Johnny Randal- Dick (VA) 1933 Davis DD
[From Kyle Davis Jr., More Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1960, six versions AA-FF. Davis's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
LORD RANDAL
(Child No. 12)
Despite the great popularity of this ballad in America, the basic story of the sweetheart's murderous treachery, revealed through a question-and-answer sequence between a mother and her dying son, has remained surprisingly uncorrupted. Except for AA, the newly collected Virginia texts follow Child B in omitting information about the death of Randal's dogs, and all follow either Child A or B in the use of the gallows or hell-fire motif.
The concluding stanza of AA giving the detail of the punishment of the faithless sweetheart represents a story variant different from any classified by Coffin. Although of interest to the collector, this information Seems rather superfluous, since "Lord Randal" ends far more dramatically on the bleak note of the betrayed lover's curse. Other texts given here follow Coffin's Story Typ. A, with many verbal variants.
Child prints twenty-five versions of the ballad, and points out its Continental relations. Gerould (pp. 17-20) remarks that the ballad has been found "as far east as Czecho-Slovakia and Hungary, as far north as Scotland and Sweden, and as fat south as Calabria." He shows the close parallel between an Italian version recently collected near Pisa and traced back to a broadside printed in Verona in 1629, and an eighteenth-century Scottish version.
TBVa prints fourteen texts out of sixteen available, with four tunes. More recent collecting in Virginia has produced six additional items, including four tunes (one lost). All six versions, with three tunes, are presented here. Bronson (I, 191-225) has found and prints 103 tunes (with texts), and divides them into three major groups, commenting that "most of the divisions suggesting themselves within the larger body of tunes are subdivisions rather than actual cleavages." Group A with 81 variants, represents the main melodic tradition of the ballad, which Bronson subdivides into four varieties, plus an appendix of anomalies, the oldest copy coming from Robert Burns in Ayrshire before 1792. Group B, with 16 variants divided into two almost equal parts, is the "Henry" group, mainly English, but with representatives from the west of Scotland and America. Group C, the "Croodin' Doo" version, with six variants, has two varieties, one Scottish and Aeolian, the other English. All four Virginia tunes from TBVa are classified under one or another subdivision of Bronson's major Group A. Of the tunes below, FF belongs to Bronson's Group Ac.
DD. "Johnny Randal." Collected by Weston O' McDaniel, of Fairview, Va. sung by Mrs. Murvil Dick, of Frederick county, Va. Frederick county, March 14, 1933. A tune was sent with this version, but the editor, cannot locate it. Variations in the text justify its inclusion, without the tune.
1 "Where was you last night [nigh-height],
Johnny Randal, my son?
Where was you last night,
My dear little one?"
2 "I was a-courtin' my sweetheart,
Mother, make my bed soon,
I have a pain in my heart [har-art],
I want to lie down."
3 "What had you for supper,
Johnny Randal, my son?
What had you for supper,
My dear little one?"
4 "Fresh. eels fried in butter,
Mother, make my bed soon,
I have a pain in my heart
I want to lie down."
5 "Do you think you are dyin'
Johnny Randal, my son,
Do you think you are dyin'
My dear little one ?"
6 "Yes, I think I am dyin',
Mother, make my bed soon,
I have a pain in my heart,
I want to lie down."
7 "What do you will to Your father,
Johnny Randal, my son?
What do you will to your father,
My dear little one?"
8 "My farm and utensils,
Mother, make my bed soon,
I have a pain in my heart,
I want to lie down."
9 "What do you will to your sister,
Johnny Randal, my son?
What do you will to your sister,
My dear little one ?"
10 "My bed and bed clothin',
Mother, make my bed soon,
I have a pain in my heart,
I want to lie down."
11 "What do you will to your brother,
Johnny Randal, my son?
What do you will to your brother,
My dear little one?"
12 "My horse and my saddle,
Mother, make my bed soon,
I have a pain in my heart,
I want to lie down."
13 "What do you will to your sweetheart,
Johnny Randal, my son?
What do you will to your sweetheart,
My dear little one?"
14 "Hell fire[r] and brimstone
That will scorch her light brow,
For she's the cause of this pain [pay-ain],
I want to lie down."