The Apprentice Boy- (KY) pre1911 Shearin
[From: British Ballads in the Cumberland Mountains by Hubert G. Shearin; The Sewanee Review, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Jul., 1911), pp. 313-327. His notes follow. Shearin mentions and gives a few stanzas of a similar but different ballad titled "Cubeck's Garden" (Cupid's Garden). According Chappell it properly "Cuper's Gardens."
Cubeck's Garden tells the love of an 'honored lady' for her father's 'prentice-boy:
As soon as her old father
Came this to understand,
He swore to have him banished
Unto some forant land.
This lady, broken-hearted,
Lamenting, she did say,
"All for my handsome 'printest-boy
Oh, may I live and die!
R. Matteson 2016]
The Apprentice Boy is somewhat similar. He falls in love with the daughter of his master, a rich merchant living in a 'post-town.' Her brothers invite the lad to go hunting with them, lure him into a lonely valley, and there leave him slain. That night his ghost appears to her:
All on that night as she lay sleeping,
He arose and stood at her bed-feet,
All covered over in tears a-weeping,
All wallowed o'er in gores of blood.
Hamlet-like, she plans vengeance upon the perfidious brothers; they seek to escape across the sea:
The sea began to roar, I think no wonder
That these two villyons should be cast away;
And broadways they came tosling under;
The sea did open and provide their grave.
This will at once be recognized as related in plot to Keats's Isabella, as already noted by Professor Beiden in the last issue of this Review (page 22if.), and as a variant of the two versions there quoted, one from British Museum Bks. 3. g. 4, Vol. I, p. 184; and the other from oral tradition in Missouri. For the sake of comparison I print the Kentucky version complete in the margin below.*
THE APPRENTICE BOY
In yon post-town there lived a margent[1],
He had two sons and a daughter fair;
There lived a 'prentice-boy about there,
Who was the daughter's dearest dear.
Ten thousand pounds was this gay lady's portion;
She was a fair and a camelite [comely] dame;
She loved this young man who crossed the ocean;
He told her how he could be so deslain[2].
One day they was in the room a-courting;
The oldest brother chanced to hear;
He went and told the other brother,
They would deprive her of her dear.
Her brothers studied on this cruel matter,
Concluded a-hunting they would go,
And with this young man they both would flatter;
A-hunting with them he had to go.
They traveled over high hills and mountains
And through strange places where it were unknown,
Till at length they came to some lonesome valley,
And then they killed him dead and thrown.
All on that evening when they returned,
She asked them where's her servant-man;
"What makes me ask you; she seems to whisper,
"Dear brothers, tell me if you can."
"He is lost in the wild woods a-hunting;
His face you never more shall see."
"I'll tell you in plain, you're much affronted;
Oh, now will you explain to me."
All on that night while she lay sleeping,
He came and stood at her bed-feet,
All covered over in tears a-weeping,
All wallowed o'er in gores of blood.
He says, "My love, it's but a folly;
For this is me that you may see;
Your brothers both being rash and cruel;
In such a valley you may find."
All on next morning when she arose,
She dressed herself in silk so fine;
She traveled o'er high hills and mountains
Her own true-lover for to find.
She traveled o'er high hills and mountains
And through strange places where it were unknown,
[Till at length she came to some lonesome valley,]
Till at length she came to a patch of briars,
And there she found him killed and thrown.
His pretty cheeks with blood were dyed;
[His lips were as bloody as any butcher;]
His lips [var., cheeks] were salty as any brine;
She kissed them over and over, a-crying,
You dearest bosom friend of mine!
"Three days and nights she tarried with him,
Till she thought her heart would break with woe,
Until sharp hunger came cropping on her,
Which forced her back home to go.
All on that evening when she returned,
Her brothers asked her where she'd been?
"O ye hardhearted, deceitful devillions[3],
For him alone you both shall swing."
Her brothers studied on this bloody matter,
Concluded the ocean they would sail;
My friend, I tell you, it's on the morrow
The raging sea there for to sail.
The sea began to roar, I think no wonder
That these two villyons should be cast away;
And broadways they came tosling under;
The sea did open and provide their grave.
1. merchant
2. ? 3. villians