7Q. Deep in Love (Deep as in Love I Am) [See also: Down in a Meadow (Unfortunate Swain)]
A. "I Saw a Ship" sung by Newcastle miners communicated by C.L. Acland. From Notes and Queries p.441, 1867.
B. "Deep in Love" Sent to Baring-Gould by Miss Octavia L. Hoare, Cornwall Cottage Dean, Kimbolton about 1889 from Baring-Gould's MS. See also the published version [in blockquotes] of "Deep in Love" by the same informant, Rev. S. M. Walker, as it appears in Songs And Ballads Of The West (1891) by Sabine Baring-Gould, Henry Fleetwood Sheppard, Frederick William Bussell.
C. "I Spied a Ship Sailin' on the Sea"- sung by Miss Mutch collected by Gavin Grieg about 1908. Greig-Duncan Collection
D. "Seven Ships on the Sea" fragment sung by Jane Gentry in 1916 at Hot Springs, North Carolina; Sharp MS
[The identifying stanza for the Deep in Love songs begins "I saw a ship sailing on the deep" and has the key phrase "deep as in Love I am" in the third line. From this key phrase the title has been taken. The earliest[1] example of our identifying stanza is found in one of the Unfortunate Swain/Picking Lilies broadsides dated about 1750:
"A New Love Song"
I saw a Ship sailing on the Deep,
She sail'd as deep as she could swim;
But not so deep as in Love I am,
I care not whether it sink or swim.
Since the late 1880s[2] Sabine Baring-Gould called songs with this stanza and the "deep as in Love I am," identifying phrase, "Deep in Love." The title is arbitrary[3] and was accepted by the song collectors of Baring Gould's era (late 1800s and early 1900s) in the UK where versions of ballads with stanzas primarily from The Unfortunate Swain broadsides were sung. Unfortunately all songs with The Unfortunate Swain stanzas and even versions of Waly Waly with those stanzas became known as "Deep in Love." It mattered not whether the Deep in Love stanza was present.
The "I saw a ship/deep in love" stanza, which is now sung occasionally with the modern 3rd line "Deep as the love I'm in," has been associated with modern adaptations of Waly, Waly made in the late 1800s[4] and in particular the popular variation, "The Water is Wide[5]." I've identified what I believe is the antecedent "Deep in Love" stanza from the broadside, "The Sea-mans leave taken of his sweetest Margery" which was printed shortly after 1626 "For Francis Coles[6]." This is taken from the Second Part of the broadside:
The Sea-mans leave taken of his sweetest Margery,
AND
Margery her singing loath to depart,
Being very unwilling to leave her Sweet-heart.
To the tune of Ile goe through the world with thee.
Man.
I have seaven Ships upon the Sea,
and are all laden to the brim;
I am so inflamd with love to thee,
I care not whether they sinke or swim.
Later another stanza that is associated with The Unfortunate Swain appears:
Maid.
If I had wist before I had kist,
that Love had been so deare to win;
My heart I would have closd in Gold,
and pinnd it with a Silver pin.
* * * *
The standard accepted requirement to be a "Deep in Love" song or ballad in this study is simply this: It must have the "I saw a ship sailing on the deep" stanza with the identifying third line "But not so deep as in Love I am." If there is over two stanzas, the Deep in love stanza must be first. The reason is obvious: Since the ballad is made up of floaters, each unique stanza has its own identity and its own equal claim of ownership. In a song made up of floaters, the first stanza always has priority. Therefore the requirement to be titled "Deep in Love" should be similar and follow an acceptable procedure for creating titles[7]-- which will be covered more later. If the version, such as the one sung by Mrs. Gladys Stone of Fittleworth Sussex, has 8 stanzas from The Unfortunate Swain, it should be titled by the opening stanza ("Down in a valley") and it is a version of "Down in a Valley (Unfortunate Swain)."
"Deep in Love" is derived originally from "The Seaman's Leave," then from the Unfortunate Swain, then from "Deep in Love'" and is related to "The Water is Wide," a derivative of "Waly, Waly" and stanzas from other similar songs. "Deep in Love" however, is not part of the Died For Love songs ("Cruel Father," "Rambling Boy," "Brisk Young Lover," "I Wish, I Wish," "Complaining Maid," etc.). It's only through intermediate stanzas (Must I Go Bound; Unfortunate Swain; etc.) from the larger Died For Love family that "Deep in Love" is related.
The originator of the title, "Deep in Love" was Sabine Baring Gould. He published a traditional[8] version in his Songs And Ballads Of The West (1891). Baring-Gould did a study of the ballad as we can see from his detailed MS notes. Here's what he published in 1891:
LXXXVI. Deep in Love. This very curious song was obtained by the late Rev. S. M. Walker, of Saint Enoder, Cornwall, from an old man in his parish. Miss Octavia L. Hoare sent it me as preserved by Mr. Walker. We have obtained the same song from Mary Sacherley, aged 75, perfectly illiterate, at Huckaby Bridge, Dartmoor. Mary Sacherley is daughter of an old singing moor man, who was a cripple, on Dartmoor. She possesses the unique distinction of having a house that was built and inhabited in one day. The circumstances are these: Her husband's father had collected granite boulders to erect a cottage on a bit of land that he deemed waste, but a farmer interfered as he began to build. He accordingly had all the stones rolled down hill to a spot by the road side, heaped one on another in rude walls, rough beams thrown across, and covered with turf, and went into the house the same night. In that house his grandchildren are now living.
Two of the stanzas, 3 and 5, are found in the Scotch song, " Wally, Wally, up the bank," "Orpheus Caledonicus," 1733, No. 34; stanzas 4 and 5 in the song in "The Scott's Musical Museum," 1787 — 1803, VI., p. 582 ; Herd's "Scottish Songs," 3rd ed., 1791, I., p. 140; part of last stanza is like our conclusion. In "The Wandering Lover's Garland," circ. 1730, are two of the verses worked into an independent ballad, showing that the original is earlier. Again taken down from W. Nichols, of Whitchurch, near Tavistock, it was a song of his grandmother's, who sixty years ago was hostess of the village inn.
DEEP IN LOVE.
1. A ship came sailing over the sea,
As deeply laden as she could be;
My sorrows fill me to the brim,
I care not if I sink or swim.
2. Ten thousand ladies in the room,
But my true love's the fairest bloom,
Of stars she is my brightest sun,
I said I would have her or none.
3. I leaned my back against an oak.
But first It bent and then it broke;
Untrusty as I found that tree.
So did my love prove false to me.
4. Down in a mead[ow] the other day,
As carelessly I went my way,
And plucked flowers red and blue,
I little thought what love could do.
5. I saw a Rose with ruddy blush.
And thrust my hind into the bush,
I pricked my fingers to the bone,
I would I'd left that rose alone!
6. I wish! I wish! but 'tis in vain,
I wish I had I my heart again
With silver chain and diamond locks,
I'd fasten it in a golden box.
In stanza 4 (from "The Unfortunate Swain") he had "mead" instead of "meadow." This version is obviously rewritten to fit an AABB rhyme scheme. He even changed the "deep in love" line-- making the title irrelevant. Baring-Gould's MS notes for his various 'Died For Love" songs are transcribed here: http://www.sbgsongs.org/userimages/Deeplove-comp.pdf and include transcriptions of broadsides as well as several traditional versions. These are his final notes and do not show some of his original incomplete initial renderings of his informant's singing.
The placement of the identifying "Deep in Love" stanza as the opening stanza is one way to validate the title being "Deep in Love." Some other ways are: the identifying stanza is repeated as a chorus or if there are two stanzas in the variant. The "Deep in Love" stanza does not have other stanzas that usually go with it but rather it is from a set of stanzas found in "The Unfortunate Swain" which can reasonably be sung in any order. A number of "Unfortunate Swain" broadsides were printed starting about 1750-- also titled "Picking Lilies." This standard text is from The Merry Songster. Being a collection of songs, Printed and sold in Aldermary Church Yard, Bow Lane, London, [1770?]:
"The Unfortunate Swain"
1. Down in a Meadow both fair and gay,
Plucking a Flowers the other day,
Plucking a Flower both red and blue,
I little thought what Love could do.
2. Where Love's planted there it grow(s),
It buds and blows much like any Rose;
And has so sweet and pleasant smell,
No Flower on Earth can it excell.
3. Must I be bound and she be free?
Must I love one that loves not me?
Why should I act such a childish Part
To love a Girl that will break my Heart.
4. There's thousand thousands in room,
My true love carries the highest Bloom,
Sure she is some chosen one,
I will have her, or I'll have none.
5. I spy'd a Ship sailing on the Deep,
She sail'd as deep as she could swim;
But not so deep as in Love I am,
I care not whether I sink or swim.
6. I set my Back against an oak,
I thought it had been a Tree;
But first it bent and then it broke,
So did my false Love to me.
7. I put my Hand into a Bush,
Thinking the sweetest Rose to find,
l prick'd my Finger to the Bone,
And left the sweetest Rose behind.
8. If Roses are such prickly Flowers,
They should be gather'd while they're green,
And he that loves an unkind Lover,
I'm sure he strives against the stream.
9. When my love is dead and at her rest,
I'll think of her whom I love best
I'll wrap her up in Linnen strong,
And think on her when she's dead and gon[e].
Songs related to or derived from The Unfortunate Swain, also known as Picking Lilies, are identified by the opening, "Down in the Meadow." Notice that Baring-Gould's "Deep in Love" stanza 4 opens with "Down in a Meadow[9]." Stanzas 7 and 8 are usually joined and come from Martin Parker's "Distressed Virgin" of c.1626. The other stanzas usually appear along with the "Deep in Love" stanza in print and in tradition. The choice and the order of stanzas seem arbitrary. What's remarkable is that the individual stanzas exhibit a wide variety of emotions from the exhilaration of love (stanzas 1, 2,4,5) to the agony of despair and death (stanzas 3,6,7,8,9).
The first stanza or more accurately the first line is occasionally found in the Died for Love songs and their relatives. It's mixed with a similar first line (first stanza) from "Constant Lady," a broadside more commonly used in Died for Love. Stanza 4 ("If there's a thousand in the room") is found in Sailor Boy (Sweet William) a relative[10] of Died for Love.
A number of versions have the "Deep in Love" identifying stanza and in most cases they are simply variants of The Unfortunate Swain. When stanzas from other songs are mixed in -- identifying the song becomes tricky and it's often a judgment call. This is an older traditional English variant from the Thomas Hepple Manuscript. The details are provided in the excellent online article "The Water is Wide[11]":
In 1855 the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne "appointed a committee 'to protect and preserve the ancient melodies of Northumberland." Two years later the Duke of Northumberland offered prizes for the two best collections of "ancient Northumbrian music". Thomas Hepple, a "local singer" from Kirkwhelpington, sent in his manuscript of 24 songs, in his own words "some old ballads I have had off by ear since boyhood" (Lloyd, Foreword to Bruce/Stokoe, pp. vi & xi; Rutherford 1964, pp. 270-2). His text – with six of the nine original verses - is very close to the printed versions and one may assume that he or his source had learned the song from a broadside or chapbook (online available at FARNE). The tune is clearly related to the one published in the Scots Musical Museum:
"Down In Yon Meadows" from the Thomas Hepple; Manuscript, about 1857:
Down in a meadow fresh & gay
Plucking flowers the other day,
Plucking flowers both red and blue,
I little thought what love could do.
Where love is planted there it grows,
It buds & blossoms like any rose,
Such a sweet and pleasant smell,
All flowers on earth can it excel.
There thousands thousands all in a room,
My love she carries the highest bloom,
Surely she must be some chosen one,
I will have her or, I will have none.
I put my hand into a bush,
Thinking the sweetest rose to find,
But I prick'd my finger to the bone,
I left the sweetest rose behind.
I spy'd a ship sailing on the sea
Laden as deep as she could be,
But not deep as in love I am,
I care not whether she sink or swim.
Must I be bound and she go free
Must I love one that loves not me;
Why should I act such a childish part
To love a girl that should break my heart.
This variant of Unfortunate Swain is listed as a version of "Deep in Love" by Roud because most versions of the Unfortunate Swain are listed that way. The categorization by Roud is based on Baring-Gould's published versions where "Deep in Love" has erroneously been the master title for the Unfortunate Swain songs. In my opinion this is a version of "Down In Yon Meadows" and those versions should be categorized either under Unfortunate Swain or under the first line "Down in the Meadow," as I've done [see: Down in the Meadow (Unfortunate Swain) for more information].
* * * *
Here is my A version-- a variant without titles that was reported to have been sung by Newcastle miners. From Notes and Queries (page 441) 1867:
Song.—I came across a song a few days ago, of which I append the words. I was told that it is a fragment of a song frequently sung by the Newcastle pitmen. The melody, as I heard it, is very quaint, and also good, and has an ancient ring about it. Perhaps you or some of your readers can give the rest of the song, or anything of its history, &c.
[A. Deep in Love]
"I saw a ship sailing on the sea.
As deeply laden as she could be j
But not so deep as in love I am,
For I care not whether I sink or swim.
"I leaned my back against an oak,
Thinking it was some trusty tree;
But first it bent, and then it broke,
And so did my false love to me.
"I put my hand into a thorn,
Thinking the sweetest rose to find;
I pricked my finger to the bone.
And left the beauteous flower behind.
"I wish, I wish, but 'tis all in vain—
I wish I had my heart back again;
I'd lock it up in a silver box,
And fasten it with a golden chain."
C. L. Acland.
This version from Acland at least places the "deep in love" stanza at the beginning as the first stanza just as the next version does. This next variant, my B version, is the actual text sent to Baring-Gould by Miss Octavia L. Hoare, Cornwall Cottage Dean, Kimbolton with the following comment: “Herewith I send melody & words of what I believe to be an old Cornish song. I heard it sung by an old Cornish parson, Mr Walker of S. Enoder, who had picked it up from an old fellow in his parish.” See above in blockquotes the text Baring-Gould actually published.
B. "Deep in Love" traditional version
1. A ship came sailing o’er the sea,
As heavily laden as she might be,
But not so deep in love as I’m
For I care not whether I sink or swim.
2. I leaned my back against an oak,
Thinks I, I’ve found a trusty tree,
But first it bent & then it broke,
And so did my false love to me.
3. I put my hand into a bush,
I thought a lovely rose to find,
I pricked my fingers to the bone,
And left this lovely rose behind.
4. I wish! I wish! but ‘tis in vain,
I wish I had my heart again,
I’d lock it in a golden box,
I’d fasten it with a silver chain.
* * * *
From the Greig Duncan collection, No. 1918, comes this fragment, my C version, which also may be considered a version of "Deep in Love":
I Spied a Ship Sailin' on the Sea- sung by Miss Mutch collected by Gavin Grieg about 1908.
1. I spied a ship, sailin' on the sea,
As deeply loaded as she can be,
But not so deep as my love and me,
It made the tears roll fae my e'e.
2. I love your father, and I love your mother,
I lovr your sisters, likewise your brothers
Bot I love yourself o'er a' your kin
And I love the ship my love sails in.
One extant version from North America which could be considered a version of Deep in Love has been found[12]. It's a fragment of two verses that were recorded by Cecil Sharp from the singing of Jane Gentry in 1916 in North Carolina (Sharp Ms.: CJS2/9/2544 (text), CJS2/10/3456 (tune) at The Full English Digital Archive; see also Smith 1998, p. 157). The melody is very different different from all the others we have come across so far:
As I walked out one morning in May,
A-gathering flowers all so gay,
I gathered white and I gathered blue,
But little did I know what love can do.
Seven ships on the sea,
Heavy loaded as they can be,
Deep in love as I have been,
But little do I care if they sink or swim.
Two other US versions of Gathering Flowers exist (one before the Civil War) that include the "Must I Go Bound" stanza as a secondary stanza. Gathering Flowers (See: Unfortunate Swain) was known as a play-party song in Appalachia and the American South. Since this version by Gentry has only two stanzas, either stanza may be used as the identifying stanza.
R. Matteson 2017]
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Footnotes:
1. "A New Love Song" [Unfortunate Swain] from a c.1750 broadside (Roxburghe Ballads III.421, available at the English Broadside Ballad Archive, EBBA; ESTC T52067, also available at EEBO), probably printed by J. White of Newcastle.
2. This was about the time that Sabine Baring Gould created the title by rearranging the phrase "deep as in Love I am." Baring Gould began collecting versions around 1889 and the title appears in numerous places in this notebooks. Baring Gould published his first version of "Deep in Love" in "Songs of the West" 1891 edition(see text on this page).
3. The stanzas in Unfortunate Swain are all floating stanzas except for 7 and 8 which are from the same source originally (Lawrence Price) and should be joined. They are all independent stanzas any of which could be the title stanza if it was sung first or as a chorus. To title every ballad(song) "Deep in Love" when the "deep in love" stanza is not even present, seems ludicrous although I understand this has been established and accepted as reasonable- even though it clearly isn't. As the senor statesman and songwriter Sir Paul once penned, "Let it be."
4. These texts include stanzas from other songs including the English folk song 'I'm drunk and seldom Sober."
5. Sharp first included this text with melody in his Folk Songs from Somerset in 1906.
6. The date could be some years later; according to one source it was "shortly after 1626."
7. A procedure for creating titles has not been standardized and accepted universally. I'm not sure if anyone has ever formulated an acceptable procedure-- mine is simple. The title should be a local title from the informant, obtained without coaching from the collector. That local title, with few exceptions should be based on the text of the song. Without a local title, a title can be applied by the collector or publisher using the text as a guideline-- or it may be left off. When categorizing a song under its most widely known title, the local title should still be used with the standard title in parenthesis to help identify the song.
8. Although the text was obtained from an informant, it is heavily reworked and should be regarded as an arrangement. See the actual traditional text as my B version.
9. It appears "down in a mead" evidently an error since print versions all have "meadow."
10. Print versions of Sailor Boy only have the letter writing stanzas in common with Died in Love but most traditional versions have additional Died for Love stanzas especially the "Go dig a grave" ending.
11. Details provided in the excellent article "The Water Is Wide" The History Of A "Folksong" by Jurgen Kloss.
12. Whether this is a version is arbitrary, the second stanza is the only consistent stanza since the first stanza is a corruption of the first stanza of Unfortunate Swain 1st stanza. Since the opening line has been borrowed from another song, using that to identify the fragment would be confusing and not properly identify it.