Holland Handkerchief- Sullivan (VT) 1932 Flanders A
[Published in The New Green Mountain Songster, 87, and in BESSNE, V, 8, with minor variations. H. H. F., collector. Also version A in Ancient Ballads, 1965.
Holland Handkerchief is my title, much preferred over the generic, Suffolk Miracle. The last 5 verses of his version are taken from Barbara Allen.
R. Matteson 2013]
THE SUFFOLK MIRACLE (Flanders notes; Ancient Ballads)
Child gives a number of analogues and recalls a Cornwall prose version. Schischmanov, Indegermanische Forschungen (1894), IV, 412-8, has written an article expounding the thesis that all ballads of "The Dead Brother," as this song is often called, derive from the Greek. Burger's Lemare is a famous literary retelling of the story"
The two tunes for Child 272 are related, but not closely.
A. Holland Handkerchief- Mrs. Ellen M. Sullivan of Springfield, Vermont, gave these words as sung by her father, Thomas O'Brien, of County Cork, Ireland on July 12, 1932. Structure: A1 Br B2 A2 (2,2,2,2); Rhythm E,; Contour: arc; Scale: hexatonic, but the leading tone appears only at the end.
There was a squire lived in this town;
He was a squire of high renown,
Had one daughter- a beauty bright-
And the name he called her was his "Heart's delight."
When her father came this to know
He sent his daughter far away,
Sends her over fifty miles or more
To detain her of her wedding day.
One night as she was for her bed bound,
As she was taking out her gown,
She heard the knock and the deadly sound;
"Loosen those bonds, love, that we have bound.
"I have your horse and your mother's cloak
And your father's orders to take you home."
She dressed herself in rich attire
And. she rid away with her heart's desire.
She got on, with him behind,
They rode far faster than any wind,
And ev'ry mile he would sigh and say,
"O my lovely jewel, my head it aches."
A holland handkerchief she then took out
And tied his head with it around.
She kissed his lips and she then did say,
"O my love, you're colder than any clay."
When they came to her father's gate,
"Come down, dear jewel," this young man said,
"Come down, my darling, and go to bed
And I'll see your horse in his stable led."
And when they came to her father's hall,
"Who's there, who's there?" her father called.
"It is I, dear father, did you send for me
By such a messenger?" naming he.
Her father, knowing this young man being dead,
He tore the grey hair down from his head.
He wrung his hands and he wept full sore
And this young man's darling cried more and more.
The next day to the grave they went;
And although this young man had been nine months dead,
He still wore the Holland handkerchief
'Round his head'.
The corpse were laid down at her feet,
There she stood a-laughing'
"O fie, for shame," her friends all cried,
"Hard-hearted Barbry Allen! "
"Go make my bed, mama," she said,
"Oh, make it soft and mellow
For a young man died for me last night,
And I'll die for him tomorrow."
"Oh, dig my grave, papa," she said,
"And dig it deep and narrow
For a young man died for me last night
And I'll die for him to-morrow."
One was buried in the middle of the church;
The other, in Mary's Abbey.
Out of one there grew a rose
And out of the other, a briar.
And every night at twelve o'clock
They twined in a true lover's knot
The red rose and the briar.