Lord Bateman- Pierce (VT) 1932 Flanders I

Lord Bateman- Pierce (VT) 1932 Flanders I

[From Flanders; Ancient Ballads, 1966. Notes by Coffin follow. This is patterned after the broadside versions 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]


I. Lord Bateman.
As copied by Miss Barbara Pierce from a version handwritten by her mother (deceased), Mrs. W. E. Pierce of North Shrewsbury, vermont, who used to sing the Lord Bateman verses. On July 14, 1932, she sang the second, verse to Mrs. Flanders to the first tune given below. In I953 her daughter Marjorie gave the tune as she remembered, it from her mother's singing. H. H. F., Collector; July, 1953; Structure: A1 A2 B C (2,2,2,2); Rhythm E; Contour: descending: Scale: anhemitonic pentatonic

Lord Bateman

In India lived a noble lord,
And he was a man of high degree.
He vowed he'd never be contented
Until a voyage he'd made to sea.

He sail-ed east and he sail-ed west
Until he came unto Turkey,
Where he was taken and put in prison
Where he could neither hear nor see.[1]

The jailer had one only daughter;
And she was a lady of high degree.
She stole the keys to her father's prison
And vowed she'd set Lord Bateman free.

"Oh, I've got houses and I've got lands,
And I've got titles of high degree.
I'll give them all to the fair young lady
Who will from bondage set me free."

" 'Tis not your silver, 'tis not your gold,
Nor yet your titles of high degree.
All that I want to make me happy,
All that I crave is your fair bod-y."

"Let us make a bargain and make it strong:
For seven long years it shall stand,
If you will wed no other woman,
Then I will wed no other man."

When seven long years were gone and past,
When seven long Years were at an end,
She packed up all her richest clothing
And said, "Now I'll go and seek my friend'"

She sailed east and she sailed west
Until she came to the India shore
. . . .
And for Lord Bateman she did inquire

She did inquire for Lord Bateman's palace
At every corner of the street.
She did inquire for Lord Bateman's palace
From everyone she chanced to meet.

And when she came to Lord Bateman's palace,
She knocked so loud upon the door,
. . . . .
. . . .  .

She asked, "Is this Lord Bateman's palace,
And is the Lord himself within?"
"Yes, yes," replied the brisk young Porter,
"He and his bride have just entered in.''

She wept and wept and wrung her hands
Saying, "Alas, I am undone.
I wish I was in my native country,
My native land there to remain.

"Ask him to send. me one ounce of bread,
And a bottle of his wine so strong.
And ask if he has forgot the lady
Who set him free from his iron bonds."

The porter went unto his master
And bowed so low upon his knee.
"Arise, arise my brisk young porter,
And tell me what the matter is.

"What news, what news, my brisk young porter,
What news, what news have you brought unto me?"
. . . .
. . . .

"There is a lady stands at your gate,
And she doth weep most bitterly.
I think she is the fairest creature
That ever my two eyes did see.

"She has got rings on every finger (her four fingers)
And 'round her neck has diamond strings, (And on one them she has got three)
She has more gold about her middle
Than your new bride and all her kin.

"She asks you to send her one ounce of bread
And a bottle of your wine so strong
And asks if you have forgot the lady
Who set you free from your iron bonds."

 1 This stanza with the words "to the Indian shore" in place of "unto Turkey" was sung to Mrs. Flanders by Mrs. Pierce on July 14, 1932.