Lord Bateman- schoolgirl (NC) 1917 Brown C; Sutton
[From: Brown Collection (A-F Versions) Vol. 2, c.1952, version C.
R. Matteson 2014]
OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH
14. Young Beichan (Child 53)
It has been suggested that the frequent and widespread occurrence of this ballad as traditional song may be due to its frequent appearance in broadside and songbook print (for which see Barry, BBM 106-22, and especially Kittredge's bibliographical note, JAFL XXX 294-7). The argument may easily, however, be turned the other way: that ballad printers used it because it was known to be a favorite. Cause and effect are not easily distinguished in such cases. There is at least no question that it is a favorite. It has been reported as traditional song in recent times in Scotland (LL 40-2), Northamptonshire (ECS 62-3), Lincolnshire (JFSS iii 192-9), Wiltshire and Hampshire (FSUT 147-9; Williams says it is "common to the whole of the Thames Valley"), Sussex (Sharp's Folk-Songs of England v 32-3), Somerset (FSSom no. 65), even, the tune at least, in the Isle of Man (JFSS vii 315) ; and on this side of the water in the Bahamas (JAFL xli 585-8), Newfoundland (FSN 88-92, BSSN 17), Nova Scotia (BSSNS 16-19), Maine (BBM 106-22), Vermont (VFSB 204-8), Pennsvlvania (JAFL XXIII 450-1), Virginia (TBV 158-71, SharpK i 87, SCSM 212-13), West Virginia (FSS 36-41), Kentucky (JAFL xx 251-2, xxii 64-5, SharpK i 79-80, 83-6, 87, 88, LT 58-61, DD 86-7), Tennessee (SharpK i 81-3. 86, FSSH 55-9, BTFLS viii 68-9), North Carolina (JAFL xxviii 149-51, SharpK i 77-9, 80-1, FSRA 18-20), South Carolina (SCB 104-6), Mississippi (FSM 75-6), Florida (SFLQ VIII 144-6), the Ozarks (OMF 197-201, OFS i 83-8), Ohio (BSO 28-9), Michigan (BSSM 143-5), and Nebraska (ABS 53-6, really from Indiana).
There are certain interesting variations among these many texts. Kittredge, in the note above referred to, remarks that some of the American texts differ from the broadsides in retaining a detail of the Turks' barbarous cruelty: a hole is bored in Beichan's shoulder by means of which he is harnessed and becomes a draft-animal. Thus in Child A:
For thro his shoulder he put a bore.
An thro the bore has pitten a tree,
An he's gard him draw the carts o wine.
Where horse and oxen had wont to be.
Similarly in B D E H I N. The word "tree" here means "draught-tree," the pole of a wagon or cart by which it is attached to the
draft animal. "Tree" in this sense was apparently not an acceptable locution, was not understood in America ; Henry's Tennessee text and our version E change it to "key," two of the West Virginia texts and the only text in TBV that retains this feature change the word to "rope" and the other West Virginia text to "string." Other American texts that keep the word change the meaning; the "tree" is now that to which the captive is tied (chained, nailed, bound, fastened, sometimes around his middle), giving a quite different picture. So BBM D, TBV E, SharpK A E, JAFL xxviii 150, XXX 295, and our A version. Some of the texts have in the closing scene what seems to be a reference to the heroine's baptism, most definitely in Child A:
He's take his bonny love by the han,
And led her to yon fountain stane;
He's changed her name frae Shusy Pye,
An he's cald her his bonny love, Lady Jane.
Some of the American texts, both from the North and from the South, retain the feature of the change of name, but I judge that in each instance it is understood of a change of name by marriage, not by christening. Finally, certain of the American texts make the heroine declare her love with an un-American frankness. When the prisoner offers wealth and position to the lady if she will free him from his bonds, she tells him that all she wants is his "fair body." This locution is found in none of the Child texts; but it is in Coverly's Boston broadside, in The Forget-Me-Not Songster, and in traditional texts from Nova Scotia, Maine, Vermont, Virginia, and North Carolina (though not in any of the texts in our collection). Whether the innovation originates with Coverly is not clear, but it is contrary to the general American mores to express desire so simply.
Our collection has six texts of Young Beichan.
C. 'Lord Bateman.' The first of two versions of the ballad found by Mrs. Sutton. This one she took down from the singing of a little girl in the Brushy Creek schoolhouse in Avery county in 1917. "Brushy Creek," Mrs. Sutton writes, "runs through a high narrow valley in the ridge between the Toe and Linville rivers. The little schoolhouse stood on a narrow flat in the ridge and was surrounded by a forest." After singing the ballad the little girl, a sixth-grade pupil, remarked : "He'd ort to 'a' knowed that she'd foller him."
1 In London city was Bateman born,
He longed far lands to see
So he was taken by a savage Turk
Who punished him cruelly.
2 He cast him in a dungeon deep
Where he couldn't hear or see ;
He shut 'him up in a prison dark
And handled him cruelly.
3 The Turk had but one fair child,
As fair as she could be.
She stole the keys to the prison dark
And set Lord Bateman free.
4 She said, 'Have you any house or land
Or rents in your own country?
Would you give it all to a lady fair
If she would set you free?'
5 She gave him a loaf of snow-white bread
And a flask of Spanish wine.
He vowed a vow to marry her;
I wish that she was mine.'
6 She led him down to the salt sea.
'Go, haste to your own country;
Before seven years have come and gone
Come back and marry me.'
7 Before seven years had come and gone
She longed her true love to see.
She set her foot on a sailing ship
And started over the sea.
8 When she got to Lord Bateman's hall
She jingled at the ring:
'Oh, Lord Bateman, Lord Bateman, asleep or awake,
Arise and let me in !
9 'Is this Lord Bateman's hall?' she said,
'Oh, is Lord Bateman in?'
'He's in the hall, with his new bride.
And the wedding guests with him,'
10 'Oh, he has taken another bride
And forgotten his vows to me.'
And then the Turkish lady said,
'I wish I was in my own country.'
11 'Oh, I've been a porter at your gate
For seven years and three,
But there's a lady out there now
Whose like I never did see.
12 'On every finger she has a ring,
On the middle one she has three.
And there's as much gold about her head
As would buy a farm for me.'
13 Then up and started Lord Bateman,
And oath he swore, did he.
Saying, 'That's my Turkish princess
Who has crossed the sea to me.'
14 Then quickly he ran out of the hall,
And when he saw 'twas she
He took his true love in his arms
And kissed her tenderly.
15 'Oh, have you forgotten, Lord Bateman dear,
Oh, have you forgotten,' said she,
'That I took you out of the dark dungeon
And started you over the sea?'
16 'Take home, take home your daughter dear;
She's none the worse for me.
For I must marry my own true love
Who has followed me o'er the sea.'