Lord Lovel- Groves (WV) 1915 Cox C
[From Folk-Songs of the South by John Harrington Cox; 1925. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
12. LORD LOVEL (Child, No. 75)
Five variants have been recovered, under the titles: "Lord Lovel," "Lord Lover," and "Lord Leven." They are all to be classed with Child H. A is practically identical with Child H to the end of the seventh stanza. Stanza 8 is made up of verses 1 and 2 of Child 8, and 3 and 4 of Child H 9. Stanza 9 is the same as Child H 10. In additions and corrections to "Lord Lovel" Mr. Child has the following: "211 H. I have received a copy recited by a lady in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was evidently derived from print, and differs but slightly from a, omitting 8 3,4 , 9 1,2." It would seem that the Massachusetts version and West Virginia A are identical.
B is the same as Child H stanza for stanza, but the phraseology is not quite so close as is that of West Virginia A. C, more or less fragmentary, does not differ materially from A and B. Stanza D 4 is not found in Child H. Cf. Child C 4. E shows some likenesses to Child D. The name "Lady Ouncebell" is found in this form in Child A 1.
For American texts see Journal, xvni, 291 (Barry; Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island); XIX, 283 (Belden; Kentucky, Missouri); Shoemaker, p. 124 (Pennsylvania); McGill, p. 9 (Kentucky); Focus, iv, 215 (Virginia); Campbell and Sharp, No. 18 (North Carolina) ; Clifton Johnson, What They Say in New England, p. 225; Pound, No. 2 (Illinois, Wyoming); Ralph, Harper's Monthly Magazine, July, 1903, cvn, 272; Minish MS. (North Carolina). Cf. Barry, No. 14; Belden, No. 6; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Pound, p. 9; Bulletin, Nos. 2-10; Reed Smith, Journal, xxvin, 199.
No old ballad has oftener been printed in American song-books and broadsides. See references, which could be indefinitely extended, in Journal, xxix, 160, note 1. It has sometimes been sung as a comic ditty: see, for example, Bob Smith's Clown Song Book, p. 51 ("as sung by Bob Smith"). A satirical parody beginning "Lord Lovell he sat in St. Charles's Hotel," was popular in the sixties and has often been printed (for example, in Tony Pastor's New Union Song Book, cop. 1862, p. 66, " The New Ballad of Lord Lovell " in Frank Moore's Songs of the Soldiers [New York, 1864], p. 174; and in R. G. White's Poetry, Lyrical, Narrative, and Satirical of the Civil War [New York, 1866], p. 115); Belden has found it in Missouri (No. 128). Another, called "Ye Ballade of Mans. Lovell," is in Frank Moore's Personal and Political Ballads (New York, 1864), p. 321. A Confederate parody, " Where are you going, Abe Lincoln? " is printed in Allan's Lone Star Ballads (Galveston, 1874), p. 31. For a recent parody see Carolyn Wells, A Parody Anthology, p. 326.
C. "Lord Lovel." Contributed by Miss Maud Groves, Deepwell, Nicholas County, 1915, who learned it about twenty years ago from Mrs. Margaret McClung. Reported by Cox, xlv, 159.
1 Lord Lovel was standing at his own castle gate,
Saddling his own white steed;
When who should come along but Lady Ouncebell,
A-wishing her lover God speed?
2 "O where are you going, Lord Lovel?" she said,
"O where are you going to-day?"
"I am going away to some far, far land,
I am going away to sea."
3 "When will you return, Lord Lovel?" she said,
"When will you return to me?"
"In the space of three years I'll return, my love,
To the face of a fair lady."
4 He had not been gone not more than two weeks,
I 'm sure it was not three,
Till something came over his mind,
Lady Ouncebell he must see.
5 He rode, he rode along the way,
Till he came to London Town;
And there he heard St. Mary's church bell;
The ladies were weeping around.
6 "O who is dead?" Lord Lovel he said,
"O who's to be buried to-day?"
"Lady Ouncebell died for a false young man;
Lord Lovel she called his name."
7 He ordered the coffin be opened,
The snow white sheets let down;
And as he kissed the clay-cold lips,
The tears came trinkling down.
8 "These are your clay-cold lips I kiss,
But you will never kiss mine;
I vow, I vow, and I'll vow to thee,
I'll never kiss lips but thine."
9 Lady Ouncebell died as it were to-day,
Lord Lovel he died to-morrow,
Lady Ouncebell died of a pure, pure love,
Lord Lovel he died of sorrow.
10 Lady Ouncebell was buried in St. Mary's churchyard,
Lord Lovel was buried close by her;
And out of her grave, a rose grows,
And out of Lord Lovel's, a brier.
11 They grew, they grew up the church wall,
Till they could grow no higher;
And there they entwined in a true-lover's knot
And remain there forever.