Maria Martini (Waxford Girl) - Frances Repetto (TC) 1938 Munch A
[From: The Song Tradition of Tristan da Cunha; 1979. His 1961 JAF notes follow.
Two versions of the ballad have been found in a remote island in the south Atlantic Ocean named Tristan da Cunha. They were written down during the Norwegian scientific expedition to the island in 1938-9, by Peter Munch, who was the sociologist. On the Island they are named Maria Martini but are versions of our Berkshire ballad. The island became a British colony in 1816 and the ballad was brought to the Island after this. The variants are of the early English tradition and have some text similar to, or based on, The Cruel Miller.
R. Matteson 2016]
This, of course, may ensure the preservation of a song even though a line or two (or perhaps a whole stanza) may be distorted beyond recognition-- until a creative soul comes into the line of transmission and restores a cognitive meaning, although probably not the original one. Thus, in British and American versions of The Lexington Murder, the murdered girl is variously from Wexford, Woxford, Oxford, or Lexington. In Tristan da Cunha, where the song is known under the title of Maria Martini, the girl has become a "waxford" girl in one version, and in another is described more meaningfully as a "waxen" girl. This song is well known in America and has been recorded in various versions from Newfoundland to North Carolina. All stem, according to Leach, "ultimately from British broadsides of the 18th century by way of American printed broadsides." Again it is characteristic that the two versions found in Tristan are closely parallel to some of the American versions. And, of course, the murder takes place at eight o'clock. Interesting is the fact that the Tristan islanders have preserved the song in a pentatonic Dorian mode.
A. Maria Martini (Waxford Girl) as sung by by Frances Repetto about 1938; collected by Peter Munch- version A.
1. I once did courted a waxford girl
with dark and roaming eyes.
Oh, the girl that I had courted
with dark and roaming eyes.
2. I went down to her father's house
about eight o'clock at night.
And asked her for to take a walk
across King William's Town.
3. I picked a stick from the riverside,
and I tap her on the head,
While the blood from this young innocent[1]
went a-streaming on the ground.
4. Down on her bending knees she fell
and loud for mercy call,
Saying, "John, my dear, don't murder me,
for I'm not fit to die."
5. I take hold of her curly locks,
and I drag her cross the field,
Until I came to a riverside,
and there I threwed her in.
6. And I going down to my master's house
about ten o'clock at night.
My master being out of bed,
a-striking of the 'larm.
7. My master he asked me a request,
what had soil my hands and clothes;
I gave him an answer that I thought fit:
"I'm a-bleeding at the nose."
8. I take hold of the candle,
myself I lights to bed,
While the blazing flames of torment
around my eyes did shine.
9. I take hold of the candle,
myself I lights to bed,
But all that blessed long night
my true love she laid dead.
10. Not less than three days after,
my true love she was found
A-floating on a river
close by her sister's door.
11. Then I was taken on suspicion
and into prison was cast
For the murder of my own true love,
so 1 must die at last.
12. Come all you young and silly young men,
Take warning unto this,
And never do no murder
for to be hung like me.
1. "damsel" is given in MS replacing "innocence" which was sung.