Georgie- Waddell (MO) 1930 Randolph B
[My title. From Ozark Folksongs Volume I, 1946; Randolph. His notes follow. This is a one stanza fragment of the next to last verse-- the rest of the ballad is not given. No title given.
R. Matteson, 2013, 2016]
The old ballad of "Georgie" or "Geordie" is well known on both sides of the Atlantic. Belden (1907), 319, points out its derivation from an eighteenth century broadside, "The life and Death of George of Oxford" (child 209), and Cox (1925), 135 gives numerous references to English texts. There is a comment on the use of a silken rope in Pepys's Diary, Feb 27, 1663. American versions have been reported by Campbell and Sharp, Shoemaker (1919), 140; Pound(1915),11; A. Richardson, 504; A. K. Davis (1929), 435-38, Randolph, OMF, pp 223-25; Greenleaf and Mansfield, 40; L. Chappell, 37; Gardner and Chickering, 317; Belden (1940), 76-78; Brewster (1941), 170; and the Brown Collection.
B. "Georgie."- Sung by Elizabeth Waddell of Ash Grove, MO. June 12, 1930; Randolph B
Georgie was hanged with a white silk cord
The people being ready
Because he was of a noble birth,
And loved by a royal lady