Charlie (Geordie)- Wells (NC) 1916 Sharp A
[My title. From: Cecil Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians- 1917; 1932. Notes from 1932 follow. Sharp used the generic title supplied by Child: Geordie. The title should be "Charlie" or perhaps "Charlie and Jinny." Surprisingly the third verse is missing a line and music should have been provided by Sharp- but wasn't.
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.
A. Charlie (Geordie)- Wells (NC) 1916 Sharp A. Sung by Mr. WILLIAM F. WELLS at Swannanoah, N. C, Sept. 9, 1916; Hexatonic. Mode 3, b. (Tonic A).
1. As I crossed over London's bridge
One morning bright and early,
I spied a maid for-bide the way
Lamenting for poor Charlie.
2. Charlie was the son of poor man
Who was loved by fair lady.
It's by his own confession he must die.
May the Lord have mercy on him.
3 Charlie never murdered any one.
. . . .
He stole sixteen of the king's white staff
And sold them in Virginee.
4 The king looked over his right shoulder
And thus he says to Charlie:
It's by your own confession you must die.
May the Lord have mercy on you.
5 The king looked over his left shoulder
And thus he says to Charlie:
It's by your own confession you must die.
Jinny have mercy on you.