The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, Volume 2 (Nos. 54-113)

586 Pages·1962·39.604 MB·English

by  Bertrand Harris Bronson

The Traditional Tunes
of the
Child Ballads

THE
TRADITIONAL TUNES
OF THE
CHILD BALLADS
With Their Texts, according to the Extant Records
of Great Britain and America
BY
BERTRAND HARRIS BRONSON
Volume II
Ballads 54 to 113
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
1 9 62
Copyright ' 1962 by Princeton University Press
All Rights Reserved
L. C. Card: 57-5468
(cid:149)
Bertrand Harris Bronson is a professor of English at the University
of California in Berkeley. Noted for his significant contributions
to the comparative study of folk-melodies, he has worked through
the major collections of ballads and songs throughout the English-
speaking world. This is the second volume in a projected series
that will, for the first time, combine both the texts and variant tunes
for the Child Ballads.
(cid:149)
Publication of this second volume has been generously aided by
the Bollingea Foundation.
(cid:149)
Printed in the United States of America
by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
CONTENTS
ECAFERP
ix
STNEMGDELWONKCA
xv
.45 EHT EERT-YRREHC LORAC
3
.55 EHT LANRAC DNA EHT ENARC
51
.65 SEVID DNA SURAZAL
71
.75 APPENDIX NWORB[ S’NYBOR ]NOISSEFNOC
42
.85 RIS KCIRTAP SNEPS
92
.16 RIS ENILWAC
73
.26 RIAF EINNA
04
.36 DLIHC SRETAW
44
.46 RIAF TENAJ
74
.56 YDAL YRSIAM
05
.66 DROL MARGNI DNA LEIHC TEYW
85
.76 EIDNIKNELG
95
.86 GNUOY GNITNUH
06
.96 KRELC SREDNUAS
38
.07 EILLIW DNA YDAL YRSIAM
58
71. THE BENT SAE BROWN
86
72. THE CLERK'S TWA SONS O OWSENFORD
87
73. LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ELEANOR
88
74. FAIR MARGARET AND SWEET WILLIAM
155
75. LORD LOVEL
189
76. THE LASS OF ROCH ROYAL
218
77. SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST
229
78. THE UNQUIET GRAVE
234
79. THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL
246
81. LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD
267
83. CHILD MAURICE
316
84. BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
321
85. GEORGE COLLINS (LADY ALICE)
392
86. YOUNG BENJIE
408
87. PRINCE ROBERT
410
88. YOUNG JOHNSTONE
411
89. FAUSE FOODRAGE
414
90. JELLON GRAME
416
91. FAIR MARY OF WALLINGTON
417
92. APPENDIX THE LOWLANDS OF HOLLAND
418
93. LAMKIN
428
94. YOUNG WATERS
446
95. THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
448
96. THE GAY GOSHAWK
476
97. BROWN ROBIN
479
98. BROWN ADAM
482
99. JOHNIE SCOT
484
100. WILLIE O WINSBURY
495
101. WILLIE O DOUGLAS DALE
507
102. THE BIRTH OF ROBIN HOOD (WILLIE AND EARL RICHARD'S DAUGHTER)
509
103. ROSE THE RED AND WHITE LILLY
511
105. THE BAILIFFS DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON
515
106. THE FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVING-MEN
530
110. THE KNIGHT AND THE SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER
535
112. THE BAFFLED KNIGHT
547
113. THE GREAT SILKIE OF SULE SKERRY
564
C νϋ 3

PREFACE
EHT TSRIF EMULOV FO SIHT KROW contains an introduction designed to answer questions about
the name and nature of the undertaking as a whole, to justify its purpose, account for its
limitations, and describe its manner of proceeding. Although such a collection as the present,
however vast, can never be truly encyclopaedic or all-inclusive, so long as the ballads(cid:151)any of
them(cid:151)remain alive in tradition, still the most comprehensive corpus within reason is requisite,
since only on such a body of evidence can sound generalizations about the habits of melodic
tradition be based. Comparative analysis of traditional variation is the key to the morphology
of folk-song.
It is unnecessary to repeat the argument of the Introduction, since it is to be assumed that
readers of the second volume will have access to its predecessor. But serial publication offers
an opportunity to emphasize or clarify some things that, as critical comment suggests, may
have been overlooked or misunderstood.
Some reviewers have noted the absence of genuine versions known to them, and they will
surely notice other similar lacks in the present volume. It seems advisable to say again that
the reader must not regard this as Ye Compleat Collection of Childe Ballets with Ylr Tunes.
To the period when the phonographic disc began to assume importance as testimony, the aim
was all-inclusive. In the first place, it was hoped to make the record virtually complete to the
end of Child’s century. Thereafter, the attempt to compile exhaustive records became increas›
ingly difficult and ultimately impossible. In covering the first quarter of the present century,
the editor tried to account for whatever records of any kind he could discover and use. But
some collections, private or restricted, were beyond his reach; and of others he was ignorant.
He continued to try to take in all the published records of the second quarter of the century,
when many big and important collections appeared in print. But during this time, numerous
commercial phonographic records were being made, under titles not readily identifiable as
Child ballads, mostly of merely local or regional circulation, virtually unknown to students,
and thereafter available only by lucky encounter. In these years, also, the Archive of American
Folk Song began to be built up at the Library of Congress by R. W. Gordon, the Lomaxes,
and Duncan Emrich. Of the indiscriminate mass of these latter materials, representative classi›
fied cross-sections were released occasionally in albums for public sale and thus became
generally available. But to make an exhaustive examination of the unedited holdings required
funds, space and equipment then in short supply at the Library, and the unlimited time of
the visiting researcher. Early recordings also needed expert technical handling and re-record›
ing. Presumably the best of the kind had been chosen for the albums issued; and the present
editor was forced by ineluctable circumstance to be content with a mere sampling of the
rest. Repeated visits in person were impossible, and moreover the archive was being continually
increased. There is, therefore, ample room for further research in that quarter.
The editor had originally expected to conclude his own survey at the mid-century point,