Bluegrass Messengers

Recordings & Info 200. The Gypsy Laddie

CONTENTS:

 1) Alternative Titles
 2) Traditional Ballad Index 
 3) Child Collection Index
 4) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
 5) Folk Index
 6) Country Versions- by R. Matteson
 7) About the Commonest British Ballads- Bronson
 8) Wiki
 9) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
 10) From: Roxburghe Ballads
    
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
  1) Roud No. 1: The Gypsy Laddie (654 Listings)
  2) Johnny Faa and Black Jack Davy: Cultural Values
  3) "The Gypsy Laddie" (Child 200): Medieval Romance
  4) The Ballad of the Gypsy Davy- Woods 1912
  5) Brown Collection: 37. The Gypsy Laddie
  6) She Chucked Up Everything And Just Cleared Off

Alternative Titles

Black Jack Davy
Black Jack Davey
Clayton Boone
The Gypsy Davy
Johnny Faa
Johnie Faa
Davy Faa
The Wraggle Taggle Gypsy
The Lady and the Gypsy
Harrison Brady
Gypson Davy
Black-Eyed Davy
The Heartless Lady
Egyptian Davio
It Was Late in the Night When Johnny Came Home
The Gyps of Davy
The Dark-Clothed Gypsy
Black Cat Davy
Black Jack David 
Black-Eyed Davy
The Brown-Eyed Gipses
Dark-Eyed Gypsy
The Egyptian Davie
Gipsies-O
Gipsum Davy
Gypsum Davey
Gypsey Davey
Gipsy Davie
The Gipsy Laddie
Gyp's Come Tripping O'er the Plain
Gyps of David
The Gypsy Countess;
The Gypsy Daisy; 
The Gypsy Laddies;
Gypsy Laddio;
Gypsy Lover;
Gypsy Rover;
Gypsy-O;
The 'Gyptian Laddie; 
Harvey Walker;  
Johnny Faw;
Johnny the Seer;
The Lady and the Gypsy;
A Neat Young Lady;
The Radical Gypsy David;
Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O!;
The Raggle-Taggle Gypsies;
Seven Gypsies;
Seven Gypsies in a Row;
Whistling Gypsy;
The Wraggle Taggle Cool Cats - Parody;
The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies;
The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies
The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies-O!
The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies-O!
The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies;  
The Yellow Castle Lady (from Brunnings' Folk Song Index)
Lady Cassilles Lilt;
The Davy;
The Egytian Davy O;
How Old Are You, My Pretty Little Miss
The Lady's Disgrace
The Gypsy Rover
The Three Gipsies
Three Gipsies Came to the Door
There Were Seven Gypsies
The Dark-Clothed Gypsy
Draggletail Gipsies
Gipsies of Agee (Egypt) Oh!;
The Ragtail Gipsies, Oh!;
The Gipsies Came to Lord M--'s Gate;
Gipsy Draly;

Traditional Ballad Index: Gypsy Laddie, The [Child 200]

NAME: Gypsy Laddie, The [Child 200]
DESCRIPTION: A lord comes home to find his lady "gone with the gypsy laddie." He saddles his fastest horse to follow her. He finds her and bids her come home; she will not return, preferring the cold ground and the gypsy's company to her lord's wealth and fine bed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1740 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: elopement Gypsy marriage abandonment husband wife
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord,High),England(All)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,So,SE,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES: (59 citations)
Child 200, "The Gypsy Laddie" (12 texts)
Bronson 200, "The Gypsy Laddie" (128 versions+2 in addenda)
Greig #110, pp. 1-3, "The Gipsy Laddies" (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
GreigDuncan2 278, "The Gypsy Laddie" (11 texts, 7 tunes) {A=Bronson's #45, B=#47?, C=#43, D=#44, E=#48, F=#3, G=#88}
Butterworth/Dawney, p. 14, "Gipsy Laddy O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Thames, pp. 120-122, "The Draggle-tailed Gipsies" (2 texts) (also Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 195; Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 260)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 269-277, "Gipsy Davy" (4 texts plus 2 fragments and a quoted broadside, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #109, #110}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 193-229, "The Gypsy Laddie" (19 texts plus 6 fragments, 8 tunes) {N=Bronson's #107}
Linscott, pp. 207-209, "Gypsy Daisy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 73-76, "he Gypsy Laddie" (3 texts plus portions of another)
Randolph 27, "The Gypsy Davy" (6 texts plus 2 fragments, 4 tunes) {Randolph's A=Bronson's #100, E=#103, G=#123, H=#40}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 49-51, "The Gypsy Davy" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 27G) {Bronson's #123}
Eddy 21, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #77, #98}
Davis-Ballads 37, "The Gypsy Laddie" (7 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #6, #91, #33}
Davis-More 33, pp. 253-261, "The Gypsy Laddie" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownII 37, "The Gypsy Laddie" (6 texts plus an excerpt, many of them mixed with "Sixteen Come Sunday"; "D" also partakes of "Devilish Mary")
Chappell-FSRA 16, "Gypsy Davy" (1 fragment)
Hudson 20, pp. 117-119, "The Gypsy Laddie" (2 texts)
Cambiaire, pp. 59-60, "The Gypsy Laddie (Gypsy Davy)" (1 text)
Shellans, pp. 36-37, "The Radical Gypsy David" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boswell/Wolfe 15, pp. 28-30, "The Gypsies (The Gypsy Laddie)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 215-225, "The Gypsy Laddie" (7 texts, with local titles "The Three Gypsies," "Black Jack Davy," "Gypsia Song," Oh Come and Go Back My Pretty Fair Miss," "Gypsy Davy," "The Lady's Disgrace," "Gypsy Davy"; 5 tunes on pp. 411-414) {Bronson's #75, #126, #106, #32, #9]
Brewster 19, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 71-72, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 4, "Gypsie Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 16, "The Dark-Clothed Gypsy" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #50}
Peacock, pp. 194-197, "Gypsy Laddie-O" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 17, "The Gypsy Laddie" (3 texts, 4 tunes)
Fowke-Ontario 3, "The Gypsy Daisy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 220-221, "Gypsy Daisy," "Seven Gypsies in a Row" (1 text plus a fragment)
Leach, pp. 539-543, "The Gypsy Laddie" (4 texts)
Friedman, p. 105, "The Gypsy Laddie (Johnny Faa)" (2 texts)
OBB 148, "The Gypsy Countess" (1 text)
Warner 42, "Gypsy Davy" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 18, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 110, "The Seven Yellow Gipsies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-100E 5, "The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies, O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 52, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 80, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #38, a separate, somewhat different transcription}
SharpAp 33, "The Gypsy Laddie" (5 texts plus 5 fragments, 10 tunes) {Bronson's #35, #21, #17, #26, #20, #97, #33, #104, #36, #34}
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 22, "Gypsy Davy (The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #26}
Sandburg, p. 311, "Gypsy Davy" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #99}
SHenry H124, p. 509, "The Brown-Eyed Gypsies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-Belfast, p. 57, "The Dark-Eyed Gypsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 108, "Black Jack David" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 72, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text)
JHCox 21, "The Gyspy Laddie" (4 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #94}
JHCoxIIA, #10A-C, pp. 40-45, "Gypsy Davy," "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O," "The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies, O" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #9, #74}
Ord, pp. 411-412, "The Gypsie Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #60}
Fowke/MacMillan 76, "Seven Gypsies on Yon Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
TBB 6, "The Gipsy Laddie" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 181-184, "Gypsy Davey"; "Gypsy Laddie O"; "Gypsy Laddie" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #83, #81, #27}
Darling-NAS, pp. 75-78, "The Gypsy Laddie"; "Gyps of David"; "Gypsy Davy (Catskill's)"; "The Gypsy Laddie" (3 texts plus a fragment)
Gilbert, p. 35, "The Gypsy Davy" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 194, "Gypsy Davey";  p. 211, "The Gypsy Rover"; p. 213, "The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies" (3 texts)
BBI, ZN2567, "There was seven Gipsies all in a gang"
DT 200, GYPDAVY GYPLADD GYPLADD2* GYPLADD3 GYPLADX GYPBLJK* GYPSYRVR* GYPHARBR*  BLCKJACK*  BLCKJCK2 BLKJKDAV GYPLADY*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #83, "The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies" (1 text)
Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, pp. 38-29, "The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies O!" (1 text, 1 tune).
Roud #1
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Gypsy Daisy" (on Abbott1)
Freeman Bennett, "Gypsy Laddie-O" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Cliff Carlisle, "Black Jack David" (Decca 5732, 1939)
Carter Family, "Black Jack David" (Conqueror 9574, 1940)
Dillard Chandler, "Black Jack Daisy" (on Chandler01)
Robert Cinnamond, "Raggle Taggle Gypsies-O" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Harry Cox, Jeannie Robertson, Paddy Doran [composite] "The Gypsy Laddie" (on FSB5 [as "The Gypsie Laddie"], FSBBAL2) {cf. Bronson's #42, #45.1}
Mary Jo Davis, "Black Jack Davy" (on FMUSA)
Woody Guthrie, "Gypsy Davy" (AFS, 1941; on LCTreas)
Harry Jackson, "Clayton Boone" (on HJackson1)
Margaret MacArthur, "Gypsy Davy" (on MMacArthur01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Black Jack David" (on NLCR04); "Black Jack Daisy" (on NLCR14, NLCRCD2)
Maire Aine Ni Dhonnchadha, "The Gypsy-O" (on TradIre01)
Lawrence Older,  "Gypsy Davy" (on LOlder01)
Walter Pardon, "Raggle-Taggle Gypsies" (on Voice06)
Jean Ritchie, "Gypsy Laddie" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #38}
Jeannie Robertson, "The Gypsy Laddies" (on Voice17)
Pete Seeger, "Gypsy Davy" (on PeteSeeger16)
Warren Smith, "Black Jack David" (Sun 250, mid-1950s)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1446), "Gypsy Laddie," W. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1838; also Harding B 11(2903), "Gypsy Loddy"; Harding B 19(45), "The Dark-Eyed Gipsy O"; Harding B 25(731), "Gipsy Loddy"; Firth b.25(220), "The Gipsy Laddy"; Harding B 11(1317), "The Gipsy Laddie, O"; Firth b.26(198), Harding B 15(116b), 2806 c.14(140), "The Gipsy Laddie"; Firth b.25(56), "Gypsie Laddie"
Murray, Mu23-y3:030, "The Gypsy Laddie," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(092), "The Gipsy Laddie," unknown, c. 1875
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roving Ploughboy" (theme, lyrics, tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Black Jack Davy
Clayton Boone
The Gypsy Davy
Johnny Faa
Davy Faa
The Wraggle Taggle Gypsy
The Lady and the Gypsy
Harrison Brady
Gypson Davy
Black-Eyed Davy
The Heartless Lady
Egyptian Davio
It Was Late in the Night
When Johnny Came Home
The Gyps of Davy
The Dark-Clothed Gypsy
NOTES: Hall, notes to Voice17, re "The Gypsy Laddies": "Francis James Child locates the history behind the ballad to the expulsion of the Gypsies from Scotland by Act of Parliament in 1609, and the abduction by Gypsies of Lady Cassilis (who died in 1642), her subsequent return to her home and the hanging of the Gypsies involved. [ref. Child, IV, pp. 63-5.]"
Jeannie Robertson's version on Voice17 follows Child 200C,G in that the Gypsies are hanged in the last verse. - BS
Although the hero of this song is often called "Johnny Faa" or even "Davy Faa," he should not be confused with the hero/villain of "Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw)." - RBW
[Silber and Silber mis-identify all their texts] as deriving from "Child 120," which is actually "Robin Hood's Death." - PJS
Also sung by David Hammond, "The Dark-Eyed Gypsy" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": "The tune has been known in the O Boyle family for four generations and has never been published." - BS

Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America

by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
 
200. THE GYPSY LADDIE

Texts: Anderson, Coll Bids Sgs, 49 / Arlington's Banjo Songster (Philadelphia, 1860), 47 / Barry, Brit Bids Me, 269 / Belden, Mo F-S, 73 / Brewster, Bids Sgs Ind, 134 / Brown Coll / CFLO, V, 212 / Cambiaire, Ea Tenn Wstn Va Mt Bids, 59 / Chappell, F-S Rnke Alb, 37 /  Chase, Trd Bid Sgs Sgng Games, 4 / Child, IV, 72 / Cox, F-S South, 130 / Cox, Trd Bid W Va,  31 / Cox, W. 7 a. School Journal and Educator, XLIV, 428 / Davis, Trd Bid Fa, 423 / De-Witt's Forget-me-not Songster (N.Y., 1872), 223 / Duncan, No Hamilton Cnty, 85 / Eddy,  Bids Sgs Ohio, 67 / Flanders, Garl Gn Mt Sg, 69 / Flanders, Ft F-S Bids, 220 / Garrison,
Searcy Cnty, 10 / Gilbert, Lost Chords, 35 / Greenleaf and Mansfield, Bids Sea Sgs Newfdld, 38 / Hauri, Cocke Cnty, 65 / Henry, Beech Mt F-S, 6 / Henry, F-S So Hghlds, 1 10 / Hooley's.  Opera House Songster, 46 / Hudson, .F-S Miss, 117 / Hudson, F-T Miss, 26 / Hudson, Spec  Miss F-L, JfrrtlJAFL, XVIII, 191 5 XIX, 294; XXIV, 346;XXV, i73;XXVI } 3 5 3 ;XXX,  323, XLVIII, 385; LII, 79 / Karpeles, F-S Newfdld, 13 / Ky Cnties Mss. / Kincaid, Fav Mi  Bids, 33 / Linscott, F-S Old NE, 207 / Lomax, Am Bids F-S, 292 / Lomax and Lomax, Our  Sgng Cntry, i$6/ Lunsford and Stringfield, 30 & i F-S So Mts, 4 / Mclntosh, So III F-S, 17 /  Martz' Sensational Songster, 6$ / Mason, Cannon Cnty, 21 / McGill, F-S Ky Mts, 15 / Minish  Mss. / MLN, XXVII, 242 / Morris, F-S Fla, 455 / Musick, F-L Kirksville, 8 / Neely and  Spargo, Tales Sgs So III, 140 / New York broadside (de Marsan, List 4^3, #28), Brown  University Library / Owens, Sttidies Tex F-S, 28 / Perry, Carter Cnty, 86, 298 / Pound, Nebr  Syllabus, io/ Raine, Land Sddle Bags, 119 / Randolph, OzF-S, I, 152 / Sandburg, Am Sgbag,  311 / Scarborough, Sgctchr So Mts, 215 / Sharp C, EngF-S So Aplcbns, #27 / SharpK, Eng  F-S So Aplcbns, I, 237 / Smith and Rufty, Am Antb Old Wrld Bids, 44 / SFLQ, VIII, 1567  Stout, F-L la, ii / Va FLS Bull, #s 3, 5, 8, 9, n / Harry L. Wilson, Lions of tbe Lord,  37680.

Local Titles: Bill Harman, Black-eyed Davy, Black-jack Davy (David, Daley), Cross-eyed  David, Egyptian Davy-O, Gay Little Davy, Georgia Daisy, Gypsea Song, Gypsie (Gypsen,  Gypso) Davy, Gypsy Daisy, It was Late in the Night When Johnny Came Home, Oh Come  and Go Back My Pretty Fair Miss, Seven Gypsies in a Row, The Dark-clothes Gypsy, The Gypsies, The Gypsy (Gyptian) Laddie, The Gypsy Lover, The Heartless Lady, The Lady's  Disgrace, The Three Gypsies, When Carnal First Came to Arkansas, When the Squire Came Home.

Story Types: A: A gypsy sings or whistles before the lord's house and charms his lady away, often after he has received gifts of such things as  wine, nutmeg, rings, etc. from her. When the lord returns and finds his wife  gone, he orders his horses saddled and overtakes the elopers. He asks his lady if she has forsaken him, her child, and warm bed. Mentioning, in some
texts, that she married against her will in the first place, she assures him she  has. Most texts include some of the following material: the husband asks-  his wife who will care for the children and receives the reply, "you will";  the husband tells the wife to remove her fine Spanish shoes and give him  her hand in farewell; some comments are made on the comparative poverty
of the woman's new station.

Examples: Barry (A); Cox, F-S South (C);  Davis (A); JAFL, XVIII, 191 (B); Perry (B).

B: The story is the same as that of Type A, except that the wife writes her  husband a few weeks later that she is tired of her lover and wishes to come  home. He writes back that he has another girl, and she can stay with her  gypsy. Examples: Davis (B).

C: The story is similar to that of Type A, except that the gypsy casts the  lady off in the end.

Examples: Belden (C), Garrison.

D: The story is similar to that of Type A. However, in a fashion that is  reminiscent of Type B, the lord remarries inside six months.

Examples: Child (J).

E: The story resembles Type A. However, the lady repents and goes home to her "feather bed and baby".

Examples: Cox, F-S South (B).

F: A West Virginia adaption of the ballad to a local event has the husband  follow the elopers and give up the chase when he loses their trail.  Examples: Cox, F-S South (D),

G: The sexes become reversed in some texts (though in the garbled  Scarborough example the original arrangement remains in the opening  stanza), and the lady runs off with another girl.

Examples: Scarborough (C); JAFL, XVIII, 194 (F).

H: The versions that have been corrupted by stanzas from the old English  folksong "I'm. Seventeen Come Sunday" have the "gypsy" ask the girl her age and get the "seventeen (sixteen ) next Sunday" reply. He may also ask the girl whether or not she will flee with him and again get the "next Sunday" reply. She then removes her low (high) shoes of Spanish leather, puts
on her high (low)-heeled ones, and rides off with her new lover. The normal  pursuit of the husband, the usual scorning of him, and the "cold ground- feather bed" comparison follow.

Examples: Hudson, F-S Miss (B); JAFL, XLVIII, 385; III, 79.

I: A short lyric has been found: last night I lay in my feather bed, but tonight in the arms of a gypsy. The story is completely gone, and only the  comparison of the two lives remains.

Examples: Flanders, Vt F-S Bids (A).

Discussion: The basic outline of the traditional story (see Child, IV, 61 ff. for detail) is as follows : Some gypsies sing at a lord's gate and entice the  lady down. When she shows herself they cast a spell over her, and she gives  herself over to the gypsy chief (Johnny Faa from Seanin an Faith or Johnny  the Seer in Gaelic. See Linscott, F-S Old NE 9 208.) without reservation. Her
lord, upon returning and finding her gone, sets out to recover her. He captures and hangs fifteen gypsies.

The song is probably the rationalization of a fairy-lover story (The Randolph, Oz F-S, E text has the lady admit she is bewitched. This may, of  course, be a modern reversal to the original motif, or it may be a survival of  that motif.) that has later become allied with a traditional story of the love  affair and subsequent elopement of one Johnny Faa and Lady Cassilis, wife  of the Earl of Cassilis. (See Child, IV, 63 ff. where the name Johnny Faa is  stated to be a very common one among the nomads and where the story is  discussed.)

There are any number of minor variations in this story as told by the American ballads. In this country, the hanging of the gypsies and the names Faa and Cassilis are omitted. The rationalization has frequently been carried further so that the gypsy becomes merely a lover and the lady a landlord's  wife, etc. (See Cambiaire, Ea Tenn Wstn Va Mt Bids. Note also Davis,
Trd Bid Fa, E where the gypsies are on their way to becoming Indians.)  For a detailed discussion of one America (Ohio) text see MLN, XXVII,  242-4.

In general, it may be said that American texts follow the Child H and I  versions most closely. There are, however, a large number of story types, the  differences centering mostly about the final outcome of the tale. Type A  tells the usual American narrative, with the rejection of the secure home for  the insecure nomad life seeming to appeal to the New World (See Type I)*
The Spanish boots so frequently mentioned are to be found in Child G as well.  Types B, C, and D reveal an almost puritanical revision of the end in the  interests of seeing justice done or because of local incidents that have  attached themselves to the story as Garrison, Searcy Cnty, II suggests.  Type E is pure sentimentality, and Type F shows the influence of a local event on the narrative. The West Virginia elopement of Tim Wallace, a very ugly man, with Billy Harman's wife, an exceptionally pretty woman, is retold in the framework of The Gypsy Laddie. Type G is an example of degeneration through transmission in this case to the point of absurdity.  (See Flanders, Ft F-S Bids, 220 and Reed Smith, SC Blds 9 37 for discussion.)  Type H is the result of a corruption of the ballad by "I'm Seventeen Come  Sunday". The amount of transfer varies to some degree within this type,  but members of the group are not uncommon. See Haun, Cocke Cnty, 65;  JAFL, LII, 79; Mason, Cannon Cnty, 21; and Neely and Spargo, Tales Sgs  So III, 140; as well as others.

The jingling American refrains are not in the British texts. See Belden,  Mo F-S, 74. Usually some nonsense phrase like "ring a ding", etc. or "diddle  dum", etc. constitutes the refrain many times in the form of a chorus.  However, meaningful refrains do occur. See "oh how I love thee" in Duncan, No Hamilton Cnty, 85 (Tennessee). Also, a "raggle-taggle gypsy" line often
recurs. See Cox, Trd Bid W 7 a, C.

Barry, Brit Bids Me, 273 expresses the belief that he has found a text of  the song of Irish origin.

The ballad has been the subject of a number of burlesques. See particularly DeWitfs Forget-me-not Songster (N. Y., 1872), 223.

Folk Index: Black Jack Davy/David [Ch 200/Sh 33/Me I-A12]

Rt - Fair Eloise and the Tinkers ; Lady Cassilis' Lilt ; Raggle Taggle Gypsies ; Whistling Gypsy (Rover) ; Dark Eyed Gypsie ; Roving Ploughboy ; Johnny Faa/Faw ; Black Jack David ; Gypsy Laddie/Laddies ; Bill Harman ; Wraggle Taggle Gypsies O
At - It Was Late in the Night ; Clayton Boone
Mf - Wae's Me for Prince Charlie
Sandburg, Carl (ed.) / American Songbag, Harcourt, Sof (1955/1928), p311 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Dunson, Josh; & Ethel Raim (eds) / Anthology of American Folk Music, Oak, Sof (1973), p108
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p108 [1940s]
Sing Out Reprints, Sing Out, Sof, 1, p25 (1959) (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Luboff, Norman; and Win Stracke (eds.) / Songs of Man, Prentice-Hall, Bk (1966), p 54 (Gipsy/Gipsum Daisy)
Leisy, James F. (ed.) / Folk Song Abecedary, Bonanza, Bk (1966), p148 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p543
Aaron, Tossi. Tossi Sings Folk Songs and Ballads, Prestige International INT 13027, LP (196?), trk# B.03 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Allison, John. Heroes, Heroines and Mishaps, Ficker C 10001, LP (1957), trk# A.01
Anderson, Mrs. John. Flanders, Helen H. & George Brown / Vermont Folk Songs and Ballads, Folklore Associates, Bk (1968/1931), p220 [1930/10] (Seven Gypsies in a Row)
Armstrong, George and Gerry. Simple Gifts, Folkways FW 2335, LP (1961), trk# A.09
Bouterse, Curt; and Bob Webb. Waiting for Nancy, Dancing Cat EWM 1003, CD (2008), trk# 9 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Bowers, Bryan. View from Home, Flying Fish FF 037, LP (1977), trk# 4
Cameron, Isla. Best of Isla Cameron, Prestige International INT 13042, LP (1950s), trk# B.01 (Seven Gypsies)
Carter Family. Clinch Mountain Treasures, County CCS 112, Cas (1991), trk# 13 [1940/10/04]
Carter Family. Carter Family Album, Liberty LRP 3230, LP (1962), trk# B.01
Carter Family. Country & Western Classics, Time-Life Records TLCW 06, LP( (1982), trk# 5.02 [1940/10/04]
Carter Family. Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol 4, Revenant RVN 211, CD (2004), trk# 1.03 [1940/10/04]
Caswell Carnahan. New Leaves on an Old Tree, Kicking Mule KM 313, LP (1981), trk# B.05a
Chandler, Dillard. End of an Old Song, Folkways FA 2418, LP (1975), trk# 2 (Black Jack Daisy)
Clarke, Greg. Solo, Clarke GC 1001, CD (2005), trk# 11
Clubb, Selma. Scarborough, Dorothy(ed.) / A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, AMS, Bk (1966/1937), p219,412 [1930] Cogar, N. E.. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p132/# 21C [1922/01/12] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Cowan, Debra. Songs and Ballads of Hattie Mae Tyler Cargill, Folk Legacy CD 128, CD (2001), trk# 4 (Dark Skinned Davey)
Cox, John Harrington. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p130,524/# 21A [1920s] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Dane, Barbara. Anthology of American Folk Songs, Tradition TR 2072, LP (196?), trk# B.01 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Davis, Ace. Thede, Marion (ed.) / The Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 51 [1930s]
Davis, Mary Jo. Folk Music USA. Vol. 1, Folkways FE 4530, LP (1959), trk# B.02 [1955]
de Wolfe, Dean. Folk Swinger, Audio Odessey DJLP 4030, LP (1963), trk# B.04
Doran, Paddy. Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5. The Child Ballads, Vol. II, Caedmon TC 1146, LP (1961), trk# A.08c [1950s]
Dusenberry, Emma L.. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p152/# 27A [1930/06/01] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/D
Edwards, Don. West of Yesterday, Warner 4-46187, Cas (1996), trk# A.03 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Ford, Brownie. Stories from Mountains, Swamps & Honky-Tonks, Flying Fish FF-90 559, Cas (1990), trk# B.01 [1981/05]
Foster, Harriet. Scarborough, Dorothy(ed.) / A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, AMS, Bk (1966/1937), p221,412 [1930ca] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Fredrickson, Dave. Asch, Moses (ed.) / 124 Folk Songs as Sung and Recorded on Folkways Reco, Robbins, fol (1965), p 50 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Gant Family. Lomax, John A. & Alan Lomax / Our Singing Country, Dover, Sof (2000/1941), p156 [1934]
Gentry, Jane Hicks. Sharp, Cecil & Maude Karpeles (eds.) / Eighty English Folk Songs from th, MIT Press, Sof (1968), p 46 [1917ca] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Gladden, Texas. Ballad Legacy, Rounder 1800, CD (2001/1941), trk# 22 [1941/08] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Golden Bough. Boatman's Daughter, Kicking Mule KM 324, LP (1983), trk# A.01a
Goodhue, F. M.. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p155/# 27C [1930/06/30] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Greer, Jim; and the Mac-O-Chee Valley Boys. Stars of the WWVA Jamboree, Rural Rhythm RRGreer 152, LP (1966), trk# B.03
Guthrie, Arlo. Last of the Brooklyn Cowboys, Reprise MS 2142, LP (1973), trk# A.02 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Guthrie, Woody. Anglo American Ballads, Library of Congress AFS L 1, LP (1956), trk# A.03 [1941/01/04] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Guthrie, Woody. Lomax, Alan / Penguin Book of American Folk Songs, Penguin, sof (1969/1964), p112/# 84
Hall, Mary. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p155/# 27D [1942/03/14] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Hanks, Larry. Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail, Long Sleeve LS 104, LP (1982), trk# B.03 (Clayton Boone)
Harrington, Mrs. Ralph. Flanders, Helen H. & George Brown / Vermont Folk Songs and Ballads, Folklore Associates, Bk (1968/1931), p220 [1930/09/13] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Hellman, Neal. Dulcimer Players News, DPN, Ser, 1/6, p11(1975)
Hubbard, Salley A.; and Lottie Marsh Heed. Hubbard, Lester A. / Ballads and Songs from Utah, Univ. of Utah, Bk (1961), p 26/# 12 [1947ca] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Ingersoll, Genevieve. Scarborough, Dorothy(ed.) / A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, AMS, Bk (1966/1937), p223,413 [1930ca] (Lady's Disgrace)
Jones, Bob. New Folks Vol. 2, Vanguard VRS 9140, LP (1964), trk# B.07
Kazee, Buell. Buell Kazee, June Appal JA 009, LP (1977), trk# 10 [1969]
Kerr, Sandra and Nancy. Neat and Complete, Fellside FECD 107, CD (1996), trk# 8 (Seven Yellow Gypsies)
Lunsford, Bascom Lamar. Appalachian Minstrel, Washington VM 736, LP (1956), trk# B.03
MacArthur, Margaret. Folksongs of Vermont, Folkways FH 5314, LP (1963), trk# A.03 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
MacColl, Ewan; and Peggy Seeger. Matching Songs of the British Isles and America, Riverside RLP 12-637, LP (195?), trk# 6
McBee, Hamper. Raw Mash, Rounder 0061, LP (1978), trk# 10
McCord, May Kennedy. Owens, William A. (ed.) / Texas Folk Songs. 2nd edition, SMU Press, Bk (1976/1950), p 29 [1939]
McCord, May Kennedy. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p157/# 27F [1941/01/06] (Heartless Lady)
McCord, May Kennedy. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p158/# 27G [1941/10/21] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/D
McCurdy, Ed. Ballad Record, Riverside RLP 12-601, LP (1955), trk# A.09
McKinney, "Tip" Lee Finis Cameron. I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough, MFFA 1001, LP (1977), trk# 19 [1975-76] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
New Lost City Ramblers. New Lost City Ramblers, Vol. 4, Folkways FA 2399, LP (1962), trk# 3
New Lost City Ramblers. Remembrance of Things to Come, Folkways FTS 31035, LP (1973/1966), trk# 12 (Black Jack Daisy)
O'Neill, Rose. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p155/# 27E [1938/05/14] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Okun, Milt. Adirondack Folk Songs and Ballads, Stinson SLP 82, LP (1963), trk# 8 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Older, Lawrence. Adirondack Songs, Ballads and Fiddle Tunes, Folk Legacy FSA 015, Cas (1964), trk# A.12 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Old Hat Band. Concert, Voyager VRLP 307-S, LP (1972), trk# 5
Proffitt, Frank. Frank Proffitt of Reese, North Carolina, Folk Legacy FSA 001, Cas (1962), trk# B.05 (Gyps of David)
Putnam String County Band. Home Grown, Rounder 3003, LP (1973), trk# 9
Queen, Mary Jane; and Family. Fist Full of Songs, Charlotte Folk Music Soc CFMS 101, Cas (199?), trk# A.06
Raese, John. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p131/# 21B [1916/03/24] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Ramsey, Obray. Obray Ramsey Sings Folksongs from the Three Laurels, Prestige International INT 13020, LP (196?), trk# B.05 Riddle, Almeda. Abrahams, Roger D.(ed.) / A Singer and Her Songs. Almeda Riddle's Book o, Louisiana State U. Press, Bk (1970), p 27 [1964-67]
Risinger, Robert L.. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p 97/# 38 [1940s] (Blackjack Davy)
Ritchie, Frank. The Singing Ulsterman, Request RLP 8057, LP (196?), trk# A.02 (Brown Eyed Gipsies)
Robertson, Jeannie. Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5. The Child Ballads, Vol. II, Caedmon TC 1146, LP (1961), trk# A.08b [1950s]
Roth, Kevin. Kevin Roth Plays the Dulcimer, Folkways FA 2367, LP (1975), trk# 9
Roth, Kevin. Hellman, Neal / Dulcimer Songbook, Oak, Sof (1977), p82
Schilling, Jean. Old Traditions, Traditional JS 5117, LP (1974/1967), trk# B.05
Seeger, Mike. Fresh Oldtime String Band Music, Rounder 0262, LP (1988), trk# 3
Seeger, Peggy. Tom Paley and Peggy Seeger, Elektra EKL 295, LP (1966), trk# B.02 (Heartless Lady)
Seeger, Pete. American Ballads, Folkways FA 2319, LP (1957), trk# 8
Seeger, Pete. American Favorite Ballads, Smithsonian/Folkways SFW-CD 40155, CD( (2009), 3.01 [1957] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Seneff, Liz. Now Listen to Liz, Gateway GLP-2081, LP (196?), trk# A.04 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Shanghaied on the Willamette. Weighing Anchor, SOW CD 101, CD (1997), trk# 14
Shiflett, Robert. Abrahams, Roger; & George Foss / Anglo-American Folksong Style, Prentice-Hall, Sof (1968), 9-5 [1961] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Skofield, P. F.. Morris, Alton C. / Folksongs of Florida, Univ. Florida, Bk (1950), p306/#166B [1934-39] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Slade, Mrs. Asenath Slade. Linscott, Eloise Hubbard (ed.) / Folk Songs of Old New England, Dover, Bk (1993/1939), p207 [1920-30s] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Sprung, Roger; & his Progressive Bluegrassers. New and Original Sound of Irish-Grass, Showcase, LP (1982), trk# A.02
Stuart, Alice. All the Good Times, Arhoolie 4002, LP (1964), trk# A.05
Talley, James. Woody Guthrie and Songs of My Oklahoma Home, Cimarron CIM 1009, CD (1999/1994), trk# 10 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Taussig, Harry. Taussig, Harry / Advanced Guitar, Oak, Sof (1975), p112 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Taussig, Harry. Taussig, Harry / Folk Style Autoharp, Oak, Sof (1967), p 61
Thompson, Joe. Family Tradition, Rounder 2161, CD (1999), trk# 6 (Black Eyed Daisy)
Thompson, Joe; and Odell Thompson. Old Time Music. The Essential Collection, Rounder 1166, CD (2002), trk# 14 [1988ca] (Black Eyed Daisy)
Traum, Happy. Relax Your Mind, Kicking Mule KM 110, LP (1975), trk# A.02 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Trickett, Ed. People Like You, Folk Legacy FSI 092, LP (1982), trk# 11 (Clayton Boone)
Trickett, Ed. Continuing Tradition. Volume 1: Ballads. A Folk Legacy Sampler, Folk Legacy FSI 075, LP (1981), trk# A.02 (Black Jack Gypsy)
Trivett, Joseph Able (Abe). Joseph Able Trivett, Folk Legacy FSA 002, LP (1962), trk# 14 [1961/09]
Vermont Performing Arts League Singers. Vermont Sampler. A Collection of Traditional Songs & Dance Tunes, Vermont Performing Arts VPAL 103, Cas (1991), trk# B.04 (Gipsy/Gip
Warner, Frank. Our Singing Heritage. Vol III, Elektra EKL 153, LP (1958), trk# B.05
West, Harry and Jeanie. Smoky Mountain Ballads, Perpetual 302-063-034-2, CD (2007/1956), trk# 5
West, Harry and Jeanie. Harry and Jeanie West, Archive of Folk & Jazz FS 208, LP (1967), trk# 5
West, Hedy. West, Hedy / Serves 'Em Fine, Fontana STL 5432, LP (1967), trk# 2 (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Widdemer, Margaret. Scarborough, Dorothy(ed.) / A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, AMS, Bk (1966/1937), p224,414 [1930ca] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
---------------
The Raggle Taggle Gypsies [Ch 200]

Rt - Black Jack Davy/David ; Radical Gypsy David
Leisy, James / Songs for Pickin' and Singin', Gold Medal Books, sof (1962), p104 (Wraggle Taggle Gypsies O)
Callahan, Clara. Scarborough, Dorothy(ed.) / A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, AMS, Bk (1966/1937), p216,411 [1930] (Three Gypsies)
Devilish Merry. Ghost of His Former Self, Wildbeest WB 002, LP (1979), trk# B.06
Gateway Singers. On the Lot, Warner WS 1295, LP (1959), trk# A.02 (Gypsy-O)
Gibson, Addie. Scarborough, Dorothy(ed.) / A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, AMS, Bk (1966/1937), p219 [1930] (Gypsia Song)
Loomes, Jon. Fearful Symmetry, Fellside FECD 186, CD (2005), trk# 14 (Three Gypsies)
Manassee, Dorothy. Cox, John Harrington(ed.) / Traditional Ballads Mainly from West Virgini, WPA, Bk (1939), 10B [1925ca]
Williamson, Robin. Songs for Children of All Ages, Flying Fish FF 438, LP (1987), trk# B.02
--------------
Gypsy Laddie/Laddies [Ch 200/Sh 33/Me I-A12]

Rt - Black Jack Davy/David
Uf - Ploughboy, O
Pb - Harrison Brady
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p105
Lloyd, A. L. & Isabel Arete de Ramon y Rivera (eds.) / Folk Songs of the, Oak, Sof (1966), # 16
Clayre, Alasdair (ed.) / 100 Folk Songs and New Songs, Wolfe, Sof (1968), p 95
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p539 [1740]
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p540 [1817/11]
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p542 [1900ca]
Leach, MacEdward / The Heritage Book of Ballads, Heritage, Bk (1967), p120
Buckner, Sarah. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p237/# 33F [1919/09/19]
Campbell, Robert. Fowke, Edith (ed.) / The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs, Penguin, Sof (1973), p176/#76 [1962] (Seven Gypsies on Yon Hill)
Carter, Pete. Niles, John Jacob / Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, Bramhall House, Bk (1961), p282/N 52 [1932] (Lady and the Gypsy)
Chisholm, N. B.. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p237/# 33G [1916/09/27]
Coates, Mrs. J. (Gabriel). Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p233/# 33A [1916/09/01]
Coates, Mrs. J. (Gabriel). Wolfe, Charles K. / Tennessee Strings. The Story of Country Music in.., Univ. Tennesse, Sof (1977), p 4 [1916]
Cox, Harry. Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5. The Child Ballads, Vol. II, Caedmon TC 1146, LP (1961), trk# A.08a [1950s]
Franklin, Mrs.. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p237/# 33H [1917/05/09]
Gentry, Jane Hicks. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p235/# 33D [1916/09/14]
Gentry, Jane Hicks. Smith, Betty N. / Jane Hicks Gentry. A Singer Among Singers, U. Ky, Sof (1998), p156/#15 [1916/09/16] (Gipsy Laddie)
Gibson, Lizzie. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p238/# 33I [1918/04/26]
Gregory, Martha Corwin. Wolfe, Charles K.(ed.) / Folk Songs of Middle Tennessee. George Boswell, Univ. Tennesse, Sof (1997), p 28/# 15 [1949/07/14] (Gypsies)
Griffin, Mrs. G. A.. Morris, Alton C. / Folksongs of Florida, Univ. Florida, Bk (1950), p304/#166A [1934-39] (It Was Late Last Night)
Grover, Carrie. Wells, Evelyn Kendrick (ed.) / The Ballad Tree, Ronald, Bk (1950), p116 [1944/05] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Gwynne, Kitty. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p236/# 33E [1916/09/05]
Hammond, David. Singers House, Greenhays GR 702, LP (1980), trk# 12
House, Hester. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p234/# 33C [1916/09/15]
Hughes, Delie. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p239/# 33J [1918/10/05]
Langstaff, John. Langstaff, John / Lark in the Morn, Revels CD 2004, CD (2004), trk# 11 [1949-56]
MacColl, Ewan. MacColl, Ewan / Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland, Oak, Sof (1965), p39
MacColl, Ewan; and Peggy Seeger. Matching Songs of the British Isles and America, Riverside RLP 12-637, LP (195?), trk# 5
McAllister, Marybird. Abrahams, Roger; & George Foss / Anglo-American Folksong Style, Prentice-Hall, Sof (1968), 9-7 [1961]
McConnell, Cathal. Long Expectant Comes at Last, Compass 7 4287 2, CD (2000), trk# 6 (Gypsies)
McCurdy, Ed. Folk Box, Elektra EKL 9001, LP (1964), trk# 6
Norton, Mary. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p234/# 33B [1916/09/02]
Redpath, Jean. Scottish Ballad Book, Elektra EKL 214, LP (1962), trk# 1
Ritchie, Jean. British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains (Vol. 1), Folkways FA 2301, LP (1961), trk# 1
Ritchie, Jean. Asch, Moses (ed.) / 124 Folk Songs as Sung and Recorded on Folkways Reco, Robbins, fol (1965), p 59
Robertson, Jeannie. Buchan, Norman (ed.) / 101 Scottish Songs, Collins, poc (1962), p 94
Robertson, Jeannie. Songs of a Scots Tinker Lady, Riverside RLP 12-633, LP (1956), trk# B.04
Sanderson, Lucia. Cox, John Harrington(ed.) / Traditional Ballads Mainly from West Virgini, WPA, Bk (1939), 10A [1925ca] (Gypsy/Gypsum Davy/Daisy)
Shiflett, Florence. Abrahams, Roger; & George Foss / Anglo-American Folksong Style, Prentice-Hall, Sof (1968), 9-6 [1962] (Gypsy Laddie O)
Tannahill Weavers. Tannahill Weavers, Green Linnet SIF 3101, LP (1982), trk# b.04
Tannahill Weavers. Are Ye Sleeping Maggie, Plant Life PLR 001, LP (1976), trk# B.02
Tutty, Paddy. In the Greenwood, Prairie Druid PA 04, CD (1998), trk# 2
Wenzel, William. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p154/# 27B [1930/07/26]
-----------

Wraggle Taggle Gypsies O [Ch 200]

Rt - Black Jack Davy/David
Lynn, Frank (ed.) / Songs for Swingin' Housemothers, Fearon, Sof (1963/1961), p229
Sing Out Reprints, Sing Out, Sof, 1, p24 (1959)
Blood, Peter; and Annie Patterson (eds.) / Rise Up Singing, Sing Out, Sof (1992/1989), p 16
Boni, Margaret Bradford (ed.) / Fireside Book of Folk Songs, Simon & Schuster, Bk (1947), p 70
Silverman, Jerry / Folk Guitar - Folk Song, Scarborough Book, Sof (1983/1977), p 78
Leisy, James F. (ed.) / Folk Song Abecedary, Bonanza, Bk (1966), p149
Hindman School Children. Cox, John Harrington(ed.) / Traditional Ballads Mainly from West Virgini, WPA, Bk (1939), 10C [1923ca]
Holt, Will. World of Will Holt, Coral CRL 57114, LP (1957), trk# B.01
Mountain Thyme. West Virginia Chose Me, Mt.Thyme 02, CD (1997), trk# 10a
Reed, Susan. Susan Reed Sings Old Airs, Elektra EKL 126, LP (1961/1954), trk# A.07

--------------
Whistling Gypsy (Rover) [Ch 200/Sh 33]

Rt - Black Jack Davy/David
Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, Columbia CS 8448, LP (1960), trk# A.02
Corrie Folk Trio with Paddie Bell. Promise of the Day, Elektra EKL 304, LP (1966), trk# A.04
Limeliters. Slightly Fabulous Limeliters, RCA (Victor) LPM 2393, LP (1961), trk# B.02
Mitchell Trio. Mighty Day on Campus, Kapp KS 3262, LP (1961), A.03
Womenfolk. Womenfolk, RCA (Victor) LPM 2832, LP (196?), trk# A.05
--------------
Dark Eyed Gypsie

Rt - Black Jack Davy/David
Hammond, David. I Am the Wee Falorie Man. Folk Songs of Ireland, Tradition TLP 1028, LP (1959), trk# A.07
O'Boyle, Charles. Hammond, David (ed.) / Songs of Belfast, Mercier, poc (1986/1978), p57 [1952ca]
-----------
Roving Ploughboy

Rt - Black Jack Davy/David ; Brewer Laddie ; Mormand/Mormond Braes ; Collier Laddie
Crofters. Crofters, London International SW 99535, LP (Lon1), trk# A.02 (Roving Plough Boy)
Fisher, Archie. Will Ye Gang, Love, Green Linnet CSIF 3076, Cas (1993/1976), trk# B.08
Hall, Robin; and Jimmie MacGregor. Scottish Choice, Eclipse ECS 2074, LP (1971), trk# B.07 (Roving Plough Boy)
MacDonald, John. Folk Songs of Britain. Vol 3. Jack of All Trades, Caedmon TC 1144, LP (1961), trk# A.13 [1950s]
MacDonald, John. Buchan, Norman (ed.) / 101 Scottish Songs, Collins, poc (1962), p 82
MacDonald, John. Kennedy, Peter (ed.) / Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, Oak, Sof (1984/1975), #260, p571 [1953] (Roving Ploughboy-O)
Redpath, Jean. Laddie Lie Near Me, Elektra EKS-7 274, LP (1963), trk# 15 (Ploughboy, O)
-------------
Johnny Faa/Faw [Ch 200]

Rt - Black Jack Davy/David
Johnson, James & Robert Burns (eds) / Scots Musical Museum, Amadeus, Bk (1991/1853), #181 [1788]
Williamson, Robin. Williamson, Robin / Penny Whistle Book, Oak, Sof (1977), p25
--------------
Black Jack Davy (Tune)

Rt - Western Country
Mize, Seth. Rackensack. Volume 2, Rimrock LP 279, LP (1972), trk# B.04
-----------
Bill Harman [Ch 200/Sh 33] - Traditional/Mitchell, Henry

Rt - Black Jack Davy/David
Payne, A. C.. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p133/# 21D [1918/08]

----------
Black Jack Gypsy [Ch 200/Me I-A12]

Us - Black Jack Davy/David
-----------

Black Jack Daisy [Ch 200/Me I-A12]

Us - Black Jack Davy/David
---------------
Black Jack David - Heron, Mike

Rt - Black Jack Davy/David
Frodsham, Lance. Lance Frodsham, Dulcimer., Kicking Mule KM 227, LP (1983), trk# B.05
-----------------

Country Versions- by R. Matteson

 Many old-time country versions were based on Cliff Carlisle's monumental 1939 recording titled "Black Jack David." A year later the Carter Family did a cover of the song. Carlisle's version features a cool slide guitar solo which was copied by Doc and Rcihard Watson (Doc's rendition just has a guitar break). I remember when I was giving workshops at Merlefest in the mid- 1990s hearing Happy Traum play a great fingerstyle guitar arrangement of Black Jack Davy (I believe it was in the key of D Travis-style with drop D). The song had and still has a powerful effect on me.

The first country listing by Meade is Black Jack David parts 1 & 2 by Mr. and Mrs. Greer in 1929. Then came Carlisle's version which he learend from T. Texas Tyler (AKA David Myrick) in the 1930s when they worked together on radio. After the Carter's covered Carlisle's version, Tyler recorded his version in 1945.

Tyler's version is on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ6tQ-QtIeI

As is the rockabilly version by Warren Smith (1956) titled Black Jack David 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDV4Viw8BQM&feature=related

I have a gut feeling that the Carter's covered Carlisle's popular version and edited out the spicy verses. A.P. may have heard the record or even got the lyrics second hand from someone else that heard the record. At the time A.P and Sara were having their own marital problems and I'm sure the song was an unpleasant reminder of that for A.P.
-------------------------

About the Commonest British Ballads

by Bertrand H. Bronson
 Journal of the International Folk Music Council, Vol. 9 (1957), pp. 22-27Published

[Listed as 5th most popular] Much simpler is the next ballad in the series, "The Gypsy Laddie," or "Gipsy Davie," as it is better known in America. Here is a story essentially romantic, without tragic consequences-at least, in recent tradition. The central parts of this song are generally well preserved, and the tale loses little, where it is remembered at all. Seldom forgotten are the following seven elements: the appearance of the gipsies;

the lord's return, to find his lady gone; his command to saddle in haste; his riding hither and thither until he finds the lady among the gipsies; his challenging questions; her defiant answers; the contrast between her former state and her lot henceforward. These make a complete narrative.
 ----------------------------

Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music

The Gypsy Laddie / Seven Yellow Gipsies / Raggle Taggle Gipsies
[Roud 1; Child 200; Ballad Index C200; trad.]

Jeannie Robertson sang The Gipsy Laddies on her eponymous Topic album of 1963, Jeannie Robertson. Hamish Henderson commented in the sleeve notes:

This classic ballad—no. 200 in the great Child collection—is widely known throughout the British Isles and America. In Scotland, the ballad is often associated with the Ayrshire house of Cassilis, and is declared to be a “true” ballad, although history does not bear this out. However, the ballad tale, in which handsome gipsies beguile a noble lady by the sweetness of their singing, has naturally made it very popular with the Scots travelling folk.

Shirley Collins sang a variant called Seven Yellow Gipsies on her 1967 album The Power of the True Love Knot, and it was included on her producer Joe Boyd's compilation CD White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. She commented in her album's notes:

With two handsome gipsies (Robin Williamson and Mike Heron) clapping her on, the lady's off again, with her lord in full pursuit. This account of a well-known bit of scandal has a rare, crackling pace about it, and a reference to an arranged cash-marriage in the last verse. It comes from an Irish singer, Paddy Doran. I think the girl must be daft to leave her comfortable castle to go rolling in the fields with seven yellow gipsies.

Martin Carthy sang Seven Yellow Gypsies on his 1969 album with Dave Swarbrick, Prince Heathen, and reissued on Martin Carthy: A Collection. He also sang it live in studio in July 2006 for the DVD Guitar Maestros. Martin Carthy commented in the original recording's sleeve notes:

There is a whole school of thought which seeks to show that ballads are records of historical occurrences. Possibly they are but I can't see that it matters two hoots. The idea of a wife being taken by the gypsies is as old as the gypsies themselves. I have taken the liberty of filling the story out by plundering different versions.

Martin Carthy's brother-in-law Mike Waterson recorded Seven Yellow Gypsies for his eponymous album of 1977, Mike Waterson. A.L. Lloyd commented in the sleeve notes:

It used to be thought that the ballad told a true story of the elopement, in the seventeenth century, of the young bride of the Earl of Cassilis (pronounced 'Cassels'). It's rubbish, as is so often the case when historical traditions get attached to ballads. But the ballad is a great favourite and considerably more than a hundred versions of it have been recorded in Britain, Ireland and America, to a variety of tunes. The melody Mike uses here is a very individual variant of the favourite setting of Cecil Sharp's Somerset version, known through school books as The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies. The words, as Mike sings them, are dredged from the memories of his sister Lal, Hull-based Scottish singer Ian Manuel, and of Mike himself, recalling schooldays.

Walter Pardon sang The Raggle-Taggle Gypsies at home in Knapton, Norfolk in ca. 1975. This recording by Mike Yates was released in 1982 on Pardon's Topic album A Country Life, and was included in 1998 on the Topic anthology Tonight I'll Make You My Bride (The Voice of the People Series Volume 6).

Nic Jones sang Seven Yellow Gypsies in a BBC “Folk on 2” session recorded on March 1, 1981. This recording was included in his anthologies In Search of Nic Jones and Game Set Match. Like Shirley Collins' version, this one is based on Paddy Doran's.

Waterson:Carthy with Eliza Carthy in lead sang this song in 1999 as Raggle Taggle Gipsies on their third album Broken Ground; this track was also included on the anthology The Folk Awards 2001. Martin Carthy commented in the original album's sleeve notes:

The Raggle Taggle Gipsies is about as old an idea as gipsies in these islands are themselves. The story is supposed to be about the Countess of Cassilis who ran away with some gipsies who were hanged for their trouble. Hanging was, of course, par for the course for gipsies at the time—sometimes just for being gipsies—indeed I sometimes think that some people nowadays yearn for such a time, gipsies being the most reviled (and legislated against) portion of our population. Within Norma's and my lifetime there have been two occasions when her descendant, the Countess, has been confidently reported in the paper as having run away with someone or other. Thirty year ago or more one of the Sunday papers splashed that she had run away with (I think) gipsies, and within the last seven or eight year she was said with equal certainty to have run away this time with a travelling salesman. One wonders what the Count had been putting in her caviar or, on the other hand whether the whole thing feeds on and propagates itself as an ongoing myth. (What did they call an urban myth in the 16th century?) This way of doing the song was given by the beautiful Norfolk singer Walter Pardon to Mike Yates in the 1970s.

This video shows Waterson:Carthy playing The Raggle Taggle Gipsies somewhere in 2007 or earlier:
and at Folkfestival HAM 2009:

Lauren McCormick and Emily Portman sang Seven Yellow Gypsies in 2007 on their privately issued EP Lauren McCormick & Emily Portman.

Jon Boden sang Seven Yellow Gypsies as the April 16, 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Lyrics
Shirley Collins sings Seven Yellow Gipsies

There were seven yellow gypsies and all in a row,
None of them lame nor lazy-O,
And they sang so neat and so complete
They stole the heart of the lady-O.

It was late that night when the lord came home
Enquiring for his lady-O,
And the answer the servants gave to him,
She's gone away with the seven yellow gypsies-O.

Then saddle me my bonny black horse,
The white one's ne'er so speedy-O.
That I may ride on a long summer night
In search of my false lady-O

So he rode west and he rode west,
He rode through wood and copses too,
Until he came to an open field
And there he saw his lady-O.

Would you give up your house and land?
Would you give up your baby-O?
Would you give up your new-wedded lord?
To run away with the seven yellow gypsies-O?

Well, what care I for my house and land?
What care I for my baby-O?
Sure I wouldn't give a kiss from a gipsy laddie's lips
Not for all Lord Cassilis' money-O.

Martin Carthy sings Seven Yellow Gypsies
There were seven yellow gypsies and all in a row
And none of them lame nor lazy-O,
And they sang so sweet and so complete
That they stole the heart of the lady-O.

And they sang sweet and they sang shrill
That fast her tears began to flow,
And she lay down her silken gown,
Her golden rings and all her show.

She plucked off all her highheeled shoen,
All made of the Spanish leather-O,
And she would in the street in her bare bare feet
To run away with the seven yellow gypsies-O.

They rode north and they rode south,
And they rode it late and early-O
Until they come to the river side
And oh but she was weary-O.

Says, Last night I rode by the river side
With me servants all around me-O,
And tonight I must go with me bare bare feet
All along with the seven yellow gypsies-O.

It was late last night when the lord come home
And his servants they stood ready-O.
And the one took his boots and the other took his horse,
But away was his own dear lady-O.

And when he come to the servants' door
Enquiring for his lady-O,
The one she sighed and the other one cried,
She's away with the seven yellow gypsies-O.

For I met with a boy and a bonny, bonny boy,
And they were strange stories he told me-O,
Of the moon that rose by the river side
For pack (??) with the seven yellow gypsies-O.

Go saddle to me my bonny, bonny mare,
For the brown's not so speedy-O.
And I will ride for to seek my bride
Who's run away with the seven yellow gypsies-O.

Oh he rode north and he rode south,
And he rode it late and early-O
Until he come to the river side
And it was there that he spied his lady-O.

What makes you leave all your house and your land,
All your gold and your treasure for to go?
And what makes you leave your new-wedded lord
To run away with the seven yellow gypsies-O?

What care I for me house and me land?
What care I for me treasure-O?
And what care I for me new-wedded lord,
For I'm away with the seven yellow gypsies-O.

Last night you slept in a goosefeather bed
With the sheet turned down so bravely-O.
And tonight you will sleep in the cold barren shed
All along with the seven yellow gypsies-O.

What care I for me goosefeather bed
With the sheet turned down so bravely-O?
For tonight I will sleep in the cold barren shed
All along with the seven yellow gypsies-O.

There were seven yellow gypsies and all in a row,
None of them lame nor lazy-O.
And I wouldn't give a kiss from the gypsies' lips
For all of your land or your money-O.

Mike Waterson sings Seven Yellow Gypsies
O there's seven little yellow Cassilis gypsies and they're all in a row,
And they're all of them lame and they're lazy-O,
And they sang so neat and so very complete
That they stole away the heart of the Earl of Cassilis' lady-O.

And she come tripping it down the stair,
She being dressed in her silk and her amber-O,
But they tooken one look at her well-far'd face
And they cast their spells out of her air O [hair O?]

She given to them the nutmeg fine,
So they given her back the ginger-O;
But she given to them a far greater thing,
It was the gold ring offen her finger-O.

Her lord, he come home late that night
Enquiring for his lady-O,
But the servants cried on either side,
Stole away been the Earl of Cassilis' lady-O.

Go saddle to me my good grey steed,
For the black one's not so speedy-O,
And away I will ride over yon hillside
For to seek for the Earl of Cassilis' lady-O.

And he rode high and didn't he ride low,
Why, he rode through the woods and the copses-O
Till on yon hillside there he has espied him
The fire at the camp of the raggle-taggle gypsies-O.

And boldly he, he rode up that hill,
It being an hour before the dawning-O,
And so boldly didn't he enter him in
To the camp of the raggle-taggle gypsies-O.

What makes you leave, leave your houses and your land?
What makes you leave your baby-O?
And what makes you leave your new-wedded lord,
Run away with the raggle-taggle gypsies-O?

What care I for, for me houses and me land?
What care I for me baby-O?
And what care I for me new-wedded lord?
For I'm happy with me raggle-taggle gypsies-O.

Last night you slept and in a goosefeather bed
In sheets turned down O so bravely-O,
But tonight you will sleep in the cold open field,
Rolled around with the raggle-taggle gypsies-O.

Last night I've slept and in a goosefeather bed
In sheets turned down O so bravely-O,
But tonight I will sleep in the arms of me dear,
He's the king of the raggle-taggle gypsies-O.

There's seven little gypsies all in a row,
And they're all of them lame and they're lazy-O.
But the Earl of Cassilis, he had 'em all hung
For the stealing of the Earl of Cassilis' lady-O.

Nic Jones sings Seven Yellow Gypsies
There were seven gypsies all of a row
And they sang neat and bonny-O;
Sang so neat and they're so complete,
They stole the heart of a lady.

She's kicked off her high heel shoes
Made of the Spanish leather,
And she's put on an old pair of brogues
To follow the gypsy laddie.

Late at night her lord come home
And he's enquiring for his lady.
And his servant's down on his knees and said,
“She's away with the seven gypsies.”

He's ridden o'er the high, high hills
Till he come to the morning,
And there he's found his own dear wife
And she's in the arms of the seven gypsies.

“Well, last night I slept in a feather bed
And the sheets and the blankets around me;
Tonight I slept in the cold open fields
In the arms of my seven gypsies.”

Seven gypsies all of a row
And they sang neat and bonny-O;
Sang so neat that they all were hanged
For the stealing of a famous lady.

Waterson: Carthy sing Raggle Taggle Gipsies
Three gipsies come round to my door,
And downstairs ran my lady-O,
And one sang high and one sang low
And one sang bonny bonny Biscay-O.

Then she took off her silken gown
And dressed in hose of leather-Om
The dirty rags around my door.
She's gone with the raggle taggle gipsies-O.

Twas late at night my lord returned
Enquiring for his lady-O.
The servants one and all replied,
She's gone with the raggle taggle gipsies-O.

Go harness up my milk white steed,
Go fetch to me my pony-O.
And I will ride and seek my bride
Who's gone with the raggle taggle gipsies-O.

So he rode high and he rode low,
He rode through woods and copses too
Until he came to a wide open field
Where he has spied his lady-O.

Why did you leave your new wedded lord
And your house and lands and money-O
To go and seek a roving life
Along with the raggle taggle gipsies-O?

What care I for my new wedded lord
And my house and lands and money-O?
Tonight I'll seek a roving life
Along with the raggle taggle gipsies-O.

Last night she slept in a goose feather bed
With the sheets turned down so bravely-O;
Tonight she'll lie in the cold open field
In the arms of the raggle taggle gipsies-O.

What care I for a goose feather bed
With the sheets turned down so bravely-O?
Tonight I'll lie in the cold open field
In the arms of the raggle taggle gipsies-O
--------------------------

The Roxburghe Ballads, Volume 8 By William Chappell, Ballad Society

The Gypsy Laddy: Johnny Faa.

       "The Gipsy said—
'And so at last we find my tribe,  
And so I set thee in the midst, 
And to one and all of them describe  
What thou said'st, and what thou dids't, 
Our long and terrible journey through;  
And all thou art ready to tee and do     
In the trials that remain;       
I trace them the vein and the other vein  
That meet on the brow and part again,     
Making our rapid mystic mark.' "---- The Flight of the Duchess.

THe present English version of the ballad elsewhere known as 'Johny Faa' is probably of earlier date than any printed copy of the Scottish version, which appeared in the fourth volume of Allan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany, 1740, the first edition, pp. 175-177. (All, or nearly all, of the songs in the final vol. iv. are of English origin, indisputably; many of them by Tom D'Urfey, and were not home-grown). It was adopted by David Herd in 1769 for his single vol. of Scottish Songs, p. 88; and in vol. ii. p. 54 of the bettor known edition, 1776: with trifling alterations. It again re-appeared in James Johnson's Scots' Musical Museum, No. 181, vol. ii. p. 189, 1788; probably at the suggestion of liobert Barns. "We give it here from the text published by Allan Kamsay.

[Tea-Table Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 175, 1740.]

Jonhny Faa, the Gypsy Laddie.          
            
I. The Gypsies came to our good Lord's gate, [at. lect.'yett.' ]
And wow but they sang sweetly;
They sang sae sweet, and sae very complete,  
That down came tho fair lady.

II. And she came tripping down the stair,
  And a' her maids before her;
As soon as they saw her well-fa'r'd face, [ = favonr'd.
They coost the glamour o'er her. [ =cast, p. 151.

III. "Gae tak frae me this gay mantile,   
And bring to me a plaidie; 
For if kith and kin, and a' had sworn,     
I'll follow the Gypsie laddie.

IV. "Yestreen I lay in a well-made bed,   
And my good Lord beside me;  
This night I'll lie in a tenant's barn,    
Whatever shall betide inc."

V. "Come to your bed," says Johny Faa,    
"Oh come to your bed, my deury;  
For I vow and I swear, by the hilt of my sword,    
That your Lord shall nae mair come near ye."

VI. "I'll go to bed to my Johny Faa, [S. if. Mm. omits.
   I'll go to bed to my deary;
   For I Tow and swear by what past yestreen,  
  That my Lord shall nae mair come near me.
 
VII. "I'll mak a hap to my Johny Faa, [Morison omit) vli.
  And I'll mak a hap to my deary;
And be s[hall] get a the coat goes ronnd, [Cf, Waller's Girdle.  
And my Lord shall nae mair come near me."

VIII. And when our Lord came home at e'en,
And speir'd for his fair Lady, [Scoticl, asked.
The tane she cried, and the other reply'd,
"She's awa' with the gypsie laddie."

IX. "Oae, saddle to me the black, black steed,    
Gae, saddle and make him ready; 
Before that I cither eat or sleep,     
I'll gae Beek my fair Lady."

X. And we were fifteen well-made men,
  Although we were na bonny;
And we were a' put down for ane, [Herd reads, 'but ane.' ]
A fair young wanton Lady.

Finnis

In 1788, sixty-four years later, in the similar version furnished to James Johnson, The Scots' Musical Museum reads in final line 'The £arl of Cassilit' lady.' Burns annotated it, "The people of Ayrshire begin this song 'The Gypsies cam' to my Lord Cassillis' yett.' They have many more stanzas in this song than I ever Baw in any printed copy."—Keliques of S. Burns, p. 265, 1813.

Alterations and injurious interpolations were made by Motherwell, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and other editors (see p. 154 post).  The dance tune, 'Zarfie Cassilhs's Ltlt,' suitable to the T.-T. Misc. version, is in the Skene MS., the date of which was at first assumed to be earlier than 1635.

This interesting ballad is fairly supported by tradition; but there are discrepancies in minor details. Some who have claimed precise knowledge of places and date, scarcely proved their case. We venture to assign the event to 1632 or 1633: the present two-fold ballad is nearly a century later.

The heroine, Lady Jean Hamilton (afterwards Countess of Cassillis), was born on the 8th of February, 1607. She was daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Hamilton, and believed to have responded to the love of John Faw or Faa. She kept company with him in the woods of Tyningham, near Dunbar; but was forced, by command of her parents and the importunities of the wealthier man, to marry the 'grave and solemn' John, sixth Earl of Cassillis, "a most rigid and austere Presbyterian." He resided at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire.

There was a legendary attribution of knighthood to the lover, naming him Sir John Faa. He was sent abroad at the time of Lady Jean's marriage. He probably was connected with the gipsies named Faa, who became celebrated long afterwards. So early as 16th February, 1S40-41, under the Privy Seal of James V., one 'Johnnie Faa, Lord and Erie of Zittel Eyipt,' was furnished with a writ, establishing his authority, 'conform to the la wis of Egipt,' over his tribe of so-called Egyptians; and calling on all sheriffs and persons in authority in Scotland to ' assist him in executions of justice vpon his company and folkis.'

This ancestral connection with the gipsy tribe must have given to the lover of Lady Jean Cassillis a claim on any lingering members of the race; proscribed, banished, and almost exterminated though they were by reactionary judgments at the hands of a persecuting and bigotted municipality, on pretence of punishment, for contumaciously abiding in Scotland after an Act of Parliament had been passed in 1609 or 1693, ordaining that all gipsies were to be expelled from the realm. An intermediate 'Capitaine Johnne Faa,'husband of Ellen Faa, with seven of his tribe, were summarily put to death in January, 1624. Here begins the embroilment caused by identity of name. Three John Fans are distinct; and there is conclusive evidence of several Faas of good repute in the neighbourhood at the time of the wedding. (See James Maidment's Scottish Ballade; also Joseph Ritson's note on the Faa gipsies in 1677, Scoltith Songs Class Fourth, 1794, with reference to McLaurin's Remarkable Cases, p. 774, and Alex. Peunecuik's Description of Tweed-dale, p. 14, 1715.)

The main facts appear to be these: The former lover returned from abroad and, taking advantage of the husband's absence, came to Culzean Castle, disguised as a gipsy or wandering pedlar. (Compare the ballads of ' The Jovial Pedlar' and 'Jovial Tinker' in previous vol. vii. pp. 49 and 79.) He came bringing merchandize or trinkets, fit for his assumed character, and accompanied by faithful friends, who were not necessarily gipsies any more than himself, but bearing the outward marks in stained skins and foreign garments. A rigid watch was kept by hireling servants, perhaps as bitterly puritanical as their master. But, by bribes and pertinacity gaining admittance, John Faa won the ear of the lady, his renewed avowals of love being seconded by the promptings of her own heart. She had endured unwillingly the abhorred caresses of her Calviuistic spouse. She eloped with the man whom she loved, abandoning her home and her two infant daughters, fleeing into poverty and ultimate ruin. There hud been 'a glamour' cast on her; but such bedazzlement has formed the excuse, whenever a wife or daughter sacrificed her honour for the lure of sensual passion.

In her lonely vigil she had dreamed of this, having prepared to yield before the temptation came. Remembrance of her early lover Dy contrast awoke detestation of her tyrannic master, whose lovo for her was worse than hate. It needed no magic spell, no gipsy enchantment, no hypnotizing or mesmeric passes, no charlataurie of electro-biology in modern babble; no rhythmic chaunt of the 'most aged crone alive,' or anything beyond the eloquence of her constant lover to rouse her from lethargy. Love was conqueror, and Love is best; 'Love is the only good in the world.'

1 So, trial after trial past,  
Wilt thou fall at the very last
Breathless, half in trance
  With the thrill of the great deliverance
Into our arms for evermore;  
And thou shalt know, those arms once curled
About thee, what we knew before,  
How Love is the only good in the world:
Henceforth be loved as hearts can love,
Or brain devise, or hand approve."—[Cf. motto, p. 149.)

Their flight lay in the darkness, crossing the Doon-water by the 'Gipsies' Steps' (still so called), distant a half mile from the Castle (according to William l'aterson). The husband came home unexpectedly, perhaps from Edinburgh; (certaiuly not from his certified attendance at the Westminster assembly of Divines, for that journey was much later, in 1642). He followed and recaptured the lady. With summary vengeance he hanged John Faa and his companions on the Dule Tree, on a liitle knoll near the house, compelling her to witness the tragedy from a window. "There were seven gipsies in the gang!" (the same number, it was reported, at the execution of the former John Faa in 1624).

She was committed to a 'virtual imprisonment for life, in a tower at Maybole. The sculptured heads thereon are traditionally reputed to represent the slaughtered gipsies.

''Eight heads carved in stone below one of the turrets are said to be the effigies of so many of the gipsies." .... "The head of Johnie Faa himself is distinct from the rest, larger and more lachrymose in the expression of the features. Some windows in the upper flat of Cassillis Castle are similarly adorned."—Picture of Scotland, by Robert Chambers, 1826. Compare the New Statistical Account of Scotland.

A portrait of Lady Cassillis is preserved at Culzean, engraved in Constable's Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany, bt'ing a new series of The Scots' Magazine, vol. lxxx. of the entire work, November, 1817. It shows her with some claim to beauty, of the Sir Peter Lely's order, but certainly with weakness and irresolution of character, fair, graceful, and ringletted.

C. K. Sharpe attached no importance of corroboration to the tapestry at Culzean, misrepresenting such an elopement as that with the gipsies, "wrought with her needle by way of penance"; a man and a woman on a white horse surrounded by attendants.

A specious objection to the story of the abduction is this: The sanctimonious spouse, Henry, Earl of Cassillis, wrote two letters after his wife's death, describing her praisefully. One of them is addressed to Robert Douglas, minister nt Edinburgh: "Right Reverend, I finde it so harde to digest the want of a dear friend, such as my beloved yoke-fellow was." [TFodruw MSS.) In tho Eglinton letter she is mentioned as his "dear bed-fellow." Such men bewail the "dear departed shade" after they have treated her body harshly during lifetime. Hypocrisy is engrained deeply. Cruelty to a wife does not disqualify the survivor from displaying mock affection and mock-piety.

"Eh ! gai, gai, gai, dc profundis !
Ma femme a rendu l'ame. 
Eh! gai, gai, gai, de profundis!
Qu'elle aille en Paradis.

"A cette a me si cliere, le Paradis convient;  
Car, suivant ma grand'-mere, de l'enfer on reviint
"Dieu! faut-il lui survivre? Me faut-il la pleurer?
Non, non; je veux la suivre—pour la voir enterrer."—Beranger.

The Lady Jean died at peace, and her husband had avowedly been to see her:—

"She has made a glorious and happie change, manifesting in her speeches bothe a full submission to the onelie absolute Soveraine, and a sweet sense of his presence in mercie, applying to her selfe manie comfortable passages of God's worde, and closing with those last words, when I asked what she was doing, her answer was, shee was ' longing togoehome.'—Cassillis, 14 December, 1642.

The next day he wrote the other letter, to Lord Eglinton, inviting him to the funeral of the lady, from Cassillis, to "our burial-place at Mayboille," or Maybole. It begins: "My noble Lord. It hath pleaseit the Almightie to tak my deir bed-fellow frome this valley of teares to hir home (as hir Best, in hir last wordis called it)."—Wm. Paterson's Ballad* and Songs of Ayrshire, p. 13, 1847. This was the sixth Earl of Eglinton, Alex. Seton, who died in 1661.

Mystery cling9 to 'Johny Faa.' According to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe there was a separation of the Lady Jean Cassillis from her husband, a mensa et thoro, tantamount to a divorce. They never cohabited again; her two daughters, Margaret and Catherine, had been born before the abduction or flight. Sbo died in December, 1642, and the widower married again, his second wife bearing him a son. This son was mistakenly assigned by Professor Aytoun to the first wife, Lady Jean. Aytoun yields no faith to the identification of the Faa legend with the Cassillis family, saying that "the story has no real foundation; but that it was a malignant fiction, possibly trumped up to annoy [Gilbert] Burnet, who had many enemies" (Aytoun's Ballads of Scotland, vol. i. p. 182, 1868). This is the conjecture of John Finlay (see his Scottish Ballads, ii. 38, 1800). It is preposterous, and has been refuted bv James Maidment, thus: "There was no occasion on the part of Gilbert Burnet's enemies tu resort to underhand defamation of this kind. They boldly attacked him; and the pasquils and lampoons were circulated without the slightest scruple. Neither was he a person of such nervous sensibility as to be at all put about by any scandal concerning his wife's mother" (Maidment's Scottish Ballads and Songs, ii. 184, 1868); Burnet having married Lady Jean's elder daughter Margaret. She was born before 1630. "She bestowed her hand, and what was better her purse, upon the bu»y, intriguing inmate of Hamilton Palace." Thus she, in 1671 or 1672, when "in the last stage of antiquated virginity" (according to C. K. Sharpe), was married clandestinely to Gilbert Burnet, the first of his three wives. Two servants of the officiating minister, the Rev. Patrick Graham, were the sole witnesses of the wedding, at Glasgow. Bishop Burnet, in his Own Times, declared that on the previous day he had delivered to her a paper, relinquishing claim on her wealth; he being thirteen years her junior, born in 1643. This was meant to avoid the charge of being mercenary, but it was not efficacious. Nut until three years later was the marriage revealed. "Upon the publishing of it, she retired to Edinburgh, condoling her own case and Tier present misfortunes" (Law's Memorials). She bore no children, lived separately from her ubiquitous husband, and died before 1686, when the future Bishop of Sarum married in Holland a second wife, Mary Scott, a wealthy Dutch lady of Scotch extraction, who died of small-pox in 1698; to be succeeded, a few mouths later, by a third wife, Elizabeth Berkeley, a widow, nee Blake (16G1-1709), whom he survived until 1715. Like Margaret, Elizabeth was childless, but Burnet had ten children by Mary.

Lady Jean Cassillis's second daughter, Lady Catherine Kennedy (born circa 1630-31), was married to William Lord Cochrane, who in 1C79 predeceased his father, Baron Cochrane of Dundonald (earlier known as Sir William Cochrane, Knt., of Cowdon; elevated to the peerage 26 December, 1647, and advanced to the dignity of first Earl of Dundonald, and Lord Cochrane of Paisley 12th May, 1669: he died in 1686, and was succeeded by Catherine's son, John, the second Earl, who died in 1690).

Lady Jean's husband, the all-potent' John of the Eennedie clan,' held power over life and limb, over soul and spirit of his retainers. Short shrift to any who stood in his way, whether gipsies or henchmen. Andrew Sympson in his Description of Galloway, 1684 (published in 1828), tells that—

"'Twixt Wiglon and the town of Ayr,  
Part-Patrick and the Craives of Cree,  
No man need think for to byde there,  
Unless he court with Kennedie."

Untenable is the late Harvard claim advanced for Allan Ramsay as author of ' Johny Faa.' Peter Cunningham (in Songs of England and Scotland, ii. 346, 183S) misrepresented it as having been printed in the first vol. of Tea-Table Miscellany, 1724; instead of it being in the supplementary vol. iv. of English gatherings, 1740. Little or nothing, or worse than nothing, has been gained from the crowd of interpolators since the time of Burns. William Motherwell (his 'Gipsy Davy'), K. H. Cromek, John Mac'l'aggart, John Martin, the painter, etc., were more or less utterers of base coin. C. K. Sharpe's version was "taken down from the recitation of a peasant in Galloway" (Edinburgh Magazine, p. 309, 1817). It is better than the others, but no less evidently a modern fabrication. Utterly vulgarised is Motherwell's MS. version, from the recitation of Agnes Lyle (KUbarcnan, 27 July, 1827), Lady Jean complaining,

"But this night I maun lye in some cauld tenant's barn, 
A wheeu blackguards waiting on me."

After having been long sought, she is found "in bonnie Abbey-dale, drinking with Gipsy Davy." In Martin's version he is called "Georgie." With indistinct remembrance of a stall copy, the garrulous reciters lengthened the ballad, introducing the 'wan water from old songs for 'bonny Doon,' and travestying the story until all romance died out of it Such is the system of latter-day 'traditional recitation.' Incredibly idiotic are the perversions of 'Charlotte Sophia Burne, 1885; of Margaret Eeburn; of Newton Pepoun, Massachusetts; and Mrs. Helena Titus Brown, of New York (in 1790). R. Morison printed, " Of courage stout and steady," to rhyme with " Wanton Lady."

Direct transcripts of two series of MSS. formerly belonging to George Einloch (chiefly in his handwriting) were in the possession of the present Editor. 'The Egyptian Laddy,' alias John Faa, is in John Hill Burton's handwriting, 13£ stanzas, with two breaks. The other version agrees with our text of pp. 149, 160, except this rationalized variation :—

"And we were fifteen weel-made men,    
Although we were sue mony,  
Yet we were a' put down but ane    
For a fair young wanton Lady."

(This "but ane" accords with David Herd's reading, to make it identify the narrator as a survivor.) George Kiuloch's MS. Note refers to "Sir John Faa, as I think, of Dunbar, who had been previously betrothed to the lady, who was afterwards forced by her relations to marry Lord Cassillis." Kinloch also relates this anecdote, concerning the Earl of Glencairn's taunt to Lord Cassillis :—

"The late Earl of Glencairn married the daughter of a Hugh McWhanle, an itinerant Piper in the neighbourhood of Ayr, and had by some lucky chance Bucceeded to an immense fortune; and at an election dinner in Ayr, where Lord Cassillis and Lord Glencairn were present, Lord Cassillis, with an appearance of friendship, asked Glencairn, 'How is your father-in-law, honest man? Is he still as fond of playing the pipes as formerly?' Lord Glencairn instantly answered, 1 0! still as fond as ever ; when I came off this morning I left him playing Johnie Faa' This Lord Cassillis took so high that it required the interposition of friends to prevent serious consequences."—Kinloch MS.

'The Egyptian Laddy' version (John Hill Burton's) attempted to localize from the close vicinity of which the reciter of this ballad came. (Such was the common trick among ' traditional reciters,' and it accounts for many discrepancies or variations.) The Lady repulses Johny Faa's endearments, after the flight across the ' wan water.' He promises to abstain from touching her; she keeping herself unstained while awaiting the expected rescue. Evidently modernized, it begins, "There came Egyptians to CorseJUld yetts" (anglice 'gates'). It follows the four early stanzas of T.-T. Mine, and then continues (with a hiatus, the lost words, being hero suppplied in brackets):—

"When they came to the wan water, I wite it was na bonny;"  
[She maun Bet down her feet, and wade, her feet mair white than any].

"' Yestreen I this wan water rade, and my good lord rade by me;  
The night I maun cast off my shoon and wade; the Black bands wading wi' me.

"'Yestreen I lay in a weel-made bed, and my good lord lay wi' mo;
The night I maun lie in a tenant's barn, and the Black bands lying by mo.'

"'Come to your bed,' says Johnie Faa, come to yer bed, my dearie!  
And I shall swear, by the coat that I wear, my hand shall ne'er gae near thee.' '

'I will never come to yer bed, I will never come near ye;  
For I think I hear his horse's foot that was once call'd my dearie.'"

[He renews his invitation and promise. She repeats her refusal, and declares that ' I think I hear his bridle ring, that was once called my dearie.' Next follows, as on p. 150, st. viii. " When our Good Lord," etc., ending thus:—]

"Yestreen we were fifteen good armed men; tho' black we were, nae bonny;
Yet tho night we a' ly slain for ane: It's the Lord o' Corsefield"'s Lady."

Tho most unblushing fabrication is that by John MacTaggart, twenty-two stanzas, in his Scottish Oallovidian Encyclopaedia, p. 284, 1824; wherein everybody is forgiven, after much vulgarity, all end merrily with a dancing bout.

Robert Burns supplied the annotation on p. vi. of the Index to vol. ii. of The Scots' Musical Museum, viz. "The gypsies cam' to our gude lord's yett.—Neighbouring tradition strongly vouches for the truth of the story." Hums had special ways of learning these traditions, being an Ayrshire man, and closely connected with Maybole; where Lady Jean Cassillis may have been imprisoned. (See pp. 152, 153).

The tune of Johnny Faa now bears the name of Wae's me for Prince Charlie! from it having been used in 1815 by William Glen, to suit the words of his Lament, "A wee bird cam' to our hall door." (The music is in John Muir Wood's Songs of Scotland, Balmoral edition, 1887, p. 28.)

The Gypsy Laddie; [Roxburghe Collection, III. 685.]

THere was seven Gypsies all in a gang,     
They were brisk and bonny, O!
They rode till they came to the Earl of Castle's house,
And there they sung most sweetly, O!

The Earl of Castle's lady came down, [=cassillis]
With the waiting-maid be[f'ore] her, 0! [text= beside.]
As soon as her fair face they saw,
They [cast] their [glamour o'er her, O!] [See Note, p. 157.]

They gave to her a nutmeg brown,
And a race of the best ginger, O!
She gave to thera a far better thing,
'Twas the ring from off her finger, O!  [C.F. Finley's]

She pull'd off her high-heel'd shoes,
They was made of Spanish leather, O!
She put on her Highland brooges,
To follow the Gypsey Laddy, O! [text 'Loddy,' passim]

['O! come with me,' says Johnnie Faw,* [See Note, below.]
O! come with me, my dearie, O!
For I row and swear, by the hilt of my sword,
Your lord shall no more come near ye, 0!

[' Here, take from me this gay mantle,
 And briny to me a plaidie, 0!
Tho' kith and kin and all had sworn,
I'll follow the Gypsie Laddie, 0!'

[' Yester e'en I lay in a well-made bed,
 And my good lord beside me, 0!
This night I'll lie in a tenant's barn,
Whatever shall betide me, 0!' [C. K. Sharpe-S ful version.

[' Oh! hold your tongue, my hinny, my heart,
  Oh! hold your tongue, my dearie;
For I Tow and swear, by the moon and the atari,
That thy lord shall nae niair come near ye.']

[Note.*—Here might come in three stanzas, of the Northern version, recovered by John Martin; agreeing with the version of 1740, reprinted on p. 149-150, stanzas v, iii, and iv.; here added; perhaps also stanzas vi, and vii, although they are eminently Scottish. The original of the whole must have been sung in the North Countrie. Ilad the London printers grown shame-faced, and afraia of naughtiness p For how long were they so punctilious? Otherwise, why did they omit the genuine stanzas, equivalent to those we here italicize within brackets ?]

 At night when my good Lord came home, 
Enquiring for his Lady, 0! 
The waiting-maid made this reply,
"She's following the Gypsey Laddy, 0!"

"Come, saddle me my milk-white steed, 
Come, saddle it so bonny, O! 
As I may go seek my own wedded wife,  
That's following the Gypsey Laddy, O!"

"Have you been East, have you been West, 
Or have you been brisk and bonny, 0! 
Or have you seen a gay lady,  
A-following the Gypsey Laddy, 0!"

He rode all that summer's night,
And part of the next morning [early], 0!
At length he spy'd his own wedded wife;
She was cold, wet, and weary, 0!

"Why did you leave your houses and land, 
Or why did you leave your money, 0! 
Or why did you leave your good wedded Lord, 
To follow the Gypsie Laddy, 0?"

"0! what care I for houses and land,  
Or what care I for money, 0!
So as I have brew'd, so will I [ha' drank]; [<, < return.'

[In White-letter, a single narrow slip, set up by Southerners, probably as a page of some Chap-book ' Garland of Songs ' for circulation in the northern counties. Date eircd 1720, not earlier. No printer's name or woodcut. Gross are the blunders made through misunderstanding the Scotch words. Thus ' Laddy' became ' Loddy'; 'yett' in third line is rendered ' house' instead of gate. In the eighth line by a stupendous misprint we find " They called their Grandmother over, 0!" instead of the true line, " They cast their glamour o'er her, 0!" This casting glamour, or exercising a spell to bewilder her and control her will, is the chief ingredient in the Gipsy's witch-cauldron. But the lover's genuine eloquence is the white-magic: pleadings of passion would be sufficient to mislead an impressionable and beautiful woman, whose brief married life had been lonely and unhappy As in the 'Flightof the Duchess' (compare p. 149), the spectator knew that the gipsy was " bewitching my Lady." The Roxburghe stanzas 8th and 10th are not found elsewhere. The abruptness of the finale, the sacrifice of all the band " for ane, a fair wanton lady, is genuine.]

-------------------

Single Rhyme Ballads in the Child Corpus

The case of “The Gypsy Laddie” is just the opposite: There is really no
question about the provenance, but the date is unclear. The ballad seems unambiguously
Scots, but the earliest known text is in the 1740 Tea-Table Miscellany
(Child 1882–98, 4: 61). Bronson, however, feels that the connection with the
house of Cassilis can show us the way to an earlier date:

The first class [of tunes for “Gypsy Laddie”] has one of the longest
traditional sequences observable in all British balladry. Its earliest
appearance is in the Skene MS., ante 1630; its latest is current
today. The name which it bears in the Skene MS. is “Lady Cassiles
Lilt,” and Child as well as later students, failed, I believe, to note the
full implications of this fact. Child says that we have no evidence
that the ballad was associated in tradition with the Cassilis family
until the end of the eighteenth century. But this tune yields such
evidence. For it is indisputably the same tune as the one found with
our ballad in Johnson’s Museum and in a number of recent traditional
versions. The Skene tune was never translated from tablature
until Dauney published it in 1834, and anyhow it is obvious that
later variants have developed traditionally, not by derivation from
that or any other authoritative record. The most reasonable explanation
of such a phenomenon is that the ballad was associated with
the family which gave its name to the tune much earlier than explicit
statements survive to show, and earlier indeed—supposing the
ballad in anything like its later form to have been circulating around
1630—by nearly a hundred years than the first extant record of the
text. (1959–72, 3: 198)
The Skene Manuscript evidence thus pushes the record of “Gypsy Laddie” back into the early seventeenth century, a time when Gypsies had just been expelled from Scotland and several Gypsies named Johnnie Faw were hanged for violating the interdict (Child 1882–98, 4: 63–4).