, 1936)
Pete Seeger, "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" (on BroonzySeeger1); "Lonesome Valley" (on PeteSeeger47)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Hard Trials" (floating verses)
SAME_TUNE:
Dixie Reelers, "Lonesome Valley - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6713, 1936)
File: Wa162
===
NAME: Long and Wishing Eye, The: see Branded Lambs [Laws O9] (File: LO09)
===
NAME: Long Cookstown: see Nancy Whiskey (File: K279)
===
NAME: Long Eddy Waltz
DESCRIPTION: The singer climbs a tree, apparently to spy on lovers. His voyeurism is rewarded when a young couple appear under the tree. The man begs the girl to sleep with him. At some point, the spy lets out a whoop, and the lovers take flight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (text supplied to Logsdon by Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous request hiding sex
FOUND_IN: US(MA,SW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
FSCatskills 132, "Long Eddy Waltz" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Logsdon 43, pp. 222-223, "The Oaks of Jimderia" (1 text)
DT, LONGEDDY*
Roud #10100
NOTES: Logson connects this with "Walking in a Meadow Gren," found in the Percy Folio. I don't really see it. That is simply a song about a guy watching a couple go about their business. This piece, in both the New York and Arizona versions, has several distinct elements in addition to the voyeurism: The narrator in the tree, the crying out, and the lovers fleeing. They do differ in when the singer cried out -- but I suspect this is a deliberate clean-up of the Catskills variant.
There does not seem to be a generic title to this song, perhaps because it has so rarely been published. The "Long Eddy Waltz" title comes from Dick Edwards, the New York informant, and has no obvious relationship to the song (save that it is in triple meter). But it is the title which has been used in the Ballad Index for many years, so I am retaining it in the absence of a title with stronger claim. - RBW
File: FSC132
===
NAME: Long Gone: see Long John (Long Gone) (File: LoF287)
===
NAME: Long John (Long Gone)
DESCRIPTION: "It's-a Long John, He's long gone, Like a turkey through the corn, With his long clothes on, He's gone, gone." Long John escapes from prison, and uses sundry tricks to avoid capture. He intends to keep moving
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1920 (print reproduced by Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: prison freedom escape floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 287, "Long John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 75-79, "Long Gone" (1 extended text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 102-103, "(Lost John)" (1 text); p. 261, "Long John" (1 tune, partial text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 268, "Long Gone" (1 text, a reproduction of a printed version from 1920)
Handy/Silverman-Blues, pp. 200-202, "Long Gone" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily adapted)
Silber-FSWB, p. 68, "Long John" (1 text)
ST LoF287 (Full)
Roud #11520
RECORDINGS:
Allen Brothers, "Long Gone from Bowling Green" (Vocalion 02817, 1934)
Richard Brooks & Riley Puckett, "Long Gone" (Brunswick 273, 1928)
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "Lost John" (Columbia 15122-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Ted Daffan's Texans, "Long John" (Columbia 20358, c. 1947; Columbia 37823, 1947; rec.1942)
Cousin Emmy [Cynthia May Carver], "Lost John" (Decca 24216, 1947)
Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston & Sonny Terry, "Lost John" (on Struggle2)
Sam Hinton, "Long John" (ABC-Eagle ABC-230, 1950)
J. H. Howell's Carolina Hillbillies, "Lost John" (Bluebird B-7162, 1937)
Charlie Jackson, "Long Gone Lost John" (Paramount 12602, 1928; Broadway 5076 [as Charlie Carter], c. 1930)
Ray Logan, "Lost John Blues" (Paramount 12310, 1925)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Lost John Dean" (Brunswick 227/Vocalion 5246, 1928; on Times1 [as Bascom Lamar Lundsford])
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Long John" (AFS 2644 A2, 1939)
Prison farm work group "Lost John" (on NPCWork, DownHome)
Oliver Sims, "Lost John" (Columbia 15103-D, 1926)
Southern Moonlight Entertainers [possibly pseud. for the Stripling Bros.] "Lost John" (Vocalion 5372/Vocalion 5460, c. 1930; rec. 1929)
Stripling Bros. "Lost John" (Vocalion 5441, c. 1930; rec. 1929)
Vernon Sutphin & J. C. Sutphin, "Lost John" (on Stonemans01)
Sonny Terry, "Lost John" [instrumental with whooping] (AFS, 1938; on LCTreas); "Lost John" (on Terry01, DownHome)
Texas state farm prisoners, "Lost John" (on NPCWork)
Merle Travis, "Lost John Boogie" (Capitol 1737, c. 1951)
Henry Whitter, "Lost John" (OKeh 40391, 1925)
Unknown artists, "Long Gone" (AFS CYL-7-2, 1933)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Rattler"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lost John
Long Gone from Kentucky
NOTES: The Lomaxes believe this to be based on the story (coming from W. C. Handy's book "Blues"; see page 215 in Handy/Silverman) of one Long John Green, who was known for his ability to move.
When the prison where Green was staying acquired a pack of bloodhounds, they allegedly decided to conduct a test by giving him a head start and then sending the hounds after him. But Green was too fast (he also managed to trick the hounds by catching one in a trap), and escaped them.
I have my doubts, though -- neither the Courlander text nor the Burnett & Rutherford recording shows the prison plot details found in the Lomax texts. I can't help but wonder if this might not be another Lomax retouch job, influenced perhaps by Handy's blues piece. - RBW
It's hard to tell pending full scrutiny of the field recordings, but it looks like the Lomaxes didn't mess with them as much as has been suggested. Some of the field recordings, at any rate, are as muddled as the Lomaxes' published versions. - PJS
File: LoF287
===
NAME: Long Journey Home: see Two Dollar Bill (Long Journey Home) (File: CSW177)
===
NAME: Long Lankin: see Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)
===
NAME: Long Peggin' Awl, The
DESCRIPTION: A girl is berated by her mother for running away with a shoemaker. The girl retorts that the older woman did the same thing: "You followed old dad for his long peggin' awl"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925
KEYWORDS: bawdy mother elopement
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 280-281, "The Long Peggin' Awl" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 181, "The Long Peggin' Awl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LNGPGAWL*
Roud #2126
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox "The Long Peggin' Awl" (on FSB2, FSB2CD)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Pegging Awl" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
NOTES: Talk about lumping: Kennedy includes the Carolina Tar Heels' "Peg and Awl" as quoted by Lomax. I know both songs. No way. The phrase is common to them only because those two tools were found together in the kit of a shoemaker. - PJS
File: RL280
===
NAME: Long Shoreman's Strike, The: see Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family) (File: FSC101)
===
NAME: Long Sought Home: see Jerusalem, My Happy Home (Long Sought Home) (File: NrecJMHH)
===
NAME: Long Summer Days
DESCRIPTION: Chantey/worksong: "The day is so long and the wages so small..." "Captain you gae launch this boat today..." "Take it now easy boys, cause the crawfish they're come now" Refrain: "Long summer day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (recording, Frederick McQueen & group)
KEYWORDS: fishing ship work nonballad shanty worksong animal sailor
FOUND_IN: Bahamas
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Frederick McQueen & group, "Long Summer Day" (on MuBahamas2)
NOTES: This may derive from the same roots as Randolph's "Rocky Road to Jordan (Long Summer Day)." But the uses of the song are different enough that I am (very tentatively) allowing them to stay separate; Randolph's is a singing game. - RBW
File: RcLoSuDa
===
NAME: Long Tail Blue
DESCRIPTION: The singer has "come to town to see you all... And sing a song not very long About my long tail blue." He is proud of having two coats, a jacket for everyday and the blue for Sunday. He advises others to acquire a similar coat and keep it well
AUTHOR: George Washington Dixon?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855 (Christy's Negro Songster); Dixon is said to have performed the piece in 1827
KEYWORDS: clothes courting
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 416, "My Long Tail Blue" (1 text)
Roud #1287
File: Br3416
===
NAME: Long the Days of Sorrow (All Around those Pretty Little Pinks)
DESCRIPTION: "We're marching round two pretty little pinks (x3), Long the days of sorrow." "Choose two in as we go round." "We've come in to marry you." "Tomorrow is the wedding night." "God Almighty bless them good old souls." "You rascal you, you told me a lie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty lie courting marriage
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 589, "Long the Days of Sorrow" (1 text)
Roud #7675
File: R589
===
NAME: Long Time Ago (II)
DESCRIPTION: "Once there was a little kitty, White as the snow, She went out to hunt a mousie, Long time ago." The cat's appearance is described: Her black eyes spied the mouse, her paws caught it, her teeth bit it -- but the mouse escaped
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: animal hunting
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 306-307, "Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4577
File: LxA306
===
NAME: Long Time Ago (II), A: see A Hundred Years Ago (I) (File: San485)
===
NAME: Long Time Ago, A
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "[To me] way, hey, hey, yah... A long time ago." Texts vary; many have to do with the troubles of seagoing life; one complains about serving an a boat so old it "must have been the ark that Noah built..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor ship
FOUND_IN: US(MA) Bahamas
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 37-43, "A Long Time Ago" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Colcord, pp. 65-68, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text plus several fragments, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 60-62, "A Long Time Ago" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp.97-105, 156, 215, "A Long Time Ago," "Up, Up, My Boys, Up a Hill" (11 texts, 4 tunes. Version "C" is "In Frisco Bay", version "F" is
"A-Rovin'", version "G" is "A Hundred Years Ago." Other versions borrow heavily from "Roll the Cotton Down," Blow the Man Down" and "Blackball Line") [AbEd, pp. 88-94]
Sharp-EFC, XLIV, p. 49, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 141-142, "A Long Time Ago" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, p. 48, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 47, "Around Cape Horn" (1 short text to the same tune)
Lomax-FSNA 28, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 306-207, "Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 312-313, "A Hundred Years" (1 text, with the phrase "A hundred years ago" replacing "A long time ago")
DT, (NOAHARK)
ST Doe037 (Full)
Roud #318
RECORDINGS:
Richard Maitland, "A Long Time Ago" (AFS, 1939; on LC27)
David Pryor et al: "Long Time Ago" (AAFS 505 B, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "In Frisco Bay (A Long Time Ago; Noah's Ark Shanty)" (lyrics)
cf. "Roll the Cotton Down" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "De Hoffnung" (tune)
cf. "Roll and Go" (refrain)
SAME_TUNE:
De Hoffnung (File: Hugi104)
NOTES: In 1833 one T. Rice sang a minstrel song by this name in "The Ethiopian Opera," with the sheet music published by John Cole of Baltimore; that may well have been the ancestor of this shanty. - PJS
File: Doe037
===
NAME: Long Time Traveling: see When I Can Read My Titles Clear (Long Time Traveling) (File: DTlongti)
===
NAME: Long White Robe
DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Can't you hand down that long white robe (x4)." Verses: "Old Satan thought he had me fast, Can't you hand... But I broke his chain and I come at last, Can't you...." "If I ever reach that mountain top... I pray to my Lord I may never stop."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious clothes nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 518, "Long White Robe" (1 text, with a "Cotton-Eyed Joe" verse)
Roud #11813
File: Br3518
===
NAME: Long-Line Skinner
DESCRIPTION: "I'm a long-line skinner And my home's out west. Lookin' for the woman... that'll love me best." The doctor says whiskey will kill him "but he don't say when." When it gets cold, he will go home; "I ain't skinning mules in the wintertime"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: work home drink
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 128, "Long-Line Skinner" (1 text)
File: FSWB128A
===
NAME: Long, Long Ago!
DESCRIPTION: "Tell me the tales that to me were so dear, Long long ago, long ago; Sing me the songs I delighted to hear... Now you are come my grief is removed...." The singer welcomes back (his?) long-lost love; he doubted her fidelity, but he rejoices to see her
AUTHOR: Thomas Haynes Bayly
EARLIEST_DATE: 1844
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 119-120, "Long, Long Ago!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 278-279, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 256, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 338, "Long, Long Ago!"
ST RJ19119 (Full)
Roud #4921
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:019, "Long, Long Ago," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(145), "Long, Long, Ago," unknown, c.1870
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Gone Long Ago" (tune)
NOTES: Bayly made his name as a composer of sentimental tunes, but this is surely his best-known. The exact date of composition is unknown; the earliest dated printing is from 1844, but copies are known to have been in circulation when Bayly died in 1839. The best guess is that it originally appeared c. 1836.
The author's original title was "The Long Ago." - RBW
File: RJ19119
===
NAME: Longest Name Song: see Too Much of a Name (File: GrMa170)
===
NAME: Longest Train, The: see In the Pines (File: LoF290)
===
NAME: Longford Murder, The: see James MacDonald [Laws P38] (File: LP38)
===
NAME: Longing for the Spring
DESCRIPTION: "The hills are very bare and cold and lonely; I wonder what the future months will bring. The strike is on...." The singer expresses anger at the scabs and the police, wishes he could shoot them, and longs for easier weather
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement hardtimes scab
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, p. 188, "(Longing for the Spring)" (1 text)
File: Burt188
===
NAME: Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family)
DESCRIPTION: "I am a simple lab'ring man / And I work along the shores / For to keep the hungry wolves away / From the poor longshoreman's door." The singer demands fair pay for his work. He complains that foreigners get the jobs while local people starve
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST_DATE: 1875
KEYWORDS: strike foreigner poverty
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1875 - Longshoreman's strike that inspired this song. Most of the strikers were Irish immigrants
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
FSCatskills 377, "The Poor Man's Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner 28, "Longshoreman's Strike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 82-83, "Long Shoreman's Strike" (1 text)
Greenway-AFP, p. 236, "Longshoreman's Strike" (1 text)
ST FSC101 (Partial)
Roud #7461
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Last Winter Was a Hard One" (theme)
NOTES: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
File: FSC101
===
NAME: 'Longside of the Santa Fe Trail: see The Santa Fe Trail (File: Ohr085)
===
NAME: Longstone Lighthouse, The: see Grace Darling (The Longstone Lighthouse) (File: Ran086)
===
NAME: Looby Lou
DESCRIPTION: "Here we go Looby Lou, Here we go Looby Lou, Here we go Looby Lou, Lou, Lou, All on a Saturday night." "I put my right hand in, I put my right hand out, I give my right hand shakey-shake-shake And I turn myself about."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown)
KEYWORDS: dancing playparty
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) US(Ap,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 192-193, "Looby Low" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 23-26, "I Put My Little Hand In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 554, "Loupy Lou" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, p. 157, "(Loop de Loo)" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #637, p. 252, "(Now we dance looby, looby, looby)"
Silber-FSWB, p. 387, "Her We Go Looby Loo" (1 text)
ST R554 (Partial)
Roud #5032
RECORDINGS:
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Loop de Loo (Loobie Loo)" (on NFMAla6, RingGames1)
Pete Seeger, "Here We Go Looby-Loo" (on PeteSeeger21)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Here We Go Looby Lou
Ugly Mug
Lubin
NOTES: This would seem to be the ancestor of the infamous Hokey-Pokey, perhaps urban America's only surviving singing game. But I don't know if the song was rewritten along the way.
Linscott reports the "Looby Loo" title as "a corruption of lupin,' the word for 'leaping,' for the game takes the form of animal antics."
Courlander, if I understand him correctly, explains it as a bathing game. Wonder how they recorded the motions in that case. - RBW
File: R554
===
NAME: Looby Low: see Looby Lou (File: R554)
===
NAME: Look at the Sun
DESCRIPTION: "Look at the sun, See how he run -- God Almighty'll catch you With your work undone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 229, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScNF229B
===
NAME: Look Before You Leap: see The Bald-Headed End of the Broom (File: FaE190)
===
NAME: Look Down: see Lonesome Road (File: San322)
===
NAME: Look How They Done My Lord
DESCRIPTION: Describes crucifixion of Jesus; he is whipped up to Calvary, where he "never [says] a mumbling word"; a thorny crown is placed on his brow and squashed down, and the blood comes streaming down. Refrain: "Good Lord I can't hold out no longer"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1953 (recording, Vera Hall Ward & Dock Reed)
KEYWORDS: execution dying Easter Bible religious prisoner Jesus
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #10983
RECORDINGS:
Vera Hall Ward & Dock Reed, "Look How They Done My Lord" (on ReedWard01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "He Never Said a Mumbling Word" (verses)
NOTES: Several verses of this song are shared with "He Never Said a Mumbling Word". But the "One day when I was lost" refrain is absent, and the overall feeling is quite different, so I split them. Incidentally, I use the keyword, "Easter" although the song technically describes only the events of Good Friday, letting the single keyword sit in for all of the events. - PJS
File: RcLHTDML
===
NAME: Look Out Below
DESCRIPTION: A young man goes to Australia to escape poverty at home. He goes to work in the mines, and in time grows rich. He returns home and marries, but finds that he misses Australia. Back he goes, to resume the miner's life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1894 (The Queenslander)
KEYWORDS: mining emigration poverty Australia
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 92-93, "Look Out Below" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, p. 42, "Look Out Below!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 128-130, "Look Out Below" (1 text)
NOTES: Patterson/Fahey/Seal credit this to CharlesThatcher, but they do not state the source of this information. - RBW
File: FaE092
===
NAME: Look Where the Train Done Gone
DESCRIPTION: Floating-verse blues about trains and lost love: "Look where de train done gone (x3), Oh babe, Gone never to return." "I certainly been a friend to you." "If I'd a-listened to what Mama said." "Tomorrow's my trial day." "If I'd a-died when I was young."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses love separation train
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 245-246, "Look Where de Train Done Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF245
===
NAME: Looked Down the Railroad Far As I Could See
DESCRIPTION: "Well, ah looked down de railroad fuh as I could see, Looked down dat railroad fuh as I could see, Saw mah gal a-wavin' back at me (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: railroading separation
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 241, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES: This feels like a blues, but note that the one verse quoted by Scarborough has four lines, not three. - RBW
File: ScNF241
===
NAME: Lookin' for the Bully of the Town: see The Bully of the Town [Laws I14] (File: LI14)
===
NAME: Looking for Poppies
DESCRIPTION: An old man meets a girl and asks where she is going. She says she is looking for poppies; he says it's the wrong place. She would hear the nightingale; the time is wrong. At last her young man shows up; the old man warns against such bird songs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love lie questions courting warning
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 252-253, "Looking for Poppies" (1 text)
Roud #7759
File: Beld252
===
NAME: Lookit Yonder: see The Old Gray Goose (I - Lookit Yonder) (File: FSC147)
===
NAME: Loop de Loo: see Looby Lou (File: R554)
===
NAME: Loose Every Sail to the Breeze: see Homeward Bound (II -- Loose Every Sail to the Breeze) (File: SWMS052)
===
NAME: Lora Williams
DESCRIPTION: ""Come all you fair and pretty damsels And listen while I now relate... And learn of Lora Williams fate." Lora sets out with a bucket for the spring, but, knowing she must swear against her lover, drowns herself instead
AUTHOR: "'Widder' Kizzie Talcott's Dan"?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: love suicide drowning
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 140-143, "Lora Williams" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair and Tender Ladies" (tune)
NOTES: According to Thomas's informant (called by the absurd name in the author field), Lora Williams was a 16-year-old asked to swear out a warrant against her lover. She chose suicide instead. Folklore adds that her voice can still be heard at the rock where she drowned, begging her mother not to weep.
At no point is the nature of the lover's crime specified.
This is item dG35 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: ThBa140
===
NAME: Lord Arnold: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Ateman: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Bakeman: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Barnard: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Barnie: see Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)
===
NAME: Lord Bateman: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Bateman's Castle: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Bayham: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Beichan: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord Burnett and Little Munsgrove: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Cornwallis
DESCRIPTION: "In the year of '81, In Yorktown we capitulated ... We fought them four to one as long as we could stand." The captives are confined "like thieves in a dungeon" and hope for the war to end "to see ourselves at liberty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1845 (Shield's _Songs and Ballads in use in the Province of Ulster...1845_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: captivity battle soldier
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 15, 1781 - Cornwallis wins a pyrrhic victory at Guilford Courthouse (North Carolina) and decides to continue the campaign in Virginia rather than the Carolinas. He will command roughly 7500 men in Virginia
Aug 1, 1781- Cornwallis establishes his base at Yorktown, Virginia
Sep 5-13 - Naval battle of the Virginia Capes (also called the Naval Battle of Yorktown); the French fleet of de Grasse defeats and drives away the British fleet of Thomas Graves
Sep 28 - George Washington and Rochambeau begin the siege of Yorktown with about 15,00 men
Oct 19 - Cornwallis's surrender
Feb 27, 1783 - The British parliament authorizes peace negotiations
Feb 4, 1783 - Britain officially declares an end to hostilities with the colonies
Apr 15 - The Congress of the American Confederation ratifies the peace treaty with Britain
Sep 3 - The Treaty of Paris officially ends the Revolutionary War
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 7, "Lord Cornwallis" (1 text)
NOTES: Moylan: "This song deals with the aftermath of the battle of Yorktown on the 18th of October 1781, when the American rebel army of George Washington defeated the British under General Cornwallis, putting an end to the American War of Independence." - BS
This song, typically, is wrong on several counts: The British at Yorktown were outnumbered by only about two to one, and a large fraction of their enemies were raw troops. The British could certainly have held on -- had they had supplies. But de Grasse's naval victory (which was not very decisive, but it did drive off the English) sealed off the British army, which eventually had to give in.
Contrary to a lot of sources, this did not automatically mean an end to the war; Cornwallis's army represented only about a third of the British troops in North America, and Britain could have sent more. The next spring, indeed, Admiral Rodney took care of de Grasse, giving the British control of the seas again. But Parliament had had enough of paying for a war that seemed to promise nothing good, so they swallowed their pride and granted colonial independence. - RBW
File: Moyl007
===
NAME: Lord Cornwallis's Surrender
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you brave Americans, The truth to you I'll tell, 'Tis of a sad misfortune To Britain late befell." Cornwallis and his British troops, cut off by Washington on land and de Grasse by sea, are forced to surrender
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 19C (broadside, LOCSinging as108040)
KEYWORDS: war battle rebellion derivative
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 19, 1781 - Cornwallis surrenders his forces at Yorktown to General Washington
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Scott-BoA, pp. 88-90, "Lord Cornwallis's Surrender" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LRDCRNWL*
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as108040, "Lord Cornwallis's Surrender," unknown, 19C
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The British Grenadiers" (tune) and references there
NOTES: The Revolutionary War in the north did not go well for Britain. Although their only severe defeat was at Saratoga, they were unable to capture and subdue the countryside.
The British command therefore decided to concentrate on the south in 1780. In that year, Charles Cornwallis (the second-in-command in America and the most aggressive of the British generals) was to invade the Carolinas and Virginia.
The results were typical of the Revolutionary War: Cornwallis won most of his engagements against the Colonials, but never managed to pin them down and suffered occasional losses at the hands of a rebellious countryside.
Then came disaster. Cornwallis was facing Washington at Yorktown with only a fraction of the British colonial army. Suddenly a French fleet led by Admiral de Grasse, which had been expected to attack New York, instead appeared outside Yorktown. De Grasse could not hope to hold off the British fleet forever, but he held on long enough. Cornwallis, surrounded and cut off from supplies, had to surrender.
It was the effective end of the Revolutionary War. The peace would not be signed until 1783, but the British no longer had the troops to fight the rebels, and were unwilling to send more.
Among the other revolutionary figures mentioned in this song are:
Burgoyne -- John Burgoyne, who surrendered at Saratoga (see "The Fate of John Burgoyne").
Hessians -- German mercenaries employed by the British. They were generally despised -- though the British government's decision to use mercenaries was rather logical when you think about it; the British did not want to send disaffected Irish soldiers, or Scottish soldiers who might prove loyal to the Stuarts -- and if they used English soldiers, they might well desert in the Americas, where the people spoke English and there were many economic opportunities (see Stanley Weintraub, _Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775-1783_, Free Press, 2005, pp. 42-44)
Greene -- Nathaniel Greene, who commanded a detached force in the Carolinas against Cornwallis. He was the best officer the Americans had at harassing the enemy. - RBW
File: SBoA088
===
NAME: Lord Daniel: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Darnell: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Delamere [Child 207]
DESCRIPTION: The king wants a new tax. Delamere asks for charge of all the poor of the land, to hang them; better they hang than starve. A lord says he deserves death, but Devonshire, fighting for Delamere, kills the lord and finds he is wearing the king's armor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Lyle)
KEYWORDS: royalty nobility trick money death accusation
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 207, "Lord Delamere" (4 texts)
Roud #88
NOTES: This sort of gesture of defiance (compare Swift's "A Modest Proposal") is much more common in story than truth; there is no reason to believe that the events here ever took place. Child gives what background there can be.
The one interesting point I observe is that the lords involved were mostly active at the time of the Glorious Revolution (1688) -- and, what's more, Lord Delamore (1652-1694) and William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire (1641-1707; Duke of Devonshire from 1694) both gave open support to William of Orange. Delamere, in fact, went on to be one of the Lords of the Treasury.
Perhaps this originated as some sort of Williamite broadside? Or, perhaps, an attempt to save Devonshire from protests? (He is said to have been poor about paying tradesmen.) - RBW
File: C207
===
NAME: Lord Derwentwater [Child 208]
DESCRIPTION: The king sends (Derwentwater) a summons to London. His wife bids him make his will before going. As he goes along his way, ill portents greet him. Arriving in London, he is condemned to death. (He gives gifts to the poor and is executed)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1812 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nobility execution lastwill
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1715 - the 1715 Jacobite rebellion
Sept. 1715 - Warrant issued for Derwentwater's arrest. He responds by openly going into revolt
Nov. 14, 1715 - Derwentwater and his comrades forced to surrender
Feb 24, 1716 - Execution of Derwentwater at the age of (probably) 26
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland) US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 208, "Lord Derwentwater" (10 texts)
Bronson 208, "Lord Derwentwater" (5 versions)
Leach, pp. 553-554, "Lord Derwentwater" (1 text)
Roud #89
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. G. A. Griffin, "The King's Love-Letter" (AFS, 1937; on LC58) {Bronson's #4a}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child #58]
cf. "The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water" [Child 216]
cf. "Derwentwater's Farewell" (subject)
cf. "Derwentwater" (subject)
NOTES: Although based on a historical incident, this ballad is a rather curious amalgam of material from other pieces; the opening is straight from "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child #58],
while the incident of the nosebleed portending doom is found in "The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water" [Child 216]. The making of the will is harder to trace, but the idea is commonplace.
There is an obvious urge to confuse this with "Derwentwater's Farewell," by Robert Surtees, but Child explicitly and correctly denies this link.
Derwentwater seems by all accounts to have been popular, and other poems were written of his death. In this case, it would appear that an unknown poet (Surtees?) took pieces of older ballads to produce a song for the occasion.
The night of Derwentwater's execution witnessed a particularly bright aurora, and the aurora is sometimes called "Derwentwater's Lights" as a result. But this usage, like the ballad itself, seems to have faded out with time. - RBW
File: C208
===
NAME: Lord Dillard and Lady Flora: see Lady Maisry [Child 65] (File: C065)
===
NAME: Lord Franklin: see Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)
===
NAME: Lord Gregory: see The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)
===
NAME: Lord Henry and Lady Margaret: see Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)
===
NAME: Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet [Child 66]
DESCRIPTION: Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet are (brothers/uncle and nephew). Lady Maisry loves and is pregnant by Chiel Wyet but Ingram woos her family and she is made to wed him. On the wedding night Chiel Wyet and Lord Ingram kill each other; Maisry goes mad.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1802/3 (ms)
KEYWORDS: family pregnancy marriage homicide fight madness
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Child 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (5 texts)
Bronson 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (2 versions, both regarded by Bronson as dubious; neither has a text)
Leach, pp. 213-222, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text, with a Danish text for comparison)
OBB 51, "Lord Ingram and Childe Vyet" (1 text)
DBuchan 30, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text)
TBB 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text)
DT 66, INGRWYLT*
Roud #46
NOTES: Bronson quotes two tunes for this piece, but admits they "may have no genuine right to this association. The sole connecting link, in the absence of words [neither tune has a text], is the title of the first tune, 'Lord Ingram.' But the tune suits ill with the metre of any known text...." - RBW
File: C066
===
NAME: Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Lord Levett: see Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)
===
NAME: Lord Livingston [Child 262]
DESCRIPTION: Livingston and Seaton both desire the favors of a lady. The lady weds Livingston for her own reasons. Seaton demands a duel. The lady offers to fight him, but Livingston claims it is his right. He is killed. The lady dies of sorrow after seven years
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1878
KEYWORDS: courting love fight death grief mourning marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 262, "Lord Livingston" (1 text)
Roud #3909
File: C262
===
NAME: Lord Lovel [Child 75]
DESCRIPTION: (Lord Lovel) is setting out on a voyage. (Lady Nancy) begs him not to go, but he is determined. Soon after he reaches his destination, he misses Nancy and turns for home. He finds that she has died for love of him. He proceeds to do the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1770 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: separation love death travel
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Hebr),England(All)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES: (39 citations)
Child 75, "Lord Lovel" (11 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 75, "Lord Lovel" (71 versions+3 in addenda)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 139-148, "Lord Lovel" (3 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes); p. 482 (additional notes) {Bronson's #36, #48}
Belden, pp. 52-54, "Lord Lovel" (1 text plus reference to 5 more; also texts of two Civil War parodies, the first of which, Ga, is "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell")
Randolph 17, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 34-37, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 17A) {Bronson's #38}
Eddy 13, "Lord Lovel" (5 texts plus an excerpt, 4 tunes; the "E" text has its first line from "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)" but is still this song) {Bronson's #30, #46, #59, #68}
Gardner/Chickering 6, "Lord Lovel" (1 text plus mention of 2 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #63}
Flanders/Brown, pp. 215-216, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 148-173, "Lord Lovell" (12 texts plus a fragment, 5 tunes) {L=Bronson's #22}
Linscott, pp. 233-235, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-Ballads 20, "Lord Lovel" (12 texts plus 3 fragments, of which "M" may not be this song; 4 tunes; 21 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #18, #9, #45, #5}
Davis-More 20, pp. 146-151, "Lord Lovel" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
BrownII 21, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Chappell-FSRA 11, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #62}
Hudson 12, pp. 90-91, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 16-17, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 99-102, "Lord Lovell" (2 texts plus a fragment; 2 tunes on pp. 389-390) {Bronson's #8, #25}
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 55-56, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Brewster 12, "Lord Lovel" (7 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #58, #41}
SharpAp 21 "Lord Lovel" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 5 tunes){Bronson's #33, #34, #6, #47, #7}
Sharp-100E 26, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 41-43, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #40, #39}
Leach, pp. 250-252, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 97, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts, but the "B" text is "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate")
OBB 155, "Lord Lovell" (1 text)
FSCatskills 33, "In Search of Silver and Gold" (1 text, 1 tune -- a facsimile of an "improved" version by George K. Hamilton which provides a happy ending for the piece)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 93-95, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 30, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 70, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Lomax-FSNA 209, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 2, pp. 4-6, "Lord Lovel"; pp. 6-7, "Lord Lover" (2 texts)
JHCox 12, "Lord Lovel" (3 text plus mention of two more)
JHCoxIIA, #8A-C, pp. 32-37, "Lord Lovell," "Lord Lovell" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "C" text is "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)") {Bronson's #61}
MacSeegTrav 9, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 38, "Lord Levett" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 44-46, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, plus texts of "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate" and "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell")
Silber-FSWB, p. 178, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
DT 75, LORDLOVL
Roud #48
RECORDINGS:
Winifred Bundy, "Lord Lovel" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
Nora Cleary, "Lord Levett" (on IRClare01)
Ethel Findlater, "Lord Lovel[l]" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Tom Lenihan, "Lord Levett" (on IRTLenihan01)
Lucindia Perkins, "Lord Lovell" (on JThomas01)
Frank Proffitt, "Lord Lovel" (on FProffitt01)
Jean Ritchie, "Lord Lovel" (on JRitchie01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lily Lee" (plot)
cf. "Bright Phoebe" (plot)
cf. "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (floating verses)
cf. "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate" (lyrics, form)
cf. "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)" (lyrics, form)
SAME_TUNE:
Sam Cowell (BarryEckstormSmyth p. 147; cf. the notes to "Billy Barlow (II)")
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lord Lovinder
NOTES: Although Child treated this as an entirely serious ballad, Bronson calls it "too too insipid," and believes it survives only because of its tune.
Comic versions are common. Sandy Paton states that Child refused to print a comic text that came to his attention. Cazden et al state that "At least nine of the versions compiled by Bronson may be identified as comic [and we note that many others might be but are fragmentary]"; they find a comic version in America as early as 1836. Numerous other parodies, comic versions, and rewrites are also listed. - RBW
File: C075
===
NAME: Lord Lovell: see Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)
===
NAME: Lord Lover: see Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)
===
NAME: Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight [Child 195]
DESCRIPTION: Lord Maxwell, having had his revenge on the Johnstones and soon to be executed for it, bids farewell to the places and people he has known
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1778 (Percy papers)
KEYWORDS: death execution revenge feud
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1608 - Murder of James Johnstone by Lord Maxwell
1613 - Execution of Maxwell for his crimes
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 195, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (2 texts)
Bronson 195, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (4 versions)
Leach, pp. 533-535, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (1 text)
OBB 151, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (1 text)
Roud #4015
NOTES: The events which led up to the execution of Maxwell are typical of the sort of feuding in which Scottish nobles were constantly engaged, and are detailed by Child. Even for a last goodnight, this song is amazingly frugal of details; the texts in Child say nothing of what Maxwell did, nor even what his fate will be. I was tempted to give it the keyword "nonballad." - RBW
File: C195
===
NAME: Lord o' Aboyne, The: see The Earl of Aboyne [Child 235] (File: C235)
===
NAME: Lord of Lorn and the False Steward, The [Child 271]
DESCRIPTION: The Lord of Lorn, having done well in school, is sent to France to study. His steward abuses him, takes his possessions, and sets him to begging. Eventually the truth is revealed; the Lord regains his property and the Steward is executed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: apparently 1580 (stationer's register)
KEYWORDS: nobility trick abuse begging help punishment execution
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 271, "The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward" (2 texts)
Bronson 271, comments only
OBB 76, "The Lord of Lorn" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1523, "It was a worthy Lord of Lorn"
Roud #113
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Greensleeves" (tune)
NOTES: The broadside printing of a song with this title entered into the Stationer's Register in 1580 lists the tune as "Greensleeves." Since the ballad has not been found in tradition, this remains unverified. In any case, given the apparent wild popularity of "Greensleeves" at the time this was published, it is quite possible the printer tried to take advantage of a tune not normal to the ballad ("Lorn" can be sung to "Greensleeves," but only with effort; it is not a good fit).
The first verifiable text is from the Percy folio, though Bronson thinks that comes from a lost broadside.
Child makes a great deal of the romances analogous to this ballad, but does not seem to have noted the significance of the names of the characters; I wonder if there might not be an allegory floating around somewhere in the background. (For the references in what follows, see the Bibliography at the end of this note.)
The story starts with Robert the Bruce (died 1329), the King of Scotland who won the Battle of Bannockburn and re-established Scottish independence. Bruce claimed the throne in 1306 after twenty years of confusion in Scotland (for background on this, see the notes to "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child 58] and "Gude Wallace" [Child 157]). The Scots at the time Bruce claimed the throne were divided into at least four parties: Those who favored the English, those who favored the deposed king John Balliol, those who favored the Bruce -- and those who, while opposed to the English and not enthusiastic about Balliol, were absolutely opposed to the Bruce claims. This included the powerful family of the Comyns, whose leader the Red Comyn Bruce had just slain (Magnusson, p. 166).
Of these four factions, the pro-English party was weak simply because any party associated with the English King Edward I would naturally have had the the independence beaten out of it (Edward was an absolute autocrat), and the Balliol faction was weakened by the fact that their monarch was a rather weak man long gone from Scotland. The anti-Bruce faction, though, was strong, including the MacDougalls. Dougall MacDougall, a supported of the Comyns, had actually defeated and killed two of Robert Bruce's brothers (Magnusson, p. 171). John MacDougall, Lord of Lorn, twice fought against Robert Bruce (Magnusson, pp. 175-177).
After the great Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, of course, Robert Bruce was too firmly established to be pushed aside. But then there was the matter of the succession after he died.
By his first wife, Isabella of Mar, Robert Bruce had only one child, a daughter Marjory/Marjorie. Given her importance for the succession, she needed a husband who had power and respect, so she was married to Walter, the hereditary Steward of Scotland. They had a single child, Robert; the pregnant Marjorie fell from a horse in 1316 (Cook, pp. 107-109) and died giving birth (Magnusson, p. 192, says she died and the child was saved by Caesarian surgery). The boy Robert (died 1390) would eventually become Robert II and ancestor of the Stewarts.
By the time of Marjorie's death Robert the Bruce had remarried, to Elizabeth de Burgh. But she was in English custody from 1306 to 1314; by the time she and Bruce reunited, there was some concern about whether she was even still capable of having children (Magnusson, p. 192). It turned out she was; she bore two daughters, then at last twin sons, David and John (Magnusson, p. 193). John died young, but the living boy would be, the future King David (Cook, p. 112). Unfortunately, it was nearly certain that he would be a minor when he came to the throne; although Robert Bruce was in his fifties, he was also ill with a disease which was called (although almost certainly was not) leprosy.
Still, there was no question that David was Robert Bruce's heir, and he duly succeeded at the age of five -- though he would spend little of his life actively ruling Scotland. He began his reign as a minor, was sent to France for seven years (Mackie, p. 86); upon returning home, he went to war with England but was heavily defeated in 1346 at Neville's cross (Mackie, pp. 86-87). He was wounded and captured in the battle, and remained in English hands for eleven years (Magnusson, p. 204) apart from a little time on parole as he sought to raise a ransom (Magnusson, p. 205).
David was married even before he came to the throne, to Joanna "Make-Peace," the sister of Edward III of England (they had been wed the year before Robert Bruce died, when David was four and Joanna seven; Magnusson, p. 192).
This marriage, however, was childless and "apparently... loveless" (Ashley, p. 551); she apparently left Scotland, never to return, in 1357 (Boardman, p. 15). David would remarry after Joanna died in 1362, but his second wife (his former mistress, Margaret Drummond, who "was regarded by his nobles as in every way unworthy," according to Mackie, p. 88) could no more produce a child than did Joanna (odds are that the fault was David's, since she had had a son by her first husband; Magnusson, p. 106); they divorced in 1370 (Ashley, p. 551; Boardman speculates that the divorce was perhaps an attack by David on the Stewarts, since Robert's son and heir John, the future Robert III, was married to a Drummond -- at David's insistence; Magnusson, p. 207). David seemed to be preparing to marry for the third time (Magnusson, p. 308) -- but David died unexpectedly in 1371 while still in his forties.
And suddenly there was a succession question. Robert Steward was the obvious heir, since he was the son of the oldest of Robert Bruce's three daughters, but there were objections. He was eight years older than his nephew David (Boardman, p. 1), and by this time was starting to fail in health; he was known as "Auld Blearie" or "Old Blearie" for his reddened eyes (Fry/Fry, p. 90; Magnusson, pp. 213-214, blames this description on Froissart). Plus he was regarded by some as a traitor (Ashley, p. 553), or at least someone who was willing to allow the English to control David (Magnusson, p. 204); certainly he had been one of Davis's chief political enemies (Boardman, p. 1). David had seemed, toward the end, to be doing all he could to block the Stewart succession: Seeking a third wife, plus supporting anti-Stewart nobles (Boardman, pp. 24-25). He had previously tried to bring in the English prince John of Gaunt as an heir in preference to the Stewart (Magnusson, p. 207).
Eventually Robert II suffered a sort of palace coup which pushed him aside in favor of his son (Magnusson, p. 215). Yet that just made the problem worse, because his sons were of questionable legitimacy. Robert II eventually had to seek a papal legitimation of his children by Elizabeth Mure (Boardman, p. 8). It seems the two were cousins, and they had gotten together in ignorance of this (Mitchison, p. 59; Mackie, p. 94 says that the marriage was made "in good faith"); Mure may also have been previously contracted to another (Cook, p. 135). It may be, in addition, that they had not been formally married (Boardman, p. 8) -- all in all, a lot of barriers to the legitimacy of the children. Robert had later taken a second wife, and had additional sons (Mitchison, p. 59), but were the first brood his legitimate heirs, or were the second bunch, or were they both illegitimate?
If Robert II's claim to the kingship were set aside, or that of his children, then the Stewarts were not the heirs of David; rather, the true heirs of Robert Bruce would be the offspring of his daughters by Elizabeth de Burgh. (Indeed,it appears that some regarded the sisters as David's heirs all along -- Boardman, p. 9. Was this perhaps because they were "born in the purple," after Robert Bruce became king?)
On this line of argument, David's heir was his full sister Margaret rather than the son of his half sister Marjorie; Margaret had a son John who, from the time of his birth in 1346, seems to have been regarded as David's heir (since the children of Robert Stewart were not legitimized by the Pope until later, and Margaret apparently died in bearing the boy). But he died in 1361 (Boardman, pp. 8-9).
Next in line would be the children of Margaret's younger sister Matilda, should she have any. And she did: A daughter Joanna, who married John, Lord of Lorn (Boardman, p. 2). As it turned out, they had no children, and the Lord of Lorn (John MacDougal, the head of Clan Dougal) died in 1388 (Boardman, p. 182) -- but no one could have known that at the time David died.
What's more, the Lords of Lorn (Lorne) had been rivals of the ruling dynasty for many years; Robert the Bruce had attacked the Lorn holding of Dunstaffnage in 1309 (MacLean, p. 41)
There was most definitely rivalry between the branches of the Scottish royal family at this time; while Robert Stewart did manage to ascend as Robert II, Boardman (pp. 42-45) describes what sounds like an abortive coup attempt on behalf of a Douglas. And it apparently took some time before Robert II managed to gain the full support of the nobility. In this period, a claim on behalf of the Lorn faction might have caused a great deal of trouble.
The conclusion is clear: A partisan of the Lords of Lorn might well have called Robert II (or his son Robert III) a "false Steward"; what's more, the Stewarts would set aside the MacDougalls when they had the chance. John MacDougall of Lorn was succeeded as Lord of Lorn by John Steward of Innermeath (died 1421).
>>BIBLIOGRAPHY<<
Ashley: Mike Ashley, _British Kings and Queens_, Barnes & Noble, 2002 (originally published as _The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens_, 1988)
Boardman: Stephen Boardman, _The Early Stewart Kings: Robert II and Robert III, 1371-1406_, Tuckwell Press, 1996
Cook: E. Thornton Cook, _Their Majesties of Scotland_, John Murray, 1928
Fry/Fry: Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, _The History of Scotland_, 1982 (I use the 1995 Barnes & Noble edition)
MacLean: Fitzroy Maclean, _A Concise History of Scotland_, Beekman House, 1970
Mackie: J. D. Mackie, _A History of Scotland_, Pelican, 1964
Magnusson: Magnus Magnusson, _Scotland: The Story of a Nation_, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000
Mitchison: Rosalind Mitchison, _A History of Scotland_, second edition, Methuen, 1982 - RBW
File: C271
===
NAME: Lord of Scotland, The: see Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)
===
NAME: Lord Orland/Daniel's Wife: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Randal [Child 12]
DESCRIPTION: (Lord Randall) comes home; his mother questions him about his day. He answers each question accurately but incompletely, concluding with a request to rest. At last he reveals that his sweetheart has poisoned him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1787
KEYWORDS: homicide lover farewell lastwill food poison
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland(All)) US(All) Ireland Canada(Mar,Que)
REFERENCES: (45 citations)
Child 12, "Lord Randal" (21 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #31, #33}
Bronson 12, "Lord Randal" (103 versions plus 9 in addenda)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 46-72, "Lord Randall" (12 texts plus 3 fragments and 2 quotations from non-Maine sources, 6 tunes plus 1 unrelated item; the "N" text is a rewrite which ends with Randall's accidental death) {Bronson's #42, #37, #16, #72, #23, [], #11; Bronson's #70 is a tune for text "J," which is printed without a melody}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 37-39, "Jimmie Rendal"; pp. 200-201, "Lord Randall" (2 texts)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 197-198, "Mother, Make My Bed Soon" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #30}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 175-207, "Lord Randall" (13 texts plus 6 fragments, 12 tunes) {H=Bronson's #30}
Linscott, pp. 191-193, "Dirante, My Son or Lord Randall" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Davis-Ballads 6, "Lord Randal" (15 texts [two of them in an appendix] plus a fragment; 4 tunes entitled "John Willow, My Son," "Johnny Rillus," Johnny Rilla," "Lord Randal"; 2 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #64, #28, (F version not reproduced), #58}
Belden, pp. 24-28, "Lord Randall" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #41}
Randolph 5, "Johnny Randolph" (4 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #21, B=#26, D=#96}
Eddy 5, "Lord Randal" (4 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #73, #95, #94}
Gardner/Chickering 3, "The Cup of Cold Poison" (1 text)
Davis-More 7, pp. 51-60, "Lord Randal" (5 texts plus an excerpt, 3 tunes)
BrownII 6, "Lord Randall" (3 texts)
Chappell-FSRA 4, "Lorendo" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Hudson 4, pp. 69-70, "Lord Randall" (2 texts)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 178-180, "Lord Randall" (1 text, with local title "Randal, My Son")
Brewster 7, "Lord Randall" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 9-11, "Lord Randal" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #48, #86}
Leach, pp. 81-85, "Lord Randal" (4 texts)
OBB 66, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 178, "Lord Randall" (3 texts)
Warner 107, "Lord Randall"; 108, "Jimmy Ransome" (2 texts, 1 tune)
SharpAp 7 "Lord Randal" (13 texts, 13 tunes) {Bronson's #13, #14, #17, #74, #3, #56, #47, #53, #54, #49, #63, #68, #62}
Sharp-100E 18, "Lord Rendal" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #90}
Niles 9, "Lord Randall" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gummere, pp. 168+336-337, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 7, "John Randolph (Lord Randal)" (1 text, 1 tune -- an expanded composite version) {Bronson's #53}
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 50-51, "Lord Randal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 23-24, "Lord Ronald" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 34, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
JHCox 4, "Lord Randall" (6 texts plus mention of 6 more)
JHCoxIIA, #3, pp. 14-15, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Ord, pp. 458-459, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 1, p. 3, "Johnny Randall"; p. 4, "Jimmy Randolph" (2 texts)
MacSeegTrav 4, "Lord Randall" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Opie-Oxford2 44, "Where have you been today, Billy, my son" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #287, pp. 167-168, "(Where have you been today, Billy, my son)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 199, "The Wee Croodin Doo" (1 text)
TBB 11, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
SHenry H814, p. 415, "Lord Ronald" (1 text, 1 tune, incorrectly labelled "Child 92")
Darling-NAS, pp. 43-44, "Lord Randall"; "Johnny Randall" (2 texts)
Silber-FSWB, p. 346, "Lord Randall" (1 text)
DT 12, LORDRAN1* LORDRNLD* EELHENRY* EELHENR2
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 30-31, "Henry, My Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10
RECORDINGS:
Grace Carr, "Henry, My Son" (on Saskatch01)
Sara Cleveland, "My Bonny Bon Boy" (on SCleveland01)
Mary Delaney, "Buried in Kilkenny" (on Voice17)
Em & Doreen Elliott, "Henry, My Son" (on Elliotts01)
Pete Elliott, "Henry, My Son" (on Elliotts01)
Ewan MacColl, "Lord Randal" (on ESFB1, ESFB2)
John MacDonald, "Lord Ronald" (on Voice03)
Lawrence Older, "Johnny Randall" (on LOlder01)
Paddy Reilly, "Buried in Kilkenny" (on IRTravellers01)
Jean Ritchie, "Lord Randall" (on JRitchie02)
Jeannie Robertson, Elizabeth Cronin, Thomas Moran, Colm McDonough, Eirlys & Eddis Thomas [composite] "Lord Randal" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1) {cf. Bronson's #43.2 in addenda}
Pete Seeger, "Lord Randall" (on PeteSeeger25)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy Boy"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Jimmy Randolph
Jimmy Randal
Bonnie Wee Croodlin Doo
Tiranti, My Love
Henry, My Son
Willie Ransom
NOTES: A few versions, such as that recorded by Lawrence Older, make Randall's wife, rather than his sweetheart, his murderer. Wonder if she found out about that other girl he was fooling around with. - RBW
And in Grace Carr's version, it's his father who poisons him. It's worth noting that the title "Henry, My Son" almost inevitably denotes a parody version. - PJS
I've seen several sources (notably Davis) mention that John Randolph of Virginia knew the song which sometimes bears his name. The text Randolph cited appears, however, to have been "Wheel of Fortune" or something similar.
Barry et al claim "It is reasonably safe to assert that, of all the English ballads, 'Lord Randall' holds in the United States the leading position, as regards the extent of purely traditional currency. 'Barbara Allen' and 'Lord Thomas' are, no doubt, known to more folk-singers, yet it cannot be said that their popularity is due solely to tradition, since both have been many times reprinted in pocket songsters. On the other hand, we know of no American broadside or songster text of 'Lord Randall.'" - RBW
File: C012
===
NAME: Lord Rendal: see Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)
===
NAME: Lord Robert: see Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)
===
NAME: Lord Ronald: see Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)
===
NAME: Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie [Child 239]
DESCRIPTION: Jeanie Gordon loves (Auch)anachie, but her father would have her wed Lord Saltoun, who is old but wealthy. The wedding is carried out despite her wishes. She faints and dies. Auchanachie arrives the next day, learns of her death, and dies himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1824 (Maidment)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Jeanie Gordon loves (Auch)anachie, but her father would have her wed Lord Saltoun, who is old but wealthy. The wedding is carried out despite her wishes. The servants cut her out of her gown so that Saltoun may bed her. She faints and dies. Auchanachie arrives the next day, learns of her death, and dies himself.
KEYWORDS: wedding separation age love death
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 239, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (2 texts)
Bronson 239, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 239-597, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (1 text)
DT 239, ANGORDON*
Roud #102
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Doyle [Laws M2]" (plot)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Annachie
Annachie Gordon
NOTES: Possibly related to the Swedish ballad "Stolt Ingrid [Proud Ingrid]"? - PJS
File: C239
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73]
DESCRIPTION: (Lord Thomas) asks his mother to help him decide between (Fair Annet) and the "Brown Girl." The mother prefers the wealthy Brown Girl. Thomas consents, inviting Annet to the wedding, where the jealous brown girl stabs her; (Thomas kills her and himself)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1677 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(120b))
KEYWORDS: marriage poverty death courting jealousy homicide suicide wedding
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(All)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (54 citations)
Child 73, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (10 texts)
Bronson 73, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (147 versions+4 in addenda, though 2 versions are relegated to an appendix for no evident reason; many of the other texts are also fragmentary and might belong elsewhere)
Leather, pp. 200-202, "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor" (1 slightly compoosite text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #39}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 128-134, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #110}
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 82-85, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor"; pp. 234-238, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (2 texts)
Belden, pp. 37-48, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (3 full texts, fragments of 4 others, 1 tune, and listing of 5 unprinted versions) {Bronson's #109}
Randolph 15, "The Brown Girl" (8 texts plus 2 fragments, 5 tunes) {A=Bronson's #51, F=#147, G=#4, H=#124, J=#26}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 31-34, "The Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 15H) {Bronson's #124}
Eddy 11, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 1 tune) {Bronson's #140}
Flanders/Brown, pp. 209-213, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #97}
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 89-121, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (10 texts plus two fragments, 8 tunes) {A=Bronson's #97, F=#98}
Gardner/Chickering 4, "Lord Thomas" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #54, #100}
Davis-Ballads 18, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (17 texts plus a fragment, 7 tunes entitled "Lord Thomas and Fair Elenor," "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor," "Fair Ellen," "Lord Thomas and the Brown Girl," "The Brown Girl, or Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender," "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor," "Fair Ellender, or Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor"; 17 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #31, #81, #120, #36, #37, #60, #144}
Davis-More 18, pp. 123-137, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (6 texts plus some excerpts, 5 tunes)
BrownII 19, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (4 texts plus 6 excerpts and mention of 4 more)
Chappell-FSRA 9, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen" (1 text)
Hudson 10, pp. 78-87, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (5 texts)
Fuson, pp. 49-51, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar" (1 text)
Cambiaire, pp. 34-36, "Lord Thomas"; pp. 115-116, "The Brown Girl" (2 texts)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 41-44, "The Brown Girl" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 105-114, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet," with individual titles "The Brown Girl," "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen," "Lord Thomas,"Lord Thomas," "Fair Ellender," "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar" (5 texts plus a fragment; the "A" text has lost the ending; 4 tunes on pp. 391-393) {Bronson's #74, #14, #73, #57}
Brewster 10, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (6 text plus 2 fragments)
SharpAp 19 "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (8 texts plus 20 fragments, 31 tunes){Sharp's A=Bronson's #103, Aa=#38, B=#,122 Bb=#35, C=#104, Cc=#32, D=#102, Dd=#6, E=#5, Ee=#71, F=#43, G=#101, H=#60, I=#96, J=#117, K=#119, L=#15, M=#145, N=#134, O=#133, P=#3, Q=#42, R=#127, S=#130, T=#46, U=#47, V=#72, W=#88, X=#89, Y=#92, Z=#91}
Sharp-100E 28, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #99}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 40-41, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #136}
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 9-10, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 4, "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #34}
Greenleaf/Mansfield 8, "Lord Thomas" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 617-619, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 6, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text); "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #128}
Leach, pp. 239-246, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (3 texts plus a translated Danish text)
OBB 54, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 84, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 14, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendor (or, The Brown Bride)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #132}
Warner 140, "Lord Thomas" (1 text+1 fragment, 2 tunes)
PBB 39, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 137-139, "Three Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 28, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Gummere, pp. 231-235+353, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 15, "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinore" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #145}
Sandburg, pp. 156-157, "The Brown Girl or Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #85}
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 62-63, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #76}
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 17-20, "[Fair Ellender]" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #126; note that the tune is slightly different, and the text noticeably different, from the Ritchie-Southern version}
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 60-61, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (1 text, 1 tune) {note that the tune is slightly different, and the text noticeably different, from the Ritchie-SingFam version}
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 57, "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 122, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 12, pp. 27-31, "Lord Thomas" (1 text)
JHCox 10, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (9 texts plus mention of 2 more)
TBB 15, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 61-65, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 46-47, "Three Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 222, "Fair Ellender" (1 text)
BBI, ZN173, "Amongst the Forresters of old"; ZN1719, "Lord Thomas he was a bold Forrester"
DT 73, BROWNGRL BRWNGRL2*
Roud #4
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar" (AAFS 33) {Bronson's #21, but as "The Brown Girl"}; "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (on Barker01)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annie" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
Jessie Murray, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen (Lord Thomas and Fair Annet)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Jean Ritchie, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (on JRitchie01) {cf. Bronson's #126}
Ritchie Family, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (on Ritchie03) {cf. Bronson's #126}
Mike Seeger, "Lord Thomas" (on MSeeger01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(120b), "A Tragical Story of lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" ("Lord Thomas he was a bold forrester"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright and J. Clarke (London), 1677; also Douce Ballads 3(58b), "A Tragical Ballad on the Unfortunate Love of Ld Thomas and Fair Eleanor"; Harding B 3(93), Douce Ballads 4(36), Harding B 3(94), Harding B 3(91), Harding B 3(92), Johnson Ballads 385, Johnson Ballads 386, Harding B 11(2208), "A Tragical Ballad of the Unfortunate Love's of Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor"; Harding B 11(2209), 2806 c.16(298), Harding B 37(38), "Lord Thomas and fair Eleanor"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Thomas o Yonderdale" [Child 253] (plot)
cf. "The Hunting of the Cheviot" [Child 162] (tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen
Thomas and Ellen
NOTES: According to Bertrand Bronson, this is second only to Barbara Allen in popularity among the Child ballads. He notes that the Scottish tunes, though they are few, seem related to "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight," also among the most popular of the ballads.
Grieg/Keith see this as much the same ballad as Child #74, and Bronson sees similarities in the tunes, but concludes that the melodies, like the texts, justify separating them. - RBW
[Lloyd dates this to no later than the] late 17th century (broadside in reign of Charles II).
[Silber & Silber mis-identify] this as Child 295, which is actually "Brown Girl (I)." - PJS
The broadside Lloyd mentions appears to be mentioned also by Belden; he believes that it is the ancestor of all American versions, plus most recent British versions. But he believes the original was Scottish, and preceded the broadside. - RBW
A number of the Bodleian broadsides have as subtitle "with the downfall of the brown girl." - BS
File: C073
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor: see Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor: see Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen: see Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar: see Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)
===
NAME: Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret [Child 260]
DESCRIPTION: Thomas, goes hunting and is pursued by (Margaret), whom he cast aside. He orders that she be chased far from him. She takes refuge with and marries (someone). Later, Thomas arrives at her door as a beggar. She poisons him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1825
KEYWORDS: abandonment hunting punishment poison poverty begging
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 260, "Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret" (2 texts)
Bronson 260, "Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 631-632, "Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Roud #109
File: C260
===
NAME: Lord Thomas of Winesberry: see Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)
===
NAME: Lord Thomas Stuart [Child 259]
DESCRIPTION: Thomas Stuart gives his lady wide lands as a gift. She desires to see them. They ride out, but Thomas is stricken with pain. He bids her ride on; he himself returns home and dies. She dreams a dreadful dream, returns home, and realizes he is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: love home courting disease death dream
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 259, "Lord Thomas Stuart" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 629-630, "Lord Thomas Stuart" (1 text)
Roud #4024
File: C259
===
NAME: Lord Valley: see Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)
===
NAME: Lord Waterford: see Lord Wathe'ford (File: OLcM060A)
===
NAME: Lord Wathe'ford
DESCRIPTION: Lord Wathe'ford is dead. "The tyrant" choked wells and evicted farmers. He'll not be with common sinners in Hell but will share a private grate with his father. In Hell he meets Queen Bess, and his bailiff, and the Devil himself who is happy to see him.
AUTHOR: Michael A. Moran? (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1906 (ballad sheet, according to OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: death humorous political Devil Ireland Hell nobility landlord
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 60A, "Lord Wathe'ford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 30-31, "Lord Waterford" (1 text)
Roud #6529
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (tune and repeated lines)
NOTES: This is a rather odd piece. Landlords in Ireland of course frequently evicted tenants, and they had a general policy of not improving properties; they wanted the Irish Catholic farmers too poor to represent a threat. But not in Waterford. One of the earliest areas of English settlement, it earned a great deal of Royal favor, was relatively prosperous, and was generally one of the most loyal areas of the country. Perhaps this is a reference to some of Lord Waterford's territories outside his home county? - RBW
File: OLcM060A
===
NAME: Lord Wetram: see Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)
===
NAME: Lord William and Lady Margaret: see Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)
===
NAME: Lord William, or, Lord Lundy [Child 254]
DESCRIPTION: (Lord William) and the bailiff's daughter fall in love (while studying abroad). Her father calls her home to marry a nobleman. She sends a message by bird to Willie. Willie arrives at the wedding, forcing the groom aside and marrying the girl himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1845 (Dixon)
KEYWORDS: love marriage nobility wedding violence father
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Child 254, "Lord William, or, Lord Lundy" (3 texts)
Bronson 254, "Lord William, or, Lord Lundy" (1 version)
Dixon IX, pp. 57-59, "Lord William" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 621-623, "Lord William, or, Lord Lundy" (1 text)
Roud #106
File: C254
===
NAME: Lord William's Death: see Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)
===
NAME: Lord Willoughby
DESCRIPTION: "The fifteenth day of July... A famous fight in Flanders was foughten in the field... But the bravest man in battel Was brave Lord Willoughby." In a fierce contest with the Spanish, Willoughby's bravery encourages the English to victory
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy); tune known from 1603 (Robinson's "Schoole of Musick")
KEYWORDS: battle nobility soldier
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1587 - Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, takes command of the English forces in the Netherlands
1601 - Death of Willoughby
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 238-241, "Brave Lord Willoughbey" (1 text)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, p. 152, "Lord Willoughby, or Lord Willoughby's March, or Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN895, "The fifteenth day of July"
ST Perc2238 (Full)
SAME_TUNE:
Give ear you lusty Gallants/A famous Sea-fight. Hollander..Spaniard..September 1639. (BBI ZN969)
Now comfortable Tydings is come unto England/Joyfull News for England [Peace.. April 6, 1654] (BBI ZN3422)
NOTES: This is probably just another broadside that "made it big" without entering oral tradition, but the number of references seemed sufficient for me to include it in the Index. (Note the regular use of the tune in broadsides).
Lord Willoughby was a famous swordsman, and performed well in the Netherlands, but this report of his exploits against the Spanish is certainly blown out of proportion.
There was a later Willoughby who was governor of Barbados in the 1660s, but he died at sea in a hurricane during a war with the French. - RBW
File: Perc2238
===
NAME: Lord, I Never Will Come Back Here No Mo'
DESCRIPTION: "Some o' dese days about twelve o'clock, Dis old worl's a gwi' reel and rock. Lawd, I neber will come back here no more. No mo' my Lawd (x2), I neber come back here no mo'." "Way down about Arkansas, De niggers ain't a-arguin' a thing but wa'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922
KEYWORDS: religious war nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 349, "Lord, I Never Will Come Back Here No Mo'" (1 text)
Roud #11738
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (floating lyrics)
File: Br3349
===
NAME: Lord, Remember Me
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Deat' he is a little man, And he goes from do' to do', He killed some souls and he wounded some...." "Do, Lord, remember me (x2), I cry to the Lord as the year roll around...." "I want to die like-a Jesus die, And he die with a free good will...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison, "Slave Songs of the United States")
KEYWORDS: death religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 915-916, "Lord, Remember Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11849
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Strothers & Joe Lee, "Do, Lord, Remember Me" (AFS 746 B2, 1936; on LC10)
NOTES: This should not be confused with "Do Lord, Remember Me," a separate song. - PJS
File: BAF915
===
NAME: Lords of Creation, The
DESCRIPTION: "Ye lords of creation, me you are called, You think to rule the whole... Now did not Adam, the very first man, The very first woman obey?" Though men are stronger, women control them with smiles and tears, and always shall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1907 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: feminist nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Belden, pp. 432-433, "The Lords of Creation" (1 text)
BrownIII 308, "The Lords of Creation" (1 text)
Roud #7837
NOTES: I've tagged this with the keyword "feminist," but I'm not sure it applies; the women do not earn control based on their skills but their wheedling.
The whole argument is Biblical (or at least part of the Protestant apocrypha, and included in an appendix to the Catholic bible): See the argument of Zerubbabel that "women are strongest" in 1 Esdras 3:12, 4:13-32.
The notes in Brown call it an "amusing quip." Which perhaps shows more mostly how humor depends on circumstances -- I find it degrading and disgusting. - RBW
File: Beld432
===
NAME: Lorena
DESCRIPTION: "The years creep slowly by, Lorena; The snow is on the grass again." The singer recalls his early years with Lorena, and remembers how much he loved her. He tells her that he still loves her as truly
AUTHOR: Words: H.D.L. Webster/Music: J.P. Webster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1857
KEYWORDS: love age
FOUND_IN: US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Belden, p. 222, "Lorena" (1 text)
Randolph 757, "Lorena and Paul Vane" (2 texts, 2 tunes, of which the first is "Lorena' and the second "Lorena's Answer")
Logsdon 24, pp. 249-153, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 122-125, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, pp. 58-59, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, pp. 90-91, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-CivWar, p. 228, "Lorena" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 255, "Lorena" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 481, "Lorena" (source notes only)
DT, LORENNA*
ST R757 (Full)
Roud #4246
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Mountain Singers, "Lorena" (Columbia 15550-D, 1930)
Smyth County Ramblers, "Way Down in Alabama" (Victor 40144, 1928; on LostProv1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lorena's Answer (Paul Vane)"
NOTES: The most popular sentimental song of the Civil War. Ironically, in the original Henry deLafayette Webster poem, the girl was Bertha.
To add to the name confusion, Logsdon reports that Henry Webster had been deeply in love with a girl named Ella. Family opposition prevented their marriage, but Webster was apparently still carrying a torch when he wrote this, though he changed the name to make it seem less personal.
But when Joseph Philbrick Webster (no relation to H. Webster) set the poem to music, he needed a three-syllable name, and so "Lorena" was born. The name is said to be a combination of "Bertha" and Edgar Allan Poe's "lost Lenore"; the name was not in use until the Websters produced their song.- RBW
File: R757
===
NAME: Lorena Bold Crew, The: see The Bold Princess Royal [Laws K29] (File: LK29)
===
NAME: Lorena's Answer (Paul Vane)
DESCRIPTION: Lorena answers Paul that, though the years have passed and the winter come, "There's no snow upon the heart." She expects to meet him in heaven.
AUTHOR: Words: H.D.L. Webster/Music: J.P. Webster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1863
KEYWORDS: love age
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 757, "Lorena and Paul Vane" (2 texts, 2 tunes, of which the first is "Lorena" and the second "Lorena's Answer")
Roud #4246
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lorena"
NOTES: The song "Lorena's Answer" was an attempt by Webster and Webster to cash in on the success of their earlier hit "Lorena." It didn't do nearly as well. The reason is probably obvious. If "Lorena" is saccharine, "Lorena's Answer" is sugar-coated extra-strength saccharine. It's more than I can take. - RBW
File: R757A
===
NAME: Lorendo: see Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)
===
NAME: Loss of Seven Clergymen
DESCRIPTION: Concerning the death of seven priests, who are "drowned all in Nazen Lake." The seven relax by going fishing. A storm blows up. Although certain of the boat's crew survive, the priests -- three French and four Irish -- die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: clergy death ship drowning storm
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H742, pp. 104-105, "Loss of Seven Clergymen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3570
File: HHH742
===
NAME: Loss of the "Ellen Munn," The
DESCRIPTION: On Christmas Day the Ellen Munn is on its way to Goose Bay for repairs when it sinks in the weak ice. The children are carried to dry ground. A salvage operation follows and the song ends with a warning about weak ice and sailing on Christmas Day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster rescue
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Doyle2, p. 6, "The Loss of the 'Ellen Munn'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 10, "The Loss of the 'Ellen Munn'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 83-84, "The Loss of the Ellen Munn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4372
NOTES: King's Cove is in Bonavista Bay on the east coast of Newfoundland. I found a Newman's Cove instead of Newman's Sound as mentioned in the song in the same area. Goose Bay is in Labrador. - SH
File: Doy06
===
NAME: Loss of the Albion, The [Laws D2]
DESCRIPTION: The Albion [sailing from New York to Liverpool] is caught in a storm which washes captain and many hands overboard. The ship is finally wrecked upon the [Irish] rocks; only one man survives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(236))
KEYWORDS: ship sea wreck death storm
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: April 22, 1822? - Wreck of the Albion
FOUND_IN: US(MA,NE,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws D2, "The Loss of the Albion"
Ranson, p. 101, "The Loss of the Albion" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 30, "Loss of the Albion" (1 short text)
DT 609, ALBION LOSSALBN
Roud #2228
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(235), "The Loss of the Albion," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also 2806 c.17(236); c. 2806 c.17(237), R. Peach (Birmingham), 1855-1875
LOCSinging, as108080, "Loss of the Ship Albion", L. Deming (Boston), 19C
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cedar Grove" [Laws D18]
NOTES: The date of this event is somewhat uncertain. Eckstorm, cited by Laws, gives the date as April 22, 1822. Craig Brown, ed., _The Illustrated History of Canada_, states that a ship Albion was wrecked November 1819. (It also shows a poster advertising, in English and Welsh, for migrants to go to America. The name of the _Albion_ has been crossed out and another name listed. Not the most encouraging advertising).
Plus Bennett Schwartz sent in this report, "April 1, 1822: '... wrecked about a mile west of the Old Head of Kinsale ... struck ... rocks under 60 foot cliffs'; at least one survivor (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v2, p. 119; more details at v1, p. 116)."
In addition, Terence Grocott's _Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras_ has a report from February 6, 1810, from the Shaw, which describes a ship _Albion_, sailing from New Brunswick, which had encountered a storm and lost her masts some stores; 10 of 13 crew apparently starved or died of dehydration.
There was also an _Albion_ wrecked in 1797, though without loss of life.
Not a very well-omened ship name! - RBW
File: LD02
===
NAME: Loss of the Amphitrite, The [Laws K4]
DESCRIPTION: The Amphitrite leaves port, bound for Australia. Two days out she runs aground and sinks, killing all the passengers and most of the crew. The singer and two others survive by clinging to a spar (though one of them dies later)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cox; there are older, undated broadsides)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1833 - The Amphitrite, carrying female convicts to Australia, runs aground near Boulogne; only three sailors are saved
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws K4, "The Loss of the Amphitrite"
JHCox 87, "The Anford-Wright" (1 text)
DT 740, AMPHITRI
Roud #301
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1947, "Loss of the Amphitrite," W & T Fordice (New astle), c. 1840; also Firth c.12(78), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; Firth c.13(277), J. Forth (Pocklington), no date; Johnson Ballads 1947, "Loss of the Amphitrite"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rounding the Horn" (subject)
NOTES: For an account of the accident see broadside NLScotland, F.3.a.13(126), "Horrible Shipwreck !," Menzies (Lawnmarket), 1833 ("Taken from this day's Observer. Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1st Sep. 1833"). - BS
Cox also gives a contemporary description of the storm in which the _Amphitrite_ sank.
According to Hudson and Nicholls, _Tragedy on the High Seas_, much of the fault belongs to the captain. Undermanned, and overcrowded with 136 people aboard, she ran into a severe storm, and the captain ran her aground but would not let anyone take to the boats; she had convicts aboard and he didn't want them getting loose. The ship eventually broke up, and only three survived. - RBW
File: LK04
===
NAME: Loss of the Antelope, The
DESCRIPTION: The Antelope sails from Chicago; on the second day out a gale arises. The cook, in the fore-rigging, freezes to death; the ship springs a leak and is wrecked. The captain tries to save his brother, but drowns; all but the singer are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (recording, C. H. J. Snider)
KEYWORDS: death drowning ship shore work disaster storm wreck brother cook sailor worker
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: c. 1870: Antelope wrecked on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, probably near Point Betsey?
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
Roud #3840
RECORDINGS:
C. H. J. Snider, "The Loss of the 'Antelope'" (on GreatLakes1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" [Laws C1] (tune)
NOTES: The relevant section of Bruce D. Berman's _Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks_ (Mariner's Press, 1972) lists *no* ships named _Antelope_ were wrecked on the Great Lakes!
In this case, Berman is certainly wrong, since Julius F. Wolff, Jr., _Lake Superior Shipwrecks_, (Lake Superior Port Cities Inc., Duluth, 1990) lists two _Antelopes_ lost on Lake Superior alone. In 1879, a tug with that name was wrecked, probably near Marquette. A better candidate for this song would be the 187 foot schooner _Antelope_, built in 1861. On October 7, 1897, while carrying coal from Sandusky to Ashland, Wisconsin, she started taking on water (the guess is the seams of the old ship started to come apart). It was clear she would not survive, so the _Henry W. Sibley_, which was towing her, took off her crew.
William A. Ratigan's _Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals_ (revised edition, Eerdmans, 1977) on p. 235 quotes a version of this song which seems to be set on Lake Superior (as opposed to Lake Michigan in the Snyder version) and on p. 236 says that there were 13 ships named _Antelope_ on the Great Lakes, with two of them (both schooners) lost in 1894. He therefore thinks the song should be associated with one of the 1894 wrecks.
In trying to untangle the confusion, I note that, while ice storms occur on all the Great Lakes, they are much more likely on Lake Superior than on Lake Michigan, making it a better candidate for the disaster. It is most unfortunate that we don't have more versions. - RBW
File: RcLoOTAn
===
NAME: Loss of the Atlantic (I), The
DESCRIPTION: "The loss of the Atlantic upon the ocean wave Where fully seven hundred souls met with a watery grave." Bound for New York, the captain "changed his course for Halifax which proved our overthrow.... she ran upon a rock"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death drowning wreck storm
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 931-932, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3822
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (II)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (III)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (IV)
cf. "Never Go Back on the Poor"
NOTES: "The Atlantic was a famous four-masted iron vessel of the White Star fleet wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia on March 31 and April 1 of 1873....[T]he records show a loss of 535" (Peacock). The Northern Shipwrecks database says the passengers were immigrants and 981 people were on board. - BS
Lincoln P. Paine's _Ships of the World_ notes that the _Atlantic_ was still quite new at the time of her disaster (completed 1871). She was originally intended to sail to Chile, but the new White Star Line abandoned the idea quickly, and she never sailed that route. The fatal voyage was only her nineteenth.
The _Atlantic_, according to John Malcolm Brinnin, _The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic_ (1986), p. 249, sailed from Liverpool to New York (via Queenstown) on March 20, 1873. He reports 942 people aboard (as we shall see, this figure is subject to question) and enough coal to last 15 days. She also reportedly had a "disorderly and infamous" crew and many officers who were not attentive to their tasks (Brinnin, p. 250). After 11 days of storms, her coal was almost used up, and she was an estimated 400 miles from New York. The distance to Halifax was less than half that.
According to Paine, Captain John A. Williams's decision to make for Halifax conformed to company regulations: The ship had burned too much coal to continue her run. But her navigation was imperfect. Instead of reaching Halifax, she hit the coast some 20 miles from that port.
The ship went aground around 3:00 a.m. on Marr's Island (Meagher's Head, on Point Prospect) east of Halifax. Apparently her boilers blew up, causing her to sink unusually quickly. About 250 people were saved -- all male and all but one an adult. The losses are somewhat uncertain; Paine lists as the extremes 454 lost out of 981 aboard to 560 of 931 aboard; Brinnin's figure is that 481 died. Diana Preston, in _Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy_ (Walker, 2002; I use the 2003 Berkeley edition), p. 56, says that over 500 were lost in this first great tragedy of the steam liner trade.
Preston quotes a contemporary account: "A large mass of something drifted past the ship on the top of the waves, and then it was lost to view in the trough of the sea. As it passed by a moan -- it must have been a shriek but the tempest dulled the sound -- seemed to surge up from the mass, which extended over fifty yards of water: it was the women. The sea swept them out of the steerage, and with their children, to the number of 200 or 300, they drifted thus into eternity."
Captain Williams -- who had been asleep at the time of the wreck; he had given orders to be awakened, but the orders were not obeyed (Brinnin, p. 251) -- was found guilty of negligence, but his license was suspended for only two years based on his gallant conduct during the rescue operations (Brinnin, p. 253).
Incidentally, the _Atlantic_ of 1873 should not be confused with another _Atlantic_, the Collins Line steamer launched in 1849. This ship had a major mechanical breakdown in 1851, and was for a time thought to have vanished, but made it home under sail after much delay (Brinnin, pp. 182-184. The second _Atlantic_ was not exactly a replacement for the first, but the decommissioning of the earlier ship after the American Civil War made the name "available" for the new liner.
There was also a paddleboat named _Atlantic_ which collided with the _Ogdensburg_ on Lake Erie in 1852, and sank with the loss of some 250 lives (she was crowded with immigrants, and no one knows exactly how many died; for background, see Mark Bourrie, _Many a Midnight Ship_, University of Michigan Press, 2005, pp. 77-83).
Despite this tragedy, the period after the sinking of the _Atlantic_ was the glory time for the transatlantic steamers, and it was also a relatively safe period. There would not be another disaster for almost forty years, when a certain ship called the _Titanic_ set out on her maiden run. She too, we note, was a White Star liner. - RBW
For two different 1873 broadsides on the same subject see:
Bodleian, Harding B 13(234), "Verses on the Wreck of the Atlantic" ("Oh, pray give attention and listen to me "), unknown, 1873 [text refers to the wreck as having occurred after "the steamer Atlantic ... left Liverpool upon the 20th ult"].
Bodleian, Firth c.26(289), "Lines on the loss of the 'Atlantic'" ("Oh! listen you wives and mothers"), unknown, 1873 [text refers to a "List of the passengers, from the Manchester Courier, April 4th, 1873"] - BS
Note that Roud lumps all the _Atlantic_ songs, but their form shows that they are distinct. - RBW
File: Pea931
===
NAME: Loss of the Atlantic (II), The
DESCRIPTION: "Of the gallant ship Atlantic Wrecked on Nova Scotia's shore." "The captain... heeded not that rocky coast That he was drawing near"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: death drowning wreck storm
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 933-935, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 88, "The Wreck of the Atlantic" (1 text)
Roud #3822
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (III)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (IV)
NOTES: For extensive historical notes on the _Atlantic_ wreck, see the notes to "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I). - RBW
File: Pea933
===
NAME: Loss of the Atlantic (III), The
DESCRIPTION: Atlantic sails from Liverpool for Halifax with a crew of 60 and 900 passengers. It strikes a rock at night. The captain is faulted: "he cared not for our safety as you may plainly see He went to bed and left the ship to prove our destiny." All are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1946 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 88-89, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3822
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (II)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (IV)
NOTES: For extensive historical notes on the _Atlantic_ wreck, see the notes to "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I). Observe that there were in fact hundreds of survivors of the wreck. - RBW
File: Ran088
===
NAME: Loss of the Atlantic (IV), The
DESCRIPTION: Atlantic stops at Queenstown "to bring Erin's sons and daughters to wild Amerikay." One night "and they all in bed, When our gallant ship she struck a rock at a place called The Major's Head ... seven hundred souls were buried in the main"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 89-90, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text)
Roud #3822
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (II)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (III)
NOTES: For extensive historical notes on the _Atlantic_ wreck, see the notes to "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I). Observe that this version exaggerates the losses. - RBW
File: Ran089
===
NAME: Loss of the Barbara and Ronnie, The
DESCRIPTION: "In the spring of fifty-one" Walter Bond commands the "Barbara Ann Ronney from Petites in Newfoundland." Sailing home near Christmas they are caught and sank with a crew of five sharemen when "on the eighteenth of December the winter hurricane blew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death drowning ship sea storm wreck moniker
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 937-938, "The Loss of the Barbara Ann Ronney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9813
NOTES: The _Barbara and Ronnie_ was missing and presumed sunk in Glace Bay in the Gulf of St Lawrence December 18, 1951 (Northern Shipwrecks Database). - BS
File: Pea937
===
NAME: Loss of the Barbara Ann Ronney, The: see The Loss of the Barbara and Ronnie (File: Pea937)
===
NAME: Loss of the Bruce, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Bruce was bound for Louisburg, the night being dark and drear ... Captain Drake stood on the bridge ... the Bruce with mail and passengers she ran upon a reef." All except "young Pike" are saved.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck rescue
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 939-940, "The Loss of the Bruce" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9937
NOTES: The _Bruce_ was stranded on Port Nova Reef off Cape Breton Point and crushed in the ice on March 24, 1911 going from Port aux Basques, Newfoundland to Louisbourg Nova Scotia, A steamship ferry, it had 123 passengers (Northern Shipwrecks Database). - BS
File: Pea939
===
NAME: Loss of the Cedar Grove, The: see The Cedar Grove [Laws D18] (File: LD18)
===
NAME: Loss of the City of Quebec, The
DESCRIPTION: "On the first day of April eighteen hundred and seventy two The City of Quebec leaved London with a choice of British crew." Seventeen are drowned in Newfoundland waters.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, p. 941, "The Loss of the City of Quebec" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #9936
NOTES: The City of Quebec was lost at Isle Aux Morts, May 8, 1871 en route from London (Northern Shipwrecks Database). Isle Aux Morts is about 12 miles east of Port Aux Basques at the southwest corner of Newfoundland. - BS
Ships named "City of (somewhere)," e.g. _City of Glasgow_, _City of Philadelphia_, were characteristic of the Inman Line, which came into being in 1850; according to John Malcolm Brinnin, _The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic_ (1986; I use the 2000 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 208, "by 1857 he was carrying one third of all individuals traveling across the ocean." I have not been able to determine whether _City of Quebec_ was an Inman ship, but it seems likely -- and, frankly, looking at the stories in Brinnin and in Lincoln P. Paine's _Ships of the World_, they had a *terrible* safety record. - RBW
File: Pea941
===
NAME: Loss of the Danny Goodwin, The
DESCRIPTION: Captain LaFosse takes the schooner Danny Goodwin out from New Harbour. On December 6 the crew of six fisherman is lost in a storm.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death drowning storm wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 942-943, "The Loss of the Danny Goodwin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 26, "The Wreck of the Danny Goodwin" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The _Danny Goodwin_ was lost December 6, 1926 at Rose Blanche Bank ("The Mystery of the M.V. Danny Goodwin" at the Rose Blanche Lighthouse site). Rose Blanche is about 27 miles east of Port aux Basques -- and about a mile west of Harbour Le Cou -- at the southwest corner of Newfoundland. - BS
File: Pea942
===
NAME: Loss of the Druid, The
DESCRIPTION: The Druid is "a schooner of fame" -- for the wrong reasons; "Jimmy Jackson, her owner, a miser was he, Too greedy to fit out his vessel for sea." A storm blows up, the mainmast is lost, the pumps don't work, and "the water she made was dreadful to see"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck humorous
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1878 - Loss of the Druid while en route from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to the West Indies
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Doerflinger, p. 195, "The Loss of the Druid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4082
NOTES: This song is item dD37 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe195
===
NAME: Loss of the Eliza, The (The Herons)
DESCRIPTION: The crew of the Eliza are cheerfully approaching home (?) when a sudden storm blows up. Driven before the storm, the ship is blown to pieces. The people ashore, including the sister of two of the sailors, await word, but the ship is never found
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952
KEYWORDS: sea ship disaster storm death
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 47-50, "The Loss of the Eliza (The Herons)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 944-947, "The Loss of the Eliza" (1 text, 2 tunes)
ST FJ047 (Partial)
Roud #4424
RECORDINGS:
Ken Peacock, "The Loss of the Eliza" (on NFKPeacock)
NOTES: Fowke writes, "No information is available about the loss of the _Eliza_, but the story is very similar to that of the _Southern Cross_ which was lost in April, 1914, with one hundred and seventy men aboard." (It might be noted, however, that the ballad claims the _Eliza_ sank in October.) - RBW
"It is... one of the very few native ballads carrying supernatural portents (the herons) in the manner of the older traditional ballads... the spectres... the herons... Death's Angel" (Peacock).
Many [ships named _Eliza_] lost but no record both in October and off Cape Race/St Mary's Bay; the route would seem to have started at St John's [near Fort Amherst]. The best bet may be March 18, 1862, crushed in the ice off Bay Bulls -- on the route just south of St John's -- en route to St Mary's Riverhead, owned by Welsh & Co at St Mary's Riverhead with a captain possible named Welsh [who, in the ballad, sees the failing ship] (Northern Shipwrecks Database) - BS
File: FJ047
===
NAME: Loss of the Jewel, The
DESCRIPTION: The Jewel sails from Tilt Cove on October 28 and runs into "a heavy gale." The crew is rescued by the Albatross bound to Philadelphia from Greenland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship storm wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 948-949, "The Loss of the Jewel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9935
NOTES: _Jewel_ (possibly _Jewell)_ wrecked October 28, 1891 at Gull Island in Conception Bay, between Tilt Cove and St John's (Northern Shipwrecks Database). Peacock notes "there are two Tilt Coves in Newfoundland, both in the north in Notre Dame Bay." - BS
File: Pea948
===
NAME: Loss of the John Harvey, The
DESCRIPTION: The John Harvey sails from Gloucester for St Pierre in a hurricane and runs aground. Captain Kerley believes they will die. John Keeping ties a line around his waist and swims to shore; six of the crew are rescued. Keeping and one other died.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue death sea ship storm wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 950-951, "The Loss of the John Harvey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9934 and 3843
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Wreck of the John Harvey
The John Harvey
NOTES: [The] shipwreck [took place] January 10, 1912 in Gabarus Harbour, out of Boston bound for St Pierre & Miquelon; [the] Captain [was] George Kearley (Northern Shipwrecks Database) - BS
File: Pea950
===
NAME: Loss of the Jubal Cain, The
DESCRIPTION: "Twas of the schooner Jubal Cain Of which no doubt you've heard.... lost on Nova Scotia's shore, She had eight men on board." The cargo vessel leaves Halifax January 10 and after 16 days the owner gets a wire that the ship and all hands are lost at sea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 12, 1907 - The Tubal Cain leaves Halifax for Grand Bank; it is lost in a storm, possibly on January 15
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 952-953, "The Loss of the Jubal Cain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9930
NOTES: The Northern Shipwrecks Database notes that there is a monument to the loss at Grand Bank. There was, and may be again. A sign at Fraser Park explaining the loss was put up in 1987 but has since blown down according to Robert Parsons' "NF Shipwrecks on the WEB" site in 2003 - BS
Although the ship is properly the _Tubal Cain_ (a name derived from Genesis 4:22; Tubal-cain, a worker in brass and iron), the only known collection calls it the _Jubal Cain_ (possibly by confusion with Tubal-cain's half-brother Jubal mentioned in Genesis 4:21), and I've followed that. - RBW
File: Pea952
===
NAME: Loss of the Lady of the Lake, The
DESCRIPTION: In 1833 the Lady of the Lake sails from Belfast for Newfoundland. After three weeks on a pleasant sea "the ice came down like mountains" The Captain and some sailors escape in a long boat. The singer os rescued by the Lima and returns to Liverpool.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1989 (Leyden)
KEYWORDS: emigration rescue death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 11, 1833 - The _Lady of the Lake_ strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks, taking with her most of her passengers
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Leyden 35, "The Loss of the Lady of the Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde II) [Laws N41]" (subject)
NOTES: Leyden: "Total saved 34; perished 197; total 234" with a list of those saved, including Captain Grant; the ballad claims the author to be survivor George Monaghan via the Lima, who is not on Leyden's list. Leyden's list has one person saved by the "Lima," 13 in the "Harvest Home," and twenty in the "Lady ..." long and stern boats.. - BS
Northern Shipwrecks Database has 18 left on _Harvest Home_ -- abandoned after striking ice on May 9 -- rescued by _Gypsey_ and transferred to _Amazon_ - BS
Doerflinger, p. 301: ÒBound from Belfast to Quebec, the ill fated emigrant ship struck the underwater tongue of an iceberg on May 11, 1833, south of Newfoundland. Her captain, mate, and some of the crew, with a few of the passengers, got clear of the sinking ship in the boats, leaving the rest of her 230 men, women, and children on board the hulk or struggling in the icy water. All but those in the captain's boat peridshed." - RBW
File: Leyd035
===
NAME: Loss of the Life-Boat Crew at Fethard
DESCRIPTION: The life-boat goes out on a stormy night to try to rescue a Norwegian crew. "Early on next morning the sorrowful news went round." Wives and children find "husbands and fathers lying dead" on the Fethard shore.
AUTHOR: John Butler, Tipperary
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Feb 20-21, 1914 - The Mexico wreck
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, p. 104, "Loss of the Life-Boat Crew at Fethard" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mexico" (subject) and references there
NOTES: February 20, 1914: "Nine members of the Fethard lifeboat were drowned when going to the assistance of the Norwegian steamer _Mexico_.... Eight of the Mexico's crew were saved by the five lifeboat survivors. All but one of the stranded survivors were saved with great difficulty the next day." (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, pp. 52-53) - BS
We note that at least four poems were written about this disaster (see the cross-references); one suspects a campaign to raise money for someone's family. - RBW
File: Ran104
===
NAME: Loss of the Maggie, The
DESCRIPTION: "Ye fishermen who know so well The dangers of the deep, Come listen to a dreadful tale And join your hearts to weep." The Maggie sails from Bonavista Bay and spies a steamer bearing down on her. The ship is wrecked 13 die as others watch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1902 (Murphy, Songs and Ballads of Newfoundland, Ancient and Modern)
KEYWORDS: death ship crash wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 7, 1896 - The Maggie sinks after collision with the Tiber in St John's Harbour (source: Northern Shipwrecks DataBase)
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 41, "The Loss of the Maggie" (1 text)
ST RySm041 (Partial)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Maggie" (subject)
NOTES: Although this piece is pretty definitely not traditional, the _Maggie_ disaster did produce a genuine folk song, "The Wreck of the Maggie." - RBW
File: RySm041
===
NAME: Loss of the Philosophy
DESCRIPTION: Philosophy has a bad trip from St John to Havana. They make repairs at Havana. Nevertheless, they are cast away nearing home. Only five of seven make shore and two more die of cold. The survivors are rescued and return to Pope's Harbour.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship wreck sailor rescue
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-NovaScotia 128, "Loss of the Philosophy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS128 (Partial)
Roud #1829
NOTES: This song is item dD49 in Laws's Appendix II.
Creighton-NovaScotia: The singer says "This is a true story. Pope's Harbour is in Halifax County." Dates in the ballad -- which are not confirmed by Northern Shipwrecks Database -- have Philosophy leave St John for Havana on November 4 and the wreck takes place January 7. - BS
File: CrNS128
===
NAME: Loss of the Ramillies, The [Laws K1]
DESCRIPTION: A heavy storm dooms the Ramillies. The boatswain orders the crew to the lifeboats. Hundreds drown in the wreck; only three or four survive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Feb 15, 1760 - Wreck of the Ramillies off the coast of Devonshire. Only 26 men survive
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws K1, "The Loss of the Ramillies"
Doerflinger, pp. 144-145, "The Ship Rambolee (The Loss of the 'Ramillies')" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 954-955, "The Loss of the Rammelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 85, "The Old Ramillies" (1 text)
DT 554, RAMILLIE
Roud #523
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "The Loss of 'The Ramilly'" (on Voice12)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fatal Ramilies" (subject)
NOTES: Ramillies was the site of one of Marlborough's great victories (1706), and several ships were named after it, from this ship to an early twentieth century dreadnought.
This _Ramillies_ had a peculiar history; it actually predates the battle bearing its name! In 1664, the _Royal Katherine_ was built, an 84-gun ship. It was "rebuilt" in 1702 (a subterfuge used by the Royal Navy at the time: They built a new ship with some of the old timber). The rebuilt ship was renamed after the battle of Ramillies. (She would be rebuilt again in 1749.)
Half a century after the rebuilding and renaming, having been part of the fleet which failed to save Mallorca, _Ramillies_ was wrecked off Bolt Head on her way to Plymouth. There are thought to have been 725 men aboard at the time, of whom only 26 survived. - RBW
File: LK01
===
NAME: Loss of the Regalis, The: see The Loss of the Regulus (File: Pea956)
===
NAME: Loss of the Regulus, The
DESCRIPTION: "While I'll explain ... How the Regalus she got lost in Petty Harbour bay." Regulus leaves Belle Isle [sic] and is disabled in a heavy breeze near Cape Race. The tug John Green attempts the rescue but the tow line parts. Captain Taylor and his crew drown.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning ship sea storm wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 956-957, "The Loss of the Regalis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 74, "Wreck of the Regulus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6471
NOTES: [The] _Regulus,_ en route to Sydney Nova Scotia from Wabana [Bell Island, not Belle Isle], [was] wrecked October 23, 1910, when the tow parted from the John Green (Northern Shipwrecks Database). - BS
File: Pea956
===
NAME: Loss of the Riseover, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Riseover left Northern Bay, with lumber she did sail" for St John's. They are forced to leave the ship by raft in a heavy storm. Nearing shore, the raft breaks in half and John Pomeroy and Sparks are lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 19, 1911 - Riseover wrecked on Muddy Shag Rock, per Newfoundland's Grand Banks Site
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 958-959, "The Loss of the Riseover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 94, "The Wreck of the Riseover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4408
NOTES: A detailed account of the Riseover wreck is included in _Tales from the Kittiwake Coast_ by Robert E. Tulk, pp. 90-91 [available as a pdf file from the Canadian National Adult Database site.] - BS
File: Pea958
===
NAME: Loss of the Royal Charter, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of a shipwreck near Ireland. 400 passengers sail from Melbourne and are approaching home (and have already dropped off some passengers) when a storm hits. The singer describes the storm, the wreck, and the deaths
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck disaster death
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H623, pp. 109-110, "The Loss of the Royal Charter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9040
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(95), "Loss of the Royal Charter," unknown, no date
NOTES: Curiously, this song is a first-person account of a passenger on the _Charter_, and yet it says that "all on board would meet a watery grave." - RBW
File: HHH623
===
NAME: Loss of the S. S. Algerine
DESCRIPTION: "Attention all ye sailor boys And hark to what I say And hear about the Algerine Was lost in Hudson Bay." The old sealing boat, loaded with Americans but with a Newfoundland crew, is destroyed by ice. The Neptune rescues the remaining crew
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1912 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck rescue
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 92, "Loss of the S.S. Algerine" (1 text)
File: RySm092
===
NAME: Loss of the Sailor's Home, The
DESCRIPTION: Sailor's Home leaves Fortune Bay and picks up a load of coal in Sydney on Christmas Day. She sinks in a storm; three of the crew make land on the French island of Miquelon, find help, and recover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue drowning sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 31, 1890 - the Sailor's Home wrecked near St Pierre & Miquelon carrying coal from Sydney Nova Scotia to Fortune, Newfoundland (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 960-962, "The Loss of the Sailor's Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea960
===
NAME: Loss of the Savinto, The
DESCRIPTION: Two days out a storm drives Savinto against a rock. "The ship breaks up And all the crew... Look for a watery grave." Gormley gets to shore and brings help. The rescue ordeal is described in great detail. Eleven of twenty one are saved.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 6 or 7, 1906 - Barque Sovinto from Dalhousie, NS stranded at Priest Pond, PEI (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 52-55, "The Loss of the Savinto" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12467
File: Dib052
===
NAME: Loss of the Shamrock, The
DESCRIPTION: James Murray's mother asks him to delay sailing but he won't wait. He sails on Friday, September 18. The ship is seen on Saturday, then lost. Thomas Ridgeley might have saved two of those lost but he did not and is scorned for it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS:
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 19, 1846 - the Shamrock is lost in a gale off Cape St Mary's (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 963-964, "The Loss of the Shamrock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9816
File: Pea963
===
NAME: Loss of the Snorre, The
DESCRIPTION: September 18 a storm in Bonavista Bay wrecks Harold F, Olive Branch, Planet, and Reliance. The Norwegian sloop Snorre bursts her chains and is swept away with two boys on board. Four men from Bonavista are named as saving four of the crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 8-9, 1907 - more than 58 ships are lost including Olive Branch, Planet, and Snorre (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 98, "The Loss of the Snorre" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Lehr/Best: "Two young Norwegian boys were drowned, and the four others on board were rescued through the bravery of J Louis Little, Robert Brown, James C Little, William Ford and Eli Paul, all men of Bonavista; they afterwards received recognition from the Carnegie Hero Commission." - BS
File: LeBe098
===
NAME: Loss of the Titanic, The (Titanic #13)
DESCRIPTION: "The beauty of the White Star Line, the Titanic, sailed the seas." Off Cape Race "she struck what's called a growler." "Captain Smith and his brave crew, they never left the deck But saved the helpless passengers and went down with the wreck."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 965-966, "The Loss of the Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9940
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
NOTES: To give Captain Smith of the _Titanic_ credit for saving the ship strikes me as a little much, since it appears that much of what went wrong was his fault. But the bravery of the crew cannot be denied. While the loss of life was very large, it was largest among the crew: According to Lincoln P. Paine's _Ships of the World_, 60% of the first class passengers survived. 42% of second class passengers survived, and 25% of steerage passengers -- but only 24% of the crew, even though many crew members were put aboard the ships boats simply to keep them afloat and steer them.
For an extensive history of the _Titanic_, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the _Titanic_ songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
File: Pea955
===
NAME: Lost Babe, The
DESCRIPTION: A child wanders away from its mother (or is sent to take its father his dinner) and is lost. Men of the community (or Egypt and foreign lands) search; the child is dead, and buzzards are picking out its eyes. The mother cries, "Lord, have mercy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: grief corpse death bird children mother
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SharpAp 129, "The Lost Babe" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #3636
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" (plot)
cf. "Three Lost Babes of Americay" (plot)
cf. "Penitent" (tune of Sharp's B version)
cf. "The Vulture (of the Alps)" (theme)
cf. "All the Pretty Little Horses" (theme of young one at the mercy of birds)
File: ShAp2129
===
NAME: Lost Babes of Halifax: see Meagher's Children [Laws G25] (File: LG25)
===
NAME: Lost Birdies, The
DESCRIPTION: Various birds (crow, robin) lay "but ae egg, she brought out ae bird, The bird it came out an' it flew awa', and she gaed a' day." The mothers look for their offspring and beg them come home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: bird separation lullaby
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H40c, p. 20, "The Lost Birdies/The Hobe and the Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13344
File: HHH040c
===
NAME: Lost Child, The: see The Little Lost Child (File: R728)
===
NAME: Lost Girl, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl who confesses to being lost and far from home. She has left her family to escape from the boys. She warns maidens against men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: rambling lament floatingverses warning
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 60, "The Lost Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R060 (Partial)
Roud #272
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)" (theme)
NOTES: This is about half floating verses ("I'll build me a castle on youn mound so high," "Come all ye young maidens, take warning from me, Don't place your affections on a green willow tree"), and the final line of several stanzas ("Oh she says I'm a poor lost girl and a long ways from home"). Randolph lists many songs with similar elements, most of which I ended up filing under "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)". But the whole seems to be unique. - RBW
File: R060
===
NAME: Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]
DESCRIPTION: A passerby hears a girl wailing for her lost Jimmie Whalen. He comes from the grave, and she begs him to stay. He cannot; death keeps them apart.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: death ghost lover
FOUND_IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES: (15 citations)
Laws C8, "Lost Jimmie Whalen"
Rickaby 4, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 726-727, "Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 445-446, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 48, "Jimmie Whalen's Girl" (1 text)
Fowke-Lumbering #32, "Lost Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 26, "Lost Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 186-187, "Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 114-115, "Lost Jimmy Whalan" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 385-389, "Jimmy Whelan" (2 texts, 4 tunes)
Lehr/Best 61, "Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 35-37,249, "The Lost Jimmy Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 81, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 27-28, "Lost Jimmy Walen" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 602, JIMWHEL* JIMWHEL2*
Roud #2220
RECORDINGS:
Mrs John Coughlin, "The Lost Jimmy Whalen" (on MREIves01)
Mrs Mary Dumphy, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (on NFMLeach)
Ken Peacock, "Jimmy Whalen" (on NFKPeacock)
Art Thieme, "Lost Jimmy Whalen" (on Thieme05)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "James Whalen" [Laws C7] (subject)
File: LC08
===
NAME: Lost Jimmy Walen: see Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]; also James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC08)
===
NAME: Lost Jimmy Whalen, The: see Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]; also James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC08)
===
NAME: Lost John: see Long John (Long Gone) (File: LoF287)
===
NAME: Lost Johnny
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I wonder where my lost Johnny's gone (x3), Oh, he's gone to that new railroad, (x2)" "Go make me a pallet on your floor, Believe I will eat morphine and die." "I'll go if I have to ride the rail To the road where my Johnny is."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: railroading floatingverses suicide drugs
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuson, pp. 151, "Lost Johnny" (1 text)
ST Fus151 (Partial)
Roud #16412
NOTES: Obviously a composite of floating elements. But it has so many floating elements that it can't really be associated with a particular song! - RBW
File: Fus151
===
NAME: Lost Johnny Doyle, The: see Johnny Doyle [Laws M2] (File: LM02)
===
NAME: Lost Lady Found, The [Laws Q31]
DESCRIPTION: A young lady is carried off by gypsies. Her uncle, who is her guardian, is convicted of murdering her. Her lover follows her to Dublin and tells her of her uncle's plight. They return to England, and the uncle's life is saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1833 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 5)
KEYWORDS: shanghaiing Gypsy trial reprieve abduction
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South,West)) US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws Q31, "The Lost Lady Found"
FSCatskills 63, "The Lost Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 347, "The Lost Lady Found" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 24, "The Lost Lady Found" (1 text)
DT 539, LOSTLADY
Roud #901
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 5, "The Lost Lady Found," T. Batchelar (London) , 1828-1832; also 2806 c.17(241), Harding B 15(177b), 2806 c.16(128), Harding B 11(3803), Firth b.26(375), Firth b.34(114), Firth c.18(167), Harding B 11(2222), Harding B 11(266), "[The] Lost Lady Found"; Harding B 11(1445), "The Gypsies" or "The Lost Lady Found"
NOTES: In reply to the charge of abduction in this piece, Kennedy writes, "While it is quite likely that some ladies of quality... did run off with the gipsies, it is not proven that abductions of 'giorgio' women ever occurred. As to the charge that gipsies are child stealers, they usually have too many children of their own to bother about increasing their problems." - RBW
File: LQ31
===
NAME: Lost Miners, The
DESCRIPTION: "Six miners went into the mountains To hunt for precious gold; It was the middle of winter, The weather was dreadful cold. Six miners went into the mountains, They had nor food nor shack -- Six miners went into the mountains But only one came back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: mining homicide death food cannibalism gold
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1873-1874 - The disappearance of the Packer party
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, p. 231, "The Lost Miners" (1 fragment)
NOTES: Burt believes this item to be about Alferd Packer (she spells it "Alfred," but my sources indicate that "Alferd" is correct). In 1873, Packer and five others went out. In the bitter winter that followed, all save Packer died, and it was later learned that Packer had eaten their bodies. He was generally thought to have murdered them as well, and died in prison in 1907. - RBW
File: Burt231
===
NAME: Lost on the Lady Elgin
DESCRIPTION: "Up from the poor man's cottage, forth from the mansion's door ... Cometh a voice of mourning, a sad and solemn wail, Lost on the Lady Elgin... Numbered in that three hundred Who failed to reach the shore." The many mourners are briefly mentioned
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1861 (copyright by H. M. Higgins)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death orphan family
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1860 - The Lady Elgin, an excursion boat on Lake Michigan, collides with a steamer and sinks
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Randolph 692, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 453-455, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 692)
LPound-ABS, 60, pp. 134-135, "The Lady Elgin" (1 text)
BrownII 214, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text)
Dean, pp. 61-62, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Lady Elgin" (source notes only)
DT, LDYELGN*
Roud #3688
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Titanic (IV - 'Lost on the Great Titanic')" (tune)
NOTES: Cohen, Pound, and McNeil credit this to Henry Clay Work, though the disaster came before his songwriting career took off. Other sources do not seem aware of this attribution. I have not seen the sheet music.
There are many sources describing the tragedy of the _Lady Elgin_. Those I consulted are
Mark Bourrie, _Many a Midnight Ship_, University of Michgan Press, 2005, pp. 91-106; William Ratigan, _Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals_, revised edition, Eerdmans, 1977, pp. 43-49; Michael J. Varhola, _Shipwrecks and Lost Treasures: Great Lakes_, Globe Pequot Press, 2007 [listed as copyright 2008, but I bought my copy in November 2007], pp. 57-62; Mark L. Thompson, _Graveyards of the Lakes_, Wayne State University Press, 2000, pp. 146-155. Of these, Thompson is the most detailed and best footnoted; Varhola is the shortest and doesn't bother with sources.
Varhola, p. 58, describe the ship as follows: "[The] _Lady Elgin_ [was] a double-decked wooden side-wheel steamer owned by Gordon S. Hubbard & Co. that had been built nine years earlier in Buffalo, New York.... One of the largest steamers on the Great Lakes, the luxurious _Lady Elgin_ was an impressive 252 feet long, nearly 34 feet wide, and had a draft of just over 14 feet, and her 54-inch-cylinder, 11-foot-stroke steam engine powered a pair of 32-foot paddle wheels. Operated by a crew of forty-three, she was equipped to carry two hundred passengers in her cabins, another hundred on her decks, and up to eight hundred tons of freight in her holds."
Thompson, p. 146, says that she was originally built for Canada's Grand Trunk Railway, and intended to sail from Buffalo to Chicago (entirely under steam, if the drawing on p. 149 of Thompson is accurate). Although designed for passengers, she also carried a lot of freight for the Grand Trunk (Bourrie,p. 92). In 1856, when the Grand Trunk between Toronto and Sarnia was completed, she shifted to a Chicago-to-Lake-Superior route. She was successful enough that she came to be called "The Queen of the Lakes." But Bourrie, pp. 92-93, also notes that she had an amazing series of groundings and other misadventures in this period, one of which nearly caused her to be written off.
Apparently the passengers who booked the _Lady Elgin_ were mostly Irish, from Wisconsin and Illinois. Their story was peculiar. Thompson, p. 147, explains that the governor of Wisconsin at the time was threatening to take the state out of the Union if the federal government didn't do something about slavery. One of the state's militia units was an Irish outfit commanded by Garrett Barry. Barry declared that he would stick with the Union no matter what Wisconsin did, and the Wisconin government ordered his unit demobilized (Bourrie, p. 94).
The unit wanted to stick together. So they chartered a trip from Milwaukee to Chicago on the _Lady Elgin_ to raise money to purchase new weapons. The company and the paying passengers would go to Chicago on September 7, 1860, hold a parade, and come back.
The ship's captain was Jack Wilson, who was distinguished enough that he had been allowed to lead the first ship ever to travel the Soo Canal (between Lake Superior and the lower great lakes) in 1855 (Ratigan, p. 43). He apparently did not like the weather on the night of the return voyage (Thompson, p. 148). But he was finally convinced to put out from the shore.
Then, on the night of September 8, the storm struck,
It was a bad night for viibility. And the schooner _Augusta_, 129 feet long, carrying pine logs, had no running lights. Her lookout allegedly saw the _Lady Elgin_ twenty minutes before the collision, but she did not change course (Ratigan, pp. 44-45; Thompson, p. 148, explains this on the basis that the mate on watch could not tell the _Lady Elgin 's_ course and had been too busy taking in sail to worry about his own; Bourrie, p. 96, explains it as the result of an illegal maneuver which went wrong). The smaller ship's bow went right into the _Lady Elgin's_. side.
The high waves parted the two ships quickly (Thompson, p. 150), and although the _Augusta_ remained seaworthy, she had sustained enough damage that her captain headed for port without making any attempt at rescuing the victims on the _Lady Elgin_. (He would later claim that he thought he had struck only a glancing blow; damage to his own ship was slight -- Thompson, p. 150.) The _Lady Elgin_ herself tried to head for shore, but she was nine miles off the coast, with one of her paddlwheels wrecked (Bourrie, p. 96), and it was soon clear that she would sink before she could reach the land, despite frantic attempts to lighten her, shift her cargo,and patch the hole (Bourrie,p. 98).
And, according to Thompson, p. 149, she had only four lifeboats -- and those lacked oars! (Thompson, p. 151).
Captain Wilson managed to get most of the passengers onto improvised rafts, but in the storm, many of them broke up and most of the passengers, including Wilson, were lost. Garrett was also killed (Bourrie, p. 106). To make matters worse, the shores of the Lake were very steep here, creating a strong undertow. Passengers would often find themselves very close to shore, only to be sucked back into the water (Bourrie, p. 100).
Reportedly the ship's upper works exploded as she went down -- probably due to compressed air rather than a boiler explosion. The boat sank within about twenty minutes of being hit.
There was one noteworthy deed of heroism: A university student named Edward Spencer swam out more than a dozen times to save fifteen or more passengers -- about a sixth of the total (Ratigan, pp. 47-48; Bourrie, p. 101, says that the deed crippled him for life). Others on the shore, though, robbed the dead bodies (Thompson, p. 153)
No knows how exactly how many were aboard, or how high the casualties were. According to Hudson and Nicholls, _Tragedy on the High Seas_, the collision killed 287 of 385 passengers on the _Lady Elgin_. Ratigan says that 297 were killed. As of the time he wrote, it was the second-highest loss of life from a great lakes disaster. Thompson, p. 153, notes that estimates of the number of survivors range from 98 to 155, and the casualties from 279 to 350. Varhola, p. 59, has the highest number of all, claiming that between 600 and 700 people were on board. He says that 160 survived, and 200 bodies washed ashore. Bourrie, p. 100, gives similar numbers.
The _Augusta_ became so infamous that she had to be renamed and transferred from service on the lakes to work on the Atlantic (Ratigan, pp. 48-49).
The one good thing to come out of the disaster was that an inquiry was held (Thompson, pp. 153-154), which assigned portions of the blame to both ships (e.g. the _Lady Elgin_ had no watertight compartments, and did not yield to the smaller ship, while the mate of the _Augusta_ was too slow to inform his captain of the other ship's presence), but the primary blame was with the existing navigation laws. The _Lady Elgin_ disaster was largely responsible for the 1864 passage of America's first navigation law (Thompson, pp. 154-155) - RBW
File: R692
===
NAME: Lost River Desert: see The Red River Valley (File: R730)
===
NAME: Lost Soul, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer says sinners at judgment will hear their fate and say, "I'm paying now the penalty/That the unredeemed must ever pay... For alas I'm doomed." The sinner will say that if he could go back, he'd fight for his Saviour's cause, but he can't
AUTHOR: L. V. Jones
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 ("Glad News")
KEYWORDS: sin death religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Watson family, "The Lost Soul" (on Watson01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Wicked Polly" [Laws H6] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lost Soul's Lament
NOTES: D. K. Wilgus, in his comments on Watson01, notes (speaking of this song and "When I Die"): "The Watson family apparently sang these songs directly from a song book, but I have been unable to locate them in any source available to me, despite the conviction that I have met them before." He may have been remembering "Glad News." - PJS
File: RcTLoSou
===
NAME: Lost Youth, The: see Death is a Melancholy Call [Laws H5] (File: LH05)
===
NAME: Lothian Hairst, The
DESCRIPTION: "On August twelfth from Aberdeen We sailed upon the Prince... Our harvest to commence." The crew works in Lothian for William Mathieson and his foreman Logan. They find no chance for sport under Logan, and happily depart when the harvest is done
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: farming work hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ord, p. 264, "The Lothian Hairst" (1 text)
DT, LOTHARST*
Roud #2165
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(122), "The Lothian Hairst," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: Ord264
===
NAME: Lots of Fish in Bonavist' Harbour (Feller from Fortune)
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, there's lots of fish in Bonavist' Harbour, lots of fish right in around here. Boys and girls are fishing together...." The folk of the town are described: Uncle George, who tore out his britches; Sally, who has a baby without a father; etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: nonballad dancing fishing sex childbirth bastard father lover
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 122-124, "Lots of Fish in Bonavist' Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 37, "Feller From Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 53-54, "Feller From Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, p. 23, "Feller from Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 53, "Feller from Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ122 (Partial)
Roud #4427
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Bonavist Harbour" (on NFOBlondahl04,NFOBlondahl05)
Ken Peacock, "Lots of Fish in Bonavist' Harbour" (on NFKPeacock)
File: FJ122
===
NAME: Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog [Child 205]
DESCRIPTION: Claverse prepares for battle at Loudon Hill. His cornet would avoid battle; the enemy are too worthy to attack. Claverse calls him a coward and leads the attack himself, but his forces are defeated and chased from the field
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: battle nobility cowardice
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 1, 1679 - Battle of Drumclog. Covenanters defeat the army of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 205, "Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog" (1 text)
DT, LOUDNHIL*
Roud #4018
NOTES: The "Claverse" of Child's text is, of course, Claverhouse (James Graham of Claverhouse, First Viscount Dundee, c. 1649-1689, known as "Bonnie Dundee" and killed at Killiecrankie; see the entry on "Killy Kranky" for details of that battle).
Drumclog was not, in terms of size, much of a battle (historians have been known to call it "the 'battle' of Drumclog," because the forces were so small). After the restoration, Charles II had appointed James Sharp as Archbishop of Saint Andrews. Bishops were anathema to Presbyterians anyway, and Sharp was unusually obnoxious in his persecutions. He was ambushed and killed on May 3, 1679.
It wasn't really a rebellion, but Claverhouse treated it as if it were, and rode against the "rebels." They were only a few hundred ill-armed men, but Claverhouse had only a handful of troops, who eventually fled.
The success of the Covenanters at Drumclog did not last long; indeed, it helped induce their next defeat. The victory caused many more men to flow to the cause, but they were utterly disorganized. This rabble was defeated at Bothwell Bridge in the same year (see Child 206, "Bothwell Bridge")
There were actually two battles known as Loudon (Loudun) Hill. The first was fought in 1307 between the forces of England and of Robert the Bruce. Magnus Magnusson's_Scotland: The Story of a Nation_ (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000), pp. 172-173, describes how the Earl of Pembroke challenged Bruce to come out and fight. Bruce did so -- but arranged the battle so that Pembroke's forces charged over a series of hidden trenches. The horsemen went down, and were slaughtered by the Scottish spearmen, with Pembroke fleeing with the rearguard. It was the first real success of Bruce's rebellion (though it probably would not have been enough had not the English King Edward I, "The Hammer of the Scots," died soon after.) It will be obvious that this song refers to the second Battle of Loudon Hill, usually called "Drumclog" to prevent confusion. - RBW
File: C205
===
NAME: Lough Erin's Shore: see William and Eliza (Lough Erin's Shore) (File: HHH597)
===
NAME: Lough Erne Shore
DESCRIPTION: Singer meets "a wonderful dame" on Lough Erne shore. As she is leaving he asks to go home with her. She says she will not "yield to men's pleasure." He says "I'll make you a lady of honor, if with me this night you'll come home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (IRTunneyFamily01)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection rake
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 115-116, "Lough Erne Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle 14, "Lough Erne Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3476
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Lough Erne's Shore" (on IRTunneyFamily01); "Lough Erne Shore" (on IRPTunney02)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lough Erin Shore
Loch Erin's Shore
NOTES: OBoyle classifies this as a reverdie. For more about reverdie vs aisling see "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi (For Ireland I Will Not Tell Whom She Is)."
As in "Sheila Nee Iyer" and "The Colleen Rue," there is no resolution for the Tunney-StoneFiddle version. Is there a broadside that ends the story one way or the other?
Lough Erne is in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. - BS
File: TSF115
===
NAME: Lough Ooney
DESCRIPTION: Murray was a friend "'til our great Irish nation" and the aged, poor, and sick. He and his friend McManus sail their pleasure boat on Lough Ooney in spite of threat of a storm. The boat sinks. Both swin towards shore but are drowned by high waves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
KEYWORDS: drowning storm wreck
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Morton-Maguire 24, pp. 58-60,113,166, "Lough Ooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2927
RECORDINGS:
Big John Maguire, "Lough Ooney" (on IRHardySons)
NOTES: Morton-Maguire has no information about the event. Lough Ooney is in County Monaghan. - BS
File: MoMa024
===
NAME: Loughrey's Bull
DESCRIPTION: Cruel John Loughrey's bull attacks him for evicting tenants. He promises he will never evict anyone again. The bull kills him anyway, saying "if I was a landlord I'd treat the tenants fair." Nobody mourns the loss. Tenants should feed that bull well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: homicide funeral farming humorous talltale animal landlord
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 50, "Loughrey's Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: McBride: "This song recalls the death of a local landlord." - BS
There is an interesting symbolism, however -- though in reverse: Usually it is the bull (John Bull) which is harming Ireland. But there is a certain sense to this if one takes it in the context of the Land League and the Tenant Rights Movement -- an attempt to get the English law (often represented by a bull) to give tenants fair treatment. Could this have been a tale of John Bull's government actually enforcing its laws against a landlord? - RBW
File: McB1050
===
NAME: Louie Sands and Jim McGee
DESCRIPTION: Shanty: "Who feeds us beans? Who feeds us tea?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/Who thinks that meat's a luxury?/Louie... We make the big trees fall ker-splash... Offers more examples of Sands & McGee's penury, usually with beans as the motif.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Shanty (from lumberjacks, not sailors): "Who feeds us beans? Who feeds us tea?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/Who thinks that meat's a luxury?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/We make the big trees fall ker-splash/And hit the ground an awful smash/And for the logs who gets the cash?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee". Other verses offer more examples of Sands & McGee's penury, usually with beans as the motif.
KEYWORDS: shanty lumbering work logger greed food nonballad worksong
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 19, "Louie Sands and Jim McGee" (1 text)
Roud #6521
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune)
NOTES: One of the few worksongs I've seen from European-Americans who weren't sailors. - PJS
File: Be019
===
NAME: Louis Collins
DESCRIPTION: Ms. Collins weeps to see son Louis leave home; he is shot to death in a gunfight. All the young women put on red clothing in mourning; he is buried in the new graveyard. Chorus: "Angels laid him away/Laid him six feet under the clay/Angels laid him away"
AUTHOR: probably Mississippi John Hurt
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recorded, Mississippi John Hurt)
KEYWORDS: grief fight violence parting crime homicide clothes burial death mourning mother
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Louis Collins" (OKeh 8724, 1929; rec. 1928; on MJHurt01, MJHurt02) (on MJHurt03)
File: RcLouCol
===
NAME: Louisiana Earthquake, The
DESCRIPTION: On a Sunday night, God sets the earth shaking. Singer stands expecting "louder clouds of thunder." In the morning "the elements were darkened"; six month pass, but the earth continues to shake; Christians fear, while "sinnersÕ hearts were aching"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (recording, Stella Walsh Gilbert)
KEYWORDS: disaster religious gods
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 16, 1811: Series of earthquakes begins, centered on New Madrid, Missouri
Feb 7, 1812: Worst shock of earthquake series
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Stella Walsh Gilbert, "The Louisiana Earthquake" (on Ashley02)
NOTES: The song's reference to the area as "Louisiana" suggests that it was composed shortly after the events; while the region was part of the giant Louisiana Purchase, it became known as Missouri Territory within a year or two after the earthquake. At the time of the quakes, New Madrid was the second largest settlement in the area, after St. Louis.
The earthquakes of 1811-1813 affected an area of a million square miles, and included the most severe shocks ever recorded in North America; the worst were felt as far away as Washington, DC, New Orleans, and northern Canada. The course of the Mississippi River was affected (and with it the boundaries of several states); islands and lakes vanished and new ones were formed; the river was observed to flow backward for a time. Remarkably, there were very few fatalities. After two years the shocks diminished, but small aftershocks were common in the area for nine years or more. The New Madrid Fault is still active, and shakes the region every few years; New Madrid residents sell T-shirts reading, "It's Our Fault." - PJS
File: RcLouEar
===
NAME: Louisiana Girls: see Buffalo Gals (File: R535)
===
NAME: Louisiana Lowlands
DESCRIPTION: Pompey Snow has "a good stiff glass of rum. So they buried him in the lowlands ...." "The fire bells are ringing boys, ... The steamer she is left behind ... so they ...." "This little boy had an augu-er that bored two holes at once ... so they ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Creighton-Nova Scotia), from a copy c.1883 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: nonballad parody humorous derivative floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-NovaScotia 129, "Louisiana Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS129 (Full)
Roud #1830
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Golden Vanity" [Child 286] (chorus and verse beginning "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice" base for parody)
cf. "A Boy He Had an Auger" (another parody of "The Golden Vanity" verse beginning "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice")
cf. "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" (see notes)
cf. "In the Louisiana Lowlands" (see notes)
NOTES: Creighton-NovaScotia may be all floating verses and fragments.
Its first verse, chorus and tunes are derived from the anonymous 1859 minstrel song "In the Louisiana Lowlands" which has nothing but form and, vaguely, melody to relate it to the "Golden Vanity"(see Public Domain Music site Music from 1800-1860). [It also reminds me a bit of songs like "Uncle Ned" and "Pompey Squash." - RBW]
[The third verse,] "Some were playing cards .." is either from "The Golden Vanity" or some other parody. The [second] verse beginning "The fire-bells are ringing, boys, there is a fire in town" ... is suggested by "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" (1877) by Henry Clay Work (Source: Public Domain Music site Henry Clay Work (1832-1884))
The "original" "Louisiana Lowlands" air may be found at: LOCSheet, sm1881 03225, "Then Sing Louisiana Lowlands," unknown (New Orleans), 1881 (tune)
If "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" or "In the Louisiana Lowlands" are ever reported in tradition they should be treated as separate songs from this one. - BS
File: CrNS129
===
NAME: Louisville Burglar, The: see The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)
===
NAME: Loupy Lou: see Looby Lou (File: R554)
===
NAME: Lousy Miner, The
DESCRIPTION: "It's four long years since I reached this land In search of gold among the rocks and sand, And yet I'm poor, when the truth is told... I'm a lousy miner In search of shining gold." Tells how the miner lives hard while his girlfriend forgets him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855 (Put's Original California Songster)
KEYWORDS: mining work separation gold
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Sandburg, p. 107, "(The Lousy Miner)" (1 text found under "Sweet Betsy from Pike")
Lomax-FSNA 175, "The Lousy Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 863-864, "Lousy Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOUSMINR
Roud #4755
File: San107
===
NAME: Lovana
DESCRIPTION: "I once knew a cot, It was humble as could be" around which birds sang and where Lovana lived. The singer describes her beauty as she bathes in the stream. He wishes he were a fish by her boat, or the wind in her hair, or otherwise near her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love courting bird rejection
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Belden, pp. 223-224, "Lovana" (1 text, from a very poor transcription)
Dean, p. 3, "Luluanna" (1 text)
Roud #4649
File: Beld223
===
NAME: Love: see Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)
===
NAME: Love and Whisky
DESCRIPTION: "Love and whisky both, Rejoice an honest fellow." If love leaves a jealous pang or whisky a headache "take another sup" as cure. "May the smiles of love Cheer our lads so clever; And, with whisky, boys, We'll drink King George for ever"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: love drink nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 73-74, "Love and Whisky" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bobbin Joan" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSong: "The most popular song of the heyday of Irish Volunteerism [beginning 1780] and which song continued a general favourite until the dissolution of the Irish Yeomanry Corps [started to decline about 1812 according to "County Armagh Yeomanry Corps" by Samuel Lutton at the Craigavon Historical Society site]."
File: CkPS073
===
NAME: Love at First Sight
DESCRIPTION: "I went to Ed Haley's, the day it was bright, I met with a woman I loved at first sight." The singer and his love discuss their histories; they agree to marry and live a happy life; she is very good at housework
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 183-184, "Love at First Sight (1 text)
NOTES: According to Thomas, Setters wrote this to help one Tom Willie in his courting: Willie pretended it was his composition rather than by Setters. It seems likely enough; it's not exactly great art. (And, if I were Mrs. Willie, I'd be less than complimented... but then, I'm a modern male, not an early-twentieth-century female). - RBW
File: ThBa183
===
NAME: Love Gregory: see The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)
===
NAME: Love Has Brought Me to Despair [Laws P25]
DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a girl telling of the grief her false love has left her. She seeks a flower in the meadow to ease her mind; none meet her needs. She makes a bed of flowers, asks for a marble stone on her grave and a turtle dove at her breast, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: death separation flowers grief
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW) Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws P25, "Love Has Brought Me to Despair"
Brewster 58, "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus 116, p. 176, "The Auxville Love" (1 text)
JHCox 144, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (1 text)
DT 824, LOVDISPR*
Roud #60
RECORDINGS:
Berzilla Wallin, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (on OldLove)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24]
cf. "Tavern in the Town"
NOTES: This song has close ties with "Tavern in the Town," often sharing stanzas and, of course, a similarity of plot. Roud, in fact, lumps them (which seems a bit excessive to me). This may help explain why Laws failed to note either the Combs or the Cox version. - RBW
File: LP25
===
NAME: Love in a Tub (The Merchant Outwitted) [Laws N25]
DESCRIPTION: A vintner needs the consent of his sweetheart's rich father to obtain a dowry. The girl hides in one of her father's wine casks, and the vintner offers to buy its contents. The merchant agrees -- only to have his daughter revealed. He blesses the marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (chapbook by James Magee)
KEYWORDS: marriage courting trick hiding wine
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws N25, "Love in a Tub (The Merchant Outwitted)"
Belden, pp. 233-234, "Love in the Tub" (1 text)
DT 454, LOVETUB
Roud #556
NOTES: In 1664, Sir George Etherege produced a play called "The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub." The plot is unrelated, and Etherege never produced anything else of even this minimal degree of note. - RBW
File: LN25
===
NAME: Love is Lovely: see Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) AND Carrickfergus (File: K149)
===
NAME: Love is Pleasin' (II): see Waly Waly (The Water is Wide); also Fair and Tender Ladies AND Love is Teasing (File: K149)
===
NAME: Love is Pleasing (I)
DESCRIPTION:
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS:
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Love is Teasing
File: Rits024
===
NAME: Love is Teasing
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, love is teasing and love is pleasing, And love is a pleasure when first it's new, But as it grows older, it grows the colder...." Lyric piece about the dangers of love: The singer gave up family and home, (and now has a baby without a father)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1953 (recording, Jean Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment baby nonballad home floatingverses
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 24, "Oh, Love Is Teasin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 70, "Love is Pleasin'" (1 text, 1 tune, of four verses, two of which might go here, one belongs with "Fair and Tender Ladies," and the fourth could be from several sources; it could be a "Waly Waly" variant)
Roud #1049
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" and references there
NOTES: This probably originated as a "Waly Waly" variant, and it can be very hard to tell whether a fragment belongs with one or the other (note the Lomax "Love is Pleasin'" text, which suffers from the additional handicap of being in a Lomax publication; I gave up and listed it both places). I finally decided that there are enough songs which don't say "Waly waly" or "The water is wide" to split then.
It does leave an interesting genealogical question, though: You could produce "Waly Waly" by combining this with "Jamie Douglas," or you could start with "Waly Waly" and have this split off while a few verses floated into the longer ballad. Or it could just all float.
Moral of the story: Be sure to check entries under both songs. - RBW
File: Rits024
===
NAME: Love Laughs at Locksmiths: see The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)
===
NAME: Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails)
DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives after a long journey, and appeals to the girl: "It rains, it blows, it hails, it snows ... love let me in." At first she turns him away because she is home alone. She changes her mind, takes him to bed and he marries her the next day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Purslow)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sex nightvisit
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Leach-Labrador 48, "Love, Let Me In" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FORTYLNG*
Roud #608
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (plot)
cf. "Let Me In This Ae Nicht" (plot)
File: LLab048
===
NAME: Love Me or No
DESCRIPTION: "[I] will sing you a song, the best in my heart, For you know very well I have a sweetheart... But if he won't love me, kind sir, won't you?" If one lad proves false, she'll happily turn to another; "I don't care a straw whether you love me or no."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: courting farewell abandonment
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, p. 493, "Love Me or No" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Beld493
===
NAME: Love O'God Razor: see The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15] (File: LQ15)
===
NAME: Love Somebody, Yes I Do
DESCRIPTION: "Love somebody, yes I do (x3), Love somebody, but I won't tell who. Love somebody, yes I do (x3), And I hope somebody loves me too." "...Love somebody, yes I do, 'Tween sixteen and twenty-two."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (recording, Sid Harkreader)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Sandburg, pp. 140-141, "Love Somebody, Yes I Do" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Chase, p. 206, "I Love Somebody, Yes I Do" (1 tune, presumably this piece)
Silber-FSWB, p. 141, "Love Somebody, Yes I Do" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Barefoot Boys ,"I Love Somebody" (OKeh 45217, 1928)
Crook Brothers String Band, "Love Somebody" (Victor V-40099, 1929)
Sid Harkreader, "Love Somebody" (Vocalion 14887, 1924)
Land Norris, "I Love Somebody" (OKeh 45033, c. 1926; rec. 1925; on CrowTold02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier's Joy" (tune)
File: San140
===
NAME: Love Token, The: see A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor) [Laws N29] (File: LN29)
===
NAME: Love Will Find Out the Way
DESCRIPTION: "Over the mountains and under the waves, Over the fountains and under the graves... Love will find the way." A catalog of the paths love follows, and a praise of its overwhelming power
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1794 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 205-207, "Love Will Find Out the Way" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 232-234, "Love Will Find Out the Way" (1 text)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, pp. 189-190, "Love Will Find Out the Way" (1 tune, partial text)
Roud #13167
File: FVS205
===
NAME: Love-of-God Shave, The (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15]
DESCRIPTION: Paddy asks the barber for a shave on credit. The barber is prepared; he has a razor just for such people. The injured Paddy flees the shop. Some time later, he hears a jackass bray near the shop and assumes someone else asked for a love-of-God shave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1858
KEYWORDS: humorous animal trick
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(England(South)) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Laws Q15, "The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave)"
Belden, pp. 249-251, "The Monkey Turned Barber" (3 texts, but only B2 is the piece; A and B1 are "The Monkey Turned Barber")
Warner 178, "Lather and Shave" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 120, "Lather and Shave" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 136, "Love O'God Razor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 211-212, "The Love-of-God Shave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 227, "The Irish Barber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 83, "Lather and Shave" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 483, "The Trust Shave" (source notes only)
DT 526, LOVEGOD
Roud #571
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(197), "Lather Em, Shave Em," John Ross (Newcastle), 1847-1852; also Harding B 11(1927), "Lather 'Em, Shave 'Em"; Harding B 11(2085), Harding B 11(2632), "Lather-Em, Shave-Em"; Firth c.26(49), Harding B 11(1867), Harding B 11(1868), Harding B 11(2633), "[A] Love of God Shave" ; Firth b.27(285), "The Love o' Good Shave"
LOCSinging, sb20272b, "Lather and Shave," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as202090, "Lather and Shave"
Murray, Mu23-y1:067, "Lather 'Em, Shave 'Em," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(082), "A Love of God Shave," unknown, c.1870
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Firth b.27(285) is hard to read but has the tune as something like "Flare Up Neddy."
Broadside LOCSinging sb20272b: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: LQ15
===
NAME: Love's Adieu
DESCRIPTION: "The e'e o' the dawn, Eliza, Blinks over the dark, green sea... Yet still my dowie heart lingers To catch one sweet throb mair." The singer says they have been blessed, but he must go (for no explained reason); he promises to remember and return
AUTHOR: Joseph Grant
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord); Grant died 1835
KEYWORDS: love courting separation
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 43-44, "Love's Adieu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3788
File: Ord043
===
NAME: Love's Parting: see The Faithful Rambler (Jamie and Mary, Love's Parting) (File: HHH825)
===
NAME: Love's Young Dream
DESCRIPTION: "Oh! the days are gone ... When my dream of life, from morn till night, Was love" First love "'twas light, that ne'er can shine again On life's dull stream!"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3385))
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 110, "Love's Young Dream" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3385), "Love's Young Dream", J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
NOTES: Not one of Moore's more successful pieces; Granger's Index to Poetry lists only two anthologies containing it, and there seem to be few traditional collections. - RBW
File: OCon110
===
NAME: Loved by a Man
DESCRIPTION: There was a rich young girl courted by an Irish lad who "has left her and gone far away" Her beauty has faded; "see what it comes to [to] be loved by a man." If he returns "she'll crown him with joy." She is "bound in love-chains and can never be free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection separation beauty floatingverses nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 37, "Loved by a Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5232
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This song has floating lines rather floating verses such as "Her cheeks they were once like the bud of a rose, But now they're as pale as the lily that grows." - BS
File: RcLoBaMa
===
NAME: Lovely Ann
DESCRIPTION: The singer's friends take him to Belfast to sail to America on the Union and leave Ann behind. The ship hits a rock off Rathlin in a storm. All passengers reach shore in boats. He decides to stay home with Ann rather than try to sail to America again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1826 (chapbook by James Smyth, Belfast, according to Leyden)
KEYWORDS: emigration reunion separation sea ship storm wreck America
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 26, 1822 - The _Union_ out of Belfast, bound for St Andrews, New Brunswick, is wrecked on Rathlin Island. The passengers were rescued and returned to Belfast (source: Leyden).
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Leyden 34, "Lovely Ann" (1 text)
Logan, pp. 56-58, "Lament for the Loss of the Ship Union" (1 text)
Roud #5804
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 5, "Lovely Ann ("When I was young and in my prime"), T. Batchelar (London), 1828-1832; also Harding B 11(2221), Harding B 11(2222), "Lovely Ann"; Harding B 11(4087), "Lovely Anne"
Murray, Mu23-y1:032, "Lovely Ann," James Lindsay Junr(Glasgow), 19C
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Loss of the Ship Union
NOTES: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v2, p. 17 lists this as an 1822 wreck without further details; his source is Tommy Cecil, _The Harsh Winds of Rathlin_. Leyden has details from the _News Letter_ and notes that "many of the details in the song contradict those reported in the _News Letter_." - BS
File: Leyd034
===
NAME: Lovely Annie
DESCRIPTION: Annie promisedsto be true but while the singer is in "the North Highlands to work by the day" she marries someone else. He would have preferred transportation. His "mind turns to madness since Annie's away" His master threatens to send him to Bedlam.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation betrayal madness
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 163-164, "Lovely Annie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5331
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "False Mallie" (theme: a man driven "mad" by a woman's infidelity)
cf. "The Green Bushes, The [Laws P2]," particularly the "Nut Bushes" version (theme: a man driven "mad" by a woman's infidelity)
File: TSF164
===
NAME: Lovely Annie (I): see William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)
===
NAME: Lovely Annie (II): see Polly Oliver (Pretty Polly) [Laws N14] (File: LN14)
===
NAME: Lovely Annie (III): see The Last Letter (File: GrMa101)
===
NAME: Lovely Armoy
DESCRIPTION: The singer is preparing to leave Armoy. He recalls all the pleasures and beauties of home. He describes his sad farewell from the girl he loves. Now in Belfast, he can write no more, as he must board the ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation parting
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H9, p. 186, "Lovely Armoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13541
File: HHH009
===
NAME: Lovely Banks of Boyne, The [Laws P22]
DESCRIPTION: The singer is courted by Jimmie, who wins his way into her heart and her bed but then abandons her. She hears that he is married to a rich lady in London. She must remain in Dublin, far from her love and her home by the Boyne
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(316))
KEYWORDS: seduction separation betrayal
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws P22, "The Lovely Banks of the Boyne"
Morton-Ulster 17, "The Banks of the Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 160, "The Lovely Banks of Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 104-105, "The Banks of Boyne" (1 text)
DT 504, LOVLBOYN
Roud #995
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(316), "Poor Flora on the Banks of Boyne," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
NOTES: The following broadsides could not be read and verified: Bodleian, Harding B 11(3079), "Poor Flora on the Banks of the Boyne," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; Bodleian, Harding B 11(3078), "Poor Flora on the Banks of the Boyne," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844 - BS
File: LP22
===
NAME: Lovely Banks of Mourne, The
DESCRIPTION: A farmer's son sees a girl bathing by the banks of the Mourne. He hides behind a bush to watch. At last she sees him and flees. He pursues, and offers her his hand and produce. She consents to marry. The singer will not reveal her name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes marriage
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H595, p.468 , "The Lovely Banks of Mourne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9454
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112] (subject)
NOTES: Sort of a "Clear Away the Morning Dew" with the ending reversed. It's not nearly as much fun, though, which doubtless explains its limited currency. - RBW
File: HHH595
===
NAME: Lovely Banna Strand
DESCRIPTION: A German ship is bringing 20,000 rifles for the Irish rebels, but the car which was to meet the Germans crashes. The rifles are not delivered, and Sir Roger Casement, who planned the affair, is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (Galvin)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion execution injury wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1916 - The Casement affair (also the Easter Rising)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 45, "Lonely Banna Strand" (1 text, 1 tune)
PGalvin, pp. 57-58, "Lovely Banna Strand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5234
NOTES: During the bloody stalemate of 1915-1917, both sides in the First World War sought ways out of the dilemma. Britain tried "peripheral strategies" (her reward being the Gallipoli campaign); Germany dabbled with submarine warfare.
The Casement Affair was another of these sideshows. Ireland wanted freedom (they had been granted Home Rule in 1914, but the war and the disturbances halted its implementation; that plus the absence of many loyalists in the trenches caused a slow but steady increase among forces devoted to rebellion); the Germans wanted to distract the British. It was an ideal match.
Roger Casement (1864-1916) was a Protestant who was knighted for his investigations into European cruelty in Africa. Despite this, he became an Irish patriot in the decade before World War One. One might almost think this disturbed his reason.
In 1914, Casement went to Germany and negotiated a "treaty." Among its other provisions, it offered to form Irish prisoners of war into an "Irish Brigade" to fight for Germany. (It turned out to be more of an Irish Platoon; a total of 55 soldiers chose to join it. See Robert Kee, _The Bold Fenian Men_, being volume II of _The Green Flag_, pp. 246-250.) In exchange, Germany would recognize Ireland. It would also, "[i]n the event of a German naval victory affording a means of reaching the coast of Ireland," send forces to Ireland.
Of course, the British navy was much larger than the German, and the Germans never won their victory. They only made one attempt -- at Jutland -- and while more British than German ships went down there, it was a clear British strategic victory. The German navy acted like a whipped cur for the rest of the war, and the sailors actually revolted rather than go to sea in 1918.
In 1916, Casement was still in Germany, being ignored by all parties. Indeed, he had spent time in a sanatorium (Kee, p. 264), and plans were made to retire him to America. Then came the news of the Easter Rising. Germany decided to give this some very elementary support -- a tramp steamer carrying 20,000 rifles captured from the Russians (and probably not in very good condition), with minimal ammunition and a handful of machine guns.
Casement was horrified at this pinch-penny scheme; it was too little too late. No troops were to be sent, only the weapons. His protests achieved one thing: He was sent along with the arms. On April 9, 1916, the weapons set sail on the _Aud_ (also known, to the Germans at least, as the _Libau_; Kee, p. 266), a ship so cheap that she did not have a radio; she was disguised as a Norwegian freighter. Casement was to come on a submarine.
The Irish never made contact with the _Aud_; the ship showed up in Tralee Bay, but no one was expecting her until later. She waited a day for someone to meet her, was ignored, and left. Eventually the British (who knew many details of the plot) found the ship. Ordered to head for Queenstown, the _Aud's_ captain blew her up before she arrived in harbor (April 22).
Casement had set out by submarine on April 12. Somehow the sub (U19) and the _Aud_ failed to make contact. So the boat's captain put Casement ashore at Banna Strand. He was captured on Good Friday and recognized; on April 22 -- the same day the _Aud_ was blown up -- he was sent to London. He was hanged for treason on August 3, 1916.
The Casement affair incidentally put another nail in the coffin of the Easter Rebellion. The rebels desperately needed weapons, and Casement failed to deliver. What's more, the rebels were only a minority even within the Irish Volunteer movement -- and the official and public leader of the Volunteers, Eoin MacNeill, didn't like the idea. He was left out of the initial planning, told only at the last minute, and convinced to go along with the help of forged documents. (MacNeill was something of a figurehead; Michael Foy and Brian Barton, _The Easter Rising_, p. 5, note that he was a university professor with the moderate leanings one would expect of such a man; Bulmer Hobson -- himself too moderate for the fire-eaters -- found him as someone who looked respectable. MacNeill never did really control the Volunteers -- but a lot of the moderate Volunteers thought he did, which would lead to much confusion in 1916.)
When the Casement affair came out, MacNeill went all out to stop the Rebellion. It didn't stop the Dublin rebels -- but it kept the rest of the country quiet. Rather than helping rebellion, Casement's cloak-and-dagger-and-puffery operation hurt it (Kee, p. 262).
His death, however, proved very valuable to the rebel cause. After a series of quick executions following the Easter Rising, the British govenment halted the shootings and simply imprisoned the surviving rebels. But Casement was treated as a separate case. He was tried and convicted, and the British parliament saw no reason to halt his execution, which took place on August 3. The British also released his diary; this seemed to show that he was homosexual (though charges were made that the references were interpolations). In any case, his death seemed to confirm that the British still were abusing the Irish. (See Kee, _Ourselves Alone_, being volume III of _The Green Flag_, pp. 12-14). - RBW
File: PGa057
===
NAME: Lovely Caroline: see Caroline of Edinborough Town [Laws P27] (File: LP27)
===
NAME: Lovely Georgie: see Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)
===
NAME: Lovely Glenshesk (I)
DESCRIPTION: The singer has been "forced to my pen To write down the praises of the top of the glen." He tells of the birds and the hills of his home in Glenshesk, which he must leave tomorrow. His family has been there for generations; he grieves to depart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home rambling
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H544, pp. 165-166, "Lovely Glenshesk (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13476
NOTES: The singer claims his family has been present in Glenshesk since the Battle of Orra. All I've been able to learn about this battle is that it took place in the sixteenth century. - RBW
File: HHH544
===
NAME: Lovely Glenshesk (II)
DESCRIPTION: "This evening I take my departure from the lovely town where I was bred"; he is bidding farewell to friends and relatives. Having come of age, he must go to "a far foreign land." He describes the temptations faced by humanity, and hopes to avoid them
AUTHOR: John McCormick (?)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection; tune collected 1905?)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H28a, pp. 194-195, "Lovely Glenshesk (IIa)"; H547, pp. 195-196, "In Praise of the Glen" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 175-176, "Lovely Glenshesk" (1 text)
Roud #5281
NOTES: The Biblical allusion, "The Israelites they were in bondage and they murmured at their going away," actually refers to a multitude of troubles during the Exodus; whenever the Israelites faced problems, or just decided they were tired of something, they "murmured" and talked about going back to Egypt.
A handful of examples: Exodus 14:10ff. (the people are afraid when pursued by Pharaoh); Exodus 16:2ff. (the people demand meat); Exodus 17:2ff. (the people want water); Numbers 11:4ff. (more demands for meat).
The story of the serpent tempting Eve is found in Genesis 3. - RBW
File: HHH028a
===
NAME: Lovely Irish Maid, The
DESCRIPTION: Two lovers talk on Blackwater-side. He says "when I'm in Americay I'll be true to my Irish maid." She says "in Americay some pretty girls you will see." She says many who have crossed the Atlantic are drowned so "stay on shore." We assume he leaves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting parting dialog lover emigration
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 551-552, "The Lovely Irish Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCanainn, pp. 80-81, "Blackwater Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6319
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Down By Blackwaterside" (plot, lyrics)
NOTES: Kennedy lumps this with "Down By Blackwaterside," and I have to admit that there are strong points of contact, both lyric and in plot. This song, however, appears to take a slightly different direction, so I have, with much hesitation, split them. - RBW
The OCanainn text adds a verse to Peacock and ends "I'll stay at home and I'll not roam from my lovely Irish Maid." - BS
File: Pea551
===
NAME: Lovely Jamie
DESCRIPTION: Brothers Jamie and Darby sell their peat and drink away the proceeds. They enlist in the army and are sent to the Crimea. At Sevastopol, Jamie loses his legs. The rest of the song wonders how the family will survive with him crippled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: war soldier drink injury disability
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1853-1856 - Crimean War (Britain and France actively at war with Russia 1854-1855)
Nov 5, 1854 - Battle of Inkerman clears the way for the siege of Sevastopol (the city fell in the fall of 1855)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H618, pp. 85-86, "Lovely Jamie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9045
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Patrick Sheehan" [Laws J11] (plot)
cf. "Mrs. McGrath" (plot)
File: HHH618
===
NAME: Lovely Jane from Enniskea
DESCRIPTION: Willy Bell meets Jane McCann. Neither recognizes the other. He asks her to marry but she is still waiting for Willy after ten years. He shows her the ring she had given him before he left for America. She welcomes him home. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation marriage America Ireland ring reunion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Morton-Maguire 5, pp. 9,101,157, "Lovely Jane from Enniskea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2901
RECORDINGS:
John Maguire, "Lovely Jane from Enniskea" (on IRJMaguire01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rocks of Bawn" (tune)
NOTES: Morton-Maguire: "The tune is the same as is generally used for 'The Rocks of Bawn' and also used for 'The Maid of Magheracloon'." Morton speculates that the Enniskea of the song is in Co. Louth. - BS
File: MoMa005
===
NAME: Lovely Jimmy: see Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)
===
NAME: Lovely Joan
DESCRIPTION: Young man, out riding, comes upon Joan. He offers her a ring/purse of gold in return for a roll in the hay; she says the ring is more use to her than 20 maidenheads. She takes the ring, then hops on his horse and rides off to her true love's gate.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909
KEYWORDS: virtue seduction bargaining trick virginity
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Sharp-100E 57, "Sweet Lovely Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 64, "Lovely Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SWTJOAN SWTLJOAN* SWTJOAN4*
Roud #592
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid and the Horse" (plot)
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" (Child 43) and references there
NOTES: Damn fool. -PJS
In Sharp's bowdlerized version, the young man asks Joan to marry him and says that the purse of gold is worth more than twenty husbands! - (PJS)
File: ShH57
===
NAME: Lovely Johnny: see Johnny, Lovely Johnny (File: RcJoLoJo)
===
NAME: Lovely Katie of Liskehaun
DESCRIPTION: The singer loves "lovely Katie of Liskehaun" from afar; she is "far superior in wealth." If Paris had seen her he would have chosen her over Helen. He leaves at summer end but he'll be back to "make application to my sweet young Katie"
AUTHOR: C.T. Ahern (per broadside Bodleian 2806 c.8(271))
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(383))
KEYWORDS: love beauty money travel
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn 99, "Lovely Katie of Liskehaun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3048
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(383), "Lovely Katey of Liskehan," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(271), "Lovely Katty of Liscahah"; Harding B 26(384), "Lovely Keaty of Liskehan"
LOCSinging, as108160, "Lovely Katey of Liskehan," P. Brereton (Dublin), 19C
NOTES: In the nitpicky footnotes department, Paris (son of Priam) didn't exactly "pick" Helen of Troy. At the Judgment of Paris, he was to choose the fairest goddess among Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera. All offered him bribes, and Aphrodite's bribe was the hand of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. Paris left Oenone, the wife he had actually chosen, went off to gather in Helen, and -- well, you know the rest. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as108160 appears to be the same as Bodleian Harding B 26(383) printed by P. Brereton (Dublin). - BS
File: OLoc099
===
NAME: Lovely Katie-o
DESCRIPTION: Katie agrees to marry the singer but marries Mike Whelan instead
AUTHOR: Mark Walker
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity marriage
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 69, "Lovely Katie-o" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LeBe069
===
NAME: Lovely Lowland Maid, The
DESCRIPTION: Mary Ann sends her sailor away "because he looked so poor." She invites him in when he shows her "a purse of gold" Now he rejects her. She and another suitor kill the sailor for his gold. There is a witness. Both are condemned to die.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: greed infidelity warning betrayal homicide poverty money trial punishment sailor
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 620-621, "The Lovely Lowland Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea620 (Partial)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Cruel Lowland Maid
The Little Lowland Maid
NOTES: The Lesley Nelson-Burns site Folk Music of England Scotland Ireland, Wales & America collection includes a text named The Little Lowland Maid with a note that "This appeared on a broadside entitled The Cruel Lowland Maid that was printed by Ryle." - BS
File: Pea620
===
NAME: Lovely Mary Ann: see Blooming Mary Ann (File: Peac505)
===
NAME: Lovely Mary Donnelly
DESCRIPTION: "O lovely Mary Donnelly, my joy, my only best, If fifty girls were round you, I'd love you still the best." He describes her face and hair. He falls in love with her at a dance. She has many sweethearts. He is poor and has no hope of winning her.
AUTHOR: William Allingham (1824-1889) (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888 (Sparling); 1887? (_Irish Songs and Poems_?, suggested by OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: love beauty dancing nonballad hair poverty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 53, "Lovely Mary Donnelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 247-248, 495, "Lovely Mary Donnelly"
NOTES: William Allingham is known primarily for one piece, "The Fairies" ("Up the eairy mountain, Down the rushy glen"). Nonetheless he was a fairly major poet in his day; Patrick C. Power, _A Literary History of Ireland_, p. 159, writes "William Allingham was coeval also with the 'lost generation' [apparently the famine era] but he survived until 1888. He dispersed his talents imitating English poets such as Tennyson and his poetry is tinged with... pre-Raphaelitism.... Nevertheless, he wrote some ballads in the country style and poems inspired by his native Ballyshannon in County Donegal.... It appears that Allingham allowed himself to feel apart from the traditions of his native country...." - RBW
File: OLcM053
===
NAME: Lovely Molly (I): see Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)
===
NAME: Lovely Molly (II): see Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly) (File: K124)
===
NAME: Lovely Molly (III): see Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (I) [Laws N33]
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl and asks her what she is doing so far from home. She says she is seeking her love, gone these three years. He takes out his half of their broken ring and agrees to marry her and stay at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (Creighton/Senior)
KEYWORDS: separation brokentoken marriage
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws N33, "Lovely Nancy I"
Creighton/Senior, pp. 187-188, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 746, LOVNANC2*
Roud #1449
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
File: LN33
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (II): see Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy (File: E153D)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (III): see Cupid's Garden (Covent Garden I; Lovely Nancy III) (File: SWMS090)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (IV)
DESCRIPTION: In this confused song, the singer courts a girl, who accuses him of not loving her. He claims he courted her only in jest. As he leaves her, she "hopes you and I will be judged on one day." If he survives his voyage, he hopes to return and ease her pain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting abandonment separation floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H637, p. 385, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #443
NOTES: This partakes of so many songs it's almost impossible to list them. The first verse is "When first into this country"; the last is "The Diamonds of Derry" or something similar. In between, we see lines or themes from "The Blacksmith," "The Wagoner's Lad," and any number of other betrayed love songs. There are also a few catch phrases from other "Lovely Nancy" songs. But I can't see that the result qualifies as a version of any of these myriad sources.
The notes in Sam Henry posit a link to Laws H12, "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter," with which Roud lumps the song. Belden also alludes to the link, but says (correctly, in my view) that they are simply pieces on a similar theme. - RBW
File: HHH637
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (V): see William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (VI)
DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Nancy. She and her mother reject me. Nancy marries "a boasty captain." He meet her walking in the fields; she bows her head and turns away. She knows she would have been happier with him. Young girls don't "throw your first love away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage rejection warning mother
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, p. 477, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9792
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Floating lines shared with The Banks of Sweet Primroses: Come all young girls I pray take warning, Don't ever throw your first love away, For there's many a dark and cloudy morning Brings forth a pleasant sunshiny day." - BS
File: Pea477
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy (VII): see Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy from England (I): see Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)
===
NAME: Lovely Nancy from England (II): see Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: LP05)
===
NAME: Lovely Newfoundlander, The
DESCRIPTION: "You may sing of maids of many lands," but none beats the Newfoundlander. Her form is perfect, she is sweet, lovely, can row a boat, catch a fish, garden, "her brain is sharp as needles," she knows when and when not to talk, can sing and dance, etc.
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: beauty dancing flowers lyric nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 370-371, "The Lovely Newfoundlander" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9788
File: Pea370
===
NAME: Lovely Ohio, The
DESCRIPTION: The listeners are urged to emigrate to Ohio. The delights of the country are described: fish in the river, good cropland, sugar cane, no Indians. Both men and women are encouraged to come
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: emigration home nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 39, "The Lovely Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 563, "We'll Hunt the Buffalo!" (1 text, 1 tune, with the chorus of "Shoot the Buffalo" and lyrics from "The Lovely Ohio")
BrownIII 77, "Shoot the Buffalo" (1 text, called "Ohio" by the informant and clearly this piece rather than "Shoot the Buffalo," though the two do mix)
DT, OHIOBNKS*
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Banks of the Pleasant Ohio
File: LoF039
===
NAME: Lovely Polly: see I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening) (File: Beld194)
===
NAME: Lovely Sally (You Broken-Hearted Heroes)
DESCRIPTION: Jamie, a militiaman, is being sent overseas. Sally comes with him to Belfast, and cries at their parting. She left her parents for him; how can she go back? Jamie's father promises to care for her. The song concludes with a wish for all militiamen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation father mother home abandonment war
FOUND_IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H549, pp. 81-82, "You Broken-Hearted Heroes" ; H 724, pp. 82-83, "Lovely Sally" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 111, "The Spanish Shore" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Moylan 178, "The Spanish Volunteer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9046 and 2784
NOTES: Sam Henry's two texts of this song are very similar though not identical; the same simply cannot be said of the two tunes. The first, said by Sean O'Boyle to be "The Winding Banks of Erne," is in G major and 6/8 time -- and takes shoehorning to fit the text. The second, though listed as being in G, looks to be in E minor, and is in 4/4. It fits the song much better, as well. The third tune, Creighton's, is in 4/4, but not identical to the Henry tune, though much of that may be the way Angelo Dornan ornamented it. It's clearly in G, though.
The two Irish versions do not say where the battle took place. In Angelo Dornan's Canadian fragment, though, the battle is located on the Spanish shore. Could this be a localized version? If so, then Ben Schwartz (based solely on Creighton; we had not at the time noticed that this was the same song as the Irish version) suggests this localization:
"My guess is that this refers to Irish participation on the Cristino side of the First Carlist [or Seven Years] War (for example, with the British Auxiliary Legion 1835-1837 (7th Irish Light Infantry, 9th Irish, 10th Munster Light Infantry, 2nd Lancers Queen's Own Irish) as at San Sebastian 5 May 1836 (source} Stephen Thomas's site re Military History and Wargaming)"
The above suggestion makes sense, though the possibility also exists that it's from Wellington's Peninsular campaign, or the various conflicts over Gibraltar and Minorca. We probably won't know for certain unless a more explicit text shows up. - RBW, BS
Moylan makes this a reference to the Peninsular War (1808-1814). It might refer to Irish participation on the Cristino [supporting Queen Christina] side in the First Carlist War (for example, with the British Auxiliary Legion 1835-1837 (7th Irish Light Infantry, 9th Irish, 10th Munster Light Infantry, 2nd Lancers Queen's Own Irish) as at San Sebastian 5 May 1836 (source} Stephen Thomas's site re Military History and Wargaming)
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Armagh Volunteer" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)).
Harte's final verse is substantially the same as the Creighton-SNewBrunswick 111 fragment.
Harte, like Moylan, has this refer to the Peninsular War. "It is significant that the 'volunteer' in the song says that 'He was for ced to take the bounty and then to sail awa.'" - BS
File: HHH549
===
NAME: Lovely Susan: see The British Man-of-War (File: FSC013)
===
NAME: Lovely Willie [Laws M35]
DESCRIPTION: A girl with many rich suitors is in love with Willie. The speaks of running away with him. Her father overhears and stabs Willie to death. At Willie's burial the girl openly rejects her father, vowing to spend the rest of her life in exile or die for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homicide courting father elopement
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,NE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Laws M35, "Lovely Willie"
Randolph 113, "Lovely William" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 30, "Lovely Willie's Sweetheart" (1 text)
SHenry H587, p. 433, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 138, "Lovely Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 55, "Lovely Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 456-457, "Green Grow the Laurels" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 66, "The Father in Ambush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 19, "Lovely Jimmy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 107, "Lovely Jimmy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 71, "Green Grow the Rushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 436, LOVLYWLL LOVJAMIE
Roud #1913
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Lovely Willie" (on IRPTunney02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low" [Laws M34] (plot)
cf. "The Green Brier Shore (II)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Lover's Curse (Kellswater)" (themes)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lovely Jamie
Willy
NOTES: The last verse of Peacock starts "Oh green grow the laurels and the tops of them small But love is a phantom will conquer us all," which is the form that resembles the beginning of the last verse of "Nancy from London"; that ends the similarity. - BS
This fragment also ends the Manny/Wilson version (and gives it its title); evidently that was a Canadian adaption.
There is at least one documented instance of this happening in Ireland: In 1798, just before the Rebellion, Lord Kingston was on trial for the murder of his daughter's seducer. - RBW
File: LM35
===
NAME: Lovely Willie's Sweetheart: see Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)
===
NAME: Lovely Youth Called James McKee, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer loves wonderful James McKee. "I'm now despised, that once was prized, by him that I still adore." They had planned their wedding. "Him for to blame 'twould be a shame, 'twas these false maids led him astray." Warning: "tell your minds to none"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection warning
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 91-92, "The Lovely Youth Called James McKee" (1 text)
Roud #6540
File: HayU091
===
NAME: Lover and His Lass, A: see It Was a Lover and His Lass (File: FSWB155B)
===
NAME: Lover's Curse, The (Kellswater)
DESCRIPTION: The girl tells how she will curse any woman who courts Willie. Her father gives her two choices: Send Willie away or see him die. When she scorns the choices, he imprisons her. Willie promises he will not leave Ireland without her. The father relents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1907 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: love separation father hardheartedness poverty courting marriage violence travel death sailor
FOUND_IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
SHenry H695, pp. 442-443, "Kellswater" (1 text, 1 tune); also at least portions of H112, p. 288, "A Sweetheart's Appeal to Her Lover/Oh, It's down Where the Water Runs Muddy" (1 text, 1 tune, compiled from three different versions. I rather doubt the three versions were the same song, but at least part of it appears to go here)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 70, "On Board the Gallee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 45, "Jimmy and I Will Get Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KELLWATR KELLSWTR
Roud #916
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy Heffernan, "In Bristol There Lived a Fair Maiden" (on Ontario1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low" [Laws M34] (theme)
cf. "Lovely Willie" [Laws M35] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Bonnie Kellswater
NOTES: The first few versions I met of this all seemed to start with the line, "Here's a health unto bonnie Kellswater," which seems to be the Irish form of the song. By far the larger fraction of the collections, however, seem to be from Canada, mostly from Fowke. Paul Stamler gives this description of the songs of this type:
A lady of [Bristol/London] is courted by sailor Jimmy, but her father opposes the match. She promises her father that, should she marry, it would be to an equal; he tells her that he's pleased, for he's found her a good match. She confesses that she loves Jimmy, and writes him a letter. They sneak up the stairs, but her father confronts them, holding a "fusee." He tells the daughter to choose between Jimmy's leaving or being shot; she tells him she'd rather see him sail than have innocent blood shed. The father relents and allows the marriage. - RBW/PJS
Edith Fowke notes that she was unable to find this ballad in any British or North American collection; neither was I. Plenty of father-opposes-match, of course, but none with precisely this story, never mind this ending. Fowke notes, "The reference to a 'loaded fusee' suggests a 17th-century origin, for according to the Oxford Dictionary, the term 'fusee' was used for a light musket or firelock between 1661 and 1680." Jim Heffernan, of Peterborough, Ont., learned the ballad from Jim Doherty, an older man who learned it from his mother. Her parents came from Ireland in the 1830s; therefore Fowke suspects an Irish origin for the song. - PJS
The Sam Henry version of this is very confused in viewpoint, with parts spoken by an outside observer and (seemingly) both the girl and the boy. One suspects some imported material. The plot seems undamaged by this. - RBW
File: HHH442
===
NAME: Lover's Ghost (I), The: see The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)
===
NAME: Lover's Ghost (II), The: see The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248] (File: C248)
===
NAME: Lover's Lament (II), The: see Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)
===
NAME: Lover's Lament (III), The: see Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)
===
NAME: Lover's Lament for her Sailor, The: see I Never Will Marry [Laws K17] (File: LK17)
===
NAME: Lover's Lament, The: see My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)
===
NAME: Lover's Resolution
DESCRIPTION: Singer's lover slights her "because I have not riches to disguise his poverty" If she were queen of England she'd resign the crown for him. She would travel with him "from seaport town to town," but he has left.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: poverty love rejection floatingverses nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(299), "The Lover's Resolution ("Love it is a killing thing, I've heard the people say"), T. Wilson (Whitehaven), n.d.
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Girl" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bonny Tavern Green" (lyrics)
NOTES: The description is from broadside Bodleian Firth c.13(299)
Floating verses: from "The Irish Girl": "Oh, love it is a killing thing, I hear the people say." The queen of England line ("Was I queen of England, as queen Anne was before") is shared with "Bonny Tavern Green." There are lines that seem like floaters but are not lines I know. For example, "O was my love a red rose growing on yon Castle wall, And I myself a drop of dew all on the leaves would fall." - BS
File: BrdLoRes
===
NAME: Lover's Return (I), The: see The Last Farewell (The Lover's Return) (File: R761)
===
NAME: Lover's Return (II), The: see The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (File: LN40)
===
NAME: Lover's Return (III), The
DESCRIPTION: Mostly floating verses: "If I had listened to mother, I would not a-been here today." "Let him go, let him go, God bless him, He's mine where ever he may be." "I have a ship out on the ocean." At the end, "My own sweet Robert" arrives from over the sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: love separation return reunion floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuson, p. 111, "The Lover's Return" (1 text)
Roud #16411
NOTES: There may be a line or two in this song not paralleled elsewhere. There may not, too. But the combination is unique: The first verse and the "Let him go" chorus imply a betrayal song, the second verse is the floating "I have a ship on the ocean... but before my true love would suffer"; the last verse is closest to unique as it involves the man's return. - RBW
File: Fus111
===
NAME: Lover's Trial, The
DESCRIPTION: A listener hears a man and woman talking about marriage. She rejects him because she loves another who is "far away on the foaming ocean." He leaves and the listener reveals himself as her long lost lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting reunion separation dialog flowers
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 553-554, "The Lover's Trial" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea553 (Partial)
Roud #9794
NOTES: Peacock discusses the "fertility symbolism of the garden" and [observes] that "each flower of the garden has its own meaning." - BS
For a catalog of some of the sundry flower symbols, see the notes to "The Broken-Hearted Gardener." - RBW
File: Pea553
===
NAME: Lovers Parted
DESCRIPTION: To the tune of "The Ship That Never Returned": Two lovers quarrel as he prepares to seek his fortune. Both regret the quarrel, but they are never reunited. Listeners are warned against quarreling
AUTHOR: Music by Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation farewell warning travel
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 215, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text, filed as "a" under the parodies, plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #6552
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship that Never Returned" [Laws D27] (tune, lyrics) and references there
File: BrII215A
===
NAME: Lovers' Farewell (I)
DESCRIPTION: The girl laments that her love came and bade her farewell, then went to war in the Low Country. He fought, and none knew where he fell. Now "he may sleep in an open grave, But I will wake on my pallet of grief...."
AUTHOR: unknown ("collected" by John Jacob Niles)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961
KEYWORDS: parting death separation grief war
FOUND_IN: US(SE?)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Niles 17A, "Lover's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune, dubiously labelled as Child 26)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Three Ravens [Child 26]" (lyrics)
cf. "The Highland Widow's Lament" (plot)
NOTES: Niles lists this piece as a form of "The Three Ravens," on the basis of a few lyric similarities ("evensong"; "No man knows that he lies there / But his horse and his hound and his lady Mary"; "Oh, he may sleep in an open grave / Where raven fly and flutter"). The plot, however, is completely different, and reminds me more of "The Highland Widow's Lament," which tells of a soldier dying in the Low Country (on behalf of Bonnie Prince Charlie). The piece is quite beautiful, but one can only suspect John Jacob Niles's hand in it. - RBW
File: Niles71A
===
NAME: Lovers' Quarrel (I), The: see The Courting Case (File: R361)
===
NAME: Lovers' Quarrel (II), The: see The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)
===
NAME: Lovers' Tasks, The: see The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)
===
NAME: Lovewell's Fight
DESCRIPTION: Captain Lovewell and his men set out to attack the Indians. They find and kill one, only to find their baggage plundered and the Indians planning an ambush. Lovewell is killed, and many others, but at last the Europeans reach their destination
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1725 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: battle Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 9, 1725 - Battle between Captain Lovewell and the Indians at Pigwacket (near Fryeburg, Maine)
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Leach, pp. 714-716, "Lovewell's Fight" (1 text)
Roud #4026
NOTES: Lest the Indians be blamed for this battle, it should be noted that Lovewell and his men were scalphunters -- receiving one hundred pounds for each trophy they brought in. This song is item dA27 in Laws's Appendix II - RBW
File: L714
===
NAME: Lovin' Babe: see Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor (File: Handy190)
===
NAME: Lovin' Nancy (II): see If I Were a Fisher (File: HHH709)
===
NAME: Loving Girl, The
DESCRIPTION: "Adieu, my lovin' girl, adieu, It wounds my heart to part with you, The time has come for me to go, Therefore your mind I wish to know." He recalls that "you loved me first," but she has lost interest; he wishes her well and sadly departs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation parting infidelity
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 732, "The Loving Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOVNGIRL*
Roud #7393
File: R732
===
NAME: Loving Hannah: see Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)
===
NAME: Loving Henry: see Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)
===
NAME: Loving Nancy (I): see The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)
===
NAME: Loving Nancy (II): see Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty) [Laws P12] (File: LP12)
===
NAME: Loving Reilly: see William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9] (File: LM09)
===
NAME: Low Back Car, The
DESCRIPTION: "When first I saw sweet Peggy... A low-backed car she drove." "The man at the turnpike bar" was too stunned by her appearance to collect the toll. Men are knocked down by her glance. The singer imagines driving in the low-backed car to be married.
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(397))
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, pp. 87-88, "The Low Back Car" (1 text)
Roud #6954
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(397), "The Low-Backed Car", J. Moore (Belfast) , 1846-1852; also Johnson Ballads 1101, "The Low Back'd Car"; Harding B 11(2253), Harding B 20(148), "The Low Back Car"; Harding B 11(2254), Firth b.26(233), 2806 b.11(253), "The Low-Back Car"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(122b), "The Low-Backed Car," Poet's Box (Glasgow?), 1878
NOTES: Note that there is no connection, save the title, between this and the song we have indexed as "The Low-Backed Car."
The tune to this is said to be "The Jolly Ploughboy," but since there are several songs with that approximate title, it isn't much help. - RBW
File: OCon087
===
NAME: Low Down in the Broom
DESCRIPTION: "My daddy is a canker'd carle, He'll ne'er twine wi' his gear," the girl admits as she wishes to be with her lad. She details all the ways her family reigns her in. But she meets her love beneath the broom, and at last they escape and live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1804 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love courting family elopement
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 234-236, "Low Down in the Broom" (1 text)
Ord, p. 161, "Low Down in the Broom" (1 text)
Roud #1644
NOTES: Said to be the tune Burns used for "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose."
Ford's version of this is distinctly longer than the versions in Ord and the Scots Musical Museum; it starts with several stanzas about how Jenny and "Pate" meet, whereas the SMM text simply outlines how difficult the girl's parents are. It is not clear which form is older; Ford had it from a chapbook. - RBW
File: FVS234
===
NAME: Low Down the Chariot and Let Me Ride: see Let Me Ride (File: Wa170)
===
NAME: Low-Backed Car, The
DESCRIPTION: "It's onward we travel through life's weary journey Our thoughts oft returns to the bright days of yore, To the scenes of our childhood" in and around St John's. Some day good times will return and we will go back to "be happy by the old low-backed car"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration hardtimes lament lyric
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 120, "The Low-Backed Car" (1 text)
Roud #17751
NOTES: Greenleaf/Mansfield notes that "This is a song about a boy who grew up in St John's but was forced to leave Newfoundland when economic conditions prevented him from getting a living there ... The low-backed car marked a street in St John's" - BS
Note that there is no connection, save the title, between this and the song we have indexed as "The Low Back Car." - RBW
File: GrMa120
===
NAME: Lowell Factory Girl, The: see No More Shall I Work in the Factory (File: Grnw122)
===
NAME: Lower the Boat Down
DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty. "There's only one thing grieves me. Ch: Oh, lower the boat down! It's my poor wife and baby, Ch: Oh, lower the boat down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Colcord)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong separation
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Colcord, p. 63, "Lower the Boat Down" (1 single-verse fragment)
Hugill, p. 158-159, "Lower the Boat Down" (1 fragment, quoted from Colcord)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll the Cotton Down" (similar tune)
File: Colc063
===
NAME: Lowlands (My Lowlands Away)
DESCRIPTION: Sometimes a ballad: The singer is at sea when his love comes to him in a dream. She is dressed in white, and he realizes that his love is dead. Other times a lyric, in which the sailor talks about his travels, his ship, low pay, and/or a bad captain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1870
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor sea love death dream ghost
FOUND_IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (14 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 80-82, "Lowlands" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Bone, pp. 124-126, "Lowlands" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Colcord, p. 100-101, "Lowlands" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the first is the dead lover version, the second the "Dollar and a half" version)
Harlow pp. 127-128 "Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune, a "Dollar and a half" version")
Hugill, pp. 65-70 "Lowlands Away," "Lowlands or My Dollar An' A Half A Day" (4 texts, 2 tunes -- three dead lover versions, one Dollar and a half" version) [AbEd, pp. 61-64]
Sharp-EFC, XVIII, p. 21, "Lowlands Away" (1 text, 1 tune, a"Dollar and a half" version)
Mackenzie 109, "A Dollar and a Half a Day" (1 text)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 43-44, "Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 46-47, "Lowlands, II" (1 text); p. 47, "Lowlands, III" (1 fragment)
PBB 100, "Lowlands Away" (1 text)
Lomax-FSUSA 43, "Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H469, p. 144, "My Lowlands, Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 89, "Lowlands" (1 text)
DT, LOWLNDS LOWLND2 LOWLND3
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Johnny Boker" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917. "Lowlands" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
Roud #681
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "Lowlands Low" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Anne Briggs, "Lowlands" (on Briggs1, Briggs3)
NOTES: This tune pattern ("Lowlands, lowlands away, my John...," with final line either "My lowlands away" or "My dollar and a half a day") has been used for at least three separate plots (which have perhaps cross-fertilized a bit): A dead sailor, a dead sailor's girl, and a more lyric piece about the bad conditions sailors face, the latter often having the "dollar and a half" refrain.
Shay, who apparently regards the dead sailor version as original, thinks this lyric item a much-decayed version of "The Lowlands of Holland." This is certainly possible, especially thematically, but there is a lot of evolution along the way....
Bone comments on this subject, "'Lowlands' is a very old song. There are many versions, but it seems to me that the lament in the air establishes it as an adaption of some old ballad....
"I have heard it sung on many occasions -- as a capstan shanty -- and always there were the three standard lines, repeated, as verses, 'I dreamt a dream the other night.' ... 'I dreamt I saw my own true love.' ... 'And then I knew my love was dead.' With these the chantyman felt that he had held to tradition and then warranted in his own right to hawk his own wares.'"
Hugill adds that it was Ònever too popular, as it was too difficult to sing properlyÓ -- which strikes me as true; it feels more like a ballad than a shanty. Most shanties have a very regular rhythm; this has very little.
Hugill thinks the "'dead lover' theme definitely originated in Scotland or the North of England" (which again feels right, not that that's proof). But he also thinks the tune as "a negro touch about it." That part I'm not so sure about. He adds that it is "the only chanty in which Sailor John allowed 'sob-stuff,'" which he again takes as evidence that it was not originally a shanty or even a sea-song. - RBW
File: PBB100
===
NAME: Lowlands Low (I), The: see The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)
===
NAME: Lowlands Low (II), The: see Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)
===
NAME: Lowlands Low (III)
DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty. "Our packet is the Island Lass, Low-lands, low-lands, low-lands, low! There's a nigger howlin' at the main top mast, Low-lands, low-lands, low-lands, low!" Verses mostly complaints and rhymes about sailing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EFC)
KEYWORDS: shanty work
FOUND_IN: West Indies
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Hugill, pp. 70-71, "Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEb, pp. 64-65]
Sharp-EFC, XXIX, p. 34, "Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8286
NOTES: Hugill says this is from ships the West Indian trade (sugar and rum), many of which had "chequerboard" crews, i.e. one watch white and one watch coloured. - SL
File: Hugi070
===
NAME: Lowlands of Holland, The
DESCRIPTION: A young couple are parted (when the young man is taken away to sea). While in service, he is drowned. The girl vows she will not dress in fine clothes nor seek another man until the day she dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1760
KEYWORDS: recruiting death parting pressgang separation ship marines
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,Lond),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,NE,So) Canada(Newf) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES: (21 citations)
Bronson (92), 22 versions
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 55-57, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
SharpAp 26, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Sharp-100E 23, "The Low, Low Lands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 83, "The Lily of Arkansas" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 72-74, "The Lily of Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 83A)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 45-46, "The Lawlands o' Holland" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 113-114, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 179, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan, pp. 22-25, "The Lowlands of Holland" (2 texts)
OBB 160, "The Lowlands o' Holland" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus 132, p. 150, "The Soldier Bride's Lament" (1 text)
SHenry H180, pp. 149-150, "Holland Is a Fine Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 54-55, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text)
Ord, pp. 328-332, "The Lowlands of Holland (Scottish Version)"; "The Lowlands of Holland (English Version)"; "The Rocks of Gibraltar" (3 texts)
MacSeegTrav 12, "Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-More 7A, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 48, pp. 140-141,174, "The Rocks of Giberaltar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT (92), LOWHOLLD* LOWHOLL2* LOWHOLL3* LOWHOLL4 LOWHOLL5 LOWHOLL6 LOWHOLL7* LOWHOLL8
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 213, "(The Lily of Arkansas)" (1 fragment)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #377, "The Lawlands o' Holland" (1 text)
ST R083 (Full)
Roud #484
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "The Lowlands of Holland" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Paddy Tunney, "The Lowlands of Holland" (on IRPTunney01) (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(68b), "The Rocks of Bonnie Gibraltar ," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890; also RB.m.143(121) "The Lowlands of Holland," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Bee Hom" [Child 92] (given as an appendix to that ballad)
cf. "All Things Are Quite Silent" (theme)
cf. "The British Man-of-War" (tune)
cf. "Our Ship She Is Lying in Harbour" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lily of Arkansas
NOTES: "The Lowlands of Holland" is frequently connected to "Bonny Bee Hom" (Child 92), a link dating back to Child (who printed four stanzas of Herd's text). The matter has been much studied, without clear conclusion. It might be noted, however, that "Bonny Bee Hom" involves a magic device (the stone that tells the lover whether his sweetheart is true), a theme not found in "The Lowlands of Holland."
It will also be obvious that "The Lowlands of Holland" has been enduringly popular, whereas "Bonny Bee Hom" has had very little currency in tradition. - RBW
File: R083
===
NAME: Loyal Song Against Home Rule, A
DESCRIPTION: "I'm an Irishman born in loyal Belfast." Ireland "would be ruined for ever if Home Rule was passed." Gladstone "has got no idea of the blood it would spill ... don't let old Gladstone get you in a snare ... It's time long ago he was upon the shelf"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1893 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 100, "A New Loyal Song Against Home Rule" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Home Rule for Ireland" (subject: the quest for Home Rule)
cf. "The Union We'll Maintain" (subject: opposition to Home Rule)
NOTES: William Ewart Gladstone became British prime minister in 1868 and supported Home Rule for Ireland. He introduced his first Home Rule Bill, which was defeated, in 1885. His second Home Rule Bill was defeated in 1893. (source: "Home Rule" on the Irelandseye site) - BS
For the sources cited in what follows, see the Bibliography at the end of this note.
Gradually during the nineteenth century, the restrictions on Catholics in Ireland were lifted. But the memory remained -- and most of the land was still in Protestant hands.
Gladstone devoted much of his energy as Prime Minister to improving conditions in Ireland, disestablishing the Church (see, e.g., "The Downfall of Heresy") and granting increased tenant rights (see especially "The Bold Tenant Farmer," though the need for land reform inspired many songs).
Gladstone apparently thought initially that ordinary reforms would be enough to satisfy Ireland (see "Home Rule for Ireland"; also Kee, p. 58: Gladstone seems at first to have imagined that he could solve the problem of Ireland forever by two measures: first, By disestablishing the Irish Protestant Church and, second, legislating to compensate a tenant financially on conviction).
The success of the Land League and the rise of Charles Stewart Parnell eventually forced him to see otherwise (for Parnell, see e.g. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)"; also "We Won't Let Our Leader Run DownÓ).
For most of the nineteenth century, the Irish had given their support primarily to the Liberals, who were more sympathetic to their cause. But Parnell, who by 1882 was the dominant force in Irish politics, wasn't willing to settle for that. In 1885, he urged his supporters to vote Conservative just to try to shake things up.
The result as an election in which the Liberals held 335 seats in parliament, the Conservatives 249 -- and Parnell controlled 86 seats and the balance of power (Kee, p. 89).
Prime Minister Gladstone tried to improve the situation with his proposal for Home Rule (partial internal autonomy for Ireland). Gladstone's 1886 Home Rule proposal was limited -- the British would still control foreign and trade policy, for instance. But internal affairs would largely be in Irish hands.
Unfortunately, his own party was not united on the issue. A handful of members openly went over to the Conservatives; a larger block, headed by Joseph Chamberlain, remained devoted to other liberal reforms, but simply would not support Home Rule (see Kee, pp. 89-90; Massie, pp. 235-238).
The government fell, and Home Rule was shelved for seven years.
The second attempt was no more successful. According to Kee, p. 124, the 1893 Home Rule bill "occupied more parliamentary time than any other bill in the history of the century." You have to wonder why the Ulster Unionists -- who, as we shall see, went into conniptions -- were so worried; some wit quipped that Gladstone had no more power to pass Home Rule (through the Lords) than he did to install waterworks on the moon. The Lords not only rejected it, they rejected it 419-41 (Kee, p. 125).
That was about the end for Gladstone. It wasn't good for the Liberals, either; for fifteen years Parliament was split into four groups: Conservatives, classic Liberals, residual Parnellites (now led by John Redmond insofar as they had a leader; in the election of 1892, nearly 90% of the Irish MPs claimed to be anti-Parnellite, but that faded over time), and Liberal Unionists (Chamberlainites). For the most part, it was gridlock, though the Chamberlainites occasionally managed to extract liberal reforms from the Conservatives. But there was no possibility of serious legislation for Ireland.
Still, Home Rule naturally concerned the Irish Protestants, who would inevitably find Catholics in charge of a Home Rule Ireland. In most of Ireland, they were too few to really resist. But in Ulster, or at least in parts of it, they were the majority. And they didn't want the Catholics doing unto them as they had done unto the Catholics. (They knew what it was like: Unlike the Anglicans in the rest of Ireland, the Ulstermen *had* been subjected to religious persecution -- see Kee, pp. 96-97.)
So the Presbyterians strenuously opposed Home Rule. The old Orange Society, which had been banned in 1836, was revived in 1845 in Enniskillen (Kee, p. 100), and a Protestant Defence Association came into being in 1867-1868 (Kee, p. 101-102) in response to the Land League and the British government's relatively mild reaction (Kee, p. 103). By 1884, Kee reports that 20,000 Orangemen were demonstrating on the anniversary of the Boyne.
If Zimmermann's 1893 date is reliable, the probable inspiration for this song (apart from Gladstone's 1893 attempt at a Home Rule bill) was the great Ulster Unionist Convention of 1892 (Kee, p. 122); some 12,000 were said to have attended; resolutions stated that Ulster was an integral part of the United Kingdom, rejected an Irish parliament, and declared against Home Rule. One speaker declared that Ulster would defend itself if threatened with rule from Dublin.
Finally, in 1904, came the foundation of the Ulster Unionist Council. (Which was, ironically, to help divide the Unioninist movement; as Townshend notes, p. 32, Unionists in southern Ireland were a small enough minority that their only hope was to retain Union. The Ulster Unionists had a fallback position: Partition. The two groups thus ended up pursuing different ends.)
Even before the founding of the UUC, the Unionists had had a spokesman in Edward Carson (1854-1935). He was denouncing Home Rule in the government by the 1890s, and helped along the split in the Liberal Party that made Home Rule impossible. Eventually he managed to take Ulster out of Ireland. The irony in this is that he wasn't an Ulsterman -- and on issues other than Union, he was even relatively liberal (Kee, p. 169-170). But he openly declared that would support anarchy rather than Home Rule (O'Connor, p. 45).
By 1911, Ulstermen were rallying and marching -- with compliant Justices of the Peace being more than willing to grant them permits to drill (Kee, p. 171; Townshend, p. 35). Nearly 450,000 would sign a "Solemn League and Covenant" to oppose Home Rule, some with their own blood (Kee, p. 180). 20,000 signed on the first day alone (O'Conor, p. 46). They were pledged to "Stand by one another in using all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament and in the even of such a Parliament being forced upon us, we further solemnly pledge ourseves to refuse to recognize its authority" (O'Connor, pp. 45-46).
Starting in 1913, the Ulster Unionist Council formed a provisional government (O'Connor, p. 46) and started raising a private army which woul eventually reach 100,000 men (Kee, p. 182; O'Connor, p. 46, credits them with 50,000 men withing three months of their foundation), though at first few had weapons (Townshend, p. 33); they practiced with wooden mock-ups. They would raise a million-pound insurance fund (Townshend, p. 42).
Members of the British government called it treason (O'Connor, p. 46). That didn't even slow them down.
Home Rule finally came back in 1910, long after Gladstone was dead. The Liberal government of H. H. Asquith, which needed the Irish votes controlled by Redmond (Dangerfield, pp. 52-53), passed Home Rule -- only to have the Lords block it again.
Asquith finally hit upon the radical solution of limiting the veto power of the House of Lords -- in effect setting up a system where the Lords could block a measure for two years, but have to give in if the Commons kept passing it. Asquith won a narrow parliamentary victory on this point (for an intensely detailed description of how all this came about, see Massie, pp. 640-662 -- the chapter entited "The Budget and the House of Lords"; for something shorter, see the notes to "My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me)").
With the Lords rendered relatively powerless, a preliminary Home Rule bill eventually passed in 1913 (see Cronin, pp. 177-179). But English opinion had not really been tested on the matter (Kee, p. 176, notes that "Only some 94 of the 272 successful Liberal candidates... had actually mentioned Home Rule at all in their election addresses" -- and that the Prime Minister was one of the many cabinet officials who did not mention the subject).
Worse, the army was not prepared to enforce the law; a number of officers resigned rather than prepare to suppress Ulster loyalists -- the so-called "Curragh Mutiny" (see Kee, p. 192). In trying to calm the mutiny, the British government made it effectively impossible to control Ulster loyalists. Indeed, future Conservative prime minister Andrew Bonar Law stood with Carson at a rally against Home Rule in Belfast (O'Connor, p. 45)
Then came World War I, which caused the law to be suspended (the Home Rule bill had been unravelling over the Ulster problem anyway). Kee reports that Prime Minister Asquith, after consultation with the main parties, "agreed... that Home Rule should become law and be placed on the statute book, but simultaneously with a Suspensory Act which would prevent it coming into force until a new Amending Bill could be introduced" (which, in practice, meant "until after the War").
Still, the bill formally passed and gained the KingÕs assent in 1914. There was celebration in the streets of Ireland (Kee, p. 222)
And then came the Easter Rising of 1916 -- something that real Home Rule might have prevented (Townshend, p. 30, believes that the passage of full home rule, including Ulster, would have turned many Irish nationalists, including rebellion leader Paidraig Pearse and perhaps Sinn Fein founder Arthur Griffith, away from rebellion. O'Connor, p. 41, makes the same argument, noting that Pearse gave a speech, in Irish, applauding Home Rule when it came. I have to add, though, that Pearse in the same speech rejected the notion of even nominal obedience to the crown.)
But the rebellion meant that Home Rule never did really come into effect -- in part because of British brutality in the aftermath of the Easter Rising, and partly because Ulster simply wouldn't accept it. Plus, of course, many of the more moderate Irish had joined the British army, and had died in droves in Flanders. The more militant nationalists had refused to serve. Thus, after the war, nationalist feeling was much stronger, and pro-British Irishmen fewer. Plus John Redmond, the man who had fought -- and compromised -- to win Home Rule had died in 1918, leaving Sinn Fein as the strongest political element.
When the pressure on Britain became intolerable, they gave Ireland the Free State and Partition rather than Home Rule in its initial form. In some ways, the Free State *was* Home Rule -- but it felt different, and opened the door for Eamon de Valera to make separation (and partition) complete.
We should note incidentally that the Orangemen did not really represent any particular segment of society; theirs was the minority no matter how you sliced the demographics. In the parliamentary election after Gladstone's Home Rule attempt, they lost even in Ulster (Kee, p. 106, reports that they won 16 seats, to 17 for their opponents). In Ulster as a whole, the population is said to have been 52% Protestant, 49% Catholic -- but a large share of those Protestants were Anglican, whereas the Orangemen were Presbyterian. Thus Catholics were the plurality in the nine counties of Ulster (three of which, to be sure, would end up in Ireland rather than Northern Ireland). And the Ulstermen didn't represent the majority of Ireland's Protestants, either; although Anglicans were everywhere else a small minority, there were enough of them that they outnumbered the Ulster Presbyterians.
For more on how all this played out, see especially the notes to "The Irish Free State." - RBW
>>BIBLIOGRAPHY<<:
In writing this summary, in addition to standard references such as the _Oxford Companions_ to British and Irish history, I have consulted the following works, cited by author's name above:
Cronin: Mike Cronin, _A History of Ireland_ (Palgrave, 2001(
Dangerfield: George Dangerfield, _The Damnable Question: One Hundred and Twenty Years of Anglo-Irish Conflict_ (Atlantic Little Brown, 1976)
Kee: Robert Kee, _The Bold Fenian Men_, being Volume II of _The Green Flag_ (Penguin, 1972)
Massie: Robert K. Massie, _Dreadnought_ (Random House, 1991)
O'Connor: Ulick O'Connor, _Michael Collins & the Troubles: The Struggle for Irish Freedon 1912-1922_ (1975, 1996; first American edition published as _The Troubles_; I used the 1996 Norton edition)
Townshend: Charles Townshend, _Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion_ (Ivan R. Dee, 2006) - RBW
File: Zimm100
===
NAME: Lubin's Rural Cot
DESCRIPTION: "Returning homeward o'er the plain Upon a market day, A sudden storm of wind and rain O'ertook me on the way." The singer shelters in Lubin's rural cot, where he entertains her delightfully. He offers marriage; she happily accepts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: home courting marriage storm
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 178-180, "Lubin's Rural Cot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6263
NOTES: Why do I suspect there is more going on here than meets the eye? - RBW
File: FVS178
===
NAME: Lucindy, Won't You Marry Me
DESCRIPTION: "Lucindy, won't you marry me, Won't you marry me in the mornin'? If you'll marry me your mother'll Cook a shine-eyed-hen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food courting marriage
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 6, "Lucindy, Won't You Marry Me" (1 fragment)
Roud #7854
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean" (theme)
File: Br3006
===
NAME: Luck Went With the Sealers Since Brave Colloway Led the Strike, The: see notes under The Sealer's Strike of 1902 (The Sealers Gained the Strike) (File: RySm064)
===
NAME: Lucky Elopement, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer drinks. He courts a girl whose mother calls him a drunkard. He elopes with the daughter to London where they are found and sent to Carrick Jail. At his trial for theft the daughter attests to his virtues, he is acquitted and they marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(96))
KEYWORDS: elopement marriage trial drink mother
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn 43, "The Lucky Elopement" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2559
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(96), "Luckey Elopement," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
LOCSinging, as108270, "Luckey Elopement," P. Brereton (Dublin), 19C
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging as108270 appears to be the same as Bodleian 2806 b.9(96) printed by P. Brereton (Dublin). - BS
File: OLoc043
===
NAME: Lucky Escape, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer, born a plowman, meets a "Carsindo" who convinces him to go to sea. After a dreadful time aboard ship, he goes home and is told that his family has met disaster. When he declares that he will roam no more, he is told that all is well at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE:
KEYWORDS: ship sailor farming separation home reunion reprieve
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Arnett, pp. 20-22, "The Lucky Escape" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1446
File: Arn020
===
NAME: Lucy and Colin: see Colin and Lucy (File: GC478b)
===
NAME: Lucy Locket: see Hunt the Squirrel (File: BAF806)
===
NAME: Lucy Long (I)
DESCRIPTION: "If I had a scolding wife, As sure as you are born, I'd take her down to New Orleans And trade her off for corn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: apparently 1854, when a "Lucy Long" tune was cited in Put's Golden Songster
KEYWORDS: wife shrewishness
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 279, "If I Had a Scolding Wife" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
BrownII 200, "If I Had a Scolding Wife" (1 fragment)
BrownIII 415, "Lynchburg Town" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 2 excerpts, and mention of 2 more, all with the "Lynchburg Town" chorus, but "A" and "B" have verses from "Raccoon" and "Possum Up a Gum Stump and "D" and "E" are partly "If I Had a Scolding Wife" ("Lucy Long (I)"); only "C" seems to be truly "Lynchburg Town")
Roud #7413
NOTES: Randolph and Brown both report this as a fragment of "Lucy Long," and I file it as such. It is interesting to note that both have the *same* single-stanza fragment; it seems likely enough that that one verse circulates on its own -- perhaps as the only traditional part of the song. - RBW
File: R279
===
NAME: Lucy Long (II)
DESCRIPTION: "One night when the moon was beaming, I strayed with my Lucy Long." The singer describes the beauties of their evening walk. He asks her to marry; she blushes, hesitates, and consents.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph); a "Lucy Long" tune was cited in 1854 in Put's Golden Songster
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 780, "Lucy Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7413
File: R780
===
NAME: Lucy Long (III)
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: ""Why don't you try for to ring Miss Lucy Long?" Verses involve meeting Miss Lucy, making various attempts at seduction, and being rejected. A frequent first line is "Was you ever on the Brumalow/Brumielaw?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1796-1853 (Broadsides); 1926 (Terry)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor seduction rejection
FOUND_IN: West Indies Britain
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Hugill, p. 396, "Miss Lucy Long" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 301]
Sharp-EFC, XXII, p. 25, "Lucy Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8285
NOTES: There are several versions of this in the Bodleian Broadside collection, though they lack the shanty's chorus lines. [These should perhaps be filed under Lucy Long (II).- RBW] Hugill says that Miss Lucy Long is a girl that often appears in Negro songs. - SL
File: Hugi396
===
NAME: Ludlow Massacre, The
DESCRIPTION: Faced with a strike, the mine owners drive the workers from their (company-owned) homes. The National Guard moves in and kills thirteen children by fires and guns. Since President and Governor cannot not stop the guard, fighting continues
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (recording, Woody Guthrie)
KEYWORDS: mining strike violence death labor-movement
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sept 1913 - Beginning of the strike by coal workers against John D. Rockefeller's Colorado Iron and Fuel Co.
April 1914 - A state militia company (actually composed of company thugs) attacks the Ludlow colony of strikers using machine guns and coal oil. 21 people die, including two women and thirteen children; three strikers are taken and murdered. Eventually federal troops are called in
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Scott-BoA, pp. 279-281, "The Ludlow Massacre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 152-154, "Ludlow Massacre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 134, "The Ludlow Massacre" (1 text)
DT, LUDLWMAS*
RECORDINGS:
Woody Guthrie, "Ludlow Massacre" (Asch 360, 1945; on on AmHist2, Struggle2)
File: SBoA279
===
NAME: Luir A Chodla (Put the Old Man to Sleep)
DESCRIPTION: Gaelic: Luir a chodla, cuir a chodla, cuir a chodla, an sean-cluine, luira chodle, nigh a chosa agus bog deoch do'r tsean duine. English: Put to sleep (x2) put to sleep the old man. Put him to sleep, wash his feet, and draw a drink for the old man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: age nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-FSNA 191, "Put the Old Man to Sleep" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Lomax claims this is a Gaelic version of "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)." The evidence is thin. - RBW
File: LoF191
===
NAME: Luke and Mullen
DESCRIPTION: Sam Mullen goes looking for Luke; Luke says he doesn't want trouble, but Mullen picks a fight until Luke shoots him. Cho: "Wake up, Sam Mullen, put on your shoes/Get ready to catch ol' Luke before he leave this town/For Luke done laid Mullen body down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1954 (recording, Horace Sprott)
KEYWORDS: fight violence homicide death
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Horace Sprott, "Luke and Mullen" (on MuSouth02)
NOTES: That the song continues in tradition is doubtful, but Horace Sprott said he learned it from a fellow packinghouse worker, so it was part of oral tradition at one time. - PJS
File: RcLukMul
===
NAME: Lukey's Boat
DESCRIPTION: A song describing Lukey and his boat. The boat is "painted green... the finest boat you've ever seen," etc. Lukey observes that his wife is dead, but "I don't care; I'll get another in the fall of the year."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: ship humorous nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 126, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 46-47, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle2, p. 71, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, p. 40, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 44-45, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 127, "Loakie's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ046 (Partial)
Roud #1828
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Lukey's Boat" (on NFOBlondahl05)
NOTES: [According to Blondahl, Doyle attributes this to] Mr Roberts, and others, Mrs Ira Yates, Mr Andrew Young, Twillingate, 1929. - BS
Creighton's informants say that the subject of the song lived in Lunenburg. - RBW
File: FJ046
===
NAME: Lula Gal: see The Jawbone Song AND Crawdad, etc. (File: R259)
===
NAME: Lula Viers [Laws F10]
DESCRIPTION: John Coyer weighs his fiancee Lula Viers down with metal and throws her into the river. The body is not discovered for several months. Coyer is arrested, but is handed over to the army before going on trial
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide river
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 1917 - Murder of Lula Viers by John Coyer. Viers was pregnant by Coyer, and he apparently preferred murder to marriage
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws F10, "Lula Viers" (sample text in NAB, pp. 62-64)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 144-146, "Lula Vires" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 79-81, "Lula Viers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 203-204, "Lula Viers" (1 text)
DT 804, LULAVIER
Roud #1933
NOTES: Laws was able to verify the basic facts of this ballad from the records of Floyd County, Kentucky (learning in the process that she was pregnant); see his notes in NAB, p. 65. - RBW
File: LF10
===
NAME: Lula Vires: see Lula Viers [Laws F10] (File: LF10)
===
NAME: Lula Wall: see Lulu Walls (File: R383)
===
NAME: Lulie: see Shout Lula (File: RcShLulu)
===
NAME: Lullaby: see Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)
===
NAME: Lullaby for a Sailor's Child
DESCRIPTION: "Roar, roar, thunder of the sea, Wild waves breaking on the sandy bar, And my true love is sailing, sailing far For his rosy little boy and Shena." The singer bids the child sleep, and wishes a blessing on her sailor far away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: lullaby sailor separation nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H517, p. 7, "Lullaby for a Sailor's Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH517
===
NAME: Lully, Lullay, Lully, Lullay: see The Corpus Christi Carol (File: L691)
===
NAME: Lulu (I): see My Lulu (File: San378)
===
NAME: Lulu (II)
DESCRIPTION: Composite of verses about Lulu and mountain life, e.g. "Lulu, get your hair cut Just like mine." "I went a fishin' an' fished for shad, First I caught was my old dad." "I'll give you a nickel, An' I'll give you a dime To see little Lulu Cut her shine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (JAFL 22)
KEYWORDS: courting fishing nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 183, "Lulu" (1 text, clearly composed of parts of different songs as some stanzas are twice the length of others)
Roud #4202
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shad" (floating verse)
NOTES: This might be connected in some way with "My Lulu." But the Brown and Sandburg versions have only the woman's name in common, so I've separated them. - RBW
File: Br3183
===
NAME: Lulu Walls
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes "that aggravating beauty, Lulu Walls." She has stolen his heart and left him in "sad misery." He plans to offer to wed, but knows she will turn him down. If she were his, he would surround her with walls so no one else would see her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Walter Morris)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 383, "Lulu Walls" (1 text, 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 37-38, "Lula Wall" (1 text)
DT, LULUWALL*
Roud #3338
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Lulu Walls" (Victor V-40126, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4437, 1934) (Romeo 06-05-53, 1936)
A'nt Idy Harper & the Coon Creek Girls, "Lulu Wall" (Conqueror 9065 [as Coon Creek Girls]/Vocalion 04203, 1938)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Lulu Wall" (Brunswick 229/Vocalion 5252, 1928)
Walter Morris, "Lulu Walsh" (Columbia 15115-D, 1927)
Marvin Williams, "Lula Wall" (OKeh 45467, 1930)
NOTES: Recorded by the Carter Family, and credited to A. P. Carter -- but given that the song was in circulation in the Ozarks in 1928 (Randolph), and in the Appalachians in 1933 (Henry), it seems a fair bet that the song predates the Carters. Though it is quite likely that the Carters rewrote it. - RBW
The Ozark folks may well have learned the song from the Morris recording. - PJS
And ditto Frank W. Anderson, who was Henry's informant, and so on. I wonder if Morris wrote it? It doesn't sound very traditional to me. - RBW
File: R383
===
NAME: Luluanna: see Lovana (File: Beld223)
===
NAME: Lumber Camp Song, The
DESCRIPTION: A song describing life in the lumber camp. The shanty boys are men of all places and occupations. Most of the song is devoted to details of meals, smoking in the evening, and sleep. Details of the song vary widely
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1896 (Delaney's Song Book #13)
KEYWORDS: logger separation lumbering moniker
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Doerflinger, pp. 210-211, "The Lumber Camp Song" (1 text)
Rickaby 14, "Jim Porter's Shanty Song" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 104, "The Shanty Boys" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 141-143, "The Shanty Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 72-73, "The Lumber Camp Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 159, "The Lumber Camp Song" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 750-751, "Hurling Down the Pine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-Lumbering #5, "The Lumbercamp Song" (4 short texts, tune referenced); #7, "Hurry Up, Harry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 38-39, "Shanty Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 2, "Cutting Down the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 11, "The Shanty Boys in the Pine" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, CUTPINES*
ST Doe210 (Full)
Roud #667
RECORDINGS:
Emery DeNoyer, "Shantyman's Life" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jim, the Carter Lad" (lyrics)
cf. "The Herring Gibbers" (theme, tune)
cf. "Turner's Camp on the Chippewa" [Laws C23] (theme)
cf. "Falling of the Pine" (theme)
cf. "Johnny Carroll's Camp" (theme)
cf. "Dans Les Chantiers (The Winter Camp)" (theme)
cf. "The Winter of '73 (McCullam Camp)" (theme)
cf. "Burns's Log Camp" (theme)
cf. "Bunkhouse Ballad" (theme)
cf. "Winter Desires" (theme)
cf. "Hall's Lumber Crew" (theme)
cf. "Peaslee's Lumber Crew" (structure)
cf. "Dempsey's Lumber-Camp Song" (theme)
cf. "Trimble's Crew" (theme, tune)
cf. "Poupore's Shanty Crew" (theme, tune)
cf. "The Oxen Song" (theme)
cf. "The Boys at Ninety-Five" (theme)
NOTES: Fowke states that this is derived from "Jim the Carter Lad." That they have shared verses is undeniable. I'm not quite as sure that this is a direct descendant.
Fowke lists her unique text "Hurry Up, Harry" as a separate song, and Roud surprisingly consents (#4363) -- but it has the same form and many of the same lyrics as this piece; the only substantial difference is the addition of the chorus "So it's hurry up, Harry, and Tom or Dick or Joe.... (and even that shows up in the verses of some versions such as Gardner/Chickering and Cazden et al). I'd still call it the same song, at least until someone finds a version other than LaRena Clark's. - RBW
Peacock: "For a marine variant with the same tune see... The Herring Gibbers, [which could be] the original version. However, considering the fact that the lumbering version has been traced back at least a hundred years I am inclined to give it priority" - BS
Much of logging camp routine was determined by the climate and seasons. It was easier to cut trees when the sap was not running, so the camps were active during the winter; this also let them run the logs downstream in the spring when the water levels were higher. This had the final benefit that it let some of the loggers farm during the summer. But it did mean that life in camp was rather limited in its possibilities. - RBW
File: Doe210
===
NAME: Lumbering Boy: see Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb) [Laws C14] (File: LC14)
===
NAME: Lumberjack, The
DESCRIPTION: Recitation; the speaker praises the character of lumberjacks, despite their rough-hewn ways.
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work nonballad recitation logger
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 98, "The Lumberjack" (1 text)
Roud #8879
NOTES: This, like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Be098
===
NAME: Lumberjack's Revival: see Silver Jack [Laws C24] (File: LC24)
===
NAME: Lumberman in Town, The
DESCRIPTION: "When the lumberman comes down, Ev'ry pocket bears a crown, And he wanders, some pretty girl to find." He stays at a fine inn till his money is gone, whereupon he regretfully returns to the woods. (When he is old, he marries a young girl who mocks him)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: logger work drink marriage age
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Lomax-FSUSA 51, "The Lumberman in Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-Lumbering #44, "When the Shantyboy Comes Down" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 28, "When the Shantyboy Comes Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LxU051 (Partial)
Roud #4374
File: LxU051
===
NAME: Lumberman's Alphabet, The: see The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)
===
NAME: Lumberman's Life, The: see The Shantyman's Life (I) (File: Doe211)
===
NAME: Lupe: see Charlotte the Harlot (III) (File: EM169B)
===
NAME: Lurgan Town (I)
DESCRIPTION: The singer steps up to a girl and tries to court her. She says she is pledged to Jamie. He says Jamie died in China, and shows the (broken) ring he gave her. She laments, and curses her parents who exiled him. He reveals that he is Jamie; they get married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion brokentoken exile soldier
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H563, p. 316, "Lurgan Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6871
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
File: HHH563
===
NAME: Lurgan Town (II)
DESCRIPTION: Catholic Inspector Hancock has changed Lurgan. You'd be jailed two days for singing an Orange song. He keeps the Fenian meetings safe. The police come to our dance and dance the girls to Garryowen. He breaks up an Orange demonstration on July 12.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: discrimination Ireland political police dancing
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 54, "Lurgan Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
OrangeLark 21, "Lurgan Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6870
NOTES: OLochlainn-More: "The ballad was occasioned by the unpopular appointment of a Catholic Inspector of Police in Lurgan, Co. Armagh."
July 12 celebrates the Battle of the Boyne, 1690. When Hancock breaks up the demonstration, says the song, "We turned, shook hands, all we could do Was say 'Boys remember the Boyne water!'" - BS
File: OLcM054
===
NAME: Lurgy Stream, The (The Lurgan/Leargaidh Stream)
DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives in the country and sees a beautiful woman by the (Lurgy) stream. He asks her to marry him and come across the seas. She turns him down. He promises to be true, and tries again. She rejects him again. He mopes and leaves home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H65a, pp. 293-294, "Alt[i]mover Stream" (1 text, 1 tune); H229a+b, p. 360-361, "The Lurgan Stream" (2 texts, 1 tune. The two texts are probably different redactions of the same original)
McBride 52, "The Lurgy Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6881 and 6889
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Connelly, "Lurgan Stream" (on Voice15, IRHardySons)
NOTES: McBride: "This is another Donegal song, popular in many parts of Ireland, especially the northern parts. Versions of this song were made famous in the earlier half of this century through recordings made in America by people like John McGettigan. Old 78 rpm records were sent home to the kinfolk by emigrants." - BS
File: HHH229
===
NAME: Lusitania, The
DESCRIPTION: Lusitania sails from New York for Ireland. "Three thousand souls she had on board ... Until those cruel German dogs, for her they lay unseen, And shattered her to fragments with their cursed submarine" Vanderbilt gives his life-belt to a mother.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor war
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 7, 1915: "At lunchtime ... a torpedo from U-20 struck the _Lusitania_. A further explosion rent the ship and she sank in two hours with the loss of 1200 lives" (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, pp. 117-118)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ranson, p. 76, "The Lusitania" (1 text)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 2, "The Lusitania" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7349
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Lusitania" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES: The _Lusitania's_ tragic story tells a great deal about the peculiar circumstances of the early twentieth century. The British, though long known for their merchant fleet, were losing the edge in passenger service, especially high-speed passenger service; the German lines NDL and HAPAG were taking over the market (see Ramsey, pp. 5-8. For references, see the bibliography at the end of this note). Britain had only three companies competing in this market, Inman, White Star, and Cunard. Inman had sold out in the late nineteenth century, and J. P. Morgan by the early twentietThe _Lusitania's_ tragic story tells a great deal about the peculiar circumstances of the early twentieth century. The British, though long known for their merchant fleet, were losing the edge in passenger service, especially high-speed passenger service; the German lines NDL and HAPAG were taking over the market (see Ramsey, pp. 5-8. For references, see the bibliography at the end of this note). Britain had only three companies competing in this market, Inman, White Star, and Cunard. Inman had sold out in the late nineteenth century, and J. P. Morgan by the early twentieth century owned the remnants of Inman and was controlling the White Star Line (Brinnin, p. 325; Ramsey, p. 12); Brinnin, p. 328, and Barczewski, p. 260, note that he was sniffing after Cunard as well, hoping to create a dominating transatlantic cartel.
To top it all off, the German lines were in alliance with their government (Ramsey, p. 10) and had a working arrangement with Morgan (Brinnin, pp. 325-327).
Cunard had long built its reputation on an amazing safety record (no passengers lost, *ever*; see Brinnin, pp. 272, 275, etc.; Preston, p. 62), but now, seeing its position drastically affected, it had little choice but to get into the alliance game itself. Dangling the threat of a Morgan takeover, they negotiated with the British government (Brinnin, pp. 328-331), and came away with a big subsidy in return for rights to requisition Cunard ships in event of war. The first ships to come under this arrangement were the _Caronia_ and _Carmania_ -- but the real prize, for Cunard, was an agreement to build two fast liners that could be requisitioned and converted to auxiliary cruisers. These were the _Lusitania_ and her sister the _Mauretania_.
It was a difficult task to design such ships; PeekeEtAl, p. 4, notes that the designers were called upon to combine "the bottom third of the latest Admiralty design for a heavy cruiser [with] the top two-thirds of a super-liner." It didn't work; they ended up having to widen the beam (and, as we shall see, the result still wasn't as stable as a slower ship).
There were other interesting "naval" touches -- e.g. the equipment on her bridge was similar to that used on navy ships rather than civilian vessels, to make it easier for naval crewmen to use her should she be taken over (PeekeEtAl, p. 23).
When she was launched in 1907, the 30,396 ton _Lusitania_ was the largest ship afloat, capable of over 26 knots for brief spells (Ramsey, p. 24). She soon won the Blue Riband for fastest transatlantic crossing, making the trip in less than five days and averaging almost 24 knots for the entire trip (Ramsey, pp. 27-28). She thus became the first-ever "four day ship" (Brinnin, p. 342). The only ship to compete with her in speed was her sister _Mauretania_, which proved to be ever so slightly faster and in fact held the Blue Riband for an incredible 22 years (Brinnin, p. 344). _Mauretania_ also managed the incredible feat of completing all her crossings over a long period in a time that varied by only about ten minutes (Brinnin, p. 345).
(We should note that a misconception found in many histories is false. The _Lusitania_ and _Mauretania_ were *not* the fastest ships in the world -- contrary even to an assertion made by _Lusitania's_ crew to her passengers in 1915; see Simpson, p. 112. The sisters were the fastest *liners*, but by 1915, there were all sorts of ships capable of catching her. Taking the data in _Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I_, the 1912 battlecruiser _Tiger_ could reach 28 knots, the 1913 light cruisers of the _Aurora_ class averaged about 28, and the 1911 "K" class destroyers hit 31 knots. Even the battleships of the _Queen Elizabeth_ class could reach 24-25 knots. And ships with an even higher turn of speed were produced during the war. Germany had no _Queen Elizabeths_, but they had battlecruisers and destroyers that could catch _Lusitania_ and _Mauretania_. It's just that their submarines couldn't. Nor would any knowledgeable person have denied the existence of faster ships; even her builders at the time of her launching claimed only that he could move "at a speed only previously accomplished by a torpedo boat destroyer"; PeekeEtAl, p. 16).
Apart from being fast, the sisters was also allowed passengers luxuries never before seen (and not to be matched until White Star produced the _Olympic_ and _Titanic_ four years later). They used electricity for many functions previously done by hand or hydraulically, and their cabins were half again as large as previous liners (Brinnin, p. 342). As designed, the _Lusitania_ had four boiler rooms and capacity for 552 first class passengers, 460 second class, 1186 third class, and 827 crew (Ramsey, p. 25).
There were a few glitches in the basic design. As originally built, _Lusitania_ vibrated so badly at high speed that she had to be taken in for a major refit (Ballard, p. 22; Preston, p. 62). The repairs succeeded, for the most part, but they perhaps indicated some structural problems -- PeekeEtAl, pp. 25-26, says that the problem was the lack of decent reduction gearing to allow fast-running turbines to drive the screw propellers (which operate better at a lower rotation rate) at a reasonable speed. Other than that, the ship performed better than expectations in every regard.
Reading PeekEtAl, though, I can't help but note how much time she spent in the dock, getting new screws, having her turbine blades repaired, or having the structure reworked -- just generally being fiddled with. Not the best testimony to her strength of design.
Despite her design problems, _Lusitania_ was in many ways a stronger ship than her slightly later contemporary, the _Titanic_; _Titanic_ had only 16 watertight cells, _Lusitania_ 34 (Ballard, p. 23). Unlike _Titanic_, she was pretty close to iceberg-proof.
But, of course, she never ran into an iceberg. The surprise was that she proved so vulnerable to man-made attack. This was a at least partly due to the many demands placed on her design. A 1907 heavy cruiser had a displacement in the 14,000 ton range. Lusitania was over twice that. Which meant a lot of boilers, which had to run most of the width of the ship, as did the coal bunkers. The boiler rooms and bunkers were so large that, if flooded, they would cost the ship most of its buoyancy. The only solution was "longitudinal bulkheads" -- that is, instead of a full honeycomb, with from one to three bulkheads along the length of the ship and assorted bulkheads across the width, in the area of the boilers and bunkers, the rooms took up nearly the whole width of the ship, with only small compartments to the port and starboard sides for additional protection (PeekeEtAl, pp. 6-7). The arrangement really was iceberg-proof -- but if, somehow, one of those longitudinal bulkheads was breached, it meant that the ship would lose power and also would run the risk of sinking. If hit just wrong, so that two such bulkheads were breached, she would almost certainly sink.
And there was more. To keep the ship moving at full speed required huge amounts of coal. And the only place to put it, given that the rest of the ship was spoken for, was in the longitudinal bunkers. Which meant cutting doors in the wall. And it turns out that they were almost impossible to close, once opened, because of all the coal and coal dust in them. This wasn't considered a major concern at the time; the designers had thought of icebergs, and plunging shellfire -- but not torpedo hits below the waterline (PeekeEtAl, p. 7).
It's also worth noting that _Lusitania_ wasn't really suited to be a warship, despite the gun mountings built into her original design (which were actually fitted at a refit in 1913; PeekeEtAl, p. 37); to achieve her high speed, she was very long and lean. This meant that she (and _Mauretania_ as well) was not particularly stable; in heavy weather, the bow could pitch wildly into the air, then bury itself in the seas; she was a very "wet" ship (Barczewski, p. 261). This would have made her a poor gun platform; battleships in particular tend to be very broad of beam, to help keep the guns on target. Indeed, the Admiralty soon after the start of the War refitted the _Carmania_ as an auxiliary cruiser, and she succeeded in sinking a German refitted liner, the _Cap Trafalgar_ -- but the experiment showed how ineffective the _Carmania_ was as a warship (Brinnin, pp. 407-409, tells of the battle, which resulted in severe damage to the _Carmania_ as well; both ships needed dozen of hits to sink their opponents. Brinnin, p. 410, calls it a "Gilbert and Sullivan gunfight.").
This should probably have been obvious all along. Most converted liners -- "auxiliary cruisers" -- were armed with guns in the four inch to six inch range, with no more than twelve fitted, and obviously none of them centerline mounted. This meant that most liners would have offensive power somewhere between a destroyer and a weak light cruiser (and without a destroyer's antisubmarine weapons). But the liner needed at least as many men as a light cruiser, was slower than some cruisers and all destroyers, and burned more coal. Armed merchant cruisers weren't useful offensive weapons. The Admiralty largely abandoned the idea of arming the luxury liners; they just weren't effective enough for the task (Preston, p. 386).
The plans for the _Lusitania_ apparently specified a dozen six inch guns (Ramsey, p. 188). The _Lusitania_ would have been in the light cruiser range, but unarmored and making a much bigger target. Nor would there have been a good place for a gun platform to centrally direct the guns.
That didn't mean the Admiralty wouldn't use the liners, though. Britain had a lot of soldiers to move, and a lot of freight to haul, and liners were excellent for the first function and could be refitted to do the latter also. _Lusitania_ would be one of the ships so modified.
It's at this point that things get a little murky. That _Lusitania_ underwent a refit is certain. But many claims have been made about what was done during the refit. Simpson, pp. 27-28, claims that she actually was given guns at this time during a dockyard stay beginning August 8 (pretty amazing, given that the war had started only four days earlier).
But even Simpson allows that she never sailed as an auxiliary cruiser (p. 37), and seems to admit that she never went out armed. A member of the expedition of John Light, who dived to the ship in the 1960s, thought he saw guns (O'Sullivan, p. 36) -- but he worked in very bad conditions, in which mistakes were quite possible (Preston, pp. 386-387); O'Sullivan admits that "to date nothing has been found to substantiate his claims." The passengers' accounts uniformly denied seeing weapons (Preston, p. 387), even though at least one specifically searched for them (Preston, pp. 133). A few paranoids have suggested that she carried guns in her holds which could be put into the gun rings when needed -- but this is simply ridiculous; you don't take 6" guns and casually haul them up an elevator and drop them in a gun mounting. And even if you did, the guns would need to be calibrated (Ramsey, p. 188).
Ramsey, pp. 186-192, documents how the story that she was armed arose, but also shows why it is false. Even if you doubt the British records, Ballard's exploration (much more thorough than Light's) would have shown guns on her decks, and evidence of secondary explosions from her shells, and it showed neither.
So what was the Admiralty doing to _Lusitania_ during the refit? Primarily converting her to carry more cargo. They opened out some passenger space for storage and other purposes (Ramsey, p. 36; PeekeEtAl, p. 43), incidentally affecting her stability somewhat and worsening that pesky vibration (Ramsey, p. 39; Simpson, p. 45). It also caused significant inconvenience for the passengers. But the navy left her in merchant service, though it began to control her route, schedule, and loading (Preston, p. 64; PeekeEtAl, p. 43).
This was actually against Cunard's wishes. With the war on, transatlantic traffic fell dramatically. _Lusitania_ didn't have enough passengers to make a profit (PeekeEtAl, p. 43, estimates a two thousand pound loss per trip), but the admiralty wouldn't let her change her schedule; they wanted her bringing supplies. The government's only promises were to continue the subsidy to the ships, to pay for cargo space, and to insure the ship (Simpson, p. 38). The admiralty would determine her course and sailing time.
It was a recipe for big losses. The only answer Cunard could find was to close down one of her four boiler rooms (to save coal; Ballard, pp. 30-31, and also to reduce the number of stokers needed; Simpson, p. 85). The shut-down of the boilers allowed her to roughly break even despite the reduced passenger load, but it also reduced her speed significantly (to about 21 knots; PeekeEtAl, p. 44) -- and all that time spent fiddling around also reduced her efficiency and caused some of her equipment to deteriorate (Ramsey. p. 51).
Therre does not seem to have been any fear at the time that a submarine would attack her; the Germans did not start unrestricted submarine warfare until later, and in any case, no submarine had sunk a ship moving faster than 14 knots (Preston, p. 93), and she would still easily exceed that. There had been a story that, early in the war, she was chased by a German cruiser -- a story which Simpson accepts. But PeekeEtAl, p. 42, shows that this simply did not happen.
The war didn't just cause the _Lusitania_ to change what she carried and how she sailed. It also cost her most of her more experienced crew; the sailors ended up in the navy and some of the stewards and such were in the army. Their replacements were inexperienced (Simpson, p. 102, says that she managed to find only 41 able seamen for the last trip, though she was supposed to have at least 77), and such crew as could be found had a significant tendency to desert upon reaching New York (Ballard, p. 59). Some spoke poor English, and few knew their way around the ship.
It was not a good combination should there be an emergency. And as for lowering the boats -- well, unlike the _Titanic_ three years earlier, they had boat drills, but a passenger reported that they involved only two boats, and even those were not actually lowered (Ballard, p. 63; Preston, p. 131, and PeekeEtAl, p. 58, describe a few crew members simply climbing into a selected boat and then getting out -- PeekeEtAl, pp. 58-59 argues that this was about all that could have been done, since the boats could not be lowered while the ship was moving, but surely the passengers could at least have been shown how to board). Obviously the crew and passengers would not be ready in the event of disaster. (Simpson, p. 102, is of the opinion that the crew simply lied about her disaster preparedness; PeekeEtAl, p. 59, thinks the boat drills were solely to reassure the passengers.)
Topping it all off, _Lusitania's_ schedule was reduced to one round trip per month, making it harder for the crew to become accustomed to their tasks (Ballard, p. 208).
During the war, the ship continued to run primarily passengers, but she did carry some war-related cargo on her final voyages. (The British naturally concealed some of this until after the war, contributing to Simpson's air of paranoia.) O'Sullivan, p. 117, notes that under American law "no vessel could legally sail with any explosives likely to endanger the health or lives of passengers or the safety of the vessel."
The question, of course, is whether her cargo did in fact violate the American rules. It appears, contrary to O'Sullivan, that it did not. Just what she was carrying on her last trip is slightly uncertain; some of it was munitions -- some four million rifle cartridges (Hoehling, p. 96,calls them practice cartridges, but mot sources seem to think they were for ordinary military use) and 5000 3-inch shells (Ramsey, p. 56). Ballard, p. 27, notes that these were considered legitimate items to transport on a passenger liner even in wartime, since they were not explosive (cf. O'Sullivan, p. 133; Preston, pp. 368-369, which has some of the court evidence on the matter). Brinnin, p. 422, observes that the shell casings were not loaded with explosives (they were "filled," i.e. the shrapnel had been loaded -- but shrapnel is not itself explosive; O'Sullivan, pp. 131-132. The actual charges would be installed in England).
This has actually been verified; a handful of unfilled fuses have been brought up from the wreck (Preston, p. 389), and the measurement of the weight of the shells shows they were unfilled (Preston, p. 390).
Simpson observes that the British were playing a bit fast and loose with cargo manifests at the time. In effect, they submitted one well in advance with her "standard" cargo, then another with last-minute changes. Not too surprisingly, most of the last-minute changes involved perishable items like food -- given Britain's need for foodstuffs, the local buyers would naturally take whatever they could lay their hands on and find space for in the cargo holds (which had to be loaded very carefully, since the ship wasn't really designed for cargo-hauling and didn't have elevators or passages designed for freight). But it would presumably have been easy to slip in some contraband with the last-minute items.
A suspicious mind could have a field day with this. Simpson makes a great deal about 3863 large boxes of cheese (p. 105), which PeekeEtAl, p. 100, notes was unrefrigerated (though a cargo hold near the bottom of a ship in the North Atlantic needn't have been too hot, we should note. Cheese might well survive. There was, hwoever, also butter listed in the shipment, which sounds pretty strange). Stranger still was something listed on her cargo manifest as 205 barrels of oysters, which would certainly go bad before they could be distributed (Ramsey, p. 57). The obvious assumption was that they were actually military materials. The flip side is, even if those oysters were actually explosives (say), 205 barrels of explosives weren't going to change the outcome of the war. Others have questioned a consignment of furs -- but in fact some of the furs floated to shore after the wreck (Preston, p. 390).
The German government issued warnings in 1915 threatening unrestricted submarine attacks on "civilian" shipping sailing too close to the British Isles; one such message was published in a newspaper just as the Lusitania started her final run (Ramsey, p. 53; Ballard, p. 31, and Preston, p. 91, print a copy of the ad). Supposedly some of the passengers also received warnings, but these had an air of the crank about them (Ballard, p. 32; PeekeEtAl,p. 53, says that it was newspapermen seeking a story, not Germans, who sent them). Few changed their plans. Simpson, p. 114, claims there was a melancholy air about the passengers as they went aboard, but cites no source for this claim.
After all, the _Lusitania_, even with her speed reduced, was faster than any German submarine (her new cruising speed was about 18 knots, and she could still hit 21 in a pinch -- twice the speed of a submerged submarine, and at least five knots faster than a submarine on the surface), so no attempt was made to give her an escort (Paine, p. 311. Preston, p. 399, notes that there had been an attempt to give her an escort on a previous trip -- and, given the need for radio silence, the escort had never found her; cf. Ramsey, p. 245). Indeed, had she been given a naval escort, it would have made her a legitimate target in any reckoning.
On May 1, 1915 _Lusitania_ sailed from New York with nearly two thousand people on board. This was by no means a full load; she had only 291 passengers in first class (53% of capacity); there were 601 second class passengers (31% over capacity). Steerage was almost empty, with only 31% of berths filled: 373 out of 1186 possible (Ballard, p. 37). Nonetheless, it was the largest load of passengers she had had on the eastbound route since the start of the war (Preston, pp. 102-103). For some reason, the number of children was unusually high (Preston, p. 128).
To make things doubly unfortunate, the Germans had sent a number of submarines to the area where she was sailing; this, ironically, was in response to British disinformation: To mask the invasion of the Dardanelles, the British were trying to give the impression they would launch an amphibious assault on Germany. The Germans took the bait and sent submarines to try to interfere (Preston, p. 163).
On May 6, _Lusitania_ entered Germany's declared "war zone." The claims that she made no attempts to avoid her fate are, however, false; Ballard, p. 72, notes that she extinguished her lights at night, closed several watertight doors -- and swung out her boats, just in case (cf. PeekeEtAl, p. 62).
On the other hand, no orders were given to shut the portholes; many of them were apparently left open, and they probably caused the ship to flood even faster than she otherwise would have, and increased the list that was to make it so hard to lower the boats (Preston, p. 368).
And she did receive some warnings of submarines (PeekeEtAl, p. 63). It's just that they didn't describe how severe the danger was (fully 23 ships in the area had been sunk since _Lusitania_ left New York, including several sunk by _Lusitania's_ nemesis U-20; O'Sullivan, pp. 85-88, though this report is marred, e.g., by calling H. M. S. _Juno_ a "battle cruiser"; _Juno_ was a light cruiser from the 1890s, meaning that, rather than being one of the fanciest and newest ships in the fleet, she was a piece a junk the British would have been better off without. It's like calling a Yugo a Mercedes). The commander in Queenstown (Cobh), in fact, issued a specific advisory that a U-boat was operating off the south Irish coast (Preston, p. 166), and a specific order was given to make sure the _Lusitania_ was warned (Preston, p. 179; Hoehling, p. 100).
Other ships were warned in detail and redirected; _Lusitania_ was not (O'Sullivan, p. 87). Of course, _Lusitania_ was not expected to be anywhere near the Old Head of Kinsale at that time. Except -- she was.
In the absence of detailed knowledge of conditions in the area, Captain Turner chose to sail past Ireland at 18 knots; _Lusitania_ was big enough that he needed the right tide or a pilot to enter Liverpool, and he didn't want to have to sit around outside the bar, where he would be an even better U-boat target (Ballard, p. 78; Preston, p. 326). So he ignored what were claimed to be standing orders to proceed at full speed near harbors, to sail away from headlands, and to zigzag in the war zone (Ballard, p. 79), later claiming (probably with some truth) that the rules had not been made sufficiently clear. According to PeekeEtAl, pp. 83-84, while en route, he also was wirelessed a secret order to head to Queenstown (a fact which never came out during the inquiries, because it was secret -- according to PeekeEtAl, it was also hidden by the removal of the relevant page from the Admiralty's signal log.
It was unfortunate that the _Lusitania_ had encountered a lot of fog in the days before she reached the Irish coast (PeekeEtAl, pp. 67-68; Hoehling, p. 100). That left her dependent on dead reckoning. And the ship, when it left the fog, proved to be slightly off its dead reckoning position. Captain Turner, when he spotted Ireland, of course realized where he was (it was hard to mistake the Old Head of Kinsale, especially as it was marked by a lighthouse with a distinctive white-and-black paint job; PeekeEtAl, p. 70) -- but for some reason he ordered what is known as a "four point fix" to determine his exact location. That meant he had to sail a straight course for some 20 minutes while the fix was being taken (Preston, p. 185, with details on the fog spread over the preceding pages).
Ramsey, p.162, notes that "other captains had testified that an accurate position could be obtained by taking cross bearings in only three minutes." On pp. 284-285, he notes that it was usually accurate to within a mile, with current and wind being the main things which affected its accuracy. It was used in circumstances when only one landmark with a known location could be seen.
I can't help but note that the _Lusitania_ was 787 feet long. If accurate bearings were taken simultaneously from bow and stern, and the angles compared, there would have been a significant difference -- on the order of a degree if the estimated distance from the coast was correct. So, given proper equipment and crew, even the three minute course was not needed. If navigators hadn't developed the trig tables to perform that particular calculation, it was time they did so! The four point fix was surely the greatest gift Turner could possibly have given to an attacking vessel; what was he afraid of -- that Ireland had moved overnight? I have seen dozens of excuses for Turner, most of them valid -- but nothing can excuse the four point fix when the ship's position was adequately known.
Early in the afternoon of May 7, off the Kinsale coast not far from Queenstown, while taking the four point fix, _Lusitania_ encountered the U-20 under KapitanLeutenant (Lt. Commander) Walter Schwieger. By this time, the weather was clear and bright (Ramsay, p. 223), so the German had no trouble tracking the liner.
Schwieger had already had several run-ins with British merchant ships, and was low on torpedoes; he fired only one (some sources, including Marshall, p. 166, says there were two; it appears this was based on the first British investigation, for which see O'Sullivan, p. 122; this claimed two torpedo hits, one forward and one aft. This was presumably inspired by the fact witnesses agreed there were two explosions; cf. Ramsey, p. 269. The claim of two torpedoes was at various times affirmed but and retracted by Captain Turner -- Ramsey, p. 274; Preston, pp. 325, 402. Preston seems to think this was because Cunard wanted there to have been two torpedoes, presumably so they wouldn't look so bad, and the Admiralty also wanted two, because it would spare them having to explain a secondary explosion. A few passengers went so far as to claim three torpedoes; Preston, pp. 368, 402. The British investigation, of course, had no access to the German records showing only one torpedo -- the intelligence service may have known, but it wasn't talking -- so it may have seemed logical to assume two explosions meant two hits. It was nonetheless wrong).
In a major stroke of luck, that one torpedo hit _Lusitania_ squarely, and exploded properly (many German torpedoes at this time were duds -- Preston, p. 165, says that 60% misfired in one way or another), and caused a secondary explosion. The ship instantly started listing, and sank within 20 minutes (Paine, p. 311), relieving Schwieger of the need to decide whether to fire another torpedo (Ballard, p. 90). Indeed, he found the sight "too horrible to watch" (Brinnin, p. 420).
There has been much argument over whether the sinking was justified. Some, like Simpson, seem to think it entirely justified. Others think it a pure atrocity. The truth is surely somewhere in between: The ship *was* carrying military materials, and the Germans probably knew that -- though the submarine commander didn't; he supposedly didn't even know it was the _Lusitania_ at the time he fired -- but the ship was neither armed nor armored, and it could have been given proper notice and sunk after the boats were off. Indeed, it would have been more reasonable to stop her: She was clearly a target worth sinking, just based on her size, but the chances of one torpedo sinking such a big ship would ordinarily be small even if the torpedo hit -- and it would have been easier to hit her were she standing still. By stopping her, the crew of U-20 would have been much more certain to put her under, *plus* there would have been no risk to innocent lives. (Sez I. But back to our story....)
The speed with which the ship sank turned what could have been a relatively minor incident into a disaster. The crew began evacuating almost at once -- but it took time to round up the passengers and lower the boats. This was all the more problematic because the ship was listing so heavily; within minutes, it was difficult to walk or even stay balanced. It was also hard to lower the boats and keep passengers in them (Simpson, p. 22, claims that a list of five degrees -- which could be caused by only one compartment flooding -- would makes half her boats inoperable, and Preston, pp. 132-133, reports that Cunard had refused to install better davits when they upgraded her lifeboats after the _Titanic_ sinking).
Plus Turner apparently wouldn't let the boats be lowered until several minutes after it was clear _Lusitania_ was sinking (Preston, p. 215). His argument was that the ship was moving too fast to allow the boats to enter the water safely. This was obviously true for a few minutes, though the ship surely slowed rapidly. By the time he allowed the boats to go, the list was so severe that the portside boats could not be lowered without hitting the hull, at minimum damaging them and dumping passengers (PeekeEtAl, pp. 76-77, cites an example where a ship's officer was responsible for the carnage); many could not be launched at all (Preston, pp. 218, 220). Those on the starboard side, by contrast, swung far away from the ship and were difficult to enter (Preston, p. 219). In the end, only six boats made it to the water intact (PeekeEtAl, p. 78).
Many passengers never even made it to the deck; the ship's electrical system failed only minutes after the explosion (Ballard, p. 99; Preston, p. 209, says it took only four minutes for the power to go out as the boilers lost steam.PeekeEtAl, p. 74, attributes the quick failure to a decision by Captain Turner to order "full astern" to stop the ship -- an order caused the piping to blow off an end cap, probably because it caused certain damaged-and-not-easily-repaired valves to fail), so many below decks would have had no lights to guide them upward.
Worse, it took time for rescue to come. Although the authorities responded quickly, the ships they sent out were slow, and none had a wireless (Preston, p. 260). The _Juno_, which despite its age was the largest and fastest ship available, was called back as it would have made too vulnerable a U-boat target. (PeekeEtAl, p. 79. There had earlier been talk of sending her out as an escort, but she was withdrawn for the same reason; PeekeEtAl, pp. 59-60.) The decision not to send her probably added hundreds to the casualty list.
There were 764 survivors (Paine, p. 311; Ramsey, p. 94 says they consisted of 474 passengers and 290 crew). There were about 1200 casualties, though the number is slightly uncertain (Brinnin, p. 417, says it took months even to come up with a number). According to Keegan, p. 265; also Paine, p. 311, a total of 1201 lives were lost. On the other hand Marshall, p, 166, Barczewski, p. 289, Brinnin, p. 417, and O'Sullivan, p. 27 say that 1198 people were killed, which is also the figure we find if we subtract 764 from the 1962 people Ramsey claims were on board (p. 94). Simpson, p. 1, prefers the figure 1201, explaining on p. 9 that the figure of 1198 excludes three stowaways (!) not on the official passenger list; similarly Preston, p. 303, and PeekeEtAl, p. 80. (The stowaways were thought to be German spies; PeekeEtAl, p. 55, tells of the capture of their cameras and reports, which were probably preserved though no one seems aware of what they revealsed). Ballard, p. 13, says that 1195 died.
Preston, p. 303, breaks this down: 785 of 1257 registered passengers were lost, and 413 out of 702 crew. She says 94 of 129 children were killed, including fully 35 of 39 infants (cf. PeekeEtAl, p. 80). Ramsey, p. 100, notes that Liverpool suffered particularly heavily, since it was Liverpool's home port. (There were riots throughout Britain, but those in Liverpool were among the worst; Ramsey, p. 102).
Most sources seem to agree that 128 of the victims were Americans (Ballard, p. 13, says there were 123 Americans; O'Sullivan, p. 89 gives the number as 140 but on p. 107 says there were 127 Americans), producing a diplomatic crisis (Preston, p. 311, talks of how the description "Hun" for the Germans became common at this time). Although the uproar did not at the time lead to war, Germany was forced for a time to back off from unrestricted submarine warfare.
The Vanderbilt of the song is Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, who died on the _Lusitania_ (though he wasn't one of the more famous Vanderbilts; his wealth was primarily inherited; Ballard, p. 32). According to Ramsey, p. 85, he did indeed give his lifebelt to a female passenger, Alice Middleton. (Though, in the salt water off Ireland, the real threat was not drowning but hypothermia -- the water temperature was about 53F/11C; Preston, p. 249 -- or being washed away from land. And a person with no training in water might drown despite the fact that his body would float.) Ballard, p. 116, reports that Vanderbilt made no effort to save himself (he could not swim); his body was never found.
Indeed, Brinnin, p. 425, says some 900 bodies were not recovered; either they were swept out to sea or they went down to the ship. Sadly, as with the _Titanic_ disaster, there are reports of passengers already in boats refusing to help those who were not (Preston, p. 250).
Brinnin's comment (p. 421) may help explain the notoriety of what happened: "Dresden, Hiroshima, Biafra, My Lai [to which we might now add Armenia, Bosnia, 9/11, Iraq, Darfur....] -- after [these and] all the other names and instances of the murderous course of the middle years of the twentiety century, it is all but impossible to recapture, even to understand, the sense of outrage, 'the universal shout of execration,' generated by the sinking of the _Lusitania_."
There was of course an inquiry held after the sinking, but it being wartime, very little was done to punish Cunard or the captain and crew for sloppiness; instead, the blame was placed squarely on the Germans. _Lusitania_ became just another atrocity story, used to inflame American opinion against Germany, causing the Germans to temporarily abandon unrestricted submarine warfare.
It is interesting to observe that, although the Germans briefly celebrated the sinking of the _Lusitania_, they later quieted down. And, when it came time to publish the U-20's war log, skipper Schwieger signed off on every page except for May 7 (Preston, p. 314). There is also evidence that the record was fiddled with and even "humanized" (Preston, pp. 416-418; she calls the record "institutional afterthoughts"). Sadly, we do not know what Schwieger originally wrote; the original log has perished, and we have only the official transcription. Plus he died in the course of the war; the U-20 was later sunk (with the wreck being discovered in 1984; Hoehling, p. 119), and Schwieger died in the U-88 in 1917.
O'Sullivan's chapter on the aftermath of the sinking is entitled "The Sham Tribunals." A sham they obviously were in that it was certain the Germans would be blamed for sinking the ship (though it can hardly be denied that they did so!). But they could at least have sought to find out what else went wrong -- and they didn't. O'Sullivan accuses the Admiralty of suppressing evidence (pp. 118-121), offering several particulars but not documenting any of them -- but it must be confessed that the tribunal, at least in its open sessions, skipped over a lot of important material. And the Admiralty made sure that certain information was not revealed in open court (Preston, p. 320) -- though this is hardly surprising in a period of wartime secrecy.
They were a sham in another sense, too, in that one of the parties tried to fix the outcome. It seems certain that the Admiralty was out to "get" Captain Turner. O'Sullivan accuses the Admiralty of making Turner the scapegoat; p. 115. Preston, pp. 316-319, 325-327, 403, documents the case the Admiralty built against Turner, sometimes on flimsy evidence; she notes on p. 405 that he probably did not recieve some of the orders allegedly sent to him. Even the pro-British Ramsey notes that the Admiralty, not Cunard, was getting most of the blame in the press (Ramsey, p. 113), so the officers were determined to find someone else to suffer the odium.
PeekeEtAl, p. 82, say explicitly, "Reading the collective correspondence in its original, unedited state would have made it abundanrly clear to anyone that Captain Turner... had followed his Admiralty instructions to the letter. This is why Oliver and Webb were now busily 'tailoring' the Admiralty signals register...."
In fact, PeekeEtAl, p. 84, says that Turner was shown the evidence against him, which made it clear that it was being faked -- and yet Turner somehow didn't do anything to protest or correct the record. According to PeekeEtAl, p. 88-89, Turner was saved only because there were two different editions of the evidence against Turner (Ramsey, p. 148), and when Lord Mersey discovered this, he realized what was going on and effectively halted the hearings. And since there was a government change at this time, the Admiralty was shaken up and no longer needed a scapegoat as much, so they let things drop.
Mersey's conclusion was that Turner may have ignored Admiralty advice, but he consistently obeyed his actual orders (PeekeEtAl, p. 90).
Mersey retired as Receiver of Wrecks shortly thereafter, and preserved the documents needed to show what happened.
The tribunal's final conclusion was all of two paragraphs long, "placing the entire blame for the disaster on Germany" (Ramsey, p. 154), with a ten-page addendum exonerating everybody in sight (Preston, p. 330).
In defence of Captain Turner, we should probably note that, although very experienced overall, and a former captain of the _Lusitania_, he had little wartime experience on the refitted _Lusitania_; her previous captain, David Dow, had had something of a breakdown shortly before the final voyage (Preston, p. 110; PeekeEtAl, p. 48). Turner in fact sent a number of letters complaining of the _Lusitania's_ state, and saying he would not sail her again unless the problems were repaired.
On the other hand, these problems do not appear to have contributed to her demise (except perhaps for a minor problem with her ballasting). And Turner had told a reporter before the sailing, "It's the best joke I've heard in many days, this talk of torpedoing the_Lusitania_" (Preston, p. 108). He may have simply been trying to calm nervous potential passengers -- but it sounds like complacency. Especially since he generally disliked having anything to do with the passengers, whom he once called "bloody monkeys" (Preston, p. 108). In fact, Turner requested the services of an assistant in this regard; he was assigned Staff Captain John Anderson to deal with the passengers (PeekeEtAl, pp. 50-51).
Even if we accept that Turner followed his orders exactly, there is still the idiocy of the four point fix. And it also came out during the investigations that Turner had not ordered the passengers to learn how to put on their life belts. And the belts had to be fitted properly to work -- and, with many of the passengers being non-English speakers, it proved impossible to instruct them at the last moment (Preston, pp. 206-207, describes some of the problems it caused. Several passengers would die from wearing the belts wrong), nor he had ordered them to wear them, or even keep them close at hand, in the danger zone (Ballard, p. 132). Many would die because they could not find their belts.
And, of course, Turner had not ordered adequate boat drills (Ballard, p. 135; Preston, p. 325, in fact reports that Turner said in open court that his crew was not proficient in handling boats, to which he added a grumble about the crews available in 1915 compared to those in his youth. PeekeEtAl, p. 57, tells of him challenging his officers to tie a knot he had learned to tie aboard a sailing vessel in his youth. All of them being trained for steam, only one knew how. Turner really does sound like he was still living in the nineteenth century). Nor had the ship's daily newsletter told the passengers anything useful (Preston, p. 183).
Preston, p. 406, notes that the passengers would have taken ill to boat drills and lifebelt practice -- even though the lifebelts were a new, tricky model that even many experienced travelers would not have known how to use. That the passengers would have resented the drills is likely enough. I can't see how this justifies not having them, though.
I can't help but think, reading Captain Turner's responses at the inquiries, that he sounds like a senile old man. Preston notes that his answers were monosyllables, and that "He seemed anxious and, on occasion, confused" (Pretson, p. 326). Admittedly he had just lost his ship, which might account for his befuddled state (Preston suggests post-traumatic stress, and the description in PeekeEtAl, p. 79, certainly sounds like it) -- but his behavior *before* the sinking, if not befuddled, is certainly inexplicable.
Presumably Turner could no more believed that the Germans would attack without warning than could the passengers. He was, more or less, exonerated (Preston, p. 404).
To put this in perspective: A similar tribunal, under the same man (Lord Mersey) had earlier investigated the _Titanic_ sinking, and had exonerated Captain Smith of sailing too fast in an ice zone.
My personal verdict on Turner would have to be, Not guilty of malice or criminal intent, but much, much too casual. In light of that, the failure of Lord Mersey's tribunal to blame anyone but the Germans may have been unfortunate, since Captain Turner was given another ship -- which also ended up being torpedoed and sunk (Ballard, p. 137). Turner again survived, but apparently that finally caused authorities to put him on the beach.
Captain Turner retired from the sea in 1919 and died in 1933 at the age of 76. His marriage had ended decades earlier, and he became a near-recluse (Preston, p. 431). Reportedly he claimed that he had not been given a "fair deal" (Preston, p. 432), claiming e.g. that he had never been instructed to zigzag.
Few of my sources really talk about theeffects of zigzagging (probably because the authors are not mathematicians) -- e.g. Ramsey, in discussing it on pp. 224-225, merely says that it was costly, since it used more fuel, and would be uncomfortable for the passengers.
This is certainly true is the ship had gone through the sorts of sudden turns, of up to ninety degrees, recommended by the Admiralty for navy ships. But smaller turns would not be so bad. And they might well have saved the ship.
There is much we don't know about the geometry of the _Lusitania_ and the _U-20_. Schweiger (quoted by Ramsey, p. 81, and implicitly by Preston, p. 191) estimated the distance at 700 meters. If anything, he probably estimated low, since the _Lusitania_ was bsurely igger than he expected. Nonetheless, PeekeEtAl, p. 72, give the distance as 550 meters. The Lusitania was moving at 18 knots, or about 9 meters per second. I've seen estimates that place the torpedo's speed as high as 38 knots, or 20 m/sec, but fromeverything else I've read, a speed more on the order of 18 m/sec is more likely. That means the approximate time from firing to impact was about 40 seconds.
The best guess is that Schweiger's torpedo hit somewhere around the boundary between #1 and #2 boiler rooms. Both flooded, which wasenough to sink the ship.
If the _Lusitania_ had changed course by 15 degrees at the moment the torpedo was fired -- a course that surely would not have caused the passengers too much discomfort -- the hit would have been about 15 meters further forward, taking out #1 boiler room but possibly reducing the damage to #2 enough that the ship, even if she sank, would at least have gone down more slowly, allowing better evacuation. Had _Lusitania_ turned 30 degrees at the time the torpedo was fired, the hit would have been 50 meters forward, and she might have been saved, since only boiler room #1 would have been threatened. Had _Lusitania_ turned 45 degrees, the strike would have been 110 meters forward, and she certainly would have lived; she might not even have been hit. Even if she had started a hard turn just 15 seconds before impact, she probably would have taken the impact only to boiler room 1, and she would have slowed down more rapidly, reducing the water inflow slightly and also making evacuation safer. Thus the straight course of the four point fix was a major cause of the disaster.
I would add that, though Turner was certainly guilty of taking the four point fix, which was the final cause of the disaster, he was not the first cause. The Admiralty certainly bears blame on several grounds. (Hardly a surprise, given its disastrous disorganization; there really was no central coordinating authority short of the First Sea Lord, who simply could not do everything; Ramsey, pp. 233, 250-251, etc.) The information sent to the _Lusitania_ and to Turner was probably inadequate. But the real problem was their penny-pinching and limitations of the _Lusitania's schedule_. The crew's desperate lack of experience was largely due to this niggling. Had they paid enough, they could either have sailed the ship more regularly, allowing the crew to gain experience -- or they could have kept the crew on duty while the _Lusitania_ sat in port, allowing them to practice with the boats. This was something Cunard could not afford to do on its own.
The bad crew also may have contributed to actual torpedo hit. We know that a watchman, Leslie Morton, saw the torpedo long before it hit (Ramsey, p. 82, etc.). Had he not been an untrained nitwit who failed to pass the message to the bridge, the ship would have had a few more seconds to avoid the torpedo -- which, as the geometry shows, might have saved boiler room #2 and the ship. But Morton was an untrained 18-year-old who hesitated, shouted a message into the communicator, and ran off to find his brother without even making sure his message was heard. Best guess is that it wasn't.
On the other hand, the Admiralty can hardly be faulted for failing to provide a destroyer to escort her. Destroyers were in short supply, and at this time, destroyers did not have sonar or radar or any other means of detecting submarines except to see them or their torpedoes. Even in World War II, when sonar was universal and radar coming into use, destroyers didn't keep U-boats from sinking the vessels they escorted; they just made them more miserable afterward. There is little reason to think an escort would have saved _Lusitania_.
There would later be an American court case (Preston, pp. 366-370); this didn't really bring out much in the way of new facts, but it supported the claim that the _Lusitania_ was not an actual warship: the plaintiffs admitted that the ship was not armed, that she was not carrying Canadian troops (something alleged because of the curious coincidence that a lot of the passengers listed Canadian addresses; Ramsey, p. 195), and some lesser points supporting the contention that she was not a legitimate target.
Unlike the other great disaster of the period, _Lusitania's_ transatlantic rival the _Titanic_, the _Lusitania_ went down in relatively shallow waters, and the wreck was visited as early as the 1930s. But it wasn't until the late twentieth century that Ballard really investigated the wreck with adequate equipment.
The question of why she sank has long been a topic of controversy: What caused the second explosion, which most passengers thought the larger of the two? Many have speculated that it was in fact an explosion of war materials she had secretly taken aboard (Ballard, p. 14; Preston, p. 448). Against this is Captain Turner's testimony; he said that there was no cargo near the area where (he thought) the torpedo hit. Ballard's exploration also argues against this; he notes on p. 151 that there was only one hole in her hull. The second explosion, then, did not do further damage to the exterior, but damaged the interior and destroyed her watertight integrity. It is Ballard's belief, based on the opening in the hull and the distribution of coal around her grave, that the second explosion was caused by coal dust: Since the ship was nearing her destination, her bunkers were relatively empty, except for dust. The torpedo sent the dust up into the air, and then sparked it, and the explosion of all the coal was what brought the ship down (Ballard, p. 195). (We should note, however, that PeekeEtAl, p. 93, argue that Ballard's exploration did not turn up facts sufficient to justify his conclusions, and Ramsey, pp. 209-210, also doubts this, on the grounds that no similar instanecs of coal dust explosions are recorded.)
O'Sullivan, pp. 134-136, holds out for an explosion caused by powdered aluminum (which can attract oxygen from water, causing the leftover hydrogen to burn). There was aluminum in the cargo -- a lot of it -- though it, unlike the coal, was carefully packagaed. And aluminum, even if powdered (as O'Sullivan says it was, though he as usual does not cite a source) is certainly a legitimate cargo. Ramsey, p. 209, offers strong evidence that this is not the case -- while fine-ground aluminum can produce an explosive flash, coarser particles are more likely to simply burn, and 1915 aluminum powder was not very finely ground.
Another possibility is that her boilers blew up (Preston, pp. 451-452) -- not an unusual occurence in ships of this period; it was part of what had caused the _Atlantic_ tragedy forty-odd years earlier. But there wasn't much time for that to happen.
After examining all of these theories, and noting their weaknesses, Preston, pp. 452-454, argues for a failure of her steam lines -- or even a series of failures, perhaps accounting for the quick failure of the electrical system and the fact that the second explosion seemed to be heard everywhere; it may have been several explosions.
Under any of these theories, it is an "industrial accident" (O'Sullivan, p. 137).
Arguing against this are PeakeEtAl, p. 103, who argue that the torpedo hit was in the vicinity of the ammunition the ship carried, and that the ammo caused the second explosion, blowing out many bulkheads. Sadly, because the ship settled on its starboard side, we cannot entirely disprove this (if we could see the hole of the explosion, we could observe whether the metal is twisted inward or outward), but unless there were hidden munitions, I frankly don't see how enough explosive could go up at any given moment to cause damage exceeding that of the torpedo hit.
Preston, p. 443, notes that the corridors in passenger liners were often smaller than in other ships, meaning that the pressure wave from the explosion(s) could not dissipate as easily as in a cargo ship. This would have increased the damage in the area of the torpedo hit. Her ultimate conclusion is that the torpedo hit in just about the worst possible spot, and the _Lusitania_ simply wasn't designed to take that sort of damage. Ramsey says explicitly (p. 206), "Although earlier authors have generally ascribed_Lusitania's_ loss to the second explosion, current opinion suggests convincingly tht the effect on the liner's stability resulting from the impact of Schweiger's torpedo was by itself sufficiently lethal to secure her destruction." (This because so much water would enter the starboard side that she could not stay on an even keel; Ramsey, p. 208.) He also suggest that there was a leak in a steam pipe somewhere, leading to rapid loss of boilder pressure (pp. 209-211), aggravated by mishandling of the situation (pp. 212-213). This would not have sunk the ship (the torpedo leak did that), but it was responsible for the rapid loss of power and propulsion.
Reading all the arguments, I am inclined to think we will never know with certainty what happened. or what caused the second explosion, though I too incline toward the "industrial accident" belief; contrary to the claims by Simpson and his followers, the evidence for a large ammunition explosion seems strong.
Apart from causing a diplomatic incident, there was one other effect of the sinking: The Admiralty gave in to the economics of the situation. For the remainder of the war, there was no British passenger service on the Atlantic (Brinnin, p. 426).
An interesting side note is that the _Titanic_, three years before, inspired almost too many songs to count. The _Lusitania_ seems to have inspired just this one, and it not particularly well-known. Why? It can't be just the war, since the _Lusitania_ got plenty of coverage. Maybe it's that the disaster couldn't so easily be blamed on "the hand of God." Though, in fact, the fault in both cases was largely "the hand of complacency."
Because the _Lusitania_ is in shallow water (a depth of only 312 feet, according to Preston, p. 372, with parts of the hull 82 feet higher), the wreck has been visited many times. The first was in 1935, but the equipment of the time was so bad that the diver actually thought the ship was resting on its port side; explorations since have shown that it lies on its starboard side (Preston, p. 373). In the 1960s, the aforementioned John Light and colleagues tried to explore using newer technologies; this is the group that thought they saw guns (but Preston, p. 373, notes that this was still the era of nitrogen/oxygen mixes; the divers suffered from cold and nitrogen narcosis). They did not produce usable film of the weapons. (We might add that the problems Light had pretty well demolish the theory that the British could have disarmed the wreck, and the hull was intact enough that the Admiralty could hardly have depth-charged it, as is claimed, e.g., by PeekeEtAl, p. 91.) Light hopes to eventually publish, but all that came of his work was Simpson's volume, which Light himself disputed (Preston, p. 374).
A few artifacts were brought up by a 1982 television expedition (Preston, pp. 374-375); interestingly, these did not sell well at auction. Ballard took his turn in 1993, and produced the first good documentation of the wreck. A team of free divers working in 1994 largely reaffirmed his conclusions (Preston, pp. 376-377), and also discovered the annunciator which relayed speed and drive instructions to the engine room. This showed the ship still in forward drive -- contrary to what Turner said he ordered. Of course, since the engines failed within minutes, it hardly matters. But it makes you wonder what else Turner got wrong.
A curiosity about the whole story is the way the _Lusitania_ legend still grips people. The _Titanic_ fascinates people, but there is little real controversy about the history (yes, Hollywood distorted the story, but that's Hollywood). But the _Lusitania_ continues to inspire polemics and conspiracy theories -- a common one is that the Churchill and/or Fisher (the men most responsible for naval policy) sent out the _Lusitania_ as live bait in an attempt to get the Americans involved in the war. This is patently absurd -- not because Churchill or Fisher were above such things (in fact, Churchill hinted at the idea of live bait in a letter -- PeekeEtAl, p. 47), but because it just wasn't likely to work. The _Lusitania_ was faster than any ship sunk by submarines to date; she also had good underwater protection that would make her hard to sink. And, if the Admiralty wanted her sunk, would they have put aboard such war materials as they did put aboard?
Preston, pp. 395-396, also makes the argument that the British in 1915 did not want the Americans in the war; they would be too likely to meddle with the peace.
Such logic does not stop the polemicists. Both Simpson's and O'Sullivan's books both strike me as screeds intended to place as much blame as is possible on the British authorities. (O'Sullivan's in fact seems almost to be the work of two authors -- half the time he's going straight after the Admiralty; the other half, he calms down and tries to be objective. Was there a hidden ghost writer who only did half the book?) The reason defeats me -- whatever their faults, those men are long dead, and their policies dead with them.
And the need for polemic produced books that are clearly bad. Simpson's book is littered with small errors of fact -- e.g. he can't even spell "blue riband," consistently calling it "blue ribbon" (O'Sullivan, p. 17, and Preston, p. 374, observe that Simpson was criticized even by John Light, whose research originally inspired what was to have been a collaboration). But O'Sullivan is in no position to talk, his unfootnoted work has its own set of substantial errors, some of which distort the whole history of World War I.
The question of "a legitimate target" is still argued today; Preston, e.g. has a chapter with that title, noting that, within days of the tragedy, a coroner in Ireland offered the verdict "wilful murder." We must remember, as the American judge later wrote, that the incident must be judged in light of the knowledge of the time (Preston, p. 383). (Which is surprisingly easy to do, given that the British Admiralty is still concealing records, either by refusing to release them or by blanking out pages, and some of the papers Simpson claims to have seen have now vanished; Preston, p. 384).
Preston, p. 393, probably has the best last word: "The truth was that no government, British, German, or American, was entirely free of blame for the situation leading up to the attack. Nor, in its wake, was any government hesitant to twist the facts, or use the disaster, to its own political ends."
On pp. 424-426, Preston makes another point: Two weeks before the _Lusitania_ was sunk, the Germans had launched the first gas attack. A few weeks afterward saw the first bombing of civilians from the air. Germany, for a short time, backed away from unrestricted submarine warfare (a mistake, in Preston's view, and I think she's right: Once Germany started, they would have been better off to keep it up). But Germany did not back away from gas, or bombings, and it built the "Big Berthas" to shell Paris. The age of limited, civilized warfare was over.
I would add only one more thing: whoever was "to blame" for the _Lusitania_ tragedy, many hundreds of complete innocents perished needlessly. In this regard, the song knows what the true issue was, and the polemicists do not. - RBW
>>BIBLIOGRAPHY<<
Ballard: Dr. Robert D. Ballard with Spencer Dunmore, _Exploring the Lusitania_ (Warner, 1995).
Barczewski: Stephanie Barczewski, _Titanic: A Night Remembered_ (Hambledon Continuum, 2004).
Brinnin: John Malcolm Brinnin, _The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic_ (1986; I use the 2000 Barnes & Noble edition).
Hoehling: A. A. Hoehling, _Ships that Changed History_ (1992; I use the 2007 Barnes & Noble edition)
Keegan: John Keegan, _The First World War_ (Knopf, 1999).
Marshall: S. L. A. Marshall, _World War I_ (American Heritage, 1964).
O'Sullivan, _The Lusitania_ (1998; I use the 2000 Sheridan House edition)
Paine: Lincoln P. Paine, _Ships of the World_ (Houghton Mifflin, 1997)
PeekeEtAl: Mitch Peeke, Kevin Walsh-Johnson, Steven Jones, _The Lusitania Story_, Naval Institute Press, 2002
Preston: Diana Preston, _Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy_ (Walker, 2002; I use the 2003 Berkley edition)
Ramsay: David Ramsay, _The Lusitania: Saga and Myth_ (Norton, 2001).
Simpson: Colin Simpson, _The Lusitania_ (Little Brown, 1972). - RBW
File: Ran076
===
NAME: Lydia Pinkham
DESCRIPTION: A bawdy and scatological testimonial in multiple stanzas for the restorative powers of Mrs. Pinkham's patent medicine for women.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: bawdy scatological sex drugs
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph-Legman I, p. 485-489, "Lydia Pinkham" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 210, "Lydia Pinkham" (1 text, 1 tune, expurgated)
DT, LYDIAPNK
Roud #8368
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Will Sing of My Redeemer" (tune)
NOTES: This is sung to the Protestant hymn tune "I Will Sing of My Redeemer," Legman notes in his extensive annotations in Randolph-Legman I. - EC
File: RL485
===
NAME: Lydia Sherman
DESCRIPTION: "Lydia Sherman is plagued with rats, Lydia has no faith in cats, So Lydia buys some arsenic, And then her husband he gets sick, And then her husband, he does die...." Her children follow, and eventually Lydia ends up in prison.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: homicide poison humorous children mother father husband wife
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: May 1864 - Death of Edward Struck, first husband of Lydia Sherman (she eventually had three)
August 1864 - Deaths of George and Ann Eliza, Lydia's children
May 16, 1878 - Lydia Sherman dies in prison in Wethersfield, Connecticut
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, p. 5, "Lydia Sherman" (1 text)
NOTES: I would love to see a contemporary newspaper account of this trial.
Burt doesn't claim this as a traditional song; it was in a notebook of her mother's, probably from a contemporary publication.
It should perhaps be noted that fatal overdoses of arsenic are not always the result of deliberate poisoning. John Emsley, _Nature's Building Blocks_, article on arsenic (pp. 40-46) notes various common uses of arsenic, including pigments and even a commercial remedy, "Dr. Fowler's Solution." Also, it is possible to build up arsenic tolerance, so if Lydia were tolerant, she might have accidentally poisoned her family while surviving herself. - RBW
File: Burt005
===
NAME: Lying Song, The: see Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)
===