The Bramble Brier- Goon (OH) pre1876 Eddy
[From: Dearborn Independent- Volume 27, Part 2 - Page 12, 1927 and reprinted in Ballads and Songs from Ohio, 1939 by Mary O. Eddie, p. 85. This is another old version (Steve Gardham's A2) dated before 1876 in Ohio. Original spelling kept.
R. Matteson 2016]
The Bramble Brier- sung by Miss Jane Goon of Perrysville, Ohio; taken from Carrie Brubaker by 1876.
1. In Portly town there lived a merchant
Who had two sons and a daughter fair;
And a prentice bound from a far intender[1],
Who plowed the vict'ries all over the main.
2. Ten thousand pounds it was her portion;
She was a neat and camly[comely] dame;
And upon the salome[2] that plowed the ocean
She had a notion to bestow the same.
3. One night while they were sitting courting,
Her two brothers chanced to overhear,
They said this courtship should be ended;
"We will send him headlong unto his grave."
4. And for to conclude this bloody murder,
These two villains hunting did go;
And upon the salome[2] they coaxed and flattered
Along with them hunting to go.
5. They traveled over high hills and mountains,
Through lonely valleys that were unknown,
Until they came to the bramble brier,
And there they did him kill and thrown.
6. And when they had back home returned,
Their sister asked for the servant man;
"We left him in the woods a-hunting,
And we no more of him could find.
7. "Oh, sister dear, what makes you inquire
All so for this young man's sake?"
"Because I thought you seemed to whisper;
Come, tell me, brothers, or my heart will break."
8. One night while she was lying sleeping,
He appeared to her bedside,
And he was all in tears a-weeping,
And all rolled over in gores of blood.
9. He says: "My dear, leave off this crying,
It is a folly for you to know[3];
For your two brothers killed me, rash and cruel;
In such a place, love, you may me find."
10. She traveled o'er high hills and mountains,
Through lonely valleys that were unknown,
Until she came to the bramble brier,
And there they had him killed and thrown.
11. Three days and nights she tarried by him,
Kissing on her bended knees;
When in that time she was constrained
To utter forth such words as these[4]:
12 "I had a mind for to stay by him
Until my heart it did break with woe,
But I felt that hunger came creeping o'er me,
Which forced me back home to go."
13. And when she had back home returned,
Her brothers ask where she had been;
"Begone, ye proud and deceitful villains!
For him alone you both shall swing."
14. And for to shun this bloody murder
These two villains to sea did go;
And to tell the truth it was on the morrow
That the stormy winds began to blow.
15. The winds did blow, and it was no wonder
That these two villains were cast away,
And by the flood they were tost under,
And the raging sea formed their grave.
1. firm indenture
2. sung Sa-lome known as the lover's name by the informant. He is called a factor (merchant) in some versions and perhaps his name could be derived from "sailor."
3. pine, clearly known is wrong; from repine.
4. Cf. stanzas 11 and 12 in The Jealous Brothers from T. Lockard (WV) 1969; Bush B.