Lord Bateman- Ritchie Family (KY) 1958 recording
[From Folkways Records FW02316201: Lord Bateman and the Turkish Lady- The Ritchie Family, 1958. Their notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
(Note: Our family version of this seems to have been learned by some ancestor from an Eighteenth Century English broadside. The story is about the same as is told in Child's earlier Scottish version, "Young Beichan (Child 53)", or in any of the other fourteen variants printed by Professor Child, but the Ritchie song is apparently a much modernized one. It is almost as though some ambitious Eighteenth Century minstrel had decided, "Here is a good song but it's not commercial in its present form, "--and proceeded to rewrite "Lord Bateman" and bring him up to date for the slick modern broadsheet market. If anyone wanted to locate the earliest written forms of this ballad, he would probably find them in Old Norse, but, since these wouldn't make much sense to the American public, the Ritchies will here give their English, and favorite, version.
LORD BATEMAN AND THE TURKISH LADY
Lord Bateman was a noble lord,
He thought himself of a high degree;
He could not rest nor be contented
Till he had sailed the old salt sea.
O he sailed east, and he sailed to the westward,
He sailed all over to the Turkish shore.
There he got caught and put in prison
Never to be released any more.
Now the Turk he had one only daughter
And she was fair as she could be;
She stole the keys to her father's prison
And declared Lord Bateman she'd set free.
She took him down to the deepest cellar
And gave him a drink of the strongest wine.
She threw her loving little arms around him
Crying, O Lord Bateman, if you were mine!
They made a vow, they made a promise,
For seven long years they made it to stand;
He vowed he'd marry no other woman,
She vowed she'd marry no other man.
Well, seven long years has rolled around,
Seven years and it seems like twenty-nine.
It's she's packed up all of her gay clothing
And declared Lord Bateman she would go find.
O she sailed east and she sailed to the westward,
She sailed all over to the England shore.
She rode till she came to Lord Bateman's castle
And she summonsed his porter right down to the door.
O is this not Lord Bateman's castle
And is his lordship not within?
O yes, O yes, cried the proud young porter,
He's a-just now bringing his new bride in.
What's the news, what's the news, you proud young porter?
What's the news, what's the news that you brought to me?
There stands a lady outside of your castle,
She's the fairest one, I ever did see.
She has got a gold ring on every finger,
And on one finger she has got three,
And enough gay gold all about her middle
As would buy Northumberland of thee.
She bids you to send her a slice of bread,
She bids you to send her a drink of wine,
And not to forget the Turkish Lady
That freed you from your close confine.
O up and spoke that new bride's mother,
She never was known to speak so free;
O what's to become of my only daughter?
She has just been made a bride to thee?
O I've done no harm to your only daughter
And she is the none of the worse for me;
She came to me with a horse and saddle
And she shall go home in coacheree.
Lord Bateman he pounded his fist on the table
And broke it in pieces one, two, three.
Says, I'll forsake all for the Turkish Lady,
She has crossed that old salt sea for me.