Nancy Bride- Hart (VA) 1921 Stone/ Davis A
[My title, replacing Stone's generic title. From Traditional Ballads of Virginia; Kyle Davis Jr., 1929. Davis' notes follow. Davis must have told Stone not to title it "Wife of Usher's Well" because Stone only used the Child titles- not local titles. However in this version, there is no "lady gay"!
R. Matteson 2015]
TRADITIONAL BALLADS OF VIRGINIA
THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL
(Child, No. 79)
The Child title is unknown in Virginia, where the ballad is called "The Lady Gay," "The Three Little Babes," "The Beautiful Bride," or (once) "Lady Gains." The Virginia variants all belong to the same version, which is neither Child A, B, nor C. The religious cast of the Virginia version seems to relate it to Child C, but in other respects it is nearer to Child A. It is practically identical with the American text printed in Child, Y, 294, except that the mother's prayer for the return of the children is not usual in the Virginia texts; indeed, appears only once. The motive for the children's return - to forbid the mother's obstinate grief - is found in most of the Virginia variants, as in other American texts, but not in Child A. In practically all Virginia texts the ghosts disappear for two reasons: the crowing of the cock and the summons of the Saviour. In this respect they are like West Virginia B. The Virginia texts do not add much except minor variations to the texts already published from America.
The story of the composite Virginia text runs as follows: - A lady gay sends her three children to school in the north country, where, after a time, they die. (The mother grieves for her children and prays for their return.) About Christmas time they appear to her. She prepares a feast for them, but they refuse to eat, because the Saviour forbids. She spreads a bed with rich covering for them, but they bid her take it off, as it represents mere worldly pride. With the approach of dawn and by appointment with their Saviour, they depart, warning the mother that her tears but wet their winding sheet. The Virginia and other American texts are more sternly puritanical and have less human warmth than Child A. Another interesting feature of the Virginia texts concerns the sex of the babies. In old-country texts the children are always sons. In Virginia the sex is normally unspecified; they are simply "children" or " babes." But occasionally they actually become girls. See F 6, line 2, and G 5, line 4. Perhaps the same change of sex is indicated by the " normal school " variant of C 1, line 3.
For American texts, see Belden, No. 77; Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 3-5, 9; Campbell and Sharp, No. 19 (North Carolina, Tennessee); Child, X, 194 (North Carolina); Cox, No. 14; Hudson, No. 12 (and Journal, XXXIX, 96; Mississippi); Journal, XIII, 119 (Newell, North Carolina); XXIII, 429 (Belden, Missouri); XXX, 305 (Kittredge; California, Nebraska, Kentucky, Tennessee); XXXII, 503 (Richardson, West Virginia); McGill, p. 5; Pound, Syllabus, p. 10 (fragment); Pound, Ballads, No. 7; Shearin and Combs, p. 9. For additional references, see Journal, xxx, 305.
A. [Nancy Bride] "The Lady Gay." Collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by Mr. George Hart, of Konnarock, Va. Washington County. November 8, 1921.
1 Nancy bride had children three,[1]
And children she had three;
She sent them away to a northern countrie
To learn some grammaree.
2 They hadn't been gone but about three year,
Till their mother was a-standing in the door,
And who should she see but her three little babes
Come hastening home once more.
3 She sot them a table both wide and long,
And on it sot bread and wine,
Saying, " Come and eat, my three little babes,
Come eat and drink of mine."
4 "O-mother, O mother, I can't eat your bread,
Nor neither can I drink of your wine;
For yonder stands our Saviour dear,
To him we must resign."
5 She spread them a bed in a backward room,
And on it spread a white sheet,
And on the top of that spread a golden spread,
To make her babes lie sweet.
6 "Take it off, take it off," say the oldest one,
"For it's nothing but the pride of life;
And yonder stands our Saviour dear
To bear our souls away."
7 "Rise up, rise up," says the next oldest one,
" For the chickens is a-crowing for day,
And yonder stands our Saviour dear
To bear our souls away."
8. " Put a marble stone around our head,
And cold clay around our feet,
For the tears that you shed over us last night
Has wet our winding sheet."
1. Originally: Nancy bride and children three- even this does not improve this which should be: Nancy bride had three childen