Molly Baun- Sallie Adams (KY) 1916 Kittredge C
[From G. L. Kittredge, "Ballads and Songs," Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 30. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
POLLY VANN (MOLLY WHAN).
Jamieson founded his ballad of "Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour" [1] on his recollection of the story of "a silly ditty of a young man, who, returning homeward from shooting with his gun, saw his sweetheart, and shot her for a swan;" and, in circulating "Lord Kenneth" (as a printed sheet) among his friends in 1799, he prefixed a note to that effect, remarking that he had not been able to procure a copy. In 1803 he mentioned the ditty as "the tragic ballad of 'Peggie Baun'" in his list of desiderata in the " Scots Magazine," 65 : 700. In 1806 he was able to publish an incomplete text, "Peggy Baun," in his "Popular Ballads" (1 : 194) from the recitation of a maidservant. He apologized to his readers "for attempting to introduce such paltry stuff to their notice."
A slip issued by Pitts very early in the nineteenth century contains a variant under the style of "Molly Whan" (Harvard College, 25242.4, ii, 67); and almost the same text, similarly entitled, occurs in "The Lover's Harmony" (London, about 1840), p. 158.[2]
J. Andrews (38 Chatham Street, New York) published a text about 1857 in one of his broadsides (List 5, Song 50): "Polly von Luther and Jamie Randall" (Harris Collection, Brown University). Shearin and Coombs, p. 28, describe the ballad (from Kentucky) under the title of "Polly Vaughn."
Barry (JAFL 22: 387) prints a four-stanza medley ("Mollie Bawn" or "At the Setting of the Sun ") which contains four lines of the ballad. The song now in circulation in England, known to collectors as "The Shooting of his Dear," is a disordered form of the broadside. It may be found in Sharp and Marson, "Folk Songs from Somerset," No. 16, 1 :32-33; "Journal of the Folk-Song Society," 2 : 59-60.
C. "Molly Baun." From Miss Wyman, as sung by Sallie Adams, Letcher County, Kentucky, May, 1916.
1. Jimmie Randall was a-hunting, a-hunting in the dark;
He shot at Molly Bawn O and he missed not his spot.
Molly Bawn O was a-walking when the shower came down;
She sat under a green tree the shower to shun;
With her apron pinned around her he took her for a swan;
He shot her and he killed her, it was poor Molly Bawn.
2. He runned up to her with his gun in his hand:
"Dear Molly, dear Molly, you're the joy of my life;
For I always intended to make you my wife."
He went to his old uncle with his locks all so gray:
"Dear uncle, dear uncle, I've killed Molly Bawn:
With her apron pinned around her I took her for a swan.
3. "I shot her, I killed her; it was poor Molly Bawn."
"Stay at home, Jimmie, and don't run away;
They never shall hang you, and I'll spend my whole farm."
On the day of Jimmie's trial young Molly did appear,
Saying, "Judges and jury, Jimmie Randall come clear!
With my apron pinned around me he took me for a swan,
And through his misfortune it was poor Molly Bawn."
1 Popular Ballads, I : 193-199.
2 Issued in fifty numbers of eight pages each (" Pitts, Printer").
3 Compare Frank Smith, Dover Farms, pp. 28-29.