The Child Ballad in America: Some Aesthetic Criteria
The Child Ballad in America: Some Aesthetic Criteria
by Stanley Edgar Hyman
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 70, No. 277 (Jul. - Sep., 1957), pp. 235-239
THE CHILD B ALLAD IN AMERICA: SOME AESTHETIC CRITERIA
BY STANLEY EDGAR HYMAN
MOST of the attention that has been paid to the words of the Child ballad in America has been scholarly; I should like to propose some critical considerations. The most comprehensive study we have had in the field, Tristram P. Coffin's critical bibliography, The British Traditional Ballad in North America (Philadelphia, 1950), is an invaluable work, but it is confined by its nature to description and classification primarily in terms of plot, which John Crowe Ransom would call poetic structure rather than texture. In his introductory essay, "A Description of Variation in the Traditional Ballad of America," Coffin manages to discuss most varieties of alteration, in texture as well as structure, with their causes, but as a scholar he is forced to discuss them rather neutrally and eschew conclusions, whereas as critics we may build on his work and reprehend as forcibly as we wish. Coffin lists (p. ii) some factors causing change-we might say degeneration-in basic plot or mood as follows:
Such headings would include the elimination of action, development toward lyric, loss of detail through forgetting; fragmentation; convention and cliche; localization; the effect of literalness; rationalization; sentimentalization; moralization; manner of use; secondary growth; new ballads which rise from the old; and mergers.
Somewhat less neutrally, he adds (p. x8), "Squeamishness and religious scruples continually haunt the American folk singer."
I should like to consider the problem rather differently, primarily in terms of an
Old World configurationw e find in the Child ballads,a nd a New World configuration
they adapt to here. For convenience, my examples will be taken wherever possible
from MacEdward Leach's new anthology,[1] which offers a representative American
text or two for many of its Child ballads. We must first note that fewer than half
of Child's 305 ballads ever got here at all, and of those that did, most never attained
American popularity. Only a handful have been widespread in the United States.
Mrs. Jane Gentry of Hot Springs, North Carolina, sang sixty-four different songs for
Cecil Sharp, at least fifteen of them Child ballads.[2] Her repertoire, although unusually
full, seems fairly typical, and her fifteen traditional ballads are a good sampling of
some of the more popular ones in America. She sang "The False Knight upon the
Road" (Child 3), "The Twa Sisters" (Child io), "Edward" (Child I3), "The Cherry
Tree Carol" (Child 54), "Young Hunting" (Child 68), "Lord Thomas and Fair
Annet" (Child 73), "The Wife of Usher's Well" (Child 79), "Little Musgrave and
Lady Barnard" (Child 8i), "Lamkin" (Child 93), "Johnie Scot" (Child 99),
"Geordie" (Child 209), "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (Child 243), "The
Gray Cock" (Child 248), "Our Goodman" (Child 274), and "The Sweet Trinity"
(Child 286).
Among the important ballads that never got to America are some that seem too grimly supernatural, such as "Gil Brenton" (Child 5); some patently too disreputable, such as "Kempy Kaye" (Child 33); and a group in which villainy triumphs or evil
goes unpunished, among them "Clerk Saunders" (Child 69), "Young Waters" (Child
94), "Johnie Armstrong" (Child I69), and "The Baron of Brackley" (Child 203).
Among those of very limited appearance here, for similar reasons, are such fine
ballads as "The Twa Magicians" (Child 44), "Sir Patrick Spens" (Child 58), "The
Unquiet Grave" (Child 78), "Child Maurice" (Child 83), and "Johnie Cock" (Child
II4).
Those ballads that do survive the ocean voyage suffer curious sea changes. Magic
and the supernatural slough off readily, even where they seem the ballad's point, and
demons, ghosts, elves, and mermaids rationalize and humanize. The terrible death
curse of the victim in "The Twa Sisters," spoken by a harp strung with her hair,
tends to disappear in the American versions, along with the harp, and in the common
American "Bow Down" texts (if the girl is not actually rescued), only the miller is
punished, in an absurd ending that ignores the elder sister: "The miller was hung
in his own mill-gate, / For drowning of my sister Kate." A Maine text of "The Cruel
Mother" (Child 20) has the murdered children return, but drops their judgment and
curse. None of the enormous number of American versions of "James Harris (The
Daemon Lover)," so far as I know, keeps the lover convincingly demonic or retains
his cloven hoof. In the American texts the wife of a house carpenter elopes with her
sailor beau, the ship springs an accidental leak (in one Virginia text nothing happens
to it at all), and the wife regrets her impetuosity. As against the satanic ending of
Scott's version:
He strack the tap-mast wi' his hand,
The fore-mastsw i' his knee,
And he brake that gallant ship in twain,
And sank her in the sea
an American broadside concludes:
A curse b e on the sea-faring m en
Oh, cursed be their lives,
For while they are robbing the House-Carpenter
And coaxing away their wives.
Like magic and the supernatural, sex, incest, and kin-murder tend to disappear
or diminish, in a folk process very like individual repression. In the typical American
"Son Davie" or "Little Yaller Dog" variants of "Edward," the murder is of a brother
rather than a father, and there is never the final revelation of the mother's instigation
that gives the last line of the Percy text some of the pity and terror of the end of the
Tyrannus. (Despite Archer Taylor's argument,[3] I cannot for a moment accept the
parricide and the mother's complicity as literary additions.) Coffin (p. 46) notes a
characteristic American tendency to make kin-murder fratricide rather than parricide,
and in a version collected by Sharp in Tennessee this has gone to the end of the line
and the victim is a brother-in-law. Coffin points out (p. i8) that in American texts of
"The Cruel Brother" (Child ii), "The Twa Brothers" (Child 49), and "Lizie Wan"
(Child 51), the British suggestions or assertions of incest "have vanished or are
rapidly vanishing." Examples of the toning down of the frank sexuality of the ballads
in America are almost innumerable, and we might note that even the mention of the
lady'sn akednesisn "LadyI sabeal ndt heE lf-Knight("C hild4 ) seemso n its wayo ut.
Much o f the starkness of tragedy d iminisheass the ballads tr ansformin our culture.
T he terriblee ndingo f "LadyM aisry"(C hild6 5) in Jamiesont'es xt,L ordW illiam'sa
nnouncemenotf his vengeancfeo r the burningo f his betrothed:
"O I'll gar burn for you, Maisry,
Your f athera n yourm other;
AndI 'll g ar b urn f ory ou,M aisry,
Yours istera n yourb rother.
"An I'll gar burn for you, Maisry,
The chief o f a' yourk in;
An the last b onfire th at I come t o,
MyselIf will casti n."
is lost in all the Americanv ersions, whereh e kissest he corpsew, ritesh is will, and
dies.A nothere ndinga t the stake,t he burningo f the fair wickedl ady" likeh okygren"
i n Herd'st exto f "YoungH unting,"b ecomeisn theK entuck"y LovingH enry"
an inconclusivdei aloguew ith a littleb irdie.L ordB arnard'fse arfulp unishmenotf
his wife in "LittleM usgravaen dL adyB arnardi"n the Wit Restoredv ersion:
He c ut t he p aps f rom o ffh er b rest;
Great pittyi t wast o see
Thats ome d rops o f this l adie's h eart's bl ood
Ran t rickling d o wn h er k nee.
becomesa morec hivalric(a ndc onsiderablleys s significants)p littingo f herh eadi n
the Kentucky" LittleM athieG rove"a nd the New Hampshire" LordB anner."
Wheret he Britisht extso f "TheG ypsyL addie"( Child2 00) havet he gypsiesp ut
down,o ftene xecuteda, ndt he ladyr estoredto herh usbandi,n the American" Gypsy
Davy"st he lordc omesa lonet o appealt o his wife and is repudiateads she chooses
romantilco vea ndf reedomr atherth anl ovelessw ealtha nds ecurity(h eret he opposition
of the Americanet host o tragedys eemsv eryc lear).I n a Kentucky" BlackJ ack
Davie"t he gypsyc astst he "glamourioew re"h erb y babbling" Howo ld arey ou,m y
prettyl ittleM iss?"a nd she respondws ith the proudd eclaratioonf love," I'llb e sixteen
next Sunday."
Manyo f the Childb alladsi n Americalo se not only the tragicm ovementth at
FrancisF ergussonh as calledf romP urposeth roughP assiont o Perceptionb,u t any
narrativeo r dramaticm ovementa t all. "RiddlesW iselyE xpounded"(C hild i)
reducesit selft o the riddlesa nda nswersa lonei n Virginiaa, nd" TheE lfinK night"
(Child2 ) to a comicd ialogueo f tasksa ndc ounter-taskins KentuckyN, orthC arolina,
and Vermont". MaryH amilton"(C hild i73) has dwindledd own to a lyric
lamenti n Mainea nd Virginiaw, ithouta ny of the storyb ut the protesto ver the
Queen'sin gratitudea,n d in one Virginiat ext,t o threes tanzast hatd o not mention
the Queen." Johno f Hazelgreen("C hild2 93) hasb ecomet wo lyrics tanzasin Virginia;"
TheL asso f RochR oyal"(C hild7 6) is almoset xclusiveltyh et wow ell-known
shoe-my-foostta nzasa, ndf inallyi, n Davis'U text,i t comesd ownt o whats eemsa n
irreduciblsein gles tanza.[4]
As theseb alladsr elinquishth eirO ld Worldt ragedya ndo minousnestsh, eya dapt
to an Americanco nfiguratioinn which,K ennethB urkeh asn oted,d eathi s held" in
exceptionalblya dr epute."O ne paradoxicwala yt heyb ecomele ssr eali s by the addition
of realistict ouchesT. he murderingb rotherin "TheT wo Brothersg"o es to
"someg radeds chool"in a versionS harpc ollectedin Virginiaa, nd LadyM aisry's
loverr unsa still in a versiono f Child6 5 he obtainedin Kentucky.A5 MaineL ord
Randall eavesh is poisoner" a barreol f powdert o blow her up high,"a nd Young
Hunting's murderer in South Carolina "sits out on her porch playing her piano." At
the extreme of the process, ballads are trivialized to the point where they become
comic songs about animals. "Sir Lionel" (Child i8) becomes "Old Bangum" (in the
opinion of some scholars), a ludicrous fight with a boar, and in a Missouri version
has the refrain: "Dillum down dillum / Dillum down / Kibby ky cuddle down
killy quo cum." One of the grandest and most terrifying ballads in the canon, "The
Twa Corbies" (Child 26), becomes the parody crow song "Billy Magee Magaw,"
and the new-slain knight is a butchered horse in Iowa, a pig with three cork legs in
Virginia, and a poor little lamb crying "Baa, Baa, Baa" elsewhere.
Another type of acclimatizationis a Christianizinga t best and a vague pietizing
at worst. "The Wife of Usher's Well," a nakedly pagan ballad about the ironic limits
of magical power, becomes the American "Three Babes" or "Lady Gay," in which
Christian prayer returns the children to Usher's Well and higher spiritual responsibility
carries them back to Heaven. The ending of a Georgia text reads as though
it were deliberatep arodyo f the familiarS cottv ersion:
"Wakeu p, wake up," said the oldest o ne,
"The chickens will soon crow for day,
And yanders tandso ur Saviourd ear,
And to Him we now must go.
"Farewell, dear f ather, f arewell, d ear mother,
Farewell t o Aunt Katea nd Kane,
For yander stands our Saviour dear,
And to Him we now must remain."
"Sir Hugh, or The Jew'sD aughter"( Child 155) has lost its seriousC hristianityt,h e
power of the Virgin and her holy well producingt he miraculousv oice of the corpse
out of it, in many Americanv ersions,b ut it has gained a superficiaCl hristianp iety
in Indiana, Connecticut, and other texts in the boy's burial with Bible and prayer
book at his head and feet. Sometimesm oralityr eversest he whole dramatica ctiono f
the ballad, as in the Missouri "Earl Brand" (Child 7) where the girl turns against
her lover when he slaysh er father,o r the Maine" RiddlesW isely Expounded"w here
the Devil has becomea suitor captivatedb y the girl's wit, and the balladc oncludes
handsomely:
Now maidensp, rettym aidens,
Be neitherc oyn ors hy,
But alwaysw, hena lovers peaks,
Look kindly and reply.
Finally, many ballads in America simply go into meaningless nonsense. The
model for American refrains seems to be the demented refrain of Percy's "The Maid
and the Palmer" (Child 21), happily unique in Child:
Lillumwham, li llumwham!
Whatt then? what then?
Grandamb oy,g randamb oy,h eye!
Leg a derryl,e g a merrym, et,m er,w hoopew, hir!
Driuancel,a rumbeng,r andamb oy,h eye!
A West Virginia refrainf or "The Twa Sisters"is : "Hey oh, my Nanny! / And the
swim swom bonny." A Vermont "Elfin Knight" refrain is: "Fluma luma lokey
sloomy/ From a teaslumt asalumt emplum/ Fluma luma lokey sloomy."S ometimes
American folk etymology produces not secondary meaning but no meaning at all.
The refraino f "TheT wa Sisters"w hichM rs.G entrys angf or Sharp( fromt he old
witchc harm" juniperg,e ntiana ndr osemary"w)a s:" Juryfl owerg entt her oseberr/y
The jury hangso ver the roseberry."W6 hen folk etymologys preadsb eyondt he
refraini,t cant urna wholeb alladin toa crazyj umbleT. he "Lamkint"h atM rs.L ena
BareT urbyfilol f Elk Park,N orthC arolinar,e cordedfo r HerbertH alperta nd the
Libraryo f Congressa s "Bolakinsi"n 1939g ets the "falsen urse"a s "thef oster,"
"muchr edg old"a s "manym arigolds,p"u nishetsh e fostera t "thes takeo f stand-by"
(for "thes takea -standinbgy "),a ndh angsB olakin"s tot he sea-gallowtsr ee,"w hatevert
hatm ayo nceh aveb een.7E ventuallsyo meb alladsw orki nto totali diocy,l ike
the "PoorA nzo"v ersiono f "LordR andal"th atR eedS mithd iscusseisn his chapter
"TheR oadD ownhill"in SouthC arolinaB allads( CambridgeM, ass.,I 928).A nzo
is askedw hy he left his sweethearatn d replies" Herei s a red hot ironw ill broila
boneb rown"a; skedw hath e wouldl ike for supperh, e conclude"s Makem e a little
breelyb roths oup."
Whath ash appenedto the Childb alladin Americai,n sum,i s thati t hasb ecome
inadequatnea rrativea,b ortedd ramah, appy-endintrga gedyc,o rrupat ndm eaningless
verbiagea, nd badp oetryi n generalS. omeo f this mayb e the effecto f transmission
in time,w hichs eemst o degenerataen d deterioratfeo lk literaturwe herevewr e can
observeit s effectsS. omeo f it, howeveri,s certainlyth e effecto f the Americanet hos,
with its denialo f death,i ts resistancteo the tragice xperienceit,s deepr epressioonf
sexualityit, s overridinpgi etiesa, ndi ts frantice mphasiosn ther ationalistitch,e i nconsequentiaal,
n dt he optimisticI.t almosts eemst hatt heseb alladt extsa reb adp recisely
to the degreet hat they have becomes uccessfullAy mericant,h at they reflecto ur
dominanvt aluesa nd resembleo theru nlovelyf eatureso f our popularc ultureT. he
conclusionfo r folkloristtso drawi s not thatA mericanb alladss houldn ot continue
to be vigorouslcyo llecteda ndc arefullsyt udiedb, utt hati n the courseo f thosew orthwhile
activitiesth ey need not be overvaluedin aestheticte rms,t hat the folklorist
shouldn ot pretendo r insistt hatt heya reh igha rtw hens o manyo f thema rep atently
trashH. erew e mightn otew iths omem elancholtyh ati f ther ediscoveroyf theB ritish
traditionabla lladi nspiredth e Romantimc ovemenitn poetryo, ur rediscoveroyf the
Americanb alladh as for the mostp arti nspiredo ur poetsi n questo f a folk tradition
to go seek it elsewhere.
NOTES
xMacEdward Leach, The Ballad Book (New York, 1955). Texts not otherwise identified
will be found there.
2 Cecil J. Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, ed. Maud Karpeles, 2
vols. (Oxford, I932).
3Archer Taylor, "Edward" and "Sven I Rosengard" (Chicago, I93I), p. 26.
4Arthur K. Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Cambridge, Mass., 1929).
5 Sharp, pp. 68, 98.
6 Sharp, p. 26.
7 Library of Congress record AAFS 34A.