The King's Daughter- Gowl (Va.) 1913 Davis A
[From Traditional Ballads of Virginia; Davis 1929. Davis' notes follow.
R. Matteson 2011]
LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT
(CHILD, NO.4)
THIS ballad is one of the few most frequently found in Virginia, where variously known as "Pretty Polly," "The Seven King's Daughters," "King's Daughter," "The Pretty Gold Leaf," "The Salt Water Sea," "Miss Mary's Parrot," and under several other titles. Its polyonymity is almost equal to its ubiquity - twenty-eight variants under sixteen different titles. In Virginia it does not, however, when compared with" Barbara Allen," "The House Carpenter" and several others quite live up to its reputation of having obtained the widest circulation of all ballads. Child's remarkable introduction to this ballad discusses at some length its extraordinary currency in the southern as well as the northern nations of Europe. Space is also given to a consideration of the hypothesis that the ballad is a wild shoot from the story of Judith and Holofernes, with Holofernes the original of the Elf-Knight. Child concludes; "It is a supposition attended with less difficulty that an independent European tradition existed of a half-human, half-demonic being, who possessed an irresistible power of decoying away young maids, and was wont to kill them after he got them into his hands, but who at last found one who was more than his match, and lost his own life through her craft and courage. A modification of this story is afforded by the large class of Bluebeard tales."
All the Virginia texts correspond much more closely with the Child series C-G (and Sargent and Kittredge H) than to A and B. Warning might perhaps be given of the confusion of Pollies in most of the Virginia texts. The girl and the parrot have the same name and are not always immediately distinguishable.
For American findings of this ballad see Barry, No. 4; Belden, No. 1 (fragment); Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 2-4, 6-12; Campbell and Sharp, No. 2 (Massachusetts, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia); Child, III, 496 (Virginia, from The Folk-Lore Journal, VII, '28); Cox, No. I and p. 521 (fragment and melody); Hudson, No. I (Mississippi); Jones, p. 301 (fragment); Journal, XVIII, 132 (Barry, Massachusetts, text and melody); XIX, 232 (Belden, Missouri); XXII, 65 (Beatty, Wisconsin), 76 (Barry, New Jersey, melody only), 374 (Barry, Massachusetts, text and melody, Missouri), 344 (Barry, Massachusetts); XXVII, 90 (Gardner, Michigan); XXVIII, 148 (Perrow, North Carolina); XXXV, 338 (Tolman and Eddy, Ohio); Mackenzie, Ballads, No. I, and p. 391 (melody); Sandburg, P: 60 (R. W. Gordon Collection); Scarborough, p. 43 (Texas, text and melody); Shearin, p. 3; Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Reed Smith, No. I; Reed Smith, Ballads, No. I; Wyman and Brockway, p. 82. For additional references, see Cox, p. 3; Journal, XXIX,
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A. "The King's Daughter; or Pretty Polly." Collected by Miss Martha M. Davis. Sung by Mrs. Adam Gowl. Rockingham County, July 31, 1913.
1. He followed her up, he followed her down,
He followed her into the room,
She had n'r the heart one word to say,
Nor the tongue to tell him nay, nay, nay,
Nor the tongue to tell him nay.
2. "Go gather up your father's gold,
Likewise your mother's fee,
And two of your father's best horses,
Wherein there stood thirty and three, three, three,
Wherein there stood thirty and three."
3. He mounted upon his bonny black,
And she on the bible[1] bay,
And they rode along the broad water side,
One lonesome long summer day, day, day,
One lonesome long summer day.
4. "Get you down, get you down, my pretty Polly,
And chat here awhile with me,
For six king's daughters I've drowned here,
And the seventh you shall be, be, be,
And the seventh you shall be.
5. "Pull off, pull off that costly robe,
And lay it on yon lea[2],
For it is far too costly a robe,
To rot in the salt water sea, sea, sea,
To rot in the salt water sea."
6. "Turn your body around about,
Your face unto the sea,
For I think you are a false-hearted wretch,
A naked woman to see, see, see,
A naked woman to see."
7. He turned his body around about,
His face toward the sea.
She picked him up in her arms so strong,
And tossed him into the sea, sea, sea,
And tossed him into the sea.
8. "Some help! some help! my pretty Polly,
Some help! some help!" cried he,
"And if I ever recover again
I surely will marry thee, thee, thee,
I surely will marry thee."
9. "Lie there, lie there, you hard-hearted wretch,
Lie there instead of me,
For six king's daughters you've drowned there,
And the seventh you shall be, be, be,[3]
And the seventh you shall be."
10. She mounted upon the bonny black,
And led the bible bay,
And when she arrived at her father's house,
It was just two hours till day, day, day,
It was just two hours till day.
11. She placed the money in the drawer,
The horses where they stood,
And when she got to her own bed room,
It was just one hour till day, day, day,
It was just one hour till day.
12. Up spake her kind and good little parrot,
In its cage where it did stay,
"Where have you been, my pretty Polly,
This lonesome, long summer day, day, day,
This lonesome, long summer day?"
13. "Hush up, hush up, my pretty Polly,[4]
And tell no tales on me,
Your cage shall be made of a pure piece of gold,
And the door of ivory, -ry, -ry,
And the door of ivory."
14 Then up spake the kind and good old man,
From the bed wherein he lay,
"What makes you speak, my pretty Polly,'
So long before, 'tis day, day, day,
So long before 'tis day?"
15 "There were two cats at my cage door,
Offering violence unto me,
And I have called to pretty Polly,
To drive those cats away, -way, -way,
To drive those cats away."
Footnotes:
1. Probably for piebald. Cox suggests dapple.
2 Variant: on yonder sand.
3. Variant line: "And the seventh drowned you shall be, be, be."
4 "Polly" here refers to the parrot.