Sweet Willie- Barnett (NC) c1920 Sutton; Brown F
[From the Brown Collection; the MS is in Abrams Collection; 1952, one of 11 Versions. Brown includes music from Greer and Abrams housed at Appalachian State University- available online (some recordings).
The date is largely a guesstimate based on the fact that Barnett was not married yet, that Sutton mainly collected in the 1920s and this was an early version since Barnett was her first informant.
The first stanza with music, the ninth and the last three are known- the middles stanzas, according to the Brown collection, are standard to the other versions, so I'm adding them plus making the suggested changes using Brown version F, also known as Sweet Willie.
R. Matteson 2011, 2014]
3. Earl Brand (Child 7)
This admirable specimen of the tragic ballad seems to have held its place in the favor of ballad singers better in America than in the old country. Greig reports it from Scotland, to be sure, both in the Folk-Songs of the North-East and in Last Leaves, and Ord has it in his Bothy Songs; but the absence of any mention of it in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society seems to show that it is extinct in English tradition. On this side of the Atlantic it has been reported as traditional song in Newfoundland (BSSN 7-8), Nova Scotia (BSSNS 9-11), Maine (BBM 35-40), Virginia (TBV 86-91, SharpK I 21-3, 25), West Virginia (FSS 18-19), Kentucky (SharpK i 24-5), Tennessee (FSSH 36-7, BTFLS viii 64-5), North Carolina (JAFL xxviii 152-4, SharpK 1 14-19, SSSA 45-6, BMFSB lo-ii, SCSM 115-16), Georgia (SharpK I 19-20), Mississippi (FSM 66-8), Florida (SFLQ viii 136-8), the Ozarks (OMF 219-21, OFS I 48-9), Indiana (BSI 37-8), and Illinois JAFL IX 241-2). 'The Soldier's Wooing,' reckoned by some as a secondary form of "Earl Brand,' is dealt with later in the present volume. The American texts follow in general the tradition of Scott's form of the ballad ('The Douglas Tragedy' of the Minstrelsy, Child's version B), clinging in particular to the '"buglet horn" that "hung down by his side," recognizable through a variety of transformations. Old Carl Hood has vanished entirely. Most of the North Carolina versions, and also that from Georgia, have introduced a new element, the question of the hero's origin. *When scornfully described by the girl's father as "a steward's son" (transformed in texts A, C, F below into "Stuart's son"), he proudly declares that his father is a regis king and his mother a Quaker's queen. Possibly this has been picked up, and corrupted, from the English stall ballad of 'The Orphan Gypsy Girl,' the opening line of which in Cox's West Virginia version (FSS 335) runs: "My father is king of the gypsies, my mother is queen of the Jews."
Sweet Willie- Myrna Barnett (reconstructed from F, using 4 verses and changes below)
1 As he rode up to the old man's gate
And boldly he did say,
"The oldest daughter you can keep at home,
But the young one I'll take away."
2 Come in, come in all seven of my sons
Go take your sister down
For it never shall be said, That a Stuart's son
Has taken my daughter out of town.
3 I thank you sir, that's very fair,
I am not a Stuart's son.
My father is a raging [reigning] king,
My mother she's a Quaker's queen
4 He mounted on his milk-white steed
And her on the dappled bay
He swung his bugle horn around his neck,
And they went riding away.
5 They'd not got but one mile from town,
When she looked back again.
She saw her father and all seven of her brothers
Come tripling over the plain.
6 "Alight you down fair Ellender," said he,
"And hold my steed by the rein,
Till I fight your father and all seven of your brothers,
As they come trippling over the plain."
7 She got down; and she stood right still,
She never said a word,
Till she saw her father and all seven of her brothers
Wallowing in their own heart's blood.
8 "Oh slack your lick dear Willie," said she
For your wounds are very sore.
Your blood flows free from every vein,
But a father I can have no more.
9 "If you don't like what I have done,
Go hunt some other man,
Or stay at home in your mother's chamberie
Or in some house or room."
10 So he mounted on his milk-white steed,
And her on the dappled bay.
He swung his bugle horn around his neck,
And he went bleeding away.
11 They rode till they came to his mother's gate.
He tingled there at the ring.
"Oh mother, mother are you asleep or awake?
Oh arise and let me in."
12 "Oh, mother, mother, come bind my head,
My wounds they are very sore.
The blood runs from every wound,
My head you'll bind no more."
13 "Oh, mother, mother, make my bed,
And make it long and wide,
Lay my good broadsword at my feet,
Lady Margaret by my side."
14 Sweet William he died before midnight.
Lady Margaret died tomorrow.
Sweet Willie died of the wounds he received,
Lady Margaret died of sorrow.
F. 'Sweet Willie.' Reported by Mrs. Sutton from the singing of Myra Barnett (afterwards Mrs. J. J. Miller) in the Brushies of Caldwell county. It was from Myra that Mrs. Sutton (then Maude Minish) first learned many of the ballads in her collection. Mrs. Sutton notes that this ballad is very widely known in the South: "There is at least one ballad singer in every mountain county that sings it." The text belongs to the same tradition as the others already listed. The man is Sweet Willie, the girl is Lady Margaret. Regarding his ancestry Sweet Willie says
My father is a raging [reigning] king,
My mother she's a Quaker's queen
and denies that he is a Stuart's son.
The ninth stanza is here retained:
'If you don't like what I have done,
Go hunt some other man,
Or stay at home in your mother's chamberie
Or in some house or room.'
The last three stanzas are:
12 'Oh, mother, mother, come bind my head;
My wounds they are very sore.
The blood runs from every wound.
My head you'll bind no more.
13 'Oh, mother, mother, make my bed,
And make it long and wide,
Lay my good broadsword at my feet,
Lady Margaret by my side.'
14 Sweet William he died before midnight.
Lady Margaret died tomorrow.
Sweet Willie died of the wounds he received,
Lady Margaret died of sorrow.