Lord Bakeman- Merrill (VT) 1932 Flanders M
[My date From Flanders; Ancient Ballads, 1966. Notes by Coffin follow. Even though it's titled "Lord Bakeman" this is patterned after the print versions of Child L, (The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman, 1839) published in the New England area.
R. Matteson 2014]
Young Beichan
(Child 53)
This ballad has an extensive Anglo-American tradition and still is well known on both sides of the Atlantic. The American songs all trace back to early broadsides[1] and song books and quite generally refer to the hero as Lord Bateman or Bakeman. These texts vary somewhat in minor detail, but follow the Child L pattern as to plot outline, significant facts, and length. Nevertheless, a good many scholars have devoted a good bit of time to the minor variations of the American versions and more particularly to identifying the printed sources of the ballad in the New World. George L. Kittredge JAF, XXX, 295-97) used "the hole bored in the hero's shoulder" as a means of distinguishing texts closely akin to Child L from those related to the Coverly broadside in the Isaiah Thomas Collection, Worcester, Massachusetts, and Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 106 f., continues the probings and points out the "hole in the shoulder" stanza is characteristic of the South. There is also a good bit of information along similar lines in Jane Zielonko's Master's thesis, "Some American Variants of Child Ballads" (Columbia University, 1945), 83 f.
The Flanders versions below have been divided according to the findings of these researchers. Texts A-J seem to be similar to the Coverly broadside or to the version printed in the J. S. Locke of Boston Forget-Me-Not Songster (See A particularly) that goes back to an earlier broadside Coverly may have used. K-S are close to the text printed by Lucy E. Broadwood and J. A. F. Maitland in English Country Songs (London, 1893) and cited by Barry, op. cit., 116. This is a form of the song still known in Britain that evidently found its way into print in New England. In this series (see K-O) the hero's shoulder is not bored through as in many Child texts, but Bateman is tied to a tree[2]. T, it will be noted, contains further modifications and a compression
of the narrative. But, all in all, the Flanders texts are pretty typical of the northern findings for this ballad. Child, I,455 f., discusses the affinities of this song and the legend associated with Gilbert a Becket in the Middle Ages. However, analogous stories are known about Henry of Brunswick, Alexander von Metz, and a host of other heroes in Scandinavian and southern European balladry. A start on a bibliography can be had in Coffin, 63-65 (American); Dean-Smith, 5 (English) ; Greig and Keith, 40-43 (Scottish) ; and the notes in Child. Kittredge's JAF article contains a number of references, not easily available elsewhere, to printed American texts of "Lord Bateman" and its relative "The Turkish Lady." The latter, listed by Laws as O 26 and possibly derived from "Lord Bateman," is also immensely popular in America. Laws, AEBB, 238, and Coffin, 65, give a
good many references for it.
The eight tunes for Child 53 are all related, and all correspond to tune group A in BC1. Two subfamilies appear: 1) the Davis, Kennison, Pierce, and Burke tunes, characterized by a triad at the beginning, this group corresponds to BCI group Aa. The other tunes together fit in with BCI group Ab, the Morton tune being relatively divergent from the others, however.
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1. In my opinion, this statement is simply inaccurate, "the American songs all trace back to early broadsides." Consider, for example, the Hick/Harmon version (Susan Price/Young Behan) which was collected from three different family members which they brought from Virginia (circa late 1600s) to the Carolina mountains probably around 1770 and has been passed strictly through oral tradition since then. [R. Matteson 2014]
2. It's likely that the "tied to a tree" reference is, in fact, derived from the "hole in the shoulder" texts, via faulty oral transmission. After all, there aren't many prisoners tied to a tree in a jail cell. [R. Matteson 2014]
M. Lord Bakeman. Orlon Merritt sang this to H. H. F. and Phillips Barry. Charlestown, New Hampshire. Printed in the Springfield, Mass., Republican, February 14, 1932. H. F., Collector; Mid-October, 1932.
Lord Bakeman
Lord Bakeman, being a noble lord,
A noble lord of high degree.
He rigged himself on board a ship
Some fireign country to go and see.
He sail-ed east, he sail-ed west
Until he came to a Turkish shore
And there he was taken and put in prison
For six or eight long months or more.
All in this prison grew a tree
And it did grow both stout and strong
And he was chain-ed up by the middle
Until his life was nearly gone.
This Turkish, having an only daughter,
As fair a creature as your two eyes did see,
She stole the key from her father's prison
And swore Lord Bakeman she would see.
"Have you got houses? Have you got land
or how much of Northumberlie belongs to thee
Or what would thou give to a fair young lady
Which out of prison would set you free?"
"Yes, I've got houses and I've got land
And half of Northumberlie belongs to me.
I'd give it all to any fair young lady,
If out of prison would set me free."
She took him to her father's palace
And she treated him on the best of wine
And every health she drank unto him,
"I wish, Lord Bakeman, You was mine."
"Let's make a vow and make it strong,
. . . .
If you will not wed no other woman
I will not wed no other man."
Then she took him to her father's harbor,
She rigged him out on a ship of fame,
Saying,-"Fare you well, fare you well, Lord Bakeman,
I fear I ne'er shall see you again."
When seven years had gone past
And seven more, most speedily
She pack-ed up all her gay gold clothing
And swore Lord Bakeman she would go and see.
She sail-ed east, she sail-ed west
Until she came to Lord Bakeman's castle
so loudly there she rang the bell'
"Who's here, who's here?" cried the young proud Porter,
"who's here, who's here? To me now tell"'
"Is this Lord Bakeman's castle
Or is His Lordship within?"
"Oh yes, Oh yes," cried the young proud porter,
"He has just now taken a young bride."
Go tell him to send me a slice of bread
And a bottle of his best wine
And to not forget that fair young lady
That did release him from a close confine."
"Oh, you understand the finest lady
That ever your two eyes did see.
She has got rings on every finger
And on one of them she has got three.
"She has as much gay gold about her clothing
As purchased half of Northumberlie.
She wants you to send her a slice of your bread
And a bottle of your best of wine.
"'She wants you to see her
. . .
And to not forget that fair young lady
That did release you from close confine."
Lord Bakeman in a passion flew.
He broke his sword in splinters three,
Saying, "I care no more' no more for riches
Since that bright youth has crossed the sea."
Then up speaks this young bride's mother
Which never was known to speak so free,
"You've made a bride all of my daughter,
What need you further with she?"
"If I've made a bride all of your daughter,
She's none the better nor the worse for me,
She came to me with a horse and saddle;
She may go back with a coach and three."
Then he took his fair lady by the lily-white hand,
He led her through, from room to room'
And he changed her name from Susannah Fair
To be the wife of Lord Bakeman.