British & Other Versions 7O. Must I Go Bound?
[The archaic stanza "Must I Go Bound" dates back to the early 1600s where it is found in "The Maiden's Complaint"[1], 1633-4,
Shall I be bound, that may be free?
Shall I love them that love not me?
Why should I thus seeme to complaine?
I see that I cannot him obtain.
In the UK it is identified first with a stanza found in the Unfortunate Swain/Picking Lilies broadsides dating back to at least 1750:
Must I be bound, must she be free,
Must I love one that loves not me;
If I should act such a childish part
To love a girl that will break my heart.
This popular variant of the "Must I Go Bound" stanza is found in variants of songs that are related to Unfortunate Swain/Picking Lilies and the extended family which includes "Waly, Waly," "Water is Wide," "Prickly Rose," and "Deep in Love." Since Unfortunate Swain/Picking Lilies is made up largely from floating stanzas, these stanzas are reordered to form variants and other stanzas are added often from Died for Love or its parallel, the broadside "Constant Lady."
In the late 1700s "gift" stanzas were added that are also found in the "Complaining Maid" broadside of 1710. These gifts were given to the maid by her lover but prove to be a burden and hardship for the maid. A variant form of the "gift" stanza is found in the broadside ballad[2], "The Complaining Lover - A New Song" (ca. 1795). It is given here in full:
Must I be bound that can go free,
Must I love one that loves not me.
Let reason rule thy wretched mind,
Altho' I wink I am not blind.
He loves another one he loves not me,
No cares he for my company,
He loves another I'll tell you why
Because she has more gold than I.
Gold will wast and Silver will flys,
In time she may have as little as I,
Had I but gold and Silver in store,
He would like me as he has done before.
He gave me honey mixt with gall,
He gave me words and blows withal,
He bought me a dilacte [delicate] Gown to wear,
Hem'd with sorrow and stich'd with care.
If I should gain my Liberty,
In a short time I shall get free,
I will buy me a dilacate gown to wear,
Not hem'd with sorrow or stich with care.
No Vallintine shall ev'r me see,
No wanton Lad shall lie with me,
No man shall come a near my ground,
'Until I see my loves health go round.
Tis his healthe I mean to drink,
From his arms I never will shrink,
He has my heart with a free good will,
And wherever he goes I will love him still.
My love he is not Black but he is brown,
And still he is worthy to where [wear] a crown,
He has a handsome foot and a delicate toe
And a Blessing go with him wherever he goes.
The "Must I go Bound? stanza appears first and increases its importance in this broadside. The gift stanza is the 4th and stanzas 2 and 3 are closely related to the Died for Love songs "Alehouse" and "Brisk Young Lover." A similar version was collected by H. E. D. Hammond from Jacob Baker of Dorset in 1905. In 1928 Sam Henry published two Irish versions (a girl's version and a lad's) he titled, "Must I Go Bound?" The "gift" stanza in the girl's version appears:
The first thing that he brought me was a necktie to wear,
It was lined with sorrow and bound with care,
He brought me vinegar mixed with gall,
And he gave me blows far worse than all.
In 1967 Stephen Sedley included a version titled Must I Go Bound in his book, The Seeds of Love. This modern collation included the text and tune from Christie's "The Belt Wi' Colours Three" with additions from the versions in Sam Henry plus other material from unacknowledged sources. Christie's Scottish "gift" stanzas appear:
"The Belt Wi' Colours Three" (Excerpt)
"The firsten thing my lad gae to me
It was a cap well lined wi' lead
And aye the langer that I wore it
It grew the heavier on my head.
Oh for me now there is no comfort
And for me now there is no supplie
Lat ne'er a lass love any young man
Until she know that she lovèd be.
"The nexten thing my lad gae to me
It was a mantle wi' sorrow lined
And lang will I wear that black mantle
Till one to borrow it I find.
Oh for me now there is no comfort, &c.
The thirden thing my lad gae to me
It was a belt wi' colours three
The first was shame the next was sorrow
The last of all sad miserie.
Oh for me now &c.
One adaptation is June Tabor's version from "Quiet Eye"[3]:
Must I be bound while you go free?
Must I love one who never loved me?
Must I enact such a childish part
And follow one who will break my heart?
The first thing that my love gave me,
It was a cap well lined with lead.
The longer that I wore that cap,
It grew the heavier on my head.
You gave me a mantle for to wear,
Lined with grief and stitched with care.
And the drink you gave me was bitter gall
And the blows you gave to me were worse than all.
And the last thing that my love gave me gave me,
It was a belt with colours three.
And the first was pain and the next was sorrow
And the last it was sad misery.
But I will climb up that high, high tree,
And I will rob that wild bird's nest
And I will fall without a fear
And find me one that loves me the best.
A number of similar cover versions followed Sedley's version including Yorkshire Relish, John Kirkpatrick and Sue Harris, Maddy Prior, Carolyn Robson and the Tabbush Sisters, The Witches of Elswick, also Rachel Newton. One report[4] states Tabor's version "came from the Shropshire gypsy singer May Bradley." Bradley's version is unknown.
Although not a UK version, a different version was recorded in 1965 by Canadian Buffy Sainte-Marie which has the floating stanzas associated with Unfortunate Swain. The other popular version of Must I Go Bound is the Irish fragment published by Herbert Hughes in "Irish Country Songs," Volume I, 1909:
MUST I GO BOUND AND YOU GO FREE- Fragment of an old song from County Derry
Must I go bound and you go free,
Must I love the lass who wouldn't love me,
Was e'er I taught so poor a wit,
As to love the lass would break my heart.
I put my finger to the bush,
To pluck the fairest rose,
I pricked my finger to the bone,
Ah, but then I left the rose behind.
So must I go bound and you go free,
Must I love the lass who wouldn't love me,
Was e'er I taught so poor a wit,
As to love the lass would break my heart.
Hughes short song shows the association with Unfortunate Swain/Waly, Waly group of songs mentioned in the opening. Various cover songs of this versions of Hughes song have been made in the UK and America.
For more information see Main Headnotes and a post on Mudcat Discussion forum.
R. Matteson 2017]
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Footnotes:
1. Posted by Bruce Olsen on Mudcat; See complete text on p.97 of Publications of the Ballad Society, Volume 4 by Ballad Society.
2. From: Madden Ballads 2-1082, ESTC T198961
3. Tabor's version, according to a post on Mudcat Discussion Forum is taken from May Bradley.
4. The full quote from the Mudcat Discussion Forum is "June Tabor's version is similar to one which John Kirkpatrick and Sue Harris used to perform. They said it came from the Shropshire gipsy singer May Bradley."
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Random notes and versions
wo versions in Sam Henry, one for girls, one for lads:
Lyr. Add: MUST I GO BOUND?
(Lad's version)
Must I go bound and you go free?
Must I love them that wouldn't love me?
Or could I act a childish part,
And go with Martha that broke my heart?
One day I heard a shepherd sing
That marrying was a very fine thing,
But to my grief I found it so,
That my marriage day soon turned to woe.
The first thing that she brought me was a necktie to wear,
It was lined with sorrow and bound with care,
She brought me vinegar mixed with gall,
And she gave me blows far worse than all.
When I had money, she had part,
When I had none, she had my heart,
The more I wink, sure I am not blind,
When she had money, it was none of mine.
The fields are green and the meadows gay,
The leaves are spreading on every tree,
But the time will come, and then you'll see
She'll be tripping upstairs with gramachree.
Lad's "a retaliatory plagiarism." This version H218b, 1928
Sam Henry's Songs of the People, ed. Huntington and revised by Lani Herrmann, Univ. Georgia Press, 1990. P. 386.
MUST I GO BOUND?
(Girl's version, Sam Henry)
Key of E flat.
Must I go bound and you go free?
Should I love them that wouldn't love me?
Or should I act the childish part,
To follow the lad that would break my heart?
Once I heard a fair maid sing
That marriage was a pleasant thing,
But for myself I can't say so,
My wedding day cost me great woe.
The first thing he brought me was a mantle to wear,
It was lined with sorrow and bound with care,
And the drink he gave me was vinegar and gall,
And the blows he gave me were worse than all.
The fields are green and the meadows gay,
The leaves are spreading on every tree,
The time will come and soon it will be,
He'll rue the day he slighted me.
There is a bird sits on yon tree,
Some say it's blind and does not see;
Oh, I wish it had been the case with me
When first I fell into his companie.
I wish and I wish and I wish in vain,
I wish my sweetheart would come again,
He's far away now across the sea,
And my heart is breaking, och, anee!
As noted with the Lad's version, Sam Henry "Songs..." p. 386.
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[Malcolm Douglas]
"Must I be bound" was published by EFDSS in Stephen Sedley's anthology, the Seeds of Love, attributed principally to the Sam Henry collection but overlaps with "Deep in Love" - also published by EFDSS in Marrow Bones, Hammond and Gardiner collection.
Sedley's notes are, as often, misleading. His collation includes only two verses deriving (modified to fit a different tune) from Sam Henry's collection (H218a): 1 and 3. Verses 2 and 4 are adapted from Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, II, 1881, 226-7). The first and last verses are "floaters"; Must I go Bound is really a different song. This one is less often found, and generally as The Belt Wi' Colours Three (as in Christie); there is no mention of physical violence in the Scottish examples.
Sedley seems to have adapted the tune from Christie, too, though (surprise...) he doesn't say. I do hope that Willa remembers the immediate source of this; it does look rather as if it's a slightly altered form of the Sedley collation rather than a genuinely traditional example, but you never can be sure without the details. I don't have time to "translate" Willa's tune indication, unfortunately, but it looks rather like Sedley's adaptation transposed.
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Must I Be Bound
From: Malcolm Douglas - PM
Date: 02 Sep 04 - 07:02 PM
The "notes" at Folktrax should be disregarded by everybody who doesn't know what they mean; they will only confuse most people, and probably shouldn't be directly quoted here.
If we are to refer to every song that contains the extremely common floating verse beginning "Must I go bound", we will be here forever. The appearance of that verse in a song is not, in itself, evidence of any relationship with any other song containing the same verse. Evidence of relationship must be sought elsewhere. That's not to say that there aren't a great many fine examples of the song-group to be found, of course. The issue is what is helpful in this particular discussion.
To stick, for the moment, to the song Willa posted; I may as well supplement in this new thread the comments I made in the old one. On re-examining the Belt Wi' Colours Three text in Ord's Bothy Ballads (1930), my impression is that it was probably copied from Christie with some minor editorial modifications.
Christie comments on his penultimate verse (the final verse in Sedley's collation), mentioning that a similar one appeared in As I cam' down by yon Castle wa' (contributed by Burns to the Scots Musical Museum, 1792).
All he has to say about his text and tune is "The Editor can trace this beautiful old Air and Ballad, through his relatives, far into the last century."
That's the 18th, of course. A broadside origin isn't unlikely for that particular song. The Sam Henry example happens to have a couple of lines reminiscent of the Christie song (and which may perhaps have wandered in from it; a lot of singers read song books) and on the strength of that, Sedley drafted in some more.
Whether or not that was Peggy Seeger's source, we won't know until the book is identified and any information it may contain is quoted. At the moment, my money's on Sedley.