Gipsy Davy- Delorme (NY-VT) c1876 Flander H
[My date, the title is inexplicably spelled Gipsy. From Ancient Ballads, III, 1963. Flanders/Coffin's notes follow.
Flanders does not ask the difficult questions about the source of many of Delorme's ballads. I call it the sin of omission-- where the collector(s) don't ask questions in order not to invalidate the ballad or upset the informant who has supplied him/her/them with rare ballads. The information is vague and the same for nearly all of Grandma Delorme's ballads and she knew many. I sense that she was also a student (she studied ballads in print) of ballads as well as a singer. We know Flanders and Barry provided print and sometimes the 1904 editions of ESPB to their best informants to help them remember ballads- I would imagine this would include Edwards of Vermont, Carr-Young of Maine, Marston of Maine, and Mrs. McGill of New Brunswick. I'm suspicious of this version because: 1) Delorme was a singer yet there is no melody provided (and Barry made it clear the tune was as important as the text- yet there's no mention of the tune or why it wasn't obtained); 2) there's not info about when she learned the ballad (other than the generic - learned as a child) and who taught it to her- was it her mother , her father etc.; 3) the last stanza seems, in particular, to be a recreation (the first two are also not traditional) 4) the "dark-eyed gypsy" phrase would be know through Barry's BBM and Flanders but is Irish; and 5) the title is spelled Gipsy Davy as in older print (Child ballads) versions.
R. Matteson 2015]
The Gypsy Laddie
(Child 200)
This is a very well-known song, one of the few Child ballads sung by educated persons who have no interest in folklore. It tells a romantic tale that would do justice to an operatic setting. Some gypsies sing bewitching songs at a lord's gate. So fascinating is the music, the lady of the house comes down and finds herself completely charmed. she gives herself to the gypsy leader Johnny Faw, or Johnny the Seer, and they ride off. Her lord finds her gone upon his return and hurries off in pursuit. Sometimes he captures the gypsies and hangs them. More often the tale takes a more sentimental turn and the lady refuses to return with her husband, giving away her baby and feather bed for true love.
Johhnny Faw was a common name for gypsies. Child, IV, 61 f., lists a number of incidents where men called this were sentenced to death, and he also cites the tendency in Aryshire to associate the story with the wife of the Earl of Cassilis. In America, however, the names Faw and Cassilis are never mentioned, and the "gypsies" may become only "a lover" or even "an Indian." The New World texts vary widely as to detail and story. See Coffin, 120-124, for discussion and bibliography. Over here the versions are generally related to the child G-J tradition, but localization of events and corruption by other songs, such as "I'm Seventeen come Sunday" is not unusual. "The Gypsy Laddie" was parodied in The Forget-me-not Songster (New York, 1872), and most American texts, unlike the British, have nonsense refrains.
The twenty-six Flanders texts give one a fairly good summary of the song as it is in the New World. The A version, with the seven gypsies in a row, follows the Child G-I tradition. Flanders B is striking in that stanzas 2-6 are a monologue by the lady and are framed by two descriptive stanzas --the opening one being unusual and the closing one consisting of lines that often start the song. C is a version of a broadside from the Alfred M. Williams Collection of Irish Broadsides in the Providence Public Library (see Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 275, and his text E). Flanders D-F are of the most common American sort, although E may be unique in this country if "Lord o' Castle" was once "Lord Cassilis." The G-Y group is from the same tradition as Child J (see Barry, op. cit., 269 f., for discussion), In that series, J has the remarkable finish in which the lord kilts his wife as well as the gypsy. H and I are not so unusual in having the lord remarry (see Child J), but this feature is often left out. R and S are interesting for their phraseology, S perhaps being corrupted by "The Frog Went a-Courtin' "
and other matter.
For bibliography beyond that in Coffin, see Dean-Smith, 69, and Belden, 73-74 (English); Greig and Keith, 126-129, and Ord , 411 (Scottish). There is an analogous Danish ballad in Svend Grundtvig, Danmarhs gamle Folheuiser (Copenhagen, 1853), No. 369.
With the exception of the L.N.C. tune, and the possible exception of the Brigham tune, all the tunes for Child 200 are related. The remaining ones can be divided into sub-families as follows: I) Pease, Richards, Taylor; 2) Woodbury, Erskine; 3) Fish. The Pease and Taylor tunes are especially close.
H. Gipsy Davy. As sung by Mrs. Lily M. Delorme of Cadyville, New York. Mrs. Delorme was born in Schuyler Falls, New York, in 1869. Her father was born in Starksboro, Vermont; her mother in Schuyler Falls, New York. This ballad, was learned in her home as a child. M. Olney, Collector; December 4, 1941.
The gypsy he came tripperling down the hill;
The gypsy he sang sweetly;
He sang till he made the wild woods ring
And charmed the heart of a lady.
The lady came tripperling down the stairs
With her waiting maid behind her,
And in her hand a bottle of wine,
And she drank a health of the gypsy.
"Will you forsake your house and home?
Will you forsake your baby?
Will you forsake your own wedded lord.
And go with the dark-eyed Davy?"
"Yes, I'll forsake my house and home,
And I'll forsake my baby,
And I'll forsake my own wedded lord
To go with the dark-eyed Davy."
The wedded lord came home that night
And call-ed for his lady,
And the maid she make him this reply:
"She's gone with the dark-eyed Davy."
"Now saddle me my horse," he said;
"The black one is the fleet-n-ist;
I've rode alt day and I'll ride all night,
But what I'll find my dearest."
He rode till he came to the riverside,
And the water looked dark and dreary,
And there he saw his own wedded bride
Along with the dark-eyed Davy.
"Have you forsaken your house and home?
Have you forsaken your baby?
Have you forsaken your own wedded lord
To go with the dark-eyed Davy?"
"Yes, I've forsaken my house and home,
And I've forsaken my baby,
And I'll forsake my own wedded lord
To go with the dark-eyed Davy."
The wedded lord went home that night
And took care of his baby;
Six months he lived in discontent
And married him another lady.