Molly Bon- Margaret Dunnigan (KY) 1917 Sharp F
[My title. Single stanza from: English Folk Songs From The Southern Appalachians, I (1932) by Olive Dame Campbell, Cecil James Sharp, ed. Maud Karpeles. The 1932 notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
1932 Notes: No. 50. Shooting of his Dear.
Texts without tunes :—Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxii. 387 ; xxxix. 136.
Texts with tunes: Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii. 59; vii. 17. Journal of the Irish Folk-Song Society, iii. 25. Songs of the West, 2nd ed., No. 62. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 16. ' Molly Ban (pronounced Van) so fair/ Petrie's Collection of Irish Music, Nos. 724 and 1171 (tunes only). Joyce's Ancient Irish Music, p. 20. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxx. 358, Cox's Folk Songs of the South, pp. 339 (see also further references) and 529.
F. [Molly Bon] Shooting of His Dear. Sung by Mrs. MARGARET DUNAGAN at St. Helen's, Lee Co., Ky., Sept. 9, 1917.
Heptatonic. Ionian.
Jimmy Randles was a-hunting,
A-hunting in the dark.
He shot his own true love,
And missed not the spot.
With her apron white around her
He had taken her for a swan;
He shot her, and killed her,
And her name was Molly Bon.