A Sailor Bold- Mrs. Joiner (Herts) 1914 Broadwood
[From: Songs of Love and Country Life; by Lucy E. Broadwood, Cecil J. Sharp, Frank Kidson, Clive Carey and A. G. Gilchrist; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 5, No. 19 (Jun., 1915), pp. 174-203; Published by: English Folk Dance + Song Society. Their notes follow(after text).
"Near Woodstock Town," is also called "Oxfordhire Tragedy" by Chappell as first published in Roxburghe and is printed as "The Constant Lady and False-hearted Squire."
R. Matteson 2017]
DIED FOR LOVE; or, A SAILOR BOLD HE COURTED ME. (THIRD VERSION- 1st stanza air and FORTH VERSION- 2nd stanza air) SUNG BY MRS. JOINER, AT CHISWELL GREEN, HERTS., SEPT. 9TH 1914.
MIXOLYDIAN. Very slow. Noted by Lucy Broadwood.
[music- is a different air for 1st verse]
1. A sailor bold he courted me,
He stole away my liberty,
He stole it with a free good will,
He's got it now, and he'll keep it still.
2 There is an ale-house in the next town,
Where my love goes and sits himself down;
He takes another girl on his knee,
Pray, don't you think it a grief to me?
3 A grief to me, I will tell you why:
Because she's got more gold than I;
His gold will melt and his silver will fly,
In time [s]he'll [sic] be as poor as I.
4 I wish my little babe was born,
Sat smiling on her dadda's knee,
And I myself in the bed of clay
With the green grass growing all over me.
5 There is a flower, I've heard folks say,
That's called a hearts ease by night and day,
I wish I could that flower find
Would ease my heart, and cure my mind!
6 Then round the flowery fields she ran,
Gathering fine flowers all as they sprang;
Of every sort she plucked and pulled
Till at length she gather6d her apron full.
7 Then down she fell and no more spoke,
At least they thought her poor heart was broke;
Soon as they found her corpse was cold
They ran to her false love, and told:
8 "Oh, cruel man I know thou art
For breaking of thine own child's heart!
Now she in Abra'm's bosom shall sleep
While thy tormenting soul shall weep!
9 Dig her a grave both wide and deep,
Two marble stones at her head and feet,
And in the middle a turtle-dove
Will show the world round that she died of love.
10 I wish, I wish, but all in vain,
I wish she was a maid again!
No rest for me wherever I be!
I wish I'd died instead of she!
Mrs. Joiner's text, sung to the third and fourth versions, is an especially good one, containing several unusual stanzas. Note, also, that the " flower that would ease my heart by night and day " is called "hearts-ease" in her version. Fragments of this class of ballad are traceable to fairly old printed sources. In Child's Ballads, Vol. iv, p. I05, reference is made to " 'Arthur's Seat shall be my Bed,' etc., or, 'Love in Despair.' A new song much in request, sung with its own proper tune." This is No. 61 of Laing's Broadside Ballads, and, though not dated, is considered to have been printed towards the end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century, probably in Edinburgh. The fifth and tenth verses of " Arthur's Seat, etc.," run as follows:
5 Should I be bound, that may go free?
Should I love them that loves not me?
I'le rather travel into Spain,
Where I'le get love for love again.
10 Oh, oh, if my young babe were born
And set upon the nurse's knee,
And I myself were dead and gone !
For a maid again I'le never be.
Both the foregoing stanzas occur repeatedly in our traditional songs. In the Pepys Collection, Vol. v, p. 2I7, and in the Roxburghe Ballads (Ballad Society's Ed, Part xix, Vol. vi, p. 79I) is " An excellent New Song, call'd Nelly's Constancy; or Her Unkind Lover, who, after Contract of Marriage, leaves his first Mistress, for the sake of a better fortune. To a Pleasant New Tune; or Languishing Swain." This has twelve verses and is a white-letter broadside printed and sold by Charles Barnet, circa 1686. It begins:
1. I lov'd you dearly, I lov'd you well,
I lov'd you dearly, no Tongue can tell.
You love another, you love not me,
You care not for my company.
2 You love another, I'll tell you why,
Because she has more means than I,
But Means will waste, Love, and Means*; [sic]
In time thou may'st have no more than I.
3 If I had gold, Love, you should have part,
But as I've none, Love, thou hast my Heart;
Thou hast my Heart, Love, and free good will,
And in good truth I love thee still.
The ninth verse is as follows:
9 Although you do another take
And leave your first Love's heart to break,
It pleases me to dye for Love,
And do a faithful Virgin prove.
10 Then my advice is to each Maid,
Be careful lest your Heart's betray'd:
Believe not all young Men do say,
They'll vow they'll Love, yet go their way.
11 Like my dear Love that courted me,
Who's wed another, and gone to Sea,
Yet I a Sailor Boy love still,
And none but such shall gain my will.
* We can supply this hiatus from our traditional versions by adding "will fly."-L. E. B.
Vol. ii, p. I55; "Died for Love," Journal, Vol. ii, p. I58, and " In Jessie's City," Journal, Vol. ii, p. I59; also with " A brisk young Sailor courted me " in Mr. George Butterworth's Folk-Songs from Sussex (Augener, London), and a remotely-connected but especially beautiful variant from Dr. Vaughan Williams' collection, in Folk-Songs from the Eastern Counties (Novello, London). The airs sung by Mrs. Joiner (the third and fourth versions) are distinct from the others here given. She had not sung the song for a long time and confused the Mixolydian tunes at first, gradually keeping them better apart and for several verses at a time giving each tune quite separately. However, at times, she startled one thoroughly by singing F instead of C at the end of the fourth version. The third version is much the same as " I wish, I wish, but I wish in vain," No. 811, in the Complete Petrie Collection. The fourth version is very much like " A Sailor's Life is a merry one " noted by me in Surrey, see Journial, Vol. i, p. 100. Both third and fourth belong to "the Sailing Trade" type of tune.* There is a curious similarity between some of the airs to
"There is a Tavern in this Town " and certain tunes sung by German peasants to words beginning " Es stand ein Wirthshaus an dem Rhein." Of this last there is an unrhythmical example in Engel's Study of National Music, p. I45, and a better variant in the Neues Wunderhotn (Fischer and Franke, Berlin), where it is called "Das Wirtshaus an der Lahn." The German words are ironical at the expense of the "Wirtin," her man-servant and maid, and the soldiers who frequent the inn. -L. E. B.
Verse six of Mrs. Joiner's text occurs in the old printed ballad "Near Woodstock Town," another story of unhappy love, supposed to refer to Fair Rosamond. Verses three and four of this tell the same story of desertion, and pursuit of another maid. See Chappell's Popular Music for the full text. The late Mr. Hammond noted a traditional version of "Near Woodstock Town," and also the curious version of "The Brisk young Sailor" included in this Journal, which begins with a verse about "Three Worms on yonder Hill." It is possible that the two ballads have become confused. The Woodstock ballad speaks of the lady chiefly in the third person- like the later verses of Mrs. Joiner's version.-A. G. G.
* Cf. " I am a Rover," two tunes, in Mr. Kidson's Traditional Tunes