Giles Collins- (KY) 1939 Combs BOOK
[From: Folk-Songs from the Kentucky Highlands by Josiah Combs pub. 1938 by Shirmer. No source, place or date given. Combs notes follow. The manuscript is in Comb's writing; "Woofter, Toledo Blade" appears on the MS. Carey Woofter was one of Comb's collectors when he was at WV in the early- mid 1920s. The text resembles Hudson's A text of the same title. It's possible, if Woofter was involved, that this is taken from JAF by him in 1926 and re-written (this version is significantly different and seems not to be copied). The name Giles is rarely found.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
This ballad is a New World variant of "Lady Alice", occurring under such titles as George Collins, Johnny Collins, and Giles Collins. In stanza 7, some folk singer has been unable to resist the temptation to take a crack at the medical profession.
Giles Collins- (KY) 1939 Combs
1. Giles Collins said to his mother one day,
"Oh, mother, come bind up my head,
For tomorrow morning ere is the day,
I am sure I shall be dead."
2. His mother she made him the water gruel,
And stirred it around with a spoon.
Giles Collins ate but one spoonful,
And died before it was noon.
3. Lady Annie she sat at her window,
All dressed in her night gown
She saw a pretty corpse go by,
As she has never seen in her life before.
4. "What bear you there, you six tall men,
What bear you on your shoulders?"
"We bear the body of Giles Collins,
Who once was a true-lover of yours."
5 "Down with him, down with him on the grass,
The grass so pretty and green;
For tomorrow morning before it is dawn,
My body by his shall lie."
6 Her mother made her some plum gruel,
With spices all of the best;
Lady Alice ate but one spoonful,
And the doctor ate up the rest.
7 Giles Collins was laid in the lower chancel,
Lady Alice up in the higher;
There grew a rose from Lady Alice's breast,
And from Giles Collins' a brier.
8 They grew and they grew to the very church-top
Until they could grow no higher;
And twisted and twined in a true-lover's knot,
Which made all the parish admire.