The Dark-eyed Gypsy- (ME) 1934 Flanders C
[I've left Flanders title although it's spelled Gipsy in the text. From Ancient Ballads, III, 1963. Flanders notes follow. These last lines are unusual and powerful:
Saying, "I'll eat the grass and drink the dew,
But I'll follow the dark-eyed Gipsy O."
See Barry F, an Irish Broadside with similar lines-- which points to a possible Irish origin.
R. Matteson 2015]
The Gypsy Laddie
(Child 200)
This is a very well-known song, one of the few Child ballads sung by educated persons who have no interest in folklore. It tells a romantic tale that would do justice to an operatic setting. Some gypsies sing bewitching songs at a lord's gate. So fascinating is the music, the lady of the house comes down and finds herself completely charmed. she gives herself to the gypsy leader Johnny Faw, or Johnny the Seer, and they ride off. Her lord finds her gone upon his return and hurries off in pursuit. Sometimes he captures the gypsies and hangs them. More often the tale takes a more sentimental turn and the lady refuses to return with her husband, giving away her baby and feather bed for true love.
Johhnny Faw was a common name for gypsies. Child, IV, 61 f., lists a number of incidents where men called this were sentenced to death, and he also cites the tendency in Aryshire to associate the story with the wife of the Earl of Cassilis. In America, however, the names Faw and Cassilis are never mentioned, and the "gypsies" may become only "a lover" or even "an Indian." The New World texts vary widely as to detail and story. See Coffin, 120-124, for discussion and bibliography. Over here the versions are generally related to the child G-J tradition, but localization of events and corruption by other songs, such as "I'm Seventeen come Sunday" is not unusual. "The Gypsy Laddie" was parodied in The Forget-me-not Songster (New York, 1872), and most American texts, unlike the British, have nonsense refrains.
The twenty-six Flanders texts give one a fairly good summary of the song as it is in the New World. The A version, with the seven gypsies in a row, follows the Child G-I tradition. Flanders B is striking in that stanzas 2-6 are a monologue by the lady and are framed by two descriptive stanzas --the opening one being unusual and the closing one consisting of lines that often start the song. C is a version of a broadside from the Alfred M. Williams Collection of Irish Broadsides in the Providence Public Library (see Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 275, and his text E). Flanders D-F are of the most common American sort, although E may be unique in this country if "Lord o' Castle" was once "Lord Cassilis." The G-Y group is from the same tradition as Child J (see Barry, op. cit., 269 f., for discussion), In that series, J has the remarkable finish in which the lord kilts his wife as well as the gypsy. H and I are not so unusual in having the lord remarry (see Child J), but this feature is often left out. R and S are interesting for their phraseology, S perhaps being corrupted by "The Frog Went a-Courtin' "
and other matter.
For bibliography beyond that in Coffin, see Dean-Smith, 69, and Belden, 73-74 (English); Greig and Keith, 126-129, and Ord , 411 (Scottish). There is an analogous Danish ballad in Svend Grundtvig, Danmarhs gamle Folheuiser (Copenhagen, 1853), No. 369.
With the exception of the L.N.C. tune, and the possible exception of the Brigham tune, all the tunes for Child 200 are related. The remaining ones can be divided into sub-families as follows: I) Pease, Richards, Taylor; 2) Woodbury, Erskine; 3) Fish. The Pease and Taylor tunes are especially close.
C. The Dark-eyed Gypsy. Sent by mail to H. H. F. as known to a singer of West Enfield, Maine (name withheld). Printed in Bangor Daily News, "New England Folk Songs, No. 79." March, 1934. Mrs. Fannie Eckstrom, Collector
My lord came home one night
Inquiring for his Lady O,
"She has gone, she has gone," said the Old Servant Man
"She has followed the dark-eyed Gipsy-O."
"Come saddle me my milk-white steed,
The brown was never so speedy O,
I'11ride away through the dead of the night
Tilt I find out the dark-eyed Gipsy-O."
He rode away through the dead of the night
Till early in the morning O,
And there he met with an old gray man
Who was both wet and weary O.
And he said, "My gray old man,
Where have you been so early O?
And did you see a fair lady
Following the dark-eyed Gipsy O?"
"I have been east, I have been west,
I have been north and southwards O,
And the fairesr lady I ever did see
Was following the dark-eyed Gipsy O."
He rode east and he rode west,
He rode north and southwards O,
And there he met his own wedded wife
As she followed the dark-eyed Gipsy O.
"Will you forsake your house and lands,
Will you forsake your children O,
Will you forsake your own wedded lord
And follow the dark-eyed Gipsy O?"
"What do I care for house and lands,
What do I care for my children O?
What do I care for my own wedded lord,
But to follow the dark-eyed Gipsy O?"
She took the garment that she wore
And wound it as a head-dress O,
Saying, "I'll eat the grass and drink the dew,
But I'll follow the dark-eyed Gipsy O."