Recordings & Info 155. Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
5) Folk Index
6) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 73: Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter (282 Listings)
2) "Water Birch": An American Variant of "Hugh of Lincoln"
3) 'The Cruel Jew's Wife': An Anglo-Irish Ballad
4) The Jew's Daughter: An Example of Ballad Variation
5) "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter"
6) The Jew's Daughter and the Myth of Zagreus
Alternative Titles
Little Son Hugh (Sir Hugh)
Hugh of Lincoln
Little Harry Huston
A Little Boy Lost His Ball
A Little Boy Threw His Ball (Boss) So High
Fair Scotland
It Rained a Mist
Little Harry Hughes
Little Sir Hugh
Little Son Hugh
Sir Hugh (of Lincoln)
The Jeweler's Daughter
The Jew's Daughter
The Jew's Garden
The Jew's Lady
The Two Playmates
'Twas On a Cold and Winter's Day
Traditional Ballad Index: Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155]
DESCRIPTION: A child tosses the ball into a Jew's/Gypsy's garden. The Jew's daughter/wife lures him into the house, where she murders him, (for ritual purposes?). Dying, he gives instructions for his burial (with a prayer book at his head and a grammar at his feet).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: homicide death ritual Gypsy Jew lastwill burial
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord),England(All)) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Bahamas
REFERENCES: (42 citations)
Child 155, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (21 texts)
Bronson 155, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (66 versions)
Percy/Wheatley I, pp. 54-60, "The Jew's Daughter" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland, p. 86, "Little Sir William" (1 text, 1 tune)
GordonBrown/Rieuwerts, pp. 254-255, "Hugh of Lincoln" (1 text)
Lyle-Crawfurd1 10, "Sir Hugh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-Circle 121, "Sir Hugh" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 461-462, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (notes plus an excerpt from Child A)
Belden, pp. 69-73, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (2 texts plus a fragment)
Randolph 25, "The Jew's Garden" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 47-49, "The Jew's Garden" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 25A) {Bronson's #38}
Eddy 20, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #48}
Peters, pp. 198-199, "'Twas On a Cold and Winter's Day" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9]
Flanders/Olney, pp. 30-32, "Little Harry Huston" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #66}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 119-126, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #66; B=#65 with verbal variants}
Davis-Ballads 33, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (13 texts, 7 tunes entitled "The Jew's Daughter," "It Rained a Mist," "A Little Boy Threw His Ball So High," "Sir Hugh, or Little Harry Hughes," Sir Hugh"; 3 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #39, #54, #3, #34, #6, #47, #53}
Davis-More 30, pp. 229-238, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
BrownII 34, "Sir Hugh; or, The Jew's Daughter" (4 texts)
BrownSchinhanIV 34, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Hudson 19, pp. 116-117, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (1 short text, lacking the actual murder)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 171-175, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (3 texts, the first also in Davis, with local titles "A Little Boy Threw His Ball So High," "Little Sir Hugh," "Hugh of Lincoln"; 1 tune on p. 403) {Bronson's #3}
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 53-55, "A Little Boy Threw His Ball" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Brewster 18, "Sir Hugh" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #44}
Leach, pp. 425-431, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (4 texts)
Creighton-NovaScotia 8, "Sir Hugh; or The Jew's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 147-149, "Sonny Hugh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 62, "Sir Hugh (The Jew's Daughter)" (3 texts)
OBB 79, "Hugh of Lincoln and The Jew's Daughter" (1 text)
SharpAp 31, "Sir Hugh" (7 texts plus 3 fragments, of which "I" in particular might be something else, 10 tunes){Bronson's #22, #20, #21, #23, #15, #10a, #16, #14, #8, #17}
Sharp-100E 8, "Little Sir Hugh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 273, "The Queen's Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gummere, pp. 164-166+336, "Sir Hugh" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 20, "Little Son Hugh (Sir Hugh)" (1 slightly edited text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
Hodgart, p. 70, "Sir Hugh (The Jew's Daughter)" (1 text)
DBuchan 22, "Sir Hugh" (1 text)
JHCox 19, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (6 texts plus mentions of 8 more)
MacSeegTrav 14, "Sir Hugh" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 81-83, "Hugh of Lincoln" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 5, pp. 13-14, "The Jewish Lady"; p. 15, "The Jew Lady" (2 texts)
Darling-NAS, pp. 36-40, "Sir Hugh, or the Jew's Daughter"; "The Fatal Flower Garden"; "It Rained a Mist" (3 texts)
DT 155, SIRHUGH* SIRHUGH1* SIRHUGH2* SIRHUGH3
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #420, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (1 text)
ST C155 (Full)
Roud #73
RECORDINGS:
Cecilia Costello, "The Jew's Daughter (Sir Hugh)" (on FSB5 [as "The Jew's Garden"], FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #55}
[Mrs.?] Ollie Gilbert, "It Rained a Mist" (on LomaxCD1707) {Bronson's #35}
Nelstone's Hawaiians, "Fatal Flower Garden" (Victor 40193, 1929; on AAFM1) {Bronson's #12}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twa Brothers" [Child 49] (lyrics)
NOTES: A.L. Lloyd reports, "In 1225, in Lincoln, England, a boy named Hugh was supposed to have been tortured and murdered by Jews. A pogrom ensued." - PJS
Lloyd's dating is questionable. Benet (article on "St. Hugh of Lincoln") says 1255. So does Matthews, pp. 94-95. And Child cites the _Annals of Waverly_ and the account of Matthew Paris in support of the 1255 date. The _Annals of Waverly_ have major chronological problems and were probably written after the event (Prestwich, p. 356n; Powicke, p. 603n), but Paris's account was written within a few years of the tragedy, so I would consider it close to decisive.
An account of the many claims made against Jews can be found in Rigley, who on p. 172 reports on "27 analogues of [Chaucer's] Prioress's Tale and almost as many which dealt with Hugh of Lincoln and William of Norwich." Ridley also summarizes what we know of these events. The following attempts a fuller account of the actual events.
Harvey, pp. 119-120, gives the following account of the pogroms:
"Edward [I] was not satisfied with this state of affairs, for the exorbitant interest charged for money [by the Jews, who alone were allowed to lend at interest at the time] had become notorious.... In 1275, he enacted laws forbidding usury and encouraging Jews to live by normal trade and labour. Unfortunately the Jews did not respond, and succeeded in charging even higher rates than before, and also formed a ring for clipping the coinage.... Adding to the economic difficulties [blamed on the Jews]... was a series of most sinister crimes committed against Christian children, including murder (allegedly ritual) and forcible circumcision. Whatever we may think of the evidence in favour of 'ritual murder'... a number of instances of mysterious child-murder undoubtedly did occur in twelfth- and thirteenth-century England, at least ten being well-documented between 1144 and 1290.
"The evidence against individual Jews was considered conclusive in the case of Hugh of Lincoln (Little Saint Hugh), murdered in 1255, when, after exhaustive trials before the justices, later adjourned before Henry III in person, certain Jews were convicted and hanged."
But also consider Prestwich, pp. 345-346: "There was undoubtedly very considerable prejudice against the Jews in England. There were stories of ritual child-murder and torture, which, although they now appear groundless on the basis of the recorded evidence, were generally believed. The most famous was that of the death of Little St Hugh in 1255, but there were others. The chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds recorded the crucifixion of a boy by the Jews at Northampton." (Rather absurd, since crucifixion was a Roman, not a Jewish, means of execution.)
Prestwich's cautions are quite proper -- it is believed (Prestwich, p. 344) that there were only about 3000 Jews in England at the time; they could hardly have committed all the crimes charged against them. On the other hand, they did suffer severely at the hands of Edward I, who were charged (along with goldsmiths) with being coin-clippers in 1278 (Prestwich, p. 245). Earlier, there had been major anti-Jewish riots in the period when Richard I was preparing his crusade, including an incident when 150 were killed at York, some of them after surrendering (Gillingham, p. 131, who blames the Crusade for whipping up passions about the Jews killing Jesus. According to McLynn, p. 120, the Jews were bringing a gift to the new king, but the mob assumed it was blasphemous).
If it did happen, one can almost see it as a case of balancing things out for the treatment of the Jews, for -- in addition to the general prejudice against them -- the King was allowed to seize their property when they died (Mortimer, p. 49), although he usually settled for "only" a third (Mortimer, p. 50). Thus a Jewish death often brought not only mourning but impoverishment.
I do note with interest that Mortimer, p. 50, declares that the "most famous of all the great Jewish capitalists was Adam of Lincoln" (died 1186, near the end of the reign of Henry II).
But Powicke, who devotes roughly eight times as much space to the reign of Henry III as does Harvey, never mentions Hugh or the trials which followed, although he does note (p. 322) Edward I's anti-usury law of 1275 -- and its follow-up, a law of 1290 which expelled the Jews. (Stenton, p. 197, cynically notes that they were no longer "useful" by then -- i.e. the crown had extorted so much money that they were no longer a significant source of revenue. Prestwich, p. 343, observes that Edward managed to make money even on the exiling of the Jews, because he used the occasion to wring an exaction from the clergy in return for the expulsion. Prestwich on p. 346 notes that the expulsion was not officially reversed until 1656, although many Jews were tolerated by then -- it is said that Elizabeth I's physician was Jewish.)
I also note that ten unexplained child-murders in a century and a half is a rate far below what we experience today (and, frankly, I would be tempted to look at the Catholic clergy, not the Jews).
One part of the prejudice that seems to be accurate is the charge of exorbitant interest. On p. 191 Stenton mentions a calculation that their average rate of interest was 43% (per year), with some instances in excess of 60%. The blame for this does not lie entirely with the Jews; the monarchy in effect was taking a cut, in the form of high licensing fees on the Jews (Stenton, p. 194). So the Jews had to charge enough to live on *and* the pay the royal bribe. (I would love to have heard, say, Richard I explain how that was different from charging interest himself, but of course Richard would never answer to me.) Stenton, p. 193, also tells a tale which sounds surprisingly like this one:
"Already in 1144 Jews were accused in Norwich of the murder of a Christian boy named William, whose story was told within a few years of his death by Thomas of Monmouth, a Norwich monk. William was about 12 when he was found dead in Thorpe Wood near the city. His father... was already dead, but his mother Elviva was alive and had been offered for William a post in the kitchen of the archdeacon of Norwich. The man who made the offer took William away with him and called on William's aunt to tell her about it. She told her daughter to follow and see where William was taken. The child said he was taken to a Jew's house. William was next seen dead in Thorpe Wood. The credulity of the populace and their readiness to suspect the Jews made William a miracle worker and consequently a saint. Between 1144 and 1172 his body was four times translated, each time to a place of higher honour.... William was only the first of a series of English boys whose unexplained deaths were attributed to the Jews."
The legend of Hugh of Lincoln became popular in many forms of literature; Benet lists Chaucer's "Prioress's Tale," Marlowe's _The Jew of Malta_, and a 1459 piece called _Alphonsus of Lincoln_, which I have not seen.
The link to "The Prioress's Tale" is undeniable, since lines 684-686 (Chaucer/Benson, p. 212) explicitly compares the tale to that of "yonge Hugh of Lyncoln, slayn also With cursed Jewes, as it is notable, For it is but a litel while ago." I personally don't see much connection, except thematic, to _The Jew of Malta_.
The charge of ritual murder against the Jews lasted far too long. This song is not the first example, and it is far from the last.
Although Jews suffered regular persecution from Christians from the time the Roman Empire was converted, it was the Crusades which really seemed to start the tendency to attack Jews. Runciman, pp. 134-141, details the extreme misbehavior of the People's Crusade as it set out for Jerusalem in 1098-1099. (Interestingly, the particular mobs responsible for the atrocities almost all ended up being massacred themselves -- not by the Jews, but by Christians whom they also oppressed along the way. There seems to have been a particular sort of bone-headedness among Crusaders which caused them to think any furriner they saw must be a target worth attacking.)
Frey/Thompson, p. 56, note that the ritual murder charge was bandied about at the time of the Phagan case (for background, see the notes to "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20]), and on p. 57 Frey/Thompson mention the Beilis case in Russia, where there were attempts to blame the entire Jewish race for a murder they did not commit.
The fame of "Little Hugh of Lincoln," who is sometimes called a saint, may be by confusion with another Hugh of Lincoln, the bishop of that city (died 1200 and canonized in 1220, according to DictSaints, p. 116). Hassall, p. 103, indirectly affirms the confusion by warning that we should not confuse St. Hugh of Avalon, St. Hugh of Wells and Lincoln, or little St. Hugh of Lincoln. Warren, p. 70, says that "Hugh was famous for his saintly life, his great work as a pastor, his sharp tongue, and his pet swan. He had been one of the great characters of the 12th century episcopate." Indeed, he became a standard for other English bishops -- one they rarely met.
Kerr, p. 171, says that "The key [to the success of the city and diocese of Lincoln] lies with one man, Sir Hugh of Avalon, who was a competent and respected bishop during his episcopacy in 1186-1200 and, after his death, a popular author."
DictSaints, p. 116, says that upon being appointed bishop (a post he had to be pressured into taking) he "quickly restored clerical discipline, revived schools, and helped to rebuild the cathedral with his own hands."
Bishop Hugh also became the subject of legend -- e.g. Jones, p. 93, mentions a story (for which he does not cite a source) that he "was helped by an angel who cut off his manhood to relieve him of impure desires." (I must say that this strikes me as unlikely -- there were reports that the great scholar Origen had castrated himself, as did the Slavic Skoptsy sect, but this was not a common Christian behavior, and the Jewish Law explicitly forbids priests from having major mutilations.) Hazlitt, p. 333, says that he was the patron of shoemakers.
In the context, it is ironic to note that OxfordCompanion, p. 495, explicitly notes that Bishop Hugh "condemned the persecution of Jews which spread throughout England in 1190-1." Similarly DictSaints, p. 116: "He denounced the persecution of the Jews, repeatedly forcing armed mobs to release their victims, and was unafraid to correct both Henry II and King Richard the Lionheart." - RBW
>>BIBLIOGRAPHY<<
Benet: William Rose Benet, editor, _The Reader's Encyclopdedia_, first edition, 1948 (I use the four-volume Crowell edition but usually check it against the single volume fourth edition edited by Bruce Murphy and published 1996 by Harper-Collins)
Chaucer/Benson: Larry D. Benson, general editor, _The Riverside Chaucer_, third edition, Houghton Mifflin, 1987 (based on F. N. Robinson, _The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer_, which is considered to be the first and second editions of this work)
DictSaints: Revd. Philip D. Noble, editor, _The Watkins Dictionary of Saints_, Watkins Publishing, 2007
Frey/Thompson: Robert Seitz Frey and Nancy C. Thompson, _The Silent and the Damned: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank_, 1988 (I use the 2002 Cooper Square Press edition)
Gillingham: John Gillingham, _Richard the Lionheart_, Times Books, 1978
Harvey: John Harvey, _The Plantagenets_, 1948, 1959 (I use the 1979 Fontana paperback edition)
Hassall: W. O. Hassall: _Who's Who in History: Vol[ume] I, British Isles, 55 B.C.-1485_, Blackwell, 1960
Hazlitt: W. C. Hazlitt's _Dictionary of Faiths & Folklore_, 1905 (I use the 1995 Studio Editions paperback)
Jones: Steve Jones, _Y: The Descent of Men_, Houghton Mifflin, 2003
Kerr: Nigel and Mary Kerr, _A Guide to Medieval Sites in Britain_, Diamond Books, 1988
Matthews, _British & Irish Mythology: An Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend_, 1988 (I use the 1995 Diamond Books edition)
McLynn: Frank McLynn, _Richard & John: Kings at War_, Da Capo, 2007
Mortimer: Richard Mortimer, _Angevin England 1154-1258_, Blackwell, 1994
OxfordCompanion: John Cannon, editor, _The Oxford Companion to British History_, Oxford, 1997
Powicke: Sir Maurice Powicke, _The Thirteenth Century: 1216-1307_. 1953, 1962 (I use the 1998 Oxford edition)
Prestwich: Michael Prestwich, _Edward I_, 1988 (I use the revised 1997 edition in the Yale English Monarchs series)
Ridley: Florence h. Ridley, "A Tale Told Too Often,''" article published 1967 in _Western Folklore_; republished on pp. 170-173 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Runciman: Steven Runciman, _A History of the Crusades, Volume I: The First Crusade and the Foundations of the Kingdom of Jerusalem_, 1951 (I use the 1988 Cambridge paperback reprint)
Stenton: Doris Mary Stenton, _English Society in the Early Middle Ages: 1066-1307_ (being volume 3 of the Pelican History of England_, second edition, Pelican, 1952
Tyerman: Christopher Tyerman, _Who's Who in Early Medieval England (1066-1272)_, (being the second volume in the Who's Who in British History series), Shepheard-Walwyn, 1996
Warren: W. L. Warren, _King John_, 1961 (I use the 1978 University of California paperback edition)
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
155. SIR HUGH OR THE JEW'S DAUGHTER
Texts: Altoona tribune, 11 16 '31, 6 / Barry, Brit Bids Me, 461 (trace) / Belden, Mo' F-S, 69 / Berea Quarterly, XVIII, 12 / Brewster, Bids Sgs 2nd, 128 / Brown Coll / BFSSNE, V, 6 / Bull Tenn FLS, VIII, #3, 76 / Child, III, 248, 251 / Cos, F-S South, 120 / Creighton, Sgs Bids NSc, 16 /Davis, Trd Bid Va, 400 / Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 66 / Flanders, New Gn Mt Sgstr, 254 / Focus, III, 396, 399 / Grapurcbat, Ea. Radford (Va.) State Teacher's College, 25 '32 / Henry, Beech MtF-S, 22 / Henry, F-S So Hgblds, 102 / Hudson, F-S Miss, 1 16 / Hudson, Spec Miss F-L, # 1 7 / Jones, F-L Mich, 5 / JAFL, XV, 1 95 ; XIX, 293 ; XXIX, 1 64 j
XXXV, 344; XXXIX, 108, 212; XLI, 470; XLIV, 65, 2965 XLVII, 358; XLVIII, 2975 LII, 43 / Leach-Beck Mss. / Morris, F-S Fla, 450 / Musical Quarterly, II, 124 / Newell, Games Sgs Am Children, 75 / New York Tribune, 727 and 8 4 '22 / Pound, Am Bids Sgs, 13 / Randolph, Oz F-S, I, 148 / Scarborough, On Trail N F-S, 53 / Scarborough, Sgctchr So Mts, 171 / SharpC, EngF-S So Aplchns, #26 / SharpK, EngF-S So Aplchns, I, 222 / Shearin and Combs, Ky Syllabus, 8 / Reed Smith, SC Bids, 148 / SFLQ, VIII, 154 / University of Va. Mgz, Dec. 1912, 115 / Pa FLS Butt, 4s 2 "5 } 7 3 9 n- Korson, Pa Sgs Lgds, 36.
Local Titles: A Little Boy Lost His Ball, A Little Boy Threw His Ball (Boss) So High, Fair Scotland, Hugh of Lincoln, It Rained a Mist, Little Harry Hughes, Little Sir Hugh, Sir Hugh (of Lincoln), The Jeweler's Daughter, The Jew's Daughter, The Jew's Garden, The Jew's Lady, The Two Playmates.
Story Types: A: Some little boys are playing ball, usually in the rain. One tosses tie ball into the Jew's garden where no one dares go. However, the Jew's daughter invites the scared boy in. After enticing him to accept her invitation with a red apple, cherry, etc., she takes him to a remote part of the house. There she sticks him with pins, stabs him like a sheep, etc. Sometimes, he sees his nurse inside the house picking a chicken, but she pays no attention to his plight. In some endings the "the Bible-at-the-head and prayer book-at-the-feet" motif appears, and the boy requests that his mother be told he is asleep and his playmates be told that he is dead. In certain texts, the body is thrown in a well.
Examples: Belden (A), Cox (A), Davis (A).
B: The story is similar to that of Type A. However, the mother sets out to find her missing boy in the end of these ballads. She locates his body in the well, talks to him miraculously, and sometimes has his body even more miraculously returned to her.
Examples: Child (G, N); JAFL, LII, 43; SharpK (B, F).
C: The story is similar to that of Type A. However, the dialogue between the Jew's daughter and the boy is left out, and the youth volunteers to climb the wall. There is no woman, only "they".
Discussion: This ballad is founded on an incident that may have occurred in 1255. Child, III, 235 states the story as told in the Annals of Waverly in this manner:
A boy in Lincoln, named Hugh, was crucified by the Jews in contempt of Christ, with various preliminary tortures. To conceal the act from the Christians, the body, when taken from the cross, was thrown into a running stream; but the water would not endure the wrong done its maker, and immediately ejected it upon dry land. The body was then buried in the earth, but was found above dry ground the next day. The guilty parties were now very much frightened and quite at their wit's end; as a last resort they threw the corpse into a drinking well. The body was seen floating on the water, and, upon its being drawn up, the hands and feet were found to be pierced, the head had, as it were, a crown of bloody points, and there were various other
wounds : from all which it was plain that this was the work of the abominable Jews. A blind woman, touching the bier on which the blessed martyr's corpse was carrying to the church, received her sight, and many other miracles followed. Eighteen Jews,
convicted of the crime, and confessing it with their own mouth, were hanged.
Further references to Matthew Paris and The Annals of Burton are given by Child on pp. 235 and 237.
The concept of Our Lady, used by Chaucer in The Prioress's Tale, has vanished in America. Our Lady's drawwell is just a well, the mother is just a sorrowing mother, and the religious note is almost forgotten. See SFLQ 9 VIII, 154 (Fla.) where the girl is a jeweler's daughter. Walter M. Hart, English Popular Ballad, 30 I compares Chaucer and the ballad as representatives of the artistic and folk forms of one story. Summers, The History of Witchcraft and Demonology, 195 relates the legend with black
magic.
The American Story Types A and B follow the Child groups K-0 and A-F respectively, while Type C is a degeneration. Reference should be made to Foster Gresham (JAFL, XLVI, 385 f f .) for a discussion of textual variation in action. He uses two versions of Child 155, one taken from a little girl and the other taken from her grandmother who taught the song to her.
Brewster (Sid Sgs Ind) 's A version tells of a "duke's daughter" and a "mother's maid" (nurse) in the house, while his C version makes the day sunny. Note also the "king's daughter" of Randolph, Oz F-S, B and the "gypsy" of Henry, F-S So Hgblds, B. In SharpK, Eng F-S Aplckns, D and E the Jewess calls Hugh her little son, which is baffling. The Jew is a man in Hudson, Spec Miss F-L, 7. And the Bahaman version, printed by Parsons, JAFL, XLI, 470, is corrupted and confused even to the extent of having the boy promise to marry Barbary Ellen when he grows up. The real story has vanished.
Hudson, F-S Miss, 116 notes that his version (with the bloody stanzas omitted) has been used as a lullaby to sing children to sleep. Newell, Games and Sgs Am Children, 75 prints a New York (from Ireland) version which, has become a child's game. See Child N for the same text.
Folk Index: Sir Hugh [Ch 155/Sh 31/Me I-A11]
Rt - Fatal Flower Garden ; Jew's Daughter ; It Rained a Mist
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p 63 [1806ca]
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p 65 [1930]
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p 66 [1870s]
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p425
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p427
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p430
Bishop, Mrs. Dan. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p228/# 31G [1917/08/21]
Broghton, Mollie. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p225/# 31D [1917/05/08]
Campbell, Luther. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p222/# 31B [1917/04/19]
Creech, Mrs. Berry. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p229/# 31J [1917/08/29]
Finley, Ben (Benjamin J.). Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p226/# 31E [1917/08/10]
Hartsell, Pearl. McNeil, W. K. (ed.) / Southern Folk Ballads, Vol 2, August House, Sof (1988), p147 [1951/09] (Sonny Hugh)
Hensley, Nancy Alice. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p229/# 31I [1917/08/17]
Hensley, Sophie Annie. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p229/# 31H [1917/08/17]
Hoover, Merle M.. Scarborough, Dorothy(ed.) / A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, AMS, Bk (1966/1937), p174 [1930ca] (Hugh of Lincoln [and the Jew's Daughter])
Lloyd, A. L. (Bert). English & Scottish Popular Ballads, Vol. 2, Washington WLP 716, LP (1963/1956), trk# A.02
Lovingood, Charity. Scarborough, Dorothy(ed.) / A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, AMS, Bk (1966/1937), p173 [1930ca] (Little Sir Hugh)
Maples, W. M.. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p223/# 31C [1917/04/20]
Overson, Mabel J.. Hubbard, Lester A. / Ballads and Songs from Utah, Univ. of Utah, Bk (1961), p 24/# 11 [1948] (Little Saloo)
Sawyer, Susan. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p222/# 31A [1916/09/19]
Small, Dol (Mr.). Sharp, Cecil & Maude Karpeles (eds.) / Eighty English Folk Songs from th, MIT Press, Sof (1968), p 44 [1917ca] (Little Son Hugh)
Small, Dol (Mr.). Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p227/# 31F [1918/05/22]
Unidentified Group of Children. Newell, William Wells (ed.) / Games and Songs of American Children, Dover, sof (1963/1909), p 75/# 18 [1870-90s] (Little Harry Hughes and the
It Rained a Mist [Ch 155]
Rt - Sir Hugh
Seeger, Ruth Crawford (eds.) / American Folk Songs for Children, Doubleday/Zephyr Books, Sof (1948), p 68
Gilbert, Ollie. Southern Journey. Vol. 7: Ozark Frontier, Rounder 1707, CD (1997), trk# 15 [1959/10]
Hiett, Mr.. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p120/# 19A [1917/02]
Lundy, Ted; and the Southern Mountain Boys. Ted Lundy and the Southern Mountain Boys, Rounder 0020, LP (1973), trk# 5
Seeger, Peggy and Mike. American Folk Songs for Children, Rounder 8001/8002/8003, CD( (1977), trk# 1-15
Withers, Lelia. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p121/# 19B [1916/05/19]
The Jew's Daughter [Ch 155/Sh 31/Me I-A11]
Rt - Sir Hugh ; As I Walked Out One Holiday
Pound, Louise (ed.) / American Ballads and Songs, Scribner, Sof (1972/1922), p 15/# 5B [1910ca] (Jew/Jewish Lady)
Lomax, Alan / Folk Songs of North America, Doubleday Dolphin, Sof (1975/1960), p511/#273 (Queen's Gardeen)
Johnson, James & Robert Burns (eds) / Scots Musical Museum, Amadeus, Bk (1991/1853), #582 [1803] (Rain Rins Down)
Barker, Mildred Joy. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p122/# 19C [1916/10/02]
Bosserman, Mrs. Guy. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p149/# 25A [1927/10/17] (Jew's Garden)
Bull, Ludlow S.. Tolman, Albert H. / Some Songs Traditional in the United States, Amer. Folklore Soc. JAF, Bk (1916), p166 [1907] (Jew's Maiden)
Carlisle, Irene. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p150/# 25D [1942/03/14] (Jew's Garden)
Costello, Cecilia. Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5. The Child Ballads, Vol. II, Caedmon TC 1146, LP (1961), trk# A.05 [1950s] (Jew's Garden)
Fowler, Mrs. David. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p125/# 19F [1920ca] (Jew's Garden)
Goodwin, Mrs. M. M.. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p 89/# 33 [1930s]
Griffin, Mrs. G. A.. Morris, Alton C. / Folksongs of Florida, Univ. Florida, Bk (1950), p302/#165 [1934] (Jeweler's Daughter)
Gump, Percy. Korson, George (ed.) / Pennsylvania Songs and Legends, Univ. of Penna., Bk (1949), p 36 [1929] (Fair Scotland) Hill, Mrs. R. P.. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p150/# 25B [1934/06/04] (Jew's Garden)
Keller, Flo. Pound, Louise (ed.) / American Ballads and Songs, Scribner, Sof (1972/1922), p 13/# 5A [1910ca] (Jew/Jewish Lady)
Keller, Flo. Tolman, Albert H. / Some Songs Traditional in the United States, Amer. Folklore Soc. JAF, Bk (1916), p165 [1910ca] (Jew/Jewish Lady)
McCourt, Miss Snoah. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p124/# 19E [1916/05] (Jew's Lady)
McNab, Mrs. William. Creighton, Helen / Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, Dover, sof (1996/1933), p 16/# 8 [1927-32]
Trail, Olga. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p150/# 25C [1942/03/20] (Jew's Garden)
Young, Mrs. Charles. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p123/# 19D [1918ca]
Jew's Garden [Ch 155/Me I-A11]
Us - Jew's Daughter
As I Walked Out One Holiday [Ch 155]
Rt - Jew's Daughter
Seeger, Ruth Crawford (eds.) / American Folk Songs for Children, Doubleday/Zephyr Books, Sof (1948), p 89
Dashiell, Mrs. Langdon. Scarborough, Dorothy(ed.) / A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, AMS, Bk (1966/1937), p172,403 [1930ca] (Little Boy Threw His Ball So High)
Seeger, Peggy and Mike. American Folk Songs for Children, Rounder 8001/8002/8003, CD( (1977), trk# 1-27
Fatal Flower Garden [Ch 155/Me I-A11]
Rt - Sir Hugh
Nelstone's Hawaiians. Anthology of American Folk Music, Smithsonian/Folkways SFW 40090, CD( (1997), trk# 2 [1929/11/29]
Nelstone's Hawaiians. Mountain Frolic. Rare Old Timey Classics; 1924-37, JSP 77100A-D, CD (2007), trk# A.19 [1929/11/30]
Seeger, Peggy. Heading for Home, Appleseed CD 1076, CD (2003), trk# 12
Mainly Norfolk: Little Sir Hugh
[Roud 73; Child 155; Ballad Index C155; trad.]
Steeleye Span recorded Little Sir Hugh for their 1975 album Commoners Crown. A live recording from the Royal Opera Theatre in Adelaide, Australia in 1982 was released on the rare Australian-only LP On Tour.
Compare the chorus to Eliza Carthy's song Mother, Go Make My Bed on the album Eliza Carthy and The Kings of Calicutt.
Lyrics
Chorus (x2) “Mother, mother, make my bed,
Make for me a winding sheet.
Wrap me up in a cloak of gold,
See if I can sleep.”
Four and twenty bonny, bonny boys playing at the ball.
Along came little Sir Hugh, he played with them all.
He kicked the ball very high, he kicked the ball so low,
He kicked it over a castle wall where no one dared to go.
Out came a lady gay, she was dressed in green.
“Come in, come in little Sir Hugh, fetch your ball again.”
“I won't come in, I can't come in without my playmates all;
For if I should I know you would cause my blood to fall.”
Chorus (x2)
She took him by the milk white hand, led him to the hall
Till they came to a stone chamber where no one could hear him call.
She sat him on a golden chair, she gave him sugar sweet,
She lay him on a dressing board and stabbed him like a sheep.
Out came the thick thick blood, out came the thin.
Out came the bonny heart's blood till there was none within.
She took him by the yellow hair and also by the feet.
She threw him in the old draw well fifty fathoms deep.
Chorus (x3)
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Patrick Montague for correcting the lyrics.
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The Legend of Little Hugh
by Stephen Lachs
Western Folklore, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Jan., 1960), pp. 61-62
The Legend of Little Hugh*.-
* This legend has been perpetuated, among other places, in Child Ballad No. 155, "Sir Hugh or the Jew's Daughter."-ED. [61]
O yonge Hugh of Lincoln, slayn also
With cursed Jewes, as it is notable
For it nis but a litel whyle ago.
So, in his "Prioresse's Tale," Geoffrey Chaucer ended his version of one of the best known stories of the Middle Ages. "In 1225," according to the contem- porary Chronicler Matthew Paris, "the Jews of Lincoln stole a boy called Hugh, who was about eight years old." After fattening him up, they were said to have staged a mock reinactment of the Crucifixion, killing little Hugh to the accompaniment of fiendish tortures. "When the boy was dead," Paris concludes, "they took the body down from the cross, and for some reason disemboweled it; it is said for the purpose of their magic arts." Other versions had Hugh enticed into a castle by "the Jew's daughter," who "laid him on a dressing board / And sticked him like a swine."
Partially as a result of the story, things went hard for the Jews of England. Nearly one thousand were jailed that year in London alone, Jewish property was confiscated, and many Jews were executed. Little St. Hugh, as he was soon called,[1] received a pillared shrine in the Lincoln Cathedral. In 1791 the tomb was opened by the President of the Royal Society. Inside was "the complete skeleton of a boy, three feet, three inches long." For years, on a plaque above the tomb, visitors to Lincoln Cathedral could read a full account of the story, softened only by a small postscript casting doubt on its authen- ticity. Last week the plaque disappeared. To replace it, a new version was being lettered: "Trumped up stories of 'ritual murders' of Christian boys by Jewish communities were common throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and even much later. These fictions cost many innocent Jews their lives. [They] do not redound to the credit of Christendom, and we pray, 'Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of of our forefathers.' " (Time, Nov. 2, 1959, p. 77.)-
Courtesy
STEPHEN LACHS.
1 Little "Saint" Hugh never made the official Catholic calendar of saints, and is not to be confused with St. Hugh of Lincoln (1140-1200) who founded the first Carthusian Charterhouse in England, became Bishop of Lincoln, and built the present cathedral. At his death he was deeply mourned by the Jews, whom he had defended and befriended.
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Wiki; "The Prioress's Tale" (Middle English: The Prioresses Tale) follows The Shipman's Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
Plot
The story begins with an invocation to the Virgin Mary, then sets the scene in Asia, where a community of Jews live in a Christian city. A seven-year-old school-boy, son of a widow, is brought up to revere Mary. He teaches himself the first verse of the popular Medieval hymn 'Alma Redemptoris Mater' ("Nurturing Mother of the Redeemer"); though he does not understand the words, an older classmate tells him it is about Mary. He begins to sing it every day as he walks to school through the Jews' street.
Satan, 'That hath in Jewes' heart his waspe's nest', incites the Jews to murder the child and throw his body on a dungheap. His mother searches for him and eventually finds his body, which begins miraculously to sing the 'Alma Redemptoris'. The Christians call in the provost of the city, who has the Jews drawn by wild horses and then hanged. The boy continues to sing throughout his Requiem Mass until the holy abbot of the community asks him why he is able to sing. He replies that although his throat is cut, he has had a vision in which Mary laid a grain on his tongue and he will keep singing until it is removed. The abbot removes the grain and he dies.
The story ends with a mention of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, another child martyr supposedly slain by Jews.
The story is an example of a class of stories, popular at the time, known as the miracles of the Virgin such as those by Gautier de Coincy. It also blends elements of common story of a pious child killed by the enemies of the faith; the first example of which in English was written about William of Norwich. Matthew Arnold cited a stanza from the tale as the best of Chaucer's poetry.
"My throte is kut unto my nekke boon,"
Seyde this child, "and as by wey of kynde
I sholde have dyed, ye, longe tyme agon.
But Jesu Crist, as ye in bookes fynde,
Wil that his glorie laste and be in mynde,
And for the worship of his Mooder deere
Yet may I synge O Alma loude and cleere.
Antisemitism
The tale is related to various blood libel stories common at the time. One likely influence for the tale was the infamous 1255 murder of a boy in Lincoln who became known as Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln. Chaucer's attitude toward the tale is less clear.
The Prioress' French accent is a sign of social climbing, yet her speech is modelled after the Stratford-at-Bow school, not the more desirable Parisian French. She makes her oaths by "Seint Loy" (St. Eligius), the patron of, among others, goldsmiths.
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Greek myth of Zagreus from Clement of Alexandria and others:
'The infant god variosly called Dionysos and Zagreus was protected by the Kouretes or Korybantes who danced around him their armed dance. The Titans desiring to destroy him lured away the child by offering him toys, a cone, a rhombos, and the golden apples of the Hesperides, a mirror, a knuckle-bone, and a tuft of wool. The toys are variously enumerated. [6] Having lured him away they set on him, slew him, and tore him limb from limb.
The Jew's Daughter and the Myth of Zagreus
by H. M. Belden
Modern Language Notes, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Mar., 1924), pp. 161-166
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Mudcat posts 2001
Folklorist Alan Dundes collected 14 essays and edited a book on this legend: The Blood Libel Legend: A Casebook in Anti-Semitic Folklore (University of Wisconsin Press, 1991).
"The legend is traced from the murder of William of Norwich in 1144, one of the first reported cases of ritualized murder attributed to Jews, through nineteenth-century Egyptian reports, Spanish examples, Catholic periodicals, modern English instances, and twentieth-century American cases. The essays deal not only with historical cases and surveys of blood libel in different locales, but also with literary renditions of the legend, including the ballad 'Sir Hugh, or, the Jew's Daughter' and Chaucer's 'The Prioress's Tale.'"
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Bennet Zurofsky - 2001
Little Sir Hugh is the traditional English rendition of the blood libel that Jews require the fresh blood of a child in order to bake the Matza necessary for the observance of Passover. This myth is, in turn, directly linked to the idea that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Christ. The link is between the murder of an innocent child and the murder of Jesus as well as the Pascal sacrifice story related in Exodus. (The Jews slaughtered a lamb and made a mark on their door so that when the Angel of Death came to slaughter the first-born sons he would "pass over" the homes of the Jews). Jesus, of course, is often referred to in a metaphoric manner as the pascal lamb. Hence, the old gospel refrain "Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb?" According to the blood libel, Jews "sacrifice" an innocent gentile child in lieu of a lamb every year as part of the Passover observance.
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Sourdough 2001
Although the song did start out as a "blatantly anti-Semitic song" a blood libel, it lost that attachment when it came to the US southern mountains where no one had ever seen a Jew. So, they did the next best thing and turned it into "The Gypsy's Daughter", thus enabling them to throw the burden of the ritual murder onto a group to which they had a tiny cultural exposure.
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Malcolm Douglas
It's worth mentioning that accusations of the ritual sacrifice of children have always been a common propaganda ploy; as McGrath mentions, that accusation was levelled by Rome against Christians, and later, by the Christian church, against not only the Jews but also the Albigensians, the Cathars and the Knights Templar (amongst others), and helped to provide the excuse for at least one exercise in genocide directed against "heretic" christians. More recently, exactly the same moral panic has been promulgated by mendacious propagandists of all kinds; both sides in the last two World Wars accused their opponents of eating babies, and the "Satanic Child Abuse" myth of recent years is an example of exactly the same thing.
Having said all that, I have always understood the "blood libel" to be the (undeserved) accusation against the Jewish nation of deicide; although clearly the song in question here is related to that, it is worth noting that it is by no means an unusual phenomenon in folklore. To recognise all this ought to be to move toward a greater understanding of the prejudices which we all have some share in, and beyond which we need to grow. We may perhaps best achieve this not by denying the past, but by trying to learn from it. My main worry at the moment is that few nations (including Israel) appear to be in the slightest bit interested in doing that.