Katie Mora- Douglass (NY) c.1841-1856 Thompson
[Inexplicably this version is titled Katie Mora, while the only time Katie is named it's--katy mory. The text has the original spelling unedited from Douglass manuscript.
R. Matteson 2012]
3. Katie Mora from A Pioneer Songster [Child, 112] Texts from the STEVENS-DOUGLASS MANUSCRIPT OF WESTERN NEW YORK 1841-1856 Edited by HAROLD W. THOMPSON
In Child this old English ballad is known as "The Baffled Knight." Child version A tells the story of a clever maiden who promises her favor to the knight if he will take her home first. When they reach the castle, however, she closes the gate after her, locking him out, and then jeers at him. The wording is quite different from that in the more recent versions.
The Douglass version is longer and more descriptive than the versions in Shoemaker, Sharp, or Eddy, though the latter two have nonsense refrains lacking in Douglass. The present version has a happy ending with marriage, which appears in neither Sharp nor Child. Sharp and Eddy both print tunes.
Horace P. Beck's The Folklore of Maine (Philadelphia and New York, 1957) includes a version called "Kitty O'Morey" in 13 stanzas and refrain. Here the marriage takes place, and there is a jesting conclusion: "But every time Katie winks at me; / oh gosh, I feel like climbing." A man named Dale Potter furnished Mr. Beck with the text and a tune.
Katey Mora
1 . Come all you sly and trickey lads
Come listen to my story
I'll tell you how i fixed my plans
To spoil young katy mory
2. I went unto her fathers house
Just like a clever fellow
I told her the blue grapes were ripe
Were charming plump and mellow
3. And that my sisters wished to meet
Her down in yonder bower
There for to gather grapes and plumbs
And spend a social hour
4. I waited until she had gone
Then wantonly pursued her
I caught her down in the shady bower
On purpose to delude her
5. Now i have caught you in this bower
My sisters know not the matter
Its you must die or else comply
For ive no time to flatter
6. My hand she squeezed she seemed well pleased
There is one thing i fear sir
My father he hath gone this way
Lest he should each us hear sir
7. Its you may climb this tree said she
Till hee is out of sight sir
Then I will go along with the
Where we will take delight sir
8. Her counsel then i quickly took
I was not the least offended
My charmer stood at the roots of the tree
For to see how i ascended
9. At every jerk it made such work
Stuck hard in my cropsir
The clothes i wore my shirt i tore
When in the limbs i had got sir
10. When kate she heeled it from the tree
She sung both loud and cheerly
You may pick your plumbs and suck your thumbs
For i no longer fear thee
11. You look just like an owl said she
Your company i shun sir
You may get down as you got up
You are welcome to your fun sir
12. Then kate she heeled it oer the plain
And left me quite distracted
I riped i swore my shirt i tore
For to think how she had acted
13. But when ide thought the matter oer
Her virtues i commended
And soon i made a wife of her
And here my sorrows ended
14. Shes neat she kind she to my mind
We live in love and fashion
Blessed be the hour she ran away
And left me in a pashion