Recordings & Info 279A. The Gaberlunyie-Man [See also: 279: The Jolly Beggar]
[See my 279 Jolly Beggar and compare with Appendix (279A) "The Gaberlunyie-Man." Roud and Child Collection lump the versions together. Child also gives "The Gaberlunyie-Man" as an Appendix. ]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index [Two Entries]
3) Folk 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) Commentary Kyle Davis Jr. from "More Ballads"
6) Related Irish version- Phillips Barry 1929
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 118: Jolly Beggar (133 Listings)
Alternate Titles
The Beggar's Bride
The Gaberlunyie-Man
A Beggarman Cam' ower the Lea
The Beggarman
The Beggar Man
Traditional Ballad Index: Gaberlunzie Man, The [Child 279A]
DESCRIPTION: A beggar comes to a lady's door and begs lodging. That night, he lures her daughter away with him. Later he returns to the lady's door and again begs lodging. The lady says she will never lodge a beggar again. He reveals her daughter, rich and happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (Tea-Table Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: begging courting escape money elopement mother children disguise
FOUND IN: Britain(England,North),Scotland)) Ireland Canada(Mar) US(NE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 279 Appendix, "The Gaberlunyie-Man" (sic) (1 text)
Bronson (279 Appendix), "(The Jolly Beggar/The Gaberlunzie Man)" (49 versions)
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 67-71, "The Gaberlunyie Man" (1 text)
SHenry H810, p. 269, "A Beggarman Cam' ower the Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp.375-377, "The Beggar Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 19, "The Gaberlunzie Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN2346, "The silly poor man came over the lee" (?)
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "The Beggarman (The Gaberlunzie Man)" (on FSBBAL2)
Maggie & Sarah Chambers, "The Beggarman (The Gaberlunzie Man)" (on FSB5 [as "The Auld Beggarman"], FSBBAL2)
Togo Crawford, "The Beggarman (The Gaberlunzie Man)" (on FSBBAL2)
Ewan MacColl, "The Beggar Man" (ESFB1, ESFB2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279]
cf. "The Beggar-Laddie" [Child 280]
cf. "A Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach" (tune & meter)
Notes: Although this ballad is associated in tradition with James V of Scotland, there is no evidence that he ever sought a woman in this fashion. James V in fact married a noble foreign lady, Mary of Guise-Lorraine.
Wheatley explains "Gaberlunyie" as a compound of "gaber," a wallet, and "lunyie," the loins, i.e. a Gaberlunyie man is one who carries a wallet by his side. The fact that the title vacillates between "Gaberlunyie" and "Gaberlunzie" implies that most singers were less aware of this than the average scholar....
For the relationship between this song and "The Jolly Beggar," see the notes to that song. Due to the degree of cross-fertilization of these ballads, one should be sure to check both songs to find all versions.- RBW
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Folk Index: Gaberlunzie Man [Ch 279A]
Rt - Beggar Laddie
At - Beggarman Cam' O'er Yon Lea
Rm - Great Big Sea (Hove in Long Beach)
Johnson, James & Robert Burns (eds) / Scots Musical Museum, Amadeus, Bk (1991/1853), #226 [1790]
Chambers, Maggie and Sarah. Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5. The Child Ballads, Vol. II, Caedmon TC 1146, LP (1961), trk# B.09 [1950s] (Old/Auld Beggarman)
Hutchison, Jimmy. Ballad Folk - from the BBC Scotland Television Series, BBC 22293, LP (1977), trk# B.03 [1970s] (Beggarman)
Kennedy, Norman. Ballads and Songs of Scotland, Folk Legacy FSS 034, LP (1968), trk# 4 (Beggarman Cam' O'er Yon Lea)
MacColl, Ewan. MacColl, Ewan / Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland, Oak, Sof (1965), p34
Robertson, Jeannie. Buchan, Norman (ed.) / 101 Scottish Songs, Collins, poc (1962), p 46
Tannahill Weavers. Tannahill Weavers IV, Green Linnet SIF 3102, LP (1982), trk# B.02a
Great Big Sea (Hove in Long Beach)
Rm - Gaberlunzie Man
Lomax, Alan / Folk Songs of North America, Doubleday Dolphin, Sof (1975/1960), p148/# 77
Fowke, Edith and Richard Johnston / Folk Songs of Canada, Waterloo Music, Bk (1954), p175
Blondahl, Omar (Sagebrush Sam). Trade Winds, Rodeo International RNT 2007, LP (1950s), trk# B.07
McCurdy, Ed. Ballad Singer's Choice, Tradition TLP 1003, LP (1956), trk# A.07
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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
279. THE JOLLY BEGGAR
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 333, 475 (trace) / Cox, Trd Bid W Va., 50 / Davis, FS Va / Goose Hangs High Songster (deWitt, Philadelphia, 1866) / Randolph, Oz F-S, I, 194 / John Templeton, "Jolly Beggar" (Oliver Ditson, Boston, n. d.).
Local Titles: The Beggar's Bride.
Story Types: A: A man gives lodging to a beggar who then runs off with his daughter. When the parents find the girl gone, they swear they will never take in another beggar. Seven years later the beggar returns, and, upon being told why no more beggars are lodged, he reveals that he is bringing the daughter back, not only full of fine stories, but a gay lady as well.
Examples: Barry.
Discussion: Child 279 survives in America in a derivative form. The Jolly Beggar (see also The Beggar Laddie, Child 280) was published, revised, as The Gaberlunyie-Man in the 1724 Tea-Table Miscellany by Allan Ramsay. See Child V, 115, where the fact that both songs were traditionally ascribed to James the Fifth of Scotland is stated. Some texts of the derivative have been discovered in this country, but the song is not common over here. The California (Cox, Trd Bid W Va) and Missouri-Arkansas (Randolph, Oz F-S,) fragments have two stanzas that correspond to the Maine (Barry, Br it Bids Me] text, and Barry, JAFL, XXII, 79 notes a tune from New Hampshire. The Barry version reflects the American tendency to omit the lustier parts of a story. Compare also Child's Jolly Beggar in this respect.
Commentary Kyle Davis Jr. from "More Ballads"
Phillips Barry 1929: The words deserve comparison with an Irish song, apparently from the same stock, which Petrie printed in his Ancient Music of lreland, 1855, p. 117, with the remark that he had both words and music from William Allingham, who learned them in County Donegal, and that the words were old then.
It was an old beggar man, wreary and wet,
And down by the fireside he sat;
He threw down his bags and his oaken staff,
And merrily he did sing.
With his pipe in his jaw, and his jaw full of smoke,
And his beard. that hung down to the breast of his cloak,
His bag on his back and his staff in his hand,
He's the jolly old beggarman, O!
My dear, said he, if I were as free
As when I first came to this countrie,
I'd dress you up all beggarly
And away with me you should gang.
With his pipe in his jaw, and his jaw full of smoke
And his beard that hung down to the breast of his cloak,
His bag on his back and his staff in his hand,
He's the jolly old beggarman, O !