The Cruel Mother- Coombs (NL) 1930 Karpeles B
[Not a local title, assigned by Karpeles. From Folk Songs from Newfoundland, 1934, reprinted 1971, version B.
Following is an excerpt from Song Collecting in Newfoundland: Maud Karpeles, 1929 by David Gregory. Karpeles was there collecting at the same time Greenleaf and Mansfield were.
R. Matteson 2014]
Song Collecting in Newfoundland: Maud Karpeles, 1929
David Gregory, Athabasca University
Maud Karpeles (1885-1976) is best known for her song collecting with Cecil Sharp in the Southern Appalachians, her biography of Sharp[1] her commitment to preserving and teaching English folk dancing, and her work for the International Folk Music Council.
During 1929 and 1930 she made two collecting trips to Newfoundland, and they may be seen as the last important activities of the Late Victorian and Edwardian folk music revival and a coda to the work of Cecil Sharp.[2]
Why did Karpeles decide to go to Newfoundland? The reason is simple: Cecil Sharp had recommended it as a most promising place for further field-work. Newfoundland, incidentally, was not part of Canada when she visited it, since it would join the Canadian federation only after the Second World War.
Clarke’s Beach and North River
By now Maud had used up more than half the time she had available, and she had to make a difficult decision: whether to explore the islands of Twillingate and Fogo to the north-east, go further west to the Baie Verte peninsula, or return to eastern Newfoundland. She opted for the latter, taking a boat and train back to the relative civilization of Harbour Grace, where she did some more collecting before moving to Clarke’s Beach on the south-western shore of
Conception Bay.
The dozen or so outports Karpeles visited during the remainder of October included Clarke’s Beach, North River, Halls Town, Kit Hughes, Colliers, Conception Harbour, Harbour Main and Avondale.
The community that she found the most productive was North River, where lived a mix of families descended from both Irish and West of England settlers: the McCabes, Flinns, Boones, Snows, Halls, Fillers, and Sinclairs.
Another member of the Snow family, Rose, offered variants of “Young Floro” and “The Cruel Mother". . .
B. THE CRUEL MOTHER- sung by Mrs. K. M. Coombs at Portugal cove, Trepassey Bay, 4th August, 1930
As I walked out of my father's hall,
Fair flowers the valley O,
I spied two babes and they playing about
In the green woods of Borneo.
Dear little babes, if you were mine,
I'd dress you up in silk so fine.
Dear mamma, when we were yours,
You neither dressed us in fine nor coarse.
You took a penknife long and sharp,
And you pierced it through our tender hearts.
You took a shawl off your head,
And you spread it over the place we bled.
Dear little babes, O can't You tell
If my poor soul is for heaven or hell.
Heaven is high and hell is low,
And when You die to hell you'll go.
Seven long years ringing a bell,
And for ever burning in eternity.