Charlie (Geordie)- Gentry (NC) 1916 Sharp B
[My title. Sharp used the generic title supplied by Child: Geordie. The local title should be "Charlie." From: Cecil Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians- 1917; 1932. Notes from 1932 follow. Many of the US versions are related in part or wholly to Child's Appendix to Geordie, the broadside, "George of Oxford:"
"The Life and Death of George of Oxford. To a pleasant tune, called Poor Georgy." Roxburghe Collection, IV, 53, Pepys, II, 150, Jersey, I, 86, Huth, I, 150, according to Mr. J. W. Ebsworth, Roxburghe Ballads, VII, 70, 1890. It was printed for P. Brooksby, whose time Mr. Ebsworth gives as between 1671 and 1692.
1 As I went over London Bridge,
All in a misty morning,
There did I see one weep and mourn,
Lamenting for her Georgy.
This opening verse is not present in Child's versions A-L.
R. Matteson 2013]
Notes: No. 34. Geordie.
Texts without tunes:—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 209. Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North-East, i, art. 75. Broadside by Such. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 135. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxxii. 504. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, p. 435.
Texts with tunes :—Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, i. 53. Journal of the Folk- Song Society, ii. 27, 208 ; iii. 191 ; iv. 332. Kidson's Traditional Tunes, p. 25. L. Broadwood's Traditional Songs and Carols, p. 32. Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 187 and tune. Folk-Songs of England, ii, p. 47. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 2 (also published in English Folk Songs, Selected Edition, i. 24, and One Hundred English Folk-Songs, p. 24), Gavin Greig's Last Leaves, No 62. Scots Musical Museum, iii, No. 346.
B. ["Charlie."] - Sung by Mrs. JANE GENTRY at Hot Springs, N. C, Sept. 14, 1916; Hexatonic, Mode 2, a.
1. As I went over London's bridge
One morning bright and early,
I saw a maid forbide the way
Lamenting for poor Charlie.
2 It's Charlie's never robbed the king's high court,
Nor he's never murdered any,
But he stole sixteen of his milk-white steeds
And sold them in old Virginia.
3 Go saddle me my milk-white steed,
The brown one ain't so speedy,
And I'll ride away to the king's high court
Enquiring for poor Charlie.
4 She rode, she rode to the king's high court
Enquiring for poor Charlie.
Fair lady you have come too late,
For he's condemned already.
5 It's Charlie's never robbed the king's high court,
Nor he's never murdered any,
But he stole sixteen of his milk-white steeds
And sold them in old Virginia.
6 It's will you promise me? she said,
O promise me, I beg thee,
To hang him by a white silk cord
That never has hung any.