Gypsies to Laddie-O: Via/Keeton (VA) 1921 Stone/Davis D
[My title, replacing the generic one (Stone rarely gave a local title- although this ballad is not as much an issue). From Davis; Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1929. His notes follow.
This is one of the few older forms found in the US.
R. Matteson 2015]
THE GYPSY LADDIE
(Child, No. 200)
The eight texts and three tunes of this ballad found in Virginia differ notably from one another, and all are included here. "The Gipsy Laddie" and "Gypsy Davy" are the usual titles.
The ballad story of the ballad is recounted by Child for his A version as follows: "Gypsies sing so sweetly at our lord's gate as to entice his lady to come down; as soon as she shows herself, they cast the glamour on her. She gives herself over to the chief gypsy, Johny Faa by name, without reserve of any description. Her lord, upon returning and finding her gone, sets out to recover her, and captures and hangs fifteen gypsies." Of the historical prominence of Johnny Faa, Child cites numerous facts, among them that Johnny Faw's right and title as lord and earl of Little Egypt were recognized by James V, in 1540. But in the next year Egyptians were ordered to quit the realm within thirty days on pain of death. The gypsies were expelled from Scotland by act of Parliament in 1609. Soon after this date there are several records of the execution of Johnny, or Willie, Faa, and of other Egyptians. The execution of the notorious Johnny Faa seems to have made a considerable impression on the popular mind, as the ballad testifies. Later eighteenth century copies of the ballad seek to identify the lady as the wife of the Earl of Cassilis. But neither Johnny Faa nor the Earl of Cassilis is mentioned in any Virginia variant.
The Virginia variants pass very lightly over the first part of the story, the coming of the gypsies and the charming of the lady, and they also suppress the catastrophe of the hanging of the gypsies. The ballad ends with the lady's evidently final refusal to return with her husband. Only one text, Virginia B, has a spurious ending of two stanzas, in which the wife tires of the Gypsy,
asks her husband to let her return, and is refused -- a puritanical appendage in the interest of morals. The Virginia texts are most like the Child sequence H, I, J.
For American texts, see Barry, No. 9; Belden, No. 10 (fragment); Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos.3, 5, 8, 9, 11; Campbell and Sharp, No. 27: (Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia; cf. Sharp, Songs, 11, No. 2); Child, v: (Massachusetts, New York, Maine); Cox, No. 21, and p. 524 (four texts, melody); Hudson, No. 18 (Mississippi); Journal, xvlii, 191 (Barry, Nova
Scotia, text and melody, Massachusetts, four texts and two melodies, Rhode Island, fragment and melody); xix, 294 (Belden, Missouri); xxii, 80 (Barry, Massachusetts, melody only); xxiv, 346 (Barry, Pennsylvania, Maine); xxv, 173 (Belden, Missouri, Ohio); xxvi,353 (Pound, Nebraska, fragment); xxx, 323 (Kittredge, Massachusetts, text and melody); McGill, p. 15; Pound,
Nebraska, fragment); xxx,323 (Kittredge, Massachusetts, text and melody); xxvi, p. 353; Pound, Syllabus, p. 10 (fragment). For additional references, see Cox, p. 130; Journal, xxx, 323.
D. "Gypsies to Laddie-O." collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by the Misses Fannie and Hattie Via, of Stage Junction, Va. Fluvanna County. November 8, 1921. with music. Mr. Stone notes that " they learned it from Mrs. Orilla Keeton in Albemarle county, when they lived in Albemarle county."
1 There are seven sweet gypsies in the North,
They are calling to sweet Baltimore,
They will sing a song that will charm your heart
And cause you to leave your husband.
2 It was eight o'clock the captain came,
He was calling for his honey O.
"O your honey and-er she is not here,
She is gone with the gypsies to Laddie O."
3 "Saddle up, saddle up my milk-white team,
Saddle up, saddle up in a hurry O;
I will ride all night till the broad daylight
Until I overtake my honey O."
4 He rode to the east, he rode to the west,
He rode on to sweet Baltimore.
When he got there he found his honey;
She had gone with the gypsies to Laddie O.
5 "Come back, come back, my pretty miss,
Come back, come back, my honey O;
It's how can you leave your three little babes
And go with the gypsies to Laddie O?"
6 "O yes, I can leave my three little babes,
O yes, I can leave my honey O;
For I'd rather have a kiss from the gypsy's lips
Than all of your land and money O."
7 She hadn't been gone but a very short while
Until she spent all of her money O;
She spent the gold rings off of her fingers
And the breast-pins off of her bosom.
8 It's once she was used to a feather bed
And servants to her parlor;
But now she is used to the old hay bed
And the gypsies all around her.