Georgie (Geordie)- Donald (VA) 1918 Sharp
[My title, Sharp used the generic title supplied by Child: Geordie. The local title could be "Georgie." From: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians- 1932. Many of the US versions are related in part or wholly to Child's Appendix to Geordie, the broadside, "George of Oxford:"
"The Life and Death of George of Oxford. To a pleasant tune, called Poor Georgy." Roxburghe Collection, IV, 53, Pepys, II, 150, Jersey, I, 86, Huth, I, 150, according to Mr. J. W. Ebsworth, Roxburghe Ballads, VII, 70, 1890. It was printed for P. Brooksby, whose time Mr. Ebsworth gives as between 1671 and 1692.
1 As I went over London Bridge,
All in a misty morning,
There did I see one weep and mourn,
Lamenting for her Georgy.
This opening verse is not present in Child's versions A-L. This version was reprinted by Davis in TBVa, 1929 as version B.
R. Matteson 2013, 2016]
Notes: No. 34. Geordie.
Texts without tunes:—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 209. Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North-East, i, art. 75. Broadside by Such. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 135. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxxii. 504. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, p. 435.
Texts with tunes :—Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, i. 53. Journal of the Folk- Song Society, ii. 27, 208 ; iii. 191 ; iv. 332. Kidson's Traditional Tunes, p. 25. L. Broadwood's Traditional Songs and Carols, p. 32. Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 187 and tune. Folk-Songs of England, ii, p. 47. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 2 (also published in English Folk Songs, Selected Edition, i. 24, and One Hundred English Folk-Songs, p. 24), Gavin Greig's Last Leaves, No 62. Scots Musical Museum, iii, No. 346.
D. ["Georgie."] - Sung by MRS. LAURA VIRGINIA DONALD at Dewey, Va., June 6, 1918; Sharp D
1. As I came over new London Bridge,
One misty morning early,
I over-heard a tender-hearted girl
A pleading for the life of Georgie.
2 Come saddle unto me my milk-white steed,
Come saddle unto me quite gaily,
That I might ride the livelong night
A-pleading for the life of Georgie.
3 Georgie was hung with a silken rope,
Such ropes they was not many,
But Georgie came of a noble race
And was loved by a virtuous lady.