Swan Swims Bonny- Miss Brooke (Ire) 1790 Walker, Child C*
[My title. Barry (BFSSNE, 1935) designated this Child C*. From Scott's Minstrelsy, Vol. 1, 1802, first stanza verbatim; Scott created a composite using this version, fourteen stanzas transcription from the recitation of an old Irish woman by Miss Charlotte Brooke and Mrs. Brown's Scottish version, Child B. Sent to Scott by J. C. Walker, Esq. the ingenious historian of the Irish bards.
Scott's notes follow.
Since only one stanza is given the rest are revived from Scott's Cruel Sister recreation which according to Barry are stanzas 10, 12, 13, 22, 24, 25 and 26. Barry adds that stanzas 5, 6 and 20 are also part of C*. Even tho 5 and 6 are not exactly part of Mrs. Brown's version, Miss Brooke's version starts on stanza 9 and cannot have 5 and 6.
R. Matteson 2018]
THIS ballad differs essentially from that which has been published in various collections, under the title of Binnorie. It is compiled from a copy in Mrs Brown’s MSS., intermixed with a beautiful fragment, of fourteen verses, transmitted to the Editor by J. C. Walker, Esq. the ingenious historian of the Irish bards. Mr Walker, at the same time, favoured the Editor with the following note :—“ I am indebted to my departed friend, Miss Brook, for the foregoing pathetic fragment. Her account of it was as follows :—This song was transcribed, several years ago, from the memory of an old woman, who had no recollection of the concluding verses : probably the beginning may also be lost, as it seems to commence abruptly.” The first verse and burden of the fragment ran thus:
“O sister, sister, reach thy hand,
Hey ho, my Nanny, O;
And you shall be heir of all my land,
While the swan swims bonny, O.”
The first part of this chorus seems to be corrupted from the common burden of Hey Nanny, Nanny, alluded to in the song, beginning, “Sigh no more, ladyes.”
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Swan Swims Bonny- Miss Brooke from Ireland, c. 1790 but probably older. Reconstructed from Child C to be the presumed original 14 stanzas.
1. “O sister, sister, reach thy hand,
Hey ho, my Nanny, O;
And you shall be heir of all my land,
While the swan swims bonny, O.”
2. "O sister, I'll not reach my hand,
And I'll be heir of all your land."
3. "O sister, reach me but your glove,
And sweet William shall be your love."
4. 'Sink on, nor hope for hand or glove,
And sweet William shall better be my love.
5. Sometimes she sunk, and sometimes she swam,
Until she came to the miller's dam.
6. "O father, father, draw your dam,
There's either a mermaid or a milk-white swan."
7. The miller hasted and drew his dam,
And there he found a drowned woman.
8. A famous harper passing by,
The sweet pale face he chanced to spy.
9. He made a harp of her breast-bone,
Whose sounds would melt a heart of stone.
10. He brought it to her father's hall,
And there was the court assembled all.
11. He laid this harp upon a stone,
And straight it began to play alone.
12 'O yonder sits my father, the king,
And yonder sits my mother, the queen.
13 "And yonder stands my brother Hugh,
And by him my William, sweet and true."
14 But the last tune that the harp playd then,
Was 'Woe to my sister, false Helen!'