Lord Thomas- Cutting (NY) pre1944 Cutting B
[From: Lore Of An Adirondack County. Cutting, Edith E. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1944. Her notes follow. This version is quite old and rare in the US. It's taken from her uncles, John and Clarence Cutting, who were 80 and 78 years old in 1944.
R. Matteson 2014]
John and Clarence Cutting recalled several stanzas of the ballad the last five of which are printed because of the unusual reference to Dunny's well. A similar reference appears in only one (E) of the many variants that Professor Child collected. Mr. John Cutting explained that the well was one in England that people said ran ink. He thought it was probably in the coal-mining section, although I have nor been able to verify this explanation.
"Is this your bride, Lord Thomas?" she cried.
"Methinks she is wondrous brown,
When you might have had the fairest lady
That ever the sun shone on.
"You were washed in Dunny's Well,
And dried on Dunny's Dyke.
All the waters in the sea
Could never wash you white."
The brown girl had a little pen knife;
'Twas long, 'twas pointed, 'twas sharp.
She flashed it in fair Eleanor's face,
And she pierced her through the heart.
"Oh, are you blind, Lord Thomas?" she cried,
"Or can't you very well see,
The blood that once dyed my ruby lips
Is now trickling down my knee?"
Lord Thomas, he wore a sword by his side.
He stomped around the hall.
He cut oft the head of his little brown bride
And dashed it against the wall.