Love Henry- Wadsworth (Indiana) c. 1866 contributed in 1916 Kittredge
[My date. From: Ballads and Songs by G. L. Kittredge; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369. His notes follow.
This version surely goes back 50 years when his grandmother was a child and learned this.
R. Matteson 2014]
YOUNG HUNTING (Child, No. 68).
A copy of the version current in America under the name of "Love Henry," "Loving Henry," or "Lord Henry," was contributed to this Journal by Miss Pettit in 1907 (20 :252-253), as taken down in Knott County, Kentucky. It is nearest to Child's (Motherwell's MS). A similar text ("Love Henry") was printed some years ago in Delaney's "Scotch Song Book No. I," p. 6 (New York, William W. Delaney).' Variants of this version are reported by Mrs. Olive Dame Campbell, "The Survey" (New York, Jan. 2, 1915), 23:373; Cox, 45: 160 (cf. JAFL 29 :400); Smith, Bulletin, No. 5, p. 6; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Belden, No. 3; JAFL I8 : 295. Interesting variants of "Loving Henry" have been communicated recently by Miss Loraine Wyman, Professor Belden, and Mr. Wallace C. Wadsworth.
III. Love Henry- Communicated in 1916 by Mr. Wallace C. Wadsworth, as taken down from the singing of his mother and grandmother shortly before. Mr. Wadsworth notes that his grandmother had learned the song when young. "The district in which she was born, and has lived until the last few years, is a rather isolated farming community in southern Indiana, where all the people . . . are descendants of early settlers. Tracing farther back, they are nearly all from early English New England or Virginia stock."
1. "Sit down, sit down, Love Henry," she said,
"And stay all day with me,
And you shall have red cherries, as red,
As red as they can be."
2. "No I won't sit down, for I can't sit down,
And stay all day with thee;
For there's a pretty little girl in the Orkis land
That I love much better than thee."
3. And as he stooped o'er her pillow soft,
To give her a kiss so sweet,
With a little penknife in her right hand
She pierced his heart full deep.
4. "Oh fie, fie, fie, Fair Ellen," he said,
"How can you serve me so?
There's not a girl in all this world
That I love as well as thou."
5. "Oh live, live, live, Love Henry," she said,
"One-half an hour for me,
And all the doctors of Fairfield Town
Shall be here with thee."
6. "No I will not live, for I cannot live
One-half an hour for thee;
For I'm sure I feel my own heart's blood
Come a-trinkling down my knee."
7. She called unto her waiting-maid,
"Can you keep a secret for me?"
8. One took him by his long yellow hair,
Another by his feet;
They threw him into the cold well-water,
Which was both cold and deep.
9. "Lie there, lie there, Love Henry," she said,
"Till the flesh rots off your bones,
And the pretty little girl in the Orkis land
Will look long for your return home."
10. A parrot sat in the willow tree,
And heard what she had to say,
As she said, "The pretty little girl in the Orkis land
Will look long for your return home."
11. "Fly down, fly down, pretty parrot," she said,
"And sit on my right knee,
And your cage shall be lined with yellow beaten gold
And hung on the willow tree."
12. "No I won't fly down, nor I sha'n't fly down,
And sit on your right knee,
For you have murdered your own true love;
Full soon you would murder me."
13. "If I had my own true bow,
With an arrow to the string,
I'd shoot a dart right through your heart;
You never would sing again."
13. "And if you had your own true bow,
With an arrow to the string,
I would raise my wings and fly away;
You never would see me again."