Early, Early All in the Spring- Mrs. Hollings (Linc) c.1870 Kidson
[Published in JFSS, 2 (1906), 293–4. Text with comments follows.
"Early, Early All in the Spring" originally from Lincolnshire about c.1870 was sung by Mrs. Hollings when she was a child. After its publication in 1906 it caused some confusion since it has stanzas similar to Butcher Boy with the suicide.
R. Matteson 2017]
Early, Early All in the Spring- Sung by Mrs Hollings, originally from Lincolnshire (c.1870); collected by Frank Kidson; published in JFSS, 2 (1906), 293–4.
Early, early all in the spring,
My love was press'd to serve the King;
The wind blew high and the wind blew low,
And parted me and my young sailor boy.
"O father, father, make me a boat,
That on the ocean I may float,
And every [French, fresh, king's] ship as I pass by,
I will enquire for my sailor boy."
She had not sailed far across the deep,
Before five king's ships she chanced to meet,
"Come, jolly sailors, come tell me true—
Does my love sail in along with you?"
"What clothes does your true love wear?
What colour is your true love's hair?"
"A blue silk jacket, all bound with twine;
His hair is not the colour of mine."
"Oh no fair lady, your love's not here—
He has got drown'd, I greatly fear;
For on yon ocean as we passed by,
'Twas there we lost a young sailor-boy."
She wrung her hands, and tore her hair,
Like some lady in deep despair,
Saying "Happy, happy is the girl," she cried,
"Has got a true love down by her side."
She set her down and wrote a song—
She wrote it wide, she wrote it long;
At every line she shed a tear,
And at every verse she said "My dear."
When her dear father came home that night,
He called for his heart's delight;
He went upstairs, the door he broke,
He found her hanging by a rope.
He took a knife and cut her down;
Within her bosom a note was found,
And in this letter these words were wrote:
"Father, dear father, my heart is broke.
Father, dear father, dig me a grave—
Dig it wide and dig it deep;
And in the middle put a lily-white dove,
That the world may know I died for love."
Mrs. Hollings, a chairwoman, I presume learnt the words in Lincolnshire, when a child. Versions of this song and air are printed in several collections. Compare with "Sweet William" in English County Songs; "A Sailor's Life," Folk-Song Journal (Vol. i, p. 99); "The Sailing Trade," Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs (Vol. i); Mr. Sharp's Folk-Songs from Somerset, 3rd series.
Irish versions of the air appear under the name of "The Bastard" in Alfred Moffat's Minstrelsy of Ireland, and as "Early, early all in the Spring" in The Complete Petrie (No. 765). This last-named is, however, not satisfactory as a melody or perhaps as noted. The curious rhythm of the air and the changeable way in which Mrs. Hollings sang it made it very difficult to put into regular notation. I submit the copy as it stands—being as near the singer's intention as I could get it. —F. K.
The rhythm of this tune is irregular: bars three and five are in J time not J, unless the words have been wrongly distributed.—C. J. S.
The air has a far more uncommon and interesting shape in 5/4 time, but then, as Mr. Sharp says, the words want re-arranging.—J. A. F. M.