Jack & the Highwayman- Marston 1926 (ME) Barry B
[From British Ballads from Maine, 1929; Barry Eckstorm Smyth pp. 406-413, "The Yorkshire Bite" (3 texts, 1 tune); also pp. 477-478, "The Crafty Farmer".
Barry published one of the first US version in 1908, reprinting it in 1910 in JOAFL. He teamed up with Flanders in the early 1930s. Below are the notes which seem to be Eckstorm's.
R. Matteson 2013]
"The Crafty Farmer" has been so difficult to obtain that we have come no nearer than this occurrence, noted by Captain Donovan [who heard a version sung similar to Child A], so far as we know, the only American text of it ever reported was one from West Virginia by Professor Cox. It is certain, however, that the ballad was known in Massachusetts at the close of the eighteenth century. See the "Anecdote of Rev. Ivory Hovey" with notes by P.B. in JAFL, XXIII, PP. 451-453. Yet while, The Crafty Farmer" has hitherto proven an impossibility, there is no limit to the number of copies obtainable of the derived, and very similar song, "The Yorkshire Bite." We have found a number cf texts and could have had many more, as it was very popular in Maine. It is the song often called "Saddle to Rags." There is also a parallel- story of the girl who outwits the highwayman, which we have not found in Maine.
THE YORKSHIRE BITE
(cf. Child 283)
B. "Jack and the Highwayman." Sent in, September, 1926, by Mrs. Annie V. Marston of West Gouldsboro.
1. Early one Monday morning the Master called to John;
John, hearing his good master, quick did run.
"Oh, Johnny take the cow, and drive her to the tr'air,
For she is in good, order and it is all I have to spare."
To me rol tol teedle, to me teedle, teedle, teedle,
To me rol tol teedle lol de da.
2. John took the cow all out of the barn
And drove her to the fair, as you will soon l'arn;
A short time after he met with a man
To whom he sold his cow for six pound ten.
3. "How far are you going, Johnny pop-in-ri?"
"How far are you going?" John replied:
"Down to my Master's dwelling, for you can plainly see,
. . . . .
4. John, returning home, came to a long, dark lane,
There sat the highwayman, I'll tell you very plain.
"Deliver up your money without any strife,
Or in this lonesome valley I will quicky take your life."
5. John seeing no chance for fear or dispute,
Out of his coat pockets the money he pulled out:
Out of his coat pockets the money he puiled out,
And all among the tall grass he strewed it all about.
6. While he was picking up the money
Jack has strewed in the grass,
O, Jack jumped a-straddle and rode off with his horse.
So Jack jump-ed a-straddle, and away rode he,
To me rol tol teedle, to me teedle, teedle, teedle,
To me rol tol teedle lol de da.