Lord Burling's Sister- Joiner (Herts) 1914 Broadwood
[From: Narrative Ballads by Lucy E. Broadwood, A. G. Gilchrist, Cecil J. Sharp, Clive Carey and Frank Kidson; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 5, No. 19 (Jun., 1915), pp. 122-148; Published by English Folk Dance + Song Society. Their notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
The Folk-Song Society is greatly indebted to Miss Janet Broadwood of Bone Hill, St. Stephen's, Herts, who discovered in Mrs. Joiner an excellent singer of traditional songs, and who has faithfully taken down texts of most of hers included in this Journal. Mrs. Joiner, a widow who does odd jobs in the garden, learnt a large number of her songs from her mother and grandmother, who had in their turn learnt them from her great-grandmother, Sarah Hawkins. All these women (who were of English stock) were natives of Hertfordshire and spent their lives there.
The great-grandmother and grandmother kept a " plaiting-school" at Leverstock Green, where the scholars learnt to read and to plait straw for hats. Mrs. Joiner, who herself learnt there, said that the girls sang as they plaited, and taught each other the songs and ballads learnt from their elders. Mrs. Joiner's way of singing may possibly be the outcome of this union of voice and delicate handicraft, for she renders her songs with very great rhythmical feeling and purity of musical intervals, whilst choosing a much slower pace and a more deliberate and expressive phrasing than are usually adopted by our English country singers. For convenience, the above ballad has been named " Lord Burling's Sister," as Mrs. Joiner had no title for it. She could not remember the beginning verses which should tell how " Lord Burling" discovers that his sister and the servant-man are in love with one another.
The ballad is of great interest, being one of the few that seem to have eluded the collectors of the past. In Professor Child's monumental work there is nothing like it, and I know of only two other variants-both collected by Mr. Cecil Sharp-- namely "In Bruton Town" (Journal, Vol. ii, p. 42, and Folk-Songs from Somerset, Ist series), and "In Strawberry Town" (see this Journal). In addition there is a broadside ballad, of a perfectly distinct character and more modern phraseology but with a similar plot, collected by me in Sussex and called "The Merchant's Daughter, or The Constant Farmer's Son" (Journal, Vol. iv, p. 160, and English Traditional Songs and Carols). In the above-mentioned publications there are notes tracing the plot of the ballads to one used by Boccaccio in his Decameron and later versified by Hans Sachs ("Der ermordete Lorenz") and Keats ("Isabella and the Pot of Basil"). Hans Sachs retains the Italian tradition that Messina was the town where the rich merchant, his two sons and daughter, Elizabeth, dwelt. Mrs. Joiner sang " Lord Burlington his eldest brother." There is possibly some connection between "Bruton Town" and "Burlington," which a more complete text might make clear. Mrs. Joiner learnt hers from her grandmother, and, on the whole, it is the fullest and best of the three versions. The words of " Bruton Town " in Folk- Songs from Somerset have undergone considerable editing, but the fine tune there given is as in Journal No. 6. It is altogether different from Mrs. Joiner's air, and the tune of "In Strawberry Town," here contributed by Mr. Cecil Sharp, is different again, though it is, curiously enough, a variant of the air used by Mrs. Joiner for her ballad of " The Brisk Young Country Lady "* (see p. I28) and so often connected with "Lord Bateman."---L. E. B.
12.- LORD BURLING'S [or BURLINGTON'S] SISTER; or, THE MURDERED SERVANT-MAN.
SUNG BY MRS. JOINER (AGED 59), Noted by Lucy Broadwood. AT CHISWELL GREEN, HERTS., SEPT. 7TH, 1914.
Very slow and expressive.
1. Lord[1] Burling told his eldest brother
"See how they did sport and play!"
He told his secaret[2] to none other,
To his eldest brother he did say.[3]
2 They asked him [i.e. the servant-man] to go a-hunting,
Without any fear or strife,
These two bold and wicked villains
They took away this young man's life.
3 And in the ditch there was no water
Where only bush and briars grew
They could not hide the blood of slaughter
So in the ditch his body threw.
4 When they returned home from hunting
She asked for her servant-man:
"I ask you because I see you whisper,
So, brothers, tell me if you can."
5 "O sister, you offend me so
Because you do examine me;
We lost him in the fields of hunting,
No more of him we could not see."
6 As she lay dreaming on her pillow,
She thought she saw her true love stand
By her bed-side, as she lay weeping,
Was dressed all in his bloody coat.
7 "Don't weep for me, my dearest jewel,
Don't weep for me, nor care, nor pine,
For your two brothers killed me so cruel-
In such a place you may me find."
8 As she rose early the next morning,
With heavy sigh and bitter groan
The only love that she admired
She found that in the ditch was thrown.
9 But in the ditch there was no water,
Where only bush and briars grew,
They could not hide the blood of slaughter
So [4] in the ditch his body threw.
10 The blood that on his lips was drying,
His tears were salt as any brine,
She sometimes kissed him, sometimes crying
"Here lies the boldest[5] friend of mine! "
11 Three nights and days has she sat by him
When her poor heart was filled with woe,
Till faintness came a-creeping on her,
And home she was obliged to go.
12 When she returned to her brothers:
"Sister, what makes you look so thin?"
"Brother, don't you ask the reason,
And for his sake you shall be hung?"
1 Mrs. Joiner sang " Lord Burlington his eldest brother."
2. secret
3. Mrs. Joiner could not remember the beginning of the ballad.
4. has "though" see stanza 3
5 "bosom" in US versions