Charlie and Bessie- Mrs. Greene (NC) 1907 Brown B
[From: The Brown Collection Volume 2, 1952, music from Volume 4 (bottom of the page). Their notes follow.
The editor, is confused about the nature of Silver Dagger, which was written from the traditional ballad-- both have silver dagger in them.
R. Matteson 2016]
71. The Drowsy Sleeper
Familiar both in print and as traditional song on both sides of the water; see BSM 1 18-19, and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 56-7), North Carolina (FSRA 81-2; a fragment of it sung by Negroes, ANFS 177-8), Florida (SFLQ viii 167-8), Arkansas (OFS i 246), Missouri (OFS i 244-6), Ohio (BSO 92-4), Indiana (BSI 170-4), Michigan (BSSM 86-8), Illinois (JAFL LX 223-4), and Wisconsin (JAFL lii 31). Mrs. Steely found it in the Ebenezer community in Wake county. It is No. 518 in the series of stall ballads printed by Wehnian in New York. For its possible relation to the Gude and Godlie Ballads of 1567, see JEFDSS in 161-4. Very often it is combined, as in version B below, with 'The Silver Dagger,' probably because of the weapon (sometimes specifically a dagger) which the girl tells her lover that her father (or mother) has in readiness against him.
B. 'Charlie and Bessie.' Contributed by W. Amos Abrams of Boone in 1937 with the note that "my father learned this from my mother about 1907." Here the story is definitely combined with that of 'The Silver Dagger.'
1 'Bessie, oh, Bessie, go and ask your father
If you can be a bride of mine.
And if he says "no," please come and tell me
And I'll no longer bother thee.'
2 'Oh, Charlie, oh, Charlie, I need not ask him.
He's in the room a-taking his rest,
And in his right hand a silver dagger
To kill the one that I love best.'
3 'Bessie, oh, Bessie, go ask your mother
If you can be a bride of mine.
And if she says "no," please come and tell me
And I'll no longer bother thee.'
4 'Charlie, oh, Charlie, I need not ask her.
She's in the room a-taking her rest.
And in her right hand a silver dagger
To kill the one that I love best.'
5 And he taken up that silver dagger
And plunged it in his snowy white breast.
Saying, 'Farewell, Bessie, farewell, darling;
Sometimes the best of friends must part.'
6 And she taken up that bloody weapon
And plunged it in her lily-white breast.
Saying, 'Farewell, father; farewell, mother;
I'll die with the one that I love best.'
_____________________
B. 'Charlie and Bessie.' Sung by Mrs. B. Greene. Recorded at Zionville, Watauga county, September 11, 1939. Other titles given are 'The Silver Dagger' and 'Wake Up, You Drowsy Sleeper.'
[music upcoming]
For melodic relationship cf. *SharpK i 358, No. 57A, measures 2-8, general melodic outline. Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: g. Structure: aba^bi (2,2,2,2) = aa2 (4,4).