Black-eyed Davey- Fish (NH) 1940 Flanders B/ Warner
[From Ancient Ballads, III, 1963. Flanders notes follow. Also in Warner, see text at bottom of this page. It was covered by Cordelia's Dad with additional verses.
After you've seen a number of texts you can spot something fishy- and in this case I'm not referring to the informant. This seem like a ballad recreation. Fish has composed ballads before based on print. Just my gut instinct. She obviously sang the version as well- at least the opening stanza. There are no versions that have, for example, in the penultimate stanza:
An honored, titled lady;
It's too prim and proper with too many untraditional (nice word, eh) lines. Stamp this one a ballad recreation, or arrangement. Plus, there needs to be at least the question, "Where did you learn this one?" asked. Usually Flanders asks, but it's not given here. It's found in Warner and other collectors who used Fish as an informant-- and an excellent informant she was, in most cases. Flanders like Davis, includes some versions given by traditional informants that should be scrutinized-- it's easier to pad the collection and avoid conflicts with informants.
R. Matteson 2015]
The Gypsy Laddie
(Child 200)
This is a very well-known song, one of the few Child ballads sung by educated persons who have no interest in folklore. It tells a romantic tale that would do justice to an operatic setting. Some gypsies sing bewitching songs at a lord's gate. So fascinating is the music, the lady of the house comes down and finds herself completely charmed. she gives herself to the gypsy leader Johnny Faw, or Johnny the Seer, and they ride off. Her lord finds her gone upon his return and hurries off in pursuit. Sometimes he captures the gypsies and hangs them. More often the tale takes a more sentimental turn and the lady refuses to return with her husband, giving away her baby and feather bed for true love.
Johhnny Faw was a common name for gypsies. Child, IV, 61 f., lists a number of incidents where men called this were sentenced to death, and he also cites the tendency in Aryshire to associate the story with the wife of the Earl of Cassilis. In America, however, the names Faw and Cassilis are never mentioned, and the "gypsies" may become only "a lover" or even "an Indian." The New World texts vary widely as to detail and story. See Coffin, 120-124, for discussion and bibliography. Over here the versions are generally related to the child G-J tradition, but localization of events and corruption by other songs, such as "I'm Seventeen come Sunday" is not unusual. "The Gypsy Laddie" was parodied in The Forget-me-not Songster (New York, 1872), and most American texts, unlike the British, have nonsense refrains.
The twenty-six Flanders texts give one a fairly good summary of the song as it is in the New World. The A version, with the seven gypsies in a row, follows the Child G-I tradition. Flanders B is striking in that stanzas 2-6 are a monologue by the lady and are framed by two descriptive stanzas --the opening one being unusual and the closing one consisting of lines that often start the song. C is a version of a broadside from the Alfred M. Williams Collection of Irish Broadsides in the Providence Public Library (see Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 275, and his text E). Flanders D-F are of the most common American sort, although E may be unique in this country if "Lord o' Castle" was once "Lord Cassilis." The G-Y group is from the same tradition as Child J (see Barry, op. cit., 269 f., for discussion), In that series, J has the remarkable finish in which the lord kilts his wife as well as the gypsy. H and I are not so unusual in having the lord remarry (see Child J), but this feature is often left out. R and S are interesting for their phraseology, S perhaps being corrupted by "The Frog Went a-Courtin' "
and other matter.
For bibliography beyond that in Coffin, see Dean-Smith, 69, and Belden, 73-74 (English); Greig and Keith, 126-129, and Ord , 411 (Scottish). There is an analogous Danish ballad in Svend Grundtvig, Danmarhs gamle Folheuiser (Copenhagen, 1853), No. 369.
With the exception of the L.N.C. tune, and the possible exception of the Brigham tune, all the tunes for Child 200 are related. The remaining ones can be divided into sub-families as follows: I) Pease, Richards, Taylor; 2) Woodbury, Erskine; 3) Fish. The Pease and Taylor tunes are especially close.
B. Black-eyed Davey. As sung by Mrs. Lena Bourne Fish of East Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Her address was furnished by Mrs. Carl L. Schrader, Chairman of Fine Arts, General Federation of Women's Clubs. M. Olney, Collector; July 10, 1940. Structure: A.1, A.2, B, C (2,2,2,2); Rhythm C; Contour: arc; Scale: Mixolydian; t.c. D. For mel. rel., see FES, 272.
A gypsy king rode over the hills,
Defying storm and danger;
And it seemed to be my lot to fall
In love with the dark-eyed stranger.
He has asked me to be his bride
To be his honored lady,
Has asked me to leave my home and kin
And follow Gypsy Davey.
I do not envy our honored queen
Or any titled lady;
I'd rather be a gypsy queen
And the bride of black-eyed Davey.
They tell me to marry beneath my rank
Is nothing short of danger,
Yet title or gold cannot compare
With my love for the dark-eyed stranger.
I would not marry a lord or prince
Nor desire to be their lady,
For I have given my heart's best love
To black-eyed Gypsy Davey.
Last night I slept on a down feather bed,
An honored, titled lady;
Tonight I'll sleep in the green grass field,
By the side of Gypsy Davey.
So when the lord came home at night,
Inquiring for his lady,
The servants made him this reply:
"She's gone with Gypsy Davey."
_______________________
Gypsy Davy- from Lena Bourne "Grammy" Fish, of East Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Recorded in 1940 by Frank Warner.
A gypsy king come over the hill
Defying storm and danger
It seemed to be my lot to fall
In love with the dark-eyed stranger
He has asked me to be his wife
To be his honored lady
Has asked me to leave my home and kin
And follow the Gypsy Davy
They tell me to marry beneath my rank
Is nothing short of danger.
But title and gold cannot compare
With my love for the dark-eyed stranger.
I do not envy our honored queen
Or any titled lady
I'd rather be a gypsy queen
The bride of my black-eyed Davy
Last night I slept in a down-feather bed
An honored and titled lady
But tonight I'll sleep in the green, green fields
By the side of Gypsy Davy
So when the lord come home in the night
Inquiring for his lady
The servants made him this reply
"She's gone with the Gypsy Davy."