Johnny Scot- Harmon (TN) 1928 Henry
JOHNNY SCOT (Child, No. 99)
For a full account of the tradition of this ballad, including two versions with the airs and a fragment, see Barry-Eckstorm-Smyth, pp. 213—224. According to the reckoning of these editors their three Maine texts brought the "total known versions of the ballad up to twenty-five." This, therefore, should be the twenty-sixth known version. Twenty are in Child, one in Greig's Last Leaves, pp. 74—75, and one in Campbell and Sharp, pp. 109-110.
No local title was given. The song was recorded by Mrs. Henry from the singing of Miss Laura Harmon, Cade's Cove, Blount County, Tennessee, August, 1928, who learned it from her father, "Uncle" Sam Harmon.
1. Johnny Scot, a handsome right [knight]..........
Old England is so wide;
The fairest lady in old England
By Johnny Scot's with child.
2. King Ed'ard wrote young Johnny a letter
And sealed it with his hand.
He sent it away to young Johnny Scot
As fast as a letter could go.
3. The very first lines, young Johnny, he read,
It caused him for to smile.
And [1] very next line he read
The tears run down for a while,
4. Saying, "Away to old England I must go,
King Ed'ard has sent for me."
"Away to old England if you do go,
I doubt you coming back.
Five hundred of our best life-guards
Shall bear you company."
5. He dressed his servants all in green;
Hisself he dressed in white.
And every town that he rode through,
They tuk him to be some knight.
6. He rode till he come to King Ed'ard's gate.
He dingled there at the ring,
And no one was so ready as Ed'ard himself
To rise and let him come in.
7. "Is this young Johnny Scot ?" he said,
"Or old Johnny Scotling's son,
Or is it the young bastard-getter
From Scotland has come in ?"
8. "It is not young Johnny Scot,
Nor old Johnny Scotling's son;
This is the very grand Scot Lord,
And Johnny Scot is my name."
9. This young lady come peeping down stairs.
"Come down, come down," said he.
"Oh, no, I have to wear the studdiest[1] steel
Instead of the beating gold."
10. "If it's mine," young Johnny he said,
"And mine I expect it to be,
I will make it the heir of all my land,
And you my gaily dee."
11. "No, no," King Ed'ard, he said, "Oh, no, that never can't be.
We have [3] Italian in our town,
That has killed more lords than three,
And before sunrise tomorrow morning,
A dead man you shall be."
12. The Italian flew over young Johnny's head
As swift as any bird.
He pierced the Italian through[4] heart
With the point of his broad sword.
And he whipped King Ed'ard and all of his men;
And the king, he like to a-hung.
13. "Hold your arm," King Ed'ard, he said,
"And pray do spare me;
You can make it the heir of all your land
And she your gaily dee."
1 Supply the.
2 Sturdiest.
3 Supply an.
4 Supply the