George Collins- Hayes (AR) 1920 Randolph
[From Randolph, Ozark Folksong, I, 1946, p. 139. His notes follow. This version has the 'marble stone' stanza.
R. Matteson 2015]
22 GEORGE COLLINS
This is the old English ballad of "Lady Alice" (Child, English and, Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882-1898, No. 85). See Perrow (JAFL 28, 1915, p. 151), Brown (Ballad Literature in North Carolina, 1914, p. 9), Richardson (JAFL 32,1979, p. 500), Cox (Folk-Songs of th"e South, 1915, p. 110), Reed Smith (South Carolina Ballads, 1928, p. 143), Hudson (Specimens of Mississippi. Folk-Lore, 1928, No. 14), Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth (British Ballads from Maine, 1929, pp. 452- 453), Davis (Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929, p. 520), Chappell (Folk-Songs of Roanoke and the Albemorle,1939, pp. 33-34), Gardner (Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan, 1939, p. 53), and Combs (Folk-Songs from the Kentucky Hightands, 1939, pp. S-9). In the Brown (North
Carolina Folk-Lore Society) collection, "Lady Alice" appears under the titles "Giles Collins," "George Collins," "George Coleman," and "John Harmen." Cf. "Whose Corpse is That A-Coming This Way?" in JAFL 52,1939, pp. 47-48. Samuel P. Bayard (JAFL 58, 1945, pp. 73-103) discusses the "Johnny Collins" version.
"George Collins" - Sung by Miss Lisbeth Hayes, Fayetteville, Ark., June 12, 1920.
She says the coffin to be opened.
An' then the shroud to be folded down,
An' then she kissed them clay cold lips
Until the tears come a-runnin' down.
Set down, set him down, Lady Alice she cried,
Set him down on the grass so green,
An' before the sun goes down in the West
My corpse'll be a-layin' by his'n.
George Collins rode our the very next night,
He rode out all alone,
An' the first thing he saw when he got there
Was fair Eleanor washin' a white marble stone.
Oh don't you see that turtle dove
Flyin' from pine to pine?
He's a-mournin' for his own true love.
5o why not me, why not me for mine?