My Own Pretty Boy (Lord Randal)- MacSweeney (Ireland) c. 1918
[My title, replacing the Child name, Lord Randal. Written by Joseph J. MacSweeney The Modern Language Review, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Jul., 1918), pp. 325-327. Footnotes moved to the end. His source is his mother about 1912, who learned it near Blarney in the County Cork. She is his source for Child 3. Apparently she learned both about 50 years ago (see; notes for False Knight, 1912).
R. Matteson 2011, 2018]
'LORD RANDAL.'
'LORD RANDAL' is the name usually given to an English and Scottish ballad the theme of which is extensively diffused in Europe. The tale is told in such widely different languages as German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Magyar, Wendish, and Italian, while in Portugal, Bohemia, Catalonia, and Provence a story closely analogous to the theme of the English ballad is related. Child in his work on The English and Scottish Popular Ballads made a masterly comparative study of the Lord Randal theme[1], and this note will, I trust, call attention to some facts which have been discovered since he wrote.
The ballad is first referred to in a quodlibet printed on a broadside containing the repertoire of a singer called Camillo, who, judging by the date on the sheet, sang it at Verona in 1629[2]. Later in 1656 the ballad was referred to in the Crusca by Canon Lorenzo Panciatichi who together with the academicians present was tempted to commit the error of trying to 'improve' the ballad[3]. In England the history of the ballad cannot be traced earlier than the nineteenth century[4], but that it is a genuinely old ballad can hardly be doubted. In all there exist twentyfive versions of the ballad in English[5], one of which Child derived from an Irish source[6]. I know the ballad to be current in Ireland and I give the following version exactly as I heard it [7]:
'Where were you all day, my own pretty boy?
Where were you all day, my comfort and joy ?'
'I was fishing and fowling; mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm sick to the heart, and I want to lie down.'
'What will you leave your father, my own pretty boy?
What will you leave your father, my comfort and joy?'
'My house and my lands; mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm sick to the heart, and I want to lie down.'
'What will you leave your sister, my own pretty boy ?
What will you leave your sister, my comfort and joy?'
'My carriage and four, mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm sick to the heart, and I want to lie down.'
'What will you leave your brother, my own pretty boy ?
What will you leave your brother, my comfort and joy ?'
'My boots and my spurs; mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm sick to the heart, and I want to lie down.'
'What will you leave your wife, my own pretty boy?
What will you leave your' wife, my comfort and joy ?'
'A rope for to hang her; mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm sick to the heart, and I want to lie down.'
It is interesting for the comparative study of the Lord Randal theme that, since Child wrote his work on the English and Scottish Popular Ballads, there should have been found to exist two versions of the ballad, one in the Irish[8] and the other in the Welsh language[9]. These latter versions like practically all the continental and English versions have a climax which involves the making of a will or testament such as is found also to exist in the ballads of the 'Cruel Brother' and in 'Edward.'
JOSEPH J. MACSWEENEY.
SUTTON, COUNTY DUBLIN.
1 Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Vol. I, pp. 151-157.
2 Wolff, Egeria, p. 53; Martinengo-Caesaresco, Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs.
3 Child, ibid., Vol. i, Introd. to 'Lord Randal.'
4 Child, Eng. and Scot. Pop. Ballads (ed. Sargent and Kittredge, p. 22), London, Nutt,
1906. 5 Ibid., p. 642.
6 Child, The Eng. and Scot. Pop. Ballads, Vol. i, p. 162.
7 Source as for the ballad of 'The Fause Knight upon the Road,' Modern Language Review, Vol. xII, pp. 203-204.
8. See Eriu, Vol. n, pp. 76-81 (1905).
9 The Celtic Review, Vol. in, pp. 297-299 (April, 1906)