False Lamkins- Barry (VT) 1941 Flanders D1 and D2
[From Flanders; Ancient Ballads, 1961, notes by Coffin follow. There are two versions here from Will Barry (D2) and his wife (D1).
R. Matteson 2015]
Lamkin (Child 93)
Although child printed twenty-six versions of "Lamkin" and although it is still known in British-American tradition, the story of the revengeful mason who murders a woman and child because he has not been paid is much the same wherever it is found. The fact that the crime is so weakly motivated has made scholars suspect much of the plot to be lost. Phillips Barry (see JAF, LII, 70-74) offers an appealing explanation in connection with the "False Linfinn" text (Flanders B) collected in Maine. "The Linfinn" was Irish for "the white man who lives by the Stream," the outcast who was a leper forced to live alone. A cure for leprosy could be had through the blood of an innocent human collected in a silver container, and this fact offers a real motive for the crime. Barry felt that the identification of Linfinn with masonry came later, possibly because Irish masons had a recipe for making cement with blood. However, other scholars have identified the name Lamkin as a Flemish form of Lambert and noted that Flemish masons were well-known in Britain in the Middle Ages. In America, one Virginia informant noted by Arthur K. Davis in his Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Cambridge, Mass., 1929), 357, claimed there had been a love affair between the lady and the mason prior to the opening of the story. Whatever the answer, the crime seems rather extreme as a retaliation for failure to pay a debt.
Flanders A has the false window built by the irate mason (Child E), and A, B, and C contain the offer of the daughter's hand as a bribe (Child F, T, X). In D1, D2, E, and F only gold is proffered. A, B, D1, D2, and F include the basin of blood, and all the Flanders texts find the false nurse or maid executed with Lamkin at the end. These points generally ally the New England tradition printed here with the Child B, C, F group and the material discussed in Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 203-6, although the Flanders H fragment, where the nurse actually lets the murderer in, recalls the Child A story. For other discussions and bibliography, start with Coffin, 94-96 (American); Dean-Smith, 83 (English); and Greig and Keith, 7l-72 (Scottish). The Flanders G text, "Tumkin" (Tom King), with its relationship to Dick Turpin legends, is interesting, if hard to explain.
All of the tunes for Child 93 are members of the same family. The Moses and Delorme tunes are slightly removed from the rest, the Delorme tune being related primarily at the first line. For melodic relationship to the entire group, see FCB4, 74-76 (a11 tunes for Child 93); Sharp 1, 202, 204, 205; EO, 59; DV, 583, No. 26 (B); BES, 201 (especially related to the Delorme tune); and GCM, 313 (distant).
D1. False Lamkins. As sung by Mrs. Will Barry of Belvidere, Vermont. Both Mr. and, Mrs. Barry were unable to recall where they learned, this ballad, but said, they both learned it at the same time when they were young. See Text D2. M. Olney, Collector; August 21, 1941. Structure: A1 A, B C (2,2,2,2); Rhythm C but divergent; Contour: inverted arc; Scale: hexatonic
False Lamkins
False Lamkins, as good a mason
As ever laid stone,
He built Lord Farmer's castle
And the lord paid him none.
The lord says to his lady,
"I am going away;
So beware of False Lamkins;
Let no one betray."
"I am not afraid of False Lamkins
Nor any of his kin,
For my doors shall all be bolted
And my windows barred in."
The doors they were all bolted
And the windows barred in
Except the kitchen window
Where False Lamkins crawled in.
"Where the lord's lady,
Or is she within?"
"Yes, she's in her chamber sleeping
Where there's no one goes in."
"How shall I git up
Or how shall I git in?"
"I will break the babe to its heart
With a bright silver pit."
"Oh, hush my dear baby,
Oh, hush, I do say."
"No, I can't, my loving lady,
Till You come down and see."
She hadn't entered the first stair,
Nor the second, nor the third,
Before she met False Lamkins
With a glittering broadsword.
"False Lamkins, False Lamkins,
Oh, spare me, I pray,
And I'll give you as much gold
As you can carry away. "[1]
"Will You give me as much gold
As I could pile on yonders deck,
It would not keep this broadsword
From your lily-white neck."
"O False Lamkins, False Lamkins,
Oh, spare me one hour
Till I call my daughter Betsey,
The queen of the bower."
"Oh, go call down your daughter Betsey,
She may do You some good;
She may hold the silver basin
For to catch your heart's blood."
Daughter Betsey, daughter Betsey
Run up a garret so high;
There she saw her own dear father
A-riding near by.
"O father, father,
Don't lay it to me;
False Lamkins and false nurse
Has killed your ladee.
"There is blood in the entry,
And there's blood in the hall;
There lies your loving lady
Down dead by the wall."
False Lamkins he was hung
On a gallus so high;
The false nurse she was burnt
In a furnace near by.
1 When Mrs. Barry was recorded a year later, September 24, 1942, she sang this stanza and the one following which she had recalled since August 1941.
_____________________________________
D2. False Lamkin. As sung by Will Barry of Belvidere, Vermont- During the singing he sometimes added an "s" to Lamkin. In another rendition Mr. Barry made slight verbal changes in stanza 6. See also Text D1. M. Olney, Collector; August 21, 1941.
Structure: A1 A2 B C (2,2,2,2); Rhythm divergent; Contour: inverted arc; Scale: Lydian
False Lamkin, as good a mason
As ever laid stone,
He built Lord Farmer's castle
And the lord paid him none.
"Oh," the lord said to his lady,
"I am going away.
Now, beware of False Lamkin,
Let no one betray."
"I'm not afraid of False Lamkins
Nor any of his kin
For my doors shall all be bolted
And the windows barred in."
The doors were all bolted
And the windows barred in
Except the kitchen window
Where False Lamkin crawled in.
"Oh, where's the lord's lady
Or is she within?"
"Yes, she's in her chamber sleeping
Where there's no one goes in."
"How shall I git up
And how shall I git in?"
"I will break the babe to its heart
With a bright silver pin."
"Oh, hush my dear baby,
Oh, hush, I do say."
"No, I can't, my loving lady,
Till you come down and see."
Before she entered the first stair
Nor the second, nor the third,
There she met False Lamkins
With a glittering broadsword.
"Oh, spare me, False Lamkins,
Oh, spare me one hour
Till I call my daughter Betsey,
The queen of the bower."
"Go call down your daughter Betsey'
She may do you some good.
She may hold the silver basin
For to catch your heart's blood."
Daughter Betsey ran upstairs
In the garret so high
There she saw her own dear father
A-riding near by.
"Dear father, dear father,
Don't lay it to me.
The false nurse, the False Lamkins
Has killed your ladee.
"There's blood in the entry
There is blood in the hall;
There lies your loving lady
Down dead by the wall."
False Lamkins he was hung
On the gallows so high,
The false nurse she was burnt
In the furnace near by.