The Defeated Knight- Fish (NH) pre1940 Flanders E1, E2 and Warner
[From Ancient Ballads III, Flanders; 1963. The Flanders/Coffin notes follow. See also Warner's text collected from Fish in 1940 at the bottom of this page. It's rare in the US to find "ship carpenter" instead of "House Carpenter."
Flanders collected two text versions from Lena Bourne Fish E1 in 1940 when she called it, The Defeated Knight, and E2, in 1942 and has one music version by Olney in 1943, when she called it, The Ship Carpenter. In 1941 her version was also collected by the Warners. There are some interesting differences in the way Mrs. Fish has sung her ballad. Flanders says that Mrs. Fish learned this ballad from her father, Stratton Bourne, who was born in northern Vermont, but whose forebears had been early settlers of Bourne, MA, on Cape Cod.
This version shows the dialogue in the first two lines of the first stanza. It's often ambiguous.
R. Matteson 2013]
James Harris, or the Daemon Lover
(Child 243)
Behind the sentimental Child A version of this song lies the legend of Jane Reynolds of Plymouth and a sailor, James Harris; who exchanged marriage vows. He was pressed into the service and after three years reported dead. Jane then married a ship carpenter. They lived happily for four years and had children. One night when the carpenter was out, Jane heard a rapping at the window. It was the ghost of Harris come to claim his love. She explained to him what had happened but was willing to follow him off when he promised her great wealth. On shipboard, she began to repent her infidelity, but too late. The ship sank, or at least she was never heard of again. Her bereaved husband later hanged himself.
In America, the supernatural element of the song and the names of the lead characters are not retained. Usually, though not always (see Flanders E1 and E2), the husband is a house, not a ship, carpenter. The action before the arrival of the lover and the suicide of the husband are invariably omitted. This form of the song, which is quite standard throughout the states, can no doubt be laid to the popularity of the song in print, perhaps to the broadside published by De Marsan (see Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 308-309) about 1860. Most of the texts follow De Marsan's song, which is similar to Child B, rather faithfully, but he probably took his version from established oral tradition. See JAF, XXXV, 347; Belden, 79-80; J. Harrington Cox, Folk Songs of the South (Cambridge, Mass., 1925), 139; and Arthur K. Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Cambridge, Mass., 1929), 439, tor discussion along this line.
The Flanders A-L texts are of a normal American sort, close to but not exactly like the De Marsan broadside. M, with its retention of the ghostly title, can be compared to Scottish Child D and F. The N1 and N2 "Banks of Claudy" versions represent an unusual line of development. They retain the name of the lover, as well as his ghostly nature, and with the one recorded in Greig and Keith, 196, represent two of the few surviving texts that are not of "The House Carpenter" sort. See Child A, B, C, and F for the miraculous gilded ship.
The song, once common, is now rare in Scotland. However, it survives in England, with a ship carpenter instead of a house carpenter, in a form much like the American. See Dean-Smith, 80, and Belden, 79-80, for references. There are no European analogues to the story, though the motif is not unusual. A Danish tale of a deceitful woman is somewhat like "James Harris." In America, it borrows heavily from many other ballads. See Flanders G; also note the references in Coffin, 140.
The eleven tunes for Child 243 consists of one large group of related tunes and three single, evidently unrelated ones: Wales, Price, and Sullivan. The large group can be subdivided into closely related subgroups as follows: 1) Moses, Richards; 2) Merrill, George; 3); Fish, Degreenia, Mancour; 4) Reynolds. The Wales tune may be related to the large group rather than being independent.
The Defeated Knight (The Ship Carpenter)- Sung by Lena Bourne Fish, version E1, May 1940
"Well met, well met, my pretty fair maid!"
"Not so very well met," said she,
"For I am married to a ship carpenter,
And a very fine man is he."
"If you will forsake your ship carpenter
And go along with me,
I will take you where the grass grows green
On the banks of the sweet vallee."
"If I forsake my ship carpenter
And go along with thee,
What have you there to keep me on?
Will I be in slavery?"
"Oh, I have ships all in the bay
And plenty more on land;
Five hundred and ten of fine young men,
And they're all at your command."
She took her baby in her arms
And gave him kisses three.
"Stay home, stay at home with your own father dear,
And he'll take care of thee."
She had not sailed six weeks on the sea,
Oh, no, not scarcely three,
Before this lady began for to mourn
And she wept most bitterly.
"Now do you mourn for gold? said she,
"Or are you tired of me?
Or do you mourn for your ship carpenter
That you left to follow me?"
"I do not mourn for gold," she cries,
"But I am tired of thee!
And I do mourn for my ship carpenter
And for my sweet babee!"
The wild waves 'round the ship did roll;
They were leagues from shore;
In the bottom of the ship there sprang a leak.
And her mourning was heard no more.
The Ship Carpenter (version 2)- Lena Bourne Fish, version E2, 1941. This is not much different than the first version E1 and is not complete. I've filled a line in the incomplete second stanza (in brackets).
"I will take you there
On the banks of the sweet vallee."
[Five hundred and ten of fine young men,]
And they're all at your command."
"Now do you mourn for gold? said she,
"Or are you tired of me?
Or do you mourn for your ship carpenter
That you left to follow me?"
"I do not mourn for gold," she cries,
"But I am tired fo thee!
And I do mourn for my ship carpenter
And for my sweet babee!"
The bottom of the ship sprang a leak,
And the mourning was heard no more.
-----------------
Fish's Version Warner Collection:
The Warner recording of Lena Bourne Fish was made in 1941. It is interesting to compare the two versions (the Warner one below), and to notice the subtle differences in wording which really do affect the meaning of the song.
The Ship Carpenter- Lena Bourne Fish, dated 1941, from the Anne and Frank Warner Collection TRADITIONAL AMERICAN FOLK SONGS (1984).
"Well met, well met, my pretty fair maid,"
"Not so very well met," said she.
"For I am married to a ship carpenter,
And a very fine man is he."
"If you will forsake your ship carpenter
And go along with me,
I will take you where the grass grows green
On the banks of a sweet vallee."
"If I forsake my ship carpenter,
And go along with thee,
What have you there to entertain me on,
To keep me from slavery?"
"I have ships all in the bay,
And plenty more upon land,
Five hundred and ten of as fine young men,
They are all at your command."
She took her babe all in her arms,
And gave him kisses three.
"Stay at home, stay at home with your father dear,
For he is good company."
She had not sailed six weeks on the sea,
I know not more than three,
Before this fair lady began for to mourn,
And she mourned most pitifully.
"Now do you mourn for gold," he said,
"Or do you mourn for me?
Or do you mourn for your ship carpenter
That you left to follow me?"
"I do not mourn for gold," she cries,
"Nor do I mourn for thee!
But I do mourn for my ship carpenter
And my pretty sweet babee"
In the heavens there rose a big storm cloud,
And how the waves did roar!
At the bottom of the ship there sprang a leak
And her mourning was heard no more.
Notes by John Minear: The music for this song is in the Warner book. It was recorded in East Jaffrey, New Hampshire, in July of 1940. Mrs. Fish did not give any specific information on where she got her version of this ballad. She was born in 1873 in Black Brook, in the Adirondacks of New York. Her father's family came from Scotland in the early 1700's and settled in Rhode Island and then moved to Cape Cod. Her mother's family were of English origin and her mother's grandfather was a colonel in the British Army. She probably learned songs from her father, especially her Irish songs, and perhaps some from her Uncle Butler, and perhaps some from the men who worked with her father. (Information from the Warners' book.)
X:1
T:The Ship Carpenter
B:Warner: Traditional American Folk Songs pp137-138, 1984
S:Collected by the Warners from Lena Bourne Fish, 1941
O:East Jeffrey, New Hampshire, USA
M:C
L:1/4
K:G
D/|G> D G A|c/c/(B/A/) G
w:"Well met, well met, my pret-ty fair_ maid."
D/D/|G/G/ A B (A/G/)|d2 z
w:"Not so ve-ry well met," said_ she.
(B/c/)|d d c/B/A/G/|c B/A/ (F/D/)
w:"For_ I am mar-ried to a ship car-pen-ter,_
F/G/|A/B/(A/F/) D (E/F/)|D2 z|]
w:And a ve-ry fine_ man is_ he."