English & Other Versions 73. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet
Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815) Lord Thomas and Fair Annett
The earliest extant print from 1677- London (Child D)
CONTENT:
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Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor
From One Hundred English Folksongs
Notes from Cecil J. Sharp, One Hundred English Folksongs (1916):
This, of course, is a very common ballad. The words are on ballad-sheets and in most of the well-known collections, and are fully analyzed in Child's English and Scottish Ballads. For versions with tunes, see the Journal of the Folk-song Society (volume ii, pp. 105-108); English County Songs (p. 42); Sandys's Christmas Carols; Traditional Tunes (p. 40); Ritson's Scottish Songs (Part iv, p. 228).; etc.
The singer assured me that the three lines between the 19th and 20th stanzas were always spoken and never sung. This is the only instance of the kind that I have come across (see English Folk Song: Some Conclusions, p. 6).
Lord Thomas was a bold forester;
And the lodge-keeper of the king's deer.
Fair Ellinor was as a gay lady;
Lord Thomas he loved her dear.
Now riddle me, dear mother, said he,
And riddle it all in one,
Whether I shall marry the brown girl,
or bring fair Ellinor home.
The brown girl she has houses and land
Fair Ellinor she has none;
Wherefore I charge you upon my blessing,
To bring the brown girl home.
So way he flew to fair Ellinor's bow'r,
And tingled so loud at the ring
No one was so ready as fair Ellinor
To let Thomas in.
What new, what news, what news? she cried,
What news hast thou brought unto me?
I am come to bid thee to my wedding,
Beneath the sycamore tree.
O God forbid that any such thing
Should ever pass by my side;
I thought that thou wouldst have been my bridegroom
And I should have been the bride.
Come riddle my mother, come riddle, she said,
Come riddle it unto me,
Whether I to Lord Thomas's wedding shall go,
Or whether I stay with thee.
It's hundred are your friends, daughter,
And thousands are your foes;
Therefore I beg thee with all my blessing
To Lord Thomas's wedding don't go.
It's thousands are my friends mother;
And hundreds are my foes;
So betide my life, and betide my death,
To Lord Thomas's wedding I'll go.
Fair Ellinor dress'd in her rich array,
Her merry men all in green;
And ev'ry town that she rode through
They took her for some queen.
She rode till she came to Thomas's house;
She tingled so loud at the ring,
There was none so ready as Lord Thomas himself
To let fair Ellinor in.
He took her by the lilywhite hand
And led her through the hall,
And sat her down in the noblest chair,
Amongst the ladies all.
Is this your bride, Lord Thomas, she said
Methinks she looks wonderfully brown;
When you could have had the fairest lady
That ever trod English ground.
Despise her not, Lord Thomas then said,
Despise her not unto me;
For more do I love thy little finger
Than all her whole body.
The brown girl had a little penknife
Which was both long and sharp;
'Twist the small ribs and the short she pricked
Fair Ellinor to the heart.
Oh! what is the matter, Fair Ellen, he said
Methinks you look wondrous wan;
You used to have a fair a colour
As ever the sun shone on.
Oh! are you blind, Lord Thomas? she said,
Oh! can you not very well see?
Oh! can you not see my own heart's blood
Come tinkling down my knee?
Lord Thomas he had a sword by his side,
As he walked through the hall;
He took off the brown girl's head from her shoulders
And flung it against the wall.
He put the sword to the ground,
The sword unto his heart
No sooner did three lovers meet
No sooner did they part.
Spoken verse:
"Make me a grave both long and wide,
And lay fair Ellinor by my side -
and the brown girl at my feet."
Lord Thomas was buried in the church
Fair Ellinor in the choir;
And from her bosom there grew a rose
And out of Lord Thomas the briar.
They grew till they reached the church tip top,
When the could grow no higher;
And then they entwined like a true lover's knot,
For all true lovers to admire.
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A collection of old ballads: Corrected from the best and most ancient copies extant 1723
XXXV. A Tragical Ballad on the unfortunate Love of Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor, together with the Downfal of the Brown Girl.
Lord Thomas he was a bold Forrester,
And a Chaser of the King's Deer;
Fair Ellinor was a fine Woman,
And Lord Thomas he loved her dear.
Come riddle my Riddle, dear Mother, he said,
and riddle us both as one,
Whether I shall marry with fair Ellinor,
And let the Brown Girl alone?
The Brown Girl she has got Houses and Land,
And fair Ellinor she has got none,
Therefore I charge you on my Blessing,
Bring me the Brown Girl Home.
As it befel on a high Holiday,
As many did more beside,
Lord Thomas he went to fair Ellinor,
That should have been his Bride.
But when he came to fair Ellinor's Bower,
He knocked there at the Ring,
But who was so ready as fair Ellinor,
For to let Lord Thomas in.
What News, what News, Lord Thomas, she said,
What News hast thou brought unto me?
I am come to bid thee to my Wedding,
And that is bad News for thee.
O God forbid, Lord Thomas, she said,
That such a thing should be done;
I thought to have been thy Bride my own self,
And you to have been the Bridegroom.
Come riddle my Riddle, dear Mother, she said,
And riddle it all in one,
Whether I shall go to Lord Thomas's Wedding,
Or whether I shall tarry at home?
There are many that are your Friends, Daughter,
And many that are your Foe,
Therefore I charge you on my Blessing,
To Lord Thomas's Wedding don't go.
There's many that are my Friends, Mother,
And if a thousand more were my Foe,
Betide my Life, betide my Death,
To Lord Thomas's Wedding I'll go.
She cloathed her self in gallant Attire,
And her merry Men all in green,
And as they rid through every Town,
They took her to be some Queen.
But when she came to Lord Thomas's Gate,
She knocked there at the Ring;
But who was so ready as Lord Thomas,
To let fair Ellinor in.
Is this your Bride? Fair Ellinor said,
Methinks she looks wonderful brown,
Thou might'st have had as fair a Woman,
As ever trod on the Ground.
Despise her not, fair Ellin, he said,
Despise her not unto me:
For better I love thy little Finger,
Than all her whole Body.
This brown Bride had a little Penknife,
That was both long and sharp,
And betwixt the short Ribs and the long,
Prick'd fair Ellinor to the Heart.
O Christ now save thee, Lord Thomas he said,
Methinks thou look'st wond'rous wan,
Thou us'd to look with as fresh a Colour,
As ever the Sun shin'd on.
Oh, art thou blind! Lord Thomas, she said,
Or can'st thou not very well see?
Oh! Dost thou not see my own Heart's Blood
Run trickling down my Knee?
Lord Thomas he had a Sword by his Side,
As he walk'd about the Hall,
He cut off his Bride's Head from her Shoulders,
And threw it against the Wall.
He set the Hilt against the Ground,
And the Point against his Heart;
There never were three Lovers met
That sooner did depart
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Publications, Volume 29; Roxburge [Broadside text given first]
By Ballad Society
[In white-letter, duplicate of Douce, III. 68. The Douce I. 120 verso is dated 1677, Printed for F. Coles; but Douce IV. 36 is modern, J. Pitts, of Seven Dials. Two woodcuts, Bagford, for W. Onley, and the booksellers. The earliest reprint was printed for Thomas Lambert (circa 1636-41), but not accessible, and perhaps a mistake for Thomas Saint. The Pepys exemplar (III. 316) has "This may be Printed, £o. L'Estrange. Printed for/. 0., W. T., and T. P., i.e. J. Clarke, Thackeray and Passinger, before 1685, with five woodcuts. Our Roxburghe cuts are the Youth of p. 33, left, and the Lady of iii. 402 right.]
*«* In Graham R. Tomson's (Canterbury Poets) edition of Border Ballads, 1888, there is given on p. 41, as though it were a rich discovery, a garbled copy of our present broadside, but reported as "from a MS.," telling that "this poem was, with the tune to which it is sung, learnt by my grandmother from an old woman named Becky Duck, who was my great-grandmother's nurse." It is simply a slightly disguised copy of our broadside version, stupidly entitled "Lord Thomasm* and Fair Ellin»or." We suppose the peculiar feminine spelling was adopted as a cheap trick to give it an antique arugo. Where it differs from the Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 647-649, it differs for the worse. Thus two additional Stanzas are given following our final line, "There was never three Lovers that ever met, Did e'er so soon depart,"—which is rendered, nonsensically, " And never three lovers so soon did meet, Nor sooner did they part." (Onley's print reads, "More sooner they did depart.") The heart-stricken dead man is made to deliver an exordium, including the Brown girl in his posthumous arrangements:— "' A grave, a grave let there be made,
And let it be wide and deep;
And fair Ellinnor shall rest by my side,
And the brown girl at my feet.'
"A grave, a grave there then was made,
And it was both wide and deep;
And fair Ellinnor was laid by his side,
And the brown girl at his feet."
This is merely an unwarrantably-borrowed and inappropriate 'conveyance' from the end of "Little Musgrave. (Compare our pp. 632, 634, 640, and 644.) We admit that the old ballad minstrels had a certain stock-in-trade of phrases and stanzas, such as the coming to a yett and tirling at the pin (or knocking at the King, if Southron); the description of a foot-page hastening by road, and breasting the water when he swam; the rose and briar intertwining; the stroking a sword-blade on the straw, to cleanse it of blood, or, like stropping a razor, to give it an edge. We need not accept fresh transmutation of stock.
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Two Ballads on Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor.
From: The Roxburghe Ballads, Volume 6
By William Chappel
"Beauty and Anguish walking hand in hand
The downward slope to death."
—Tennyson's A Dream of Fair Women,
our two distinct versions, one, "The Unfortunate Forester," has not been previously included among Collections of Reprints. It is appointed to be sung to the tune of the well-known ballad, Chevy Chase (see p. 740), viz. "God prosper long our noble King, our lives and safeties all, A woeful hunting once there did in Chevy Chase befall." Music of this ballad is given in Mr. "W. Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 199. In the same priceless collection, p. 145, is given the tune of Lord Thomas, which is shown to be an adaptation of Who list to lead a soldier's life? to which tune was sung "The Lord of Hosts hath blest our Land." llitson mentioned in 1790 a minstrel who "was within these two years to be seen in the streets of London; [where] he played on an instrument of the rudest construction, which he, properly enough, called a hum strum, and chanted (among others) the old ballad of Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor, which, by the way, has every appearance of having been a minstrel song."—Ancient Songs. (We give on our next page a woodcut, illustrating this rude musical instrument.)
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All the extant copies of this antique ballad are indisputably corrupt; and we cannot expect to benefit largely by turning to the so-called traditional versions, which are usually still less trustworthy. (Compare Note on p. 649.) Among the curious variations one most interesting is the long-winded "Lord Thomas and fair Annie," which shows the interweaving (early or late) with "Fair Margaret and Sweet William," the ghost appearing to the bridegroom on his wedding-night, summoning him from his Brown Bride.
"Lord Thomas and fair Annet sat a' day on a hill,
When night was cum and the sun was set,
They had not talkd their Fill."—(41 stanzas.)
Br. Percy printed this in his Reliques (iii. 240, 1767, second edition), with some corrections, from a MS. copy transmitted from Scotland; probably sent by G. Paton. In Scottish Traditional Ballad* (Percy Society, xvii. 94, 1845), is a version of " Lord Thomas" beginning, "I'm here at thy Gate," from The Cigar of 1825; of no importance. Our p. 647 Eoxburghe version of " Lord Thomas" is nearly identical with that of J. Roberts's Collection of Old Ballad*, 1723, i. 249; Coll. Direrting Sonet, 1738, p. 453; Percy's Reliques, 1767, iii. 78 (there said to be from the PepTsian black-letter broadside); Joseph Ritson's English Songs, ii. 185, 1783, and his Ancient Songs of 1790, p. 89. Allied to this, in Robert Jamieson's Popular Ballads, i. 22, 1806 (from Mrs. W. Arnot of Aberhrothick's recitation), is a version beginning " Sweet TFillie and fair Annie sat a' day on a hill."
The moralization at close of " The Unfortunate Forester " would of itself suggest it to be the later version. Objectivity belongs to a healthy youth-time of poetry; subjectivity is generally a sign of mental decrepitude and poetical disease or decadence. Sometimes a song stops flowering, runs to seed, and be-pods into a sermon